In this solo‑host episode of Dr. Vince Presents, Dr. Vince Leone reflects on why doctors should strive to be the best version of themselves and how that translates into a thriving practice, personal life, and lasting legacy. He opens with a vivid personal narrative about his early career in Hollywood, a sudden thyroid‑cancer diagnosis, a failed documentary, and a subsequent pivot to chiropractic after a life‑changing surgery. Using that story as a springboard, he argues that being "the best" is less about external accolades and more about embodying excellence in health, mindset, and daily habits. The core actionable advice he shares is the concept of a regular, completely work‑free "free day"—a dedicated 24‑hour period for self‑care, reflection, and personal interests, inspired by entrepreneur coach Dan Sullivan. Dr. Leone describes how his own separation from his wife and the demands of parenting have forced him to schedule such days, and he outlines a personal self‑care checklist (supplements, sleep, nutrition, etc.). He posits that these intentional breaks can reduce stress, improve patient interactions, spark innovative ideas for the practice, and reinforce a doctor’s overall well‑being. Throughout, he promotes Niche Mastery, a consulting program for spinal‑decompression and peripheral‑neuropathy specialists, and ends with a call to subscribe and follow his social channels.
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Hello and welcome to Dr. Vince Presents, and I am your host, Dr. Vince Leone. And this is the show for doctors looking to leave a mark on their community through building a practice and a life of integrity, wealth, and leadership. I'm happy that you're here, and once again, it's time to build your legacy. This episode is brought to you by Niche Mastery, a high-level consulting program for doctors who specialize in spinal decompression and peripheral neuropathy. Find out more at www.nichemastery.com. And now on with the show. Hey, and welcome back, guys. I am Dr. Vince, and this is Dr. Vince Presents, episode 3. The title, Are You the Best? And look, this is gonna get a little personal today because I feel like this is a personal question, and you know, there's some things I'd like to share With you fellow doctors. But it's an interesting question, and, and look, why is it important to be the best? And how do you go about being the best? And frankly, what if we aren't? What do we do in that situation? And I'm going to go over one really key strategy later in this video that I feel A, it's been very powerful for me, and I think that it could be very powerful for you. It's not a money-making strategy. It's not a new patient strategy. This is a personal growth strategy. But let's start at the beginning. Why is it important to be the best? Well, look, I'll tell you a quick story, and some of you may know this and some of you may not. I was 30 years old, and so that's— I'm 44 now. I was in the film industry and had my first movie coming out in January of 2003, and I had raised $1 million in personal equity from a private individual out of New York. I had the girl of my dreams. You know, life was good. I had been in the industry for about 7 years, 7, 8 years at this point. Had, you know, great relationships with colleagues of mine that I went to undergraduate school with. I worked with wonderful people, you know, like really the top in the business— Ron Howard, Steven Spielberg, Matthew McConaughey, Jim Carrey. I mean, Woody Harrelson. I mean, that guy's— he's pretty wild. But the point being is I was having a great time. It was, it was really a dream. And but then all of a sudden it wasn't, you know, out of the blue. I, I got diagnosed with thyroid cancer. And, you know, why that happened, who knows? We actually, we used to play flag football, me and my buddies, at the Beverly Hills High School. And apparently back in the '60s, some oil company had buried a bunch of bad crap. There, and a lot of people got thyroid cancer and some other things. And, you know, there was a whole class action lawsuit. So that was obviously the primary cause. But, you know, I was the only one of my friends that got anything. But so you wonder why, you know, why that happens. Who knows? And, you know, my movie came out in, like I said, early 2003, and it bombed. And what sucked so bad about that was it was a very good movie. It was an action sports documentary. It was on big wave surfing, right? These guys are riding 40, 50, 60-foot waves. They're towed in by jet skis. I mean, we got the most phenomenal footage ever shot in the history of surfing. I mean, bar none. And, and plenty of people said that. We had excellent reviews. And frankly, if you go on YouTube and just type in Billabong Odyssey and just watch the opening shot, it's like a minute. To 2 minutes long. It is phenomenal. That was shot from a helicopter on a 66-foot wave. And the whole concept of the movie was the world search for the biggest wave. We traveled around the entire world and shot, you know, all over the place— France, Tahiti, Maui, Mexico. Golly, where else did we go? Anyways, wonderful experience, but we didn't have the marketing and advertising behind it. And so that just— people just Not enough people knew about the dang thing. So, so it failed, which was a massive bummer. And, and, you know, believe it or not, the girl of my dreams, who I really kind of thought I was going to spend the rest of my life with, broke up with me. Okay, so it was a very strange confluence of events, like literally all this stuff within a few months, and it wasn't fun, right? And that To me, all that were— all those things were signs pointing to needing to make a change. And if I'm being honest with you, my life had gotten a little out of control at that point. I was having a little too much fun in Hollywood. And that's when I went into chiropractic, you know. And it was, you know, I started— I made the decision fairly quickly. I took some prerequisite courses there in Southern California and then just packed up my stuff and moved to Dallas. You know, I went to Parker because my father credits Dr. Jim Parker for all of his success, and so that's where I went. And it was a great experience. I loved the city of Dallas, wonderful people there, really developed some great relationships, colleagues and friends that I still talk with on a regular basis now. And so Going back to, you know, when I got diagnosed and I decided that I was going to have surgery, you know, a total thyroidectomy, I found the best hospital in Los Angeles, Johns Hopkins, and then I found the best doctor at that hospital that performed this surgery and that he had performed a million of them, and then I went and interviewed him. Maybe he didn't know I was interviewing him, maybe he did. He was a very Very smart man, and, but I wasn't going to let just anyone, you