I have had the privilege of living through a period in history that is so radically transformative that I still have trouble gaining full context of it. My kid’s marvel as I explained to them that when I grew up there is no such thing as computers, Internet, or cell phones. It’s hard to imagine a world without these things. But that’s the world I grew up in. And don’t get me wrong, I don’t pine for the ‘old days’. I love technology. I may even be a borderline tech geek. I am still young enough to spend the majority of my life in this fascinating New World.

Patrick Gentempo Circle of DocsOne thing I have been thinking a lot about lately are the macro-implications of this gargantuan phenomenon referred to as, “the crowd”. We hear about the wisdom of the crowd, crowd-sourcing, crowd-funding, and other such things. Culturally, this is changing everything. It is certainly changing the structure of how I do business. It helped me identify the transformative importance of this movement called Circle of Docs. And without hesitation I can state that the leverage of the crowd is the key to the future for chiropractic.

I grew up in Ramsey, New Jersey. I also practiced in this town for many years. And I currently live in the town next to it. One of the landmarks in the town was a small privately owned movie theater called the Ramsey Cinema. It opened in 1927. As a kid I spend a lot of time there and at times I even worked at Ramsey Cinema helping a friend who managed it. Other things happened there that I’m not at liberty to discuss. J

11096789-standardRecently, due to the fact that movies were being distributed in a digital format that required new and very expensive equipment for movie theaters, the Ramsey Cinema was in trouble. They needed $125,000 to make the conversion. Money they didn’t have. So they shut the small-town theater down and launched a crowd-funding campaign through Kickstarter.com. I remember when they launched the campaign feeling sad as finding enough people in this small niche of the town who care enough about a theater to donate money to the tune of $125,000 seemed desperate. I thought all good things must come to an end and that the Ramsey Cinema’s time had come. Boy was I wrong. The crowd spoke and said we want this small-town movie theater and they actually exceeded the $125,000 target they set. Today, the Ramsey Cinema is open for business and is thriving.

Now why would I tell you this story? Well there are couple of reasons. First, if you are chiropractor you have a community based business. And if your community wants you, no matter how small your town is, if you learn how to harness the crowd, your community will not let you fail. Second, it is important to recognize that the Ramsey Cinema would be dead right now if it weren’t for this new and powerful phenomenon known as ‘the crowd’.

I spend my days thinking of more and more ways to translate the crowd into my life’s purpose. Using ‘the wisdom of the crowd’ is a best practice that I highly recommend. In chiropractic I have an off the radar group called the Ultimate Achievers Club. This is a group of high performing and highly motivated chiropractors that gather 3 times a year. I organize and lead these live meetings. Invariably, independent of the speakers I bring and the presentations I give myself, the real power of the group comes from their sharing of ideas and best practices with each other. It is truly mind-boggling. No individual person no matter how smart and talented can match the wisdom and creativity of the group. I highly recommend you figure out how to insert yourself into a mastermind of this type as it will take you to places he could not otherwise go.

Group People Crowd Audience Casual Multicolored Sitting ConceptI think most of you are familiar with the movie, “Doctored”. This movie was executive produced by Jeff Hayes and directed and filmed by Bobby Sheehan. This documentary was and is extremely important to the chiropractic profession. It told our story in a new and compelling way and I know countless chiropractors around the world who leveraged this movie with great success and impact. How did this movie get funded? The seed money came from within the chiropractic profession, but it was a crowd-funding campaign on Kickstarter that finished the job.

So how will you use the crowd? What jobs should you be outsourcing on Upwork.com that will save you time and energy to focus on the things you are passionate about? What ideas are innovations can you source through your patient base that can have you radically upgrade your practice? What new ideas you have that requires funding that enough other people will care about to provide that funding?

The people who understand the crowd and have the courage to be transparent and authentic in front of the crowd are the people whose values will manifest in the world. Circle of Docs is all about the crowd. The chiropractic crowd. It is on this platform that ideas are shared, opinions or heard, and our message is disseminated. The crowd is the future chiropractic.

-Dr. Patrick Gentempo