98. #1 tip to continue to grow your practice
Spencer Dupre (00:00.652)
Hey, yo, yo, yo, what is up everybody? Welcome back to the What Now? Cairo podcast, slowly becoming the golf podcast. Subzac, we got the US Open this weekend at Oakmont. Big deal.
ZT (00:17.238)
Yep. Very thankful. Thankful. Very thankful. I'm not playing there. If you've seen the roughs.
Spencer Dupre (00:20.674)
Yeah, yeah, I'm to see if Bryson can fly the par three. Yeah, anyway, this is how golf we are right now. But, what's up, man, dude? How's your practice? How are things going for you?
ZT (00:34.518)
Yeah, practice is changing. think we talked quite a bit last week, shifting into a new EHR, which has been great when we get into that. And we are also now back to a two person team. So for a long time, we've been running myself as a chiropractor and two CAs, really worked on refining systems, making things, I don't want to say easier, but less things to push. and our, one of our CAs moved to New Jersey and so
Spencer Dupre (00:58.275)
easier.
ZT (01:03.446)
It was a perfect time to go down to back to a two person team. So, some big changes on the practice side. and yeah.
Spencer Dupre (01:07.523)
Yeah.
Spencer Dupre (01:13.506)
Dude, I think that's like, at one point it was me and like two CAs and then at one point it was me and three CAs. And now we, then we went down to like a two person team for like a while. Then we added Kade on and there's three of us and we ran lean like that dude for a long time. And now we have six people on the team and that is a whole different beast, dude. And it's nice. It's a different beast. It comes with its own challenges, but it's been sweet, dude. It's been good. And you're in a good spot.
And, I would say that like for, for people like that are thinking about team or have a lot of team, what I've learned from people who have been, like very seasoned in practice, it's really about the quality of your team members and not the quantity of your team members. Like you can have a bunch of team and if they suck, then like, if you have like three, okay, team members and one.
ZT (01:52.462)
Mm-hmm.
Spencer Dupre (02:12.854)
really solid team member, you'll basically be performing like the same. And that's kind of like what I had learned. yeah, dude, that's good. Your practice change and our practice is changing a ton, which is sweet. Pretty good spot, dude. Life is good right now. Life is good.
ZT (02:16.963)
Mm-hmm.
ZT (02:25.496)
Mm-hmm.
ZT (02:29.292)
Life is good, really feeling a lot of joy.
Spencer Dupre (02:32.321)
Yeah, same, dude. And that's why, well, you know why we've been feeling a lot of joy.
ZT (02:37.442)
the golf course.
Spencer Dupre (02:38.436)
We've been golfing more, dude. Because no matter how bad life is, the golf course is always worse. exactly, dude, exactly. No matter how hard you try and how much resistance you feel like you face in life, the golf ball will always be more resistible. Because it's like I'm playing the shot, I've got the right club, check the distances.
ZT (02:48.682)
Except for that one shot. That one shot that brings you back.
ZT (03:07.862)
It really is crazy from like a sports perspective. feel like especially owning a business golf has just some of the most extreme similarities.
Spencer Dupre (03:07.95)
got the win right
Spencer Dupre (03:18.564)
Why so? do think?
ZT (03:20.172)
I mean, just from, just from like the respect you have to give the game, like the more, yeah, yeah. But like the more respectful you are to the course, to yourself, like the better you're going to feel, the better the course will give back to you if you believe in that sort of thing. but then also like from a swing perspective, the harder you grip the club, you think you're going to have a lot more control over the golf club. but more often than not, you're just going to hit really bad shots. cause you're just, you're just.
Spencer Dupre (03:24.706)
I told you guys this a golf podcast.
Spencer Dupre (03:50.318)
Choking it out.
ZT (03:50.616)
compressing and choking it out. you know, like kind of what you were talking about going to the range so many times, like you just keep trying to make these micro tweaks, micro tweaks, micro tuning here or there, trying to get every last little bit. And sometimes you just have to, to let the game display itself. Yep. and then I mean, drive for show, putt for dough, right? It's great to have this huge, drive off the tee, but if you can't putt,
Spencer Dupre (04:07.364)
It's gonna be more consistent, dude. Yeah, I know.
ZT (04:19.95)
You know, if you can't finish, what's the point.
Spencer Dupre (04:20.996)
Yeah. Yeah. You can have 80, a hundred new patients a month, but if you don't retain them, then what's the point, right? So if you're, if you can have a hundred patients a month, but if your PBA is four, then it's like, you're, you're literally like, you're it's feast and famine, you know? Yeah. I just think that dude, consistency and like getting quiet with yourself too has been, dude, that's been the best part, bro. It's like just being able to get quiet and like, just like kind of do the thing. I feel like it's really translating the practice a lot. Cause it's been like, Hey, listen, like I'm right here. I can't focus on anything else.
