0:00

The art of networking for growing your chiropractic

0:02

practice. Hello, everybody. Welcome to the KC ChiroPulse podcast.

0:06

I'm your host, Dr. Michael Perusich, and I'm joined by

0:08

my cohost, Marisa Mateja. I

0:10

want to give a quick shout out to our

0:13

two sponsors for the show as well. Before

0:15

we jump in here, Marisa, first Kats consultants,

0:17

of course. So go check us out at katsconsultants.

0:20

com, but also chirohealthusa.

0:22

And if you're not familiar with chirohealthusa, they.

0:25

Are helping doctors enjoy more compliance,

0:28

more peace of mind in their practice and

0:30

creating simpler financial options

0:32

for their patients to help with the rising cost of health

0:34

care. Here's a cool thing about

0:37

Chiro Health USA. Not only are they helping doctors,

0:39

but they give back to the profession and

0:42

I noticed the other day that they've given

0:44

nearly three and a half million dollars

0:46

back to the profession. If that's not

0:48

a reason to pay attention to what they're doing and

0:51

be a part of, their program.

0:53

That's that's a huge reason right there. So

0:56

anyway, all right, the

0:59

art of networking now really

1:01

can networking really help build your practice.

1:03

Marissa. Well, of course it can. I

1:05

say facetiously, right?

1:08

Absolutely. It can. We've seen that

1:11

firsthand, you know, over the years, how

1:13

it works, how it helps. It's amazing.

1:16

The little Bits of

1:19

networking that you can do that all

1:21

of a sudden you meet somebody who you

1:23

weren't expecting it, but send you 10, 15

1:25

people into your door. So pay

1:28

attention out there of who you're chatting

1:30

with. You never know who's going to be a referral source.

1:34

You just hit the nail on the head. So,

1:37

you know, if we were to, to really define

1:40

what networking is, it's

1:43

interacting appropriately with

1:45

everybody you meet. It's not just

1:47

going to the Kiwanis Club or the BNI,

1:50

those aren't the only places you network. I

1:52

mean, my gosh, I, over the years,

1:54

I think I got more patients just talking

1:56

to people that worked at Walmart. Right.

1:59

You know? And are they big influencers? No,

2:03

not in the traditional sense,

2:05

but are they big influencers for your practice?

2:07

Yeah, they can be.

2:08

Yeah. And you just used a word that I

2:10

feel like we should touch on and that is influencers.

2:14

And we see that word thrown around a

2:16

lot in marketing nowadays, right? That

2:18

you see businesses out there. It doesn't

2:20

matter what Uh, social media platform

2:22

you're on. They have people that are

2:25

networking. They have people that are,

2:27

telling you all about their product

2:30

for them. So they have a

2:32

proxy, if you will. They have somebody in

2:34

front of their business doing

2:36

that networking for them.

2:39

And so we see that a lot on social media, right?

2:41

There's brand influencers and all these

2:44

things that people, just normal

2:46

people have started recording videos

2:48

of them purchasing products and talking

2:50

about the products and just giving a little review

2:53

of the product and giving you a link

2:55

that obviously gives them, a

2:57

kickback or something like that. Right. But

3:00

the same thing happens in our practice. If

3:02

we build our practice correctly,

3:05

if we spend the time to really

3:07

talk to the people that are coming

3:09

in that we interact with, that we see,

3:11

no matter whether it's in our office

3:13

or in the public, Then they

3:16

can become our proxies. They can be out

3:18

there talking to other people for us

3:20

and sending people into us. So

3:23

it's a matter of really

3:25

thinking of every person you interact

3:27

as an influencer for

3:29

your practice,

3:30

right? So true. So when I first went

3:32

into practice, I taught

3:35

for a while. While I was building the practice,

3:37

I also taught at the local junior college,

3:40

community college is a junior college or community

3:42

college. It's community, right? And

3:45

it's funny, one of the people that sent

3:47

me so many patients and, and she actually

3:49

didn't come in all that often herself, but she

3:52

really got. The word out

3:55

on campus about my practice

3:57

way more than I did. And honestly,

3:59

I think she only came in twice a year. When I say

4:02

that you're going to know exactly who I'm talking about. I do know

4:04

who it is, but, but over the,

4:06

over the years she referred

4:08

so many people to the practice,

4:11

it was crazy. So you never know who's

4:13

going to catch

4:15

the, the, the wave of what you're doing,

4:18

so to speak, and be that influencer

4:20

for your practice. So. Networking

4:23

is about going out and meeting

4:25

people and being genuine

4:27

with people and letting people get to know

4:30

who you are because

4:32

networking is that initial stage.

