118- YouTube Success with Dr. Blake Kalkstein

Welcome to the Evidence Based Chiropractor. Providing you with elegant and efficient research based content to help your practice prosper and succeed. Now get ready for a variety of dynamic communication tools designed for immediate growth courtesy of your host, Dr. Jeff Langmaid.

Hello and welcome to the Evidence Based Chiropractor. I AM your host, Dr. Jeff Langmaid. I am sitting here in beautiful Asheville, North Carolina. Just got off stage at the NCCA spring conference and have a few hours before I head back on to Tampa. But this week's episode of the podcast is awesome. I was able to grab Dr. Blake who not only runs his own practice, but has also amassed hundreds of thousands if not millions of YouTube views for his chiropractic focused videos and nearly 50,000 subscribers. So if you are somebody that has any interest in video, please pay attention to this episode. We go on a variety of topics related to your practice and how you can market at a higher level. He has a ton of tips and is a great guy. Before we get started, I'll say a few words about Roc Tape. Roc Tape is revolutionizing the soft tissue world again with new Rock Blades Mohawk. Featuring three tools in one, a surgical stainless steel hand polished tool and two attachments, an ABS comb and a silicon sleeve. Rockblaze Mohawk unlock never before seen treatment protocols to reduce pain, improve mobility and address issues like Nerve Glide. They're 175 bucks and you can learn more and see all the educational courses@rocktape.com Mohawk without further ado, here is the conversation that I recently had with Dr. Blake.

All right, and as promised, we are here with Dr. Blake, YouTube sensation and we were just talking about some big plans he has coming up. So Dr. Blake, thank you for taking the time. I know you, you have a busy practice, a busy life and a lot of goals to get to. So I appreciate the time.

Jeff, it's an honor and a pleasure to be with you this morning.

Right on. And with that I wanted to dive right in. One of the things that we were talking about, you're in active practice and you have a sort of what I would call a unique situation.

But for many chiropractors, maybe not as unique.

So I think this can resonate with a lot of people and I'll be interested to hear your answer. You practice with your father who is also a chiropractor. And one question I always like to ask everybody, and I'd love to hear yours, I think it's gonna be really interesting is what is the best lesson from your father? What's the best lesson he ever taught you growing up.

Oh, growing up or in relation to practice?

Ooh, let's break it down in both. Let's do both.

Let's do both. Growing up, he really taught me to trust my instincts. And we had a conversation this morning because we have. We had our. You know, we meet every week to make sure we're staying on track to achieve our yearly goals in our office. And I said, dad, I think, you know, I don't know if you know this, but sometimes when I get. When I get bored, that's when I get in trouble. And he goes. He's like, I've known that about you your whole life. I didn't need a Colby test to tell me that. And so my instincts are to always have a project that's happening. And he has set us up to where he can allow me to tap into those big ideas that I want to achieve, like the big idea we were just talking about before we went live. He's giving me the opportunity to go after those goals, and he's trusting me to trust my instincts. So that's the first lesson I learned that's not chiropractic related. And then the second lesson that's chiropractic related was always take good notes. Ooh, that is a solid, good documentation, like, without a doubt.

Yeah, I think that's a good one. And if I'm gonna. I'm gonna peel it back to the first one a little bit, because I think it's really applicable to many of us. As far as, you know, there's many docs that get into practice, and over time, they maybe they don't have that goal. It's like the Idle hands thing. They're just kind of cruising along, and they might have a few different interests, but elaborate on that a little bit. I know you just talked about weekly meetings and really, guys, goal set and really projects to work on. So how do you go about that process from a tactical standpoint? Just any tidbits that you have, right?