ZT (04:30.091)
You
ZT (04:50.146)
You
Spencer Dupre (04:51.312)
And I have to be present in the moment, dude. It's great. yeah, dude, it really is all about consistency. Like, I Kate, I was like, I have an issue, because it's like, man, I just got new golf clubs, and I'm already looking at my next set. And it's like, I can't do, like, I haven't even gotten the use out of these clubs. I got to grind them out. They always help. Hey, I will say, I got new clubs. Played way better.
ZT (05:03.051)
too sleepy.
ZT (05:09.506)
But I mean, new clubs always, always equate to better scoring.
ZT (05:18.604)
I mean, there is some notion to it.
Spencer Dupre (05:21.988)
Yeah, you know, if you have a server based EHR and now you have a cloud based EHR, things are much easier, dude. Like, yeah. If I have a hundred dollars set of clubs and then I have a $10,000 set of clubs, things will be much easier. Maybe. Well, it's the same thing, right? Dude, if you have bad systems, like it doesn't matter how like fancy of software you have, doesn't matter how fancy of clubs you have. If your swing sucks, if your system suck, if your communication suck, like
ZT (05:25.102)
Things are much easier.
ZT (05:37.314)
Maybe. Yeah.
ZT (05:43.148)
Yeah.
Spencer Dupre (05:50.276)
It's just all fancy. It's just fancy for no reason. You got to have both. yeah, what now golf podcast has been good. Blame Zach. Zach is Zach's fault. But dude, it's all about perspective. I really think that's kind of like what it is. Same thing like we were talking about golf, but like really in business, I really think it's all about perspective because like
ZT (05:53.24)
Yep. Yep.
ZT (05:57.994)
Hehehe.
and the corporate.
It is. I apologize.
Spencer Dupre (06:14.754)
You can look back and like we just had like quote a hard month in May. And then we look back and it's like really there's the most consistent thing. It was really my perspective on things. Like we had a lot of little things that we had to tinker here and there that like, we're kind of like, we some growing pains, like as the team grew, as the office grew, as we moved offices, we had some growing pains, which is normal. And it felt like the whole world was crumbling. And then like we looked statistically and we're literally like on par like with the rest of, I mean, we had a better month than we did last year. So like things have been better.
ZT (06:29.614)
Thanks
ZT (06:40.909)
Yeah.
Spencer Dupre (06:45.188)
How do you feel like your perspective has changed like as practice has evolved for you?
ZT (06:51.098)
I think I'm still, still in the entrepreneurial roller coaster for sure. Where it's like month to month. haven't quite, mastered the nervous system regulation, but at the same, which I don't know. I think that's just like the art of being a, entrepreneur. But anyways, I think from, I think I've gotten it down from a day to day or week to week perspective. where I know we have a kick ass week, one week.
Spencer Dupre (07:02.884)
Hehehe.
ZT (07:20.078)
And the next week isn't up to that. It's like, okay, I'm not going to like start freaking out just week to week. so I think from perspective wise, that has definitely changed. And then also, you know, one thing Steph and Nikki have been working on with me lately, it's just quieting the mind. so before I was very like action oriented, was coming to
team with new ideas each and every day, um, tinkering with everything. Um, and they were just like, when was the last time you just like sat and like, we're just quiet and kind of let the practice unfold. And I was like, I don't know, maybe like a year and a half, two years, cause I'm always just like, we got to get 1 % better each day. Um, and I'm realizing now like I had the perspective 1 % better externally, but I wasn't getting 1 % better mentally, uh, and mindset wise. So.
Spencer Dupre (07:50.318)
Tinkerin' with that swing, dude.
ZT (08:17.533)
That's where a lot of perspective has gone back to.
Spencer Dupre (08:20.386)
Yeah, dude, mean, I feel like the way that you get that, like we get better, like that 1 % better each day is being 100 % consistent or as consistent as possible, right? Hey, dude, it comes back to your golf swing. It's like, you hit a good shot. Don't think, hey, what can I do better? Just be consistent. And that's how you get better. Like, you get better by being more consistent, not by improving all the time. Like, I think that's like one of the biggest things that we've learned is like,
ZT (08:21.39)
What about you?
ZT (08:28.376)
Hmm.
Spencer Dupre (08:49.026)
We don't have to do this big grandiose gesture every single time or overhaul the whole thing to get better. It's like, if we can just get more consistent, then we'll get better. And by chasing consistency, I think it will show you where your inefficiencies are. So when you're trying to be consistent, it's like, well, it's really hard to be consistent in this one place. That's the indicator of, maybe we need to rework this because it's hard to be consistent.
