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Hello and welcome to today’s show Growth Without Risk. My name is Dr. Janice Hughes, and I’m excited to be here today. Thanks to ChiroSecure. I want to take the opportunity to thank ChiroSecure for putting this whole series together and bringing several of us that are different speakers, presenters, and we just have different ways of looking at things within the profession. Now, today, I’m really excited. I have Dr. Bobbi Voermans with me, and I’m going to actually have Bobbi introduce herself here in a minute, but I just want to sing your accolades before I let and turn the microphone over to you. Um, part of the reason I’m especially excited to interview Bobbi today, not only is she an amazing chiropractor, I want to have her share a little bit more about the way she looks at business. So many of, you know, if you follow, um, sort of my approach to some of these Growth Without Risk episodes is that it’s really, from my perspective about how you have more impact and you can more easily do that. If you just apply some really wonderful and simple business principles. So Bobbi welcome, and just give everybody a little sense of you, your practice, how you have a couple of practices. And then I want to delve into this idea about our, our show topic today is going to be about strategic planning. So welcome.
Thanks, Janice. And thanks so much to ChiroSecure, Secure for having us. I really appreciate that. Um, so I’m a Northern Wisconsin girl, uh, a farm girl at heart. I own two practices in Tomahawk, Wisconsin, and in Rhinelander, Wisconsin. Um, I was born and raised in a restaurant with my family and a family business and diagnosed with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis as a child. And that’s where I found chiropractic. And it gave me the hope and to be, and do the things I want to do. And that’s all I want to do for the chiropractic profession is give that hope back. Not only to the practice members that we treat, but also to young chiropractors and business teams, um, that we are as a profession. So I’m super excited to dive into this topic today.
Yeah. I, I’m really excited to have our listeners hear your perspective. It’s one thing I talk about business, you know, but, but you said something really interesting in your introduction that I want people to really take note of that Bobby grew up in a business. And so the key is not only being an amazing chiropractor and I can hear your excitement and passion. And I know it, um, it’s, it’s really though blending that business approach and you grew up with it. So, so tell me, like, even when I say that word, strategic planning, a whole bunch of people’s ears turn off, you know, it’s like, what do you mean I have to plan, or I have to do a bunch of work and then we don’t achieve our goals. So share with us, share with myself and the listeners, like how you described strategic plan.
I really like look at, you know, who you were, who you are and where you want to be. And that’s different for every single practice, every single team doctor, every single owner. Um, but looking at those three things in practice and in life and merging them together and to be where we want. I mean, it’s great to make more money, but are we happy and successful in life as much as we are in practice. And so when you look at that strategically and plan those out, um, and outline how you want your year to be not only by looking at your practice members, but the people that you surround yourself with every day, because any lead doctor listening right now knows that you can’t do it by yourself. So how can we continue to grow our team? How can we continue to have the dream team we want? So we have the dream business we want to achieve that year. So that’s the importance of strategic planning.
Yeah. Now, you know, again, you notice that we’re, we’re really breaking down what this is, how we define it, you know, then what are some of the pieces that go into it? And, and I can hear you describe that, you know, so it’s your goals or dreams or aspirations. It’s the way you want to reflect chiropractic to the, to the community. But I heard you say again, that we’re team, and I know that you do a little bit of very unique work related to that key pieces. How do you grow your team? So share with the listeners a little bit about what you do, how you do it, what does that really mean? And, and how can we help others learn this?
Yeah, absolutely. So one of the things that I delve into with my own team before I started helping other chiropractic teams is the via strength survey. And so that looks at what are your 24 character strengths in order of how, um, how you are and how you portray your own strengths in your life. And this has just been an eyeopening experience for my practices and also the practices that I’ve gone into and helped with their strategic plans with it’s such an interesting form. I mean, we all, I mean, right now, the Enneagram is really big. I’ve always, and it is, and I can tell you I’m an Enneagram too, right? So however I’ve used the via because it really plays with how well team interaction is and understanding the person and why they make the decisions they make. So the via strength survey is, is a great tool.
