Separation Saturdays on Elevate Springfield featuring Dr. Bryne Willey

Summary

In this conversation, Dr. Bryne Willey discusses the critical role of data and tracking in business, particularly in the context of entrepreneurship and health practices. He emphasizes the importance of using data to make informed decisions, the APPEAR process for planning, and the need for clear KPIs and accountability within teams. The discussion also covers the distinction between leading and lagging metrics, the significance of setting a vision, and the necessity of tracking performance to drive business success.

Takeaways

• Data is critically important for business success.
• The APPEAR process helps in planning and execution.
• Setting a clear vision is essential for achieving goals.
• Focus on leading metrics to drive performance.
• Accountability in teams is crucial for success.
• KPIs should be objective and data-driven.
• Regular reporting rhythms keep teams aligned.
• Tracking data should start as early as possible.
• Emotions can cloud judgment; rely on data.
• Celebrate exceeding goals, not just meeting them.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Welcome to Elevate Springfield, where we will dive into strategies and stories that help you rise to your full potential. Each episode, we'll talk about how you can take intentional steps to elevate your life and your business while making a meaningful impact on those around you. Along the way, we're going to bring in the change makers from our community that are already elevating. We'll bring the actionable strategies, you bring the discipline and follow through, and together we can elevate Springfield. Alright, let's go, Springfield. Time to 10X your day, 10x your life, and all of us. 10X Springfield. Hey, you are listening to the Elevate Springfield podcast. Robert Farrell here, certified 10X coach, speaker, and mentor. Here to bring you actionable strategies. You bring the discipline and follow through. And together, we're going to Elevate Springfield. Well, we are coming to you from the big dog construction studio in beautiful downtown Springfield. You are listening to Separation Saturdays on Elevate Springfield, where you can separate yourself from the competition every Saturday morning now. We are every day with Elevate Springfield now, so you can start your morning every morning with a new drop from Elevate Springfield. And we are looking forward to having you. And we are thankful that you chose to listen to us. We're going to get started after the break. Hey, Springfield, when it comes to reliable, high-quality roofing, you don't want to leave things to chance. That's why you should reach out to Acosta Angeli Ruffing, your local roughing expert serving Springfield and surrounding communities. From quick dependable repairs to full replacement, from residential to commercial. They are your trusted pros. Call them today at 217-993-2748 or visit their website to book your free quote and inspection. Don't wait. A little leak now could lead to major damage later. Trust the local experts, protect your home, and get peace of mind with Acosta Angeli Roofing. Alright, and we are back. Hey, another phenomenal week on Elevate Springfield. If you didn't catch the episodes this week, do a quick recap, y'all. We started the week like we always do with your weekly battle plan. Hey, we talked about the Memorial Health Championship. I was out there at the networking on the green event. Had a few folks join me on that episode. Then on Monday, we had Josh Smith from the University of Illinois Springfield. So much cool stuff going on in that new program that he has. It's going to be a great asset to our community. Then, of course, on Tuesday, Ellie popped in for the next Gen segment. We talked a little bit about hey, what are some things we would like to see in Springfield? Then on Wednesday, for Communities Grow Together, we had two folks that you've seen before on the show. We had Dave Kimsey and Nick Kock from the Chatham JC's. They've got the Chatham JC's Sweet Corn Festival coming up here in a couple of weeks. So we went all through that event, give you the lay of the land and what's going to happen for that. So go out and support them that weekend. Then on Thursday, we had Carolyn Pemberton in talking about her business as she is growing ginger pea. Then on Friday, Dr. Sammy and Dr. Allen were back in. We had a little fun. We rated oh 21 different chiropractic gadgets or strategies. So they basically rated them zero to 10 on their effectiveness. And we talked a little bit about what they are. But for today, you're here for Separation Saturday. A little extra training to help you separate yourself from the competition. Hey, had a guest in with me for this one. We invited Dr. Brian Willie. You've seen him before, talking about health and wellness stuff a lot on the show. He has a lot of great insights into the entrepreneurship and business world as well. So we sat down and had a discussion on data and tracking. So hey, you business owners out there, if you're not tracking your data, you need to start today. And first step to that, hey, listen to this podcast, give you some tips on how to do that. Let's get to Dr. Willie. All right, and we are back. Hey, familiar face. You've seen him, I don't know, a number of times now. I know y'all love what he brings to the table every single episode. So we got Dr. Brian Willie. How are we doing today, sir?

