The 5 Pillars of Integrated Practice Success

Jerry Burgess

Thank you so much, Reed. You’re one of those pioneers as well that is really paving the way to build the foundation of the health care model of the future. So, the conferences, the certifications, the educations, the podcast, there’s so much that goes into that and I know from experience and it’s because obviously you were called to do something very special. So, thank you for having me be able to come on here and share my message and hopefully it really connects with some people today. 

Reed Davis, HHP, FDN-P, CMTA, CNT

Well, I’m sure it’s going to, you know, and the purpose of this event is really to get, who I think are the top leaders who are setting the standards for others. It’s not just about, you know, functional medicine and, you know, new ways to make money and things like, there’s all this digital marketing secrets and lots of stuff going on. But it’s really, I think about providing the leadership that’s needed to set standards in the industry. You know, what is health coaching versus what is medicine? And then how do you integrate the two? So, I know you’re going to have some things to say about that and you can start anywhere you want, but why don’t you start with how your story began. 

Jerry Burgess

Yeah, yeah. My story began as, as a young kid, I was so joyous and extroverted and was, you know, the life of the party, my mom would say. I couldn’t meet a stranger because I was so connected to them. And my mom had an enemy in her small town and she happened to be my fifth grade teacher and she stood me on the desk and I had what they call Burgess ears, she flicked my ears and called me out in front of the class and I was mortified. I had a crush on the girl next to me. So, for like two weeks I would hold it all in. I was crying, I wouldn’t go back to my school. It finally came out, my parents got me plastic surgery and unfortunately it didn’t fix the self image that I had now obtained. So, I became from joyous and extroverted to shy, introverted and very insecure. And fortunately for me, sports were my outlet. 

I was never the most talented, but the rest of the world would shut off when I started playing sports. And what I found out by the sixth, seventh grade, I was starting to get really good at sports. I could see the whole field, the strategy, I could put my other team members. I wasn’t the most talented, but I practiced harder. I studied the game and I hated school and authority at that point. So, I started already getting in trouble and kicked out. And in the seventh grade I found the magic of marijuana, alcohol and every drug known to human being. And I went from shy and introverted to the life of the party and started becoming, you know, more outgoing. But I needed the drugs and alcohol to do that. But my sports friend would often tease the nerds or the jocks in there and because I was teased, I was very sensitive to that. I didn’t like mean people. I didn’t like authority. I didn’t like rules in high school, but I had a heart for people. 

So, when they would tease that, I would want to go hang out with that kid and just really empathize and say, “Well, what’s going on and why?” And I just loved being there for those people. And long story short, I was going to go build water towers. I had no desire to go to college. I was going to be either a stunt man, build water towers, had no place for school, but I was missing sports and that’s where I was doing water towers and decided to go back to college. I got kicked out of everything. Pre-algebra was the highest I went. I never had spelling and grammar in English, but I was really good at sports. So, I decided to go back to college and I had to take a year of pre-requisites before I even got a college credit. And by the second year I got academic All-American. There was no teachers telling me what to do.

I was going towards something that I wanted to be involved with, sports I loved, and found out I wasn’t kind of silly and that’s where my journey began to going into sports management. But I always had the pain to help people get out of it. So, after undergrad I went back to building water towers to get into investing from financial advising. 9/11 had happened and then right after that I came back to go to grad school and I became a sales representative at a Gold’s gym. That was my entry into the fitness and health. And it’s because I couldn’t get a GA cause I ruptured my Achilles tendon playing rugby. So, basically I went to sales, became, Hey, I love this personal training side. I was starting to exercise. And became a personal trainer there. And that’s where my whole journey began into seeing the fact that if I wanted to be the best personal trainer, it was nutrition, mindset, motivation. 

And that’s where the show the biggest loser came out. And I was like, oh my goodness. When the doctor tells them, do you know you’re at risk of stroke, heart attack or disease? And the patient started crying. I said, that’s it. If we could just lock them in there, have that doctor connected. That was where the big aha moment came for me, you know, after into my journey and where it all began. 

Reed Davis, HHP, FDN-P, CMTA, CNT

Man that’s amazing. And, you know, I’ve seen you tell your story a couple of times. I always love it and I love the pictures you show of you playing rugby and basically being the baddest ass on the field. You know, you said it’s not because of your talent so much is because of your attitude. I think attitude is, can exceed aptitude almost every time, you know. I mean, like me, I’ll never be an NBA player, but you know, if you didn’t have to be so tall, I’d probably be pretty good. You know, I mean, again, the attitude is almost everything. 

Jerry Burgess

Yeah, absolutely. Attitude, vision, strategy, preparedness, hard work, all that, that attitude is, hey, I’m not the most talented, but I’m either going to out work, out think, see the gaps and implement faster and I’m going to show up consistently and do it. Meaning this started becoming, and this is where it became for me, is that show the biggest loser came out. But I, as you mentioned, had played D1 rugby. I’d played college baseball. I was a catcher all through high school. I was a three sport athlete. I’d already had five knee surgeries before I had even started grad school. So, basically I had a patient that was diabetic and he said Jerry Burgess I avoided surgery. And I went and saw this Dr. Baumgardner fellow who did PRP, which is platelet rich plasma. 

So, any of you reading, where you draw your own blood, you may be have heard of STEM cells, where you take your own bone marrow or your fat, you separate the growth factors and you re-inject them back to an injured area and it starts to regenerate. Versus cortisone or just cover ups or physical therapy, which is great, but it sometimes doesn’t heal if after beyond an acute episode. So, if it doesn’t, this is where this regenerative comes in. So, I said, what the heck? I’ve done physical therapy, I’ve done the cortisones. I would play on the weekends and I would limp all week long and I was ready to have to give it up. 

So, which was hard because sports had became my identity at that time. So, essentially that was like, okay, I’ll go see this guy. And he said, “Jerry Burgess because you exercise and eat healthy, you’re probably going to get a good outcome, but I want to see your labs. I want to see your vitamin D, your testosterone, your thyroid, your heart rate variability, some of these things that may impact your outcome.” So, I said, “Okay.” We did that. He tweaked my testosterone, my thyroid, which had had a family history of, what was tweaked, a few different supplements he recommended. And three months later I was back to playing full strength. And I was like, oh my goodness, you know, if I would have known this how many times before all these different surgeries or could have maybe been at the top of my game, cause I got really good at rugby. 

