June 1, 2025 • 23 mins
Welcome to the KC CHIROpulse Podcast.
This week’s topic: Are you a Chiropractic Innovator or Imitator?
The KC CHIROpulse Podcast is designed for Chiropractic professionals ready to elevate their practice to new heights. This week, the show is hosted by Kats Consultants’ coaches Dr Michael Perusich and Dr Troy Fox, both seasoned experts in Chiropractic business management. This podcast provides invaluable insights and actionable strategies to help you create a flourishing and sustainable Chiropractic business.
In this episode, we discuss:
- Why being an imitator may be nothing more than herd metality
- Why breaking out and doing things differently can benefit your business
- How being an innovator really doesn’t have to cost you money
- Why it’s a great time to innovate your way to success
- …and so much more…
In each episode of KC CHIROpulse, we delve into crucial aspects of building a successful Chiropractic practice, covering topics such as establishing a strong foundation, adopting a patient-centric approach, mastering marketing techniques, achieving financial fitness, fostering effective team building and leadership, integrating technology and innovation, and navigating common challenges in the field.
Whether you're a seasoned chiropractor or just starting your practice, the KC CHIROpulse Podcast offers a wealth of knowledge and personalized practical advice to help you navigate the intricate world of Chiropractic business. Join us on this journey as we explore proven strategies, share success stories, and connect with industry experts to empower you in your pursuit of building a thriving Chiropractic practice.
Don't miss out on the latest insights and expert guidance. Subscribe now and unlock the secrets to taking your Chiropractic practice to the next level. Your success is our priority at Kats Chiropractic Business Advisors.
DISCLAIMER: The information presented in this broadcast is for educational purposes only and is not intended to offer legal, investment, accounting, or medical advice, and represents the opinions of the speakers. Seek the consultation of a professional for advice in those areas. And remember…your results using this information may be different than described.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Dr. Michael Peru (00:09):
Chiropractors, are you an innovator or a
follower?
Hi everybody.
Welcome to the KC Chiro Pulsepodcast, brought to you by Kats
Consultants and Chiro HealthUSA.
I'm Dr.
Michael Perusich, and I'm joinedby my ho co-host.
What are you, my go.
My co-host?
Yeah, your co-host Dr.
Troy Fox.
Hey, Troy.
We were talking about the theold herd mentality in the
(00:32):
profession, which it's a prettybig, it's a pretty big herd.
Dr. Troy Fox (00:36):
It is and it happens a lot.
And we see it a lot and we havepeople come to us wondering
sometimes why they're not doinga little better in practice.
And this is just one aspect ofit, but in a lot of cases, your
buddy down the street is doinga.
X, Y, and Z and you try to mimicthat thinking that's gonna boost
your practice rather thanbecoming, or rather than
(01:01):
creating your own niche inpractice.
And I think that there's so muchopportunity to create niche in
practice now.
That doing.
And when I say a niche inpractice, lemme tell you what my
niche is old school adjusting.
Now, I know that may soundsilly, but there's so many
people that are doing functionalmedicine or that's just one
example, but they decide toreally focus on that and they're
(01:24):
not seeing that many patientsfor adjustments.
Yep.
I'm I'm obviously I'm older, butI.
I I use what my strength is, andthat's the fact that I've been
adjusting for 30 years.
And so my strength lies inadjusting technique.
And so I feel like that's astrong suit for me.
Sure.
And that will create patientretention.
(01:45):
And, I look at those things as,so sometimes a niche is not the
newest, coolest, latest thing.
It just may be different and itmay be what your forte is in
Dr. Michael Perusich (01:54):
practice.
Yeah, I think that's a goodpoint.
And I've always said this, ifyou're a follower, you're never
a winner.
And so you've gotta get out frombehind the pack and quit trying
to do what everybody else istrying to do.
Some of you can be successful atcertain things and some of you
can't.
It's just the nature of thebeast and because chiropractic
(02:16):
is such a high personalitybased.
Business.
You gotta let your personalitylead your practice a little bit
so you know, if you're a greatadjuster, excellent.
Be confident in your adjustingskills and go out and through
your personality, promote that.
But you may be a former athleteand so chiropractic, sports
(02:38):
medicine may be a better routefor you, but.
Anytime we fall into that trapof trying to follow the herd, to
me at least this is the biggestproblem with that.
You also start taking on otherpeople's bad habits.
And just because your buddy downthe street's doing great in
practice, it doesn't mean it'sright.
(02:58):
And I'm not suggesting that justbecause you're doing well,
you're breaking the rules oranything.
But there's, almost a spell thatcan be cast upon you if you try
to do what your buddies aredoing down the street.
And, we've all heard thissaying, but seek out good
mentorship because there's noneed to make the same mistakes
(03:20):
other people have made.
And if you're just talking toyour buddies in the profession
are you making the same mistakesthat other people have made?
That can actually hurt yourbusiness.
Dr. Troy Fox (03:32):
And unfortunately we see that where somebody says
this is what I'm doing.
And we're like, where in theworld did you get that from?
Yeah.
And it's oh, I've got anotherfriend down the street that's
doing that.
And he says that, you know thisis how Medicare works, or this
is how you know, this is howbilling to insurance works or
whatever.
And it's yeah, not so much.
And that's not all we see, butthat is a little bit of it.
(03:54):
And that's concerning when wesee that because some people are
hesitant to make change becausethey live in an area where
everybody does that.
And if everybody's doing itdoesn't always make that herd
mentality grade.
And sometimes it's hard to breakaway.
I have dealt with a little bitof that over my career where
somebody says I went to another.