4:36

Of building relationships in your community,

4:40

and,

4:40

you know, I think that scares some people.

4:42

I think that is intimidating,

4:45

but the reality is, it doesn't have to

4:47

be. It doesn't have to be

4:49

make it a conversation and and

4:52

keep in mind, you know, the conversation

4:54

that you have with people can be. Anything,

4:57

right? It doesn't have to be about chiropractic.

4:59

You could be learning about them and

5:01

what they do. And there's so many

5:03

different ways to start that

5:05

conversation. And I think that sometimes

5:08

is intimidating to people is how

5:10

do you start that conversation? And. You

5:13

know, I don't know about you, but I always look for something

5:15

that connects me to that person. So

5:18

how do you connect? And

5:20

so think about the patients that are coming in

5:22

your door and how do you connect to

5:24

them? You know, if you think about your

5:27

staff and this is something you should

5:29

absolutely share with them is how

5:31

did they connect? With your patients,

5:33

are they both grandmas? Are they,

5:36

both on the, their kids are both on the same

5:38

soccer team. There's connections everywhere

5:40

you look. And it's just a matter of uncovering

5:43

those. And I think there's ways

5:45

in your practice to do that very simply

5:48

just by paying attention to

5:49

paperwork. Excuse me. Yeah. And,

5:51

and you just made me think of this. One of the big misconceptions

5:54

about networking is that you have to

5:56

join groups. You have to pay money

5:58

and go join a group. And the

6:00

minute you join, you you've got to make sure

6:02

that you've got your, your, your big five

6:04

or 10 minute elevator speech ready to go.

6:06

And then once you deliver that, as long

6:08

as you don't, you know, sweat yourself into a pool

6:11

of, water on the floor, basically.

6:13

That you're going to start getting all these patients. That

6:15

is not how it works, right?

6:18

It's about going out and connecting

6:21

with people and finding those

6:23

common grounds. And how do you find that? I'm

6:25

going to, I'm going to give you the biggest tip

6:27

ever for networking.

6:30

The biggest, what is it? Tell

6:31

us,

6:32

you're going to want to write this down. It's, it's two words.

6:35

Okay. You ready? They're, they're really,

6:37

really big words too. So get ready to write this down.

6:40

Ask questions, you

6:42

know, and you've heard me say this to

6:45

staff many times is

6:48

always ask as many questions

6:50

as you can get that person talking,

6:52

get them telling us things. The more we

6:55

know about them,

6:57

that's right. The more we know about them,

6:59

the better we can help them. You'd be amazed

7:02

at what you uncover, just by

7:05

chatting with somebody and, and. A

7:08

caveat to networking is also trying to find

7:10

those people that

7:12

are still coming into your practice, but

7:14

maybe have new conditions. And

7:17

part of that is staying in tune

7:19

with them to make sure that you're

7:21

really ready when they

7:24

need you. You know, you're able to help them with

7:26

other conditions. You're able to listen

7:28

to what they're telling you. And staff were a

7:30

huge Part of that

7:33

huge part. Huge. In

7:35

fact, you, a staff get to

7:38

really interact with patients more than

7:40

we do as doctors, patients

7:43

are funny doctors. I think

7:45

you know this, but, they don't really open

7:47

up to us nearly

7:49

as much as they open up to staff. So

7:52

staff can really help drive

7:54

that interaction. So if you're going out in the

7:56

community and doing something, take your staff with you,

7:59

take your staff with you. we used to always

8:02

from time to time, we'd go out to lunch as staff.

8:04

And, we'd have our scrubs on and I'm

8:06

not saying you have to wear scrubs, but the

8:09

whole point of it was we all have the

8:11

clinic logo and everybody knew exactly

8:14

who we were. Yeah,

8:15

we matched and in a way

8:18

that connected us and

8:20

then it was easy for if we saw

8:22

patients that knew us or if we saw.

8:25

Other people that maybe weren't patients, but

8:27

knew us individually, there was ways

8:29

to connect with them because they saw us.

8:31

They wanted to say, hi, you know, you're in

8:33

a big group. It's just fun.

