How to Achieve True Chiro-Success: How to Thrive Using Your Unique Talents

Welcome to this edition of Catch up with ChiroTouch. I'm your host, Dr. Ronnie Simms. I'm so glad you tuned in today.

You are in for a real treat. The subject matter is great, but the guest is even better, so I'm super excited about this one. I've been jazzed all day.

And so let's just get started. These podcast series represent ChiroTouch's ongoing commitment to the chiropractic profession, and most importantly, to the chiropractor. The goal with these episodes is to help support you, to inspire you, to educate you, to reach your full potential.

Right now, the world needs chiropractors to be at their best more than ever. And so today we're excited to carry on our conversation around this topic of chiropractic success and what that looks like. In the last two episodes, we talked a little bit about how doctors can go about finding their true identity in chiropractic.

And the second episode, we kind of went a step further and said, okay, now that you've kind of discovered who you are, what are some appropriate steps you can take within our beautiful profession? There's so many different ways we can go. And today we're going to talk about how to achieve lasting, sustainable chiropractic success.

And we could not have a better guest on than Dr. Ron Oberstein. Dr. Ron is the president of Life West University, but he did that in the wake of having an incredible chiropractic career, a vibrant family wellness practice that continues to live on in San Diego. He and his wonderful wife and his three daughters and his two brothers are all practicing chiropractors.

And this guy lives, breathes, and just exudes everything chiropractic. So Dr. Ron, I'm so glad you're on with me today, buddy.

Well, I'm thrilled to be here, Dr. Ron.

So we're just going to dive right in. I think the first thing I want to talk about is, so we went through these two episodes where we talked about going through a period of self-discovery, whether it be in the wake of school or maybe you're feeling stuck. So encouraging doctors to look inward and to maybe do some objective discovery, to learn a little bit more about themselves so that they can begin to look at chiropractic with more optimism and realize that, you know, they're maybe just in the wrong spot and that they need to reshuffle the deck and try something new.

And so today, I want to pivot this and have you kind of speak into this and really talk about this topic of success. So having heard what I just said, would you add any nuggets or any pearls of wisdom to that as far as helping that guy that's stuck or even helping that young lady who just doesn't know who she is yet?

It's always been, you know, probably through eons of time that it's normal to be stuck. You know, I mean, everyone thinks they need to constantly be just driving up, up, you know, and stuck is a good place to be. So most people freeze when they're stuck, you know, and they freak out.

And when they freak out, they start to try to go really hard. And if you've ever been in quicksand, it just kind of makes you sink even faster.

Right.

And then they get into a state of fear. But knowing that when you're stuck, it's a great opportunity to see where you're stuck, where you're at, and what do you need to do or go back to, to get unstuck so you can continue to move. So the number one, I don't want to have it be that the personification around being stuck is a negative because it's not right.

And if you can see it as a positive, it makes it that much easier to move forward. So I can add that. The second thing is that when people are usually in their stuckness or feeling like they're just not happy with what they're doing or whatever it might be, is it always, 99% of the time, it comes down to just losing your purpose, you know, losing one's purpose.

Their why, like why are we doing what we're doing? I'll give you a good example. I can't tell you how many docs and including myself and including probably every viewer that's out there unless you've only been practicing for a day or two, you know, when we're stuck, you know, if I took you when you're in a stuck position and I took you on one of our service trips and let's just say we go to India, we go to Tonga, you know, wherever we go with, you know, Life Car Practice College West and you go to serve and I get you to a place where all you're doing is just taking care of people and you're not thinking anymore, you're feeling, your heart is open, you're just seeing amazing things happen with people in front of you.

People are thrilled to see you. It's really incredible how you get unstuck. You know, next thing you know, you're not feeling that heaviness and that whatever it is that happens to individuals at different times of their stuckness.

So, it's getting rejoined in with your purpose, reconnected to your purpose or whatever that purpose is for you, you know. My purpose and my practice's purpose that Mary and I, Dr. Mary, my wife and myself were in for many, many, many years, 30 something plus years. It was really about having people be able to experience their true innate self and work at the highest level possible that's available to them, right?

And that's what we were about. We have people coming with back pain. Sure.

I mean, I'd be honest with you, I probably wouldn't see myself if I had severe back pain. That wasn't the kind of doctor that I excelled that as my, that wasn't one of my superpowers, I should say. But I certainly knew what to do and could handle myself around it.

But really, you know, what we love to do is get those people to the point where, you know, they're under care for 10 years, 15 years, 20, 25, 30, 35 years. And understand that, have them understand that within them is a far greater potential than they were ever led to believe. And, you know, that was our purpose.

