I’ve just landed back in Sydney, after spending the weekend with the most formidable, heart-centred group of people I know.
As always, there were many lessons learned… I’d love to share a few take-aways that I hope will be useful for you both in practice and in life.
I was in LA for a meeting of my chiropractic mastermind group, the UAC.
As far as winter weather goes, that was spectacular.
The event was held in equal parts in the conference room, the bar and the pool.
UAC events are always at iconic locations, and this one was no exception. We met at the Peninsula Hotel in Beverley Hills.
The first insight I want to share involves the level of service I experienced… and how it applies in your practice.
Although the hotel is beautiful, it’s neither the biggest, nor the fanciest hotel I’ve stayed in. However, their level of service is second to none… and it was the bespoke touches and personal interactions that made it a truly memorable venue.
From the moment the doorman opened the door of my Uber on arrival I was greeted with…
“Welcome back doctor.”
I still have no idea how they knew who I was at that point… surely they don’t just guess that everyone who arrives is a doc who has stayed there before!
I was checked in right away, despite being way early (my flight landed at 6am) and was told I could check out as late as 4pm.
(I don’t know how much time you’ve spent in hotels, but in my experience a 4pm checkout is unheard of!)
So it’s fair to say they made a pretty good first impression… but it became next-level when I stepped into my room.
I was greeted with a fruit platter and a personalised note welcoming me back… but not only that, my initials were monogramed on the pillow case…
And my last initial was on every towel, washcloth and bathmat in the place…
Right down to even the toilet paper!
The linen was a cool touch… but what really stood out was the people.
Every single interaction I had, with any hotel employee, was totally impeccable. Friendly, welcoming, and incredibly helpful… it was like they knew what I needed before I even did!
Now, all of this could easily seem wildly over the top…
Except it didn’t feel that way.
(Even despite being a guy who’s not into anything fancy… in Australia we generally think anything too fancy is “a bit wanky.”)
But it felt genuine.
It felt real.
Not one single smile or word throughout the entire weekend seemed insincere or forced.
Our brains are wired for connection and picking up subtle social nuances… we evolved in tribes where social standing meant survival and access to resources. Our mirror neurons are always firing.
So whether we’re consciously aware of it or not…
We can always tell when someone is “just doing their job” vs when their heart is truly in it.
So my question for you is…
“How can you give your patients that kind of experience?
How can you make them feel special and incredibly valued… in a way that is totally authentic?”
I’m sure we’ve all heard Maya Angelou’s famous words…
“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
Applying this in your practice is extremely powerful.
In a world filled with increasingly surface-level interactions, making people feel genuinely seen, heard and valued is a healing act in and of itself.
It immediately shifts them out of their typical, day-to-day, sympathetic dominant state… and into a more relaxed, parasympathetic mode.
Not only are they easier to adjust, they literally heal faster, and more deeply.
It also makes great business sense.
The Peninsula hotel was amazing… and the price reflected that.
Yet I wasn’t worried about the cost (even with our crappy Aussie dollar…) the exchange of value felt worth every single cent.
The Power of Unreasonable Hospitality:
If you really want to apply this in your practice, I highly recommend the book Unreasonable Hospitality: The Remarkable Power of Giving People More Than They Expect by Will Guidara.
That book totally transformed how I thought about this subject… and about the level of experience I wanted to create for my patients. Implementing the ideas in the book also supercharged my team culture and made my clinic a more fun, lively and satisfying place to work.
One of the unconventional shifts Will made that enabled his restaurant, Eleven Madison Park, to become #1 in the world, was to focus on service rather than just the food (of course the food had to be world-class too.)
Up until that point, the top restaurants in the world were all about the food– the service was just a delivery mechanism for the chef’s vision.
It’s easy to fall into this kind of thinking when it comes to running a practice. As a clinician, I’m obsessively focused on the quality of the care we provide. I spend hours every single week training my docs on skills and technique.
We consistently deliver remarkable results.
But that’s only one part of each patient’s overall experience.
Sometimes people will put up with mediocre service if the food is great… but why not optimise both?
The way our chiropractic assistants care for, and communicates with, our patients is also critical. That’s why we spend hours on CA training every week too.
I love the story that was shared by one of the speakers this weekend, Raymond Kemp Snr.
Raymond served in the US Navy for over 30 years, rising to the rank of Fleet Master Chief of Europe and Africa. He directed over 56,000 service members, civilians, contractors and family members across the European and African continents. He commanded aircraft carriers and directly advised multiple world leaders.
After retiring from the navy he founded Kemp Solutions, a leadership consulting company that has worked with major organisations around the world.
So he knows a thing or two about leadership…
He related a story about when John F. Kennedy toured NASA during preparation for the Apollo moon landing in 1969. When he approached a janitor who was mopping the floor and asked him what he was doing, the janitor’s reply was…
“Sir, I’m putting a man on the moon.”
Now that’s a man who understands, and is congruent with, the Values and Mission of his organisation!
How do you think every member of your team would answer that question?
Service was obviously one of the highest values of the Peninsula Hotel, and every single employee I encountered embodied it fully.
According to Raymond Kemp Snr, the real measure of alignment in your business is how well the lowest person on the totem pole can articulate the mission, vision and values of the organisation and demonstrate them in concrete action.
I’d encourage you to run your own team through this filter, and take action on what you learn.