8:36

You know, it's everything

8:38

that you do should be about enjoying

8:40

it and bringing people into your practice

8:43

that want to have fun, smile,

8:46

laugh with you, all of

8:48

those kinds of things. So part of networking is

8:50

definitely, being seen for

8:52

sure. I I'm

8:54

going to touch on this and then we can come back to it. But

8:57

one of the big mistakes that I see a lot of

8:59

doctors make is they think they have to go out and educate

9:01

everybody about chiropractic and

9:03

about the subluxation and about

9:05

the philosophy of chiropractic. And I'm

9:08

not saying don't talk about those kinds of things,

9:10

but what you have

9:12

to understand is the way you

9:14

connect to people is to.

9:17

Like you said, getting them talking about

9:19

themselves, finding common ground,

9:21

and then your job as doctor,

9:24

your job as a clinic is

9:26

to be the problem solver. They

9:29

have problems. They want you to

9:31

solve them. They don't care how

9:33

you solve it as long as you solve it. I mean,

9:36

sure, explain, a bit about what chiropractic

9:38

is about and, explain chiropractic however you want, but

9:41

it doesn't have to be this big, lavish.

9:44

45 minute conversation about

9:46

chiropractic. It needs to be

9:48

a lavish conversation about what their issues

9:50

are.

9:51

You touched on something there, there, the conversation,

9:54

and this is outside the clinic, when you're meeting

9:56

people. Really listen

9:59

to what's going on with them as they're telling

10:01

you things. That's how you connect. Oh,

10:03

did you know that I was a chiropractor? Oh,

10:05

I help with those kinds of things. get them talking

10:08

first and ask questions

10:10

and then tell later. And

10:12

it'll be amazing the response

10:14

that you get because you. Connect

10:16

with them as a human first, not

10:19

as the doctor first. And

10:21

then all of a sudden you break down some walls

10:23

because there, there is a little bit of psychology

10:25

involved there, right? I mean, there are

10:27

that, uh, what is the term

10:30

white coat syndrome, right?

10:32

That patients have when they're around a doctor.

10:35

And so if, if you break

10:37

that down and you eliminate that, and you're

10:39

just a human talking to another human

10:42

and enjoying a conversation. They're

10:44

going to connect with you and they're going to want to

10:47

spend time with you in your practice and

10:49

come see what you have to do well

10:52

before knowing that you're a

10:54

physician.

10:55

Exactly. Exactly. So

10:58

let's, let's talk a little bit about some

11:00

different strategies of networking

11:03

and where you can effectively go and network.

11:05

Sure. One place that I think a

11:07

lot of us kind of shy away

11:09

from is other healthcare providers. And. You

11:12

mentioned this earlier. Some

11:14

people think networking is kind of scary

11:16

at times. Yeah.

11:18

Especially if you're going to go talk to an orthopedic surgeon

11:20

or somebody like that, it can be intimidating.

11:22

I don't know that it's scary. It can be intimidating

11:26

because our fear is they're going to ask

11:28

us something that we don't know. Well, you

11:30

guys, I'm here to tell you your education,

11:34

you probably know more about

11:36

overall health and wellness and physiology

11:39

and neurology and anatomy than

11:41

they do. They

11:43

know so much of that, that pharmaceutical

11:45

side,

11:46

right? Right. And they, they, they

11:48

practice in a, in a much tighter

11:50

scope than you realize. So

11:53

don't be afraid to go out and talk to them.

11:56

Some of our best referral sources

11:58

were orthopedic surgeons were

12:01

dentists. I think

12:03

about the connection there. Where's the jaw? Where's

12:06

the mandible? How, where's it sit in relation to

12:08

the cervical spine? You

12:10

know, they get it. here's the thing you have to

12:12

remember if you're going to network with professionals,

12:14

which I think is a great thing to do is

12:17

they don't know what you do. They

12:20

don't know what you do. So they

12:22

probably shied away from chiropractors

12:25

throughout their career. Yeah.

12:27

Unless they saw you before they started,

12:30

into school, but so there's an

12:32

opportunity there to allow

12:35

them to see that you have

12:37

a big scope of

12:38

knowledge. And that's the number one

12:40

thing I have found with other healthcare providers

12:43

is they just don't know what we do, so

12:45

they don't know how to refer to us. So

12:47

when they understand where

12:50

you fall in the regimen

12:52

of the healthcare totem pole, so to speak,

12:55

then they'll happily refer to you if they

12:57

just understand what cases and conditions

12:59

to refer to you. We had

13:01

referrals from Medicare, medical

13:03

professionals all the time. Yeah. And

13:05

had a great working relationship with the hospital

13:07

community and so forth. So,

13:10

don't be afraid of networking

13:12

in that environment.

