I’m inviting you to participate in an interesting project. I’m not try­ing to sell you anything. In fact, I’m trying to help you promote your prac­tice and chiro­practic, and I’m willing to commit some resources to facilitate a pro­ject like this. It’s the right thing to do for the pro­fes­sion and for your com­mu­ni­ties.

We all under­stand the pow­er of tes­ti­mo­nials. As chi­ro­prac­tors, we can budget thou­sands of dol­lars to our mar­keting budg­ets. The most ef­fec­tive way to build a bet­ter practice is through the power of stories—sto­ries folks share with oth­ers in your com­munity. That sort of thing isn’t for sale. People give you that re­spect and ex­po­sure be­cause you’ve earned it. Those kinds of stories are price­less and im­pactful.

Stories define our lives. They are a major component of what we do, how we think, and what we believe. In gen­eral, stories are created through our exposures. For ex­am­ple, a dominant Ameri­can story is the primacy of sta­tus quo health care, created through mas­sive me­dia and exploita­tion of fears. We need to tell our side of the story to facilitate a better, healthier story folks can use to direct their lives.

Promoting a Powerful Message

We’re calling the project the Life That Works® Book Project (LTW Book Pro­ject). We chose that title be­cause it’s a sim­ple, u­nique phrase that packs a pow­er­ful mes­sage. It’s dif­fi­cult to see a phrase like Life That Works® and not think about two basic choic­es: having a life that works, or one that doesn’t. Given the choice, con­scious­ly or sub­con­scious­ly, most people will gravitate toward the choice of a life that works.

Encouraging folks to think in these terms has an impact on paradigms. That one little phrase, Life That Works®, has the potential to shift per­ception from medica­tions as the only path to health and wellness to the primacy of innate potential to express and create a Life That Works®.

Here’s what we’d like to do and what we hope you’ll do. We would like you to pick one (or sev­eral) of the cases you’ve had that were a great suc­cess. If you’ve been in prac­tice for any time at all, I’m sure you’ve got some great suc­cess sto­ries to tell about some of your pa­tients and their experi­ence with chi­ropractic. Tell us about that case and the response that patient had. We’ll compile all the best stories and put them in a book format (elec­tron­ic and tra­ditional printer for­mats). You’ll be able to download this book once it is completed, and your name can be included on the cover as the person responsi­ble for shar­ing this pub­li­cation.

Imagine if we had thousands of chi­ropractors across the country “re­leas­ing” their books about the mi­rac­u­lous results that chiroprac­tic pro­duces. You could sim­ply have all your patients (and com­mu­nity res­i­dents!) down­load copies of your e-book. Or, you could opt to get books printed and gift those to patients or pro­spec­tive pa­tients. You’ll be able to select and download e­lec­tron­ic or print-ready for­mats. We’ll provide you with printing resources if you want hard copies of the book and even create a news release for you to an­nounce your literary mas­ter­piece.

We want to focus more on the chi­ro­prac­tic‐pro­vid­er per­spec­tive. What have you seen in your prac­tice as a health­care pro­vider? Tell us about that re­markable suc­cess story you had with your pa­tient(s). If you have pa­tients that want to share their per­son­al tes­ti­mo­nials, great! We’ll include their stories, too!

Our plan is to produce a new ver­sion each year after the initial pub­lication. You share your sto­ries. We’ll com­pile those stories and put them in a format that you can share with your patients and communi­ties. You’ll be able to download the completed files and can use the con­tent as a great way to help folks in your com­munity learn even more about the value of chiro­practic all at no cost to you.

Additionally, we’ll be creating sup­porting social media content you can use on your social media pages, along with other materials you can use to promote your prac­tice and chiropractic as the preferred way for folks in your community to cre­ate a Life That Works®. Again, it’s at no cost to you, unless you decide to print hard copies. So, there’s really no down­side to par­tic­i­pat­ing.

Social Norms and Legitimacy

There’s an interesting thing about social norms—the informal rules that govern behavior in societies and groups. While it’s often diffi­cult to define the exact cau­sative factors that create these norms, the in­ter­esting thing is that once the social norm is established, that becomes the general belief system in which the group or pub­lic operates.

It’s similar to a “critical mass” ex­ample. When a percen­tage of peo­ple believe and act a certain way, it be­comes a “norm” that others tend to accept and follow. The dominant belief in our cul­ture that health comes in a pre­scription is a good ex­ample of that “critical mass” men­tal­ity. An important thing to under­stand about any social norm is the issue of legitimacy.

When people assign “legitimacy” to some social con­struct, that con­struct becomes a social norm. It works the other way around, too. People can withdraw that legitimacy and create new social norms that appear to serve so­cietal needs bet­ter than the old social norm. Times change, pri­or­ities change, and in­flu­ences change. Those norms are chang­ing right now, and we need to be in a position to offer the public a better way to create a Life That Works®. Perhaps a project like the LTW Book Project is a valuable com­ponent of influencing the le­gitimacy that creates social norms.

This isn’t a com­pli­cat­ed idea. I have no doubt it’s a very pow­er­ful idea, IF we can get enough chi­ro­prac­tors to par­tici­pate. Im­agine sev­eral thou­sand chiro­prac­tors par­ticipa­ting in some­thing like this. Let’s imagine 20,000 chiro­prac­tors par­ti­ci­pa­ting, all with direct con­nec­tions to an av­er­age of 3,000 pa­tients. That’s 60 mil­lion Amer­ican citi­zens, not to even men­tion the friends and fam­i­lies that these folks might in­flu­ence. We can’t pro­cure that kind of in­flu­ence be­cause we don’t have the re­sourc­es to do that. But we can cre­ate it. All it takes is doing.

What’s it worth to be able to “chime in” and let folks know about the val­ue of chiropractic as it relates to creating a Life That Works®? What’s it worth to be able to create a vehicle to share that kind of message with mil­lions of Americans? Im­agine the value of having 20,000 chiroprac­tors across America all release their “book” at the same time—what’s that worth? What’s it worth to be the group that starts a new conver­sa­tion about health and provides viable solutions for the pur­suit of that health?

People are withdrawing their “le­gitimacy” regarding the belief that health comes in some kind of pre­scription. There is movement to­ward the belief that health is more of a personal responsibility, and our profession needs to po­sition itself as the purveyors of real, natural health and a Life That Works, Better™. People are getting wise to the fact that status quo health­care isn’t health­care at all. It’s crisis or sick care that costs way too much, while not deliver­ing on its promise of health.

That’s not to say that crisis or sick care isn’t needed. There will al­ways be a need for that kind of care. It is to say that there are millions of folks looking for a bet­ter health so­lu­tion. We need to position our pro­fession as the le­gitimate choice folks make to pur­sue their health goals. The LTW Book Project is an important step in the right direction to brand chi­ro­prac­tic as that legit­imate choice.

Help Us Promote Real, Natural Health

I hope you’re all‐in with this pro­ject! To rehash, we need your story about that remarkable pa­tient suc­cess story. We’ll compile a book and other materials for you to use, at no charge to you. Hopefully, we’ll have thousands of chiropractors partici­pate and re­lease their “books” at the same time and post valuable content on their social media pages. Then, we’ll keep doing it over and over until our mantra becomes more and more legitimate in the minds of the public. If you are all‐in with the idea, click here for the par­tic­ulars and to sign up to partici­pate. This can be a big deal IF you participate.