SPEAKER_00 0:00

Patient sometimes needs more than chiropractic.

SPEAKER_02 0:05

Sometimes less into that system is what that system needs. It's not always more.

SPEAKER_00 0:11

I do whatever's best for the patient. And if that puts me in a little bit of heat, then I'm willing to take the heat.

SPEAKER_01 0:20

Welcome back to Beyond Adjustments. And yes, somehow we're still here. And if you caught part one, then you already know this episode had more technical difficulties than my dad trying to reset the Wi-Fi. Sorry, dad. Love ya. We genuinely thought we might lose this conversation, uh, which would have been tragic, honestly, because there was just too much value here. Thankfully, once again, clear-cut podcasting came in clutch. That's all I could say. Anyway, at this point, I'm convinced they don't just edit podcasts, they perform miracles. Just kidding. They actually took what could have been a lost cause and turned it into something worth sharing. And I couldn't be more grateful because conversations like this with Dr. Arminta Phelps and Dr. Juan Escobar deserve to be heard. So if you missed part one, go back. Seriously, we already did the hard part and kind of saved it for you. I'll wait. Go ahead. And now let's keep this thing rolling. Yeah, it's it's about it's about trusting your gut too, right? You've you've gotten enough under your belt, you've gotten all the training, you've gotten all the education that you need, you have the understanding that you need of the body and the spine and you and the atlas. Um doc Dr. Juan's familiar with with my atlas. It's um it likes to it likes to hang low. So uh, but um but yeah, it's it's about trusting your instinct, right? It's it's not necessarily about being right or or um you know giving the patient what they want or expected. It's about being effective at the end of the day. It's either you know, TRT or ART or whatever the case may be, you know, it's something that that patient, oh, I rhyme really well there. That's awesome. Um that's gonna be a short right there, but it's gonna be what that patient needs, right? Dr. Juan, I'm I wanted to kind of the same question, right? Because, you know, at one point you were insurance-based, now you're cash-based. Well, like it's there's different scenarios, different ways that you operate in your practice. So, like, how about for you? Like, when did you really start trusting your your instinct, your judgment?

SPEAKER_00 2:47

I'd probably break the rules more than I care to say. Um but break the rules, yeah. Um yeah, I mean, I I just I just do what's best for the patient. That's it. Whatever's gonna help that patient, to my knowledge, is what I'm gonna do. And nothing's gonna stop me from doing that. Uh and I I felt that way early on because I feel like that's that's something that comes from within. It's not something that you you learn, it's it's who you are as a person. It's it's the reason why you got into the profession. You got in to change lives and to make an impact, not to, you know, make make an income or just to uh you know just to have a name, right? So I just I do whatever's best for the patient, and if that puts me in a little bit of heat, then I'm willing to take the heat.

SPEAKER_01 3:41

I love that. And and I've seen that firsthand with you, Dr. Juan, even with my with my son, like last week. Um he came in, his knee was bothering him. You could have taken him through the through the process. You could have been like, all right, let's get an x-ray, let's do this, let's blah, blah, blah. But you didn't. You just literally had a conversation with him in the beginning. What happened? When did it happen? How do you feel? What happens if I do this? Do you blah blah like and all these questions? And I could see my son's face while you were doing this, like, like, what's this guy doing? Like, fix my knee, dude. You know, kind of kind of approach. He walked out being able to like squat, like right after your session. So it anyway, it you broke the rules, I guess, in that situation, but you gave my son exactly what he needed, and now he's he's fine. So, um, anyway, great answer. Love that. Um, so this is kind of my what we'll call this the last segment or area, and and really what we're covering here is lessons that we didn't even know that we needed, right? Um, and obviously this is more from a chiropractic perspective, right? Let's get let's get a little personal, right? Because, you know, some of the most important growth doesn't really show in a textbook, right, or or course of any kind, right? So, Dr. Arminta, I'm I'm gonna ask you, what's what's one thing a patient taught you that changed how you practice or maybe even changed your mindset?

SPEAKER_02 5:17

I don't know if there's like one thing a patient taught me that like I can like be like, oh, that's like I'm putting my finger on. I think that they teach us stuff every day. Um, I think that it's um it's routinely like um patients I will see will pull me out of locked mode when I like or out of flow when I'm like, oh, okay. Like, and the kids commonly do it because they're so childlike, they're so innocent and they're so inquisitive. Um, and they're a little rowdy too. So sometimes they'll you know pull you out of your you know flow state and make you just change your perspective of you know life sometimes and situations for sure, because they're just they have just a joyful spirit about them and they're um they see things in a totally different way and then they ask really um interesting questions where I'm like, where'd you get that from? Um and that's probably one of the more common ones that we'll see is that.

