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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:
Welcome to the Health and Wellness Practitioners podcast. I am your host, Dr. Danielle Angela. In this show, I and my guest experts will talk about everything from getting your practice started to developing your clinical skills, growing your practice your way, and of course, dealing with the real stuff like burnout and work-life balance. Whether you've been practicing for decades or just started your journey, you'll find something here for you. So take a deep breath and enjoy the show.
Dr. Danielle:
Hello everyone. Welcome to a brand new episode of the Health and Wellness Practitioner's podcast. I actually have two guests here with me today, which might be a first. I don't know that I've done this on the podcast before where I've had two people as guests to the show. So I will welcome David. Sorry. I should say Dr. David Richardson and Dr. TJ. Oh gosh, I'm gonna do it wrong. Hey, Neveau.
Dr. TJ:
You got it.
Dr. Danielle:
Neveau got it. I had to think Ah-Choo I literally had to think and then I got Neveau and I was like, oh, okay. So we're gonna start off today with some rapid fire questions, and then we'll dive into today's topic, which is about the personal and business financial systems that everyone needs to have in place. And I wish I had known these things sooner, much, much sooner myself. So first things first, rapid fire. I'm gonna come to David. Why did you choose the career path that you were on now? The short story.
Dr. David:
Oh, it's a long story, but I would say to shorten it up, I chose this path because I had to step away from practice full-time due to an injury, and that injury came with a lot of financial ramifications. So I wanted to find a way to stay connected with my sisters and brothers in chiropractic while also being able to kind of share what I learned by going through my own situation. So that's the short of it that can be elongated much further.
Dr. Danielle:
That works. Awesome. Thank you. Okay, TJ, your turn. I normally ask this question, what fills you up? And that feels like a question that I would ask a woman and not a man. So I'll, I'll ask you instead. What do you do for fun?
Dr. TJ:
What do I do for fun? I, I, I answered this question today and I thought really deep about it, and it really just turns out I hang out with my family and whether or not it's, it's sitting on the couch, I probably spent half the weekend watching a Naruto, which is Japanese anime with my daughter. And so whether it's just sitting there hanging out with my family or doing, doing any other activity with, with our, with, with my kids, it's, it, that's what I do. Other than that, I hunt and fish and, you know, the typical guy from Northern Michigan would do. Right. So,
Dr. Danielle:
Awesome. Okay. This is a question for each of you. David, I'll let you go first. What do you like least about running a business?
Dr. David:
I think when you run a business, you do things or you end up getting caught in doing things that you have to do, not necessarily that you want to do and life's too short for that. So I would say kind of getting stuck into the routine of doing what you have to do is, would be my biggest downside.
Dr. Danielle:
Yeah. Yeah. I hear that. And TJ, how about you?
Dr. TJ:
You know, when, when I think about what I dislike the most about business, I, I, I don't have to deal with it now, but I had to when I was in practice, and maybe some people can, you know, be in agreement. I felt like I was on a, on an island, right. I ran a solo practitioner practice and I, I, I left that, and I guess I didn't leave it. I, I practice part-time right now extremely part-time, probably laughable, but probably 20 to 30 people a week that I take care of out of my home. And but I would say that the biggest thing was just that island feeling you're, you know, maybe it's me talking to a radiologist, but other than that, if I had something to bounce off somebody, I had to sit there and think about who I should ask to get information from. I don't have to do that here, and I, I don't have to do that at, at the last place I worked at Health coaching, but this that, that one thing feeling like you're on the island is the worst feeling.
Dr. Danielle:
Yeah, I think just about every practice owner feels that way, , if not all the time, at least some of the time. Yeah. Okay. Also, another question for the two of you to each answer, and TJ I'll let you go first on this one. What is a book that you think everyone should read?
Dr. TJ:
I'll, outside of, I, I, I'll, I'll answer as a chiropractor first. I like, I like Fred Barges Life Without Beer Book.
Dr. Danielle:
I thought you were gonna throw the Green looks at me when you said .
Dr. TJ:
It's, it's half, it's halfway there. Not all of them. Not all of them. I, I, mine
Dr. TJ:
I'm not that anxious to, to, to read through all of that. But I have read through some of them. And and then outside of chiropractic, there's a book called Outwitting the Devil by Napoleon Hill. And it's not a great readable version. It's better to listen to if you can find the audiobook version of that. So that's one of my favorite books outside of that. So.