So we set a time in our calendar, and that's when we meet. It's on the books. It's in the calendar. We're not seeing patients. We're not taking phone calls. We're not doing anything else. It's a scheduled conversation, and it happens. So if you're just by yourself out there, doc, and you're listening, block, you know, block a time away where you're doing thinking only right, or you're doing planning or execution or whatever you need to do, but block that Time away. So that's the first thing. No inner, no interruptions. We are meeting to make sure we're on track for our goals. The second thing is. The second thing is write it down. Right? So dad and I are a member of Strategic Coach. We joined this year. That's been a big part of us. I've always been, you know, ever since I started going to be going to masterminds has been, I've been journaling or I've been encouraged to journal. And I've really. I was like, oh, whatever. Journaling is whatever. No, no, it's not whatever. Writing it. Like when you're keeping track of your workouts, write it down. When you're keeping track of your goals, write it down. When you're keeping track of your daily things to do, write it down. So Strategic Coach has some awesome tools that we use that help us guide us, but there's a lot of stuff out there, like passion planners. Like another thing that I do personally where I just write things down and, and I can go back to it and say, am I on track to achieve my quarterly goals or my yearly goals? And then the third thing is breaking down those goals to make it more manageable. So I have a yearly goal. Four doctors in the clinic getting ready to open a second location, really expanding and making our marketing more elegant and more broad based. And so I break it down. What do I need to achieve each quarter to make that happen? And then after each quarter, what do I need to do? I'm writing down what do I need to do to make sure each quarter those things are happening. So set a time away, write it down, and then reverse engineer or write down the steps you need to achieve those goals.

I think that you hit on a bunch of key items there. I mean, each one of those we could go down rabbit holes on because they're so good. It's really about, you know, goal setting. Number one is seeing where, you know, seeing the future and like, where do you want to end up? And I think the many times there can be kind of that paralysis by analysis where it's like, well, I'm not 100% sure, so I don't want to put anything down. It's like, that can be flu, but until you set that pin, you're just wandering away, you know? So it's like you might come across things during that reverse engineering process, during that strategy and during the process to get to that goal that leads you in a different path. There's nothing wrong with that. But having a path and Kind of that North Star for the year, I think is really, really important information and it showcases in the results that you guys have had.

Absolutely. And one of the things I encourage doctors, if they don't know where they are or where they want to be, is a year from now, get a pen and paper and write down in detail or not in detail, a paragraph where you are with your time, where you are with your money, where you are with your patient care or your relationships, where you are with your purpose. Right. Say, okay, what I wrote down is in a year, I want to have four community events where two are based around just pure charity driven and pure are based upon a la Chad Wohlner's kind of like epic funnel, like community driven events. So I want that to happen. I want to expand our. What the community thinks about our office more. Instead of just a chiropractic PT place that does takes good care of people. But I want to be involved in the community more. I wrote that down. Right. You know, I want to be only adjusting patients five out of the eight shifts that are available in my clinic for a doctor. And the other three, I'm building the brand or building the practice or taking that time to think and grow and meet with MDs, like following your program or meet with PI attorneys and stuff like that. So I wrote that down. That's where I want to be. You know, my wife's due in May. I want my wife and my baby to be happy. So I wrote that down. So I went into details about all aspects of my life where I want to be in a year from now. And now that helps me. When I write it down. It helps me. I have a goal, I have a path, I have a vision that I want to create. What do I need to do to get there?

Yep. Yeah, I think that is very good. I'm huge on tactical advice, and that is about as tactical as it gets. So thank you for sharing. And kind of in line with that, you just, you come across in a. In a very professional way and very deliberate with your actions, which I think is awesome because that's how you, I assume how you've been able to get things done. And a question relative to that is what are, what are some of the choices that have made you who you are.

Taking my health seriously? So here's a bombshell. I have Klinefelter syndrome. Do you remember what that is from your boards?

I do not.

So I was born with an extra X chromosome and I produce minuscule amounts of testosterone, and I am infertile without assistance. So thank you, the reproductive specialists in my area, for helping me out. So in the beginning, I thought it was a blessing because I didn't need protection when it came to intercourse.

Okay.