A chiropractor that billed forthis and I didn't have to pay
(04:18):
for it.
And I'm like.
Yeah, that doesn't work thatway.
And so I'm very quick to protectnot only myself, but my practice
and my staff that work for me.
So part of breaking that herdmentality is making sure that
what you're doing is somethingthat you can go home at the end
of the day and be happy
Dr. Michael Perusich (04:37):
with and feel good about.
Yeah.
Ethically.
Yeah.
Dr. Troy Fox (04:39):
Absolutely.
Dr. Michael Perusic (04:40):
Absolutely.
Yeah.
And unfortunately we see far toomany docs get in trouble.
That's the flip side of what wedo is we hear a lot of the good
stories, but we hear the badstories too.
And there's recently been acouple of doctors who are in the
country who are facing jail timebecause of things they were
doing wrong, just because theydidn't feel like they were
(05:02):
making enough money.
And so somebody along the wayprobably told them, Hey, do this
in your practice.
And yeah, made'em some money,but.
It wasn't compliant.
It was illegal.
Dr. Troy Fox (05:13):
Yeah.
And if you don't, if you don'twant end up like P Diddy,
because here's the deal, and Isay that jokingly, but at the
same time, insurance companiesnow are, and those folks that
are in trouble and facing jailtime right now, they have
utilized the RICO Act againstthem.
Yep.
So it's a they're using whatthey use with organized crime
(05:34):
against individual doctors.
And so you have to be reallycareful about what you're doing
and make sure that you arefollowing all the rules and not
just saying everybody else isdoing it, so it must be okay.
It's kinda like speeding on thehighway.
I could be driving over thespeed limit, which I mean, maybe
occasionally I do.
No, my wife would say most ofthe time, but I also am aware of
(05:56):
the risk.
Yeah.
I know that I could be in a herdof cars or a pack of cars
driving down the road, and Icould be the one to get pulled
over.
Maybe the officer getting readyto pull me over sees me.
Accelerating faster than someoneelse, or maybe he just doesn't
like the color of my car.
Or maybe you're
Dr. Michael Perusich (06:14):
the one in the back of the pack and you're
the easiest one to get to.
Dr. Troy Fox (06:17):
And then, yeah, that's the
Dr. Michael Perusich (06:17):
problem with being the follower.
You're easy prey.
Dr. Troy Fox (06:21):
And so when it comes to practice, it's very
easy to get caught up in thecomfort of that and just go on.
It's no big deal.
I get concerned about that forfolks and it gets frustrating at
times because you see peoplethat just don't listen to you
and you worry for'em.
But, on the flip side of that,on the good side,'cause we've
talked about that bad sideenough.
(06:42):
Creating your niche in practiceis something that sets you apart
from the rest of the crowd.
Yep.
Whether it
Dr. Michael Perusich (06:50):
be, I'm gonna, I'm gonna park you right
there.
Yep.
'cause we need to take a break,but there, there's a great segue
here.
So everybody we're gonna take aquick break here, a word from
our sponsors.
We're gonna come back and we'retalking about being an innovator
or a follower and kind of theherd mentality that sometimes we
see in the profession.
And we're gonna have a debateover whether it's niche or
niche.
We'll be right back.
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Dr. Michael Perusich (08:20):
All right everybody.
Welcome back to the KCChiroPulse podcast.
We are talking about being aninnovator.
Or being a follower in thechiropractic profession.
Troy, you opened the door to theimportance of building a niche
in your practice.
I know I didn't go there.
Niche or niche?
Dr. Troy Fox (08:36):
From what I understand the higher your iq,
the more you lean towards usingthe word niche instead of niche.
Dr. Michael Perusich (08:42):
So if I call it niche, my IQs like off
the chart.
Dr. Troy Fox (08:45):
Oh, off the chart.
Way up there.
That's like a French version ofit.
Dr. Michael Perusich (08:49):
Yeah.
Putte goo on it.
See, I took French in highschool.
I love it.
Yeah I think having a niche isincredibly important because
here's the problem with findingyourself in that herd mentality
is you're no different thananybody else.
Doing, having that same kind ofpractice.
(09:11):
And so I think this is sometimeswhere our profession gets people
confused a little bit.
And you brought this up earlier,you had a patient that came in
and said the last doctor I wentto build for that service, so
the last doctor I went to, did a17 minute massage after the
adjustment.
How come you don't.
This is where our professiongets trapped in this.
(09:32):
We're all the same kind of ideabecause we're afraid to be
innovators.
And being an innovator is a goodthing because it makes you stand
out.
And part of that is having aniche in your practice, whether
it's a.
Dry needling or your adjustmentskills or your therapies that
(09:52):
you do in your practice,whatever it might be, maybe your
pediatric practice.
Having a niche and marketingthat niche is incredibly
important and you may have tocontinue
Dr. Troy Fox (10:02):
to be innovative because in a lot of cases,
whatever you're doing five yearsfrom now, everybody's doing
exactly.
You may have to create a newniche or you're just the top of
the heap and you're the best at,and you ref you first to market
with it.
Yep.
And you're where you need to be.
But sometimes you do get in thatsituation where it's time to
(10:23):
reinvent yourself again.
And I look at that all the time.
I'm constantly evaluating mypractice to determine are there
services we need to add?
We look at it from a standpointof not, and being innovative
sometimes is not just thetechniques that you use in your
practice.
I have had a phrase that I'veused forever and my staff knows
it inside and out.
(10:43):
Because it sight smells andsounds.
Yep.
When you walk into my practice,I want the practice to look very
professional, but also I want itI want it to look, homey.
