Upgrade: YOU 2.0 – More Money, Service, Happiness

Introduction and Welcome 0:00

Hello, everyone. This is doctor Bob Hoffman, and I want to welcome you to the Practice Upgrade Summit. We are absolutely stoked that this morning I get to interview a chiropractic icon, a leader, a thought leader, an educator, an author, a professional speaker. If you don't know who this gentleman is, you've been hanging out in the closet way too long in chiropractic because our guest speaker today is the Vice President of Life University's Professional Advancement, the largest chiropractic college in the world.

And Doctor Jill's la marge has been a mover and shaker, a thought leader, again, an icon in chiropractic for a very long time. And I want to welcome you to today's conversation. Jill's welcome. Morning. Thank you. Bob, it's a pleasure and an honor to, have an opportunity to spend this time with you personally, one on one, but also to share some insight with the people that will be participating in the Praxis Upgrade Summit. Because God only knows we need support in our profession. And I'm very grateful that you and the Master Circle are putting on this summit to really move the profession forward.

Well, thank you very much. It's very kind of you. You know, Jill's when I travel and speak to groups, one of the questions I get asked a lot is, Bob, what's your view on the state of the profession? And, you know, my pretty stock answer is it's the tale of two cities. It's the best of times and the worst of times, and your level of happiness and fulfillment is going to be dependent on which of those two you focus on. One of the many things you and I have in common is we focus on all the good in our profession.

We don't bury our head in the sand and pretend that everything is perfect, but there's a lot of awesome, amazing breakthroughs taking place in chiropractic. And today I want you to talk about the power of purpose and building and maintaining a high volume chiropractic practice. What's the mindset? What's the beliefs? What are the standards that go into building a highly successful chiropractic practice at this time in our history is evolution. So why don't you begin by addressing that, sharing some of your thoughts and feelings about that?

Absolutely. Thank you. Great question. You know, I always think of the 19th century philosopher doctor, Schopenhauer, Arthur Schopenhauer, he said, every great truth goes through three phases. First, it's ridiculed, then vehemently opposed. Lastly, recognized as self-evident. So in the chiropractic world that I live in, chiropractic is so self-evident. It's so simple and so self-evident that it's obviously crazy.

Purpose, Conviction, and Chiropractic Philosophy 2:50

However, whether you're talking to chiropractors, chiropractic assistants, or the general public, the majority will tell you that chiropractic is somewhere between phase one and phase two. Right? Is feeling vitally opposed or being ridiculed. However, when you're in the eye on, you're on the academic side and you see some of the phenomenal research that's going on or when you're in a thriving chiropractic practice and you see the conviction that the chiropractor and their team have and that the patients, the practice members have in that practice, you go, oh my gosh, it's so self-evident.

This is so simple. So my suggestion to people has always be current, be current on the science. Always be practicing your art and always be reading some philosophy. So my positioning, you know, for 40 plus years now, has been that every single morning I read something that keeps me grounded in the chiropractic philosophy and I get it off. I often get asked, you know, how is it possible that you're as excited and enthused about chiropractic today as you were when you graduated 40, almost 42 years ago?

Excuse me? And my answer is always simple, because I've seen tens of thousands of people get well under chiropractic care when other methods have failed. I'm personally alive because of chiropractic. I have a 35 year old son who was blinded at the age of 14 and has 2020 vision because of chiropractic. So and all these reasons, all these stories and the depth of conviction, because I saw results now before I saw results, I had to depend on what my mentors taught me. My mentor taught me that you've got to have faith, constant belief in the product, service, ideas of chiropractic.

I said, well, how do you do that? Develop your art and become masterful. Stay focused on the philosophy and make sure you understand the science. And if you do something in that environment on a regular basis, your conviction will rise as your conviction rises or you step into interaction with patients and you have that level of conviction. Guess what happens to the patient? They develop that level of conviction that and and they get well with that. What a concept that they would get well. And so it it requires that you start with that depth of conviction.