SPEAKER_01 6:15

What about blind spots? Dr. Juan, like you know, unfortunately, blind spots are blind spots. We don't see them, right? And we don't see them coming. Um, you know, we could put guardrails, like, you know, if we can imagine a car, I put those little blind spot mirrors right at the edge so that I can see um a little more than what my mirror can show me. Um but sometimes we can't really see everything, right? In life, we're gonna be hit with things that we're just not ready for. Um what's what's a what's a blind spot when when it came to care or patient care that you discovered the hard way?

SPEAKER_00 6:59

A blind spot for me was uh understanding that a patient sometimes need needs more than chiropractic. Um and what I mean by that is addressing their lifestyle choices, addressing, you know, what they eat, um, do they work out, what kind of workouts, um how how do they sleep, how many hours, like all those things play a huge role in somebody's overall health. So if I'm just adjusting you, but you're doing everything in your power so that that adjustment isn't effective, you're never gonna get better. So it's it's understanding like when a when a person is needs, I should say, needs to make some lifestyle changes, and then being able to have the authority, the confidence, and the conviction to be able to address that so that they can have a mindset shift and then improve their overall health, as opposed to just I'm just gonna adjust you, even though I know that your lifestyle is causing you to have regressed results. And I would be remiss if I if I didn't address that. So learning when you need to do a little bit more for that patient and taking it a step further.

SPEAKER_01 8:10

How about how about for you, Dr. Aminta? Was there a blind spot that kind of obviously all blind spots catch you by surprise, but uh a really tough one for you?

SPEAKER_02 8:20

Oh man, like, well, I mean, there's a couple of times I've gotten like thrown uh like uh like uh say um not patient care wise, um, but like on the business aspect of uh things. Um there's been a couple of times I've gotten like really like I always took the rug out from underneath of me. Um I used to be really high volume, you know, serve for the sake of serving and love for the sake of loving, da da-da-da. But my coach was like not the greatest business coach. And so um I was seeing all these folks and I wasn't making any money doing it. And um finally um hiring a business coach. Um finding out when I made her visit almost made me throw up. Like it was, it was appalling. Um, and it was such a disrespect to the profession as far as um honoring the value of what we do. Um, I can understand serving for the sake of serving, but we're not martyrs. Um, and we need to have a rightful um value to chiropractic so the person and this our society values it. Um, so that was one. Um, and then another one comes with the insurance thing. Um, like we got hopped with a couple of audits, like simultaneous, a pre and a post um from the same company um within a couple of weeks of one another. And it was just, I mean, thank God nothing ended up happening in front of it except for a couple more gray hairs and a loss, um, a lot of lost sleep. Um, but um it was it was definitely um a gut punch um for us and and it made us really reconsider how we are, um, how we do insurance um and drawing really hard, deep lines in the sand with our patients about how we utilize um that based off of our experience with them. Um so um it's just there's always a you know, there's it's a ride. I mean, entrepreneurship is not this arrow up. It's this, you know, um, yeah, that you know, when you play in the arena of the insurance game, like that's just it's part, it's kind of par for the course, unfortunately. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:27

All right, quick timeout. Uh, first, if this episode has been delivering for you the way I think it has, then congratulations. You officially have excellent taste. Uh, but the other thing is we've got to take a second to thank the sponsor keeping the whole thing moving. AI Local Boost. I mean, they've been amazing. Uh, because here's the deal you can be incredible at what you do, but if Google acts like you don't exist, that's a problem. It's like opening the best restaurant in town, but kind of putting it in the middle of the woods with no signs. AI Local Boost helps businesses get found. Optimizing your Google presence, managing uh your content, helping with reviews, basically handling the stuff that gets neglected uh when you're busy actually serving people, which is what you should be doing, because most business owners don't need more information, they just need execution. So if your online presence, or I should say more accurately, your Google business profile looks like you built it or added to it back in the dial-up era, AI Local Boost might be your new best friend. All right, sponsor hat off. Let's dive back in. I think what's important there, um, and I'm sure you'll agree, is that you need a strong team around you. Um, and and you you would have made it out probably if you were on your own, but maybe with plenty more gray hairs or no hair by the end of it. So the fact that the fact that you have a strong team around you, um, I know you mentioned your husband too helps out and he runs kind of the the marketing side of things and the business aspect, and you have a strong uh front desk and you have somebody that helps so that you're very well rounded from what I remember from our initial conversation from a business perspective. So having that is is critical and having that understanding also, yeah, is critical. So yeah, thanks for that. All right, so you guys have learned quite a bit, right? And and I feel like um you're you're throwing in the fire in the first you know few years of of practicing, uh, whether you're working for someone as an associate or having your own practice, um, you're you learn a lot, right? Because the real world hits you. So knowing that and understanding that piece, what would be one extra semester of school? Like how would you design that extra semester of school and what would you cover uh for those going into the field? Dr. Juan.

