EPISODE 394: Building Gait Happens

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 on Dr. Kevin Christy. Dr. Courtney Conley. She is from Gay Tappans. You might have come across that Instagram profile that is, uh, blown up over the years and the hard work that she's put into that has paid off.

. Uh, we talk about, uh, what it's been like since she was on the Peter Ortea podcast and what that's done for her practice and positioning as well. And what it took to get there. Um, you know, she specializes in the foot and ankle, only sees patients in the foot and ankle, but if you're a chiropractor and you know, the foot and ankle, uh, doesn't interest you.

You can take a lot of what we talk about today and apply it to other aspects of building your practice. Cause not only has she built a great practice, she's obviously built a great online following. And then now is a industry transformer and you know, maybe that's not in the cards for you. But if you do what we talk about today and some of the things that she's learned [00:01:00] over the last 25 years, it'll be amazing how you position yourself in the community.

And that's what we talk a lot about. We talk about her story, how she was able to position the community, build a practice of her dreams. And then ultimately it has progressed from there. And so there's a lot of. We even dive into a couple of sidebar topics like, you know, mastery, what it's like to try to get there.

Uh, we also, uh, talk about the MPI Gates seminar coming up that she's going to be presenting it with Dr. Thomas show, Brett Winchester and Mark King, which is gonna be exciting. What quite a lineup. I just highly recommend you go to that. I've gone to the Gates seminar in the past and, uh, I highly recommend it.

And it's going to, it's going to be exciting. Be even better this year, uh, with Dr. Conley's efforts. And so, you know, I just, it's cool to bring on doctors that are clinical doctors. Like, you know, the, the heart of who they are is a clinical doctor, but then [00:02:00] has used content marketing to, to really separate themselves.

And I know a lot of you. you know, maybe think of marketing. If you're listening to this show, maybe you've kind of passed that. But a lot of chiropractors, when they think of marketing, they think it's not for them or they shouldn't have to do that. Uh, but it's great when you see really good ethical chiropractors who've done it tastefully, uh, build a practice in a, in a professional career that is bigger than they could have imagined.

And Dr. Conley has achieved that. So without further ado, here is my interview with Dr. Courtney Conley.

All right, Dr. Conley, I really appreciate your time on the podcast today. Before we dive into certain things like positioning yourself as an expert in a community, uh, building gate happens and, and all things foot and ankle. Tell us a little bit about your story and how you got to where you are now.

Courtney Conley, DC: Yeah.

Thank you so much for having me. It's very exciting to speak to our colleagues. Um, I, Have [00:03:00] always, been interested in the foot and ankle ever since I think I was very young. I was a ballet dancer. Um, I spent a lot of time in pointe shoes, um, which never were comfortable for me. I would always look at all these other dancers and.

Like, how do they do this? It just, I just never liked it. And I developed bunions at a very young age. Um, so I just always kind of struggled with foot issues. Um, as I went through school, I knew I wanted to do something that, you know, with activity, with movement, that was always very important to me. And my father was a very big chiropractic fan.

And so we would have long discussions about. Chiropractic and he kind of guided me in that direction. So I went to national, um, and I was lucky enough to study under Dr. Sean Allen. So, he was 1 of the instructors there who really had a [00:04:00] very good handle on foot and gate mechanics. The only thing that was disappointing to me was that we didn't have.

Enough of it. We only had about I want to say maybe a half a semester and at the time it was You know, we'd learn how to manipulate the foot, but there wasn't a lot of functional strength. There wasn't a lot of education on what the foot actually is doing and how important that is for the rest of the kinetic chain.

Um, you know, it was orthotic heavy and that's kind of what I knew when I got out of school. And so When I graduated in 2003, um, I was, I already was starting to, you know, gravitate towards the foot and ankle and, but what we were doing is casting a lot of orthotics. That's what we knew. And. I was, I had a lot, a lot of pairs of orthotics.

I transitioned from being a ballet [00:05:00] dancer to a triathlete. So now I was running and swimming and biking a lot. And my feet, I was always struggling, like grinding orthotics here and sending them back and trying to keep tweaking things and, you know, long story short, I ended up moving to Colorado. Um, and I worked in a couple of orthotic labs out here and.

