Dr. Angie Meyer of Rosen Coaching was recently interviewed by Life by Design with Drs. Jamie and Joel Richards!  If you want to explore some concepts of a true wellness practice, please click here to find the recording of the interview or find Life By Design podcast on iTunes!

Tags: Chiropractic Coaching, communication, Drs. Jamie & Joel Richards, Health Care, Life By Design, True Wellness Model, Wellness Chiropractic, wellness revolution

So the New Year is upon us!  We have a reflective perspective of last year and what we accomplished or didn’t. And we have a vision, hope and goals of what we want 2010 to be like.

Have you taken the time to do an inventory of your life? Where in your life are you incongruent or not performing and leading how you’d like to? Paraphrasing Dr. Patrick Gentempo, the level of incongruency leads to a proportionate level of destruction. As chiropractic coaches, we at Rosen Coaching help chiropractors reach new levels of success in all areas of their lives, including how to thrive in a true wellness model.

I speak to chiropractors day in and day out. And I truly feel it is time that our profession stand up and lead by example.  Are you the epitome of health, energy and vitality?  Is your diet full of rich, whole foods? Do you exercise daily? Do you live a healthy, vitalistic chiropractic lifestyle?  If you don’t, it’s time. And don’t try and hide it – take a stand to share with your office the lifestyle changes you are making. The time is now to create excellence in YOUR health. And ask them to join you.  If you do, good for you! Set some new goals and ways you can push your healthy lifestyle to the next level.

Excellence, leadership and health are not created by chance, but by choice: Every day and in every moment.  Choose to be a true leader in your community who leads by example. Actions are so much more powerful than words covering incongruence.  Be the change you want to see.  This is your year to lead your community to health and wellness!

Tags: Certainty, Chiropractic Coach, Chiropractic Coaching, Chiropractic Consultant, Chiropractic Practice Management, chiropractic profession, Congruency, Goals, Health, Leadership, rosen coaching, Success, Wellness Chiropractic

The following is a guest post from Dr. Steve Silk, the Chairman of the Board of Directors for the Chiropractic Awareness Council. He has graciously agreed to share a recent post on H1N1 to help chiropractors to communicate with their practices and communities.  People need empowerment and not fear, they need Care vs. Scare communication. So please share your truth ~ the people of the world need to hear it! For those of you who would like to do a Swine Flu talk, please email me, as Rosen Coaching has some resources for you.

