Chiropractic as a Family Affair

Welcome to this edition of Catch Up with ChiroTouch. I'm your host, Dr. Ronnie Simms. I'm so glad you tuned in today because you are in for a special treat.

I have this young couple on today that I've had the privilege of meeting in a couple of different capacities over the last couple of years. And every time I come away, I'm so impressed by, you know, their spirit, their personalities, but also there's a spirit of humility, which I'm always attracted to. And so I'm super excited to have Nick and Stefanie, I hope I say this right, Rodsater on.

Did I say that right? Yes. So guys, welcome on.

So glad you're here. Yeah, and you guys have two practices on the East Coast. One in Huntersville, North Carolina, and one in South Carolina, I know, and it's Adjusting the World Chiropractic.

And your full team, including you two, I think is, I want to say seven chiropractors on your team, including you two, right?

Yeah.

So before we dive into today's topic, which is going to be how to have a vibrant, growing, thriving husband-wife chiropractic enterprise. And you guys are doing it really well. It's been fun to watch.

So before we dive into that though, can you guys kind of tell us your story of how you met, what that looked like, and how you just started off on your own?

You wanna go?

Sure, yeah. So, you know, it's funny in chiropractic school, they probably gave you all the, you're gonna get married, have a kid, or get divorced speech. And I was in a stage where I was like, none of those are happening to me, right?

And so none of them actually happened because we didn't get married till after chiropractic school. But a year into school, I was doing my work study at the gym and Stef came in and she had an Illinois fight in a line I shared on and I was an Illinois fan. And so it was a good opportunity to talk to a beautiful girl and kept seeing her.

And eventually we started dating and school was tough and it was great to have someone to connect and share that with. And I think we'll probably talk about, we have some very good strengths that compliment each other. So we really were able to help each other get through school and decided it was gonna be forever.

And so it was a good choice. Don't regret it for a second.

It's kind of crazy because we weren't in the same trimester. So we were in different trimesters, but it worked out for boards that we could study for boards together. So that was kind of, that was cool, like a cool way for us to like get to experience what it might be like to work together.

And I feel like if we could take boards together, we would have got it like 100%.

Man, you don't miss those days, do you?

No. Not at all.

So now you guys are 13 years into this amazing journey. And God's blessed you with two awesome little boys. And I think it's, I'm looking forward to asking you some questions around how to balance all that.

So let's just dive in. And so if you, as you look back at this kind of venture that you're on right now, what steps do you think a husband wife team should make before even starting their practice? Like what are some key little steps they should take there?

Well, you know, it's funny, because we were talking about this stuff earlier and I can't tell you how many people are like, how do you guys work together? Like how do you work with your husband all the time? And I always like look at couples and I'm like, how do you not work together?

Like it's the best thing ever, you know? And I think that a huge part of that though for us is like, and you gotta love working, like being together all the time, you know? And I think that was one thing like we caught off, like right off the beginning was like, Okay, we love to work out together, we love to study together, we just loved being together all the time.

So I think that is number one. If you need time for me and spouse, it's probably not a good idea to work with them. And so I think that was a huge one for us.

And like I said, I continue to feel that way. I'm always just like, I don't understand how spouses don't work together. When do you see each other?

When do you share in those ways? So I'm always super grateful that we work together because of, you know.

I think it's really important too to understand and do some work on understanding what your strengths are and where your weaknesses are and see how you can really compliment each other. You can probably tell it from this audio that Stef is definitely more of the outgoing person and I can be a little more reserved. And our strengths do compliment each other very well, but from the very beginning, I felt like we put time and effort into recognizing what those were.

And that way we were really working to lift each other up and bring each other along and be greater than the sum, right?

In school, I used to always be like, guess what I signed us up for? We're gonna do this. We're gonna do this.

He'd be like, look at me like, no. And I'm like, but it's so good for the school. We'll learn this and then we'll learn this, you know?

And he's like, you gotta give me a little bit of preparation on this, you know? So I realized through that too, that an introvert gets more time or more energy from being by themselves and they need that time. And so oftentimes when we were in school, Nick would oftentimes turn to me and be like, so what's Becky up to?

