107 - Build the Team That Builds the Business

when I work with my Build clients who are trying to get to that CEO, or even my early CEO scale people trying to do it better, they have to realize that when you get into become a great team builder, you realize as owners, it's not our job to build the business. It's not. And some of you listeners out there are like, what the heck are you talking about? Of course it's my job. It's not your job to build the business. It's your job to build the team and the team builds a business for you. Right? That's probably a huge paradigm shift for some of our listeners, but that's the key to success. And so we can't do that with assistants just showing up saying, okay, Dr. Lona, tell me what to do today.

Hello and welcome to Build Your 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, welcome back to the Build Your Remarkable Practice podcast. I'm back with Dr. Eric, and we are going to be chatting how to build that remarkable team around you. So especially if you're in a build phase of practice, or maybe you've just opened and you're starting to build your practice, how do you start to identify when's time to hire a team? When's the right time to hire the next CA? And how do I find great people and keep them and do this thing better than we ever could have done alone? So, Dr. Eric, take us away. You have bought— built masterful teams. You have multiple practices, right?

Thanks for having me, Lona. It's always fun. Uh, yeah, build docs out there. I, I wanna have a conversation specifically for you guys and gals. If you've consumed any of the TRP content, you know that there's 4 seasons to the chiropractic career. Right? There's launch, build, scale, and exit. Launch is first year out, just kind of just figuring out how to be a chiropractor. Right? I remember those days where I was focused on how do I adjust this or how do I adjust that? And now those are things we can just do in our sleep. Right? But now it's like, okay, how do I build a team? Right? And so once you get into build, now it's solo doctor, owner-operator, probably have a couple team members assisting you, but it's, it's all on your shoulders, right? If you don't show up, nothing happens. Then we get to scale. Now we're leveraging other teams, we're leveraging doctors, things like that. It's not all about me, right? I can grow beyond myself because I have other people delivering healthcare. And then obviously exits when we exit. So the team building conversation and build and scale is very different. So I want to really focus on the build conversation today for you docs out there that might have, you know, 1 or 2 team members and you're trying to build up that practice. So eventually maybe you can have enough revenue that you can hire an associate doc and keep growing from there. But we'll have the conversation around that, that solo owner-operator who has a couple team members. Here's what I find with most build docs that I coach: they don't have team members, they have assistants. And what I mean by that is, is you have employees that are very eager and willing to help, but what they do is they show up and say, okay, uh, I'm going to do whatever Dr. Lona tells me to do today. Right there, they're willing to help, but there's no structure, there's no roles, there's no responsibilities. So it's just kind of show up and wait for Dr. Lona to direct me.

Yes.

And while it's great to have people to take some of the, the burden off of you being just the only employee or team member, that is underutilizing their resources and you're not getting your bang for your buck, right? And A-players will not put up for that. A-players will not just show up and be an assistant. Right? People that are willing to be an assistant and just show up and do what the doc says, those are B and C players. They're just there for the paycheck, honestly. A players want to own what they do. They want to be really, really good at what they do. They want to have clarity around their role. And then they say, okay, show me what to do, train me, and then leave me alone. Don't micromanage me. Let me do my thing. So if you want to build a great team, you have to have structures in place where A players would actually want to work for you. We always say that 95% of business problems are people problems. 95%. So when you get this figured out, business becomes a whole lot easier and a whole lot more fun. However, we have to realize, owners out there, you're one of the people. And in the build phase, the majority of the people problems falls on the owner's shoulder. They just don't know. And it's not necessarily that they're being negligent. They just don't know. They just don't know what they don't know. And that's really what we do so well with Thermoacal Practices, helping guiding docs on how to do this properly. Because I firmly believe most doctors who stay in the build phase for their whole career, it's not that they didn't want to grow and help more people. They just didn't know how to do it. They, they realized that I'm the bottleneck. I can't do anymore and I don't know how to build a team. So I'm just going to stay where I am. I'm just not going to grow. I'm just going to own a job, work my butt off, hopefully make some decent money, help some people, but not have the impact that I could have if I would have been able to build a great team around me. Right. When I work with my build clients who are trying to get to that CEO, or even my early CEO scale people trying to do it better, they have to realize that when you get into become a great team builder, you realize as owners, it's not our job to build the business. It's not. And some of you listeners out there are like, what the heck are you talking about? Of course it's my job. It's not your job to build the business. It's your job to build a team and the team builds a business for you. Right? That's probably a huge paradigm shift for some of our listeners, but that's the key to success. And so we can't do that with assistants just showing up saying, Okay, Dr. Lona, tell me what to do today.

