EPISODE 393: The 4 Seasons of a Chiropractic Career

Hey, chiropractors. We're ready for another Modern Chiropractic Marketing Show with Dr. Kevin Christie, where we discuss the latest in marketing strategies, contact marketing, direct response marketing, and business development with some of the leading experts in the industry. 

Dr. Kevin Christie: [00:00:00] Hey docs, welcome to another episode of Modern Chiropractic Mastery. This is your host, Dr. Kevin Christy, and today I'm excited to bring Dr. Stephen Franson back onto the show. He was actually one of our first guests. I think in our first 10 episodes back in, uh, probably early middle of 2017. So it's been about seven years.

And this particular episode, we talk about the four seasons of a chiropractic career and just like in life, there are stages of life and there are stages of the career. And it is important, um, depending on what your vision is and your goals is to, is to move along into different seasons of a chiropractic career.

And Dr. Franson is one of those who has done that? And he is from the remarkable chiropractor, he's built and sold practices, and he's going to dive into the four seasons of a chiropractic career. And we talk about other aspects as well. And one of the cool things we bring up in this particular episode is the percentage of the U.

S. population that is deemed to be entrepreneurial, And maybe the percentage that is within the chiropractic profession, which is higher. And I think because [00:01:00] chiropractic self selects, and so we dive into the four seasons of a chiropractic career. And as this episode comes out, we are shortly going to be releasing in November of 2024, for a How to get to 30 K per month in revenue and practice.

And I know many of you are, are, are above that, but I know a lot aren't. And, um, I think that is a big number to, uh, get to one of the next seasons of your chiropractic career. And we're going to really break that down in an online course format that's going to drip out to you. And it's going to be very, uh, Uh, well thought out and actionable, not going to just be theoretical or just random lessons.

It's going to be methodical and step by step to help you get there so that you can get to the next season of life. Just keep a lookout for that. I'm not going to send you anywhere right now, but just look in our Facebook group, modern chiropractic marketing. You can join our Facebook group. There's 4, 800 chiropractors in there.

You could go to our website, modern chiropractic marketing. com. To keep tabs on that. If you're on our email list, I'll be emailing you, but probably the [00:02:00] easiest way right now is just get into the Facebook group is a lot of great information that is in there from a lot of great chiropractors. All right.

Without further ado, here's my interview with Dr. Steven Franson.

Dr. Kevin Christie: All right. Excited to have Steven Frenson on the call here. Um, people may not know, but we, uh, had a podcast episode probably six or seven years ago, early on in the way of this, of this podcast. A lot has happened over, over that time, but since it's been a while, uh, let's reintroduce yourself to our audience.

Tell us a little bit about yourself personally and professionally.

Stephen Franson, DC: Yes. I'd love that first. Thank you so much for asking me back. Um, my dad always says it's one thing to be asked to come over. It's another thing to be asked back. So, uh, I appreciate that, man. Uh, and I want to share just a quick, uh, Dr.

Kevin story in this podcast. Um, uh, I wrote you this, I don't know if you remember, probably it was close about a year ago, year ago, where I was at one of our live events, uh, one of our remarkable practice, live events. Uh, and as I was standing in [00:03:00] back of the room getting ready for Friday night to really kick off, right?

So, um, I was miked up and ready to take the stage and this young guy comes up to me and he's like shakes my hand He's like, dr. Franzen. I'm so excited to meet you in person. He's like, I want you to know that, you know You've changed my life. I love your podcast. I love the coaching and blah blah blah and uh, and i'm like Thanks so much, man.

I love to hear that. I love to meet people in person and he's and he's like I'm like, how'd you find us? Who referred you over? And it was like, Oh, I listened to Dr. Kevin Christie's podcast. And that's where I heard you for the first time. So thank you, man. It was just so awesome to have that full cycle completed like that.

So, so thanks a lot. So yeah, I'm a chiropractor. Uh, so, um, I am, uh, uh, been a chiropractor for about 30 years now. I'm married to my favorite chiropractor, uh, Dr. Camilla Franson. Uh, she and I, uh, met back at life university, uh, about 30 years ago. Which is crazy to say it, uh, we, um, we went through school together, we did an internship together in Arkansas, um, we did an [00:04:00] associateship position together in Virginia, um, and then we opened up the original Remarkable Practice in Boston, Massachusetts, just north of Boston, which is where I'm from.

She's from Sweden. Uh, I'm from Boston. We wanted to be close to one of our families so that we can take care of our families. Uh, so we inspired both of her sisters to become chiropractors. So they're over in, uh, well, at least one of them's in Stockholm taking care of their family over there. And the other one's down in New Jersey.

