Purpose Over Fear With Dr. Lindsay Banks

IN THIS EPISODE WE COVER:
* Overcoming The Fear Of Putting Yourself Out There
* The Power Of Taking Action Instead Of Hoping Someone Else Will And The Work That Dr. Lindsey And The Team Are Doing To Foster Diversity & Inclusion For Women Of Color In Chiropractic
* How To Protect The Number One Asset In Your Business Through Self-Care & Time Management
* How To Thrive As a Wife & Mom In Chiropractic

What is The Health & Wellness Practitioners Podcast?

Welcome to The Health & Wellness Practitioners Podcast! Dr. Danielle and other guest experts talk about everything from getting your practice started, developing your clinical skills, growing your practice YOUR way, and dealing with the real stuff life burnout and work/life balance. Whether you’ve been practicing for decades or just started your journey, you’ll find something here for you!

DR. DANIELLE: Hello everyone. I'm super excited to be here with you today because I have one of my classmates from chiropractic school, Dr. Lindsay Banks with me. I love following her on Instagram. I love seeing all the, all the things that she's up to there, and I wanted to just share her, her story, her journey, and what she's been working on. So I'll let you introduce yourself and share a bit more about who you are and your family, if you want to, and your practice and what you do, and we'll take it from there.

MEET DR. LINDSAY

DR. LINDSAY: Awesome. Definitely. So again, my name is Dr. Lindsey banks, and I am originally from the Midwest small town, Aden, Illinois, right outside of St. Louis, Missouri. Most people have never really heard of Alton. You've heard of Robert Watler, that's where he was born. He was like one of the tallest people. Currently I live in Houston, Texas, and I'm the owner of Healthy Motors, 365. So, I actually just started my own practice in January, but I've had the business for the last couple years. I also work in higher education as a department chair of health sciences, and I'm also a wife and a mother of two. So I have a lot going on but you can understand that, you have a lot going on too as well. My mission with my business is really to focus on women and to help them eliminate some of the habits that can lead to chronic disease. I do that by educating them on the importance of regular chiropractic care, of course. And then I talk a lot about physical activity, I'm also a certified personal trainer, and healthy eating. One of the most important things to me that I discuss is having a positive mindset because of course, you know, where your mind goes, the body follows and that affects every decision that we make in our life. Everything starts as an idea in our mind and then it turns into our reality. So I really like to focus on helping my clients and my patients develop a positive mindset.

DR. DANIELLE: I'm just having a moment because as we've been talking before we were recording and now too, it's just really cool to have this conversation with you because what, we graduated 13 years ago, I think it'll be 13 years and like two weeks? And there's so much evidence of growth.

DR. LINDSAY: I know it's amazing and funny because the way that I remember how many years it's been since I graduated is because I was pregnant with my youngest Aiden when I graduated. And so I know, okay, he's gonna be 13 this year, that means I graduated 13 years ago. That's how I keep track of it because the time just kind of flies by. But the same thing with you, it's amazing to see somebody that you went to school with, thinking about when we first started, not knowing anything, being nervous and scared to see how much we've grown as wives, mothers, as professionals.

DR. DANIELLE: I was definitely scared in chiropractic school. A lot of the time learning to adjust was nearly terrifying and doing something in front of so many people wasn't really uncomfortable, but I didn't really understand that at that time. Now looking back on it, I'm like, oh, well no wonder so many people struggle through school because it really puts you out there and all.

DR. LINDSAY: I'm an introvert, which now as I've gotten older, I've learned to say, you know, if you wanna grow, you gotta your comfort zone. So now I'm getting more used to that. But even back then, I was only 23 when I started school so, you know, I was one of the people that would just kind of sit there, absorb, and observe and then I absorb the information but I was never the person that's like, oh I'm gonna raise my hand. I'm gonna volunteer. I was just kind of like you said, scared, nervous and young, and didn't know what I was doing.

DR. DANIELLE: Yeah. I felt a lot like that too. And then, you know, sometimes in class, like I, I didn't wanna raise my hand because I typically would have the wrong answer. Not really wanting to put myself out there that way. So I was also very introverted and really learning in my residency how to put myself out there and overcome the fear of saying the wrong thing, doing the wrong thing. Cause I'd said the wrong thing and did the wrong thing a lot and just had to learn that it was okay to do that and nothing bad was going to happen in most cases. They were all learning opportunities.