And it also requires that you be very, very clear as it relates to purpose. Another one of my mentors was Wayne Dyer. And, you know, Wayne had dozens and dozens and dozens of mentors in his own life. And he often would say, and many of my mentors, I've never I've never met because they were dead before I ever read their books. But he said, I learned, I learned from reading. And one of those mentors was an ancient philosopher by the name of Patanjali. And apparently, one day Patanjali was asked, you know, why is having a purpose for your life so important?

And he went on, and I'm going to paraphrase, obviously, but he went on to say something like, because purpose inspires you, these are really important word, because purpose inspires you. And when you're inspired by some grand purpose, your thoughts break their bonds. Your mind transcends limitations. Your consciousness expands in every direction. Dormant forces, faculties, and talents come alive, and you discover yourself to be a greater person by far than you ever dreamt possible. So we could go and break that entire little paragraph down.

But think about it. Your thoughts break their bonds. How many of you have ever been held in bondage by your thoughts? That is right. How many of you have been held in bondage by your thoughts because you just didn't think you were good enough? Because somebody, someone, somewhere told you you weren't? Somebody somewhere towards you are chiropractic. That's you know that's no good or chiropractor. You'll never be good at this, whatever it might be. But I went beyond that, as you have, obviously. And developed the conviction and then developed the skills, obviously mastered the skills so we could then deliver the goods because it's not enough just to have the conviction when the patient comes in and you do a thorough consultation, a thorough examination, you prepare a care plan, you teach them the care plan, you allow them to receive the care plan and therefore begin care.

Now you better be willing and able to deliver the goods. So I think all of that encapsulated really brings us to the point of the value of having purpose and being persistent. That was beautifully set point, just absolutely excellent. I only hope that the people who are watching this really so that in because in in five minutes you kind of summarize the core essence of what separates those that are best in class from everybody else. And you know, I, I love the clarity of it. One of my many mentors was Fred Barge, and when I was a young chiropractor in my early 20s, I remember sitting with Fred Barge and he said, the first thing any doctor must offer their patients as soon as possible is hope.

And part of the the healing paradigm is we have to recognize that we have to come from a place of certainty and confidence. We have to do our due diligence to get to that place during the case history consultation exam that we know that we know that we know that we can help this person, that we found the cause of their problem, and we feel expert at correcting that cause. And it's that certainty that inspires or gives hope to the other person. And this issue of inspiration that was part of that quote is, you know, a lot of people are motivated, but only some people are inspired.

And there's a difference because motivation is external and necessary. But inspiration comes from inside out, just like healing and happiness and unconditional love. And, you know, you and I are such contemporaries. We graduated about the same time with two different chiropractic colleges. We both were in clinical practice for over two decades, highly successful, great reputation. And then we both went off in different tangents to serve the profession at a higher level. And I love to think someday that people could look at me as a role model, as they look at you as a role model of someone who does have mastery over the science, the philosophy and the art.

And I want to dig in a little bit more on each of those, because in our 40 plus years, the science has changed pretty radically. There's been so much research that validates what Deedee and BJ had come up with well before their time, but it's refined it and improved it even more, giving us more clarity, more certainty relative to the art. There's certain time tested things that what we were taught 40 plus years ago were just as true. Today, but there have been refinements to that. It's the philosophy that I believe is what separates those that are world class or best in class from everybody else.

Unfortunately or fortunately, you and I both know chiropractors more great scientifically may even be great artists, but they don't know why they're doing what they're doing to the level that you might. And therefore they still struggle at some level. So could you start with the science and kind of break down your perspective? How does mastery occur? What would the person watching this need to do on a daily basis or a weekly basis to stay fully engaged and to master the science? And then let's do that exercise again for the art and for the philosophy.

Good. I beg a little change. And can we start with the philosophy? Would that be okay with you? Yes. 100 because from the space that I live in, if I didn't have if I was not anchored in chiropractic philosophy, the science would have meant nothing to me. And so when you get anchored in the philosophy and you understand the principles right there, 33 chiropractic principles that were written, you know, by Stevenson years ago. And when when I speak to young chiropractors, particularly, and they tell me some of them, they've never heard of the 33 chiropractic principles.