13:14

Absolutely. And, great places

13:16

to, to find people are, you mentioned

13:19

earlier, those groups like BNI or those,

13:21

Kiwanis groups or different groups

13:23

in town that have the speaking engagements,

13:26

your chambers, a great place, you

13:28

know, all of those places are. Excellent

13:30

networking places, but remember

13:33

to not go in with the idea that you're

13:35

there to spew chiropractic knowledge.

13:38

You're there to meet people as

13:40

people and connect with them.

13:42

And I think that's one of the. Yeah, I

13:44

think that's one of the biggest misconceptions

13:47

of networking that we all

13:49

fall down on. And it doesn't matter if we're chiropractors

13:52

or, professionals, attorneys, whatever

13:55

it is, right. I think everybody

13:57

tends to do that because all we want to do

14:00

is say, here's what we do. Who can you send

14:02

us? Right. Instead of flipping

14:04

the script and saying, Hey, I want to get to know

14:06

you and what your business does.

14:09

And. How I would be able

14:11

to refer to you if you switch

14:13

that script, all of a sudden, it's

14:16

not as intimidating for either one of you.

14:19

That's exactly right. And you'd be shocked

14:21

at how quickly you will

14:24

get to know somebody by doing it that way. And we

14:26

can talk more about that in a minute. I

14:28

want to, I want to talk about social media because

14:30

everybody talks about brings up social

14:32

media and I think social media

14:34

for the most part is a great way

14:36

for people to see your personality.

14:40

Especially if you're doing video, doing

14:42

video, something that is

14:45

also scary to some is putting

14:47

yourself in front of a video camera

14:49

and recording. What I would suggest

14:52

is don't go live. Record

14:54

it. You can. Edit,

14:56

you can cut, you can delete

14:59

and start over,

15:00

wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute, wait

15:02

a minute. You always made me go live.

15:05

You mean there's a way that you can't, you don't have

15:07

to go live?

15:08

No, you can do these things if

15:10

you're scared of. What's

15:12

going to come out if you're unprepared, maybe

15:15

you have a script, but you don't want to sound like you have a script

15:17

and you want to practice that a little bit. So it comes

15:19

across a little more naturally. Excellent.

15:22

Record yourself. And I highly recommend

15:24

doing that. It's a great exercise regardless,

15:27

because it also helps you in front of patients.

15:29

It helps you, when you're out in the community

15:31

or wherever, but it also helps you can make

15:33

it. Communicate with patients

15:36

that are coming into your practice. So

15:38

record yourself, whether it be for

15:41

how you're going to talk to someone about what their condition

15:43

is or whatever, record yourself.

15:45

You will learn more about yourself doing

15:47

that. Then you can believe

15:50

it'll just be a great exercise

15:52

for you to

15:52

do. And we see so many doctors. At

15:55

least in my opinion, using social media

15:57

incorrectly, they're

15:59

trying to entice patients to come in for

16:01

it for a cheap deal, for 9,

16:04

you get a chiropractic adjustment, I get an evaluation,

16:07

x rays, a massage, an adjustment,

16:10

some therapy, no.

16:14

No, you don't have to entice people about

16:16

just talking about some conditions. I think

16:19

social media is just a great place to

16:21

put your chiropractic education out there

16:24

and educate people about what chiropractors

16:26

do. for example, Hey, I've been seeing a

16:28

lot of headaches in my clinic lately,

16:30

so a lot of people don't know that chiropractic

16:32

care is great for headaches. So if you're suffering

16:35

from headaches, give my clinic a call.

16:37

I'd love to talk to you about how chiropractic care

16:39

might, might be able to help. I mean, just

16:41

something simple like that.

16:43

Yeah. And you can have fun with it. I,

16:45

I have, we have some clients that just have

16:47

an absolute ball with their market, marketing.

16:50

They dress up as a spine,

16:53

they, have a skeleton next to them.

16:55

They, they do all these little fun things

16:57

that just helps with the

16:59

visuals of what they're talking

17:01

about, what they're explaining. And they're a hoot.

17:03

I mean, they just have a great time.

17:06

And when I look at that practice, I always

17:08

think, wow. They are

17:10

a fun place to be. They

17:12

are engaging. They're educational.

