EPISODE 493: A Beginner's Mindset

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 we're gonna talk about the beginner's mindset. And we're gonna dive into that and what that means, right? The, the, the day you stop becoming a beginner is the day you stop growing. And today I wanna talk about why.

You know, I opened up my, my practice in 2010. I had started practicing in 2005 when I graduated late 2005. And, you know, I, I though I knew a lot in 2010. I, I felt like I was starting to get my stride clinically. I knew I had a lot more to learn. Um, and then opened up my practice and it really actually did really well from the beginning, 2010, 2013.

It was a great few years. Uh, was inside of an orthopedic office, saved a lot of money, was able to then in 2013 buy my office real estate and it just was going well. Um, but I, I knew I, I kind of [00:01:00] realized that I had hit a ceiling. And around that time I was kind of searching for things to figure out how to understand business, right?

How to become a better entrepreneur. And that's, that's how I found Strategic Coach ultimately in 2013. And, uh, that was kind of the, the moment that I had to admit to myself I really needed to learn how to build a, a real business and not just be a chiropractor. And, uh, ultimately, I'm still in Strategic Coach.

I, I always recommend them. I think obviously they have a high level, like as far as personal, uh, income you need to be in there now. It keeps on growing these days, just like anything else. Everything's, um, more expensive as far as, uh, what they expect. And, but it's just been really good for me. And it, and it's helped me maintain, uh, to an extent a beginner's mindset, especially when I go into that room or when I go into, into, uh, bigger rooms.

And, and I, I'm gonna go into in a second kind of four marks of what a beginner's mindset is. But, you know, [00:02:00] before we dive into that, um, you know, many chiropractors, they, they think ex- experience and expertise are the, are the same thing, right? Like if you, you know, I've been practicing for 21 years and, you know, you kind of think, um, you know, I've been doing this for a long time.

I've got the experience and then ultimately feel like that's an expertise. And, uh, I, I'll admit this summer, you know, I, I did a podcast where I, you know, I left for six weeks for our, our trip and we're gonna do it each summer. I exited patient care at that time. And I found myself when I got back from the six week trip where, um, you know, it was a lot of the plans we had made, uh, for the, for the practice and for MCM, uh, but I'll just leave it as a practice because that's who, you know, the audience is here is kind of relate to you on the practice side.

Uh, I kind of found myself on my heels a little bit and not, almost feeling like, okay, uh, like 21 years, I'm exiting patient care. I can rest my [00:03:00] laurels a little bit. Um, but it wasn't until I, I went to our East Mastermind in Maine, really it started there. And then a few weeks later we had our West Mastermind in Sonoma, uh, where I really got reinvigorated and realized like I needed to get back off from my heels.

I'm not necessarily getting back into patient care, but I, I, I need to look at it differently. I'm, I'm now a, a practice owner that's not treating patients and that looks a lot different than it did, um, previously. And, and I found myself now being open again and like, okay, I need to have a beginner's mindset on this.

Just because I have the 21 years of experience doesn't mean I'm an expert in 2026 and all the things that are changing, whether it's the marketing that's changing, the AI that's changing, the fact that I'm not treating patients, the, the economy's changing. Like everything is changing so you can't just, um, really rely on your ex- experience, right?

'Cause expertise is a snapshot. It's [00:04:00] what you knew when you were, you know, paying attention. The, the clinical business marketing landscape has just stopped. It hasn't stopped moving, uh, since you, um, you know, s- started practicing 10 years ago, five year ago, 20 years ago. It's always changing. Business is always changing.

Insurance reimbursement's always changing. What works to get new patients now is different than when it worked 10 years ago. It's always changing, right? And confidence, i- if you're not careful, it calcifies into certainty. And certainty is where growth goes to die. And so let me say that again. Confidence, if you're not careful, calcifies into certainty.

And certainty is where growth goes to die. And, and I wanna tie this into, again, Strategic Coach's four C's formula, which is commitment leads to, you know, you have to have, you know, if you make a commitment to something, you have to have the courage to stick it out when it's hard. And when you have that [00:05:00] courage to stick it out when it's hard, you develop a new capability.

So that's the third C. And when you develop a new capability, you do it consistently, you then have confidence, right? And so commitment, courage, capability and confidence, that's what strategic, Strategic Coaches four Cs, but that's not a finish line, right? Like you get the confidence in something, that's not the finish line.

It's a loop. And if you don't reset it, confidence turns into a ceiling instead of a floor. And so what does it actually look like to stay a beginner on purpose, right? Like you, you wanna purposefully be a be- beginner. You always wanna be a beginner. And that's the thing that's been really cool with the Mastermind and some of the docs in there, you know, when I started it, Mark and Donna King, um, are in it and have been in it and they've maintained a beginner's mindset.

