In addition to the Ask. vs. Tell idea of asking people questions as opposed to telling them what we think, what about asking ourselves questions to get to our next level of success?

As we are approaching the end of the year, here are some questions to consider for what will change in your life and your chiropractic practice in 2010 to become more successful.  Who we are being starts the physical manifestation of the results you want to see in your life. Many of these questions come from my coach, Robin Sharma, and many of them come from coaching chiropractors myself:

1. The Unstuck Question: “Is this choice moving me towards or away from what I want”?

2. The Authenticity Question: “Who am I”?

3. The Clarity Question: “What am I trying to accomplish”?

4. The Intention Question: “Why am I trying to accomplish it”?

5. The Mastery Question: “How can I get better”?

6. The Growth Question: “What am I resisting’?

7. The Fearlessness Question: “What am I afraid of”?

8. The Gratitude Question: “What am I grateful for”?

9. The Impact Question: “What one thing can have the biggest impact”?

10. The Legacy Question: “What legacy do I want to leave, for my family, my practice and my community?

11. The Integrity Question: “Are my beliefs, thoughts and actions aligned”?

12. The Action Question: “What is the one thing I’m going to work on to get the results I desire”?

At Rosen Chiropractic Coaching we are committed to your success in your chiropractic practice and your life. We are here to help and would be honored to do so.

Tags: Ask vs. Tell, Chiropra, New Year, Questions, Rosen Chiropractic Coaching, rosen coaching, Success

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. No gifts, no pressure. Just family, friends, and loved ones. The idea of just getting together to be together, being present, enjoying each other’s company and being grateful for what we have.  The most important thing in our lives are the relationships and love we have.

The first key to having the life and chiropractic practice of your dreams? Be grateful for what you have. What you focus on, expands.  So if you focus on what you don’t have… guess what?  It grows. So why not focus on what you are thankful you already have?  It will naturally expand. This mindset and feeling of gratefulness will bring you to an entire new level of attraction and success.

My suggestion? Write down 5 things you are grateful for in your personal life and 5 things you are grateful for in your chiropractic practice at the end of each day. This is the starting place for explosive growth and success in a TRUE Wellness Model. Have a mindset of abundance and satisfaction drive your decisions and actions, not from a place of lack and fear.

At Rosen Coaching, we are so grateful to have you be a part of our lives and to have you be a part of our mission to have chiropractors be the recognized leaders of TRUE healthcare and the wellness revolution!

Tags: Add new tag, Chiropractic Practice Management, Chiropractic Practice Success, Gratefulness, Leadership, Success, Thanksgiving, True Wellness Model

Are you living the life of your dreams, as a chiropractor and personally?  If not, why not? Many people I speak with, as a chiropractic coach, who are not having the success they desire in their practice or personal life and I want to help you live the life of your dreams:

1. Know what the life of your dreams looks like. Imagine it, visualize it.  If we don’t know what the end is, how will we ever know we got there? Without knowing our vision, we are always unsatisfied.

2. What is your life about? As a human being and as a chiropractor? Write a mission statement that is clear and concise. Your mission outlines how will you achieve your vision. When we coach chiropractors to build a Dream Team with their CA’s, we ask that they read the mission together before each day.  We must keep the big perspective and the ‘why’ we do what we do in the forefront of our minds to not get caught in the mundane details of life and practice.

3. What do you stand for? What are your core values?  For yourself personally and for your chiropractic practice.  These are the foundations that you measure every decision against. If it’s aligned with your values, consider it. If it’s not, move on, even if it’s a good deal.

4. What is success to you?  What are the categories of success for you personally and your practice?  Discover these categories (hint: it’s not just financial wealth) and then grade yourself where you are today on a scale of 1-10. Then decide what ONE thing you need to do to move you more towards a 10 in each category.  Categories could include: Personal Fulfillment, Health, Finances, Practice, Lifestyle, and Family, for example.

5. Get organized and focused on what’s important!  Many people have great ideas and no organization to execute. Be diligent about managing yourself (notice I didn’t say your time) and each day work on what is most important or what will have the greatest impact on your life.  Move away from distractions and ADHD tendencies of a high-tech, high-noise world.