It's like my heart shatters. I was like, if I had not read the 33 chiropractic principles, and I didn't have them sitting on my bookshelf and didn't, on a regular basis, feed my soul as it relates to chiropractic philosophy, I would not be inspired. I would not be getting the message from above down inside out. You know, if I'm sitting at a table in my office here at Life University currently, but if we were looking in the opposite direction at the top of my bookshelf is a picture of BJ Palmer and one of Mabel, and I have a picture behind my desk of Jim Parker, who was my mentor, and I have part of my green book collection up there, and I have them here because, you know, every morning if I for some reason, I don't get to pick up a Green Book in my study at home before getting into my vehicle to enter the office, one of the first thing I will do when I get here, and I'll just grab a green book and I will be honest, like I always am.

I have never read a green book from cover to cover. Not one of I read from cover to cover, but many of them. I've read hundreds and hundreds of pages, and each of them and what I've done for some reason, it just worked for me. I just pick one, and wherever it is that I get to read that day, I pick one and I open it up. I go, oh my gosh, that was the message that I innately needed inside of me to maintain that source of inspiration. And so getting are helping people get anchored on the principles is a primary importance.

You know, because the thing with the principle, you don't have to believe it. A principle is a truth, period. Right. So you you look at, you know, principle number one, there's a universal intelligence to all matter. Well, that's not a belief system. You know, that is a truth. And so when you anchor yourself in principles, you anchor yourself in truth. And like the majority of successful people that I know have very specific rituals, we have rituals that allow us to be at our best as close to 100% of the time as possible.

And I think none of us are at our best 100% of the time. But I can tell you that if I was to fail to follow my rituals when I was in practice and today as a minister of Life University, when I don't follow my rituals, I'm just not running at 100%. And I know that. And so I've created a set of rituals that work for me, and one of them is spending 5 to 10 minutes minimum in a Green book every single day of my career for the last 40 or almost 42 years. And some people say, well, you know, I don't like rituals because it I don't like to have something that I need to do all the time.

I said, and I don't need to do it. I choose to do it. That's right. Right. So I come from a place of I want to I get to, I choose to and when I live in that space and when you live in that space, everybody listening in, what you'll discover is that you become a better version of you. And that quote that I paraphrase for Patanjali dorm, it forces faculties and talents come alive. There is not a force, a faculty or a talent that you don't already own, that you're supposed to be using, or that you could be using.

You own them. But for many people, you know, you got to get rid of the dunno if I could use that word, but of the dirt, the crap. Right. You got to get rid of that. And so many people are are just closed in with the with stuff that's happened in their life. Instead of being willing to live in this state of possibility, knowing that when you live your life from the above down inside out principle, that's how you get to share your life with people and service. You know, again, the philosophy of service.

Jim Parker's favorite line or favorite principle was loving service. My first technique, technique? That's great right?

Science, Research, and Cultural Authority 16:20

At Life University we have lasting purpose to give, do love, share from your own abundance with no expectation of return. Different words, same philosophy. The philosophy is all about service. A number of years ago, I was at an event where a longtime educator was being recognized, was being honored, and one of the lines that he said struck so deep and it made so much sense, he said, every morning I was taught that I must rise to the occasion and serve whoever's in front of me. And he said, and what I discovered is that service is the rent you pay for taking up space on the planet.

And this journey since passed on. But his name is Doctor Wright. Larson. Education out of Texas. But think about it. Service is the rent you pay for taking up space on the planet. And I discovered that concept and chose to live my life that way and still live my life that way every day. It's the best place in the world to live, is to live in a state of service, and then to live in a state of gratitude. So bringing all that philosophical aspect together to doctor Bob is really about let's focus on the 33 principles.

Let's focus on have you read something in a Green book, five, ten minutes every single day, and then focus on the philosophy that you want in your own life. And mine has been a philosophy of service. You know, I have a very, very clear purpose statement that I etched, I would say etched in stone. After writing it and tweaking it over, you know, a number of months and years. But it's been the same for over 30 plus years. And it's I pledge my life. So my greatest expression of love and service for the benefit of humanity, that's the philosophy I would.

