We have a sponsorship for this episode. It's Genesis Back and Neck, which is decompression. They specialize in putting decompression clinics inside of your existing business. Genesis Back and Neck can help you add spinal decompression clinics to your existing chiropractic office, potentially generating an additional $50,000 to $70,000 a month. I've done a lot better than that in our clinics.

From lead generation to ongoing support, Genesis does the heavy lifting so you can focus on your patients. If you want to learn more about it, get on the call, get on the call with Dr. Caleb, Dr. Chad. You can email them at corporate at GenesisBack.com. Corporate at GenesisBack.com. Let them know that UAC sent you. Let's jump into this episode. It's a good one. Welcome to Best Practices with UAC.

Dr. Allen Miner (00:01.152)

Hey everyone, I'm Dr. Allen Miner here with the UAC Best Practices podcast. I'm flying solo today without my co-host partner, Dr. Brian Capra. We have somebody I've known for a long time now from the UAC who hails from Australia, Dr. Andrew Powell. We're going to be with him in just a minute. Really has some interesting insights on a product he's created and owns and now uses in his practice. But before we jump in,

Little word from our success sponsor today first, which is Genesis Chiropractic Software. Dr. Brian, who's normally my co-host, is the CEO of Genesis. And so, his commercial, I'll just read it on his behalf. As a UAC member, you know how crucial the right systems are for your practice. That's why UAC recommends Genesis Chiropractic Software. This all-in-one solution covers everything from patient scheduling to documentation and billing. And with AI-powered automation,

Genesis helps prevent tasks from slipping through the cracks and allows your practice to run more efficiently. If you're interested in more info, can visit them at GenesisKyropracticSoftware.com and mention UAC and please, just so they know where you came from. That's Genesis Chiropractic Software. All right, with that said, I get to introduce Dr. Andrew Powell. Dr. Andrew has practiced for 23 years out of Sydney, Australia. How long you been a member for UAC now, Dr. Andrew?

Andrew Powell (01:27.438)

I think probably about seven or eight years now.

Dr. Allen Miner (01:30.701)

Yeah, yeah, it's always impressive when our members from UAC travel out. I always appreciate Andrew for your favorite band, 311. I've never known anybody who likes that band, and I always loved them, and your kind of a super fan version of that. So that was where I first was like, oh, that's awesome. But what I want to talk about here is Dr. Andrew Yu.

I in your community who used an orthotic to treat scoliosis, and you've now purchased that company, and you started using those in your clinic, but now you're putting them in practices all over the world. you know, tell us a little bit about that story. Let's start there. Why orthotics? What's been the benefit? You know, how have you seen that help people? And then we'll talk a little bit about more in other practices.

Andrew Powell (02:06.08)

Yes.

Andrew Powell (02:26.637)

Sure, awesome. So, I guess for me there was a personal story to it which was really that I just grew up my whole life with really flat feet and you know that caused a whole lot of problems. I couldn't run or even walk properly. You know, I played soccer forever. I was always the goalie. It ended up causing problems with my lower back and my hips and everybody knew I had flat feet. My family used to joke about it, but no one ever thought there was anything you could do about it. So...

you know, when I got into practice and I learned about orthotics, I started using traditional orthotics in my practice. And I probably did that for about 10 years. And my experience of that was that they didn't really make any difference, right? My feet didn't change, nothing else in my body changed. In fact, if anything, my feet continued to get worse over time. And I was prescribing them to my practice members. But again, I wasn't really seeing the sort of results that I wanted.

Dr. Allen (03:10.22)

Hmm.

Andrew Powell (03:17.739)

And so when I came across this doctor, his name was Dr. Ed Butterworth and what he'd created, it was an orthotic in name only, but it was really based on a completely different paradigm. There was no arch support whatsoever. It was purely about stimulating the nerves in the feet. So, it actually causes the muscles in the feet to work better and that creates a whole lot of changes in a person's posture and their balance and their neurology. So that kind of got me excited. It was like, this is something that's much more aligned with our chiropractic paradigm. You know, it's about

optimizing the nervous system and I'm seeing lasting functional changes. I started seeing that in my own body. I've got good archers in my feet now, which I never had for the first 30 years of my life. Yeah, absolutely. My wife pointed out one day walking on the beach, she's like, hey, look at your feet, like look at your footprint, right? Because it went from this big surfboard to like footprint. So that's kind of cool, right? They're like a rehab device for the feet. So

Dr. Allen Miner (03:55.313)

Really, they came back in. Fascinating.

Dr. Allen Miner (04:05.04)

Wow. Yeah.

Andrew Powell (04:10.878)

I started to see changes in myself. I've been wearing them for about 10 years now and I started to see big changes in my patients. And we track all of that. We record it. We take posture photos. We use a vestibular plate. We use all these objective measures to try and quantify those changes. And they're consistent and repeatable. And they weren't just in people's feet. They were in all sorts of aspects of their neurology, their vestibular system, their balance got better, their posture improved dramatically. All sorts of things changed.