We did some great work and I still work, you know, pretty closely with one of them and I think there's a time and a place, but what I was starting to realize was that we're treating the foot very differently than we treat the rest of the body. And then I started to self explore I've had, uh, the blessing of.

Being surrounded by some very, very smart people. Dr. Tommy showed being one of them. And I kind of went deep. I dove deep into human locomotion. I think I've read that book like 45 times. I talked to him last week. He's like, I'm pretty sure you could recite this book. I'm like, I think I can, [00:06:00] Tom. Um, so yeah, so I started exploring a lot of this and my feet started feeling better.

I started removing my orthotics. And here we are. It was kind of, it's been kind of a mission of mine to spread this word, because I think it's extremely important, especially with all the current research that we're seeing with the importance of foot health and foot strength.

Dr. Kevin Christie: Have you convinced ultra to build a, uh, pointing shoe for ballet dancers yet?

That's your next, uh, next venture, right?

 Obviously, you know, the, the ballet dancers foot and ankle is, is a problem. Right. And I think that's where you probably had a lot of interest. And like, for me, I was a baseball player, pitcher shoulder was my interest.

I got into the foot and ankle for sure. But sometimes I think people fall into that early on where it's like, what is a problem that you've had? And then you kind of try to figure out your own solutions that you're, is that [00:07:00] your MO sometimes? Trying to solve your own problems and then

Courtney Conley, DC: sure, it's like taking out the community, you know?

Dr. Kevin Christie: Yeah. Absolutely. And, um,

Courtney Conley, DC: Wild thing to think about because, you know, you'd think that now I specialize in foot and ankle. That's all I do. Yep. And I'm always very honest with my audience in that I have bunions. I have had neuromas. I've had all of these things. Um, and so I think it's relatable.

Dr. Kevin Christie: Yeah. Yeah.

You know, it's like, for instance, uh, as a, as a chiropractor treated disc issues all the time until I had my own disc injury six years ago, I couldn't fully relate until I had it. And then like, you have this level of empathy, uh, with your patient now. And it's the same thing probably with you with the, with the foot and ankle.

And then you obviously have been able to, um, take your own self and do better. And so it gives you, uh, that credibility to, to help others with it.

Courtney Conley, DC: Yes. Every [00:08:00] time I kind of struggle with, if I have a foot and ankle injury. Um, I'm always, I have to take a step back and view it as a blessing because I am reminded of how difficult it is to stay active when every step that you take hurts.

And it really can introduce a cycle of chronic pain and lack of movement and, you know, the sequel of depression and anxiety. So I really, um, take my work seriously in that it's not just a, a physical wellbeing. When you pay attention to the stuff, it's emotional, mental and emotional.

Dr. Kevin Christie: Yeah. And a lot of times I try to try to take nuggets out of an interview and relate it for other chiropractors.

And I think one of the things I'm seeing from a lot of younger DCs, and I'm sure it was the same way when we were coming up, uh, but It takes a certain amount of effort and time and commitment to develop mastery and something, right? Uh, and I think in, in a lot of the younger DCs, they're getting exposed to so many [00:09:00] cool techniques and treating everybody part in the world and, and all the things.

And they're having a hard time developing a layer of mastery. And just to give our audience a little bit of context, when do you feel like And I know it's, uh, you're probably going to say, uh, you know, I'm still trying to find mastery, but when did you feel like you really started to get a grasp of the foot and ankle to where you felt very confident with most of the things coming in?

And I know that we're always trying to get better, but when, how long did it honestly take you so that our audience can say, okay, yeah, like I'm two years out of school. I probably got a little bit more ahead of me to get to that level of mastery and whatever it is within chiropractic.

Courtney Conley, DC: Yes, I mean, of course, I have to preface this with saying, um, just when you think, you know, what you're doing.

Yes. Get 1 of those cases where you're like, okay, I'm going home and, you know, reading and research and but I think that keeps us humble as a clinician [00:10:00] and which is 1 of the pieces that I love about it because you're always just, you know, you should never be bored. Because there is no protocol looking at each person rather than a diagnosis, I think is extremely important.

