053 - The Power of Conviction: Why Leadership Determines Your Impact

Hey, guys. On this episode of Build you'd Remarkable Practice podcast, we're doing a little different episode as I got to sit down and hash with Dr. Pete Camiolo for about 30 minutes on helping more people access chiropractic and the message of chiropractic and how that transforms people's lives and our unique position in this time in place, in healthcare and in life care right now, the opportunities we have. So I recorded this episode just chatting with Pete, because he's actually coming up to an event we're putting on here in Wisconsin later this spring. But I think it's a value for everyone to listen to and just hear what's on Pete's heart and helping more chiropractors help more people and how we do that and how we're positioned well in the healthcare and the true healthcare movement of making America healthy again. So I hope you enjoy this episode as it's a little bit different, and we'll see you on the next one.

Hello and welcome to Build you'd Remarkable Practice Podcast. This podcast is dedicated to 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.

All right, you guys, I'm super excited to have this conversation. One of my mentors for the last five or six years that I get to speak to every couple of weeks is my next interview here. And. And some of you know him and some of you don't. I have Dr. Pete Camiolo here with me tonight, and I'm really honored, too, because he's going to be coming up to visit us in Wisconsin later this year. Yes. We'll be so excited to have him up here at our event and sharing with our community. And I know he's super passionate, has powerful messages around why chiropractic is such an important piece of the equation for any family. And so, Pete, I just wanted to kind of start with your story, like, how did you become someone who was so convicted around healing and innate healing, healing from above, down inside out, and just kind of like, walk us through where you began with this, if you don't mind.

Well, first of all, it's an honor to be here. I'm really looking forward to the event coming up in the spring, and thank you for thinking of me and inviting me and your inspiration of actually doing this, because I know this is a, you know, kind of like a child you're birthing like this idea and to be able to be a part of that and to be a part of all the others that are going to be contributing and those are going to be attending, it's going to be special. So it's an honor for me because, you know, what inspires me is people who are inspired and taking action. And that's you, you know, and that's who you are, Doc. So thank you for all that you do to help inspire my colleagues as chiropractors. You've just done incredible work. You know, when I first learned about the on site and, and the school based work that you were doing, it just really inspired me tremendously. I think like many chiropractors who, you know, I was a chiropractor for the sports team. It was on the sidelines in the football games and I had some little bit of things that I did here and there, but nothing to the level that you are doing and what you guys have been able to accomplish in reaching the children. And that's a lot of my story, which is, you know, long story short, just to take my story back to where it really, the genesis of my story was my brother Jonathan, who really suffered tremendously at the hands of the traditional medical system for conditions that in a chiropractic office are easy street in a sense, once you get to the root cause. He has spent a decade in of his life actually being injured and harmed by the very system that was trying to help him. I'm not saying they were intentionally harming him in any way, shape or form. I'm saying when you're ignorant of the truth and you treat symptom and not cause, you're going to cause harm. And so what happened was I watched that from my childhood. My best friend growing up, my brother was just a little bit older than me. We did everything together. And to see him suffer for my entire childhood to the point where when he was 18 years old, had to withdraw from his full academic scholarship to a major university to go save his life in Mexico and go through a major detox program and, and have to go through this, you know, and then finally learn about chiropractic through that and then go to a chiropractor to have a chiropractor finally tell him, you know, that his spine was an absolute mess, you know, and it was. So my story of chiropractic wasn't a necessarily a happy story. To arrive. It was unfortunately, like many of our patients and many of you who maybe are listening your story of, like, how did you end up going to the chiropractor? But, well, let me tell you, it wasn't great, you know, and most people that I. And that's why I love being a chiropractor, because people would come in and they would tell me, like, they would say, here's all my problems. And I was like, friend, go ahead and have a seat. Let me tell you how I got here. You know, and then people like, oh, my gosh, like, I think there might be some hope for me. And I'm like, just saying there might be, you know, And I think that's the thing that inspired me the most, was watching him go from, you know, exhausting what the system had to offer, only to discover a completely other system. What we call vitalism. You know, chiropractic, where you look at, you know, the spine and nervous system, you look at lifestyle, and it was like no one had addressed that before professionally. No one was doing that. And again, this is back in the. The 80s and the 90s, so maybe more today than it was then, but at that time, it wasn't something that people were doing. So when we learned about chiropractic and we started going to the chiropractor doc, that's when everything changed for him. And then it began to change for me.

