EPISODE 472: How to work with Professional and Amateur Athletes with FICS

Hey, chiropractors. We're ready for another Modern Chiropractic Mastery Show with Dr. Kevin Christie, where we discuss the latest in marketing strategies, contact marketing, direct response marketing, and business development with some of the leading experts in the industry. 

Dr. Kevin Christie: [00:00:00] Welcome to another episode of Modern Chiropractic Mastery. This is your host, Dr. Kevin Christie, and today I'm excited to bring an interview with two gentlemen, Dr. Martin Isaacson and Dr. Brian Nook. They are both of the International Federation of Sports Chiropractic. Uh, you will hear us call it FICS, and I know you're thinking.

How does FICS equal International Federation of Sports Chiropractic and all you need to know that means it's international. So they are international. Um, and so the FICS is, uh, not the English, uh, acronym, so to, it is a international body and they're doing amazing things and I wanted to bring them on to dive into it.

And we, we talk more about just. What FICS does. We talk a little bit about that, but we really dive into, um, some interesting topics within being a chiropractor and the longevity of being a chiropractor, finding purpose within it, uh, creating [00:01:00] your expertise, working as a team, working with high level athletes.

So we really dive into a lot of great topics and they bring great information. Uh, before we do that, I just wanna make mention a couple things is we do have. Our collaboration with Cairo Health, USA, I use 'em in my practice. We implement 'em this year and it's been great. Allow us to have a compliant discount plan and it's been a win-win for our practice and our patients.

And um, it's been really nice to have that. And if you're looking to, uh, make sure you're compliant with a discounted plan, you are offering certain services that are of. Particular cash rate and you're concerned with the dual fee schedule situation, this solves that. So just go to cairo health usa.com, let 'em know that uh, I sent you there and go from there.

The other thing I wanted to make mention is you can still, we have some spots available for the London Masterclass. Uh, Dr. Chris Chippendale and myself, we are doing a patient experience [00:02:00] masterclass on June 20th. 2026 in London. Uh, Chris, we'll talk from 9:00 AM to 12 on the doctor patient communication experience.

And then I'll be doing the afternoon session from one to 4:00 PM on service versus hospitality and also marketing essentials. And then from four to five you'll be heads down work and we'll help with you work with you on building your new patient experience. So you'll actually leave with a new.

Experience for your patients and you will implement into your practice. And that is June 20th. You can still sign up. Um, you know, we're excited. We've got a class going. We've got a good amount of registrations and we are pumped to do that. It's my first time speaking internationally and looking forward to doing it.

So if you're over, uh, in the, uh, European, or if you wanna travel over there, you can make a vacation of it like I am. Uh, we'd love to have you there. So go to Bitly, so BIT [00:03:00] ly slash MCM UK 26. We'll put that in the show notes as well. We'd love to have you there and it's a very reasonable price and I believe you will get a ton out of it.

Um, alright. Without further ado, here is my interview with Martin Isaacson and Brian Nook.

Dr. Kevin Christie: We got a little bit of a unique episode today where we got two gentlemen on here where we're gonna dive into really the benefits of, uh, treating at events, going to events, working, and as a team, what that does for you clinically, what that does for your practice and your standing in the, in the community.

And then just overall, I think a increased satisfaction, uh, in. Your profession. I know it has for me. But before we dive into that, I wanna do a couple introductions here. So, uh, Martin, start off you with where you're at, a little bit of your background, and then we'll go over to Brian.

Dr. Martin Isaksson: Thank you very much, Kevin.

Um, so my name is Martin Isakson. Um, I, uh, do [00:04:00] have two private practices in Sweden, uh, on the west coast, quite south of Sweden. Um, been working since 2013, since I graduated from Murdoch University in West. In Australia, Perth. Um, and ever since then, my passion has driven me towards the sports chiropractic field.

Um, given the opportunity to, to work with FICS early on. Um, I started out in leadership already in 2014 and since then I'm literally climbed the ladder from, from a board member to second vice president to first vice president, and now I'm the president of x. So it's been, uh, it's been one, uh, amazing rollercoaster and uh, yeah, you just keep on tagging on.

Dr. Kevin Christie: I love it. That's great. That's, uh, we got a whole podcast on that, uh, path there. I love it. I love it. Thank you. And then on to you, Brian.

Brian Nook: Uh, thanks Kevin. Uh, Brian Dun, uh, from Perth, Australia. Um, been involved in, in chiropractic since, [00:05:00] uh, 1983. Graduating from Northwestern in Minneapolis. Practiced for many years in a little town in Iowa.

Uh, spent a little time in South Africa teaching at, uh, the institution down there and then ended up at Murdoch University in Perth, um, and some at Palmer West and a little time in Sydney. Um, so I've gone from clinician to , academia to administration, uh, all the time being involved in FICS, uh, uh, in various.

Different positions. Uh, currently the Secretary General of, of FICS, and, uh, uh, excited to talk about, uh, our profession and, and the opportunities that are there.

