Episode Transcript

Dr. Jeff Langmaid: Hey Docs – Dr. Jeff Langmaid here with my co-host, Dr. Jason Deitch, and as promised, we have a special featured guest today, a gentleman that I’ve known for quite a few years that has continued to do amazing things in his practice and beyond. Dr. Kevin Christie of Health Fit Chiropractic and the Chiropractic Success Academy. Kevin, thanks for taking a few minutes and coming out with us today.

Dr. Kevin Christie: Oh my pleasure. Thanks for having me.

Dr. Jeff Langmaid: Our pleasure, and let me kick off with a question specifically relevant to you. You have your hands in a lot of stuff. You have a successful practice. You had multiple locations, you’ve coached and mentored other docs. We’ve been talking a lot about personal development and consistency on this show over the last few weeks. What are some? How’d you get interested in this and what really are those building blocks? If you had to trace things back that are brought you where you are today and then we’ll get into some of these rabbit holes?

Dr. Kevin Christie: Yeah, yeah, definitely. I’ve been practicing since 2005. I graduated from Logan in St. Louis there, and ever since, you know, when I got out, I was fully clinical. That’s, I think, something that maybe people that have only known me for the last few years don’t realize. But I was fully involved in clinical and had fortunate opportunities to travel on the PGA Tour and been to 12 NFL combine programs and worked with a lot of professional athletes. And I was immersed into a sports training facility and the two thousand, like, 2006 to 2010. And I just really was was fully involved in the clinical side of things. And then ultimately, I open up my own practice in a different city, not too far, like 45 minutes away. And at that point of opening up, my own practice. Things went well. But then by 2013, I realized I had some blind spots from a business standpoint, a marketing standpoint and at that time, I joined a coaching group called Strategic Coach, which is for entrepreneurs. It’s not industry specific. There are some chiropractors, but it’s I mean, it runs the gamut. It’s international. And they really got me thinking more like an entrepreneur or a more business. And then that was like one of the byproducts of that was I ran into a one of their members, who is Joe Polish, who’s big into marketing.

Dr. Kevin Christie: And I started digesting a lot of his information in 2014 into 2015, and I just was honestly using my own practice I had. I have an office in Boca Raton, Florida, and at the time, Miami, Florida, and I just was using our practice as kind of a test lab for a lot of this marketing stuff, and it was working. And then in Twenty Twenty Sixteen started a closed Facebook group called the Modern Chiropractic Marketing Group and just provided value for a couple of years on just everything ethical, elegant marketing for, you know, more evidence based chiropractors and that spawned a whole other whole other business. So it’s been a lot. But I kind of look at my professional career so far through 17 years is having chapters that I’ve started and, you know, and then closed and moved on to other chapters. And it’s kind of in my nature where I’m looking to progress continuously and whatever is next, I’m not afraid to take that on. And ultimately, now here in twenty twenty two, the big endeavor for me from a Chiropractic practice standpoint is I am actually exiting patient care this summer of twenty twenty two, but I will be still owning the practice and being here providing a leadership role. So that’s where I’m at currently, Kevin.

Dr. Jason Deitch: That is an awesome story. There’s a lot of places I know we want to go. I mean, everybody wants to know, how do you break into professional sports and you know, whether it’s the NFL or the PGA or wherever it is. But I’m also very curious. You mentioned that two of my favorite words, or maybe three of my favorite words elegant ethical marketing. Yeah. Tell us what? How do you summarize what you’ve learned? I know marketing means a lot of different things to a lot of different people, especially chiropractors. What? What does it mean to you? What is what is that all about ethical yet elegant marketing? You know, I’m sure chiropractors go. What are those two things have to do with each other? How do you how do you?

