Geez, that took guts, didn't it? Now that I have your attention, you don't have a clue where I am going with this, do you?
I have something to offer, and if you take the time to read my entire article, approximately 1,000 words total, I will send a gift to you just for reading my thoughts about your profession and contacting me to let me know what you think.
I would assume that after reading this piece, some will have their doubts, but I need to write what I feel inside and you need to read it. You need to read it because I am an individual who has no axe to grind about the past, I have no for-profit business to grow, and I do not have a vested interest in a product that needs to be sold. All I have to offer is my time, my talents and my energies that are sapped daily, not from the progressive hard work, but from the negative e-mails and phone calls I often receive about what we are trying to do for the profession with the Foundation for Chiropractic Progress.
My message today is nothing short of disappointment. I have worked hard for six months, traveling thousands of air miles, speaking before hundreds of doctors in 10 states, and I always come back from each trip feeling encouraged that we are doing right by the profession. The many state association meetings I have attended have been uplifting. I see in the eyes of the profession hunger for a media campaign. I hear the comments - they have been waiting for so long to see this finally happen, and they love what they are hearing about the F4CP.
On the other hand, there are people I have yet to meet in person, or to speak with over the phone, who believe we are attempting to sabotage the profession with our campaign, because the ads do not do something they think they should! Come on, give me a break already! Our ads are what you need! We want to help you; if nothing else, to maintain your practices in the coming years. If nothing else ever happens, we will have stemmed the tide of the other allied professionals who are trying to hone in on your profession.
Now is the time for all you good men and women to lay aside your past differences and participate in your future by joining in the Foundation for Chiropractic Progress! If you at least allow the campaign to place its first ad in 2006, you may be pleasantly surprised by the outcome it has with the public. The chiropractic profession has never been successful at letting the public know what we do! Think about this - the only information the public has read or heard about chiropractic has come from J.C. Penney clothing commercials or 911 billboards. Or maybe some golfer is adjusted over the weekend and we get all excited and tell our patients, "Hey, did you see when...?" Or worse yet, some doctor of chiropractic is arrested on fraud charges and everyone talks about it!
The Foundation for Chiropractic Progress wants to change what the public thinks chiropractic is! That's all we want to do - positive media exposure through simple eye-catching and pleasant-sounding messages that get the public tuned into you, the chiropractor, and all that you do each and every day to care for your patients!
I need your help - I mean, I really need your help! The past six months have been a challenge! We literally are in a fight for our lives, and if there needs to be a pivotal person in the center of the fight, I am your man. I can handle the comments that I do not know what I am doing. I can even handle the comments that the ads are not on point. But what I cannot handle are the comments from doctors that this foundation will fail. The F4CP cannot fail, because it is the profession that fails if doctors do not give the campaign a chance to work for the profession.
Failure is not an option. We must do this regardless of who opposes this campaign and regardless of their reasons! Our campaign is targeted at the public, your potential new patients, so if you do not like what you see just yet, then step aside and let's see if the public likes what they see, read and hear. If the public does not connect, what do you have to lose? But if the public does connect, you will possibly gain a new image and a new patient or two ... or more!
At this point, I need to hear from the profession in large numbers. I am asking thousands of doctors to let me know what you think. Send me an e-mail to let me know you support our purpose and you want this campaign to succeed! I need to know that the effort we are putting forth is resonating with you, the profession. If I do not hear from the profession, then it will be time for me to just shut up, never to be heard from again! I believe so fervently in this mission that if it should somehow fail (and I have yet to fail at anything in this profession), I am willing to walk away and allow the next person to step up to the plate.
Thank you for reading my 1,000 words.
Your friend in chiropractic,
Gene Veno
President, Foundation for Chiropractic Progress
"How You Treat Your Patients Is Your Business - Getting the Patients to Visit Your Office is Our Business at the Foundation for Chiropractic Progress!"