“If I don’t feel bad, I must be fine.”

That belief quietly undermines retention, reactivations, and proactive care.

In this episode of Under the Influence, Martin unpacks one deceptively simple question that changes everything:

“Why now?”

When someone has had a problem for weeks… months… sometimes years…

Why now?

Used well, this question:

• Reveals what actually motivated them to act
• Exposes their lifestyle values (what they have to do, love to do, or identify with)
• Shows you their threshold for action
• Gives you the language to communicate prevention and performance in a way that feels personally relevant

Martin also breaks down:

– Why most patients are “copers” who minimize the size of their problem
– How unpacking questions help resize it
– Why pacing and tone matter more than the words themselves
– How to bridge from pain to prevention to performance without sounding preachy

This isn’t about being more persuasive.

It’s about being more precise.

Ask better questions.Understand deeper motivations.Communicate chiropractic in a way that lands.

Check out the Retention Recipe

https://insideoutpractices.thinkific.com/courses/retention-recipe-2-0

To learn more about Aligned Practice

https://insideoutpractices.thinkific.com/products/communities/aligned-practice

To learn more about Reactivate to Accelerate

https://insideoutpractices.thinkific.com/courses/reactivate

Learn more about Daily Visit Communication 2.0

https://insideoutpractices.thinkific.com/courses/daily-visit

Email me - martin@insideoutpractices.com

Most patients believe one simple lie.

If I feel fine… I must be fine.

Sounds harmless.

It’s not.

It’s the reason they:
• cancel early
• disappear when pain settles
• only come back when things flare up

I call it The Feeling Fallacy.

The idea that feelings = function.

But pain is a smoke alarm. Not a performance report.

And here’s the kicker:

Explaining this doesn’t work.

More words don’t change beliefs. Experience does.

In this episode, I break down how to:

• name the “Feeling Fallacy” so patients instantly get it
• stop using abstract language like “optimal function”
• pre-frame findings before they feel them
• use simple tests (ROM, balance, posture) to show deficits, not describe them
• turn relapse into a teaching moment that builds long-term buy-in

No clever lines. No scripts. No philosophy lectures.

Just small framing shifts you can use tomorrow morning that help patients move from:

Pain → Prevention → Performance.

Because the best time to get adjusted…

…is when you already feel good.

To learn more about Aligned Practice

https://insideoutpractices.thinkific.com/products/communities/aligned-practice

Check out the Retention Recipe https://insideoutpractices.thinkific.com/courses/retention-recipe-2-0

To learn more about Reactivate to Accelerate

https://insideoutpractices.thinkific.com/courses/reactivate

Learn more about Daily Visit Communication 2.0

https://insideoutpractices.thinkific.com/courses/daily-visit

Email me - martin@insideoutpractices.com

This week’s episode was recorded in India.

Not in practice.
Not on Zoom.

Dr Vismai Schonfelder and I sat side-by-side after a day serving kids in rural communities and hit record.

It turned into less of an interview…
and more of a debrief about what actually makes practice work.

We cover:

• Specificity: why generic “stress talks” don’t cut through, but “anxious brain” does

• Ideal clients: why relevance beats reach

• Transactional vs relational: how one model feels like pushing a rock uphill

• The flywheel most chiropractors never build: retention, referrals, reactivations

• The Cringe Razor: a simple ethical filter for marketing and practice decisions

• AI vs human touch: why content is getting cheaper… and connection is getting rarer (and more valuable)

We also talk about the Nalu giving program and one small intervention that changes outcomes fast: a $10 school uniform.

If you’ve felt torn between “grow the business” and “stay true to your values,”… This conversation will help.

Learn more about Vismai

https://thevismai.com/

To learn more about Aligned Practice

https://insideoutpractices.thinkific.com/products/communities/aligned-practice

Check out the Retention Recipe https://insideoutpractices.thinkific.com/courses/retention-recipe-2-0

To learn more about Reactivate to Accelerate

https://insideoutpractices.thinkific.com/courses/reactivate

Learn more about Daily Visit Communication 2.0

https://insideoutpractices.thinkific.com/courses/daily-visit

Email me - martin@insideoutpractices.com

When patients feel good, things get weird.

John asked a great question in the AP group: after a holiday break, patients came back happy, pain-free, and wanting to stretch out visits. Not because they were disengaging, but because they were doing well.

Which is harder to handle than pain.

Here’s the problem beneath the problem:
Feeling good reinforces Pain logic.
Pain logic says: “If I feel fine, I don’t need care.”

We break the situation down into five ideas:

• Beliefs drive behaviour
“I’ve felt fine” isn’t a statement, it’s a worldview. Pain or early Prevention logic. Totally consistent with their experience.

• Experience beats explanation
People trust what they feel more than what we tell them. Feeling good is persuasive. Lectures about prevention aren’t.

• Holidays lie
Different stress. Lower demand. No deadlines. Physiology behaves. The wobble shows up when normal life returns.

• Testing changes the frame
Progress exams are a better story: function before symptoms. Data before opinion. It shifts the goal from “pain gone” to “everything working.”

• Agree to experiment
If they want to push spacing out, make it a trial: tag-testing, clear checkpoints, shared decision-making. Collaboration instead of drift.

