043 - Supercharge Your Productivity for 2025: Strategies to Work Smarter

I think I really had a wall built up there for a while where I actually had associates, but still didn't know how to actually leverage my own time. Realizing that there's other things that I could be doing that would be more beneficial to the entire vision and team if I could just let go of more adjusting. That was a slow roll for me.

Hello, and welcome to Build you'd remarkable practice podcast. This podcast is dedic chiropractors who are in the seasons of launching and building their practice. Join myself, Dr. Lona, and my co host, Dr. Bobby as we have conversations each week as it relates to building the practice of your dreams. And remember, you can have a remarkable practice as part of a remarkable life, not instead of one. We are here to lead you on the way.

What is up, team? Welcome back to the Build your remarkable practice podcast where we come to you live with practical tips from the trenches. Both Dr. Lona and myself are in practice, loving life, growing our offices, giving you guys tips about how do you grow and how do you explode in 2025. Lona, I had a great time in last week's conversation talking about fee increases. I'm super pumped for today's episode. How you doing? What's happening?

I'm doing great. You know, I was thinking about that episode, and, you know, I. I just want to say that if you listen to us and you were like, wow, they're way ahead of. What I've learned at this point is like, we started there too. So half of the. Half of the hurdle is getting in the right conversations and acknowledging, like, I got a lot to learn and maybe being vulnerable to look at your numbers with someone that can actually help you dive in and understand them better. So don't be overwhelmed. Just know that you need to, like, get in the right rooms and have those conversations.

We are absolutely teaching from a place of sky tissue. Guys, believe me, I had years, but I didn't do fee increases. And I was like, we're getting busier, okay? And then when I actually sat down and looked at my numbers, I was like, oh, I remember one time when I'm meeting with my accountant, and I had this meeting with my accountant, and I was like, oh, great, look how good the month is, right? He's like, oh, you know, show me. And in that month we'd collected, I think it was 180k, right? And he looked at. So it was a busy practice. And he's like, oh, wow, 100. And he goes, what was your expense? And he hasn't looked the 30 day income was 180k. The 30 day expense was like 171. And he's like, it's not that good. Right. And I was like, you know, and when I sat down there and reflected. Right. He killed me. Because the next couple of nights I'm thinking in my mind and one thing that stuck out of me at that point is like we hadn't done fee increases. Right. In years. And I was like, okay, that makes sense. So I calculated if you did an adequate fee increase, what that would equal to the bottom line. We made that change and you know, it was epic. The impact that that had for our profitability then to pull back into our practice to deliver better service and just grow at even better. Right.

So good. Yeah. And I think we in the build season, especially you guys, I know you're in your adjusted torium, you're in your adjusting rooms and you get your notes done and you're training your team and it's like the last thing you have maybe time for sometimes is to really like sit down with certain things that you need to look at. And we're telling you that that's of the best time that you're ever going to spend is this time you work above the business and look at these things. So, you know, don't make the mistake of hiding from that for too long because it'll bite you.

Yep, spot on the mark. Exactly. And that conversation actually flows in perfectly to what we're going to be talking about today. Because today, guys, what we want to unpack for you is how can you in 2025, now that you're looking back on the year of 2024 and you're looking forward to next year, how can you supercharge your productivity in 2025? Because one thing that became more and more apparent to me as I went through and studied the success of people and as I went through and studied different individuals and you know, the trajectory that they got to is that at the end of the day, we've all heard this before, we've all got the same amount of hours in the day. Okay. And so the only reason that someone goes to build, let's say a multibillion dollar company, okay. And another business owner doesn't ever get out of foundation is how they create leverage for themselves and leverage and skill set because you can buy and learn skillset, you do that through coaching and through mentorship. Right. Leverage is like the small hinge that swings the big doors. Right. So I want to talk today about, well, how do you supercharge that productivity and how can you apply to the season that you're in? So whether you're listening to this and you're launching or in build and maybe you're a one person show, or if you're listening to this and you're a 10 person, 15 person, 20 person plus show, right. Either one office or multiple offices, how do you continue to have a conversation with yourself around, well, where should I invest my time? So Lona, why don't you kick us off on this? Because when you launch your practice, right, when you're in the early days, where were you investing your time? Right. What were you investing your time in? Both rightly and wrongly. And let's start off with that because I can tell you what I was investing my time in, but I'd love to hear what you were doing as well.