Sure. And that makes sense why you would be so convicted around, like, I don't want another family to go through what we went through. So, you know, with that said, because you had big practice and saw a lot of people, you know, do you think that for. For most people, it's the first step is figuring out that there is hope for them to, like, buy on a different way of looking at what they're about to choose or what do you think holds a lot of people back from even entertaining that there might be more to learn about what's possible for them in a healing equation?

Well, I wanna. I think you asked maybe two questions in that one question, so I want to answer both, so. And then make a statement before that, which is, we did have a big practice. We helped a lot of people, but we didn't help enough.

And I still feel that to this day. So that's number one. Number two, I felt my job when people walked into our doors was, number one, to make sure they felt that they belonged. That you were in the right place. Right. And that was the first thing I always told them. And I told my team if they saw him first, I said, listen, I don't care what they say. I don't care where they come from. I don't care if they were rude and all that stuff. We'll handle all that. We'll. We'll figure that out. But we got to let them know they're in the right place and they belong here. Now, if they reject us and they leave, that's their choice. But we're going to try to do our very best to welcome them here. And that was our first position was just. And then when they got to me or us as, as clinicians, I always shared, I said, listen, I'm never going to treat you based on your history, but based on your destiny. In other words, I'm not treating you based on the past, but I'm going to actually pre. I'm going to take care of you based on the future instead of the what. What has happened. I'm going to. I'm going to treat you based on what can happen and what I believe will happen. And when I find myself in the midst of that tension and someone who's actually willing to go here and actually journey with someone to this side, rather than just, oh, we're going to do a deep history into your long family history. And while we would do that because it's the right thing to do and we really need to do it, it's part of the process of doctor patient relationship. But by no means was that the. That was the end. That was just the beginning. Just to say, let's find a common ground and see where you are now. But let me share with you what we really do and what we see when we see you. And that was, I think, the. The thing that required the most courage. And here's why I would say that, because I had a lot of doctors, young doctors who come and train with us and me, and I found that if they didn't have a firm root in a. In the principles that we teach, it was very hard for them to share that with people, to pull people here. They can meet with somebody right where they're at and connect with them where they're at. And that was basically as far ahead as we could go is just where we are. It was, yeah. And there's so much power in just being fully present, in meeting someone where they're at, but leading is actually meeting them where they're at and then showing them something that's brighter and possible and then giving them a path to walk it out. But being. Having the courage to Say it's possible, knowing it's possible that things could go left or right and sideways because these are two human beings. Doctor, patient. And life can happen. But I'm still going to. I'm still going to present it as an option. And to me, that's the key, is, are you willing to.

Do you have the courage to do that? Do you have the boldness to be able to say that? And, you know, there was a lot of people that looked me, look you, and look any chiropractor in the eye and be like, they're just trying to see. Like, are you. Is this for real? Like, are you being honest? Like, Dr. Lona, you have that probably every day. You know, we. And because when you walk with that level of compassion, conviction and certainty and belief, and then you see the healings and the miracles and the stories over and over again.

It just reminds us of what's true. And it would. Who am I to not tell people what's possible? Who am I to play small and withhold that from somebody? If my brother didn't go to the chiropractor and they could have said, oh, you've been everywhere, all these doctors, whatever. No, they're like, hey, this is what we do. We help with the nervous system. If he has subluxation in his spine and we find that and we detect that that's there, we can correct that. It's going to unlock his brain, body. Body, brain connection. That's how healing happens. And we'll see what happens. And it wasn't like, it'll cure this condition and that condition and that condition. They never. They never told us, oh, it's going to fix all his conditions. Says, listen, he has migraines. Oh, he's got liver issues. Oh, he's got colon issues. Oh, he's got respiratory issues. Oh, he's got immune issues. Yeah, sounds like he's got a shutdown nervous system.

Right.

You know, and so to me, yes, it was. You give people hope and you give them responsibility, and the responsibility was shared. Right. Like, and then what happens is, Doc, is when people have. They start to see the transformation in their own life and they get hope. I always shared with them. Now you got to give it. So it's not just enough for you to have your hope filled and hope met, and now I'm good. It's like, no, you have to share that hope with somebody else because they don't have that. And that was just the. That was the. The. The rhythm of how things were and how things are. And so I think, I don't know that the, the third part of the question, you might have to re. Restate that, but that's for sure the first part.

Well, and to what you just said there, I mean anyone listening, you can feel the conviction and the certainty that comes off of you of like, I want that guy to be my doctor because I know he fully believes what he's telling, you know, someone else to do and walking that himself. And you know, in hearing what you just said there, I'm like, do you think many times what's missing for many people in any office that they go to is that the doctor and the patient have not had that like connection fully and that doctor is not sharing maybe with certainty that they believe that there is hope for the patient. Whether we're talking about allopathic or, you know, what have you. It's like generally speaking, when we've looked at western medicine, a lot of times we're talking about worst case scenarios for things instead of best case, like, you know, what is possible here. Would you agree?

