https://youtu.be/dFyO1gRTQIo

Show Notes:

Speaker 1: (00:00)
Hey innovators. Welcome to episode number 30 of the simplified integration podcast. Is it time to move away from the mom and pop shop? Leonardo DaVinci once said that simplicity is the ultimate sophistication, and I agree you see the problem with the way that most consulting groups approach medical integration is anything but simple. In fact, it's the exact opposite. It's expensive, it's complicated. And quite frankly, it's exhausting enough is enough. There are far too many amazing integrated clinics that are struggling. I'm on a mission to change that when I've come to find from over five years, working with integrative practices is that simplicity really is the secret deal saying of less is more, is true through a streamlined approach. I was able to create multiple successful seven-figure integrated clinics. And now I'm going to show you how you can do the same. Join me as I share with you the secrets to successful medical integration and practice growth. Join me on a journey to greater sophistication through innovation. I'm Dr. Andrew Wells and welcome to the simplified integration podcast.

Speaker 1: (01:09)
Hey, what's going on doc. Great to have you back here today. So I want to talk about a struggle that a lot of chiropractors are dealing with in practice and what I call running a mom and pop shop. And there's a lot of different definitions of, of running a mom and pop business. And what I mean by this in the chiropractic sense is a business that you're sort of chained to a business that relies on you personally, to make sure that it operates and chiropractors have to wear a lot of different hats. They have to be the doctor, the exam doctor, the adjusting doc, the, you know, the marketer, the business person, sometimes the front desk person. There's a lot of different hats that we wear. And because of that, it keeps us tied to our office, physically tied to our office. And one of the biggest complaints I hear from chiropractors is, you know, I would love to have a life outside my practice.

Speaker 1: (01:54)
I would love to be able to take a day off or to go on vacation or not to have to be completely reliant on me, physically being in my practice. And that's a tough thing to break away from as a chiropractor. Uh, for the first couple of years, I had no idea how to do that. And, um, you know, I often, you know, people always ask me like, why did, why our chiropractor is only open Monday through Thursday? Like, I don't know if you guys have noticed this, but a lot of chiropractic offices, like they're open for four days and closed for three days. And I think, I think it's because chiropractic is so dang demanding that sometimes people need a three day weekend to feel normal. Um, but on the flip side of that, as you're also losing a day of production, you're losing a day of revenue.

Speaker 1: (02:34)
So it can be a really tricky balance in the chiropractic profession to run a profitable, profitable business, but also have a life outside of practice. And I talked to a lot of doctors who have been in practice for 20, 30 years, and they're really like, they're worn out, they're physically worn out. They're mentally worn out. They're spiritually worn out because they've just been giving, giving, giving so much to their patients and their practice. Uh, it can be just such a demanding role on your body. And I know that, um, I had, when I first got into practice, I had some doubt about being a chiropractor because just the, the hustle and the amount of work you had to put in. I'm like, man, I can't see myself doing this for the next 30 years. And this became really clear to me when, um, the, our first full right after our first two years in practice.

Speaker 1: (03:22)
So my wife and I, uh, got married right after I graduated school. We were working really hard to open our new, our new clinic. And I was never able to take my wife on a honeymoon. And I felt really guilty about that. And in my mind, like I always pictured, I got married and we'd drive to the airport and fly and go somewhere, like going on vacation for two weeks. And that was like, what I had envisioned for my wedding. The problem was this part of our life. We had zero time and we had zero money. We were working six days a week. We were, um, you know, we were making money, but we were plugging it all back into our business. And that's where all of our time and money went. And so sadly, my wife and I were like dying to take this, this honeymoon at the time, we were a part of a coaching group.

Speaker 1: (04:06)
And I remember one of our coaches like saying like, like really strongly recommending that we didn't take a honeymoon, which made no sense me. He's like, no, you need to plug into your business. You can't take time off you're you're only two years. I would never take, take time off on vacation in my first two years in practice. And I'm like, this sounds just sounds off. Right? And so finally my wife and I were like, all right, we're, we're doing this, we're going on vacation. And we, we set up our honeymoon over Christmas vacation because number one, I felt guilty about leaving my practice behind. And I felt like if I, if I gave up a week or two weeks of actual clinic time that our business was really going to suffer and the truth is it would have suffered, but not too much, like we could have made it happen, but you know, it was important for us to go on a honeymoon and take some time off together and just have a, you know, time for my wife and I to be alone.