What's your best friend doing today? I'm like, do you need me to go away for a little bit? You know, cause he is an introvert.

It doesn't mean he doesn't like spending time with me, but he needs some of that time alone. Whereas I would get him out doing things that he wouldn't normally do because that's just not something he would normally gravitate towards. So it was a good experience for him, even just in school, to be able to see like, okay, there is all this stuff going on.

I don't need to do all of it like you are, but I will come and join you for some of it, you know? So that's like number one. But number two, I would say is like, we started with the coaching group right away.

That was one thing, like, I think we were like very, I mean, you know, you get advice in school. Oh, you can bounce things off other doctors. Personally, I felt better to just pay somebody for their advice.

And I knew that I wasn't gonna need to be reinventing the wheel because people have done this before, you know? And just going through like practice and seeing the difference compared to other people that decided not to do coaching. That was a huge piece.

Plus I think when you're a couple, like you've got each other to bounce stuff off of, but sometimes you just need that sounding board from somewhere else, you know? And so I think that's a huge, like I attribute coaching to a huge part to our success, for sure.

Wow, okay. So it sounds to me like there was an innate sense of each other's strengths and weaknesses right out of the gates as part of dating, right?

Yeah.

And then obviously the decision to hire a coach, but in that gap, were there any other specific objective tools you used, personality tests, or you think you just kind of innately knew and then the coach helped you put that into action?

I think at the time we didn't have the tools, but 13 years in and working with some great people in the profession and really growing and expanding our practice and organization, we've run into some tools now that going back about it and knowing about them then, I think would be great. You know, anything from strength binders to the PDP pro scans on your behavioral types. And I think the more you can understand yourself, the better of a partner you can be, but also the more you understand where the things that you absolutely love about your partner, your spouse are coming from.

But also if you can understand, we all have the things that we don't love as much as the others about each other and ourselves. So I think the more you can understand that, the deeper your connection can be. And when things aren't going perfect, because as anybody who's been in practice knows, it's not perfect all the time.

And it just helps us stay on the same team and the same page and working towards that goal of supporting each other and serving our community.

I love it. I appreciate you sharing that. There's so many tools that are available to us now that maybe you weren't 13 years ago, like you said, and that you guys are humble and open and still realize you're growing as leaders and all that.

So I think that's beautiful. Dive in a little bit deeper into the balancing of your gifts and personality traits as it relates to the practice as a whole.

So when we first started practice, like it's funny because I think even doing our preceptorships, we had very like different experiences. And Nick had a lot more experience in the office, I don't know, procedures and billing and all of that kind of side of things. Whereas my experience was like, I got to adjust all these kids and I got to do tons of marketing for the practice that I was working for.

And so, but I think that that was a lot what we were looking for when we were actually looking for the preceptorship in and of itself. And so I think because of our preceptorship and the experiences that we got, we already kind of knew our lanes that we were going to be in. Plus it did speak to our strengths.

Like I'm not a details person. I always say if it wasn't for Nick, I wouldn't make any money doing what I do because I would probably give it all away, you know? But I don't know if Nick would have any new patients because I don't know if anyone would know about him, you know?

Like, and so it's that kind of like team that we're like, we're a part of with this, you know? And so I know because of my extroversion and loving to talk to everybody and whatever, like marketing came so easy to me. It was definitely, it's been a strength that's always been a strength.

Like when we talk about like, you know, blind spots are out there are usually your strengths, especially in starting new practices that marketing just comes so easy that that's one of our big things right now, you know? Is like making sure we can get them plenty of new patients. So those are things that we still are learning along the way, you know, and, but I think that that is, that's like one of the big things is understanding where our lanes are, you know, and really staying in our lanes.

But also, I know we talked about this earlier, but like, if there is questions about certain things, like you can't be afraid to be like, hey Nick, where's the money coming in? Or, you know, like, where's the new patients at? Like, what's going on here?

You know, and pushing it that way. But always remembering to come back and be like, okay, but we're working for the same thing. We're not ever competitive.

