EPISODE 400: Fluid vs Crystallized Intelligence

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Dr. Kevin Christie: Welcome to another episode of Modern Chiropractic Mastery. This is your host, Dr. Kevin Christie. And today I am bringing you a solo episode, and we're going to talk about the difference between fluid intelligence and crystallized intelligence and what that means for your chiropractic career. And, uh, this actually comes from the book that I highly recommend.

I read this maybe a year or so ago, and that is, uh, Uh, from strength to strength by Arthur Brooks. And it's a phenomenal book. Um, you know, I think at any stage of life when you can read it, but me, I read it, I'm 44. Now I was 43 when I read it and it talks about bridging that chasm from, uh, that first half of your life where you have, Uh, fluid intelligence into that second half of life when you have crystallized [00:01:00] intelligence.

And I'm going to kind of break that down for you a little bit and what that means, uh, ultimately for your, uh, chiropractic, uh, career. Okay. And so let's, um, let's dive right into that. And I've got a little bit of an article here I want to start out with is just going to read this a little bit. And this is from, um, University of Utah, uh, their health department and it, uh, first talks about, uh, and it kind of does a little breakdown of Arthur's book and it talks about overcoming the striver's curse.

And so I'm going to start there and, uh, read this real quick here in his conversations with members of the medical community, Brooks, here's a lot of concern about wellbeing, not just physical health. By definition, physicians and healthcare professionals are strivers. Brooks explained he defines a striver as someone who was identified as a high achiever early in their education or career.

The world we live in convinces drivers that as long as they work hard, play by the rules, [00:02:00] graduate from a top tier college, go to medical school or get a PhD, it's going to be okay. and have a successful career, then they will be happy. On the contrary, Brooks explained, strivers tend to be the most disappointed with their lives after the age of 80.

Researchers call this the striver's curse. Strivers expect themselves to live up to high standards of success year after year, but the inevitable disappointment hits and happiness levels plummet. In his research, Brooks studied a group of strivers who were happier when they were older. Why were they happier?

He discovered a pattern rooted in the theory of two intelligences in the lives of happier, older strivers. Know the curve you're on. Brooks discussed the different kind of intelligences that happen naturally at different periods of life. He explained fluid intelligence is what gives us working memory, unrelenting focus, and innovative capacity.

However, the fluid intelligence curve peaks around [00:03:00] age 30. Brooks went on to explain that crystallized intelligence, on the other hand, increases in our 30s and 40s and stays high into our 80s and 90s. This curve is based on what we know and have, and how we synthesize information to explain highly complex ideas, often referred to as wisdom.

Brooks says crystallized intelligence revolves around intelligence. Teaching capacity, mentoring, and managing others. Brooks discovered that happy older strivers willingly step from one curve to the next, from innovator to synthesizer. When we know which curve we're on, he explained, we can have the best years of our career, the most fun, greatest satisfaction, and highest levels of success.

If people are reading your resume at your funeral, You did it wrong, Brooke said. And so it kind of gives you an idea. And he gives some examples in his book where, you know, how come most of the rock and roll [00:04:00] musicians or even musicians in general come up with their most creative ideas in their twenties.

But then, you know, I think like the Rolling Stones and some of these other bands, they haven't come up with a new, good song in 50 years, if not longer, but they came up with so many early on. And why is that? And he talks about, he actually was like a classic. Uh, he was an orchestra. I forget what instrument he played, but he was at the highest level in Barcelona and all that.

But he started, um, knowingly that perfect particular profession starts to decline in their mid to late thirties. And they peak at their late twenties and early thirties. You think of like the tech entrepreneur and the founder, they're able to do stuff. But then as you move along, You don't necessarily see that, uh, later on in life, but what you do find is, uh, the tech entrepreneur becomes a board member and has a lot of wisdom and things of that nature.

You see a lot of, uh, people that are certain professions become leaders and managers and [00:05:00] executives, and it's a completely different type of intelligence. And if you ask anybody my age, it's like, if you asked me to do the things I did in my mid to late twenties, early thirties, even mid thirties to build my practice, I.

