How Proper Conversion Drives Retention and Consistent Profitability

Welcome to this edition of Catch up with ChiroTouch. Thank you for tuning in today. I'm Dr. Ronnie Simms, and I'm your host today.

And we're really excited. ChiroTouch in general is super excited about this webinar series that we're doing. And it's really part of their commitment and part of their passion toward supporting and advancing the chiropractic profession.

We know that ChiroTouch as the leading software in the industry is really committed to the success of our profession. I just love that about them. And our commitment to this is we want to bring engaging speakers and just great topics for you to help in both your personal and your practice development.

Now more than ever, the world needs chiropractors to be at their best. And so I just want to thank you for coming along on this learning journey with me today. Today we're going to really start to look deep into that new patient conversion process and how if done properly, you can build the practice of your dreams, a practice that you can scale and grow and really reach your full potential as a chiropractor.

And so we're excited for today's topics because we really want you to drive retention. We want to make sure you plug those holes and those leaky buckets in your practice. So having said that, we have one of our professions, great chiropractors with us today.

And he built his dream practice, practices, technically, but he built his dream business by following some just amazing principles that he put into place. And it's really a great story. And I can't wait for you guys to meet today's guests.

So let me welcome the amazing chiropractor leader, I would say mentor to so many, myself included, Dr. Paul Reed. Welcome, Doc.

Hey, Dr. Ron, thanks for having me on, man. I'm super stoked to be able to share with your community.

I'm so glad you're here, buddy. So let's do a little rapid fire on this so the docs can kind of get to know you a little bit. I know a little bit of your story as a collegiate athlete.

Can you kind of bring us up to speed on where was that moment when you wanted to become a chiropractor?

Boy, that moment was I was an eighth grader, 13 years old, and I had hurt myself wrestling. My dad took me to the chiropractor, and I didn't understand it till later in life as my chiropractic career matured. But I literally had that first adjustment in eighth grade and knew at that instant got up off the table and said, man, I really want to give this to my community when I'm able, when I'm done with my sports or career.

So it was later on I learned from some of my mentors, the connection between man, the physical, man, the spiritual, and that adjustment, releasing innate, and at that moment I got up and said, I'm going to do that when I grow up.

Wow, I love that, that's so cool. And so early on, chiropractic school into those early mentors, what did that look like for you?

I got adjusted consistently and regularly all the way through high school and college, and then jumped right into chiropractic school at Western States here at home, was registered in Palmer, but my bride got up, we were married in undergrad and she got a job here in the Portland, Vancouver, and so I ended up just attending Western States and jumped out right out of school and right into practice.

Who were some of those early mentors that you relied on?

Oh, goodness, there were so many, but the one that comes to mind when we speak of early, I hired Dr. Ron Overstein as my first chiropractic coach, mentor, leader for me. Six months before I even opened my business, I met Ron, went to one of his trainings or seminars, met Ron and said, man, I want to listen to this guy and gleam everything I can from him, because he's obviously been successful. I sent him some post-dated checks before I even had my business go on and committed to learning as much as I could from him to help me shorten my learning curve.

He'd already paid a lot of what I like to call now the dummy tax. He'd already paid that dummy tax. Let me remove all those things so I can jumpstart as fast as I can.

I know as a former athlete that you respond well to coaching and I'm sure that you were a dream client for Dr. Ron. Then as you grew your brand, you still felt like a need to support other chiropractors, but also support other students. How has that played out and then we'll jump into the episode.

Yeah. I had hosted a monthly philosophy group through most of my career the last about 15 years, and then started my event that we host annually. I want this legacy of chiropractic to carry on.

My son's considering going to chiropractic school and I want my great-great grandkids to have what I have been able to have for so long in my life that's blessed me so much. So yeah, that's the reason.

I really appreciate that about you. You're a true servant, Doc, and I know many docs on the call are just so thankful for you, that you followed through on your vision with that. So on our first episode, we had Dr. Steven Frantenon.

I know he's a good friend of yours as well.

I love that guy.

He painted this beautiful picture about the four seasons in the chiropractic career. Then last episode, our other mutual friend, Dr. Matt Hubbard, I just loved his answer when he said that, man, if chiropractic is launch, build, scale, and exit, he goes, man, every day when I wake up, because I got associates and I got CAs, and I'm the chief energy officer, and he goes, every day I wake up, he goes, I'm in launch mode. Even though you and I both know Matt, he's built a beautiful practice.