Oh, gosh. Okay. Gotta think back a little way too. So I think one thing I invested my time well in was spending time being strategic of where I needed to go out and market and not leaving that for like the last thing on my timeline to do. So I would spend a lot of time out in the community meeting people and like trying to form these relationships. And I felt like I couldn't hire someone to do that for me at that time because I was my brand at that moment and I needed to develop the street cred there. So that was time well spent. Where I probably wasn't spending time well spent is there was things that I could have had other people following up on from the marketing I was doing that I could have been leveraging someone right from the get go. So probably getting more help sooner in the CA realm. I did start with one CA to begin with, but I think I've always probably been slow to hire with certain things. Whereas like if I could just get myself behind the vision of hiring sooner, we probably could move through some growth faster. And I think that's a hiccup I've had, whether that's adding a second CA or a third CA or like right now. I actually just interviewed a grant writer for the school based practice that we have because we're obviously doing some unique research with that and we could use the skill set of a grant writer instead of some of us trying to do that on our own, which is a waste of probably my time because I can hire someone that can do it better than us, right? So that's a real practical today experience of where I am not leveraging my time anymore, doing things that I could pay someone else to do. But in the beginning, I think that was a lot of it, was trying to use my time to market. And I did have a CA to start with, so that was done well. And I probably could have hired someone even sooner to be a second CA in the practice than I did.

Yeah, I remember. For me, of course, I learned the hard way. I learned, you know, I've got a market. Marketing is important. I try and invest some time in marketing, but marketing would be an afterthought. So the practice that I first took over, I bought a practice. It was a tiny practice. Cost me, I think it was 40k to buy this practice. Right. Tiny little practice. But I remember I was doing everything. So in the early days, and everything means everything, I would unlock the practice. I would vacuum it before patients would come in. I'd water the plants, and I'd dust the glass and the. And dust the shelves, right? Then first people come in, and I'd, you know, pretend to kind of meet them at the front, like, oh, CA is coming. But, hey, guys, you guys, nice and early. Come on through. I'll take you through. You know, then I'll deliver the service, which is the adjustments. So I'd get the person adjusted, I would educate them, then I'd go to find and check them out. You guys, early saying, still not here. Hey, have a great day. We'll catch you on Tuesday. So. So literally, that was me. I was doing everything, you know, and then when there was time left over, that's when I'd be like, all right, maybe I should now go and market. And then I would mark it in, like, at the end of the state, because I was. I was basically doing everything. And there is a season on that, right? But here's the thing. If you're hearing this, I don't want you to get stuck anywhere, okay? Because you're hearing this, and you're on different levels now. So I learned this great lesson about, well, when I buy back my time, what do I actually invest that in? And I learned this through a friend of mine, guy called Dan Martell, and he explained it quite well. Says, okay, there is this ladder that you want to buy back your time on. And I think this is brilliantly explained. Watch this. In the beginning, Dr. Bobby was doing everything. Dusting the ceilings, watering the plants. Right? And glass. Cleaning the glass at the front, okay? So those are all admin tasks. So after a while, you get to a point where you're like, all right, I've got to take some of my money and I'm going to Invest it into buying back some time. So I'm going to hire admin person. So in chiropractic world, that's a ca, right? And then suddenly I had somebody open the practice for me. Watering the plants, dusting the ceilings and you know, clean exing the glass. Okay. This person also was able to then take payments, map appointments, answer phone call, get back to, you know, get back to practice members, the CA tasks. Right. And then after a while my focus energy then was able to get more into marketing, which yours should be too if you're at that season right now. And then what happens is if you focus on marketing and you build that skill set, you will get to a point where you max out. So whether that's 150 visits, 250 visits, 350 visits, I don't really care. Whatever it is, based on the few factors around your systems, you will max out your adjusting capacity. And then I always cringe when I hear the person that's like, oh yeah, there's this one man show doing a thousand a week. Even though at one point that was a desire of mine and I was like that guy, right? But I can tell you it's like, all right, the time gets so filled up that again you're in the same position, you're maxed out because of a certain amount of hours in a day, right. So the second thing you got to buy back is then you're going to buy back someone that can help you with delivery. And the delivery is things like tech, ca, secondary CA on shift. The delivery is things like associates. Right. Being able to like add associates to get help with delivery. And a lot of practices get stuck at this third run which is the delivery. I know you work a lot with scale docs. Scale docs are people that have multiple associates, multiple team members. What's been your experience with this? You know, I know right now in chiropractic I think it's something like 60 odd percent of associationships fail. So a lot of docs get burnt by this and they go back to doing it all themselves. What's been your experience with this?

