What is Your Plan and Your Goal?

Align Your Practice podcast with Dr. Cliff Fisher where your best practice and life awaits you. Are you tired of running a practice on your own? We want to come alongside you with experts to help you create your dream practice in your dream life. Here is your host.

All right, you guys, welcome. I'm here with Dr. Joseph Esposito. My name is Dr. Cliff Fisher, chiropractors talking about align your practice with the Cliff Notes on business. And so I'm super excited to be here for our very first episode to talk about, you know, our profession and why we're where we're at. So what do you think, Joe?

Yeah, I love the I love the name of this, our new podcasts, align your practice. As we all know, our the business we support is align life. And I just love the word align. And I know it goes in line with your core values. As we we all want people to align with their values align with their family align with their business. So I just love align your practice, because so many of us have been down the path with practice where we're not aligned, where we're anything but align, we're off course, we're all focused, we're confused. We've all been through those stages in practice. So I think I've just want to first say, I like how we put this together at least naming because it helps us direct what we're going to deliver, don't you agree that I mean, align your practice

100% Like align life is just it's such a great name. And you know, you can use it in so many different places, like I know, you know, we have another sister podcast called the line your life, which is about all those things in your life. Because this, you know, we're not on this practice or on this earth to be in practice, we're to be a living human being. And so I love

doing this with you. Because over the journey of our relationship, what you've brought to our corporate team, or what you've brought to practices all around the country, is the sensitivity to embrace and appreciate us as individuals. And I think if you're listening this podcast, it's the first one. The beauty that you're gonna get to this over the long term is the dance between business and authentic individuality and how to how to celebrate you as individuals. And I know cliff, throughout this whole thing, you're going to be putting the silver lining of how to appreciate ourselves as individuals, because you've even done that for me. So I'm excited for that component of this podcast, not just the business side, but letting me be me.

Yeah, right. Like Joe, it's such a big deal. I was just on the call this morning with a doctor of super high level. And she was talking about like her challenges. And then we just flipped it on like, wow, that's a gift that allows for a different space for you to be present. She goes, oh my gosh, I never thought about it that way. We're always looking at the negative. And so yeah, such a great way.

The one that you did with a group. It was interesting, because we had you had us list are the biggest thing we want to change about ourselves. And every one of us listed our biggest strength. And we actually looked at it as a negative like it was hurting us. When you taught us, all of us in the room. 20 people, all of us were looking at a strength as a weakness. And what a beautiful and refreshing thing for you to clear that up. And I don't want to belabor that point. But it's going to be exciting as you layer that in while we're talking about business.

Yeah, so true. We'll dive into that. But I would love to just go into like, you know, you started practice around the same time I didn't, you know, we graduated around the same time and late 90s. And so what was practice? Like then what were the challenges and problems? And then, you know, where did this whole creation of align like, like, why did this spawn? Why did this come out?

I think it's a great opening discussion. Like, what, what was the conversation in 1995? It was about are you straight? Are you a mixer? For you young guys, you may not even know what that means. But you remember that conversation? Oh, yeah. It was a full philosophical thing is do you just provide the power of chiropractic by enhancing innate intelligence by freeing up interference to the nervous system? Or were you a mixer and you did other things like talk about lifestyle or exercise or, or nutrition? And I think that's gone by the wayside. But that was a heavy dialogue. The other thing was, money is like, do you do the box on the wall and hope people contribute money for your value? Or do you charge pennies? Or do you fill insurance? It was just starting the hay day finishing the hay day of insurance that started to soften up then. And there was a confusion on how do you run economics of a practice was another piece. Remember those days?

Oh my gosh, yeah. Those were like the straight in the mixer. I know, like you were in or out of groups with depending on which one you want.

And so I think now cliff, what we're dealing with if we move We volunteer today in chiropractic, you know, 25 years later, a quarter of a century later, is we're dealing with a different profession, and a different client. So if I can speak to that, then maybe we can dialogue around it. I think first off, we have a profession that's maturing. 25 years ago, you couldn't really get a job as a chiropractor, you chiropractors eight, they're young. Now we have chiropractors building very successful careers, as an employed in a large organization, edifying themselves and being edified by an organization that they're a Master Practitioner in the field of chiropractic. I think it's a beautiful movement of the profession.

I do too. And just especially since COVID, like people's salaries, like jumped up, like doctors, you know, associated doctors, which I don't even love that term. But like doctors in the clinic, they're making six, six figure salaries, by being a caregiver doctor and taking care of people which is 75% of our profession is hardwired to do that.