DR. LINDSAY: Yeah. That's part of growing. You make mistakes, you learn the lesson and then you grow and evolve from it. I think it's kind of come full circle for me because now I do work in higher education. I used to be in the classroom, but now I'm in administration so I deal with a lot of faculty/ student things or what have you. But the cool thing about it is that I remember what it's like being a student and being in a classroom and being scared. So it allows me to have that empathy for students who may not necessarily be the person that's gonna raise their hand or be up front. But knowing that they still know the material, it's just kind of bringing them out of their shell a little bit.

DIVERSITY & INCLUSION

DR. DANIELLE: Yeah, we talked a bit about this before we were recording, but I feel like there's so much need for women who have children, whether they're in school or, you know, after school, if they’re working as an associate, running their own practice, there's so much nuance that goes into adjusting patients when you're pregnant, for example, or how you come back to practice and do something so physically demanding on your body after you've just grown another human being. And I would love for you to share a little bit more about what your experience was like having a child when you started chiropractic school, having another one near the end of chiropractic school. What do you wish that was either available to support more people with the same experiences or that you had known that you'd wanna pass on to other people?

DR. LINDSAY: So my experience like she said, when I started school, I had a nine month old and then when I actually got to outpatient clinic, I was about six or seven months pregnant. Then I also did part of my externship at the VA. So, you think about as a student, even learning to adjust in the first place, sometimes it could be difficult for some people and as a woman, being smaller, you know, I'm very petite, that was even more difficult. So even learning how to adjust with this huge belly was definitely difficult. Even now to this day when it comes to side posture, I don't really do side posture because again, I wasn't able to do that in school so I use the kick move. So again, it's what I'm comfortable with. But one thing that I wish that I would've had more so now is, you know, you think about even chiropractic schools, they are shifting as far as like the number of students, we have way more female students that are in the schools. You have women who have children already, so maybe even having support groups or providing daycare at the school. So that way, when you are going through school, you have kind of a support system in that. Because I mentioned earlier that when I started school, my first child was only nine months old. So I really wasn't comfortable with him at daycare. So me and my husband had to kind of alternate. He went to school in the evening and then he kept the baby during the day when I was at school so when I would get home in the evenings with him being gone. So now I'm in practice school, so it's gonna require studying and getting ready for things so I wasn't able to kind of hang out and build some of the relationships that some of my counterparts were able to do just simply because of my responsibilities that I had. I remember in the evening I would have my son on my lap, you know, studying and I remember having highlight notes all over my stuff because I would give him something to do while I'm trying to study. It was definitely a challenge and I recommend, for anybody that's a student that's going through tha, it just takes really buckling down and focusing, it's a short term sacrifice for a long term benefit. But definitely having more resources for women who already have children or plan to have children. I went through this whole thing of saying, okay, do I wanna have my kids in before I have a career? Or do I wanna start this busy career and then have kids and stop? That even translated into once I graduated because I graduated, I was seven months pregnant. I graduated in August and then I had my son in October. So you think about that recovery time then on top of that now I want to jump into a practice. I started practicing when he was four months old. I started off being an independent contractor in another doctor's office and I did that for about a year. It was all about me building confidence because I wasn't sure, I was the first chiropractor in my family and I wanted to build that confidence. Once I did, I'm like, oh I can do this. You know? But then when I actually decided to do it and open up my own practice, I shared space with another doc, Dr. Andrew Dalton, she was in our class too. It was very challenging because at that time I had maybe like a three year old, no, a four year old and a one year old. So trying to, you know, be a wife, a mother, and balance a practice all at the same time was very challenging. Especially when you don't see a lot of people that look like you or women period. A lot of times you see the males and they're like, okay, you have a large practice, you buy all the most expensive and cool equipment and it really wasn't feasible at that time. I practiced for about five years and then that's how I ended up transitioning into higher education because I enjoyed teaching. Then I got this awesome opportunity. I was a part-time adjunct and then I was offered a full-time position. So at this point I'm like, okay, I'm struggling and trying to build this practice with two young kids, you know, why not take this position that I know my hours, I have benefits, It's more stable. So that's how I ended up getting into higher education. Now that my kids are older, they're 12 and 17, now I'm venturing back into that because now I have the flexibility because they're older and I can do more and they can even help me in my office. But even not knowing that now there are women that bring their kids to their office and you have all these different options to build a practice that works for you. At the time I didn't know that I could do that. You know? So I missed out on that because I wasn't exposed to that.