Dr. Kevin Christie: Yeah, absolutely. I think one of the frustrating things a lot of, let’s say, modern chiropractors have struggled with is the old school Chiropractic marketing has been pretty cheesy, sometimes crossing the line, not really up to the standards of what maybe a doctor should be doing and there. And I think it turned a lot of Chiropractors sour on marketing in general and considered it kind of a dirty word, which is unfortunate. And what really helped me was in 2015, I found a company called the Content Marketing Institute, which again is not Chiropractic. But Joe Polizzi, I had started it, he’s an interesting story. He started that from scratch and then ended up selling that for like $30 million. Not that long after, but it’s all about content marketing. And so I went to their master class in person to their live event in Cleveland, really started digesting their information and applying that to Chiropractic. And so to answer your your question, I feel like being an educator in your community on health related information that is, you know, on the leading edge of evidence falls into that ethical category. And then elegant, I would say what’s great about content marketing is it’s a form of invisible marketing in a sense, because because people don’t like to initially feel marketed to, especially by their doctors. So if you can do it in a way that people don’t really notice your marketing right and you’re just becoming a thought leader or a educator in your community, it will position you in such a way while people will seek you out and didn’t feel like they were marketed to. So that would that’s how I would sum it up. And that was really the foundation of what what my marketing consulting is or what I’ve done for my practice.

Dr. Jeff Langmaid: That’s awesome. One of the things that comes to mind for me is we talk a lot about Teach and Invite consistently. That’s really the foundation by which, you know, when we talk with docs about, you know, how do you think about content marketing and we always say Teach and Invite consistently. Make sure you’re teaching, showcasing something beneficial for the patient that obviously has a tie back to the practice itself. The invitation is that call to action and staying consistent. You’ve been in it for a while. You’ve seen the ups and downs of, you know, Facebook, you name it. You’ve been there, witnessed and watched it, if not been a part of it along the way. What are some of the primary channels as you work with docs through your own coaching, or through the group? What what are some of those primary channels that you’ve utilized? Are you still utilizing Facebook and Instagram a lot? I know there’s lead capture on websites, email marketing. What are some of the channels that you’ve seen the most success with or are the most excited about?

Dr. Kevin Christie: Yeah. Obviously, you know, back in 2016, I was… There’s a great marketing book for people out there called Blue Ocean Strategy and talks about a red ocean, which is like the sharks in the water. Everybody’s trying to go for the same thing. And then there’s the blue ocean, which is wide open, right? And I remember back in 2016 that that really resonated with me because if you remember which I’m sure you both do. Everybody was jumping in on the Facebook ads thing where it was like twenty seven dollars. All you can eat Chiropractic come on in. You know, like try to get one hundred leads into the funnel, hopefully to come in and 10 buy packages, type of thing. And it was just like this nonstop barrage of ads, like traditional ads, with a call to action, right? So and at that time, I’m here preaching about content marketing and really trying not to put the cart before the horse because so many people are running social media strategies with really no strategy, you know, no substance, right? So I’m here like hammering about content marketing, and I felt like sometimes I was hitting my head against the wall. But then I stayed the course because it was that blue blue ocean. And ultimately, I think things came around where a lot of at least Chiropractor in my audience started to realize like, I want to leverage social media, but I got to make sure I have the fuel that actually is going to generate the types of results in patients and thought leadership that I that I want my community.

Dr. Kevin Christie: And so I still think Facebook ads are great. In my practice. We spend a good amount of money, but we we shoot videos. And so what I want the audience to get from this is that, you know, sometimes Facebook ads is a is almost a misnomer because really what it can be is just a pay distribution of your content, right? So if you shoot a great video, yeah, you’re going to have to put money behind it for some eyeballs to see it on Facebook or even Instagram. But it’s not your traditional ad, right? It’s not like the pretty girl doing this. It’s it’s actually some form of your content being distributed out. You just got to put a little money behind it nowadays. And so I actually we take our email list and we funneled into a Facebook audience which actually connects right to our MailChimp. I know you two know that, but for the audience. And so we consistently shoot condition videos. Different types of conditions we treat that may not think of. They know we treat neck and back and headaches, but sometimes they don’t realize we treat carpal tunnel or TMJ or plantar fasciitis, those types of things. And so we’re getting videos in front of those people that already know, like and trust us. And so we’re trying to just increase our reactivations or our kind of our sphere of influence in our current patient base plus it’ll also retarget people have visited our Web site as well, so I love Facebook ads.

