You’ve already won (even if it doesn’t feel like it)

So recently I had a really interesting question come up. This is a colleague who's been out four or five years. We've been chatting back and forth about a few subjects recently, and at one point they asked this thing. And it's something that I've heard come up time and time again over time on online forums, other places as well. And it comes down to this idea of feeling like we have this big responsibility and expectation from our patients about essentially representing the profession. You know, they were saying, like, how do you. How do you think about it in terms of the patient comes to see me and thinking, oh, if they've seen a chiropractor before, I get nervous because I think, oh, well, what if they were doing something I don't agree with and I don't want to do that? Or what if they were doing something the patient didn't like and they're worried I'm going to do the same? Or what if they're really good and I can't live up to that? But then also I get nervous when patients come in and they've never seen a chiropractor before because I feel like their entire idea of who a chiropractor is and their entire opinion of our profession rests on my shoulders. And that's a lot of responsibility. And again, I've heard this come up again and again, and I totally get it. I know it's something that a lot of practitioners, not just new grads, I know a lot of experienced practitioners still kind of have that. That slight stress, that slight anxiety there. And so I shared with him something I thought might be useful for you as well, which is how I think about these things, because I can honestly tell you that is not a concern of mine whatsoever at all these days. I can relate to it, and I used to, but now it doesn't even enter my mind. And the reason for that is I look at it as, by the time the patient meets me, I've already won. Now that sounds arrogant. I'm going to explain why it's not what you probably sounds like there. I don't mean they've come to see me. I'm so great. They're already going to do whatever I say. No, I know there's a chance they might walk out and not come back. Sometimes there are patients. I still have patients who we meet, have the initial consultation, and for whatever reason, you know, we both agree, or they decide that chiropractic isn't for them, or I'm not the best person to help them, totally fine. When I say by the time they meet me, I've won, what I mean is, by the time they meet me, they. They have already decided I'm worth a gamble. Because most of us, we tend to think about patients like they've got this problem and they've just Googled like, it's almost like they've just walked past the clinic and gone, oh, they might help. I'll just nip in and see. And we then think that, okay, they've come to see us. Now it's our job to kind of persuade them that we can help. Like, we don't like the word, but ethically sell them on us. And we think they've walked in, but they don't trust me. And I've got to build that trust and I've got to show them why I'm the right person to see them. We have this sense of responsibility and expectation pressure that we put on ourselves. What we don't realize is that by the time they've walked in the door, they've already decided that you're worth a decent sum of money and half a day, a lot of the time, a decent bit of time there, because they're not just going to be in the room for the time they're in the room with you. They've had to drive there, they've had to park, they've had to find the place, they've had to look up in advance where it is. They might have to fill out some forms. They have to make sure that they schedule their day around being able to get to you. That might have taken a few days of them having to move things around there. So by the time they come to see you, they've already decided that you're worth a certain amount there. And essentially the marketing is done. The marketing is just to get the patient in the door to get the patient to go, I need some help. And to have you land in front of them and build enough trust, usually done through a website and online reviews and this kind of thing, social media. Build enough trust them to come in and see you. By the time you meet them, that's done. They have made that decision. They've decided you're already worth trying. So I look at that as I just set my bar for success, as the patient trusts me enough to meet me and find out. They want to find out a little bit more. They want to get my opinion on something. That's what they're paying for there. Now, would it be nice if it turns out I can help them and that they decide they do want to work with me. Yes, absolutely. But I look at it and go, I've already won help with them even more. That would be even better. I'd love that. But the bar for good enough for me is actually pretty low. I have a lower bar than most practitioners. Most people set the bar for good enough as the patient meets them and they do a good job and they get the right diagnosis and a great assessment. The patient agrees to the plan and the patient comes for all the visits and follows the recommended plan and does all the self care advice as well and gets the best outcome and sticks around for maintenance and tells their friends and family and leaves a lovely Google review like that. That's like good enough. It's below that. You go, I didn't do a good enough job. That's an exhausting way to live. And I know because I used to live that way as well. So I'm sharing this. It might be helpful for you to think about it in terms of, by the time the patient meets you, they already have skin in the game and they've already bet on you. Yes, it would be nice if they decided based on that to come and see me. But I know that somebody coming in to see me does not mean they're definitely going to stick around. It does not mean they're going to meet me and like me. It doesn't mean they're going to trust me. You know, unfortunately it does. And there's a chance I might turn around and say, actually I might not be the best person to help you with this right now. There might be somebody else there. But setting the bar for winning is a lot lower. It works a lot better and it allows you, as you practice this and it will take time. You can't watch a video and suddenly do this. And there will be some people watching this who will always have a reason why they can't do it. And in all fairness, this is, this video isn't for them because there's not a lot I can do to help somebody when they're in that mind up there. But it's just about looking at it going, okay, maybe I can just lower the expectation myself a bit and go, they already trust me enough to give this a go. And this doesn't mean that it has to be your practice and your name on the, on the letterheads and all this kind of stuff. Like I was talking to a friend of mine of this and he works with somebody else and he says, yeah, that's all well and good, Chris, but Like some of my patients, they come to see the clinic principal, like they're there because it's his clinic, not because of me. And I went, yeah, but they booked with you. Sure, they might have heard that this person has an amazing practice, but they booked to see you. So basically they've gone, well, if this person's that good, well, they wouldn't hire you if you were rubbish, so you must be pretty good. So again, by the time they've come in to see you, they've decided that it's worth a go. Very few patients will come in to see you totally blind, have no clue who you are or anything about you. They usually would have at least looked you up on the website, or they will have an opinion of the practice that you're in, even if you're a new graduate. And they go, this practice looks good. This practice looks like the kind of place that would hire people who can help me. Because if they didn't have that impression and there was only one person in the practice they thought they could help them, they'd have booked direct with them. So it's easy for me to say this when I run my own practice and, you know, I've got a full schedule, all this kind of stuff. Yes, but even if you're brand new and you're just starting out, think about it that way. They've already decided you're worth a chance. They've already started to give you a chance. And a chance is all you need. You get given enough chances, you will build a practice over time. So have a think about that. And if that is something that you do struggle with, just maybe try set the bar for good enough a little bit lower. Yes, aim for perfection. We should always aim for perfection when we're working with patients, at least I believe. But if the bar for good enough is a bit lower, then the rest of this just becomes like a fun, let's see if we can do even better, rather than panicking about never achieving 99 or 100% there. So, as always, have a think about that. Let me know if you've got any questions.