By Laura Newsome
Calling Dr. Guy Riekeman a frequent flyer would be a serious understatement.
For nearly every weekend of the past 35 years, his suitcase has been a constant
companion, shuttling the essentials to and from chiropractic seminars, conventions
and speaking engagements around the world. Despite his well-earned travel savvy,
he is about to embark on his most ambitious, and certainly most important tour
to date. With the upcoming Power of One tour, Riekeman will add even more miles
to his frequent flyer tab—all for the profession and the University he
so dearly loves.
The primary goal of The Power of One tour is to inspire every audience member
with the courage and the will to live the best life they can. “You can
create some really significant changes in people’s lives and the world,”
Riekeman says. “That’s sort of the drive of all human nature—to
live extraordinary lives—but somewhere along the line we become cynical,
and that possibility is beaten out of us.” Over the years Riekeman has
kept a careful mental archive of extraordinary people who refused to give up
their belief in their ability to change the world.
Riekeman acknowledges countless extraordinary leaders, revolutionaries and visionaries—lawyers
who fought for civil rights, peace workers imprisoned in apartheid South Africa,
and everyday teachers who changed the lives of their students and the community
at large. “We’re trying to create a presentation that helps people
realize that an individual can make a difference with a single vision,”
Riekeman says. “All these people just started off as ordinary working
people and they took a stand for something they believed in and made it happen.
People know what they would like to do with their lives—they just need
someone to give them the OK to live their dreams and make it happen.”
Through the end of 2006, The Power of One tour will visit Lansing, Ann Arbor,
Detroit, Denver, Colorado Springs and Ft. Collins, Colo. “The cities were
chosen based on where there are Life University alums and/or highly motivated
chiropractors willing to help us promote the tour to area doctors and their
patients,” says Wendy Gardiner, the tour’s coordinator.
One of the goals is reaching chiropractors—tour attendees will gain a
better understanding of the long-term goals of Life University, with an emphasis
on its student recruitment program as well as reaching out to local chiropractors
through a personalized reception. “We expect area doctors and prospective
patients to attend,” Gardiner says. The second goal is to talk to patients,
prospective patients and community leaders. With tour stops taking place mostly
on weekends, Riekeman and the Life team expect as many as 1,000-plus attendees
in most cities, with venues consisting mostly of conference halls at major hotels
convenient for area chiropractors.
“A typical day during The Power of One tour will include several representatives
arriving in the selected city where we will have a private development luncheon
with major contributors with the goal of raising funds toward Life University’s
capital campaign,” Gardiner says. “Around 6 p.m. there will be two
receptions occurring—one for student recruitment to introduce Life University
to potential students, and the other to inform chiropractors about Life’s
vision and invite them to join Life University’s President’s Circle.”
The patient evening is about unleashing the power within, which is easier said
than done. Riekeman will offer attendees concrete advice on how to go about
changing their lives and harnessing their innermost strength. Spreading the
message, “Make Your Life Extraordinary,” Riekeman asks the audience
to go about transforming their lives through five deceptively simple tasks.
“First I will ask them to live 24 hours with absolute integrity, honor
the speed limit, pick up a child on time, spend quality time with family—do
everything without excuses,” he says. “Then I say if you can live
that way for 24 hours, you can probably do it for 48 hours, and why not the
rest of the year and the rest of your life. If the whole world did that, we
wouldn’t have the 6 o’clock news anymore.”
Riekeman asks audience members to go home and acknowledge the most important
person in their life. Riekeman took his own advice a few years ago when he took
the time to tell his father how much he loved him. “My dad comes from
that generation where you just don’t say things like that, and when I
finished speaking, there was just dead silence on the other end of the line.
It’s one of those simple things that can shift your whole world view,
and it’s really remarkable that we don’t do it all the time.”
Next Riekeman asks audience members to invest in the future by doing something
to make the life of a child or a group of children better. And lastly, “all
people coming to this are either patients or prospective patients who communicate
or may communicate with chiropractors to enhance their health, treat health
problems, have a conversation about family care, or take whatever the next step
is in their chiropractic journey, so we ask all the chiropractors in the audience
to stand up, and we applaud them for their commitment to their patients and
encourage their future commitment to the profession,” Riekeman says.
Renewing his own commitment to chiropractic with each stop along The Power of
One tour, Riekeman acknowledges that this may be his last multi-month tour.
“Keeping up this kind of schedule is very trying on the body, and I couldn’t
use all my frequent flyer miles even if I wanted too! I am committed to doing
whatever the University needs me to do—hopefully it will be somewhere
in the 15 to 20 trips a year range rather than 108 seminars a year.”
Once the tour concludes, Riekeman will no doubt continue doing what he does
best—motivating others to live their best lives through inspirational
conference appearances and, most importantly to him, new books.
With the knowledge that this may be his last multi-city tour, Riekeman is prepared
to make The Power of One the most memorable to date. “It will be a great
opportunity to tell the profession about Life’s master plan and our 20/20
vision for the future,” he says. Through his inspirational speeches, Riekeman
hopes to generate interest in the President’s Circle, a kind of “red
carpet club” of dedicated chiropractors who show their commitment to Life
University through monthly monetary donations and support for the college. “It
will also be an opportunity to grow our profession even bigger than it is now,”
Riekeman says. “One of the obvious benefits will be recruiting new students.
All the prospective chiropractic students are kind of in one pool and they decide
to go to one school or another, but we are hoping to double the inquiry pool
for the chiropractic profession in general.”
As Riekeman looks forward to the future, he cannot hide his excitement about
how The Power of One tour will make Life University even more extraordinary.
“This is really a school-wide effort to articulate the University’s
goals and the benefits of the profession in general,” he says. “We
hope to stimulate interest in the different cities we visit, and really play
up the grass roots approach because it is the most effective and the long-term
effects are really exciting.”
Power of One tour tickets are $35 and can be purchased by calling (800) 941-2808.