So, uh, yeah, we've got eight chiropractors in our family and I think we're raising a couple more. Uh, so yeah, we're the, we're the chiropractic Cosa Nostra up here on the Northeast. Um, our practice was phenomenal. Um, we were just truly blessed, uh, great success. Uh, in Beverly, Massachusetts, um, we attribute that success to, uh, serious clinicians, right?

So we want better health outcomes for our people. Uh, we took patient education very, very seriously. Uh, we called it the double edged sword. Uh, we gave people back hope by teaching them the truth about what they should do. expect from their [00:05:00] health and what's possible, uh, and, um, how their body really works and how their body really heals.

Uh, and then we gave them back personal responsibility. So, uh, we taught them that behaviors matter and they matter a lot. Uh, so we taught them, you know, what to start doing and what to stop doing. And a big part of that was getting their spine and nervous system checked regularly. So, um, we delivered excellent care.

Educated our patients and then everything else was systems. Um, I'm the system guy. So we systematized everything, you know, all, everything should be systematized. Attraction, conversion, retention, team building collections. Uh, and I think my superpower is building world class teams. Uh, and a big part of that was our associate doctor program.

So we had almost 40, we had 39 associate doctors over about a 17 year period. Uh, and it's not, I like to say it's not cause I'm a horrible boss and they quit and I had to replace them. Uh, but it was more of like a two year apprenticeship. Uh, so we could raise up and train up and launch, um, all these doctors into the world to reproduce what we did.

And [00:06:00] really that's where I fell in love with developing chiropractors and teaching them. The systems and the processes that help you become more successful, which means make a bigger impact. You know, I make a bigger income and that's where I fell in love with coaching. Uh, so that's really where the remarkable practice was born and taking all those doctors through all those cycles.

Uh, so at one point, uh, I had pretty much maxed out what you can do, or at least what I could do, uh, in a brick and mortar business and, uh, still had a lot of rubber on the tires and wanted to give more to humanity and do more to develop chiropractic around the world. So started the remarkable practice coaching business.

Uh, and we've been blessed again. Uh, for the second time in my life, I get to say I'm doing exactly what God hardwired me to do. And that's coaching and developing chiropractic teams. So, uh, we now have thousands of doctors in our ecosystem all around the world. Um, we have 15 coaches. We coach everybody on the team from the, uh, CEOs office managers and clinical directors and the DCs and the associate doctors and all the CAs, all the [00:07:00] way down to the front desk.

Every, everyone on the team, we have coaching programs for, uh, and, uh, we've just had so much fun doing this and creating. What is now known as the remarkable practice coaching business. So here we find ourselves, Kev.

Dr. Kevin Christie: That's I love it. And I wanted to touch on something you mentioned about having, I think, 39 associates over a period of time.

It kind of reminds me of a story I heard about McKenzie Institute, which is, uh, for people listening, like a research institute, that's massive. I mean, it's a multi billion multinational company, but one of the things that they've, they've done. Interestingly done with branding is that a lot of people leave McKinsey Institute, but everybody that leaves McKinsey Institute always reference that I used to work for the McKinsey Institute.

And it actually, uh, they leave on good terms. They tried to get people to graduate in a sense from McKinsey Institute to a certain extent. And when they go out, they want them to obviously talk highly about that. And it actually has been part of the positioning and branding for the McKinsey Institute.

And it sounds like that's kind of been something that you've been able to achieve, which is pretty cool.

Stephen Franson, DC: It's [00:08:00] exactly what we set out to do. I'll say one thing. It was the right thing for me to do with our business. It may not be the right thing for everyone to do. And you know, the probably quick criteria is do you love to coach and develop people, right?

Because for some docs, that's not what resonates with them. It's just, I'm a natural born coach. I love doing it. So for me, I found my, my stride there and my, and I really loved developing chiropractors and it allowed me because I got that reputation and being able to, um, take those top. Potential top doctors early in their careers and groom them, accelerate their success.

And they knew my plan was I was kicking them out, right? So it's launching them after two years. So you could actually really attract all comers, whether they're what we call caregivers or business builders, or even entrepreneurs, we were able to take all comers and make sure that they had a track to follow.

Uh, and it was about them achieving their success and their personal, professional and financial goals.

Dr. Kevin Christie: Well, yeah, and it's going to be exciting. I'm like, we're going to talk about the four seasons of a chiropractic career, which is a [00:09:00] framework you've developed. And you mentioned, you know, the first one is launch.

I'm going to give a little preamble on that. And it's, it's fascinating. And I'd love to hear your, your wisdom from it, but you know, we've heard the term in raising a kid, you know, failure, failure to launch, right. It's the, it's a 31 year old. That's still living with. Parents and hasn't really, you know, left the nest egg there.