Joe lives his life beautiful. Just beautiful. And, you know, your your your greatest mentor was Doctor Parker of mine was Doctor Williams. To disciples of B.J. and, I in my third trimester of chiropractic college, I was 21 years old. And I remember when doctor C and talked about last ING purpose to give, to learn, to love and to serve out of our abundance. It hit me over the head like a two by four. I had never contemplated it or heard anything like that. And it it set down the new trajectory of my life that I had followed for 40 some odd years since.

And, so we we came from the apostles, if I could use that term of B.J. and the original philosophy of chiropractic. Jill, was the fact that you even wanted to start with philosophy is a philosophy because everything grows out of that. And loving service is a personal philosophy that grows out of that. And even the way I went about my mastery in a slightly different way than you, I also had rituals. By the way, I I'm actually moving a week from today from New York to Florida, and I just finished packing up my 40 copies of my green books that I've come through and read through and highlighted and underlined for 40 years that I've been collecting and going through that.

But what I also found so helpful for my philosophical underpinnings, underpinnings is having friendships and relationships with people like you and many others in our profession worldwide, where you can sit down and talk it down and talk it up and really refine the rough edges office off of it and getting the concepts. I also found that when I was in chiropractic school, the 1 or 2 or three instructors that I resonated the deepest with were the ones that were the most philosophical. So to me, this is the heart and soul.

This is the heartbeat of best in class, but it's incomplete without the science and the art. So let's go into that direction now. I agree 100%. Yes. And as you mentioned earlier, you know, the science or what we have available to us has certainly improved in the past 10 to 15 years. Particular really, even though, you know, we had some double blind controlled studies as it relates to back pain and neck pain. And there's been, you know, dozens and dozens and dozens published. And we know we're really good at that.

There's not been a lot of neurologically centered research done in chiropractic. And often people ask me, you know, why not? It's pretty easy. It's funding. Research costs a lot of money, and then sometimes it's difficult to actually get subjects to participate. So beyond the neck pain, back pain issue, even, you know, in this current crisis, if you like our world crisis that we're living in, most if not all licensing boards have precluded chiropractors from talking about the potential that chiropractic has to enhance immune system function.

So we know anecdotally that when we, you know, those of us who practice and saw a real live people every day in our life, we know patients used to tell me all the time, you know, since I've been getting adjusted regularly, I don't get sick anymore. I feel great all the time. My kids haven't missed a day of school since run since you're just a regular, etc. but we have no research to back that up. And even though, you know, like I said, in this current crisis, there was some research that was sort of pushed out there.

The potential none of it is high level quality research. None of it is level one. Level two. You know, they're they're really they're case studies. And yes, case studies provide value when you want to share them with a patient or potential patient is certainly provide value to us in practice because it does, you know, raise our confidence a little bit that, you know, John got well with chiropractic because of XYZ. But in the scientific community the value is almost zero, right? It's very, very low level research.

And so the reason why we have not had great research is because we've had lack of funding. This morning I actually received an email. I've been on the, Austrian Spinal Research Review Committee for grant submissions for, I don't know, a number of years. And I received the grant proposals that actually came in. So that's something I'm going to be doing this week reviewing notes. So I've been involved on that side of the world and looking at some of the research projects that are being proposed and, you know, have supported research as much as I can.

Both, you know, from the stage and financially. But I can tell you that asking chiropractors from the stage, this particular question or a set of questions I often ask if I'm going to get into science, I often ask, how many of you have read a scientific journal that cause you to get gained new information that would make you an even better chiropractor than you already are? How many of you have done that in the last 12 months? And now, if you've ever asked this question, but typically 10 to 20% of the hands go up and then I say, okay, keep your hands up.

Now, how many of you have read a paper in the last 30 to 60 days? If you have not put your hands down, boom! Almost all the hands go down. So chiropractors are not staying focused on research and it's coming out. And then the typical question after that is like why? Like why not? Why have you not somebody I don't know where to find it. You know, I haven't created the ritual to read it, but there is great research coming out. I can tell you that the research department at Life University is directed by Doctor Stephanie Sullivan, who is a strong hearted, philosophically sound DC who then went on to get a PhD in neuroscience.

