Too often, doctors get stuck in a mindset of building their business instead of focusing on delivering the message of chiropractic organically. Dr. Stephen Franson, founder of The Remarkable Practice, returns to the podcast to give some insights on how to get referrals in your practice. If you’d like to connect with Dr. Franson, go to AlignLifeFranchise.com/AYP and put Franson in the comments.

About the Guest: 

Dr. Stephen Franson is a true champion of the Chiropractic Wellness Lifestyle who packs deep experience from over twenty years of clinical practice. Franson is an exceptional clinician, passionate teacher and dynamic leader in the Chiropractic Profession. Franson was listed as one of the Top 25 Most Influential Chiropractors in the World in 2017.

Known as “The Systems Guy”, Franson is the founder of The Remarkable Practice, an innovative coaching and consulting company that helps doctors create a remarkable practice as part of a remarkable life.

Stephen is also Co-Founder of Chiro Match Makers, a highly specialized chiropractic placement service that utilizes a proprietary system to match the right chiropractor with the right opportunity. He is a committed trainer of “Remarkable Teams” and specializes in creating business and training systems for some of the most successful organizations in Chiropractic.

A graduate of the University of Vermont (B.S.), Life Chiropractic College (D.C.) and a certified Gonstead Instructor, Dr. Franson has served as an extended faculty member at Life University, Palmer College and Northwestern College of Life Sciences.  Franson Family Chiropractic opened in 1997 and grew to be one of the largest wellness clinics in the world.

Dr. Joseph Esposito: I got my like, good friend, awesome chiropractor, Dr. Steven France and how are you?

Dr. Stephen Franson: What's up Dr. Joe? What's up everybody?

Dr. Joseph Esposito: I'm excited for this doc, I remember speaking at your convention and house in the front of the room and, and I was talking about Mark and I go, just be really frustrated at everything and health care and you'll build a practice if you really in your heart are just totally frustrated and mad. Remember that been one of my I don't know if that's great coaching Steven, or if that's all hard. But when we get into the referral thing, it's got to be mission based man, it can't be building a practice. But I want to let you take it away to open this thing. But I think it's kind of come from the heart.

Dr. Stephen Franson: Yeah, it says I'm actually going to quote you because it's one of my favorite Joe Esposito quotes, which was you gotta be patient it right. So it was part part piss Pat part passionate. And that's exactly. That is that's one voice. Right? That's one style. That's one approach to it. And, you know, I think what's really critically important is that passion is always going to be part of it. Because if you're not passionate, that's what's going to come through everything else, you know, it's got to be genuine passion for our mission and for our purpose. And whether you are excited for people or you're pissed off at what's going on in the world, or you're angry, and you want to defend your patience and your community, or you're on the you know, positivity side of things, and you're just trying to inspire people to make changes, wherever it is at all. It all has to be passion plus something that's genuine for you.

Dr. Joseph Esposito: Yeah, it's it's a great point, I think I always tried to teach that, you know, when we're in a huddle in the morning, we may look at what are we trying to accomplish on the business or closing the day. But then, once you take that hat off and put on your serving hat, and it's about to about the people, it's about the mission, and you don't want to be asking for referrals to build a business, I just think that's a bad way of approach. You want to build a business, you want to ask for referrals to serve people that don't know about this awesome opportunity of chiropractic and like live in that space. So you can people think they're, they're concerned, because the patient's thinking that you're trying to build your business that's like the common thread of this, like, I don't want them to think I'm building a business. I'm like, Well, you own a business, and you're gonna build it. But if it comes from your heart, and the fact that you truly want to help people live better lives, your business is going to grow. But it's the context of being in scarcity or pain or trying to survive. And if that energy is like, I got it, again, get new patients, I don't like getting there's no, there's no acquisition, it's a flow of energy from people suffering to a place of healing. It's just it's passive diffusion. It's not active transport. It's my little nerdy mind talking.