SPEAKER_00 4:55

Good brother. How are you doing?

SPEAKER_01 4:56

Fantastic. Thanks for coming back, man.

SPEAKER_00 4:58

Thank you for having me.

SPEAKER_01 4:59

Going to talk about some cool stuff today, but uh before we do that, remind everybody what you do.

SPEAKER_00 5:03

Yeah. So I am uh chiropractor and owner of a chiropractic clinic here in town. We don't just specialize in chiropractic, but natural health and how that translates to metabolic health and hormone health and gut health to treat the whole person and not just a specific system.

SPEAKER_01 5:17

So I know you talk at a lot of different businesses and everything. We do, we talk on health and wellness, but you also talk on entrepreneurship, leadership, team dynamics.

SPEAKER_00 5:25

I'm passionate about both right I'm passionate about entrepreneurship. I I just I have a special spot in my heart for entrepreneurs because they just have a mindset that I understand and because I can relate to it. And I'm just fascinated with the idea and somebody that has a passion for it, has a vision and a mission for it. Uh it starts there, but then you got to get after it. And I just love those people whose mindset is to go. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 5:48

Well, today's topic, we're gonna dive into data and tracking.

SPEAKER_00 5:52

Yeah. All right.

SPEAKER_01 5:53

So, how important is data and tracking in your business?

SPEAKER_00 5:57

It's critically important. And it's a lesson I learned too late, to be honest with you. You know, we're just coming out of you know, H1, looking at the first half, and a lot of the conversations that I'm having with our team, we just had a full day, literally eight to four yesterday, full day, hunker the bunker meeting about the performance and vision and what we set out to accomplish for the year and the things that we wanted to have been true at the half year mark and where are we at? You know, do we hit those goals? And if we're on track, fantastic. Let's keep rolling. And if not, what are the constraints? Like what are the bottlenecks, either in the practice or the business, that we need to identify and that we need to address? And I think every business owner can you relate to that conversation. They can relate to things not going perfectly to plan. And I spent years pain training on it. Like we're not where we need to be. And here's how I feel, and here's the story, or here's the assumption I'm making. And I'm going to take that assumption and make changes. And that is a very emotional, very reactive state to be in. It's a very stressful state to be in as an entrepreneur. And then if you think about all the people that are rowing in the boat with you, how maddening, how frustrating would that be when the winds change a little bit and the leader changes? And I think I'm doing this, but now we're shifting focus to this. And when we really made a commitment to clarifying and tracking data and information, it just cuts through the noise and it helps you make informed and logical decisions, knowing that there's data to base those assessments and decisions off of versus emotions. Because I've learned my emotions lie to me. Yeah. I get to be a creature of the moment or I get stuck to a certain story, and I've learned that I can't trust my emotions solely. They're important. You can't ignore your gut feeling. So my team hears me say all the time like our practice and our business, it's one part gut, but it's two parts data. Both are very important, but I always want to be more data driven than I am, you know, gut driven.

SPEAKER_01 7:55

Absolutely. Yeah. Because when you have that more emotional drive, it can certainly cloud your judgment sometimes, especially when you talked about there's always a story. There's always a story behind us. So you've got this story in your head about this is what it should have done and this is what should have happened, but the data's not backing that up.

SPEAKER_00 8:09

Right. Or if this would have gone right, or if this thing, one little thing hadn't happened and this one little thing uh and one little hurdle hadn't happened, but it did. Right. Right. And there's always going to be that hurdle. There's always going to be you turning around that corner and that unexpected windfall or that constraint that you're not anticipating. And you can't game plan, you can't be prepared for those hurdles without having data to back the decisions that you're making. Right. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 8:35

So to track all that, you have to have the data up front. Walk me through your process when you start putting those targets into place for your year. What are some of those data points that you're looking at with your planning process?