And, and I'm, I'm concerned a little bit seeing that a little bit in the profession sometimes is almost that failure to launch, uh, with the young DC. Are you seeing that a little bit, or are you, what's your take on the, I know a lot of the DCs were in a tough bind with COVID and that's where they were learning or they're getting out of school at that time.

Uh, what are you seeing from the 20 something year old crowd?

Stephen Franson, DC: It's

Dr. Kevin Christie: a,

Stephen Franson, DC: it's a really. It's an astute question. Okay. So, but it's also a very complex thing that we can definitely tackle here. So I'll try to do it from a high level. And if anybody has any deeper questions, of course you can reach out to me. So here's what we've discovered, right?

So I've got, I've got a coaching business, the remarkable practice, right? [00:10:00] So having worked with 10, 000 chiropractors and helping them grow their practices and become more sophisticated businesses, expansion demands people power, right? So they start creating teams and building, and very often that involves.

Going from build to scale. So they're adding associate doctors, et cetera. So, because we did that so successfully, so many coaching clients come to us for that specific reason. Hey, I want to figure out the associate doctor thing, right? So at the end of the day, what we found was their inability to find associate doctors.

And other a players for their team became an extraordinary bottleneck for them as a client to grow their business. So that became the constraint of the business. So the limiting reagent, if you will, right. That became problematic for me. So as we are building this coaching business, I don't want to put a ceiling on our clients ability to grow and go and be more and more successful over time.

So I said, you know what, we need to solve that problem. So to scratch our own itch, we actually created a separate and distinct business. Called Cairo matchmakers, which is under the parent company. Ideal [00:11:00] team Cairo matchmakers is all about helping people find ideal players to build an ideal team inside of chiropractic specifically, right?

So it's a separate and distinct company that we, that was one of the founders of and helped form to solve this problem. So I'm only telling you this because I want you to understand my credentials when I say what I'm about to say. Okay. So when we're, when we're placing chiropractors, what we recognize.

Is that there are different roles inside of a chiropractic office, right? So just like you'd play different roles on a basketball court or in a band, right? There's different roles that call for different sets of responsibilities, which call for different sets of skills, talent, a different genius. Would you agree?

Like there are domains in a practice, there's attraction or lead generation, there's conversion, that's sales. There's delivery, which is creating value and delivering value retention. There's team building. There's. The business office financials. Those are the five domains of a practice. Each of those [00:12:00] domains have roles tucked up underneath them, right?

And those roles have responsibilities organized underneath them. So what I'm getting at is there are different types of geniuses inside of each practice. Now, my philosophy is, is that we're building. We're building football teams, not ski teams. Okay. A ski team is a, is a, is a team of experts, right? So everybody's using the same skis and the same poles, the skiing, the same lines, the same gates, the same outfit.

And they're, Just racing against the clock. Ready? Go. Ready? Go. Ready? Go. Right. Those are just experts, right? So fantastic, right? A football team is different than a ski team because they're not just experts. They're not just expert football players. They're actually specialists in their position. Like, so if you were to look at a nose guard versus a wide receiver, right?

So a quarterback versus the kicker, right? So a D lineman, right? So each one of these is a very, very specific set of responsibilities. Experience and physical attributes, [00:13:00] right? So we're each position calls for a very specific human. Would you agree? We call those the genius, right? So same thing in a business and definitely inside of a chiropractic business.

So what we've done Kev is we've identified that there are in essence. Three different types of geniuses in chiropractic when it comes to DCs. And when I say this, you're going to go, yep, like every chiropractor we know is going to fit into one of these three buckets and they're all awesome. Okay, one is the caregiver.

One is the business builder and one is the entrepreneur. Okay, so the caregiver. The caregiver is the person that got into chiropractic because they wanted to do the doctoring. They love the doctoring. They want to do consultation examination. They want to do analysis. They love their technique. They love adjusting patient care, patient education.

They love the one on one, right? So they love the doctoring piece of it. Right. So that caregiver got into chiropractic because they wanted to be a doctor and they had a bit [00:14:00] of a holy shit moment at one point in school. They're like, wait a minute. It sounds like I also have to be a business owner. Right.

Like, and that to them was terrifying because they looked and they were like, Ooh, man, all of the risk associated with that, like creating things in bed, that's really stressing me out. Right. So that sounds a lot like probably a lot of chiropractors that, you know, awesome clinicians. Can I say it this way?

Hopeless business people, right? So they never signed up for that. Frankly, on the other end of the spectrum is the entrepreneur guys like you and me. That no matter what we did, we'd start businesses, right? By the grace of God, we were called to chiropractic. So we started chiropractic businesses, right? So we love the risk, right?