17:15

They understand the body and

17:17

what's going on. And I think that

17:19

they could probably help almost anybody

17:21

in their community. And so when

17:23

you're watching those kinds of things, keep in

17:25

mind. What are the things you

17:27

can do? And if you don't know, or if it scares

17:30

you, go watch some

17:32

other chiropractic clinics. Go

17:34

look at their social media and see what

17:36

they're doing. Look for those that stand

17:38

out and really have a good

17:40

time doing it because

17:43

that's going to be part of that networking.

17:46

In a, not on a personal

17:48

level, but it's going to be that over

17:50

view networking is what I would

17:53

call it because you're, you're putting stuff

17:55

out there to really connect with people

17:57

on social media and have them see you.

18:00

Yeah, social media is just a great place to

18:02

be educative. It's a, it's a place to be

18:04

fun. Just be tasteful. And

18:06

what you're doing don't denigrate what

18:08

chiropractic is all about. Don't

18:11

denigrate yourself. Don't just

18:13

be

18:14

smart. Yeah.

18:15

Be smart. Okay. Everybody,

18:17

we need to take a quick break for a message

18:20

from our sponsors. We will be right

18:22

back.

18:23

So we all feel it rent

18:26

or dining out gasoline or

18:28

movies. As a matter of fact, the dollar

18:30

is not going as far for a whole

18:32

host of reasons, and it's impacting

18:34

everybody, regardless of your financial

18:37

situation. Did you know that

18:39

38 percent of the overall population

18:42

is having to reconsider? How they're spending

18:44

their money just to afford the health

18:47

care they need. And if you break it down

18:49

further, 26 percent

18:51

have actually delayed the health

18:53

care that they need, including going to

18:55

see you, the chiropractor. So

18:57

here's what we need to know about the breakdown in demographics.

19:01

You would think. That someone who's making

19:03

120, 000 or more

19:05

would be continuing their care right now. But

19:08

the actual number is 18%, 18

19:11

percent of that group is actually putting

19:14

off healthcare. And that's a group of people

19:16

making six figures. When you take

19:18

that same information all the way down

19:20

to a group making 40,

19:22

000, that number is much higher. It's closer

19:24

to 40%. So it's never

19:27

been more important than now to make sure

19:29

you've made it easy for your patients to come

19:31

see you. that you have choices for

19:33

them and you understand what they're going

19:35

through at home. We want to make sure your practice

19:37

thrives during this time, and we

19:39

encourage you to learn about what ChiroHealth

19:41

USA can do for you and your

19:43

practice and making it easy for patients

19:46

to see you and continue care.

19:51

All right, everybody. Welcome back to the KC

19:53

ChiroPulse podcast brought to you by Kats

19:55

consultants and Chiro health USA.

19:58

Marisa, we're talking about. How

20:01

to grow your chiropractic business through proper

20:03

networking and this is a

20:06

great subject

20:06

it is, and you were really

20:09

good. And I'd love for you to talk about

20:11

this for a second. You were really good

20:13

about in our community networking

20:16

with the right people. And

20:18

what I mean by that is the

20:20

movers and the shakers or the influencers

20:23

in the community, right? You were

20:25

really good at identifying

20:27

those people and being

20:29

in. In the right place at the

20:31

right time, whether that be at

20:34

church, whether that be

20:36

in the community, doing talks, whether

20:38

that's, being involved on a

20:40

board, in town or coaching

20:43

a soccer team, whatever

20:45

it is, right. There's a hundred different ways that you can connect

20:48

with your community. But then once

20:50

you did that, you were really good

20:52

at identifying people

20:54

that you wanted to get to know more and.

20:57

You knew what they were doing in the community.

21:01

So I, it

21:03

was a couple of things really. First

21:05

off, I found some things that I could

21:07

be really involved in church.

21:10

If you go to church, church is a great place

21:12

to be really involved. The

21:14

most churches are always looking for volunteers

21:17

for something. So it started out, I greeter

21:20

and then, and. a

21:23

position opened up in the praise band at

21:25

church and somebody had found

21:27

out that I play an instrument and

21:30

I got invited to try out for the praise band,

21:32

and so I started being in the Praise band, which

21:34

was a position where, everybody in church

21:36

then knew who I was. Yeah. You were

21:38

on stage, you were, I was literally on stage.

21:41

Yeah. It was literally on stage and I was doing

21:43

something that was. Out of character

21:46

somewhat for a doctor. So it showed my

21:48

personality a little bit more. And

21:51

so it was very common after

21:53

church that people would just walk up

21:55

to me and say, Hey doc, you got a second,

21:57

I've got this going on or Hey

22:00

doc, I saw you up on stage tonight.