The bigger idea:
Reactivations and spacing aren’t clinical problems, they’re belief problems. If you understand the belief, you don’t have to push, sell, or convince. You just guide

To learn more about Aligned Practice

https://insideoutpractices.thinkific.com/products/communities/aligned-practice

Check out the Retention Recipe https://insideoutpractices.thinkific.com/courses/retention-recipe-2-0

To learn more about Reactivate to Accelerate

https://insideoutpractices.thinkific.com/courses/reactivate

Learn more about Daily Visit Communication 2.0

https://insideoutpractices.thinkific.com/courses/daily-visit

Email me - martin@insideoutpractices.com

What does modern chiropractic education look like when it’s grounded in philosophy, neurology, and real clinical reps from day one?

In this episode of Under the Influence, I’m joined by Alex Whittingham, a final-year chiropractic student at the Barcelona College of Chiropractic and a third-generation chiropractor.

We unpack what makes the Barcelona model different: three full years in clinic, early responsibility, and a curriculum that hasn’t drifted away from manual adjusting, innate intelligence, and the concept of subluxation.

Alex shares how being forced to communicate in Spanish stripped his explanations back to their essentials, and why that’s helped him avoid one of the biggest traps chiropractors fall into: over-explaining.

We explore a brain-based, afferent model of chiropractic care, the idea of the spine as the nervous system’s armour, and why movement matters more than alignment alone.

We also talk about the personal side: resisting the family profession, finding purpose on a mission trip in India, and choosing chiropractic not because it was inherited, but because it works.

This is a thoughtful conversation about clarity, confidence, and learning to influence one patient at a time.

Check out the Retention Recipe https://insideoutpractices.thinkific.com/courses/retention-recipe-2-0

To learn more about Reactivate to Accelerate

https://insideoutpractices.thinkific.com/courses/reactivate

Learn more about Daily Visit Communication 2.0

https://insideoutpractices.thinkific.com/courses/daily-visit

Email me - martin@insideoutpractices.com

Most chiropractors think the answer is “more”: more staff, more hours, more moving parts.

In this episode, Martin sits down with Kirsti Janse Van Vuuren, a UK chiropractor who did the opposite. She stripped her practice back to something rare in 2025: a purely principled, subluxation-focused, no-staff practice that still creates real impact… and leaves her with time and headspace for her kids and her life.

We get into:

• How she moved from a pain-based, mechanistic model to a principled, subluxation-centred one

• Why she deliberately chose a solo, staff-free practice (and how she makes it work)

• “Structure craetes freedom” — the scheduling and systems that protect both her patients and her family time

• The role of mentorship and peer groups in keeping you grounded, growing, and not lonely

• How she handles lifestyle conversations while staying focused on chiropractic’s distinct purpose

• The books, mentors, and frameworks that shaped her thinking

If you’ve ever thought, “There has to be a simpler, more principled way to practice,” this episode will give you a real-world example of what that actually looks like.

Check out the Retention Recipe https://insideoutpractices.thinkific.com/courses/retention-recipe-2-0

To learn more about Reactivate to Accelerate

https://insideoutpractices.thinkific.com/courses/reactivate

Learn more about Daily Visit Communication 2.0

https://insideoutpractices.thinkific.com/courses/daily-visit

Email me - martin@insideoutpractices.com

How Choice Makes People Say Yes Faster

The final episode of The Care Plan Paradox.

Most chiropractors think offering choices makes them look uncertain.
In reality, it makes people commit faster.

In the final episode of The Care Plan Paradox, Martin Harvey breaks down why bounded choice — not authority — is what creates trust, commitment and follow-through in care plans.

You’ll learn:

– why people resist strong recommendations, even when they’re right
– how “forced choice” triggers reactance
– what behavioural science and Galinsky’s research say about giving 2–3 good options
– why autonomy increases adherence
– how to structure care plan options so they all work clinically
– how to offer payment options without feeling salesy
– and the exact phrases that make people feel in control while following your lead

If Episodes 1 and 2 explained why care plans matter, Episode 3 explains how to help people say yes to the plan that will actually help them change.

This wraps up the Care Plan Paradox mini-series — but the ideas here will shape how you communicate recommendations forever.

To learn more about the "Guardrails: How to Keep Patients on Track When Life Gets Busy" Webinar https://www.tickettailor.com/events/scotlandcollegecharitabletrust/1958894

Check out the Retention Recipe https://insideoutpractices.thinkific.com/courses/retention-recipe-2-0

To learn more about Reactivate to Accelerate

https://insideoutpractices.thinkific.com/courses/reactivate

Learn more about Daily Visit Communication 2.0

https://insideoutpractices.thinkific.com/courses/daily-visit

Email me - martin@insideoutpractices.com

Most chiropractors don’t overservice.
They underdose.

In this episode of The Care Plan Paradox, Martin explains why great adjustments can produce average results. Not because the technique was wrong, but because the dose, density, and direction were too weak to create real neurological or soft-tissue change.

You’ll learn:

– Why sporadic care destroys momentum
– How long gaps make patterns snap straight back
– What the Haas studies actually showed about visit frequency
– Why early, dense care isn’t sales… It’s physiology
– And how to explain this without sounding pushy

If you’ve ever wondered why some people take off like rockets, and others crawl for weeks, this episode joins the dots.

To learn more about the "Guardrails: How to Keep Patients on Track When Life Gets Busy" Webinar https://www.tickettailor.com/events/scotlandcollegecharitabletrust/1958894

Check out the Retention Recipe https://insideoutpractices.thinkific.com/courses/retention-recipe-2-0

To learn more about Reactivate to Accelerate

https://insideoutpractices.thinkific.com/courses/reactivate

Learn more about Daily Visit Communication 2.0

https://insideoutpractices.thinkific.com/courses/daily-visit

Email me - martin@insideoutpractices.com