Dr. Kevin Christie: I love Instagram. We’re really growing that all those platforms are still great. It’s just different than what it was in twenty sixteen. You got to have that fuel to get it to go. And the and the social media is just a it’s just a distribution channel to get it out there, right? It’s like the vehicle. And if you look at it that way and you focus on the fuel and then do do the strategy and tactics correct on social media, it’ll be it’ll be great. So that’s one long winded answer for you. But the second one, which I still think is the bread and butter for Chiropractor is a lot of ways is is the hub and spoke model, which is your website. We do a lot for our Chiropractic website. It’s really a robust platform with a lot of content, which then really drives a lot of Google search. Anyway, we have a lot of Google. We do all of those things as well, but Google is really still king. If you’re doing it right, you can get a lot of new patients kind of as you sleep, as they say. And so that’s something I think Chiropractic really need to make sure their website has all the fundamentals, right? All the, you know, the mobile friendly, the speed and all that type of stuff could look good design. But it’s got to have good messaging and it’s going to be a content platform, not just an online business card.

Dr. Jason Deitch: You know, Kevin, Jeff and I both love your story, which is obviously why we’re grateful that you’re here and all. Help us understand you’ve now built CSA Chiropractic Success Academy. You didn’t wake up one day and go, I got an idea. Why don’t I coach Chiropractors? I’m sure it came from your journey, which is you’ve spent. I’m familiar with strategic coach. It is not inexpensive. No, nor are many of the others that you’re talking about. Help chiropractors understand it. Do they need to go through that kind of journey in order to kind of get results? Or what are you seeing out there with the clients you’re coaching and so on? How did Chiropractor sort of get the fast track to? What do I need to know in today’s modern world? Because there’s a lot of stuff people learned over decades that no longer necessarily apply the same way. But what’s sort of the fast track? What are you seeing that chiropractors that aren’t going to spend tens of thousands of dollars in years or decades, in some cases, learning there’s a natural curiosity to those of us that do those things. But what do chiropractors need to know? What are some of the takeaways from those very, very expensive and worth it investments that chiropractors can sort of fast track today that that’s working? And or what are some of the really common things that you’re finding most chiro’s doing that’s actually sort of holding them back or maybe even counterproductive, and they don’t even realize it?

Dr. Kevin Christie: Yeah, I think the fast track it, to be honest with you, is to delegate and outsource as much as you can, especially as you start to increase your revenue and profits. You know, as we all start out, we have more time than money. But then when you start producing a good profit, you need to start having some delayed gratification. And if you’ve got extra $5000 each month in profit, it doesn’t mean you should go spend it on something in your personal life unless you haven’t paid yourself at all yet, then go do that. But if you’re paying yourself what you feel like, you have a sustainable personal life and you start to have extra profits, what can you reinvest into yourself and into your business? Because I do get it like, you know, we are chiropractors first and most of the people out there, that’s what they’re going to be first. And you’ve got to start to like a strategic coach concept is unique ability, and you’ve got to hone in on what your unique ability is and then start delegating the rest. So I, you know, depending on where I’m you know, who I’m consulting for marketing, you know, if it’s the doc that’s established and has plenty of profits, I’m really looking at, how can you start to outsource and delegate a lot of these things? I want your practice to have a fully involved marketing strategy and implementation. I don’t necessarily want you doing it all right. As as the doctor. Now, if you’ve come to terms with, that’s your sweet spot and you want to stop practicing, you want to be networking and marketing and you’ve got some great associates, then great.

