January 2005

Different box develops different results

by Dr. Greg Loman

I don't believe I've met a chiropractor who didn't want to help more patients. While many DCs have different reasons for increasing their volume, we all have the internal burning desire to adjust more patients.

When was the last time you evaluated the results of what you were doing in your practice and why? Are you doing the same thing over and over and all the while expecting to get a different result?

It reminds me of the old story of a daughter asking her mom about why she always cut off the ends of a Thanksgiving ham prior to cooking it. Her mother responds, “I don't know. Let me ask your grandmother. I learned from her.” The mother goes to the grandmother who says, “I don't know. My mother taught me to cut off the ends of the ham. I'll ask her.” They finally get to the great‑grandmother, and she responds, “That's easy! My pan was too small to fit the ham so I had to cut the ends off.”

This is typical in many aspects of life. We continue doing things that might or might not bring the results we want, yet we never evaluate the situation to see why we're still doing them.

What are you doing in your practice that's hindering you from seeing more patients?

As a profession, we need to transform how we see the practice of chiropractic. We must not conform to one way of practicing. We must change our volume paradigm in order to help more people.

Every chiropractor I speak to wants to help more people and increase his or her volume. The biggest issue impeding them is their past experiences and not knowing where to turn. The first step to increasing your volume is not necessarily more work, although most believe that's the first step.

The first step to increasing your volume is to realize that what you're doing is not working, and then begin to entertain the idea that you have to stop cutting off the edges of the ham because that's what past generations have done.

The second step requires help. That help can come in the form of a mentor or coach. Either way, you must decide now to stop doing things the way you have in the past and try something different.

I want you to join me in raising the bar in chiropractic. There are people who are in dire need of your hands. If one person can see 500 or 1,000 visits a week, then so can you.

It can be done. It is being done. Take the step to find someone who can show you how.

(Dr. Ben Lerner and Dr. Greg Loman manage Teach The World About Chiropractic, a coaching, seminar, and product company and Body by God International. They have two of the highest‑volume clinics in the history of chiropractic. Dr. Lerner, author of the New York Times best‑selling book, “Body by God: The Owner's Manual For Maximized Living,” was the chiropractor for the Olympics of 1996 and 2000.)