Yeah. I think that’s really key. It is the interaction. Like there’s a lot of tests out there. There’s there’s leadership, personality profiles. There’s the Enneagram. Like there’s a lot of these systems out there, but, but give us a couple of examples. So, so people can do those things individually, but you’re describing it. The via allows you to work better together. So give a couple of concrete examples to people.
Absolutely. So we do via as a family. So I’m going to give, cause we can all experience our kids. So I have two amazing daughters and fairness is really high in one of their via strengths, one of their top five. And so I just, we have to look at how we define each of that cause we define it differently. So my daughter, which fairness is high as that we spend similar time with each of them. So I sat down with my daughters because one struggles in school. So when we do math homework at night, we spend 30 minutes with one and three hours with the other. So let me ask you, which is fair. The time spent or the outcome. And that’s hard when we’re dealing with kids, but our team thinks the same way your team thinks the same way. Another good concrete example is one of the other characters, strengths is appreciation of beauty and excellence.
And as chiropractors, I know that we all define excellence differently. And so what does excellence look like? Does it look like hard work? Does it look like more toys in our driveway? Does it look like better stats? And so defining what excellence means as a team. So you understand that, um, is a huge wakening, especially as you have team members that don’t necessarily see eye to eye or lead doctors and team members, it’s just better to understand them because it’s important to have a great team, but it’s important to have them on the right seats on the bus to get you to where you need to go.
Yeah. I think that that’s an interesting one. You know, it is that book good to great, you know, that, that uses the analogy, you know, get the right people on the bus, but then you also have to get people in the right seat on the bus and, and where often a goal is not achieved. Like, I guess my perspective, my background is a coach for, for so many years is that there is no such thing as an unrealistic goal. There’s only either unrealistic action steps or unrealistic timelines. And so what happens for a lot of people in their business, in the, in the business of running the practice, like it’s almost the easy part is go and adjust somewhat, but the running of the practice and the interactions with the team is what you’re describing. You know? So, so tell, tell us a little bit about that process. So you do these assessments, you know, or you go in and I know you do this for other clinics as well. It’s one thing to do it for our own clinic, but, but what do you do and how do you do this sort of work?
Yeah. So, and I’ll be honest. The, how it got introduced to me was by Dr. Scott Bouche and, you know, we were having a conversation off before we started about having different coaches and mentors in our life. And so comes in and works with my team on the via and has introduced that. And then I take the time and have team members look at and fill out the via, which takes just a few minutes. And then we analyze them, analyze what their top five are analyze, where creativity plays a role. Um, bravery is one of the strengths. And so as you mesh those together, you can see how people react to different situations. And then another key piece is how to reset and in times of stress, so using the via to pick out those, um, when life is stressful, do I need to step outside and appreciate the beautiful sunset? So I can take a breath and come back in with a clear mind and Headspace and, and continue to serve the patients that are coming in the door. So the big thing with working together as a team is sitting down with the team and understanding that everybody’s different, but everybody brings, um, a piece of themselves, which makes the team successful. The team is not an I it’s a, we
[inaudible], I like a couple of those ones that you brought up, you brought up the word bravery. Um, I think that has a really big impact in, in our practices. You know, it’s one thing for ourselves as chiropractors, you know, so often, um, we might not be speaking our truth because we’re not brave enough, you know? And, and so that’s going to be very interesting, like with multiple personalities and dynamics. So, you know, give us an example of, you know, you have somebody on the team that, you know, maybe, um, is an incredibly brave, you know, does that mean that they can never be, or can you then strategically work with that team, say they’re the front desk person, you know, where people are calling and canceling, you know, making those cancellation phone calls. And I know at one point years ago I had one of my team members that said, Oh, okay. You know, versus keeping them on an adjustment schedule or getting them rescheduled for something appropriately. So, so how does that come out then? And how do you work with a team that maybe needs to grow that level of bravery?
Yeah, absolutely. And that’s huge because I, as my coach had told me, I have a clinic with high bravery in it, which is good and bad at the same time. Um, but when someone, when a team doesn’t have a lot of bravery in it, looking at what other strengths they have. So for me, one of my TA I have bravery. That’s really low Janice in my character strengths. Um, however, my zest for life is extremely high and my top five, I love what I do. I wholeheartedly, um, know that it gives hope and benefits people. So that drives me, even though bravery is not high in me. So other of your character strengths get pulled together to continue to push, to be where you want to be. So understanding what your team’s character strengths are understanding how to bring out the best in each individual.