ZT (09:13.55)
Thanks
Spencer Dupre (09:19.202)
Right? So like that's like, we talk about that all the time because we added, we changed phone lines. Like we talked about last, whatever last episode. And I was talking with Logan, who's our office manager and she was like, yo, I can start doing this, blah, blah, blah. Now that we have the new phone. I said, okay, how are you going to do that a thousand times? How are we going to do that every time? And how are we going to make sure that gets done every time? She's like, well, it would be kind of hard.
ZT (09:40.014)
Mm-hmm.
Spencer Dupre (09:46.936)
I was like, yeah, it's fine to do that now, like when you're only doing it once or twice a day, but what if you have to do it 1,000 times? That's kind of the perspective that we have to look at it. It's like, if I have to do this for the rest of my life, can the system still work? Or like, I miss if I try to add this to doing this every single day, every day that we're open? So it's like, if we're going to buy a gift, like that's my biggest thing right now. It's like, if I'm to buy a gift for a new patient.
ZT (10:12.046)
Mm.
Spencer Dupre (10:15.266)
Like the whole thing of what's your favorite drink. If I'm doing the whole what's your favorite drink and I walk across the street to get it at the store, that's fine if I do that once or twice. But what if I have to do that 30 times in the day? If my goal is to see 10 new patients a day or 20 new patients a week or whatever.
ZT (10:28.238)
Mm-hmm.
ZT (10:36.462)
Hmm.
Spencer Dupre (10:38.894)
How consistent can I be with that? Because that's how I'm going to create efficiency if it's just seamless, if it's automatic every single time. And so that's kind how I'm looking at scaling the practice, especially as I scale out. And that's been another thing for me is not necessarily stop taking care of patients, but more focusing on the business is how can I get somebody who's not me to care, want, and produce the way that it's like us being in office.
ZT (10:58.019)
Yeah.
ZT (11:07.182)
Yeah, 100%. And I think, you know, it's something we not that we went away from, um, but similar to like we were doing the, um, what's your favorite drink thing? Um, and most people seeing the population we did, it was either a margarita or a beer or a wine. Um, cause we see like 35 to 55 year olds. Um, yeah, or water. So I was like, well, we already have water, like very rarely.
Spencer Dupre (11:31.511)
older bougie people.
ZT (11:36.994)
Or it was some like crazy soda that like I couldn't get at market street. So I was like, all right, we're just going to stop asking this question. But what we started to do instead, and this came from Austin Cohen was on their fifth or sixth visit. We send them a Google form that asked them things like their favorite drink, favorite restaurant, those sort of things. we called, get to know you form. So that way, when it does come time to give them for whatever reason, we have that, that information. Now does everyone always fill it out? Not necessarily, but.
Those that do, know, they'll get little extra treat.
Spencer Dupre (12:09.89)
Yeah, I mean, and so like, know somebody that's really good at the whole, like, what's your favorite drink thing is Nikki. And, but Nikki has the resources, the team or the time to be able to do that consistently. And so it's like, it doesn't just because somebody is doing something that you're like, that's a good idea.
ZT (12:14.606)
Mm-hmm.
ZT (12:20.034)
Mm-hmm.
Spencer Dupre (12:30.084)
Yes, you could, could you do it? 100%. You could do all the ideas from all the different coaching groups. But what I really like about like coaching with Steph and Nikki and the, and Gabrielle, like the wealthy practitioner team is the first question is, is this the right thing for you? No matter what, like they always ask that, like what, what is your goal with this? Is this the right thing for you? How is this going to affect you as a person? Which is cool. Like, cause it's like, yeah, I could go and I can like see an Argyle.
ZT (12:39.491)
Mm-hmm.
ZT (12:53.006)
I'm
Spencer Dupre (12:59.556)
Our closest grocery store is 20 minutes away. So if I was trying to do the whole what's your favorite drink thing, like we only have one gas station in Argyle, or two gas stations in Argyle. So it's like, and those are like 10 minutes from the office. So I can't do the what's your favorite drink thing because I don't have anywhere to go. Or it would take me 20, like it would take me 30 minutes round trip to go and get one drink. So it's like, can I really be consistent with that? Sure, I could door dash it, but it's like.
how reliable are the DoorDash people gonna be?
ZT (13:28.696)
Yeah. One thing we started to do, cause I know like they, like we're really big on hydration, which I know every chiropractor is, but like after their, their report of findings, when they had their full spine adjustment and I've told them, Hey, definitely drink some water today. Move your body, whatever. we actually give them a water bottle that already has element in it. And so this kind of starts the process. It's super easy. they get to pick their flavor. they're most likely first time trying element.