It's always like, we're working towards the same goal. And so keeping that mindset, I think was always super helpful for us and still is.

No, that's so nice to hear that. It sounds like then your leadership of your company with that many docs, I'm sure just as many CAs, that what you said, Nick, they're about the personality testing and making sure that you're hiring the right person for the right job and making sure all the rights are in order. And so as you guys look at the leadership of the practice, does one of you kind of step into, because of your personalities, kind of you said more marketing, rain making, you're kind of bringing people in and you're more the business side or you guys kind of sharing that a little bit too.

Yeah, I think we, as we've grown as a company and also some of Stef's roles have evolved a little bit too as we've had the kids and expanded the family, right? You know, she's had a priority shift to some degree. I mean, she's still a huge driver in the office, but it's different now.

And so I think initially, I would say when it was her and I in one CA when we were getting started, it was very much like Stef was handling all the marketing and I was handling all the systems, all the billing and all that kind of stuff. And over time it has kind of evolved and we've been able to delegate those things. And I would say now it's more of a structure where we create the vision and share that to the team and get the team on board.

We tell them where they need to focus and then our staff really handles a lot of that stuff and it gets reported back to us. And we troubleshoot and solve problems together and with them, but I don't think it's like Stef markets now and I do the business, the systematic things of the business. It's been a cool evolution I think as we've been able to go there.

And we do like collectively invest a lot in our team too. Like we take them a lot of places. We do quarterly pulse meetings and we always do something like self-improvement wise around that.

We do a yearly planning session that always four hours of that meeting is dedicated to like improving you as a human. You know what I mean? Like that's just, and so we do pour into our team a lot too, which I think is why we're able to trust them with so much more of the practice in those ways.

And so that's been pretty fun too.

Thank you for that. So generally I kind of get what you're saying and we do a lot of the same things in my practice, but I'm just curious, do you take them away to the beach or what do you, gotta give me a little bit more detail if you don't mind.

Yeah, so like our quarterly meetings are like full days and we typically will do like the very first part of our quarterly meeting. Like the first hour will be something self-development. So, whether that's talking about abundance and money or we're talking about their strengths or doing some type of meditation or we have practitioners in the area that'll come and just like pour into our staff, whatever it may be, maybe emotional stability or just anything that can actually apply to the office, but also apply to their personal lives because then they're really excited for those meetings.

Because then it's not just a numbers meeting, it's they're improving. And then we always do something at the end that's like team building. Like, we've gone on like corn mazes before or did one of those like...

Laser tag has been a favorite of the teams. We just had our quarterly pulse meeting not too long ago and we did like the aerial yoga.

All right, did you say aerial yoga?

Aerial yoga. Aerial yoga, you're in scarves, like flying basically, doing yoga. Yeah, it's cool.

So we try to find like, you know, something just different that you probably wouldn't just do by yourself. Like those, that's kind of, that's what we do. And then our yearly planning, like this past yearly planning, we brought in Lin Mao who does Strength Finders.

And literally she spent an hour on each person before we got there and then spent two hours as a team putting all our strengths together, just like speaking into that, you know? But we've done other things before, talking about like manifesting what you want as far as like vision boards we've done before. I'm trying to think of some of the other ones, but we just always try to pour into our team.

And I mean, it's helpful to us too. I love all of that personal development improvement thing, those kinds of things too. So it's fun that we surround ourselves with a team that loves all that stuff as well, you know?

The last thing we say in every pre-shift huddle is, every day and every way, we're getting better and better, right? And so we speak down about our care and ourselves, but also the team as well.

We teach our kids that. Yeah.

I love that. So now you got two little mascots, huh?

Yes.

So did you have to hire an associate to backfill for Stefanie going out on maternity leave and spending more time as a mom? Or how did you guys do that?

So we, yeah. So we hired our first associate. She actually kind of came to us and wanted to-

We didn't think we were ready, but we definitely needed her.

Yeah, we were ready. And so, yeah, that was part of the learning process there, but she came to us and was a great fit philosophically. And so we brought her on.