SPEAKER_00 8:47

Well, just to go 30,000 foot view, like one of my mentors, uh Dr. Steven Franson, he taught me a model. He calls it the appear process, and it works for us. So it's an acronym. So the appear process would stand for A is to assess. The first P is to plan, the second P is to prepare, the E is execute, the A is to assess, and then the R is to repeat. And so having that process on an annual basis and on a quarterly basis at a minimum, but sometimes on a monthly and weekly basis is critically important. You know, you have to assess, you have to look backwards, and you have to say what was true and what was the reality of the last period of time that you're looking at. So for us, like I said, we just did this for a full day yesterday. We're looking at the last six months. You know, assess the last six months. What was our plan? How did we prepare? Um, how did we execute that plan? And where did we go right and where did we fall short? Because you got to look backwards. And as entrepreneurs and business owners, we all live in the future. Right. And I'm so blessed to have a team that kind of keeps me grounded. I have a wife that keeps me grounded because I'm always two and three steps ahead. Every business owner, every entrepreneur has to be in that visionary mindset. But you need people that are also executing and pulling you and grounding you. So it's very difficult for me to spend time in the assess part of it. And I can plan and prepare in what's coming forward, but I was always missing that assessment of what happened and how are you taking the lessons you learned and the data that you tracked and using that to inform the decision-making process moving forward. And then you can plan and then you prepare and then you execute and then you rinse and repeat over from there. Love it. You ever done any model like that at all? Yeah, very similar. Yeah, a few of them very similar.

SPEAKER_01 10:27

What are some of the targets that you set for yourself? Everybody has a revenue target and things like that. But as a, you know, as a chiropractor, health and wellness office, what are some targets that you set?

SPEAKER_00 10:37

Yeah, we start with vision. It always starts with vision. It always starts at the heart level first. And I'm very clear and I spend a lot of time thinking about what is our 90-day vision? What are we trying to accomplish over the next quarter? I always have a 12-month vision. What does the next year look like? And then a three-year vision. Most people, they're thinking day to day. Some of the best people on your team may be thinking week to week. Very few people are thinking month to month and year to year, let alone three years out. So I think it's very important for me to be able to cast that vision in what I want to accomplish. And it's almost like a movie script. You know what I mean? It's a past tense looking back. The 12-month vision, it's 12 months from now looking back. This is what happened and this is what the picture looked like. It should be like a movie script. It should be very descriptive, it should be very clear. So if I close my eyes and you're telling me what that vision story looks like, I can visualize, I can see it, I can feel it, I can hear it. It's very emotive in that space. So it always starts with casting the vision. And the vision has to do with what the practice looks like and what the team looks like and what their roles look like, who our ideal client profile is, and how are we serving them at the highest level? And sometimes that's on a clinical aspect, delivering clinical uh care to drive outcomes. Sometimes it's experiential in terms of hospitality. Uh, sometimes there's business uh pieces in there as well, and like looking at metrics to understand. You mentioned revenue. Some people look at revenue and think that's vanity. I think it's a way of measuring impact. Like how much of the how big of an impact are you making? There's many ways to measure that, but that's a very easy and important way to do it too. No doubt about it.

SPEAKER_01 12:12

Now, with your say with your revenue targets, do you you guys go through and back into that number? Hey, our revenue target is X. So we know our average client spend is X, so we need X amount of clients to be able to reach that revenue target. We're at this right now, so we need to get to this.

SPEAKER_00 12:28

Is that sometimes I I've done I did that a lot in the past. Yeah. What the most recent lesson I've learned is that if you're focusing on those lagging metrics, it affects the pace at which you're making decisions, especially if you're not on track to reach your goals. You know, revenue is a very downstream, lagging metric. So uh, if you know your podcast listeners haven't heard those terms before, a lagging metric is something that over a period of time, based on behaviors and actions, what is the downstream outcome that happens? And you mentioned revenue. So there are so many things in a chiropractic practice that have to happen in order to measure revenue from attracting your ideal patient to identifying if they're in the right place and agreeing on a problem and a path and a plan in which to reach their outcomes and then seeing them through that process. Sometimes that's weeks and months down the line to be able to measure that. And what I learned in in business specifically, but practice as well, is that if you're just focusing on those downstream lagging metrics and you're waiting to be able to measure those, you can ignore a lot of the leading metrics that go into the behaviors and actions to drive that lagging metric. So we spent half of our day yesterday talking about how the second half of the year, we're gonna focus more on leading metrics than lagging, leading over lagging. So a lot of our focus and behavior is about the the upstream pieces that go into the throughput to get that output you're looking for. So just some insights into that meeting. We talked very little about revenue. We talked very little about patients being in a maintenance phase of care. It was more so what are the behaviors and actions that we need to take now to help more people in our community and to serve them not just at a greater scale, but more effectively through that journey.