Yeah, I think personally my experience with this event, if I like you started without a ca. I started with a CA right away. So maybe I started leveraging maybe sooner than you did. But I think you've scaled better than I have to begin with because I know in my mindset so much of the hurdle was I had built my Persona as this person that was giving great care and in a high volume setting. And you and I think this is rampant in chiropractic, where we build ourselves into a Persona of like, I'm the 100 a day chiropractor or the 200 a week chiropractor. And if I'm not serving this many people, what's my value? Right. Like, who am I? And I think for a lot of our CEO docs, and this is good for you to be thinking about this in your build, in your build season, where you're growing and you might be the only doc in the office, is you are valuable to your enterprise not just by the number of people you see in a day or a week, even if you're at certain events. And they'd have you believe that whoever sees the most volume is the most, you know, celebrated chiropractor. It's also like, our profession needs more people strategizing on how to bring more chiropractors into the fold and hire more hands, more great associates that want to serve the people. If we're someone who actually owns the business and can strategize around the business. Right. So I think I really had a wall built up there for a while where I. I actually had associates, but still didn't know how to actually leverage my own time, realizing that there' other things that I could be doing that would be more beneficial to the entire vision and team if I could just let go of more adjusting. That was a slow role for me.

Oh, I'm glad that you said it and not me, because you hit the nail. Absolutely nailed it on the head. So, guys, rewind that last minute. Just re. Listen to that. Okay? It's not about getting up on the stage and building this thing around you for me, at least. All right. And building this thing around you and, you know, putting it under the COVID of arms where I'm serving like this. Sure. If you're truly serving, you can be more leveraged in serving even more. Right. So if it's about a service conversation we're having, there's other ways to do that. So I think you absolutely nailed it, and I'm glad you brought that up. I look at myself as I. The way that I go and when I get to each step of the ladder is then what do I do with my extra time? I invest it into acquiring new skill sets. So a lot of people, they buy that time, they have some money, and then they don't know where to invest it. Invest it to hire a coach, hire a mentor, get it on a mastermind group, because you're going to learn new skill sets. How to break through the next level. Okay, so if you had failed associate ships before, it's because. Not that associate ships all fail. That's a self limiting belief. It's that for some reason you're one failed.

All right?

And whenever I fail on something, I first reflect on myself and I go, where did I as the leader misstep here so I can learn from moving forward? Because if you get stuck on that third run, which is like, sorry, second run, hiring out the delivery, right, Someone else that can help you with the delivery of a product, that usually means that there was either mismatched expectations, agreements, associates weren't onboarded properly, there weren't expectations set properly, they weren't developed properly, there's some kind of mismatch. And when you line these things up well, which is what we teach in our CEO program, you actually can have a thriving associate relationships, right? And you can buy back your time to invest that time to learn new skill sets. The person who gets paid the most is the person who has the highest valued skill sets and uses them.

What's up, remarkables? Hey, let's face it, 95% of our problems are people problems. You can't find a players, can't keep a players. Don't know how to leverage your team, create expectations and agreements, or hold people accountable in order to optimize your team. Doc, what would happen to your practice if you were finally able to get the right people in the right seats, doing the right work, work the right way? For most chiropractors, it would change everything. You'd increase your capacity to see more people. You'd make a bigger impact and a bigger income. You'd be able to delegate and scale your business. Or maybe you need to get your associate relationship dialed in. That would mean you get your time freedom back. You could get a handle on your schedule, maybe even become a CEO. If this is what you want your 2025 to sound like, make sure that you join us for the remarkable team building immersion in Tampa, Florida January 31 and February 1. Or in Brisbane, Australia, February 28 and March 1, 2025. I can't wait to be back in Australia, Doc, bring your team with you. Get everybody on the same page. They'll be back in your office on Monday with more clarity, more accountability and more purpose than ever. Energize and mobilize your team and see your practice grow. What are your goals for 2025? Is it a seven figure foundation, a seven figure revenue, seven figure profit, or maybe even a seven figure exit? Whatever season you're in. You'll need a seven figure team. Click the link in the show notes below and register today.