Speaker 1: (04:58)
So we set this honeymoon up over Christmas vacation because that would have the least impact on our business. And we went, we flew to the Caribbean and had an awesome 10 day vacation, 10 day honeymoon. And I remember before I left, I called one of my, one of my coaches. And he's like, what? You're taking 10 days off from your clinic. Like how, like, how can you do that? It's such a bad mistake. I'm like, dude, this is my, this is my honeymoon. Like I owe this to my wife, my wife, and I want to do this. And it's like, well, that's a bad decision. I would never do that. That was the first time I'm like I'm done with his management company. Cause they could give like two craps about me as a person, like a normal person would say, that's exciting. Enjoy your honeymoon.

Speaker 1: (05:38)
But that was my first. That was like, that was like, yeah, this is probably not the right management group to be a part of. So I left that group. Um, but uh, yeah, I didn't want them making me feel guilty about going on vacation, but he was also right in some degree because as a mom and pop business, it's really tough to be able to take those types of vacations. So again, we did it over Christmas vacation, had the tea, it was, we were there for 10 days. Um, and we wanted to have the least amount of impact on our business. And we were in the Caribbean. Uh, we had an awesome, awesome time. We got to slow down, we got to refocus. Uh, it was great for our relationship. You know, I got to lay in a hammock. I actually got to read a fiction book for the first time in a long time, which I never had time to do.

Speaker 1: (06:21)
It was really, really, really nice. And it was good in a lot of ways. It was good for our physical, mental, spiritual health. Good for our relationship. I'm really glad we did it, but I also felt guilty because I had to put it off for so long. And so I remember thinking, I remember laying in the hammock on her honeymoon thinking like, how am I ever going to make this happen again? Cause I'm going to go right back to our clinic. It's going to be the same mom and pop operation. It's going to be very tough again to pull myself away from the practice. And I'm like, I really don't want to have to take a vacation every, every Christmas or to have to plan it over these holidays like that.

Speaker 2: (06:56)
And so this was one of the big,

Speaker 1: (06:57)
Um, the big things that got me exploring other options, other types of practices, other types of businesses, because I didn't want to be tied again, tied to my business. And so if you're listening to this and that is an issue that you're having, uh, it may be time to look at a different type of business model. And this is one of the things that got me looking into medical integration because, uh, medical integration, you know, the, the big promises are you can make more money and you don't have to be necessarily tied to your practice 24 seven. So that was really attractive to me. I've also talked to hundreds and hundreds of doctors all across the country docs who are new in practice docs who have been in practice for 30 years. And that's one of the struggles a lot of people do deal with.

Speaker 1: (07:40)
Is that how do you, how do you break away from your practice life and be able to enjoy your life outside of practice without stress or feeling guilty about, you know, doing things on your own time or actually having a life. How about that? Having a life outside of chiropractic? And so this is one of the things that pushed me into integration. And, um, I remember, you know, integration for us when we made the transition. It was tough. It was a ton of work. It was really, really difficult. But I remember the first day that I actually left practice during a work week, this was after we integrated. And I took the day off on Friday to go to a conference. And I remember being there. I was, I showed up to the office on Friday morning and I remember feeling like really scared, really nervous and really guilty about leaving.

Speaker 1: (08:24)
And it was just going to be for Friday. We had, in fact, we were only open for Friday morning for the Friday morning shift. And I remember my office manager looks at me. She goes like, what's wrong? And I'm like, I'm afraid to leave the practice. And she goes, it's going to be okay. We know what we're doing. So we had everything lined up. We had prepared for it. I had spent a lot of time developing my team and my staff. And they're all like dr. Wells, like, see you later, go away. Like we don't need you here anymore. And I'm like, I'm like really? And I had all these like fears. I used to that. And so, um, I left that morning and it felt so weird to be pulling away from my practice while the clinic was seeing patients and generating income and people were being taken care of and the staff was handling problems and it was amazing.