So we love, we have that gene that the stress actually energizes us. Right. So I don't want to speak for you, but I bet this is true, right? So you'd get bored stiff if you weren't charged, if it weren't all up to you. Right. So like, we love the idea of making something from vapor hiring, firing, running teams, being the rainmaker.

Right. So that's the. That's [00:15:00] the high risk tolerant entrepreneur, right? So we love chiropractic, love taking care of people, and we love owning, starting, and running businesses, right? That's the other end of the spectrum, right? In the middle, there's a bit of a hybrid, and that is the business builder. They are happy to take care of patients.

They love being a chiropractor. They're extroverted. They like to attract, convert, and retain patients. They love building a practice, but what they don't want is they don't want to start and own a business. And we recognize there's a difference between a practice and a business, right? So they're hardwired to say, if you owned a business, you could hire a business builder or a caregiver, right?

So a business builder would be somebody that you'd say, Dr. Kevin, I'm hiring you to build a business, excuse me, build a practice inside of my business. So the caregiver, you're saying, I'm hiring you to be the doctor here and you're going to deliver the care that we sold, right? So you focus on that, on the extreme.

Does that make sense when I say it that way? So perfect sense, three different buckets. And I'm guessing that every [00:16:00] chiropractor that, you know, Would fit squarely into one of those one of those three buckets. So, um, the instincts around this are usually right, but we don't guess we test and you can actually test the human mind and it's like doing a blood test to find out how somebody is hardwired because God makes entrepreneurs.

God makes caregivers and makes business builders. It's like righty and lefty. You're not born lefty and become a righty. You're not born righty and say, one day I'm going to grow up and become a lefty. It's just how you're hardwired. So you can actually test for this. And there's three tests that we do.

One is the cognitive test. One is the affective test. And one is the cognitive test with an N. So cognitive is what do you know, like boards. Affective is what do you love, what type of work energizes you, like StrengthsFinders. And then finally, cognitive, which is how do you behave? How do you take action?

And [00:17:00] Kevin, this is my favorite one, because we hire people for personality and philosophy, aligned philosophy and technical skills, but we fire for behavior. So I want to know how is this person hardwired to behave before I put him on the field to take a position, right? So that cognitive profile is really critical to answer the question that you just asked me.

Do you use the Colby index for that? Or do you use something else? Love Colby. Uh, Colby is a great one. Okay. But we use PDP. We use ProScan. That's the one that, you know, we tried them all, you know, we did, we had probably 15 of them that we used for a while and now we've done 10, 000 of these. And it just fits.

Specifically the chiropractor, but generally the chiropractic office, but specifically the chiropractor tells me everything I need to know. So PDP pro scan, um, is the one that we use for a cognitive profile. And this is important in a very long answer to your question, but I respectfully want to address this because it's a massive issue in chiropractic.

Okay. [00:18:00] And I'm going to say this, and it's going to be wildly unpopular and bring some people, some real peace. Yeah. Okay. We've done so many of these tests. Like I said, about 10, 000 chiropractors just south of 75 percent of chiropractors are hardwired to be caregivers. And about 15 percent are hardwired to be entrepreneurial.

Dr. Kevin Christie: Okay.

Stephen Franson, DC: Seven and a half percent of humanity they say is hardwired to be an entrepreneur. And I think that chiropractic as an industry has a tendency to attract more of the entrepreneurs, which is why I think we're seeing about 15 percent entrepreneurs. Does that make sense? The balance in the middle is that that oddity that business builder that's extroverted but not dominant Loves to attract convert and retain but doesn't want to be in charge They don't have to be the boss like you and I right so the caregiver Is incredibly stressed By the thought, the idea and the reality of having to start own and run a business, right?

So [00:19:00] when you asked and the way the question I heard and hopefully it was the right thing I heard was, are you finding that there's a lot of doctors that are sort of failure to launch, like go off and start their own practice? That's how I heard that. And I just want to make sure that you, what you're hearing from me is physiologically, psychologically, about 75 percent of chiropractors shouldn't own their own business.

They're just not hardwired to do it. And the, the good news, bad news story here is the bad news is, is most of our profession doesn't understand this. Okay. And you know, this, this, there's a sense of like, maybe, can I say shame or guilt or embarrassment? If somebody doesn't own their own practice, right? You hear this kind of attitude around like, well, I don't even own my own practice.

I'm just an associate. I'm just a chiropractor here, right? I don't own my own practice. Here's what I know to be true, uh, neurosurgeons don't own hospitals, right? So neurosurgeons are employed by hospitals to do brain surgery, right? So [00:20:00] there's no brain surgeons walking around your town, hanging their head saying, I'm just a brain surgeon.

