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Hi, it’s Monika Buerger and Elizabeth. Hello. We are here and excited to talk with all of you about some amazing stocking stuffers to build and brand your practice for 2022. Woo. Can you believe we’re heading to 2022. Ah, crazy bones. So first of all, as always, I want to thank ChiroSecure for giving us this platform, to get this information out to all of you, to help you build your practice and influence the world even on a bigger mass scale.
So we are going to dive in and dig into some fun stuff. And everybody Elizabeth, you and say, hi, Elizabeth is very sad today because she had all these lights. That were twinkling and ready to rock and roll and her battery died or is denying. So anyway so first of all, how can we help you stop? You’re stocking stuff.
You’re stocking for 2022 and build and brand your practice. First of all, it starts with you. You, and you take time for yourself. So what I’ve been telling my gang that I mentor. I want you to learn for ours, especially on weekends. One thing that I advocate is unplugged from the world for at least one day a week.
All right. Kids and animals pick up your energy like that. All right. They’ve got you pegged the minute you walk in the room. So if we’re not on point, if we don’t have enough bedroom and neuro adaptability and we’re burned out, they pick up on it. They’re going to pick up on our tension. Being self-aware and putting some reserve in your own big account is not selfish.
It is essential. So unplug. I really advocate everybody applied for one day. Get off the social media and rest reset rise. And repeat does if you take time to rest reset your mind, body and soul. You’ll have the energy, the fudge room, the neuro adaptability to rise and repeat this day after day. So you’ll be able to rock and roll and ready to build your practice.
It’s this energetic exchange that we have it, the world is all energy based and when we don’t have enough energy, the universe is not going to bring you those building blocks and bring you those people to your office because it knows. You’re too tired. You don’t have that bandwidth to serve these people.
So number one, stockings diaper, rest reset, rise, repeat and unplug. Okay. That’s number one and don’t feel guilty about it. All right. So next, take a look at some of your simplest business practices. Number one. The first call a patient gets the first impression of your office. It’s like that show what’s the bachelor, the bachelorette, the first impression rose.
So what is your first impression rose to your community? When they call, what message do they get? If you want to build and brand as a family, wellness based pediatric pregnancy based, whatever your practice paradigm, while you want. Does that message they get right when they call it, they not getting a live person.
They’re getting a message. Does that reflect your brand? Is your message just very general. Hi, you’ve reached first family chiropractic or first step chiropractic. We’re not able to answer your phone, call us back between the. Or maybe something along the lines like, hello, you’ve reached first family chiropractic, where we specialize in family, children, and pregnancy put a little bit more off into your message.
So that’s one tidbit along the lines of that first call, when your staff answers the phone, they’re the first contact point, right? Is simple question to pin your brand. Pivot your message is say it’s a new. Yes. I’d like to make an appointment with Dr. Berger. Fantastic. Would that be for you or your child?
My child. Just putting that, planting the seed in the brain that, yeah, we’re open to see children in our practice. So little things like this little tweaks, little things can be the big things. All right. So get your messages in order, right? When that person calls and here’s your message and your court. Get your staff on point to say.
Yeah. Awesome. We would love to see you. Would that appointment be for you or your child? Okay. Right there. Pivoting your message. All right. Your paperwork. Yeah. Your paperwork. Not how so much, how it looks. We want it to look nice in a nice form forms of worth, but what does it reflect about you? Couple things, your pediatric paperwork in particular, even my adult paperwork, because my practice is largely based on it’s not a musculoskeletal based practice, I have a very well entrenched wellness practice. So half of my practice is neurologically based pediatric. Disorders. I don’t want to use that word disorders. But struggles and the other half of my practice is adult and pediatric chronic health issues. So both forms of my paperwork, talk about a birth history and why I think that’s important as chiropractors.
We are. We are looking at the five T’s right. Trauma, toxins, thoughts, technology, tethered restriction, the stress. Was there perhaps a biomechanical stressor from the birthing practices process, where there was a C-section involved or a difficult labor diff difficult delivery. So biomechanical stress or a physical or an emotional stressor, like a lot of prenatal stress.
That sets the tone. If this is your bag of chips, right? You gotta go buy your, you had roll by your BOC, your bag of chips, whatever works for you. But if you want to create this, we’re talking about a peach show here. If you want to create a family wellness, paeds, pregnancy based practice, get those questions on paper that just makes people as you’re going through the history with them, it makes them think.
Maybe there they are pregnant. The adult patient is pregnant when they’re coming in. Maybe they want to have more children. It starts setting the tone for getting them to think about what you offer and why are you interested in this information and how does it fit into your practice paradigm? The other good question I like to have on my my.
History form is a question about their academic learning environment. Do they do they go to a traditional school setting? Do they go to a private school, a charter school? Do they homeschool? Not only for me because I deal with so many sensory dysregulated little fiddle farts. It might not, it’s a concern of mine to see what their environment, their learning environment is like from a sensory perspective.
