Vital Techniques for Advanced Healers

Introduction and Speaker Background 0:00

Hello, everybody. This is doctor Bob Hoffman from the Master Circle Global, and I want to welcome you on to yet another remarkable conversation with another remarkable friend and colleague, healers healer. Today we're going to be speaking with Doctor Howard, Cohen, who's a chiropractic physiologist and for over 25 years has inspired patients to achieve their ultimate health through natural, holistic and alternative health care. How we believes the body was designed to heal itself, as long as it's giving the right building blocks in order to do so, and is allowed to function free of interference.

He's the founder of the Cone Health Institute, and his specialties listen carefully, include, but are not limited to apply kinesiology, neuro emotional technique, neuromodulation technique, total body modification, and specific technique, and quantum neurology. Howie welcome on. I know you're ridiculously busy, but thank you for giving up some of your precious time to participate in the Practice Upgrade Summit. Well, thank you for having me, doctor Bob. And, I really appreciate you doing this. And, I really appreciate everybody who's watching this right now from all over the world in at all times, taking their precious time, to spend it with us today.

Thank you, thank you. So let's get right into the the core of today's conversation. With your vast knowledge and experience, with healing fundamentals, with being a healer, healer, someone with where other doctors come to you when they're not well, I'd love you to share just a few keys that all healers should be focused on to consistently produce outstanding, reproducible, clinical results. What are some of the key things you found in your career and all your studies that the essential 4 or 5 or 6 or 7 things that everyone should be well versed on.

Wow. There's, you know, there's a lot. And yet it's it's really simple. I think the number one thing is to be a champion for the person in front of you. They're scared. They're ignorant. They're filled with all kinds of different things. When they're put in front of you. They got enough energy and belief to get through the door, either from a referral or something that a meeting you or someone you knew, or someone reached out to them, or you did in some virtual way. And they are in front of you right now, and they're full of questions and and doubts and hope and all of that in a mixed bag.

And I believe outside of every single technique that I've ever learned and, and quite a few and although it, it really helps make, make it happen to be able to deliver the goods

Leading with Love and Certainty 3:00

and give people the result they're looking for in their health. Being able to, transfer certainty, to that person sitting in front of you that you care that you're there with them, that you're on their level, that you're going to do everything within your power, led by love, to help them move forward in their health. And, you know, we tell people when they come to our clinic, they're going to get better whether they like it or not. Which means that if we can't help them, I can't help them. One of their doctors can't help them.

I'll personally find somebody that can so that the next person with their, presenting picture or health concerns come to our office will either know how to fix it, because we would have now how to go learn how to do that, or I wouldn't know who to send them to, because I had to rely on somebody outside our clinic in order to do that. And we tell everybody that we're spider out in 100 plus clinics around the world, because I believe in the bottom of my heart that it doesn't matter what can ever happen to a human being's health, that there is a chiropractor somewhere in the world that has the skill set and the knowledge to put that person back together.

And as we both know, and because of all of your travels around the world and you've helped people become successful as a doctor, in this profession, that maybe doing 80 different techniques that. Yeah. So you can go to, 80 different chiropractors, it can look like 80 different experiences, and yet they can get from point A to point B, and none of us are ever arrogant enough to think that we're fixing everybody, helping everybody. It does take a village. It takes, forms like this. Your your practice upgrade summit.

It takes people getting together. Even though we're at a time when people are not, to, make sure that we share ideas so that we're helping each other's villages and communities move forward. So, I mean, we can get into the different techniques, but I really just wanted to make sure that that point was made, that it really doesn't matter, because I see in some of the most clinically brilliant doctors, many have been my mentors, and I've seen them disappoint, where although there was a lot of cool things done for that person's health, they walked out bewildered.

They walked out. Not sure if they were better and they didn't walk out being, educated as to why they were there and more importantly, why they should come back. And even more importantly, why they should never leave, why they should be a part of that experience for the rest of their life. Because, you know, health doesn't happen in an instant. I mean, it's something that's built over time. And you know as well as I do, there's only one way to coast in life and that's down. You're either building your health or it's going away.