6. Take consistent action. Knowing what you want is one thing. The next is to actually create movement and action towards it. Craziness comes from doing the same thing and expecting different results. So do something different and take action!

There is a month and a half until the end of 2009. Have you achieved your goals? Maybe you didn’t set any.  Let’s see if you can generate some momentum and self-discipline to move towards the successful life of your dreams between now and New Year’s Eve. If you want support and coaching to have the life and practice of your dreams, at Rosen Coaching we’re here to help. It’s our specialty and expertise. Contact us for a Free Consult to get the ball rolling. Life is short, it’s time to make the most of it!

Tags: action, Chiropractic Coach, chiropractic practice, chiropractor, focus, life of dreams, mission, organization, Rosen Chiropractic Coaching, rosen coaching, Success, values, vision

Why haven’t chiropractors marketed chiropractic as well as ShamWOW has marketed a stupid sponge cloth? That thing is a global phenomenon in a microcentury and chiropractic is 1000x more amazing and has been around for 114 years! (If you don’t know what I’m referring to, click here).

One of my favourite leadership gurus is Robin Sharma who’s coined the term, Merchant of WOW.  And I think it’s time chiropractors started acting like Merchants of WOW.  It means obsessive attention to detail in every aspect of your office, it’s decor, the chiropractor’s healthy image, the “red carpet” service to every person that contacts or comes into the office. It means refining your technical skills, growing your understanding of our philosophy and taking your communication skills and procedures to the next level.

Every step of the way we want people to think and to say, “Wow”.

The trouble is, a lot of practice management companies teach chiropractors to make their patients say, “Wow, I had no idea things were so bad”.  And from our perspective, there is no place for Scare Tactics in a TRUE wellness chiropractic practice.  We feel people should say, “Wow, I had no idea chiropractic could help me in so many ways! Wow, I had no idea you could affect my nerve system and my entire body”!  We want to be motivating them by what they want, as opposed to motivating them with fear and what they don’t want. It’s subtle, but has huge ramifications on the relationship long term. Sure you might be short term compliance with fear, but it doesn’t last and the relationship is tainted.

So how do we do that? We teach them under the radar, planting seeds and asking questions to help stretch their consciousness with every interaction in the office: How the CA answers the phone, your First Visit Forms, the look and feel of your office, your communications and procedures of Visit 1, Visit 2, Daily Interactions, Re-Evaluations and Re-Reports, how you handle difficult questions and situations, and how you manage your team.

It’s time that people start saying ChiropracticWOW! The wellness revolution is upon us and it’s time we step up and lead it.  If you want to know more about our chiropractic coaching and how to THRIVE in a TRUE wellness model, let us know. We’re here to help.

Tags: Chiropractic Coach, chiropractic marketing, Chiropractic Practice Management, Chiropractic Wellness Model, communication, LAASR, Leadership, merchant of WOW, Robin Sharma, scare tactics, Success, Wellness Chiropractic, Wellness Chiropractors, wellness revolution

What do successful chiropractic practices around the world all have in common? Chiropractic technique? Size and shape of the doctor? The politics of the area? Nope, none of those things.  We find, across the board, there are two things that make chiropractors successful and have the practices of their dreams.  What are they?

1. Certainty and Congruent Beliefs

2. Communication Skills

3. Congruent Procedures

I’ll get to the second point in a later post, but let’s start with the foundation of certainty and beliefs!  Recently, I spoke at Dr. Tedd Koren’s KST Seminar on this exact topic and felt like it was one I wanted to share with all of you.

As a chiropractor, you may have unshakeable certainty about who you are and what you do. Or, like many other chiropractors out there, might have some doubt and uncertainty about what you offer. Why?

Don’t you think that after years of education and practice that chiropractors would know who they are and what they offer? That they would be certain about what they deliver? Well across the board, day in and day out, we coach and speak with chiropractors on the phone who are not. And when we survey audiences around the world (with their eyes closed to keep it anonymous) most chiropractors have some uncertainty.