Dr. Kevin Christie: That’s fine. That’s not everybody. I would say that’s the small percentage. If you’re a year out and cash flow is tight and you have plenty of room on your schedule because you’re still needing to grow your practice, then yeah, you probably need to be going out and, you know, shaking hands and kissing babies and all that stuff constantly and doing a lot of the videos and all the Instagram and social media. And then once you start having that money, what’s that big domino that you can outsource and get it off of your plate so that you can move on to the next thing? That’s. Going to frankly maximize your license, right, like at a certain point, if you’re writing a blog might not be the best use of your time at a certain point, right? We’re shooting, shooting a video. I think that’s a if you can get on camera and you’re good at it, there’s really no point where you shouldn’t do that. Now, if you don’t want to do it and you hate it, then get get get it off your plate, for sure. So I think fast tracking is definitely finding other experts, whether it’s a person or a service, to do it for you. And that’s something that you kind of mentioned earlier. All the things I’ve got going on and people say, How do you do all that stuff? And I was like, Well, I don’t. Right? And that’s I’ve got quite a developed team around me, whether it’s internally or outsourced.

Dr. Jeff Langmaid: Kevin, one of the things that comes up to me when you’re speaking about this is really not only the fast track of it, as Jason alluded to. You know, the other side of that coin, and I know you speak with docs and we all have our goals, our hopes, our ambitions, you know, and what we’re trying to achieve, what’s may be the number one item that you see holding docs back, as Jason said, is it more mindset? Is it skill? What are you seeing as you’re speaking with docs in terms of it’s just keeping them from getting to that next level, no matter what that next level might mean to them?

Dr. Kevin Christie: Yeah, it’s definitely mindset. But then let me actually tease that out, because that could be a hundred different things, right? I think. And then we can like, OK, so mindset. And then below that, like a sub is financial, right? And then below that, I’ll break it down into a couple. But one is I see too many chiropractors spending too much time with patients and not charging enough, and they think they’re in a time based economy, but they’re in a results based economy, right? So if I come to you and you can get me better in 10 minute visit versus a 30 minute visit, I’d rather in most of your patients would rather probably spend ten minutes in your office or 10 minutes with you and 15 minutes doing rehab with another person. But too many docs I talked to are spending 30 minutes with that patient and charging seventy five dollars, right? So if I do the math, that’s one hundred and eighty dollars an hour. That’s massage therapy money. No offense to massage therapists, but as a doctor, you have too much education and years behind your belt and schooling. You’ve got to get into that two hundred and fifty three hundred dollar an hour minimum hourly rate because of overhead. It doesn’t mean you’re going to take home $300 an hour, you’re going to have some overhead. So that would be one because what ends up happening in that scenario is there’s never enough meat on the bone.

Dr. Kevin Christie: The whole term profit margin becomes important here, and they never have enough money to pay themselves what they want, let alone hire. You know, there’s a lot of chiropractors out there that don’t even have front desk people, and they do this for year after year and so they can’t afford any team around them. So their their schedule is is is booked, but there’s there’s not enough money, right? So that’s that’s one problem. And then two, under the financial thing is I don’t feel enough chiropractors are reinvesting enough capital expenditures into their business. And again, that could be anything from like I bought my office space in 2013, so it was a big capital expenditure to purchase this thing. It’s doubled in nine years, right? Like, it’s been one of the best investments I’ve made. But then what I’ve realized in twenty twenty two right now, it’s getting to be about 10 years old. I need to dump about $50000 in this thing to renovate a little bit new paint. New flooring like stuff gets a little bit worn right, and that starts to impact your patient experience and stuff. So whether it’s spacing, whether it’s hiring team members, whether it’s investing in marketing, right? Like how many chiropractors do you guys talk about that spend zero dollars on any type of marketing?

Dr. Jeff Langmaid: It’s a couple out there.