Dr. Kevin Christie: How long ago did you end up in Australia?

Brian Nook: Moved here in 2003. Um, to help start actually the chiropractic program at Murdoch University, um, came over thinking I was gonna work on the curriculum, uh, for technique, uh, and the [00:06:00] training.

Uh, quite unique opportunity to be able to build a chiropractic program in a university. Uh, but shortly in thereafter, he ended up being the dean for six years. Um, and the head of the program added sports science and exercise fizz, and then got headhunted for the head of a college in Sydney for four years before ending up at Palmer West for the last nine until we just finished that one up and came back to Perth last year.

So.

Dr. Kevin Christie: Awesome. Love it. Love it. So, uh, FICS International Federation of Sports Chiropractic. I'll let, uh, one of you, uh, take the floor here to just, uh, give us a little bit of a breakdown of, of what that is exactly, and a little bit of the background and kind of mission of FICS.

Dr. Martin Isaksson: A hundred percent. So FICS is obviously the Federation of International Sports Chiropractic.

Um, our vision is that every athlete deserves access to sports chiropractic. So a lot of, uh, about the quality given the athletes the [00:07:00] opportunity to have chiropractic care, um, which I think. Paramount. If you look at the broader scheme of, of world, of sport, uh, especially now when we have great conversations with the IOC, we have great conversations with a lot of different sporting federations across the globe.

Um, we've been active since, uh, 1987. Um, when, when this. Um, fantastic Federation started and there's obviously been a lot of precedence, um, before me. So I'm really standing on the shoulders of giants if I'm gonna be totally honest. Um, and once when I picked it up a few years ago, my goal was to, um, give it back in even better, um, standard than I found it.

Inso. Um, that's what we've been uh, doing ever since. But, um, we've. Done exceedingly well over the past six years, I would say. Um, we really refined the organization, um, created a lot more, uh, structure to the organization in terms of governance, in terms of opportunities for our chiropractor. And we [00:08:00] do, uh, a lot of events.

Every year for different federations. And I think that now we're somewhere around, um, having contract with, you can correct me if I'm wrong, Brian, but I think we're almost at, um, 25 federations that we have, uh, contracts with and uh, obviously a lot of MOUs with, um, with other, um, organizations as well and, and uh, academic institutions.

So, um, FICS is thriving, that's for sure. Um, and, um, and Brian had you, you've been part of FICS since, uh, more or less you were born. So, I mean, you have a lot more, more of the, of the history than I do. Um, even though that's, um, it's always warns me, uh, around the heart when, when we have a lot of the precedents and the sections and, um, uh, reaching outers and, and really, um, really happy to see the progress FICS is making.

Dr. Kevin Christie: Yeah. Brian, tell, tell us still above the history, that'd be great.

Brian Nook: Well, the history started [00:09:00] with, uh, was a brainchild of a group of people that, uh, really met, uh, with the World Federation of Chiropractic and had a strong interest in sports chiropractic, um, and also had exposed themself to the world of sport, uh, and that there was, they found that there was a Federation of Sports Medicine and they said it's called FIMS for short.

Um, and they said, well, if. Films exist. Why shouldn't sports chiropractic exist? And a group of them met and they organized and got the, the headquarters put together and the bylaws put together. And that was the birth of, of sports chiropractic. Uh, and it was really the, the foresight of those individuals, uh, to lay that groundwork and, and get it started.

Um, the headquarters at first were, were in America, in New Jersey, and then, uh, they now are reside in Anne Switzerland, which is really the, the, uh, headquarters for most of [00:10:00] the world of sport from both, not only the Olympics, but international sports federations. And so that's where our, uh, headquarters are, uh, officially.

Um, and then it's just grown from there. It's, it's gone from. Uh, I think it started really with the idea of getting our profession more involved in the world of sport, both. At a national level with hopefully getting chiropractors at the Olympics because at that time, uh, back in the eighties, very few chiropractors went with Olympic teams.

Even, even America. There'd only been a couple of chiropractors that had gone, uh, back in the, uh, early eighties. Um, and, and, uh, it was just budding at that point. Mm-hmm. And so it was really, I think, started with connecting to get chiropractors with different nations, Olympic teams, but then it broadened out from that as it shouldn't [00:11:00] just be the Olympics, it should be the world of sport.

And sport and activity, and it, it goes, we talk, talk a lot within FICS about the breadth and depth, the breadth of reaching across different sporting federations in various levels and areas. But it's also the depth working at the, the local level, the club level, the, the, the state, the national. And then the international level, that's where our profession really needs to, to belong and be part of.

Um, and it's interesting that, you know, FICSes, uh, has been around for quite some time. Um, and sports physical therapy has, has just now organized and gotten recognized. So it's all coming together where the different groups are starting to be recognized, which is really good.

Dr. Kevin Christie: Yeah, it is. And, and I'm going to share a little bit, I've, I've been pricing for 21 years now, and I've kind of had a, a double life within the profession.