“Friends…
I don’t believe I have seen such a contrived panic about a relatively innocuous issue in my life.  You would think the end of the world was right around the corner.  I have already talked about this one-on-one in the office with many of you, but for the rest, let’s have a few minutes of logic, truth and reality.
First, I need to get the legal stuff out of the way.  So let me absolutely clear: I am not attempting give any sort of advice on how you should proceed with taking care of the health of you and your loved ones in any form or model of health-care delivery but my own: Chiropractic.  The following is based on the expressing of my personal opinion.  But I can assure you that my opinion is based on historical data, research evidence and 20 years of clinical experience.
Second, I also want to be absolutely clear that my heart goes out to anyone who has lost a loved one…to H1N1, “regular influenza” or any reason.   There are FAR too many premature deaths in our society, driven by the increasingly toxic world we live in and accentuated by allowing a sickness-treatment model of care dictate how we create health.  It’s a lot like a bankruptcy agent telling you how to invest your money…not being broke is a lot different from being wealthy.
Finally, I believe that we all need to take that deep breath I mentioned in the subject line.  Go ahead, do it.  That will help you begin to deal with the anxiety that is building across our nation.  That anxiety is in the form of mass hysteria that is bubbling up regarding the predicted scourge of Swine Flu (now called H1N1).  It is a situation driven by one emotion: Fear.
Fear is a great motivator, it makes us do knee-jerk reactive things.  Just look at what it did in Salem Massachusetts in 1692 (a lot of probably nice men and woman were burned at the stake or hung for the crime of being “witches”), the north-east US during the War of the Worlds broadcast in 1938 (a lot of people went berzerk and starting preparing for the end when they thought that Martians had invaded New Jersey) and a large chunk of the German populace during the Holocaust from 1941-45 (an AWFUL lot of Jews, gypsies, Catholics, Jehovah’s Witnesses, homosexuals, eastern European immigrants and mentally challenged people were medically experimented on and sent to the gas-chambers for simply being “different”).  Now we have the drums being banged for H1N1.
For those of you who are currently sick or have sick kids…I get the fear you are feeling.  I had a really good dose of it myself when I picked up malaria in a remote village in Northern Thailand…all by myself a million miles from home, sicker than I had been in my entire life and wondering if it was my time to meet the Creator.  Well, once I got over my initial anxiety (and all the wild fear-driven thoughts that went with it), I became quite excited at the level of fever I was experiencing, the amount of fluids coming from various parts of my body and just how intent my immune system was at keeping me alive.  So while it was no fun, the lesson I learned from it was that this earth-suit my soul calls home is well-equipped to look after my needs with no help from absolutely ANYONE!
Before you decide on how you will deal with this issue (and again, I am NOT telling you what to do…I’m not your mother!), here are a few things that you really need to consider:
1)  You are still more likely to pick up Tuberculosis (which is really running rampant these days on northern Ontario native reservations), get hit by a car (will you be driving today?), drown in the bathtub (planning on being clean this week?) or die from taking over-the-counter medication (more on that later)…so why isn’t the Ministry of Health and the media screaming about these more vital issues?  I don’t think that people realize that the risk of being infected with this germ is really low, with risk estimates at about 1 in 175,000 (about the same risk as being attacked by a shark) from info supplied by Health Canada.  You risk of dying?  That is put at about 1 in 425,000 (less than 0.0002%) which is just a bit less than your risk of dying from a meteorite strike.
2)  The predicted “high-season” (based on WHO algorithms) is the last two weeks of October and the first two weeks of November.  We are half-way through this “epidemic”, so hang in there people, we’re all going to be OK.
3)  Now this is a BIG one, so really consider this: Healthy people don’t get sick, and definitely don’t die…sick people do.  The inference in a lot of the reporting is that healthy people are being affected.  This is ludicrous.  The people who are getting sick are run-down at some level, and the ones who die are immuno-suppressed…it’s as simple as that.
4)  The best to survive ANY infectious process is still the same as it has been for the entire length of time humans have roamed this planet: our immune system.  Here are my suggestions on how to almost guarantee that your immune system will NOT let you down…ever!
1)  Get adjusted regularly (ensured the growth of my profession and got a LOT of people
thru the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918!)
2)  Eat well (especially fruit and veggies), and consider supplementing your diet with
Vitamin C, Vitamin D and Omega 3 fats
3)  Drink lots of fluids (mostly water and tea)
4)  Exercise daily…even if it is just a 15 minute walk
5)  Get a good night’s sleep
5)  Recognize that there are a lot of innuendoes, half-truths and flat-out lies being disseminated throughout our media by some of our “trusted health leaders”.  We are being told that research shows that the H1N1 vaccine is both safe and efficacious.  I suggest if you are considering rolling up your sleeve for the H1N1 shot, that you ask the person giving you the jab a few questions on efficacy (does it create a specific antigen-antibody complex, necessary for true immunity?) and safety (does it have any nasty side-effects?).   I know the answer to both, No to #1 and Yes to #2.  However, most people will be told the exact opposite, because most of the folks delivering the procedure have no clue about the background of what they are doing, they are simply “following orders”.  Just so you know, the “research” that has been quickly done was carried out on a very small group of people (and to the best of my knowledge, none of it on kids by the way), with no long-term follow-up of side-effects (the only study that I am aware of that looked at this only tracked their participants for three days after their injection).  So this is a typical case of “buyer beware”.
5)  You need to know another little tidbit of info: ANY flu-shot shows very LITTLE ability to reduce influenza rates ANYWHERE.  For example, Ontario introduced “free” (translation: we pay it with our taxes) flu-shot’s in 2000 and has seen the rate of usage almost triple….yet influenza infections and deaths have risen significantly during the same time period.  The obvious conclusion?  The shots don’t work.  The Ministry of Health’s conclusion?  We need to vaccinate more people.
6)  Want a really good overview of the pro’s and con’s of this whole debacle?  Go to the following website ( http://swineflu.mccoypress.net) and poke around a bit…well-laid out with tons of good information to help you come to a confident conclusion on the topic of Swine Flu.
I hope that the content of this email helps you to weather the storm, and allows you to relax a bit and NOT react to the fire of fear that is being fanned by the media.  I also hope that it helps you to make the absolute best decisions regarding your health…both for this issue and for every issue that impacts you”.
Sincerely,