I potentially could have went on but you know, downtime, injuries and I just couldn’t do what I was able to do anymore. So, he was like, Jerry Burgess I see you at Gold’s gym cause he would go there too. He was the doctor there. He’s like, you’re so focused on your clients, you’re passionate. I could see your energy right there. My clients, or patients when they come, I’m family practice and sports medicine if they’re on, diabetes medication, high blood pressure and cholesterol, I know I’m just covering it up if I don’t get them living a healthier lifestyle. And if they come in with degenerative disc disease and I give them an epidural, I know I’m just covering it up, if I don’t get them to healthy, active daily living, you think you’d join me and be a concierge in my practice? And that’s where it all began. I became, in an 80 square foot room, the personal trainer. 

We thought all of his patients were going to want to, hey, let’s go do weight loss. And what we found is they either just wanted their medication or an injection. They weren’t the ideal patients yet. So, we had a handful that came our way, but what we recognize is when we started marketing medically supervised weight loss, we were different than the gyms or the training center just because that medical authority, this is before I even knew how to market on a high level with masterminds and digital marketing and all these advanced strategies, but just getting out there and saying how we’re different because everybody thinks they’re the best. But if you’re a thousand health coaches out there or a thousand MDs, how are you either, as we’ve been taught by Sam Horn, one of a kind, or first of a kind, or different than somebody else out there. So, that’s what we were banking on. We were different than the other people. 

We talked about outcomes and prevention and weight loss because that’s what the client told. And basically a lady named Susan came into our practice. She was on 17 different medications. She had seven joint replacements and was contemplating suicide. She’s like, my pain management doctor called me a drug chaser. The surgeon said there’s nothing else that they could do. I saw your ad, what can you do? And I said, “Susan, I don’t know that I’m quick to help you yet. Let me get you to our functional medicine department where they can look at your labs. Let me get you over to Dr. Baumgartner.” So, they worked on her labs, he did PRP with her. I got her over to our nutritionist who focused on the meal plans. I started mentally coaching and Christine our trainer started doing the corrective exercise. Three months later she was down 50 pounds, off all but two of her medications, completely had her zest and vitality back and we were like, oh my goodness. Just like my story, in her story, in our diabetic patients, our patient with heart disease, when we got them to A) the trainer or the health coach, which was me and my other partner, to restore their lifestyle, get them back to eating, drinking, decreasing stress. 

Then they could restore their insides with functional medicine, then give the protocol with the right labs to dial it in. Then we could really regenerate the body when we got them their cell health healthy with this regenerative medicine. So, we started getting world-leading outcomes. We went from 1000 square feet to 6,000, to the 28,000 square foot, still the nicest integrated center, that’s not hospital owned, in the entire world. And even as of last year came the top volume STEM cell clinic in the world. So, this is what an integrated model of care of health outcomes. But what Dr. Baumgardner said to me in the beginning and where I want to tell you guys this, all this big opportunity. He said, “Jerry Burgess, I only get 30 minutes with these patients once a month on best. Because I’m already starting to get pretty busy. 

I need you to spend the hours to inspire, to motivate, to hold the team accountable, or the patients accountable to their care plan, to meet them where they’re at, give them love and continue to reinforce my message of how you eat, move, and live is vital to your health.” So, that’s where it all began and we started licensing and modeling our model all around the world and 150 models, 150 license models later, we recognized a few gaps. We could go put these health coaches or medical fitness centers in, but if the entrepreneur doctors didn’t have the business know how, they didn’t know how to run a business, they didn’t know how to integrate. They didn’t know how to communicate, do all these things in silos, just like medical wellness centers have been forever. 

They really understand that they need to have the business. So, we went pivoting. So, unless they weren’t great entrepreneurs, they kind of struggled to recognizing everybody needs a little bit of more business, personal development, getting, you know, their strengths honed in before they can start adding all these ancillary revenue sources. So, I strongly believe that health coaches, personal trainers can not only help get better outcomes, but they’re usually the marketing, the sales people, the outcome producers that we may not like that word, but that’s ultimately what we are doing, influencing people to make lifestyle changes. Whether you call that selling or not, it is, it’s basically getting them to, to be influenced to, to make changes. That was the key component to changing health care. And he recognized that from the beginning. And there are smart doctors and entrepreneurs now out there that recognize that trainers, health coaches are the solution to changing health care. 

Reed Davis, HHP, FDN-P, CMTA, CNT

Indeed, indeed. You know, like you’re like me, you’ve been around before, now you’re like this total authority and expert on health coaching, yet they didn’t call it that back in the day. I don’t know what we called it, it was personal training and nutrition and they’re all kind of separate. Now you have this amazing field that you’ve pioneered. And now I think people also see why you’re a very special guest and why I’d have you on because you have done it all. And to have built that and to not only have all of the what to do in place, but the how to do it. You know, for me it’s a little easier cause I teach a course in lab work and I say, look, it’s simple. You know, you run the labs, you figure out all the healing opportunities. These are not medical diagnosis. They’re just things that need improvement. Could be their hormones, their immune system, digestion, detoxification. So, that’s what’s the healing opportunities are. 

Now, how do you fix all that? Well, here’s your program. We can customize the diet, and the rest, and the exercise, and the stress reduction, the supplementation things. But once you create a program, step three, well, who’s got, who’s going to run the program? You know, how do you get the client to behave themselves? Just because you know, it’d be so simple. So what’s kind of your thoughts on that? What are some of the things, the top few things that health coaches can do, cause remember we, there’s science that tells us what the healing, what’s wrong, you know, and there’s science and programs that can be customized for each person meeting them where they’re at. One you, you do the investigation, two you design a program. Well what about that running the program, that step, you know, the last step and the most important. So, like ways that health coaches can partner with their, with their clients and whatever doctors, they might have too. 

Jerry Burgess

I call it the funnels of life. You guys have all heard of the pyramid analogy. But my goal is to get people to rethink, to think differently and act differently, right. Because we all kind of know these things that we see the top health coaches, or the top trainers, or the top doctors. The foundational skill is the skills. So, just as you mentioned, it’s you’re not going to become Jerry Burgess if you haven’t even successfully coached people to outcomes. So, if you’re a doctor, it’s about being very good at your skill. If you’re about a health coach, your first level of mastery is being very good at transforming people’s lives. So, even that doctor out of med school is in their starting phases. It may be one or two years of being a technician, being really good at their craft. So, rejuve model of success at the bottom foundation was Dr. Baumgartner was really good. I was really good at getting patients outcomes to begin with. We were good coaches. So, some of you right now, you may say, how do I get there? Well, you can only start at one step. We can accelerate based on how much time, and our knowledge, and our intellect, and the people around us. 