And then as stuff, we were deciding that it was time to start the family. We had the fortunate blessing of having my sister in chiropractic school and had her coming in with the understanding that she was going to step in and be there for stuff when she went out on maternity leave. And then, so we were prepped for that.

And then with baby number two, we hired another associate a week before he was born. Yeah, so.

We always knew how long he was with us.

So his first week in the office, we had a baby and we were both gone.

Good to have you in the office.

Sink or swim, dude. Yeah, wow, so now then the challenge I, again, I'm thinking practically of you come back out and are ready to kind of get back into your flow. I guess that's where your marketing hat has to kick in to create enough reign so that everybody is busy, right?

Yeah.

So is that a challenge at all?

It hasn't been. I don't, like, I don't know what we have that like, man, new patients have just never been an issue in our office. So that's like been such an awesome blessing that we've always kind of had.

Well, I think it starts from before we, before we actually had any new patients.

We had to convince ourselves of this.

On the wall in the shower said, we don't need new patients, or new patients need us more than we need them, right? So that was kind of the viewpoint all along that, we have what they need and so they'll come find us. But then she worked really hard to make that happen.

I love it. But it is, it's like, it's been, I've come back part time, I work a shift every time we're open. So I work Monday afternoon, Wednesday afternoon, Thursday afternoon and Friday morning.

So. I love my schedule. It's like, I feel like it allows me to be a mom.

I do have a nanny. So I have somebody that's always there to help. But like the kids, like a lot of the times, the kids at the office with us when we do have meetings.

So it's nice because when we do have our lunch breaks, they're right there, you know? Yeah, and so we do, we try to incorporate them in our practice as much as possible. Our staff kind of knows that like they're part of the practice.

I mean, our dogs come to the office with us like almost every day. So it really has been like a family practice. You know, we've read studies that show that if you have dogs at work, that your employees are typically happier like just because they're there.

So we're like, okay, well, that's easy.

Yeah, and so having our kids there and being, and you know, we are a family practice. Our kids and pregnancy is 30, 35% of our practice. So that's what we do.

So I love that we get to be like have our families there. You know?

Well, and you're modeling what that looks like to your practice members. What a real family looks like, the chiropractic lifestyle. I think that's wonderful how you guys have set that up.

Have opportunities come your way to help other married practitioners out there?

Yeah, I definitely think so. And we just have a younger couple who's been in practice a few years who we went to dinner with sometime at the beginning of this year. And they had a baby recently and called him like, how did you get back into the office?

So, you know, what did you guys do? How did you structure your schedule? And so it was really cool to be, because you could just, I mean, they're great.

And they were going to be successful regardless. But you could tell there was that struggle of how do we make this all work? And just to be able to share what really worked for us.

And then...

Well, and especially when you're a mom who's like more natural minded, right? You want to breastfeed your baby. You want to be the mom.

You don't want someone else raising your child. Like there are things to navigate. And especially as a couple in practice, like he's the dad, I'm the mom.

But we're also trying to run this practice together. And so navigating breastfeeding and talking about the ways to do that to make sure your milk supply doesn't dip. And just all that kind of stuff.

It's fun to talk about because it is a challenge that you have to navigate yourself through and figure out the best ways that work for you. So it's been fun, but it's definitely, there's challenges along the way for sure.

Yeah, and what better person to have in your life than a chiropractor who's living that out? It sounds like you have your mornings with your boys, right?

I do, yeah.

Yeah, that's huge.

It's amazing. Like I said, a lot of the times I was like, gosh, I feel like I get my cake and eat it too. Like, you know, I really do get to do what I want to do like with this.

And I mean, part of that is the gift of being an entrepreneur and having your own business. Like, I mean, you do get to do this, but even one of our associates, she's just working two shifts right now because she's pregnant with her third, has kids the same age as mine. And, you know, like, she was like, I feel like I can't ask you guys for more time off.

And we're like, yeah, but you're valuable to our practice. So two shifts, if we can have two shifts from you, like we'd love to keep you on, you know? And so we've had to navigate that a little bit too, but I know it's a season, you know?

And I know it's going to change. And so, and I know that for myself too, like I won't always want to be part time, but right now I love it, you know?