You know, Bobby, as you're saying that, I started thinking about like so much of this, this trajectory we're in and being chiropractors. You know, you think about being in chiropractic school. You had to re identify who you were as a chiropractic student from when you were in your four years of university before that. Right. Like there was a changing of your skin, if you will, a bit. And then you come into practice and you have to learn how to like charge for an adjustment and be the boss. Especially if you opened your own practice now it's like, oh my gosh, I'm the boss here. I have to figure out how to like hold myself into a different leadership position. And I'm, I'm training someone and oh my gosh, I write a paycheck to people and there's a changing of how you think, think about yourself, your belief system as well as the fears that go along with that. You know, that stage of evolving. Right. And so you know, when you're in the build season, I had this question come up sometime in the last week which was like, you know, when you're preparing your practice to bring an associate in, especially if you're going from a, maybe a practice that only had one doc or had two docs, but the patients saw separate people. Right. So much of how you prepare your mindset of how patients are going to handle things is really just between the, you know, your two ears. Right. Like how do I envision myself operating as this system evolves again? Because I've already been through an evolution. Now as we evolve into a multi doc and we call it a broken white line practice where patients could see everybody, there is a changing of like, oh my gosh, what if my favorite Betty that comes in on Tuesdays actually likes the other associates adjustments just as much as mine? Or maybe even better, who am I? What's my identity here? I have to change, you know, some of these attachments we have because that's who we need to step into in order to like evolve and leverage our team better. So you can start thinking like that while you're in the season of build so you don't paint yourself in a corner there.

Yep. I love it when practicum comes in and they used to see me and now they see one of my associates, right. Or a series of my associates because I say to them, you know, Mary, as good as I am you know, I can't adjust myself. And you know who my chiropractor is. And I point to that associate. Do you think that I would allow that person to be my chiropractor if they weren't like world class, Think about that. Or you know who my family's coming, you know, who adjusts my wife. I point to those associates. Okay? So I'm the testimony for that person, right? Quite frankly, if you're hearing this, guys, and you've had failed associate ships in the past, that doesn't mean associate ships all fail, believe me. Okay? That means there's a system to get it right so you can conquer that second rung, which is the delivery of chiropractic. Right? Because then once we able to buy back some time and we then learn new skill set, we're able to learn new skill sets. And the third rung is we're able to then start to delegate out marketing. Marketing means, okay, maybe you're going to hire a marketing agency. If you're going to do digital, maybe you're going to do boots on the ground. You're going to hire someone that can help you with screening. Maybe you want to hire a marketing manager that you put out there. And every single week is doing screenings out in the community. Creating networks, right? Getting you guys out in front of people. So there's best practices around this. Now someone asked me yesterday on a call, they go, well, how do you know when you're talking to a digital agency if they're a good one or not? How do you know if this is someone that I should invest time and more importantly, this. Sorry, invest money and more importantly, invest time into this person. And I'll tell you, there's two things that I look for. Number one, I look for track record. And track record means, like, show me. I want like dozens and dozens and dozens and dozens and dozens examples of like, how you've done this in the past, right? So don't tell me, show me through proof. Okay? That's the first thing. And here's the second thing that this is a question that I asked that I realized no one actually asks them. And here's the question I ask a social media agency that maybe everything lines up and maybe everything's looking really good, all right? And the question that I asked them is, tell me, what training and coaching do you currently engage in in the realm of social media to keep getting better, okay? Because I remember when I was in like year two in school and the teacher would say, all right, guys, homework this week. You need to read chapter two of Little Red Riding Hood when she goes into the forest. Okay? And then we're going to quiz you on Monday. If I come back on Monday and teacher says, all right, guys, homework. Bob, what was your biggest takeaway when Little Red Riding Hood went into the forest? If I haven't read it, I cannot wing that answer. I cannot be like, oh, well, the biggest takeaway was that she brought her lunch with her in the forest. Very quickly, my teacher would be like, did you read the chapter, Bob? And I'd be like, no, I didn't. So she can pick it up from our response. So it's the same thing, you know, like this. It's like, lona, hey, I'd love to know, what do you currently invest in now in this world associated to keep upskilling and getting better and developing yourself in the game, building expertise. I love it. And just listen to the next five seconds that come out of their mouth. Because if there's a pause, if there's a. If there's something there. Okay. You can quickly pick up, is this person investing himself? And do they practice what they preach?

