With Dr. Alan Chong, The Spine Doctor and chiropractor of 33 years. Join us for this powerful and timely conversation on how we can transform and leverage our business results by bringing a heart-centered approach to our business. We discuss the concept of achieving mastery, insights on mentoring and hiring others to support us in our business journey, and learning from our mistakes.

We also dig into business leadership, and the line between delegating vs dumping responsibility. One of the highlights of this conversation is how to achieve clarity in decision making, how to use our hearts instead of our heads in making key decisions, and the importance of connecting to core values to guide us in our business decisions.

Finally, we also discuss the impacts of covid on business, including some of the silver linings: the opportunity for expressing greater humanity and care through our work, creating conversations with our clients that are more sensitive, aware, and relational, and the power of acknowledging others and celebrating wins.

Alan is the founder of the Centre for Chiropractic Care, operating three chiropractic clinics in Calgary, Canada, and creator of High Profits Practice. His living legacy is in coaching chiropractors and alternative health business owners to thrive and achieve business success through his heart-centered coaching, mentoring and masterminds. Alan has also recently launch his podcast, Practice Mastery for Chiropractors: Your Call to Greatness.

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Biggest takeaways (or quotes) you don’t want to miss:

• “Be a leader and stay the leader.”

• “For those who don’t lead their ship, that’s when they get in trouble.”

• The power of understanding your core values and getting clarity in business.

• “Acknowledge staff members who are creative who can do great things for your business.”

Check out these highlights:

5:00 Why Dr. Alan Chong learned how to leverage really quick at a young age. 

7:20 How to find employees who treat the business like their business.

11:30 “It’s when you blend into everyone else, that’s when you have to step out.”

12:40 Being focused and targeted when creating a niche. 

13:00 Why Dr. Alan Chong would have thrown away less money in his business journey. 

16:30 “There is a difference between being sold something and going out and looking for something.” 

18:00 Why a business company needs leadership. 

18:20 The difference between delegating and handing things over without leading. 

20:30 What is the Practice Mastery podcast? 

23:00 How sleeping on something you aren’t sure about is better than thinking about it more. 

26:20 Why you should get consistent with your core values. 

28:00 Core values and why they are essential in life and business. 

34:00 Dr. Alan’s gift to you: The first 10 people get a free consultation! 

37:00 Being sensitive in todays Covid world. 

40:00 Being sincere verses doing something as a marketing ploy. 

41:50 “Be creative for the right reasons.”

44:00 The power in slowing down in business.

How to get in touch with Alan:

On social media:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/thespinedoctor/

https://www.facebook.com/askthespinedoctor

https://www.instagram.com/dralanchong/

https://twitter.com/thespinedoctor_

Check out his podcast, Practice Mastery and give him some love (some likes and a review). Congrats on the launch of your podcast, Alan!

FREE GIFT FOR LISTENERS:

Get a FREE business coaching consultation with Alan! If you’re interested in achieving Mastery in your small business or health practice, reach out on social media.

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Forever an entrepreneur, Dr. Alan Chong aka “The Spine Doctor” is a spine expert with over 33 years in clinical practice as a chiropractor. His living legacy is in coaching of chiropractors and alternative health care business owners to thrive and achieve business success through his heart-centered coaching approach to mastery, mentoring and masterminds. 
His other passions are gourmet cooking, wine and photography (not necessarily in that order).

Find out more about Alan here.

Again, visit his Podcast, Practice Mastery on Apple Podcasts here.

Imperfect Show Notes

We are happy to offer these imperfect show notes to make this podcast more accessible to those who are hearing impaired or those who prefer reading over listening. While we would love to offer more polished show notes, we are currently offering an automated transcription (which likely includes errors, but hopefully will still deliver great value), below. 

GGGB Intro 0:00
Here’s what you get on today’s episode of Guts, Grit, and Great Business.

Alan Chong 0:04
And so often our own perspective is that we play down our successes. And those are genuine moments that we can capture. And and I think the quick summary of that, Heather is that to acknowledge the little things, and that’s where I say creativity, bring more creativity in your business, and acknowledge especially staff members that are great creative avenues, and can do a lot to contribute to your business, even if it’s that one other person or two other people or if you run multiple employees or contractors is to acknowledge that and so they will do their best work when certainly when they’re acknowledged that is one of the things I’ve also learned over the years of practice is to acknowledge and to pay attention to those details and, and celebrate successes.