I want it to look like somethingthat you want to walk into and
it's comforting and reassuring.
The smells, we use essentialoils all over our office.
(11:04):
Yep.
I want it to smell good all thetime.
I don't want it to smellantiseptic and I don't want
there to be no smell.
I want there to be some sort ofaroma because I have patients
all the time to, oh my gosh.
What is that you're doing in thediffuser today?
'cause we change all to get that
Dr. Michael Perusich (11:19):
too.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Dr. Troy Fox (11:20):
And then the sounds for me.
They could be anything.
You could play a soft rockstation.
Something that is agreeable toeveryone.
You could play jazz music.
You could play like a KLO radio,positive enough lifting music.
I vacillate between Jazz andklo.
And the reason I do is any ofyou that have used klo, they
(11:42):
have a fundraising drive atdifferent parts of the year and
it's more talk than it is music.
Dr. Michael Perusich (11:47):
So you have to say, or
Dr. Troy Fox (11:48):
I get to a point of where their top 40 songs that
they play over and over again.
'cause they're really a top 40Christian station gets to be
where like.
I know the words to every singlesong.
It's time to go back to jazz fora little while.
Dr. Michael Perusich (12:01):
It's kinda like the Christmas station at
Christmas time.
Yeah.
Yeah,
Dr. Troy Fox (12:04):
sight, smell, sound.
So for me, I feel like I aminnovative when I do that
because I'll walk into otheroffices and it's not the case.
Maybe there's no aroma, maybethere's no music playing.
There's no sounds whatsoever.
And maybe their staff is supercordial when you walk through
the door.
But to me it's eerily silentbecause I like to hear music.
And so basically I want it tolook like and smell and sound
(12:28):
like.
What I would want to walk intoin an office.
Yep.
And I get good patient feedbackfrom that, but that's a very
small thing, but that's stillbeing innovative and removing
yourself from the pack.
My waiting room looks more likesomebody's living room with a
fireplace in a TV up aboveplaying Chiro tv rather than a
bunch of waiting room chairs.
(12:49):
I actually went to a consignmentstore and bought somebody else's
furniture outta their livingroom.
Sure.
Put it in my waiting room andpeople love it.
They go in and lounge in mywaiting room, get themselves a
cup of coffee or hot cocoa.
Yeah.
If I'm not ready for'em.
Yeah.
But some of'em were like, darn,I was gonna get a cup of hot
cocoa today and you were readyfor me, too quick.
(13:09):
So ours,
Dr. Michael Perusich (13:09):
ours was like a bookstore.
We had this huge bookcase justfull of books.
Yeah.
All kinds of books.
Books on health, books on,raising a family, whatever.
And we would let patientsactually check books out.
And they loved it.
People would come in with a cupof coffee and sit down and
they'd stay there for an hour.
Yeah.
Just to read on their book
Dr. Troy Fox (13:29):
like a library.
But that's a niche for youbecause what other office can
you think of that has a largebookshelf with a bunch of books,
right?
Where you can come in and justcheck things out?
I'd be fascinated by
Dr. Michael Perusich (13:41):
that.
So are you out there?
I'm just gonna pose thisquestion.
Are you an imitator or aninnovator?
Are you looking like the sameold chiropractic experience that
anybody can get in your town?
Or are you being an innovator ina way that is attracting people
to a brand new experience?
And I want to come back.
We need to take another break.
I wanna come back and I wannatalk about how being an
(14:03):
innovator helps build that greatpatient experience.
Dr. Troy Fox (14:06):
And we're gonna give you a really good quote
from Ricky Bobby when we getback.
If you don't know who RickyBobby is, watch Talladega
Knights.
We'll be back.
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practice management needs.
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Give us a call today.
Dr. Michael Perusich (14:46):
All right everybody.
Welcome back to the KC PulsePodcast, brought to you by Cats
Consultants and Chiro Health,USA and Ricky Bobby, apparently
yeah.
So we're talking about this ideaof are you an innovator or an
imitator?
And, being an imitator is justmaking your practice look like
every practice in town.
But being an innovator is whatcreates a different patient
(15:08):
experience.
I use this example ad nauseum,but Starbucks.
Starbucks took a, an old, bland,traditional coffee shop and
turned it into something thatpeople, I.
Wanna be a part of.
They want to go, they wanna seehow they gonna spell my name
today.
Are they gonna remember me whenI walk in the door?
(15:28):
That kind of thing.
It, they created an energyaround coffee.
And so what kind of energy areyou out there, are you creating
around chiropractic care?
I'll give you another example.
I don't know if you out there,you're familiar with this, but
look'em up.
The Savannah Bananas.
They're minor league baseballteam.
They're basically a off seasoncollege team, but they have
(15:51):
totally turned a baseball gameon its ear and done something
totally different.
And here's the cool thing aboutit.
They are sold out every game,every season for years in
advance.
Because of how they've justchanged people's idea of
baseball.
People talk about going to thesebaseball games.
(16:11):
They didn't like baseball, butthey go to see the show.
So what is your practice?
Is it put, are you putting on ashow?
Are you creating somethinginnovative that creates a
patient experience that peopleabsolutely wanna be a part of?
Dr. Troy Fox (16:24):
Yeah, that is really what you're looking at
and my quote from Ricky Bobby,I'm sure those of you that have
seen Talladega Knights thought Iwas gonna say, I'm on fire.
I'm on fire as I roll down.
Perception is reality.
So Ricky Bobby was right.
He was on fire'cause he thoughthe was, but here's the quote,
you're not first, you're last.