HUSTLE CULTURE

DR. DANIELLE: So yeah, I've been saying it for years, we're basically taught that the one right way to build a successful practice is to see a lot of patients and work a lot of hours, right? Not a whole lot of guidance, but to just work hard and hustle and you'll get there and you know, expect to do that for 7-10 years and then maybe you can take a vacation. But if you have a constitution like mine, you're not gonna make it seven years. My body just does not hold up to that kind of workload for that length of a time period. Before I'm like, nope, I'm out, forget this and then I get to a point where physically I can't do this anymore.

DR. LINDSAY: Yeah. And life is meant to be enjoyed too. So who wants to go seven or eight years from having vacation? You need a break, you need time to reset your mind. I recently was able to take about a week and a half off from my office without worrying about it. I went home and visited my family and went to my 20 year class reunion. Uh! When I got back, I felt more creative. I had the energy. I'm like, I'm ready to go because I took that time off, you know? I commend you because I listen to your podcast, I watch a lot of your videos and you talk about that a lot and it's true. You have to take a break to reset and be able to invoke that creativity back into your mind.

DR. DANIELLE: So you're still working in higher education, you've got two kids who are, one's almost a teenager and one is a teenager. You're married, you've got your practice and you've also started another organization. So tell us about that. And then I've got a couple questions for you. I'm gonna save them after we discuss that.

DR. LINDSAY: All right. So when it comes to Chiropractic Women Of Color, which is a new group and I didn't originally start it myself. So I'll have to give you a little bit of backstory on that. Dr. Raquel Webb started the group last November because she saw a need. She noticed that there were other professions that had a community but not one specifically in the field of chiropractic for women of color. We do have ACBO, which is the American Black Chiropractic Association, which I serve on the board with another one of our classmates, she's the president now, Dr. Edwards. But not specifically for women and the unique challenges that we have that we just talked about. So at the same time, I was also thinking about starting something and then I happened to run across her on Instagram. I started to think, why would I build something when I can join forces with her and build together? So she had started in November and then I came in right in January. I was one of her first interviews on Instagram and from there the rest is history. But just to tell you a little bit more about the organization, the mission of Chiropractic Women Of Color, which we call CWC is to motivate, inspire, and mentor women of color who are also Doctors of Chiropractic. It's not about division, but rather about encouraging a group of women who make up less than 2% of the profession, so when we say women of color, we mean all women of color, not just African American women, but all women of color. t's funny because when we think about the name or when we talk about women of color, it's not just black women, there's lots of women who are women of color. But even from personal experience, I think about when I was in school from my professors to really early on in my career, I really saw one person that really looked like me in this field, especially someone that was considered successful. I put that in air quotes, because again, we all know that successful is a relative term and it depends on what your definition of success is, but has the same goals. It's hard to be what you can't see and sometimes that can be difficult for some people to understand, especially when you always see people that look like you all the time. It's not to say that you don't care, but sometimes we have a scotoma or a blind spot until someone brings it to our attention. Think about it like this, from a young age you rarely see yourself when it comes to things like your toys, the dolls that you have to choose from at the stores or in movies and commercials. It really starts to ingrain something in you. Like, do I matter? Can I be this awesome person that I see all these other people being that don't really look like me? Oftentimes it can be difficult because you can be the only one in the room that looks like you. And a lot of times I've experienced that, but I’m actually pretty comfortable in that because my parents sent me to private school when I was younger, because they knew how important education was. So from preschool to fifth grade, I was literally the only person that looked like me in the entire school. Honestly, it was not a bad experience. I didn't feel like I was treated differently. Nobody was mean to me. And this was in the eighties, you know? So I'm used to being around people that don't look like me and feel completely comfortable, but sometimes it was a little uncomfortable. To circle back around to the whole goal of CWC is to show the world that we exist. We are compet and we're just as capable as our counterparts in serving the chiropractic profession. You can even understand as a woman in chiropractic, you're also a minority in the chiropractic field because it's predominantly white male. So adding onto that, now we being a double minority also being a woman and a black woman or Hispanic woman, Asian, native American, there's so many different minorities. That's why it's called Women Of Color. So that's a little bit about the organization and why it came into play. Right now we do interviews every Friday on Instagram at 1:30 where we interview a different chiropractor and we just kind of talk. We ask them to share their experiences, their journey in school, their career, just to show that we are here; we exist and that we're ready to serve in any capacity that anybody gives us the opportunity to do so. It's just creating a platform. Right now it's just the interviews, but we are really working towards some of the legalities in the background because there's so much more that we're gonna do. Like I said, it's still fairly new but there’s a lot more in store.

