The Anatomy of a Seven-Figure Practice with Dr. Doug DeSalvo
In this episode of the Practice Builders Podcast, hosts Dr. Vince Leone and Dr. Kyle Pankinen interview Dr. Doug DeSalvo, a 64‑year‑old chiropractor from Northern California who has built a 7‑figure cash‑based practice centered on decompression therapy, shockwave, laser, and other advanced modalities. Dr. DeSalvo recounts his 37‑year career, describing how he first adopted decompression in 2000, paused it, and re‑introduced it in 2023, which helped double his practice in a year using only two tables. He explains the strategic decisions that enabled growth: risk assessment before purchasing equipment, rigorous numbers analysis, and internal marketing through patient education handouts and the 3D Practice digital platform. He details his intake and ROF (Reason‑for‑Visit) process, which leverages a trained front‑desk team to perform online and in‑person intakes, reducing consultation time to a few minutes. He highlights partnerships with a nearby MRI facility for cash‑based scans, the creation of handouts using AI (ChatGPT), and a structured maintenance‑care pathway that includes booster decompression sessions. Dr. DeSalvo shares how he built a strong team—an eight‑year‑tenured office manager (“Steady Eddy”), four clinical assistants, and a culture of fair wages, health‑insurance contributions, and ongoing weekly training focused on phone skills and protocol mastery. He discusses leadership evolution across four decades, lessons from an embezzlement incident that taught him tighter financial controls, and the importance of trust and authenticity with staff. The conversation also covers his broader toolbox of cash‑based services: MLS and MicroLite lasers, Storz shockwave, percussion devices, HAKIMED electrical stimulation, NeckCare ROM measurement, EEG stress testing, and the RezziMax vagus‑nerve tuner. Dr. DeSalvo advises clinicians aiming for a 7‑figure practice to first acquire decompression and shockwave, develop a solid patient‑care framework, and ensure a friendly, well‑trained front desk. The episode closes with reflections on exit planning, retirement, and the value of being an expert in niche services rather than relying solely on equipment.
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Hey there, and welcome back. I'm Dr. Vince Leone, executive producer and co-host of the Practice Builders Podcast. With my partner in crime, Dr. Kyle Pankinen, we deliver proven strategies to help you grow fast, specialize with confidence, and build profitable staff-run practices. Let's go ahead and dive into today's episode now. Hello and welcome everybody to the Practice Builders Podcast. My name is Dr. Vince Leone.
And I'm Dr. Kyle Pankinen. Today's a special podcast. We have a special guest that I think you're gonna learn a lot from, you're gonna be inspired by, and you're gonna come away with some great tips for growing, uh, your clinic. This is a high-performing doctor, and, uh, this is— if you're looking to grow your practice, these are the types of doctors that you want to follow and listen to. So Dr. Leone, introduce our special guest.
Yeah, this is Dr. Doug DeSalvo in Northern California. Dr. DeSalvo, how you doing today?
Very good, thank you, Dr. Leone. Thanks for having me on.
Oh yeah, our pleasure. And so the title of this podcast is The Anatomy of a 7-Figure Practice, an interview with Dr. DeSalvo. So, um, yeah, Dr. DeSalvo's located in Northern California, and, uh, why don't we just start off Kind of, uh, your origin story. Walk us through your journey. How did you go from, you know, more of a traditional chiropractic practice into your 7-figure operation where you added decompression and neuropathy?
Uh, well, I've been in practice for 37, 38 years now, and, you know, started off with my basic tool bag, which was in my— just my hands. And I've always dabbled with the, you know, modalities. And I actually discovered decompression back in 2000 and was active with it for about 5, 6 years. And then I had to move my practice. And when I moved my practice, I ended up, you know, getting away from decompression for a little while, but then brought it back on. And when I brought it back on in To 2023, actually. 2023. Yeah. Uh, we doubled our practice.
Oh, wow.
Yeah. And, um, it took about a year to nearly double. Uh, so, uh, and that was with 2 tables.
You doubled in 1 year?
With 2 tables.
Wow.
So what—
so you originally started with it in 2000, you got away from it. What made you, or what inspired you, to bring it back into the practice in 2023?
Well, I'm 64 now, so, you know—
Looking great, by the way.
Thank you. And the questions that I really had to ask myself was, okay, do you want to take on more equipment, take on more of a risk? And, you know, I wasn't sure what the market would bear, how many patients we were able to attract to us. So, you know, I took a risk, and at least I thought it was a risk. Now it's not a risk at all, and, um, it, it worked. Uh, so, uh, once we got our staff trained up and put the policies and procedures in place, and we continue to train the staff, uh, we just get better and better with it.