So to me, I think the number one biggest, technique and, and thing for everybody now is that you can add the techniques later, but if you're not leading with love and you're not leading with certainty, it's going to be an uphill road for you to get this person to where they want to be. Yeah, that's the beautiful answer. How we just absolutely beautiful. You lead with love. You lead with your heart. You connect to people. I often coach my doctors. Is that we have to learn to communicate heart to heart, not head to head.

Because that's where the real connection is. And what I also loved about your answer is you gave, the framework of your answer around the mindset of the doctor, the mindset of the healer, the mindset of the servant. What I'd love you to do now because you you just not a bat out of the park. I'd like you to switch over and answer the same basic question from a healing perspective, but not a mindset perspective. For example, do we need to focus on the gut microbiome? Do we need to make sure vagus nerve is working properly?

Is it the sphenoid bone or the atlas, or the the sacrum from a structural neurological perspective, what are the two or 3 or 4 most important things in your experience? Yeah. That's a great question. So, being deluged with information and the evolution of understanding the evolution of information and, ever having to evolve, what happens in the patient experience? What I'm saying today could have been different two years ago, and it might be different two years from now. So here we are at this at this moment, I do believe, in one thing.

And if someone's a muscle tester, and even if you're not and if you're not for some reason, and you did not have a great experience with that for some reason, and that's why you're not, but can ask one favor and, whether I do it, one of my doctors does it one of the tens of thousands of well-trained practitioners does it in so many different techniques that you give it another shot because, as we say, if you're not testing, you're guessing. And although I love the brilliance of what medicine has been able to evolve to in many parts of medicine, I know that we as a profession has had, have had some adversarial moments philosophically with the medical profession, that I do believe, there is so many magical and clinically brilliant diagnostics that are overlooked, that this profession has given birth to, because they look weird.

And the end of the first time I saw somebody test a muscle in front of a room, you know, at a lecture, I actually walked out. I mean, I thought it was a bunch of crap. You know, both of us being from New York, you know, as we say, we're born with our arms crossed. We come out of the womb like the womb like this. You know, that's our opinion. In our opinion. So somehow we already know everything. So, by seeing New York cynical, right? That's right. I think we've evolved a bit. However, it's never totally out, so, but we know enough to know if something repetitively delivers the goods.

Even if it looks weird, we gotta give it props. And that's fortunately, what I did. It steered my practice for the last 30 years now, and, it's it's been a big thing. So, you know what? Do we check in our offices? Yes, we check people's gut. Yes. We check their nervous system. Yes. We check their their cranial nerves. Yes, we check their Maya tomes. Yes. We check, their sensory system. Yes. We check,

Clinical Assessment and Whole-Body Priorities 9:58

we use different lab diagnostics to let us know where they're at. A lot of times it's for them, but it's also good for us to know and see and measure and track and pace what kind of how our interventions are working for them. I think the thing to know the most is that anything could cause anything in the human body. And although you have five people that present with their, chief complaint of Crohn's disease, 1st May have their driving force of their Crohn's being a suppressed emotional event that happen in their life where any it would be the intervention and in some cases, even then, in some cases it was small intestine, originated or in some places it was colon driven, derived.

In other places it was stomach, pancreas in origin. And then there are physical reasons as well as, you know, as I do from years of doing this, that you can have physical trauma. Our good friend Didi Palmer, trauma, toxicity, not a suggestion. You can have physical trauma in the form of a subluxation. Atlas from birth, a whiplash from falling down off the balance beam in your gymnastics class, to any kind of car accident, to any kind of simple daily life that we brushed off because the child stopped crying.

We thought they were good. But as we know, as the twig has been, so grows the tree. And although their symptom may have shown up today, their problem may be 20 years ago in origin. So we do have ways where we priority test using different types of manual muscle testing. To give us feedback. Again, the best of the best of my mentors have always said, don't ever let muscle testing be your end all diagnostic tool. Let it be a part that helps guide you while you use the, existing, measurements of the day to help you and help validate that for the person in front of you who lives in that world and needs to see that as well.

