Thanks to a website called Personal MBA, we now can get the same education they are receiving at B-School without all the classroom hours, money and time loss. Check out www.personalmba.com and read the Personal MBA Manifesto, then mosey on over to the highly impressive Personal MBA reading list. Set a goal to read the list before (or soon after) you graduate and BAM! you are armed with the business skills necessary to ensure super success in Chiropractic.

One of the strongest reasons to attend a traditional Business School is the network of people it can put you in front of to ensure a great job upon graduation. The Professors, guest lecturers, recruiters and even the students can certainly get you a leg up in your career start. But for us, we don’t need to leverage these relationships, we just need the skills!

Save your money, leverage your time in school and graduate with your Personal MBA. Then share your insights in this Chiropractic Blog.

Onward and Upward,
Dr. Darren White

Thanks Christiana for making me pull my favorite list together.

Garbage in. Garbage out. You have probably heard that several times, but have you ever asked why? Now more then ever have I realized that you are a small product of your genes but a HUGE product of your thots. To have great thots you need to have the proper stimulation. Proper stimulation involves taking note of EVERY experience you have and making sure it puts the proper impression in your head. A while ago I shared my discipline of a Google Reader over the morning newspaper. This is just another tool that keeps great content flowing through my brain. Below is my reading list. It is not exhaustive, but merely my favorite right now and the ones that have had the most impact on my life. I have ready many books that were considered great but at that time they were irrelevant because I wasn’t faced with that challenge. So this list is relevant to me now.

• 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Steven Covey
• The Art of the Start, Guy Kawasaki
• Think and Grow Rich, Napolean Hill
• The Subluxation Specific, The Adjustment Specific, B.J. Palmer
• Awaken the Giant Within, Anthony Robbins
• Getting Things Done, David Allen
• The Game of Work, Charles Coonradt
• The Greatest Salesman in the World, Og Mandino
• The Richest Man in Babylon, George, Clason
• One Minute Manager, Ken Blanchard
• Secrets of the Millionaire Mind, T.Harv Eker
• The Magic of Thinking Big, David Schwartz
• 4 Hour Workweek, Tim Ferriss
• The E-Myth, Michael Gerber
• The Success Principles, Jack Canfield
• The Game of Life, Florence Scovel Shinn
• The 80/20 Principle, Richard Koch
• Book Yourself Solid, Michael Port
• Rules for Revolutionaries, Guy Kawasaki
• How to Make a Hell of a Profit and Still Get to Heaven, John Demartini
• Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand

The book that by far has had the most impact on my life was Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. This book really set the tone for my life when I was about 18.

Share the books that made the biggest difference in your life below in the comments section.

Darren

About a year ago at a Galaxy Seminar, I was exposed to a new time management system by David Allen called “Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity.” This is the system that really high producers use and once on board you will realize why. I starting implementing this system so that I too, could have a “mind like water” by being able to brain dump everything into a reliable system. The trouble was I had no real way to sync everything I was doing at home, office and on the road.

Syncing Personal Productivity

The iPhone has officially arrived and it arrived in style. It was an amazing couple of days here in Seattle watching everyone scramble to get one. All the AT&T stores were selling out in hours and had lines lasting several hours. The Apple Store was different… they have not run out…yet. People are waiting over 5 hours to get theirs.

What’s the fuss all about?

Being a first generation iPhone owner, I have had a year to play around with it and was pretty savvy with all the tools. NOTHING prepared me for what this version brings. Yes, the phone has 3G high speed internet and has real GPS but the real quantum leap lies in the 2.0 software.

The App Store

The iPhone now has the capability to allow for third party applications. At the time of writing there are over 500 applications ranging from games, news, social, business, finance, lifestyle and my favorite… productivity.

OmniFocus

Ever since my conversion to MAC, I have been using OmniFocus, which is personal productivity software that embraces the GTD culture (Getting Things Done). As per the GTD methodology my life is organized into projects. Projects are any goals that require more then 1 action step. Action steps are the tasks required to complete a project. Simple so far? Next, the action steps each have a context. A context is location / tool specific environment that is need to complete the task. For example the task “send fax to Shawn Dill” needs to happen in the “context” of the “office.” The task “Clean the Garage” can only happen in the “context” of “Home.” The power in this lies in the fact that you can see your tasks arranged in context. So if you are at the office you will see only the action steps you could accomplish there.

Personal Productivity Everywhere

Today OmniFocus released its OmniFocus for the iPhone! We can now “push” or sync the iPhone to your MAC. Also because the new iPhone has real GPS, the “location feature” is enabled. This means that the phone locks into your current location and pulls all the tasks that could be done within the vicinity. It knows when you are at or near the office and shows you only those tasks. If you are near a grocery store it will bring up any action that have that context. To explain it another way, imagine you have some down time waiting for a plane. You hit the location feature and the phone recognizes you are not near any of your usual places of productivity (ie. office, home, etc.) so it pulls all of your tasks that can be comleted on the phone or email. Whoops the location just found a bookstore in the airport and now the task to buy the new “The Better People Leader” book by Charles Coonradt just popped onto your radar! It’s a productive day at the airport!

