PracticeGear Newsletter, Volume 2, Issue 1 Published by Dr. Larry Duboff http://www.PracticeGear.com Copyright 2003 By Larry Duboff, DC ~ All Rights Reserved. Practice Gear and PracticGear.com are trademarked and may not be reproduced without prior written consent. 1. Flood Your Calendar with Chiropractic Speaking Engagements By Larry Duboff, DC There are many ways to bulk-up on the number of chiropractic talks you book in your community. Let's take a closer look at one that is quite easy and highly effective--getting your patients to lead you to speaking opportunities. Patients are one of your best resources for finding and scheduling places to speak. Don't forget that many of them are business owners or employees of big corporations. Others are involved with local clubs and organizations. Through their various affiliations, almost all of your patients have the ability to get you in front of a group of people to tell the chiropractic story. Many parents belong to well-organized clubs through their churches, synagogues and children's schools; new moms often belong to playgroups and "Mommy and Me" classes. The possibilities are almost endless! Let me give you an example. We have a patient who is a paramedic with the local fire department. This one person introduced me to his fire chief, who booked me for five different talks to his lieutenants, firefighters and paramedics! Adding speaking engagements to your calendar is even easier when the patient you are asking is the decision-maker. Another patient of ours supervises a team of over twenty-five insurance salespeople. She was enthusiastic about motivating her team, and scheduled me to give a chiropractic talk at one of her monthly meetings. My dynamic presentation led to several new patients, as well as another speaking engagement! So how can you get more of your patients to help you flood your calendar with speaking engagements? The answer is simple-- position yourself as a first-class speaker! When you accomplish this objective, your patients will gladly make an extra effort to help you share the chiropractic story with others. Let's take a closer look at how to make your patients aware of your exciting, professional presence on the platform. Here is an easy-to-use strategy to let them know that you are passionate about speaking, and a valuable asset to their business or organization. The strategy is to create a "chiropractic speaker's board." A chiropractic speaker's board is simply a display that presents a variety of materials attesting to your expertise as a chiropractic speaker. Our speaker's board hangs where people can easily see it. We display many of the most impressive "thank you for speaking to our organization" letters on the board. This gives patients the opportunity to see that I have spoken successfully to a wide variety of businesses and community groups. They see that I was well received; an obvious asset to any number of organizations. We post more reading material in the way of newsletters where organizations have either listed me as their speaker or published an article of mine. Getting short articles published in community newsletters and papers is great publicity and an effective way to promote yourself as a speaker too! Let your patients see that you write about health and wellness in addition to speaking about it. There are many other creative ways to get your patients to help you schedule speaking engagements. Creating a speaker's board is only one idea that can get you moving in the right direction, right now! And I am certain that your board will boost your success as a chiropractic speaker. 2. FREE CHIROPRACTIC CLOTHING CATALOG Practice Gear's 2003 chiropractic clothing catalog is here! We offer quantity pricing and custom embroidery. To receive your free catalog, send an email with your name and office address to catalog@PracticeGear.com or call 800.665.8070