There’s always these acceleration points. But great outcomes are the foundation because if you’re a heart centered entrepreneur or even doctor, you can’t sell something that you’re not fully confident it’s going to change somebody’s life. Just like your program, Reed. It’s the real deal, but it’s not cheap. So, it’s not that person that’s just beginning. It’s somebody that’s ready to take their knowledge to a next level and be able to really truly integrate and work with providers because they could have been a health coach on a weekend certification and got that certification. But good luck. Do you know motivational interviewing? Do you know, techniques? Do you know medical jargon? So, that next level always comes at do we have the skills first? But then it comes down to repeatable and consistent processes. So, that doctor, you may be really good, but if you want to scale your income, you have to be able to make money besides your one on one time. So, that’s gotta be either able to go to a group program or one to many or that second other health coach that you become an entrepreneur. 

So, you have to be good at teaching a second or a third person or being able to deliver to more people. So, there’s a business learning scale and growth. So, you always got to kind of assess, where am I really at? What is the next level of growth? And be able to really put out a plan, like you mentioned and reverse engineer it. Here’s the starting steps, because if the next stage is how do you sell your programs? You’re a great coach, but can you sell it? And instead of one-on-one packages, can you sell the group programs? So, you know, marketing and sales, if you look at the gym, the health coaches and the gyms that succeeded, what were the best ones? They became the GMs or the sales directors because they could teach other people how to do it. So, that is the first level. If we can’t sell ourselves yet, then it’s maybe more confidence in our skills or more confidence in sales, or training, or copier or whatever it is to make offers and sell packages. 

So, everybody’s at a different step in their journey and they just need a different coaching plan of what’s the best next move. A lot of people start saying, I should just start running Facebook ads for health coaching. Well, do you have your auto responders in place? How are you going to take cold traffic? Do you have workbooks, you have your free guides that you’re going to take somebody from luke warm to your ideal patient versus having to call a hundred people. Oh am I cash? Does insurance cover this? No, no, no. There are systems in place that will allow somebody to get to the next level, but you must be excelling at one level and all as you have to do is know the next question for the next level, and somebody who’s done it. 

Reed Davis, HHP, FDN-P, CMTA, CNT

Yeah. You know I’m so happy you mentioned outcomes. Because you mentioned a lot there, I see there’s a lot of ways that I could kind of go with this. We could talk about how to partner collaborate with medical clinics. We could talk about just you know, what are the top three marketing strategies to grow your patient base, things like that. But I just wanted to take it back for a minute and say that you hit on a key for me that I think everyone needs to pay attention to, and that is outcomes. Be outcomes based and just think if you’re not helping people, then all the marketing in the world isn’t going to do any good. The very best, and what I know that you, you didn’t mention it, but I know that you get a lot of referrals cause when you help people they go tell people. Like, man, I had that same problem. I went to see Jerry Burgess and Dr. Baumgartner and man they fixed me. 

I wasn’t, you know, I’m off my medication, I’m back to doing my exercising or whatever it is that they’re doing. So, outcomes are really, really critical. And to the health coaches who are struggling a bit, I would just say, and Jerry Burgess would back me up a hundred percent. If you’re not getting referrals, it might not be you. It could be that your program you’re getting isn’t able to get them where they are. And this is why training and education is so important. And here, Jerry Burgess, I’ve put, I put a bunch of health coaching certification programs together. Someone might say, well that’s your competition. No, we’re all in the same boat. We’re all trying to help people. There’s different ways to skin the cat. There’s different little sort of specialties and skills and niches and things that you can get into. So, I just want to boost health coaching and it needs to be outcome-based. Lastly on that, I’ll say that one of the most frequent things that I have to tell people on the postgrad interviews, I do, cause I still interview every single graduate. 

And we talk about, you know, how you found our program, what can I do to improve the course and where are you going from here? How can I support you moving forward in your business? And the thing that they say to me is well, I think I want to go get some more training. And I have to say, look, you’re a college graduate, you’ve had two certifications before you took mine, which is considered a pretty upper echelon. And why don’t you just go get some customers instead? Go help some fricking people, which is back, that’s what you reminded me of the most. Go help 10 people, 20 people. You’re not going to solve every problem on the planet every time. And they’re not all going to think you’re the miracle worker, but you’re going to earn your keep and you’re going to do some good work in the world and you’ll help them, you know, stepping stone. So, I think that’s really critical that you brought that up, that outcomes are everything. 

Jerry Burgess

They, they are everything. Cause that next level, you can’t get to that next level if you’re not really good at, at one level. So, it all starts at how good are you at the one thing. And then it comes to you’re right. I see that with every doctor’s, it comes down to comfortability. Growth happens outside of our comfort zone as everybody’s heard. And as cliche as it is, there’s truth to it. You can’t without another skill, or adding more value, or being able to produce differently, or communicate differently, get to a next level of income. So, it starts with the outcomes, but then it’s what is the script? Just as you say, as that technician, that one-to-one producer, maybe you get good. If you’re not getting, you know, half of your new business from referrals, then you’re probably either have zero script to memorized or you’re not saying it or you’re allowing yourself to be the best kept secret. So, that next level is don’t go get another health coaching certification. 

Don’t go get another region or a functional or a course if you already can help the people that you’re doing. The goal is to get better at business so you can help more people, or make more income, and then it expands beyond the one. And so, every doctor in the world I say, as long as you’re good at one skill, forget the other thing. And every quarter we have to look at are you moving closer to the life, the independence and the money that you want and the impact. So, the answer, if that answer is no, what do I need to do differently? I already went and got the certification. 