GGGB Intro 1:01
The adventure of entrepreneurship and building a life and business you love, preferably at the same time is not for the faint of heart. That’s why Heather Pearce Campbell is bringing you a dose of guts, grit, and great business stories that will inspire and motivate you to create what you want in your business and life. Welcome to the Guts, Grit and Great Business podcast where endurance is required. Now, here’s your host, The Legal Website Warrior®, Heather Pearce Campbell.

Heather Pearce Campbell 1:34
All righty, welcome.I am Heather Pearce Campbell, The Legal Website Warrior®. I am an attorney and legal coach based here in Seattle, Washington. Welcome to another episode of Guts, Grit, and Great Business. Today, I am so excited to bring you my friend, Dr. Alan Chong. Hello, and welcome, Alan.

Alan Chong 1:55
Thanks for having me. Heather. Pleasure.

Heather Pearce Campbell 1:58
Yeah, so great to have you here. So for those listening, Dr. Alan Chong is a practicing chiropractor, right? He’s based up in Calgary Canada, so he’s practically my neighbor. Forever an entrepreneur, Dr. Ellen Chong is also known as the spine doctor. He is a spine expert with over 33 years of clinical practice as a chiropractor, his living legacy is in coaching chiropractors and alternative health care business owners to thrive and achieve business success through his heart-centered coaching approach to mastery, mentoring, and masterminds. His other passions are gourmet cooking wine and photography, which I can personally attest to since I follow him on Instagram. So I get to see all the pictures of things that he’s cooking, and the wine that he’s drinking. And the other fun part is Alan and I, our paths cross. And I’m trying to think now Alan, what year it was right. But we were in a mastermind years ago, five years ago, yeah, and a mastermind together, which lasted for a time. But I can say that I always found you to be one of the true blue folks that showed up every time without fail, serve from your heart gave, you know gave very willingly to the other participants. So I really appreciate you. I’m glad to have you here today. I’m excited to chat with you about life and business.

Alan Chong 3:21
Thank you very much Heather up. It’s It’s a pleasure really?

Heather Pearce Campbell 3:25
Well, I know you know, I know our paths have crossed for a while now you and I go back to the days of being in a mastermind group together. But for people that don’t know you talk to us. I always like to ask folks where their entrepreneurial journey started. How? Because you’re you own your own practice. You’ve helped lead multiple businesses, you coach other people on businesses, how did you get into entrepreneurship?

Alan Chong 3:53
Well, in my bio, I do describe myself as forever an entrepreneur. And I think back to when I was a kid. It’s the creative side of me that didn’t apply myself to business. I didn’t own a lemonade stand. But I thought I am sure I thought of the idea that that would be great, but you don’t make enough money at a lemonade stand. So I still remember one of the things that inspired me is an opportunity. I was a dishwasher in a restaurant for one day, and that’s plenty too much. Because the next day I got the real job that I wanted and that was a job. But it inspired me to do more and that very quickly. That job was at a supermarket packing bags. And it was a small town in British Columbia. I busted my butt as everybody there. It’s just it was the company culture. And then I realized even though I was making probably the top wage is about almost four times this is in high school last year of high school is making four times minimum wage and but only 10 hours a week. So I thought well I learned the concept of leverage. Because making a high wage is the leverage you think about it. So if you’re paying a high wage to someone, you’re also leveraging betting on and hopefully getting the results that they are producing a lot more for the time that you’re paying them. So there are two concepts there. So I realized, what if I worked for myself, so I always knew that I was going to work for myself and tried to create those situations. But there’s nothing wrong with being an employee. But think leverage leveraging your time with other things, perhaps or other businesses and or certain other people.

Heather Pearce Campbell 5:40
Hmm, no, I love that. And I think that I agree the concept of entrepreneurship can absolutely be applied even in a position of employment. I look at my sister who actually I interviewed last week, which is gonna be super fun. She is truly an expert at sales, she gets people she reads people very well, she’s really skilled in sales, but she has approached her own path within Siemens, which is a medical supply company, very much from the standpoint of an entrepreneur, like, how can I do this differently? How can I show up in a bigger way? How can I like, blow through my sales goals? How can I you know, and she gets asked to do like a lot of training and presentations and other things. And she really, it’s been really fun to watch her treat her job, like, like she is an owner of her own business opportunity.

