Dr. Allen Miner: Hi, everyone. Welcome into the Best Practices podcast for UAC. I'm Dr. Allen Miner with my co-host, Dr. Brian Capra today. And the point of this podcast is we have some of the most unique, I'd say, best hardcore consistent operators in chiropractic that are members of UAC and from many different corners of the profession. So, we like to get a nugget on these calls about how our members are viewing their practice, their business, what they're using for best practices. And with that said, I'm going to hand it over to you, Dr. Brian.

Dr. Brian Capra: Thanks, doc. Appreciate it, bro. Yeah. So, we have a great guest today. Dr. Darin Shook from Washington. Learned a little bit about his practice, tell you a little bit about his practice of corrective care, two owners, several associates, and been doing very well for a long time. So, we don't want to take too much time. I want to get a nugget, get it out there and what's on the top of your mind? I know you mentioned sailing is one of your passions, but maybe also an analogy for your business. And what can you tell us?

Dr. Darin Shook: Brian, thanks for having me on. And you as well, Allen. You know, Dr. Anik and I, my wife, we've been in practice for close to 25 years now. And one of the things that we like to do is just have adventures. I feel like we work hard, and we like to play hard. So, there's trying to find balance in that. I don't want to retire and then experience life. I want to experience life now at every age. So, a few years ago, Anik, she always has fun ideas and she's like, let's learn how to sail. So, this is our next chapter in adventure in life is sailing.

Dr. Allen Miner: Where do you start on that, Darin? Do you hire somebody? Do you get a coach? Do you read books?

Dr. Brian Capra: It freaks me out to even think about it.

Dr. Darin Shook: It was definitely an unknown. And we live in the Pacific Northwest, right? So, there's not a, we live on the Columbia River. So sailing, we're on a river. We found a sailing course through the ASA Go Baja Sailing down in La Paz, Mexico. And so, we did our intro courses, which is basic sailing book, basic sailing knowledge and then understanding like chartering, how to charter a boat and bareboat chartering. So, we took this class and this was in, I think it was in November of, it was about three years ago now. By the time we got back from the class, we just had such a great, wonderful time. Within six weeks, we bought a sailboat. And then we thought about it. It's like, how are you going to start something unless you just dive right into it? So, Anik and I have a way of doing that. So, we bought a sailboat. We have a 33-foot Beneteau, nice boat, it's easy to sell, easy to learn on, and that's what we started off with.

Dr. Allen Miner: So how did you, walk us through? Because what's inherent in your story is obviously you guys have built some measure of time freedom in the practice, some flexibility that you can even have the bandwidth and mindset that we can be free. We're not tied to the business. So maybe on a high level, walk us through how did you guys start? And then where was the tipping point where you started with maybe associates and just take us on a high level through the journey of how did you go from starting this business to 23 years later having it run to the point where you guys can step out to pursue sailing as a hobby?

Dr. Darin Shook: Well, I mean, I can tell you there was a lot of sweat equity in this, the first many years we struggled, I feel like we struggled doing coaching and so forth. And then realize that in order to have some freedom, we had to leverage and not everybody was going to do what we did to the best. So, establish the 80-20 rule, understanding that if somebody can do something 80% as good as you can, then that's good. That's good enough. Right. So, I think over the years we started hiring associates and failing, trying to figure it out. Then we started, I would say about seven years ago, hiring and having multiple offices within our office. And we thought that was a great way of doing it. It allowed us time to leave the office and go on vacation and not worry about things and somebody would be seeing our patients and our clientele. So, at a certain point then we hit the levels of frustration. Everybody having different mindsets within the same office or different goals and outcomes for patients. And then we realized that we had to burn that down.

Dr. Darin Shook: So, we just burnt it to the ground. And we lost some of our staff because they were either on board or they're not. And we rebuilt. And so, everybody in the office has a common mindset and goal for our patients. And so, it makes it a smooth transition in running practice. Over the time, and I'm just going to fill this in. But we went from having supplements in the front office and pillows and now we are just 100% like, we adjust. That's all we do, we adjust. We do some spinal correction and that's about it.

Dr. Allen Miner: How many associates do you have now?

Dr. Darin Shook: So, this is also one of the things that we're trying to incorporate is creating freedom for also our associates so they're not kind of slaves into the office and working themselves into the ground. So, we do have three associates besides Anik and I. And the reason why we do that is because Anik and I are very busy and if we do want to have time off, well, you have to hire somebody else to come in and see patient load and so forth. So, it's better to have a little extra cushion, room for growth than to be, I think, at the seams. So, we have, there's five of us adjusting, Anik and I are not seeing patients all week long. So, I would say that we're maybe 10 hours, maybe adjusting to 20 depending on the week.

Dr. Allen Miner: Can you talk a little bit about in the new model, who does the initial, whether it's a day one or however you guys do it, and does everybody do it equal or is there a specialist? And then what's a best practice to, it sounds like people probably float between docs, so give a little insight to what you learned of however you guys are doing it, how you made that work. So, it's running smoother now.