When I was 19, I was like, this is sweet, right? I'm not gonna get anybody pregnant. But now that I'm an adult, I've taken my health more seriously. So low testosterone is a huge thing that affects a lot of things, Everything. Depression, anxiety, your ability to execute, your ability to. To respond to stress. Right. And so the thing that really helped me become where I am is I started to take that number seriously. I went and got my blood work done, and it was the normal range is like 400 to 1,000. And if you're anywhere near 400, you're not doing everything right. Right. And I think I was like, 256. So I started taking exogenous supplemental testosterone. So docs out there that are men that are listening to this, if you have your willpower is going away. Your sex drive isn't there. Your desire to achieve huge goals, it doesn't exist in your life. You're anxious, you're depressed, you don't feel like working out. You just feel kind of average, and you're settling for average. Please go get your numbers checked, please. A little thing like that can change. You can change your diet, you can take some supplements. But having that. Making sure that that's not a problem, because as soon as I started doing that, Jeff, my life has been on an exponential climb.

That is really interesting. Number one, I appreciate you sharing, sharing that. And number two, I think it's a. It's a very. It's a very, very good point, that if something's not right, a lot of times, I think, you know, it's the common stigma from, quote, unquote, doctors of yesteryear. Right. It's like the worst patients are doctors and physicians. And I think even, you know, I think it's prevalent for many chiropractors as well, where, you know, it's. You're working a lot, and you might just. I'm tired because I've been working so. Or, you know, some of the. Some of the symptomatology that can come about, it's worth having a second eye on, let's put it that way.

Absolutely. Absolutely.

And one of the big things, you know, kind of going into that, and, you know, obviously, I think it speaks volumes that you have been able to really take care of yourself because you really, you know, project out there. And number one of your Your largest communication channels that I can see and what many chiropractors probably know you by is from your YouTube channel. And what you guys have been able to accomplish through YouTube and really the st. Stamina to do so is something to behold. So I'd love to dive into that a little bit because I know that's a really, you know, a lot of. That's a space that a lot of chiropractors have not got involved in. So number one, I would ask you is, you know, what are the biggest misconceptions about creating YouTube videos from a chiropractic perspective?

It's hard. Okay? Yeah, right. Like. Like just doing something is hard. Like, creation is hard. There's nothing. I don't know what to share with my community. And those are, like, the two big things. Like, I don't know what to talk about. What are you passionate about? I was talking to Bobby Mabie the other day. I say, bobby, what are you really good at? What kind of cases do you like to. He's like, I'm really good at back pain. I was like, okay, how's your community know about it? How do you tell your community about it? He's like, oh, I belong to some. Some speaking groups and I talk about how I help people with back pain. I was like, how many? What's your audience size? 20 people. Right? So if you could take that passion and just put. And do it instead of in front of an audience and do it in front of a camera and with some. The right SEO and some of the right setting up of the stuff, you could have a thousand people in your community watching you.

Super impactful.

Super impactful. So the first thing and the second, you know, just doing it, it doesn't have to be perfect, right? If you watch my videos, I don't do any editing. I do everything in one take and I mess up. I say things the wrong way, I just roll with it. Right. It doesn't need to be perfect. They want to see that you're a real person. If it's super polished, I think it comes off too campy is a good word.

Yeah, yeah, I think it can go. I agree. I think there's a fine line and I'm going to interrupt you there because I want you to put it in perspective for some of the docs that maybe haven' seen them. How many views do you. Would you say that you guys, your channel has on YouTube?

I think we're upwards of 15 million.

That is wild. And my understanding is that for you in the practice that literally, I mean, obviously that number is kudos to you. That's awesome. But that's not a figment number. That drives patience.

You saw between the efforts, Jeff, of Facebook advertising, which Kairospark, we can talk about that later. And YouTube, we saw 610 more new patients between 2017 and 2016. And the only two things that we changed were we did more YouTube the right way and we did Facebook ads. Love it. That's awesome. Right? And our practice grew, grew immensely because of that. Right?

Yeah.