SPEAKER_01 14:12

Well, absolutely. Yeah. We talk a lot about that in 10x too. Those the leading indicators might be calls, you might reach outs and things like that. Those you're gonna have much quicker than you are the revenue side. Yeah. Right. So and if your business is set up properly, having those leading indicators in place, you're gonna know what revenue you're gonna get out of that later on down the line.

SPEAKER_00 14:31

Yeah. And so you you talked about backing into it, but that could be also backing forward to it, right? So absolutely. I know, like in your case, like all the you know, I know how many calls I have to make in order to get this many people to answer, in order to schedule this many meetings, in order to actually close a deal or whatever that is and whatever your industry is, you can work it forward too. And so my encouragement to uh entrepreneurs and business owners listening right now is don't just wait until the end of the quarter and look at those downstream lagging metrics to track the effectiveness of what you're doing. But what are the leading metrics that you know you need to do and that you need to be tracking on a micro level, you know, on a weekly basis or a daily basis? Some of those metrics we tracked on a shift-by-shift basis. So, like today, we're it's a full day in the clinic. So we have a morning shift and an afternoon shift. So on per shift basis, what are the things that we're tracking and looking at to be able to extrapolate that out over a week and over a month to predictably be able to hit those lagging metrics? Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 15:29

And I think that's probably where a lot of business owners fail to understand the activity targets like that, like you're talking about. Because those activity targets will get you to your revenue targets or whatever your end target is, that your lagging indicators. I think a lot of people don't do that daily, weekly check like you're talking about.

SPEAKER_00 15:47

And because I think it could be maniacal to a certain degree. And I know one of the call, you know, talks that we had in the previous times is the the challenges of being a new entrepreneur and how how many times you have to see here know and the failure you go through to refine and and clarify your execution strategies. And it can be really lonely and challenging, you know, hearing all those no's and trying to figure that out. But once you have enough data, and that's the key, is you got to track it. Right. You got to effectively track it. And once you have enough data, then you can look back and you take the fear and you take the worry and you take the stress out of it and say, okay, let's just look at what the information is saying. Based on how I make these phone calls and my processes in place, this is what I would expect the outcome to get. And if the outcome is what I'm shooting for on a goal, then my system is working. And if it's not, it's not necessarily a me thing, like a personal thing. It's not a the audience or my target market wasn't ready. It's what are the systems or processes or procedures that I'm doing? What are those systems and processes and procedures that are working? And what are the systems and processes and procedures that need tweaking or refining or improving and training on to get better conversions through those steps to get the outcome you're looking for? Right.

SPEAKER_01 16:58

How how embedded is the tracking in your in your practice? Is it mainly you tracking, or is it basically every team member has their thing that they're tracking as well?

SPEAKER_00 17:07

It's a fantastic question. I think that's the probably the most effective question and answer that they're probably gonna get out of this podcast. Everybody has their own data points. So in our practice, we call them scorecards. Everybody in the practice has a scorecard. I got a rule. You get a paycheck, you get a scorecard, and you get a key. Like those are the big three things, right? So when it comes to looking at the scorecard, the scorecard are a series of statistics. We call them key performance indicators or KPIs. And those KPIs are not just endemic to who that person is cognitively, like who they're hardwired to behave alike, but how do those KPIs translate to success within their specific role? So the KPIs don't get assigned to a person, a human being. They get assigned to a role in the practice. And each team member has somewhere between three to five KPIs. And the cleanest way I could explain it is those KPIs and them accomplishing and reaching the number is their demonstration of what good work looks like. You don't hope to achieve the numbers. It's when you reach this number, you are being successful within your role. Right. There's no celebration of you reaching that number. There is, if you exceed that number, that's what excellent work looks like. And there should be a value exchange with their exceeding goals, which is in place in our office and bonus structures. But those KPIs are taking the feeling and emotion or the disconnect between what a direct report thinks is happening and what the person whose KPIs are and objectifying it and saying this is clear objective data, like this is what Google looks like. This is what we expect out of you. So there's clear expectations. There are clear agreements between each team member on what that process looks like. Okay. And we track those. We have a team meeting once a week where everybody is reporting on their KPIs. That's gonna be my next one.