Knight of Wands

On the run with no time to stop for the all important Tarot reading. Pull out the iPhone and tap the iTarot application to get your cards for the day! Thanks to the App store you will always be “connected.”

How are you using the new iPhone? Is it a sensation or sensational? Comment below!

Darren

Thank you so much for the great feedback on the Dream Practice Blueprint. I have a lot of fantastic suggestions to keep me busy for awhile. One of the most frequent concerns I am hearing is “How the heck to you keep track of all this stuff?” It did not happen overnight! In fact it was just the opposite. Like most “overnight successes,” it was many years in the making. Consider that it is really the small little things you do on a daily basis that ultimately land you at the top.

We have all heard these many times.

1. Let’s get back to basics.
2. It’s a game of inches.
3. Just swim to the next buoy.
4. Success is a habit.

When you have taken on a mission that is bigger than yourself, it is easy to get lost in the big picture and loose sight of what needs to be done today to ensure your success tomorrow. Taking the Chiropractic Story to the masses can be a daunting task when you think about all that needs to be done, especially if you own your own practice. In every moment someone or something in vying for your attention, and it becomes so easy to get off track and lose focus and purpose.

Daily Success Rituals

One tool I have loved to use is a Daily Success Ritual Checklist. This checklist is to be reviewed and checked off every day. Then you can archive the list, peer back on the most unchecked items, and get help in those areas.

What goes on the List?

As we go through life, we pick up advice that we know is common between all successful people. We know athletes practice every day for hours. We know that Sales People make X number of calls per day. One of the biggest ones that turns up over and over is writing 3 thank you notes per day. Make a study of your mentors and heroes. Dig in deep and find out what their day looks like. Collect these gems and put them on your list.

The Dream Practice List

This list is highly unique for each individual. Click here to download mine below so you have a place to start.

In the Comments section below please share 1 or 2 items you think should be on this checklist.

darren

Yesterday was certainly one of my most favorite days in practice! After reading that, you are probably thinking that you are going to read a patient testimonial or about some crazy chiropractic miracle, however we saw NO patients yesterday.

Every quarter we take an entire day and spend it together developing ourselves and our team. In the morning we usually spend time reviewing our goals and refreshing office procedure skills that need polishing, and in the afternoon we simply go have fun! In the past we have done paintball, bowling, BBQ, etc. This day was very different.

8:30 am We gathered at the office for a light, nutritious breakfast and spent time connecting with each other. It was a great start to the day, catching up with everyone.

9:00 am We spent 20 min discussing the exciting developments that are happening in our company… the purchase of a new 6,200 sq/ft building in Redmond that will house our newest satellite practice and the offices of Worksite Wellness. We also discussed the 2008 Blair Chiropractic Convention in Dallas this year and of course our famous annual Mexico Trip.

9:20 am We dove into a presentation on the Starbucks Experience. The Experience was broken down into five categories and we discussed how they would apply in an Upper Cervical Office.

Make it your own
Everything matters
Surprise and delight
Embrace resistance
Leave your mark

10:00 am Our guest speaker for the morning was Craig Sigl, CHt, NLP-t. Craig is a certified hypno-therapist who is also a NLP Master and certainly the real deal. He has specialized in helping golfers break 80 by removing mental barriers. For two hours he took us on a journey to clear the belief systems that hold us back in life. We found out that many of these programs are so deep we don’t even realize them. Then he gave us some tools that we could actually use on our own to start removing these limiting beliefs. I think what hit us most was how specific we need to be with what we want our life to look like.

1. Decide specifically want you want
2. Clear all of your mental baggage
3. Focus on the end result
4. Take Action!

12:00 pm Lunch was delivered by O-ToGo Organics. A nutritious, completely organic lunch that we were able to enjoy while discussing what we experienced. It was so cool to hear that the chatter over lunch was all about what we had learned in the morning, and how it could could be applied in our everyday lives! No gossip, news or meaningless banter.

1:00 pm We arrived at Red Hook Brewery. Except… this was no brewery tour! Because nestled behind the brewery, was a high ropes challenge course that I have been dreaming about for years. We spent 2 hours on the ground performing challenges that brought us together as a team and gave us each insight into how we operate. For me this was a huge surprise, I was really only concerned about getting on the ropes course however, I was amazed at what we were able to uncover playing some really simple games.

Just Jump!

3:00 pm We hit the high ropes course! WOW! The was some of the most fun and growth I have had in a long time. It was fascinating to see how our team operating individually in a super challenging environment. We saw a side of Ashly, our newest team player, that we have never seen before! Naomi, our veteran Massage Therapist, who was clearly the most apprehensive for the weeks lead preceding climbed entirely through the whole course. Molly infectious laughter could be heard for miles. Christina, Susan, and Brigit were the only one to attempt the triple black diamond challenge. Imagine standing on a platform 150 feet in the air then having to jump off and out 6 feet to a dangling rope only to have keep the momentum to swing another 6 feet to the other platform! I was impressed and would NEVER have guest they would have done that! Our Myers Brigg personality expert said ORANGE, ORANGE, ORANGE !!