Um, this is definitely a positive psychology way of looking at it so that your bringing those phone calls of, yeah, absolutely. We can get your appointment rescheduled. Um, we know it’s important for you to continue to function well so that you can feel better and do the things you love when would be a great time for you to do that. You know, instead of being like, okay, let’s cancel your appointment. Um, and then you wait to hear back from them. So it’s about how to, how to have them step into their own person to work the front desk, or have that tough conversation or talk about financials with a patient, um, in a way that is not only brave or perceived as brave. Right. But as also a way that, um, is getting the message across
Yeah. That you, you said it right there, it’s about the perception. Um, so, so that example I’m pulling out of you for everybody listening, is that it’s not necessarily that it always has to come from, um, having a high value of bravery. You know, it, it, for me, I have a lot of bravery in me, so, so that might be me misunderstanding or trying to instill that in someone when it’s just not natural for them, it’s not innate for them. And I’m going to beat my head against a wall, trying to have them be more brave, but I love how you gave that example. You find the other pieces or qualities that can, you know, have a light shot on them and help someone be really successful in that position, you know, and, and helping our team like learn almost some ideas for scripting that might not be the exact script that you put down in your SOP, your standard operating procedure. So it’s, it’s really identifying that. I liked you saying, you know, in the very beginning that even strategic planning is seeing where you were, who you were, you know, where you are now and where you want to be. You know? And so that for me is what I like so much about the VA is it’s really a tool to help people grow themselves, ultimately grow the clinic and the impact as well.
We hear so many times, you know, we need to step out of our practices and work on our practice instead of working in our practice. I’ve heard that for years now. And there’s, there’s no better words to listen to. And I’ll even say, you gotta work on yourself and then you got to work on your team and then you have to work on your practice. So, you know, there’s, you know, to grow your practice, you need to grow your team and yourself to be where you want to be. And part of what I’ve done when I’ve gone into other clinics is just facilitate that and facilitate them, work out. Some of the things that they’re trying to get towards that are being held back. So they’re being held back from things that have come up in the past and they want to go towards a goal. And so to have an outside facilitator to come in and do that has what I’ve been blessed to do, um, for multiple chiropractic offices now. And it’s been a great experience for me and for them to, to allow them to see one is who they are as people, and know that the via has spoke to them. And two is to see when for better terms, the light bulb turns on and they can see how their unique personality or their uniqueness, um, can shine like it should.
Yeah. I think it’s also important for people to hear a little bit about your background coming from a call it a small town, a small enough area. Like you have sat on some, um, business boards, you know, banks, institutions, you know, that might not be where a lot of other chiropractors have had the fortune quite yet of, of learning. And I think that’s really important that sometimes we’ve had to also bring these tools from other, you know, sort of professions and Scott, Dr. Scott, who you’re referencing, you know, uses these tools really well himself. Like, you know, so you’re looking at there’s, there’s some people that are within our profession that have really gained some of that outside business perspective and, and know, like, I always say that so often to bring someone from the outside in to just help to facilitate is so much faster and more beneficial, you know, that’s where I’m such a big advocate that things like, you know, having a coach in your life is an investment, but particularly with this kind of idea around strategic planning, like I think sometimes we’ve got our own blind spots, don’t we,
We do. And guess what we have them and we don’t see them.
Yeah. Yeah. We don’t even realize that kind of like the race horse like that, that they’re here. So that’s all that you’re typically used to seeing.