He could probably exit at any time if he wanted to, but he just is in there. In the spirit of that, it reminded me of you actually when he said that. And so kind of give us your little, kind of your story of those seasons and how that's playing out for you.

I would agree with Matt as any leader, you have to constantly be in launch mode. You know, I had met my personal limitations in regards to growth, had had five practices and then, you know, went down to four and maintain that. And we recently combined with a bigger group to help me fulfill my vision of, you know, the reason I did multiples is because, right?

It's back to chiropractic principles, limitations of time and matter. I can only bend over and adjust so many people. And so that's why we expanded so that I could deliver the same message to my community on a greater level.

And, you know, I, you know, for whatever reason, felt like I was at a block, so I got connected with a different group. And now we're, you know, I'm back in launch or grow mode with them in just a different role, you know, not in, you know, every day delivering the adjustment, but more on, you know, big vision, growth, expansion, training, coaching, mentoring, young doctors, because they're getting out again, with lack of direction, I guess is the easiest way to explain it. So I'm kind of, kind of like, that's overlapping two or three of those, those areas that Dr. Franson has put together.

Yeah. And it must be extremely gratifying for you to have accomplished what you accomplished and to help others grow like that. And I know that's what keeps driving you.

And I love the legacy mindset that you have. I think that's something we all need to emulate. And so I appreciate that in you, brother.

And you definitely spur me on to think about that legacy and how are you leaving chiropractic once you step away. So I love that. Hey, let's dive a little deeper here.

Now, in this series, we really decided to break down the four domains of the chiropractic practice and into attraction, conversion, retention, and team building. And so even though you and I both know those are beautifully woven, interlocking gears, and when they're done right, it just one begets the other. I know that that's how you feel.

But if you look at how a lot of these higher volume practices build these inside out juggernauts, can you just take a few moments and teach us from your extreme wisdom on this topic and how you were able to do this, Paul, and how you're able to kind of work through that? How's that look in terms of conversion and retention?

Man, I don't know. I think honestly, Doc, I think that consistency in messaging is the key. I believe from my experience of traveling and speaking and meeting lots and lots of chiropractors, that I think a lot of them are uncertain in their messaging and who they want to be and how they want to practice.

And so I think the first and foremost thing they really need to do is understand who they are and what they want to do and what they want to be. And then once you've established who you are and the message you want to distribute to your community, consistency in that messaging is critical for patient education, and communication, all those things for attraction, retention, growth, all those components are founded once that chiropractor establishes who they want to be. And once you've established that, that I think all those other things are easier and you can reach out to some other groups and find the method that fits you to be able to train and apply those things into practice.

But if you're just showing up to practice and don't have an idea of who you are and the messaging that you want to deliver to community, there's going to be no consistency in the delivery. And it starts, you know, attraction starts with that first phone call, right? The energy that we're giving that patient or potential new patient on that first phone call is really laying the foundation for who you are as a chiropractor.

I had trained my teams forever when they picked up the phone. Is this appointment for you or your entire family, right? So that was an educational tool.

Are you, what you mean, you see kids, you see families.

Right.

And so it's just, it's those little things. But I had established before even at my practice that I wanted to see families. I wanted to see kids.

I wanted to see athletes from, you know, like I learned from early mentors, from the womb to the tomb, right? So my messaging was, was that that I could establish my process, right? So once you establish your messaging, then you can put the process in order to maintain that consistency.

So as you look and uncover that process, can you give us a glimpsed under the hood, in terms of kind of that day one, two, three experience in your practice?

So our day one was a discovery, right? So day one was educational discovery. It was for me to discover exactly where the patient was subluxated and how I was going to potentially be able to help them.

And so it was, again, our process was set up, set up exactly for that. So it was a discovery appointment. We wanted to see, check their posture.

We want to do some pictures if we need to do pictures or x-rays to see architecture or structurally what's going on and again, laying down our messaging in regards to the spine and nervous system and its implications on communication, life, vitality and health within the body. And so that was, and then we brought the patient back for a day two where we reviewed what we found with them. And as you know, establish, help them out.

Again, it was an educational appointment again, explaining again where they were subluxated, how it was tying into their problems, eliminating that subluxation, how it impact the long-term health and vibrancy of that patient. And so, yeah, so each of those build on themselves, and it's important to have that. If you're half-havered, where one day you're working on somebody on day one, the next person you're not, there's just, again, that lack of consistency.

So to me, what allowed it to be, like you said early on, build my during practice was deciding what I wanted, and reverse engineering it essentially. Like here's the outcomes that I want, here's the things I need to put in place to get those outcomes, and then maintain those. Now, that doesn't mean that I didn't learn something new and pivot and tweak my process a little bit.

