Top 3 Lessons: Consistency, E-Commerce, and Building the Right Network1 | Podcast Ep. 316

Foreign welcome to the Evidence Based Chiropractor. I AM your host, Dr. Jeff Langmaid. And happy new year. We are into 2022 and this episode is going to be a little different. It's going to be a look back at 2021 and the top three lessons, trends, what I saw last year that I think we are going to propel us into, into 2022 and beyond. I'm excited to dive in this episode. We're talking three lessons from 2021. So there was a lot of craziness, there was a lot of change there. There was a lot of good, bad and in the middle in the last 12 months. But there are some things that I noticed looking at the chiropractic profession, looking at my own life, looking at my own businesses, the that I thought would be great conversation topics for today on the podcast. So I want to talk about these three items. If you have feedback on it, let me know. Jeff the evidencebasedchiropractor.com but where I want to start in 2021, and this is going to hold true for 2022 as well, is that consistency matters. Consistency matters in relationships, consistency matters in business. And consistency matters potentially most of all in in marketing, in outreach. And this is something that I see time and time again. My friend Steven Francis would say energy in, energy out. And I could not agree more. Consistency is absolutely key. So I'm going to encourage you as we're getting into 2022, as you identify from a few weeks ago your smart goals, what are you looking to accomplish this year? How do you make it specific, measurable and actionable? You know the timing, right, all of those items that make a smart goal, what are, how can you stay consistent? Because the real predictor of success is the consistency. In the smart chiropractor, we say this as, you know, results follow actions. The small actions you take each and every day, those small steps that might seem insignificant over the course of a year, 352of them, you start to get pretty far down the road and you start to achieve and potentially go beyond your goals with results based upon those small actions you can you take each and every day. But the consistency of those actions is what's so critically important. I see this personally when I look at some of the businesses. Am I staying consistent getting my posts out there? Am I staying consistent shooting videos? Am I staying consistent with this podcast? Yes. And that's why I see the growth continue to go up. So too many of us, I think, have, you know, not only maybe a little Bit of, you know, procrastination in us, dare I say, but also the inconsistency. We want something, we get started, but we don't see it through and follow it through. And one of the things I've learned is that, you know, results always take longer than you'd like. You know, I can look at this and say, man, I wanted to speak on this stage and that stage back in the day, and I thought, you know, I should have been there. And it took another two years before I was invited to do so. So processes take time. Chiropractic principle. Every process takes time. It's true. Inconsistency throughout your actions, day in and day out, will help you reach your goals and get the results that you desire. So if you're interested in building and growing your practice, take a look and say, what are the action steps I'm taking today, tomorrow, next week, next month? What are the things I can stay consistent with so I can get the results that I desire and I can ultimately reach my goal? Because inconsistency will is going to crush momentum. It's going to crush your ability to get the results you desire, and it's going to crush your true ability to reach and exceed the goals you set for yourself in your practice over time. So stay consistent. Take a look at your smart goals for 2022 for this year. Take a look at them, break down how you can stay consistent. Number two that I want to touch on is E Commerce is here to stay. If there's anything that we have seen over the last two years, it's a dramatic shift from brick and mortar to this is an area that we're going to explore super heavily in this year and beyond with the smart chiropractor. But I want to set the stage and talk about this a little bit because this is why it is so, so important. Most chiropractors out there, if you're listening, you're probably included in that group, don't have a true online store solution that makes it easy for their patients to purchase healthcare goods from them. And this is a huge missed opportunity. I'm all for bending over the table, getting your hands on as many people as possible, but there's a vulnerability that's inherent with that. As we've discussed on this podcast, when you're unable to deliver that care for whatever reason for injury, you know, crazy stuff going on in the world, whatever it might be, your revenue source goes down to zero. That's brutally difficult. So how can you have a ancillary passive revenue Stream that creates recurring revenue for you. It has to take place online. We've seen this time and time again. How many you know, and you know, we could argue whether it's good, bad or indifferent, but how many you know, vitamin shops, supplement stores, small businesses closed over the last