The Listening Doctor Method

Welcome to this edition of Catch Up with ChiroTouch. I'm your host, Dr. Ronnie Simms, here in Northern California. I'm so glad you took the time out of your busy schedule to tune in to this podcast.

You're not going to regret it because today's guest is amazing. I'm so excited to be talking with this guy. Before we dive into that though, I just want to thank ChiroTouch for the spirit behind this podcast.

The whole idea behind this is to help the chiropractic profession not just sell software. So this is really geared toward the practicing chiropractor to help you grow, not only in your skills as a practitioner, but more so in your skills as a businessman, businesswoman, and as a leader in your community. And we've had a really good time with this and it's been a real fun go.

And so today, I'm very honored to have Dr. David Fletcher with me. Dr. Fletcher is the president and CEO of Chiropractic Leadership Alliance. A great organization that produces some of the most amazing technology in the practice.

I'm very glad to have some of this technology in my practices. And Dr. David, welcome on.

Oh, Ron, it's fabulous to be invited. Thanks so much to hopefully raise the level of excitement and enthusiasm of chiropractors everywhere.

Oh, and you're the best at it. So for me, we've talked a lot about the different domains of practice. We've had great guests on and people that you know and love.

And I'll tell you, really, when I thought about you, I thought, man, what better guy to have on when we're talking about practice retention? A lot of the feedback I get from the field, from chiropractors who are responding to these podcasts, or just people that I know in my own life, they're really struggling with retaining clients and making that transition from this kind of clunky old pain model of chiropractic, which doesn't serve us very well. I don't think to this more family wellness kind of realm, which is a whole open field of opportunities.

So for today's episode, I would love to dive into that. But before we do that, can you give our listeners a little bit of a Reader's Digest version of your chiropractic story?

Yeah, I'd love to. You know, I was probably not unlike most of the listeners here. I graduated thinking chiropractic was more than what I had learned from in school.

I didn't get into chiropractic school to become a physiotherapist or otherwise. But for whatever reason, that's what they sort of wanted to push down our throats. Anyhow, I got into the field and I was pretty young.

In fact, I started university when I was 16. And so by the time I graduated, I was just barely 22. And I think I had to paint a mustache on just to be sort of recognized.

But anyway, I went out to sort of a rural area in central Alberta. I'm Canadian. And it was interesting because the oil boom was on and there was no room in the end.

There was no where to open the practice. So I actually started my first practice on Tuesdays and Thursday nights in a hotel room of where I pushed the bed to the side, I put a portable table in, and I just put a basically box on the wall, and we had people come in. And the reason I say that is, A, it was innovative because I needed to practice.

But B, when I started to practice, I had no other skills. In other words, I didn't have physiotherapy, I didn't have any x-ray or I didn't have anything. So I just relied on the story of chiropractic and the benefits of an adjustment.

And literally within a couple of months, I was seeing, oh, there's a whole story about how I used a deck of cards to control the flow of the number of people coming in and all the rest of it's kind of legendary. But the truth of it was is that before a couple of months had gone by, it was standing room only in the hallways of this hotel. And it wasn't as if we were like isolated from chiropractors.

Down the road from us were 40 great chiropractors. But the story that we were telling, or I was telling, was really all about this idea that you're talking about, which was the exceptional experience that people can have when their nervous system is free and clear, but at least some obstructions, you know. And they got it for however reason it was.

So I enjoyed that really, really incredible lift. Obviously, it got into a place where I could open my own practice. And, you know, it's fun and funny when I think about chiropractic starts and otherwise, is I hear so many stories about chiropractors struggling in their first days and weeks and months and years of practice.

And I don't deny that that's there. But I think that a lot of that is coming from this presence that you have to accept the fact that, and we always talked about it as being burn the boats. You know, when I chose to be a chiropractor, I chose not to be a medical doctor.

I chose not to be in other words, I made the choice that this was my path and nothing was going to, you know, detract me from that. And so I always had this idea that it was an open terrain of experience as an opportunity because I was a chiropractor. And it's kind of an interesting phenomenon.

I don't even know where I got that idea that I was supposed to be there. But I knew very clearly in my early years that I had chosen not to be many other things that I could have been. I'm trained in mathematics.

And so I was supposed to go into the physical sciences and everything else that was on there. But I chose chiropractic because I loved the idea of what it was. And so that was my experience starting up.

