I know a lot of people who work very hard. They put in their time, their mind , sweat, and every ounce of energy into their work. Their reward for this dedication is often momentary joy lead by burn out and frustration. Where as it has been a general observation that those who are truly financially prosperous, work less hours, with less sweat and come to the end of their day energized. It isn’t the money that energizes them (though it doesn’t hurt) but it is the mission itself that fuels their fire. We often assume these people to be “lucky”, that they somehow landed in their dream job by a chance of fate. This could not be further from the truth.

True career and financial success begins as a state of mind, a decision that we make to pursue our burning desires. We then back up that desire with the faith and persistence. It is that simple but effective combination that is responsible for the prosperity of the “self made man/woman”.

The first major realization is that prosperity doesn’t have to be “hard”. Once a prosperity consciousness has been established, abundance will come quickly with little hard work.

The first step in the journey to wealth is developing the prosperity consciousness required. This step can not be bypassed, yet it is so poorly understood that all too many skip over it in ignorance. It is my sincere hope that everyone reading this makes the decision to develop their consciousness. Even more importantly, I hope all understand the fact that wealth is the primary indicator of a prosperity consciousness. Therefore if you do not have the abundance, you have more work to do on your headspace!

We will spend much time on the development of the prosperity consciousness and what scripture has to say about abundance- Hope you join me!

I spend the majority of my time with fellow Christians, so I have a lot of hours logged listening to the thoughts and attitudes of other believers. It never ceases to amaze me that in spite of all the bible has to say about money and finances, that so many good christians find themselves plagued with a poverty mentality, as if being without means somehow makes you more righteous! This is a lie of the enemy. I have decided to commit the next several months to unpacking the fact that the abundance mindset is far more scripturally accurate than the poverty complex. My hope is that this series will set some of you free and liberate others to pursue their God given callings!

As we begin this journey, I want to give reference to my texts for this study. My primary text will be the bible. As christians, we can not be ignorant to the Word.

The next text will be Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill. Think and Grow Rich is as foundational a book on financial gain as you can find, originally written in the years following the great depression. It is also possesses a longstanding reputation for being “New Age”, a phrase which evokes fear in the hearts of christians all over the world. I will make the argument over this series that Napoleon Hill unwittingly stubbled upon biblical truths, and these truths are the foundation for the successful application of his principles.

The last primary text will be Intercessory Prayer by Dutch Sheets. This book needs to be in the permanent library of everyone who wishes to understand the power of God in your life! Just looking at the titles, you would never think that these three books would have so much in common, but my sincere hope is that by the end of this series each of you will be enlightened to a fantastic truth!

I am looking forward to this journey!

How long do you recommend patients to go between adjustments? Again, your answer speaks volumes to your conviction for the subluxation. Every patient is different and their history will factor into the amount of time their spines can hold an adjustment (not to mention the destructive behaviors of which many of our patients indulge being another major factor), but you will typically find a set amount of time the majority of your patients can go between adjustments with out regressing in the progress you have made over the coarse of care.

When you are aspiring towards having a million dollar practice, your attitude towards maintenance practicing is a critical issue. Those who do not understand nor convey to their patients how detrimental subluxations are when left untreated for extended periods   of time are doing a disservice. It is our responsibility as chiropractors to at bare minimum warn individuals of the risks and then let the patients decide for themselves if they wish to continue treatment. I have already addressed in earlier blogs the importance of a sound chiropractic philosophy. If you happen to be one of the unfortunate souls who was not taught proper philosophy in school, that is your starting point.

Million dollar practices are built not on acute low back pain, but on the understanding and administering of health over the long term. As a doctor who wants to reach the masses, you must understand that the greatest success stories lie in the absence of disease in your maintenance patients.

Too many chiropractors become overly focused on new patient numbers and forget where the true wealth and health of the profession lies, in the long term prevention of disease!

In your ambitions to start a million dollar chiropractic practice, there is one critical element that without it, you will fall short every time. That is Passion!

Most doctors want to have an ultra successful chiropractic practice, and many of the serious ones will reach some fantastic levels of prosperity. But there is an invisible glass ceiling at about the level of $30,000 to $45,0000 per month collections that stops the vast majority of chiropractors from hitting the million dollar mark. In fact, that glass ceiling is so strong, in my opinion, that those who do break through it, typically go straight to the million dollar level!

Where does the ceiling come from?

At about 30k-45k collections per month, provided the overhead has been maintained at a very reasonable level, then most doctors bills are more than paid! These chiropractors are experiencing a very healthy level of prosperity and are “comfortable”. Financial pressures no longer push them to higher levels of patient volumes. Chiropractors begin to ask themselves, “why should I work any harder?”.