Speaker 1: (09:09)
And so I went, I was able to go have a conference over the weekend. I didn't go into the PR. I didn't see patients or help patients that Friday after Friday morning and everything was fine. And so the more I built up my practice and develop my team the more time I had to pull away from the clinic to work on, on the business, not in the business. And that's what so many chiropractors are after is to be able to do that and run your business as a business and not as a mom and pop shop, because once it becomes, once you move away from the Dr. Wells show or the dr. Smith show, whatever your name is, when you get away from that, it allows you to sort of elevate yourself above your clinic to now start developing it as a real business with systems and staff that can, that can run protocols and run programs for you.

Speaker 1: (09:54)
And it's an incredibly rewarding, it's a lot of work, but it's incredibly rewarding. And so now, you know, I'm in a position where I can, I've opened other businesses and I help other doctors open their businesses. I can do consulting and management work because I have a team that can do a lot of work for me. So, um, I don't know if this resonates with you, uh, if it does, um, you know, if it's something that you're struggling with and want to have a life outside of practice, or just maybe work on other businesses or expanding your business, uh, integration can be an awesome vehicle to do that. Um, it comes with challenges. It comes with risks, but, um, uh, just the nature of, uh, of operating a medical clinic or an integrated clinic, uh, you have to hire people. You have to hire medical, uh, service providers to do a lot of the work for you.

Speaker 1: (10:40)
So it forces you into moving away from the mom and pop shop. And on the other side of that is, you know, a financial reward and time freedom. Uh, just last year in October, we took a month off and went to Italy. So we were there for over a month. I would never, ever, ever be able to do that if we are in our mom and pop chiropractic shop. So there is all kinds of benefits from moving away from that type of business model. Um, if you're, if you're of that mindset and thinking that way out, highly encourage you to do some research and figure out if it's a right fit for you. If you have any questions or want to bounce some ideas off me or need some advice, I'm happy to help out any way I can. You can always email me@infoatintegrationsecrets.com. Again, that's info@simplifiedintegration.com doc.

Speaker 1: (11:25)
I'm so grateful that you joined me on my podcast today. Thanks for tuning in. I look forward to seeing you on the next podcast episode. Hope you have a great day. God bless. Hey innovators. Thanks for listening to the simplified integration podcast fact that you're listening tells me that you're like me, someone who loves simplicity and the truth is those who embrace simplicity are some of the greatest innovators. So hope you got a ton of value from what we covered on today's episode. Be sure subscribe and share with other docs that you feel could benefit from greater sophistication through simplification and innovation. If you've got specific questions that you'd like answered on this podcast, or you've got specific topics that you'd like me to discuss, just shoot me an email at info@simplifiedintegration.com that's info@simplifiedintegration.com.

Show Notes:

Speaker 1: (00:00)
Welcome back to the simplified integration podcast. This is episode number 27 regenerative medicine for the spine hips and small joints.

Speaker 2: (00:12)
Leonardo de Vinci once said that simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. And I agree you see the problem with the way that most consulting groups approach medical integration is anything but simple. In fact, it's the exact opposite. It's expensive, it's complicated. And quite frankly, it's exhausting enough is enough. There are far too many amazing integrated clinics that are struggling well. I'm on a mission to change that. What I've come to find from over five years, working with integrative practices is that simplicity really is the secret. The old saying of less is more, is true. Through a streamlined approach. I was able to create multiple successful seven figure integrated clinics. And now I'm going to show you how you can do the same. Join me as I share with you the secrets to successful medical integration and practice growth. Join me on a journey to greater sophistication through innovation. I'm dr. Andrew Wells and welcome to the simplified integration podcast.

Speaker 1: (01:10)
All right, doc, I got a doozy for you this time. So here's a nugget and I, uh, I thought everybody knew this, uh, everybody doing regenerative medicine knew this, but I realized that not everybody knows this and the, when you're w if you don't know what I'm about to tell you, um, you're gonna kick yourself for not figuring this out earlier. So I was talking to a friend of mine and he he's been doing regenerative medicine for awhile. And, um, I mentioned to him, we started talking about regenerative medicine for the spine. And he said, well, how are you doing that? I'm like, what do you mean? How am I doing that? He said, well, we just do it for the knees and shoulders. So you're doing it for the spine. I said, yeah, we do it for the spine. We do it for the hips.

