EPISODE 491: How to Host a Shockwave Demo Day with Mark Howarter, DC
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.
Kevin: [00:00:00] All right, I got Dr. Mark Holwater on the episode today. We're gonna dive into, uh, shockwave and how to grow that. But it... We're gonna really kind of event on demo days and what that looks like, and some of the logistics of it, the marketing of it, the execution of it. And it will also dive into how he's, uh, really, you know, made his practice real busy with, with shockwave and, and other things.
But before we dive into that, Mark, uh, tell us a little about yourself personally and professionally.
Mark Howarter, DC: Okay. Uh, Dr. Mark Holwater from Lawrence, Kansas. I established my practice in, uh, 1999 after graduating from Cleveland Chiropractic in Kansas City. Uh, moved to Lawrence. Uh, like Carl Cleveland used to say, "We want our students to graduate on a Friday and go practice on a Monday," and that was me.
I already had my, um, Kansas license before I graduated, so as soon as I got my diploma, I was ready to rock. So I moved out here, set up my practice. I've had a family practice now, uh, since the [00:01:00] beginning, uh, starting in 2000. And so here it is 2026, and just been serving the community, uh, all these years. And so, um, I have been married for 23 years.
I have two daughters. One goes to the University of Kansas here in Lawrence, and then the other one is a junior in high school. And so just, I- Yeah ... I cannot believe how much after 26 years, I still love this profession. It's just-
Kevin: Yeah ...
Mark Howarter, DC: awesome.
Kevin: That's awesome. That's great. And then, um, are you from that area originally or did you just end up back there for some other reason?
Mark Howarter, DC: So I'm from a small town about an hour from here.
Kevin: Mm-hmm.
Mark Howarter, DC: And, uh, you know, I think when, when we're in our tw- or like in our 20s, we want to kind of get out of dodge and get away and, you know, kind of reinvent yourself and whatever. So I was looking at some other, other states, but realized, like, I just needed more to do than what was offered in my small town.
So Lawrence is about 100,000 people. Yeah. And it's about a half an hour from Kansas City, which has everything else. And so it's far enough away from home that I can... I, I get to create my own identity, but [00:02:00] also close enough to home that I can be there whenever I need, so.
Kevin: Yeah. That, that's great. And, um, just a little bit of backstory on, on why you're on the podcast.
You know, we obviously hear a lot about shockwave therapy now. A lot of people are adding it, um, and we're trying to help chiropractors as much as we can. And, uh, I was chatting with Kenus Medical on, you know, who should I bring on to discuss maybe demo days, things like that, other, other strategies around really growing the, the shockwave part of it, in particular the, the demo days, and that's how they connected me with you and, uh, said that you've been doing great with it.
Before we do dive into the demo days, uh, when, when did you get shockwave? What year was it?
Mark Howarter, DC: So I went to FCA, the national, uh- Mm-hmm ... conference, uh, down in Orlando. That was in 2024. And, um, I was there, uh, to, uh, to represent Leander Company, so I was talking to lots- Yeah ... of doctors, and lots and lots of doctors are coming by the booth, [00:03:00] and one of them s- was started talking about Shockwave, which I wasn't really super familiar with.
Kevin: Yeah.
Mark Howarter, DC: And he, and he literally took me by the hand and was like, "Today's the day. You're gonna go meet Kenis Medical." And because I had this old knee issue, and they did a little work on my knee that I'd been bugging with for years, and after a visit it was better, and it was better for the rest of that weekend standing on my feet.
So I, I bought one that weekend. I brought it home, and I started using it. So-
Kevin: Nice ...
Mark Howarter, DC: um, that was my kind of uh, immersion, I guess if you will, into Shockwave, so.
Kevin: Yeah, that's great. So about, you know, two or three years into having it, um, before we get into the, the demo day part of it, you kind of mentioned how, you know, you're, you're...
you have a full-time person just doing the Shockwave, and they're pretty busy, is that correct?
Mark Howarter, DC: Yes.