So it really comes down to finding what that purpose is, Doc, and being able to move with that and know where to go back to to find that purpose.

Oh, I love how you said that, Doc. I mean, that state of stuckness is often thought of as such a negative. And I love how you spun that.

That's beautiful. And it's just a great opportunity for us, right, to do some personal reflection. And I also love what you said about purpose.

I think it's so, especially lately, it's easier for docs to get off their purpose. And they always talk about what they do. And I love how you frame that with the why.

Perfect answer, man. I love that. I'm taking some notes.

You know, what's interesting also is that, is that, you know, what we listen to, what do we fill our mind with, you know? I mean, look at these past years right now, and, you know, people watching CNN and Fox and all the debates and all this stuff, and all this that we fill our mind with, you know? And I'll tell you what, Doc, I just can't believe, you know, I'm not a big Facebook guy, but, you know, if I do go on it when I'm traveling, I'll be on a plane and I'll just scroll through.

And I just can't believe the amount of chiropractors I see on Facebook during working hours. Like, it's just crazy, you know? And it's kind of like, man, have you got this much time to be posting, liking, or whatever that whatever that stuff is?

You know, like, what are you doing? And it reminds me of a story about a chiropractor named John Botwell. John Botwell was on the Board of Life College with Dr. Sid Williams.

He spoke on the DE platform for many, many years. His two sons were in school with me. And Dr. Botwell was all about tuning in to NA, right?

Like finding that power spot, right? And so anytime he got stuck, he had a place that he went to. I had a place that I went to, and I learned this from him, right?

I would go to the ocean. When I was in San Diego, there was a place on Law Street that I would just go over, and I'd sit on this cliff above where that was a park, and my feet would dangle over, and I would just see the ocean. It made me feel so small.

It made me realize my problems are just this big compared to this vast ocean that's out there. Well, what Botwell did, Dr. Botwell, he would go out. He found a stump in the forest, and he would just sit on the stump, and that was his spot that he can kind of reconnect with himself, right?

Like me on the cliff, right? And just reconnect. And the guy finally one day got so smart, he hired two of his patients to go, or whatever number of patients.

They went and they dug up the spot. Instead of him having to walk out to go to the woods and go to his tree stump, right? They brought the tree stump to him.

He put it in one of the rooms in the office. Whenever he felt stuck, that's where he went. It doesn't matter where it is.

You know, the concept isn't about having some kind of magic pill. It's about what is it that gets you more connected? What is it that gets you to that space that you're forgetting about all this roof brain stuff, and you're literally back in your power source, right?

You know, back tuned in and plugged in to the innate within you and being able to connect there. And that's really what it comes down to. And there's a lot of ways to get there, but everyone knows how they get there.

It's just getting clear or asking others, when do you see me be the freest? When do you see me when I'm not stuck, so to speak? And what am I like?

And let other people, listen to other people take inventory and be able to share with you what that is.

That's beautiful. And I think that speaks into so many different things, that staying connected, right? Chiropractors seem to be notorious to get so head down, butt up, and they get disconnected from chiropractic, whether it be the source of chiropractic or other chiropractors, or even a really good CA in your life that can speak truth into you.

That's beautiful, Doc. I love that. And I have my place too, and I just think how you said that's perfect.

I thought you were going to say headphones on, working on your three-point shot, but that's probably another place for you, right?

It is.

I'm a hooper just like you, man. Okay, so this next question, and I know you know this from years of coaching and being in practice, but now being at the school, I want you to speak to three specific groups right now, and I want you to think of some just little nuggets of success that you might give these three groups. The first group is that doctor who you just mentioned.

He's in a state of stuckness, and he or she is just kind of stuck, and maybe like you said, they're not moving. They have deer in the headlights, and they don't have to do, and maybe it's starting their own practice or finding a different associate position.

That first group, you know, the key around that, that I see at least, and that I've coached many thousands of doctors with, is let's go into a disciplined state. The minute we start to think and we get stuck in our heads and nothing is right, and do I need to change my practice, and do I need to change my associateship job, and should I fire this person? You never make a decision based on how you are when things aren't well, right?

I mean, you don't do that. That's not what you do. It's kind of like someone going and trying to diagnose themselves in the mirror, looking through eyes that aren't working well.

It just doesn't make sense. So we always, instead of pointing the finger out, it always needs to be pointed in, right? That's the first place we point.

And look to yourself, right? But what do you do around that? Well, I used to coach people.

My first thing would be I'd say, let's get disciplined. I'd get them on a discipline, a 30-day discipline. Maybe it was 30 days without eating sugar.

Maybe it was 30 days of exercising straight. Maybe it was 30 days of meditating. Whatever it was, it was 30 days, right?