Yeah, and most, you know, most chiropractors get stuck wearing every hat, right? They're, they're the head cook, They're the waiter, they're the busboy, the down the line. What were the kind of the first systems or roles that you put in place that allowed you, you know, to kind of free up your time to focus on growth?
Well, I have 4 CAs now, and my front desk is actually trained to do an initial intake. So when I walk in and do my exam, we've got our online intake plus her intake, and then I don't need to spend 15, 20 minutes doing a consultation. So my consultation at that point becomes maybe 2 to 3 minutes.
Hmm.
And then I go into my examination, and the type of examination that I do mirrors what Dr. Pankinen teaches. And so we get more of a wow factor from the patient because they understand that we're more thorough. And then I take X-rays mostly on every patient. So we can do some show and tell there. And so that's a really good thorough intake and exam process. And I usually treat patients on day 1. Most patients come in, they're expecting to get something. So even if it's just some electrical stimulation to buy me some time, to figure things out. If a patient does have a disc pathology, I'll be prescribing an MRI. We did contract with a facility about 30 minutes away to do an MRI on a cash basis for $550. So if doctors don't have that kind of relationship with an MRI facility, they should get that relationship established because most MRI facilities will do that. There's so many MRI facilities For now, or now that they're all kind of fighting for scraps. So they'll do a cash basis for patients. And if I'm trying to get back to your question, what procedures I put in place. So getting back to that question.
Yeah.
We train now almost every week. And for our office is pretty full patient-wise, so it's hard to find the time to train.
Mm-hmm.
But I train based on the procedures that I need them to help me get into place, which is the modalities. So when I order up a treatment plan, we're ordering up the modalities for the first 12 visits, second 12 visits, and we get that on paper so they know what my plan is and they know how to carry out that plan even if I'm not here. So it's not just me telling them each time. So we have to have things set in advance. Most importantly though, you have to have good handouts to give to your patients so they understand what you're going to do.
Hmm.
So one of the things I used AI or ChatGPT for was to recreate a good but basic educational program relative to what decompression is, what each modality does, and Another good thing that we found that took off for us was how to take a patient from active care and transition them to maintenance care.
Mm-hmm.
And maintenance care for a decompression patient might be just chiropractic, chiropractic and decompression, or it may be a booster treatment. So we have patients that get done with decompression, they're doing quite well. I don't see a need to keep them on decompression, so they'll opt in for maintenance chiropractic. And I say, you may need decompression, you may need a decompression booster treatment down the road. So one thing, Dr. Pankinen, didn't you teach at the seminar that— or no, a patient told me this recently, that they have a connection with the medical facility. And when patients go in for, you know, medical surgical procedures for backs, most of the time they're busy, but half of them are repeats. Okay, so what are booster sessions? It's a repeat, but it's non-surgical. So I have a handout to give to a patient that says that describes what booster treatments are, which is a short course of decompression treatments. Say 6, and they might need that once a year. So we transition from active care to maintenance care. My staff knows all those policies and procedures. We have all those handouts on the wall, and I can just call out to my staff member, can you give my patient a booster handout after we had that discussion, or decompression and maintenance?
I think a couple nuggets in there, Dr. Kyle. I don't know about you, but one, having the relationship with the MRI facility is huge. So in our neck of the woods, it was CDI.
They're—
I think they're called Reyes now. But point being, these are just, you know, quote unquote, small businesses. They want more business. And so you can reach right out to the owner or the manager and introduce yourself and say, hey, We do quite a few disc treatments. We need MRIs, and I need— what we did was we need a concierge service. So, we actually had their form at the office that we would fill out and pick up the phone, schedule them for either that day or the next day. And it was a cash service. I think ours was $350, but this was back a ways. But the point being is it was a smooth setup and transition over to the MRI facility and then get them right back ASAP. So, I think that's a little pearl there that if you're not doing that, that's something that's very easy to implement and will serve your patients at a high level. And the education component, I mean, nothing I think cuts through the noise like education. And ChatGPT is, you know, really great for that to at least give you the framework that you can then, you know, kind of tweak and model. But the point with getting those handouts to the patients on a regular basis for You know, all those kind of different stages in their patient journey. What about you, Dr. Kyle? What'd you get from that?