So, we always say, some people say don’t touch your weaknesses, right? Just focus on your strengths. That is true on some level. If you’re really good at that strength, they can take it. But now if you want to go from your one-on-one strength to helping many, just like me for instance, I was really good at going and speaking and networking and giving value and getting one on one clients once in a while from speaking. It took me signing up for like Lisa Sasevich and Mike Canning Speak to Sell mastermind, You Everywhere Now mastermind to go, how to speaking on that stage. So, even though I was good at it, it took doubling down to get to that next level. But now let me say, is I obviously wasn’t good because I would watch somebody go speak like them and they’d have 25 people rush to the back of the stage and buy their program. If I’m only getting one or two and traveling everywhere, there’s a gap. So, in order for me to get to that next level of what goal do I have, what do I have to do? I have to become a better speaker, not another, how do I go get another skill that is just stalling because I can go self-learn it and grow, I have to do this thing that’s going to get me to that next level. 

So, I had to learn to speak to sell from a stage, so that took 18 months before numbers and outcomes started producing. So, that growth areas, you can’t just think what you need. You need a pro or somebody that’s done it that clearly sees, here’s the next skill or weakness you have to overcome. And again that weakness, sometimes spelling, grammar and tech. It’s completely, you should outsource and delegate it, but if that skill is going to hold you back from becoming what you’re saying, I always say, say what you mean and mean what you say. So, if I have any visionary that’s telling me I want to do this, this and this, I’m going to say, okay, great. What are you doing in the next 90 days? Because I know it’s all fairytale land for most visionaries if they don’t have the, what they’re doing tomorrow, next week and what their team are doing to make that happen. So, I hear the visions and I roadmap the plan to make it actionable and not comfortable but meeting them where they’re at with their budget, beliefs, and times to customize it. 

Reed Davis, HHP, FDN-P, CMTA, CNT

Yeah. I mean you hit it on so many points, again Jerry Burgess. You know, if you fail to plan, well plan to fail because you got to have a roadmap and get there. And I kind of struggled in the beginning cause I’ve always wanted to speak on stage and just, I mean I took the like, I don’t know, 40 years ago the Dale Carnegie public speaking course, and Dale Carnegie sales course and I still sucked, you know. But what did it for me was being forced into the situation. I went to work at a clinic and my job was to build the business, much like you, on top of having my own skills, you know, drive, drive the industry. So, I started setting up lectures and the first lecture I ever set up, I got 25 people in the room and then the doctor told me, I’m not giving that talk. You go give that talk. Like literally five minutes notice. Like they just backed out. So, I had to go and I knew the presentation cause we’d put it together. I did it myself and man, talk about the hard way. You say it took 18 months, took me eight years, but I gave hundreds of talks. Yeah. 

Jerry Burgess

And that, that’s normal. So, it’s so much that. And same thing with me, Reed. I’m still working hard today. I’ve done 80 webinars in the last six weeks because I’m now seeing it’s going to a virtual platform and leverage the doctors and see the way things have to be delivered now. So, I’ll give you a quick story is just like you started with your words. You said, you know, I wasn’t that good or whatever is, I’ve seen you speak, you come up with passion, you have heart and you mean things. And I’m far from perfect. I stumble my words, I don’t take pauses, but the fact of the matter is, I was going through the speaker training and I just delivered this 10 minute talk and I’m used to speaking for eight hour conferences. I could teach, you know, a month much easier than I can teach a three minute media webinar. That’s hard to do, to be concise and short. And that’s mastery of words and copy, which has, has to continue for all of us at our next level. 

So, essentially I did this 10 minute talk and I’m like, darn it, that kinda this, I messed up the first minute. And he’s like, dang, and everybody clapped and they’re like, what’s wrong with that Jerry Burgess? I said, well I stumbled out of the gates and I hit this. And they said this was so good cause we had two rounds and this was round two. And he says, do you always beat yourself up? And I said, well what do you mean? And he says, are you always this hard on yourself and have that negative self talk after you say something? And I said, well, I guess when I look back at my history, I could have went four for five in a baseball game, and if I made an error, I would be kicking dirt after the game and saying, if I’d have just did that and I’d have one run. So, he says, damn, that’s gotta be painful Jerry Burgess. And he said, let me ask you a question, what do you know about yourself? He says, do you work hard? I said, yes. Do you progress? Yes. Do you get better? Yes. Do you learn your mistakes and you see them and you try not to do them again the next time? I said yes. 

And he says, well stop making this horrible on yourself and start enjoying the process. So, he says, one thing, only thing I want you to do is say, did I get better? And are you better six months than you were three months ago? And now even post, like this lockdown period, I’m much better at interviews now than I was six months ago. So, anybody for them to get good at anything has to practice. But now I no longer practice. I just show up. I reduce the stress, I recognize, I take criticism or self evaluation only from people that I know have done it or I would respect or that know the formula of conversion because everybody say, well you didn’t give me the juice. Well in all reality, if I give you the juice you don’t buy. And trust me for eight years I went and gave everybody the whole formula and then it didn’t go forward because they thought they could do it on their own and none of them ever did. So, as much as my ego had to be right, it was the wrong formula for helping get people more success in integrated practice support that they needed, instead of trying to wing it on their own and never get there. 

Reed Davis, HHP, FDN-P, CMTA, CNT

You know, you’re the kind of the guy who does stuff cause you didn’t know you couldn’t do it. And I’ve been accused of that too. They asked me, Reed, how do you run 10,000 labs on 10,000 people or run labs on 10,000 people in your, you know, in all those years back in the clinic. I said, because I didn’t know you can’t do it. You know, I just outworked everybody and no one told me you can’t run that many labs on people. So, good on you. 

Jerry Burgess

Can I give you one more story? 

Reed Davis, HHP, FDN-P, CMTA, CNT

Yeah, please. 

Jerry Burgess

So, to that point, is when I went and I was saying at those masterminds, Craig Ballantyne and Bedros Killian, if any of you guys have followed the fitness space. I was going and I’d always say, and they saw my progression. They saw I was hardworking, I showed up, I took notes, I was detailed, but I was still drinking at that time. So, my mentality and belief was work hard, party hard. I’ve learned that all my life. I wanted to be successful. I wanted to have money. I always was a kind person. So, I had blacked out on the previous mastermind on Friday night, went out dancing, missed the whole next day, got alcohol poisoning. Craig Ballantyne handed me a book called Turning Pro by Steven Pressfield. He said, Jerry Burgess, you’re one of the most talented and hardworking people I’ve met. But I think this drinking now being coaching of you for the last three years, I’ve seen this impact your life. 