And so she's getting both sides, right. She's got the philosophy. She's got the science. Our present here at like, university doctor Rob Scott, you know, he's got a PhD in physiology, but he did a speech in physiology pretty much to prove the chiropractic paradigm. So I went from having a DC to being a member of the Academy of Chiropractic Philosophers, etc.. And then of course, in New Zealand, you know, we've got Doctor Heidi Haddock, who has led the charge in neurologically centered chiropractic research and with all sorts of collaborators from around the globe and different universities, has started showing the chiropractic as a direct effect on brain function, prefrontal cortex, executive function, decision making processes.

I mean, the research is coming out and one line that that I think I've coined, you may have heard me say it before, was as it relates to cultural authority, and my belief has me in the position that science rather research is the currency of cultural authority. Right? You can ask people, you know, where we're at on the scheme of cultural authority and as a profession, our cultural authority is very low. As a matter of fact, you mentioned the word chiropractors to some people and you have negative brand equity, right?

Yeah, it's just negative brand equity. They go, oh my gosh, they don't even want to talk to you. Now, it's not as bad in 2020 as it was. You know, in 1979, 1980 when we graduated. But it's still not at the level that it could be. And so choosing to look at science and choosing to contribute to science as best as you can, if you're not in the sciences, that's fine, but make a commitment to donate to science. Some where. Donate to your alma mater. I mean, you know, if you're a Life University grad, donate to like university research department or wherever.

But put your money where your mouth is and get involved so that during hopefully our lifetime, Bob, that cultural authority in the profession will rise to its rightful place. People get well with chiropractic care. As I mentioned, I'm alive because of it. I was diagnosed with a terminal condition in 2003. I was told I had two years to live. I went home to prepare myself to transition and one morning I woke up and I was like, you're an idiot. You've been preaching the chiropractic paradigm of health and healing for 25 years.

There must be something seriously wrong with your spine and nervous system. And my next organ was how could there be? You get checked by a chiropractor every week or two, and I'll tell you, it's the third thought that woke me up. Never by the same chiropractor. I was not a practice member in any practice. I got checked and adjusted as necessary. When I happened to be going out and having lunch or dinner with a buddy, and I go to his office, or he'd come to my office and we check each other. But I can tell you there all the noise died down in my head.

I reached over to grab the telephone at the bedside and I called. They made an appointment, with my former office manager at the practice that I'd sold. I went in and had a thorough consultation examination. X-rays, nerve scan, you name it. Whatever my practice members were receiving, I received for the first time since my initial chiropractic exam at the age of 12. Wow. And discovered some serious issues with my spine on the musculoskeletal level. I was 100% a symptomatic, had no symptoms, but I was dying from a terminal condition and also I had cardio measured at 2.5.

So, you know, I got into regular chiropractic care within three months, my pulmonary pressure dropped from 57 to 27, normal being 15 within one year, it was normal. Within two years I no longer had cardio medically. Why? Because the body has this amazing ability to adapt. That's the physiology that occurs and what we're doing in the science is looking at the philosophy, the physiology rather, and looking at the link. That's correct. We've got to conduct studies that have never been conducted before.

We've got to stop looking at back pain. And we already know that what we do works. We've got to be looking at neuro centered physiological function of the human body and seeing what occurs when interference is discovered and when interference is corrected. That's the way the body was designed to function. And so I'm proof positive of that because I was supposed to be dead at 50. I'm more alive at 65, I can tell you, than I was, you know, at 48 when this was discovered. I ran a 10-K yesterday in the Georgia Heat at about 95 degrees, even though I ran in, you know, under the canopy and up in the national forest.

It's amazing. And so all the chiropractors listening in, who you are and what you offer humanity is amazing. We've got to bridge the philosophy and the science, and you've got to maintain your art, your ability to and, locate, analyze and correct a subluxation. Just beautiful. Just beautiful. By the way, I didn't know we had that in common as well, because in 2002, I had advanced colorectal cancer. So, I had to go through my reinvention of myself. And, I had been on the chiropractic care for 25 years at that point.