We have other docs that we've had in their 60s and 70s, late 50s, 30 years practice, 40 years practice, 20 years practice, [00:06:00] have come in and really had that, um, beginner's mindset and maintain that and maintain that, uh, consistently. And it makes them, um, curious, right? Which leads me into what we're gonna kinda, our, our framework today, we're gonna talk about as I was kinda doing some research on like what would it look like to have a beginner's mindset, and there's sort of things that stuck out that I, or s- stood out that I, um, kinda put together here.

And the first one is curiosity over c - over certainty, right? Asking what am I missing instead of defending what you already believe, okay? Number two is humility over ego, being willing to be the least experienced person in the room again. And I'll touch on each of these in a second. Uh, number three is discomfort over comfort, choosing to be bad at something new instead of staying good at something old.

And number four, reps over resume. What you're doing right now [00:07:00] matters more than what you did five years ago. And you'll s - if you're younger listening to this, I mean, you get to like, you know, 20 years, 21 years of practice, like I have, I found myself with that mentality and I have to catch myself for sure.

So let's dive in a little bit, like the first one. Curiosity, you know, the doctor who still asks why on a case they've been, uh, they've seen a hundred times or how can I get better in this business? How can we continue to grow this? Okay? Um, number two, humility, the doctor who hires a coach, joins a mastermind or asks younger associate a real question.

Imagine that. Asking younger doctors, um, how, what, how to look at this, right? I see some of the best scenarios I'm seeing now, and that's what actually been cool in the mastermind, but I'll take it in a clinic. I've had, uh, some docs that really rely on the younger associate for a fresh set of eyes, frankly.

And I think when you have that [00:08:00] combination of a doc that's been doing it for a while with some wisdom, with the younger doc that's got that curiosity and fresh ideas and you marry those two, it's been pretty cool to see that grow. And, and, uh, in, in both mastermind groups, that's what's been a part of the magic, right?

We've got early 30 year olds and we got mid 60 year olds and all the way in between. And seeing the, uh, seasoned docs provide wisdom and perspective and seeing the younger docs provide, uh, nuance to today and, uh, ideas of marketing and just thinking outside the box, which kind of reminds me of, um, that book from Strength to Strength where he talks about in the earlier formative beginning years, you know, let's call it from, you know, getting out of school to age 40 about, give or take, you have this fluid intelligence that you're a blank slate and you got ideas.

He talks about why a lot of musicians cr- create so great and early on and [00:09:00] artists and things like that. And then you, on your second half, uh, like kind of where I'm at now, you have crystallized intelligence, which is kind of wisdom, but you can set in your ways when you're not careful, you know, and there's, there's pros to both.

And you really gotta bridge that chasm. And what's been pretty cool in the mastermind is that we have kind of that strength and strength in there. We have a lot of people in there with, uh, fluid intelligence, uh, that are helping us out. And we have a lot of people with crystallized intelligence that are helping us out as well.

And that marrying of the two has been pretty neat. Uh, number three, discomfort. The doctor who tries the new marketing channel, the new, uh, report of findings, the new hiring structure, you know, kind of knowing the first rep will be clumsy, like looking bad being uncomfortable again. Number four, reps of a resume, you know, your patients don't care what you knew in 2015.

They care what you know now. And I think that's huge and that's everything from your techniques to your s - your technologies you bring into the [00:10:00] clinic, to the types of doctors you hire, to your own development in clinical and business. It's just huge to make sure that you do that, right? And, uh, I wanted to quote someone here, um, Shunryu Suzuki.

I'm not gonna get that first one right. So I'm gonna say Mr. Suzuki, , quote, "In the beginner's mind, there are many possibilities, but in the expert's mind, there are few." And so I wanna challenge you with that, right? So again, in the beginner's mind, there are many possibilities, but in the expert's mind, there are few.

And honestly, this is exactly why we did the mastermind. We did it around this idea, not, it's not around who's already arrived. It's around those who really, really want to, um, have that beginner's mindset and open themselves up to many, uh, possibilities, right? And so, um, you know, many doctors think a mastermind is where you go to kind of show off what's working.

Um, [00:11:00] it's not. It's, uh, this is not a high r - higherlight reel. It's a, it's a mastermind, right? Uh, a, a room full of certainty is, is just a, a room full of people waiting to be right at each other, right? Nothing changes and no one gets better. Um, a, a great mastermind isn't a room of expert performing, um, you know, confidence.

It's, it's really a room of practitioners practicing curiosity out loud in front of each other, being uncomfortable, uh, coming up with ideas that may, uh, be great or may suck, but learning that, um, being vulnerable of, of, of where your practice is and how you wanna, you know, grow and get even better and overcome that.