And so it's a win-win because then they come back and they're like, I want some of that element stuff. And we're getting them on the hydration train.
Spencer Dupre (14:01.764)
That's great.
Yeah, I mean, it's super cool. I was talking to somebody else. We have this one lady, her name's Natalie. She has started this organic skincare line. And so we started having her make us this custom tallow for diaper rashes and those kind of things. And I was asking her for samples. she was like, why would somebody not? I was like, I don't know if somebody wants to buy a whole five-ounce jar of tallow. Five-ounce jar is pretty big. Think of it as a pretty big amount of tallow.
We sell it for like 20 bucks. And she was like, I feel like everybody knows what tallow is. Why would you need to give out samples? Like everybody buys tallow. And I was like, not everybody buys beef fat to rub on their skin. and I was like, we do because we live in that world, but not everybody does that. Like I was talking about a pastor friend, Greg, and we were at the crawfish boil and he was like, yo, what's in this lemonade? And I was like, oh, that's not.
ZT (14:48.6)
No. No.
Spencer Dupre (15:02.796)
I was like, yes, it's lemonade, but it's electrolytes, like lemonade flavored electrolytes. And he was like, that's crazy. He's like, this tastes just like lemonade. I was like, well, I mean, it technically is, but it's just not bad for you like other stuff is, you know? And he's like, I just drink Gatorade all the time. I was like, okay, well, this is like a healthier version of Gatorade. He's like, which dude, like, I don't, why are people so like, I don't understand why people are so butthurt around element, dude. It's literally like just, it's just starch, like that's in it. It's just glucose.
ZT (15:14.818)
You
ZT (15:29.038)
I mean, it's just, mean, you want, we can go full conspiracy. think it's, electrolytes are a huge market share at the moment. And element has majority of it. And so companies are trying to, that's my opinion.
Spencer Dupre (15:36.354)
Yeah, a lot of
Spencer Dupre (15:43.108)
Yeah, they're, I don't know, false news, fake news. Yeah. But anyway.
ZT (15:49.41)
That, mean, that's, that's like one thing, one thing to like perspective wise that I think has definitely changed too. Like when I first got into practice, I was like, just so in that wellness health bubble, where I was like, it has to be the most perfect ingredients where I'm like, now if a patient comes in like, yeah, take liquid IV. I'm like, okay.
Spencer Dupre (16:10.916)
Have you thought of this alternative? Like, yeah.
ZT (16:12.162)
Have you thought of this alternative? Yeah. But that tells me they're drinking water and they like are doing their best. Like I'm not going to be like, never drink that stuff. It's terrible for you. Which like before I probably would have been like crapped on it. And then what that does subconsciously that I've learned because people start you, you feel it when people do it to you as well. And I was like, well, shoot, like I'm just the worst. Like I shouldn't even be trying. Like I'm trying to be healthy and now I can't.
Spencer Dupre (16:35.908)
what do you become when you say like, sucks or like, you shouldn't listen to this person or all of those kinds of things is if you want to be the trusted resource, you can't judge the things that people are already doing. And you have to take it from the lens of like, this is what this person has believed to be true. And when you judge them for what they're doing, you're not just trying to give them new information, but you're attacking their identity that they built.
ZT (17:01.368)
Mm-hmm.
Spencer Dupre (17:01.616)
And this is something I've learned with Cody Jefferson is like talking about like all the identity work, but it's like, yeah, dude, if I, if my uncle founded liquid IV and I'm like liquid IV is awesome. And I'm like, Zach, what, how, what are you doing for your hydration? And you're like, I drink liquid IV and I don't know that your uncle founded liquid IV. I'm like, dude, liquid IV sucks, bro. I would never use them. Like I'm an element guy.
Well, now you become judgmental and it's like, I'm never telling Spencer anything that I'm doing because he's going to have this heavy opinion and I don't want him to like totally dismantle me. And you can get to the same solution of like, Hey, I like element more, but you can literally just say like, is that what are doing for hydration? I drink liquid IV. Do you like it? Yeah. Great. Yeah. What made you choose that? Right.
ZT (17:35.564)
Hmm
ZT (17:51.65)
Yeah. Or like what made you choose Liquid IV? Right. Yeah.
Spencer Dupre (17:56.75)
And they're like, well, I've tried a bunch of different ones and this one seems to work the best for me. Have you tried element? Yeah. I just thought it was kind of like too salty for me. So I like looking at IV more. that's great.
ZT (18:07.192)
Yeah. End of, end of story. Yeah.