So it's not just what we feel, it's just what they are able to understand and take take home with them as well. And then there's the litany of biochemical, nutritional things. So we look at four major areas. We look at infectious agents, bacteria, funguses, parasites, all those types of things and the effect they may be having on people at that moment. We look at heavy metals and the fact that they may be having in people in that moment your lads, your mercury, your cadmium, all the things that they're exposed to, your aluminum from the different things that are injected in them or dropped in them from the sky.

We look at their, a litany of, toxic chemicals. Your glyphosate, your msgs, your GMOs, all these things that are rapidly changing our chemistry, changing our gut microbiome, changing our DNA. Now, and even more so we look at, at, allergic patterns or more, precisely hypersensitivity, you know, to mostly your main foods, you know, gluten, dairy, soy, peanuts, nuts, all these different nightshades things that people may or may not have thought have been an issue for them. And these days we're looking more electromagnetically as well with the introduction of all the different devices that we use, because it's something that we cannot see that is affecting us each and every day.

And then from all those areas, they out sprockets. So we're primarily looking at people how to strengthen from the inside. I spent about a decade of my life lecturing people on filtering their filtering their air, their water, their personal care products, making sure they're clean of these chemicals. You know, I did that back in the 90s. And then here we are, 20, 20. You can't even keep up with the things that we're exposed to on a daily basis. So we had to, actually shift our time and energy back to the original tenant, which is strengthen the host.

We cannot keep up with the amount of things that we that affect us physically, nutritionally, emotionally, we it's all about the terrain. It's all about the host. It's all about the strength and flexibility and durability of the nervous system, which you have talked to us to actually explain to their patients without sounding like a neuroscientist, so they could get through a visit and still make money and feed their families and actually leave the patients something that they can tell their friends to keep them referring.

You know, we add that everything from the gut inside out that we can go on forever, but that's really in the end, that that segment, it's really about prioritizing, honoring the body, knowing that that person is not like the five people before them, even though they present exactly the same way. Beautiful answer. Again, just great. Very clear, very honest, very humble. You know, Howie, for me, I, I used to always tell my patients that the number one thing I always loved about chiropractic, still love about chiropractic is, at its simplest core.

It's a language. You have to learn how to ask the body questions, and it always tells you what's going on. And you can't put your ego or your prejudices involved. You just have to listen what the body says, do what it tells you, and go back and retest. And, if you did what was necessary, you're going to see an improvement. And that's the bottom line. I've always been a bit frustrated by the the talking out of both sides of the mouth by many in our profession, where we talk about the fact that symptoms aren't important.

And yet the second they're symptoms go away, we think we have great results, right? When there's something so much deeper, the symptoms are the last thing that shows up in the disease process, but it's also the first thing that goes away in the healing process. And we have to be able to document the functionality or the dysfunctionality of the patient to be able to really know that we help them, that we didn't just patch up their problem. And I think that's why you're so successful at what you do now.

In your answer, you mentioned neuro emotional technique, neti. I'd love you to talk in more depth about why this is so important. You also even referenced Didi Palmer, who talked about the three teas thoughts, traumas, and toxins 125 years ago. And I think as a profession, we've put a lot of emphasis on the traumas, the physical problems and how to correct them, the subluxation. I think we put a lot of emphasis on the chemical problem with toxicity and, balance and nutrition. I think we've put way, way too little emphasis.

We basically have ignored and pretend that it wasn't even there. The emotional component I think the emotional stress is the most common, the most severe and the most neglected by today's doctor. So could you talk about why neti is so important and how you utilize it in the clinic? Sure. Without a doubt. I was blessed to, be exposed to neti as a student 31 years ago now. And, I've hit the ground running, using it, throughout my practice, throughout chiropractic school, I was, exposed to applied kinesiology, which talked about a triad of health, which was a physical health, nutritional health and emotional health.

And yet 90% of the techniques, maybe 96% of the techniques, were either structural or biochemical techniques in applied kinesiology, with about 4%, for emotional health. And yet, I remember meeting Scott Walker, one of our chiropractic brethren who, you know, and we all love and has, you know, walked through, Barnes and Noble one day and did a measurement, a, a let's say, a simple measurement that where he said there were this many books on structural health, this many on diet, nutrition, but all the way out here on mental and emotional health.