Dr. Danielle:
Nice. I haven't read that one. And actually, I interviewed someone yesterday that suggested a book, and I was like, that one sounds like a book I need to read, cuz I keep hearing about it and haven't read it yet. Alright, David, how you It was a great
Dr. David:
That was a great book. TJ did turn me onto that one. It was fantastic audio book as well. I would say it was a great book that I read when I first got into practice. It was Raving Fans and it was all about being great at what you do to the point where those that you service have no other alternative, but to just sing your praises to everybody they know. And that lesson stuck with me through practice and now, now in this current situation. Because that's the type of person I always want it to be. And when you just translate that to business, just be somebody that everyone wants to say great things about.
Dr. Danielle:
I love it. Raving Fans is the name of the book. Yeah?
Dr. David:
Yes. There's two authors. I wanna say Peter Bouchard. I can't, it's not coming to me, but
Dr. Danielle:
It's not Brendan Bouchard. Is it Brendan Bouchard?
Dr. David:
I don't think so,
Dr. Danielle:
We'll have, have to
Dr. David:
I'll get it. I'll get it for you.
Dr. TJ:
Ken Blanchard, is
Dr. David:
That it? Ken Blanchard. Wow. Way off. Yeah, I think,
Dr. TJ:
Yeah, I remember reading that
Dr. David:
One. Yeah. Who's the co-author? Is the co-author at least Peter Buchan.
Dr. TJ:
I am not sure. I just remember that name.
Dr. David:
? Yes, that is correct.
Dr. Danielle:
Okay. Last rapid fire question. And this one is kind of funny, I think, in this setting, but here we go. This is the question I ask, the last question I ask every guest in rapid fire section. On a scale of zero to 10, how crunchy are you? I think David gets to go first. And is than an 11?
Dr. David:
That's an 11. I'm all in on the crunchy . I'm all in.
Dr. Danielle:
I love it. I rated myself yesterday an eight and a half, then I was like, my kids really like chicken nuggets and I try to buy like, organic chicken nuggets, but there are just so many things I've had to like let go of as they get older and they have their own wants and, you know, needs and opinions. So we have chicken nuggets in the freezer and we don't we don't use family cloth, so I don't know that I get to go as high as an eight and a half . TJ, how about you?
Dr. TJ:
I'm with you. I'm with you. I'd say eight to nine, somewhere in between there. I'm I'm, you know, I, I've got some things outside of chiropractic that we did as far as health coaching goes. Like I'm on H R T because I had issues with that. So so I would say my crunchiness kinda ends you know, at at, at a good, healthy diet and, and in chiropractic care. I'm, you know,
Dr. Danielle:
Yeah. Cool. Okay. Thanks for obliging me. Before we dive into what you wanna share today in regards to personal and business financial systems, there is a disclaimer that you need to read. Are you ready?
Dr. TJ:
Yes. Okay. I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll blot that off. So if, if we use the word the name the definition Worldclass Saver, that's a person who saves at least 15 to 20% of their gross income. And then also this podcast is for informational purposes only and is not to be construed as tax, legal or investment advice. Although the information has been gathered from sources believed to be reliable, please note that individual situations can vary. Therefore, the information should be relied upon only when coordinated with individual professional advice. Guest speakers and their firms are not affiliated or endorsed by PAS or Guardian or other opinions stated are their own guardian is its subsidy subsidiaries, agents in employees do not provide tax, legal or accounting advice. Consult your tax, legal or accounting professional regarding the individual situation. All investments in investment strategies contain risk and MA's value.
New Speaker:
TJ Neveau is a registered representative, of Park Avenue Securities llc, PA OSJ, 6115 Park South Drive, suite 200, Charlotte, North Carolina, 2 8 2 1 7 0 4 5 5 2 8 5 0 7. Securities products offered through PAS, member FINRA Civic financial representative, the Guardian Life Insurance Company of America, guardian, New York. New York passes a wholly owned subsidiary of Guardian Union. Consolidated Planning is not an affiliated subsidiary of PAs or Guardian. Mr. David Richardson is a registered represented and financial advisor of Park Avenue Securities, llc, PAS OSJ 61 15 Park South Drive, suite 200 Charlotte, North Carolina 2 8 2 1 0 7 0 4 5 5 2 8 5 0 7. Securities products and advisory services offered through PAs, member FINRA financial representative of the, the Guardian Life Insurance Company of America, Guardian, New York. New York passes a wholly owned subsidiary of Guardian Consolidated Planning, Inc. Is not an affiliate or subsidiary of PA Guardian. 20 2305 28 39 expires 3 20 25. Wow.