Kevin: Um-
Mark Howarter, DC: Yeah, so, so I, I, I, I didn't really know what that was even gonna mean having Shockwave as, as- Yeah ... like as a secondary, you know, treatment in my office. But once I had a chance to go to [00:04:00] the, to the Academy of Shockwave Excellence, uh- Mm
down, down in, uh, in Atlanta with, with Kenis Medical, and I had an understanding that there was... in terms of just getting protocols down and the amount of time that it was gonna take to really serve people really well, I realized I wasn't gonna be able to integrate that in my practice on my own. So at the time, I had an intern, uh, that was finishing up at the University of Kansas here in Lawrence that was- Mm
he was one of my patients. He was getting ready to go to chiropractic school, so he was super stoked to get his hands in on absolutely anything that he could. So I sent him to also get the, the, the training and certification as well, and he was a real integral part to doing the demo days.
Kevin: Perfect, and then now this person that you have, just pay him hourly obviously, and, and they're really handling a lot of the, a lot of the Shockwave, and, and you're, you're busy with that.
What... Putting the demo days aside, what have been some other, uh, ways that you've really b- you know, grown this Shockwave part of your practice? I know you do different things, but [00:05:00] how did, how did you grow that? Has it just been, you know, regular patients coming in, and you're recommending it with confidence, and they're, they're, they're doing it, or has there been other marketing things you've done?
What's, what's been the key there? I
Mark Howarter, DC: mean, we did a, a fair amount of, like, social media and just trying to- Yeah ... just to put it out there that we were, that we were adding this. You know, we were putting it- Mm-hmm ... around the office and just doing a lot of our internal marketing and things like that. Honestly, most of it just grew from- And we do an, an exam with every new patient, and then we just offer them a care plan.
You know, they're- Mm-hmm ... usually, you know, six months to a year that we're doing care plans with people. Um, and we have decompression therapy as well too. Um, so I just have a Chattanooga decompression therapy, uh, table. And so I just started integrating that in as a part of a, more of a whole body recommendation.
So I usually will use shock wave more as like s- for soft tissue therapy, just kind of for the short game, so to speak. Yeah. So I also didn't realize how good it was going to help with so many aspects of the body like I wasn't [00:06:00] super effective with helping things like plantar fasciitis in the past other than just offering people, um, insoles or custom orthotics or things like that too. So when we started getting results with that, it became really easy to just start to do a lot of internal referrals with that.
And so that- Yeah ... and, um, you know, shoulder pain, hip pain, knee pain, things like that, it was, it was really quickly took off. So we started off just offering it as just a, as a bit of a value add, and say, "If you, if you come in here and you get this, uh, shockwave just as a try it day-
Kevin: Yeah ...
Mark Howarter, DC: write a, write us a review with your great experience on Google."
Mm-hmm. And over the course of the next, you know, 90 days, we had a, you know, 100 new, you know, Google re- reviews, and that really helped out a lot when we started adding it into our marketing for our website and used in, in conversation. So, but- Yeah ... adding it into our treatment, into every treatment plan, if, if people qualified for that, was the, by far the best for longevity.
Kevin: Yeah. And that's the thing is, like a lot of times it plugs a lot of holes, so you know, a lot of clinics, chiropractic [00:07:00] clinics may not do great with Achilles stuff or calf or foot or shoulder, elbow, whatever. Now you got all these things you're treating, and then it ends up getting referrals from patients who get relief from the plantar fasciitis.
So now it, it opens up this whole new world of conditions that you're, you're treating, which has been great. Um-
Mark Howarter, DC: Yep,
Kevin: yep ... so now let's, let's segue into the, into the demo day. Um, what were some of the, like what's the structure of a demo day that you've done? And I know you had a intern doing that. I wanna, I wanna dive into that as well, but what's just been the overall structure?
You've been doing it in-house, you've been doing, going places to do it. What are some of the details of that?
Mark Howarter, DC: So, my intern that I had, he, um, was also a personal trainer, so he had a few... Um, like his mom owned one of the biggest women's gyms in town, so he just said, "Hey, can we come out and do this, do this day where, you know, we put up a sign and a table, set out Shockwave?
And no, we're not treating because that wouldn't be, um, I don't know, ethical really. I mean, we're not diagnosing [00:08:00] anything. We're not treating anything. We just wanted to introduce people to the equipment itself. Um, and so it- we just treated it more as like a screening. I've done lots of screenings in the past.