Why?  We believe the original sin in chiropractic is the rah-rah seminar that makes the audience yell out, “Chiropractic can help everything”! And then there is someone in your office who doesn’t get any response to your care. Then what? Either chiropractic failed or you did. So in creeps the doubt and uncertainty!  In our LAASR process, we help you make a promise to truly help people, and to keep your promise!

Here is our Rosen Chiropractic Coaching’s Formula for Certainty:

· Who are you as a chiropractor?

· What do you offer?

· What would you like to deliver?

· What are you certain you deliver?

· How do you monitor what you deliver?

· How do you communicate what you deliver?

· What is your vision and mission?

· Define your persona statement (and become it)!

We suggest sitting down with yourself and your complete honesty and completing the above sentences. Then we suggest that you sit down with your team and do the same. See what truths, insights (good or bad) or “ah-ha’s” that you get from doing this! Once we can get your beliefs congruent, then we install congruent procedures and communications to have the practice of your dreams!

We feel it is healthy to have a difference between what you would like to deliver and what you are certain you deliver. It is always a good thing to be striving to become better at your technique, to grow and evolve your skills as a chiropractor. The truth is, the more you do, the more certain you will be. Only a closed mind is 100% certain, so it is always important to keep growing!

Here are some resources to develop your life purpose, vision and mission.  For those of you who are interested in completing the entire Certainty program, click here.

It’s time to be the best chiropractor you can be, so that chiropractors can become the leaders of true health care!

It’s your choice! It’s either one or the other:

Tags: Beliefs, Certainty, Chiropractic Coach, Chiropractic Coaching, Chiropractic Practice Management, communication, Health Care, Leadership, Success, Wellness Chiropractic, wellness practice management

We are at the halfway point of 2009, are you on track to reaching and exceeding your goals?

Maybe you didn’t set goals for yourself and your practice at the beginning of the year.  If you didn’t, don’t beat yourself up.  Take some time to pull together some goals for the back half of 2009.  What do you really want to achieve? What do you want to look back upon? How much growth are you looking for?

If you did set goals, are you halfway to achieving them?  If so, congratulations! Maybe you should celebrate with your chiropractic coach and recalibrate in case you set the bar too low! Or maybe you’ve been working so hard to reach your goals that we’ll exceed them by the end of the year!  Spend some time with your coach to figure out what IS working?  What is the “Winning Formula” that you’ve found to help you create such success?  What else can you leverage to get more results, success and momentum?  For the first six months of this year, we have been consulting offices that are expanding and having record-breaking months!  It’s time to put the pedal to the medal.

If you set goals and you’re not on track to achieving them by the end of the year, why not?  What do you we need to change to make it happen? Is it your action steps and follow through?  Have you been resistant to changing the way you do your communications and procedures because it’s outside of your “comfort zone”?  Are you stuck on perfecting the foundation because you are afraid to make change?  Has your vision gotten cloudy?

At this halfway mark you’ll want to re-assess your initial goals.  Do they still fit for this year? Do they need to be altered because of life changes?  Are you still passionate about them?  Do they need to be recalibrated from this halfway point? 

If you’ve been stuck in a rut of old pattern or thinking, talk to us and get out of it!  There is no point doing the same thing and expecting different results! They called that insanity!  Now is the time you have to stretch yourself, for growth and change only happens outside the “comfort zone”.  If the ‘old way’ worked, you’d be as successful as you want to be, already!

Tags: change, Chiropractic Coach, Chiropractic Practice Management, Comfort Zone, consultant, Goals, half time, halfway mark, Insanity, Internal Resistance, practice success, resistance, Success

As a chiropractic coach it is my mission to help chiropractors reach the level of success they are looking for and to create their dream wellness practice.  For some, that is a small retirement practice, and others it is to manage a high-volume practice that serves hundreds of people each week. Either way, part of my role is to help chiropractors clearly define what they want and then to help them get it.

When looking for big changes in life, whether different results in practice, or in helping the people you serve to make changes in their personal lifestyle there is a key element to remember: small things lead to big things.  It is the consistency of action on small things that will get you the big results you are looking for.  You can’t climb a mountain in one stride ~ it’s one inch at a time. Without keeping this in mind, it is easy to get frustrated at any moment with your progress. Without a coach, it is difficult to see the forest for the trees.