DR. DANIELLE: That's amazing.I love that you have taken the lead on this organization and just simply that it exists at all. Right. Because there's this notion that, and I'm not saying that this shouldn't happen. That notion that the events for continuing education or the homecoming should be more diverse. Yes. They should be more diverse. But what you've just taken is a need that was available and created your own platform. Right. Instead of waiting for someone else to understand and realize why they need to do it for you. I feel like it's more empowering to just say, you know what, I don't need to wait for you, I'm just going to create my own platform. I'm going to create my own stage that we're all gonna stand on together. Right! And you do that every Friday!

DR. LINDSAY: And that's what it's about. I don't want to take all the credit because again, like I said, Dr. Webb, she's actually, we have a board and we're getting ready to introduce them but she's actually the founder and President and I'm the vice president of the organization. So I wanna make sure that we give credit to her as well.

DR. DANIELLE: Yeah. Thank you.

DR. LINDSAY: A lot of times we wait for those opportunities. Sometimes as women in general, we wait for the opportunity and you know, instead of waiting for a seat at the table, let's build our own table, let's be seen. It's not just about us or for us or women of color. It's also for other groups and organizations who are also looking to increase the diversity on their boards, on their stages and in their businesses. So we're creating a growing list of women of color who are ready to step up, ready to step out of their comfort zones and do the work. We just need to give the opportunity and if we're given the opportunity and it's like, Ugh, I messed up. Everybody does that. That has nothing to do with your race or your color, you know? It has to do with your preparation and things of that nature and the knowledge and the skills and abilities that you have. One thing that I'm excited about is that I'm actually getting my very first opportunity to speak at a chiropractic conference in the fall in St. Louis, Missouri, and it’s a group, it's their second annual conference, it's called Evoke. I don't know if you've ever heard of them, but Evoke Chiropractic Coaching. It’s a group of three African American males who actually started this group and they all went to the same school that we did. The goal of a conference is to just increase the visibility of our profession by sharing the importance of diversity and inclusion in chiropractic. I also think about it like this, I probably would've never had the opportunity to actually be on the stage if they hadn't given me this opportunity to do so. I think about it like this, if we're going to grow our profession and treat more of the population it’s going to take all of us to do it. And not just one group of individuals, because the majority of the patients that I see have never been to a chiropractor before. They’ve never thought about going to a chiropractor before. The only reason they came to me is because they felt like I could relate to them. I spoke their language. I would listen and really understand them. I have a wellness based practice, so from day one, I'm educating them about the importance of chiropractic. I feel like I’m literally changing the world one patient at a time because I'm introducing this field to so many people that never really even considered it. And if I wouldn't have got to the point where I got outta my introvert and my comfort zone and said, you know what, I'm gonna start putting videos talking about chiropractic, I’m gonna start going live, then there's a lot of people that I wouldn't have touched. Again, it's all about just growing and sometimes you’ve gotta get uncomfortable to get the job done. But you know that.

“...if we're going to grow our profession and treat more of the population it’s going to take all of us to do it.”

DR. DANIELLE: Yeah, I would say most of the time we have to get uncomfortable to get the job done.