This was a lot like that. Mm-hmm. So they would fill out just a brief form, introduce themselves. Yeah. We'd lean into that a little bit, ask them about how, what they've tried in the past, what hasn't worked, what has worked, just to get a little bit of a sense of where they're at. Um, we would m- we would maximize our pulses to do about 2,000 pulses on whatever region was bothering them the best and, uh, the, the most, and then just getting their feedback from that.
And then we offered them, if they came into the office, it was like $49 as an intro into the office. And so the way that I paid my intern was if, if he, whoever scheduled the appointment, I just gave him the $49. I didn't make anything on that. And so, and then if they scheduled, then they started, you know, became a patient, then that was just all from the office.
But he was motivated to... You know, he was a pretty charismatic kid [00:09:00] anyway. Mm-hmm. And so he really reached people really well. I think he got eight new patients the first day.
Kevin: That's awesome.
Mark Howarter, DC: And, you know, a- and th- that was, that was just day one at that gym, and, you know, people were calling their friends and saying, "Hey, I just did this at the gym.
You should come in here." So they had n- non- non-gym members coming just to do the screening because of the experience they had just had him just doing a very brief- demo on their shoulder or their neck or their upper back. That's awesome. So, I mean, it was an o- it was in an open area, so he, he didn't have a specialized room, so everybody's clothed.
There was no exposed, you know, skin or anything else like that as well, too. So he's not working on, you know, hip flexors and, you know, things like that, too. Yeah. It was mainly, you know, like a, a plantar fasciitis or Achilles or, or shoulders or necks primarily.
Kevin: Yeah. And then what ... Did you bring just, like, a radial out there, or did you
W- how did you do that? W- what type of shock wave did you [00:10:00] bring out there?
Mark Howarter, DC: Oh, yeah, radial. Yeah, yep.
Kevin: Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yep. Yeah,
Mark Howarter, DC: that makes- So we have a, we have a, a D Actor 50 that- Yeah ... we just took and just set up on the table. Mm-hmm.
Kevin: Yeah. We have, we have, um, we bought, we bought the case. I know it's not cheap, um, but we bought the travel case that we can do these, and that way it's, uh, safe, and obviously it's quite an investment for shock wave.
So, um- Yeah ... I, I know it's not cheap, but it, it have something that you can, uh, transport it well and, and, uh, trust that for sure, right?
Mark Howarter, DC: Agreed.
Kevin: Um, all right. So
Mark Howarter, DC: you mentioned- But it's so effective e- even with, even with doing just a-
Kevin: Yeah ...
Mark Howarter, DC: you know, an in- I would say an introductory level shock wave, but it, the, that technology works so well even using the
I r- I initially bought the travel size of the- Yeah ... of the shock wave, and I started using that in my office first, and it was- Mm-hmm ... still getting fabulous results, you know, to do 3, 4,000 pulses for a treatment. Just to do a demo of, of 2,000 pulses, like, we're not doing a full treatment here. We wanna just introduce them to the-
Kevin: [00:11:00] Mm-hmm
Mark Howarter, DC: to the technology and the possibility that this could help them with, you know, further treatment in the office. And so when they come and they get their exam and, and we make recommendations, the likelihood of them needing, you know, you know, s- potentially, you know, four to six visits over the next month- Yeah
was pretty high.
Kevin: Yeah. Yeah.
Mark Howarter, DC: And people were getting such great results, it was a no-brainer. I mean, people were ... And it's, it's not insurance-based, so people were just reaching in their pocket and paying cash for it. So, you know, with eight new patients and, you know, at s- you know, at ... And we were charging $100 a visit at the time, so you're talking 5 or $600 per new patient- Mm-hmm You know, a $49 investment paying my intern to go out there, the math works out pretty well
Kevin: Yeah, no, it definitely does.
Um, now Jim, you mentioned, was there any other things like running stores or running events or anything else that you would go to for these types of demo days?
Mark Howarter, DC: Well, yeah, we had a couple of different ones. So we also had... He worked with a group of personal trainers that they all did their own training through this one [00:12:00] gym, and so he worked with those trainers that all referred their clients to come see him on more of like a...
