EPISODE 445: Capacity Block Breakthrough: Time

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. 

Dr. Kevin Christie: [00:00:00] Welcome to another episode of Modern Chiropractic Mastery. Today we have a solo episode and we're gonna go through, uh, the tool that we went through, uh, on a previous episode a couple weeks ago, and that is gonna be the capacity block breakthrough. Uh, this time we're gonna focus on time and a lot of times.

You have a block with your time and you have that crutch of, I don't have enough time to do X, Y, and Z. And so we're gonna dive into that, uh, today. But before we do, just to make mention in a couple weeks on November 1st, Monday, uh, look out for emails and some posts. We are going to launch our next online course, and this is gonna be titled the.

Cash Confident Chiropractor. Last year we did an online course and it was a huge success. A lot of attendees, a lot of great results, a lot of great feedback. That was on the 30 KA month course where a. We talked about the importance of getting the 30 K [00:01:00] revenue a month. Not that you only wanna stay there, but getting there and what that does as an unlock for your practice.

And we helped you with a strategy to achieve that. And so now what our goal is, is to really turn you into a very seasoned financial. Strategist for your practice, not for anybody else, but I really want you to leave this six week online course, really understanding finances and practice finances and even how it bleeds into your personal life.

And this time around, I'm bringing in a couple experts. I'm bringing in, uh, Dr. Holly Tucker from the Profit First Model. To dive in, uh, and do a lesson. I'm bringing in Christine Odel to bring in a lesson on cash flow and how to predict cash flow and strategies around cash flow. You know, with money, there's a lot of complication, right?

There's a difference between profit and profit margin. Uh, cash flow. You could have a year. We have good profit, but, uh, three bumps in a road. The year where cash [00:02:00] flow's bad, maybe you don't have proper liquidity. Maybe your forecasting's off, maybe your business is doing good, but your personal life is getting outta control financially.

Or maybe your personal life is pretty good, but your business is not, or maybe the business is not doing well, so it's bleeding in your personal life. We're gonna tackle all those things in a six week course, so look out for that. We're gonna make it very reasonable. Investment for you. I want you to have this information.

You can keep it forever, revisit it and just look out for that. We will launch an early bird, uh, for on November 1st. If you did take our 30 K course last year, you will also get a, a little bit more of a discount than even more than the early bird. So. Look out for that. Alright, time. Uh, you know, as Pink Floyd once wrote in their, uh, their song called Time, uh, ticking Away the moments that make up a dull day, you fritter and waste the hours in an offhand way kicking around on a piece of ground in your [00:03:00] hometown.

Waiting for someone or something to show you the way. Uh, you know, it's very apropos and I think oftentimes chiropractors are waiting for someone to show them the way. Of time management or how to effectively utilize the time. And yeah, we, none of us have enough time. Uh, a lot of us have different stage.

We're in different stages of life. We're young kids or, uh, just open up a practice, you know, there's just a, a lot of variations, so I get it. So I'm not gonna sit here today. And preach to you, uh, that you should have more time and your life isn't busy. Uh, I'm not gonna do that, but we're gonna talk about time and when we have a client that we are working with where time is an issue, but they are open-minded about improving their time.

And obviously a lot of times it's priorities, right? We always talk about time management. And that's fine, but oftentimes it's priority [00:04:00] management and getting that straight, and then sometimes it's, it's diving deep into why maybe you have that block in time. And so again, the capacity block breakthrough, we, we write down what our block is.

We've. We've written out a handful. Uh, could be support team members. You don't have, uh, you have a block there. Maybe you have a block in clinical duplication, like you're, you don't have, you need an associate maybe a, a, a block in space. You don't have enough space. Could be equipment marketing mindset, time.

Profit and cash delegation, right? So there's a, a lot, and when we did this on the previous episode, we talked about really that, that block, that capacity block where you're, you, you're just clinically, you, you can't see more patients in a timely manner and, and you're, uh, you're just your schedule. Just booked, but you need to grow.

[00:05:00] Right? And so we taught, we tackled that today we're tackling time. And what we do is we, from there, we set an i a a date of ideal completion. Doesn't have to be exact, but we do that. And then we go and we, we look at like, are there any of the following that I just, or, or the, the ones I just mentioned, all the different blocks.