And quite frankly, if you'rejust riding in the middle of the
pack and you're really nottrying to be innovative.
(16:48):
To me it's a more dullexperience for your patients
when they're walking through thedoor.
And, most of you say to us, Idon't wanna do sales.
Sales is such a dirty word,right?
I don't wanna do sales.
One way to not do sales is tocreate an environment in your
practice where people want tocome back.
Dr. Michael Perusich (17:07):
That, you know what the funny part of that
is?
That is part of sales.
Dr. Troy Fox (17:11):
Oh my gosh, we just did sales.
Sorry, whisper.
That's one way to bring peopleinto your practice.
Yeah.
An another way to not sell, butto be different from other
practices could be in yourdelivery with patients.
When you talk about care, I hada, here's a really great
example.
This is a guy that had come intomy practice in and out several
(17:34):
times.
Really never followed throughwith a whole lot, but the
message remained the same.
So the message was, you probablyought to be seen a little bit
more often.
It's good to see you, but, andyeah, the conversation, and I
ended it with that at the veryend.
Never said another word becausehe typically did not schedule.
(17:59):
He would call me, which was un.
It's unusual in my practice,most people schedule to try to
get the slot they want and sure.
Why.
He's I'll just call.
So I walk out of my adjustingroom.
I happen to have a second towalk back to my office, which
doesn't happen.
Very happen very often.
But I was walking by the frontand I heard him scheduling and
(18:21):
he even scheduled within thetimeframe that I thought he
should have.
But I never gave him atimeframe.
But he'd heard the message fromme enough times.
He knew that he knew, and thatin itself.
Separates me from otherchiropractors in my area.
Yeah.
That maybe run more of what Iwould call a first aid practice
(18:44):
or a pain relief practice.
My goal with patients, and Itell'em upfront when I'm working
with them, that my goal inpractice is not only to get you
well, to keep you well for thelong term.
When you're 75 years old, Istill want you trucking around
doing what you want to do.
It's a really simple way toexplain why long-term care is
(19:05):
important, because you're notgonna fall over today.
I know if I don't see you nextweek, and I told you that'd be a
great idea to see you next week,you're probably not gonna die.
So it's important, but is iturgent?
No.
Now, sometimes it's urgentbecause you're in a great deal
of pain, but sometimes it's not.
So that's another way to setyourself apart, which is just a
(19:25):
tiny little thing that setsyourself apart from other
practices in the area.
So you have to really evaluatewhat are other people around me
doing?
What are we doing in ourpractice?
If you have staff, get theminvolved.
What are we doing that's cool?
What are we doing that's not socool?
Yep.
Where have we failed ourpatients?
Your staff knows probably morethan you do about that at times.
Dr. Michael Perusich (19:47):
This is a fun exercise with your staff.
You guys out there, you ask usall the time, what are good
things to talk about in a staffmeeting?
Talk about how can we create abetter experience, how can we
innovate some new ideas into thepractice?
So we set ourselves apart fromeverybody else and stop being
the imitator.
And
Dr. Troy Fox (20:03):
let's do the free ones first.
Because the free ones areusually the easiest.
They're also ones that aren'tpainful because you're not
having to go out and buy stuff.
I think a lot of times we try tobuy our way out of complacency
and practice.
Yeah.
Because we know we'recomplacent.
We're, our practice is justapplauding along and we're like,
I want some excitement.
I want it to be better.
You don't have to spend a
Dr. Michael Perusich (20:24):
dime to do this.
Dr. Troy Fox (20:25):
No.
You could do some crazy coolstuff in your practice.
You.
Patients involved.
We do things that, may seem verysimple, but get a lot of patient
involvement.
We did a coloring contest.
We had people coming in off thestreet to get involved in the
coloring contest because therewas a prize at the end of it.
And we told'em, feel free totell your friends if they want
(20:48):
to come in and do it.
Patient or no patient.
They can come in.
And I had young kids in mywaiting room.
Coloring pictures to be hung inthe front of the office.
For us to give prizes away atthe end.
I love that end.
Dr. Michael Perusich (21:01):
I love
Dr. Troy Fox (21:02):
that.
And that was an innovativething.
Yeah.
And I could have kept it just toour patients that said, oh, you
have to be a patient to do it.
But I said, no, let's let thecommunity be involved.
Plus it gave an opportunity forpeople to walk into my office
because my office, the way it'sset up, the sun shines in our
office really badly.
In the afternoon, and so we'vegot the screens on the front
(21:23):
that have our logo and our nameand all that, but you can't
really see into the office fromthe outside.
You have to walk in and so itallowed people in this smaller
town that are used to seeing mylogo and they know where my
office is at, but they've neverbeen inside the building to walk
in and go.
And I heard a lot of times, wow,this is really nice in here.
(21:44):
And guess what?
I didn't spend a whole lot ofmoney doing it.
Like I said, assignment store.
So that's part of the innovativeprocess is figuring out how you
can do things.
But sometimes you're in a cashstrapped situation because maybe
your practice isn't doing aswell as you want, and you're
like, I don't have a bunch ofmoney to spend on this.
(22:05):
Start with the free stuff.
Pull your staff, find
Dr. Michael Perusich (22:08):
out what should we do.
Absolutely.
Get out there and be aninnovator.
Don't be afraid of that.
So you tell your patients, I'msure to stay away from imitation
foods that are bad for'em.
Quit making yourself imitation.
Get out, innovate, create thatexperience for patients.
Do something unique, different,and fun, and your practice will
soar because of it.
(22:31):
All right.
Great
Dr. Troy Fox (22:33):
show today.
Great topic.
Yeah.
