"Who Are You and Why Should We Listen To You?"

I don’t like giving advice. People never follow it. I can only teach based on my experiences.

Six years ago, I wrote the rough draft for a chiropractic business book. It was meant to be the “missing manual” for starting a chiropractic career after school. No fluff, no rah-rah, no BS.

I never published it.

The book felt more like a personal memoir than a business book, and I didn’t want to be the main character. It was too personal and I was afraid of what would come after I published it.

I didn’t want to handle emails or calls. I had no aspirations to become a coach, mentor, or guru. I had no service or product to sell. Also, I had no patience for the questions afterward.

Truthfully, I just didn’t want the criticism.

At the time, I had been practicing for over 20 years, my other business interests were doing well, and I was considering taking a break from chiropractic practice. I just want to say my piece, ride off into the sunset and help a few people along the way.

I’ve owned and operated a high volume family practice (we all say that, don’t we?), plus a smaller satellite office for a decade. I later sold those practices, took a year off to rest, write and pursue other business interests, only to return to chiropractic practice full-time over ten years ago.

I've always enjoyed challenging dogma and traditions taught to students today. I used to enjoy healthy discourse and debate, but not anymore. Chiropractors have fragile egos that shatter under the weight of critical thinking, and I didn’t want to become a target.

So, I started this anonymous newsletter instead.

This newsletter is two months old, reaches a broader audience of hundreds, and I can publish most of the old book's content here. There’s room for discussion, and I can choose to engage or not. Best of all, if a reader wants to write for this publication, they can contribute here.

A chiropractic business is run like any other local service business and can thrive in a saturated market. The rules for running any successful business also apply to chiropractic and I can write about them here. For example:

• I will dispel myths about chiropractic (“There has never been a better time to be a chiropractor and other BS”).

• Destroy practice management dogma (“If I air-drop Dr. So-and-so into your town, he’ll build a 1000 a week practice by next Tuesday).

• Teach you about money (“Stop spending on dumb shit to look successful”).

I want to remind readers to look past the writer and keep an open mind, especially if they hear something they don’t like. I don’t like giving advice. People never follow it. I can only teach based on my experiences.

Many young chiropractors will need to carve their own path. I can show you what worked (and what didn’t) and how I learned from my mistakes. There are no quick fixes when it comes to health and business. Practice requires deep and sometimes painful work. “Know thyself” is the primary principle to apply to all areas of life and we need to be ruthless with self-criticism to set us up for success later.

Chiropractic practice involves defining your practice, developing a system, and automating it for real business growth. Figure out what you like and what you don’t like. Don’t just create a job for yourself.

To my inevitable critics, (How many do they see a week? Where did they go to school? How much money do they have?): You’ve never heard of me and you will likely never hear from me again after this newsletter is gone. Please stop messaging me.

The business principles in this newsletter have already made me successful in chiropractic and other fields. While chiropractic isn't my only source of income, it is the one I'm most passionate about. Eventually, I will disappear but this publication will remain.