Are you suffering from “Shiny Object Syndrome?”

Is Shiny Object Syndrome messing up your results with patients? This is something that I struggle with for a long time myself. Many other practitioners I know did as well. And I want to unpack it a little bit more now. I touched on this a few weeks ago in a longer webinar that I did, and we unpacked this concept, but also many, many others. There's a lot of content in that. I wanted to pack in as much value as I could. But I'm aware that not everybody has 40 minutes to sit down and watch that whole video. So today we're just going to pick this one because of the feedback I had from it and go into a bit more detail. What is Shiny Object Syndrome? How do you know if you have it? And more importantly, how do you get past it? So let's dive in. Shiny Object Syndrome is something that for practitioners comes as a result of being stuck on the technique roller coaster. Now, the technique roller coaster is something I was on for years and years. Many other people I've known people who spent decades on this and it's a really common issue for us. So see, if this is you. You graduate university and you're all excited, bright eyed, bushy tailed, can't wait to get out there and start seeing patients. You're nervous, but you're looking forward to finally doing the thing you've been training to. And you go out and you start treating patients. And after a few months you notice you're not quite getting the results you hoped you would. The tests that you learned aren't really that accurate. The treatments that you learned to do aren't really doing what you were taught they were supposed to do. And you're starting to feel a bit stuck. You don't know what to do, you're not getting patients better and you're not quite sure why. So you probably then go, well, I need to learn another technique. I need to go and learn more. For me, that was sot. I went out and I did a bunch of SOT courses. Suddenly then you learn that new technique. Your confidence shot up. I was like, oh, this SOT is great. Patients who weren't responding suddenly start getting better. I'm getting more results, I'm feeling more confident. This is great. Much better than that rubbish I learned at uni. I'm going to be an SOT doc now. And so I did SOT for a while. But after a while, suddenly the doubts start to creep in a little bit. You're not quite getting the same results you did at the start. It's not doing what the instructors taught you it's supposed to do consistently. So you go back down on the roller coaster. Doubt creeps in. You think, oh, okay, maybe not sot, I'll go and learn something else. You know, for me, I think that was DNS at the time. So I go and learn DNS, same thing, feeling great now I'm getting all these results I wasn't getting before. Patients are responding, I'm feeling good, back up on the roller coaster, until inevitably the doubts creep back in. Now, I'm not going to take you through years and years of that. You get the picture. But this is something that I've seen many, many of us struggle with, that we keep chasing the next technique, the next, the next seminar, the next gadget, the next tool, whatever it might be. And we only ever get a short term fix. It's a little bit like a junkie chasing a high. Feels good for a while, but then it wears off and you have to go and do more. And there's a reason for that. It's because we're trying to fill a hole that can't be filled with more techniques that can't be filled with more tools. That hole can be there for a couple of reasons. In my case, the main one was imposter syndrome that I felt deep down that I wasn't quite good enough and I wasn't getting the results I was supposed to get and I wasn't helping enough people. And because of that, I started trying to desperately chase things to try and fill that gap so I would feel good enough. And I did that for years and years and it didn't really work. That's one way, that's pretty common another way, and it can be both. But another one is you're trying to fill literal holes in your schedule that you are trying to fill the diary, but you can't. Patients don't seem to be coming back, they don't stick with the plan. They're all dropping out early. And you're hoping that by learning a new technique you can demonstrate the value of what you do by becoming an SOT practitioner. You'll suddenly get amazing results and then patients will flock to see you, they'll follow your advice, they won't drop out early, and all those gaps in diary will start to be filled. The problem is techniques and seminars and tools and gadgets cannot fill either of those holes. They will not get you there. What has to happen is that you actually have to develop the confidence in yourself and then be able to communicate that to Patients. So for me, imposter syndrome, I had to basically realize what good enough was and how I could communicate the value of what I do to patients on their terms. And most of this knowledge came from outside of chiropractic for me. But I learned a whole bunch of different skills and approaches over time. Things like transformational relationships, things like person centered theory, you know, things like the social style model that helped me communicate the value of what I could do for patients, but on their terms, not mine. Not telling them how great chiropractic was, not explaining what an adjustment did, not any of this stuff really. Just about helping them see what. What I could do for them beyond just pain relief. And that made a big, big difference to my own imposter syndrome. And I've seen it make a huge difference to all the