Ended up teaching at different colleges. I ended up getting a fellowship, we called them in Canada, a diplomate in sports sciences. And the evolution of that, Ronnie, was that in my dissertation, I was using EMG.

So we were looking at performance-based EMG in athletes, high-level athletes. So I was working with a lot of Olympians and a lot of high-performance other athletes, and professional ones like the Maple Leafs, as we were talking about it. And maybe I'll get to the Raiders sometime.

But as we were doing that, we were starting to use this innovative approach, which was EMG studies, and I was using a really terrible unit. And I started to search out a better EMG unit to do some of these studies. And I picked up this phone and it was EMG consultants.

And who picked up the phone? It was Christopher Kent. And the craziest part of that whole story was that I was loving chiropractic, and I thought EMG was the sort of crazy thing that only PI groups did and everything else that went along with it.

And I found Christopher Kent was on the other end of the line, and he was telling me about how EMG was tied into the whole chiropractic story. So we fell literally in academic love immediately. And that was my introduction to CLA.

Wow, that's a great story. And just real quick, what year would that have been?

1994.

Wow, that's what a great story. I didn't know the backstory there. So here you are.

And so I think obviously where I want to take this is talk about technology. I want to talk about what's available to people out there. But just short of technology, you brought it up in our conversation about this mechanistic kind of pain-driven model.

And then we've also talked about this wellness kind of human potential model. And as you look at that spectrum, short of technology, what are some things doctors can do from day one, or maybe Monday for the guy that's been doing it kind of backwards, without even technology to begin to speak these truths into our clients?

Well, I think that it's a very easy transition. Yet, I refer to it as the critical shift. Because obviously, the first shift happens in your mindset or your decision to not be mired in what is average.

Because chiropractic was never meant to be average. And it was not supposed to be unique like a unicorn either. It's for everybody, but it's supposed to have an experience attached to it.

And so I think that the very first thing that we as practitioners have to do in deciding about, you know, taking on this critical shift is very simple, is that we have to shift our perspective from being associated mostly with the biomechanisms of the spine and shift our first perspective into the control mechanisms of the nervous system. The reason that chiropractic or chiropractic was associated with the spine wasn't because of muscles and joints. It was because of the ability to communicate effectively within the body through an intact functioning nervous system.

And the rhetoric and the metaphysical components of the chiropractic philosophy associated this with the healing response and the recovery response that we refer to as this innate responsiveness. And so to have an innate responsiveness that was controlled and organized and otherwise, we use the term intelligence. And so these are complex systems.

Obviously, health and the body systems are so infinitely complex, we don't understand them at this moment, yet they seem to work in a coordinated way. And so the physics terminology for this multi-conceptual model that is associated with these multi-dimensional systems coordinating with one another is a term called coherence. And so for a very complex system to function and to be continuously innovative and adaptive, it has to have an exceptional level of coherence built into them.

And in our bodies, that coherent functionality, which is known as adaptability as well, is associated with an intact and communicating nervous system, not an intact and communicating, you know, passive spinal system or even active muscular system. Those are subsystems of the nervous system. And as a consequence of that, if chiropractors will take a moment and realign their thinking to a nerve-first approach, never dismissing the spine, for goodness sakes, never, but associating the spine as yet one more organ system associated with the nervous system, then we have the beginning of that critical shift.

Wow. So as a chiropractor, that stretches my brain. How then does the chiropractor take that message to the average Joe?

Like, how would you dumb that down?

No, no question. And so we understand that there are certain community-based terminologies that people relate to when it comes to the nervous system. Stress is a very good one.

They understand that stress affects their performance in health. And they understand that stress can cause a nerve-based reaction. And so we can really start substituting complex words like subluxation, not to dismiss it, but substitute it in the conversation to talk about the stress that's affecting the way your nervous system works.

And so, you know, we can begin simply, like you asked me in the early part of this conversation, what can a chiropractor do on Monday without necessarily having all the tools? The answer is number one, perspective. And number two, use some language hooks.

Just to bring the person a little further along in the way that they understand how chiropractic is much more than the symptoms they are feeling. And then co-related, you know, a lot of times, well, you know, I mean, how great is it that we are a touch-based profession in that same realm? Let me tell you, when you're using an EMG sensor, you're using, you know, we refer to them as digital sensors, but these are pretty darn good digital sensors, too.