I'd vomit. I couldn't do that anymore. Um, but I feel like I can synthesize information a lot better than I did before. I wasn't just trying to create from scratch. And that's something that has helped me, um, kind of get an understanding of, of how my career arc has been. And as I, at age 44, try to bridge that chasm into that second part and utilize more of my crystallized intelligence.

Uh, to help chiropractors out, to help build our practice, to help mentor and things of that nature. And you got to think about that a little bit for you, for, uh, your career as well. Right. And it's, um, one of the things they talk about in this different article I was reading about this. Yeah. Was essentially like the blank [00:06:00] canvas versus the block of jade in that early part of your career as a chiropractor, you are a blank canvas and you're trying to build from there, whereas later on, you're more of a block of jade.

You're trying to carve that out. And they even, um, will reference that. Um, a little bit of a sidebar conversation, but Eastern versus Western philosophies in Western culture, it's kind of the blank canvas of keep on building, building, building, you know, adding, adding to that blank canvas consistently, um, you know, more houses, more cars, more things, more, uh, Uh, stuff, more fame, more notoriety.

It's just building and it's just, just massive accumulation of stuff. And that's how we deem, or at least, uh, you know, think of success. Whereas in Eastern culture, it's more of the block of Jade. And what can you remove from that to carve out the essence of yourself? Right. And that's what they consider success [00:07:00] is how, uh, Um, how exquisite can you make your life and how simple but effective in utilizing the wisdom that, you know, to get rid of all the fluff.

And that's fascinating. And I think we sometimes see that in our careers. And I even saw that in my own, right? When I look back, it's. You know, I remember in my thirties, I, I actually opened up my own practice at age 30 exactly before that I was obviously building my expertise and knowledge and then I opened my practice and then a year and a half later I opened up another practice in Miami.

Then we had corporate locations. We had six at one point. Uh, I was doing other things and, uh, you know, traveling for the NFL combine doing a bunch of stuff. It was like this accumulation of, uh, of, uh, business. And then, um, then added MCM and all that. And then I finally hit a point, I think it was probably late thirties, like 38, 30, I think it was 38 where I realized, you know what, it's like, I'm starting to synthesize what [00:08:00] my career is going to look like.

And it took, uh, that block of Jade that I had built up. Uh, by 38 and started carved that away and, you know, selling to Miami office and moving on from the corporate stuff because it was eating up more bandwidth than it was worth as far as profit margin. And it was profitable, but sometimes there's, um, there's profit and it's just not enough to where it makes sense.

And you've got that opportunity cost. You always have to measure in life. And so I kind of, you know, Chipped away and carved out, um, you know, just have the practice in Boca, but on the real estate and, um, and then obviously MCM is growing and I'm really putting a lot of focus on that. And so I feel like for myself, I am seeing what the vision is for me, crossing that chasm into the crystallized intelligence or that from one strength to the other strength, which is the name of that book from strength to strength.

And so that's kind of been my. Uh, guiding light here

and then, you know, you got to think to yourself, what does that look like, uh, for you as a [00:09:00] chiropractor? And I've, you know, I've got concerns for that. And you know, if you're, if you're not building your practice the right way, I talked to a lot of chiropractors of all different age groups. And I, I would say the one that always is the, the toughest or the ones that feel the struggle the most is when you get into that middle age.

Let's call it forties, but it could be late thirties, early fifties, you know, you get in that middle age and you don't feel like you're jumping from the one curve to the next. And that, um, that visualization I got from this book really made a lot of sense for me where a lot of chiropractors, um, don't feel like they're able to, to do that.

And that, cause that could look like, right. If you're a, see a really clear path of like, yeah, I'm going to be 53 and we're going to have a practice that's going to allow me to. You know, work three days a week, three and a half days a week. I've got an associate, I got a team around me. I'm a, I'm able to show up to work and provide leadership [00:10:00] and, and wisdom and be able to practice the way I want to.

And I've, I'm, I'm enthused to go to work. Profit margins are good. My life is looking good. Like that, like you've done all the things and now you're, you've put in the 20, 25, 30 years, and now. You're on that other curve. You're in that crystallized intelligence and utilizing those strengths. Um, and you're able to invest money instead of time into certain things.