DR. LINDSAY: Yes. Very uncomfortable. But it is what it is. I always say, my purpose is greater than my fear. So, I may be scared and I may be nervous to do certain things, but you know, when you feel like you have a genuine purpose then you just go for it. For a long time I was upset with chiropractic. I had left and thought that I didn't know how I was going to be successful. You know, I have these kids, I don't know anybody that looks like me that's successful. I had all of these things going through my head, again, mindset, which is why that's important to me, but I had all these things going in my mind about how could I even possibly be successful?I don't see anybody that looks like me. So, you know, and on top of that, I have kids and I'm trying to find balance and I'm missing them growing up, all these different things. That's why I'm like, you know what, I'm just gonna go into education. I've been in education for a while. I started teaching as an adjunct in 2010 and then I fully transitioned into higher education in 2013 So it's been a while. And for a while, I wasn't even thinking about practicing again.But guess the universe took over. The series of things that happened that led me back into it Chiropractic were like, no, this is where you're supposed to be. This is the time, you know? And so here I am.

SELF CARE & TIME MANAGEMENT

DR. DANIELLE: Speaking of that, I wanna hear from you. How do you manage all of these things? How do you manage volunteering for what will become a nonprofit, if it isn't already a nonprofit organization, running a business, working at a college, raising two kids and keeping yourself healthy. How do you do that?

DR. LINDSAY: Okay. So there are quite a few things that I do. I'm really big on self-care. I prioritize my time, my self care, making sure that I take time for myself. Because again, as women, we play many roles. A lot of times we put our health on the back burner. The reason I started Healthy Motives 365, which my tagline is find health every day, is because we have the choice to be healthy every day, we have the choice to decide to do something healthy or do something unhealthy. I lost one of my cousins in 2013 and it really shook me up, you know? I started to get off track with my health and wellness; I wasn't taking care of myself. I started my business honestly, to help get me back on track. But some of the things that I do… I make sure every morning when I start the day, and this is something I just recently started doing maybe in the last year, I do a five minute meditation and it just helps to kind of get my mind ready in a positive mindset for the day. I also have affirmations that I do every morning. That pretty much speak positivity and they let me know, okay, these are my goals, this is what I wanna do. And then I have a vision board that I look at. It takes me maybe 15 minutes to do that every day, but that starts my day positively. Then I make sure that throughout my work day, I take regular breaks. If I have a meeting, I'm not gonna schedule meetings back to back. If I have patients, I'm not gonna schedule them back to back. One of my friends talks about being intentionally busy versus just being busy. I'm very intentional about how busy I am. You create a work schedule. I create a schedule of when I exercise, when I'm taking me time, when I have time for my family. Because again, it's important to make sure you're fitting all those things in. Before I started doing that, I was all over the place. I used to have anxiety and panic attacks and felt like I had all of these things to do until I got to the point where I realized that this is not healthy. How can I be a chiropractor and talk about holistic health while I'm all over the place with my own life? I had to really be aware and start to reflect and say, okay, what do I need to do to make sure that I'm taking care of myself? And on top of that, I have to be completely honest. I have a super supportive spouse, that’s super important, when you have a partner that allows, I'm not gonna say allow, like he gives me permission, but you get what I'm saying. Like we respect each other and you know, if he knows I have something to do, okay, let me make sure I got the kids. Now that they're olde it makes it a lot easier. But even when they were younger, he helped out a lot when it came to certain things so that I could be more flexible in building my career and things of that nature.So again, just really scheduling my day, prioritizing me and making sure that I have me time,having to support a spouse and not being afraid to say no. No is a complete sentence! A lot of times we say no and we feel like, oh, I have to explain, I have to say why you can say no .If you’re feeling overwhelmed and you're burned out, it's okay to say that. Things will be okay. If somebody gets upset with you, then they don't really love you if they're mad, because you say no for your own self care. And that's the way I look at it.
“But you can just start with where you can start. If it's five minutes or 15 minutes in the morning, that's where you start. It's easier from there. The more you embrace it and open up to the reality that things aren't all gonna fall apart if you have 15 minutes for yourself, every day, things usually actually get a lot better.”

DR. DANIELLE: Yeah. Yes to all of that! I have learned the hard way. I have to make time for myself and to make that a priority. I wanna say like the highest priority, but for someone that's not taking care of themselves at all and is really stressed out then it's hard to even imagine taking more time for yourself, especially putting yourself at the top of the list. Right. But you can just start with where you can start. If it's five minutes or 15 minutes in the morning, that's where you start. It's easier from there. The more you embrace it and open up to the reality that things aren't all gonna fall apart if you have 15 minutes for yourself, every day, things usually actually get a lot better.