So people don't write books that don't sell people on published books. And definitely bookstores don't sell books that don't sell. So you gotta go, you know, you gotta go with the food is right. You gotta go where people are, are looking, shopping, fishing, everything. And they're under a lot of stress. You've done brilliant lectures over the years on, on, showing how stress affects the nervous system and how you can use the nervous system to release stress and vice versa. And, there are brilliant profession with the brilliant people in it have evolved quite a few techniques.

And it is not the only one, but it is the most user friendly and one of the most dynamic, if not the most dynamic that I've seen in this profession.

Why NET Matters for Emotional Health 18:38

And so that's why we use it. I think our office has more certified practitioners than any place on the planet. And, it's, it's led to a more sane, sane practice and staff where people, when they come, they go, oh, you've had associates with you for 26 years. You've had you have staff that have been with you for over 15 years is another with nine, 11, you know. Yeah. We still like each other. So, I do attribute a lot of that to any team and the ability to dump the baggage at the door, not just say it, but having techniques and, ways to help do it.

Although what happens for the, patients is magical. I do believe it was a gift for our profession, for our profession. And I really hope those who have never had it done get it done. And like many techniques, it's not that everyone needs to do everything, but everybody needs to subscribe to everything they really do. I mean, you know, there are people that go, I just I can't do that some I practice style, but I implore you, get under care from someone within an hour from your office, and there will be someone within our office that is certified to do anything.

It'll make your life better, make your family life better, and make your patients better indirectly. By making you better. I mean, I would liken that to, let's say, although I do a lot in in quantum neurology, I really have a lot of love and respect for the functional neurologist in our profession. I think they're among the most brilliant and are doing some of the most amazing work in and outside chiropractic in the nervous system. And although I don't know if that's my lane, I've had many associates do it so that I can make sure I'm providing it.

And I have many docs in my neighborhood that I refer people to when I recognize that it's something outside my highest skill set, and then I myself make sure that I get checked in ways, by people who do things in our profession that I think are brilliant, that I just don't do. And I think it's what keeps us together in I think it is our strength going forward. I think it is a way to make this divisiveness of straight versus mixer become something where we take a more aerial view of, as in my philosophy is that we have always been is ultra super straight for philosophical clinic that does some techniques that, if done on an isolated basis, may look like a mixing allopathic philosophy.

There is definitely an allopathic way to do applied kinesiology and its related techniques, and there is a functional, principled way to do it as well. And that is what I believe, the way we do it. That's the way I like to teach it. That's the way I like to live it, show it. And I do believe, the technique, as I say, the, the, there's always the thing in the, in our profession, a lot of the old time old school, some of your colleagues in other companies that were the techniques are relevant. It's all about how you know what you bring in, the love and all these things are true.

They make the technique less relevant. However, because, listen, you know, if you can't market your way out of a paper bag, it doesn't matter how good you are. Yes, you know, eventually have people to just send you. They'll send you people with the caveat of, listen, this person is current or they have no bedside manner or let me tell you how to do it and just go and what to say, what not to say. I mean, they they come with instructions. I never I hope that I am not the doctor that needs instructions when people refer to me.

However, it may be for some I am but you know what I'm talking about. So, I we at this, I think we we we must do. I don't know if we have taken this, but I think we must be a little bit of both. I mean, I've seen I have mentors, in this profession that I love, love, love to death, which have have really shared skills with me that I think are priceless in practice. But I would like them them more to a P.T. Barnum than a George Goodhart. And then I've had the George Good Hearts and the gone stands and the and the Chinese and all these different masters, who, you know, we're not necessarily the most social, and weren't that as dynamic somewhere but as dynamic in front of the room and, and rolling.

But God, thank God they existed. Or we would just be letting a lot through our doors without, you know, getting from point A to point B with their health. So yeah, very well said and very kind of you the way you put that. I still want to stay on this emotional tour for a few minutes. Thank you. First, first, I, I think, you know, this is a part of what we're supposed to be doing that has been ignored for way too long. It's not taught in school, any of the schools. Most people are shocked that the first council that ever existed in Chiropractic Advanced Council was the Council on Mental Health and Chiropractic.