Alan Chong 6:35
And that’s a curious point. That’s a great story, Heather, that if you’re an employee, and you as an employer, I love those employees that embrace the business as if it were their own. And that is which the company culture that I coach and teach, is to try to create that situation, try to hire people that are inspired. So not just for the wage, and there’s got to be more to it in it for them, then the wage. And in that sense, if you can get employees and or associates working as if it’s their own business, you’ve scored a big one right there.

Heather Pearce Campbell 7:18
Yeah, it’s well, I agree and how, I mean, from your perspective, as somebody who has employed people over the years, is there a trick to doing that? How do you find those people that are going to treat?

Alan Chong 7:29
Well, you know, it’s his, his, believe me, just when I think I nailed the hiring process? I haven’t. Because just when you think, for you business owners out there, just when you think you’ve got the ideal team, watch out, because it’s that cruise control that seems to crash? Yeah. And it’s not a rule, but it is something to take heed that because people need to move on, people have bigger, different goals than I want for them. And let’s face it, people are changing jobs and careers, many times in their lives these days, because there’s so much opportunity there. So to answer the question, I would say the number one thing is be very specific in your advert advertising. In other words, be very specific and who you want, what hours you want them to work, and put it out there, as opposed to this mystery job posting that you get millions of applications, but most of them are not good candidates. So that’s something I learned a few years back, but it took me quite a few years in business to learn that, and I’m not the perfect HR person. But as the proprietor, the owner, the principal, and the bottle washer. You know, I still like to be very involved in the hiring process,

Heather Pearce Campbell 8:54
Right? Well, and we all pick up you know, whether we’re an expert in something or not, we all pick things up along the way in our journeys that can relate to different areas. And I really like your idea of clarity in the job posting itself. I remember reading somewhere, actually on how to hire people, I managed a team of 15 attorneys, paralegals and staff last year on a massive project and I had to hire a few people onto that project. And I was trying to read up on like how you really get the right person, we didn’t have the luxury of a lot of time or a large market to choose from. So we had some constraints. But I remember reading about companies that were really creative and how they posted advertisements for positions that would appeal to a very particular kind of person right and tailoring it exactly to who they wanted. So I love that. I think having clarity and putting it out there is really a great point. So in your 33 years of practicing building businesses, right, what are some of the things that you look back to Now now knowing what you know, are there things that you look back on that you go? Hmm, maybe I could have done that differently?

Alan Chong 10:08
Oh, tons of things. But let’s talk about the big ones. Yeah, I would say that practice and owning a business and I’ll talk about practice, not so much. From a clinical standpoint, I am a spine doctor. And it was through going through a branding exercise that I realized that I need to brand myself in a world that seems very either mixed up or uniform, speaking of the chiropractic profession, so why be confused with just the everyday chiropractor stand out. So I went through a process of, of specializing in what I know and getting really good at it, and then branding the spine doctor, for that reason. But really, that is my decompression, spinal decompression part of my business, which essentially, I have two locations and three practices, my specialty practices where I see some of the most difficult cases in all of this whole region. And in fact, I get flying clients, and consultations that are requested from not all over Canada, but certain parts of western Canada. So that if you are in that position, where your branding and you are getting higher demand from people outside your region, you know, you’re doing the right thing. It’s when you blend in with everybody else, that’s when you’ve got to step out. And I made that decision just over 12 years ago, purchased some very specialized equipment, did extra training, and got really good at my final exams and, you know, established a reputation for that. I still run general practice. So you know, it’s just a nice way to, I can’t say specialized, because it’s not a true specialty, but to Neiman Marcus.

Alan Chong 12:09
And what it turns out is that part of the business, actually probably does one-third of all my revenues. And so and time spent, I don’t have to spend one-third of my, my time and effort. Yeah. So it is again, leverage.

Heather Pearce Campbell 12:27
Yep. Oh, I love that. Well, I appreciate what you say so much about having a focus. Alan, one of the things that I actually got coaching on really early on, around the time when you and I met in that mastermind, was the importance of being so targeted and really creating a niche and having a focus. So I think that’s a really, really powerful point. What else when you observe your path, looking backwards, what else is anything else come to mind about what you would have done differently?