Speaker 1: (01:49)
We do it for wrists, ankles, toes. He goes, well, how does your nurse practitioner know how to do those injections? I'm like, no, we send those injections out. He's like, what the heck are you talking about? So, um, with regenerative medicine, if you're in a typical MD DC practice, and you have a nurse practitioner doing exams and injections, chances are, you're doing basically like two or three types of injections. You're doing knees, you're doing shoulders and you may be doing soft tissue injections in the muscle and ligaments. Uh, however, there is a huge population of patients who want regenerative medicine in areas other than those body parts. So with, with our advertising, what we typically find is that, um, if you're doing like a general regenerative medicine type ad, the people who respond to get about 60% people having trouble with knees, you get about 20 to 25% lower back.

Speaker 1: (02:40)
And then the rest of the joints to get like a mix of shoulders, hips, wrists, ankles, we've even had thumbs, big toes, um, elbow, occasionally. And so you get a hodgepodge of other types of joints. And so my buddy was turning down all of the spine, hip and small joint patients, because as nurse couldn't do those injections. And, um, so here's what we, here's what we did. Here's how we overcame that, that issue is that for the more complicated injections, we send those out to a pain management clinic, or like an interventional pain doc to do the procedure for us. So everything is the same. We do our advertising, we do our patient education. We do the case management. We collect our office, collects the money, and then everything is the same. We do a diagnosis and the recommendation. So everything is the same as a knee or shoulder patient up until that point.

Speaker 1: (03:29)
However, once they pay for the injection, instead of doing it in our office, we just pay a pain management doc to do the injection for us. So we'll have the patient go to their office, that doctor MD or Dio, we'll do the injection, and we're done. And we follow up with the patient after that. So if you're turning away those patients, because you can't do those injections in your office, that's how you do it. And so we pay the doctor a pretty nominal fee to do those injections. So it's fair for us. It's very for the doctor, but most pain management docs are more than happy to collect a cash fee. So we pay that office directly, a cash fee to do the actual injection. So we don't want to do for set injections and spine injections and hip injections in our office because those types of injections have to be a lot more accurate.

Speaker 1: (04:16)
There's a lot more obviously sensitive tissues that you could poke with a needle in your intraarticular hip or in your spine that you just, you don't want to take. In my opinion, don't want to take on that liability. However, if you have like fluoroscopy, if you have an MD, if you have the equipment in your office in case something bad happens, or the, during the injection by all means do those, but it's much, much, much easier to set, to, to start to create a relationship with a pain management doc, refer those patients to them for the procedure, and then pay them a flat fee for each injection. So that's how you do it. So now, if you're, if you've limited yourself to two knees and shoulders, now you can, um, remove those barriers and you can, uh, you can see patients for all types of osteoarthritic, uh, conditions for regenerative medicine.

Speaker 1: (05:03)
So if you're already doing this good for you, if you're not doing this, um, I'm really happy that you tuned in, uh, when we figured this out, this literally added hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenue to our practice, because we now opened up, uh, the, the scope of practice with regenerative medicine within our office. So, um, I hope I just fed you a nugget that you weren't aware of. If so you're very welcome. That's what you get when you tune into the podcast. So if you have any questions, this is a super short, uh, podcast episode, but I just want to deliver some amazing content and value to you guys. And if you have any questions, want to reach out. Um, my email address is info at integration, secrets.com, uh, info and integration, secrets.com. Thanks so much for tuning in, and we'll see you on the next episode. Bye bye. Hey innovators. Thanks for listening to the simplified integration podcast. The fact that you're listening tells me that you're like me, someone who loves simplicity

Speaker 2: (05:58)
and the truth is those who embrace simplicity are some of the greatest innovators. So hope you got a ton of value from what we covered on today's episode, be sure to subscribe and share with other docs that you feel could benefit from greater sophistication through simplification and innovation. If you've got specific questions that you'd like answered on this podcast, or you've got specific topics that you'd like me to discuss, just shoot me an email at info@simplifiedintegration.com that's info@simplifiedintegration.com.