You know, I don't own the hospital, right? So as a profession, it's time for us to grow up and to recognize that the reason we exist is to deliver chiropractic care, right? So never say that somebody is just a brain surgeon. A chiropractor or just an associate doctor. All they do here is adjust kind of thing, right?

That is the reason we exist, right? So we need to learn how to recognize that edify that and compensate that in such a way where as a business owner, we recognize that our purpose. Is to create environments where people will be more successful with us than without us. And that means creating an environment where we could hire those awesome caregivers and business builders who are not hardwired to be entrepreneurs and give them a place where they can be wildly successful, fulfilled, and happy.

Dr. Kevin Christie: And you mentioned something about compensation. And I was, I kind of wrote down here in my notes as you were speaking is, is, do you feel like there's a disconnect between the, the compensation, the money that a, um, that an associate can make? And [00:21:00] I, I see that a lot of times they, um, they would love to just be an associate in a practice and grow in there and really do that part and feel congruent with it.

But then at the same time, they're like, well, I got to make 150 or 200, 000 and live in today's society. And the only way to do that. Theoretically is to open up my own practice. But then unfortunately, what I see a lot of times is they make that leap thinking that that's how they're going to get to the promised land and they weren't well equipped for that.

And they actually oftentimes make less money chronically as a practice owner than they would have if they found a good clinic to work on and be that clinician. Are you, are you seeing that disconnect financially?

Stephen Franson, DC: That's right. 100%. So, um, the statistics are is, is in 2022, the average chiropractor in the US made just north of 147, 000.

So let's assume that the average full time chiropractor made 150, 000. And that's going to include both owners and associate doctors. Right? So. Um, [00:22:00] 150 case is the is the average, right? So what I know to be true, um, is most the average associate doctor makes less than that, right? So, but what we've seen in the last 5 years, placing.

I think we've placed 250 odd chiropractors last year. The average chiropractic salary has gone. We've seen it go up from like 69, 000 up to like 93, 000. Right. So right now the joint is a hundred thousand dollars starting salary for a DC. So just to give you context on that, um, if you don't think 1500 joints by the end of next year is going to influence.

The draw, the pull of DCs and what they're getting paid. You need to pay attention, right? Uh, so, and you know, at the end of the day, some people sitting there going, what's a hundred grand for an associate? Yeah, 100%. We have so many of our, I mean, we have associates in our system that make 250, 000. I mean, if you look at some of the bigger, better organizations, like, uh, um, a Cairo one up, uh, Chicago.

They run a fantastic organization and their average chiropractor is making about 265 and they're not, they're [00:23:00] not owners, right? They, their associate doctors inside of a corporation and their top earners are ordering, uh, are doing over 800, 000, not as an owner, right? So as an associate doctor, so, um, I know that those numbers seem crazy to a lot of people that are listening here, but at the end of the day, you just have to model your business properly.

Um, because it is a wildly successful and very productive and profitable relationship if you get it right.

Dr. Kevin Christie: Yeah. And modeling your business the right way you mentioned is like, you know, I'm in kind of the evidence informed crowd of, of the profession and a lot of our, our listeners and people we, we kind of collaborate with and talk to and, There's, I'm not going to get down that rabbit hole, but there's a whole problem with the way they're structuring their business and the actual capacity of, of what they can bring in and revenue.

And so a lot of the owners are not making six figures. And so then they try to pigeonhole, but they want the freedom, you know, they, they're 40, they become 40 years old and they're not making what they want, but they want the freedom of having an associate. So they bring on someone and then they. Kind of want to, you know, have [00:24:00] these cockamamie schemes of compensation and everything and it just ends up burning them.

And so it's, uh, definitely a problem. We probably need a part two episode on, on just that alone, but let's very happy to

Stephen Franson, DC: come back and do that. Cause I'm super passionate about this piece of it because this is a, it is literally, there's only two choices here. Win, win, win. Lose, lose, lose. It's the only two choices because it's, if you do it right, it's a win for the owner, it's a win for the associate, and it's a win for chiropractic because it's a win for the patients.

It's a win for the team. It's a win for the practice. Right? So if you don't do this, right, the only choice is lose, lose, lose. So it is a lose for the owner. It's a lose for the associate and it's a lose for chiropractic. 68 percent of these relationships go sideways, which is a terrible statistic. Yeah, that is a terrible black eye.