But, you know, I kind of live, eat and breathe this work and I've been doing it for a very long time. It's probably been about 25 years. Um, it's interesting now that I have other chiropractors, um, under me in my office.

Dr. Kevin Christie: Um,

Courtney Conley, DC: and I see their, you know, their eagerness to learn, but , it can be a very, you know, a part of the body that people tend to shy away from just because the complexity of the foot and ankle.

you know, when did I feel like I mastered it? Gosh, that is, I feel like I still have so much. Yeah. Well, obviously the

Dr. Kevin Christie: way you answered the question right at the gates is, is a level of mastery because you know, when you don't know something, and I think [00:11:00] early on, we, we think we know everything. And so it's a, a good sign of mastery is when you realize you don't know something.

Courtney Conley, DC: Yes. Yes.

Dr. Kevin Christie: But yeah, I think it is ultimately, uh, chiropractors have to realize that it's going to take some time and, and don't feel discouraged if you're not getting it right away and, and, and keep at it obviously. And, uh, you know, you mentioned your practice and you got some docs working for you now. Just give us a little bit of a, you know, 30 foot, 30, 000 foot overview of what your practice looks like, where it's located and, and just kind of what that's, uh, uh, looking like these days.

Courtney Conley, DC: Yeah, I've had the, um, opportunity to open up different practices. So I was first in Chicago when I graduated, I worked as a, an associate for three years, which I'm very grateful. I think that I did because, you know, I worked with other doctors. I wasn't by myself. I was kind of guided. I could see what I liked, what I didn't like.

Then I was opened up just to myself in downtown Chicago, and I was starting to get busy about [00:12:00] two years in and. I didn't wanna be in Chicago anymore. And it was kind of a decision, it was very tough decision because, you know, the work that it takes to build a practice and the marketing that it takes.

Mm-Hmm. . Um, so I knew that I either had to, to leave then or I was gonna be in Chicago. Um, so I moved out to Colorado and this would be, the practice I have now is the third location that I have opened, um, just over the years. At 1 point, I had 3 office locations and I'm now down to 1, it was very tempting for me to, I'm going to have 3 office locations and I'm so grateful now that we have funneled that into 1.

I think it's more controllable. I'm not like bouncing around. Um, so currently we have an office in Lakewood, Colorado. I have, um, three chiropractors, um, myself and my business [00:13:00] partner. We have a physical therapist that works there. We have a massage therapist and we built out a big gym. So it's one of those places where you have the offices up front and you open up the garage door and then there's the gym in the back.

That was kind of my passion. I love movement. I love strength. So it was a very good, it worked very well for what we were trying to do.

Dr. Kevin Christie: Yeah, that's, that's awesome. And then when you got to Colorado and let's take the chiropractor that says, you know what? I want to, I want to definitely develop a following in the community around the, around the foot and ankle, whether they go all in and that's all they treat like you, or if it just wants to be a big, big part of that.

Uh, obviously the table stakes is to get good at foot and ankle under understanding the assessments and the treatments and all that. So let's say they're, they're on their way to there. They're doing good with that. Uh, what are some of the things like, should they be meeting with? podiatrists, uh, should they be meeting with, um, you know, gym trainers?

Like what, what would [00:14:00] you start to say to help that chiropractor? Let's put aside digital marketing for right now, but just in the community, what would you recommend they do to start building that expertise and that positioning?

Courtney Conley, DC: Yeah, I actually read a lecture on finding your niche and I think it's important because I think when we first come out of school, we're just grabbing me like we'll take any we just want to fill our offices.

And so you when you think about, well, if I just niche down and do the foot and ankle am I closing my doors to all the other potential and there's certainly two ways to look at that. If you do decide that, you know, You have a specific area that you love that you want to treat. I'm all for that because that's when you're, I love treating the foot and ankle.

It's all I want to do. So when you're passionate about that, it makes all of the, um, marketing, if you will, easy because it's enjoyable.

Dr. Kevin Christie: Yep.