Dr. Kevin Christie: Yeah, there’s a couple. So I just think that docs need to start thinking about what they can reinvest in their practice. But unfortunately, too many are falling into that first category where there’s not a profit margin to reinvest anything into it. So that would be my my answer to that. Right on,

Dr. Jason Deitch: Kevin, help us understand what I’m going to ask is your mindset? You know, there’s a lot of chiropractors out there, as we mentioned. So some are just getting started. Some are in their early years, you know, they’re on a different seasons. And here you are saying, you know, I’ve been doing this 17 years now and I’m ready to sort of, you know, get others to come on in and do less patient hands on care and more other things help people understand, you know, for new chiros that are getting out of school or just in their first few years, they’re like, Get out, I’m just getting in, you know? Yeah, what is what’s been your journey or what do you find to be sort of the common journey? It may be hard for some recent graduates and new docs to fathom. Why would you be getting out of this thing, you know, I’m just getting into it, what’s the journey in your mindset of, you know, hands on patient care? In the beginning you mentioned, you know, more time than money, then you get more money than time. Then you get as you get older, you got family responsibilities, personal growth, your own ambitions, your experience have been there. Done that. What else can I challenge myself with? What’s the mindset of where you are now and how did it sort of evolve over the years?

Dr. Kevin Christie: Yeah. You know, there’s a couple of great resources. Carol Dweck with growth mindset. I would definitely say, read that. And I think just inherently I’ve had a growth mindset which I feel blessed for. So I’ve had that. And then there’s another concept with Scott Adams, who actually is the creator of Dilbert, the cartoon comic, but he’s written some great books and talks about skill stacking. And so when I came out of Chiropractic school, I was OK, you know, clinically, it was pretty good. And I kept on improving that skill. But then I was doing a lot of public speaking in the community. I was taking Toastmasters like I knew I needed to improve my skill of communication because I wasn’t great at it. So that was a skill that I stacked onto it. And then again, when I joined Strategic Coach, I stacked a skill of business understanding and then marketing, right? So I just kind of stacked those skills for me, which is now where I’m at, where it’s like, OK, I can apply a lot of those skills to the private practice that can continue to grow without me being there. Obviously, the Chiropractic Success Academy, which is our online training academy, I’ve got the Modern Chiropractic Marketing podcast, which spawned all the consulting I do, and now we’ve got a a mastermind down here in Florida, which actually this weekend is our first meeting.

Dr. Kevin Christie: And so I’ve been able to stack those skills to now be where I’m at now, and I’ve always tried to push the envelope with that, like with communication, you know, it went from just public speaking in my community to public speaking in conferences to having a podcast which has gotten I’ve gotten better at communicating as I do that. So it’s just I think the take home is is continue to stack those skills that’s going to be to make you better at what you want to ultimately be now. You know, going out and owning a subway subway sandwich shop is not a skill that stacks onto Chiropractic, right? So it’s got to be something that stacks. And that’s the whole premise of it, where you actually can apply those things to a particular profession. And so that’s why I would say Chiropractor is to continue that growth mindset. Hone in on certain skills that, you know, will improve your professional career and even personal. And keep at it and you’ll find yourself, you know, I’m 42 now where if you’re lucky, by the time you’re late thirties, early 40s, you’ll start to get things figured out a bit and then you’ve got a nice long stretch of time where you’re functioning in your unique ability, which I kind of mentioned earlier.

Dr. Jeff Langmaid: Kevin, I love it all. You crushed my dream of opening up a subway with Seth Curry, but I won’t hold that against you. I encourage everybody out there. Check out the modern Chiropractic Marketing group. Check out CSA. You can always look at health fit Chiropractic. That’s Kevin’s practice in South Florida and check out what he is doing day in and day out to build and grow his brand and his practice. Kevin, I really appreciate you coming on today and on behalf of Jason and our entire team. Thanks for taking the time.

Dr. Kevin Christie: Thank you. I appreciate it.