Yeah, absolutely. And it’s huge, but you’re right, Janice. So I have been blessed to sit on a board for a credit union for over seven years now. And that has really allowed me to get insight. Not only do I train for that board or go to seminars to learn that business, but I’m able to bring it back then into my business, into chiropractic. And it has really opened my eyes to what strategic planning can be and should be, um, in addition to celebrating with your team and, um, allowing you to continue to grow when you’ve reached a certain base camp, or when you’ve reached your goals, how do you continue to grow and in what direction? So the ability to do that as been huge, and one of the things I’ve learned my training, um, through some of my seminars is some of the blind spots that we continue to have in our lives. And I don’t always see them and the best coaches and in that I’ve had in my life, they don’t tell me what they are. They allow me to figure that out. So I continue to grow because we’ve all know, like we’ve had patients come in and be like, I just want you to pop this bone back in and I’ll be great. Well, we, as chiropractors know, that’s not always the case
And that’s right, but when you’re tell us that,
Yeah. So a great aspect would be like, Hey, this is occurring in your practice and you need to change this. Well, that’s not the way or the approach that I take. When I work with strategic planning with other offices, I spend time and I look at every single, um, persons via and how they come together as a team, I look at an interview, the lead doctor, and understand where they want their goals and aspirations to be, um, work with what they’ve maybe struggled with in the past and how they want that to look different for their future. Um, both in teamwork, in marketing, um, and other aspects, um, whether they want to start to step back as a lead doctor, whether they want to hire another doctor and they want to, you know, fully, fully go four or five doctors at a time and grow their practice. So depending upon the doctors, each of the clinics that I’ve worked with and looking at their blind spots is about not just about the team, but some of the lead doctors also.
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. It, you know, again, it’s just almost like a little mantra, you know, we need a checkup from the neck up and, um, it, it is so much about, you know, I th the good news is I know the impact of chiropractic. I’m like you, I have such a passion for who we are, what we do as a profession. You know, I, I know I hear it all the time. I get emails or messages or reach outs, you know, from people that they know at some level that they’re not like living up to that kind of internal potential that they know that they have. And, and it can be like all these kinds of subtleties, you know, that so often we’re chasing a goal or a dream that maybe actually isn’t even ours, you know, it’s what we think we should, or what we have been told.
So that’s what I love about the via piece. You know, the strategic planning is near and dear to my heart. And, and just so everybody listening, you, you can do it without the via. I just think the via adds such a interesting level and filter it is really more that psychology, you know, and allows chiropractors. I’ve watched you grow, you know, yourself and grow your team, you know, do some really, really interesting things have way more impact than you probably ever dreamed you could. And it came out of using these tools and then helping facilitate that for other people too. So I, I just can’t say enough about what I feel is the impact of people chiropractically being willing to look at your business in a very new and different way. So thank you for sharing little bits. I know that this is almost just like an introduction, but share with the people listening, and we will include your, your email. So people can even ask you questions about this, but, you know, share, share why you do this with other offices. And, and can somebody just reach out to you and get a little bit of input from you?
Absolutely. And you know, the number one, I do, the reason I do this for other offices, because I’m only one human and I want to make a bigger impact and the way to do that is through other people’s hands. Um, and other chiropractor’s hands when they’re, when they’re giving an adjustment to a practice member. Um, so that’s one reason, one, and I want people to be happy and successful. I mean, when it comes down to it, we want people to be happy and successful in their own lives. So those are the big reasons why I do what I do. Um, and by far, go ahead. My email is, um, Cairo strategist@gmail.com. So drop me an email. Um, I’m on Facebook and Instagram, um, just under Bobby Mormons. So go ahead and you can DM me in either of those realms.
Yeah. And thank you for just being willing to help different people learn about it. I know that just because I know the work you do, I’ve even just sent a couple of female chiropractors through some of the female networks, you know, to, to just ask you more. So thank you for your willingness to share, you know, for everybody listening, like you can access these kinds of tools. You know, there are a lot of great people that want to help you grow, and you notice I’ll link back to the title of our show, which is growth without risk, you know, and, and I want you to see that there’s a lot of people and, and, you know, individuals that can help you. You don’t always need to turn to a company or say, Oh, now I need to spend a lot to learn those things. You know, I wanna just bring you people like Dr. Bobby that are gonna, you know, be willing to share and give you great insights, or even say, look, go read about this. You know, there’s lots and lots of ways to grow. So again, I want to thank ChiroSecure for the opportunity to interview you, Dr. Bobbi, thank you for coming on and stay tuned as well for next week’s show, because remember, this is a show that happens every week with different facilitators and Dr. Sherry McAllister will be the host of next week show. So thanks and have a wonderful day.