Dr. Danielle:
Well, there we go.
Dr. TJ:
Thank you for bearing with us on that.
Dr. Danielle:
. The hardest part outta the way.
Dr. TJ:
. . It is a highly regulated industry.
Dr. Danielle:
Great. So, alright. Here's the reason why I just had everyone sit through that disclaimer, because it's one of my business mentors actually, who is 12 years younger than me has recently begun teaching her longtime clients how to build wealth. And when she started talking about this, I was like, like, she's changing what, what she's talking about, like in regards to what she's teaching as a coach. And my ears perked up. And then I noticed that what she was talking about was like something that everyone needs to know, especially as a business owner, especially when you run a business that is like, it pulls so much out of you, it takes so much of your energy and your time. That's pretty much any service provider of any kinds. And she was talking about how we need to take profit from our businesses and we need to invest it in the stock market into, into real estate and into other businesses so that we are passively growing wealth.
Dr. Danielle:
And I was like, this is a thing that so many of us are looking for that is so elusive , like how to grow actually passive income, right? So a lot of people have come to me over the last well really now it's been almost five years. They're like, how did you do what you do? I wanna do what you do because I wanna have passive income. Like, well, this is not passive. This is a leverage income stream. You know, the the group programs that I have, I can help an infinite number of people, but it does require my time. So it's not passive. And, and people need to be really careful about what they think is passive income. It's not running an online coaching business or having an online course. It requires time. But these other things like investing money in the stock market or investing money in real estate are actually passive.
Dr. Danielle:
And so it's just become a thing for me where I'm like, we need to talk more about this. We need, especially, sorry, especially for women, we're not taught any of this. And if you don't grow up with parents who have wealth period, or if they don't have like very solid, healthy financial management skills that they're demonstrating for you, you don't learn these things. So when you reached out and you were telling me about what you do, I was like, well, we need to talk more about this . And that's how we got here today. And that's why you just heard that disclaimer, . So where do you want to start with what you wanna share today?
Dr. TJ:
Why don't, why don't I start with I guess a, a little bit of my background and Dave's background is that. All right. So, so my background is you know, I went to, I went to Palmer in, in Iowa. I graduated there in 2012. My wife's from Iowa. I met her we moved back to Michigan, where I'm from. I'm from Ross, which is up north. And I live in Bay City currently. And I practiced for 10 years in Bay City. And man, right around Covid I started getting burned out on on, I think at the time Medicare, I, I was very heavily in the, in insurance realm. You know, I was making 50 cents on the dollar with, with, with Medicaid, right? Based off off what we were doing. And I just got burned out.
Dr. TJ:
I looked, I looked back, I was working harder, I was making less money in 2020 than I was in 2024 or 20, 2014. Yeah. Because of that, right? And, and things just kept going backwards. So I was just burned out. I needed to figure out a way to you know, reorganize things, but also not lose my butt at the time. So I got into health coaching online started with a startup. That company went from five figures a month to seven figures a month. Dave worked there. We helped scale and grow that company. So we learned a lot from, from helping a startup basically. It that, that's, that's blossomed into quite a business. Along the way, you know, Dave became my business associate in a way. He's my longtime friend. We met each other about 15 years ago at, at, at Palmer.