Instead of just setting up, um, and seeing people as they came, th- these were actually more like scheduled appointments through the course of a day, and he was there for the better part of, of a day. Mm-hmm. And he scheduled another, you know, 10 or 12 new ones just by a single day doing that. He also went to a, um, we have AMAR Garage Door here, so it's a big- Okay
manufacturing company, but they also do- Yeah ... some, some internal, you know, wellness programs and things like that, and they have a trainer there. And so he went- Yeah ... he also goes out there as a part of his training group to train some of their employees. Mm-hmm. And so he set up there, uh, he posted up for a day with them, and then signed up a bunch of their employees to come in for Shockwave as well, 'cause obviously with shoulder issues and back issues with manufacturing is pretty high.
So we really did- We did, we did each gym a couple of times, and we did the manufacturing just once. And- Yep ... it became such an influx of new patients. That's, [00:13:00] that's honestly, that's all we, we needed. 'Cause once they're on care plans-
Kevin: Mm-hmm ...
Mark Howarter, DC: you know, they're also getting chiropractic, some were also getting decompression.
It wasn't just the, , it wasn't the Shockwave when they were just coming into the office.
Kevin: Yeah. No, definitely. Yeah. And then, yeah, again, I, I love that idea of corporations. You know, obviously a lot of companies have wellness events, health fairs, things like that, could be a great opportunity to, to be at those places.
Some of the things that I've thought about, I'm, I'm down in Boca Raton, Florida, so we have, uh, tennis camps. We've done them at tennis facilities. Uh- Yeah ... we've done it there. We, we're trying to do one at a baseball... We have a baseball training facility as well, so I'd like to do that. Um- Mm-hmm ... you know, I think running stores would be great for people to do, especially 'cause of plantar fasciitis.
Um- Yes ... I'm, I'm just, yeah, I wonder if there's any other ones. Maybe have you thought about any other ones that maybe not pertinent to Lawrence, Kansas, but could be, uh, good for other people in certain areas?
Mark Howarter, DC: Yeah, I mean, honestly, teams actually is, is, is [00:14:00] a good way as well, too. Yeah. So we have the, like I said, University of Kansas here, and they have a, um...
We worked with their tennis team a fair amount, so we started taking care of a, a couple of their coaches. Yeah. And they've invited us a number of times to come out and just do camps or to do league nights or things like that, too. Um- Yeah ... good, good gosh, with just the, the populations, like pickleball would be- Yeah
great, like a pickleball tournament or, you know, pickleball leagues or whatever. There's, there's- Mm-hmm ... you know, lots of hip related and shoulder related issues at, at pickleball. Um, but realistically is if you can find a A hook-
Kevin: Mm ...
Mark Howarter, DC: in, in an active population that's, you can get in just about anywhere. So whether that's, you know, repetition of, of, of, uh, of industry, um, whether that's, uh, sports.
Sports is gonna be a really big one, so whether that's runners, whether that's tennis, um- Mm ... repetition of baseball, things like that too. We've taken care of lots of, lots of throwers, uh, [00:15:00] so, you know, pitchers and things like that too, so.
Kevin: Yeah. No, it makes sense. And I think another take home point of this is, 'cause now you've, you've kinda maxed out your Shockwave, and obviously you could always, uh, get another one, and you could get another person, and you can keep on scaling and do all that.
Uh, but, you know, you, you got other things, uh, in the practice as well that are, that are growing which is awesome and, uh- Yeah ... it sounds like you might have turned off the no- the, the, the hose a little bit on, uh, some of the demo days. That, that particular trainer is now I'm, I'm assuming in chiropractic school, right?
Mark Howarter, DC: Yep, he is. Uh,
Kevin: so I think
Mark Howarter, DC: it's h- But I also have him, like, whenever he has breaks and stuff like that too, and he has- Yeah ... when he's not studying for boards and stuff like that, he'll still, he'll still call me and say like, "Hey, if you- Mm ... if you want me to do this again, I'm happy to do that." He's very motivated to get into it again, 'cause it's a...
He's getting paid to practice building his own practice one day, so.
Kevin: Yeah. No, that's great. And I think if, y- you know, a lot of times our audience is listening, they're like, "You know, I don't have the time to do demo days. I'm, I'm busy [00:16:00] with, in practice. I'm busy with notes. I got family." And I think one of the take homes is is that at certain parts of your career, like, yeah, you gotta do it and you gotta be the one going out there, and, and you gotta put in that early effort.