practitioners I work with, particularly when it comes to filling the second type of hole, the hole in the diary. Because patients are dropping out early, they're basically treating you like an expensive painkiller. And that's frustrating for us, that's unpleasant. We don't like that when we know we could give so much more. So by communicating your value to them, values, base care values, instead of something that's really just about you explaining how great chiropractic is, that's how you can fill the literal holes in the diary as well. So how do we do this? Well, I've spent a long, long time putting together different seminars, projects, workshops, weekends, all this kind of thing. And what I've done now is I finally compiled that into the Certified Patient Centered Practitioner program. This certification is the only thing of its kind that I've seen. I've looked. There is nothing out there like it. And it is, hands down, the best possible way to fill those holes. To get rid of shiny object syndrome, to get off the technique roller coaster so you can get better results for your patients. Which should be the number one reason we do this, after all. Because we know that building a solid therapeutic alliance is key to patients getting better. So certification, first of all, will help your patients. Second, it will improve your practice success. You will have fewer dropouts, you will have more referrals. And as well as that, you can use some pretty cool stuff when you get certified to help stand out in your community. You can use things like this. So certified practitioners will get a badge they can use on their website. This is yours. You can put this on. It doesn't expire after a year like art and those people like to do. Once you're certified, you're certified. You'll also get a certificate here showing your, you know, your patients, your community, your colleagues that you are now certified in this. And as part of that, what we're going to be doing is building a patient portal, building information on the website that patients can access to say, this is why you should choose a certified Patient Centered practitioner. So you can link to that on your website, you can link to that in your socials, and by joining now, you can be one of the first. So certification will really help you get better results with patients. It will help improve your practice success and it makes it very easy for you to stand out and show why they shouldn't see other people in the area who are not as patient centered as you are. Most of all, though, for me, and this comes from my own experience again, many, many of my members is getting certified will make practice more fun again. It will make it more enjoyable, it will make it more fulfilling. I get more meaning and purpose out of my job than ever before. Since I started focusing on these skills, learning sot, learning DNS, learning dry needling, learning art, learning all these other things, they didn't provide me with that sense of purpose. They didn't fill the hole. They're useful. I'm glad I did them and they helped me to help patients better, but they didn't give me that sense of purpose. One of my members put it beautifully. She after completing the program, she said, I've fallen back in love with chiropractic and again. And I couldn't think of a better way to put it than that. So if that's you, if you would like to fall back in love with chiropractic again, if you'd like to get better results for your patients, if you'd like to improve your career, all using ethical and effective approaches, this is why I've created the Certified Patient Centered Practitioner program. Now, there's two options to this. You heard me talk the other day about the fast track option. If you are an experienced practitioner who's already confident with their skills, who doesn't want to have to go through every single video, every single part of the program there because you're familiar with most of it, Fast track is for you. And I'm focusing on that now because that is going to close for enrolment in a week's time. So next week on Thursday, enrollment will close. We will then take everyone who's enrolled through that program over the next few months until we get to that certification process. I will then open it up later on next year. It won't be for minimum six months time, it may be longer. So if you're experienced, that's for you. If not, if you're a newer graduate or somebody who's not that confident with their communication skills, they that's fine. You have the self paced option as part of the patient centered tribe. So by joining the tribe you get access to all the content, you get access to all the certification materials, all the resources. But you can go through it at your own pace. You don't have to feel rushed up to feel a deadline. You have to dedicate what may well end up being hours a week to go through that over time. Because I know what that's like to feel rushed. You get through it, but you're a bit panicked and you don't really retain the skills. That is not what certification is about. So no matter where you are in your practice, no matter how much experience you have, no matter how confident you are, there is an approach for you that will work. So if you want to get certified, if you want to be one of the first practitioners out there to be certified to have these benefits here and to help your patients in the best way possible, then I look forward to seeing in the program. There'll be links below this video for how you can join. As always, any questions, just drop me a message and I'll be in touch. Chat soon.