Courtney Conley, DC: spent a lot of time kind of in my niche with like running and I would keep it [00:15:00] very specific. Do this marketing event and I'm going to do this and then it becomes overwhelming. And frankly, I didn't enjoy running around like that. I wanted to be around the people that I could talk the talk with.

Dr. Kevin Christie: Yeah, and how did you cut through the clutter of, um, you know, everybody else and or the fact that how do we get them to think of me, the chiropractor as the foot and ankle specialist?

How did you do that? Is it, was it a lot of working on people, demoing people, talking to them, having particular injury? Maybe prevention talks around that.

Courtney Conley, DC: Um, yes, I would do little talks at these running shoe stores, but I think the other thing, and you know, it's kind of a joke amongst my friends now, but you know, at every party I'm ever at, I'm always on the floor, like looking at people's feet. I'm, I'm in it. Like I talk about it. I, you know, I, I literally do.

live, eat and breathe this stuff. So they're, they're easy conversations to [00:16:00] have. And I think, um, and I'm happy to say, I still get very excited about talking about it 25 years later. And if I don't, if I'm not excited about it, I think it'll be time for me to call it.

Dr. Kevin Christie: Yeah, no, that's good. And then, um, your other DCs that are in your practice, are they only doing foot and ankle or are they doing other stuff?

Courtney Conley, DC: Yeah. So my business partner does other things. So she specializes in ERT. Um, she kind of has her own, she loves shoulders, which is good. Um, the other two practitioners, when they came on, they were both fresh out of school. So younger. Um, and They were kind of just trying to figure out what they wanted to do.

Um, but of recently, I see all of my overflow. So they are starting to become more foot in gates and ankle kind of specialists as well. One of the [00:17:00] chiropractors who works for me in my brick and mortar and liquid also works for me for my online company gate happens. So there's a, Kind of a carry over there, which makes it very beneficial for me, um, because I usually will do the initial consults and e mails and then.

Those two will do treatments and follow ups, and I'll do re examinations. So we have a nice little flow going there.

Dr. Kevin Christie: Yeah, and I suspect that overflow of patients was because of the podcast with Dr. Peter Atiyah, is that correct?

Courtney Conley, DC: Yes, it was, um, just to put this in perspective for you. Um, foot and ankle I think is a You know, there's not a lot of people that treat an ankle.

Um, there just really isn't it's my mission to change that of course. Um, but so we were busy before the podcast and I knew going on the podcast that. I was actually just thinking that we were going to get a couple more followers on [00:18:00] Instagram, and it was just going to be a good, you know, marketing tool.

And I was grateful to have the platform to share my message. The day after the podcast, we use a, online scheduler. You can see the wait list.

Dr. Kevin Christie: The

Courtney Conley, DC: next day, there were over a hundred people on that wait list. It was. It's absolute insanity and it's still that way now. So that podcast was in April. It's now September.

So it has been a wild, wild ride and it's even more, um, I'm even on a mission more now because I'm seeing all these people that are in need. That have had multiple surgeries that, you know, I think could have been prevented. Like, there really is a massive need for this work. So, you know, [00:19:00] it's just, um, they're good problems to have

Dr. Kevin Christie: Yeah. And you did a great job on an episode. I remember listening to it. I listened to most of his and, uh, you represented, uh, the foot and ankle very well, the profession very well yourself. And it's an interesting podcast because I know a lot of people are probably, uh, doctors of some sort that is his audience, but he also obviously has a lay person audience as well.

And it, I thought the episode did a great job of, uh, speaking to, you know, Medical and DC's like me and, uh, and then the regular person. And so that was cool to, to see that, uh, see that happen. And, uh, to, to, you know, it's, it's kind of a culmination of a lot of work you put in.

Courtney Conley, DC: Oh, I mean, when I, when he asked me to be on that podcast, um, I, I was like, okay, like, and that's exactly what my, um, my initial thought was, is that I'm going to be representing not only myself, but also our community.

And [00:20:00] I. Put a lot of pressure on myself, as I usually do things, but I really wanted to represent, um, us very well. And so I, when I tell you, I prepared for that thing, I mean, I was in it or many, many, like, I wanted to know my research. I went back and I read and I talked to Tom and there were a lot of hours, but I enjoyed doing it because again.