So, now you’re starting to have children. So, if you mean what you say that you’re going to change health care, I want you to realize and read this and tell me where you’re being an amateur in different parts in your life. And I read the book on the way home and it says, an amateur can’t hold their alcohol, an amateur won’t do whatever it takes to reach their goal, whether that’s the Olympics or cash practice success or 500 licensed clinic, whatever goal is. An amateur says things, but they don’t have a plan in place. An amateur doesn’t get coaching, an amateur, doesn’t have people that press them and actually push them to greatness. An amateur basically is fodder to the environment around them versus doing whatever it takes. So, I got off that plane ride, I said I’ll never have a drink of alcohol again. And that’s been seven and a half years for me. And that’s what a pro does. They do what it takes to live the life, the purpose, the calling, and they win. 

So, there’s a lot of growing up I had to do, even though I was always a good person, my wife was going to leave me when we were first into our marriage because I couldn’t hold my alcohol when I blacked out, because I played sports seven nights a week, because I chewed, because I swore like an iron ranger, because I didn’t have faith in my life. And I said to her at one point, it’s like, why the heck did you marry me? It’s just like I’m a good person. I’m fun. It’s there. You want to take everything around me, and I was resentful at first. But now seven years when I found my faith, when I show up like the leader I’m trying to be in all areas of my life, my life is 10 times more rich because of the people, the environment and the willingness to say what I mean and mean what I say, and do whatever it takes to turn pro. So, why are you not turning pro? If you’re listening to this. Are you hiding from giving your offer to people and thinking this is the best solution? Are you hiding from doing the hours of work it takes to be really good at your craft?

Are you hiding from learning the business structure or again, we could go on this there, is what are the six things I need to do to integrate my health coaching with practitioners? This opportunity is more, and I went off on my little tangent so I’m sorry of that. I’d like to get to that last point just so you guys know some next steps, but my whole mentality now is part of my superhuman power, just like you mentioned, Reed, is vision. That’s what sports gave me. The other one is basically determination. I only do what I love and enjoy and I had to learn how to find that. And then third is basically turning pro, doing whatever it takes to do what the best in the world would do to get there. And even if you don’t have a budget, cause I know the main problems that stand in front of everybody, then it’s time to get a little bit more resourceful, or get that first client and reinvest back into that coach or redo this. So, you can do this on the smallest budget like we had. We were down to our last paycheck at Rejuv all the way to yes, once you start getting that income, you pay for your copy, you pay for the best coaches. Now I’ll write a $20,000 check in a moment to sit with somebody that I know will catapult my learning 10 X. So, it’s just turn pro is my only message to each one of you that want the best out of life. 

Reed Davis, HHP, FDN-P, CMTA, CNT

And man as such so appropriate. Cause that’s what this entire event is about is how to make yourself a pro. Like you know, I’m trying to get people to charge more money and be more professional. I want your thoughts on that and but I wanted to take you, you know my interviews don’t follow a very specific… I have to ask, what I have to ask cause man, people are seeing that you’re a real person who just works hard, and you are a pro. Probably the most important thing that you’ve done is work on yourself. And I spent a lot of money on consultants and advisors too. I have a personal development coach, I have a professional development coach, you know, and a couple others that just hang around and I pay for good advice and stuff. It’s a big chunk of my budget all the time is the support and things for people aren’t necessarily producing things for me, but who help me to produce, you know, they really help me to be at my best. And it is about self awareness a lot of time. 

You said something early on that I found very interesting and that is that once you got into college where they weren’t cracking the whip on you, where it was, it was up to you,that that made a big difference. Because you had been kind of, not flunking out of high school, but you weren’t the best student there, but probably one of the best athletes and others had that. In health coaching it tends to be an independent minded person. Like we we’re, I was sort of rebellious in a way. I’m trying to turn that into professionalism. That you don’t have to be rebellious, that we’ve got our own backyard and that it’s, you know, pioneers like you who can set the pace. But tell me about that. Why do you think some of us don’t do well under the constraints of administration and, you know, establishment? 

Jerry Burgess

Yeah. So, this is the pure entrepreneurial thing that happens to so many and I, it took years and years learning it. In a school system you’re taught to follow order, rules, and an agenda, right. Doesn’t mean it’s yours. I had my same skills as a kid. I was that empath, right. I liked relationships. I liked fun. I loved sports. So, if somebody was watching me, a guide or a parent, whatever you want to call it, they’d be seeing my skills, right. Same skills that I have today are connection, speaking, selling, life of the party, all that, that, that thing was there. I just couldn’t sit under rigid structure, just like computers and tech today. It’s like creepy collie, just like I said, but I’ve had to learn it now being a solo entrepreneur and building my team and not having a hundred employees like I had at Rejuv when I owned my companies. So, now it’s like I have to learn this tech to get to the next level. So yes, I was looked at as maybe squirrely entrepreneurial, I’ll get kicked out of there, but I hated rules that didn’t make sense. And so, I got kicked out of a lot of things.

I didn’t like authority. I didn’t like mean people and I didn’t like rigid structure. That wasn’t my skill set. So, those are the type of kids that get kicked out of school and don’t thrive, and then don’t succeed, but end up being the Gary Vaynerchuk, or the best entrepreneurs because they are the creative, the intelligent time. So, what I learned is our upbringing has a lot of insight. And now I’ve learned after the fact, man, I really did go even at a young age, all in in relationships, coaching, vision, strategy, connecting, partying, having fun. And I loved the sports. If it would have been sports management or finance, which they didn’t cover in high school, I found out that’s a passion. That’s why I love financial advisor. It’s why I’m good with my money. It’s like I love every tax strategy. CPA. I’ve took the Garrett Gunderson courses, the Legally Mine, you name it. I love that side of it. So, the fact of what I’ve learned now, so if you have kids that have maybe been kicked out of schools, or felt like you didn’t fit in in high school or whatever, the fact of the matter, now, my motto is, if it’s not fun… run. 

So, if you’re doing something that’s not enjoyable, this isn’t your legacy, this isn’t your turning pro, this isn’t using your best gifts. Those were inherent at one level. I had those gifts, but I had to get coaching to make those gifts talented enough to help other people. So, that’s my, my philosophy is I didn’t fit in, but now I’ve learned through coaching, there are certain foundational rules. Even though I hate rules and authority that Tony Robbins has now got me to accept the fact that some rules are for our own good, like we should probably eat healthy and move most days. Okay, that is good for my life. I should brush my teeth. So, there’s these foundational rules as if you’re trying to build a business, marketing and sales, we can’t run from it. 