And even if you're at the point where the patient is lying face down and you're palpating, instead of discussing the tight muscles and the soreness or the alignment of their spine, shift the conversation to say, this is where the tone of your nervous system is fighting itself. Did you know that this is the neural connection area to the way your digestive system goes? Did you know that pressure and tension that sits in the base of your skull can affect the way you see the world and the way your behaviors respond?

You know, that's the kind of conversation that kind of catches their attention. And if you can follow that up and show them and give them the real reason to believe, which is where the technology interface comes in, then you have a powerful story.

Yeah, you really do. I mean, it brings it all together. So, you know, what you're saying is so true.

And I made that pivot probably in around 05, literally 15 years into my mechanistic chiropractic career. And so being introduced to this amazing thing that I can't live without now, my subluxation station, take it a step deeper now and speak in to the importance of having technology in your practice. I know a lot of docs maybe don't think they can afford it and or, you know, maybe that's something for later.

But just how important is that to you and how important is that to chiropractic?

Well, if we take a look at the history of chiropractic, instrumentation has been at the front end of it. I know there's always a story about how, you know, in 1895, there was a, you know, there was x-ray being developed and there was chiropractic being developed same year. Rankin was doing his thing.

In the early days, in the 1920s, BJ started to recognize the value of looking at thermography as it was related to the poor connectivity of the sympathetic nervous system. And since that time, there has been always this interface of how the chiropractic model was affiliated with looking at function versus just feeling. And so this is a hugely important aspect of it because the nervous system obviously is, you know, organized around the sensory component.

But we look at the sensory component chiropractically, not limited to the pain based or at least the symptomatology, but looking at that as input into this responsive nature. This is why the safety cycle was developed in the whole principle of chiropractic. And so, you know, in computer terms, garbage in, garbage out.

And so, if we have the, and in so many of the mechanistic, and don't get me wrong, I love structure. Like, this is not about, this is about understanding. We live in a gravitational world.

You have to have a very confident structure to manage. But here's the point, is that even when you start talking about that mechanistic modeling and the misalignments in the spine and otherwise, we're talking about a proprioceptive discord that's associated with a lot of garbage in, which always facilitates an efferent pathway, which is the motor or sympathetic motor responses that associate with this open, if you will, safety pin cycle. And so I think that if people go back and understand that the joy of chiropractic is not getting lost in trying to be a salesperson associated with looking at different colors, but using this brilliant philosophy and then attaching the science of the day.

And the science of the day for looking at neurofunctional status is to measure the efficiencies in which the nervous system is able to perform in very controlled environments. And so if you take a look at something as simple as sitting, like we're all doing right now, there's a, and if you can standardize that seated posture, if you took that seated posture and you ran it through a series of tests and otherwise, you would see that there is an amount of energy that those muscles along the spine have to spend, if you will, to get the exact amount of ease under which that person is going to sit, so that they're either not in pain. So somebody who has a lot of distortions in the spine is going to spend a lot of energy, which they wouldn't normally have to do.

You take that same person who is seated and in a comfortable area, just managing gravity, and you ask them to perform, whether it's an elite athlete or whether it's a house person who's doing some work around the house, it's going to cost them an enormous amount of energy. And that energy is not finite. I mean, pardon me, infinite.

It is finite. And as a result of that, any energy that is wasted in managing gravity pulls it away from the ability of that same human being to process adaptability and creativity. And so you see where I'm coming from this?

So you can take a look at the most primal principles of chiropractic. Bone in, bone out of place, you know, that sort of principle, and still apply it to the whole level of optimized potential in the human experience.

Wow, that's a great way to put that. I love the way you articulate that. As I think about that in practice, then you add that layer of EMG thermography.

Even in my practice, the PWP, the heart rate variability, and I want you to talk about those, how it kind of rounds out that picture for us. But how to explain that to a client, but also for the chiropractor, of how to realize in the beginning when somebody comes to you in acute crisis, you know, how deep do you go at that point versus for me at least, and I think I might have learned this from you and others, but I go way deeper on my subsequent exams when they're feeling good on their post-testing than I really did on day one because they weren't in a headspace to maybe receive it. I touched on it.

I certainly exposed them to it. But please speak into that because people fly away.

