A Shift in Perspective Can Take Your Business to the Next Level
The following is adapted from Perspective by Chris Boman.
Have you experienced a moment or season in your life when you hit rock bottom and confronted failure face-to-face? You felt your heart go heavy, your stomach curl, and your tongue go dry as you contemplated what went wrong and what you were going to do next. As that moment became a season, food began to taste stale, and you found yourself looking for any distraction from reality. You couldn’t sleep at night because you were stressed out about payroll or simply paying rent. Your alarm went off morning after morning, but there was zero motivation to get out of bed. You were, or maybe even still are, stuck with wondering: Will I ever be successful?
I get it. And believe me: I’ve been there.
I hit my own rock bottom in the fall of 2019. I’d been working as a chiropractor for almost five years and was experiencing rapid growth each season. I decided to hire an associate chiropractor, and, to quickly fill her schedule, I splurged on a very expensive marketing program. Up to that point in my career, I had been very specific about my target market for patients (I focus on prenatal care and helping kids with special needs). But I wanted to make sure I kept my new associate busy and that I had enough business to pay her salary. As a result, I threw to the wind my targeted approach and decided to grow my practice as fast and furiously as I could, marketing my services to anyone with a spine, including the coupon hunters and window shoppers. New patients and free consultations started streaming in — as many as twenty or thirty a week — but few of them stayed for long because I was advertising one thing, but in reality, selling them another. These new patients wanted a quick fix, and I wanted to help them get to the root cause of their issues. Between all of the initial paperwork and the diagnostics required to provide good chiropractic care, I was literally spending hours getting a new patient situated, only to have them basically reject my recommendations and then walk out the door again, never to return. All of that intake work also meant I had to funnel to my associate more and more of my established patients who loved me, and consequently, even they were beginning to feel like things at Trailhead Family Chiropractic were changing.
Despite my marketing and delegation efforts, my practice was falling apart, and I needed to start making some budget cuts. I turned off the expensive marketing program, and, predictably, the new patient stream dried up. I began noticing bigger and bigger gaps in my schedule because I had lost a lot of my established patient base as well. I had to email my accounting team to lower my paycheck each week to make sure everyone else got paid, and eventually, I had to lay off most of my staff, including my associate chiropractor. Here I was, thinking I was poised for exponential growth, and instead, I was watching my patients and bank account decrease dramatically each week. My wife and I were down to our last $300 in our checking account, and I was looking at failure face-to-face. I didn’t have enough money to pay my receptionist, let alone give her the raise I had promised, and I was at the point where I was willing to sell my practice and let the entrepreneur dream fade away. I woke up each morning with zero motivation, and I ended each work day frustrated that nothing had changed and wondering if anything ever would. I couldn’t see a way out of this hole I’d dug for myself: in other words, I was at my rock bottom.
Out of desperation, I decided that the only way I would be able to keep going was to apply for a $30,000 business loan that I knew was only a bandage for my real problem. I knew that this loan would only make things worse in the long run, but the decision was fueled by my state of stress and desire for temporary relief.
My perspective was near-sighted and, instead of trying to defuse the bomb going off, I was choosing to deal with the aftermath of the explosion. But, the Lord works in my life in funny ways. When the damage was reaching its peak, I was scheduled to go on vacation. So not only did I have no money, but I didn’t even have the opportunity to earn any.
While on vacation, I sat at the dining room table, bags under my eyes from the lack of sleep, filling out the online loan application when my wife, Jessica, walked in and asked what I was doing. I sheepishly admitted to her that unless I got this money now, there wouldn’t be a next payroll. “I have no choice,” I told her.
Jessica was skeptical. Our faith has always been important to us, and she asked me if I’d prayed about this decision before committing to it. I hadn’t. When I told her as much, I felt convicted and frustrated but reluctantly closed my laptop. I didn’t see the point, but I trusted that she had a different perspective that I desperately needed.
I’ve seen countless people go through struggles similar to mine. For some, they go through this process multiple times, and the failure takes much longer than a few weeks to overcome. As a chiropractor, I also see this in my practice daily: some adults come in with chronic and debilitating health issues, kids struggle with simply learning to talk, and babies suffer from colic so bad their parents have to pay a babysitter just to get a couple hours of sleep. I have talked with business owners who are ready to throw in the towel just like I was. They are scared, desperate, and confused as to why things didn’t work out. Again and again, they tell me they’ve tried every possible solution, and none of them seem to work. “That’s okay,” I always tell them. “We got this.”
THIS Is Different
When I closed that laptop on vacation, it meant more than just refusing to get a loan. It meant that I was free to be myself again without worrying about making money (simply because there was nothing more I could do). A week went by, and we ended up having enough for payroll. This process of having just enough happened for about a month, and at that point, I was scheduled to attend a local chiropractic seminar. It was there that I started to remember why I chose chiropractic in the first place. I decided to rededicate my practice and career to my original mission and purpose and chase my big vision once again. That next week was different, and things started clicking in my mind. I realized that the real reason new patients stopped booking and that established patients left was because I wasn’t living a life congruent with my core values: instead, I was seeing patients for all the wrong reasons. I was so interested in growing my patient base and making money that I dismissed why I became a chiropractor to begin with. I’d lost my perspective and was working for what I could selfishly get out of life instead of how I could provide value to those around me. I was living in scarcity instead of in abundance.
Once I realized how I fell to my rock bottom, it became easy to climb out. “Easy” doesn’t mean it wasn’t hard; it meant I was able to live my natural self. I returned to memorizing my patient’s’ names, taking an interest in their lives, and focusing on their well-being beyond just the adjustment, rather than what that adjustment meant for my bank account. That change alone meant that I was immediately happier, and so were my patients. They began referring friends and family members again; my schedule filled up organically, and I began to receive invitations to give workshops and lectures around our community again. I’d reconnected with my purpose by remembering my why, and, as a result, everything else in my life began to shift into place. More than that, I’d moved from a state of stress to one of abundance. I could once again dream and craft a vision beyond making weekly payroll. Moving into 2020, a disastrous year for most, we enjoyed financial security. My family and I began to take more vacations, and I was also able to buy my dream car (which I will talk more about later) cash-up-front and begin to build our family homestead. A shift in perspective was all I needed because success was already in me, and abundance was waiting for me to ask for it.
To learn more about rebuilding your business, you can find Perspective on Amazon.
Dr. Chris Boman is a chiropractor who helps heal his patients by identifying problems at their core. He has a focus in chiropractic pediatrics with degrees from the University of Montana and Southern California University of Health Sciences. Driven by his faith and a recognized higher purpose, Dr. Chris leads families in discovering their God-given health potential. He’s also a professional consultant for aspiring entrepreneurs and frustrated CEOs, reigniting their passion and enabling them to pursue a goal beyond paying the bills.
