Do You Have Conviction In Chiropractic?
Do You Have Conviction In Chiropractic?
When I was a kid in the 60’s I used to sell a lot of candy bars for the local Youth Hockey Association. Back then, Bobby Orr and the Big Bad Bruins were in town. Playing on a hockey team was about the coolest thing you could do and it wasn’t uncommon for all the players to wear their jerseys to school. Yeah, it was that big a deal! On Saturdays we would all pile into station wagons and go door to door all over town selling candy bars to help raise funds for the team.
I always thought it was weird when some of the kids said they were sick on Saturday, but recovered sufficiently to play Sunday morning’s game. Even the best player on our team said his feet hurt and he couldn’t walk very far, yet it didn’t stop him from skating like the wind. Other kids would bow their heads as they sat in the station wagon, avoiding having to go door to door and sell the candy bars. Their parents simply wrote a check instead of having the kids earn the funds. Little did they know that this silly fundraiser produced an invisible skill that would set the stage for future greatness beyond the hockey rinks!
Before his days as a critically acclaimed television host, John Walsh was just an ordinary man living an ordinary life. In the summer of 1981, John’s ordinary life came to a screeching halt, when his young son Adam was kidnapped, raped and murdered. Instead of assuming a victim mentality and allowing this terrible ordeal to destroy his life, John decided to take his horrible experience and make something out of it. The suffering felt by the Walsh family prompted John to take action against crime and fight for justice in the name of missing children and other victims. In the hopes of achieving this goal, seven years after his son’s untimely death, Walsh launched the popular television program, America’s Most Wanted, which today is considered the eighth longest running prime time show on TV. The show was an instant hit and started producing dividends 4 days after the first airing. The man displayed unshakable conviction.
Today’s patient is not looking for just another cookie-cutter sales pitch that they could get from one of the other doctors down the street. When choosing the person they are entrusting their care too, they are looking for something more: what set’s you apart from the crowd? Most DCs have more than enough clinical skills and their degree, license and experience proves it. When a potential new patient comes into your office they aren’t looking for an explanation into your technique or for you to boast your knowledge of the spine. They want you to be able to express the amount and depth of conviction you have for Chiropractic and helping people. How much do you care about and believe in the power of Chiropractic? Enough to go up to complete strangers and tell them about it? When you have a deep conviction or love for something, you find a way to make something out of it. A devotion to Chiropractic and the people you serve is what makes you stand out and prompts a prospective patient to choose you.
As DCs, our conviction level has waned. It’s not that we don’t enjoy being DCs, but we just don’t feel the conviction or the purpose we once did. We like the lifestyle and the benefits but we are putting less and less skin in the game. DCs actually went to jail for Chiropractic. Today, there would be few that would stick their necks out that far.
Believe it or not, parents are desperately searching for convicted doctors to care for their kids. When they see you coming in after hours or on weekends to care for their kids, it goes a long way. See, if you’re convicted about helping their kids, they have a high conviction level or commitment for you. Did you know that most parents pay cash outside of insurance for their kids? Lots of DCs have beaucoup clinical chops, lots of great philosophy, and academic knowledge, but parents want to see the demonstration of all of this with their kids. If you stand by them, they will stand by you. It’s that simple.