And 21 days in grains of habit, right? And just add an extra 9 days in for the secret sauce to kind of put yourself back into this place, right? So it's always going here first, just like we teach in chiropractic, right?

It's above, down, inside out, not outside in. So go within, right? And then when they do a discipline, the disciplines we used to do with people, there's a vast majority, but it was always like this.

You go 30 days straight. No problem if you miss a day. But if you miss a day, the next day is day one again, right?

So you start again, right? And what happens is people get to understand, Doc, their educated voice inside. Let's just say we're saying, I might say to you, and let's play this.

We'll role play this, okay? So, Dr. Ronnie, you come in and you got all kinds of issues going on. You're feeling stuck and whatever it might be, right?

And you're thinking about moving, you're thinking about changing, you're thinking about doing whatever, everything on the outside. And I'll say to you, hey, let me ask you a question. Tell me one of your vices.

What is one of the things you love? And I'm not talking about going to Hawaii, but I'm talking about something you like to do on a daily level or at least three, four, five times, and nothing that's healthy for you, not like exercise or something like that. Is it eating ice cream?

Is it having a beer every day? What is one of those vices that is part of you?

Binge-watching mindless Netflix shows. Good.

Just did that yesterday, actually. I was on a flight binge-watching. Good.

So binge-watching Netflix shows. And you tend to do this how many times a week you tend to do it? Okay, so I want something a little bit more than just once a week.

Something that's more of a vice that you do, like on a regular level and that kind of thing. Tell me some of the foods that you love, that you tend to eat a lot of, that you might know might not be... Doesn't matter if it's good for you or not, but something that might not be so good for you.

Well, for me, it's a good whiskey.

How often?

Sipping on a whiskey two, three days a week when I'm not feeling right.

There you go. So two, three days a week. Okay, good.

So how about we do this? And I'll say to them, we're not drinking any whiskey at all or any alcohol, because we could substitute whiskey for something else, right? We could substitute gambling for some other, for drugs or for alcohol or for whatever.

It's just a vice, right? So we're not drinking any alcohol at all until you reach wherever you want to. You're stuck at 150 visits.

So until you get to 200, there's no alcohol going into your body at all.

At all.

Your educated brain in a week is going to say, well, he didn't say on weekends, so you're going to drink on weekends, right? That kind of thing. It's like, you know, or he didn't say this, or well, I mean, if this isn't really alcohol, wine isn't considered alcohol, you know, or the spritzer or whatever.

I don't drink alcohol, but whatever it is, you know, that's what happens, right? And it's our educated that plays games with us all the time that stops us. It says, you know, you're not as good as you think you are, or money doesn't grow on trees, or you can't do this, you're not good enough, you don't deserve this.

All these programs that were sent to us by the best teachers in the world, you know, our parents, our teachers from early school years, you know, all that stuff. And, you know, those are all just, that's just all caca, right? But our educated has taken that in.

Well, the minute you say, I'm going to stop, right? And then you're educated. We got to get to know this educated mind, because this is what screws us up all the time.

Right? It's what does. So get to know it.

Next thing you know, you know, you're not drinking alcohol for whatever period of time. That educated, you're not listening to it. I said, go drink it.

You go, okay, but I'm not going to. And then, oh, just never give into it. Right?

And the next thing you know, it's going to say, fine. You want to see 200 visits a week? We'll see 200 visits a week, and you'll go to 200.

Right? And at 200, you get what? Your whiskey, right?

As you drink your whiskey, what's your educated saying? Told you so. See?

Told you we could drink whiskey. All we're doing is taming the beast. It's really all we're doing.

And that beast inside, we all have this beast, that beast inside of us, just, you know, it wants to roar when it wants to roar. But when you go to the circus and you see that lion tamer, like this, right? He knows exactly what those lions are going to do.

And they're roaring. But he knows exactly because he tamed them, right? He understands them.

It's the same thing with this. So for those people who are at that spot, you know, tame your beast. You do that by finding a discipline or taking away something out of your life that's a vice that you love to do, you tend to do a lot of.

And don't ask yourself, ask your partner or your best friend or whoever. And they'll go, oh man, you know how much ice cream you eat? I don't eat that much.

Every night you're eating ice cream. Good, take it away. You know, Ben and Jerry, whatever it is.

And when we do that, we all of a sudden go back and we find our true power, which is on the inside. And then when you're in that power spot, then make your decisions. Never make your decisions from a reaction, you know?

You know, reactively make it proactively.

That's right. That's great advice. I love that.

So, the second group is this associate who is in a practice, but they have this spirit within them. They can feel it gurgling, and they just really feel that call to open their own practice and really kind of go out on their own. Give us some practical advice and steps you might give somebody in that spot.