It’s a foundational concept of truth. Leadership is a foundational concept of truth, not micromanagement, but leadership. Communication is a foundational rule of finances, of relationships, of selling, of management, of you name it. The more you, the better you can communicate there. So, these are the rules, when I hate following rules that I recognize are the absolute foundational rules that can’t be ignored without consequences. So, that allowed me to kind of find my middle ground of how do I deal with authority is, is it necessary? 55. Hell no. It’s a stupid rule. I can’t follow it. Eat vegetables. I can follow that because I want to live to 120. 

Reed Davis, HHP, FDN-P, CMTA, CNT

Hey, don’t we all, you know, and live well too. You know, like, I certainly like to enjoy myself. What was the hardest lesson you’v ever learned in all that? 

Jerry Burgess

Management and leadership. So, I burnt bridges at a young age, meaning I would hold it up and rugby was that thankful thing for me. And, and I want to give one other story about rugby. Why I think it’s the future of health care and change here. So, please hold me to that, but it really fits in. I’ve been a part of surgical practices, coaching and consulting. I’ve worked with energy healers, chiropractors, MDs, and everybody has what I call the credential-itis. The MD says this person, they don’t know this. And the surgeon says the MD doesn’t have what they have. And chiropractor says that energy man, you name it, everybody’s criticizing everybody else. So, what I learned in rugby is, I grew up playing sports, right. It was, let’s reign our superiority over the other team, beat them, and then sometimes spit dirt in their face or rub it in. 

We call it rivals, right. So, we didn’t like our cross turn rivals. It was just, even if they were probably cool people, if they would have been in our school, they would probably have been my best friend. But you know, you’re taught scarcity and competition. So, when I recognize when I played my first game of rugby, it’s like even the unathletic people, they all need to be in the scrum. They all served a role. You needed the other team to actually holds you up, the most dangerous position in rugby, you could break your neck if that other team wasn’t holding you up. So, even their cooperation to keep you safe is necessary in a dangerous sport like rugby, right tackling. So, you had all these elements. You did want to beat the other team, but everybody had a role that was critical. Even the guy, you need all 15 players to play rugby.

But the cool part was after the game, we went to the bar and now everybody’s cheersing, high fiving, having drinks together. It’s like you’re best friends. And I said, oh my goodness, after my years of health care is getting sick of egos is just like, that’s the solution to health care. It’s, I have had Lymes disease, chronic pain injuries, trauma, and I’m only getting better because I’ve been working with the top regen doctors, the functional, the corrective exercise, the chiropractor, the spiritual energy worker, the faith that’s changed my life. All these components, it all feels in, and the fact of the matter is we’re the worst in the world at chronic disease and chronic pain. So, if we’re measuring outcomes, back to our point number one, well we’re scoring pretty, your ego is pretty bad. You’ve got a pretty bad track record. So, pain management doctor, you’re pretty well known for killing people and covering up and giving them bandaids. So, how’s that for your ego? So, if we want to track outcomes, which means your patients get back to the life that they can and process, let’s start measuring getting people off medications, getting people back to work, getting people strong, healthy and resilient and not needing readmissions and future health care. So, we call that coopetition. Ego has to get out of the way. 

So, I’m looking for these integrated health care models where the doctor recognizes, I can quarterback, but it’s okay, let me pass it to the health coach. Let me pass it to this trainer. Let’s communicate and have a care plan that could help this person and really communicate, even if it’s not best for me or it’s the best move. When I help that patient, they’ll say, yeah, Jerry Burgess did recommend me to go see Reed, and do that health coaching certification I get in this, instead of coaching with me right away when I can’t teach them the outcome stuff. I’m the business mind. 

Their best next move, if they wanted to get into this space was getting certified and getting good at coaching. It’s called passing the ball and it will come back to you when you add value. So, rugby back to it. What did I have to overcome to get where I am today? Is getting doctors to let go of their ego, getting people to let go of their fears to move to their next goal. I see the growth and possibility in everybody. It’s are they willing to let themselves get out of the way to do what it takes to be successful? Because it’s not going to be your brother. It’s not going to be your sister. It’s not going to be the pharmaceutical industry. It’s not going to be the insurance. It’s not going to be the future employee. If you want the best life or exactly what you want, I promise it’s on your ability to communicate and inspire and motivate others to follow your journey. 

Reed Davis, HHP, FDN-P, CMTA, CNT

Amen. Brother. You know, I get just a couple more questions for you. I can’t let you go man until I get your thoughts and what you just talked about the physicians and dropping the ego. I’m not sure what else it is, you know, cause as health coaches, sometimes we feel like our backyard is where that person belongs and they’re going to get the most good out of being in our backyard, with the diet, and the rest, and the exercise, and the stress reduction, and the supplementation, all the natural ways that you can nurture the body. We nurture every cell, tissue, organ, and system. People just get better regardless of what the doctor said their diagnosis was. But at the same time, some people have serious medical conditions. I mean, I’m not a surgeon. And if you have a bone sticking out in the air and bleeding, you’re not going to call your nutritionist or health coach, you know. So how do we, and part of it might be that we start with, we are the junior partner sometimes in these relationships. And I accept that completely. How do we get a physician to trust us that we understand that, you know, that we’re not, don’t think we’re God’s gift to you, you know, everything to do health. 

Jerry Burgess

Very good. Perfect question. And this comes from why most people aren’t successful until they learn to think differently. That’s what we learn in mentorships and masterminds and coaching, right. So, if you want to be the best, you have to give more value when you are entitled, or why won’t they refer to me? I deserve this, I’m good. Why do they not see me? Right. That’s basically what you’re saying. So, why not? Well, have you referred to them? Have you went to them? So, as I just mentioned, I see myself as a quarterback. I have no place to get to when a client, or a referral, or somebody comes to me, I don’t even know if they’re my ideal client yet. So, I’m going to do the intake and I’m going to listen to what their needs, their problem, and the greatest next move is, and then I’m going to add value or help them. 