Alan Chong 12:57
Oh, lots of things do. I’m always baffled by those people interviewed, famous people that say, I wouldn’t have done anything different. Well, I would have done many, many things differently. Come on, seriously. So number two, I would say was, I would have thrown away a lot less money. Because and let me clarify that. Because as In fact, as I was, you know, about the time we met, I was actively pursuing a brand called I called the spine coach at the time, and had grandiose visions of being able to coach many people on an online format, or even on a self serve format, where they could get advice about their spine, and Chiropractic and posture and all that stuff. Well, that’s very money intensive, technology-intensive, and time-intensive. So I threw a lot of money away. And think about this as listeners, where you’ve shown after the fact you realize I was just trying to put out fires. And that is not an a nice feeling and a good place to either put out fires or say, I need this done yesterday, because you weren’t either planned properly or organized enough. And those are usually the weak areas to to just do it in a more efficient and effective way. Not using your own time necessarily, but planning a team to make that happen as opposed to Oh, did you know you needed this? Oh, that’s gonna be another $5000. Oh, and by the way, you could have this and then be of course subject to being upsold. Right. So that’s one of the things that I would have done definitely done differently is to plan Better. And I had a vision that included options for where I would spend. And then of course, when times are good in business, it’s really tempting just to buy this or buy that technology or if in a business sense, business decisions should be spending, whether there be advertising, it needs to have a predictable and measurable advancing of your business, or else why do this brand advertising, you better have a lot of money sitting there just to get brand recognition because people switch brands just like that these days.

Heather Pearce Campbell 15:39
Right. Right. No, that’s I mean, I, I can see how that can be a painful lesson. And I think I mean, part of it. And I’ll play devil’s advocate here as part of it is, I think, the experience of trying to build a business. And not that everybody ends up wasting money. But I think most people do somewhere along the line, I think I think that’s part of the lesson of building a business, right is that we, we don’t yet have the experience of knowing what’s going to work. And so we try some things. And inevitably, some of those things don’t work, hiring the wrong business coach or hiring like I had a painful experience of hiring a tech team that totally absolutely did not deliver, and I paid them a bunch of money,

Alan Chong 16:23
I’ve been there for sure.

Heather Pearce Campbell 16:24
Yeah, sure. Yeah. So.

Alan Chong 16:28
So on that note, there is a difference between being sold something and actually seeking out and sort of either getting it quoted or look at three comparables, etc, etc. And usually that’s a time crunch. That’s the thing. And if you’re being sold on things all the time, you might have that personality that always seeks to buy stuff. So be careful in business that I mean, you gotta have the guts to go for it in a sense, but you have to have the grit to say no to so-called opportunities. And that wisdom comes from experience and learn from experiences to know when to say no.

Heather Pearce Campbell 17:10
Well, I love that. And I think it all still boils down to, you know, the decisions that you are making, are you doing it from the standpoint of leadership of leading your business and having the plan, right, because I think sometimes, we just want to hand off Porsches. I mean, I know from personal experience around technology stuff, I was like, I just want this handled, I don’t want to have to think about I don’t want to have to do it. But ultimately, we’re still responsible for creating the path, we’re still responsible for making the decisions about what we need and what it needs to do for us.

Alan Chong 17:44
And for sure, Heather’s so what I get from that is, be leaders stay the leader. And don’t give away your leadership where it’s not supposed to be given away. In other words, a business company needs to have that leadership to, to continue on as an effective business, that leadership is essential. And for those who don’t lead their ship, if you will, they’re their company, that’s when they get into trouble. So there’s, there’s a difference between delegating, which is giving the trust over to someone who’s competent and qualified to, to be delegated that duty, even if it’s third party. And that’s often where the efficiency is in the third party in certain things. But always be in control of the content and the end the result, and that’s the key and make sure it’s measurable. And that’s where I think I made the mistakes and would do things over again and, and not throw away a lot of money in so called investing in this or that which had zero or negative payback.

Heather Pearce Campbell 18:56
Well, and there’s so much that we could dig into there. I think for anybody that has built anything in their own business, they understand, especially the constraint of time when you want something done tomorrow, right? There’s a huge urge to outsource or make a decision that may not serve you well and may not actually be in alignment with your plan whereas a leader of a business who has a plan has some of that structure built-in has a timeline and is able to do things you know much more what’s the word? You know, in plan mentally yes and planned progression, not just, you know, snap decisions around Oh, I need this. I needed it yesterday and trying to fill the gap.

Alan Chong 19:38
Right? But as an entrepreneur be willing to have the vision and take some risk and that’s what I’m referring to the guts part and gods to make some decisions based on whether it be a combination of intuition, and I guess some recent Search for some, some tangible things. That is not just a hunch.

