246 The Lifestyle Practice - Celebrating Women DCs

Welcome to the KC CHIROpulse Podcast.  

This week’s topic:  Is your practice running you? 

The KC CHIROpulse Podcast is designed for Chiropractic professionals ready to elevate their practice to new heights.  This week, the show celebrates Women in Chiropractic and is hosted by Kats Consultants’ coaches Dr Michael Perusich and Dr Kelly Fredricks, seasoned experts in Chiropractic business management.  This podcast provides invaluable insights and actionable strategies to help you create a flourishing and sustainable Chiropractic business.

In this episode, we discuss:

• How you can create a practice that meets your lifestyle expectations 
• Why you don’t have to be at the clinic 24 hours per day to succeed
• Why building a practice that gives you more personal time is important
• How today’s women chiropractors and single-parent DC’s are developing successful practices built around their schedules
• …and so much more…

In each episode of KC CHIROpulse, we delve into crucial aspects of building a successful Chiropractic practice, covering topics such as establishing a strong foundation, adopting a patient-centric approach, mastering marketing techniques, achieving financial fitness, fostering effective team building and leadership, integrating technology and innovation, and navigating common challenges in the field.

Whether you're a seasoned chiropractor or just starting your practice, the KC CHIROpulse Podcast offers a wealth of knowledge and personalized practical advice to help you navigate the intricate world of Chiropractic business. Join us on this journey as we explore proven strategies, share success stories, and connect with industry experts to empower you in your pursuit of building a thriving Chiropractic practice.

Don't miss out on the latest insights and expert guidance. Subscribe now and unlock the secrets to taking your Chiropractic practice to the next level. Your success is our priority at Kats Chiropractic Business Advisors.

DISCLAIMER:  The information presented in this broadcast is for educational purposes only and is not intended to offer legal, investment, accounting, or medical advice, and represents the opinions of the speakers.  Seek the consultation of a professional for advice in those areas. And remember…your results using this information may be different than described.

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KC CHIROpulse Podcast.  Helping Chiropractors keep their pulse on success.  Thanks for listening.

Transcript

The Lifestyle Practice - Celebrating Women DCs

Lifestyle Practice Kickoff

[00:00:00] 

Dr. Michael Perusich: Doctors, is your practice pulling you under? Hi everybody. Welcome to the KC ChiroPulse Podcast, brought to you by Kats Consultants and sponsored by Chiro Health USA. I'm your host, Dr. Michael Perusich, and I have my guest star on today, Dr. Kelly Fredericks. Kelly, how are you? 

Dr. Kelly Fredricks: I'm good. How are you? 

Dr. Michael Perusich: I'm fantastic.

So here's what I want to talk about today. I thought you'd just be perfect for this. I wanna talk about creating a practice that matches our lifestyle. And doesn't make us think that, oh my gosh, there are people with fines out there. We gotta be in the practice 24 7, that you actually can create a hugely successful practice, which you have.

Dr. Kelly Fredricks: Yeah. 

Dr. Michael Perusich: Um, around that idea. So just, just a little point of of, uh, introduction on Dr. Kelly. She is not only one of our amazing clients, but she's also one of our even more amazing coaches at Kats consultants. And Dr. Kelly has just this incredible practice. It's all cash, it's pediatric and family based, and [00:01:00] she's just shooting the lights out.

Like honestly, any Chiropractor should right now. Mm-hmm. If you're not, you know who to call. But seriously, she's, she's figured out how to make this work. And balance practice life with home, life of being a mom. So I thought this was a perfect topic for us to discuss today. 

Dr. Kelly Fredricks: Yes, thank you. 

Boundaries and Office Culture

Dr. Kelly Fredricks: I'm so excited to be on here because this is a really, um, I'm very passionate about having this conversation because I run into so many females that either A, they're not practicing anymore, or B, they're just so burnt out and they're not spending enough time with the kids.

They're not spending time with their spouses and they just feel stuck and, I just feel so grateful that A, I found you guys early enough in my career that you really helped pave the way for me to find that balance. But it's so doable. It is so doable. You just have 

Dr. Michael Perusich: to, it is doable. 

Dr. Kelly Fredricks: Yeah. You just have some boundaries.

Dr. Michael Perusich: You do. You do. And, and even though I'm not a, a, [00:02:00] not a mom, I'm a dad, mom, a mom, dad. So it. In the middle of practice, I found myself as a single father, as my wife passed away. So I had to balance the same thing, and you, you and I have very similar practices. Yeah. My mine was pediatric and family based and sports based and, um.