Spencer Dupre (18:09.284)
Like in the story, same thing, like in the birth space, that's like a really big thing because it's like, how did you birth your baby? It's like, I had a C-section at the hospital. It's like, everybody would be like, shame, you're not home birthing naked in the woods, shame. And it's like, well, actually, like I had an infection, so I had to do that or I was gonna lose the baby. You're not gonna shame them then, right? Or if you do,
ZT (18:15.918)
Mm.
ZT (18:23.63)
Yeah.
ZT (18:34.754)
Yeah. Right.
Spencer Dupre (18:37.88)
But it's the same thing with health care providers. I think especially because I know a lot of you guys that are listening are younger chiropractors. And as you're starting to network and learn about your business, the biggest thing is that you don't want to be the, know what you stand for, not what you stand against. That's the biggest principle. Being like, hey, I'm the chiropractor. And if there's the.
If you're meeting next to them, urgent care, be like, never go to the urgent care. They're going to poison you. Like, it just makes you suck, dude.
ZT (19:12.546)
Right. Yeah. And then you have a patient come in with a DVT and you get to go to the urgent care and they're like, you've never, you've always told me to never go to the urgent care. I mean, I'll be honest. So, I mean, I was going to share this on my, on my socials here in a little bit, but I actually, it's kind of a funny story. I basically got an ankle sprain, but in my teeth. Um, yeah.
Spencer Dupre (19:16.29)
And you're like, dude, you need to go to the urgent care. You're like, whoa, you're a hypocrite.
Spencer Dupre (19:23.363)
Yep.
Spencer Dupre (19:36.952)
What?
ZT (19:38.252)
So I like mobilize my two bottom front teeth, but how I did that was. Yeah, me. So blue are sheep a doodle. We'll get toys stuck underneath the couch. And so he was looking for him for a little bit and I was like, don't go help them. So as I was bending over to get said toy, he found toy and shot up. and he bought me and I like, like Morgan was like, I heard like the collision, but more so what I heard was like your teeth, like, like the bite down.
Spencer Dupre (19:43.736)
You loosened your teeth.
Spencer Dupre (20:00.11)
he bopped you.
Spencer Dupre (20:08.285)
Ugh.
ZT (20:09.424)
And it hurt bad. Like it was, it was rough. Um, and I had tons of swelling in the back of my teeth and I was doing a lunch and learn out of dental office last week, last Tuesday. And there I was like, Hey, I hate to do this. Like this just happened on Sunday. Like it was waking me up at 3 a.m. Sunday night, Monday night. I was getting terrible sleep. And I was like, can you guys take a look? They did some x-rays like right then and there, which is pretty cool. Um, but they're like, yeah, you, you have a
what we call mobilized teeth. He's like, it's basically an ankle sprain of your teeth joints. I was like, that's crazy. Yeah. But I say all that to say the pain was so bad. And like after hearing that it was an ankle sprain, like one of most important things to me from a health standpoint is sleep. And for the first time in six years, like my sleep was being affected because of pain. I took ibuprofen. Like I knew like there's nothing else I can do. Just wait this out. Shame. Yeah. Shame on me.
Spencer Dupre (20:44.164)
That's crazy.
Spencer Dupre (21:04.579)
Shame, Zac, shame. You're the worst chiropractor ever, dude.
ZT (21:08.82)
I know it's just terrible. so I took ibuprofen for two nights slept great. but like this, like, and how I plan to like present that to patients and like my community is like, it wasn't covering up symptoms. Like, yes, it was like it was covering up the pain, but it wasn't like I'd been living with this teeth pain, for the last six years. And I'm just masking it every night. Right. Like I knew this pain was going to go away. I just wanted good night's sleep.
Spencer Dupre (21:11.918)
change.
ZT (21:38.964)
and took that approach.
Spencer Dupre (21:40.808)
The biggest thing is like, if you're walking down the street and you get shot and this guy's like, my God, like I got shot. If a patient came into you and was like, my God, Dr. Zach, I got shot. And you would be like, dude, we'll lay down on the table because your body can heal. Your innate intelligence will heal that dude. And you like adjust them. You're like, dog, you're like bleeding out on the table, bro. Like you need to go, you need some surgery because you have,
ZT (21:46.008)
Yeah.
ZT (22:06.094)
Peace.
Spencer Dupre (22:10.35)
have a gunshot wound. And like, not talking like just like little gunshot wound. I'm talking like if this person got shot in the chest and it's like serious, you wouldn't be like, dude, gotta talk to that Atlas dog like, hey.