Our Facilitator, Scott from Adventura Consulting was the true glue that held the afternoon together. His ability to join us as a group and elevate us up was fascinating. He had this amazing ability to call us on out shit without anyone taking a defensive position. He was real, authentic and super versed in this subject. We liked him so much we may even take him to Mexico with us!

The day ended with a few well earned cold beers from the Red Hook Brewery. It was nice to spend some time talking down the high points of the day.

The feedback since has been great! I think we all had some real takeaways both personally and professionally. We really got to understand how each of us makes decision and operates inside of challenges. We certainly became closer as a team and it was the perfect event to take us to the next level.

What about our patients!

They loved it, they were so enrolled in that fact we took that time together. LIFE is way to short to not have fun at work. In fact, WORK SHOULD BE FUN. I really believe that when you are linked into something bigger than each of us, we truly amaze ourselves with what we are really capable of!

Here’s to more outstanding experiences!
Darren

To add to that stress you may even take on more debt to start a practice. Then what? How the hell do you get rid of this debt?

1. Do you pay off the highest interest rate first?
2. Do you pay the smallest debt first to get an easy win?
3. Do you pay a little on everything?
4. Do you consolidate?

Just after I bought my practice the weight of my debt felt like an 800 pound gorilla on my chest. Dr. Newman turned me on to a great tool that helped me burn though my debt at a record pace AND I didn’t even have to pay attention to it. Then we created a written financial plan to start investing the payments I was applying to my debt.

Snowball your way out of debt!

This FREE program will allow you to enter up to 20 debts, with corresponding APR, and minimum payment information. Then it will actually create a written plan to kill your debt in record time! When compared to consolidating you debt this method works faster and will save you thousands of dollars.

Let others know of any great debt tools in the comments section below.

Onward and Upward,
Darren

To piggy back on that weekend I would like to tie in 6 basic human needs we have that people seek out in their experience.

The Dream

Our office experience targets the 6 human needs creating a peak emotional state so our patients make the best decisions for their health and family.

Tony Robbins

I have always been fascinated by the teachings of Anthony Robbins. I have been to most of his seminars and listen to him continually on my phone. Specifically he has great insight on why drives us. In other words he explains why we make every decision, whether we know it or not. Below is a great video of Tony explaining the 6 Human Needs.

What does this mean to us?

We need to frame our office “experience” to serve each human need.

Certainty – Having specific, well rehearsed procedures that guarentees the same level of exceptional service on any visit. Also when they send in their referrals they experience just what was said about the office.

Variety – Continually having a new piece of information / education is a super way to keep patients engaged.

Significance - Every team member required to greet patients by their first name, the Doctor knowing and asking about family / life. Specific, personal thank you notes

Connection / Love – Our initial exam and report of findings should capture the heart and mind of the patient and instill hope.

Growth – This is an easy need to meet. You can achieve this through a New Patient Class, or scripting out the first X number of visits to include an educational / philosophical piece. Amazing opportunity to transform the way people think about health.

Contribution – Allow your patients to refer in others as a way for them to share their new found success.

Robbins also mentions that anytime you meet 3 needs you create a habit.

Comment below to let others know your ideas to meeting the 6 Human Needs during a Chiropractic Visit.

Darren

One of the most important things we can do ensure success is to surround yourself with a positive successful environment. If it is “As A Man Thinketh” then it makes sense that to create good thots you need to create the environment that fosters that.

Stop Reading the Newspaper!

It is filled with a ton of negativity. This is because we have a libido for the ugly. Drama and gossip sells. Very few media sources foster possibility.

Get a Google Reader!

I have started a new habit. I was addicted to the paper and I have substituted that for a Google reader! After I wake up, workout and shower, I spend 20 min reading my pre-selected media. I have chosen 18 Blogs that deliver fresh content automatically into my reader. Once it is read it disappears. So just like a newspaper except I choose the content.

If you already have a Google account just go to www.google.com/reader. If not sign up for a free account and then go to www.google.com/reader.

Add Your Fav’s

Then search the internet for great success Blogs then subscribe! Look for the RSS symbol, ike the orange one above! Then once you click on it add it to your reader. One great resource for the best Blogs on the internet is www.alltop.com It lists all the top blogs on the internet. Also check out the Blogroll on the sidebar of this Blog site to see my favorites. Just click on them, if you like ‘em subscribe ‘em

Subscribe to this blog. It will be automatically streamed into your reader! No need to keep coming back to see if something new is written.

Follow me on Twitter and I will let you know of great new Blogs to follow and every time a new post is up.

I have a great post on how to generate an addiction to your office coming soon!
Darren