It's just helped me also have better discussions with patients and how to communicate. So it was a really great experience.

Dr. Kevin Christie: Yeah, that's great. And would you say that, uh, you know, your process over the years of, uh, building gate happens on say Instagram and that type of stuff, did that kind of lead to that opportunity?

Was that how he, how he found you?

Courtney Conley, DC: It was, um, His trainer, um, had found us on Instagram and then I started working with her and [00:21:00] then she introduced me to him. Um, and she has, you know, been instrumental kind of in that relationship and that's why I'm going to go back to that relationship thing. It's so important is building relationships with people and I think the.

You know, the beauty of social media is that you can, it has made our world very small. Um, and we have access now to meeting so many people and really spreading your message. Um, it is a lot of work.

Dr. Kevin Christie: Started.

Courtney Conley, DC: Um, I started in my Instagram account in 2000 and I think it was 16, maybe 17. And at the time it wasn't gate happens.

It was just Dr. Courtney Connelly. And a friend of mine had said, you really like this foot and ankle stuff. You should. And she was already kind of deep in the Instagram world. And she said, you should, um, [00:22:00] start posting about the foot and ankle. And I said, okay, well, when she's like every day. And I was like, are you serious?

So at the time in my practice, I was five days a week, nine to five. Just slammed and then I would come home and I would start to do these Instagram posts that I was terrible at and it would take me 2 hours to like, type it up and figure out the pictures. And I mean, I look back on it. I'm like, I can't believe I mean, again, hours

Dr. Kevin Christie: of time,

Courtney Conley, DC: but, um.

I was never really, you know, the things that I would post were always things I found exciting, always like patient cases or cool things I was seeing in my office. And I think that, you know, and I, I enjoyed it. And I think that that also kind of came across, but the consistency and I think the love for what I did.

Is what [00:23:00] really grew that and now it's its own animal.

Dr. Kevin Christie: Yeah, 250, 000 followers and i'm sure it's uh, It's been great and fun to do that And it's one of the things another nugget that I like to Kind of tease out of this with you know A lot of evidence based chiropractors when they hear the word marketing or they think of promotion or marketing They get a little bit queasy and I and I try to you know, dispel that myth and I Bring on a lot of people here that are clinicians first.

And that happened to also do a pretty good job. Sometimes it's like invisible marketing. You don't really look at them as like they're marketing. It's just a form of content marketing that they've done consistently and really have positioned themselves as an expert through that. It's not, you know, 27 You know, come in, get x ray ads and all that type of stuff.

It's, it's actual just educational content and nobody should be above that as, as chiropractors. And if you do it consistently, uh, you're going to benefit from it. Right. I [00:24:00] think, you know, the vast majority of chiropractors are going to benefit in their community. And if. If you get lucky enough and it goes past that and you like, like the opportunities you've had great, but I wouldn't don't assume that's going to happen for you.

But obviously your end goal should just to be positioning yourself as an expert, uh, in your, in your community. And I, and that's what's done. And then sometimes it transcends that, right. And it's even better, but for some people, I think a great scenario, it's kind of like, uh, the analogy I give sometimes is where a kid's rate, you know, parents are raising their kids and.

She happens to be a really good athlete, and then you just expect they're going to be a professional athlete. The chances of becoming a professional athlete are just so low. But if you get college paid for it, that'd be pretty cool, right? And that's what you should be like, that'd be really awesome. And it's the same way.

It's like, if you position yourself so good, In your community and something through content marketing, you may not become an international person, but what could happen is you actually will spread [00:25:00] outside of your town and you'll get people driving 40 minutes and 45 minutes and 30 minutes instead of you hear a lot of chiropractors radius of patients is like within a three to five mile radius of your practice.

And that's fine. But if you can get that, like people are coming from two towns over three towns, over, you're going to build a remarkable practice. And I think that's some of the things you can do with, um, with good marketing.

Courtney Conley, DC: Yeah. I mean, I also think if you're going to do something like marketing, enjoy what you're doing.