So, the very first thing I would tell that young doctor or older doctor, it doesn't matter, is ethics. So, you know, a lot of times what that doctor will do and that I've witnessed, and I won't say it's you who's listening right now, but they will feel they can't tell their doctor that they're working with, you know, that they have to do. So, they go and do everything kind of behind the counter, you know, behind the back, right?

And they're looking to set up or doing this or talking to everybody else. And the truth is, is that the minute you're just, you know, you're out of ethics around that, you know, or you're holding this story and this lie and, oh, I can't tell them. Talk to whoever you're working for and share with them, because you're going to leave either way.

And they know that. Now, if your concern is, they're going to fire me right away, you might not be in the right place, you know? It's like, and that could be what's driving you down also, holding you back, right?

But that's just the story in your head. I mean, live from your truth. And your truth is being able to say, hey, I'm really thinking of moving on, but I don't want to move on in any kind of way that can hamper this business.

So I want to move on so that this business is doing better than it is right now. That's what I want to do. And I want to contribute to that.

So, you know, this is what I want. And then you work it out, right? And say, listen, I'm going to stay here and I'm going to train a person.

I'm going to make sure that they're right. I'm going to do all this stuff. And, you know, so now when you leave, and I've always taught my children this, you know, Mary and I always taught our kids this, and we always told, you know, people that we coached, was that the way you leave a job is how you go into the next job.

So if you leave a job, you know, in a real crappy way, that same crappy energy is going to take you into the next space, whether it's your own business or not. And guess what? You don't want to start a business with that kind of energy, that energetic, you know, negativity and deceitful and all that stuff.

You know, you want to start it clean. You want to start it powerful. And 10 to 1, if you're working for the right person, they're going to say, what can I do to help you?

I'm going to help you. So let me help you, you know? And now you've got someone on your side and now you've got allies and you've done that.

You know, every year for about, I don't know, 25 years, maybe it could be give or take some years, we always brought on associate doctors for one year. Just one year. And then they had to go and start a practice, right?

So we knew they, and they had to replace themselves. They knew they only had a year. So they would learn a tremendous amount, but it was so beautiful because we helped them.

We were always there for them. To this day, some of our best friends are those doctors, right?

Wow.

It's just what it is. So that's number one. You know, make sure if you're going to leave, you're going to do it ethically and you're going to feel good about it, right?

And step into that, to who you are, that power spot. Number two is find your superpower. You know, you've got a superpower.

You might have a few superpowers. That's what you want to lean on. And then whatever isn't your superpower, you know, you might want to find someone else to do that.

So part of what your superpower might not be, let's just say it's not marketing, all right, or social media, whatever. Find someone who can do that for you. And everyone out there knows you can go to five or you can find people all over the world, you know, doing this stuff.

But focus on your superpower, because that is what will get you to where you want to go, right? I hope those help.

Oh, very helpful. And I love that. And I personally know some of the docs that went through your one-year program.

I think Dr. Matt was one of those, wasn't he? Who? Matt Hubbard, right?

Absolutely. Yeah. Then Matt became an associate doctor.

So he came into it, and then, you know, Matt, he's just a phenomenal guy. So he started, you know, he built his practice in our office, right? But yeah, we've had a lot.

The Melendez, I can go on and on, just people. Now his children are chiropractors, you know, and yeah, it was a great experience.

How rewarding for you and Mary to leave that type of legacy. That's really beautiful, Doc. It was the third group.

It's that doctor who is out in his own or she's out in her own. And they're getting kind of to that point where they're doing what they can do, and they feel like they want to go to the next level and scale their business and really grow a team. So speak some truth into that because I know you've done that, and I know you've studied doctors who've done that.

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. You know, number one is, you know, bring on associate doctors. I mean, you know, but set the program up so it's a win-win.

A lot of associate doctor programs aren't set up to win, and if you really want to have someone and have someone stay with you, then you've got to make it that, you know, that it's worth it for them to stay with you, not just financially. Financial is one thing, and it needs to be worth it financially for the associate, but also, you know, what their hours are and what their time off is, and, you know, do it like it's your kid, you know, and if you did it just like you would do for your child, you know, you are going to have a win-win situation and people are going to want to stay with you. The idea isn't just to scale up and bring associates on, because you know what, you can go through associates, and by the time you go through your tenth associate, you're going to be like, I don't want to do this anymore.

This is too much work. I'd rather scale down and just keep it simple, right? And that's also always an option to do.

