EPISODE 371: What I Learned from Strategic Coach's CoachCon Event

Hey, chiropractors. We're ready for another Modern Chiropractic Marketing Show with Dr. Kevin Christie, where we discuss the latest in marketing strategies, contact marketing, direct response marketing, and business development with some of the leading experts in the industry.

Hey docs, welcome to another episode of Modern Chiropractic Mastery. This is your host, Dr. Kevin Christie, and today I'm bringing you a solo episode, kind of a update episode on what I was doing in Nashville, Tennessee. And then when I was also in Denver last week and I was at the strategic coach, coach con, it was the first time they've actually done a live event.

That was a big conference. You know, typically I go there quarterly for the last 11 years. And. And it's workshop style with about 50 people. This was a full on conference with probably 350 people. And it was really a first class experience. Uh, definitely had a price tag to it, uh, but was really good and got a lot out of it.

And what I want to run down a [00:01:00] little bit is some of the speakers that I saw, some of them were keynotes and some of them were breakouts. but learned a lot and some things that I think, um, I can transfer to you a little bit and, and dive into there. And it was just a really good two day event that was on a Wednesday, Thursday.

Then I actually had to fly out to Denver for our West group mastermind. And that was really good too. We talked about all things, patient experience with Myles Bodzin and really an expert in the psychology of the patient experience and things that maybe we don't even think about. And we dove into that and built out our patient experiences as a team and as a mastermind.

And it was a really good weekend, a lot of travel for me, but just a ton of learning and wanted to share some of that with you. So ultimately one of the first breakout sessions that I did go to the, the, when I got to coach con that particular morning, I actually flew in that morning and it started at 30 and my mom was like, Oh, that's awesome.

I got there at 8 35. So flight [00:02:00] was on time and everything was pretty efficient. Uh, Dan Sullivan, who's the founder of strategic coach actually turned 80. And at a big party for that as well, there, uh, he did the first, uh, hour and a half keynote and we'd kind of just work through some things on thinking about our thinking, like he talks about.

And it was a good way of getting it, getting it started. And then that rolled right into a breakout session. And I decided to go to a personal branding session with Krista Clive Smith, and it was a really good, um, and I think it was very applicable. And she. She talked a lot about some of the things that we, uh, people get nervous about with personal branding or branding in general, and did a phenomenal job of realizing that it doesn't have to be, um, self centered or sleazy or anything like that.

And, and she's a quite a dynamic speaker, which was, which was really cool. And I got a lot of clarity out of it. And one of the things [00:03:00] that she went in, which I really enjoyed, uh, just let me kind of give you a couple of tidbits, um, from, from the different talks I went to, um, was that in your, in your branding and like kind of who you are, there's an inner game and there's an outer game and there's a nice fancy diagram she gave us, but essentially the inner game is going to be your innate, uh, not But like on your factory settings, like who you are, that's, that's a part one of the inner game.

And then the other is your desire or what you call is your calling. Okay. And so your inner game is really getting clear on your calling and your desire. And then just what your factory settings are, right? So some people have a personal brand of, you know, extraversion, maybe super charismatic, some might be, uh, cool and calm and collected, right?

There's that, that kind of factory settings that you have, and then there's the outer game and that is the [00:04:00] skills and developed talents, the things you learn. Right. So I think as a chiropractor, you're consistently learning new skills and developing your talents. And it's not just clinical as a big part of it, but you, you know, in your marketing, in your communication, in your leadership, all those things are going to be the outer game.

And then the, uh, the second part of that outer game. Was kind of your life story and adversity, or just your experiences that you've had. And that really becomes the makeup of what, who you are and what your personal brand is. And as a chiropractor, you're going to have a personal brand. Like people are going to, it's a very personal, uh, business.

It's a very personal profession. Like you're, you're getting up and close to people. You're having conversations with them. You're talking to them, they're getting to know you. And that, that is part of your, part of your personal brand that she talked about. And, you know, you can. Um, I think really chip away at the inner game and that, and that calling really what, what you want out of this profession and your professional [00:05:00] life, and then try to accentuate and double down on your factory settings, but then realize you can really work on that outer game and you can, uh, really utilize your experiences for a positive and then obviously your skills and develop talents and, um, and doing that.