You know, I'm, I love creating content. That was always, um, you know, what I've always had a passion for. So if I was going to do it, I better be enjoying it because if I'm not, people feel it. Yeah. They can feel if you're doing something because you have to versus doing something because you want to, then it doesn't have to be this.

Oh, I have to go to this marketing thing. You're like, oh, I want to go to this running shoe store because I want to see the next you that [00:26:00] they're putting out. So, I think that's important to, you know, enjoy what it is that you're doing.

Dr. Kevin Christie: Um, I agree. And then on the clinical side, you know, obviously with the foot and ankle, there's going to be, uh, if you were to talk to a chiropractor that's interested in becoming foot and ankle, uh, I know there's the assessment of it.

There's the, the gate of it, the palpation, uh, there's the treatment. What are, you know, if you had to give, you don't have to go in the weeds of it, but, um, Where would you want them to get really good at? What aspects of the assessment, what does that look like, uh, in say your clinic, what about how patients and treatments and, and rehab, like what are some of the, uh, continuum there?

Courtney Conley, DC: You know, my mentor, Dr. Sean Allen used to tell me, especially at the foot and ankle, you have to know your anatomy.

Dr. Kevin Christie: No,

Courtney Conley, DC: because there's a lot going on there. So, in our, uh, functional gait assessment course, the level 1, [00:27:00] um, the 1st part of it is reviewing anatomy. There's 4 layers of intrinsic muscles, you know, we should be able to know what those muscles are and what their function is, especially if we're going to be treating the foot and ankle, like, we would the rest of the body, which is.

Does something need strengthened? And if so, how am I going to do it? So with a good foundation of that, then we can start to build. I think gate assessment can be very daunting because you're just like, there's so much to look at. Um, and I think, you know, surrounding yourself with people that can help guide you is extremely important because we've been doing this for very long periods of time.

So we've been able to break it down and say, okay, this is how we're going to simplify this for you. So, yeah, that would be my suggestion there.

Dr. Kevin Christie: Yeah, no, that makes a lot of sense. And I think, um. It is complicated, like you [00:28:00] said, and if you're, if your education is just what the school curriculum was, you're not going to get a whole lot of that.

And you got to go outside of that, which is cool. So you mentioned a particular course that you teach, uh, what was the name of that again?

Courtney Conley, DC: Yeah. So we have a functional gait assessment level one, which is our assessment course. So it's a two day. Uh, 16 hour CE certified course. So the 1st day is all gate assessment.

And then, you know, Dr Winchester always says this and I always steal it because I love it. Gate assessment takes you to the seat, right? Or to the stadium. I think it was to the state. Um, and then our day 2. We say day 2 is taking you to the seat, right? Because gait assessment, you're just, you know, you're looking at things, you're paying attention.

What do I need to further assess? Then you can go joint by joint. And that's what we do on day 2. So, um, it does [00:29:00] get a little technical as far as, you know, things in the foot, which is why we go through the anatomy part and on day 1. so, and then the level 2 course, which is the 1, I wrote last year is the treatment course.

Gotcha that is same thing 16 hours, but that's all treatment. So we want people to get very good at assessing. You can't treat if you don't know what you're looking for. So assessment. Get good. And then the treatment, which is the fun stuff, I think. Yeah.

Dr. Kevin Christie: And with the treatment, um, is it, you know, obviously maybe some recommendations, uh, some muscle manual therapy work, maybe some manipulation rehab.

Is there anything I'm missing on, on the treatment side that you guys offer?

Courtney Conley, DC: The first day we do kind of, I designed it. So we're looking at, um, treating the deficit first. So we're looking at breathing patterns and proximal stability, ranges of motion, strength, capacity. Um, [00:30:00] you know, I think people forget how, what a powerhouse the foot and ankle is.

Um, and I always repeat this statistic cause it's fun. We at a baseline, a standing single leg calf raise, we should be able to hold half of our body weight and do that six times. Okay. If you were seated and did a single leg calf raise, that's one and a half times your body weight. So that's like a baseline for return to run, which I have never seen when, whether I'm treating an NFL player or I'm treating, you know, a high school athlete, nobody really comes close to that.