Yeah, you know, it's always supposed to be not about us, but about the patient. That's why we're caregivers. And so when I was positioned to a place, I mean, listen, I can't imagine there are very many practices on the planet that have well people coming in and saying we want to stay well and get weller.

You know, it's mostly people who are in distress that need to learn. And so that's the reality. And so what I would do, and I hope this is valuable for people listening in, is what I would do is I would just be a big ear.

I knew what I knew of what I wanted to do. And I would listen to them. And unless they got hit by a bus, you know, there was obvious trauma or it was there.

It was something about more of a progressive change that they hadn't addressed. And I would say, you know, as I listen to your story, one thing that comes to mind is that and concerns me is that your body should have been able to handle itself against these ongoing changes. And because it doesn't seem to be keeping up with that, the first thing I want to do is to look and see how well your body is set up to recover.

So to do that, we're going to scan the nervous system and understand if there are obstructions or interferences in the way the nervous system, which controls all else, is supposed to be working. From there, we're going to see if your spine is holding a good alignment. And from that point, I can put together a care plan that helps you both to recover from what the stress is on your nervous system, but also what's associated with what you brought in today, you know, something like that.

And so we would build that. So listening was really just saying, you know, from what I understand, there should have been a better outcome than where you are today. Let's find out what went wrong.

I think that this soft invitational approach is so much more appealing when you have the tools to measure, and also when you have the desire to not just manage them to the pain, but to manage to say, why did you come here? What is the cause versus why are you, you know, what's going on? And they get that right up front.

And if you can bring the next step to say, ah, there it is, this is what it's all about. And like, take for instance, Ronnie, the whole idea of x-ray, we use x-ray all the time in the office. This is not about either or.

And what I would do in situations like that would say, listen, you know, your body had to do what it had to do. I don't look at x-rays as failure in the same way I don't look at scans as having rad and failure on them. It's the body's natural response to say, I had to do what I had to do to get out of this problem or protect myself.

And so when I take a look and I see an x-ray that's, you know, distorted and sees a lot of degeneration in it, I'll let the patient know that, look, even the hardest tissues of your body have begun to warp and change because of this continuous stress on what controls your body's systems, which is your nervous system. Let's work on those and let's see if we can take the stress off of the spine itself. You know, inviting them into that whole process.

Wow, that's beautiful. And I think what you said is something that's so lost in today's healthcare model of the listening doctor, someone who's willing to open their heart up to this patient and really lend a listening ear because people aren't getting that anywhere else. And shame on the chiropractor for not doing that.

And so, okay, so as you then go deeper in this relationship with somebody, you're able to give them a little bit of an idea of where they're at and why they're not adapting well. And then you create a care plan and you take them through that care plan. And then you know in your heart of hearts that this is a person who would respond to periodic checkups.

How do you kind of, like how often would I retest them? You know, I test them on day one. How often do you recommend retesting people?

And then after that, you can just dive right into what the substation is now. I don't know if you've added any components since I purchased mine that I'd like to know.

Yeah, well, I think that this is the crux of it. And I wrote some chapters in a book that was published a while back. But the whole point is, is that what you and I just described in this whole early part of the conversation is neuroplasticity.

Is that the nervous system is supposed to be able to be highly adaptable and very plastic in the sense that it's not lost. It's always searching for ways to become more efficient. And if it can't find those, it co-ops them.

It's not just compensation. It actually just doesn't compensate. It actually steals energy from different areas and reinvigorates them.

It's really quite a remarkable process. So neuroplastic care planning, to answer your point, is based upon time and repetition. Those are the two principles that associate with neuroplasticity.

And so if we can begin the journey of care planning, like we talked about, with this perspective shift from structure to function, from the spine to the nervous system, then plasticity in the nervous system is measured sequentially. So I would set up something that was called a rule of 12. And in the rule of 12, I would tell the patient very clearly, look, we're going to give you 12 imprints on your spine and nervous system and see how well you can change.

And after that, we'll get an idea of what your trajectory is. Sometimes you'll feel better, sometimes you'll feel the same. But what we need to understand is, is your body able to accept change?

And so I would scan them on day one and scan them on day two or visit 12. And from that point, we let them know also that it was at least 12 weeks before I'd be satisfied that there was going to be a significant enough shift to look at changes in the function, but that it could take anywhere from 12 months to 12 years for their body to continuously reorganize itself because they want to not only feel better, but they want to grow to the next level of their potential. And they would accept that without a doubt.