22:02

Music was great. Would you

22:04

come speak to this group that

22:06

I belong to? Would you come speak to the

22:08

HR managers association

22:10

or whatever it was, and I would

22:13

start getting all these little opportunities,

22:15

not really laid at my feet because I'd put

22:18

in the work up front a little bit just by meeting

22:20

people so much. so

22:22

that, that was one place. Then I

22:24

used to go to the Qantas club, the lions club,

22:27

and, one

22:29

other one wasn't the optimist, but it was.

22:32

I would go and I would pay attention

22:34

to who was there, who's the president? Why

22:37

are they the president? How'd they get to be the president?

22:39

And I would go up and literally ask, how'd you become

22:41

president? And invariably

22:44

they would say one thing to me, they tell me

22:46

how, but then they'd say, are you interested

22:48

in being on the board? Yeah.

22:52

Cause that's how you get to know people. The

22:54

other thing I would do is I would volunteer,

22:57

back to the community, the civic groups.

23:00

I would also pay attention to the speakers. And

23:03

when the speakers would get done speaking,

23:07

provided I felt like they were an

23:09

influent that somebody that could be an influencer

23:11

for my practice, I would go up and I

23:13

would say something very simple to them, not,

23:16

Hey, I'm the local chiropractor trying to build

23:18

my business. No, that's the wrong way

23:20

to approach them. I would go up and say, you

23:23

know what? Your talk was incredible

23:25

today. Any chance I could take you

23:27

to lunch or buy you a coffee and

23:30

I just want to know how you built your business

23:32

or how you got so involved in the community

23:34

or how you became so successful. I just

23:36

want to hear more. You were asking questions.

23:39

Yeah. I was asking questions. Person

23:41

to person. I'm asking you questions and

23:43

I'm trying to learn about you, your

23:45

business and possibly

23:47

how I can help send people

23:49

to you. Yeah. Yeah. And almost

23:53

all of them within a day or two,

23:55

I was having coffee with, it was usually coffee. And

23:58

they loved it. And, one of them, for

24:01

example, was a local politician, Texas

24:03

has her, I think, or something like that. My

24:05

gosh, over the years. How many people

24:07

did she refer to the clinic, but not besides

24:10

just her own family it was like somebody

24:12

had turned the fire hose on. I mean, she

24:14

even introduced me to people like the governor

24:16

of the state and it was crazy.

24:19

just opened all kinds of doors up. Then

24:21

the other thing is I just found other places

24:23

to get involved in. So I,

24:27

I'd always been a big proponent of boys and girls club.

24:29

That's a long story. I won't tell you why, but it

24:32

doesn't matter. It's a good story. It's And

24:35

so I noticed in the paper one day that

24:37

they were having an auction, and

24:40

so I went to the auction,

24:43

my wife and I went to the auction, and

24:46

I found out who the president was,

24:49

my wife actually knew him, they'd gone to high school

24:51

together, and I went up and introduced

24:53

myself and said, hey, Can I help?

24:55

Can I volunteer to do anything? next thing

24:57

I know, I'm not even a member of the

24:59

board and I'm one of the hawkers

25:01

at the auction. If you know what a hawker is, that's the person

25:03

that walks around and sees who's

25:05

who's helping bid. So I'm actually working

25:08

the room all of a sudden. Well, All kinds

25:10

of people, I got to know all kinds of people just

25:12

that night and within a couple of weeks,

25:14

I was invited to be on the board and

25:16

eventually became president. I leave visible

25:19

position and

25:21

keep in mind events like that, that

25:23

are trying to raise money and.

25:26

Need volunteers and think that's an

25:28

excellent place to be because most

25:30

of the time, the people in your community

25:32

that are showing up to that are the people who

25:35

one have and can't afford

25:38

to be there. And so it's great

25:40

visibility for other

25:43

business owners, because that's ultimately

25:45

a lot of the times who's there.

25:47

Right. Exactly. who are the other

25:49

influencers? Well, we were relatively small

25:51

town, small

25:54

ish, pastors

25:56

are also influencers. So

25:59

I got to know a lot of the pastors in town, how

26:02

I would go to their churches. My praise

26:04

band played on Saturday night. So guess what?

26:06

Sunday we went to another church a lot

26:08

of times. And afterwards

26:10

I go up and, introduce myself to the

26:12

pastor and say, great sermon, even

26:15

if it was just just kidding. Just

26:17

kidding. And I would

26:19

get to know them and then eventually

26:21

a lot of them were inviting me back to

26:24

do speaking engagements to their congregations,

26:27

so it was just another way. And then, This

26:31

one was just kind of happenstance. This is not because

26:33

of anything I did other than I asked a question.