So, if you look at what are the doctor’s problems, right. So, how do we say they’re struggling to get cash patients? So, if you’re coaching people and you know, this functional doctor, what about if you said, hey, I have this client, their labs are due every six months, I put it together there. Would you be their referring provider? Or how do you connect with these and send them the patients? So, my philosophy in marketing or in sales is the more you market, which is educate, the less you ever have to sell. So, that is just me educating and providing, providing value. So, the goal is give, give, ask. We don’t like to sell as practitioners, health coaches, trainers, we’re alike in that regard. But we do like to educate, teach and coach. So, let’s be that in all situations. And if we have an offer, let’s give that offer that could help that person if we’re the best next move. But my strategy in corporate wellness, like maybe you’re going to the corporate wellness, it’s give, give ask. So, let me just give you what I did at Rejuv. 

So, let’s just say we knew health food stores and health food stores and clothing stores were good synergistic partner. Means this is what our clients need. I don’t provide it, but it’s what they’re going to probably shop for and get. So, I would go to that synergistic customer. Most people come and solicit to businesses, hey, here’s my business cards. Will you send to me, refer to me? You’re asking to give them when you haven’t built the relationship. So, how about the inverse? Can I talk to a manager or director? I would love to talk about sending all our patients to you. Oh what? Huh? What are you talking about? Okay, let me go get somebody. So, instead of that delete, delete, spam you, you’ve been on LinkedIn, you get 45 people asking for sex on day one. So, I said, why don’t you just be like, I want to send you patients that will be a pattern interrupt and get you a different conversation. So, what you say is great, is hey, every one of our patients are joining our lifestyle and our transformation program. 

They need healthy clothes, places to eat, shop that we don’t provide. So, I want to send all my clients to you. Do you mind if I give a, if they show up with their Rejuv key tag that they get a discount, a code, a first time off a purchase. So, that way I can send my patients to you. Oh yes. So great. How do I add extra value when I sign up a new client? Hey, here’s our new patient packet. Here’s all the great places you can go in and get discounts and services cause I know you’ll probably need these along the way. So, then I go back to the owner three weeks later, I’m starting to give that to all of our new patients and I say thank you so much. It means the world to us that our patients have great places to go shop and use along their health journey. I would love to repay the favor since you did this coupon for our clients. So, is there any way that we’ve created our university, which has our meal plans, cookbooks and templates. 

I would love to give that for free for your employees. I know so many people go learn about diet. They go on 500 calorie diets, they go do this and that. This is a truly medically integrated program that I want to give you these resources for free. So, it’s a little difficult to navigate the first time. So, I just want to show people to start. So, now that’s how I went and got our 10 speaking gigs a month in lunch and learns. I didn’t go ask for a lunch to learn. I wasn’t intrusive. It’s always give, give and ask. So, even if it was referral providers, I’d send to them and then I’d say, hey, I’m doing my health coaching video and you’re an amazing family practice doctor in this community. I’m just trying to find the right providers that I could refer to or do some segments on is getting education. There’s so many people that don’t know about the right health coaches, the right trainers, they just go try to do it on their own. So, I would love to talk from a physician perspective on what you educate your patients about from lifestyle changes. 

Now you’re the authority, you’re doing an interview with the doctor, they don’t know how to market and put that on LinkedIn. They’re doing that. So, I had a radio that we brought on different doctors all the time. I only had to pay $200 a month for eight hours of radio as the local expert. And that’s how we became the community leaders. So, it’s all these outside the box strategies that are about next level gives not entitlement. I’m never owed anything. I must produce value, gain trust, learn how to communicate and then become the only thought in their mind. So, you have to be willing sometimes to play the long game. I will just add one more 30 second story. When I first became that trainer, they said no to me, we don’t have a spot. I said, what about if I generate my own clientele? 

So, what did I do my first two weeks, they allow me to go from sales to personal training? I went and offered every member in there, two free sessions and I said, no sales pitch, nothing. I will just give you great workouts, anything. So, I trained my ass off for two weeks and that became my clientele. Then they saw that I was the trainer that wasn’t a parasite and just the salespeople would refer to, that I could generate, retain and create my own and was most focused on getting results. So, instead of, you know, being the guy they couldn’t even accept six months later, I was the go to in that gym along my journey. So, be different than the other people. If you want to be thought after. 

Reed Davis, HHP, FDN-P, CMTA, CNT

Man, you, you’re the new Charlie Hustle man. 

Jerry Burgess

That was my nickname. 

Reed Davis, HHP, FDN-P, CMTA, CNT

So, yeah and you were doing it cause you didn’t know you can’t do it, you can’t work that hard. It’s not allowed. So good on you, but listen, before we go, I want to tell the folks we haven’t even talked about your five pillars of integrated practice success, or the medical fitness, medical fitness impact plan. Jerry Burgess’s an absolute specialist in these kinds of things. If you want to build a business, I say he’s the number one guy you should go to. I also want to say that, you know, Jerry Burgess, and I belong to the same mastermind group, at least one. And you exemplify what we call theer, the go giver. You know, everyone talks about being a go getter. Go getter. Yeah, we’re all go getter’s. Okay, we go and we, we get what we want out of the world and stuff like that. But we do it by giving and giving and giving. You said give, give then you get, and I love your idea of going to physicians and saying, hey, would you like some customers, you know, can I refer some people to you? And then they might consider referring back. 

When I was a manager of the wellness center in California you wouldn’t believe the number of people walking in the door said, you know, basically I want to, I want to work with your patients. You know, I got something for your patients and you can make a little something on it too, you know. And they got the, they ended up getting my size 10 right in their backside. Some of them, you know, like, just unbelievable poor approach. You got a new one I can work on. Don’t ever say that to any doctor’s office cause you won’t get a very good answer. I guess what I’d like to know now, you, you, you don’t have to tell us a lot about the program because we’re going to put all the notes in the show notes and links to where they can go and get in touch with you and things like that, and read about your program. But can you tell us a success story of someone that you’ve trained, you know, that you’ve been through either five pillars or medical fitness impact. 

Jerry Burgess

Yeah. And you know, I would say 90% of my clients are doctors, but I have worked with the medical fitness trainers. I, inside those doctors, I’m training their health coaches and their trainers to run their integrated center. So, you know, from a doctor standpoint, I actually went to a medical fitness conference and I happened to sit next to that fitness business summit that I mentioned earlier with Bedros when he still ran those. I happened to sit next to the only doctor and he says, I’m leaving pain management because I can no longer give just opioids and cover it up. My reimbursements are continuing to decline. It’s, it’s just frustrating me. I’m going to be a personal trainer. And I said, whoa, wait a minute. You should come see our model. You are a doctor. I can’t believe you’d want to be trainer. 