Heather Pearce Campbell 20:05
Right? Right. Well, I want to change directions now. Because I know a huge part of who you are in your business, a huge part of your enjoyment around coaching others in business is the heart-centered part of you, right? You have a lot of heart language, even in your talk. And some of your programs I’ve observed you for a while, and I think you are launching are just about on the verge of launching a podcast and does it have something about heart or heart-centered in it talk to us about that.

Alan Chong 20:35
It definitely is heart-centered. And I’ve actually had the heart for my living legacy is is to teach others especially chiropractors to be more successful in the right ways. And that is, I’m launching a podcast. It’s practice mastery, for chiropractors and alternative health care practitioners. And the reason why specifically is because I see many younger practitioners floundering trying to find their way and again, spending a lot of money if they have it, or access to it either getting in a lot of depth thinking that’s going to create their success. But really, it is it I believe that most success comes from the heart. And the best kind of success comes deep from the heart. And the reason is that, again, with many years of practice experience and owning the business and running the business, I can say that I’ve spent way too many hours in my head trying to solve a problem. And really the answer was there that I either needed to turn back. Or it was a decision that was hard to change but needs to be changed. And especially with employees, directions, there’s all kinds of examples of that. So practice mastery, for chiropractors and alternative health care practitioners. Practice mastery will be the podcast, and it’s launching at or near now soon. And if you’re listening to this in the future, it probably is launched and will be available for health care practitioners, especially alternative and natural healthcare practitioners with a specific audience more for chiropractors because we seem to be a mainstream profession. That is, is the most highly misunderstood profession out there right now in health care, and continues to be and it frustrates me.

Heather Pearce Campbell 22:43
Interesting. So I have a question about that. But what really rang true for me and when you were talking about making decisions from the place of your head, right, like analytical decisions versus really tuning into your heart is that your heart is really what gives you clarity is that one way to say it?

Alan Chong 23:06
I would say the number one thing listeners is if you can’t decide and it’s not absolute it’s an A really important decision. And it is not like life and death right then and there. Try to buy time to sleep on it. It’s it’s an amazing principle that sleeping on it often does give clarity as opposed to thinking about it more and putting more down on paper pros and cons that are often a confusing place to be. But when you wake up, see what your heart tells you. Because first thing in the morning is often when you have greater clarity. And for example, a couple of years ago, I adopted a practice because I needed more clarity of meditation, just 10 minutes every morning. religiously has given me a lot more clarity and calmness though those are principles that you can apply and will work for you.

Heather Pearce Campbell 24:11 Oh, I love that. And what you were talking about just now reminds me of a time in my life when I was doing the morning pages, right so the artist’s way Julia Cameron, and she says in her artist’s way which is really a way of you know, kind of releasing your thoughts and getting to the point and the clarity that you need but doing it first thing in the morning upon waking because your ego is not yet awake and interfering with everything. So that was one way of putting it but i thought you know Isn’t that interesting? I think there is something magical about the morning and I do love your feedback around sleeping on it and really just, you know letting the feeling and your gut instinct through your heart speak about what is true and not trying to you know, be with your paper and Your list and making decisions from an analytical pro-con standpoint,

Alan Chong 25:04. For sure. And that is a trick, if you will, a hack for, for getting into your heart, what your heart is actually feeling.

Heather Pearce Campbell 25:12
I love it. What are some of the other concepts that you cover in your coaching with people and people who are building either, you know, chiropractic businesses or other businesses? What are some of the other topics that you cover?

Alan Chong 25:24
Well, one of the first things I start with any coaching client, is I get good at asking and getting them to define the five, say, five, or maximum 10 most important things in their life. And I’m not talking about tangible, like objects, I’m talking about the most important core value, things that they want out of life and want to create, or, or be like, you know, just Just what are the five most important things to me, to you? And commonly, for example, our family, well, if family is really important to you, then why do you spend so much time away in an in a, you know, on a speaking tour, whatever it may be, and you’re barely with your family. So that’s the core value mismatch. And so the first exercise is to get consistency and get congruent with one’s core values. Of course, one person, a coaching client, everybody needs to define what those values are before and put them down. That’s another good example where you got to put it down on paper and see if you wrote that yourself, this is what you said, and have a coach like me to be the accountability to say, well, you said this, and your actions certainly don’t, aren’t consistent with that. And you’re working six, seven days a week, and you say that family is the most important to you, or, you know, etc, etc. And what most people are will discover that money is usually not the top thing, even though they’re trying to advance their business. It’s not the top number one thing, and it I don’t believe it should be. So