And then she ultimately summed up. A person's personal brand is in having clarity, consistency, and authenticity and really diving into that as your personal brand and like being who you are and, and, uh, and that's going to serve you. It's going to serve you, um, personally and And professionally, and she did a great job.

She's, uh, she's fun. She's got this little unique work about her. And she talked about where, um, when she gives everybody a hug and then she holds the hug a little bit awkwardly too long, and she was talking about that. And she's got this whole thing around it and strategy, but now it's like part of a personal [00:06:00] brand.

People know you're going to get a, you know, You're going to get a longer hug than you were expected. And she talked about how she, she can tell the, when she's given the hug, the other person gets, gets to that point where, uh, it's like, okay, it's probably time to end it and it gets a little uneasy. And then once that person kind of like gives into it, then she notices that person gave in and is like, okay, I'm, I'm going to hold the hug too.

And then she kind of lets off with it. But it was just funny, a very dynamic personality. And that's kind of part of her brand. Uh, and it just was interesting how she talked about personal branding and how it relates to a business. And I think one of the things that I got out of it as well is that you can build a personal brand and you can build.

a really good business around that. Some people are fearful that if I build my business too much around my personal brand, it's going to impact your business. And it's not really the case. And there's a lot of examples of that. Uh, honestly, Dan Sullivan of strategic coach, he's built quite a personal brand, uh, but he's also built quite a, uh, a company that is self managing and self [00:07:00] multiplying without them.

It's pretty impressive. I feel like I've even done that to an extent here with MCM. We've got a great team at MCM. There's a lot of our Uh, clients and members that don't have a whole lot of direct communication with me have some and, but they're getting, um, a great team around them and, and their business is building, uh, around that.

And it's the same thing with a lot of chiropractic practices. You can build a practice, you can have associates and still build a personal brand. So that was a really good, uh, breakout session that I went to, which I really enjoyed. Uh, they went to lunch and then after that we had another keynote, which, uh, another keynote speaker, which was Chris Voss.

And you might've heard of him. He's pretty well known. He wrote the book, never split the difference. He is, um, he, he's a negotiator. He worked for the FBI for many years. It's like a, even like a hostage negotiator, but now he's got the black Swan group. is the name of his company. He teaches a lot about negotiating and [00:08:00] leadership and stuff like that.

But, you know, this was good. Um, I recommend the book, never split the difference. I really do. He had a lot of good insights. He's great, great presenter. Um, and, and I think sometimes, you know, one of the things I got out of this and the question I want to pose to you is that, cause I think negotiating sometimes people don't want to have to learn how to negotiate, but my question to you actually is, is that.

Uh, do you think getting really good at negotiating and negotiating with your patients would be good? Uh, do you think it would be good for them? And I think it would, right? I think a big part of what you have to do as a doctor, and I'm not talking about, you know, brainwash them and convincing them. But you have to be able to negotiate the situation.

Uh, and there's a lot of different types of people and you have to be an advocate for their healthcare. [00:09:00] Like if you know, they need something from your practice to get to where they need to, to avoid something bad. And they have maybe some hangups or they're not buying in or whatever. And I'm not talking about the money part of it, just.

We all have those patients where we know they need something, but they're like, Oh, do I really have to come in two times a week for four weeks? Or like, and you kind of get that, you know, if you got really good at negotiating and did it ethically, don't you think that would help with. Patient adherence and potentially outcomes in them and really being an advocate, uh, for, for your, uh, you know, for their healthcare.

And I think it does. I think it does. And that's something that I left that conversation thinking to myself is, you know, what? I like to tackle things, uh, big things in a year. You know, I'm last, last year, 2023, I hired a public speaking coach. I was really working on public speaking and, and the podcasting [00:10:00] speaking and all that.