Dr. Stephen Franson: Yeah, I mean, I think we take an approach to this, the way we approach everything, right, heart, head, hands, feet. So you know, the heart is the why, right. So why is asking referral for referral. So critical to the mission, right? So I would suggest that asking for a referral is intrinsic to the mission. If you can't separate the two, right, you can't be on mission and not ask for referral. Right? So if you do really embrace the purpose, and I'm not projecting here, I'm not. I'm being careful not to project philosophy here, but I can share where I'm coming from. Right. So where I'm coming from is like, I'm on purpose. And I know what my purpose is. My purpose is to restore health. I understand the role that chiropractic and even above that, the role that your paradigm plays, in you actually, having not only better health outcomes, but a better health experience. I have a moral obligation to share that right. So as is, so it is not a question of like, oh, yeah, I'm, you know, deciding to or choosing to, like, you know, I have to share where my head's going to explode. Right? So that's just the essence of the heart behind it. Now the hobbies of it, that's the head, right. So which is like, well, what does it look like? Well, how do you do that? Right? And I do think that there's a big mindset shift, as you said, that has to happen here. There's so many limiting beliefs where people if you're inwardly focused, meaning you're focusing on yourself, what are people thinking about me when I say it that way? It's like, here's the truth. People aren't thinking about you. So it's like, it's not about you. This is about you serving the mission and the purpose and people want to get behind a purpose. That's worthwhile, right? So people want to believe in, you know, a better future and if you can help them, see what's possible for them. And that chiropractic is a bridge to help them get there. You know, next thing, you know, you've got a whole bunch of people following you, right. And it would be incongruent for you not to be sharing the message, educating patients and asking people to share the message, right. So that literally gets to the point of incongruency, right. So you actually want to get yourself to the place where you are would be out of integrity. If you were not asking people for it would seem really odd that you were not asking people like who else? Do you know that's having a hard time getting well? Or who's who's having a hard time, you know, struggling with overcoming some kind of health condition or some health challenge? Who do you know that sick and tired of being sick and tired? Who do you know that wants to optimize their the expression of their potential? Who do you want? Who do you know, what's increasing performance in the gym? Or on the field? Or in their workplace or in their home life? I mean, it's just like, why wouldn't you be talking about it? Right? That's kind of getting your head around it, and recognizing that, at the end of the day, patient education is promotion. Right. So by educating people that is the essence of promoting. So, you know, I believe all of that being said, is that the promotion of chiropractic is an act of kindness. Right. So to the point where I'm, I've got an obligation that it would be, it would be disingenuous, and it'd be incongruent for me not to be asking for a referral, and getting it to the point where I recognize that it's an act of kindness, and then his hands and feet, which is how do you do it, which is probably a good conversation for us today. And a feet feet, which is practice, train, like, like, you get to roleplay this just like anything, you want to be awesome at you train and you practice and you and, and at the end of the day, how it's I think it's an expression of how serious are you about this mission that we're on?

Dr. Joseph Esposito: That's awesome. I think we get let's get practical on some deliverables. But I just want to bring shed some light on three concepts that you brought up, which is all about mindset. And really, if you're listening to this podcast, if you're like, trying to get new patients you have the mindset is I need new patients. That's a job. And that's a task that you have to do. That's not living a mission. So there's three phrases Stephen said, that came straight from his subconscious mind, on the premise of which he operates. It's just a different consciousness. And if you can embrace that consciousness, it'll change your practice and change your life. Because it changes from a task or a job to living an inspired mission. It's a shift. And it could happen that this podcast in three seconds, or it could take you a decade, it can happen at any time, or it may never happen. But the three things he said number one, is he said that it's a moral obligation. Think of that wording, it's a moral obligation to tell people about chiropractic. That's not about getting patients, it's about keeping his moral beliefs and what who he is as a human, then you said it's a, it's an act of kindness. And think about the mindset of it being kind to help someone with their health and chiropractic. And the third one, drawn a blank and a thorough but it's the same premise. Oh, you'd be out of integrity. Think about if you don't ask for referrals, you're out of your own personal integrity. It's not about getting new patients, guys, it's living a premise in which you will stand and die for. It's a different way of living, I can appreciate that. So I just wanted to call light to that. Hopefully, guys, you could put those on paper or tattoo and think through that. But that's the shift from I need new patients to oblivion admission. So let's get into some, some some of your favorites. I'm going to talk my first one. I always did phone consults. I don't hear a lot of people talking about that. But I don't know I just loved someone in the office say, you know, my mom has headaches like me. And I'd be like, Well, why don't I just give your mama? I don't know, courtesy call. I don't want to make a cold call. But would you mind telling your mom that I can talk to her for a few minutes and just guide her and see if chiropractic and helper or I can give her direction? Maybe another doctor, but ask her if she's interested in and bring her number. And then they bring the number on the way home I call the mom and I just say hey, sorry to bother you up. Dr. Esposito, I'm uh, I'm Stephens chiropractor. And he had mentioned headaches and I just want to do a courtesy call. I don't know if it's something chiropractic help. I thought we could chat. What do you think they're, they act like you're the president or the Pope, when you call. They are so grateful that a doctor reached out, you would think it'd be weird. It's uncleared it's so natural and normal. And they're so grateful. Speak for three minutes, many consults. And see if if they say I have an axe in the back of my head that maybe don't bring them in the office, send him to the hospital. If they say, I don't know, I've had this pain for 20 years, I've been taking drugs. I don't know if it's kind of rare case. But maybe it makes sense to come in. And let's take a quick look. If you want. I'm here for you. I don't I've done that Steven. And I can do two, three a week and get 12 new patients on a couple of phone calls on my way home from work. I don't think it'll get easier than that. But that's my one. What do you think of that? And,