SPEAKER_01 18:59

When do you go over the scorecards?

SPEAKER_00 19:01

There you go. On a weekly basis. So everybody reports on their scorecards, and we have a big, giant scoreboard. So very similar to this screen, there's a giant scoreboard. It's like in the middle of a game, you always know what the score is, right? There's no ambiguity about who's winning, who's losing, what inning it is, how many outs are there in a baseball setting, but we have that scoreboard up there. And so we're always tracking it and looking at the live data. And another very important piece of this for the business owners and entrepreneurs listening is when people are reporting on those KPIs, the question is, are we on track or are we off track? If we're on track, there's nothing to discuss. Right. It's clearly working, whatever we're doing. Let's not waste everybody's precious time discussing that. If we're off track, it's not the end of the world, but it's also not okay. Right. So what are the behaviors that you're gonna put in place? What are you gonna do to get all back on track? Because it's not my job as a business owner, and it's not my ECO's job as the person that's running the team and managing the team to address and fix that for them. We are there to support, but there has to be ownership. If you have that scorecard, there has to be ownership to say we're off track and here's why. And then here are the things that we're gonna do, or I'm gonna do, or I'm gonna team up with these two team members or three team members to get this thing back on track. Right. So it's not enough to just say, we're losing. Yeah. And I hope to continue to lose and I hope that we don't lose another inning and another inning and lose the game. It's no, no, no. Like, what's the game plan? What are we gonna put in place to get it back on track?

SPEAKER_01 20:30

Do you have performance improvement plans to say somebody's not hitting their scorecard for multiple weeks in a row or months or whatever?

SPEAKER_00 20:37

Yeah, absolutely. If we're not seeing the outcome that we're looking for, the first place my brain goes it into is did I set crummy goals? As a leader in the business, did the leadership team set the wrong goals? Did we use the wrong data? Did we make in incorrect assumptions? Did we not lay out a strategic plan for this team member to execute the goals? And believe me, there have been plenty of times where that's true. Sure. So I'm always looking for ownership on my end first to say, did I set this person up for failure? Were the goals too lofty? Were they not as executable given the conditions and resources available for them not to hit the goal? That said, there have been times when I felt everything that the person in that role needed to be successful was in place. And we have to have serious conversations. And it's not personal, it's not finger pointing. It's not you are not a good human being or you're not doing a good enough job or you're not trying hard enough. It's it's coming alongside of them and it's a conversation to say, this isn't working. Let's go through the processes step by step. Tell me what you're doing, how you're doing it, and then let's see if we can come up with a different or improved or refined game plan to assist. And sometimes that involves changing the metrics, changing the goals and you know, focusing on more short term wins to build momentum back up. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 21:54

So a lot of businesses aren't going to have a clinician, they're not gonna have doctors in there, but a lot of people have office. Staff.