But again, then implementing that and being consistent with it throughout the board.

Just a simple principle, right? And yet it's so hard to do for many docs that just like to wing it out there. So if I'm coming into the practice, I've gone through day two and I've engaged in the process, and basically you've accepted me and I'm coming on board.

And so what are some things that I'm going to expect to go through as far as education? I mean, you guys have obviously your table talk, you have thematic table talk. How's that look?

I'm not going to say it was easy. It was an arduous process. So educating the patient that's with you, you know, they're in your practice, you know, five, ten minutes, whatever it might be, and they're outside, you know, in the world being bombarded with, in my opinion, wrong messaging on health, what it is, where it comes from, all the things.

So I don't think there is any one specific messaging educational thing that you should do. I think there's multiple things that you should do. Just like you touched on, there needs to be your table talk, there needs to be computerized, you know, digital messaging, whether it's via TVs or whatnot, you know, all the flyers and brochures and pamphlets and posters, your office talks to the patient.

So they're only hearing a portion of what you say, they're seeing a portion of what you have, and so you have to have multiple layers of educational messaging to deliver what you want. Again, after you've established who you are and the type of practice you want to have, you have to lay that foundation for your messaging. And I personally believe having strongly educated CTs or CAs, whatever you want to call them, is another key ingredient.

That patient, if you think about it, Doc, they're seeing that patient twice as much as you. They see them on the way in and on the way out, and they're fielding all your calls when there's questions or concerns about whether I should come in or shouldn't I come in. And so a strong, educated CT is another important piece to having a successful practice.

I love that, and so if you could just go deeper on that Dr. DC-CT relationship, how often do you guys train and practice and role play, and how do you make sure that you are together on this stuff?

Yeah, first and foremost, it needs to get scheduled, right? So that which gets scheduled gets done. Yeah.

And so consistency is the key. And so, you know, we had trained bimonthly. Early in practice, we trained weekly.

We used Tuesday mornings as our training time. And again, it can change as you have seasoned CTs. But again, there still needs to be continuous training.

So it really depends on the level of where your CTs at or your CAs at in their chiropractic career. If they're brand new, obviously they're going to need lots of dipping into the principle of who you are and the messaging you want your community to understand. And so you're going to have to pour more time into them.

But as they become seasoned, right, I just had this conversation with one of our docs this week. I said that the goal is really that you, that CT has, and you have meshed so much that they're fulfilling and completing your sentences to the patients. They know exactly what you're going to say.

So they're seeing, they're seeing your steps one ahead of you, so they can prepare and keep the office running, flow and smooth. Some of the best CTs that I've had in 23 years of practice, after being around me a certain amount of time, and knew what I was going to say, and knew what I was going to do, and they were predicting that next move to keep the office flowing smooth. Again, that just comes from unity and pouring into them as much as you can with love, and passion, and commitment to helping the office succeed.

Well, that's beautiful. Now, I know you mentioned earlier how we have such a limited time with a client, and they're out getting bombarded with often counter messaging and what we're trying to teach them. So obviously, we have workshops, table talk, but as a patient is with you longer and they start feeling better, what are some kind of procedures, little tactics you guys would utilize to keep those holes plugged, those patients that slip back into that allopathic mindset of just wanting relief versus really wanting to correct something and stabilize it and have long-term wellness.

So how would you plug those holes as we go?

One of the things is consistent re-exams. I think, unfortunately, chiropractors get lazy across the board and not doing consistent re-evaluations to check in with the patient and see where they re at. Have their goals changed.

Move the goalpost form. Like, okay, well, now you re doing X. Do you remember where you were when you started?

So you ve made this much improvement, but yet your goal was to run that marathon, not a half marathon or whatnot, or your goal is to do a try. So again, scheduling them for re-exams to check in and see where they re at and re-dip them. Again, just because even some of the people who ve been with me in 23 years or with our practices 23 years, they still need re-education.

They don't own it as much as you and I own it as chiropractors. So we need to just continuously be on our A game. When you get complacent, the time that you get complacent in practice and things are going smooth and easy and you're not doing those little things, those little tick messaging makes a big difference.

You start to see people like, hey, where's Mary? Mary hasn't been here in six weeks. What the heck?

She was on twice a month program. It's because you had neglected to remember that that patient still needs constant communication, education, and to feel loved. They don't care how much you know until they know how much you care.