And even maturing, they can get to double six figure salaries or higher, making a lot more money in some cases, then people who own their clinics. So the the, the need the edification or the the, you know, the journey of having an owner clinic has gone by the wayside. Now, it's like, who is the chiropractor and what and this is how I know you're going to dive in down the road, but what is their how are they wired? And what's the best path for them to live a great life within an amazing career. And that's going to be some of the dialogue here. But not only do we have a maturing profession, valuations at clinics are higher. The, you know, the profession is now having more group clinic's going on. And we can explain that in a minute. But we also have something else that's changed. We have an educated consumer, people are coming to the table, understanding side effects of drugs, understanding how to do a homebirth understanding chiropractic and the history understanding so much when they walk in the door. They went to Dr. Google, and he started to learn. They're even pulling up research on nutrition on PubMed, and coming in the office these days. So it's a different consumer, would you agree

100%? Like, the education and I think people are open to being more proactive. I think we just need to lay down the bridge for them to get there. And definitely, I feel like shifting the conversation from it's not taking care of pain or wellness. It's an end in between there.

Yes. So yeah, I agree. And yeah, the other thing, I think, I think we did stagnate as a profession, I think we're still stuck in the poverty complex. I think we're still undervaluing our service in the marketplace is my opinion, I don't think we've climbed out of the poverty complex. I think chiropractors are still selling adjustments first providing outcomes in their languaging and their dialogue. And I think we have to mature that focus on outcomes versus focus on selling features or service, like selling an adjustment, a one off adjustment for X dollars, I think that's going to really limit the philosophical value of the profession. Do you agree with that?

100% I think that's worth diving into the outcomes conversation, because I think you're right, so many people sell features and like, like you said, like, oh, let's, let's try this adjustment. See if it works. I'm like, What are we having that conversation? But you don't talk to the surgeon about that, like, Oh, let's see if this surgery works.

Yeah, yeah. Surgeons not saying, Okay, we're gonna, you're gonna pay for an incision, we're going to cut this piece, and then we're going to know you were gonna replace your hip, and you're gonna have a better life. In chiropractic, we have to get to outcomes and stop this feature, cost per adjustment type thing, cheap adjustments. It's, it's a silly direction that's going to hurt the profession. I don't think it's going to help us at all.

One of my favorite analogies on that, Joe is, you know, people don't buy drills, they want drills, they buy drills, because they want holes.

Yeah. So, you know, it's such a beautiful, simple statement. Yeah. And those of you listening to this, like write that one down, because the drill makes the hole, we don't care about the service, we want the outcome and love that clip. So I think you asked me like, the company align life which is, is the opportunity of a business that's behind our passion in this profession is a business that allows people to be able to benefit in this profession in this industry, based on how they're wired. So whether it's a job or a career, or opening a clinic or building multiple clinics, we don't really care how you utilize inside of the line life, culture and family. We just want to keep you authentic to yourself and make sure you flourish within the profession. And we just have different vertical Oles are we called tracks that you could live a successful career with inside of any of these tracks. So we're not partial into how you utilize what we've created and built, we just want to serve you in any capacity that leaves you authentic and happy. And so

I feel like there's been a lot of brain damage in our profession. To be that way. Because I feel like in our profession, we've always had the one track of this is what success looks like. And so I love like the online life, the six different tracks, and here's how you can create the greatest version of yourself. And so, and I think so often people are trying to be something they're not, and they're just like, there's no way like I could ever be like a alignment, I'm just not build, I'm not hardwired for that I was hardwired to be a quarterback. And that's what I did. And if I tried to be something else, I would be okay. But I would never be good at it.

Exactly. And that's what this profession needs is this message right now, if you're listening, it's like, you may be falling because your mentor said, you have to do this, or your teacher at chiropractic school said you have to do this and you're following some path. And this fear for me is whether the students are the young doctors, the decisions they make, if they're not understanding the breadth of the profession, and the opportunities that they can have to edify and, and be able to deliver the best product in their career based on how they're wired. The mistakes we make early in our career could be 10 year mistakes, five year leases, large investments, big loans, there, there's big moves that are making, and I really have reverence for the opportunity we have right now with our voice and our experience, to deliver awareness to doctors, and a refreshing look at opportunities. I think that's really what we're going to provide through this podcast.

Yeah, I think that's like, I think the biggest purpose is to like for me is like, tell people find themselves and fall in love with themselves, and then share that person, whoever that is. Because I know for the longest time I'm an I'm an introvert by nature, like I'm hardwired as an introvert. And so I always wanted to be like somebody like you, Joe, like, I watch you up in the front. And like, I'm just like, in awe and wonder. And I'm like, oh, man, I really wish I could be like that. And then, as soon as I fell in love with who I was, I really found my path, and really leaned into it versus leaning away from it.