And, uh, you know, that's what lets a doctor with 20 years in practice ask a beginner questions without flinching. It's what turns feedback into fuel instead of a threat to your ego. It's what makes the kinda hot seats we have in front of the, the other members to, to help, you know, go overcome an obstacle or, or, [00:12:00] um, you know, really take advantage of an opportunity.

That's how it works because no one's there defending themselves and everybody's building. It's the difference between a mastermind that meets quarterly and quietly dies, and one where doctors leave every single session with something they'll actually use. And, I wanted to actually, um, play a little audio of, of Dr. Ryan Wigness, who's in our West Mastermind, and this is someone I feel. I asked him to, to do this audio because we have a lot of members and we were in Sonoma together and he just, he's someone that I've, I've looked up to and he's been, um, one of our founding, uh, East Mastermind members in 2022.

And, and then he transitioned over to the West when we started in 2024, and he really helps me with this, this group. And he's someone that, um, has continued to have a beginner's mindset, and it's been pretty cool what that's done for his practice, um, because he has had a beginner's mindset and he's been doing everything that he needed to do.

My name is Ryan Wiggles. I'm the owner of Whitefish [00:13:00] Chiropractic at Whitefish, Montana. We run a motion palpation-based, uh, office. Uh, we also incorporate, uh, DNS, Graston, laser, shockwave, and various other, uh, treatment modalities, uh, to our practice. Whenever I go to these, uh, uh, weekend masterminds, I come back with a ton of great ideas.

Um, I'm energized. Uh, my staff was energized by some of the new things that we could do to our office to help our office grow. Uh, that growth has resulted in, uh, over seventy-five percent, uh, growth in the, the three years that I've been at the mastermind, and we're on track for over twenty percent growth again this year.

Seeing the growth that we've had over the last three years, it's really been important to create a really good foundation for us to build off of, and the mastermind has given me that structure that we can systematically build that, so we can maintain our growth that we've seen over the last year, three years, and continue to grow from there.

Some of the reasons I joined the mastermind, uh, three [00:14:00] years ago were I had been in practice for twenty years, and I was starting to deal with the issues of burnout and lack of time. I also wanted to implement some marketing strategies. But without having an ability to measure the success of these marketing strategies and not having a good playbook or framework in place to be able to add these systematically, I was kind of stuck in a, in a place where we were doing good, uh, but I wanted to do great, and I really wanted to free up more of my time and really get excited about practice again.

I recommend the mastermind to my colleagues because it's been a great opportunity to meet other successful chiropractors and bounce ideas off them and kind of get a feel for what everybody else is doing in our profession. We, as a group, we created a really cool community. It allows us to help each other out when things aren't going so well, celebrate our successes, and, and develop some really great friendships from the mastermind.

[00:15:00] We've been able to grow as a group, and w- as we grow as a group, uh, it's because of the growth of the individual members and the community that is created in the mastermind itself.

Dr. Kevin Christie: All right, so that was a quick little, uh, video from, from Ryan. And, um, you know, I just wanted to say it's like you, you know, you don't need more experience to grow right now. You need to be willing to be a beginner again on purpose and in the right room.

And so we, um, you know, the East Mastermind has been filled. We do have a, as I record this, we have four spots in the West, uh, pretty confident we're gonna get to the 25 capped. We do cap it at 25 because it's not a workshop, it's not a seminar, it's, it's, it's a mastermind and we keep it smaller group and we work together on a lot of things.

And so we cap it at, uh, 25. And I'm gonna do a webinar on it, okay? So if you wanna hop on the webinar, it's gonna be, um, Friday, September 25th [00:16:00] at 1:00 PM Pacific, 4:00 Eastern. Just go to our website, modernchiropracticmastery.com, fill out the form, ask for the link for the webinar, I'll get it to you. I'm gonna go over what it looks like.

I'm gonna give you some value as well, but if you, if you're seriously thinking about it, um, I'm gonna go over some of the details of what this Mastermind looks like and, and how we maintain this beginner's mindset, okay? And so I just want you, I wanna leave you with this. The doctors who are still growing aren't the ones with the most experience.

They're the ones still willing to be beginners. And so I challenge you to become a beginner again if you're not, or stay a beginner if you are. And again, uh, not gonna be a hard sales webinar at all. I'm just gonna go over what it is. Um, I, I frankly, uh, want people in there that wanna be in there. We, we don't need anybody else, but we want to get to the 25 so I can kinda move on and, uh, you know, really get this group curated for 2027 because we're excited.

We [00:17:00] have a great group already and, uh, I'll go over what that looks like. That is Friday, September 25th at 1:00 PM Pacific, 4: PM Eastern. Go to our website, modernchiropracticmastery.com, fill out the form and ask for the link for the webinar and I'll get it to you.

Have a great week in practice.