Heather Pearce Campbell 27:13
Yeah, no, I love what you say about core values being the starting point of any of the coaching that you do, right. And going back to what really everybody should be looking at around any decisions. And, like I know from my own personal experience in life, so I got basically assigned a counselor in law school, and my mom was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer. And they basically didn’t give me a choice, right? They said, Here’s your counselor, this person worked for UW. And they just basically put me on a weekly schedule, because I was trying to make my way through law school and also dealing with my mom’s terminal illness. And it was one of the best gifts I could have been given in that time. But do you know that around so much of what we talked about during that period, and that has served me well, the rest of my life? Is what are your core values? And who can you be even during this really, really strenuous time that’s in alignment with your core values, basically, as a way to get through anything?

Alan Chong 28:18
Right? Well, I just got shivers. There, that means it’s positive.

Heather Pearce Campbell 28:22
Totally and really, if you look at any disconnect that we’re having in life, whether we’re unhappy in a relationship, whether we’re struggling with our children, whether it’s something business-related if you go back, he ran me through a very specific core value exercise, where in each and I can’t remember exactly, I’d have to go look at the worksheet how the areas are broken down, but it’s 7-8-9-10 areas across life, you rate yourself on a scale from negative three to positive three, are you fulfilling in your core values are described in an action, like an action statement, right? So I communicate openly and you know, regularly with my spouse or whatever, so you, you describe the thing that is the expression of your core value, and then you rate yourself from negative three to positive three on whether or not you’re living that value. If you have any disconnect or dip in life and business and parenting, you can go revisit your core value statement around that area. And almost certainly, every time it’s simply because you’re not living in accordance with your core values.

Alan Chong 29:32
Yeah, and I think business these days, especially I get that younger people are money Oh sir, notoriously, it’s all about me. It’s all about my values, not yours. And, you know, it’s working within their structure, not necessarily the structure of what they’ve been placed upon. So, I mean, there are extremes of that. I think the In general, that’s a great place to start for everyone. And that’s where I do start clients.

Heather Pearce Campbell 30:07
Mm hmm. Well, that’s interesting. I mean, I want to talk really quickly about that reflection on millennials. So, you know, I think as we look at millennials, there are a couple things that are fascinating. And having led a team of 15 people, several of whom fall into the millennial category, it was, it was really interesting to compare their performance, the number of days that they were there on the job compared to everybody else, like there were definitely some disconnects happening. And yet, the thing that I really appreciate about millennials, actually, around this concept of values is that they really behave differently in the marketplace than anybody ahead of them, like generations ahead of them, meaning that they’re going to make buying decisions that are in alignment with their values, they are the ones that are way more likely to drive, drive change when it comes to consumerism, because they’re not interested in some of the trends and some of the flashy things like there’s a lot that’s happening within the millennial group, as consumers as a voice right now that I think are really important to pay attention to, because they don’t, they don’t feel bound to some of the the strictures and the structures that existed be ahead of them, right, which means that they also exercise their voice in really interesting and meaningful ways. So,

Alan Chong 31:33
So so to your audience, and to speak to that I totally agree. And to be smart about it. It is a matter of as a business owner, as a chiropractor, I have to define my marketing, and my social media message when it is a to the specific audience, obviously Millennials are part of our specific audience, as a chiropractic clinic, so it is speaking a different language. And so whatever business you’re in listening to this is to be not only mindful of it, but to to respect that that that is a very important powerful voice. That is important, because even though that may not be your specific target market, if they’re listening, they are part of your market, and they can actually affect your business.

Heather Pearce Campbell 32:38
Yes, well, and I think and what I’ve heard, and what I find to be true about millennials is that if you can speak to their values, right, it’s probably not too dissimilar in a lot of ways, but you have to be able to speak to their values, you have to understand their values. And that’s where they might differ a little bit from other voices and consumers in the marketplace. But anyways, I’m really excited about actually what millennials and young people generally even people younger than them, I look at my own children and their sense of democracy, their sense of the truth, which is their voice matters just as much as mine does, right? I didn’t grow up in a generation where I felt like my voice mattered as much as my parents, right, we learned really quickly not to be the squeaky wheel because it didn’t make much difference, right? Not true for our children now, but anyways, oh, gosh, this, there’s so much we could talk about.

Alan Chong 33:35
Oh, that would be a long conversation on child-rearing.

