𝑊ℎ𝑦 “𝑠ℎ𝑜𝑤𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑢𝑝” 𝑖𝑠 𝑗𝑢𝑠𝑡 𝑎𝑏𝑜𝑢𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑂𝑁𝐿𝑌 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑚𝑎𝑡𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑠!
The story of the iconic nightclub “Studio 54” in New York City was featured in an entrepreneurial publication I subscribe to and something quite exceptional caught my eye as I glanced through the article.
Not many people know this, but for the entire first year of the nightclubs existence they operated without a liquor licence after their applications were repeatedly denied.
𝐒𝐨 𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐝𝐢𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐬𝐮𝐫𝐯𝐢𝐯𝐞?
To overcome this they stood in a long queue every single day for an entire year to apply for a single-day catering permit which allowed them to sell alcohol for 24 hours, therefore keeping the business operational and more importantly profitable.
Often as chiropractors, I think we get a little comfortable in our warm cosy practices. The suggestion of getting into the community and, for example, doing a weekly screening, talk or field marketing event is often followed by …
𝐁𝐮𝐭 𝐑𝐲𝐚𝐧, 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐝𝐨𝐧’𝐭 𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐝, 𝐬𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐞𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐝! (𝐁𝐎𝐎𝐇𝐎𝐎, 𝐂𝐑𝐘 𝐌𝐄 𝐀 𝐑𝐈𝐕𝐄𝐑!)
When I owned 8 offices we had a screening team that did AT LEAST 3 screenings a week, and some weeks it was as many as 5 screenings in a week.
Consider also that while we had one “department” exclusively focusing on “field marketing” aka screenings, ADDITIONALLY we had 2 full time team members focused on cold outreach to local businesses to book “lunch and learns” and corporate events . So between screenings and corporate talks we could easily rack up 5 to 7 “events” a week!
𝐁𝐮𝐭 𝐑𝐲𝐚𝐧 𝐝𝐢𝐝𝐧’𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐫 𝐦𝐞 … (𝐜𝐮𝐞 𝐭𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐬) ‘𝐈𝐓’𝐒 𝐇𝐀𝐑𝐃, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐢𝐭 𝐢𝐬 𝐝𝐢𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐲𝐨𝐮, 𝐘𝐎𝐔 𝐇𝐀𝐃 𝐀 𝐓𝐄𝐀𝐌!’
YEP, I know showing up is hard … and let me tell ya, that team I had, didn’t fall from the sky. I, just like you, started doing these events myself. Then hired a team and delegated and achieved consistency that way!
𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭’𝐬 𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐩𝐩𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐝𝐨𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐚𝐦𝐞!
I tell you what is… the prospect of thinking that “times have changed Ryan” or “now we have social media Ryan”.
“Traditional”, old school marketing, that requires tenacity and “elbow grease” will ALWAYS WORK. Things like screenings, newsletters (which we do for our inner circle clients), email marketing (which we also do for our clients), and events etc, are “hard” and require investment, BUT THEY WORK!
Again I’m no genius, many “greats” did it before us! Just grab the “GREEN BOOK ” Chiropractic Advertiser published by Dr Harry Vedder in 1924 (yes I have it). He talks about events, newsletters sent to the entire patient lists, mailers, etc
IT’S FASCINATING!
‘𝐁𝐔𝐓 𝐑𝐘𝐀𝐍 𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄𝐒 𝐇𝐀𝐕𝐄 𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐍𝐆𝐄𝐃, 𝐍𝐎𝐖 𝐖𝐄 𝐇𝐀𝐕𝐄 𝐅𝐁 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐆𝐎𝐎𝐆𝐋𝐄!’
There is a saying, “Be the wizard, don’t fall for the wizards tricks”.
With that context, d͟i͟d͟ ͟y͟o͟u͟ ͟k͟n͟o͟w͟ ͟t͟h͟a͟t͟ ͟G͟o͟o͟g͟l͟e͟ ͟s͟p͟e͟n͟d͟s͟ ͟m͟o͟r͟e͟ ͟m͟o͟n͟e͟y͟ ͟o͟n͟ ͟“͟o͟f͟f͟l͟i͟n͟e͟”͟ ͟a͟d͟v͟e͟r͟t͟i͟s͟i͟n͟g͟ ͟t͟h͟a͟n͟ ͟o͟n͟l͟i͟n͟e͟ ͟a͟d͟v͟e͟r͟t͟i͟s͟i͟n͟g͟.͟ ͟
Just let that sink in for a second…
Google sells “online advertising” and they spend more money doing that offline than online, IN PERSON, ON THE STREETS AND SHOPPING MALLS, IN PRINT AND BRANDING.
Anybody else see the irony here?
AND …If it’s good enough for Google to show up to shopping centres and events in the community etc then…WHY THE HECK DO WE THINK IT WON’T WORK FOR US or that its beneath us?
Even though I personally used to spend over $100,000 a year on Facebook ads alone to generate new patients for our 8 offices, and additionally now run a marketing agency that currently does all the online marketing for well over 100 practices worldwide…. I NEVER STOPPED DOING THE MARKETING THAT REQUIRED US TO SHOW UP AND OR ELBOW GREASE!
𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐲 𝐚𝐥𝐰𝐚𝐲𝐬 𝐰𝐢𝐧𝐬..
Many years ago someone asked me if he could take me to lunch to learn my “screening secrets”. Over coffee he asked me what my secret was because in his mind he assumed my screeners had some magic script or skill. I stopped him right there and simply said “nah we get pretty average results actually, 5 -10 new patients per event”.
It wasn’t that we were that “good”, we were just good at consistently showing up!
𝐉𝐔𝐒𝐓 𝐃𝐎 𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐒 …
Show up…
-Make those phone calls to businesses
-Show up to gyms
-Show up to the fetes and fairs
-Send those weekly emails,
-Send the first adjustment message and phone calls,
-Post the monthly newsletters to the high value patients,
-Do the weekly health class, and weekly lunch and learns,
– Lead the meetings and trainings with the team.
What do they all have in common …..SIMPLE ‘TO DO’ tasks and require MINIMAL TALENT… but that doesn’t mean they are EASY TO DO…
Remember, if it was easy, everyone would be doing it 
I’m rooting for ya
Love and light
– Ryan