And yeah, m- you might feel busy and sometimes overwhelmed and all that, but when you've decided to open up a business, and if you decided to get a, a Shockwave and make that investment, like, you gotta go all in. And maybe early on you're, you're doing it, and you're perfecting it, and you're getting connected, and then, yeah, maybe run into a situation where you can then hire someone or have someone else do it for you, and train them how to do it, and scale that.
Um, any words of wisdom on, on that?
Mark Howarter, DC: Yeah, a- actually definitely I do, yeah. Yeah. Um, I think the docs that just buy the unit and expecting to pass it off to somebody else with not having any skin in the game themselves is a real mistake, um, because I think a couple of things, like you need to receive it a little bit yourself so you can see what it feels like.
You need to be able to put a language to what people are feeling, and you need, and you need, you need to be relevant in your recommendations as [00:17:00] well too. So it's not a secondary treatment. Like, this is a part of a, of an integrated plan which involves chiropractic and potentially other therapeutics, therapeutics like lasers or home exercises or ART or decompression or what have you, and you need to be well-versed enough in that in terms of the protocols and expectations of what that even looks like so you can even integrate that appropriately into your plans.
Like, that's what, that's been the real success for us is I collaborate these, these plans out with my, um, shockwave therapist, who was formerly a massage therapist. She knows the body really well. She knows what a trigger point feels like. Mm-hmm. She can, um- kinda guide people based off of expectations of, like, when they get sore after a treatment or things like that, that's important.
But I mean, chiropractors need to be able to put a language to what shockwave is, what it's not, and then also how does that complement what you're doing as a chiropractor? So instead of, of doing, you know, [00:18:00] active release with somebody and I can just have them do shockwave in, in lieu of that, it saves my hands and my shoulders and my- Mm-hmm
effort with that patient, and I just transition them to somebody else. So I think that just The doctor needs to know enough about what the protocols are, what the reasonable expectations of treatment are, what the timelines are, and how that integrates into their practice is huge. So whether that's doing the first few, you know, demo days themselves so they can go out...
They need to, they need to learn how to answer questions about the technology of what it is and what it's not, what does it help with?
Kevin: Mm-hmm.
Mark Howarter, DC: It's not competition with chiropractic, it's complementary to it, so.
Kevin: Yeah, I love that. And then I think if you go out there and do it yourself some, then you can kind of perfect what your process is there, and then you can train the other person to do it.
I, I really like your terminology there, shockwave therapist, and, um, I guess theoretically, you know, you could have your shockwave therapist [00:19:00] who's doing that consistently, you could also, I guess, incentivize that person to do demo days on their own, and they get, uh, a piece of the action with that, right?
Some kind of incentive there. Yeah. Whether you decide to pay them hourly to go work the demo day, or you decide to, to, to, uh, incentivize them by getting people in or a mix of both, whatever. Yeah. Uh, that could be, that could be part of the role, right? Like, if you... I don't know, I'm gonna make this up, but if, if a clinic has 32 hours in a week of treating hours and you have that shockwave person and they're in the clinic for 32, they can probably do another six to eight hours a week of demo days to not only get more money, but also, you know, get up to the 40 hours and bring more people into your practice.
Mark Howarter, DC: Yeah. Wow. Well, I think, too, just recognizing, like, what's a... For, for the, for the therapist, I need, I need to sit down with her initially and say, like, "What is your motivating, but, factor?" But also after having been a massage therapist, like, recognize, like, what does a, [00:20:00] what does a good rhythm look like even in the practice, and how do we integrate this in?
And what is your capacity for a day? So we schedule our, we schedule ours on 20-minute intervals. Mm-hmm. And we're here from 9:00 to 1:00 and 3:00 to 6:00, so that's a seven-hour workday, so she has a capacity of 21 per day.
Kevin: Gotcha.
Mark Howarter, DC: And we've had a few days where she's, I mean, she's completely booked every appointment throughout the course of a day.