A lot of people maybe now [00:12:00] know me through MCM and, and kind of practiced growth for, for chiropractors. But my, my kind of first half was all I was fully knee deep in, in the world of, of sports chiropractic. And I'll get a lot of, um, younger dcs, younger chiropractors and, and sometimes physios ask me like, how do you.

How do I get to where I position myself well into treating athletes and all that, and a lot of them just think that they can. Graduate with a certain skillset and say they treat, treat athletes, hang a shingle up, and then it's gonna happen for 'em and, and for some it does, you know, and then I'm, and I don't say that to, to denigrate anybody's, uh, vision and idea, uh, as a young dc, but.

You really have to get involved. And I was fortunate enough, uh, because actually, you know, I, I didn't know of FICS in 2005, 2006 when I graduated. I do think you guys are doing a great job over the last few years because I started to see really good chiropractors who are members [00:13:00] and they're traveling. I'm like, wow, that looks really, really cool.

I, I didn't know about that 20 years ago, but I was fortunate to where, um, I got a lot of opportunities. Um. To, to go to the NFL combine for 12 years. I worked on the PGA tour for a year, uh, through Titleist and their TPI program. And so I had these events. I, I did work in Ironman, uh, event through active release, and a lot of those are, they either don't exist anymore or that's just very, very.

Challenging to get that opportunity, but what it did for me was, was a few things, and this is what I want to touch on with you guys, was as I started going to events. It definitely helped me clinically. Um, it, it helped me, uh, with better teamwork with other providers and, and that definitely transcended into my community.

Uh, I also felt a sense of community working with other providers in a. In an important type of setting, right? [00:14:00] That's, uh, not that our own private practice isn't important, but when you go to an event and you've got these high level athletes trying to accomplish something that's rare, you feel something about that, that's pretty, pretty neat.

And then I would say lastly, you know, as a byproduct of it, it did help me. Grow my own practice within my community because people's like, oh, you're traveling to these types of events, working with these types of athletes that has a, has the ability for people to put you, uh, kind of a, a perceived value of treating sports injuries.

And, and that's what I got out of it, which I thought was great. And I want to, I want to dive into that a little bit. So the first thing I want to do is I'm gonna, I'm gonna go to Martin here. And I want to, um, give us the, a, a picture of what it's like for some of the, the docs that are going out, working events.

What are some of the things they're doing, what are some of the places they're going? What are some of the sports? Just give us a little bit of a picture of what it looks like when you do get to [00:15:00] go to these events. A

Dr. Martin Isaksson: hundred percent. I mean, the, the, I think the biggest, um, the biggest thing about going to all these events is the community of service.

You get an opportunity to really get, meet and greet people from across the globe. Obviously all the athletes that come from every part of the, of the world. You're not working with a specific team. You're there for all athletes regardless of where they come from in the world. Secondly, to that, you get a chance to work with your colleagues who also come from all parts of the world.

And when you bring those things together and you see, I mean, I, I would go to any event. Any time of the day rather than to go a specific seminar for a specific technique. And why is that? Because I get a chance to spend multiple days with extremely good sports carros that does some extremely interesting stuff to patients and the things that they have acquired over a very long time.[00:16:00]

And, and. The beauty of it is that everyone is happy to help. Everyone is happy to share. And I think that is what brings everyone together. And it's almost, it becomes almost like a drug. You do, you do one and you just like, when when do I sign up for the next one? Uh, and that is, I think is the beauty of going to an event.

Now, secondly to that, you obviously have a lot of hoops and other things that you have to go, you have to apply for going to events. If you go to us, you have to then be selected for the team. You then have to get yourself there. And if. Playing usually somewhere across the globe. Um, you get there, you might be jet lagged.

You got your bench, you got your, your, your stuff, your head in right away. Your head is on, on fire. Um, you've researched the sport you're going to, 'cause there's different obviously, uh, injuries for different sports. Um, and, and you get all that. Um. Wrapped in. And once you get there and you talk to the, to the guys and you talk to the, the, the paramedics and you have all these conversations with all these different professions [00:17:00] and you really feel like you're part of the team.

Mm-hmm. And that team spirit, I think means so much for everyone that goes. Um, and, and really that's, as I said before, that's the drug.

Dr. Kevin Christie: Yeah. No, it is, and I, I look back on some of those memories of like, what you said is, you know, traveling and, and doing all that. And it was like, wow, that was a lot of fun. I know, like I, uh, I worked in an event where I had half day, a couple of half days, and I got to go like, do this.

Crazy kayaking down this river and doing all this, like I never would've done it. You know? Like that was just a little bit of a, a byproduct. But, uh, to your, to your point, um, on the clinical side, the things you do learn from other clinicians in a setting where they're wanting you to get better, because we get stuck on an island in our clinics, right?

Dr. Martin Isaksson: Yeah.