Tags: Care vs. Scare, Empowerment, Fear, H1N1, Hysteria, Media, Rosen Chiropractic Coaching, rosen coaching, swine f, Swine Flu, Wellness Chiropractic

Whether or not you think you have a philosophy, you do. Even choosing to not have a philosophy is a philosophy! Chiropractic philosophy is one of vitalism and deductive reasoning.

The problem is, over the past 114 years we have fallen into the trap of looking to the mechanistic, allopathic model of science to validate what we know to be true. And it doesn’t work. It’s like trying to get insurance companies to pay for wellness care – it’s just not their model. But the funny part is, science and philosophy are not separate. Even scientists have a philosophy! Dr. Eric Russell, professor at Parker Chiropractic College gave a great four-hour lecture at Life Lyceum 2009 on Science vs. Philosophy. And the conclusion is, we need both…but in balance. Not the idea that science reigns supreme over everything else. That philosophy is the starting point of everything, even the god-like institution of science. (Have you ever wondered what a Ph.D stands for? Doctor of Philosophy in whatever the chosen field of expertise!)

So what is your philosophy? How grounded are you in the vitalistic philosophy that formed this profession? Why do you do what you do?

Mechanism vs. Vitalism: What is chiropractic’s philosophy?

Mechanism as a Philosophy, is defined as:

a. the view that all natural processes are explicable in terms of Newtonian mechanics.

b. the view that all biological processes may be described in physicochemical terms.

Vitalism, as defined by the Merriam-Webster dictionary,[1] is

a. the doctrine that the functions of a living organism are due to a vital principle distinct from biochemical reactions

b. the doctrine that the processes of life are not explicable by the laws of physics and chemistry alone and that life is in some part self-determining

The great news is, science is starting to have research that is actually illustrating our vitalistic philosophy! I was so inspired listening to Bruce Liption, Ph.D speak about the vitalistic nature of cells, and their ability to survive even when the nucleous is removed. How is that possible if we are only the sum of our parts and the DNA is the “brain” of a cell? Hmmm, guess there is more to it!

I’ve been honoured to be involved with Tedd Koren and speaking at Koren Specific Technique seminars. KST is one of the great vitalistic techniques out there.  The time is now chiropractors to have a look at your philosophy and get clear on what you are trying to accomplish with your care. If there is any incongruence, it will inevitably lead to destruction.

If you are stuck practicing in a pain-based model, treating the body as if it was a machine instead of recognizing the vitalistic self-healing and self-regulating laws of the body and you want more out of practice… the time is now! People want vitalism and wellness care and it is time that our profession became the recognized leaders of this movement! Who wants to join us?  We are vitalistic chiropractic coaches who can help you THRIVE in a TRUE Wellness Model!

Tags: Chiropractic Coach, Chiropractic Consultant, Chiropractic Philosophy, Chiropractic Practice Management, Chiropractic Science, Dr. Bruce Lipton, Dr. Eric Russell, Dr. Tedd Koren, Koren Specific Technique, KST, Life Lyceum, mechanism, Pain-based chiropractic, vitalism, Wellness Chiropractic

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

September 18th, 2009 is chiropractic’s 114th birthday!  On that day, Daniel David Palmer made the connection between the spine, nervous system and overall health and well-being. And the trusting deaf  cleaner Harvey Lillard allowed DD to adjust him, which resulted in his hearing being restored.

We’ve come a long way since then: chiropractic is a household name, from the original Palmer Chiropractic schools there are now dozens around the world including Australia, New Zealand, U.K and most recently Barcelona Spain! We’ve done a great job getting our name out there.