Right?

Right.

What we have to do is get clear roles and responsibilities. So I show up to work every day as a CA saying, these are my 10 things that I'm responsible for. I don't need to wait for Dr. Lona to say a word to me. I just go get to work and do exactly what I'm supposed to do.

Yes.

Here's my 10 responsibilities. Here's the other team member's 10 responsibilities, the other person's 10, and we just do our thing. Right? That's what a great team is. Not only are they more productive, but guess what? It takes it off of my shoulders, the owner. I don't have to constantly babysit them and tell them what to do. And again, A-players love that. They will not work for an owner-operator who just has assistants.

Right.

So how do we do this?

How do we—

Yeah. Or micromanage us for sure. Yeah. So how do we do this? Well, there's kind of a 5-step process that I take our Build Docs through. Number 1, first we have to hire A-players who share your core values and buy into your vision story. So we talk about core values. Core values are what is important in your business, and only you guys as owners can define this for yourself. What's really important to you? And so A-players have to share those core values and they have to buy into your vision story. Vision stories— what does success look like? What am I trying to create? 1 year, 3 years, 5 years? Like, what am I trying to create? What does success look like? They have to buy into that as well. So how do we define an A-player? Well, there's 3 characteristics that we look at for A-players: talent, skill, and heart. They have to be 9s or 10s in talent, skill, and heart. Well, what are those? So what's talent? I get this a lot. They like, well, I kind of hear talent, but what does that really mean? So talent is just God-given. It's your ability to learn something quickly, right? When somebody's talented in something, they can just pick it up. They may not have the skill yet, but they can learn it in like no time at all because they have a talent for it. Whereas other people that are less talented, they can learn the skill, it just might take a lot longer because it's not a natural talent, right? So we definitely want talent. Skill is, is learned, you know, it's what we train them to do. It's the ability to execute that role. And then there's heart. How much do you care? See, talent and heart are God-given. You can't typically train— maybe not so much God-given, but trained over time, right? Mothers, fathers, teachers, and preachers impact that, or they create that. And I'm, I'm in the chiropractic business. I'm not in the therapy business. So I don't want to take on people that don't have heart and try to convert them. Those of you out there that those motherly types that want to be like, oh, I want to help. No, that's not what the business needs, right? Let them figure that out elsewhere. It'll wreck your business and your culture. So we want people that actually care. That's, that's very, very important. Your business deserves that. Your community deserves that. So, and what's interesting about this is that, you know, talent and heart are more God-given or developed, but skill can be taught. But yet what happens when we do interviews? We interview new team members. What do we ask them? It's all questions around skills.

Yeah.

I was just gonna say, I think most people hire for skills instead of for heart and possible talent and then teach the skills, right? Yeah.

And that's the thing. That's the one thing that's teachable is skills. And that's what we ask. Where'd you go to school? What degree did you get? What's your past experience? Who cares about that? You can teach them what you need to teach them. I care. Do you have talent? Is this, are you designed to do this role? And do you care? Do you give a shit? Like, that's what I look for. If you, if those two things are there, I can teach anybody the skill. That's easy.

Amen.

And so that's what we have to really do in our interview process. That's part of finding A players. A players care. They really, really care. I saw a great quote recently. It said, the best employees act like owners and the best owners act like employees.

That's good.

If you go into somebody's office and you can't tell whether that office manager is the owner of the business or not, that's a great employee.