That is where the overwhelming majority of offices will stop growing.

Who persists to the mark? The chiropractors with passion! The philosophy of chiropractic drives these doctors to touch and save lives. Knowing the healing power of the human body and how chiropractic can release the innate function propels these chiropractors to spread the testimony of the profession. The disgust for what drugs and unnecessary surgeries do to the victims of the medical profession, knowing that there is a better alternative, gives them the fuel to spend long hours in the office. For these highly philosophical chiropractors, it is no longer about money, their purpose and passion lies in restoring health to the sick and diseased.

Do you have that kind of passion? Do you have an internal need to restore health to the sick? Is your drive so strong that you can get past your own comfort levels?

The philosophy of chiropractic is being lost in our profession. Are you one of the few who is willing to stand up and stand out for chiropractic?

Because it is harder to define the “winner”, I will describe the loser. Losers are the individuals who seem focused on “what can’t be done” and “why it won’t work”. You can give them a list of 100 things they can do to grow their practice and they will focus on the one or two things that don’t apply to them or their market- and thus disregard the list as a whole! The loser is the naysayer who always wants to point out the fault with no constructive suggestions as to correction.

Please do not misunderstand, it is good to think through plans and foresee possible pitfalls for the purpose of avoiding them. The loser points out the problems for the sake of avoiding doing anything.

There are a lot of losers in disguise; they are the naysayers who camouflage their negativity in catch phrases and in the form of “caring for your wellbeing”. The key to exposing these individuals is to ask the question, “Well, how would you improve this plan/situation/action step?” They won’t have an answer.

The winners, they are the ones that you can throw a dump truck of trash on their lives and they never see the garbage, only the precious metals hidden in the rubble.  No matter what comes against them they focus on the lessons learned and the next steps they need to take to achieve success. They seek mentors not for the sake of an extra hand, but for an experienced set of eyes.

Winners are those who can not be denied. They never see failure because their eyes can’t lose focus on success!

Achieving the status of the Million Dollar practice is not an easy feat that many will accomplish. Yet for those determined few who will set out to reach the masses, I will dive into more of the key concepts required.

Million Dollar Practices (excluding PI mills) will see a minimum of 75 patients in one day. That is a significant volume. It requires an exceptional staff!

Finding an exceptional staff is not an easy task. A decent work ethic is a dying art. As more and more parents are thrusting their spoiled overindulged children into the work force, we are seeing a decline in the internal value of a “good day’s work”.

Finding a staff that will treat your business as their own does not happen by accident, but it can and does happen! It all comes down to proper hiring and proper training.

I could spend hours and pages on this topic alone! You can spend hours and hours reading all the books, blogs, and great gurus on hiring. Let me simply say that an efficient and effective hiring protocol is critical to the Million Dollar Practice.

The death blow to many of my doctor’s growth has been a staff turn over right in the heat of momentum growth. This happens virtually every time. People do not like change, and when a practice starts to really take off, the staff is forced to work at an unusual pace. This causes discontent to those who lack work ethic and they will quit when they see the pressure coming. A doctor’s ability to quickly recover and replace before the momentum dies is an essential resource in reaching this level of practice.

Do these hiring protocols exist? Yes they do! If you will stick with me, there is a lot more to come!

Very few doctors ever reach this accomplishment, especially among those who are starting their practices from scratch.

Even though this goal can be elusive, it has been done in recent history. I have mentored practices to this level. Even more importantly, I have mentored many who have tried and failed to reach this level; those failures have taught me far more than the successes. I have learned some key steps and principles that have led to the success of the few and the downfall of the many.

Over these next series of posts, I would like to share with you these lessons. What you do with the information is up to you. It is my sincere hope that a new generation of chiropractors will take this to heart and begin to change the face of this profession!

Million-Dollar Practice – Step one: Do the math

There are many first steps to substantial success in the practice of chiropractic, but one important first is knowing what you are getting into!

Running the statistical data for a million-dollar practice will help you to wrap your brain around what it will physically take. How you calculate the stats is simple. A million dollar practice needs to collect $83,333.34 per month. The national average for chiropractic collections per visit falls to about $50 per visit—a little less in some areas and more in others. When you divide that out, it means you would need to see 1667+ patient visits per month. The next question is, “Does your choice of technique allow you to see that volume?”.

Some techniques are incredibly efficient at diagnosing and unlocking subluxation; other techniques would make this impossible. When considering this fact, I have learned that it is the removal of subluxation that leads to healing, not the amount of time it takes to adjust a patient. If you would not be able physically to handle that volume of patients then associate practicing is the answer.