Are any of those actually causing the block you think you have? Right? So if we, if we have a time block. We gotta dig in deeper and say, okay, um, why do I have a time block? And I'm gonna go through five today of the ones I just kind of listed. And it could be some of these. And this is where we, if we narrow down that one big domino, then we can help you tackle that from a coaching perspective.

But, uh, maybe the first one is you don't have. Enough support team members, right? Maybe you're doing particular things in your business, your practice that frankly you shouldn't be doing, right? It's the, it's the, you know, like [00:06:00] Gina Wickman in his book Shine talks about the $20 an hour tasks. And again, there's nothing.

Wrong with $20 hour tasks, but as a business owner and, and frankly as a doctor, right, like you gotta be treating patients, that's a, that's a three, four, $500 an hour task. And so there's nothing wrong with, uh, it, it might not even be $20 in March, probably $30 an hour task with, with inflation. Um, you, you, you, maybe you're just lacking a team member there, or a half a team member, so a part-timer that could get things off your plate and free you up to have some time.

So is that an issue? And, and as you're listening to this, maybe you start thinking about that, like, do you need support team member Number two is, uh, going back to that clinical duplication, right? Maybe an associate. If maybe you had an associate, um, you could now take Tuesdays off, right? And, and now you have Tuesday completely off and that gives, that gives you, uh, [00:07:00] a space for time to do whatever it is.

Maybe, maybe you're not doing enough marketing in your practice or community outreach 'cause you don't have enough time. Maybe you're not creating enough video content or anything because you don't have enough time. Maybe you're not working out because you don't have enough time. Right. Maybe you're not spending enough time with your kids 'cause you don't have enough time.

So if you had Tuesday off, 'cause you had, you had the ability to get another doctor in there, uh, that time could be used for some of those things that you feel like are missing from your professional or your personal life, right? So, uh, do we need an associate? Uh, number three is mindset. Again, I think this becomes a priority thing, right?

Um, are you willing to, you know, maybe you're like, I'm an early bird, right? And so. Uh, when I had to jump back into care, uh, I was out of, uh, patient care in 2022, middle of 22 to the middle of 23. Uh, had all the time in the world to, to focus on the two businesses that I own and run. Um, and then I had, uh, I had [00:08:00] doctor leave and move and I had to.

Jump back into full-time care. And so I got up at 5:00 AM for about two years straight and worked from five to 6:15 AM uh, to get MCM stuff done. And I'm an early bird, so that wasn't so bad, wasn't ideal, but I did it and it was a priority. And then from six 15 to seven 30, I spent time with the kids in the morning and then I got showered ready for work, came treat patients.

Maybe you're a night owl and, and so maybe the kids go to bed. And from nine to 10 you can get particular work done for your business, right? So, uh, you know, shifting your mindset of priorities that are actually gonna move the needle for yourself professionally and personally. You gotta get clear on that.

And, uh, one of the first mindsets is being open to being challenged on the fact that you. Are saying you have lack of time. Okay. And so sometimes we have to dive into the mindset of it. And sometimes it's just a season of life, right? Like I knew the [00:09:00] 5:00 AM thing was for a couple years. I knew it wasn't forever.

And so sometimes when you realize like, yeah, I gotta grind right now, uh, or you're in your late twenties and you're, uh, and you don't have kids like you gotta be, that's when you're grinding, that's when you're spending a lot more time. Maybe that's 60 hours a week working, uh, but you know, in your mid thirties, late.

Thirties, mid forties, whatever, when the kids are there and things like that. Maybe you're not because you've got that, that career capital that Cal Newport would say is that you've put in the investment earlier and now you're getting the return on that career capital. Okay, so the mindset is a block.

Sometimes people have for time. Uh, the fourth one is going back. This one's always a block for some people is profit and cash. Now it's not always like, I've got people we coach where they've got the profit and the cash, uh, and, and they don't have the time. And it's a mindset thing where it's like, oh, I don't want to hire the doctor for this, that, and the other reason, or.[00:10:00]

Um, you're, you, you're just mired in busy work and not the work that's really effective or you don't wanna add more payroll even though you do have room for payroll or you don't understand if you have room for payroll or not. So you're, you're, you're concerned about adding that support team member. And so there are some of you that don't have a profit in cash issue and it's the other ones only.