Heather Pearce Campbell 33:39
yes, you’ve had your own journey with that. Right? You’ve got some brilliant kids that are phaser University. Yeah, yeah, new, new, you know, parts of their life that are really exciting. So I think you’ve got a gift for our listeners, which is really fascinating to me that you would offer this up because people would be crazy not to take you up on it. But let’s talk about that. And I’ve got some other final questions for you.

Alan Chong 34:07
Sure, as as a guest of or listener of Heather’s podcast, and I’m launching my new podcast, and in ways re-launching my coaching business. I would entertain, say, also, I’ll leave it up to 10 people because the number of people that will listen and for this on might be infinite. But I’m going to say for 10 people, I will do a free consultation. For now, you need to be to be specific. It would be a health care practitioner, chiropractor, alternative health care practitioner because that’s really where my focus is. I mean, I’m very good at business in many ways, but I’m not an expert in launching your online tech business or other businesses like that. So that would be basically a 15 minute to 30-minute chat about whether we resonate and whether I can help you either way you would get out of it, the some sense of direction on where to go. And that that’s what I would want to add value to those who take advantage of that. And I’m not sure how we which platform you chose to call for them to contact me for.

Heather Pearce Campbell 35:36
Yeah, absolutely well, so for anybody listening, if you want to get in touch with Alan, if you want to reach out to him, Alan, I will put all of your links, including any information that you want me to have about how people can reach out, reach out to you on my show notes page. So for listeners, you should visit legalwebsitewarrior.com/podcast, we’ll have all of Alan’s information there. But if you are in the chiropractor or alternative health world, I highly recommend you take Alan up on his offer for a chat because he’s built I mean, you’ve had practice with multiple locations at times, I mean, built up to really phenomenal levels of business, and you understand very deeply the world that you’re in.

Alan Chong 36:21
I certainly do. I don’t know what all but certainly and I’m still learning.

Heather Pearce Campbell 36:27
right, aren’t we?

Alan Chong 36:27
That’s why I’m a good coach.

Heather Pearce Campbell 36:29
I love that. So what else would you want to talk about? I mean, for people that are listening, especially people in the health care world, maybe we bring it up to current, right. So COVID is happening, people are having to figure out new ways to be and new ways to practice and new ways to probably find and attract people. What you have any thoughts, even based on your own experience?

Alan Chong 36:55
I love that question. And I do have an important sentiment to share. And, you know, this time has not been easy for any of us. Yeah. And what it’s done for me and many others that I and I’m a very good observer, I observe a lot of details and try to glean insight for my own life. And that is the shift from what was business as usual, to a much more sensitive, and this is just a general statement. And I think this is the wave of success that businesses that are sensitive to other people will do far better. In other words, reaching down to the heart being more accommodating. Listening and, and reacting appropriately. As opposed to these are the rules, you must follow the rules. And there are always exceptions to the rules. But we do have rules also in place to help society and businesses function better. So if anything, I would say that um, to be creative in your solutions, and be flexible, yet still be compliant so that we can all get out of this. This mass, if you will. And we are in this together very early on. I started posting with the hashtag, we’re in this together. And as we continue to get out of this together, I think, do you get a sense of that, whether there’s a sense of greater humanity coming out in some circles, more circles, and not now, the greater sense of caring and humanity certainly, it’s been a feeling that I felt it’s made me be more introspective of being more real with my patients and clients. As opposed to, I’m the doctor, and this is what you do. And you know, see you later, you know, yeah, two weeks or whatever.

Heather Pearce Campbell 39:08
Well, I agree. I mean, I think everybody has the opportunity right now to be more real in a variety of ways. I mean, even in showing up on a Facebook Live, right. I often warn people like you saw multiple times kids can come charging through the door, like, this is real life right now. And also, I think the way we enter into conversations, we have the opportunity to go much deeper and really, truly connect with people on how are they doing and what do they need and what’s going on in their life because the weight of it is, you know, can be pretty heavy and not everybody’s there. I will say it’s you know, it’s kind of painful to watch people who are going about life as normal and not making changes in the face of what you know, we’re all dealing with, but I think certainly a lot of people have become more aware and more compassionate and to your point that I love About if you can be more sensitive in your business and be more relational, right, I think about a conversation I actually just had with a gentleman yesterday or maybe the day before, about the businesses who are doing well right now versus those who are really severely struggling, the ones who are really severely struggling to guess what, they’re the ones who are trying to do business as usual, who are not socially conscious, who don’t have zero waste programs going on for businesses who are ahead of the curve, who are socially conscious have built-in diversity have created businesses and platforms that are that embrace the marketplace and embrace human reality. And also companies that are environmentally conscious, right? We talk specifically about companies that are environmentally conscious, and they’re doing better, they have a loyal following. They have people that care about what they’re doing. And that to me speaks volumes about how we create a loyal following in our business.

