Online Chiropractic: Myth or Money Maker?

Online chiropractic.

Sounds like an oxymoron, right?! If someone had said “online chiropractic” to me 6 years ago I probably would have looked at them like they had two heads, so if that’s how you’re feeling while reading this right now, that’s okay.

Let me be clear, I’m not talking about teaching your patients to self-adjust via YouTube. I’m talking about taking the things you’re already doing in your in-person practice (usually for free by the way) into a digital format so that you can get paid for all your hard work!

The roadblock that most people run into when thinking about plunging into an online offering is what we call imposter syndrome. I hear chiropractors all the time tell me that they aren’t sure that they really have anything unique or important enough to teach that they could make into a profitable program. Let me be the first to tell you that you probably do!

When I first started taking my practice online in 2015 I will admit I totally had no idea what I was doing. What I did know was that I had some things to say—a message to share, so to speak–and I was pretty sure there was a way to get paid by sharing those things. Recently, I did an interview with Steph Gaudreau of the “Listen to Your Body” podcast. If you’re ever feeling like you aren’t the “expert” in anything, I suggest you head on over to stephgaudreau.com and have a listen to her podcast. Steph started as a high school teacher and has transformed herself into nutritional therapy practitioner, an intuitive eating coach and a USA powerlifting coach, and a lot of her business is online! I’m in no way taking anything away from high school teachers here by the way. I simply wanted to highlight that Steph had many opportunities to tell herself that she wasn’t qualified for the amazing business that she currently has because she was “just a high school teacher.”

YOU are a doctor! Sometimes you forget that even if you never read another book, you went through a rigorous doctoral program. You’re already an expert in many things—or at least one thing!

If you’re like many people I work with then you might still be a little on the fence, wondering if you truly have something to offer people online. If you want to find out the answer, then I want you to dig in and answer four questions that I’m going to ask you to make this all super clear. Write them down. Take your time.

Ready?

Question 1: Do you teach your patients?

Yes or no? There’s a pretty good chance that the answer is yes. Now if the answer is no, okay, I’m not judging you. I’m not saying you should be teaching your patients more because let’s be honest, a lot of us are actually teaching our patients a lot already, and we’re doing it for free. We’re not being reimbursed for that extra mile that we go with them. So if you’re not doing that because you know that you don’t get paid for that, especially in the insurance model. So be it. But if your answer to this question, “Do you teach your patients ?” is yes, then what you need to know is that all of those things that you teach your patients can be packaged into something that is sellable! You know in the old days, by the way, we used to sell these things on DVDs. Before that there were cassette tapes and VHS tapes. What I’m getting at is this concept is not new. It’s just that we now have way more ease of access to creating digital products or products that allow you to help more than one person at the same time.  

Question 2: Do you find yourself saying the same thing over and over again?

Do you find yourself saying the same thing over and over again from one patient to the next patient? If you’re a yes, then again, you can take all those things that you say over and over again to your people, and you can package it into something like a course or a membership program.  Many of us are constantly telling almost every patient the exact same thing about nutrition, or proper posture, or home exercises.  If there’s something you say all the time because you think it applies to so many people’s lives in a positive way, then you should get paid for this expertise.

Question 3: Are you willing to build an online community?

Wondering what does that means exactly, before you answer? Don’t worry… I’m not asking you to start a cult here. I’m talking about co-creating something with the people you share your online offering with. It could be Facebook group, a podcast audience, or a weekly live video show on YouTube for example. If you follow me, then you probably see me do all those things. I’m not in practice full time like you might be, so please know you don’t need to do all those things. You only need to do one of those things to get started. The question is, are you willing to first build a community of people who have common values that are aligned with yours? Having an online community will help you see what it is those people are looking for from you, helping create better offerings. Believe me, what I offer now certainly isn’t exactly what I started with. The point is, I got started. Let it evolve from there. Which leads me to question four…

Question 4:  Are you willing to just get started? 

Are you willing to just take the leap? If you’re willing to just get started, you don’t have to know the exact thing that it is that you are meant to teach that’s going to change the world right now. If you answered yes to one and two, then you should at least realize that you do have something to say. It doesn’t have to look pretty (I can almost guarantee you it won’t), but it does have to be out there in the world if you want it to help people. People often ask me how I got started, and the true answer is I don’t really know. Because at the time, there wasn’t a format or a method I was given. I just jumped in and experimented. I definitely didn’t have a roadmap to follow. The advantage you have here is that you get to learn from everything I did wrong and the few things I did right that have gotten me where I am now.

So, are you willing to get started? You have to be willing to take the things you say over and over and over again, and package them up into something digital.  If you’re a chiropractor, you’re a doctor, you’re a teacher; you just have to be willing to actually look at yourself that way and that’s when things will flow.  If you want to significantly increase your revenue, to pay off those student loans or do more for your family, without drastically increasing your hours and patient visits, then this is where it starts.

So your job now, after working through these four questions is to decide, which of these are yes for you? There’s no right or wrong answers here. You are where you are. Are you a yes for all four? Are you a no for all four? Are you a mix?

Do you teach your patients? Do you say the same things over and over again to your patients? Are you willing to build an online community? Are you willing to just get started?

If you’re a yes to those four things, then you know that you can do this! YOU can do this, you can grow your practice in a way that puts the old model of success out. Doing this will get you outside of the box of that old model of traditional chiropractic success and allows you to build something that really truly gets you compensated for all the mental time and effort you put in day in and day out. If you want to break free of always trading hours for dollars then take the first step. Answer these four questions, and see where it takes you!