The more that you're pouring into them and educating them, this is a lifelong process. You want to be healthy and vibrant for as long as you can, so you can do those things that you envisioned yourself doing when you're a young boy or young girl. You have to just continuously be checking in and communicating and educating.

Guys like you and myself, we seem to generate a lot of inside out new clients, just through our process procedure, table talk. What are some little nuggets as it relates to this idea of taking a patient from just a believer or understander to an advocate or an ambassador for your practice? How do you see that playing out?

Because I know it's hard to change. What I'm hearing you say, it's hard to change people's behaviors and habits until we really change our beliefs, right? So how's that played out for you in terms of education and things you might do to keep that ship up there?

Yeah. I think, Doc, I think the more excited and passionate about what the chiropractor is doing themselves. So the more passionate and excited I was about what I have to offer and helping people buy into that passion, right?

So what John Wesley said years ago, set yourself on fire and people will come to watch you burn, right? So the more excited you are about what you have and the things you can do for your community, that's just going to naturally have that law of attraction because you're excited. That's going to get people excited.

It's going to attract them to you. People are looking for positive, enthusiastic, encouraging people to surround themselves with because there's not a lot of that in the world. And so the more excited you are, the more enthusiastic you are, the more passion you have for your abilities to help them live the life they desire, the more that you're going to attract them to you.

Establishing that energetic culture, right? And you're the chief energy officer when you show up there. It becomes contagious in the sense where they want that positivity.

So speak into that because I feel like practices like yours that are inside out, you're attracting an ideal patient who in many cases already knows your process procedure because their buddy already told them. So they already kind of know the price, they kind of know the commitment. I mean, how important is that?

Think about that. You're attracting these people in that already get it. So how's that played out at your office?

It's huge. It's way, when they're what we would call a warm new patient, right? Because they already have an understanding of who you are and what you're about.

It just makes life that much easier. So they again, like you said, have been told or educated from somebody that knows them about who you are and your messaging and what you want for your people. So again, it comes back to that very first thing I talked about is understanding your messaging and who you want to be as a chiropractor.

Once you've established that, you're going to attract those types of people to your practice when you're taking that messaging that you own and communicating it with vibrancy and passion and energy like you just said.

It makes it easy to invite people into something like that, right? Especially if you have, and I think one thing on this, I know this is big for you, not to be lost in this conversation is the important of clinical excellence. So if you could speak into that part of your practice, I know obviously pinpointing the problem, all that, but beyond that, just the clinical excellence piece, how important has that been to you and what's that look like?

You have to master your skills. There's so many people that say you can't serve at a high capacity and deliver great care. I 100 percent disagree in a sense that why do people return?

People are returning because they're getting the outcomes that they wanted and they see, feel the difference from when prior to them coming. So I think it's one of the quarterstones. You have to master your craft.

The better you are at your craft, and we can all have different crafts. That's the beauty of chiropractic is we can all have our own thumbprint of how we want to deliver chiropractic to our community. But again, mastering that, becoming the best that you can.

It's no different than any sport. You might not be the best, but you want to be the best that you can be to deliver your art to the people.

As I think about that too, you think about those ideal patients that have referred you so many clients. Any other little tidbits you might give a doctor who might get in the bad habit early on, day one especially, of over promising on day one before you've had a chance to look at and do this, what you call a period of discovery.

You want to obviously paint a picture for them that you can help them, not just in chiropractic, but in life in general. The more authentic and transparent you are, the more likely those people are going to stick. Yeah.

Even on my day twos, when I would do a day two and I was going to tell him, hey, this is our initial intensive care. To be honest, Mary, when we get to the end of this, I am going to recommend some sort of continued care. I don't know if that's once a week, once a month, whatever it might be.

But to be honest with you, Mary, this is not just about this first whatever three, four months. This is about correcting that and then supporting it and maintaining it on some level. Again, I think when you share that message, you can even do that on day one.

I believe that, Mary, based on my findings today, until I've had a chance to review it from my experience, I might need to see you X amount of times over X amount of periods. So the more authentic and transparent you are with people, they appreciate that and then you're just being you. I mean, that's the most important thing is just to be human, be authentic and transparent with your people and that will help them build retention because they know that you're doing it from a position of love, not a position of greed.

I'm hearing you, it's the heart and the head of the chiropractor and the feet too, but you're looking at that piece of the heart. I think a lot of chiros out there were notorious as being a profession that has a bunch of isolated practices where doctors are probably listening right now and they don't get a lot of time with this type of stuff. Really, at the end of the day, what we're talking about is practice management here.