year and a half. And then we've seen companies like Hims, hers, Roman ritual levels companies generate hundreds of millions of dollars in the health care space that are only online. And this is something that's not going to change. We've seen it, you know, 10 years ago as Amazon came on strong. We see it with Netflix having recurring memberships. And where does this fit in so cleanly and clearly with the chiropractic practice? The basics of what people take every day. We know 70% to 80% of the people that walk through your front door are purchasing basic supplement somewhere. What do I mean by that? I mean multivitamin, fish oil, asleep, potentially a vitamin D, etc. We also know the importance of these things over time. And we also know I can speak from experience myself. Patients ask me all the time, hey, what do you take for a multi, what do you take for vitamin D? What do you think I should do? And I end up spending, you know, 10 minutes poorly describing something that they purchase incorrectly on Amazon. And it's not doing anybody any good. I'm not generating any revenue from it. The patient's not getting the highest quality product. And that kind of patient experience is not exactly paramount. It's not great, right? Trying to awkwardly explain something as opposed to having E commerce at your own store for your practice that houses all of the goods that you believe in, that you stand behind, that you commonly recommend to your patients or your patients commonly ask you about in being able to say, that's a great question. We have my favorite items available right now in my online store. Will get you that web address or you can scan this QR code, it'll take you right to it. You know, that is so much cleaner. It's so much better. It's better for the patient. They're going to actually get what you'd hope they would purchase and you're going to have some revenue come in in the process. And if they're subscribe and save on multis, on supplements, on consumable goods, you start to create a membership, a base of recurring monthly revenue that's passive. And this is so important. I also think about you docs out there that have followings on Instagram, on Facebook, et cetera. You have people following you that might Never live within the circle of practice to receive your hands on care, but might be super happy to subscribe and save from your online store so you can impact their lives beyond the care you're delivering. So E Commerce is no question, it's here to stay. Challenges to date have been it's like, who's going to build the store? Do I have to carry inventory? Well, maybe I have a store, but it's through this one supplement brand. I only sell their supplements. I can't sell anything else through it. Wipe that slate clean. Let's take all of that, push it off the side of the desk. This is why we've built our Smart Care store system within the Smart Chiropractor. Now, these are only available to Smart Chiropractor members currently, but throughout the year we'll be talking much more about this and expand it beyond our Smart Chiropractor members. So why do we have it? For our Smart Chiropractor members, we have it because for our Smart Chiropractor members, we can help them with the marketing and promotions to enable them to generate more revenue. Because we're able to send emails on their behalf, we're able to put out social posts, we're able to stream video, able to do all of those things for our members automatically. We know we can help drive that marketing and sales engine so that the doc doesn't have to feel like they're selling, which I think is one of the other challenges. So no inventory. 5,000 plus products you can choose from immediately. They're right there, right now, including our basis health supplement. So Smart Care stores and E Commerce are not going anywhere. It's here to stay. And I'm going to really, really encourage you. If you're a listener to this podcast, whether you're a new listener or whether you've been around since the beginning, you heed this advice. You know E commerce is not going anywhere. The sooner you get started with E Commerce, the better off you'll be. The more positive momentum you'll have. You'll be helping your patients in a patient centric way. You'll be creating more revenue for your practice, you'll be decreasing your stress and you'll be really diversifying your income streams, which I think is some of the most important things that we can do as chiropractors moving forward. The third big lesson or takeaway from 2021 is that there is no such thing as luck. It really is preparation and opportunity. So what do I mean by that? Why am I bringing this up? I'm asking you to take stock. Where are you spending your time? Who are you surrounding yourself with and, and what are you looking to do in accordance with your goals? And I'll be more specific as we dive in, but I just want to get that high level concept out there. You know, preparation and opportunity is what determines, quote, unquote, luck. So, you know, what is preparation? Preparation is, to me, consistency. It's taking action as, you know, tying all this together. What is opportunity? Opportunity starts to present itself, in my opinion, when you surround yourself with people who are, you know, doing the