If you are a student reading this who has not committed to any specific technique (which I strongly suggest you do), the please keep “technique efficiency” in mind if a million-dollar practice is your goal!

So, the first question is, “Do you want a Million Dollar Practice”? Let me know your thoughts!

I became very focused on what I wanted and driven by accomplishment. It became fun to define my next ambition and then watch it materialize in due time. I had it all figured out, that is up to graduation!

The arena of academics made sense to me and it was easy to set goals and reach them in this setting. The problem came when it was time to leave school and compete in the real world. I could set goal after goal, but my concepts were so poor that achievement was impossible. I had so little actual knowledge of how to run an office, no matter how much positive thinking I did; it was not going to make up for shear ignorance.

Too many students have the goal to graduate, but understand little of what takes place after that! They want a successful practice, to get out of debt, to make a good living, and to help a lot of people; but they have no plan (or an undereducated plan at best) as to how to achieve their goal.

What I wish I had known is how different the real world is verses the academic one I had lived in for so long. I mistook my accomplishments in school as evidence of my future success in business. I assumed because I was successful in about every other venture in my life that running an office would be much the same. What I wish I had done was find those who really knew and understood the art of opening a chiropractic practice and followed their wisdom instead of my ignorance.

Had I done that, I would have saved thousands of dollars, years of toiling, and a lot of frustration!

I have seen many who have legitimate, paralyzing fears and then I have seen those who use their “phobias” as an inappropriate ploy for attention. Either way, these fears create barriers that hold us back from success.

Obviously, certain fears are more detrimental to developing a chiropractic practice- fear of public speaking, fear of confrontation, fear of rejection, fear of success (poverty complexes) are among the top on the list.

We all have these fears to a certain extent; just how much you let them control you is the real question. Does your fear of public speaking keep you from educating others on the healing benefits of chiropractic? Does your fear of confrontation keep you from addressing key issues with patients or asking for payment for services? Fear of rejection can keep you from asking for that referral or stopping you from setting up that desperately needed spinal screening. If you have a fear of success, you will find yourself in a cycle of self defeating behaviors and your Practice chronically operating in the red.

What I wish I knew was how much these fears could hold me back, especially as an entrepreneur! When you run your own business, every decision made is amplified by the multitude of consequences. When you operate in fear based decision making, your once innocent “quirky” fears are now costing you time, money, relationships, and staff.

Many fears can be overcome by a healthy dose of reality and confronting the issue directly. Forcing yourself to fight through the discomfort and address the hard issues is the best place to start. I started by acknowledging every time I felt that pit in my stomach and acting on it immediately (if I gave myself the chance, I could easily procrastinate until the opportunity was gone).

It will do you well to overcome these issues before your paycheck is dependant upon it! If the thought of doing a spinal screening terrifies you, sign up for every screening you can. Go to a local doctor and ask to do screenings for their office. If you can’t get up in front of a crowd, join Toastmasters as soon as possible, if you have issues with money, listen and learn from those who have it, hang out with them instead of your fellow poverty ridden friends.

The worst thing you can do is to do nothing. There are multitudes of those out there playing the victim to their own insecurities. Don’t be the victim, be the conqueror!

If it is, good grades and stellar GPA will not bring patients into your office. And even though I am a huge backer of technique specific adjusting, your mastery for removing subluxations won’t bring them through your doors any quicker either!

What makes the difference—people skills!

Some people are born with a natural charisma that draws people to them—I was not one of those—I was very shy as a child and in school had to force myself to break out of my shell.

The motivation to improve my people skills came easy enough. I saw my fellow interns and classmates who had half the skill and a fraction of the knowledge I had, doing fantastic in clinic, where I was struggling to get my New Patient Requirement. These individuals figured out how to communicate and draw others to them. I decided that I needed to get what came so naturally to these individuals!

If you have ever heard the phrase, “fake it till you make it”, it definitely applies to developing people skills! At first it will be uncomfortable and awkward, but with practice anyone can become great! It has been very encouraging to know that the ability to communicate is not a “you got it or you don’t” talent, many of the great public speakers will admit to overcoming fears and shyness in their early years. My favorite resource is “How to Win Friends and Influence People” by Dale Carnegie.

It is a great idea to be developing these skills and habits while you are still in school. When it comes time to graduate, you are under enough pressure to get everything else in your life rolling; you don’t have time for mastering effective small talk.

What I wish I knew—that people skills are probably the most important factor to success in your practice. If I had known that, I would have invested many more hours to developing these skills.