You're able to delegate effectively because you've got a team that is a really a good place to be in. And I, I talked to a lot of chiropractors that aren't seeing that vision. They're not, and this is what I think is happening to you is you're, you didn't, without knowing it, you're. You're having a hard time seeing how you're going to jump from that first curve to the second curve in your career.

And you need some guidance in that. And that's where I get a little, you know, my concern for the seasoned veterans is they haven't done that. And an even worse than that, honestly, if you don't handle it now, because it's never too late, but if you don't address that [00:11:00] now, uh, I also talked to chiropractors that are 65 years old and don't have a practice that's sellable and they didn't do enough to get themselves for retirement.

And then they frankly, um, have to keep on working physically pretty hard, even though in their heart of hearts, they wouldn't really necessarily want to now some do. So there's definitely, there's definitely that, uh, there, I know a lot of awesome chiropractors that are in their sixties and even seventies that have jumped to that other curve that are still loving, treating patients.

They've got this wisdom they can project to their team and to their patients. Um, and so that's awesome. There were still got the energy and that's how, if you're, if you're If you ever see a 65, 70 year old still practicing with energy and loving going to work, it's because they did jump to that next curve and they did build a team and they did build a practice that they enjoy going to.

The ones that you don't is like, they never unfortunately made that, that jump.

 My concern for the younger DC, and I've kind of made that pretty clear over this last year, if [00:12:00] you've been listening is, um, you know, if you do not build the fundamentals correctly, you then end up down a path, uh, to where you do hit age 40 and you didn't get to where you wanted to, uh, for various reasons.

And, uh, my, my, there's a lot of concerns I have for the young DC. I know it's harder. I, I do believe there was a time where, uh, 20, 30 years ago, a higher percentage of chiropractors could do well just because it was a lot easier. Insurance paid well, low co pays, uh, you know, in that sense, the insurance situation was so good at a certain point, a high percentage of chiropractors, even average chiropractors could do very well financially and really good chiropractors were really good, were You know, personality chiropractors could make a killing.

And I know, so I know that's changed and I, and, uh, so now you're probably have a lower percentage of chiropractors that are, uh, doing great. Uh, if you're in network insurances, if you're not careful, [00:13:00] you're not building good systems around that. I know chiropractors that are in network with insurances that pay bad, but have built great systems and care around and doing, doing really well.

Um, and then there's a lot of chiropractors going cash. Uh, but to be a cash chiropractor, it's even a lower percentage of chiropractors are gonna make a good amount of money to where you're gonna pay yourself a professional living and build a team and, you know, ultimately build a practice that brings in 350, 400, 500, 700, 800, a million dollars a year.

Those practices, um, are few and far between in the evidence based cash practice world. And that's concerning, right? I, I talked to a lot of cash based chiropractic practices. And a lot of them are at 200, 000 a year revenue. And these are practices that have been going on for a while, five, six, seven years, four years, 250, 275.

And you just think about that number. If, if you're bringing in 250, 000 a year in revenue and you have overhead, like how much are [00:14:00] you able to actually pay yourself after overhead and taxes and, and all that, uh, it's, it's hard to let it alone. employ people, right? And so I'm concerned about that. I'm concerned about the amount of time young chiropractors think they need to spend with patients and they, and they get into this, um, vicious cycle and they never get out of it, but we got to get evidence based chiropractors.

We got to get practice owners getting to that 350, 000 minimum. Revenue in a, in a year and in working your way up to there to 400, 450, 500, uh, depending on scenarios and overhead scenarios. But, um, and then, you know, you'll hear on some hands like, Oh, well, I'm going to keep it really, really low overhead.

And I'm going to rent from a gym. And again, I rented from a gym. I love the idea, but you got to get a, you have to have a path out of the gym because I did the gym and there's, and I did the really low overhead. And when you're really low overhead, there's typically also a very low ceiling of revenue.[00:15:00]

That is associated with that. So it's got to be this climb and it's this, this topic here of like, you got to have a steady climb out and, and, and really innovate and be creative and get revenue coming so that by time you have to cross this chasm into the fluid and tell into the crystallized intelligence, you have the revenue and revenue coming.