Dr. Stephen Franson: yeah, without a doubt, I mean, the, you know, if we're talking specifically about lead generation internally or internally generation referrals, right, there's three flavors of referral. Right. So there's organic referral, this process driven referral on this campaign during referrals. So Organic referrals mean happy people send more people, right? So it's just like, make sure you know, if you, if you're taking good care of people and you're loving on people and you're being nice to people and you do what you say you're going to do, you're keeping your promises, you're going to be surrounded by a whole bunch of happy people. And the concept of being surrounded as it's a great consciousness, like, like when you said, we don't need more new patients. The truth is, is there's no shortage of sick and suffering people all around your clinic, myoclonic. And everyone that's listening right now you they have you surrounded, right? So there is no shortage of second suffering people, once you recognize the abundance of need around you, it'll help you pick your head up and be able to say I need to step into that need. Okay, so you don't need to create the need, right? So you need to create awareness, the demand is there. Right? So we have a market that has huge demand. So once you recognize that, like, Oh, no demand is all around me, it's swirling all around me, what I have to create is awareness. Right? So I need to be able to step out into that marketplace. And the best way to do it is through your patients. Because guess what, they are also surrounded, like, so as soon as you stop thinking about, Oh, I've got this practice, I've got this business. And I've got a message and I've got to share my message to build my business, you've got that backwards, right? So you got to recognize that God gave you a platform to deliver a message. That's you don't deliver a message to build your business, you have a business in order to deliver the message, right. So as soon as you flip that around, and you recognize that, that that's, that's when that message will come to you and through you. That's when you just recognize like, Oh, this is what I'm here to tell. I'm telling the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Because those same people, same people that have you surrounded have every single one of your patients around it. Okay, so people love to commiserate, right? So people love to talk about what's going wrong in their life and how stressed out they are. And because of the stress, they get all these problems, they can't sleep, they sleep too much. They're exhausted, fatigued, they have no energy, they're nervous, anxious, they've got depression, they've got digestive issues, they've got pain, spasticity, dysfunction, weakness, immunocompromised, manifesting and all these different body systems. And that's all people talk about. So we don't know that because we don't spend time in those circles, right? So the people that we talk about, we're talking about growth and inspiration in the next level, roughly, but most people they spend their times commiserating. Right. So why not equip your people to be able to, to actually share the story of chiropractic. So this is one reason, Joe that I observed. The reason that we don't have more referrals than we know what to do with is because we don't equip our patients well, to be able to step into the gap of four people and share the chiropractic stories, because the truth is, is you and I both know this is that people will not talk about what they don't know about. If people don't feel confident to talk about chiropractic, if they know they're one or two questions away from sounding like an idiot. They're not going to bring up chiropractic, right? So if you recognize like, oh, man, I've got to be able to, I've got an opportunity here to to be teaching and training and inspiring my patients to share chiropractic. The first part of that is I get to teach them about chiropractic, then I'm going to train them on how to tell people a chiropractic, then I've got to inspire them to tell people about chiropractic, don't skip those first two steps. You've got to equip people, right? Because people don't talk about what they don't know about.