You can never educate too much. And I love the fact of the forms and you have those different stages and what a brilliant strategy to try to encourage maintenance as much as possible because let's face it, these decompression cases, not all, but the majority of them do need some kind of maintenance. maintenance because most of these are chronics and they have degenerated discs, bulged discs, herniated discs, and given enough time, they're going to need help again, or they need to stay on top of it. I have one question for you, Dr. DeSalvo. Yeah, you, you kind of used a phrase a while back as we were talking. You said, I took a risk, and I really liked that. I actually wrote that down. You know, a lot of the doctors that listen to this podcast, they're thinking, oh, I want to grow and But sometimes you got to be willing to stick your neck out a little bit and, and take a risk and invest in equipment or invest in yourself or invest in staff. Can you just expound upon that a little bit more? Maybe a time or 2 or 3 in your career where you, you took a risk, but it really paid off?
Yeah, thank you for that. Well, When you're about to take a risk, you need to study it and make sure that it's aligned with what you want to do. You should never feel like you have to push it or force things. If you ever feel like you're forcing something just because you've, you know, someone's selling you something, you shouldn't do it. It's got to align with what your purpose is, what your mission is. And most of us want to be able to help as many people as we possibly can. But there are some procedures that just don't fit with, you know, a person's practice. Um, I would consider this practice a moderate volume practice. We're not low volume, we're not high volume, we're in the middle, and it's what works for me. And, and at present, we're maxed out with just me and a part-time associate, so I need another associate soon. But getting back to taking a risk, it comes down to the numbers too. You know, if you're going to buy a couple decompression tables, then you need to run the numbers and figure out how many people you need to get Um, to make it worth your while and, and grow from there. Um, and then it also comes down to the marketing. Will the marketing bring those new patients in? And what's the cost of your marketing? Um, most of the marketing really should be done internally, like you said, with education. So, um, I use handouts, but I also use an online program, um, 3D Practice. Is a great online program to show patients. They love to see the visuals digitally, you know, and you can take snippets or videos and send those to patients. And if— and it allows you to be efficient in your practice to demonstrate what's going on. So we have all the models, and when patients see that you have models and you You know, digital presentation and videos to show to educate them. Then that takes the element of risk away because the question is what's going to get that patient to a yes? You know, and it all starts with day one creating rapport and trust. So the risk is lessened if you know how to communicate. with your patient to get them to, you know, agree to care that, you know, you can ethically provide and feel good about what you're doing, right?
Yeah, we all gotta— we all gotta be able to sleep at night. And, um, I think a couple of things I took from that, it's really interesting, is, uh, I've always said like the close starts in the consult. And a lot of doctors are looking for like a silver bullet in the ROF, and in reality Um, you know, it's really that first point of contact because that's when you're going to start to develop trust, rapport, position yourself as an expert so that they can trust you. And so I think that makes a big difference. And then another thing you mentioned, like internal marketing, I feel like a lot of doctors, especially with decompression, they're, they're just trying to rely all on external marketing to grow their decompression practice. But you have these patients. in your past patient base and your new patient flow and patients under care. So it's using those kinds of education methods you're talking about to stimulate new patients that already have a relationship with the clinic, the know, like, and trust factor.
So can I interrupt you right there?
Yeah.
Your ROF is pretty much what you're doing The way I do it. And one of the nuggets I got from your ROF is the Four Horsemen. That was just one other piece I added to mine. But the ROF does not need to be complicated.
No.
It should take 5 or 10 minutes. And it's all about, this is what I found, this is what is consistent with your condition, this is how we can help, this is the process. Et cetera, right? Um, and it takes all the pressure off of you if you set it up right by building rapport, by getting their trust day one. And if you don't do that on day one, then it is harder.
Yeah, absolutely. That, that is a very good point. Um, did you want to say something there, Dr. Kyle?
No, I just, I just think that he's Hitting so many vital points here. I guess what I'm interested in is how he's built his team around him to help him with these things. I mean, when you're running a big practice, moderately high volume, 7-figure practice, you gotta have buy-in from your team, Dr. DeSalvo. How did you build out that team and get them behind this and sharing your vision for growth?
I love that question. My office manager has been with me for 8 years now and she's great. I call her my Steady Eddy. She runs just very even keel. And so, she and I work really well together because she understands my goals, my mission, and how I work. Then she and I have worked together on interviewing the right people. And she actually took the load off of me where she says, look, I'll, I'll manage the ad, I'll, I'll help you set up the interview. She just has to get them in there so I can meet them, go through the interview process, and then she interviews them. And that's how we work with choosing right. We've made some mistakes. We all do. And then we laugh at it, you know, when we see some of the silly stuff we've had to deal with. But when you choose right and you work with your employees to help them communicate, and it's ongoing, and they— it's just always ongoing, then you can, you know, win. You can get ahead with it. The most important thing that we teach them is phone skills.
