The 4 Biggest Problems Women In Chiropractic Face – Part 3

After 11 years of consulting with other chiropractors on their lives and practices, and almost 4 years specifically coaching female chiropractors, I’ve identified the 4 biggest problems women in chiropractic face.

If you’d like to proactively do your best to avoid these problems (which you can)…

Or, you’re dying to make life and practice as a working mama easier, what you’ll read here will help you. 

In this series of 4 posts, you’ll learn what these 4 big problems are and what you can do about them.

But just as we talked about in Part 1 of this series, we have to make sure we’re clear on how I’m defining “big problems” here. 

I mean, when I think of big problems, I think of medical kidnapping, the broken healthcare industry, corruption in government and politics, poverty, homicide….

You know, real light and fluffy topics, right?  

Those are truly BIG problems.  

But for our purposes, I’m not talking about those kinds of really big problems. 

Other big problems like:

Your baby was born at 30 weeks and is in the NICU…

Your mom has a rapidly-progressing neurological disorder and can no longer live independently….

You have cancer…

Yeah, these are really big problems.

But again, we’re not going to be focusing on these types of life challenges.

Those problems can affect anyone, not just a woman who’s a chiropractor.  

And we’re going to focus here on the unique problems that you and I face in life and in practice. 

Clear?  Good!  

Let’s pick up where we left off. 

Problem #3: Marketing.

And you might be surprised to know–the problem isn’t that we don’t know what to do; the problem is that we hate doing what we know we could or should be. 

Here’s the problem with hating marketing: 

If you hate it, you won’t do it.  

And if you don’t “do” marketing, then it’s sorta like wishing and hoping for your practice to grow.  

You’d never apply for a business loan and then tell the loan officer that your marketing plan was “wishing and hoping”!

If you–like most women in chiropractic–don’t like marketing, you very likely avoid it.  

You probably know what your marketing plan could look like, and yet you just don’t implement it because, well…

You don’t want to be salesy or sleazy.

You don’t want to seem like a used-car saleswoman.  

My friend, I’m here today to share the hard truth with you:

It’s no one else’s responsibility to grow your practice for you. 

It’s not your chiropractic school’s, your state association’s, the ACA’s or your referral partners’ responsibility to grow your practice. 

It’s YOURS!!

Here’s the good news…

Growing your practice doesn’t have to mean booking spinal screenings every weekend and missing your kid’s soccer games. 

Growing your practice doesn’t have to mean hosting dinner-with-the-doc talks on the weeknights followed by the chaos that ensues when Mom gets home late (and your kids aren’t in bed until 10pm).

In fact, growing your practice can simply be an extension of who you are and how you live. 

So, instead of thinking “I hate marketing,” your thinking has to shift to, “I. AM. A. Marketer!

Ooooooo I know this might make you feel uber uncomfortable.  And that’s ok.  

That just means that growth is right ahead of you (if you continue to take action and don’t run away from this challenge). 

See, my friend, if you don’t see yourself as a marketer, you won’t actually “do” marketing.  

You have to not only accept but even embrace the fact that if you chose to start your own practice (or enter into a role in which you are responsible for bringing new patients into the practice), you ARE a marketer.

Further, here’s why the “I hate marketing,” mantra is such a huge problem for women in chiropractic. 

We’ve already established the fact that if you think you hate marketing, you won’t do it.  

How can you expect your practice to ever reach its fullest potential if you don’t take charge of your marketing?

And if we, as a profession, don’t shift out of the “teach people the benefits of chiropractic and they’ll become patients” model (that’s seriously ineffective), how will we ever increase the utilization of chiropractic care above a mediocre 10-12% of the total US population?  

Worst of all, if we aren’t growing as a profession, we’re choosing the alternative…. Dying. 

Additionally, I know in your heart YOU know….  You were born to make a difference in this world.  

You see it everyday–how sick people are and how they’re being brainwashed into their constant sickness being normal (especially for children).  

Do you know how that brainwashing is happening?  

Really, really effective marketing.  

Now, of course, it’s going to be hard to compete with the budgets of the giant pharmaceutical companies.  But does that mean we shouldn’t even try???

Hopefully by now you’re like, “Ok!!  I get it! I AM a marketer!” and you’re on board with me for solving this problem.  

If so, I hope you’re already asking… HOW?  How do you shift from hating marketing to embracing it as a part of who you are?  

The answers are inside you. 

No, that’s not some cheesy way of leaving you high and dry to hopefully figure out the answers for yourself.  

It’s just true.  

Somewhere inside you, you know why you’re afraid to have a voice.  Or why you fear judgement sooooooo intensely. Or why you feel guilty, embarrassed or even ashamed of attracting attention to yourself or your practice. 

Only you can decide if and when you’re ready to heal those wounds so that you can market your chiropractic practice, make a bigger impact on your community and finally reach your optimal potential. 

Well, now you know…  marketing our chiropractic practices is a big problem…. For much deeper reasons that you might have assumed. 

It’s not just about knowing what marketing tactics work or being consistent in your efforts.  It’s about getting brave, being vulnerable and working through deeply rooted fears. 

If you want more support with aligning your identity as a marketer so you can do what you know you could be to market your practice, sign up for the Aligned Marketing Free 5-Day Course For Chiropractors.  

And be sure to subscribe to our newsletter list so that you’ll get an email update with Part 4 of this series about the big problems that women in chiropractic face.