Why don’t we hire a trainer to, again, I use that word synonymously, whether you’re a trainer, a health coach, it’s the same thing to me, and advanced skills and certifications just make either one of those two professions next level. So, yeah, I said, let’s just hire and build the infrastructure. And he said, Jerry Burgess I have no marketing or business know how and I don’t know how to do this. And I said, but neither do you in personal training. So, it’s not going to be any different. You’re just not thinking right. You’re going to have to, again, to be the top of that. Like I said, once you get your skills, just like your doctor, the next level is about business and entrepreneurialship and marketing and sales, once you get it down. 

So, he came and joined us, three years later from no business experience, he was, you know, won our regenerative practice of the year. He’s now scaling to doing completely online programs. He’s got every infrastructure in place and is doing over seven figures now from not making a penny, you know, on day one. So, three years to a seven figure income. That’s where I said, if he had had a little bit more knowledge, depending on what background everybody’s journey’s a little bit faster. Personal trainers I’ve took from personal trainers to understanding the business, to where they become just like me, from the personal trainer to the fitness director to running these practices because they understand the business, the marketing, the integration and the sales and could train other people. 

I promise you the biggest opportunity in health care, what I’m always trying to hire is the health coaches or the trainers that were like the GMs of the fitness that could grow, retain the business because there’s no retail. They’re so used to using insurance and there’s such huge opportunity in there to either, again be an independent contractor, be employed, partner with them in building a model because you know how to grow the business if you’ve attained that skill and are working to that next level, or listening potentially once you got past the basics. So, that’s a long story short is there’s three products that I normally do have, and the first one is the Medical Fitness Impact Plan. That was the first book. So, if you are a health coach or a trainer, this would be the one to how do I really partner, how do I scale this thing? How do I build my health coaching business and integrate with doctors? Like it has the acronym impact, which is about integration, how we market and sell everything that I just lightly touched on, the deep level strategies of how to connect and do with the doctor. 

So, if you want to just go to my websites and get the free books, just like you said that that’s what my job is. You can’t afford once you get to a next level to give away all your time for free. But your education is like how you meet people. They get to learn about you. Then my next level is my group coaching program that Reed thankfully is allowing people to not have a scarcity mind. If you’re hearing what he’s saying, he’s like, come tell your products, that’s rare in a lot of medical leaders, they’re like, we go to hold onto it. So, he’s overcome that mind by helping more people everybody succeeds. So, that would be my Five Pillars of Practice Success Coaching Academy. So, that is for the doctors, that is, here’s the system, come implement, get the coaching calls on there. And that’s basically my whole life’s work. 

It has every blueprint, every form, every document, every cookbook, every meal plan. It would save any practitioner or health coach, thousands hours of work. We have more than a million dollars invested in the infrastructure. I have over a million dollars invested in the coaching of different masterminds to assemble what we have. And just like Reed’s learned, is you get all this different knowledge, it’s not so much that you can’t go to each industry and learn. It’s about bringing it into health care or health coaching and taking those solid business truths and making it work in health care. And that’s what I’ve done. 

So, I’ve learned from greats, reformulated the system to make it work in a health care setting for both wellness professionals and doctors to learn this universal language in working flow together to massively shift the way health care is delivered. And I think we’ve got a good start, but I’ve made a lot of amateur mistakes along the way and learned from them. But I will never stop getting better. Just like I encourage all of you, your next levels at your next level of growth and nobody else’s, and that is the key to success. So, I’d love the opportunity to just educate you. I can’t wait to be a part of working more with Reed, just like for my thing. That’s ultimately why I’m board members of the Functional Aging Institute, the medical fitness tour, the medical fitness association, and even Reed and his program as we’re getting more involved because I’m looking for the best health coaches and trainers to run or partner with these doctors that I’m coming on contact. And just like that nugget that I mentioned, like you could go be the authority in your community by interviewing a bunch of doctors.

If you want to go to my Jerry Burgess Burgess consulting page, look on the webinars tab. That’s the example of me modeling what I’m teaching. I don’t teach anything that I don’t do or don’t implement. I think that is BS when people do that. So, if they’re not an expert, they shouldn’t teach it. If they’re not modeling it, they shouldn’t teach it. You can admit your imperfect just like food, just because you’re coaching health coaching, I don’t expect you to live perfectly, but you say, Hey, I’m trying, I’m getting better. I’m growing. I found these systems work for me. So, go see how I interviewed doctors and experts like Reed and it ultimately makes me look good because I’m learning, I’m implementing, I’m growing at the same time, but I grow my list, I grow my knowledge and I help them. I know how to sell. 

So, I handle objections and I position the doctor to look really good. Like I just brought on an orthopedic surgeon and we did the interview this Tuesday. He doesn’t know how to handle objections. I know regen so I’m leveraging him as the authority and I’m handling the main objections. That’s going to be immediate gold when he goes out and mails that out. So, you could do that for your local doctors, make them look good and say, go ahead and mail this out to your list. Now you’re the authority. So, there’s these simple techniques that are under utilized because sometimes people aren’t willing to do the work. So, don’t point fingers, just know your plan and start executing. 

Reed Davis, HHP, FDN-P, CMTA, CNT

Well, I’m glad we had this mutual admiration society going on here because I think you’re just one of the biggest proponents and helpers and you’re a guy that’s making things happen. You’re going to help us expand the health coaching industry and the health coaching space by keeping it professional, by making sure that we do things in a professional manner at all times, and that this isn’t for amateurs. And at least that’s the way you and I look at it. I’m going to put all of your information in the show notes and also in the show notes folks, because we have to come to a close here, it’s time for you to go and purchase the VIP passes. The way to get all of these recordings. I know you’re going to want to listen to Jerry Burgess again and some of our other speakers, if not all of them, or share it with others, or however that works. Just please go ahead to the show notes and follow the instructions there. We’ll look forward to talking to you. Jerry Burgess, man, you’ve been, that’s a go giver and I really appreciate it. I just can’t thank you enough. Thanks for being here, man. 

Jerry Burgess

Thank you, Reed. Keep up the great work. It’s the needed work of the world. We must change how health care, next level of health care is, next level integration of health coaches and personal trainers, it truly is. So, you guys are on the right path. Keep following this guy and he’s going to introduce you to great things. 

Reed Davis, HHP, FDN-P, CMTA, CNT

Thank you.