Dr. Kevin Christie: It was one of, I had, I had Jay Greenstone and I, uh, hosted a, a salon dinner in Vegas when I spoke at Parker Vegas this past year. And Alan Miner was, was uh, at the dinner with us, and I believe you guys are partnered on the chiro [00:25:00] matchmakers aspect. Yep. That

Stephen Franson, DC: atch. Yep. Yep. And

Dr. Kevin Christie: I was surprised to talk to him and he said like a lot of times when you guys get on the phone with a, an owner doctor that's looking for an associate, you'll ask the revenue.

Question. And if it's not a certain number, like you're not ready to hire an associate, it's just flat out. And it's, it's not the answer that the owner wanted to hear when they got on the phone with you, but it's, you're just trying to prevent that. Lose, lose, lose.

Stephen Franson, DC: 100%. I mean, you know, there's most Kairos and I'm, and I'm really trying to Couch my language here.

So most chiropractors are brilliant clinicians, but hopeless business people only because we've never been educated. We've never been taught, like when you spend seven, eight, nine years studying the human body, something's got to give, right? So most, most chiros were never taught the economics of a business.

Like if you do not understand economics, you do not understand business. If you don't, if you don't speak accounting. You don't understand your business. So there are very specific economic, we [00:26:00] call them break points that you have to understand in your business. Like, so there's a metric that most people don't know, and you absolutely need to know to do this while it's called RPE or revenue per employee ratio.

The revenue per employee employee ratio is incredibly informative around the, the health of your business. Right? So we talk about like wellness markers, like. Heart rate variability, right? HRV, right? As a wellness marker for how well your autonomic nervous system is adapting readily and appropriately to stress, right?

So HRV would be a wellness test, right? RPE is the HRV of a chiropractic business, right? So RPE or Revenue Per Employee Ratio, your business as a single brick and mortar business should be seeing 250, 000 per full time employee equivalent. For The break points are every 250, 000. So 50. Right? So those are called break points.

And in this situation, in this conversation, we're talking about team building in this [00:27:00] conversation. The break points are where does your team start to break? Right? So we all understand pain lines, right? There's an inferior pain line. And a superior pain line. The inferior pain line is if we dip below these numbers, the business breaks economically, right?

Superior pain line is if the business grows, we're at capacity and it starts to break, right? So wait times back up. New patients can't get in. You name it. People quit because they're overwhelmed. Superior and inferior pain lines. These are economic factors and you need to understand this in your business, the break points for every 250, 000 per full time employee equivalent.

You've got to be able to figure that out and say, where am I in my hair and my hiring arc, right? So if you've got two employees. So it's the owner does not count. So the owner plus two employees is you plus two people, right? So two times two 50 is 500, 000. So if you're at 500, 000, it's, and it's one doctor and two CAs, for example, you're at that second break point.

You're going to be at capacity, right? So you're already behind in hiring [00:28:00] your next person because you want to hire ahead of your capacity. So you continue to grow and pull the business forward. Yeah. Does this make sense? Perfect. So you hire into that next power band of growth. And, and so the way I teach docs is for every 20, 000 per month in collections, it should be a trigger for you to start the hiring process.

So 20, 000 a month would times 12 would be two 40. So you're approximating 250, 000, right? So if you get to 20, 000 a month in collections on average, 20, 000 times 12, excuse me, For every 20, 000. So at 40, 000, you're at 40, 000 times 12, which is four 80. So now you're approximating 500, 000 at 60, 000 a month.

You're now 60 times 12 is seven 20. You're approximating break point three, 750, 000. Do you see it? So as you're trying to figure out, like, when do I start the hiring process? Because it's not easy to hire. Is it right? So this is an example of. Once you understand the economics of the business, you can model the business properly.

Okay. And of course, this is only one number. Okay. [00:29:00] I'll say one numbers of fact, two numbers or a story like in the remarkable practice. We don't just coach people on how to build their practice. We coach them about the business so they understand how to run the business regardless of how you practice.

You need to know how to run the business. Okay. And the conversation you and I are having right now. Is a business conversation.

Dr. Kevin Christie: Yeah, absolutely. I love it. That was, that was good. And I want to go and kind of segue into the four seasons of the chiropractic career. I think we really tackled the, the first one, which is launch.

Can you state the next three and then we'll, we'll dive into it.

Stephen Franson, DC: Absolutely.

Dr. Kevin Christie: So we created this

Stephen Franson, DC: construct called the four seasons of the chiropractic career to really organize conversations like this. Right. Um, And as well as our content and all of our programs and all of our clients, our coaches, our experts, et cetera, everybody gets organized into these four seasons, right?

So the first season is launch, which is your first year in business, not your first year in practice, your first year in business. Then there's build, which is you're an established [00:30:00] practitioner, but you are a solopreneur, right? So you are the. Solo practitioner, your sole practitioner, you are the one that owns the practice, but you are the one that's head down, bum up, taking care of all the patients, right?