And it also came from the idea that if they were there simply for the pain-based modeling and undoubtedly some people would would come in for that. Respectfully, I would literally get on the phone, call a friend of mine up who was down the way who loved just working with pain-based chiropractic. And I would say to them, hey, listen, Bobby, you know, I've got someone here who is way better suited for you.

I've done all the work up on it. Can you just get them feeling better today? And I would shift them out, because if they're in the wrong place, that's associated with this 12 visit, 12 week model that's going to go on for months, then I want them taking care of what they need.

And very few people like we were we were the beloved in our community. And and I don't mean that because of personality. We were beloved when I started in our in our practice in my town, which is a suburb of Toronto.

So I moved from from this from the sticks into the suburbs of Toronto, big city, you know, big everything that goes along with it. There was literally three of us in this in this original suburb, which kind of sounds small, but it was growing at the time. And by the time we left and I was sort of in the intersection of Maine and Maine, there was in that area.

By the time I left, there were 13 chiropractors on the same corner. And the reason they became and we were all busy, but we set the tone in the early stages that chiropractic was what the town grew up around in our office. We said, you know, we ended up seeing literally hundreds of patients daily.

And the realities were is that we couldn't keep people away because chiropractic was supposed to be what we hopefully presented. And if you add that technology interface, it's more about how you want the world to see you. So let me talk about the interface for just a minute.

You brought up heart rate variability. You know, in the earliest stages of what was called at that time, the subluxation station, when I started with Pat and Chris, and we started to really develop this thing in the late 90s and early 2000s, the subluxation station was about looking at EMG and thermography specifically associated with the nervous system and then range of motion. If you remember, we talked about the inclinometry.

In 2006, we introduced what was the most amazing interventional model of looking at the nervous system. And that was heart rate variability. We were the front leaders in this whole idea.

Interestingly, for everybody listening, I just I work with an awful lot of data scientists, and I work with an awful lot of people who are in AI. And I got a call from a guy from University of Minnesota, and he said, David, you have to understand something. He said, Statistically, heart rate variability has crossed that hundredth monkey threshold, is that on a world basis now, over nine and a half percent of the population check their HRV daily.

OK, so the point being is, is that many of them are looking at it in restorative or recovery from athletics or things of that nature. But in chiropractic, we are the original neuroplasticians. And built into our genome is this idea of checking people's adaptive responsiveness.

And so you'll love this, Ronnie, because the subluxation station will always be what it was. But what we offer now is what I refer to is the adaptation station. Yeah, which is which is EMG, thermography and HRV.

And that allows us to look at the ability of the entire functioning autonomic nervous system. What is the parasympathetic ability of the body to restore? Are they locked in a sympathetic storm?

How much of the tone is lost in the neural processing at the spinal level? What are they doing gravitationally? And so we teach all of that when anybody gets our technology to build it out intellectually, but also to be able to communicate that effectively, which is a lot of fun.

I love that. I love that name. I'm going to start using that tomorrow.

Adaptation. And I found in doing this for a while in the clinical setting, people in my practice know their number now. People love numbers, right?

And also what I found, and maybe you can set me straight on this, but it seems to be working for us, is in that core score aggregate, it's often nice because I can look at, let's say the EMG is 80 out of 100, and the HRV is 80 out of 100, but that thermography is in the 50s. And gosh, it seems 9 out of 10 times that person, to me, is they have some sort of nutritional deficiency, they're toxic, they're not digesting well. So I feel like as a practitioner, it even helps me clinically, even though we talk about all the different stresses, and we certainly don't neglect the muscles, we don't neglect the mind, but you look at that person and go, this guy is an alcoholic or whatever.

So speaking to that, do you see that or is that just something I'm making up?

No, no, no, no, no. You see, that's the joy of having this control mechanism in your think line and everything else that goes along with it. Listen, if you get an HRV score of 80 and over, you're doing some good things.

If you do an 80 and over score of an EMG, you're doing some pretty good things. That means that your spinal control mechanisms structurally are operating at 80 plus percent. But when you lose your regulatory organ and gland control mechanisms, it isn't simply because of a pinched nerve on your spine.