Yeah.

Right. So they show up as if they own the business, even though they don't. Right. And so that's, and that's what A-players are. And we have to find those people. Those are people that have a heart, right? They're 9s or 10s in heart. So that's getting the A-player. We have to find the A-player that buys into core values and vision. That's the first step. Second step is we have to put them in the right seat based on their zone of genius. What are they just designed to do? We, we always say God only makes geniuses. What is their genius? We all have strengths. We all have weaknesses. We are much better working on our strengths because we enjoy it. We're gonna be better at it, more productive, and it's gonna make us happier. So we have to figure out exactly What is the role that this person would fit? But really, we want to do it the other way. So just all you listeners out there, realize we've identified TRP. There's 10 roles in the chiropractic office. There's 10 roles between doctors, leadership, CAs, marketing people. There's 10 total roles. And you're like, well, Doc, there's only 3 of us. I can't hire 7 more people. You don't have to. Those 10 roles need to be fulfilled. Just a few of 3 team members. The stream team members have to fulfill those 10 roles, right? But so what we have to do is when we're hiring somebody, we have to first define the seat that we need before you fill it. Too many people will hire a person because they like them. Like, ooh, this is named Claire. I like this person, but they don't define the role. So you might have 2 check-in CAs and no checkout CAs, right? And we, so we want a team that complements, right? In football, we always use sports analogies, right? You can only have 1 quarterback on the field. One, if I put 3 quarterbacks on the field, it's not gonna go so well, right? Because you can only have one. We only need one check and say, one checkout, right? One CEO, one COO. And so we have to get really clear on what is the role that my business needs right now and then hire for that role. Don't hire the person, try to fit them in somewhere. That usually doesn't work very well. So that's based on their zone of genius, getting them in the right seat on the bus. And so we have to make sure by defining that role, we have to know they get traction. Talks about GWC. They get it, they want it, they have the capacity to do it. Do they get the role? Do they understand what's expected? Do they want it? Is it like something they're passionate about? And do they have the capacity to do it? Do they have the talent and skills or can be taught the skills to actually execute that? Right. That's the second step. The third step is now we have to create crystal clear expectations and agreements with scorecards and KPIs. So in TRP, we have these things called scorecards, which are basically— KPI stands for key performance indicator. It's a metric, right? We hopefully docs that they're measuring a decent amount of numbers and metrics for your business. So you have a pulse on what's actually working and what's not in your business, because if you don't have the numbers, you're guessing and we don't ever want to guess when it comes to our business. So once we have these metrics, you know, we assign them to team members. And so with a scorecard on it, there's 3 primary objectives. So you're as a check-in CA, here's your 3 primary objectives and you get to determine for your office what those are. We have suggestions in DRP, but here's your 3 primary objectives or roles as that check-in CA or checkout or whatever the position is. And here's the 5 KPIs or 5 metrics that you're accountable to. And what that means is that they're not solely responsible because it's always a team effort to drive these KPIs, but they're accountable. What accountable means is their job is to track it, to come up with ways to improve it, right? And to report it to the team. And when you can do this now, because if you don't have scorecards, guess what, owners? You own all the KPIs. All of them are on your shoulders. But now when you have team members, they— you start to transfer some of that ownership to them. And again, A-players love this. They want to have ownership, and now they can be responsible for, for looking for these things or finding things. It's a whole nother set of eyes on different things in your practice, and it creates that accountability. Yeah. And that way everybody knows exactly—

and you haven't been taking your stats routinely, like that, you gotta start there. We've gotta have data to use to do this.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah. You have to have your data and it's gotta be more than how many patients did we have last week? How many new patients did we have? Like everybody measures that, but there's way more. And if you don't know those metrics, hop on a call with a TRP coach. Yeah, they will help you with that. We have unbelievable systems in TRP to track all those metrics for you so you actually can diagnose your business. Right. The example I always use is, is, you know, you would never adjust a patient without, you know, assessing them first, right? You would never do that without at least doing some scans or X-rays or just even palpation, right? But yet we do that with our business all the time. We operate our business without any diagnosis, without any idea of what's working and what's not working. We just show up and just to try to serve, and that's just not enough.