ZT (22:20.174)
got to talk with that Atlas. Which is, think it's so funny as chiropractors that we always say like, got to talk with that Atlas and like, eight, 90 % of us don't practice upper cervical. But anyways, I digress.
Spencer Dupre (22:28.26)
None of it. Yeah. But dude, like that's what I'm saying though. It's like, man, like there's a time and place for everything. And this is what I tell people. It's like, Hey, listen, like, um, do I believe that everybody needs chiropractic care? 100 % because, uh, you absolute, your life runs through and over your nervous system. Your nervous system is literally controlling everything. The biggest thing is we have to know, is it the right time for chiropractic care for you? For a lot of people, it really is.
ZT (22:36.611)
Mm-hmm.
Spencer Dupre (22:56.708)
the missing link because they've tried everything else. But we have to make sure that's the right time, dude. That's why we scan. That's why we do good history. It's like being the doctor, like are you the doctor, doctor? And like, are you the doctor, doctor is not convincing someone that they need chiropractic care. Being the doctor is doing the right thing to help people. And that comes from a change of perspective, dude, because whenever I was like first starting out, I was like, everyone needs chiropractic care for sure, 100%. And I still believe that, but my perspective has changed of being like.
ZT (23:25.443)
Hmm.
Spencer Dupre (23:25.644)
Maybe it's not the right time for you to get chiropractic care or maybe like my style of chiropractic care is not the right thing for you. Like, dude, we have this one guy, bro. He had this like knee replacement and I was like, dude, send me your blood work. Cause I was like, this isn't adding up. He was having like sciatica issues and I was like, this isn't adding up. And I was like, yo, let me look at your blood work. I like this. I was like, I'm not a blood work guy, but I was like, these things just don't add up.
ZT (23:33.966)
Thanks.
ZT (23:45.474)
Yeah. yeah.
Spencer Dupre (23:55.492)
to me, like logically. Like I think you need to go and start like, I was like I think you need to go to doctor and get an antibiotic, bro, because like, something just doesn't seem right. Turns out they like take this piece of hardware out of his knee and he has this like super rare aggressive bacteria that his body has been fighting for a long time. If you wouldn't have taken the bacteria, the antibiotic, he'd have gone septic in like a week. And it's like, dude, I can't.
I would love to adjust to you, but at this point in time, the threshold of your nervous system cannot handle the aggressive attack of the bacteria. But now that we have that out of there, do we need to absolutely rebuild the capacity of your nervous system? 100%. 100%. And so this is the right time for chiropractic care. And being the doctor is not necessarily being the one to get people cracked. It's the one to get people help. And I think that's kind how the perspective has changed. And it's the same thing with the business, dude.
ZT (24:34.446)
100%. Yep.
ZT (24:43.288)
Mm-hmm.
Spencer Dupre (24:49.784)
We need to do the right thing in our business to help people and everything else will kind of come. You know, it's like just swing the club and you'll get closer to the pin. Right. Hopefully. Yeah. You know, but.
ZT (24:54.862)
Mm-hmm.
ZT (24:59.896)
Right. Hopefully have definitely, I've definitely gone right quite a few times.
Spencer Dupre (25:06.148)
I'm definitely gone. I don't know if I've ever gone backwards. That would be crazy
ZT (25:11.168)
I mean, I've definitely had the grass go further than the ball. Yeah.
Spencer Dupre (25:15.908)
Well, 100 % dude, because I'm taking good divot, but.
ZT (25:20.494)
It's a good divot. If it's a good divot though, the ball should be.
Spencer Dupre (25:23.608)
Yeah. nah, I know it's like me.
ZT (25:27.022)
But no, I think two and a half years into practice, close to three, so much perspective has changed and it will continue to do so.
Spencer Dupre (25:36.696)
Yeah, what do you feel like is like, let's talk more about like business stats and stuff. Cause like, you know, your perspective can change because you gain more like clinical experience, but like in terms of like the business ownership around team, around finances, around marketing, all of that kind of stuff, how has things changed for you?
ZT (25:47.427)
Yeah.
ZT (25:55.773)
Um, I mean, I think a big thing it's, it's tough to admit, but I know there's someone out there that needs to hear this too. Um, my new office manager, one of her tasks have been to like audit our wellness patients. Um, and so she audited quite a few of them. Um, we have well over a hundred people on wellness. So coming in once a week or every other week, but we have found probably 10 to 15. I don't know what the count is at right now.
that were just getting like free care. Like they just, well, they set up their billing or their billing paused for a second and just was never followed up. but a point is like for so long, I was chasing the patient visit number, as like the key stats and what my staff would start to do, because I was like, we got to hit one 50, we got to hit one 50. They would start booking wellness patients twice a week because they'd be like, like, do you want to come in again later this week?