Profit and resources to do that, to hire the team, because you may be 28 years old or 30 years old now and be able to spend 30 or 60 minutes doing rehab with a patient or, you know, also being the front desk person and also doing insurance and all these things. But I can guarantee you, you're not going to want to do that when you're 40 years old.

You're not going to want to do that for 25 years. You're going to want to be a sniper by the time you're 40 years old, where you're coming in and you do what you do. And you're, you know, And you've got a team doing the other stuff. And so that's my concern with, with the younger DCs is they're, they're following certain models that I do not think have longevity and are setting up a struggle to be able to, uh, [00:16:00] cross this chasm when you get into your late thirties, early forties, and you'll, and you'll be very frustrated and you'll blame the career, you know, you'll blame the profession.

And, and, uh, I know a lot of chiropractors are doing phenomenal in this profession, and so you got to make sure you. Are setting things up right and are people that can help you with that. And then I'll kind of leave you with this. Um, Arthur Brooks, the author, he, um, he explained that general happiness levels in the U S have been on the decline since 1990 to versus trend.

He says, individuals, societies, and employers. should focus on the big four. So he's got the big four here and I'm just going to read them and and chat about it for a minute. Uh, one is faith and philosophy. Seek transcendent experiences, whether it's religion, spending time outside or listening to music. Uh, take time to zone out.

To zoom out on your life. It could be philosophy, right? You know, there's certain authors out there, stoicism and certain things of that nature. It doesn't have to be faith per se. It is for me and it is for a lot of people, but [00:17:00] something that is a transcendent experiences, uh, you've got to have that to his family, whether traditional or nontraditional.

Brooke says family life is the biggest predictor of happiness. Three is friendships inside communities. Loneliness is a serious crisis in our society. Brooks explained regularly connecting with other people impacts happiness levels. And then fourth, this is where I'll kind of chime in a little bit more attitude about work as a society.

Our orientation toward work has shifted to be much less vocational. Brooke says striking a balance between work and life contributes to our happiness and your attitude about work or about the profession is going to really be a big determinant of your satisfaction in life. And too many chiropractors are jaded about the profession.

And, uh, but then on the other hand, I know so many chiropractors that absolutely love what they do. They, it's just the biggest, um, driver of happiness in their life, uh, aside from family and the other ones, [00:18:00] but it's just, you know, you could take someone. Um, that hates their vocation or their career and it's really hard to have a well rounded happy life.

And if, you know, if you're one of the fortunate that is, um, independently wealthy, you don't have to worry about the work thing, but that's not, uh, most of us. And so having a great attitude about work and less cynical and more optimistic about it is better. And I think, um, a big. Reason for cynicism within our profession of chiropractors because it's not easy, but every like every profession is hard like somehow like somehow we think You know chiropractic is the only thing that's hard and struggling.

I mean, I got friends of all kinds of professions It's they're all struggling if they're or they're not like I can give you every profession and I can give you people that are Loving it because they're doing well and they're doing the things that have allowed them to do well And then I can give you people that are bitching about the profession because they're not doing the things that So for every person that's struggling in chiropractic, I can give you another person that is doing really well [00:19:00] with it because they put in the effort and they're strategic about it and they're keeping a level of optimism and they're doing the things they're investing in themselves and they're growing.

And so your attitude about work is going to be a big predictor of your happiness as you move along in your career. And so, um, I just want you to start thinking about that. Like how, where are you at in your career now? It's never too late. And how are you going to bridge that chasm from one strength to the other strength?

If you're already past that typical age for it, you're not there yet. Then, you know, there's people that can help you out. And this is something I think we do a great job of all levels of chiropractors, whether it's the young DC or the seasoned veteran is to help them recreate their vision and, and actually take steps to get there.

And so if you are interested in having. Somebody help you out with that. You can let us know. You can obviously go to our website, modern chiropractic marketing. com. Uh, but we try to make sure that we keep your vision in mind and help you get there with action steps. This is all I got for you today. Have a [00:20:00] great week in practice and, uh, you know, check out that book from strength to strength by Arthur Brooks.