But if you scale up in the right way where you're bringing the right people in and you give them an opportunity to be able to really shine and develop, and you put your heart and soul into it, that person is going to stay with you. And you might even have a system where you, I know a lot of people who are doing a system where they go and they start another practice, and they put that person in the practice and let them buy out the practice over the course of three or four years, whatever it might be, and then you got another one. But meanwhile, they trained the person, right?

And they train the next person coming in. And the scaling up is easy. It's really about how you manage and how you set up the win-win situation.

I will tell you this. At the college here, amazing graduates. I mean, amazing.

I take them to India. We go to Tonga. Other doctors are there from around the world, and they watch.

And they say to me, is that one of your students or is that a doc? Because we have doctors who come from all over the world. Europe and Asia and Australia and New Zealand, all over the place, right?

And they just can't even tell who's a doc and who's a student. You know, who's a student intern. They're amazing, you know, but you've got to offer them something that's going to be worth it.

And just know this, you know, today's newer doctors, you know, they're not, they're looking for quality of life. They're not looking. They got to make money.

They got student loans to pay off. You know, but if you want to keep them, you know, they're looking for quality of life. So what's the vacation period?

And, you know, how do they work? You know, you're working five days a week, you know, eight hours a day, six days a week. They're not going to stay with you long, you know, because they can go do it on their own.

And believe me, they're capable of doing them on their own, right? But, you know, who needs the overhead expense when they can be doing it with you? Not for you, with you.

I think that's a big lesson that we have to learn and especially in chiropractic, right? And, you know, also, it's got to be the right time for you to bring someone on. You got to be able to afford to bring that person on.

If you haven't scaled to that level yet, you know, you might be dreaming, thinking, oh, I'll have all these other people do it for me. It doesn't work like that. And I've never actually, I have never seen it be regenerative like that.

I don't run back around, I'm getting away from the word sustainable. Sustainable to me is just sustaining, staying at the same level. Regenerative is like, we're growing, we're moving up.

So that's a key, right? The other thing is when you pick your associate doctor, if that's the route you're going to go, if you pick your associate doctor, you don't want to necessarily pick the top person in the class, the number one person, unless they really want to work for you. Because those people are going to move off and go on their own.

Those are the first round draft choices. There's nothing wrong with being a second round draft choice. Tom Brady was a sixth round draft choice.

The best quarterback to probably ever play the game. So nothing about it. But it's like having people that you can work with and you can build up with and make that happen.

So don't always just look for the cream of the crop because they might stick with you for a year. Not anything from you, but because they're ready to go do their own thing. That's who they are.

And they're not bad to have around, but if you want someone to be with you long term, treat them like your child and take care of them like your child. And I promise you, if they don't have this grand ambition to go out and do their own thing, we'll be fine.

There's so many little pearls in there. We could do a whole episode on that, but what you said to me is so profound. And the thing that really is already sticking with me is treat them like your child.

I mean, that is a beautiful picture of how chiropractic should be and how these relationships should be set up with the right expectations, the right agreements in place. So to win, win. I love that.

By the way, keep doing what you're doing at Life West because I'm getting ready to onboard my third associate from Life West. You're right. These are amazing young doctors.

They're phenomenal. And you're sending, I know you send a lot of people here, but it's been kind of a deal. It's like you keep sending them and they're going to keep coming back.

And it really is. It's incredible.

Oh, it's beautiful. I got another one coming your way. This kid's going to be great.

Okay. So I'm taking notes here, man. This is great.

Okay. So, you know, I know it breaks your heart and it breaks my heart when we see chiropractors leave the profession, you know, when we see chiropractors sell their dream practice for a discount. And I just I want you to encourage our listeners with some optimism about, you know, about this.

How can we avoid that? And then also, not to give you too much to think about at once, but kind of paint us a picture as a leader at a school, paint a ten-year picture for me and give me some hope about chiropractic, because chiropractic works, man. We see it work and you and I know it works.

And just give me a little glimpse into what you see as a vibrant future for us.

I'll never stop. I'm never retiring. I might retire.

I will retire from this job in the president seat. At some point, I will retire from this. But chiropractic, I can never get out of, because chiropractic is a way of life for me, and it's done so much for me, and it's given me so much, given me way more than I have ever given it.

And if you're out of exchange, if you feel like you're just like, you know, if things aren't working for you, it's usually because you're out of exchange. And if you're out of exchange, there's an old saying in a relationship, whether it's a relationship with your practice, a relationship with your spouse, a relationship with friends, a relationship with your dog or cat, right? In a relationship, just I'll say with myself and you, right?

I need to get more from you than what I give you. And you need to get more from me than what you give me. Now, understand that, right?

It's how we hold it. With my dog, when we had Nico, she was 145-pound, bull-masked. I got so much more from her than I could ever give to her.