Spencer Dupre (26:26.628)
Yeah, never set up their billing.
ZT (26:54.786)
We're so close. We're at one 48. and so we recently had a patient who hadn't been in like seven or eight months. and Piper didn't audit and he was 33 visits over what he had paid for. and I was like, that's, that's terrible. And I had no pulse of it. cause all I really cared about was that patient visit number and looking back, I'm like, wow, that's no reason our OVA and LTV was just so bad.
Spencer Dupre (27:09.764)
Sheesh.
Spencer Dupre (27:24.868)
Yeah.
ZT (27:25.154)
And now our OVA and LTV is where it should be and getting better. that's definitely just, just simple audits that team or you can do as a business owner has been huge.
Spencer Dupre (27:30.104)
Getting better.
Spencer Dupre (27:39.064)
Yeah. What's your strategy to like stop that from happening in the future? Cause we have that problem too. I'll depend on what you say. I'll tell you how we fixed it.
ZT (27:43.872)
I mean, the quickest, the quickest way, was we just started including boost visits. So people, one, people didn't know that they could come in a second time because we didn't tell people they could. but if they wanted to, it's just 50 bucks, flat. and then two, and then two, we've really just started to,
Spencer Dupre (28:04.536)
Yeah, I need to raise my boost visit price.
ZT (28:15.672)
Just keep better track, better logging. And so that's something, something we look at every week, once a month.
Spencer Dupre (28:21.538)
Yeah, I used to, I used to like really get in the roller coaster of how many visits are on the schedule. I'm talking like used to as in like a couple of weeks ago, like last month, two months ago. And, so I used to get that roller coaster and what I started and I realized I was like, I don't, was like, I would feel like a failure if my visits would go down.
Like, you know, say, I saw 300 this week. I saw 290 last week. What happened to my 10 visits? What I really started to care about more is the percentage of utilization. So I have, we have this huge audit where it says everybody who's under active care. And I started making my goals based off of our audit, not based off of patient visit numbers or collections or all of those kinds of things.
ZT (28:51.458)
Yeah. Yep.
ZT (29:14.574)
Hmm.
Spencer Dupre (29:15.936)
off of like the numbers that I track in the audit. So in the audit, we track how many active care plans we have, how many visits come from those active care plans, what our monthly collections are off of those. And then we say we do the same thing for wellness. How many people are under wellness? What's our monthly recurring revenue from wellness?
how many people are on weekly, how many people are on bi-weekly, how many people pay on the first of the month, how many people pay on the 15th of the month, and all of those things. And so then based off of all of that, like let's say I have 100 people on wellness and I have 10 care plans, I have 110 people, say that accounts for 200 visits, because they're coming in once a week and all the other, say it's 150 visits. I care more necessarily about our utilization rate.
ZT (29:54.658)
Mm-hmm.
ZT (30:01.87)
Mm-hmm.
Spencer Dupre (30:09.54)
Then I do the number on the schedule. So like if my audit is saying I have a hundred, I should be seeing 150 visits minimum. Not everybody's going to make it in because people have kids and they have school, they have a trip, they get the flu or whatever, but I care how close can we get to that number, right? It's like in golf, right? I have a 300 yard shot. I don't, I care about how close I can get it to 300 yards.
Not necessarily if I'm getting it exactly at 300 yards. If I hit 295, do this fantastic. Right? So I care more about my utilization rate. All right? Or really in golf, like I care more about how accurate I am. If I hit 250 yards in the fairway versus 300 yards into the rough, I have a way better shot coming out of the fairway than I do out of the rough. So same thing. It's like, so if I have 150 visits on our audit and I have next week, I have 148 visits booked, I'm happy.
ZT (30:36.248)
Mm-hmm.
ZT (31:04.6)
Mm-hmm.
Spencer Dupre (31:05.836)
because my office will grow because I'm making sure that the people who are signed up for care are ready to be fulfilled. And then I just add new patients and I just keep doing that. And that's our cycle. So I care unnecessarily more about our utilization because that's our retention. And based off of if we just retain everybody. And so then I'm making my goal. like, OK, I want, you know, our next goal is like I want 350 accounts.
active. So I want 350 people under care. And I want my monthly recurring revenue from wellness to be 40k. That's that's like our next goal. And so I'm working to that. So instead of me saying, I'm trying to hit 80k a month, 60k a month, 30k a month, how can I just build my foundation a little bit bigger? And that will give me more stability. So where then my when my bad months are bad, they're tech, they'll still be good in perspective, like
ZT (31:34.734)
Mm-hmm.
ZT (31:54.68)
Hmm.