One of my mentors, Robin Sharma, uses this quote with high-powered executives to get them to live great lives and run world-class businesses, “Small daily acts of greatness lead to stunning results.” 

Your frustrations with your progress in practice are the same as your practice member’s frustrations with their progress and results.  It is not only powerful to remind them of this concept, but to remind yourselves as well.  

1. Know what you are working towards – have a clear vision.

2. Have a plan to get there. 

3. Take small actions steps daily and over time you will create the life and practice of your dreams.  If you improve 1% each day for 30 days, you will have made a 30% leap forward (not including compound improvements). Be better today than yesterday.

Here is BJ’s quote on The Big Idea to really hit this home.  Found in Chapter 1 in Volume XVIII, otherwise known as The Subluxation Specific-The Adjustment Specific:

“A slip on the snowy sidewalk in winter is a small thing. It happens to millions. A fall from a ladder in the summer is a small thing. It also happens to millions. The slip or fall produces a subluxation. The subluxation is a small thing. The subluxation produces pressure on a nerve. That pressure is a small thing. That decreased flowing produces a dis-eased body and brain. That is a big thing to that man.

Multiply that sick man by a thousand, and you control the physical mental welfare of a city. Multiply that man by one hundred thirty million, and you forecast and can prophesy the physical and mental status of a nation. So the slip or fall, the subluxation, pressure, flow of mental images and dis-ease are big enough to control the thoughts and actions of a nation.

Now comes a man. And one man is a small thing. This man gives an adjustment. The adjustment is a small thing. The adjustment replaces the subluxation. That is a small thing. The adjusted subluxation releases pressure upon nerves. That is a small thing. The released pressure restores health to a man. This is a big thing to that man.

Multiply that well man by a thousand, and you step up the physical and mental welfare of a city. Multiply that well man by a million, and you increase the efficiency of a state. Multiply that well man by a hundred thirty million, and you have produced a healthy, wealthy, and better race for posterity. So, the adjustment of the subluxation to release pressure upon nerves, to restore mental impulse flow, to restore health, is big enough to rebuild the thoughts and actions of the world.

The idea that knows the cause, that can correct the cause of dis-ease, is one of the biggest ideas known. Without it, nations fall; with it, nations rise.

This idea is the biggest I know of”.

Stick to the small things that will create big things!

Photo Credit: Jamen Rhodes Photography/ Climber: Chris Meyer (my brother)!

Tags: Action Plan, Big Things, BJ Palmer, consistency, Dreams, Frustrations, Goals, Progress, Results, Robin Sharma, Small Things, Success, The Big Idea, wellness chiropractic practice management

I’ve been learning to surf since 2005. It’s tough since I don’t live on or near a coast – so I have to travel far and  wide for surf. Both the east and west  coasts of Canada have surf (brrr) and  we’ve fallen in love with warm water  surf of Central America.

Despite not being able to surf on a regular basis, I’ve seen some great improvements in my skill with the investments of time and money that I’ve made so far, yet I’m not where I want to be. There is still lots of surf I can’t handle, and sometimes my surfing gets worse instead of better (Re: My Christmas Vacation in Costa Rica). 

Yet here are the things I’ve learned from surfing that apply directly to succeeding in chiropractic practice.  And as a chiropractic coach and consultant, I work with chiropractors day in and day out on these challenges as they show up in practice. Whether you surf or not, you’ll get this:

• Success and mastery won’t just come to you. You have to create it.  It is not a matter of ‘luck’.
• Your head space and mindset matters! Your subconscious mind is always looking to validate what you believe to be true. Check your head or get a coach to check it for you.
• Get clear on your big vision and keep it in the forefront of your mind, even when you are not getting results. Keep perspective.
• Set realistic goals to reach your vision.
• Don’t be so hard on yourself. It doesn’t help you get what you want any faster or easier. It probably makes matters worse.
• Plan your work and work your plan. Consistent action is the only way to achieve your goals. Actions are the small things that create the BIG thing: Success!
• Repetition is key. Just because you’ve done something once doesn’t mean you don’t need to practice.  
• Recognize the first step is unconscious incompetence: you don’t know what you don’t know. A scary place!
• Next is conscious incompetence: you know what you don’t know.  At least you can seek out answers and get help.
• Then comes conscious competence and you start to get the mechanics of the skill. Ahhhhh finally! If you want to be mediocre, stop here.
• After hard work and refinement, it becomes unconscious competence where you don’t have to think about what you are doing because it is so ingrained in your nerve system – and you are on your way to mastery!
• As soon as you think you’ve got a skill, something will happen and you’ll be back at square one again. Shake it off and go again.
• Patience is key – you can’t rush nature and you can’t push the universe.
• Be prepared, develop strong foundational skills and work hard – the opportunity will come to you when you are ready.
• Results don’t happen immediately!  Real successes are not quick fix solutions. Get to the cause.
• Don’t always do what everybody else is doing. Be exceptional.
• Be grateful for what you have and what you are given! Gratitude every step of the way is key.
• Take responsibility for everything.
• Get back up. Paddle back out.
• Everything has a Dip: excitement phase, frustration phase, uphill battle phase, and then success.
• Don’t start something unless you want to push through The Dip to get to the other side – otherwise it is a complete waste of time and money.

Chiropractic practices always have a Dip, whether it be starting a practice from scratch, buying an existing practice, or changing your practice from a pain-based model to a wellness model.  We get excited by the idea and we start the process.  We soon get frustrated by the lack of immediate success, wonder what we got into and either quit or press on.  Those who continue to keep their vision big and take action on their plans eventually push through The Dip.

Your DIP could be building a dream team staff, it could be breaking through the glass ceiling of the volume you’ve always maxed out at, it could be starting your practice, or changing your chiropractic practice to a wellness model. Or something else entirely.  But your good idea starts to seem like a bad idea when you are in The Dip. That’s when you know you need help!

If you want support getting through The Dip, email me.  I’d be honoured to help coach and consult you through the process and help you get the success in chiropractic practice you are looking for!

Tags: communication, Success, Surfing, The Dip, wellness practice management

It’s easy to be mediocre.  A mediocre person, a mediocre mother, a mediocre friend, and certainly it is easy to be a mediocre chiropractor.  Look around, most everyone is doing it.  Mastery however is difficult.  Mastery takes hard work, dedication and keeping a big vision in the forefront of your mind and the stamina to follow through.  To be an overnight success takes 10,000 hours of work.  It means you have to push through The Dip. 

What does it take to be a master in the art, science, and philosophy of chiropractic? Even more importantly is what does it take to be a master of communication about our truth of health, healing and chiropractic?  As a start you need to understand personality types and communicaiton/behavioural styles of people. You need to LAASR your Visit 1, Visit 2, Daily Interactions, ReAssessments & ReReports communication to lead people forward.

Do you know what the common denominator of all successful chiropractic practices have? Chiropractors with certainty.  They are clear on their vision and how they are going to achieve it.  They know what they bring to the table.  And they speak their truth boldly and in a way that people can hear them.

Are you the best chiropractor you can be?  Are you communicating chiropractic to the people in your office and community so that they ‘get it’?  Can you turn people on to a healthy lifestyle that includes chiropractic care for them and their families for a lifetime?  Write down what having mastery in your chiropractic career would look like. Then write down the things that would need to change or improve to get there. What support do you need?  A coach?  A consultant?  Practice management tips?   An action plan? Accountability?

Most people get successful ‘enough’ and help ‘enough’ people.  They hit a plateau and get comfortable.  Are you pushing yourself towards mastery?  It’s your life. It’s your practice.  You get to choose. Let us know if we can help. There are too many people sick and dying in your community because they don’t know what you know.