Well, go back to school. You know, when they were teaching us how to prepare for our board exams, it was like, worst case scenario, it was just be afraid to not harm and hurt somebody. We take an oath first, do no harm. The Hippocratic oath. Like, think about it. That's the, that's the, the essence of, of healthcare. So yeah, it's not surprising that many, many doctors don't necessarily come in being taught and, and empowered to do that. I'm thankful that I had people in my life that empowered me. You had people in your life that empowered you, like, if you were left to your own devices, who knows what would have happened? And a lot of unfortunately, even chiropractors, our own colleagues, our brothers and sisters who we care about and love, it's like they didn't maybe get that because the institution itself doesn't necessarily give that to us. Right? And so it was up to us to go to find out. I had my story, right? You have your story, but I have my story. But even knowing my own story, going into chiropractic school, in many ways it was not, it wasn't taken from me, but I was, I forgot it. In many ways it became like an academic experience in passing board exams and trying to figure out what do I do after school. And it was like, and I forgot my origin story. I forgot the thing. I had to go find it. I had to dig for that. I had to go get it. It took me like two years to find it. A year and a half, probably. I had to go find it and pull it back. And then it made. And then think about that. My own story. I forgot. And so. And I had to learn how to tell it. I learned how to use it in a way that was empowering to other people. And then my stories simply became their stories because then all the people have their stories. So now my list of stories is I have one, my original story, but I have thousands of other stories to pull from. And, you know, and that's the beautiful thing.

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Well, I just interviewed Peter Kevorkian a couple weeks ago and he was sharing like, you know, at the, at the crux of vitalism is this like we are studying what causes life to thrive, right? Like that is vitalism. And so much of what we've called healthcare is the opposite of that is studying path, like pathological outcomes in the body. So they're like, could not be night or day, you know, difference. And you know, for anyone that's listening, if you're not a chiropractor listening, you know, you're like, he, he broke it down. Like, do you brush your teeth because you're avoiding disease or are you brushing your teeth because you're taking great care of yourself and you're, you know, making sure that you want to take good care of yourself? Right? Like, just even that shift in your mindset is the difference between like, hey, is my body going to thrive? Is is there possibility for me versus like, oh, I'm just trying to avoid or I fear something. Right? And I think that's something that in health care, again, we've done such poor job of speaking life over people, speaking healing over people, talking about the maybe oddball scenarios where something that was labeled like not going to heal became, you know, a quote unquote miracle. Right? And that's again, why don't we study those instead of the worst case scenarios more often? So, you know, Pete, I know you're going to bring that when you come talk, but I also, in just thinking about that, when you think about the shift that we're in right now, because healthcare is definitely in a compression tank, right? What do you see happening? Like, what is the tone that you feel off of, you know, the chiropractors? What is the tone you feel off of people that maybe don't know but are waking up to? Like, maybe I need to do something different for my health. Like, what are, what are your thoughts there?

You know how I want to answer this question, Doc? I've been thinking about this recently. You know, we recently heard the news about, you know, RFK Jr. And him, you know, getting confirmed and all that. And I've heard some of our colleagues say, I never thought I would see something like this in our lifetime. And I've been in sat at tables with rfk. I've been in very small rooms with him. Like, you have. I mean, he has relationships with chiropractic and chiropractors. And we've been champions of him in his work over the last couple decades since he's been really championing children's health.

Right.

And, and it just, we were major supporters of that because we shared, we were aligned. So I think part of it right now is like all of us like just taking a breath and being like, wait, what is happening?

Right?

And I think there's, I think there's value to just taking a breath and just saying okay, because this is a huge thing, like when you have a big job ahead of cleaning up and correcting, and you have to be really intentional about it, right? It's like the person who is broke on the street, a bum wins the lottery, they have millions of dollars and then, and then they squat a year later like, where is that guy? And they're like back out on the street. What happened? They never had what it took to, to, to steward that which they were entrusted with. We talk about the, the law of dominion, which is demonstrating the capacity to manage that which you've been entrusted with. And so this is how I feel about chiropractic. I look at my brothers and sisters across the board and I look in their eyes on a daily basis like you and I look them in the eyes and that's what I think. I'm like, are you could. And we ask simple questions like if we were to double the amount of people coming into your practice, what would break? Can you handle it? Because the reality is what would happen if we really were able to serve humanity the way that we really desire? Like for example, if you had, if all of a sudden every school around the nation called and said, we need a chiropractor on site to help us with all of our children. We have the funding, we have everything. We, we just, we have the space with facilities. We just need doctors, we just need people that are willing, ready to do it. Well, you would be hard pressed.