Yeah, and so if I hear you correctly, I think I heard you say, Stefanie, you're working five shifts a week adjusting.

Four.

Four. Okay, call that working in the practice. What amount of time do you spend working on the practice with the marketing stuff and outside of patient care?

So typically we're there, I get there usually at 2.30. We don't see patients till 3.30 on like Mondays and then Wednesdays I usually get there at one. We don't start seeing patients till like three.

So there's some time there. And then Thursdays, we train our doctors at 10.30 to 12. And then we have coaching calls usually like through our lunch break during that time.

So that's some more time on the business. And then a lot of the times that hour after practice on Fridays, I'll tack on a little time there too to do meetings or whatever we might need to do, you know? And then Tuesdays we don't practice, but a lot of the times like I'll be home with the boys, but Nick will go to the office and have a same page meeting with our COO.

And they'll call me in to certain parts of it that I need to be on. But I mean, I can always, they know I'm with my kids, so I can always manage that. So that's kind of where that extra time comes in.

So probably like maybe five more hours, you know?

So it sounds like you guys have created a really good rhythm that is adaptable based on what comes into your life, whether it be a pregnancy or an associate getting pregnant, but you guys have developed, sounds like really good rhythms with your trainings, your meetings, your time with your COO, Nick. Is that something that happened overnight? Are you guys credit coaching for that?

What do you guys credit for that?

Yeah, I would say that's absolutely been coaching. You know, something that we knew we needed to do, but having the systems and the structure through coaching, you know.

Having it on your calendar. Is it like, it has to happen, you know.

I was saying, and it's still evolving, you know. We've been doing that for the last couple of years, but it's still, we're working to be better at that all the time too. But we do have really good rhythms with the team, the office, the structure of those extra meetings and things that you have to put in the time so that it runs smooth and everybody thinks we know exactly what we're doing when they come into the office, right?

So, yeah, it's been an evolution. And I would say that coaching with TRP here over the last several years has really helped us push that to the next level. And we've seen our practice grow exponentially from that point, as we've just got those systems dialed in and really clearly defined.

And that's been a huge difference maker for us.

We had a point where we were in entrepreneur organization, which is just like an entrepreneur club, you know? And that was a goal that we had set. And I was so excited to be in it.

And it was just, that was an awesome time period too. But we read that book, Traction, which I think Traction's just such an incredible business book. So if you guys haven't read Traction, that's a really good go-to.

And if I could have started my practice with all of those kinds of principles, man, I can't even imagine where my practice would be now, you know? Because that's been a huge piece that we've implemented.

Well, that's great advice because in school we're not getting that. And when you look at Traction and you see his vision, Traction organization chart on two pages, you're gone. And I love how he has those quarterly rocks and that massive section for issues list.

And like, there they are. But no, I couldn't agree more. And then I'm sure you probably have read the other one was at Rocket Fuel.

He wrote about the integrator CEO relationship. So it sounds like you guys are in a really good rhythm right now. So if I could just ask you another question about that, speak in to the important, you already kind of done this, but speak in to the importance of, cuz right now what I'm hearing you say, outside of your practice, you're part of a coaching group.

I've also been rubbing shoulders with you guys at UAC. And I'm sure you're in a mastermind. Both of you are probably in your own mastermind with that, I'm guessing.

And so obviously you make time for that. But how important is that for you guys, those rhythms with these connections and these accountability groups?

I think it's monumental, personally, especially my accountability group has been together, we just celebrated our eight-year anniversary. So we have been getting together every Tuesday at 1 o'clock for 50 minutes for eight years.

It's mind-blowing.

And yeah, and to look back and see the growth of all four of our practices is insane. And we go through trials and tribulations with each other. And so it's always awesome to learn from each other's mistakes cuz we're all in practice, we're all husband and wife practices.

They're all the guys, but I'm the only girl in the accountability group. But still, it's things that we get to learn from each other. It's pretty, it's just an amazing, that's an amazing piece.

And we also do optimize that app, like the Philosopher's Notes. So we read the Philosopher's Notes, which is basically like the Cliff Notes version of personal development books every week. So we have been changing the paradigm shift that's taken place in my brain of healthy living, which I feel like was already super high.