And so I really, really dove into to that. Um, I've dove into leadership over the last couple of years, trying to get better at it and starting to understand it a little bit, and I'm going to dive into actually a speaker that I've really enjoyed, uh, next on leadership. Yep. But I think maybe for next year, I think, uh, it could be, I mean, I might really try to work on the negotiation and not to, um, try to, uh, win negotiations against patients, but you get the point of where I'm getting at with it.

And I think it also helps with ultimately your team members as well. And, and a lot of what he talked about with negotiations isn't having to win a negotiation. It's have, it's, it's really, um, getting that other person to buy into a future that is better than their current situation. And sometimes you have to negotiate that with them.

And so that was really good. Chris Voss is very dynamic and enjoyed that. Uh, the next one, I just really enjoyed and it [00:11:00] was, uh, kind of unassuming at the time. I, I really was excited going to this. I'm going to read this gentleman's, I'm going to read this gentleman's biography here. Not even biography, but just little intro to the talk.

And his name is Travis Ramsey. And the, and the talk was Radical Authenticity, Leadership Lessons from Special Forces Training, Modern neuroscience and ancient wisdom. Uh, here you go. Special forces training is designed to push you to your limits, stripping away the surface layers until only what is true remains.

You can't fake your way through it. You have to be it. A long term success in business and leadership is exactly the same. Authentic leadership goes beyond superficial strategies. It's about embodying qualities that inspire others to follow you and forging genuine relationships. Built on trust. There are no gimmicks, no secrets.

The way to build a resilient team starts with being a person worth following. And I, [00:12:00] I posted that last sentence there and it's just really good. And I'm going to re reread it here. The way to build a resilient team starts with being a person worth following. And if you are +leading a team, you got to ask yourself, like, are you.

A person worth following and, and in which ways could you improve that if, if you've got some shortcomings with it? And I think that's a big thing. And, um, what I really enjoyed about this gentleman is you wouldn't, he, you know, you special forces in the army, you know, he's probably about my age now. So we're talking about some time, some time ago, but he was in there for 10 years and he came out, got a neuroscience degree.

So he understands the brain, uh, from a neuroscience. He's, you know, done a lot of it, but you look at him and he kind of looks like more That he might be, uh, kind of like a yogi or like a shaman, uh, long hair, likes the mountains of the Pacific Northwest, uh, mild [00:13:00] mannered, doesn't look like say a physical specimen of a, of a military special forces.

But when he talked to us about, there was like 300 people that, um, were, were entering into this program that was, I think, a year and a half. To, to get through it and only 23 of them did out of the 300 and he was one of them, you know, I think Navy SEALs basically, right. You know how there's a lot of people that go into it, but not many get out of it.

And this particular gentleman did get through it and spent many years in special forces. And, uh, one of the things he said, uh, there was a lot of things he talked about and I'll, I'll go through some of it, but one of the things he said that really. Uh, resonated with me as a practice owner and entrepreneur was that the ones that.

Made it. I mean, there's a lot of reasons why some do and some don't, but you know, from his teaching and learning and kind of talking and getting to know the people that did make it and some of the ones [00:14:00] that didn't, it really, a lot of it boiled down to, it was every day was just so hard. And the ones that said to themselves, like I, that today is so hard.

I can't imagine doing this for another month, another six months or another year. They were thinking too much. Into the future and it overwhelmed them of like, if I, if this is this hard today, how am I going to do this six months from now, a year from now? And that was what would get them a lot of times.

Cause a lot of them were all physically gifted. I mean, basically to, to be one of the three under there, you were physically gifted. He said there was X college athletes in there. You'd look at that person. Like there's, this person's going to definitely make it. And it boiled down to that. And the ones that could stay present in the day and just be like, you know, what?

going to make it today. I'm just going to go to sleep tonight and then think about tomorrow, tomorrow. And they were able to stay present with it. Those are the ones that were able to endure each day. [00:15:00] And I think about that as chiropractic practice owners, because there's no matter how good things are, there's going to be ups and downs.

And I think the ones that are getting overwhelmed or facing burnout or frustrated and, and just, you know, it's because they're thinking of it's, uh, If it's this hard right now, what's it going to be like in three years or five years or seven years instead of staying present, focusing on what they can control and taking it day by day and realizing that if you do take it day by day and you do what you got to do that day and you, and you take strategic action, Your lot in life is going to be a lot better and your lot in practice is going to be a lot better down the road.