That's great. And spin that back to your whole team. Like, how are we investing in us delivering the best chiropractic care? What do we do in 2024? Right. Like, if you're going to ask that of the company you're hiring for social media, ask it of yourself. If someone was interviewing you that as, why should you be my chiropractic team?

Exactly. I'm glad that you brought that up. If a patient asked you right now, currently investing in yourself to be a better chiropractor next year to warrant that fee that you just increased or that fee that you're charging me. If your answer is like.

Unless, okay, that's an issue, your answer should be, well, I'm investing in myself. Okay. Here's the program I'm learning now. We're getting our team to live trainings. Okay. We're building out this X, Y, Z. Ah, you can quickly answer that. And you see, this is someone whose heart is fully in it. And this is somebody who I want to put my money in.

Yeah. So number three guys delegate at the marketing.

All right.

There's obviously internal, external, and digital pillars. We're not going to have a marketing conversation today, but if you guys want a podcast on how do you actually hire a great agency? Absolutely. We can do a podcast on that as well. So we've delegated out the admin task. We've got CAS helping US team helping us. Now we've got associates helping us serve more, increase our capacity. We've delegated the marketing out and we've done this well. We have consistent lead flow coming into the office. Then a lot of docs find themselves in this position where they're the only one that can sell. So we have a sales problem. Right. It's like, doc, my associates just can't convert. I'm still doing all the conversion. Or I've got CAs that can't get people over the line. You know, when they're inquiring online or at a screening, it's just me. So then we've got to delegate out the sales, which means we've got to teach other people who can sell. Now I have cas and virtual CIS that can sell and put, you know, new people on the books. And then we have associates who can be taught how to sell as well. Learner, how do you teach associates how to get better at, let's use the word selling? Day one, day two is a sales process. What is the number one formula to get somebody better at something?

Train and repeat. And obviously also hire people that innately want that. And I will say this is training, too. But if you're training chiropractors how to double down on their conviction, they gotta love chiropractic. We gotta get to the point where that's anchored in so that it is oozing from that person. Right?

Yeah, exactly. So there's a process of finding people that are naturally geared to be able to sell, that can communicate, that are extroverted, that are like, on a certain level of dominance. Definitely. But above all that, you gotta find people that love what they do have. Their heart is 10 out of 10. And then you train those people. Train those people, and you'll get amazing results and you'll start building people around you that can sell. And then the ultimate level of hiring out is, is your leadership team. That's when, if you're at scale, you'll start having people like CEOs, office managers. You'll have senior chiropractors that are in senior clinical roles. You have senior CAs, you'll have senior people that are on your leadership team. And that's ultimately how you get to the point that the business functions without you adjusting in there right now. Go ahead, Lonnie. You're going to say something.

I was going to say, like, for those of you that are like, I am the owner, right. And maybe I haven't felt like I'm really awesome at conversion yet, or I'M doing great at retention or, you know, some of these things. Like there is an element too, or like in your bread and butter of what you do in a chiropractic practice. You are not a marketer. So yes, let's farm that out sooner than later to one of these agencies that knows how to do it. Like Bobby just gave you gold on how to inter them and know which, who you're going to pick. And are you really doubling down on your own level of mastery in these systems as well as just like, who am I as the leader that steps through the front door every day because I can't leverage other people if I'm not going to show up as the leader they actually want to follow. So make sure you're always looking at yourself in this process as you're evolving through it, right? And then asking, you know, okay, I'm hiring this person to do this part of it. Now who do I show up as a leader that can leverage that person? Right? You don't get to stay the same in the process for sure.