SPEAKER_00 22:00

So what are some KPIs that you would have for auth of staff? I would say it's it's entirely dependent on the role. So I if I can make some assumptions, if it's an entrepreneur in some sort of service-based industry, it would probably work in a product-based industry, but I'm just speaking personally. I know the service-based industry. There are five tenets of practice that we look at. There's attraction, you know, lead generation, there's conversion or sales, there is retention or maintaining a client relationship. There is team building. That's a very important one that gets overlooked a lot. And then there is some sort of collections like how are you managing the money? Yeah, the business accounts, collecting for services rendered and things like that. So there's typically attraction, lead gen, conversion slash sales, retention, maintaining your customer base, team building, and collections. In our practice, we have three subdomains under each one of those columns. So those five categories would be columns. And then we have three subdomains under each of them. So just to give the people listening an example, in the attraction column or the lead gen column, there would be internal, there would be external, and there would be digital. So in our lead gen focus on an internal basis, how well are we empowering the patients that are in our practice to tell other people their story? Of course, their success story, the wins they're getting and how that organically helps people understand chiropractic and what it is and what it isn't, and how we helped, and them wanting to tell other people about their great experience. Just like you want to talk about sweet greens wherever you go because it's such a great restaurant. You had a great experience. Then there's external, you know, if we're going out doing network events, you did networking at the golf tournament. You're out there shaking hands and meeting people in an external basis standpoint. There's digital, the podcast, you know. So there's subcategories under each. And each of those columns, you have subcategories. Under those subcategories, I always have a team member's name on that. As in one person has to own this domain. That doesn't mean they're responsible for every single behavior and movement and step-by-step process. Doesn't mean they are responsible for all of those, but they certainly are accountable. And there's a big difference between accountability and responsibility. What I tell my team is one person is accountable, but everybody's responsible. So our marketing manager, she owns the internal lead gen or internal traction domain, but everybody on the team is on the marketing team in the practice. The doctors, the staff, the team, the leadership, everybody's on that team. They're just helping in different ways. So what I would say in an office setting, you have to come up with what you're, and there could be five, you know, of those categories, columns, and there may be three subdomains, or maybe two, there may be five, but you should assign ownership to each of those. So the question becomes, who owns it? That's question one. And then the second question is, how well is it optimized? Right. Not how good is this person at their job, but how well is it optimized on a scale of one to 10. 10, we're crushing. Nine, we're doing great. Eight, we're close to meeting goal. Sevens, a couple things have to go right in order for us to hit the goals. Sixes, we're not gonna hit goal. Three's worse than five, one's worse than three. And we categorize those. We rate optimization scores on a monthly basis as a leadership team to look for constraints, not to see where people aren't doing their job. What are the two or three biggest constraints in the practice right now or the business right now? And we have one for each. And then what's our game plan moving forward? Is it a person issue? Is it a process issue? Is it a proficiency issue? Um, is it a product issue and solving it from there? So you just gamify the whole thing. It's like there's no guesswork, there's no, I feel like there's one thing I just don't love to hear in that type of meeting is here's what I feel. Right. No disrespect. I don't care what you feel. Right. What is the data show? I don't care about the story. What's the data show? And then let's be pragmatic about looking at that data and building a plan to address it.

SPEAKER_01 25:51

Absolutely. So those KPIs, how many of them are completely objective? And how many of them have some subjectivity into them? So are a lot of them very number driven? Just hey, lead generation. We expect X leads per week. Is it that? Or is it is there a little more subjectivity to some of the KPIs?

SPEAKER_00 26:10

On our scorecards, they're all objective. Okay. They're all data-driven conversations. And they in my opinion, they should be. Yeah, right. Because then there's no ambiguity. It's not what you feel versus what I feel or what you see versus what I see. It's what is the data showing? Numbers don't lie. The data is the data. Now, there are nuances that deserve to be discussed, and there are conversations that should be had, and there are circumstances and there are unanticipated constraints that show up that inform what the data's saying, but I always want the data to be what's on that scorecard. And then from there, you can look at past performance or past action steps and say, this is where we could see improvement. This is where we could have done better. We planned, but we didn't prepare enough before the event and this happened. Or in a team building standpoint, I said one of the columns is team building. It's leadership, there's management, there's accountability, there's training in each of those categories. There are measurable objective data points, but there is also some subjectivity in terms of the team's assessment as well in that category. What's your net promoter score? Or what is the um the longest tenured uh team member on your team, or what's the attrition rate of people on your team? Like how long are they staying on your team?

SPEAKER_01 27:20

Right.

SPEAKER_00 27:20

Like those are somewhat subjective because they inform conversations and there are situations that are different person to person, but there's still a way to objectify it. So my encouragement for people if they're starting this process is to have some sort of objective way to measure them to remove story and ambiguity. Absolutely. So just in case somebody out there doesn't know what net promoter score is. Yes. So there's two ways you can track it. MPS is something that you can utilize on a team member basis. It's also something you can use for your customer basis as well. So what's the likelihood that a customer of yours is going to recommend you uh out in the field? So we have a data point. We have it, it's called the referral quotient. So I literally have the ability to look that up at any given time and know what's the likelihood on a ratio of a patient that comes through our practice that is going to refer another patient in. So our referral quotient is 0.83. So for every patient that comes in the practice, they refer 0.8 patients. I think that's a strong indicator that not only are we serving that patient well, we're helping them reach the outcomes that they're looking for, but they're so happy about that process, they want to tell other people. So that's one way of tracking a net promoter score on a customer basis. So, or you can just send, you can go on Google, there are forms that you can send out and they can quantify it. But also you can use a net promoter score within your team. So the way you flip that is what's the likelihood that you have a team member on your team that is going to tell one of their friend or family member, a coworker, or somebody to go to church with, this place is so awesome to work. You should come work here. That's a really strong indicator as well. So, if you're a score within your business, or what's the average tenured person when you're a practice, excluding somebody that just started in our practice. That average number in our practice is four years. And we don't have a big team. There's 10 of us, but that's a strong indication that either they're filling being fulfilled in their role, or they have a loyalty to the vision and the mission that we're serving, or they just love showing there's there's reasons for that, but it's a quantifiable, objective data point that answers the question that you're asking.