So you do, I mean, if you do the math on that at 100 bucks a visit of, you know, and you're, and you're seeing, you know, 21 of those in a day, that's a, that's, that's pretty good. So I pay her hourly, and then I also pay her a, kind of a, a, a, a bonus of $10 per treatment that she provides. So-
Kevin: Nice. Nice ...
Mark Howarter, DC: she's incentivized to see more people because she ultimately winds up making more as well, too, so.
Kevin: Yeah.
Mark Howarter, DC: Um, but I think that to do the demo days, you have, you have really no skin in the game really to say, "I will pay you for all of your- production. If you, for every new patient that comes in, I will pay you whatever their value is when they come into the [00:21:00] office. So if that's a $49 hook to get people to come in and they make that, they're gonna be very intentional with their conversations on that demo day.
They're gonna provide value for that person. They're gonna listen really well. Um, the conversion's gonna be a lot higher as well too. They're also gonna know that person when they come in, so they feel like they're a part of the, of They've introduced them to the family, so they're, they're gonna, um, have a quicker kind of a relationship with them when they come in the office too.
So it's a really big win.
Kevin: Yeah. No, that's great. I really like that. And, um, yeah, I mean, if you're, if they're seeing 100, uh, tw- you know, 21 times five days a week, you know, 105 shock waves, that's a lot of, lot of pulses. You gotta get that, uh, replaced often, right, here and there, but that's a good, a good problem to have, right?
Mark Howarter, DC: Right. Well, the thing that I've found is just, like, just, just the demand on your own body. So it's not me doing trigger point work. It's not me, you know, grinding on soft tissue with my own hands, right? Yeah. And [00:22:00] for her being a massage therapist, she's saving her elbows and her shoulders and everything else as well too because it takes such little effort-
Kevin: Yeah
Mark Howarter, DC: to do shock wave. You're holding it, you know, in, in a position for a period of time and working through the tissue. It's, it's so effortless to be able to do, and you get such great results even with the little effort.
Kevin: Yeah. You're speaking to a, a 21-year certified ART provider here. I, I can attest to the physicality of it.
I wish I a- Yeah ... I wish I would've had shock wave, uh, 20 years ago instead of three years ago.
Mark Howarter, DC: Yep, 100%. Yep.
Kevin: Uh-
Mark Howarter, DC: Do you use it yourself in your
Kevin: practice? Yep, yep. We do. We do. Awesome. We've got, we've, we've had radial. We got focus on the way. It's been really good. Uh, Dr. Gage, who's one of our doctors, has been well-schooled in it.
I'm, I'm actually now out of, uh, patient care. Uh, but, uh, yeah, it's just been, it's been great for our practice, and we- we're always looking for ways to get better, uh, with promoting it and getting it out there. I think one of the things that we've done a good job with [00:23:00] is, um, is with some MD marketing. We have some MDs sending to us.
That's something that we're, uh, now that we have the focus shock wave coming, we're kinda revisiting. Like, we have one, we had one ortho who, he would text us and kinda, you know, he was like, you know, talking about focus and how focus is needed for this, and we only had radial. We kinda, you know, navigated that a little bit, but I was happy to just send him a text now that's like, "Oh, we got focus on the way."
He's like, "Oh, great. I really am glad to hear that," you know? Um, so, uh, yeah, we're, we're all in on it, and we're just keep on looking at ways to, to grow it because I do believe it's, um, I mean, you know, it, it tackles a lot of issues we see in chiropractic. It, it, it's, A, patient outcomes. Obviously that's the, that's the table stakes.
Like, that's the best part is we get better outcomes. Uh- Mm-hmm ... B, you know, it's, uh, it allows us to, you know, have more volume in the pr- practice 'cause it, it doesn't take up doctor time like you mentioned. Mm-hmm. Uh, which is great, and then the other part is it's one [00:24:00] of the few things left that is not, uh, commoditized right now, right?
There's good margin on it, and people really feel it and get results and are willing to pay for it out of pocket, and I think it's been a great, um, uh, thing for, for clinics, for doctors, for, for patients, and it's just been, uh, really good for us.
Mark Howarter, DC: Yeah. Well, I'm, I'm in agreement with you, too. I've, I've, I've, I've been doing exclusively radial now for the past couple of years, and, and it is phenomenal for a lot of things.