Dr. Kevin Christie: And if you try to call up a chiropractor that was 10 minutes from you to learn from him or her, she's probably like, nah, I'm not gonna do that. Right. But yeah, it, the things you do learn, and sometimes you [00:18:00] can correct me if I'm wrong, and this setting is, it's not just learning from other sports chiropractors.

You're learning from other types of, uh, providers as well. Right.

Dr. Martin Isaksson: Absolutely. Absolutely. I mean, there's so many times that, that you've picked up things that, and, and especially a lot of times how people think. And I think that's fascinates me a lot. Mm-hmm. Um, people have a clinical mind, obviously, and it might be slightly different to yours, but the way they think is just, it just ignites certain things in your brain and you think, oh, wait a minute.

I got a, I got a patient at home that, that in my practice that just have that issue right now. I, I wanna try that out on Monday.

Dr. Kevin Christie: Yeah. Yeah.

Dr. Martin Isaksson: And I think that is, that is, that is gold. That is a golden nuggets right there.

Dr. Kevin Christie: Yeah. And it's a big part of, we mentioned earlier of like, you know, kind of growing your practice, you're going to get better clinically and get results, better results.

Uh, and that obviously is a huge practice grower. Uh, and then, you know, uh, if you got Facebook, Instagram, whatever, TikTok, uh, [00:19:00] what it is, and you're, you're sharing some, uh, you're, you're in Japan working somewhere, you know, and doing this like, wow, this. This gal's a legitimate sports chiropractor. She's all the way in Japan working with these athletes.

And then, you know, certain things you can do to, uh, elegantly promote the fact that yeah, you, you do work with high level athletes and you do work with FICS. Um, you know, and, and, and that's not just something that you guys let anybody, uh, go and do. And so I want to, I do want to tackle this, Brian, what, what does it take to become a member of FICS?

Get to the point where. Um, you can work events and, and travel. Uh, what does that look like?

Brian Nook: Uh, well, first of all, to be a member, uh, is to be a member either through your National Chiropractic Sports Council or like in, in the USA. Now we have our Regional Chiropractic Sports Council, uh, which you can, uh, literally just become a member with.

Um, the fees [00:20:00] are nominal, I would say, uh, anything from 30 to 60 Swiss francs. Uh, so we're not trying to make money off of our members. We need to do that otherwise. So once you're a member, then, uh, also you need to do, uh, the educational, uh, requirement, which is our International Certified Sports Chiropractic, our ICSC.

Um, that is a requirement that has actually put on us by the international federations. They require our docs to have, and we have opened it up that if you've completed part of it and you're in the process of completing it, you can go with a mentor to an event while you're actually still doing it. Uh, because we've, we value you getting that experience.

It's part of it. Uh, so once you've got your ICSC, uh, then, uh, we've opened up a, a portal, uh, provider pool, uh, which you put your name into. You look at the, we have over 30, uh, events going [00:21:00] on this year. Um, we have two going on just in the last weekend. Um, you put in onto that pool and you, you say which events that you, you can prioritize which events you're really interested in.

Yeah. It then goes through a selection process within the Games commission, uh, which we pick. And when we're picking what we're trying to do is, is, um, and I want to assure this. It is not a good old club. Uh, we are trying to take mentors with new people because that's our legacy. Our bigger events, we do have tiered events, our multi-sport events.

Yes. Then a lot of times we need those, those more veteran providers. But our world championships, um, national championships, those types of things, uh, we are always trying to put. A veteran with a mentor, uh, or a mentee, so that we get those, that building those teams as we go. Um, and then that's [00:22:00] it. You're, you're off and running.

Um, just a little thing too about the practice and, and some of the, I'd love to tell a bit about the stories of the people that you meet. Yep. The very first world games that we worked was in 2005 in Burg, Germany. And, uh, we had a fabulous team there. It was our first World Games. We had no idea what we were doing, to be honest.

Um, but we, we evidently pulled it off because we've been doing it since then. And one of the individuals that we met was an orthopedic surgeon, uh, from Germany. She's a younger lady, and she just got absolutely fascinated with our team and what we were doing. So much so that she left her practice and went on and studied chiropractic and is currently dually qualified.

So not only do we learn. Yeah, we also have the ability to teach others. And oftentimes you learn the most when you teach, which is true. Uh, I've, and that was just a little bit of a story about that, and for me. Uh, I [00:23:00] agree. Building the practice. I looked back, I walked out of my practice for oftentimes several weeks at a time.

Dr. Kevin Christie: Mm-hmm.

Brian Nook: My cashflow, because I didn't have an associate at that time. Yes. Went down, but when I went back, I was busier before I left because my patients were really excited about how I got to go to this and what happened with that. What I was going to, and they wanted to know what happened when I got back.

Yeah. And so I never actually lost income. I actually gained income. Mm-hmm. But I am honest, the cash flow did dip, but the income actually stayed. That was just my experience by going there.