There's an awful lot of endogenous experiences that are going on that are going to toxify your system. And no matter how well you can adapt, no matter how well you can position yourself in gravity, if you are drinking a fifth of whiskey a day, you're going to pick it up on a thermal scan. And so I always refer to the whole scanning or the core scores you brought forward as the truth serum.

It's like, you know, I mean, honestly, it just tells the story. Why? Because the story of truth is how your nervous system is adapting.

That's what we are.

Yeah. And I've also found in the clinical setting, and this is anecdotal, but the folks that have the 80 or above HRV, they seem to just get good results quicker than the guy that has a real low HRV.

Listen, the craziest thing is that we're the darling of the research side now, because we have, like, we're doing, CLA is doing really well, just for everybody to know. We see the world in terms of a chiropractic perspective. So we're active in about 30, 27 countries right now that are, you know, there are thousands and thousands, tens of thousands of chiropractors use this as their sort of hub, if you would, in their office.

But we're doing, because we save everything, as you know, in the cloud, we're doing somewhere just around 5 million core scores a year. So we've got this data set that's just amazing for us to be able to hand over to, you know, Life West. And so we just put a tremendous amount of effort with Ron and the rest of his team over there into getting scanning of the adaptation station into the clinical world there.

We just put a huge installation, two huge installations, in Life University. New Zealand is there. Sherman is there.

We pick and choose who we want to work with, but it's wonderful. So there's a lot of learning that's going on. The data tells the story.

Number one, the data tells the story that chiropractic works on a global basis. Number two, the data tells the story that if people focus on clearing the subluxation, then their adaptability towards all forms of distress within the world, whether it goes from COVID to trauma, is associated with a better outcome with chiropractic. And the third thing says that if chiropractors, this is the most important, I think for many of our clients or listeners here, is that if they install this process within their systems, their level of retention and referral, as far as just playing good old ROI in business, gets jumped about 33 and a two-thirds percent, which is a little more than a third, pretty much within the first year.

So that's the crazy, crazy statistical relevance.

That's beautiful. Nothing like metrics. I'll tell you, our practice has grown exponentially around this technology.

And, you know, it's fun that you mentioned referrals, is I had a new patient the other day who said, I want to know my number. Like, okay. That's why he was like, he was, he had symptoms, but he was like, I'm worried about my number.

Like, okay, well, let's get into this. And so, hey, you brought it up. In this podcast series, we've talked a lot about this being Chiropractic's hour.

And you also mentioned something referring to other chiropractors. We've talked about that in the past, how we seem to be hung up on not being able to refer to each other. But as far as it being our hour and as far as us seizing the moment, what is your kind of view on the future of the profession, and how do you see research and technology playing a role in that?

Well, I can speak using statistical relevance very quickly here. Is that we had this break in society that happened called COVID. And so we know that from March of 2020, to where all of us thought life was going to end, and we didn't know what was going to go on practice-wise, that starting in as early as April 2020, so we're down for March, we're down in April, like this should have lasted, I know Canadians, we got hammered for about 18 months, but you know, America got hammered.

But here's the thing is that we have this cohort of scanning technology centers, all right, and we can separate them out regionally. But we watch everybody go down in 2020, in the early quarter of 2020, and there's this start to gradual come up into where it is. But now the fascinating thing isn't just the number of patient visits or stands, now we start to see new patients.

Instead of progress exams, now we start to see that somewhere around September, October of 2020, which is early, and we see it coming into 2021, is that all of a sudden there gets this hockey stick relationship of where now we start to see this huge escalation of new patients seeking chiropractic care based upon this model of assessing to the functioning nervous system. And do you want to know what now the consequence in late 22 is? Is that we're seeing that that it obviously levels off because you can't control the hockey stick, but it's a high still growth period that's in there.

Our clients, and I know this is crazy to even consider, our clients' greatest concern is what most good businesses are doing in right now, is they're struggling to find the right HR component, meaning they can't hire enough chiropractors to get the volume of these new patients continuing. As crazy as that is, because that's new to chiropractic. So what I'm incredibly hopeful, but not just Pollyanna hopeful.