Dr. TJ:
Dave started lacrosse team. And and I recently broke up with a girlfriend and I had a bunch of free time, so I started playing lacrosse. So I owe Dave my wife because not, I don't know when my wife, but my relationship . My wife played lacrosse at the college across the river, and that's how we met. So so Dave came to me during 2020 and 2021 in that startup phase. With that, my wife and I paid off $87,000 in debt. And then we started finally being able to build some wealth on top of it. And, and, and that got me interested in, in finance. And Dave came along and said, Hey, you know, I kind of want to go out and, and work on our own again. What do you think about doing this with me? And I said, sure, let's do it. So that's, that, that's, that's how I, I got there, right? Is through a story in, in a series of financial events that, that led me to, you know, figuring out how to build wealth after I started to decrease my liabilities. So
Dr. Danielle:
Mm-Hmm. , well, I mean, most of the people, I would say more than half that listened to this podcast or that hang out in the Facebook group are chiropractors. And I think just intuitively through the last 15 years of being exposed to thousands of chiropractors, I would say the majority take on over $200,000 of student loan debt to be able to practice, to be able to get a, well, a chiropractic degree. Not even the license is guaranteed with all that student loan debt. So yeah, we have a lot of debt. And, and then if you start your own practice, then, you know, the traditional model of success is to take out a business loan for the startup cost and operating expenses until you're profitable. And so now you maybe have another a hundred thousand, 150,000, or you buy a practice, and again, you're usually financing that practice and the debt is, it can feel insurmountable.
Dr. TJ:
I I guess to give a good example, I paid off my home or paid off my student loan debt. Like I've paid off my, my my I'm still working on my student loan debt. So that's, that's, I mean, it's that big. So, like you said, it is, it's, it's massive. It's a massive board of us. Our you know, our, our financial atmospheres, chiropractors. So,
Dr. Danielle:
So
Dr. David:
I'm glad to that too, if I can, because yeah, I feel like, you know, you're, you're saying in exposure to, to countless chiropractors, you start to see common themes and, and, and trends. And I would say that, you know, as chiropractors, it's natural for TJ and I to to to come across a lot of practice owners. We work with a lot of the, a lot of chiropractors and the stories are very similar. You know, they graduate, they don't make enough money associating, they start their own practice. There's all the overhead you just described, and then you're in a situation where you're chasing equipment upgrades or software payments, or you know, anything that's not your own personal, you know, wealth growth. And it becomes this, this spiral where eventually you're just like, okay, well I guess in the future I'll sell my practice and that'll be my retirement plan. But then that time comes and you never get a fair value or what you feel after a lifetime of working on that is a fair value. And, you know you're left kind of wandering, what if. So that's kind of the message we're really trying to, to spread, is to start as early as you can yeah. Be a planner.
Dr. Danielle:
Yeah, for sure. Start as early as you can. And I'll add to that, not, not, I don't, I don't intend to be like have a gender bias or I'm not a, a liberal feminist. I think I had that connotation for a while in my perception online, but I'm, over the last three years at least, I really realized like I'm, I actually not a feminist. But the reality is, like, there are differences. We're women in regard to what we're taught, what we're exposed to, and you know, when we have children, we take this new journey, this new path in our careers, and for a lot of women, they, they do feel called to stay home, but if they have student loan debt, then they're choosing to stay home. And obviously taking their family from a two income family to a single income family is a huge huge choice, huge responsibility.
Dr. Danielle:
And then the student loan debt on top of it. I think we need to know from the start that we, that we can't only rely, you can, but it's painful to do, only rely on your business as a practitioner to generate all the income that you need to really be able to pay off all of this debt that we took on. Because you will always be relying on what your body can do and what you can handle mentally and emotionally, and whether, whether we wanna talk about it or not I think there are lots of, I dunno spaces I guess, where they're like, no, this is not a real problem, but it is a real problem, , that like, there's a very high burnout rate in our profession, and that comes with a very high cost. There are not a lot of other things you can do besides entrepreneurship that allow you, or that affords you the same earning potential that you have as a business owner if you play the cards right. And that's the big if, so let's get into some of the things that people need to have in place. So they're able to do these things as quickly as possible. They're able to start generating wealth essentially that they can pass on to their children one day.
Dr. TJ:
Yeah. So one of the things that, that that, that we go through, it's, it's our, it's our process at the end of the day, right? And, and Dave and I work for a firm and, and I, I wanna say this based off of what you just said, right? Like one of our, our, our goals or our, our firm's goals is to have, you know, the heart of a teacher, right? We wanna make sure that not only that, you know, when we're going through the process that, that, oh, hey, this is over here. We wanna explain why, right? And, and as we go through our process, and I'll explain that here shortly, but as we go through it, you know, our firm was founded about 40 years ago on, on the premise of, you know, the fact that this industry can be narrow focused and transactional, right?