SPEAKER_01 29:24

Love it. That point eight three seems like it'd be a strong number to me. So uh is there any way for you to get data on other practices around it through any associations that you're a part of to see how you measure up maybe to others? Because that that feels very strong to me.

SPEAKER_00 29:39

You know, I don't know. I it might it might be unique to our um our EHR system. My goal is one to one. I'm always chasing that one to one. Uh of course. But how that compares to others, I don't know. My goal is always to compare me to me. Of course. And so I'm just curious if you if you had data like that, but yeah, it seems like a strong number. I really don't have an industry standard. Chiropractic is the second greatest purpose behind being a man of faith and sharing your faith, but it is the greatest healthcare delivery system. It's a simple and elegant solution to people living a healthier life. So, my hope, my assumption would be that every practice in town is very similar to that because it's just a beautiful and elegant solution. Love it. Yeah. Well, let's give everybody your framework one more time that you said at the beginning. Uh, so I would say start with your appear process. You need to assess the previous period of time, the previous month, the previous quarter, the previous year. You need to plan. You need to create a strategic plan moving forward of what you're trying to accomplish that involves your vision and your mission, um, involves your game plan of going about. Then you have to prepare. Once you have the plan, your strategic plan, then you have to set up preparation steps of the things that we need to start doing or stop doing sometimes. Sometimes it's stop doing. Of course, yeah. To be able to execute. And then the E is execute. Like you got to hit the ground running. Most entrepreneurs, most business owners live in E, and they forget the other five letters of the word. You have to live in E. You have to execute, but it needs to be in ratio with the others. So it's it's assess, plan, prepare. It's execute is the E. And then the second A in the word is assess. Then you have to reassess. How did we work the plan? How did we prepare? How did we execute? And then the R is repeat. So that's that's the framework I work off of. I would have some sort of accountability grid where you're looking at the domains of your business, assess the domains, who owns them, how well is it optimized within your business structure. And then you need to have reporting rhythms. You have to have meeting rhythms. I'm not saying that this is what we do. I'm not saying this is what they should do, but we have weekly team meetings, we have monthly meetups, we have quarterly board meetings. We say like board meetings, not like a chairman's board.

SPEAKER_01 31:43

I was gonna say, you have a board?

SPEAKER_00 31:44

We have a we have a white board. We call them our whiteboard meetings. Okay, gotcha. So we have a quarterly whiteboard meeting, and then we have an annual meeting at the end of the year. And those rhythms and staying in those rhythms are what holds me accountable as a member of the leadership team to the business, because those sometimes are separate entities, right? The CEO is not always the business owner, so I have to be accountable to a business owner, but I also have to be accountable to the team. And then the team has to be accountable to the business, and the team has to be accountable to leadership. Leadership has to be accountable to the team. And to so it's a triangulation of accountability. We're all working together and supporting each other as opposed to finger pointing and like that.

SPEAKER_01 32:19

So anything specific for maybe the person that's out there, they just started their business. They've got just a maybe a couple clients under their belt. They are very, very new. They're gonna run through this framework, but any words of advice for them when it comes to data and tracking?