That's fair.

Yep. So number 3, once we again set those clear expectations and, and have KPIs to measure on the back end, number 4 is we have to build a training culture so the team does the work, the right work, the right way.

Yeah.

We say the first 90 days of a new hire is the onboarding process, right? This is probably multiple hours a day of training, helping them understand their role and be able to execute it. Onboarding the first 90 days, the goal is competency. We want to get them to be competent where they can competently execute their role in the business, but we don't stop at competency. We want mastery. So after that 90-day onboarding process, now we have ongoing training every single week as a team to develop mastery, and it never ends. Even when you think, I have a mature team, they, they know what they're doing, I promise you in your business you have what we call drift. Yeah, drift is every week your team starts changing what they do 1 to 2%, and then after 6 months, like, 80% of what they do is not a part of your system. You'll be at the front desk and you hear a CA something, you're like, what the heck was that? We don't do that. And they don't do it intentionally. They're not trying to make you mad, docs. They just— it just drifts. It occurs. And so we have to constantly train over and over again so we can keep bringing everybody back to the systems that work. And if you don't have systems, that's what TRP provides as well. You don't have to reinvent the wheel. We'll give you the systems and then you can implement it and train your team on that. Right? We always say that training and equipping your team is the highest ROI you will ever get in your business. Marketing is a distant second. You will never get a better return on investment than you would by training and equipping your team guys. And the bigger your team gets, the more important it is. We have to have a highly— and again, A-players love this. A-players want to constantly be developed. In fact, if you don't develop an A player, they will leave you. And so what I think happens sometimes, we start to develop procedures and processes in our business to support B and C players. It's like, oh, if we trained, they wouldn't like that. They'd quit. Oh, if we assign KPIs, oh, my CA wouldn't like that. She would quit. Good. That means they're not A players. So we have to build up structures and systems for A players, not for B and C players. That's number 4. And I know guys, training is hard. It's not easy, but it's worth it. But it's us as the leaders to create that culture. Yes. We have to create that culture that training is expected and it's encouraged and it's embraced. Right? We always say in TRP that, you know, we see patients in between trainings. It's not, it's not that we do trainings in between seeing patients. No, we see patients in between trainings, right? That the trainings are the important thing, right? We see patients around trainings. That's how important trainings are, guys. All right. Finally, number 5, as an owner and as the leader of the business, you have to lead with energy and accountability. You guys have to step into that leadership role, right? Our job as leaders is we have to cast a compelling vision. We have to cast the vision, guys. See, we always say that we're pulled by our vision and we're pushed by our purpose. So our vision, like I said earlier, is what does success look like? This is what I'm trying to create 1, 3, 5 years from now. Right? Your team has to see that because the vision is what pulls us. We see that it pulls us. We want to get there. It pulls us towards that vision. And your purpose is why you exist. Your purpose is what pushes you. It's what gets you out of bed when you're tired. It's what keeps you going through a challenging week or a challenging day. Right? That's what your, your purpose is. It pushes you, but we're pulled by our vision. But if your team doesn't see a vision that we're moving towards, guess what, guys? It's just a job to them. It's a paycheck. That's it. And what's great about this is that Humans, we have this inherent need to be a part of something bigger than ourselves. We just, we just automatically, it's a primal thing in all of us. And chiropractic is one of the biggest visions I can possibly think of. But we have to enroll them in that vision. And when we do, that's gonna give them the passion and purpose that will help them serve more people and grow the business and impact our community at a higher level. But we have to share, guys, well, first of all, you'd get clear on your vision yourself, and then you have to share it with your team and then show them how their, their role in the office fulfills that vision.

Mm-hmm.