But also our business, our success mindset, just the whole mindset piece. That's been a great rhythm for me. But also like, yes, UAC has been like one of our favorite groups that we've been a part of.

That is, you know, every time we leave a UAC, we're like, dang, we are playing small. We got to do better, you know, which, you know, it's, it's amazing. And it's so cool to come away from something feeling that way, because it does, it pushes you to be like, I got to make a bigger difference.

And so I think in some of the front, the friendships we've developed out of that are like some of our best friends, you know, and it's just, that has been just such a huge add to our lives.

So I love that surrounding yourself with the people that you want to be like and learn from has been huge for us. Yeah, yeah, I wouldn't, we would not be where we are without that. There's no doubt in my mind.

And just to speak into the coaching piece real quick, you know, we started off with integrity management, then we went and moved on to like, we've had about five or six different coaches. And we've learned stuff from every single one, you know, and if we stopped feeling like we were learning stuff, then that was when we knew it was time, okay, to move on. Now, since we've been with France, and I can't even imagine growing out of him because he's constantly improving himself all the time, too, you know, and little things come up and it's so nice to have somebody to go to and be like, dude, how do you deal with this with somebody that's already dealt with it before, you know, because then you're just not trying to figure it out on your own and like, yes, you're going to make mistakes along the way.

But man, having those people around you to bounce things off of that are kind of going through the same things, you know, is so nice. And then they learn from your experience, too. So it's like you're contributing while you're going through this process.

And so that's always been really, really beneficial for us.

I love that. It's very similar to my story. And I heard some of the same coaches in there, but yeah, I just feel like you're right.

You're absolutely right. You're setting up structure and systems and process procedures in your life to keep you tethered and open to where your next chapter is. And you know, as you look at that, you guys, you know, we know the future for you is really bright.

And I think just from this conversation, there are so many couples out there that are going to be blessed by you guys sometimes in the future. I don't know if it's a book you write, or it's a coaching platform or what, but you know, I just feel like you're being prepared for something greater. Have you guys sat down lately and really spent time on clearly defining the vision of your practice where you want to take it?

And if so, what does that look like? Because I know it's going to change, it always evolves and improves and stuff.

Yeah, that is something that we talk about a lot and you're absolutely right, it has evolved. I feel like every time we've talked about it, it's changing and evolving.

Well, and adding family and stuff like that too.

Yeah, that's right. The big picture vision for us is we really want to empower chiropractors to be their best and the way we see it right now is giving them the systems and helping them either get started or partner with them and helping them develop the tools to serve their community. And so we've already started out our second practice and looking at a third and seeing where we go from there.

But I feel like our passion has really hit like there are unfortunately too many chiropractors that are struggling and it's, you know, whether they don't understand the business side of it or they just don't have the support that they need because, you know, it's amazing, but it's not easy, right? And so they don't really prepare us for that in school. So we've had the opportunity to help and lift up a set of chiropractors and it just really struck like the heart with us that we can help people live the life that they love and serve their purpose and be chiropractors.

They wanted to be chiropractors, but like that business side was hard, you know? And it's like, okay, let us help you with that, you know, right? Yeah.

Yeah.

I love the old Franzen scene about about that, you know, we're in the business of saving lives. When business is good, everybody wins.

Exactly.

So it sounds like you guys have had a little bit of an epiphany through this in that, because we all realize at the end of the day that Stefanie, Nick, Ron, we can only personally adjust and influence so many people in our society. And sometimes you get to a point going, okay, like Mark Mao shared with me, Dr. Mark said, he was thinking about going into real estate until he got exposed to the UAC group and it completely flipped his context about what you can do in chiropractic. And now, you know, you look at Mark and go, okay, I'm glad he didn't go into real estate.

And there's so many docs out there that are really at their personal capacity going, I'm nowhere near having the impact of my community that I thought I would. That was the epiphany I had about 10 years ago. Now I've got five associates and plans to double that because it's not about money.