And hopefully she got more from me than what she thought she was giving me. That's a win-win relationship. We just keep going up.

The minute it's like I'm giving you way too much more than I'm getting back, I'm going to step out of that relationship. I'm going to feel like it's just draining on me. So when you feel that drain-ness, whatever it is, whatever word, we'll go back to the first one we started, the stuckness, it's just that you're out of exchange.

You could be out of exchange with the universe. You could be out of exchange with life. You could be out of exchange with all of your friends.

Whatever it is, with your patients, you could be out of exchange. So you've got to see this. It's not about what you give me.

It's how I perceive what I'm getting, right? And that's how I have to hold it. And I've got to see those nuggets and see the value that's there.

That's why when you give a three-day-old child, baby, to anybody who loves you, they're going to go, oh, my God, they're just going to melt. Watch my wife and my daughters, man. You hand them out.

There's a baby. They're going to go right at it, right? And it's like, and they get so much more from holding that child.

Well, can we do that with chiropractic? Can we do that with what you do and everything in your life? And if it's not there, then get rid of it, because it's not going to be supporting you in what you're doing.

So on that level, we're talking about the people who are kind of feeling stuff. When you talk, Ronnie, about the person who gets a 350, and they go, it's not all there. There's a great book, and it's called Mastery.

It was written by a gentleman named George Leonard. And George Leonard was actually up here in the Bay Area. He was like a Wall Street kind of guy, broker, used to drive in the San Francisco from Sausalito in his beautiful car, and go to work every day and just pound out, make a ton of money, but he wasn't fulfilled.

One day, he's driving to San Francisco, and he just says, I'm not going to the office today. He let his car drive him wherever it wanted, but he just let the car go, you know, and it just kind of not hands-free, you know, Tesla kind of thing. But, you know, he kind of just drove around until it just finally stopped, and he looked up, and there was an Akito studio, and he went up there.

He listened to his inner voice, just let it kind of guide him. Went upstairs and met an Akito master, and he started taking Akito classes, right? Quit his job, you know, ended up, you know, becoming a black belt in Akito, and got over to the Esalen Institute.

This was back in the early days over on Big Sur, and, you know, where the intergame of tennis and all that stuff, and he was just, you know, taking courses and teaching things. And he wrote a book called Mastery, and bottom line is this in Mastery. Pick it up.

It's a very easy book to read. You'll read it in about 30 minutes. But it talks about how we're constantly taught to chase the rabbit.

And I'll give you an example. Go to high school and get great grades, so you can go to a good Ronnie Andrew college, right? And go to college and study hard, so when you get out, you can get a good job.

And then when you got a good job, get into a relationship, so you can then get what?

A good wife.

A good wife or a good husband, right? Or a good spouse, we'll say. And then if you work really hard, make enough money, you'll be able to go buy your big, beautiful house.

Yeah, and then you got a friend. It's always like, what's next? And what's next?

I'm chasing that rabbit, and I never get to that satisfaction. And what George Leonard teaches when you read the book, and I'm going to give you the punch line, but you got to read it anyways. It's amazing that when you're on the plateau, that's where life is lived.

It's not about jumping up to that next level, because everyone wants that next level, wants that job, wants that car, wants that house, wants that washing machine and dryer. It's not that. It's living here.

And guess what? You get rewarded, and then you live again on the plateau. You get rewarded, live on the plateau.

Life is on the plateau. Don't get suckered into thinking. It's on the beeps going up.

Because even when you go up, you're always going to go down a little bit and plateau. And then go up. Sometimes you take a bunch of jumps up, but then you plateau.

And then they go, oh, I'm not fulfilled. Of course you're not fulfilled. Why are you going to be fulfilled from a car or from a house or from whatever it is?

That's not what's fulfilling. What's fulfilling is on the plateau. And that's where life is lived.

So you can get that and be able to see that and be present and take anything that happens to you and be able to utilize that. I'm so in admiration of my daughters. Because no matter what life throws at them, good, bad, and different, it doesn't matter.

They somehow, and believe me, they did not get this from me, I promise you. But probably more from their mom, but I believe they kind of developed in who they are. They just make it be about their life.

That plateau, this is where it's lived to be present, in the presentness. And it's just incredible. So that's what I would say.

It's not about chasing the rabbit. And you hear these people, because if you're not happy at 100, you won't be happy at 150. If you're not happy at 150, you won't be happy at 2, 250, 3, 350.

You're just chasing happiness in numbers. It ain't in the numbers. It's not in the dollars.

Ronnie, you and I have had all the cars we wanted and all the fancy stuff and all that. It's not that. It really isn't that.