I always love to tell the story, you know, back in 19— I think it was 1960, John F. Kennedy was the president then, and he had, you know, we've all heard how he wanted to— had the vision of putting a man on the, on the moon, right? By 1969, by the end of the decade. And it ended up happening unfortunately after he was assassinated. But he visited NASA in 1960 and he was walking around and they were gonna, you know, show him around the place and he saw this janitor And, uh, he, you know, he saw his janitor in the hallway, like sweeping the hallway, and he went up to him and was like, hey, you know, I'm curious, what do you do here? And he said, I'm helping put a man on the moon. That's what the janitor said. Because even though just a janitor, he realized that by keeping the hallways clean, by emptying the garbages, by keeping the toilets and bathrooms clean, he was helping support those astronauts and scientists and engineers to do what they needed to do to put a man on the moon. Right. He saw his part of the vision and what his role had. And so we have to be leaders and help our team, all our team members see the role that they play in that, that vision of success, what we're trying to accomplish. Because when the team is right, when you get them compelled and as a part of the vision, the attraction, conversion, retention, it all rises with that tide. Because like I said earlier, when I started with guys, it's not your job to build the business. It's your job to build the team and the team will build the business for you.

So good. So many, everyone needs to like go back and re-listen. Write down the notes. He just gave you the formula that it's a lot. You listen to that and you're like, dang, that's a lot. I got a lot of work to do. Yeah, you do. But it's one of those things that once it gets in place, the fruits keep, you know, every season they keep coming.

Right? You gotta pick your pain, right? In business, there will be pain. Do you want the short-term pain of just doing what we just talked about? Because if you don't take that short-term pain, you're gonna have a long-term pain of never having a good team. Yeah, pick your pain.

So good, Eric. You are always so eloquent and prepared and organized, and I obviously imagine that's what you're like coaching people too. So people can reach out, have a strategy session with you. You know, you work with Build and Scale Docs, correct? Yeah.

Yep.

Awesome. Uh, well, we'll see you at the next immersion in Phoenix here.

Yep. Thanks for having me, Lono.

You're welcome. Thank you.

You're welcome.

Hey everyone, please listen in for this next bonus interview of one of our Remarkable Success Partners. They all help us help more people find the benefits of chiropractic, so listen on.

All right, what's up everyone? It's Coach Dr. Sebastian from The Remarkable Practice. I am here with, uh, my favorite introvert. I love you, man. Justin. Patro from Big Life Financial. He's one of our success partners and he's gonna tell us why actually we love him. We love the work that he does and we recommend a lot of our clients and we point them his way and to Big Life Financial. On a personal note, he's helped a couple of my colleagues and associate doctors find tax credits on their student loans and really help them out to pay them faster and achieve their financial freedom faster. So I know that what he does works. I've heard incredible stories and testimonials from multiple clients. So we have 5 minutes with Justin. I hope that you enjoy. So Justin, Just tell us, man, what problems do you solve for our clients? What are the top 3 problems that you've been able to solve for, uh, the people who reach out to you from TRP?

Yeah, thank you, Dr. Sebastian. So the first problem that we have found is that once doctors get in the TRP system, their practices become more efficient. They start running on systems, they start running teams, and that produces more revenue, which in turn produces more income. But as what happens for most doctors is they make more income, they spend more money. So they stay stuck where they were before, just making more money. So the first problem we help them solve is create systems. We call it financial operating systems in their personal finances so that as the income increases, their spending lags behind. So they start to create wealth outside of their practice while their practice is getting bigger. Instead of always making more money, spending more money, making more money, spending more money. So that is problem number one that we solve for TRP doctors.

Love it. So I know that it's a huge mindset shift. So you— one of the things is by your strategies, uh, the mindset that gets fixed by itself. So, um, yeah, I know, I know someone who have done what, you know, some of the things that you've guys done. And at the end of the year, they had $50,000 saved that they were not expecting. So awesome. That's one problem. What's the second problem you guys solve for our clients?