26:36

The, athletic director for the community

26:38

college moved in two doors down for

26:40

me and I was out in the yard

26:43

one night. So I'm walked down there, introduced

26:45

myself. I didn't say who I was.

26:47

I just said, hi, I'm your neighbor, Michael.

26:51

And we got to talking. Oh, you're the athletic director.

26:53

Interesting. Well, I'm in healthcare. Who

26:56

does your team physician work? Oh, we don't

26:58

have one. Why don't you come to

27:00

my office tomorrow and let's chat. And

27:02

I became the team physician for, I was the

27:04

team physician for like 10 years or

27:06

something or longer or longer.

27:09

It was close to that. You know, so now,

27:11

now I'm at the, all the sporting events

27:13

for the college and I'm sitting on the bench

27:16

and everybody in the community that goes,

27:18

which was everybody sees

27:20

me. I'm just creating more and more

27:22

visibility all the time. So

27:25

I could go on and on about this, but you

27:27

know, it's just those little things. That

27:30

you do to open doors and it's not,

27:32

it, it's

27:35

not talking so much about what you do.

27:37

I'll be honest. I hardly ever talked about what I do. I,

27:39

I'm not even sure. Some people knew I was a chiropractor,

27:42

they just knew I was a doctor and,

27:47

but they would send me patients and

27:51

I can't remember honestly,

27:55

the last time that we actually did any kind of

27:57

advertising because everything

28:00

was word of mouth referral.

28:02

Yeah, we were, I would say we were

28:04

95 percent probably

28:06

referral based. I

28:08

mean, it was pretty high, in reality,

28:11

most businesses are 65 percent

28:13

or more referral based. So that

28:15

gives you a. Benchmark to understand

28:17

where a lot of your patients are coming from

28:20

and pay attention to those things and

28:22

watch for, you know, that's the backside

28:24

of networking. Watch for where

28:27

they're coming from and make sure you're thanking those

28:29

people, those businesses, whoever

28:31

is referring those patients into your practice,

28:34

You bring up a really good benchmark. So

28:36

if I was you listening, I would go back

28:39

into my practice and kind of dig around a little bit

28:41

and try to figure out how much

28:43

of your Practice

28:45

is referral based if it's under

28:48

the number, you just said the 65%,

28:51

you probably want to dig in and find out why,

28:53

what are we doing? Are we having to advertise

28:56

a lot? And if

28:58

you're having advertised a lot, not now you're concerned

29:00

about what your ROI is on the money you're spending

29:03

and we didn't, you don't spend any money hardly

29:06

to network. You

29:08

got to buy a lunch once in a while, or you

29:10

might have to pay an annual membership fee

29:12

to something, but I'm

29:15

telling you 85 percent of it's free.

29:18

Isn't that amazing? And what a great

29:21

thing for your practice is to

29:23

just get involved in some things, and

29:25

be seen, be heard. It's not

29:27

as hard as you sometimes want

29:29

to make it right. Networking in

29:31

general. Just that word can be intimidating,

29:34

but it doesn't have to be. It doesn't have

29:36

to be.

29:37

And I think it, I think it gets intimidating because

29:40

too many times we want to do it the wrong

29:42

way. Yeah. We want to go

29:44

in, we want to be the

29:46

chiropractor and we want

29:48

to tell everybody about everything we learned

29:51

all the way through chiropractic school. And

29:53

here's the difference between spondylolisthesis and

29:55

spondylolisis. And I'm going

29:57

to teach you how to spell them. And you

29:59

know what? It's great. You guys know that

30:03

from a patient point of view, they don't

30:06

care. They want to know how

30:08

you can help people. So,

30:11

when you're sending,

30:12

What do they have going on and asking

30:13

those questions? And asking questions, and you have to

30:15

ask questions. So, if you get a chance to go out

30:18

and do a health talk, or you get, you get a chance

30:20

to do a, a little 10 minute talk at the

30:22

Kiwanis Club over lunch. Great.

30:24

Go do it. But don't

30:26

talk so much about chiropractic. Talk about

30:29

the conditions that you see in your practice.