Um, so it started me, it sorts of led me down this rabbit hole really, because like I think many chiropractors, I just didn't pay that much attention to feet. It's like, you know, you know, they're important, you know, the basic mechanics. But one thing I really noticed when I got into practice and started looking at people's bodies, their spines was that everybody's got bad feet, right? I would see flat arches, high arches, bunions, pronation, all these issues that I really didn't know how to fix. And I really didn't.

Dr. Allen Miner (04:51.339)

Yeah.

Andrew Powell (05:07.816)

understand how they correlated with people's symptoms. And so, I kind of just over time wrote it off, went well, you know, I see people with bad feet, and they seem to be doing okay, it just can't be that important. And I just kind of stopped paying attention to it. And now having gone on this journey, I realized that's a huge mistake. In fact, your patient's feet are actually impacting every aspect of their neurology, their balance, their posture, and their clinical outcomes. And if we're ignoring that,

Dr. Allen Miner (05:23.819)

you

Andrew Powell (05:35.423)

we're really missing a huge opportunity in our practice to serve our patients better.

Dr. Allen Miner (05:40.034)

Yeah, wow, that's brilliant. So how did it come along with you? How'd you find these and then you bought this business and tell us a little bit about that journey. When did you take it over and how are you teaching chiropractors and how do people find your product? But give us a little bit of the backstory.

Andrew Powell (05:57.803)

Cool, so actually when I was at school, chiropractic school studying, I was introduced to applied kinesiology, which was a real passion for me. been an AK practitioner my whole career. And my teacher and mentor at the time had actually said to me, if you're ever going to use orthotics, these are the only ones to use. Because Ed, the doctor who had invented them had presented them to the AK community at one of the ICAK meetings.

You know, I heard that, I just didn't, it didn't click. You know, I was brand new in practice. hadn't, it didn't sink in. but after many years of getting no results with traditional orthotics, I mean, you know what? I've got to actually get hold of these. And I went and I sought out Ed. He was actually quiet, quite hard to find. I had to go and see him as a patient in his medical clinic to actually get hold of him.

Dr. Allen Miner (06:50.554)

Well.

Andrew Powell (06:53.483)

And so that was how it started. He taught me and trained me how to use the orthotics, and we started using them more and more in my practice. In 2020, he approached me. He was in his eighties by that stage. And back in the day, I used to run a coaching business for chiropractors. And so, he'd sort of, been around each other for a long time. By that point, he knew I knew a bit about marketing and these sorts of things. And he said to me, look, I know I've got a practice here that can change the world. The world needs it.

Dr. Allen Miner (07:15.209)

Mm-hmm.

Andrew Powell (07:23.071)

but I've just never really had time to develop it in my medical practice. You know, it's always been a little side gig for me. I want someone who can take this to the world, and I think maybe you could be that person. And so, we started talking about what that would look like, how we were going to do it together, know, really planning this thing out. And then sadly in the middle of those negotiations, he just suddenly passed away. had some kidney issues, he was on dialysis, but you know, nobody thought it was...

Dr. Allen Miner (07:44.65)

Yeah.

Andrew Powell (07:51.578)

was going to end that way and all of a sudden, he was gone. So, we bought the business from his wife and in the beginning, to be honest, it was purely because I wanted to be able to continue to access them in my own practice. By that stage I was seeing not as much as I do now, but I had some idea of how important they were, what they were doing for patients. And I looked around and there was literally nothing like them anywhere else in the world. I couldn't find a single other orthotic that wasn't based on some model of supporting archers.

Dr. Allen Miner (08:15.945)

Yeah.

Andrew Powell (08:21.416)

And I tested a heap of them using the muscle testing and functional neurology that we do. And none of them gave us the same results. initially it was kind of a selfish motivation of like, I just want to be able to use these in my own practice and on my own. What that really led to though, was me sort of diving down the rabbit hole. as I was seeing these results, it was like, how I need to understand this. Why am I seeing such huge changes in so many things I never thought were related to feed?

So, I went and got certified as a barefoot educator and all sorts of things. really dove deep into Thomas Meier's anatomy trains looking at how these fascial meridians start on the feet but affect the whole body. And I started to have an understanding that; there's much more here than just scoliosis. There's falls prevention in the elderly. There's performance in sports. Really what I came to realize is the problem is not actually people's feet. The problem is how we use our feet.

Dr. Allen Miner (08:57.289)

Yeah.

Andrew Powell (09:16.857)

We were never designed to wear shoes and walk on flat surfaces and all of us do that all day long. So, it's the environment really that's the problem. And that kind of led me to a place of like now I need to actually make good on what I promised Ed, like I need to take these to the world, like chiropractors need these, our patients need these. And you know that's kind of led to where we're at today, sort of expanding into other countries and really you know having as much impact as we can.