But where we’ve failed miserably in chiropractic is letting the public know what we do. I dare you to go outside your practice and ask 100 people what chiropractic is. What would they say? Neck pain? Back pain? Check out this video of someone who braved the streets and dared to ask:

What about inside your practice?  If Dr. Rosen and I sat in your reception area and asked the next 100 people who came in, “What are you hear for?  What is chiropractic?” What would they say?  If you don’t like the answers you are hearing, it means they don’t get the whole story.  You might be educating them, but they way you are educating them isn’t working. If they can’t articulate the whole story themselves, we’re in trouble. Our practice and our profession.

We feel there is a communication crisis in that the public does not know what we do. And our profession is stuck at a minimal percentage of the population utilizing our services. And the ones who do don’t really know that we are health and wellness doctors. They think we ‘crack bones’ to help back pain.

So what can you do to celebrate chiropractic’s birthday? How about commit to yourself to clearly define your Certainty as a chiropractor?  How about learning how to communicate the simple chiropractic truths in a way that people ‘get it’ and stay, pay and refer?  It is time for chiropractors to become the leaders of TRUE healthcare.  If you’re interested, we can help!  We are committed to helping the profession grow to lead the wellness revolution and transform the way the public perceives chiropractic care. We want you to THRIVE in a TRUE wellness model!

Tags: chiropractic, Chiropractic Coach, Chiropractic Coaching, Chiropractic Consultant, Chiropractic Practice Management, chiropractic profession, chiropractor, communication, Leadership, Wellness Chiropractic, wellness re

Many chiropractors have a difficult time with life balance. Whether you are just starting your practice OR seeing 500 visits/week, it’s hard to find a balance between the office and your personal life, your community and your family.

The truth is, wellness chiropractors who are running successful chiropractic practices have to lead by example.  If wellness chiropractors are going to lead the wellness revolution, we have to walk the walk, not just talk the talk!  You can’t be overweight and teaching nutrition. You can’t be a stress case telling people to reduce their mental/emotional stress.  Just like you can’t smoke and tell your kids not to smoke.  It is who you are BEING and DOING, not what you are SAYING that matters.

While coaching chiropractors, it is essential to look at their life priorities and build their life and practice around that.  You get to choose the life you want to create! First you need to know what that is, then you need to create and action plan to get there.

Secondly, it is not about time-management, but it is about self-management. How focused are you?  How effective are you at following through on your plan? How much do you allow yourself to get distracted?  How tenacious are you at pushing through the dip?  Are you showing up in life with the discipline it takes to be a true leader? And who is holding you accountable for your choices?

Lastly, to be of true service, we have to be full vessels ourselves.  Unless we serve ourselves and our personal needs, we can’t truly be of service.  It is about being self-full not selfish.  It’s time for you to exercise “Extreme Self Care” as outlined by Thomas Leonard in his book, “The 28 Laws of Attraction”. Here are the categories to revamp your life:

1. Stress elimination: By focusing on stress elimination in all areas of your life. What is stressful? What are you tolerating? What isn’t adding positively to your life?

2. Environment & Family: Design your environment to serve you and your family relationships to add energy to your life.

3. Pleasure: Know what makes you feel great and then get more of it in your life.

4. Well-being: Ensure all aspects of physical, mental, emotional, chemical are 100% .

5. Support and Experts: Receive wellness care from experts and seek support from a coach.

6. Ingestion: You are what you put in your mouth. Keep it clean. Treat your body like the temple that it is.

7. Appearance: Take care of the outer you as well as the inner you.

8. Sustainability: Make extreme self-care a behaviour not a quick fix.  Take control of your time, learn to say no, delegate finances for self-care.

9. Daily Rituals: Small improvements lead to great results.  What you do daily is who you become.

10. Special-care Items: Add anything else you need that isn’t listed above.

Tags: Action Plan, Balance, Extreme Lead by Example, Goals, Leadership, Life, Personal Needs, Self Care, Self Management, Thomas Leonard, Time Management, vision, Wellness Chiropractic, Wellness Chiropractors