Dr. Kevin Christie: Yeah. And I'm gonna,

Brian Nook: my marketing investment is what

Dr. Kevin Christie: I. I want to touch on that, and then I'm gonna throw it over to you, Martin, and, and I want to hear a little bit of, some, some feedback you've guys gotten from the athletes that have experienced this.

But before we do, um, one of the things that I try to tell chiropractors is, you know, on the financial side, whatever is, is have a, have a practice and strategy of [00:24:00] reinvesting in yourself. And this is an, this is a business investment, so you know, you run it through the business, whether it's uh, you know, your flight and your rooming and all that to get there.

It's all, it's all business expense. Obviously. I like to prepare for that, what we call through like a sinking fund. So if you know. Let's just may say it might cost you a few thousand dollars or whatever, give or take, uh, plan ahead for that. You know, every month put 500 or a thousand from business into a, a separate account to, to earmark that.

And then maybe even like what I used to do, I. I would be gone for a week for the, on the PGA event, I did the one year, I did like seven events. It was like seven weeks. I, I would, um, I, I would say, okay, a week of income in my business is X amount. I would also put that amount in there, and then I would inject that in my operating account when I would leave.

So I would have the peace of mind that I was like, okay, I prepared for this. I'm not worried about the money of it. I know in the long run this is gonna be beneficial and, and it [00:25:00] has been. Right. So I want. People listening is that, you know, just a, you gotta be reinvesting in yourself every year to get better and all things, and this is one of 'em.

And then B, there are financial strategies you can do to prepare for it ahead of time so it doesn't kind of ding you. And then, like you said, Brian, you're gonna. You're going to get the return on it. This is a, a return on investment sort of deal. This isn't just, you know, I'm going on vacation and it's a, a waste of money.

This is got a distinct return on investment, which is, which is great. So I wanted to make sure I, I covered that. Now to you, Martin, what are some of the feedback you get from the athletes, you know, getting worked on and evaluated by FICSed members and, and how that's progressed over the years?

Dr. Martin Isaksson: I think, I think this is a, is an interesting question due to the fact that many, many times when we go to our events, there's a lot of people there from countries that has never ever heard of our chiropractic

Dr. Kevin Christie: Yep.

Dr. Martin Isaksson: Have never experienced a, a, an adjustment in [00:26:00] all their life. And, and you know, for a lot of them it, it becomes almost like. You know, we are godsend in our hands because we do things that they've never experienced. They might have just gone to the physio and got, uh, rehabilitation or exercise physiologist, whatever that might be.

They've never had anyone lay their hands on them and, and ally work through the myofascial chains to, uh, adjusting and all that stuff. Mm-hmm. Um, so I think that, um, a lot of times. Um, the, the enjoyment from the athletes that we see are, are through the roof. Um, yeah, we, we did the Csit games, um, which is an AM amateur multisport event.

Um, last year and the, the feedback we we received from the, um, president of the CC games, he said, you, you blew out everyone out of the world. That was, that was, you guys scored the highest of all the services that was provided at the CC games. [00:27:00] And, um, and I said to him, so why do you think that is what you, well.

You, you, you get a chance to look them in the eyes. You get the chance to put your hands on them and you get a chance to get them to experience something they might not have experienced. And secondly, they feel better. Yeah. They feel like they are untouchable. And I think that is such a, as an athlete, you know, you know, if you've ever been an elite athlete yourself, everyone knows that if you, if you get an edge.

You feel invincible. And I think that's what chiropractic gives a lot of people. They feel like, my goodness, my body reacts, I feel strong. I feel, you know, the performance goes up. And we've seen that in research too. Um, and we all know that pain is just the, some words and my fascial shame that doesn't want to perform the way it should.

Brian Nook: When

Dr. Martin Isaksson: we get that body on the table, we work on it. They get up and they feel the [00:28:00] difference. I think that is, that is the, that's the golden one. So, yeah. Um, and that's what we see when we're out all the time. And you get these people obviously coming up with medals and they wanna hang it around your neck and say, you know, you did this and mm-hmm.

Um, I always, I always give all athletes say, I. Did not create that medal. You did? Yeah. The only thing I did was to support you in that endeavor.

Dr. Kevin Christie: Yeah. No, it's, it's, it's great. Um, Brian, do you have any, anything to add to that on, on some of the feedback you've gotten over the years with athletes?

Brian Nook: Yeah. Well, we co collect research on, uh, all of our events and everything else, and so we're actually trying to codify.

Uh, some of the results that we're talking about and, and one of the things is, is that we, the statistics are telling us that, first of all, we're a very utilized part of the healthcare team, um, uh, at the World Games in, in Birmingham, Alabama. And, and [00:29:00] 2022, uh, over 25% of all the athletes, so over the 3000 athletes are there.