Oh, very hard.

But if fulfill that. So Dr. Lona, I think that, you know, we're in a position right now where we all have to take a good hard look at ourselves and ask ourselves, you know, what, what can we like what, what else do I need to do and who do I need to become in this next season? Because who I've been and how I've been playing has just been preparing me for this moment. But who I'm going to be is probably going to look different than what I've been. And that's a leader's question. They ask themselves. They ask themselves, who do I need to become? In other words, I'm going to walk into this unknown thing that's ahead of me. I, that's going to require a version of me that I am not yet, but I will become as I walk it out into this new. And so I'm thrilled because a guy like RFK was made to wait for 20 years. Chiropractors have had to wait for 130 years. Everything has been this waiting game for us. And so I hope that we've learned a lot of lessons along the way that we can bring in to how do, how do we do this? Well, how do we collaborate with the established model that's already There how do we work with and through that and still and then rise up and into our position that we need to be in. I think we can do it in a way that's respectful, that's honoring, but also that's truthful. And we really keep the forefront of everything. The individual, the patient, who we've been called to serve and, you know, and the outcomes that people can get. So I'm excited for the word excited, I don't think is the word I'm looking for. I am, I am excited about what's happened, but at the, in the exact same time, I'm also like, pressed for the weight of it. And I'm like, when you're given something heavy, like a weight of the responsibility that can come. Are we ready? We collectively as a profession, Right. Are we ready? I think there are individuals who are ready. I think there's small pockets of readiness. But as a, as a, as a profession, nationwide, worldwide, I don't feel that we are. And so we have to work really hard. We have the next four years to really put ours. And hopefully we get into a position where it's not just the next four years, it's the next 40 years. And we can spend the next 10, 20, 30, 40 years really getting health care where it needs to be and restoring the health of humanity and changing the terrible. Because think about how long it took for the statistics to get as bad. 1980s, 90s. Now we have what percent of kids chronically sick taking medications on antidepressants. It's like it took 20, 30, 40, 50 years for it to deteriorate. It's going to take us some time to regenerate. Not as long, I don't think, but it's going to take also a lot of collaboration between a lot of people and organizations to be able to do that. And I believe chiropractic and chiropractors, we are in the center, in the role, because of the role of vitalism that it has. Like you said, instead of treating the symptom and looking at it from that perspective, actually speaking into what's possible. Like, we're not just going to get you out of pain. Like, we want you to fully express your health. That's a completely different way to show up to an appointment. Like, no, I'm just here to get adjusted, so I'm expressing my full health. Oh, so you're not going to come in and complain about X, Y or Z today? No, I mean, I'm, I'm doing. I have been having an amazing day And I'm here to. I'm just here to continue to optimize and express my fullest level of health. Wow. What if. What if we had a world full of people like that? Well, I believe that's possible.

Yeah. And. And what if the narrative changed where it was, like, you learned how to listen to your body at a young age, and you learn that, like, your body is actually your best doctor, and it's the one always navigating your life with you. So it's showing you stuff through its symptoms. I mean, these things are just so foundational in, like, what has to change in our culture. I believe, for. For health care to really, truly change. Because that courage piece for the patient to have the courage to see their body from a different vantage point and then dare to trust someone that's not speaking the old narrative of what you know. You know, you fit in this box based on these symptoms. Right. And that's. There's a lot of great people within that system, but I think we can really, at this point, if you can't see the writing on the wall that, you know, it's just not doing the job. You're not looking, you know, so, you.

Know, when you shared that story with me about that, I think it was a hospital that ended up having to shut down in your area. And I thought about that, and I thought, I used to drive past the hospital every day on my way to my clinic. And I remember in my vision, because I had a vision of us actually taking over it, taking over the hospital. And I still have that vision. I've actually had somebody share with me, a chiropractor who was like, I heard you speak about that one time back in the day, and you showed a picture and you told us the story. And I was like. And they're like, I never forgot it. And I. And I'm like, well, because I. I'm. That's the mission I'm on right now. Like, I just had to take the next step in my professional journey. And what I. But I'm like, I'm. I'm. That. That is the direction that I. I'm. We're moving in. Like, we have to keep moving towards that. Like, there might be a. A hundred, whatever. I don't have a big house or square feet of space. Like thousands and thousands of square feet of space. Three, four, five floors. Like that all can be used to serve humanity. And I know we say closed hospitals, but why not? Why just use. Let's just use them to then to provide a use Them for the distribution of health care, real health care. Right. And as a place that maybe people could go for all things, all those things that we were passionate about. So I do think that that's possible. And I think that when you said that that had happened, I thought, yeah, but that institution still sits there.