Yeah, it is And it's somethingyou guys can go do today.
Absolutely.
And I love that we do thisoften.
So if you haven't listened to usbefore, this is the kind of
stuff that we're giving you issomething that you can implement
in your practice this week.
Dr. Michael Perusich (22:47):
Yeah.
Which is fantastic.
Absolutely.
So if you haven't done so yet,go to katsconsultants.com, check
out all the great things we'redoing to help doctors really
create thriving.
Profitable practices.
There's some free downloads andthings on there.
Feel free to check'em out.
Make sure you subscribe andshare the podcast.
I, I'm telling you guys, this iscrazy.
I was looking at the numbersearlier.
(23:10):
And our podcast has grown likewildfire, but it's because of
all of you out there listeningto us.
So we really appreciate it.
We do this, Troy and I do thisand the rest of the team because
we want chiropractors tosucceed.
Chiropractors, are you an innovator or a
follower?
Hi everybody.
Welcome to the KC Chiro Pulsepodcast, brought to you by Kats
Consultants and Chiro HealthUSA.
I'm Dr.
Michael Perusich, and I'm joinedby my ho co-host.
What are you, my go.
My co-host?
Yeah, your co-host Dr.
Troy Fox.
Hey, Troy.
We were talking about the theold herd mentality in the
(00:32):
profession, which it's a prettybig, it's a pretty big herd.
Dr. Troy Fox (00:36):
It is and it happens a lot.
And we see it a lot and we havepeople come to us wondering
sometimes why they're not doinga little better in practice.
And this is just one aspect ofit, but in a lot of cases, your
buddy down the street is doinga.
X, Y, and Z and you try to mimicthat thinking that's gonna boost
your practice rather thanbecoming, or rather than
(01:01):
creating your own niche inpractice.
And I think that there's so muchopportunity to create niche in
practice now.
That doing.
And when I say a niche inpractice, lemme tell you what my
niche is old school adjusting.
Now, I know that may soundsilly, but there's so many
people that are doing functionalmedicine or that's just one
example, but they decide toreally focus on that and they're
(01:24):
not seeing that many patientsfor adjustments.
Yep.
I'm I'm obviously I'm older, butI.
I I use what my strength is, andthat's the fact that I've been
adjusting for 30 years.
And so my strength lies inadjusting technique.
And so I feel like that's astrong suit for me.
Sure.
And that will create patientretention.
(01:45):
And, I look at those things as,so sometimes a niche is not the
newest, coolest, latest thing.
It just may be different and itmay be what your forte is in
Dr. Michael Perusich (01:54):
practice.
Yeah, I think that's a goodpoint.
And I've always said this, ifyou're a follower, you're never
a winner.
And so you've gotta get out frombehind the pack and quit trying
to do what everybody else istrying to do.
Some of you can be successful atcertain things and some of you
can't.
It's just the nature of thebeast and because chiropractic
(02:16):
is such a high personalitybased.
Business.
You gotta let your personalitylead your practice a little bit
so you know, if you're a greatadjuster, excellent.
Be confident in your adjustingskills and go out and through
your personality, promote that.
But you may be a former athleteand so chiropractic, sports
(02:38):
medicine may be a better routefor you, but.
Anytime we fall into that trapof trying to follow the herd, to
me at least this is the biggestproblem with that.
You also start taking on otherpeople's bad habits.
And just because your buddy downthe street's doing great in
practice, it doesn't mean it'sright.
(02:58):
And I'm not suggesting that justbecause you're doing well,
you're breaking the rules oranything.
But there's, almost a spell thatcan be cast upon you if you try
to do what your buddies aredoing down the street.
And, we've all heard thissaying, but seek out good
mentorship because there's noneed to make the same mistakes
(03:20):
other people have made.
And if you're just talking toyour buddies in the profession
are you making the same mistakesthat other people have made?
That can actually hurt yourbusiness.
Dr. Troy Fox (03:32):
And unfortunately we see that where somebody says
this is what I'm doing.
And we're like, where in theworld did you get that from?
Yeah.
And it's oh, I've got anotherfriend down the street that's
doing that.
And he says that, you know thisis how Medicare works, or this
is how you know, this is howbilling to insurance works or
whatever.
And it's yeah, not so much.
And that's not all we see, butthat is a little bit of it.
(03:54):
And that's concerning when wesee that because some people are
hesitant to make change becausethey live in an area where
everybody does that.
And if everybody's doing itdoesn't always make that herd
mentality grade.
And sometimes it's hard to breakaway.
I have dealt with a little bitof that over my career where
somebody says I went to another.
A chiropractor that billed forthis and I didn't have to pay
(04:18):
for it.
And I'm like.
Yeah, that doesn't work thatway.
And so I'm very quick to protectnot only myself, but my practice
and my staff that work for me.
So part of breaking that herdmentality is making sure that
what you're doing is somethingthat you can go home at the end
of the day and be happy
Dr. Michael Perusich (04:37):
with and feel good about.
Yeah.
Ethically.
Yeah.
Dr. Troy Fox (04:39):
Absolutely.
Dr. Michael Perusic (04:40):
Absolutely.
Yeah.
And unfortunately we see far toomany docs get in trouble.
That's the flip side of what wedo is we hear a lot of the good
stories, but we hear the badstories too.
And there's recently been acouple of doctors who are in the
country who are facing jail timebecause of things they were
doing wrong, just because theydidn't feel like they were
(05:02):
making enough money.
And so somebody along the wayprobably told them, Hey, do this
in your practice.
And yeah, made'em some money,but.
It wasn't compliant.
It was illegal.