I've been a vegetarian for 25 years, had even taken an aspirin at 25 years. I never lost the faith, confidence, and belief in chiropractic.

The Art of Palpation and Adjusting 30:30

But I asked, the Einstein related question what level of thinking got me to this level, and what do I need to do to reinvent myself to get me out of it? And I'm healthier today than I was back then. Far healthier still around, still kicking, still annoying people. But, I didn't know we have that in common as well. Let's spend our our remaining time talking about the art now, because once we blend and marry the philosophy and the science and we unders stand how our philosophy comes to life through science, we have to still deliver on the promise we have.

We have to find and locate the subluxation properly. We have to do what's necessary. One of the things that I have said for years is we have one purpose, one mission, one goal, and all three of those start with the word one. And one to me is that acronym. It's the reason we exist. Optimum neurological expression. The reason we adjust subluxation is to create optimum neurological expression. The reason we adjust subluxation is to create optimum neurological expression. And anything, quite frankly, that's natural and doesn't have negative side effects that in my opinion, is going to improve or optimize.

Neurological expression is part of chiropractic. It's part of what we should all be experts at. But we know we need to know how to deliver the goods. And it's not just double number roll, double cervical break. Hit them in the high points. That will work for many people because chiropractic is that freaking amazing. But that's not really mastery, that shotgun approach. So can you just spend a few minutes talking about the art of the flying? You're talking about the flying high seven, right? Yes.

You know, I just if I can go back on what you just said for a second, I'd never heard the acronym one optimal neurological expression. But when I do calls like this, I always have a pad beside me. And you might have noticed that when you said that, I reached over and started writing down to make sure I would remember that. Because, you know, when you serve, you learn. And as it relates to the art, when I chat, when I have the opportunity sometimes to chat with students, I talk about the art of palpation.

Most important thing you can do to become a good adjuster is develop your ability to actually discover the subluxation and the art of palpation. And I had, a professor at Cmmc and now the gentleman at the time, my name is Doctor Joe Bunion. And I remember Doctor Joe was saying in, I think probably our first class together, he talked about the art of palpation. I was like, well, you either feel it or you can't feel it. And he said, what I'm going to suggest is that you do an exercise I used to have here in those days, but he said, you pull a hair out of your head, open a page and put it under one page of a book and just run your fingers around it and find the hair, he said.

If you practice this, if you practice this 15 minutes a day, he said, I promise you that within a year you'll be able to find that hair under 100 pages of a book. And I thought, this guy's a wacko. How is that even possible? Because I couldn't feel the hair under one page at the time. But I thought, you know, he's been around for a long time, so I'm just going to follow what he tells us to do. And so I went home that day and I yanked the hair out of my head, and I put it under a page of Gray's Anatomy, and I felt it and felt it and felt it.

And finally, over whatever number of days I could actually find it. And when I was, when I could find it, you know, instantly just dropping it like this, closed eyes, dropping it, closing it and say, oh, it's right here. Opening the page and seeing it. Well, then I went to two pages and then three, and then five, and then 100. And within one year I could feel that hair, a two inch hair, under 250 pages of Gray's Anatomy. And I was like, wow, that's the development of the art. Because beyond palpation being a physical activity, it's a neurological activity.

I was building into that neurological input from fingertip to brain to being able to analyze. And once we got into, adjusting class, I was miles ahead of the students who had not practiced their palpation skills because you could feel, you know, a joint, a joint like you could feel a position. You could you just knew that you knew. And the professors in technique class was like, man, you've got this natural gift. I was like, oh, no, everybody's got the same. Yeah, but no, you've got this natural gift because you can figure it out.

So yeah, but I've been practicing 15 minutes every day for like a whole year. Every day, seven days a week. I did this crazy, this crazy exercise, this crazy activity. But I can tell you that after a year, I was like, not so crazy after all. And so as you develop your art and you want to maintain a sense of mastery, right? So I can't remember who said this, but it made sense to me back then. So the difference between a student and a master is that the student thinks he or she can become a master, and the master knows that he or she is forever a student.