So it's a very big opportunity for us. Um, and then in the afternoon we look at things like, um, motor control patterns, functional movements, making movement functional, um, plyometrics. You know, not forgetting that we actually have to train the spring, the foot. So, and then we do a bunch of case studies and everybody has a good time.

Dr. Kevin Christie: Nice, nice. And you mentioned earlier the book, uh, human locomotion. I, I walked past my associate Gage's desk and he had [00:31:00] that up because He'll be at the MPI gate seminar. We're sending him, him there. And you're going to be there with Brett Winchester and Mark King and Tom Michaud, and, uh, that's gonna be exciting.

That's on what? November 16th and 17th in, um, Troy, Missouri at Brett's place. Uh, have you been there before?

Courtney Conley, DC: Yes, I have. I'm very, very excited. This is just a. Quick story. Um, I had got human, I had bought human locomotion when I was in Cairo school, um, decades ago. And I had just, I've had an obsession with that book.

And the first, when I first started doing this, I wrote my first course and I was teaching in New York city. And one of the attendees had worked with Tom or had worked down the street from Tom. And after the course, she had gone to. See him and she gave him some very good feedback about the course So [00:32:00] fast forward like a week and i'm working with a patient in my office And you know how when you get an email it like come across the top of your computer.

Yes And it said, um, Tommy showed, like, from Tommy showed and I was like, I'd like to use myself and I leave and I'm reading the email and he's like, um, I just wanted you to know that. 1 of your attendees contacted me, and I just wanted to say congratulations on your course. I heard it was wonderful and. I mean, to this day, it was like the president emailed me.

I was like, cause your biggest mentor, your, I was his biggest fan and to have it come full circle that now I'm going to be teaching next to him. And also Brett is just an honor and I'm just so blessed and it's just a really wild, fun ride.

Dr. Kevin Christie: Yeah, it is. It's cool when they come full circle, I've had a couple of those.

In my career, and, um, I've attended the gate in the [00:33:00] past. I've, I usually send any of my associates to it. It's cool to see you added to the lineup. It's going to be, uh, pretty impressive to do that. What are a couple of things that you're going to be instructing on while you're there?

Courtney Conley, DC: You know, we're still discussing the, uh, lineup there.

I'm hoping to, um, you know, obviously do some gate assessment. Um, I also have a little section on tendons that I would love to talk about. I see a lot of post tip tendonitis Achilles tendonitis. Um, and I think there's a lot of information there that we, as chiropractors can do to benefit that.

Dr. Kevin Christie: Well, that'd be great.

And, uh, I highly recommend people attend that MPI gait course. And then obviously if they want to check out more with what you're doing, where can they, where can our chiropractors find out more what you're doing and try to keep at this, um, mastery journey, right?

Courtney Conley, DC: Yes. Yes. Um, gait happens. com. Um, on that [00:34:00] website, we have a section for practitioners, um, and we A bunch of educational courses, we have online courses, we have live courses all the way from gate assessment to, um, you know, foot strength, things like that.

The other thing that we have that I've really enjoyed doing is, um, we have a gate guru membership and we. I started that because I wanted to interview all the power players in our field. So we've been doing that for about three years. We've had Brett on there. We've had Tom on there. I've had the top researchers, um, around the world, giving us clinical expertise on how to treat the foot and ankle.

Um, and then every month we do case studies. So we have a live zoom call. Everybody can bring their, you know, questions and comments. I will prepare some case studies and, and I think also the [00:35:00] community that is built because we have a bunch of chiropractors, um, in that member. Ship and we're always like, help me with this or let me, you know, so it's a place to learn from one another.

So yes, that is, um, a bunch of, you know, great resources for everyone.

Dr. Kevin Christie: Well, perfect. I'll make sure they get there. We'll put that in the show notes as well. And doc, this has been a true pleasure. Um, I wish I was making it to the gate seminar, but I already have a previous, uh, engagement to be at, but, uh, I'll make sure that my associate gauge comes and says hello and, and, and just make sure he learns a few things.

Okay.

Courtney Conley, DC: Yeah. Thank you so much for having me. I really appreciate it.