Now there's obviously some where you're saying to me as you listen to this, well, you go, well, yeah, I'd love to hire. An associate and take Tuesdays off, but I can't afford it. It's like, all right, we gotta get you to be afford, we gotta be, be able to afford that. That's where we gotta increase revenue. We gotta get new patients in there, we gotta get improved patient adherence.

We have to, um, really increase that revenue. Or maybe we gotta sign up for the Cash Confident Chiropractor course we're gonna do. So you understand. Finances and have a plan to attack it to, to even understand when and how you can afford an associate. And that's some of the stuff we'll talk about in that course.

So, uh, profit and cash as we dig in. Can definitely [00:11:00] be the big block where it's like, yeah, um, I would hire a support team member and or an associate, but I don't have the money for it. And so that's a reality. Uh, next is, lastly is delegation, right? Some of you have the support team members or someone you have, you have someone virtually, uh, you've got that you just haven't wrapped your mind around.

The delegation and strategic delegation and enrolling people and helping you move the ball forward. And like Strategic Coach talks about, you might be that rugged individualist and some of you are like you, you kind of, you, you. You, uh, raise your flag on the fact that you're a lone wolf and you've got super low overhead and like, I'm always gonna be a lone wolf.

And it's literally just you and you're doing everything. And, and that's fine. I did that for a stretch until I could afford someone. But you don't have a vision of getting out of that. 'cause you're, you actually look at it as a positive. Uh, it's fine if you're a lone wolf [00:12:00] right now, but you're just working towards hiring someone.

We've got clients that we're helping with that. But delegation is like, uh, you gotta get things off your plate to free you up, right? And, and it's huge. And then from there, you like, I would, those are like the five blocks we see. Um, you know, I would say. We have a whole kind of time priority management system that we, we teach our chiropractors and a lot of times it's, it's under the mindset thing of just like they gotta wrap their, their mind around it.

And once we go over it, it makes sense to them. Right? Like certain things, you know, like I get ahead of my calendar. Uh, three weeks in advance. And I even put things on there like my workouts and all, all the, all the things, right? It's so, I, my calendar looks crazy, but it's actually by having, um, guardrails there, it does free me up.

'cause I, I'll block out, uh, like this morning I blocked out from. Uh, 7:20 AM to 9:00 AM uh, just free time. And I went for a [00:13:00] walk and thought and things like that. Uh, so you, you would even put in that, or maybe it's deep work blocks where it's like, I need two hours of deep work on something. You put that on the schedule.

So we really try to get you, um, committed on your calendar to do that. And that's one of the strategies we have around. Helping you improve your time slash priority, uh, management. And it's been, uh, very eye-opening for many, very helpful for others. And you just gotta get a grasp of the time, like you, you, if you own your practice.

You need to be spending, you know, four to six hours a week working on your business, whether that's coaching calls, implementing that community outreach, marketing, uh, financial planning team, training with your team. I mean, you gotta be working on the, on the business if you're doing, if you're. Currently, uh, not the practice owner, but your doctor.

You know, you need to be working on the business by getting out and building your own patient base and meeting with people and [00:14:00] connecting and shooting videos and maybe it's learning, uh, business and marketing and stuff like that. So you gotta carve out the time to do this once you signed up. To be a business owner, or you're wanting to be a business owner at some point you've signed up to work on your business too and get better at that and carve out the time to be able to do it.

So time is a reality for everybody. Everybody's in a different stage of life. There are strategies to improve it. It's never perfect. It's a fluid situation. Sometimes it feels good, sometimes it doesn't. There's seasons of. The year in the life where you have more time than others and just appreciate that and have some flexibility around it and you can improve it.

So that is the capacity block breakthrough, and we broke down time on this one, so work on that. If you need help with it, check out our website, modern chiropractic marketing.com. We have coaching options for you to help you improve your [00:15:00] practice.