Dr. Troy Fox (05:13):
Yeah.
And if you don't, if you don'twant end up like P Diddy,
because here's the deal, and Isay that jokingly, but at the
same time, insurance companiesnow are, and those folks that
are in trouble and facing jailtime right now, they have
utilized the RICO Act againstthem.
Yep.
So it's a they're using whatthey use with organized crime
(05:34):
against individual doctors.
And so you have to be reallycareful about what you're doing
and make sure that you arefollowing all the rules and not
just saying everybody else isdoing it, so it must be okay.
It's kinda like speeding on thehighway.
I could be driving over thespeed limit, which I mean, maybe
occasionally I do.
No, my wife would say most ofthe time, but I also am aware of
(05:56):
the risk.
Yeah.
I know that I could be in a herdof cars or a pack of cars
driving down the road, and Icould be the one to get pulled
over.
Maybe the officer getting readyto pull me over sees me.
Accelerating faster than someoneelse, or maybe he just doesn't
like the color of my car.
Or maybe you're
Dr. Michael Perusich (06:14):
the one in the back of the pack and you're
the easiest one to get to.
Dr. Troy Fox (06:17):
And then, yeah, that's the
Dr. Michael Perusich (06:17):
problem with being the follower.
You're easy prey.
Dr. Troy Fox (06:21):
And so when it comes to practice, it's very
easy to get caught up in thecomfort of that and just go on.
It's no big deal.
I get concerned about that forfolks and it gets frustrating at
times because you see peoplethat just don't listen to you
and you worry for'em.
But, on the flip side of that,on the good side,'cause we've
talked about that bad sideenough.
(06:42):
Creating your niche in practiceis something that sets you apart
from the rest of the crowd.
Yep.
Whether it
Dr. Michael Perusich (06:50):
be, I'm gonna, I'm gonna park you right
there.
Yep.
'cause we need to take a break,but there, there's a great segue
here.
So everybody we're gonna take aquick break here, a word from
our sponsors.
We're gonna come back and we'retalking about being an innovator
or a follower and kind of theherd mentality that sometimes we
see in the profession.
And we're gonna have a debateover whether it's niche or
niche.
We'll be right back.
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Dr. Michael Perusich (08:20):
All right everybody.
Welcome back to the KCChiroPulse podcast.
We are talking about being aninnovator.
Or being a follower in thechiropractic profession.
Troy, you opened the door to theimportance of building a niche
in your practice.
I know I didn't go there.
Niche or niche?
Dr. Troy Fox (08:36):
From what I understand the higher your iq,
the more you lean towards usingthe word niche instead of niche.
Dr. Michael Perusich (08:42):
So if I call it niche, my IQs like off
the chart.
Dr. Troy Fox (08:45):
Oh, off the chart.
Way up there.
That's like a French version ofit.
Dr. Michael Perusich (08:49):
Yeah.
Putte goo on it.
See, I took French in highschool.
I love it.
Yeah I think having a niche isincredibly important because
here's the problem with findingyourself in that herd mentality
is you're no different thananybody else.
Doing, having that same kind ofpractice.
(09:11):
And so I think this is sometimeswhere our profession gets people
confused a little bit.
And you brought this up earlier,you had a patient that came in
and said the last doctor I wentto build for that service, so
the last doctor I went to, did a17 minute massage after the
adjustment.
How come you don't.
This is where our professiongets trapped in this.
(09:32):
We're all the same kind of ideabecause we're afraid to be
innovators.
And being an innovator is a goodthing because it makes you stand
out.
And part of that is having aniche in your practice, whether
it's a.
Dry needling or your adjustmentskills or your therapies that
(09:52):
you do in your practice,whatever it might be, maybe your
pediatric practice.
Having a niche and marketingthat niche is incredibly
important and you may have tocontinue
Dr. Troy Fox (10:02):
to be innovative because in a lot of cases,
whatever you're doing five yearsfrom now, everybody's doing
exactly.
You may have to create a newniche or you're just the top of
the heap and you're the best at,and you ref you first to market
with it.
Yep.
And you're where you need to be.
But sometimes you do get in thatsituation where it's time to
(10:23):
reinvent yourself again.
And I look at that all the time.
I'm constantly evaluating mypractice to determine are there
services we need to add?
We look at it from a standpointof not, and being innovative
sometimes is not just thetechniques that you use in your
practice.
I have had a phrase that I'veused forever and my staff knows
it inside and out.
(10:43):
Because it sight smells andsounds.
Yep.
When you walk into my practice,I want the practice to look very
professional, but also I want itI want it to look, homey.
I want it to look like somethingthat you want to walk into and
it's comforting and reassuring.
The smells, we use essentialoils all over our office.
(11:04):
Yep.
I want it to smell good all thetime.
I don't want it to smellantiseptic and I don't want
there to be no smell.
I want there to be some sort ofaroma because I have patients
all the time to, oh my gosh.
What is that you're doing in thediffuser today?
'cause we change all to get that
Dr. Michael Perusich (11:19):
too.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Dr. Troy Fox (11:20):
And then the sounds for me.
They could be anything.
You could play a soft rockstation.
Something that is agreeable toeveryone.
You could play jazz music.
You could play like a KLO radio,positive enough lifting music.
I vacillate between Jazz andklo.
And the reason I do is any ofyou that have used klo, they
(11:42):
have a fundraising drive atdifferent parts of the year and
it's more talk than it is music.
Dr. Michael Perusich (11:47):
So you have to say, or
Dr. Troy Fox (11:48):
I get to a point of where their top 40 songs that
they play over and over again.