So scale is when you take that job that you love and turn it into the business you've always wanted, right? By adding multiple practitioners, that's either done through partnerships or typically more typically through associate doctors, right? So, and it also includes if you're an enterprise, in other words, multiple brick and mortars, right?

So that's in scale. And then finally, the fourth is exit. So when you're going to scale, when you go from build to scale, this is when you take the job and turn it into the business, right? So, and a business is scalable, durable, and transferable, right? Scalable means you can do more, give more, love more, serve more, make a bigger impact, make a bigger income, but everything doesn't have to be done by you, right?

You learn how to leverage, right? Leverage other people, team members, systems, technology, communications. Durability is the next level. Okay. So everybody does some level of scalability. Durability is what's rare, which [00:31:00] is where you can give more, love more, serve more, make a bigger impact, make a bigger income, even in your absence.

Which is what you just described as people trying to get their time freedom back. So as people mature in practice, they, they're like, man, I got to get, I got to get some of this off my desk. I got to share these responsibilities. I got to free up my time. It'd be nice to be home for dinnertime, bath time, bedtime, right?

I'd like to get my weekends back, maybe go on vacation, right? Like without having to shut the place down. Right. So you want an expensive vacation. Shut the practice down while you're gone, right? That's the best way to pay for your vacation twice, right? So that's durability, right? So that's what we call the remarkable standard of a remarkable business durability.

And then there's the third piece, which is transferability, which is transferable value, where a sophisticated buyer could come in and find your business very attractive because it has transferable value because that four season exit, this is just a black eye in chiropractic, right? So, because most people try to go from build to exit, right?[00:32:00]

And build does not exit well because nobody wants to buy your job. Right. They want to buy a business. So launch, build, scale, and exit. Like I said, we organize all of our content programs, our coaches, our experts, all of our clients are in those four seasons. And our job is to optimize the season you're in and help you navigate gracefully and profitably into the next season.

Dr. Kevin Christie: Yeah, I love that. And then what would you say is the biggest or a couple of the biggest sticking points for the chiropractor getting from the build to scale? So I want to focus on that for the rest of the time we have. Like, how do we, what are some of the things you're seeing that kind of ceiling of complexity of getting from the build to the scale?

It's

Stephen Franson, DC: such a great question because I love what Dr Pete says, my, my partner in the remarkable CEO podcast, he always says we live and die in our transitions. We live or die in the transitions. Right? So, you know, what we teach the way we coach our clients is launch to build, build to scale and scale to exit.

Right? So recognizing there's an [00:33:00] arc and you want to be looking ahead, right? So you understand the concept of begin with the end in mind, right? So beginning, Stephen Covey taught it best. Begin with the end in mind, have a very clear picture of what success looks like to you and begin with that vision in mind, right?

Because this Kevin, ultimately this whole thing, launch to build, build to scale, scale to exit. This is all an oak tree conversation, right? So, you know, when's the best time to plant an oak tree. 50 years ago, right? When's the next best time to plant an oak tree? Today, right? Start today, right? So this conversation we're having now is how do I build with an eye on scaling and how do I scale with an eye on exiting, right?

So that's the oak tree conversation because it's, you know, compounding benefit. You know, it's going to be really hard if you wake up one day and be like, I think I want to sell my practice this year. I can tell you what, that's going to be a lot of pain. There's going to be a lot of pain, very disappointment, very disappointing.

It's a cold shower, right? So you have literally got to be so [00:34:00] intentional about building a business that would be attractive, dare I say, irresistible to your ideal buyer so that you create a horse race where you have ideal buyers that are competing with one another to buy your business. Right? So 82 percent of practices will never sell.

They'll, they'll shutter. Think about that. 82 percent of practices will shutter. They won't even sell. Okay. So not even a fire sale. Look close. Okay. That to me is tragic. Right. So here's what we know to be true. Traditionally, we see about a thousand practices a year in the U. S. transition. In other words, doctors go into exit.

Well, because of the confluence of three factors, number one, the post COVID hangover, number two, the aging baby boomer population, which is like the pig in the python of an aging populace moving along a timeline, they're aging out of the profession, and number three, This let's call it pending economic uncertainty as people a bit [00:35:00] jumpy.

Right. So what we're seeing is over two X increase in those doctors that are transitioning. So 2000 a year in us only, which means in the next five years, we're going to see 10, 000 chiropractors transitioning out. And if 82 percent of those never sell and they just shutter, we're 000 chiropractors. And that would be tragic, right?

So this is why I'm very passionate about this.

Dr. Kevin Christie: Yep.