Spencer Dupre (32:01.284)
We had to quote a down month because we had all flagged by spam and stuff. And we still did 60 K because our monthly recurring revenue is like 56 K. So I know when I wake up and that stops me from getting in that month to month roller coaster of like I did good last month and I don't know where it's coming from the next month. And it like keeps me more regulated. So I started making my goals and decisions based off of my recurring numbers and my foundation and specifically my wellness base.
ZT (32:09.688)
There you go.
ZT (32:18.04)
Mm-hmm.
Spencer Dupre (32:30.648)
because that's the end goal for everybody. So I started making goals and decisions based off of our wellness care and our wellness audit. How do I want to grow that? And if I grow my wellness audit, well then everybody has to get to the journey to get to wellness. So then if we're doing all the other things to get people to wellness, then all the top end stuff happens. And I really care more about the bottom of the funnel.
ZT (32:47.022)
Mm-hmm.
Yep, Nice.
Spencer Dupre (32:52.27)
So that's helped us a ton, dude. When I started like making decisions based off of our wellness people and our wellness visits and modeling everything toward our wellness, even though they're coming in less, it's been so much better. Like we've just seen the exponential growth, more internal referrals, more Google reviews, people staying longer, all those kinds of things, like guaranteed recurring revenue. I sleep better at night.
ZT (33:01.998)
Mm-hmm.
ZT (33:20.12)
Hmm. A hundred percent. think I'm. Yep. And that's the same thing for us back in August of last year, we, was like, we have a wellness issue. Like we just have too many new patients coming in, but one, how many of them are making it to a transition report or like a wellness report? And then to like, how many are converting and things just drastically flipped once we start focusing on.
Spencer Dupre (33:22.68)
versus just new patients in the door.
Spencer Dupre (33:43.15)
Yeah.
Yeah, so like to give people's perspective like on us, what to end this episode, what do you feel like at this point, two and a half years, almost three years in for us? And with this change of perspective, what do you think is the, I think I just said, what do you think with an F? What do you think? Yeah, I think, what do you think is your, that you're doing well right now? Like what's your, what's the best part?
ZT (34:03.809)
my thinking.
Spencer Dupre (34:14.212)
about your practice, like what are you crushing it at? And then what do you think is your biggest bottleneck?
ZT (34:19.758)
I'd say I'm in still.
I think just like the...
The regulation is the bottleneck, not necessarily like the new patients or anything, but because I'm constantly trying to tweak here or there, I'm realizing has been the bottleneck. there's not that consistency things are ever changing. So staff isn't necessarily able to take on. Influxed. Right. what I think I'm doing really well is, customer retention, like PVA is getting up there, especially for more of a pain-based model, or PVA is.
Spencer Dupre (34:41.956)
Yeah, but the first question is, what do you think you're doing really well?
ZT (34:57.838)
close to 40, and that feels, feels really, really good. and even like the language that people are starting to leave on reviews and things of that nature has just changed drastically as well. So.
Spencer Dupre (34:59.054)
Nice.
Spencer Dupre (35:10.36)
Yeah, I think that dude, so many people literally will do exactly what you just did when you say, Hey, what do you think you're doing really well? And what do you think are your bottlenecks? Like when they sit down and they think about the business, do we automatically know what our bottlenecks are and like what we need to work on? But we forget that gratitude and we forget to say like, Hey, this is what I'm doing really well. And, that's something Cody's really been challenging me on as every day is like, I gotta say like, Hey, this is what has been great.
ZT (35:19.246)
Yeah.
Spencer Dupre (35:43.63)
That cut out.
Spencer Dupre (35:47.362)
I was cutting out, huh?
Yeah. What I was saying is though, is like, don't know, maybe it recorded. If not, I'll just say it again. But I think so many of us, like we really get to this place where we will do exactly like what you just did. Where, if we say like, Hey, what's going really well, it'll take us a while to think that. But then we're really quick to say like, this is what my bottlenecks are. These are my problems. And that's what will get you into this like tinker mode is because you're only focused on.
Hey, what do need to improve? What are my bottlenecks? So you're constantly seeing, I need to tinker here. I need to tinker here. I need to tinker here. I could do this better.
Spencer Dupre (36:36.452)
the interwebs are not working with this. But anyway.
Spencer Dupre (36:45.634)
Hmm... For us...
ZT (36:46.222)
But yeah, let us know how is your, how, how has your perspective changed? We're having some, some technical difficulties. So we'll, we'll end it there, but let us know how your perspective has either changed or what you know needs to change in your perspective to really get to that next level. Thanks for listening to another episode of the What Now Podcast. Peace.
Spencer Dupre (37:05.614)
Peace.