Dr. Darin Shook: One thing that we've learned is that you can't make everyone happy. And knowing that has given us some, a little bit of peace and wiggle room. We all do; we do a three-day ROF. So, first day is just examination and then to report of findings and then, presenting care plan and health outcomes. We all do it. All the docs do it. We do not have a specialist, although I think it would be wise to have that, create some limiting factors. So, if something were to happen to that person, then now you're out and you're trying to scramble. Yeah. So, everybody being, having the tools. We do metrics and statistics and making sure that we're staying and making good percentages with retention and signing up for care plans. And we do a lot of training once a week. We were in staff meetings for about an hour and a half and role playing.

Dr. Brian Capra: Sorry.

Dr. Darin Shook: No, go ahead.

Dr. Brian Capra: No, I'm thinking through maybe even before we jumped on the recording. You mentioned you've had some associates for quite a while. That's part I would assume of how you've been able to gain some more freedom and the confidence that you can step away for a couple days and everything's okay. That's not an easy thing to do. It's not an easy thing to find great associates that want to stay and be part of something bigger. What do you think is some of the things you've done to make that happen? And what did you learn? You mentioned you had some struggles early on.

Dr. Darin Shook: Struggles like trying to find associates. So, I do some work with Washington, Western States Chiropractic. It's changed names now, but I will do internships and have them come into the office, and sometimes they'll stay for a little bit or not. I find that the younger students coming out of school are a little bit more challenging to hold onto, from the standpoint that they have these visions and ideas that they want to put into play. And sometimes it doesn't always work out into a set practice model. I like helping those students get their footing because I think our chiropractic profession needs that more than ever, is some philosophy and guidance, understanding of what we do. We look for like a career associate. So, somebody that's been out in practice before, maybe has not done well on the business side, but they are good caregivers, they're empaths. They like to, they just care. They want to help people. So, I think those are the types of associates that we look for. How that comes, sometimes, we've tried Chiro Match Makers. We do a lot of pro scans. Sometimes it's just projecting it out to the universe, and then they just show up at your door. So, yeah.

Dr. Allen Miner: That's been our formula for our clinics. Darin is, I love a doc who appreciates what it takes to run the business. I don't know, there's something with that seasoned, especially in a practice like yours where there's a lot of you guys have been there a long time. It's hard to bring somebody new who can jump on the moving train. And when somebody's got some years under their belt, they tend to have more confidence in their adjusting skills, more certainty. They've got to still adapt and learn the culture of the office. But I've just found it just seems to oftentimes go a lot smoother. Students are, we were all students. They're not sure what direction, what path and what technique. They haven't seen results, so they're still learning on that. And I love the offices that have a huge heart for students and set up their systems for it. But they're very different offices, typically, than what you're describing that you and Anik have built up.

Dr. Darin Shook: Yes, correct. And again, going back, to keep the associate, you have to treat them well. I think we pay them very well, and I think that gives them an incentive to stay. We don't, again, like I said, overwork them. They have days off. I think it's important. Anik and I are very family oriented, and the docs that we have in the office have kids and family, and they want to spend time with them. So, again, that work, work hard, play hard, I think is really important to Anik and I.

Dr. Allen Miner: I love it. Well, thank you for sharing that. It's a conversation I think most chiropractors who find themselves as business owners are trying to figure out that puzzle. So, it's helpful to hear how you guys have approached it and what you've been through. Last question for you, Darin, is you guys have been in UAC for a long time. What's the been the benefit, the takeaway of being a part of the UAC community for you guys?

Dr. Darin Shook: I have to say that, I mean, it's just an invaluable tool. The knowledge within the group, there's always somebody that you can reach out to, and if you have a question, they're more than willing to go out of their way to help you. It's more of like a family, I would have to say, as compared to just a group or a club or. And again, in the beginning, I wasn't so sure, but then you start developing these relationships with everyone and again, it's more family than it is anything else.

Dr. Allen Miner: Yeah, that's awesome. Well, we appreciate you guys, and our room's always better when you guys are part of it. And thanks for sharing that insight today, Darin. We really appreciate it, Doc.

Dr. Darin Shook: Yeah. All right. You have a great day you two.

Dr. Allen Miner: You too. Awesome, guys. We'll see you. Have a good one. Bye.

Dr. Allen Miner: Hi, everyone. This is a great podcast episode with Dr. Darin Shook, who's up in the Northwest with his wife, Anik. They've been longtime UAC members, and they've just taken on the hobby of sailing. And so, it's interesting to hear. How did they, as a husband-and-wife couple, build a clinic? What have been their trials and tribulations of bringing on associates, and what lessons have they learned to where they have a very stable business that's providing a great living with time flexibility and freedom for their associate docs, but also for themselves to be able to have the flexibility and freedom of still running a business and a clinic at a very high level, but also have freedom to take on a hobby like sailing. This is a great podcast. You guys are going to love it. Thanks for joining us.