Dr. Allen Miner (09:44.742)

How's it going? It's a different hat to wear. It's a product, not a service business. It's kind of, do you sell primarily to chiropractors or directly to people as well?

Andrew Powell (09:49.073)

It is.

Andrew Powell (09:54.982)

Yeah, a little bit of both, but you know, 95% of our business is selling to chiropractors.

Dr. Allen Miner (10:00.403)

But even that fundamentally I've learned business to business versus a business to consumer B2C model. how's it going so far? And just so everybody who's wondering, they're called Better Balance Orthotics. How do they find you? How do they find them? And when did you really ramp up getting this out to other practitioners? And tell us a little bit about that story. How's it going?

Andrew Powell (10:21.673)

it's going great. So, to find us, just check out betterbalanceorthotics.com. I'd recommend the key, the easiest way to really get an intro is betterbalanceorthotics.com forward slash watch video. That's a great intro. So, you know, we began just using them. And at the time that I bought this business from Ed's wife, it was, it was tiny, you know, it was tiny. was sort of out of his lounge room. There was just a handful of AK chiropractors in Australia using them.

So, we continued to supply those, we started to really, we went from a place in my clinic of maybe prescribing five or 10 pairs a year to patients with scoliosis to the point where we're at now where it's an integral part of our care plan. We assess every new patient, you know, cause if you've got feet and you walk on flat surfaces, you need these. So, we started taking that out to businesses and it really grew in Australia and New Zealand. We probably spent the first year after we bought the business.

Dr. Allen Miner (11:07.015)

Andrew Powell (11:17.596)

rebranding it, turning it into a business rather than a hobby. We kind of looked at all the things that were a pain in the butt originally, that were very manual. They'd come to my clinic in kind of a blank form and my staff would have to do the customization, which was a pain in the butt. So, we pulled all that back in-house. We really tried to streamline every aspect of it. then, so that was 2020, late 2020. So, from there, we started to really grow into Australia and New Zealand.

Dr. Allen Miner (11:21.927)

Yeah.

Andrew Powell (11:44.297)

I think last year we got our FDA approval as a registered medical device, so that was really opened a big door for us. you know, we're actually rapidly this year, I've had a couple of trips to the States already, I've got a few more booked. We got an exporting grant from the Australian government, which is awesome. So, we're really kind of all guns blazing, rapidly expanding into the States at the moment, which is super exciting for us.

Dr. Allen Miner (12:09.058)

Well, awesome you brought me to UAC and There was quite a buzz, and I hadn't even heard that side of the story because yeah, every orthotic I know it's about the arches and learning the different arches and but it makes perfect sense to switch over to the proprioception and the neurology on the feet instead of so much the structure of the feet and know, form follows function, right? Yeah. Awesome, Andrew. Well, last question before we wrap it up. And by the way, I'll mention this at the top of the show, but for anybody who listens to this podcast and gives us a review and leaves a comment,

We're going to pick one of those. We're going to give it two weeks after this episode drops. And for somebody, we're going to ship a pair of these for free. So please give us a review on the podcast here. Leave a just a short comment and maybe your name and we'll reach out to you and get you a pair of these for one of those lucky winners. UAC, Dr. Andrew, you've been in it for a long time. It's harder for you to be in it than the typical person in US.

How come? What's the value? What's been the benefit of you being a part of this group?

Andrew Powell (13:23.419)

I think for me, and you know this better balance thing is a perfect example of it, like there's always value in terms of you know what you learn and speakers and all that kind of thing, but the real value for me right from day one was just the stretching of my mind. You know, I was at a point where I wasn't getting, I wasn't around the sort of levels of success and just genius in my environment that I actually get from every single interaction I have with the UAC.

And when this opportunity came to buy this business, because I wasn't that excited about it, to be honest, it was almost a chore. It was like, I want to keep using these in my practice, this is what I've got to do. I think without just the relationships and the inspiration, every time I go to the USC, I'm like, man, I'm like the dumbest brokers guy in this room. Like, exactly who you want to be. So, yeah.

Dr. Allen Miner (14:00.711)

Yeah.

Dr. Allen Miner (14:14.438)

Yeah, yeah, totally. That's the gem right there. Yep, you do.

Andrew Powell (14:21.178)

You know, it really, think that was what gave me the confidence and the vision and just the mindset to go, you know what, I'm actually going to run with this thing and change the world with it.

Dr. Allen Miner (14:30.695)

Yeah, yeah, that's fantastic. Well, we're better because you're in it and I'd love to hear your brain around this and thank you for sharing and for those who don't realize, I think it's 3.34 in the morning, your time. So thank you for getting up in the early hours to join us as well, Dr. Andrew. We appreciate you and love you,

Andrew Powell (14:49.21)

Yeah, thank you for having me.