And so two years from now, it doesn't have to be as bad as today is. If you keep on putting in the work today and just focusing on today, you're going to, um, you're going to be able to stay present and ultimately endure for many years as a chiropractor and enjoy it and enjoy. You know, the fruits of your labor.

And there's other things you talked about. Definitely [00:16:00] cognitive flexibility. I really liked that, you know, bracing multiple perspectives, ability to kind of, um, adapt. And I like, I never heard that kind of term cognitive flexibility, but having some cognitive flexibility will help with your, with your leadership as well.

Um, no doubt about that. And he had five key steps to it and it was people first, this is for leadership. Um, people first approach. To leadership, which I agree with two is resiliency. And I think that kind of as staying presence, a big part of that cognitive flexibility and mindfulness was number three, uh, being effective communicator, number four, and then five is know thyself.

And it kind of goes back. Interesting. It ties into that personal brand, right? It was like, it's kind of knowing who you are, that inner game, right? You're, you're calling and your factory set is set settings is that inner game is like, know thyself, stay within who you are. Right. [00:17:00] And so that was Travis Ramsey.

Really, really good talk and just got a lot out of that, which was nice. Uh, next up was, uh, the next morning, Joe Polish and he did a keynote and Joe Polish just for a little bit of background has been a marketer for probably 30 years now, and honestly, He's a reason why probably MCM exists. Um, I had joined strategic coach in 2013, I think it was 2014.

I got a letter from strategic coach about Joe Polish's, uh, genius network event. I did not go to that, but I was like, who's this Joe Polish guy? Looking them up. He had a podcast called I love marketing with Dean Jackson. I started consuming that. And then from Joe Polish, I kind of like heard of some other chiropractic marketers and then I kind of realized like there was nobody helping evidence based chiropractors out with marketing really.

And it was just all kind of fly by night [00:18:00] marketers who were marketers first. And I was like, okay, I'm, I'm clinical first, but I, I've been really learning and applying a lot of marketing and I did that from 2014 to 2016. Team. And then it would have been summer of 2016. I started the closed Facebook group, which is now called modern chiropractic marketing, if you want to check that out and yeah.

So Joe Polish is someone that really, and I I've, I've run into him quite a few times in strategic coach, cause he'd been a member of strategic coach for since like 1997, I think he said, and so I've had a pleasure of having lunch and with him and drinks and here and there. And, uh, Uh, I've thanked him for that, for sure.

Um, and so he could, he did a really good talk. Uh, one of the things that I got out of that and I shared in the Facebook group was the, the meme. And now this is a guy who's, you know, a multimillionaire, super successful. And he had a meme that said entrepreneurship. And then it said, like the first image was a person.

Cheering hell. Yeah. And then it was like, oh fuck, oh fuck, oh fuck, oh fuck. And then it was like, hell yeah. And then it [00:19:00] was, oh fuck, oh fuck, oh fuck. Like it's just kind of the roller coaster that entrepreneurs are on. And I think sometimes as chiropractors, we think we may be, um, all, you know, we're the only one suffering from all this.

And you, you soon come realize is like a lot of people have those tendencies, like entrepreneurship is, is challenging. There's gonna be ups and downs to it. And, uh, funny saying I heard was that, yeah, some of them, I are making millions of dollars, but, um, they just, the, the problems come with bigger zeros for them.

And so no one's immune to it. And I really just thought that was a, um, an interesting one. And then he talked a lot about giving, you know, and how life gives to the giver. And I, and I believe in that. It's a really thing. You got to really give a lot. There's a good book called go giver. Um, I think there's a book called give and take I've read, but ultimately you got to be a giver and it'll all come back to you for sure.

All right. Um, [00:20:00] next Dave Sanderson. That was cool. Talk. He, believe it or not, was on that flight that, uh, landed in the Hudson successfully. And everybody survived. He was on that flight. He traveled a lot for work. He was successful at the time. This was in 2009, I believe he said, and he was on that plane and he told the whole story.