And so I've maintained this aspect of I am forever a student in everything. Which is why, you know, I spent, you know, 30 minutes last night reading something from Wayne Dyer just to stay in that study habit. And it's not that I study, you know, hours and hours on end, but I dedicate ritualistically dedicate, as I mentioned earlier, 5 to 10 minutes in a Green book every day, you know, and I have my own my spiritual, my also my spiritual rituals is relating simply to chiropractic. And I and I do the same thing in the evening.

So I start my day inspired, I end my day inspired, and I, I always live in that state of gratitude and gratitude for the people I got to meet. Gratitude for the lesson that I learned, gratitude for tripping me up and making a mistake and feeling the pain. Maybe of a mistake, but stopping and learning. So the best thing that we can do to deliver the goods to truly be exceptional practitioners that will, in time, not only impact the people you serve, but that will impact the entire profession that will lead you to helping me achieve a dream that I have.

Because I've always loved listening to Martin Luther King's Speech and I have a dream in my line, is I have a dream. A dream that within this decade, chiropractors will be recognized as the go to health experts around the globe. And with the science that's moving, if we get together and we get more involved and we support science at a higher level, I believe that in this decade we can get there. I believe that by 2030 that chiropractic as a profession and chiropractors as the docs, we are, can gain a level of cultural authority that until then we had never seen.

Yeah, ever. Well, in any area you've been able to get a dream, you've enrolled me and I hope you've enrolled everyone listening to this. The last thing I just want to touch on again before our time runs out, you know, part of the the title of your talk is The Power of purpose and building and maintaining a high volume, high service practice. You know, you shared your purpose. My purpose that I've had in my head and in my heart for about 40 years, regardless of my role in chiropractic, that has changed.

My purpose never has shifted, and it's to help as many people as possible express more of the greatness they have inside of me. Just another way of saying exactly what you said. It's just that's my languaging of it. So when I was in private practice for over two decades, I wanted to see as many people as I can get to. I tried to develop systems and speed of service and relationships with my patients that I didn't need to spend a lot of time in order to deliver on the promise of getting sick people well and keeping well people healthy.

But volume isn't something that is the ultimate goal. It's just having a sense of fulfillment, of making a difference. Knowing your life matters, that you've healed people and help people achieve a level of greatness, expressing more of their individual greatness each and every day. You know, for some docs that may be 20 people a day, and for some it may be 50 or 250 it everyone gets to pick and choose that. But I believe part of that, Jules, is that there is an addendum that needs to be added to this, that if our job is to help as many people as we can in our lifetime, I don't believe we were chosen to be chiropractors, to play small.

We I, I agree, I agree playing. Yeah. And you know, at the end of the day playing small is not that much fun. That's what I've discovered. It doesn't give you that fulfilling and that joy, that certainty, that confidence that playing the. So even though people get to choose and I'm not here to judge anyone, I just respect every colleague for their contribution. I just want people watching and listening to this to get that. Playing small doesn't generally get most people to that promise land that you and I are working so hard to get more of our colleagues that so I would tell people on a on a regular basis, when they talk about volume or time spent with a patient, etc..

The question that I ask is, so have you ever adjusted your mother, your father, your brother, your sister, your children, your spouse? And most people say, yeah, of course I have. It said in how long does it take you to adjust one of them of the fraction of how much time they spend with their patients? Exactly. The answer is, well, yeah, it only takes a minute or two, or sometimes a lot less. I said, okay, so if it takes you a minute or two to adjust someone that you love the deep within the deepest part of your heart, why is it taking you 20 minutes to take care of a patient?

Typically because they're trying to prove their worth or their value. What I discovered through great mentorship was that my focus of purpose is what mattered. People wanted to know that I spent the appropriate amount of time with them, but when I was focused on serving them, time stops. Time literally stops because I did service multiple times in my practice, a regular office visit. My practice was less than two minutes, right? Because I mean, there's, you know, 60 minutes in an hour. And if you're booking 30 people an hour during your, you know, a higher volume adjusting times, it's taking you two minutes or less because you got to move from one table to another.