It has nothing to do with it. It's fun, yeah. Money, oh, it's fun.

I have a good affair. I have a good relationship with money, right? You know, I developed a relationship, because you know what I was taught when I was younger?

I'm from the wrong side of the tracks. I'll never have what they have. Money doesn't grow on trees.

This was a program I got from one of my parents, right? And it was her stuff. It was my mom.

And it was her stuff, not mine. But I took it in. I had to do a lot of work to get rid of that.

But once again, it ain't the love of money. That's for sure. Because money is just a vehicle.

It gives you more choices, but you can be just as happy serving it.

No, that's beautiful. And I want to ask you, you made me think of this, but just how important in your estimation is it for the DC out there to stay connected, whether it be with a coaching community or going to some of these more inspiring seminars like The Wave and ChiroFest and Cal Jam. I just, for me, that just fills me up.

You know, I'm already filled up. I just, I think it overflows my heart is what it does for me. But kind of encourage our listeners on that.

It's like guys don't make time, guys and gals don't make time for that stuff.

Yeah. And, you know, they always go, I don't need to go and you don't need to go. And don't come to get pumped because if you can get pumped up in the higher up you go, the further you're going to fall back down to where you were.

And when you fall, you're going to go a little bit deeper down than where you are right now, you know. So that's not why you go. You know, why you go is to be with people of like mind.

Why you go is to pick up, anytime I went to a program, went to a weekend seminar or whatever, I would go and I would look for five diamonds. That's it, five, because what am I going to do with a hundred diamonds? Go back to my office on Monday and change everything?

You just can't do it. Five diamonds. And after I got my five, I just sat there and I just enjoyed everything coming in, you know, that kind of thing.

And I would sit there anyways and enjoy it. And a diamond would hit me and boom, I would write down it. Sometimes I have ten things on there, but I would take it down to five, right?

And that's it. And just be content, right? But you go to be around people that think like you.

You go to be around people that you love to hang out with, you know? And it's the kind of thing where, you know, we just need... Being connected is being connected.

This day and age, they're on Facebook, you know, doing all their stuff on their phone. They're on Twitter, they're on Instagram, they're listening to podcasts, which are wonderful. Don't stop doing that stuff, right?

But it's all alone. And that connection is who we're about. Chiropractic is really about the connection of the perfection within.

And if we're not connected with others who think like us and we're not connected, I mean, my gosh, come to the school and get around these students and if they don't juice you up and you don't feel different when you walk out, we need to check in someplace because it's like, they've got such a magnetic energy around chiropractic, around life, around everything that they're doing. And if you're really feeling disconnected, come on a service trip with us. Because man, I'll put you on a table and have you be serving all day.

I guarantee you by the end of the day, you're not thinking about your disconnect. You're reconnected, I promise you.

That's right.

So I think it's important. And we don't make the time because we're educated. That beast says, ah, you don't need that.

There's a game on this weekend, or there's this, or there's that. And I'm not saying to stay away from the games. I love the games.

I got a big game coming up this weekend with University of Michigan Go Blue. But it's that everyday stuff. Yeah, I need to start eating better.

But I got Thanksgiving coming up. I'll wait till after Thanksgiving. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Oh, but New Year's is coming up. So I got to wait till after. Oh, but then Valentine's Day.

And it's always, always, always, always. You know, you're not living for now, baby. You know, get in the present.

Take care of yourself, right? Do everything that you need to do to be the best version of yourself so that you can go out and serve and be the best. Whether you're a CA, doesn't matter.

Whether you're a doc, it doesn't matter. So that you can be the best that you can possibly do to contribute to your team. Because every single person who walks in your door deserves your 1000% best.

And if you give it to them by the end of the day, you will be feeling phenomenal. Not used, beat up, drained. Phenomenal because it's what we have to offer.

And then, lasting about 10 years from now, here's what I see in 10 years from now. I see chiropractors, more chiropractors out on the street. Our numbers are going up in colleges right now with the amount of people coming into the chiropractic school.

It always swings and ebbs and flows. During recessions, we get more students that come in. During pandemics, I guess it's the same thing.

More students go in because people get to reevaluate and reassess their life and say, I'm not happy working on this nine to five job. I want to do something different. I want to be a chiropractor.

I want to get led to the healing or whatever it is. And what I see is this, if we as a profession learn to take care of each other, learn to take care of ourselves, and are able to embrace others, and be able to bring them in, and see our similarities and not our differences, this is what we're talking about in society, and really understand and cherish that same innate wisdom that's within that person you're looking at, and that same that's within you, right? And really acknowledge that, you know, we can make this world a better place to be.

