Episode 094 - From CA to COO: Growing Internal Leaders With Tori Grimm

You don’t hire a COO like Tori Grimm, you grow her. This conversation walks you through how a frontline CA can evolve into the operations leader who holds your entire team, builds structure, and frees you up to lead. You’ll hear how Tori moved from check-in, to checkout, to office manager, to COO, and what it took on both sides to make that identity shift feel real instead of forced.

Together, Dr. Lona and Tori unpack practical ways to give your team real autonomy without losing accountability, use simple scorecards and one-on-ones to keep everyone aligned, and spot the people who are quietly asking for more responsibility through their actions. They also talk about how personal transformation through care, philosophy events, and TRP immersions keeps your CAs connected to the “big idea” so the chaos feels worth it. If you’re ready to stop being the bottleneck and start nurturing your own Tori, this one will hit home.

Episode Highlights

00:53 – Hear how Tori’s first team meeting PowerPoint showed she was already thinking like a leader and raised the bar for everyone.

01:58 – Learn how she moved from check-in CA to exams, checkout and financials, then into office manager and COO while still supporting the front desk.

03:58 – Explore the identity shift from “I do everything” owner to true CEO and COO, and why claiming the leader seat can feel so vulnerable.

05:13 – See how giving CAs decision-making autonomy inside clear guardrails helps them feel like the conductor of their own ship, not just an order taker.

06:58 – Understand how bottlenecks show up at every level and why adding virtual CAs and a virtual assistant created more flow without losing culture.

08:33 – Learn how monthly one-on-ones, simple scorecards, and short written summaries keep everyone aligned while looping the CEO in without extra meetings.

10:28 – Hear how different communication styles between CEO and COO help team members feel heard in different ways and surface issues before they explode.

12:23 – Find out what to look for when growing leaders from within: follow-through, appetite for more, strong relationships, and consistent execution in their current role.

14:03 – Learn why staged ascension, executive assistant time, and steady mentoring conversations made it safer for Tori to step into bigger leadership.

16:13 – See how Tori’s own healing story, philosophy seminars, and TRP immersions anchored her belief in the work so the “octopus on roller skates” life still feels meaningful

18:22 – Dr. Lona sits down with Success Partner Dr. Brian Capra of ClinicMind to talk about how one unified platform can replace the long list of tools most chiropractors’ juggle. Dr. Brian explains how ClinicMind brings EHR, billing, AI-driven patient communication, scheduling, and marketing under one system so teams can stay focused on care instead of tech headaches. It’s a smart look at how streamlined systems create space for clinics to grow, serve more people, and operate with far greater ease.