I know I will be.
I’m pretty confident how they’ll do…
So far this year I’ve had 2 of my CA team inspired to enrol to become practitioners. To me, that’s a good sign our values around healing are flowing congruently throughout our team!
But we can always up our game further.
In Will’s restaurant, their Unreasonable Acts of Hospitality began with little things…
Like sending a team member out to put change in customers’ parking meters so they didn’t have to rush their dinner (not a big deal for the team… but it made a huge impression on their guests.)
From there it escalated…
For example, when a server overheard children at one table wishing they could go sledding in the snow in Central Park, they sent a team member out to buy sleds at a local store to give the diners as a surprise after-dinner gift.
From there it became a game, a challenge to see who could create the coolest, most unexpected, most unreasonable acts of hospitality… there’s some great stories in the book, it really is worth a read.
The premise is to Wow your customers (or patients) by going so far above and beyond their expectations that it’s not even vaguely reasonable.
But it’s definitely memorable!
The relatively minimal cost was always outweighed by the once-in-a-lifetime memories they were able to create.
And the stories that were told again and again.
In our clinic this sometimes looks like little things…
For example, having a team member move their car mid-shift so a patient struggling with mobility doesn’t have to walk to get into the clinic…
Or having a team member drop off supplements and a care package to a patient’s house rather than just posting them out…
Or driving miles to treat an elderly patient in hospital when they were recovering from a fall.
We’re constantly looking for ways to level-up on this… brainstorming it is fun, and a constant source of energy and motivation for the whole team.
One of the keys that was emphasized in the book, which we’ve have carried over into my clinic, is that what looks like off-the-cuff spontaneity…
Is often actually a well-thought-out, intentional system.
When something is a winner once…
How can you make it easy to replicate, yet still personalised?
This can be challenging, but when you nail it, you make someone’s day (or sometimes even their year) and turn a loyal patient into a lifelong raving fan.
The Peninsula hotel this weekend was a flawless example of the principles of Unreasonable Hospitality in action.
The Power of Surrounding Yourself with the Right People:
Although the location and level of service definitely enhanced the weekend, those things were really just a bonus.
What makes UAC events special is the calibre of people involved.
For a start, the speakers are always excellent. Raymond Kemp Snr. was an inspiration, and the other speaker, Dr. Gary Sanchez was also awesome.
I took so much from his message about finding not just your Why, but also your How and What, that I plan to dedicate a whole issue of The Foot-Brain Connection to sharing what I learned and how you can apply it to your business, your family and your life.
However, beyond all that, it’s the actual members of the UAC that consistently make these meetings so powerful.
People often look at me like I’m crazy, and ask why the hell I would fly all the way across the world and back for a weekend…
But the answer is as simple as that… it’s the people.
And the relationships I’ve built with them.
Every trip I come back both humbled and inspired… to think bigger, to grow and to be better… as a practitioner, as a parent and as a man.
It would be easy to be intimidated in that environment. Literally everyone there has an impressive list of achievements, skills and talents. But no one brings any ego to the table.
It’s one of the warmest, most supportive groups I’ve ever been involved with. Over the weekend I had some seriously high-level conversations… clinical conversations, business conversations and life conversations. And underlying every one of them was a consistent theme of…
“How can we help each other?”
Money isn’t the motivator for this group… that was abundantly clear when we did Dr. Gary’s “Uncover Your Why” process.
It is, however, one of the simplest metrics we can apply to measure Impact.
And the cumulative (and growing) impact of this group is amazing.
Each year there is an anonymous 1-question survey…
“What was the gross income of your natural healthcare business this year?”
This year the group total was $538 million.
That’s not a bad impact for a group of less than 100 health professionals!
Reminds me of Margaret Mead’s words…
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”
I was sharing a drink with Ray in the bar on Saturday night and I asked him…
“With all your experience in the Navy and training groups around the world on leadership, I’d love your opinion… we often talk in the UAC about the nature of this group… what’s your observation? Are we right… or do we just have our heads up our own asses?”
His answer…
“There is a level of authenticity in this group that’s unlike anything I’ve ever seen in any other group.”
Hearing that warmed my heart. Because it resonates with my experience.
Authenticity is a superpower.
In a hyper-stimulated, social media world that is constantly telling you why you’re not enough and should be more like everyone else…
Being your authentic self is the most powerful, contrarian thing you can do.
And it’s exactly what the world needs.
When you turn up ready to give and serve, looking to create not just Unreasonable Hospitality…
But committed to creating Unreasonable Healing…
Lives change.
When I come from that place, whether it’s explaining Chiropractic Care, or the benefits of Better Balance Orthotics, the only question I usually get asked is…
“How soon can we get started.”
I know this is what you do in your clinic every day too… thanks for making the world a better place.
Cheers,
PS. I want to send a huge shout-out of thanks to the Cooper family, who invited me into their home on Sunday for an authentic, all-American experience of eating BBQ and watching the Super Bowl. That was an act of unreasonable hospitality I won’t forget! Your place, your clinic and your family are awesome 👊
PPS. If you’d like to know more about the UAC, you can check it out here: https://uacchiro.com/
It’s an invite-only membership. I’d love to have some of our Better Balance Orthotics docs in the room. If it feels like it would be a good fit for you, reach out to me and we’ll talk about having you as a guest at our next event.