'cause they're really a top 40Christian station gets to be
where like.
I know the words to every singlesong.
It's time to go back to jazz fora little while.
Dr. Michael Perusich (12:01):
It's kinda like the Christmas station at
Christmas time.
Yeah.
Yeah,
Dr. Troy Fox (12:04):
sight, smell, sound.
So for me, I feel like I aminnovative when I do that
because I'll walk into otheroffices and it's not the case.
Maybe there's no aroma, maybethere's no music playing.
There's no sounds whatsoever.
And maybe their staff is supercordial when you walk through
the door.
But to me it's eerily silentbecause I like to hear music.
And so basically I want it tolook like and smell and sound
(12:28):
like.
What I would want to walk intoin an office.
Yep.
And I get good patient feedbackfrom that, but that's a very
small thing, but that's stillbeing innovative and removing
yourself from the pack.
My waiting room looks more likesomebody's living room with a
fireplace in a TV up aboveplaying Chiro tv rather than a
bunch of waiting room chairs.
(12:49):
I actually went to a consignmentstore and bought somebody else's
furniture outta their livingroom.
Sure.
Put it in my waiting room andpeople love it.
They go in and lounge in mywaiting room, get themselves a
cup of coffee or hot cocoa.
Yeah.
If I'm not ready for'em.
Yeah.
But some of'em were like, darn,I was gonna get a cup of hot
cocoa today and you were readyfor me, too quick.
(13:09):
So ours,
Dr. Michael Perusich (13:09):
ours was like a bookstore.
We had this huge bookcase justfull of books.
Yeah.
All kinds of books.
Books on health, books on,raising a family, whatever.
And we would let patientsactually check books out.
And they loved it.
People would come in with a cupof coffee and sit down and
they'd stay there for an hour.
Yeah.
Just to read on their book
Dr. Troy Fox (13:29):
like a library.
But that's a niche for youbecause what other office can
you think of that has a largebookshelf with a bunch of books,
right?
Where you can come in and justcheck things out?
I'd be fascinated by
Dr. Michael Perusich (13:41):
that.
So are you out there?
I'm just gonna pose thisquestion.
Are you an imitator or aninnovator?
Are you looking like the sameold chiropractic experience that
anybody can get in your town?
Or are you being an innovator ina way that is attracting people
to a brand new experience?
And I want to come back.
We need to take another break.
I wanna come back and I wannatalk about how being an
(14:03):
innovator helps build that greatpatient experience.
Dr. Troy Fox (14:06):
And we're gonna give you a really good quote
from Ricky Bobby when we getback.
If you don't know who RickyBobby is, watch Talladega
Knights.
We'll be back.
Kats Consultants (14:19):
Pat's Chiropractic consultants, your
partner in chiropractic success.
We are dedicated with one-on-oneguidance to bring you all your
practice management needs.
Let's supercharge your practice.
Give us a call today.
Dr. Michael Perusich (14:46):
All right everybody.
Welcome back to the KC PulsePodcast, brought to you by Cats
Consultants and Chiro Health,USA and Ricky Bobby, apparently
yeah.
So we're talking about this ideaof are you an innovator or an
imitator?
And, being an imitator is justmaking your practice look like
every practice in town.
But being an innovator is whatcreates a different patient
(15:08):
experience.
I use this example ad nauseum,but Starbucks.
Starbucks took a, an old, bland,traditional coffee shop and
turned it into something thatpeople, I.
Wanna be a part of.
They want to go, they wanna seehow they gonna spell my name
today.
Are they gonna remember me whenI walk in the door?
(15:28):
That kind of thing.
It, they created an energyaround coffee.
And so what kind of energy areyou out there, are you creating
around chiropractic care?
I'll give you another example.
I don't know if you out there,you're familiar with this, but
look'em up.
The Savannah Bananas.
They're minor league baseballteam.
They're basically a off seasoncollege team, but they have
(15:51):
totally turned a baseball gameon its ear and done something
totally different.
And here's the cool thing aboutit.
They are sold out every game,every season for years in
advance.
Because of how they've justchanged people's idea of
baseball.
People talk about going to thesebaseball games.
(16:11):
They didn't like baseball, butthey go to see the show.
So what is your practice?
Is it put, are you putting on ashow?
Are you creating somethinginnovative that creates a
patient experience that peopleabsolutely wanna be a part of?
Dr. Troy Fox (16:24):
Yeah, that is really what you're looking at
and my quote from Ricky Bobby,I'm sure those of you that have
seen Talladega Knights thought Iwas gonna say, I'm on fire.
I'm on fire as I roll down.
Perception is reality.
So Ricky Bobby was right.
He was on fire'cause he thoughthe was, but here's the quote,
you're not first, you're last.
And quite frankly, if you'rejust riding in the middle of the
pack and you're really nottrying to be innovative.
(16:48):
To me it's a more dullexperience for your patients
when they're walking through thedoor.
And, most of you say to us, Idon't wanna do sales.
Sales is such a dirty word,right?
I don't wanna do sales.
One way to not do sales is tocreate an environment in your
practice where people want tocome back.
Dr. Michael Perusich (17:07):
That, you know what the funny part of that
is?
That is part of sales.
Dr. Troy Fox (17:11):
Oh my gosh, we just did sales.
Sorry, whisper.
That's one way to bring peopleinto your practice.
Yeah.
An another way to not sell, butto be different from other
practices could be in yourdelivery with patients.
When you talk about care, I hada, here's a really great
example.
This is a guy that had come intomy practice in and out several
(17:34):
times.
Really never followed throughwith a whole lot, but the
message remained the same.