And, you know, I see chiropractors growing, I see their profession growing, I see that we will be able to create more health in this world, that will create more healing in this world, allow people to understand that they're more than a chemical from the outside or something else from the outside, that within them, they have the power to heal. And if we can teach them about that, perfection of the connection within them, you know, we are going to empower people to live lives from the inside out, whether they're chiropractors or not, it doesn't matter, that they will understand that the first place they need to go is within, right? What do I need to do here?

And I need to see my chiropractor where they should be seeing you anyways, but, you know, I'm going to go see my chiropractor and make sure that I'm connected, right? And they start coming in like that. It's a whole different ballgame, but that's where I see it going, Ronnie.

And the students these days, you know, when my kids came out of school, whole different report of findings than what me and Mary were doing, you know? Both effective. I mean, we're talking brain, they're talking nervous system, they're talking communication, they're talking in a much different tone and a much different fashion that people are understanding that, you know, where I used to sit there and try and drive subluxation home to them.

Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. I had posters behind me, subluxation kills, you know, those old posters and all that stuff. My kids came in and said, that's got to go, that's got to go.

We said, whoa, whoa, whoa, I've had that since the 80s. Exactly, dad. That's why it has to go.

But, you know, we always attract those that are with us. But what I see is I just see beauty because I won't allow myself to see anything else, you know? And if we all see that, and we all see that we can take care of each other and move forward together and help each other and reach out and empower each other to go, you know, chiropractic will, you know, continue to be the phenomenal profession that it is, but it will also, or the phenomenal healing art that it is, but it will also step into that professional that it could be, you know, on a much, much higher level.

And be hard on ourselves. We're 126 years old. That's not, you know, it's not very old, you know.

But, you know, we need to step into that next level, you know, probably out of, when I was in school 40 years ago, 43 years ago when I was in school, we were probably like, you know, seven-year-olds then, you know. You know, we went through our teens right now. We're kind of moving into our early 20s.

And we're really going to start putting our route down and saying, this is the direction I want to go. And it's all perfect. So I wouldn't have changed the thing.

I wouldn't want to see it change any other way. It's exactly how it's supposed to be. We accept it.

We move with it. And we do the best we can.

I so appreciate you. And I agree with you 100%. I don't know about you, but you must really enjoy being around that young energy.

I learned so much from these young chiropractors. And I just want more docs on the call to take Dr. Ron up on the offer, go to the school, hang out with these students, do the mission trip. In fact, I'm going to put a couple of links in the show notes, one to maybe a way in which they can come to the school, but also to contact you to get on one of these mission trips, because there's so much to learn from this next generation, man.

Love it. Call, because we're here for you. I mean, when I came to the college, it was used the old model from not at Life West, but the old model in the world was, you know, okay, you graduate, now you owe us, right, kind of deal, and you don't owe anything to anybody.

We are here for you. We want to be a resource for you, right? So if you need information on something, you need x-rays read, you need whatever, if something came up that you didn't know about, we have tremendous amount of resources here that we want to make available to our alumni and our friends, you know.

But to keep that win-win situation, also, you know, play with us, you know, send us students, join our president circle, you know, a simple thing. Two adjustments, less than two adjustments a week, you know, for a month, you know, $100 a month for an individual. And all that goes to help our students.

And so as we start to symbiotically grow this, so, but like you said, Ron, reach out to us because we are here for you.

No, no, I appreciate that. And I think it's time, you know, for us to head back to the schools. I mean, when I meet chiropractors, I always ask them, how many students have you sent to a principal chiropractic college?

And I love I didn't know much about the President's Club, but I jumped right into that because, like you said, that's nothing. $100 for chiropractors, nothing. So I can't tell you how much we appreciate you having you at the helm there.

I know you're not going to be there forever. You know, you got to pass the baton at some point, but I just feel so encouraged having you there. And I don't even think twice about sending somebody there.

I just know what kind of guy you are. I know how well you're going to take care of them. And so for those of you who have a call, I want to applaud you as well, because you're taking time out for personal development and you'll never regret that.

And I also want to thank ChiroTouch for their spirit in this, that they want to help this beloved profession of chiropractic as much as anybody. And, you know, not only is it a great software, but they have great leadership and they've got great people. And I just love that they're doing this.

We're going to keep rolling these out. And Dr. Ron, I want to have you on again. And we'll let you come up with your own topic, but you crushed this one.

This was great. So anyway, I want to thank you guys. And remember, Docs, take care of yourself.

Make sure you're getting adjusted on a regular basis. And we need you to be at your best right now more than ever. So thanks again for joining us.

And thanks again, Dr. Ron. Really appreciate it.

You're welcome. My pleasure. Thank you.

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