BJ Palmer had the Clear View Sanatorium taking care of mentally ill patients with remarkable results. My first week in chiropractic school, I got a book written by a Doctor Schwartz called Mental Health and Chiropractic. But soon thereafter, it just kind of disappeared from from the the land, so to speak. I think chiropractors feel ill equipped or ill prepared, and I think they don't want to become psychologists or psychiatrist for their patients. They don't have the time or temperament or training for that.

And I would like you to just just for a minute or to speak on that, because it doesn't require any of that. It requires, once again, a big heart and lots of empathy and caring and wanting to get to the cause of the cause, of the cause of the problem and just being there for that person in front of you and then customizing, which to me, is it the heart and soul of good doctoring, customizing what you say, how you say it, what you do, how you do it to best serve that patient in front of you. So, I think you've done a really good job of kind of bridging that gap over the last decade of, showing people that they don't need to be a neurologist or a psychiatrist.

They just need to understand the duality of the nervous system. Although, again, it's a simplification, but it's one that patients can grab on to to get them in the game of understanding the brilliance of their body. And that is the autonomic nervous system. That is whether this person in front of me is in a sympathetic, mode where they're in fight or flight, where it's going to be a nightmare trying to get them the heal sleep function digest, be happy, or if they're in a parasympathetic healing mode, which is going to have them sleep well, digest their food, feel at peace, default to happiness rather than depression and sadness and despair and hopelessness.

And there are fundamental simple things that you can do in your office that don't involve net that would have them do it. I know you've you've showed many of them at your seminars that I've been to, whether it's an outside thing, something like a brain tap or another modality. They have many different people that that have different what I call wellness therapies. People call mine assisted therapies got assisted a little, but they're wellness therapies and they're adjuncts that help us. But what do they do when they're not on our table?

What can they do to support what we are doing for them? That's consistent with what we say and what we're telling them and what we believe. And those are some modalities that they can do. There are also simple things done in functional quantum neurology and all these different techniques that really are designed to move them out of that, a sympathetic tone, and move them into a parasympathetic. And then there are ways to help and train them to, be there rather than just same bone, same time, same place.

This is just what I do. It's arrogant and ignorant to say that. Now, if you do the same thing the same time, but you're doing it because you have neurologic and or, other kind of evidence and data that you can measure a pre and post, to that journey for them, and usually will come with the result of their arm functioning better in life, not just feeling better, but I wanted someone to have me feel better. I'll give them an aspirin, but, you know, send them to a comedy show. Anybody that you know, there's a lot of ways that are more cost effective for people to just go feel better, but they're not going to function better.

We need to get them to function better, and eventually we need to get the function the better without being dependent us their consciousness shift. That is important to me in practice from people going from whatever care they're in now to lifetime care is that we are not going to be in the mode of fixing you. We are going to be in the mode of strengthening your body so they could work on its own. While we're always trying to get it from good to better, too. Great. And last we saved. And what I said before, you're either coasting down or you're building your health.

I'm going to invite you and enroll you. It's not going to happen overnight because all you're focused on is your god, you're bleeding out and you're body. But whatever your thing is that you've been to 12 doctors, you spend all the money you have a little bit left into rolling the dice on our clinic. Let's just get you some hope and belief and some evidence that your body is can do more then you've been invited to believe. And then, as this journey goes, we're going to educate you on what's possible

Autonomic Nervous System and Patient Education 28:38

because doctor comes in. Black Widow Savage wants to teach our girls to teach how to take care of yourself so you not coming to get fixed? But you're coming to be better? No different from any sport you're doing or any any personal growth thing you're doing. Hopefully you're doing it not to try and fix yourself because that's never ending and it's miserable. But if you're coming to build your help knowing that you're better than you were when you left, you can never lose. It's never a bad treatment.