Stephen Franson, DC: So this whole conversation about building it to sell it is not only a one day happiness thing. Right? So we're like one day, you'll be really happy that you did this. Thanks France. And thanks for that. Right? I'm so glad that I listened to you five years ago, 15 years ago, whatever it is.

And I built this thing to sell it. It's not just a one day happiness thing. The day you sell, it'll be a Monday happiness thing because whether you're in build or you're in scale, if you interfere in launch, launch to build, build to scale, scale to exit, it's You'll never regret building a business to sell it.

It's a great operational construct. Those businesses are more [00:36:00] productive. They're more profitable. They're more fulfilling. They're more fun. Right? So I love this concept of begin with that end in mind. Go through this build to scale, scale to exit

Dr. Kevin Christie: process intentionally. I love that. And it's just a good framework and it, and it is definitely the path you have to get on and you gotta get on it sooner than later.

And you were, uh, kind enough, you and your team to, to give our audience a, a gift. Can you tell us a little bit about that? We'll put it in the show notes also. Um, tell us the, the podcast that you and your co-host have. I'd love to hear that for our audience as

Stephen Franson, DC: well. 100%. So Dr. P Kimmel, if you like this conversation, you're going to love our remarkable CEO podcast, right?

So it's the remarkable CEO podcast for chiropractors. Um, I co host that with Dr. P Camilo. So it's, we're about five years in now, almost five years of posting every Tuesday. So there's so much content there. Like I said, if you'd like today's conversation, you're going to love that. Um, and we unpack what I'm about to give you guys more in more detail.

So this will be a quick high level description. [00:37:00] So the, what I'm going to give you guys is something called the practice value drivers cheat sheet. Okay. So the value drivers cheat sheet, which is a way for you to identify, like, what are the things I could do to my practice today, starting now that would make my business more attractive in the future to my ideal buyer, right?

So selling a business is just like selling a house. In fact, I think it's in 18 states in the country to be a business broker, you actually have to be a realtor, licensed realtor, because there's so many, um, similarities and there's very often real estate involved, right? So if anybody's ever sold a house, you know what I'm about to say, when you go to sell a house, there's two checklists for you.

One checklist is these are the things you have to do. To sell a house step 6. All right, there's a sequence of things that you have to do to sell a house legally, right? There's also a second checklist. And the second checklist are these are the things that you could do to make the house more [00:38:00] attractive to your ideal buyer.

In other words, these are the things that you should do, right? So, and there's a list of things you should do. Hey, you got to fix that roof. Hey, you got to fix that jacked up master bedroom, right? So that, uh, the tiles in the shower and the master bedroom, they got to go. The shag rug in the basement has got to go fix those cracked steps in front of the house.

Fix that mailbox, do some landscaping. Curb appeal. We all know the story, right? So it's like, fix your house up before you go to sell it, right? Mm-Hmm, . So it's gonna in, it's gonna make your house more attractive to your ideal buyer, which does a few things. Number one, it increases the chances of that house ever selling.

Number two, if you attract your ideal buyer, nevermind multiple ideal buyers, you start a horse race and that causes the price to go up, compresses the time and reduces the stress. Same thing when you go to sell your business. There's two lists. There's a roadmap of things that you have to do to sell the business.

And then there's the list of things that you could do to make your business more attractive to your ideal buyer. In other words, these are the things that [00:39:00] you should do, right? So if you make your business more attractive to your ideal buyer now, you are gonna attract multiple ideal buyers Who are going to be competing to buy your business which drives the price up compresses the time reduces the stress So this cheat sheet I'm like a contractor buddy.

Who's also a realtor that flips houses showing up at your house before you get it appraised and be like, Kev, you got to do this. You got to change this, do this, right? That's what this is. It's a cheat sheet of the, my 20 favorite things that you could do to your business that would really drive the value of the business by making your business irresistible to your ideal buyer.

Uh, so we're going to give away that checklist. Uh, it's just a great starting point for these docs.

Dr. Kevin Christie: I love it. That is, that is great. And I really appreciate your time today. This was a very valuable, we went down a, a path I wasn't expecting, but I think it was necessary and our audience needed to hear some of that.

And, uh, uh, we'll probably have to dive into it some more. So I really appreciate it for your, your time and your wisdom today.

Stephen Franson, DC: That's awesome, man. It's my purpose [00:40:00] and pleasure to be here. Uh, and if you guys, I don't know how, um, you exchange information, but if you have show notes where people can ask questions or make comments, uh, if they reach out and be like, Hey man, have Francine back, cause I really like to hear him unpack that revenue per full time employee equivalent.

How do you calculate full time employee equivalent? Right? Like I said, you can check us out on our podcast, or I'm very happy to come back and do a deeper dive on any part of what we talked about today. Sounds great.