Voluntarily came up and asked for our services. Now, 25% may not sound like a lot, but um, in, at the Olympics, uh, typical healthcare delivery is, uh, for medicine is five to 8%. Physical therapy is 14 to 18%. Uh, so we're, we're, uh, and at the last World Games, I'm still actually analyzing the data. We were again, over, uh, 20%, uh, of the athletes came and saw services.

And what I'm excited about looking at the data is, is that two things really comes out is, is that they want our services and. It's oftentimes fitting exactly what Martin said our mission was, was an equitable and level playing field. Because it might be obvious that, yeah, USA and Canada and UK [00:30:00] athletes use our service, but oftentimes it's coming from countries that really have very little or no exposure.

To chiropractic like Poland, like Columbia, like Taiwan, where they still persecute chiropractic in Taiwan. So it's, and they become one of the top five countries that actually utilize the service. So we are filling that, that very important pillar within the International Olympic Committee movement of an equal, equal, and level playing field for all, which I think that's really cool to see that happen.

Dr. Kevin Christie: Yeah, I love it. And part of what excites me about our profession, 'cause I know a lot of people will get down on this, that and the other thing, whether it's in the states, the insurance reimbursement or, or whatever. I can, I could probably name five things, but I'm excited because. The opportunities that chiropractors do have now that didn't exist even when I graduated, is really, uh, it's substantial.

I've had some people on the podcast over the years [00:31:00] where we talk about that and highlight certain situations where, whether it's hospital systems bringing on chiropractic or, uh, I actually had clinics inside a large corporations down here in Florida for a while, you know, that was cool. And then obviously every sports team in the States, I know, like, seems like they have a.

Chiropractor. So the, the when, when groups like FICS and others have these opportunities to commingle with other types of orthopedists like you mentioned and other types of athletes and, and within other countries, the whole thing rises up and you get. Such a higher level of opportunity and recognition, uh, as a, as a chiropractor, which is, which is great.

And I, and I love that and I commend you two for, for helping with that. Um, the, the next thing I want to segue into, and I'm gonna kind of go over a little bit of a preamble here, and then let. I'll let you guys take it from there. But, uh, there's a gentleman, Cal Newport, and he's written some books. He's got a podcast, but he, he wrote a book, [00:32:00] uh, called Deep Work that, that everybody, uh, kind of references and knows a lot about, but he has this whole concept called The Deep Life and there's really like four key components of it.

It's, uh, you know, and he called kind of the four Cs and, and it's, uh, you know, everything from. Uh, what he calls constitution, which is your health, uh, to one of 'em is, is your craft, right? And he, and he, he talks a lot about to have a, have a deep life is to have a craft that you love working on and getting better and really finding a lot of purpose and meaning.

And I know a lot of people tend to suffer because they don't really get a lot outta their career or their craft per se, and it gives them. Not a whole lot. Right. And I think as chiropractors we're unique in the sense that, uh, we have a very strong opportunity to make our craft something that gives us a, a ton of meaning and purpose and growth over years.

And, but there's a lot of chiropractors that are struggling with finding [00:33:00] that. Um, and, and I, and I think that's something that's. Unfortunate, right? And to lay that as the, as the context. What I've found, a lot of the chiropractors that I've talked to over years that have had a certain amount of years under their belt, right, their, their 20, 30, 40 years into this, was that they were able to find that purpose within their craft that kept them growing and having a growth mindset and, and gave them a lot of purpose.

And for a lot of people. They may be able to get that in their private practice only. But for a lot of carpenters I've talked to, they love having a private practice and then they love teaching this or they love going to this, or they love this or you know, there's a lot of cool ancillary things we can get out of our profession, which is, which is great.

And I, and I, and I just implore chiropractors that are listening if they haven't found yet. What is exciting them about their craft? It could be something like this, and I [00:34:00] know being able to work with athletes, being part of a group like this, getting better clinically traveling, seeing the world, seeing how different sports in different countries operate can really be that excitement for you.

So I want to, I want to give each of you an opportunity. To share how this has helped you, you know, being involved with FICS, uh, being involved with the athletes, how that's kind of, uh, extended your excitement about this career and what you're doing and what you're excited about. So, uh, Martin, I'm gonna start with you and then we'll go to Brian.

Dr. Martin Isaksson: Awesome. Well, I think for me, um, because FICS is a volunteer organization, um, that has always been something that's that that driven me, um, in the sense of, I think that when you do volunteer work, um, you don't do it for the money, you don't do it for the fame, you don't do it really for anything more than to increase the awareness for the profession.

And when you work for something bigger than yourself. [00:35:00] Like a lot of people talk about faith. Faith is bigger than yourself. Same thing here in my perspective is that I work for something bigger than myself. I'm trying to push forward this amazing, awesome, um, uh, profession forward and showcase the opportunities that assist in it.

Um, I mean, I've been been teaching for effects in the our CSC since 2018. I've been traveling around the world doing that. I've been traveling around doing more than I think I'm up to about 30. 30 world championships in 14 different sports. Um, I've been doing so much of that stuff everywhere and there is not one second of that that I would ever say, go back and say, nah, I, I could skip that because I've always learned something, always been able to give back.