It's about helping people with a chiropractic lifestyle. And I can only do so much. So I have a question along that lines.

Have you guys began to experience any of this where you and maybe more Stephanie, we come into the practice and there's people walking by, they don't know who you are. Like they kind of know of you, but they don't know who you are.

Yeah.

That kind of a good feeling.

Yeah. It's great. It's crazy because I do feel like, you know, I, you know, especially starting the practice and you know, I always felt like every I knew everybody in the practice.

I already knew who I was. And especially going out on maternity leave a couple times and now I'm only part time. You know, it's funny that like, yeah, it is one of a wild feeling.

But at the same time, it's so cool because I, I can still feel they're like getting the experience and they're getting like the knowledge and the their paradigms are shifting and like you can still see all that stuff is changing. Like my office is doing an awesome job even when I'm not there, which is just wild.

It's so fulfilling.

Speaking to that, I think one of my favorite things is the best week we ever had in practice from a volume standpoint, Stef and I were on vacation. So it was, that was pretty cool. Like it was funny.

We came back and one of our associates at the time, he was like, Oh man, I'm sorry that, you know, that the best week you aren't here. And I was like, you're sorry, dude. That's the greatest thing that ever happened.

I was like, Hey, it's not about me, it's about all those people that came in and got served up. So yeah.

Dude, that's a beautiful picture. And you guys are definitely on a great trajectory. Looking forward to having a front row seat to see what's next for you guys.

I got a couple more questions. We kind of already covered the blind spots. Basically, what I heard you say was, look, do some discovery, personality discoveries, find out your strengths, your weaknesses, figure out what your first hire is to support you to husband, wife, and then have a great marketing plan and always be tethered to coaching and mastermind groups.

And despite all that, we're still going to run into roadblocks, which end up being great opportunities for growth and whatnot. But any other blind spots, as you guys see it in the husband-wife relationship?

Yeah, there's one thing that I really wanted to add to that piece of it is the relationship factor. It's so easy when you're in practice with your husband to be business and be all business and you can't lose the relationship. And so I heard this, I literally was in high school when I heard this.

I was at a wedding one time and the guy, the priest was talking and he was saying, like, you know, the key to a successful marriage is that you make sure you spend 15 minutes a day looking at each other and talking and you're not talking about, you're talking, you know, about connecting, you know. You spend one week night a week, you know, on a date, like two hours, you spend one week, weekend a quarter and one week, or wait, one week a year. Yeah.

And so, you know, we, like before having kids, we were hardcore about that. Like we really did. We would always, we made sure that we had our date nights were Wednesday nights and like we, you know, always made sure and even if it was coming home and watching a show, like on the couch together, like we were together on a date, you know, sometimes yes, and we were present, we put our phones away.

It's definitely more challenging once having kids because they're always around, you know. And so, like we have been really, really diligent, it's literally in my phone alarm goes off when it's time for he and I to have like 10 to 15 minute conversation, you know. And if we can't do it right then we like create that we decide, okay, like we had to put the kids to bed and then we need to come back out, you know.

And so connecting that is that's really important and like our dates, it's like, we really try to make sure that we protect those and sometimes they are double dates, but we date each other, you know, we aren't just like, and I think that that that part, I think I could see where that disconnect could create a division and that could be a really big problem, you know. But if you just keep that in the forefront of the mind of your mind, that that relational piece is so important that I feel like has been just such a huge game changer for us and like has allowed our marriage to be successful as well as us be successful in practice.

Yeah, that's great. I mean, you guys have given so many nuggets and I would say that one right there is it sounds like that's the foundation to this whole thing, right? That's more important than anything else you guys spoke about was keeping that marriage relationship vibrant, putting the focus on you two first.

And I think a lot of people make that mistake even with kids, you know, with our kids, our explanation to them was, you know, mommy and daddy were a family before you and that's why we're going on dates and you're not invited. And that's for doing a long weekend and grandma and grandpa are watching you. And then as I got older, the kids became more intuitive about a dad, you know, you need to make you need to probably take mom on a date.

You know, you guys are seeing a little off lately. I'm like, oh, great. Now my 16 year olds counseling me.