Hmm.
How to, how to answer the phone and how to field questions. And if they don't, if they're not comfortable, then, then it goes to my office manager. Um, I feel fortunate at this point to have, you know, 4 CAs. There are bigger offices that have more than that, but to have an office manager that manages the other people so I don't have to worry about the micromanaging. And that's one of the things I've had to talk about with my staff is I can't be micromanaging. And this is how— this is the information you need to learn. These are the steps. And, you know, this is where we expect you to be in 1 month, 3 months, 6 months. After about 6 months or so, they're getting more comfortable. At a year, they're more, much more comfortable. At 2 years, they're super comfortable. So, um, it also has to do with paying them fairly.
Yeah.
Um, and they'll stay. So I pay, uh, at a higher wage, and, um, I give them health insurance for those that need health insurance, and I pay 70% of that.
I love that, because no one's going to build a big practice without a great team, because then everything relies on you, right? If you don't have a strong team, you could have a big team But if it's not a strong team, then just like, you know, Dr. DeSalvo was saying, you're gonna be micromanaging and having to kind of like clean up after them all the time. And I think that's why training is so important. And I'm impressed that you're training weekly because most doctors don't train at all. But the phone, I always talk about the phone, like this is your lifeline. This is like your connection to the outside world. And when someone calls your office, your front desk that you're probably paying $15 an hour is a representative of you. And I'm talking to the doctors out there. So what's that? No, not you. Most doctors are paying, you know, as little as possible for that front desk.
Oh yeah.
And I'm like, this is like your ambassador. Like, I think you should look at this individual as, as, you know, one of the most important parts of the practice because, you know, not only are they going to represent you on the phone and they need to be able to answer questions confidently and succinctly, but they also got to be able to get them to schedule and show, right? That's how we grow the practice. So that's a huge role. And, um, anyway, it sounds like you put a lot of effort into that. Um, in terms of like kind of your leadership and how it's evolved over time, like how, how would you say your, um, you know, you as a leader and, you know, the business owner has evolved as the business has grown? Hey there, it's Dr. Vince, and if you're getting value from this episode, please make sure to hit that subscribe button so you never miss an episode. And if you know another doc who's ready to grow their practice, share this with them. It might be exactly what they need right now. Thank you in advance, and now back to the show.
Well, um, I kind of go by decades now. The first decade, I was probably very mediocre as a leader. You come out of college and you open up a practice, hang your shingle, and next thing you know, you're responsible for hiring people and managing them. They don't give you the skill set for that. So I learned by trial and error. And I know that there were times I didn't choose very right. Second decade, I got better. And so now that I'm in my fourth decade, I feel I am better. And they also see that. At this point in life, how much work I put into it. And I think that naturally brings us a certain level of respect as compared to when I first got out of school. I was very young, you know, and so there's something to say about age and wisdom that they, I think, appreciate. Did that answer your question?
Oh, absolutely.
As far as lead, you know, I could study leadership books or read more leadership books, um, but I also feel like, uh, if they resonate with my authenticity and we try and have fun around the office rather than be too serious, then, you know, that gets their trust. The most important thing is having their trust, and they, and, and they see that you treat people fairly.
Okay. Yeah, I love that. Um, the, the part you said about, you know, that you work hard. You know, we can talk all we want and, and we do need to teach, but nothing takes the place of action and, and, and being the, the role model. Um, I know when some of my team sees me send emails at 4 in the morning, they're probably like, what the heck is this guy doing? But it's like, hey, I'm working harder than you, trust me. I'm— I mean, obviously it's my business, Um, and, uh, but you have to, you know, you don't always have to do that. You don't always have to be necessarily the, maybe the hardest worker, but they certainly have to see that you are committed to, you know, to the growth of the practice, to your patients, serving at the highest level. Um, so I think that, that, that resonated with me, but I don't know. You, you raised your hand, Dr. Kyle.
Well, another thing, getting results. I mean, as long as they feel like they're Seeing how we're getting results with what we do and what you teach, they like being part of that.
Oh, absolutely.