I think that's huge.

Yes. It's a real thing we have for, you know, and it's. And just because doctors getting started out there, they hear, oh, you have 40,000. How do you get 40,000 subscribers? As a chiropractor, my goal is to have 150 by the end of the year with our YouTube channel. That comes with time. That comes with when I, when I'm speaking to the camera and I'm speaking to my audience, I'm. I'm being honest, I'm being genuine. I'm demonstrating what I'm passionate about, and I'm demonstrating that I'm an expert in my field and people will be attracted to your honesty and your passion. So just doing. Just being honest and passionate about what? You know, if you're passionate about nutrition, if you're passionate about rehab, acupuncture, dry needling, do that.

That's great. And let's talk a little bit about Chirospark. So, you know, what, what is it? How does that play into the equation? How have you utilized it for marketing and your practice?

So Chirospark is a platform that I created last year to teach other chiropractors how to do YouTube and Facebook ads. Actually, I have a free YouTube module which will be in the show notes. I'll give you that information. So if docs want to learn how to do YouTube, you can have access to that. How I set my ads. Not my ads, my videos up. All the SEO stuff, I just gave it away for you guys.

Cool, thank you.

So every chiropractor out here that we've talked to can probably say, oh, I've been hit up by Facebook ads expert to run my ads for them. Yeah. For a trial only.

A Facebook ads expert should be like 40.

Yes. It's always like, it's $1,500 a month to run your Facebook ads for you. And I said that that's just wrong. That's just stealing from the profession. So what I ended up doing was I created a platform that teaches doctors how to run the ads themselves. And it's more than just Facebook ads, it's you work with me one on one as a coach. And we do marketing, we do digital marketing and social media marketing. You get general Facebook posting strategy, Instagram ads, you get like I said, YouTube, email marketing. So it's like a really a kind of a full circle social media education platform. But it's only 150 bucks a month. Right. And so every doctor can come. There's no contract, there's a 30 day money back guarantee. I wanted to make it like a no brainer, educate as many doctors I can about social media marketing, Facebook ads, YouTube and help them grow their practice. So if I saw 600 new patients last year from YouTube and Facebook, but I taught 100 doctors how to see that same number of people, we just helped spread the word of chiropractic, spread the word of us taking good care of people and then the referrals increased because of that, all that stuff, right?

Yep.

So that's what chirospark has become and what it actually started out as well. Was it an affordable option to teach docs so they can do it themselves or they can have their like. I talked to a client who just came on board this morning. He's like, I want my front desk person to do this. I was like, perfect. Because it's easy, it's easy to learn how to do and get set up. We just need a couple. You just need a picture of you with a patient, maybe a video. But we can have it up and running in a week and they can start seeing new patients come in the door that way.

That's great. I think it's crucial. Everybody that listens in obviously and follows what I do knows how much. To me, social media is the Internet, it is marketing, it's all one thing. And being able to utilize those channels effectively is absolutely imperative. And a lot of times chiropractors are not going to have much competition. There aren't that many docs, when you look at the whole profession that are doing it at the level that you've been able to accomplish. So I think that the program is absolutely great. And as we wrap up, I'm going to put one on the spot question for you and I don't want you to elaborate whatsoever because I want to do a follow up episode way down the road. But what is the big hairy audacious goal that we were talking about pre roll that you have as part of your long term vision?

I want a 10 years, I want another chiropractic clinic in another country.

Love it. There you have it. We will be following up along the way. And Dr. Blake, thanks for taking the time and thanks for providing like crazy awesome tactical advice for everybody.

Jeffrey, thank you so much for having me. It was a pleasure.

We appreciate you joining us for this episode of the Evidence Based Chiropractor. Learn more tips for explosives practice development@the evidencebasedchiropractor.com youm can also join the Premier MD monthly membership, enabling you to use what you just heard to maximize results in your office. We look forward to providing you with more dynamic communication tools for immediate growth right here on the Evidence Based Chiropractor.