But it’s also for me to know. Are they, let’s say they’re homeschool. They have a lot of homeschool. Co-ops out here in Idaho where I’m based. When you’re starting a practice, this can be a great for me was a great jumping off point in my California practice and my Idaho. Where I would say I as a part of my community outreach service and my donation back to the community, I adopt a school every school year.
I don’t personally have time for that anymore in my practice now, but this is how I built a lot of my practice. I adopted a or two or a classroom. For that school year and what this looked like was I might go in and do educational talks to the kiddos in that classroom. Or one year I did an educational talk.
And then it was a, for a second grade school teacher. This was in California and all the other second grade school teachers heard about me doing this presentation to her classroom. And they’re like, we want to, we want you to do it for all the second grade school classes. And then it got to be for the whole school.
And then it got to be multiple schools and it builds from there. Once you get in there and you build your name. So having this question on your questionnaire helps you get that connection. You might find out that this parent is actually, they had of one of her homeschool co-ops in town. And you might want to say, you know what I would love to do to an educational segment for your homeschool co-op and they get to know about chiropractic.
And whatever subject you matter, you might want to go in again, BOC should abuse that your bag of chips. Do you want to talk about nutrition chiropractic, do a series? What works in that paradigm? But the other thing that can happen is, and this was a big thing, a really big deal, especially when I transitioned to Idaho, was I adopted a school.
One year. The first year I was out here and what we did was we went in and were able to do a whole sensory learning sensory motor learning, talk as a continuing ed class to this junior high. And then I donated to them to their special education classroom. I had donated things like physio balls. For the kiddos to sit on what I call seat cushions, they’re vestibular discs for kiddos that can’t sit still and that are antsy and so forth.
So by getting this information, you can see maybe are there some connections you can make with that that families, school environment learning environment, and you start getting your name out there, new market, especially if you want to build a brain. Learning challenges kind of practice. So that question can take you a lot of places.
All right. Next. So that stocking stuffer number three. So second step number one. Was you number two. What does that first call like? What messages they get from that first call? What impressions do they get? And then what is your paperwork? What pearls can you choose from that paperwork? For the impression, what is or fourth rose for stocking stepper is what is the impression when they first walk in your office?
What does that first rose impression look like? Is it clean people with kiddos? Want a clean office? Okay. Is it warm and inviting? What is your staff? What is the sensory experience like? So many people, including adults, especially your little hearts have sensory aversions. Is it too light, too bright, too loud.
Do we need to tone it down a little bit? That initial thing, when you walk in the door, so I say you and your staff one day should step out of your office. Go for a little walk and then enter your office through the front door, like a patient and stop look and listen. What is that environment? Tell you. And then you, as the doc, I would do that when your staff is there and things are in motion and you sneak out and enter yourself as a patient to see what that environment feels like.
Now, the other thing that this is probably not going to go over so well, but When I first started in practice I was given advice to if you drive a rather nice vehicle which is fine, you’re, you’ve worked hard, you’ve got through school, you’ve been successful, but you might want to park that out around, back and not out front.
’cause sometimes taking in people’s money for services, which you are well-deserved to do. So get that monitor out of your head. But people will judge you depending on, what you drive, how you look et cetera. And they do that about our offices as well. So sometimes if the office is a little bit too upscale, They that can be a message that if you’re asking them to pitch to invest in their health and their child’s health at a certain level, they that can be something of a negative image having nice, clean, inviting fun environment have soothing colors.
Yes. But. Having large upscale environments can give that negative message. So just take this into consideration, right? I’m just the messenger and Elizabeth, just the messenger. We’re just trying to help you out here. Now. Next stocking stuffer, a kids and family area. If you want to have a family friendly kiddo fiddle part based practice, have the space for them.
Do you have a hangout? For families and kiddos. So I have behind me, blah, blah, blah. This is one of my treatment rooms actually. But in my, when you walk in my office, the, you have the general waiting area and then in the back you see a very beautiful jungle mural and we call it the jungle. It could probably, when I think about, I should call it the family house.
Anyhow, but it is a place for kiddos to hang out and their parents, if they want to hang out there too. So it is known. It is seen that because we w we’ve gotten over the years and I’m sure you all have had I can’t find a sitter. Is it okay if I have to bring my child one day? Absolutely. When they come to your office, they see that you are a family for any kids.
And, absolutely. We have kiddos hanging out there all the time and it, better yet. We see so many families including the kiddos and it’s so you building that message. So have a family fun area. It doesn’t have to be huge. I do, suggest that is off. And if you’re working with kiddos, especially if they have sensory expression issues, they can be a little bit.
Less tolerant of environment. So it is a quiet area for themselves and less disruptive for your general flow for your adult patients. So that’s sucking stepper number. What are we on five stocking stepper, number six. What’s on your walls. What’s that commercial? What’s in your wallet, right?