Yeah, work ethic is huge. I think when you lead by example and you work your butt off day after day, that, that reflects in your staff, then is going to work harder too because you're setting the tone. And another thing I've seen over the years in practice is doing little things that they want to necessarily don't expect you as a doctor to do. Not that I do them regularly, but sometimes, you know what, you go back into the break room and by golly, the water cooler needs a new jug put on it. And so I haul the water back there, or I, you know, the sink in the break room needs to be washed up a little bit, and you're in there and you got it. You got 1 minute between patients, like, okay. They see it, they catch you doing a little job like that, that just endears them. Or endears you to them, and that it makes it seem as if, you know, nothing— no job is, is above you. And you, you're, you're basically saying, hey, I'm in the trenches with you, I can do any job. And, uh, that makes a big deal.
When—
the other thing I want to talk to you about, Dr. DeSalvo, though, is looking back on your career. You know, we all make mistakes in our journey to success and growth. Well, there may be one or two things when you look back that I made some mistake in judgment or in what I was doing in practice or in business, but I pivoted and I learned from that mistake. And that was really a pivotal point in your career that really you springboarded from.
Well, there's probably been a few. Um, there was a time in— probably in, uh, after about 8 years or so, I was embezzled. Oh yeah, really?
Yeah. Oh my gosh.
And, uh, trusting your employees too much can create a situation like that.
Yeah.
Not so—
not fun, right?
So I, you know, you got to watch your numbers and What she was doing was taking all the cash, and I, I was just trusting them too much with just give me the deposit every week and I'll go to the bank. And, and, uh, so I was a little slow to figure it out, but we figured it out. And so what I learned from that was, um, you know, make sure you have good policies and procedures in place to avoid something like that. And, and put a mechanism in place where you can check it.
Yeah, I feel, I feel your pain, Dr. DeSalvo. I had the same— I had an employee years ago that embezzled from us, and it took us a while, but we in a sense caught her. And, uh, that was also another learning point in our— my history of practice too, is that yes, you need to, you need to keep— pay attention to details. You need to trust But not trust too much.
Right.
Yeah.
And I took that personally. I was, you know, really hurt by that, that someone would do that. And because I thought I was a good guy, a good employer, I was fair. But, you know, she, she just had a different agenda. So, yeah, watch your back. But everybody says, everybody in business says, welcome to the club.
Hey, Dr. DeSalvo, what is— just backtracking just a little ways— you use decompression, I know. Let the listeners know what other cash-based services or therapies that you're also incorporating into your practice that's helped you to really grow and thrive, apart from just an insurance model or focusing on a lot, as a lot of chiropractors do, Big volume.
Right. Well, I think one of the most important things is, is you're choosing your patient right. And you also have a clear understanding with regard to what kind of care that they need. And in my practice, I, I teach my associate that you're going to have patients that come in that they only have a mild condition and they don't need a major plan. Because a lot of people will say everybody should be on a year-long plan, and I— it shouldn't be a one-size-fits-all. You need to have clear, authentic communication with patients relative to what you feel the patient actually has. Is it a mild uncomplicated back problem or neck problem, or do they have significant degeneration as a comorbidity, or do they have a major disc issue? Do they have neuropathy? What do they have? And then what What can you do to add or create a plan for that? So it's important to have some tools. So our tools are decompression and laser. We have the MLS laser and we also have the MicroLite laser. And we have shockwave therapy. I have the Storz shockwave therapy. There's so many other ones out there. So shockwave is a big hit for, I think, any practice. And because it's a tool that you can use to help those stubborn cases, especially with myofasciitis, those trigger points, the fibrosis that you just can't get to with an adjustment. And they walk away from after one session and say, wow, that was great, you know. And then we also use percussion devices. And so I have the the rapid release here that I use. I also use a bigger 6-inch percussion head, which helps with the bigger muscle groups.
Hmm.
And so the— what other modalities do I have? Okay. Oh, electrical stim. I have HAKIMED electrical stimulation units. And if we are not clear on a patient relative to decompression, we can start them off with some simple traction. And I explain the differences. And that's also a good way to demonstrate to a patient, oh yeah, traction helps. You could be a really good candidate for decompression. Let's, let's do a stress x-ray or get an MRI. Uh, so we get— another way we get compliance is we use a device called NeckCare to measure range of motion on the neck. And so we set that, that's their baseline when they first come in, and then we use that as a retest. And most patients are really interested to see what that retest looks like.
Hmm.