It's never bad experience. It's always good use of your money and time and energy. So that is that's really kind of the most important thing for us. We love, love, love it. We do. You love it because it's a wow technique. It's so listen chiropractic is what's called a wow technique. What is the wow technique? A while technique is they come in and you tell them about it for two seconds. You do it. And the first thing out of mouth is wow. You know, when someone gets that adjustment, not that little crack crack, but they get their vertebra set the way it was designed, not, and manipulate.

No wants to be manipulated. That's what osteopath I was gonna say. That was osteopath too. That's what they used to do. They don't even do it now, but they just give drugs now. There are some good, but it doesn't give drugs. Sorry, osteopath. I love you too. So, I have great words. You have a great ones. We know many have taken your courses. Tony hates osteopath the scary. So, but everyone needs a little adjustment. They do. And it's a wow. And it is a wow. It's something you can do in less than 3 to 5 minutes.

That is transformational. Not just feeling good for them, but they're not the same. If you give somebody a real adjustment, if you set an atlas, if you move an L5, if you decompress a T12 on L1, whatever your favorite bone or technique is, everyone knows what that's like for a human. They go, I feel like my lights have been turned back on. There is there's nothing. There's no other profession that has it that instantly then our profession. And if we could just celebrate that amazing thing that can happen in an instant, which is the same thing that drove the Clearview Sanatorium, which is the same thing that drove these doctors to write books on mental health and chiropractic, which is the same thing that drove BJ Palmer and his family and the people that were willing to go to jail.

Right now, people are not even willing to pull their masks down to talk to a patient. Well, what happened? What happened? Let's go with God. Anyway, so I digress. It's really I mean, it's the magic of our profession that never gets old if you're living it. I used to tell my patients, I can always measure the effectiveness of my adjustment by the width of your smile, because that in that wow moment, they just have this smile you can't wipe off their face. That's a beautiful thing. And and going back to your comment about the autonomic nervous system, people are either moving towards sickness and disease or they're moving towards health and wellness depending on sympathetic parasympathetic.

It's just that simple. And if lay people actually understood that, if doctors actually understood that it's it's a game changing concept, isn't it? It is. So I mean, go ahead. I was going to say, so let's now shift a little bit. How are we. And let's, let's talk about the Cone Health Institute. Sure. Why don't you share with the thousands of doctors watching this, how many doctors in the Cone Institute, how many staff? Where do you get new patients from? How do you market and promote your clinic?

Can you just kind of give a general overview of some of that? I'm sure the people watching this would be really interested. Sure. Well, first, for some peace of mind for everybody and especially anybody that's really might be in a part of the world where, they're having struggles with the things that are going outside their, outside their four walls. With that, it's more important what's going on inside your four walls than what's going on outside the four walls. Meaning like this is even though we've had some banner years in this clinic, 2020.

Although the joke of every meme is our best, most profitable, highest collections. Busiest year ever, ever without doing the number one thing that I've done for 29 of those 30 years to get new patients. Just so you know, that is, you know, if this looks like a perpetual machine, you know, if you've been always been creating this perpetual machine based on a consciousness without getting too airy fairy for people, that is exuded from your clinic, I do believe people see it as a light, and they want the darker it gets outside, the brighter your clinical shine.

There's nothing you have to do. It's what you've been doing now more than ever. People are looking for authenticity, honesty, transparency, and just what's freaking real. Because there's so much stuff around us. That's not. And people know in their heart when things are not right, when they're when they're different than they should be. And that's what we've been. People walk in our clinic, it looks like our clinic did eight months ago, unlike a lot of other clinics do, it looks exactly the same.

People are looking the same. They're they're acting as if the world is not living through a leper contagion experience. We, still embrace the immune system as the, as the system that keeps us. Well, and if we feed it with the things that's always worked physically nutritious emotionally, that it's set up to win and, we have, we have like, seven Kairos right now. Every chiropractor in our clinic, has to do at least five techniques, three that we recommend. They need a physical one, a nutrition one, and an emotional one so that they can compete with their, their fellow doctors.

And they need at least 1 or 2 that they do that no one else does. Because if everybody's the same, it's very hard to enter refer. I'd like to make sure that everybody there's always somebody that does some things where I can say, you know, you might want to see doctor So-and-so, they do Neuralink, you might want to see this person. They specialize in corn specific techniques. Doctor Charlie, he does, you know, CRA and teaches it around the world. So there's all these different techniques that we have that we want to make sure someone at least.