But we you guys are never going to regret that. Your boys are going to be so blessed by what you just said. So thank you for that.

One last thing. What are some other blessings that you guys have realized and don't I'm not talking monetary. I'm talking about life stuff that has come your way as you're manifesting your vision right now.

I think for me, the biggest one is just been the fact that we get to be with our family. You know, we aren't traveling. I just had a new patient that had 95 flights last year, and he's got two young kids and he's like, his why and his stressor was, you know, he doesn't get the time with his family.

And when he does, he was in pain and couldn't enjoy it with his kids. And that's why we're going to change his life through helping the body function better. But for us, just, you know, having the ability to spend the time with the family, have the kids come to the office, have the dogs come to the office, get to work with my best friend and partner, you know, every day.

I can't imagine being blessed in any better way than that, really. And that was, you know, because we decided we wanted to be entrepreneurs, own our own business and do it together.

I think another blessing too, is like, you know, just going through COVID, like getting to see our practice, our team, like the certainty they had in their health, like through like probably one of the most trying times when it comes to our health and, and uncertainty, you know, to be able to like watch, you know, moms feel solid, like, where are my kids going to get germs? I need more germs, you know, like, just getting them to understand and like that, that I think that was, that's such a huge, I mean, fulfillment, you know, to know that we've like empowered all these people to like know that their bodies are amazing and that their immune systems are amazing and that the power that our systems have as long as it's connected is just, that's like, I mean, I think this profession, there's just nothing better. I, you know, you see, you see people in our practice all the time, counting down their days to retirement.

And I'm like, I can't even imagine the day that I will ever retire. Like I don't want to stop doing this, you know? And so it's wild even, you know, just that in and of itself is such a gift because I can't imagine going and dreading going to work.

I mean, I remember my first maternity leave, I was like, okay, I'll take 12 weeks, you know, at 10 weeks. I was like, I got to come back. I got to come back.

And like, even if it's just a little bit, you know what I mean?

So yeah, it's I think that that's such a blessing to Well, I mean, I think you've clearly articulated both of you that for some of us that are principled, we've been called to this. And a calling is different than a vocation, right? I mean, it's who we are.

And what you said about COVID too, to me, I told my team this. I said COVID was the biggest test on how principled we are we've ever come across. And we pass it with flying colors, because like you guys, we grew during COVID, because we stuck to the principle and we have a healthy team.

And everybody's getting adjusted regularly. And they're all taking their supplements and they're, you know, we know what we know, right? And COVID really proved that out again.

And it just makes guys like us even more principled and more fired up, right? So I think the world's in for it, man. Chiropractic, I just feel like we need you guys.

We need all these practitioners that we're rubbing elbows with to keep playing big, because we need chiropractic to capitalize on this weird time in history, right? I can't tell you guys how much I appreciate you. This has been really fun.

I guarantee you we're going to have you guys back on if you would allow us to have you back on.

We'd love to.

Because this is going to be a homerun for our audience. And for me, it's been a homerun too. So I really appreciate you both.

And for those of you on the call today that took the time for personal development, you're never going to regret it. You're going to replay this one time and time again. And just I want to applaud you for taking the time for that.

And when the world needs you, they need us. They need chiropractors to be at our best now more than ever. And so I want to also say thank you to ChiroTouch for allowing me to host this awesome podcast, to be with great guests like these guys.

But also just the spirit behind it that ChiroTouch understands that the success of the chiropractors lets it play here and that we need to be on our games and that ChiroTouch wants to do everything it can to support these practitioners. So thank you ChiroTouch. And once again, thank you, Nick and Stefanie.

I can't wait to see you guys probably in Santa Fe.

You guys going to Santa Fe? We'll be there.

I'll see you in Santa Fe and look forward to hanging out and you guys meeting my amazing wife and spending some time with those cute little kids, man. And but once again, I want to thank you guys for tuning in. Thank you, Nick and Stefanie.

And make sure Doc, that you're taking care of yourself, that you're getting adjusted and that you're staying healthy and that you're staying vibrant. So once again, thank you for tuning in. Thanks.

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