SPEAKER_00 13:07

Entrepreneurship, marketing, and business administration. I think those are the three things that I absolutely lacked when I graduated from school and I only went on practice. Um, so I think that would be very valuable, even if it was just one semester, something where at least you had some rudimentary knowledge on what direction to take, where to seek help, and you know, how to get going with that. I think that would make a dramatic, dramatic change in in the trajectory of where my let's say entrepreneurial journey went. Um, because I've I you know I've gone through a lot of ups and downs, um going through um going going past the ground, if you will. Um, but then you know, being able to get up from that and dust yourself off and start climbing up again. That's that's kind of where I'm at right now. But if I would have had those those uh lessons or those classes in in um in school, I feel like maybe it would have helped me to avoid some of those mishaps, if you will.

SPEAKER_01 14:14

That makes sense. How about you, out Dr. Arminta? What what semester would you design and how?

SPEAKER_02 14:21

I'm gonna piggyback on Juan, because I think that it's just it's it is the thing that lacks um in the um no offense, all schools. I'm so sorry. I'm not I'm not calling any particular one of you out because um I know very many of your presidents and I know like I love you all very much, and thank you so much. Because we need more schools out there, we need more chiropractors out there, um, without a doubt, but we need more successful chiropractors out there and people that are really certain on how to lead a team, um, not just how to adjust, not just how to analyze, not just how to diagnose, not just how to be a puppet to an insurance company, but how to lead a team with certainty and how to do it effectively to be able to provide great ample income for your team. Um, like these associate docs need to be paid what they're worth. Um, and this profession, because this is one of those things that we eat our young. And I think that that's really um, really needs to shift. Unfortunate. Yeah. So it's it needs to be talked about. Um, and um, I would add in the entrepreneurial component of it. Um, and but systems. How do we systematize everything so it's reproducible? So you as the doctor don't have to control these units, that you can put somebody else in as the leader in that area, and then they can control it, and then they can come to you and give you feedback of how this area is doing. Like somebody's in charge of marketing, somebody's in charge of you know, case management, somebody's in charge of, and so that all gets brought back to CEO. So CEO can make decisions on how to further expand the vision of their um their their office or their you know facility.

SPEAKER_01 16:10

Yeah, that that's good. Um, so before we wrap up, and I'll I'm gonna I'm gonna throw the mic back at you, Dr. Arminta. Um closing us out here with with one belief or principle uh you now live by in your practice, something that keeps you grounded, even you know, even when things aren't really going your way or smoothly or the way you thought it would.

SPEAKER_02 16:39

The truth about how the body works, um, that we understand how the body is self-healing, that it's self-regulating, um, and that there's a lot of noise out there that your patients hear um that can pull them away from their innate ability to heal. Um, and I think that just by beating the drum of the body is meant to heal. It's meant to regulate, and your nervous system is the control center of that. And we are nervous system doctors, not back doctors.

SPEAKER_01 17:15

That's good. How about you, Dr. Juan? What's one belief or principle that you know now you live by in your practice? And again, kind of something that that's really keeping you grounded when you laid out a plan and it's just it's not what you thought it would be.

SPEAKER_00 17:34

For me, it's it's practicing what I preach. Um, that allows me to stay grounded and convicted in what I do, because if I'm healthy by doing the things that I'm recommending, then patients can look at that as an example and and know that I'm somebody that's a hundred percent convicted in what I do and I have the proof to show it. Um so I feel like if you if you lead in that way, um patients will see that and and they will look up to you and admire you and to you know follow your recommendations more closely. I would just say for the like people that are in school currently, um, don't wait for your schools to implement the courses that we mentioned on here. Start learning these things on your own. There's plenty of resources out there that allow you to get this knowledge before you graduate. So don't just wait for that to happen. Don't be a victim of that. Just go ahead and pursue it yourself, and you'll find plenty of material that will help you tremendously when you get to school.

SPEAKER_01 18:36

Thank you for that, Dr. Juan. And and I'm and I'm speaking for the both of them here. Um, so they can scold me after the fact. But um, I believe that both Dr. Arminta and Dr. Juan are always ready, willing, and able to have a conversation with any emerging DCs that have questions, that are hesitant. Um, they're both nodding. Thank God, I was sweating for a second there. Um, so I'm gonna have their information in the description anywhere you're listening or watching this. So uh please reach out to them. Um we're stronger together, guys. That's just that's just what it is. Thank you, Dr. Juan, Dr. Arminta, thank you both so much for joining me today. And that is a wrap. Dr. Arminta, Dr. Juan, thank you both for bringing your insight, your perspective, and honestly for surviving uh this recording journey with me. And of course, the clear cut podcasting. Once again, thank you uh for making sure this episode actually made it out alive. Um, and to all of you watching and listening, thank you for being here. This is exactly why we do beyond adjustments, real conversations, real people, and real impact. Just you gotta do me a favor though. You gotta subscribe. I mean, that's clearly the right next step. But share the episode and just keep showing up. All right, we've got more coming, and trust me, we're not slowing down. We'll see you in the next episode.