Dr. TJ:
Here's a product buy a product, right? Mm-Hmm. it, it, and, and so it, it focused on those financial products. And at the end of the day, nothing was really accomplished from that. It was a, it was piecemealed together, right? So you had a bunch of piecemealed products basically together, and, and we were formed in the very presence, and I'll let Dave add to this too, but instead of being narrow focused, and instead of being you know, product minded, we became more comprehensive and consultative. So our goal was to be more process driven at the end of the day, process driven, consultative and client centered. So I don't know if Dave wants to add to any more with that, but that's,
Dr. David:
Well, finances are just so intimate and unique that having one fix all is really difficult. So I think what TJ's trying to speak to is that anyone that comes to us goes through our process, and in that process we identify areas that we can optimize and improve, and that's gonna be unique to each individual. And through that process, ultimately doctor means to teach, right? We're teachers. So the process is designed to simply educate about the client's unique situation and what potentially could help them achieve their goals and get from point A to point B. So when you ask for a, you know, what are some strategies I would say number one strategy is to not be the typical American family who squirrels away maybe 5% of their income, their entire careers. You know, you really gotta strive to get closer to 20% of your gross. And in doing so, you will be leaps and bounds ahead of your neighbor. Because savings rate will trump rate of return in the market, you know, anytime. So I think that is, I guess, a tip we can say you can start implementing tomorrow is start saving more because that's gonna go a really long way when you, when you start taking into account compounding interests.
Dr. Danielle:
Well, can we re reframe saving more as spending less ?
Dr. David:
You can, yeah.
Dr. Danielle:
Yeah. I mean, there are some situations where, you know, people like they, they're living as lean as they really can already. But for the, I don't know if I can say for the most part, fairly, there are, there are also a lot of us that live beyond our means. And you know, we're like, oh, I don't have any money to spend, we're going to Starbucks, or I don't have any money to save, I should say, but we're going to Star like that. The money that you spent at Starbucks is, sorry, it's not necessary. it is not necessary. Now, that is easy for me to say because I don't drink coffee.
Dr. David:
Going back to my my crunchiness, I, I brew my own every day at home. It's organic. You know, we try to seek out brands that have low mold because the coffee industry is pretty, pretty tainted. So I am a coffee drinker, and I, I'm not ashamed to say it, but you know, just keep it clean.
Dr. Danielle:
Yeah. Okay. Well, so, okay. We're spending less, we're saving more. What are we doing with this with the savings? Is it just sitting in a savings account, or where's it going?
Dr. David:
Well, savings accounts, traditionally the return on those is next to nothing. And if there is any return it's tax. So ideally those decisions are being made based on a client's individual risk tolerance. So somebody that's, that's got a high risk mentality, then perhaps you consider entering the market with some of those funds. You know, to your point earlier, it's, it's passive in a sense that it sits there. You know, if you're not actively trading it back and forth it will sit there and, you know, do what it does over an extended period of time. You know, for, for some people that have kind of a risk aversion, you know, you can look for you know fixed income products that, that have good rates of return because I don't think what's taken into account enough, you'll hear people in the industry out there say, you know, oh, in the market you might get 10% or 12% rate of return.
Dr. David:
You know, you can cherry pick small windows of time where you can find any rate of return really, you know within reason. But you, you have to take into things, take things into account such as, you know trading friction you know which is just selling in, you know, if you're in a, even a mutual fund, those funds are gonna sell shares, right? So they're gonna accrue fees and, you know, what looks like a great rate of return on paper after you pay taxes and fees. You know, it's, it's not as crazy as you would think. So trying to find you know, fixed products that maybe get close to those numbers. Again, it's, it's all, it's, it's unique and it's, it's individualized and, you know, time horizon, how long somebody has left in their working years.