But there are a few, like, clinical cases that having, having additional technology, especially focal or laser, would be actually really good. Yeah. There's some of the deeper joints and things like that that we're, we're limited on, and it... And now our, our standard of care has gone up enough that if somebody still needs a surgery or a replacement after we've done our care, I take that a little personally.
And I think that being able to have that additional technology of the focal definitely reduces that- Mm-hmm [00:25:00] Potentially lack of, of, of a, of a, of a clinical result because- Right ... because it fills another additional, a gap that we, that, that I'm, I now realize that we have having just used the radial.
Kevin: Yeah, yeah.
So- And obviously I'm always trying to, you know, for our audience, I'm always cognizant of the fact that, yeah, the price points on these are not cheap, especially focus is gonna be up there, but it's, um, there's really good financing options through NicMac and stuff like that, and you can make it a digestible payment.
I think people on a, from a business perspective always try to correlate it where I think sometimes it's tricky, right? If there's a $1,000 payment on an equipment loan, um, if you were to say, "Oh, I couldn't imagine paying $1,000 a month for a car payment," uh, well, this is different, right? Or, you know, $1,000 for this in your personal life a month, that, that can be a big, a big hit.
But in your business, it really is the ROI, right? [00:26:00] And so- Right ... uh, you know, I, I know people have a hard time bridging that chasm, but if you can say, "Yeah, I, I'm spending $1,000 a month on an equipment loan, uh, but I'm bringing in five, six, 10, 15,000 a month and really transforming a practice," uh- Yeah, 100% ... the ROI is just, is just amazing.
I know you... But yeah, you mentioned it kinda earlier, the, the mistake I see a lot is people will buy something, any type of equipment, not just Shockwave, but anything, laser, decompression tables, you name it, have the equipment loan payment, and not do enough to actually get that busy. Like, they're, they don't do the market, they don't go out in the community.
They don't rec- they're afraid to recommend it to their patients because it costs 100 and whatever dollars, right? Like, they kinda get in the way of it and, and those people then get frustrated that they have that payment on the books every month without the ROI. Um, so yeah, do your due diligence, take your time and all that, but, you know, once, once you do pull the trigger, you, you gotta go all in.
Mark Howarter, DC: Yep. Well, I was, I talked to you about this a little bit earlier, but [00:27:00] we- Yeah ... one of our first, it was actually our, our first demo day, um, my, my intern met this guy. He came in as a new patient 'cause his wife encouraged him to do that, and when he got here to the office, he had neuropathy. Mm-hmm. And so we started working with him doing the Shockwave and doing some other things to help him, and so I did, I did his, his one-year, um, exam and, and, and, and follow-up today.
So I did the report today, and I had a chance to talk with him, and I didn't realize how far down the, down the road he had gone. He'd been working with a medical doctor, he'd been working with a neurologist, and he'd just really come up really- Really flat, like, and, and, and, and really disparaged, and, and really had really no hope for what his future was gonna look like with, i- in terms of that.
And so just the fact that we had stepped into the community and met him where he was, and gave him this other opportunity, and he's... And then after the course of this year, he had a 25% improvement in, in his neuropathy that, that wouldn't have happened had I not had the equipment and been in the community, but [00:28:00] also if he hadn't had an opportunity to, to meet that and find out that that technology even existed.
So- Yeah ... I mean, there's, there's so much opportunity in every community that people are in, that people have just been told over and over again, like, you, that can't be helped. You're just gonna have to live with that.
Kevin: Yeah.
Mark Howarter, DC: The margin of that conversation is massively less when Shockwave is, is in the picture.
Kevin: Mm-hmm, yeah. No, absolutely. So, well, Doc, this has been a, a pleasure. I, I really appreciate bringing your, your insights to this, and it's cool to see how quickly you've been able to kinda max out your Shockwave. That's, that's awesome to do that in two or three years, and then, uh, utilizing the demo days to do that.
I think chiropractors really need to take the advice and, and making that happen. And, you know, and, and f- you know, make some mistakes. Figure it out. What's the best process for you, your community, the staff you have to get out there on the demo days and, uh, start making it happen?
Mark Howarter, DC: Yeah, happy to talk to you.
I appreciate the conversation.