know, cut open my throat, take out my thyroid, but he was awesome. He was an older gentleman, he had an excellent bedside manner, very well kept, and beautiful fingernails. Now, why the heck do I bring up fingernails? You know, my father had a good thought at that time. He said, you know, look, you're going to be meeting these doctors, and he came down and Came with me to this particular appointment. But he said, you know, you want someone with excellent attention to detail. I mean, these are surgeons, right? And how people keep their nails says a lot about them. And, you know, I just thought that was so interesting. But I'll tell you what, there was a sense of calm about him that in turn calmed me, you know, in a very stressful time in my life, very high-stress time. Now, whether the fingernail thing is true or not, it made sense to me, you know, and that calm factor was really huge. So I went with that doctor and the surgery turned out perfect. But the point being, we all want the best to handle our healthcare, right? But let me rephrase the question just a little bit. Let me rephrase the title. Are you the best version of yourself? Because if you were, wouldn't that translate, you know, into your practice, into your home life as a parent? Um, we all know how to do research to, to learn more in terms of clinical stuff. We all can use the internet to book a trip to a seminar, but Let me make a suggestion that may be a little off course. What if you took a day off? And I'm not talking about your regular weekday. I'm talking about a free day just for you to do whatever you want, as long as it had nothing to do with work. And I was turned on to this concept by a mentor of mine, Dan Sullivan, just a brilliant individual who coaches entrepreneurs. But no spouses or kids involved. These are— these, I mean, they're just for you. Okay, you can go to the mountain for a day, go to the lake for a hike, rent a hotel room in the city, bring a journal, just focus on you. Take a 5-hour drive around your state, go sit in a coffee shop, have breakfast, read a book, have a lunch, have a beverage at lunch if you— if so, you know, if you're you so desire, and go catch a movie at night. You know, as I've transitioned into consulting, it's amazing the time that I've found and how it allows me to just think about things a little bit more in depth. And I'll share something very personal with you that I haven't really shared with, frankly, Many people whatsoever, not even some close friends. At the time, I'm going through a separation with my wife, and it's very amicable, you know, there's no screaming and yelling anymore. We have 2 children that we both love dearly. They mean the world to me, and we've worked out a schedule Where, you know, she hasn't moved out completely, but she does have an apartment. And so we've worked out a schedule where the girls will be with her like every other weekend, and then sometimes, and then a couple days during the week, but at her apartment on the weekends. And so it has almost force-fed me these free days. Sure. In fact, I'm on one right now. Okay, so this is Saturday. And it, you know, as a parent, if you are a parent, you know that there's, I mean, it's, there's almost an— it's a nonstop type deal here. You're always, there's always something that they need. And, and I love it. I absolutely love being a parent. And my daughters are 7 and 4, and They are and they will always be the love of my life, and I will always do everything to give them that life that they deserve and that I really feel that is my responsibility and duty to do. But on these off days, these free days, it gives me a lot of time to think and to put things in perspective and to take care of myself. You know, I have a list of self-care that is very important to me, especially going through the separation. You know, things like, you know, am I taking my supplements? Am I getting proper sleep? Did I have my green drink in the morning? Did I have my apple cider vinegar? What else is on that list? A lot of things. About 15 things. And when you take care of yourself, it gives you— it's like self-love. That's exactly what it is. It's like self-love. You're taking care of yourself. And I've kind of beat myself up over the years for one reason or another. But so I pass that along to you. Take a day, and it may— now, if you're married, this may be a little odd or awkward, you know, to tell your spouse and your family, hey, Dad is taking a day off, period, you know, and it should be 24 hours. Now, if you want to start, you know, just taking the entire day to yourself, you can do that too, but you need to be away. From the family. You need to be away from work and totally dedicated to just you. And you do whatever you want, whatever you want, as long as it does not have anything to do with work. But other than that, you know, it's really up to you. So, look, when I'm in the office, and I still am 2 days a week, and because it's only 2 days a week, there's very little downtime. There's always a new patient to evaluate or an active patient to treat, you know, exams to be written, x-ray reports, etc. When I get a break, I usually, frankly, just get caught up on email. And truth be told, I'll play a game on my phone just to take, you know, some mental stress off. And that, you know, all that's great, you know, that's what we do. We're in charge of people's health. We should be busy, we should be focused, we should be tuned in. But, you know, look, how would you feel if 3 to 5 times a month you just had a free day to not focus on your practice, you know, not focus on your family? Do you think your patients may notice a new sense of calm about you? And do you think you may come up with an idea or two that could improve things around the office, even though you're not supposed to be thinking about work? What effect would that have on your stress levels? And I guess the bottom line is maybe we don't need to be the best of the best in our cities. Maybe you do. But certainly, if you have all the boxes You know, kind of ticked off from a clinical standpoint. And even if you don't yet, maybe a few days a month just for yourself. Take those and see what happens. Believe me, you deserve it. Your job, the thing that you spend the most time in your life, is taking care of other people. Take a couple days a month to take care of yourself. Look, I hope I hope this helps. It has actually been a little cathartic just sharing that because I've never done that publicly, that's for sure. But I certainly appreciate your time. I know that you're busy, and I hope you enjoyed this episode, and I look forward to seeing you on the next. Take care. Hey everyone, if you like this episode, please subscribe to my YouTube channel and then like my Facebook page at facebook.com/DrVinceLeoneConsulting. Look forward to seeing you on the next episode.