Capital one. Okay. Anyway this is burger brain going crazy. So what’s on your wall. Are they, what’s the message you want to portray? Do you wanna portray a musculoskeletal based environment? Do you wanna portray a health environment? Do you want it to be all chiropractic based messages? Do you want it to be family-based messages?
I have a little bit of both. I have some traditional paintings that reflect. My message. I have a beautiful painting. I got of a pregnant woman. I should have taken them off the wall. I’m going to show you, but a beautiful painting of a pregnant woman in my hallway because of the pregnancy aspect. I have a beautiful painting of two little girls.
They’re two little sisters in a garden. And then I have my chiropractic messages too. So what is it? But my chiropractic messages are based on paeds and based on a wellness brain-based. Paradigm rather than pain based. So look at what’s in your wall. What does that mess you? You give me the wall behind me.
This is one of my treatment rooms. Obviously don’t take yourself too seriously. If you want to work with families and kiddos, you’ve got to learn to be, spit on pooped on, laugh about it. It’s all cool beans cafe. So this is one of my higher sensory load rooms. Meaning those kiddos that can handle that sensory expression expressive.
I love this room. Okay. It’s a mural. I went on my way. Okay. So it’s got fairies and flowers and all this fun stuff. It is very alive. And family-based, I have another room that is more calm, not that much on the walls, more muted if they need a lower sensory environment, but we’re very neuro adaptive in our decor.
So think about that. What’s the literature stocking stuffer. Number seven. What is the literature you have on display? What are your, what is your messaging within your environment? Do you have the pathways from ICPA, the pathways magazines out there? Do you hold a pathways club? Do you have a lending library that ha.
Cook books for kids and whatever that message you want it to be. All right. I have, and we’ve done a show on this before, where I have patient prompting questions. So they’re on the front and backs of my doors, my treatment doors, my bathroom doors, and I change those out regularly. So what is that meant?
That is a question posed to my patients. Do you have the blue light blues and that is referring to the tech blue light from the technology. And I have pictures of kids on the computer and I have different images and things like that. That’s to get patients to ask me questions what are you talking about?
The blue light blues. But that opens up that conversation for me. With, you know what? We can see sleep issues. We can see behavioral issues with kiddos. We can see a lot of spinal issues because they’re on their computer all the time or on this technology that opens up the basis for you to bring those kiddos in and educate the family on technology.
So again, these are little tidbits. You do all these little things. They add up. To an internal marketing educational strategy where you’re going to really not need a lot of those external marketing strategies and not worrying constantly about how do you get new patients in it becomes its own revolving door of amazing messages that brand do.
Does your external market. Match your internal dialogue. Okay. It’s kinda like we say about walk the talk about health, but does your external marketing and your internal marketing match is what you’re putting out there on Facebook and Instagram and all those technological based social media outlets.
Is it matching your internal? Okay. So what is on your walls? What’s your literature. And then I’m stocking stuffer. Number eight, the grand finale. When I just got through doing a consult right before I jumped on here and I finished my consults up with an office tour. And so they get to see the whole flow of the office.
They get to see that. Hopefully to them, it resignates as a warm, inviting environment for all ages and all stages. All right. I take them through the whole tour. I kinda, the way my office is laid up, it’s like a loop and we end up in what is my sensory gym and And then back to the front desk.
Now I was talking to an amazing person in one of my mentoring groups. And she was saying that her staff also gives a welcoming toward the office. And, they show where the bathrooms are. If you have a copy or tea display area or what. And make them feel part of the family and invited, but she had a in her sensory area, she had a massage table and I like a high chair English word.
I got the German word in my head, but for adults the stools that can you sit higher up on anyway, next to that and her office staff said, this is where Dr. Does her infant exams. Because the table is good for her to get a good view and let’s cover some on our spines and the patient was like a baby exam.
Yeah. Doctor X, Y, and Z works a lot with kiddos and PR in this particular case, it was. Especially little ones after they have what we call a tongue revision. That’s one of the things that she looks at a lot. And so she could do her exam here. It’s just a nice environment and easy for everybody to hear.
And what happened that person was pregnant. A, had one little fiddle fart that had some concerns brought that little one in was pregnant and was planning. That’s my baby and as well. So these little things can be the big things. So just some stocking stuffers I wanted to bring to you before the end of the year.
And Elizabeth was so excited to see you guys, and we want to wish you an incredible Christmas incredible Hanukkah, new years, all those things and nothing but the best in 2022, hopefully you will put some of these into your learning environment, into your office environment and see. That you are you’ll manifest the fruits of your labor.
And most importantly, you’re going to help give families and children more light truths and help for future generations. So until we see you in January Dr. Erik Kowalke he’s gets handed off the first Thursday in January. I’ll be here the third Thursday in January, and we’ll have some more exciting information for you than.
And again, ChiroSecure, thank you so much for helping us educate this incredible profession about the importance of our role in family and pediatric care. And as far as me, Elizabeth, go have an amazing Christmas.
Today’s pediatric show to the children was brought to you by Congress to care. .