That's a great point. What's interesting to me is the most successful clinics in a line life are introverts, I would have never thought that. Because I think you have to be loud and whatnot. But it's so not true. So I love that we have these different personality styles, because it's going to help everyone listening to this, grab their little niches based on who we are. So you ask the question, and I know we want to keep this purposeful. We want to keep these podcasts as we kick this off. We want to keep it purposeful. We want to give an outcome, we want to keep it within 15 minutes. So it's within their drive to work it out, they understand the message and they go and serve their patients. So I want to end with your question, which is what is the line life and, and the opportunity there is the reason is I felt chiropractic needs strong brand recognition. Chiropractic needs more of a tribe. We have too much fragmentation of the profession, too much fighting in the profession. I think chiropractic needs trust. And I think when we build those, the consumers already fed up with a conventional approach to healthcare. They're searching for a brand for trust for a tribe. And they want continuity of care. The beauty of chiropractic to science, philosophy and art, but the art creates such a difference of a delivery that creates fear. We love the art, but we don't want fear in the consumer in the marketplace that when you walk into a chiropractic office, are you x rayed? Are you hung upside down and spankings? Are you ready? Tarik card your palm reading? Are you given a nutrient a massage, what is gonna happen when I walk in the door and with a line life I want to do is create continuity of care that when you walk in, you're going to have a meaningful conversation about your complaint. And understand how to associate it to a problem in your life that made you walk in the door and help lay out different levels of goals that you want to accomplish in your journey of healthcare. And then put together an authentic plan to a path to get them to the goal. So and no matter where you go in the country and align life, you're going to have an experience that will provide that that refreshing experience of being heard, listen to and know that we can at least put you on a path to aim towards your goal. I

think one of the things I love about align life personally is just the level of care like we have the highest level of care. And so not only we're doing the care practice tonight, you know, understanding where they want to go. You know, we also have available to us like blood based nutrition, which I've never heard of until I met you. And so that was that was killer.

No, I think it's great. And that's for a future podcast. I'd love to break this down for listeners that understand. With 25. Six years with integrated health care. I've worked everything from hospital systems work with spine surgeons, OB GYN family practice for Hmong clinics, integration with chiropractic, I would love to kind of explain why an integrated approach not integrated with medicine, not integrated with injections integrated with lifestyle, behavioral modification, and nutrition integration. That's what we're talking about integration, because we're past the point of ignoring toxicity, deficiencies, obesity, we can't turn our head anymore, it's in our face. Our patients are suffering, it's time to deliver or refer

right? Yep. 100%.

Awesome. Well, I think we broke down the profession. And it's funny how you and I were talking about mixers and straights, which I don't think a lot of people, the young Doc's even know what that is. But I think it was a good dialogue to the profession where we're at now, I think, you know, in finishing up our, the marketplace is way more complex than it was. The marketing is volatile, it's costly, it's ever changing. And the reason why with line life, we want it to create a unified brand across the nation, is because we want to take away the complex ability of lead generation and attraction of new clientele. Because these days, it's digital marketing, and search engine optimization, all these things that are very costly, very volatile, and always changing, that we want to take that away from the doctor, let them be a practitioner, and even an owner of a clinic, but not have to deal with all of this heavy work, right? I mean, that's, you felt that pain to as I did in the practice?

Oh, yeah. Even as an owner, doctor, like you're still like trying to keep up with the SEO the how do I market this? How do I market that, to have a whole tribe because I think one of the things I felt a lot of times is I just felt alone in practice, and I think that's one of the things that I love about this group is you're surrounded by really successful doctors. And we have all the different tracks, which we'll talk about in a minute, or on the next episode, but like we have all these people, so you can find your tribe fit in with your tribe, they're struggling with the same thing, then the genius is always in the room. And so you're always able to lean in on that group versus like I talked to doctors who Devin talked to another chiropractor in years. And let's say,

my family, my friends, and my business associates are all chiropractors. I don't know much more. So I agree with that being alone on the island. Those of you are like in practice and like you don't know who to call where to go. I'd love to solve that and bring more more nurturing and connectedness amongst the profession. I say, Cliff maybe on the next episode, let's break down the seasons of practice so doctors can understand where you are now. And having that awareness they could they could really be in that phase in power, and be in ownership and be confident where they're at and where the next step is.

I love it. Well, thank you so much for the insights into line life, where it came from, why we're why we're why we're here. And one of the things that came up for me when you were talking is like that you said, like consumers are so much more sophisticated. And so sticky. We need to bring like we need to take this complex model and make it simple. And that's really what align life has done. So awesome. Thank you for doing that.

Great. Thank you, Cliff.

All right till the next episode.