Dr. Joseph Esposito: Yeah, that's so huge. And I like to break down also on the you have it as organic, process driven and campaign driven, I think the more we get granular on the data, we can see huge gaps, because we're like, I don't have any campaign driven referral. So there's a gap that I can I can I can fill. So I think getting granular on the sources has helped me dramatically on the behaviors to fill the gaps when it's just I need new patients and it's all one, one level analytic, it's hard, you break it down internal, external, digital becomes a little easier. You break down internal into three different ways it becomes easier, because those are all awareness and behavior points of wow, I can I can do X or I can do Y.

Dr. Stephen Franson: Yeah, the process one is gets really actionable, right? So your organic one is just sort of a barometer for QA, quality assurance, like are happy people sending more people check, right? So check yourself there, right? So if you're not seeing that, then you got to check yourself on that, right? Because then this process process driven is like if patients just simply go through your process, and what do we mean by that? Like, you know, this is an align life sponsored program. So one thing online life is famous for is this incredible process, right? So it's like, you know, they make it up. It's like, we've got a day zero process for marketing. We've got a day zero to day one conversion process to have people come into the office, we've got a day one process, what does day one look like for you patient consultation and examination? Right. So the discovery process of of what is it day one right then what is day two? We come in for a report of findings recommendations for care of the financial reporting, right first adjustment, that's a process d3 where we onboard and we train and equip and create Eight ideal patients so we can collect ideal patients. That's a process. Day four is a process, week four, month four, year four, it's all a process, they go through a process. We're not making it up as we go, there's a system to follow. Why is that powerful? Man, there's 12 reasons. I'm the systems guy, I'll give you 24 reasons why that's important. One of them is as you don't have to think about or remember to ask for a referral. Because if it's a bait into your process, and you follow the process, then they're just in their first four months, there's 52, opportunities to ask for referral, in the first four months of our process, right that people like 52. On that there's like, No way. I'm like, Okay, you're on. Let's, let's pull, pull out the manual. And let's get your highlighter out. And let me show you the 52 occasions where you're asking for referral in the first four months. Dr. Joe, if you're following the process, right, we recognize that the promotions are baked into the process.

Dr. Joseph Esposito: Yeah, good friend, CJ Mart said, when your procedures become your promotions and your promotions are your procedures, and the business just operates at a high different level of scale.

Dr. Stephen Franson: That's exactly that's exactly it. And, you know, CJs famous quote is let your process be your promotions and your promotions be your process. Right. So that mean, we both come with WSOP in our DNA, right? So of the many things that coach CJ taught us, it was, you would be, you would be incongruent not to follow the process, because the promotion is baked into the process.

Dr. Joseph Esposito: Yeah, it's huge. And to reflect that on a line like that's what we see is, we actually to look at stats over like a 90 day cycle, look at those that engage in train their growth percentage, their delta of growth is significantly different than not engaging and training. So, you know, we know first is mindset, which we started the podcast on. And then we're talking about process. And last part is execution. If you don't do the process, you can't get the outcome that you're looking for. And one of the things that I love that we have an online life is our practice diagnosis dashboard that's built into our software that allows us to literally diagnose a practice in about 10 seconds by looking at this document that talks about all conversions, all lead gen sources, and it can put to put to use some of the brilliance that you shared today from the mindset but also the process of driving a business. So if you're out there, and you're you know, whether you're stuck in scarcity, you lost a mission based mindset, you want to learn more about what we do and the Align life journey, we'd love to do a practice diagnosis and and a study of where there's gaps may be in your current process that we can help fill. So if you're if you're interested in that we'd love to, we'd love to engage and and help guide you in that way. So So Steven, I was just going through some closing, closing thoughts and wrapping up the referral, mission based mindset. So in closing, I will say number one is you got to get, as Steve was saying, you got to start with the heart in the why. And you got to be on the mission. You got to be doing this because your your call to spread ambition and then you built a business around a mindset and a premise. And then as you said, Steven second is the heart I'm sorry, the head is how are we going to what systems are we gonna use to execute that? And then the hands is the execution the feed is how do we scale Train, train, train, train the team and train and especially start looking at your data organic first process driven versus campaign driven. Steven, thank you so much for coming on today. Appreciate all your insights. Looking forward to seeing you soon. Thanks, everyone.