SPEAKER_00 32:33

Yeah, I would say uh congratulations on starting a business. Uh most small businesses don't make it out of the first year. I think it's uh like an under 33%. Yep of that 33%, most don't make it to seven years. So if you've got the grit, determination, and discipline to start a business, start there. Like applaud yourself. Congratulations. I would say starting off with reporting systems, you just got to start tracking your data before you build out all the other things we talked about. And I'm happy to do that if somebody wants to reach out and help them flesh that out. But before you start building out these rhythms and meetings and things like that, you got to just start tracking your data. And it has to be realistic and clean ways of tracking it. No monkey business, no massaging the numbers, no, well, it would have been this if it's no. You got to track the data. And then I would run through that appear process and start looking at yesterday and then last week and then last month and then last quarter. And as you aggregate more and more data, you're gonna see those spikes and valleys level out more, and then you can identify where those constraints are. I don't care who you are, I don't care if you just open your business or you've been in business for 60, 70 years. Your business has constraints. Yeah. They just do. So in order to have the data and the systems to be able to track and look at it and identify them, what are the three greatest constraints? Is always what's going to keep your business growing and moving forward by being on your toes and not on your heels about being proactive and not reactive in order to help you execute your vision and your mission on your core values and then create a behavior system to go accomplish those goals too.

SPEAKER_01 34:05

Absolutely. And if you're just starting out out there, there's a lot of great software programs that can help you with data and tracking. Yeah. But if you're just first starting and funds are low, you don't necessarily have to have all the best software. A little spreadsheet from Google would work just to start getting your data, making sure and having that data there. You're a coach. Let me ask you the same question. What would you tell that same person from your perspective? Same thing. Very similar to what you said very at the very first was you just have to get the true data so you can actually make decisions on truth rather than emotion. That's exactly what the first thing I would say. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 34:40

And I wish somebody would have told me that in year one, right? Instead of taking spending years and years learning the lessons the hard way. So that's what I would say. Just listen and do it now. Don't wait and waste time and money and energy uh over time.

SPEAKER_01 34:51

So exactly. Well, great stuff today. This is great. As always, man, remind everybody where they could go if they want to uh come visit the clinic, man.

SPEAKER_00 34:59

Yeah, so our clinic's over on the west side of town at Springfield. We're on Montvale Drive. Our address is 2931 Montvale. We're all over socials. So if you just search Align Life Springfield, we're always putting information and tips and also always going out and doing speaking engagements. You mentioned that off the top. I love going into businesses. I love going into small businesses, medium-sized businesses, large-sized businesses, helping people understand how to perform better or uh adapt better or lead better. So we're always doing lunch and learns. We track that as well. Our goal is to be doing twice a week. I feel like that is what's honoring my purpose is to get out and teach and educate. So I feel fulfilled. I feel like I'm serving my purpose when I do that twice a week. There's some weeks where it's only one. So I would love to be able to serve you, but also to honor my mission to get out in the community as well.

SPEAKER_01 35:45

So well, all you business owners out there, y'all heard all these golden nuggets that he's dropping today every time he's come on the show. He could do that right at your business, y'all. So there you go. Gives him a shout.

SPEAKER_00 35:54

That's right. So we'll appreciate it again, man. Appreciate you. Appreciate what you do and the audience that you uh serve and the and the platform you serve from to help Springfield uh and to elevate Springfield and help people, you know, unlock the next levels of their growth too. So we're gonna be able to do that. Thanks for serving the way you do, man. Appreciate it.

SPEAKER_01 36:10

All right, we're gonna let Dr. Willie get back to elevating Springfield, but for the rest of y'all, be right back. Looking for expert tree care with hometown integrity, look no further than Sangamon Tree Service. They're your trusted local pros, delivering quality workmanship, exceptional customer service, and fair, honest pricing every time. Whether it's trimming, removal, or storm cleanup, their team brings professionalism and care to every job, big or small. Call the name your neighbors trust, Sangman Tree Service. Or visit them today at Sangamontreeservice.com. Sangamon Tree Service, rooted in quality, built on trust. Well, thank you for joining us today, everybody. Appreciate you making us a part of your day. Hey, don't forget while you're out on social, check ours out. You can check my personal one out at RobertFarrell at everywhere. Check out those Elevate Springfield pages, those big dog business coaching pages as well. Check us out over on YouTube. Give us a subscribe, give us a like or a follow on any of those channels. We would certainly appreciate it. So, hey, take what you learned today. You bring the discipline and follow through, and together, as right, y'all, we're gonna elevate Springfield. Be great. Looking for personalized insurance with hometown care, David Hilst, American Family Insurance Agent, is here to help you protect what matters most: your family, your home, and your dreams. Whether it's auto, home, life, business, David and his team are proud to serve the Springfield community with trusted advice and reliable coverage. Local service, real relationships, peace of mind. Call today or stop by their office. They can build your dream protection plan together. Call 217 726 6343.