And then there's a tremendous amount of overlap so people can cover for each other, when they travel or teach, educate or just live their life because we recommend that people have a balanced life. Otherwise, if people seeing you being consumed by your practice, they're going to go, it sounds good, but I'm not going to hang out here

Cone Health Institute Practice Model 35:48

because this is this is not the life I want to replicate. So we have also, we have like, body workers. I don't like to call them just massage therapists, because the same thing they need to do at least five things. So whether it's lymphatic drainage or they'll do cranial sacral technique or other techniques as well that are more body work. We even have a holistic esthetician. I have a third generation Korean acupuncturist. We have, two naturopaths. I like the naturopathy profession because it's kind of like a healthy bridge between medicine and what we do.

So they can do a lot of techniques we do, and they can help people understand when and why they're using certain medications at certain times and when they're not. Obviously, we are very heavy on the, holistic philosophy more than an allopathic philosophy. So, but people feel more comfortable talking to people that still live with one foot on the, on that side. And are educated more on that side so that they can feel that they are getting their labs done. These different tests we'd like to see. And the beauty of all the different things from whether it's genetic testing or stool testing or all these cool things and therapies.

We also have a what we call a wellness room, where we have zero gravity chairs in there, where they can get things like PMA for, frequency specific microcurrent. They can get like an Amazon done. They can do whole body vibration or they can do brain tap, they can do detox footbath, they can do, the, different laser technology. We have an infrared sauna. So, I'm sure I'm forgetting many things and many people, and I apologize if they're watching. I forgot or didn't mention them. They still are as important as everything staff we have.

I, we usually have about four staff. We have, clinic director Jessica, office manager Roxanne, and we have two supporting staff. We really need another one right now. We have a huge nutrition apothecary. I have over 2000 nutritional products from 100 different companies from around the world. Now, because I like inventory, it's a nightmare. But we always want to make sure we have on hand what somebody needs. We do not do the online store, we do not do a store. We don't do that. Everything is specified for a person or otherwise.

It's not on our shelf, which makes it even more mental, as is the understand. And so everybody's a different biochemical individual. I mean, you make these five products may look the same, but they'll behave differently, functionally, biochemically with somebody. And we want to make sure that we have what, what people need. And like we said before, as important as that, we are spotted out in hundreds of clinics around the country. So if somebody comes in and they have XYZ health issue and we're testing them and it turns out it goes to a root canal that they've had in their mouth from nine years ago, or it but has to you, you know, we are not going to handle that.

Ultimately we're going to prep their body, make them strong, and we send them a biological dentist. And we have several that we refer to in our in our area. There are times that they'll need they have something going on in their gut where they might need. I don't have a hyperbaric in my clinic right now, so I'll send them to a hyperbaric place, or I'll send them to get a colonic, because we don't have that in our clinic. You know, not everything needs to be in your clinic, and you can still believe in it and enjoy it.

Matter about enjoying it on the ladder, but just to get it, get people to where they need to get for whatever they need to have it at that moment. Beautiful. And I know exactly what you meant when you said what you said before that for 29 out of 30 years, your primary way of getting new patients was lecturing, speaking. You're an advocate of that cliche speak and grow rich. So am I, by the way. But nowadays, is it like all referrals? Is it social media marketing? Is it events? So what is it that you're doing that's attracting the new patients?

You know, it's a little bit of both, I still believe. And, we have taken a little break on doing our weekly health class where we have people come in because we like to preserve our office the way it is. It it is a, an oasis where people can still see a smiling face and get a hug, even though they can't see that too many other places right now. And, we've opened our clinic up to the public for those health classes. We do not blast it out. It's 100% referral to the health classes. So we've always done it that way because we're looking for people that are looking for us.

We're just, you know, we're not it's not a home for wayward people. This is people who are looking to go from good to great with their help. And so it's not for everybody costs a little more than the average chiro clinic. But we're looking for people that are committed to their health. I believe speaking is the most important thing for so many different reasons. We can talk for hours about it, but in a minute I would say number one is you gotta tell the story. You got to tell the story. Generations live on in our stories and those and now more than ever, those who control the media, those who control the internet, those who control social media can dictate, the stories that are being told.

