October 2003

The trouble with money

by Dr. Kevin Pallis and Dr. Ed Plentz

Money will not guarantee you happiness or a continuously growing practice. From our experience coaching million dollar practices, brand new practices, and everything in between, one thing remains clear: without clarity of purpose and passion your office will be financially driven instead of driven by your vision and passion.

Does this mean you have to take an oath of poverty if you want to have the big vision of adding healthier people to make a healthier planet? No! In fact, when the vision burns in your spirit, the money is attracted to you like a magnet. Why not have both, in the right order?

Many D.C.s will ask "What's the difference?" The difference is that the principle of chiropractic is the driving force in a big vision chiropractic office.

Let's take a modern example from a different sector of the galaxy. The computer genius Bill Gates had a vision of connecting people of the world via a personal computer. His passion, his dream, and his clarity of purpose resulted in an avalanche of money, not a computer business to make money.

Of course there is a financial reality in all chiropractic offices. The problem is, when your office is set up to make money ahead of spreading the big vision of helping every man, woman and child become healthier (by removing VSC), you get off focus. Life gets stale and predictable. Relationships grow tired and weary. Soon the practice is reduced to a series of bank deposit slips. So many chiropractors eagerly "escape" their practices by engaging in expensive hobbies, buying expensive toys, or investing in real estate or direct marketing ventures.

When the passion burns in your spirit you are alive again! Instead of insignificant patients whose names you can't remember the next day without looking at the case history, they become family. You fall in love with each practice member and chiropractic just like when you first started in practice. There is never any selling anyone anything because you are always vision‑driven to recommend optimum care ‑‑ not minimum care or only what insurance will pay for.

It's like every practice member is your mother or grandmother. Are you going to sell to them or communicate to them how important it is to have VSC removed for a lifetime? Will you change your recommendations to match the HMO/PPO/insurance company reimbursement schedule, or will you tell them "straight up" how long it will really take? Remember, it takes 12‑16 weeks for a simple sprain of a diarthrodial weight‑ bearing joint to resolve. How many layers of forgotten and remembered spinal injuries and trauma do you think your last practice member had?

Many D.C.s have never heard of this philosophy of communicating from your heart to your practice member's heart. It's not only what you say, it's your office procedure, your patient education, your teammates, and your office environment. When you have a complete system in place combined with passion and clarity of purpose, you have no competition from any other D.C.s, or anyone else for that matter.

You become known as a different kind of chiropractor with a love for everyone and his or her health above and beyond your personal needs. This transfers into higher referral activity, higher patient visit averages, less stress, more fun, and much less staff turnover.

If you're wondering what passion and clarity of vision have to do with these factors ‑‑ especially staff turnover ‑‑ the answer is that everyone is attracted to men and women of vision. You can always go up the street for a job with more money. Yet, when you're part of a vision, your staff members feel loved, appreciated, and part of something bigger than just a job.

We've all seen men and women of passion. Look at the singer for U2. Wonderful voice yes, but a dime a dozen without his passion and clarity of purpose. You can't just listen to his words and music, you feel and become one with his song. You can feel his pain of living in a country where guerilla warfare is accepted as "just the way it is" all in the name of religion. He would trade his money and his stardom for world peace, or even peace in his native Ireland.

When practice members feel your passion and you are able to communicate your vision, they automatically want to refer in their loved ones and friends. They comply with your recommendations happily and time, distance, scheduling, and money seem to be problems in other D.C. offices around town. When you give, you get. Create your life with the big vision in your heart and all else will follow ‑‑ including money.

(The New Renaissance ‑‑ the next generation of office procedure, chiropractic mindset for success, and patient education for today's chiropractor ‑‑ is a complete system of practice based on science and philosophy working on the doctor from inside out. To learn more about The New Renaissance, and the Mentor IV Practice Development Program that takes 24 years of the pioneering experience of Renaissance procedures and combines it with the practical daily activities of doctors in the field, contact Dr. Kevin Pallis at 781/255‑7080, Dr. Ed Plentz at 517/592‑8208, or the New Renaissance world headquarters 800/525‑3879.)