Dr. David:
Before retirement, that's gonna play a major role. We've already talked about how risky or risk averse they are. Yeah. So, so there's lots of factors, but you know, that's, that's what the process kind of shakes out is it kind of identifies all of those, you know, areas of their personality and, and how they want to be invested. And, and a lot of times we put plans together that include things like real estate. Everybody's into real estate now, so we can, we can allocate portions of, of funds. And you kind of said it right when it comes to money that's in your checking account, it's, it's just spending less, right? Saving more, spending less. Sometimes it's just moving money out of that spending account, ak your checking account. Cuz when you see money in there, you just assume you can spend it or Hey, I've got that, you know, few hundred dollars, let's get that new, that new computer monitor we wanted for treatment room two. Right? Right. So just kind of before it hits your checking account, kind of having it funnel off into a, a separate, you know, wealth building account that kind of outta sight outta mind and before you know it, you know, that will, that will build up and then you can, you know, invest it in different ways.
Dr. Danielle:
So, okay, we're spending less, we're saving more. At what point does someone know that they're ready, I guess, to work with a financial planner or a financial advisor, something along those lines to help them, like create more strategy with what they're doing with their money and, and like both looking at the short-term and long-term plan as well.
Dr. David:
Well, I, I mean, for me the sooner the better because compounding interest is powerful. There's all sorts of statistics out there. If you start investing in your twenties versus your thirties, even if you invest more in your thirties, you'll never supersede the compounding interest. So the sooner the better. And we have, you know, clients come to us all the time and they're embarrassed about their situation or they're embarrassed at their age versus what they have. And it's, it's, it can't be like that, right? Everybody has unique circumstances and everybody has a different life story and it's just like, you know, the best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago, the second best time is today. And that, and that really truly applies the, the best time to start building wealth is the day after you graduate undergrad, I guess, right? Or, you know, start putting your birthday money aside when you're nine. But you know, at the end of the day, if you didn't do any of those things, well now's the time. So I mean, that's,
Dr. Danielle:
This is sort of the jumping topics, but I really feel this whole TJ ask you to share more about your experience with having paid off $87,000 of debt.
Dr. TJ:
What, what specifically, I guess
Dr. Danielle:
Well, can you talk a bit about like what the process was like for you and how, how you were able to do that?
Dr. TJ:
In the time, cuz we were part of a startup, we had some pretty good reimbursement. But as, as part of that my, my wife actually, we, we actually quit, I hate to admit this. We quit homeschooling our son and sent him back to school. My wife went back to work. So at the same time our income like five Xed and that opened up a bigger window in a chunk away. Like, I, I borrowed $34,000 from my parents on a second mortgage to start my practice and I did not pay them much back in a 10 year period. And I had paid $34,000 back to them in three months.
Dr. Danielle:
Oh my gosh.
Dr. TJ:
Once I five exed my income, right? And, and that was that we paid off our house, which was, we live in a pretty, in mid, in the, you live in the Midwest, so, you know, Dave doesn't know anything about this, but you know, our home is not, you know, it's not anything big. When we, when we started chunking away on it, we owed 40, 45 or $42,000 and we paid that, that, that took a little bit longer to pay off. But when we really hit it, we really knocked out the last $20,000 right after the startup stuff started. And we just started, you know, rocking away at things. And so but I'll tell you from my personal experience and, and I didn't get the answer to the question cuz Dave did, or maybe you didn't ask it to me, but I had a good answer to it.
Dr. TJ:
And I, to me, and maybe it's a good place to put it, when you come home to a paid for house and you lay your head on the pillow and you look up, you, you take a deep breath in and no one's taken that house from you. Unless the tax man's coming for it for some reason. But if I can't afford the $1,200 tax bill a year on it, I, you know, I, you know, that's, I got other issues I guess. So. But, but that, that to me is, is that peace that I feel when, when that happens is like the peace that I wanna see other people feel. Right. whether that's paying off debt, whether that's becoming a world-class saver, whether that's hitting your goals and whatever that individual financial goal is, maybe it's buying a house, maybe it's, it's saving for retirement, right?
Dr. TJ:
I wanna see somebody hit a level of peace that I feel after that. Now I wake up every day and I still got, you know, double six figures, plus of student loan debt. I'm, I'm, I'm whittling away at, right? But that to me is a really good feeling. So that's what really drove me is this aspect of peace and freedom, I guess you'd say. And that's, that's what I want everybody to feel from that. So but, but yeah, it, it, when the process started, it got going, that was great. And then we started saving and we start after we, you know, got through that we started saving and put money away cuz we knew Dave and I were gonna do this and we were gonna need money to live off of while we got the ball rolling, right. Starting a new business. So so yeah, that's, that, that's that process. I guess. I, I don't know if you have any other questions on that, but that, that, that's how that felt I guess.