Like that building is empty down the road right now. Right. And there's talk, you know, of like, what's going to replace it because, you know, the community is still in flux of trying to figure out because obviously the way that the hospital exited left a lot of, a lot of turmoil in its midst. And, and at the same time, you see where like, good ideas are sprouting up and people also frustrated. Like, why would we just replace that system with another one that likely is going to end up in a similar scenario potentially. And you know, in this last six months, as that has happened, as well as, you know, some of my story that helped me look at healing differently was, you know, getting to see the inside out of like the mental health hospitals because my mom was in there in and out for six or seven years and it was horrific. And I, I remember thinking, like, how does anyone get better here? Because it was so dismal. And you know, I think that's the other part is we look at, like when we start to look at the whole person and the body being an intelligent symptoms, intelligent how they show up, then we start to also beg the question that like the environment we put people in when they're quote, unquote sick, right? Like, is this the environment that even has the potential to help this person heal? Right. And so I like you, Pete, like, I think like, you know, in years ago when chiropractic was just being birthed, they had a sanitarium at Palmer College that was chiropractors adjusting people who had been labeled like, you know, that they would never get well. And they had all sorts of mental health labels and they kept an a medical doctor on staff to basically certify that this person came in with XYZ clinical labels in the mental health realm. And as they were checked and adjusted a lot more frequently than maybe the average person would have been checked or adjusted that these people were making recoveries. And so I'm like, my vision is like down the road, maybe there could be something like that again where you have places that people who need hope and aren't, you know, the typical people seeking chiropractic care. Because we haven't, we haven't created that in our profession yet again, where chiropractic is used for everything, and everybody knows that, you know, oh, my body's having trouble, or my mind. Body's having trouble. I'm gonna go get checked by my chiropractor. Right? But there could be these places that maybe they are hospitals and maybe they are mental health clinics, but they're, they also have chiropractors on staff that are leading the way with, like, hope and healing and getting their nervous systems regulated again.

I love that you told that story. I, I, and I know that this, you know, it, it hits close to home for you with your, with your mom and, and walking through that. And as I was an occupational therapist before I became a chiropractor, and one of my rounds that I did was I'd spent three months in a lockdown unit. And it was really, it was really sad to me, but I didn't know the story. And I did the work that I did as a therapist during that time, but I didn't know the story about chiropractic and what happened back in the Palmer. So then I go to chiropractic school, and I find out. I'm like, oh, my gosh, imagine if I was in there. Went back in there under a lockdown. I needed clearance to get in there, but I was able to go in there and actually just set up a table and adjust people. Like, who knows what could have happened in that moment. Like, my mind wasn't even thinking that way at that time. Not that I couldn't have thought that way. I just didn't know to think that I wasn't a chiropractor yet either. But, you know, and then now, seeing full circle, if you think about the effect that an adjustment can have on somebody's mental health and happiness, it's like, whoa. Like, that changes the game for people to think so much bigger than, you know, neck pain and back pain, which is typically the pigeonhole that chiropractors get put into. But it was never part of my story. It was never part of what I ever led my patients to believe. Not that they didn't come in with those things, nor did I address those things. Of course we did. But I always told them, I said, that's just like scratching the surface of what you're going to get here. That'll be a side benefit from everything else that you're going to get from what we do. And that's the power of chiropractic.

That's good. All right. I know we need to wrap up an analogy I think, of when we talk about neck pain and back pain, which it is. Like, the common reasons people generally think of a chiropractor to begin with is like I say, if you use a chiropractic for just neck or back pain, it's kind of like buying a car just for the air conditioning, right? Like, it works, you'll get cold. But there's a bunch of other things that car could do for you that would probably change your life. If you could drive throughout the town and go visit places and people, you know, it's like, yeah, it works for that. It's just, that's not what it's actually. It's. It's potential. It's not what it's designed for. So anyway, Pete, I could talk to you forever and I hope these visions we shared do come into fruition and only the nearer future than we ever could have believed before. So that's pretty exciting. Any last thoughts or ideas you want to share in wrapping?

No, I'm just excited to come up, be a part of the event and just be a part of the community that you serve and just to be aligned with you and a part of the the family of chiropractors who are committed to the mission that we have been, I believe, entrusted with. Awesome.

Well, we'll see you in April. Thanks, Pete. 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. It.