And at the end of the day when I put my head on my pillow and sweat, same thing when I, you know, when you are working a whole day in practice, you want to. Feel good about yourself. You want to feel good about the stuff that [00:36:00] you've been able to do. And I think that's where FICS for me, has filled that void of, of, um, importance of, of giving back.

And, and I think that's the beauty of, of, of what we can do.

Dr. Kevin Christie: Yeah, I love it. And you know, and going back to like, even in private practices, good as it can be. And, uh, you know, and, and a lot of people love it. Sometimes if you're not careful, it can get mundane. Uh, and, and having that, having that second thing or that outlet outside of that, that is frankly in the grand scale of humanity, so rare of how many people can actually do what we do.

Right? Yeah. Uh, to be able to do that, it's, uh, it's exciting when you're doing it. They kind of like say like the best, one of the best parts about taking vacations in general is just the fact that you look forward to it for so long. It's like part of the vacation. It's the same thing with these types of events.

It's like what's great about the event is not just only being there, but it's actually looking forward to, uh, being there and it kind of gets you a little bit excited and, uh, can break that, that um, [00:37:00] monotony of private practice sometimes. Right.

Dr. Martin Isaksson: Yeah. A hundred percent. A hundred percent.

Dr. Kevin Christie: Now how about you, Brian?

What's it meant for you as far as, uh, you know, how, how many years have you been practicing now you said 83, was it that you graduated?

Brian Nook: 83? Yeah, let's just put it past 40. So, yeah, a long time. No, I think this topic is, is very important because a lot of people, and I've, in my lecturing, I've often asked, um, you know, how many people honestly have hit that time where all of a sudden practice got easy, uh, and as you said, mundane.

Um, and it's funny, it's usually about seven years. Seven years in all in practice, you get past a, you know, am I gonna handle what walks into the office? And then you go, well, even if I don't know what it is, I know what to do, I can get it where it needs to go to, I can handle. I pretty much anything that walks in and then the boredom sits in and I've watched people, they all of a sudden then become super investors or [00:38:00] buy, you know this, or all of a sudden they're on the golf course or they're into a plane or a boat or whatever else they get that's distracted and hopefully not something else that they shouldn't be distracted in.

And that's the problem. And so I think some people are very satisfied working in a small town. I worked in a very small town, had a practice, and they're comfortable there and they make it work. That's fantastic.

Dr. Kevin Christie: Mm-hmm.

Brian Nook: These types of things has got to fit the individual. I think there are opportunities to where, yes, w what I found with FICS is not only did it energize and help me in my daily practice and back in practice, it actually changed my life.

It caused me to move to South Africa and, and help to establish sports chiropractic in, in that area, and, and my family got to experience that too. Mm-hmm. It brought me back to my practice in Iowa. Then it, it led me into actually going to Australia and that all started with my network and, and opportunities that came [00:39:00] out of the people that I met.

And FICS how I got to go to the Olympics was because I went to an event and met the right person that then gave me the invitation to go. It's, it's about developing that network. Sometimes foolishly, bravely. There's a fine line there. Taking an opportunity and, and seeing what opens up. But it, it's, it's been a, a, a great ride.

And, and if it's what people are interested in, geez, I'd encourage them to tip their toe in. We tell 'em if you can go to one event a year,

Dr. Kevin Christie: right.

Brian Nook: As you said, there's financial ways in which you can do it. We've got one of our, uh, members, it's uh, in his seventies. He's even older than me. Um, and, hi, this is now his retirement plan.

He actually pick the different events that he wants to go to, where he wants to go to. He goes over it, he writes the whole thing off, and then he tours around with his daughter or his wife and, and sees the country that he is in. I'm like, sign me [00:40:00] up. This is what I wanna do when I retire this. Just go and do these different events and, and get a chance to see the rest of the world and spend it with my family.

What a great way to go.

Dr. Kevin Christie: And the treat is. You know, that's what I was gonna say. It really is, is like you're, you're getting so many benefits out of it. Um, and it just makes for a very interesting career. Right. And I think not enough people have the opportunity to have an interesting career. And we do. And I think, uh, maybe some chiropractors that are struggling to, to take that kind of leap.

To help grow themselves a little bit more. This could be the, the step for them to do it. I think the other thing to take from this is, and I know Martin you mentioned about like giving and, and there, you know, it's like when you do give, and this is a form of, of giving, you do receive and, and you will in many ways, not just, um, financially, but also just it's that rewarding, uh, part of what a career can be.

And then like, you know, I love, I always love. Because chiropractors, I think sometimes [00:41:00] struggle to vision what the, the back half of their career is gonna be like. Right. And you mentioned you had a great story there with someone with their, their back half of their career. They really tied it into retirement.

That's pretty neat.