Dr. Danielle:
No, no. I don't have any other questions, but maybe not necessarily for you, but for anyone else, there's, there's no shame in doing what's right for your family, whatever that is, right? So if your wife goes back to work and your kid goes to public school, but it gives you the peace of mind to know that your home is paid off and that's what it took to make it happen. And that's what felt, that's what you felt called to do then. That's what you did. And there are not many people that can say that they own your home regardless of what their, what their children's educational situation is. .
Dr. TJ:
Yeah. Yeah, it was a, it was a, it was a decision. Our, our son has autism, so so it, it, you know, we, my wife homeschooled them for the first few years cuz the, the system, I guess you'd say, and I don't wanna blame them, they just didn't know what to do with him. And she broke him through, got him reading, got him writing, and we just felt like he was just turning his wheels at school. And we got him to a place where he was good. And then we were like, okay, you need some socialization, you need to get back at school. Right? so that was it. You know, it's a special occasion, you know, a special situation just for him. But but, but I, it, it speaks to, I I guess Dave, Dave in mind in our, our company's philosophy on or process the first thing we start with our clients is we put their goals and concerns on paper.
Dr. TJ:
For me, a concern I guess would've been that, that, that, that level of debt, right? Not feeling free, and then a goal, obviously let's pay this house off, let's pay my mom and dad back so I can look my dad in the eye at Christmas time. You know, like it's, man, it's a good feeling. But that, that's just me. But everybody's different, right? And it goes back to that, but that's the first step that Dave and I get when we're going through a cycle with somebody is we get their goals and concerns and then we help 'em get organized. That's probably the best thing that our clients do. And I think that they, they speak to that, that that's one of their favorite things. Everything's kind of shoved away in a drawer somewhere. We bring it out of the drawer and we put it in a system and the system helps 'em stay organized and it's all in one place.
Dr. TJ:
And I think that offers a peace of mind too. So you know, there's something to speak to that, but also it gives us the, the data that we need to do our job, right? And so it, it, it it's just another level piece that, that's there. I could keep speaking to the, the process here I guess, but I don't, I know it kind of got away away from the original question, but so, so those are our first couple steps there. I'll let Dave speak to it here in a minute, but the protection analysis portion that we do after we get people financially organized is is we go through and kind of quarterback a situation where they can lose some money on their balance sheet, and we find ways to protect that, right? Then we kind of basically do what Dave went into in the investment meeting earlier, a little bit ago.
Dr. TJ:
The, the, the compiling and the, the, the finding out of what the best route is to how to allocate that. And then and then we, we do cash flow. Now, you've been speaking to cash flow a little bit, Danielle, when you've been saying, you know, the, the save the spend, but this is where we take for our clients a hard cost view and a soft cost view. Hard costs are like insurance, stuff like that, that you've gotta pay, you know, your, your, your taxes, your home taxes, and then soft costs are things that are gonna change. Those are your, you know, Hulu, Netflix, food, you know, and, and we take all of that into account and in that space, we, we get to have a discussion. We, we don't ask everybody to go get a second job and make more money. We basically tell them, Hey, here's where you're at.
Dr. TJ:
Can we cut down on the Amazon Prime a little bit here? Can we cut down on this and, and, and maybe expand the savings a little bit better and get to that, you know, 15 to 20% of your gross income savings so that we can save for future things. And future things can be retirement, future things can be houses, future things can be, you know, maybe you wanna allocate some of that to paying off debt. You know, maybe you wanna allocate it in a different direction, right? And then after we go through those five steps, we loop it around in, in each one of those steps, it's informative, right? We're doing that teacher thing, right? And then we get to the end and we implement and review. And when we get to that portion of the process, that's where we finally lay out everything and say, you know, here's what Dave and I found you know, going through this process and here's what you, your individual goal is, and how do we hit your individual goal with what you've given us in information. So I think that kind of gets gets us from point A to point Z I guess you'd say, but I'll let Dave speak to it a little bit further if you wants to, but
Dr. David:
Thank you. You did a fabulous job, describing what we do. And I think my favorite part is that our firm encourages us to simply educate and, you know, not be transactional as we've already spoken to, and, and be very client focused. And what that leads to is just educating the client. There's no pushiness, there's no, you know, there's no situations where you know anybody feels uncomfortable because we're, we're able to just educate and, and go from there. We, we don't have to, there's no pressure, I guess is my favorite part. So we do what we do naturally, which is teach. And we, we feel that we add a lot of value to anybody that'll sit down and talk to us.