Tags: 10000 hours, Chiropractic Coach, Chiropractic Coaching, chiropractic profession, coach, communication, consultant, LAASR, Leadership, mastery, mediocre, mediocrity, Motivation, Practice Management, Success, The Dip, wellness chiropractic practice management

 

 

A More Effective Swine Flu Vaccine

When it comes to the newly-hyped media craze of swine flu, how are you communicating it in your chiropractic office?  Are you part of the chiropractic profession getting caught up in the fear tactics propagated by the government and media or are you grounded in your chiropractic principles?  How is your certainty as a chiropractor?  It’s easy to talk about chiropractic and immune function when people are well, but what about when faced with the proposed ‘Swine Flu Pandemic’?  Can you keep yourself together, use your emotional intelligence skills and not allow the panic to hijack your amygdala?  Can you keep your critical thinking about cause and effect, and your common sense approach to health, wellness and disease to lead your community through this challenge?

My friend, Alain Desaulniers, D.C. has used this photograph and made a poster for his office that says at the bottom, “Chiropractic Care Strengthens Your Immune System. Stay Well Adjusted!”  (He has given permission for other chiropractors to use it, so email me if you would like it).

The last time Swine Flu made an appearance was 1976 and the government quickly pushed through a flu vaccine (doesn’t this normally take time to manufacture “safely”, if there is such a thing?), used fear to mass vaccinate and 25 times more people died from the flu vaccine than of the flu itself. Congressman Dr. Ron Paul’s video on Swine Flu recalls this event and states, “The government shouldn’t be in the medical business”.  This time it is an interestingly more complex virus, a recombinant H1N1-H5N1 avian/human/swine flu virus never to be seen before.  My microbiology might just be rusty but I can’t help but wonder if this is natural genetic evolution or a laboratory virus gotten free?

Let’s look to chiropractic’s history and originating philosophy to on understand the cause and effect of disease, especially infectious illness:

“One question was always uppermost in my mind in my search for the cause of disease.  I desired to know why one person was ailing and his associate, eating at the same table, working in the same shop, at the same bench was not.  Why? … This question has worried thousands for centuries and was answered September, 1895.”    ~D.D. Palmer, The Chiropractor’s Adjuster (1910)

Dr. Fred Barge continued on this theme when he used to say, “Do rats cause garbage or does garbage cause rats?”  Dr. Kevin Donka of Chirothots has continued Dr. Barge’s message with a twist, “Flies don’t cause garbage!”  

Common sense tells us that rats and flies are attracted to dirty places where there is decaying matter to feed upon.  Just because rats and flies are present at a garbage dump or a dirty restaurant doesn’t mean they caused the garbage, they are an effect of the garbage!  So why do some people get sick and some people stay healthy? It depends on the cleanliness of the body’s environment!  If your body is weak, your resistance is down, and your cells are decaying, doesn’t it make sense that the germ scavengers would find home, food and shelter there?  Of course it does!  The germs don’t cause the disease, they are present when disease is!  It is your internal resistance of your immune system that determines whether you get sick or not. Keep in mind it is called the ‘Germ Theory’ not the ‘Germ Fact’!

Whether or not the U.S. Homeland Security is appropriately given the power to make decisions about the health of Americans, (a political discussion of its own), what are chiropractors doing to coach the people they care for about strengthening their body’s own ‘Homeland Security’?  As a Wellness Chiropractic Coach and Consultant at Rosen Coaching, we coach chiropractors to not only communicate and educate people about the 3 Dimensions of Stress and what causes subluxations, but to provide ongoing communication about the ingredients for a healthy body, first and foremost clear nerve system communication.  What else can people  do to strengthen their immune systems and promote health? Proper nutrition, vitamins and minerals including high doses of vitamin C, movement and exercise, hydration, rest and relaxation, fresh air, sunshine/vitamin D, mental clarity, stress management, emotional peace and fun!

As a chiropractor looking to lead your community to health and wellness, to have practice success and growth as well as to have the life of your dreams you need to stand up, tell the truth and show people there is another way! Let us know if we can help!

Tags: Amygdala, care tactics, Cause and Effect, Certainty, Challenges, Chiropractic Coach, chiropractic profession, communication, Congressman Dr. Ron Paul, Disease, Emotional Intelligence, Fear Tactics, Germs, Immune System, Internal Resistance, Leadership, rosen coaching, Success, Swine Flu, wellness chiropractic practice management