And so I did surveys multiple times. And I would ask people, I'd say, oh, I'm doing a survey today, Jean, how much time do you think I spent with you today? And they would give me a number, the least amount of time in any of the stories I ever did that patients thought I'd spend with them on a regular office visit was nine minutes, the most was 12. So every person thought I spent between 9 and 12 minutes with them. But during that time I was seeing 30 people in an hour. I'd say, why would they think that connection?

Everything stops still when you connect with someone? So I had a ritual before it, entering a room we didn't have open adjusting, in Ontario at the time. It was not even legal. So I had five rooms, so I had to go one, two, three, 4 or 5, but I would I had a little dot, a little sticker dot that had a that was green, and I would grab the travel card and I would look, I'd say Bob up. And last time Bob was in, he had an issue with his apples that are and I would just connect. And the minute I was ready and it was like the second I was ready, I would just touch the green button. It was my metaphor.

I would touch a green button, I would walk in, and we had process in place. Patients were educated to be on the table face down before I ever walked in. In other words, ready? There's no keys to take out your pocket. There's no glasses to take off. You're ready. But there was a reason why we did that. And it wasn't to maintain the volume. It wasn't so that I didn't waste any time. It was for the patient to be ready for me to connect directly with them. And when I adjust them the first time, after a report of findings, I would have said, if it was, you said, you know, Bob, based on, you know, X, y, z, you've accepted this care plan, this is how we're going to start.

We're going to be adjusting you today, and I'm going to ask you to lay face down on the table, take everything out of your pocket so you can feel nice and comfortable. I'm going to ask you to take 3 or 4 nice long, deep breaths. Allow your body to get completely relaxed so you will get the best and the optimum benefit from your adjustment. Does that make sense to you and Bob? Want to say, of course that makes sense to me. I'd say great. The on the table. I'll be back to you in a minute or two, and I go move on.

And I adjust someone and they come right back and I would take care of you. And I say, when you come in on your next visit, Micheline, our Janet will remind you to do that. And after that, you're a really smart guy. After that, I'm going to imagine you're just going to do that naturally. Because when you do, you're going to prepare yourself to receive that adjustment and get the best possible results from your care. Do we do you agree news in your purse? You'd say yes, I said so. If ever I walk into the room and you are not ready, I'm going to remind you to do that, and I'm going to go on and take care of four more people before I come back to you.

Are you okay with that? And I would get their approval, they say, of course not.

High-Volume Practice, Service, and Closing Thoughts 45:00

So if ever I walked in and the patient was ready, I would tell them if there was room one, that I go on and take care of somebody in two, three, 4 or 5 and come back to one. Keep that cycle going. So we had processes in place. We had an education process in place. People knew why they came. We didn't have to force anyone the whole goal. When you suggest a care plan to someone, your best recommendations, as Jim Parker taught me, when you provide the best recommendation to the patient in front of you is if the person sitting in front of you is your mother, father, brother, sister, child or spouse and you give them the recommendation you would give to someone you love, you never have to sell them a care plan.

They want to buy the care plan because they have felt your, your commitment. They paid attention to how you behaved in the consultation. They paid attention to the depth of their examination. They paid attention to the depth of the report and how you communicated what was going on and the hope that you had that you could provide for them. The fact that their body, like all organic systems, then you are conscious, self developing, self maintaining, self-healing. I taught people the snippets of that on the first visit because I wanted them to be ready and understand what was going to happen in our office.

It's a powerful place, so you've got to have a process in place where education starts right at the beginning. Beautiful. You know, the people who try to communicate and don't do very well, they generally speak head to head, but the real effective influence is a heart to heart. And for all the people watching this interview, if you don't pick up Doctor Lamotta's heart, he's speaking from his heart. It's not just his experience, it's his heart sharing with you his life and the purpose of his life, and why he's so successful and why he's a thought leader and an icon.

And I just hope that you pick that up. Jill's, you are a gem, a resource, a dear friend. I have such love and admiration and respect for you. Thank you so much for today's interview, and thank you so much for opening up your heart to all of our colleagues. Great! It was a pleasure and an honor to share this time with you and with the audience that will be participating in this terrific summit. Thank you. And you have yourself an awesome day.