I found myself having to, I'd constantly adjust my schedule for basketball games or soccer tournaments or show choir events or golf tournaments. And you know, when you have kids that like, like your daughter, when you have kids that are involved in everything 

Dr. Kelly Fredricks: super 

Dr. Michael Perusich: active, you have to make, yeah, you gotta make the sacrifice somewhere.

And I didn't wanna miss anything that my daughter was involved in. 

Dr. Kelly Fredricks: I agree. I agree wholeheartedly. And my, my staff knows that too. And my practice members know that too. And they, of course, they want us to do the same things that they're doing too. They want us to be out with our families, you know, they don't want us working our tails off, so our nervous [00:03:00] systems are unbalanced.

You know, and when you really just set that culture in your office of, I am mom, first business owner and Doctor Next. They will understand, and as soon as my staff says, Dr. Kelly's going on vacation next week, everyone says, great. Good. She deserves it. You know? And that's how it should be. You deserve to go on vacation.

Dr. Michael Perusich: Exactly. Exactly. So first off, we're here to tell you, you can have the practice that you want to have. You can have the success that you want to have, and find the balance for family, being a mom, being a single parent, whatever it might be. It's doable. So that's the good news. So we need to take a quick break, but when we come back, I wanna talk a little bit about some of the myths behind it that make people think this isn't possible.

So talking about creating a lifestyle based practice, we'll be right back.

Speaker 2: Affordable care shouldn't mean undervaluing yourself, but [00:04:00] most chiropractors are still undercharging, especially when it comes to insurance allowances and cash patients with limited coverage. Chiro Health USA helps chiropractors charge appropriately, get paid well when insurance is available and still serve patients with no or limited benefits.

All through a compliant discount medical plan. The result, doctors stop undercharging, raise fees, and increase income by about 20% without sacrificing care. That's not a discount strategy. It's a business strategy. Learn more@cairohealthusa.com.

Myths and Smart Scheduling

Dr. Michael Perusich: Okay, everybody, we are back. We're talking to our guest star, Dr. Kelly. She's a, uh, incredibly successful female, ChiroPulse, obviously female, and we're so proud of her, and we're talking about creating a, we call it a lifestyle based practice that is bent around. Your family and the lifestyle that you want to have, not the other way around.

And so before the break, I said I wanna talk about some of the myths that drag us the other direction in this profession. [00:05:00] And one is that as long as there's people out there, as long as I need to build my practice, which I think we all feel like we need to all the time, as long as I need to. Have that need to build my practice, I, I have to be open all the time.

I need to be open 12 hours Monday through Friday. I need to be open nine and a half hours on Sunday, and I need to be open six hours on, on, uh, I, I meant Saturday and six hours on Sunday, but you don't have to do it that way. In fact, my schedule changed with every sports season. It was never the same. And we just trained our patients to get used to it.

And Kelly, I know you have similar scenario. And how do you balance that? 

Dr. Kelly Fredricks: We, so it really depends on the type of patient that you're seeing, right? So we see families. Um, you know, families are not out the door at eight o'clock in the morning. Usually we don't have a very busy morning, but once 10 o'clock hits you [00:06:00] better believe the moms are coming in with the strollers.

We also Yep. Don't have a lot of people coming after six o'clock. Some of it comes with taking the time to sit down with your, your schedule and realizing what are your hot times. Also, I'm not gonna be here late waiting for people to come when that's not helpful for my family.

And that's not helpful for 

Dr. Michael Perusich: Right, exactly. 

Dr. Kelly Fredricks: So you set the hours you know, how many times have I been told over the years chiropractors are closed on Tuesdays? That's just what we do. Well, guess what? It doesn't, it's not helpful for me to be closed on a Tuesday because I don't wanna work on a Friday, right?

So I don't work Fridays, but you better believe that I work Tuesdays and we fill the schedule because that's when I'm here and Tuesdays are different than Mondays. It tends to be maybe a little bit of an old, older crowd on Tuesdays, but we call it ladies day. That's when we have all of our ladies come in, and then our families come in on Mondays and Wednesdays.

Each schedule or each shift kind of takes on its own personality. I wanna be a [00:07:00] four day of work. Mom, and that gives me that extra day of the week to schedule appointments for myself, for my child you know, get life done so that way we can stay ahead of things. 

Dr. Michael Perusich: Okay. 

Calendar Planning and Vacations

Dr. Michael Perusich: You just mentioned something.

We have to schedule appointments for ourselves, for our family, for our kids. And so this is, I think where a lot of doctors kind of trip themselves up. They don't use this. Well, it's a fairly new tool. I think it was just invented here just very recently. It's called a calendar. And obviously I'm being facetious.