Brian Nook: Yep. Well, in fact, that individual. Got his associate by one of our research assistants that came to an event that actually then opened it up even more. So it all came from his involvement at one of our sporting events, and then it just led from there. And I just want to pick up altruism and, and altruistic events.

Uh, is, is something unique or I think we get tied up and everything has to be transactional. Um. And when you do a non-transactional thing, you get something completely different. And um, I know in sports chiropractic, there's a lot of places where you can go and get paid to work with a team and so on.

Highly support that. I think that's fantastic. We need to be there. But there's also stuff that can be done that [00:42:00] is like this, uh, that, that doesn't take that constant commitment. But hey, a week, a weekend. And

Dr. Kevin Christie: an

Brian Nook: adventure.

Dr. Kevin Christie: What a great way to come and a key difference on that, Brian. And then I'm gonna, um, I'm gonna wrap it up and Martin, you're gonna let us know where people can find out more about FICS.

But one of the, the key differences there is reactive versus proactive, right? So if you're sitting around hoping that the local university makes you the team chiropractor or the pro team or whatever. That could, that could take decades. Right? Um, and it's a lot of times it's luck. It's definitely skill.

You have to have the skill, but it also meets timing and luck. Like the, the couple opportunities I had when I look back on it, I was like, wow, there was a lot of luck and it was kind of a react reaction of an opportunity that I got. This is being proactive, right? Like you, you can take the reins on this, you can, you can get certified, you can sign up, you can put your name in the hat and you can start doing it.

And then when you're proactive like that, you're gonna get a lot of [00:43:00] strategic byproducts like. You know, meeting other providers that ultimately might refer people to you in your clinic or you get opportunity that a, that a team does open up and you get highly recommended because you have this background and now opportunity meets, meets preparation.

So I, I want people to understand that this is a. A proactive approach to, to, to taking the bull by the horns versus hoping that you're gonna be the, you know, Atlanta Braves team, chiropractor. That's a hard one. I've, I'm still waiting to be the Miami Dolphins team chiropractor and it's 20 years later. So, uh,

Brian Nook: and, and Kevin, if I can just add also I would like to people to know.

Oftentimes we are really meeting more applicants. It's not like we've got the book is filled and we are often sometimes pleading to find more people. So your odds, let's put it down to a monetary, if you're gonna play the lotto. Getting to go, uh, to one of our events is a high, high [00:44:00] return, um, uh, because we need more.

And hopefully that eventually will change, but your odds ratio is way up there. Um, uh, because we, we don't have enough people to fill all the events that we've got. Uh, we do fill 'em, but we could use a lot more.

Dr. Kevin Christie: It's a testament to the growth and reach that you guys have had over the years that you got so many events and, and, and the need is, is awesome.

And so hopefully we can in, in increase that su supply there. So, uh, Martin, how can, uh, those interested find out more, get, get going on this and, uh. Change some people's lives.

Dr. Martin Isaksson: Absolutely. So one way is obviously connecting, uh, through our webpage FICS sport. Um, that's a great, um, webpage. It gives you a lot of the history, gives you a lot of the events.

We do all our ICSC, um, seminars that we host in different countries and different, um, uh, with different opportunities for that. Um, things like Mexico, if you wanna go there and do your ICSC or if. You want to go down to, um, to [00:45:00] Switzerland now in the summer in Burn, which is a beautiful part of Switzerland, if you wanna do that.

I mean, there's so many different, uh, opportunities if that's what you wanna do. And we are obviously well connected with the, uh, WFC, so we are part of their, um, newsletters that's coming out there. We have our own newsletters that all our members get, and we obviously have the social media. So, uh, we're on Instagram.

We are on Facebook, um, and a bunch of other things. Um, I'm still trying to find someone that's willing to donate their time on TikTok, but maybe one day we'll see that. Not

Dr. Kevin Christie: me, not me,

Dr. Martin Isaksson: but, uh, hey, you know, I've been petitioned for Brian here, so,

but, um, yeah, so we do, um, um, um, exist on all the different platforms, um, and obviously, um, trying to push out our vision and mission. Um, to our members and to everyone else. And, um, and as you said before, I mean the, the opportunities that I've got over so many years of being part of FICS [00:46:00] from, from different teams in, in, in sports, um, to, um, I have a bunch of, um, Olympic athletes that come and see me just because they've seen that I'm being active on social media and so forth, uh, with all the different events.

I mean, it, it's exponential. You start out small and you keep on building that. And, and if you can do what you said before, which I think is a beautiful idea that you put some money away for, for, for it every week or every month. Mm-hmm. I, I think, you know, that is a great investment in yourself. Um, so I think that we've hit really good cues here and, and get people to understand that this is a hundred percent feasible.

Um, and you will a hundred percent not regret it.

Dr. Kevin Christie: No, I love it. Well, gentlemen, this has been great and I appreciate the work you guys are doing for the profession and obviously athletes around the world. Uh, we'll have to have a part two of this sometime. Okay?

Dr. Martin Isaksson: A hundred percent.