Alan Chong 41:06
And, and the greatest motivation is to do that with with with sincerity, right heart, right, not as a marketing ploy. Because those companies get called out pretty quickly when the back door when you’re watching the back door and stuff is just being totally dumped out.

Heather Pearce Campbell 41:25
Whatever you’re trying to whitewash something greenwash it, whatever you call it, versus really, truly building it into your culture, the fabric of your business, how you show up in every way.

Alan Chong 41:36
And I would say, for me, that has been my evolution, as a clinic owner, is to try to be creative. for the right reasons, and that is to we just celebrated our 2025 year anniversary as the brand. I’ve been in practice. 33 years. Thank you. But as a brand, we celebrated 25 years. And so part of that being real is to celebrate real things, right? Not marketing ploys necessarily celebrate real people celebrate real events, as opposed to hiding them or not acknowledging certain successes. So the great online marketing gurus said to me, Christian Michelson, he said, I said, Well, you know, I’m not a million-dollar business yet. How am I supposed to say I’m the million-dollar coach or whatever is thinking about branding or descriptives? Well, he said, How many millions have you made? Or the last 10 years? Oh, okay, multi-millions, right. So it’s all it is perspective. And someone has brilliant is Christian Michaelson had in just a, you know, casual conversation said, Did you realize this? And so often our own perspective is that we play down our successes. Yeah. And so those are genuine moments that we can capture. And I think the quick summary of that, Heather, is that to acknowledge the little things, and that’s where I say creativity, bring more creativity in your business, and acknowledge especially staff members that are great creative avenues, and can do a lot to contribute to your business. Even if it’s that one other person or to other people, or if you run multiple employees or contractors is to acknowledge that and so they will do their best work when certainly when they’re acknowledged that is one of the things I’ve also learned over the years of practice is to acknowledge and to pay attention to those details and, and celebrate successes.

Heather Pearce Campbell 44:04
I love that point. Because I think it’s one of the things I learned from one of my very favorite mentors early in my legal career. He was huge on celebrating wins whatever size when you need. I mean, it could have been something small, it could have been that he just loved the thing you wrote, you know, a portion of a memo or a brief or, you know, I mean, there was a whole lawsuit that I was a part of where we defended. Our client was sued for defamation, and she was a grassroots activist. And it was a really long, big story, but there were lots of opportunities for wins along the way. And that is truthfully a huge thing that’s missing not only in the legal world, but I think in life generally and especially for high performers, is slowing down, stopping, acknowledging, you know, whatever, however far you’ve come to the 10 steps from you Yesterday or maybe the 1000 steps from last year and really pausing to celebrate acknowledge other people in our life for that, and for their part in it and acknowledge ourselves. I love that as a point to wrap up I think.

Alan Chong 45:13
Your summary Heather is is a great testament to being human. We need to be more human these days, as opposed to be a business person. You know, I’m in business, we have to be profitable. Yes, you have to be profitable to survive, but be human, and express your humanity while you’re doing it, and contribute to humanity. Because ultimately, business is about helping others move forward in some way. Whether it be getting what they want, as a product, or service, or feeling better, or any number of other things, feeding them. You know, and let’s talk about let’s remind ourselves that we’re feeding both the mind the body if you will, and the soul. So that’s my holistic challenge. I guess. I’ll leave you with that.

Heather Pearce Campbell 46:12
So I love that I think it’s it’s such a great point to end on. Well, Alan, I, I so appreciate our conversation. I can feel your heart I can feel how much you care about the people that you serve, whether through your chiropractic work or through your coaching, and especially the part about being human and being human first before being the business. So thank you so much. I look forward to sharing this with my audience. If you’re listening, please be sure to visit the show notes and get to know more about Alan at legalwebsitewarrior.com/podcast. Alan congrats on your own podcast if, if your podcast is live when this show goes live, this episode goes live We will also share that link as well.

Alan Chong 46:57
Awesome. Appreciate that. Thank you very much for having me.

GGGB Intro 47:04
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