So the message was, you probablyought to be seen a little bit
more often.
It's good to see you, but, andyeah, the conversation, and I
ended it with that at the veryend.
Never said another word becausehe typically did not schedule.
(17:59):
He would call me, which was un.
It's unusual in my practice,most people schedule to try to
get the slot they want and sure.
Why.
He's I'll just call.
So I walk out of my adjustingroom.
I happen to have a second towalk back to my office, which
doesn't happen.
Very happen very often.
But I was walking by the frontand I heard him scheduling and
(18:21):
he even scheduled within thetimeframe that I thought he
should have.
But I never gave him atimeframe.
But he'd heard the message fromme enough times.
He knew that he knew, and thatin itself.
Separates me from otherchiropractors in my area.
Yeah.
That maybe run more of what Iwould call a first aid practice
(18:44):
or a pain relief practice.
My goal with patients, and Itell'em upfront when I'm working
with them, that my goal inpractice is not only to get you
well, to keep you well for thelong term.
When you're 75 years old, Istill want you trucking around
doing what you want to do.
It's a really simple way toexplain why long-term care is
(19:05):
important, because you're notgonna fall over today.
I know if I don't see you nextweek, and I told you that'd be a
great idea to see you next week,you're probably not gonna die.
So it's important, but is iturgent?
No.
Now, sometimes it's urgentbecause you're in a great deal
of pain, but sometimes it's not.
So that's another way to setyourself apart, which is just a
(19:25):
tiny little thing that setsyourself apart from other
practices in the area.
So you have to really evaluatewhat are other people around me
doing?
What are we doing in ourpractice?
If you have staff, get theminvolved.
What are we doing that's cool?
What are we doing that's not socool?
Yep.
Where have we failed ourpatients?
Your staff knows probably morethan you do about that at times.
Dr. Michael Perusich (19:47):
This is a fun exercise with your staff.
You guys out there, you ask usall the time, what are good
things to talk about in a staffmeeting?
Talk about how can we create abetter experience, how can we
innovate some new ideas into thepractice?
So we set ourselves apart fromeverybody else and stop being
the imitator.
And
Dr. Troy Fox (20:03):
let's do the free ones first.
Because the free ones areusually the easiest.
They're also ones that aren'tpainful because you're not
having to go out and buy stuff.
I think a lot of times we try tobuy our way out of complacency
and practice.
Yeah.
Because we know we'recomplacent.
We're, our practice is justapplauding along and we're like,
I want some excitement.
I want it to be better.
You don't have to spend a
Dr. Michael Perusich (20:24):
dime to do this.
Dr. Troy Fox (20:25):
No.
You could do some crazy coolstuff in your practice.
You.
Patients involved.
We do things that, may seem verysimple, but get a lot of patient
involvement.
We did a coloring contest.
We had people coming in off thestreet to get involved in the
coloring contest because therewas a prize at the end of it.
And we told'em, feel free totell your friends if they want
(20:48):
to come in and do it.
Patient or no patient.
They can come in.
And I had young kids in mywaiting room.
Coloring pictures to be hung inthe front of the office.
For us to give prizes away atthe end.
I love that end.
Dr. Michael Perusich (21:01):
I love
Dr. Troy Fox (21:02):
that.
And that was an innovativething.
Yeah.
And I could have kept it just toour patients that said, oh, you
have to be a patient to do it.
But I said, no, let's let thecommunity be involved.
Plus it gave an opportunity forpeople to walk into my office
because my office, the way it'sset up, the sun shines in our
office really badly.
In the afternoon, and so we'vegot the screens on the front
(21:23):
that have our logo and our nameand all that, but you can't
really see into the office fromthe outside.
You have to walk in and so itallowed people in this smaller
town that are used to seeing mylogo and they know where my
office is at, but they've neverbeen inside the building to walk
in and go.
And I heard a lot of times, wow,this is really nice in here.
(21:44):
And guess what?
I didn't spend a whole lot ofmoney doing it.
Like I said, assignment store.
So that's part of the innovativeprocess is figuring out how you
can do things.
But sometimes you're in a cashstrapped situation because maybe
your practice isn't doing aswell as you want, and you're
like, I don't have a bunch ofmoney to spend on this.
(22:05):
Start with the free stuff.
Pull your staff, find
Dr. Michael Perusich (22:08):
out what should we do.
Absolutely.
Get out there and be aninnovator.
Don't be afraid of that.
So you tell your patients, I'msure to stay away from imitation
foods that are bad for'em.
Quit making yourself imitation.
Get out, innovate, create thatexperience for patients.
Do something unique, different,and fun, and your practice will
soar because of it.
(22:31):
All right.
Great
Dr. Troy Fox (22:33):
show today.
Great topic.
Yeah.
Yeah, it is And it's somethingyou guys can go do today.
Absolutely.
And I love that we do thisoften.
So if you haven't listened to usbefore, this is the kind of
stuff that we're giving you issomething that you can implement
in your practice this week.
Dr. Michael Perusich (22:47):
Yeah.
Which is fantastic.
Absolutely.
So if you haven't done so yet,go to katsconsultants.com, check
out all the great things we'redoing to help doctors really
create thriving.
Profitable practices.
There's some free downloads andthings on there.
Feel free to check'em out.
Make sure you subscribe andshare the podcast.
I, I'm telling you guys, this iscrazy.
I was looking at the numbersearlier.
(23:10):
And our podcast has grown likewildfire, but it's because of
all of you out there listeningto us.
So we really appreciate it.
We do this, Troy and I do thisand the rest of the team because
we want chiropractors tosucceed.
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