Second problem. So as your income is rising, also is what happens is your tax bill starts rising. And if you started your practice with your, your friend accountant, your accountant you found in your BNI group. Oftentimes those people are great for that season of your business, but as you scale upward, their tax strategies, their ability to actually help you reduce and keep the money you're making on your taxes becomes reduced. And so you have to find a new way to help reduce your taxes. Otherwise you're just going to be sending money to the IRS unnecessarily. So the second problem we solve for TRT doctors is helping them keep more of the tax money. That they would've had to pay had they done things like everyone else. So we help them implement tax strategies proactively. We help them initiate a philosophy around taxes that creates a system where they keep more of their tax dollars in their own pocket instead of just giving it to the United States government.

So are you guys accountants?

Yeah, so we do have— I'm not an accountant, but we own an accounting firm that's built into our practice. So we can help them file their taxes, we can give them tax strategy, tax advice, we can tell them this will reduce your taxes by this much and we'll file and send it off to the IRS for you.

So you're an accountant and a tax strategist for your clients?

Correct. 100%.

Okay. If you're listening to this, it's no coincidence. My accountants are— so in Puerto Rico, tax laws are different. So I need someone here working, but what I have is exactly what you're talking about. My accountant is also a tax strategist that his job is to make sure I keep as much as possible legally while playing this game in a very intelligent way. So that is huge, man. That's huge. Accounting with a strategy. Amazing. Third problem you guys solve.

Third problem we solve is the idea around maximum potential. So, so many people have these ambitions that they've had built up within them. I want X amount of wealth in the future. I want to leave this level of impact. I want to create generational wealth. But then at their practice, it may be coming along slower. They're looking at their investment accounts. It's like, well, that doesn't look very big right now. But it's what we're trying to help people think is you have to think bigger than you currently are. And the last problem we help people solve is bridging the gap out of the middle-class mindset into a generational mindset, which will enable you to go as big as you want to go. Because that actually is probably one of the most fundamental things you have to have if you're actually going to reach your aspirations. You can't stay trapped in scarcity. You can't stay trapped doing what every American does because most Americans don't create generational wealth. So stop copying what everyone else does and start stepping into what you feel called to do and what you feel inspired around your mission. Accomplish. And I think that the fundamental stuff that we put in place around tax strategy, around financial strategy, around investment strategy, all helps accumulate into, I can actually reach my wealth aspirations and make the generational impact that I want to make.

Dude, this is huge. You're all the reason I was able to be completely debt-free at 38 years old, completely debt-free. Owning 3 properties, you know, beach house, boat, and really living a life that I enjoy was because of these 3 things that you're talking about, these 3 problems that I solved. So I know that if I want to get a hold— if I want to get in touch with you, what will be my next step? If I'm like, yes, I have one of those problems, or I need help with all of those problems, what will be my next step?

Yeah. So if you are like, I want action right now, I need help with this. I want to take action. Go to biglifefinancial.com/trp. You'll be able to schedule a call with us. You'll be able to have a consultation. We will identify what is the urgent need for you. And then we'll take action on that, solve that problem, and then we'll solve the rest over time. If you're still like, I'm not quite sure, but I really liked what he had to say. You can follow me on LinkedIn, on YouTube. Just look up Justin D. Maxwell and you'll be able to follow content and get to know me a little more. And then hopefully over time, some of the something I say will inspire you to make a change and make an impact on your financial life so that you reach your maximum potential.

Hey man, I would love to get on a call with you so that you can check what I, what I've done, what I'm doing, and have your feedback. Will that— can I do that also?

Yes, 100%. We can even— one thing we do offer is just we offer a compliment, like in that complimentary review. If you want us to review your past taxes, we'll review them complimentary, no fee at our expense so that you could know, like, is my person an accountant and a tax strategist? How much money am I leaving on the table? Or are they already doing what I need to be done? So you have that reassurance that I actually already have the team I need. I don't have to make a shift or I don't need to do anything different because oftentimes there's this lingering doubt in the back of people's minds that they're not quite sure. We can help provide that reassurance for you.

Justin, awesome brother. So love you, brother. Talk to you soon.

See ya.

Thanks for listening to this episode of Build Your 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.