things that you'd like to be involved in, surrounding yourself with positive people who are out there taking action each and every day. So take stock. Now is a great time. Where are you spending time? Online. What are you posting online? Who are you communicating with day in and day out? Are you around other people that are tearing people down? Or are you engaging and around people who are taking action, doing things and looking forward to the future? It's, it's so insidious. And I think, you know, often with social media, with email, with articles, with, you know, what, you know, website, whatever it might be, and just interactions with people in general, you know, you can get down a slippery slope. The biggest thing that you can protect moving forward is your mindset. Getting your mind right and, you know, what you do each and every day, what you're seeing as you scroll through your feeds plays such a huge impact in that. And we're going to learn more about that as the years go on, that's for sure. But take the time to surround yourself with people who are doing the things that you'd like to be involved in. Surround yourself with people who are taking action in a positive way. That sort of preparation starts to present opportunity and you'll find yourself more lucky as time goes on. So instead of spending the time, you know, scrolling or being bummed out about what another chiropractor is doing, take that time and go out and meet another business owner in your community. Make a new connection, maybe connect with a doc that has a fantastic practice. Connect with a doc that's quote unquote, not competitive. Maybe across the country that you've been following online. Maybe they're a chiropractor for a sports team and you want to connect with them and ask them kind of how they did it. Take time to do that sort of stuff as you build relationships, as Jason says, you know, your net worth is equivalent to your network. Continue to build that network of individuals who are action takers, who are motivators who can be a little bit inspirational to you. I can tell you, over the last couple years, I've seen this come to fruition in so many ways in my life. The spinal imaging company that I'm involved in here in Tampa was, you know, partners with a guy named Nick. And Nick and I worked at an orthopedic group together. We built a relationship. He's a go getter. He saw that I was really motivated. So we've come together and started an imaging group. I have Cairo office coverage, my staffing, temporary locum coverage business, and that was acquired last year by Cairo Matchmakers, a much larger company doing staffing. How did that come to fruition? Well, I met all of the owner chiropractors of chiro matchmakers by showing up to events, by talking and connecting, and they're positive, go getting guys and gals for that matter. So, you know, that made it easy. So you start to find these opportunities, you know, kind of come to fruition as you start to get out there, connect with people, surround yourself with people that are really doing positive things each and every day. And I can trace it back as well to even the smart chiropractor, you know, five, six years ago, you know, sitting down with, now my partner Jason, and you know, it. And these things continue to build, you know, positive momentum. They continue to make big impacts for chiropractors on behalf of chiropractors each and every day, each and every week, each and every month and each and every year. And none of it would be possible if I didn't get out there and really prepare myself for the opportunity for luck to strike. So, you know, take some stock of where you're spending time, take some stock of what you're putting out there each and every day. And really, I'm going to encourage you to protect your mindset, focus on the positive, have a positive mental attitude, stay consistent with your marketing, with your relationships, with everything you're doing in your life that's positive. And also keep that eye on E Commerce. E Commerce is absolutely here to stay and you're going to hear a lot more from me and from Jason and from probably plenty of other people as well as we head into this year regarding E Commerce. So hopefully this episode a little bit different off the research side of things, a little different than marketing as well. A little bit of mindset as we hit 2022. So if you liked it, shoot me a message. Jeff, at the evidencebasedchiropractor.com Next week we will be back with the research. If you are a new listener or you are a veteran and you have not left us a rating or review on itunes, please do so. That helps More and more docs find out about this podcast and to my amazement and unbelievable. You know, I'm unbelievably grateful. Over 11,000 chiropractors tune into this podcast each and every week, you know, so they can get their research and marketing and the time it takes to get to their office. So thank you so much for tuning in. Thank you for being a chiropractor and I will talk to you soon. Thank you for joining us on this episode of the Evidence Based Chiropractor. If you want to grow your practice, come back for next week's episode. If you want to grow faster, visit the evidencebasedchiropractor.com and join our MD Marketing membership today.