An Interview with Dr. Blake Kalkstein
When I was a chiropractic student, I interviewed one hundred chiropractors for the DC2Be Revolution YouTube channel and podcast. This article is about the insights I gained from Dr. Blake Kalkstein. He did his chiropractic residency at the Walter Reed Military Medical Hospital in Bethesda and he’s a chiropractor at Adolph and Kalkstein chiropractic.
- Use YouTube effectively.
Dr. Kalkstein: There best way is to produce a lot of content. We have been using YouTube to explode our practice. For example, in November we had 183 new patients. After graduation I did everything they taught me in school for marketing. I did spinal screenings at health fairs. I went to a mastermind group titled “how to hire an Associate so you can focus on building your practice and the associates can do all adjusting.” I started doing video testimonials. I started doing treatment videos. I did a video series on running. I was not getting a lot of views and it took a lot of pushing. None of that worked, but I kept with it. I settled on two or three videos a week. Monday, Wednesday, and Friday depending on holidays. Eventually, people would be like “you’re my top three favorite chiropractors to watch online.”
On our new patient form people starting saying they heard about us on YouTube. After doing this for a couple years we had a video that was called “Chiropractor in Towson cracks every joint” and it got picked up on social media sites and it’s got 20 million views. My office exploded in one day, but it took two years of consistent content to get there. The whole time I was learning how to provide value to our community. A lot of people think it just happens overnight, but it doesn’t. The best advice is to create content like no one’s watching.
- Use videos help patients visualize themselves in your office.
Dr. Kalkstein: Once they are on YouTube, we have at least six more of my videos on the sidebar to watch if they want more information. After watching a few videos, the patients feel like they know me. New patients say “my back needed to crack and I looked up cracking back videos and I saw that you were in my area.” Other patients are looking for corrective exercise and we have videos for that. Once they find us, they get to know us through our videos and then they feel comfortable when they show up to the office.
- Make videos to build trust with your community.
Dr. Kalkstein: You want to build trust with your community before they come in to see you. This means that you must be a great doctor, but you have to be an even better human. On video you can’t hide that you are a jerk. People can see that. You want to be nice, but you also have to be yourself on camera, because people are attracted to that. Be kind, be genuine, and be honest. That’s attractive to people. You are an authority, but you don’t have to act like it. Show people being afraid to get adjusted and how you how you manage that. Talk about what people’s fears are and address those things. The more you can educate people and help them overcome their fears before they show up the better they will feel.
- Earn the public’s trust.
Dr. Kalkstein: We’re the chiropractor for Baltimore’s professional baseball team. We work with the athletes in conjunction with a GP, a PT, athletic trainers and more. Our patients are the same. I want to involve everyone I can. It’s just a nice way to take care of someone. The more we can work with people the better. It may be working with our patients to find the best treatment for them. It may be working with other health care providers. It may be working with psychologists. We will earn trust by being part of a community and working with people. I want to over deliver and let that value spread for itself. I want to share with my community.
- What type of videos to make.
Dr. Kalkstein: Start making two types of videos. The first one is providing value. Give it all away. Give away the stretches, give away the exercises, give away the diet tips, and the lifestyle stuff. Give it all away because it’s valuable. The second video demonstrates that you’re an expert in your field. Demonstrate your technique and your rehab exercises on a willing patient. Have that patient talk about how much they’ve gotten better so you can do a testimony video. Then as you create content find ways to use that content in multiple ways. This will work as long as you are consistent.
To watch the entire interview, you can go here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8DGrv4sEhg
Noah Volz, DC is the author the The Master Student: Book 1: Mindset: The Ultimate Guide to Success, Enjoyment and Productivity as a Chiropractic College Student.