30:31

Talk about maybe your three

30:33

favorite things to work on. Or, this

30:36

month, I, I, for some reason,

30:38

I've seen a whole bunch of shoulder cases

30:41

and stuff here's what we do for shoulders and

30:43

a lot of you may be suffering from shoulder issues

30:45

or know somebody that is. Our

30:48

clinic is dedicated to helping people with shoulder

30:50

issues as well as the traditional chiropractic

30:52

things, neck, mid back, low back. And

30:55

if it's not

30:56

that you're talking to

30:58

open the floor up to them and ask them,

31:01

what was the latest ache and pain that you

31:03

had? Share

31:05

something with me. tell me about what was going on.

31:08

You'd be amazed at how many people will do that

31:10

because they want to talk about their aches and pains,

31:14

right? And if you can't get them to talk, here's one

31:17

simple way to get them to talk. There

31:19

is no normal pain. So

31:22

if you're having pain, throw it out. What do you got?

31:26

So there's so many ways to network,

31:29

my goodness, right? I mean, it's

31:31

just amazing how many ways that you

31:33

have right in front of you, that we

31:36

uncovered today without spending

31:38

a ton of money.

31:40

Absolutely. You don't have to spend a lot of money. It's

31:42

really just going out, asking questions,

31:45

putting your personality out there, being kind

31:47

to people, being genuine. Just

31:50

a few followups, especially in the professionals

31:53

arena. And I don't just mean healthcare professionals,

31:55

but if you're talking to business people, politicians,

31:59

other healthcare providers, whoever.

32:02

Make sure you do some followups. That means

32:04

a lot to people because it's really

32:06

easy. Number one, for you to fall off the radar screen.

32:08

It's also really easy for them to find

32:11

you disingenuous disingenuine. If

32:14

you don't follow up,

32:15

and get their phone numbers. Have

32:17

them put their phone number in your phone. hand them your

32:19

phone and say, Hey, put your contact information

32:21

so I can get a hold of you, and let me do the

32:24

same. Let's make sure we can engage

32:26

another time if we can, just make

32:28

sure that you're connecting somehow

32:31

don't just rely on giving a

32:33

business card. Well, that's

32:35

a great tangible and I would do

32:37

that in addition, but I would

32:39

most definitely say, Hey, put your

32:41

phone number in my phone. Let's, let's connect sometime.

32:44

It's a, you can also do the,

32:45

yeah, you can also do

32:47

the, what's your email and I'll send you a

32:49

calendar invite. Let's have coffee on

32:52

Friday.

32:52

Absolutely. Absolutely. And you can still put

32:54

that in your contacts. So in your

32:56

phone, use your technology to your benefit

32:59

there and say those names and

33:02

numbers. And the nice part about if you open

33:04

your contacts to a new contact and

33:06

you let them put the information

33:08

in, it's more likely to be correct.

33:10

As well. So that's another

33:13

big tip. I would say is don't

33:16

spell their name wrong because

33:18

you didn't know how to spell it. Give them the

33:20

phone and say, Hey, put your email

33:22

in here. Put your phone number. Whatever. However you prefer to

33:24

be contacted and put your name up here

33:26

and I'll, I'll shoot you a calendar invite.

33:29

Absolutely. This is good

33:31

stuff. And if you like the tips that we gave

33:33

out today, please like and subscribe

33:36

the podcast and tell

33:38

everybody about it. Our audience is growing

33:40

rapidly. Also go to Kats consultants

33:42

dot com and check out all the things that

33:44

we're doing to help doctors grow their practices

33:46

and find real success in

33:49

chiropractic. in chiropractic business, we've

33:51

got, blog articles and

33:54

all kinds of downloads and things on there. just

33:56

check us out. We do some very innovative things

33:58

for doctors.

33:59

And don't forget, we like to network with

34:01

you too. So people

34:04

all the time, that are not clients,

34:06

but want to talk to us and

34:08

just see if there's things that we can do

34:10

to help their practice. So we do

34:12

an absolutely free consult

34:14

with you. We can chat. So we're

34:17

a little bit different than others. we take a lot of time

34:19

in making sure, you get the right fit

34:21

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34:24

free to, subscribe

34:26

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34:29

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34:31

Check out our weekly tips on social media. All

34:34

right, everybody. Thanks for tuning into the KC Chiropulse

34:37

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34:39

Our show is brought to you by Kats consultants,

34:42

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34:44

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34:47

go out there, be safe, be cool.

34:49

We'll see you next time. Yeah.

34:53

Katz Chiropractic Consultants, your partner

34:55

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34:57

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35:00

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35:02

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35:04

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