Video Transcription
Dr Stephen F.: Hello everybody, welcome to The Remarkable Practice. I’m Dr. Stephen Franson, I’m sitting here having a coffee break with my boy, Garrett Gunderson. Garrett, say hi.
Garrett G.: Hey, how’s it going?
Dr Stephen F.: As you guys know, I have access to some of the top thought leaders in our space. Garrett is one of the big dogs.
In The Remarkable Practice, we teach about the remarkable life and the remarkable lifestyle. This guy happens to be absolutely dialed in on all four of the pillars of a remarkable life. It’s health, wealth, relationships, and logistics.
If I’m going to ask him to speak on anything today, it’s definitely going to be on wealth. He is my mentor, he is somebody who if he says jump, I say, "How high?" on the way up. It’s a pleasure for me to bring you guys this guy, Garrett Gunderson.
Garrett, if we were to have 15 minutes of your brain. We’re talking just chiropractic world out there, first starting with the practice and the practice life from a financial perspective. What would you say are the three takeaways, if you were to say, "If you do nothing else, start here looking at your practice"?
From a purely financial perspective, the business of being a practitioner; what are the top three things, would be takeaways after spending a three day weekend with you?
Garrett G.: Let me start with a quote and then I’ll answer the top three things. I think this translates into more than one category, but it begins with wealth. It defines wealth and creates a context for people to understand wealth in a way that they actually enjoy it.
It was by Benjamin Franklin, where he said, "Wealth is not the man that has it, but the man who lives it." Ultimately what that means to me is how do you live wealthy today and be prepared for the future?
There’s a lot of people that think, "Okay, one day, some day. I’m going to defer, I’m going to delay, I’m going to sacrifice, I’m going to save." They don’t live the life that they could.
Dude, you’re out surfing. You made a trip out to Utah, "We’re going to go hit the Sundance Film Festival." I could tell you and your wife are totally dialed in. You understand how to enjoy life today, but be responsible for your financial future.
I think that we have to start with that context. Without that context, I don’t know if any of the three things really matter. The problem is most people dive too quick to strategy, and tactic, and technique.
Dr Stephen F.: Guilty.
Garrett G.: When they do that, they actually harm themselves. Here’s an example, in the absence of clarity of one, understanding their values, their passions, their purpose, and their profits; in the absence of clarity of understanding the first three before the profits, people can’t distinguish the difference between good versus great, opportunity versus distraction.
Ultimately, we get swayed and persuaded by money. That leads us towards something, yes, it could make us money but it may be at the detriment of our health. It may be at the detriment of our family, it may be at the detriment of our focus and the depth of what we really have to offer. We have to say no a lot more often.
Dr Stephen F.: Let it go, letting go of the things that aren’t serving us, specifically financial but obviously global.
Garrett G.: For me, it’s got to be rules. I created rules. I remember I was like, "It’s time to get more focused."
I have a lot of relationships in my life, so in 2011 I said two things. I said, "Number one, anyone that comes and wants me to promote something they’re up to, no matter how good it is, 2011 is the year of no. I haven’t been promoting my stuff, it’s going to be all about getting the message out there that isn’t out there at the level that it needs to be."
I had this rule years ago, which was I don’t get paid for anything that’s not in my core purpose because I don’t want to get distracted. Let’s say for example, I believe in The Remarkable Practice, so I’ve actually introduced you to people that I think would get great benefit, and they’re leading me to even more people. I didn’t just introduce you to onesies, twosies. I said, "There’s someone that can represent a bunch of people", because I believe in what you’re doing.
I never get compensated for any of those kinds of things. As soon as I get compensated for those things, I start doing things out of, "What’s in it for me?", versus, "What value can I create?"
Ultimately, what’s in it for me is that I want to create a situation where someone does my program, when someone understands my philosophy, that we’re over-delivering, that we’re giving [inaudible], we’re not even promising because I want to stay focused on my program and what I have to offer with these additional peripherals.
As soon as I start getting compensated on those things, I may start chasing those things and lose sight of what is at the very core.
Dr Stephen F.: Yes. You and I are friends at this point, and the thing I appreciate you so much personally is that you are just a master connector. You’re not just bringing people together like, "Oh yeah, you guys should know each other so you can do business together."
I listen for your recommendations, I listen for your introductions because I know that they’re very personalized and I know that you’ve deliberated on them. It’s not just, "Hey yeah, you two should know each other so you can do this one little project together." It’s rather you’re a catalyst for a relationship that says, "You two are going to add value to each other."