DR. LINDSAY: Yeah. I always tell people it's about small steps. I also do healthy lifestyle coaching with some of my clients; I'm working on having online options instead of just being hands on. But I always tell them that it's about taking small steps, not changing everything all at once. So if, you're overwhelmed and you're not prioritizing self care, it's not about changing everything in my life all at once. Pick and choose your priorities, create those, make those habits. When something becomes a habit, it's second nature and you don't have to think about it anymore. Once you have that, okay, what's the next thing that I want to tackle and then next thing. You're to the point where you've created a healthier lifestyle, which is again, I always say, find health in every day. What can you do to be healthier today?

“...it's about taking small steps, not changing everything all at once. Find health in every day. What can you do to be healthier today?

It used to be a challenge for me, every morning I’d think, this is gonna look gross, you know, but now I have like a green smoothie. I make it every morning. At first it was a challenge like, uh I gotta make my smoothie. Now, It's like, okay, whip it up. It is not a thought. So then it's like, okay, now let me move on to the next thing. It's not that I have it all figured out, like you said, you learn by doing, you learn by the hard way, you know? And then you're like, okay, I can't keep this up. I have to if I'm gonna have a long career, if I'm gonna continue to take care of other people, I have to take care of myself first.

DR. DANIELLE: Yes. I hope and one of the reasons why I started this podcast is so that other people can learn from the challenges that people who have gone before them have had, and not have to have those same challenges and problems. But honestly, I don't know if that's realistic. It feels sometimes like people just really have to get to a point where they are in a place that is so painful, that they then have the motivation to do things differently. So I've just come to accept that. Like a lot of people who listen to podcasts are not in a super happy place and they're just looking to prevent things from getting too stressful. They are usually feeling really stressed, really overwhelmed and quite honestly burned out. And that's why they're here listening. I just really appreciate you and it sounds a little cheesy probably, but I feel really proud of you for how you've grown over the years and the leadership role that you're taking now.

DR. LINDSAY: You as well. If you would've told me on the first day of chiropractic school, this would be my life right now, I would've been like, no way, you know? It took me getting to a point where I wasn't happy. I lost a cousin of mine in a very tragic way and not grieving properly and just not taking care of myself. It took me getting to the point where, like you said, an extreme pain point. I was just to the point where like, I cannot do this anymore, something has to change. Like I mentioned, your podcast has been one of the things that I listen to to help me understand that there's more than one way to practice especially with what I have going on working in higher education, I was very strategic about how I set my office up. My office is literally 10 minutes away from the college campus. I'm actually on the college campus right now. I'm able to schedule my patients for a time that works for me and I have days where I have my administrative days, which again, that's something that I never thought about. I remember listening to one of your podcasts and then also talking about white space, like, okay, don't keep schedule things back to back, make sure you have a day where you're doing your administrative stuff. So you're not getting behind on doing your notes and charting and social media. When you first start off, a lot of times you're a one woman show so you’ve got to make sure that you have time to do all those things. So now when I get home in the evening, I can spend time with my family and I’m not neglecting maybe just downtime or exercise or whatever it is I need to do.

DR. DANIELLE: Amazing. Thank you so much. Okay, so tell us where people can go if they want to learn more about your practice or Chiropractic Women Of Color.

DR. LINDSAY: Absolutely. My practice is Healthy Motives 365. You can find us on Facebook a@healthymotives365 and also on Instagram @healthymotives365 You can also find Chiropractic Women of Color on Instagram and Facebook @chiropracticwomenofcolor. We're looking to build that platform. It's not just about women of color, we want to create a community where we can all work together. There are a lot of people out there that have more experience than we have and who are more knowledgeable, we want to be able to partner with other groups and organizations to provide women who can help to diversify your organization.

DR. DANIELLE: Awesome. Thank you so much for everything that you shared. It's just really fun to connect with you and catch up.

DR. LINDSAY: Awesome. Thank you too and thank you for everything that you're doing as well.