And it's pretty interesting to hear the insights of someone that. 99. 9 percent was sure he was going to die and didn't and how he's living his life now. And it's, uh, really cool. It's really cool to see what he's doing. And part of his moral of it was like, look, don't. Don't wait to the moment where, yeah, like you think you're going to die.

Hopefully never, you never have that situation where you have to spend, you know, I think he said a minute just contemplating his own death. I hope none of the, none of us have to do that, but his whole point was like, look, don't, don't wait till something crazy happens. Just get at it. Right. Just do it. Um, and [00:21:00] so I, I really enjoyed his talk.

A very dynamic speaker, very dynamic speaker. And, um, He's, uh, now a leadership coach and stuff like that. And just, uh, enjoy that. So I just wanted to bring that up. Uh, some of the things we learned from that. Um, and then lastly, uh, this was really good. Uh, John Rulon, who wrote the book giftology and has a company called giftology, and at one point was, I guess the number one salesman for knives, if you're familiar with that.

And he just, it was, it's amazing what he's done with his business by gifting and, uh, had a lot of good gifting strategy. And I would just want to share a couple things around that. One is you got to be careful as a chiropractor and you should know that a, the OIG rules is 85 per year for gifting. a patient, um, 15 per time, right?

So you can do 15 gifts up to 85 total for the year. That's the rules [00:22:00] for gifting your patients. Um, but you can gift like outside people. You can't get for referrals, but you know, if you've got a golf pro, you're really. Um, you know, close with, and they send people, you could, you know, you could gift them a, a putter engraved with their name or something like that.

That's what he talked a lot about was making things personalized. Don't brand, uh, the stuff that you give out, try to personalize it. He talked about, um, a lot of different gifting strategies. I'm just going to kind of leave it at. What those OIG rules are, but really consider what your gifting strategy is within the legal parameters in your community around people, right?

If you've got a financial advisor that's in your area, things of that nature, start thinking of some really good creative gifts. A couple of tidbits was like, you know, don't gift on just birthdays and holidays. Uh, one of the mistakes I've made in the past, and he talked about was, uh, you know, if you got a lot of [00:23:00] good business contacts in your area, you only gift them during the holidays.

He's like, everybody's gifting them during the holidays. Try to gift him, uh, during kind of, um, dead dead periods of the year, right? Where there's not, it's, uh, it's not a holiday, you know, and, and so consider that as well. So that was, uh, really cool, really cool to, to hear him talk very successful, very, uh, on, on gifting and really built it around that, which was cool to see.

And that, and that was John Rulon and the book is Giftology, a highly re Recommend that there was other breakout sessions that I couldn't attend cause they had, they, they ran simultaneously, but they're going to give us a videos of it, which was really cool. Um, had a really good cocktail hour and mingling.

And I just want to kind of leave it at, um, the in person stuff, it just, there's so many benefits to it. Um, you learn a lot of things, but then you also build relationships. And I know that a lot of chiropractors are always kind of jaded with. the [00:24:00] state conference, because it's just usually not great, but I just challenge you to get in person throughout the year, uh, more than once and, and learn and build relationships.

And that's what we've found. Yeah. Uh, with our mastermind groups. I mean, the relationship building on top of the learning is just unbelievable. And then look at other opportunities to go in person as well for events. Uh, there's one I'm speaking at, uh, Jay Greensign's event. And, and that's going to be in late June.

So in Washington, DC, check that out. Um, you can go to my closed Facebook group, modern chiropractic marketing, and I post it in there often, but I highly recommend that's in the DC area. And I'll be speaking amongst other people on growing your business. And so just start considering the, the return on investment that going in person is going to give your practice.

And, you know, I've got a laundry list of mastermind members that could give great testimonials around what that's done for [00:25:00] them. Um, and then lastly, kind of tying it back into John rule. And he talked a lot about return on relationships. So he talks about the ROR and gifting has a great ROR, but so does going in person to events, to learn and build relationships, you're going to have a return on relationship.

As well.