Garrett G.: Right. Point number one is ultimate clarity around your philosophy, purpose, and values when it comes to your money. If you don’t have it, someone else will give you theirs and it may not really fit into the four areas of life. That’s the first thing.
The second thing is, you have to always have this mindset. In my mind, where I go, "Number one, I’m talking to Stephen right now. What can I do to create value for him?"
I look at two categories. I say, "Is it something that I can directly do or is there someone I know that can offer it if I can’t?" As long as I’m in that mindset, most people stop at number one, or even worse, they go, "Is this something I can do? It’s not a perfect fit, but I’m going to do it anyway."
Then they overextend themselves, and they don’t deliver to the highest level.
Dr Stephen F.: No winners.
Garrett G.: That’s why I’m quick to say, "Okay. Look man, I see where you’re going there." We’re here at Cal Jam and Billy DeMoss was like, "Dude, I really want Brendon Burchard to play. I know you’re friends with him."
I was like, "You know what? I’ve been to Cal Jam, I see what Billy’s up to." I don’t call in a lot of favors from Brendon. Literally when I called him I’m like, "You should come to this event. I’m going to speak and I think you’d be great at this." Cool.
He finds out he can’t sell, he pays his own way in and all this kind of stuff. He’s like, "So why am I going?" "Because we’re going to hang out together." "Okay, I’m there." It’s like, "I’m going to spend some of my relationship capital. While I’m here, I’m going to …" I’m thinking, "What are the ways I can deliver value?", since there wasn’t a direct paycheck.
Most people think only in dollars. I think of capital as two other forms; mental capital, knowledge system tools, wisdom, people that stretch me, inspire me like you do. Then two is relationship capital, which relates to that, which is who is that when I spend time with I can deliver value for, that I know I can deliver value for. Which means, you know what? There’s a lot of people in Fast Track that we’re literally not going to work with.
I have a rule, if they’re not going to appreciate what we do, number one, I don’t care how much money they’re worth. If they don’t appreciate what we do, I just don’t want it.
Dr Stephen F.: Just not going to accept that patient.
Garrett G.: It’s fine, I don’t need to. Number two, that if they’re not coachable or if they think we’re going to do it all for them, we’re just not in that game. I want a good life and I want people to become our advocates, and become our fans, and get results.
I think everyone in the world has a currency. Money may be one part of their currency because it’s what most people think of when they think of currency. Some people it’s appreciation, some people it’s days off, some people it’s an iPad. People have these different currencies.
For me, mine is someone that’s in my program that loves being in my program. That’s my currency man. If someone’s in my program and they stroked a check, they invest in themselves, and put some faith in us. Then they’re out spreading the word, I’m going to go to bat all day long. I’m going to make room, I’m going to do whatever it takes.
If we can understand people’s currencies, it leads us to understand how to really provide value for them. Value’s perspective, and dollars follow value. If you want to have more value, it starts with our vision creates the value. That vision determines how we solve problems, serve others, and how we deliver that value.
Ultimately, dollars will follow the value that you create. A lot of docs get caught up in, "How do I get more volume?" I’m saying, "Well, did you think about how you create more value first?" Maybe they’re just leaving out the back door, maybe they’re not converting and you just keep hoping that volume is going to solve it.
What if you could make three times as much money? Once you have a new patient, the most expensive part was acquiring them. The least expensive is creating the value and keeping them if you understand the logistics and everything else.
Dr Stephen F.: I do.
Garrett G.: What you teach. If I simplified it, it’s you’ve got to have a philosophy. You’ve got to be clear about who you are and say no to everything else. Then you’ve got to be selective of who you work with and you’ve got to think of every way you can deliver value. That’s the three things.
Dr Stephen F.: I love that. I’ll tell you, I have to admit that speaking with you is always terrifically challenging for me. I am at a constant matching and drawing parallels between what you do and what we do and how I describe you.
It’s such a great exercise for me to work with you as well as being friends with you, because I’m now in the seat of being the promoter because I promote you freely. It’s a great exercise for me because now I would imagine and hope that my patients have the same experience in our clinic, as all our listeners experience with their patients who actually start to make that conversion, and that transformation, and that paradigm shift that happens.
It’s very difficult to put it to words when you’re speaking to somebody who’s on the other side of the paradigm shift. You’re looking at them being like, when you’re speaking to chiropractors you can just simply say, "You know how we made this big shift in our philosophy for our life? It’s a lens that you change everything that you do, and it organizes your behaviors totally differently. This is what Garrett’s done for us from a financial perspective."
You need to just understand that there’s a shift that happens and it’s going to impact all activity and all behaviors.