And one last thing that I've added is I have an electroencephalogram that I use for stress testing. So most of our patients that come in, you know, they have subluxations because of trauma, thoughts, or toxins. And when we do the EEG, we're able to see how stressed out they are. 80% of our patients are coming in and they're either exhausted or over-aroused. And so incorporating the use of a vagus nerve tuner, one of the— what we recommend is the RezziMax, rezziMax.com. The RezziMax is an incredible vagus nerve tuner that helps your patient relax just to bring them down from that stress state. And then you can give them some recommendations like meditation and listening to music frequencies and breathing exercises that complement their care. So when we do that EEG in the beginning, then we can do that in like at 6 months and a year. And we get better compliance that way relative to, especially to maintenance care.
I think what I'm hearing is that, you know, very kind of custom and detailed plans, you know, per patient in terms of what they need versus trying to kind of put them all pigeonholed into one, you know, particular plan.
Yeah, um, I wish everybody would do the electroencephalogram, um, because they would get a handle on how stress affects their life.
Yeah.
Um, but we're so busy that just explaining that could be some extra work. So I'm picking and choosing those people that just outright come in and you could just see they're a hot mess. Yeah, we need to have that talk about stress.
Absolutely. So as we wrap up here, and maybe a little advice, and, and you've given some really some gold nuggets, hopefully doctors have, you know, taken some notes here, but If a doctor listening today, you know, wants to get to that 7-figure mark in the next, you know, 1 to 3 years, um, what's like the first move you think that they should make initially?
If they don't have decompression, get it, and also get shockwave. But they need to have a solid framework for creating a plan and have some tools to work with— decompression, shockwave, laser. And then it's off to the races from there. And the people that come in just organically will be referring others if they can, you know, get their— get that individual's trust. And back to my staff, you want to hear from your patients that your staff is friendly. I get that all the time. Your staff is so friendly. That's what you want to hear. You don't want to have a dud at the front desk because that's going to kill your practice.
100%. How many times have, like, you got rid of your front desk and then your patients come up to you like, I was waiting for you to do that? If you—
yeah, if you needed to get rid of someone, or you know you needed to get rid of someone and you waited too long, you're gonna hear it.
Yeah. Yeah, 100%. Um, awesome. Well, uh, fantastic interview. I think, you know, really thank you for sharing your, your knowledge and wisdom. Um, any last words, Dr. DeSalvo or Dr. Pankinen?
Well, I would say if you're a client of specialized practice, follow their instructions. They know what they're doing.
Certainly appreciate that. Um, and I totally agree. Look, if you're— if you have a traditional practice and you don't have decompression, you're really missing the boat. And then, you know, laser and shockwave, that just becomes, um, uh, just another tool in your toolbox to help a lot of patients, and they can just be added to all your chiropractic plans. So it's kind of a no-brainer. Dr. Kyle, did you have something you wanted to add?
Dr. DeSalvo, for listeners, this— he's the prototypical example of what we do at Specialized Practice, where we Help doctors to implement these cash-based services, these niches, and take your practice to a level that you didn't dream was possible. And we have the tools and the protocols and things that can assist with this. And Dr. DeSalvo is a great example of a doctor that's just been a great implementer. He's got the, the systems and the staff and the tools in the toolbox to become super successful. And I would just encourage people, hey, here's a great example of a doc to follow. This is a doc you maybe wanna give a call to and say, hey doc, teach me some more.
Well, I don't know if Dr. DeSalvo wants a bunch of phone calls after this, but, and he was already successful coming in. So just full disclosure, doctor, Dr. DeSalvo came to us already at a 7-figure practice, so, um, was already really— already very successful. We're just trying to help him kind of go to that next level, uh, and, and hopefully get to an exit plan where we can bring in another full-time associate so that we can kind of optimize his time and, and figure out how do we, you know, get him to that, to that kind of exit point, whether it's selling or retiring in practice or whatever it may be.
More retiring in practice, I think. Yeah, I, I'd be bored if I had nothing else to do.
Well, you're too good of a doctor. That's, that's one thing I know about you, and I know you're very humble, but you're an excellent clinician. And, um, that's certainly, uh, what we always promote is, is really, uh, getting to that expert level, you know, whether it's neuropathy or decompression. You can't just buy a table or a laser and expect to you know, it to be a cash cow, you actually have to be the expert. Um, so anyways, so thank you so much, Dr. DeSalvo, for coming on and, and sharing your, your knowledge, your wisdom. And, uh, we'll wrap that up. So for, uh, everyone listening, um, hope you took some notes. Um, there is some, some gold nuggets in there that you can literally apply right away on Monday. Uh, hope this served you. And so for Dr. DeSalvo, And Dr. Pankinen. I'm Dr. Vince Leone. We'll see you on the next episode of the Practice Builders Podcast.
Thank you.
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