What are some things you might speak into this, Paul, about practice management and coaching and whether it be a mastermind group or a fellowship group and really how important is that, in your opinion, for this isolated doctor, he doesn't have a lot of time. What are some things this kind of doc can do to stay dipped and stay focused and stay on the right track?

It's right back to consistency, man. Again, I was blessed early on. I had other chiro's pouring to me.

Even as I was a student through chiropractic school, I was attending philosophy meetings and seminars. In the chiropractic test, we like to say get re-dipped. I think it's again, it's consistency because like the patients getting bombarded with what we in our opinion wrong messaging or counterintuitive or different communication that we're delivering our office, we're no different.

In our profession, we're beginning to be received more, but we're not received like some other professions. Our chiropractic armor is getting chinks and dents in it all the time. Well, that's changing, but we still do get challenged continuously and regularly.

The more that you can get around like-minded people who support who you are and what you do, to recharge your batteries, to get redipped in your purpose and your passion, to go back to your mission field and deliver your messaging, the better. I personally started attending seminars, philosophy meetings through chiropractic school. I was at an allopathic chiropractic school and I was going to philosophy meetings to get myself dipped to figure out who I was, to strengthen my messaging.

Then when I went into the community, went open my practice, not only did I hire that mentor, which I think is critical. You have to have a coach or a mentor. But I established who I was in my messaging.

Again, monthly, quarterly, whatever it might be that you need to do to get around those people to recharge your batteries, and get your armor, repolish it so it's nice and shiny, and then go back and take your battle wounds back into practice. And then go back and get recharged. So it's a critical piece to who we are, and one way to strengthen yourself so that you don't get tired and burnt out and beat up, and so you can feel like you can stay strong in your messaging.

So it's a critical piece to be unsuccessful, in my opinion.

No, I totally agree, Doc. And I'll say in that spirit, I'm very appreciative of guys like you that said, you know what, I'm going to create a really fun, engaging chiropractic experience. And so where's that at right now?

Give us an update on ChiroFest, because that's one of my favorite all time events.

Yeah. So, you know, again, back to my passion for wanting what I believe to be the principle of chiropractic to continue on. You know, we are messaging for ChiroFest is honor the past, preserve the future.

We would have been in year 10 last year, but we're excited to be back together August 27, 28 in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, where things are opened up. So we can gather and celebrate who we are. We're going to have, again, you know, 20-ish speakers pouring into you to help you be a better chiropractor, the science, art and philosophy.

I think you might have a giveaway for us too, buddy.

You know, again, because it's, there is a lot of docs that are, you know, like you said out in their little practices by themselves. I want to encourage anybody that's listening in the messaging down below. The ChiroTouch team has put together a link for you to jump on there and enter.

And we're going to raffle off or give away four tickets to ChiroFest, whether it's you and three of your CTs or two docs and two CTs from one office. I just want to, again, I want to help people. You know, it's been a long 16 months and I think we're ready to be together, ready to high five and hug and celebrate who we are and what we offer our communities.

And we're needed now more than ever. So we need to button up our ship and deliver the message.

Absolutely. The world needs a Senator Beth, doesn't it? Hey, doc, I just want to tell you how much I appreciate you for coming on our episode with us today.

And you're such a great leader and you're so inspiring. And I just love just your integrity and your character and your love for chiropractic, your love for people. It's contagious, I'll say that.

And you're one of my favorite guys, man. You inspire me so much. I just want to thank you.

It was great. And for those of you out there right now that are tuning in, I just pray that and hope that today was just a blessing to you, that you're able to take what you learn from Paul and implement it like right away. And that way you can start reaching your dreams and really start getting to where you want to be as a practitioner and as a leader.

And so make sure you check the show notes so you can follow that link. And I also want to thank ChiroTouch just for their spirit in this, that they really want to help the chiropractic profession. And they realize that practice management is where a lot of us struggle.

And so I just really want to thank ChiroTouch for their desire to do this. It's just a great thing. And so again, I want to thank you for tuning in to Catch Up with ChiroTouch.

And I want you to make sure you tune in in two weeks from now. We're going to have Dr. Pete Cameola. And Dr. Pete built his dream practice in Florida.

And he built it up to a really high volume in one year. And he could not do it without team. And so the next time we get together, we're going to talk all things team building.

So you want to make sure you maybe get on the next one with your team. So we hope you enjoy today's episode. And again, this is Dr. Ronnie Simms.

And we'll see you real soon. Take care.

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