That is absolutely. That's the, that's the defining point of this whole podcast, guys, what Lana just said there. Because the question is, why am I getting my time back? It's not just so I can sit on the beach sipping cocktails. It might be that for a period of time, don't get me wrong, some of you just need extra time so you can recharge the battery properly or you can devote it to family, or you can devote it to yourself or working out, right? Or eating healthy or getting your own act together, right? We've all been through this, but quite frankly, there's only so many cocktails. I can sit by the beach. Why is it that somebody sells a company for $100 million and six months later they're building another one? What's the reason for that? So the reality is that at each level, when you start to get more time back, that time you then use to develop higher level skill sets. As a CEO, your highest level skill sets are vision, casting and being able to get people to be inspired and motivated by the vision that you're painting, then getting clear about the direction of the company. What's important now, what's important next? Marketing and sales, right? Leading the organization, living the team. But if you want to manifest a million dollar office, a $3 million office, a $5 million office, you have to be person that can lead a million dollar office, a $3 million office, a $5 million office, right? And that is not the same person that you are today. So you acquire skill sets in that time and those skill sets then become higher value skill set. Just like adjusting for me was a high value skill set than baking bread when I was working in the bakery for 16 an hour. Right. But then you flash. There are skill sets that are higher even than adjusting so that more adjustments can be getting done inside of your office.

Beautiful. So good.

Yeah. Final thoughts, final comments on that? Anything you want to add?

No, I love this. I think these are the conversations in my mind that help bring chiropractic to the masses of people who are really wanting this. We just have to get our organization in our, in our practices to be able to serve to this level.

Exactly. So look at that, guys. Where are you stuck? Where have you failed before? And lean in 20, 25, maybe later in the future we do an episode of what about buying back your free time at home, right? Delegating things. Maybe you shouldn't be doing, maybe you shouldn't be cutting that grass. Maybe you shouldn't be like washing, I don't know, the clothes or the shirts every single week.

Unless you love it, right?

Yeah. I know a lot of people who really love, you know, washing underwear.

All right, team, great at the sunlight. I love doing these conversations with you. And guys, audit your time routines at the moment, work out where are you on that level. And remember, the only thing stopping you going from the next. From the level you're on to the next level is a skill set that you're missing. Right? So if you have questions about that, reach out to us, guys. Feel free to message us. We can definitely highlight it for you or follow us on our socials. We are both on social media. Follow us online there, guys, because we can get a lot more of this into you on a daily basis. Until next time, have a remarkable day.

Hey, doc, I have a question for you. Do you feel like you own a job or a business? If you're like most chiropractors, you feel like you own a job. In fact, if you're being honest, you probably feel like your job owns you. Hey, I'm Dr. Steven Fransen from the Remarkable CEO Podcast for Chiropractors. Are you ready to make a bigger, bigger impact and a bigger income, but you want to do in a way that it doesn't just demand more of your time and your energy to do so? Would you like to get back your time freedom, create greater leverage in your practice? What would it be like to have a world class team that wants to grow your practice or finally dial in the seven figure Associate doctor Are you ready for your business to become more productive and more profitable? If this sounds like you, then be sure to check out the remarkable CEO podcast for chiropractors. Join me, Dr. Steven Fransen and my co host, Dr. Pete Camiolo as we share the insights, strategies and stories that we've gleaned along our own journeys of going from owner, operator to CEO. This practical and tactical podcast will inspire and equip you to make your own ascension as we keep it real, teaching from the scar tissue of our own experience of turning pirate ships into battleships with our own practices. And now for thousands of chiropractors around the world. Follow the link here in the show notes and check out the Remarkable CEO Podcast for Chiropractors.

Thanks for listening to this episode of Build you'd Remarkable Practice Podcast. Remember, what the world needs now is chiropractic, and what chiropractic needs now is more successful chiropractors. If you like the podcast, please subscribe, share with your friends and leave us a review. And if you'd like to connect with us personally, please click the links in the show notes to schedule a call.