And they're not always the stories that are real. They're the stories that serve an agenda by the people who control the that, that and civilizations have survived. Traditions have survived, through storytelling, from the elders to the children. And that must be maintained. So, I have always been an advocate of that. The other thing, logistically, you can tell the same story, chiropractic story or whatever your story is to 50 different people, 50 different times. Or you can tell it once with a lot more energy, with a lot more energy in the room to 50 people at once.

I like that. So we reward people for taking the time and energy to take time off for their education. We have adapted it during these, let's call them interesting times. To honor, it's a, complimentary initial exam with people, if they take the time out, what used to be to go to the health class. Now it's, show in the interest that they would have wanted to go. And then we have a lot of new docs that have started in our clinic, and they usually see the new docs, unless they're willing to wait for me.

And then we'll, spend a few extra minutes. An extra ten minutes, kind of giving them the abridged version and, invite them to look at other things that are out there as far as people that have, telling the story on our behalf. Social media is really it's, again, you could do so much with it. You could also hurt yourself with it too, by putting things on social media that should be personal on your business and vice versa. Not everybody is prepared for every message, and everyone sees every message.

And remember, if you haven't figured it out yet, everything in the world could be sound baited by anybody at any time to make you look as brilliant or as scary as they want it to now more than ever. So, I use social media cautiously, but I will not be silent either as to what I believe and what I think, is going to help, humanity. Beautiful, beautiful. We only have another minute or two left, doctor Colin. And I'd love you to just spend some of that time with my last, thought or question for you.

And this is just been brilliant work, very practical, very upfront, very honest, very genuine. Here's my last question. What do you do to keep yourself strong? What do you do to keep your. And I'm not talking about immunity strong. I mean belief strong mindset strong heart strong. What do you do to keep yourself at that level of intensity, to be able to handle all of that? Well, I like to surround myself with people that make me look like I'm not doing anything.

Staying Strong as a Healer 43:48

You know that that age old thing will never get. All of you are the sum total of the five people you hang out with the most. And although some of my mentors are no longer alive, I can listen to audio recordings of them and still feel that the mission through the ages and through the ethos, and that and my responsibility to carry the torch, there are many now that are crusaders that, for our profession, not as many as I'd like to see and some that once were are strangely silent, which is a conversation for another time.

So if it is to be, it's up. It's up to me. And, so I have I really control what's in my ear. And, that is what keeps me energized. Obviously, you got to move or you lose that. So, you know, I've hired trainer this year. Why? Everyone else is adding on paths. I have to take it off, so it's not easy. Never is. I, I make sure that I get adjusted and treated every week at least once, usually more than once. And because you can't fill from an empty glass and, you gotta take care, you know, secure your life mask first before helping others that that never gets old either.

And, and, the best and most is to make sure that I always check in to remind myself that I am just an agent of something way higher than me, that I could only, at best have a pinpoint of understanding about, but a mountain of appreciation for, and you can call that whatever you want. Beautiful is, to paraphrase Mother Theresa, we're just pencils in God's hand, aren't we? I love it, Howie. Thank you so much for this brilliant or brilliant thinking big heart. No wonder you're a healers healer. I only hope the people watching this took some, clear notes.

And more important, take some clear action to get closer to that authentic, genuine self that they are to become that healers healer that's inside of them. It's inside of all of us that they start speaking heart to heart instead of head to head, speaking their truth, not being silenced. You just had some real pearls of wisdom in today's conversation, and I know the people are going to watch this. They're going to come a way different and better for it. And I know that that's what your mission is anyway.

So mission accomplished, doctor, how we cone. Thank you so very much. Thank you for contributing to the practice Upgrade Summit. Thank you for being my friend. And thank you for being an icon in our profession. Well, doctor Bob Hoffman, thanks for having me. And I'm excited to see all the other speakers. So I hope everybody who's watching this is watching the whole program. Because, it is, it's it's beyond needed.