I'm looking at the stats, I'm looking at the relationship between telling the right story, using the right technologies and giving the right storyline to the public. And guess what's happening? My feeling is that the public doesn't distrust medicine, is that they just want to have a complete alternative to this relationship, because they saw that even at its very best efforts, where you couldn't throw another dollar in life to it, it only got them this far, where they're starting to say, I need to take better care of myself.

And Chiropractic is positioned properly for that.

Wow, it's this great period of awakening. My prayer is that we seize the moment and that we are ready. And I love to hear that you're in the college's doc, because that's a great vision for your company.

And so as I look at, you know, I'm intrigued if I'm sitting on this call and I don't use this in my practice. So what might you have to offer as a maybe first step for somebody to check out the technology, to learn more about, even to learn more about what you're saying about adaptability and, you know, the way you look at subluxation, I think should be taught in the schools. It's beautiful.

I've always felt that way. I heard you explain that. I don't know if it was on the mountain with CLA or what.

But years ago, I was like, originally I thought, oh, this is kind of esoteric. But then it wasn't. It was real.

And it made sense. And it lit my world on fire. So anyway, I know it was a long question to basically ask.

What do you got for us? What can a young doc do right now to learn more about this?

Well, the technology we talked about is referred to as the Insight. So if you go to insightcla.com, there's actually a resources section there. And in the resources section are free downloads, which allow them to get what I'm talking about right here.

There's a survival guide for which was written, which was very timely at the time. But I wrote a Thrival Guide so they can download that.

I like that.

It's a great one because it uses a lot of the language that I was speaking in through here. There is a book called RED., which is a way in which they can interpret scans.

Now, whether you have scans or not is irrelevant because RED is how chiropractic works. It talks about adaptability and functioning systems. So they can get that right up front.

But what I'd really love them to do is I'm going to put a link in your notes here, and they can get what's called a PSA, which is a practice survey assessment because no judgments. This isn't about whether it's a right way or wrong way. You are doing what you're supposed to be doing right now, but there's a better way possibly.

And so if they fill in a plan, it's usually 149 bucks, but it's free to you guys. If they fill in a practice survey, of course. If they fill in a practice survey assessment, we'll analyze that.

And what it will give us a chance to say is, well, which direction are you needing your best strategies? Is it communications, the clinical strengths? Is it organizational behaviors within the office itself?

How can we possibly get you to where you might find you could install something that isn't going to blow your doors off, you know, as in shake up your system too much, but give you the tools you need to take it forward? And, you know, I think that that would be really great for the ChiroTouch listeners. And we've been affiliated with ChiroTouch from a CLA perspective from the very beginning.

I mean, to put it, I don't know, this is sort of one of those sort of historical moments. For one minute, it's worth saying it. When the original developers of ChiroTouch were putting together the original software that was in there, CLA head offices in New Jersey were bursting with developers and everybody else.

And they actually came and set up within the CLA offices for a short period of time to work with our developers to make sure that the ChiroTouch, you know, they had a vision, that the ChiroTouch model was going to evolve through a Chiropractic model. And so it was no surprise that when ChiroTouch went through its evolutionary stages, is that CLA is being right there with it, with our clients being able to integrate, you know, the scans right into the system.

Wow, that's wonderful. I see you as becoming a regular guest on our show. This has been fantastic.

And I just want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for all that you're doing for Chiropractic. And you are just an awesome leader. You're an inspiring individual.

I love your practice story about the hotel room. And I have heard the story about the deck of cards, and that's just fantastic. And, you know, you have a huge heart.

And I know you're helping so many individuals with Chiropractic by helping Chiropractors be at their best. And so I want to thank you again for being on, Doc. It's just been a great conversation.

So thank you. And so for those of you on the call who took the time out of their busy schedule to spend time on personal development, you're never going to regret it. Time spent on yourself is time well spent.

So I applaud you for that. Please follow the links. Take Dr. David's advice.

Go on, do the survey. And it's your time to step into the fold, Doc. We need you at your best right now more than ever.

And again, I also want to thank ChiroTouch for the spirit behind this. I love that they want to help chiropractors be at their best. And they know it's not just about the software, although the software plays an important role in that, but they know it's about leadership.

It's about business development. It's about individuals like Dr. David inspiring the profession to play big. And so once again, thanks for tuning in.

I hope you have an amazing day. And be sure, docs, that you're taking care of yourself. Don't neglect yourself building your practice.

And again, thank you, Dr. David. Appreciate you, man.

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