Dr. Danielle:
I'm not sure how deep you wanna go with these questions, but I can anticipate people's objections because I know the people that listen to this podcast so well, and one of the things that I'm hearing them say is probably something you already hear from people, which is like, well, I don't have, I just have a ton of debt, so why should I even do this right now? Like does it make sense for me to even look at this right now? Because, well, I think actually what's behind that is probably their embarrassment and the shame around having so much dent, right? So they don't wanna have it examined by someone, they don't wanna share that information with someone else. What, what can you share with people? How do you help them see this differently so that they see the value and they're not afraid to move forward with having this kind of information?
Dr. TJ:
That's a tough question. Dave, you got an answer to that, or do you
Dr. David:
Yeah,
Dr. TJ:
They've always got a good answer, but
Dr. David:
I just, I feel I can see my, my internet connection flicking in and out for some reason. So I don't wanna come through as a jarbled robot, but I will say that those hesitations are completely normal. and just, just remember, look left, look right, you're a chiropractor. We all are coming from the same place, right? For how awesome we all are. You know the reimbursement in our industry isn't, in my opinion, where it should be for the value that we bring to our patients.
Dr. Danielle:
Does anybody disagree with that?
Dr. David:
I don't think so.
Dr. Danielle:
I, I, I don't think I know anyone that would disagree with that.
Dr. David:
So with all the value we bring to our patients, there's no, there's no time, first of all, and there's no room for shame or embarrassment because, you know, I would say based on who we talk to you are not alone. We talk, remember, we work with a ton of chiropractors, male, female, right? Everybody. There's it's very common. So you're not alone, first of all. And we see it every day. There's nothing that somebody could come to us with that we haven't already seen. So back to the whole planting a tree thing, not grasping your future by the horns out of fear, I think is a huge mistake. And I think that the only way to put that shame to rest is to take control of it, and you take control of it by taking action and that's where we come in.
Dr. Danielle:
Yeah. Awesome. Okay, let's start to wrap up. So if people that are listening or watching want to connect with you and learn more about what you do, where is the best place for them to go?
Dr. David:
I'd say, email. What do you think, TJ? Yeah,
Dr. TJ:
Email. Email, email's the best way to get ahold of us and, and, and grab our attentions the best. And, and, and it's also a great place. Instead of getting a text that's, that gotta us scroll through and read it's great to see it on a screen. So but email's the best place. My email is tj.neveau@cplanning.com. And I'll let Dave rattle his off.
Dr. David:
, let's c, for c chiropractor. It's the same, same first name dot lastname. So David.Richardson@cplanning.com.
Dr. Danielle:
Awesome. You guys are amazing. Thank you so much for sharing everything that you've shared today, your, your personal stories and your expertise as well, because it's all helpful. Those personal stories help to, you know, help people to know that they're not alone, just like what you were saying. And you have seen so much, but you've also been through it yourselves. You've been through adversity and you've come out on the other side of it as well. I think the personal experience makes you obviously not just relatable, but also you know, it, it allows someone else to feel like, okay, they're not going to judge me Like they've been through hardship too when they get it. Yeah. Cool. All right, my friends, thanks so much for joining us.
Dr. TJ:
Thank you.
Dr. David:
Thank you for having us.
Dr. Danielle:
Hey, thanks so much for joining me for today's episode. If you love this podcast and be sure to join our free community, the Health and Wellness Practitioners Group over on Facebook, where you can continue the discussion and get to know other people in the community as well. We're a group of chiropractors, natural paths, acupuncturists, midwives, doulas, massage therapists, mental health therapists, counselors, nutritionists, and a list goes on. So come join us, get to know other people, build some personal and professional relationships. You can find the group by heading to drdanielleangela.com/community and request to join the group. I will see you inside from there.