The calendar is as old as Greece, I think. But you, you have to think ahead and so if my daughter had an orthodontist appointment or something and I had to go to school, pick her up, bring her to the orthodontist, sit there while they cranked the braces down, take her back to school. Mm-hmm. We just would have to plan in advance for that.

So how far in advance do you make a doctor's appointment? Well, typically pretty far. Yeah. For a specialist, like an orthodontist or something. [00:08:00] So I would just make sure it was on the calendar, but then I immediately would tell my front desk staff, Hey, I got this appointment clear that day. You've got eight weeks until it happens.

And we would backfill patients around it. Yeah. So we never lost patient visits. It just changed when I was in the clinic. 

Dr. Kelly Fredricks: Yep. Exactly. Exactly. Well, and also, you have to have those breaks in your schedule. So I know that I'm, I'm usually not in the office on Fridays, so in my schedule, those are the days that I schedule my massages.

That's when Stella goes to the dentist. That's when I go to the dentist, you know? And if I can't go on a Friday, then I know I have. Tuesday morning before 10:00 AM that's when I get my medical appointments done. You know, like, but I, I am the same as you. Like my life is planned out. Six months in advance.

Yeah. The office has planned out six months in advance, and my staff wants it to be that way too, because they're moms as well, so they need to know how they can schedule their lives. So it just all [00:09:00] works out. You have to be organized and you have to keep a tight calendar. 

Dr. Michael Perusich: Yeah. And you have to plan ahead.

Yeah. And so you mentioned something a little bit ago about taking vacations and I could just, I could hear the universe go, oh. Vacations. 

Dr. Kelly Fredricks: Yeah. 

Dr. Michael Perusich: Because chiropractors forget to take vacations and you know, we suggest that our doctors in Kats consultants, we suggest that you take four weeks a year, and I don't know if some of you just passed out, but every quarter you should take a vacation.

You should take a week off from the clinic. And there, there's a way to do it so you don't panic. There's a way to do it so you don't lose patient visits. And we teach doctors how to do that, but. If you don't recharge, then the practice really begins to suck you under. So how do you make this work? Well, it's what you just said.

It's planning and being organized and making sure that before the, um, beginning of the year. So I used to tell Marissa, here's my vacation schedule for next year, and I would give it to her the week before Thanksgiving. [00:10:00] So she'd go into next year and she'd block those four weeks out on my patient schedule so that patients couldn't be scheduled during those times.

And my staff knew it, and it worked for us and. It only worked because we planned ahead for it. 

Dr. Kelly Fredricks: Yeah, exactly. And my staff knows every year I go, we spring break whenever the schedule falls for the schools. We go on vacation every year for spring break. This year we're taking, I'm taking the week of the 4th of July off.

Which is what you always did too. Yep. Um, and then probably more than likely I'm gonna be off between Christmas and New Year's, so, yeah. But they, it's in, it is in Chiroto already. 

Dr. Michael Perusich: Perfect. 

Dr. Kelly Fredricks: So we'll be scheduling around it. 

Dr. Michael Perusich: Yeah. Perfect. You know, and I took off spring break, um, because why? My daughter was outta school.

I took off the week of 4th of July. I took off uh, usually the last week of September. [00:11:00] I took off the week between Christmas and New Year's and so there's my four weeks now. Did I travel outta town every time? No. Two, two of those weeks were vacations at home. Mm-hmm. Two of those weeks were get outta town and relax a little bit.

Dr. Kelly Fredricks: Yeah. 

Dr. Michael Perusich: But you've gotta build it in or that practice is gonna take you under. So we gotta take another break and we come back. Kelly, I wanna talk a little bit more about getting your staff involved Sure. And how we train patients about these things too. So we'll be right back.

Speaker 3: Patient numbers, dipping staff overwhelmed, and another marketing idea, promising the world, but delivering nothing. These pressures feel familiar to nearly every Chiropractor clinic today across the country. Chiropractors work hard, yet many find themselves stuck balancing patient care with the nonstop demands of running a business.

That's where the real strain begins. Most clinics face the same set of hurdles. Inconsistent new patient flow, operational [00:12:00] bottlenecks, and the constant challenge of staying visible in an overcrowded digital space. National reports show that over 60% of clinics struggle with scheduling efficiency alone and even more lack of clear marketing strategy that reliably converts.

But the good news, these challenges aren't roadblocks. They're signals with the right procedures, smarter outreach and guidance built specifically for Chiropractic practices, clinics can turn daily stress into sustainable growth. Stronger clinics start with smarter strategies. Grow your practice with confidence.

Book your strategy session with Katz Consultants.

Staff and Patient Buy-In

Dr. Michael Perusich: Okay, welcome back to the KC ChiroPulse podcast, and I want to thank Chiro Health USA for being one of our sponsors. You guys are awesome. We're talking about how to build a lifestyle based practice so that your practice isn't dragging you under, but you're creating a practice that's well managed, well organized, so that it's still uber successful.

And [00:13:00] Kelly, one of those, one of those things that's absolutely, you can't live without in this process is your staff. 

Dr. Kelly Fredricks: Mm-hmm. 

Dr. Michael Perusich: And getting your staff really involved in that whole process of making it lifestyle based. 

Dr. Kelly Fredricks: Yeah, definitely. You have to be communicating and it, it all goes back to the planning, right?

So every Monday we have our staff meeting, we are talking ahead in the schedule. Okay, what are the days that either I'm gonna be out, um. At a volleyball game or we've got a volleyball tournament, or I'm gonna be outta the office and you know, so we already have those blocks set up in the system. But then also I'm communicating with them kind of as it's coming up to the point of, okay, how is the schedule looking?

Do I need to add something the week before? So that way I can see people before I leave, and then do I have to add something when I come back so I can see people? Mm-hmm. When I come back. So for example, I'm getting ready to leave next Thursday the 12th. [00:14:00] So this week I am loading up on new patients because I know I'm not gonna be able to do report a findings while I'm away.

Okay, so I can see my new patients this week have all my reported findings done next week. So that way when I'm back from vacation, we hit the ground running. And that takes a lot of communication with the front desk, with my office manager going through, you know, the schedules saying, okay, we've got holes here, we've got holes here.

I'm gonna come in an hour early because I need to add a new patient's new patient slot here, or report a findings slot here. It's constant communication constant. 

Dr. Michael Perusich: Yeah. Yeah it's constant communication and it's constantly reviewing the schedule with your staff and making sure that those times when you need to change, you need to be outta the office.

Whatever it might be, are built into the schedule and that constant communication with staff. Then the other component, I think, personally is that you have to train your patients. Mm-hmm. That, hey. [00:15:00] From time to time for us it was from sports season to sports season. And I know it kind of is for you too that our schedule is gonna change.

So just be patient with us. Just be flexible with us. And I think because we attracted the patients into our practices that. Matched our lifestyle because our patients had kids. They had families and their, their kids were involved in things. They totally understood 

Dr. Kelly Fredricks: they do. Yes. 

Dr. Michael Perusich: Never had any pushback.

Dr. Kelly Fredricks: Yeah. Well, and also in that style of practice, we have to be understanding of their lives too. Right? Absolutely. So how many times are they. Roland in stressed out. Oh my gosh. We've got all these activities. 

Dr. Michael Perusich: Yeah. 

Dr. Kelly Fredricks: You know, and, and we're helping them to schedule their Chiropractic appointments around their busy life as well, so they completely understand and we're all working on this together.

Right. It takes a tribe, it takes a Yes, absolutely. An office. It takes, it's a 

Dr. Michael Perusich: great way to put it, 

Dr. Kelly Fredricks: to keep our patients healthy. [00:16:00] We all work together and, and that's just, that's how the communication is in our office, you know? They're, and they're so appreciative that sometimes we're flexible with them if they're running five minutes behind or they need to change a diaper or the kid needs to go to the bathroom, you know, like that's just the culture that we have built here and it's taken a long time to build that.

But, you know, we're there and it's just so amazing. It's, yeah, it's a wonderful place 

Dr. Michael Perusich: and maybe we should call it the tribal. Based practice. Yes. I kinda like that. The term I 

Dr. Kelly Fredricks: do too. 

Dr. Michael Perusich: Practice. 

Dr. Kelly Fredricks: I do too. 

Dr. Michael Perusich: Yeah. 

Dr. Kelly Fredricks: Yes, 

Dr. Michael Perusich: because that, that makes total sense and it, and it really is management by tribe. 

Dr. Kelly Fredricks: Yeah, 

Dr. Michael Perusich: for sure.

Well, Kelly, thank you for sharing your thoughts on this subject today. And I just wanna give a big shout out to. All the female chiropractors in this profession, you all are an absolute blessing and have helped raise the bar for this profession. I can't thank you all enough. So on behalf of all of us here at Kats Consultants, Dr.

Kelly, thanks for being here. Thanks to Chiro Health USA [00:17:00] for being one of our great sponsors. We'll see you all next time. 

Dr. Kelly Fredricks: Bye.