“Work is fun. I love to work. Work is fun. I love to work.” is the chant that Dr. Yachter remembers from DE (Dynamic Essentials), a philosophy based Chiropractic Seminar founded by Dr. Sid Williams of Life University. DE has produced some of the most successful Chiropractors in the profession today, and Dr. Dan Yachter is certainly one of it’s most successful yet.
Dr. Dan Yachter not only runs one of the largest Chiropractic offices in the world, but he is a Co-Founder and leader of Elevation Health. As you can see, Dr. Yachter is no stranger to success. When I had the chance to interview him, naturally the first question I asked him was, “How did you do it?” I wanted to get to the bottom of how he created so much success in his life, from building such a large practice, to creating such an impact in the profession of Chiropractic. We covered it all!
You’ll find the audio below, as Dr. Yachter shares his success principles used by dozens of Chiropractic offices around the country to grow their practice and touch more lives.
Resources: Subscribe on iTunes
Transcript:
Dr. Smith: Hello ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the webinar. I am Dr. Tabor Smith on behalf of Genesis Chiropractic Software. I am here with a very, very special guest, Dr. Dan Yachter, and most of you out there know who this is. He is a co-founder of Elevation Health. He has an amazing practice in Florida, I got to see it personally. This guy is just top notch. He is just high caliber and I am honored, Dr. Yachter, to be here with you. Thanks for doing this for us.
Dr. Yachter: Thanks for the kind words and it’s great, man. I’m looking forward to share with our chiro brothers and sisters.
Dr. Smith: Awesome. Well, this is going to be a fun interview. It’s going to be laid back and I am privileged enough to get to ask you some questions that I want to know. Jumping right in, what I really want to know, Dr. Dan, is I know you have just a huge practice, I know you how to grow huge practices, you’ve helped other people do it, but what I personally would like to ask you is about success principles and what you believe has allowed you to achieve so much in life. If you could share that with us, and for some of us who may be aspire not only to grow a big practice, just reach more people, what’s your story and how did you do that?
Dr. Yachter: Great question. First of all, it’s an excellent question because there lies a bridge, a gap, between desire, passion, vision, want, seeing something, going to someone’s practice and wanting that to manifest in your life. There’s a massive chasm between that and the strategy and the execution of the strategy that’s going to allow you to do that. I find that very few people can take this, bridge it over to here, which is really execution.
I have a little thing up there. I don’t know if you can see it but it’s my strategy map back here and it’s basically a blueprint. It’s a blueprint of how to built whatever size organization chiropractic that you want. I go through this, I look at it, and that’s my strategy, but right above it, it reminds me that nothing is more important than the execution of the strategy. I can look at this thing all day long until my eyes are crossing, this isn’t going to manifest because I sit and meditate and visualize it. I have to take action and execute it.
That’s the difference between the ones who see the manifestations and the ones that don’t. Above, it says, “A sure fire path to success is to take massive action every day.” Even if you feel like you are unprepared, even if you feel like you don’t have all the parts and pieces together, even if you feel that it could be a mediocre product, it’s better to take action, pull the trigger than to sit there and think about it for the next few months when that comes to marketing, whether it comes to picking up the phone or calling a patient, whatever it’s going to be applied to.
That’s what I find is really the common denominator in terms of success, is all successful people, they think it through but only to a certain point and then they act, and they are okay making mistakes, they are okay looking foolish, they are okay scraping their knees and figuring it out as they’re going along. That’s a crucial value, it’s a crucial character of success, trait of success that you’ve just got to move forward.
For some reason or another, what I found also as an impediment and interference to success is that, it could be right there, someone could be given the greatest success plan, it could be right in front of them, and they know if they take action that they’re going to reap the success. They get that close to it, they get scared and they pull back because a lot of times they self-sabotage and that’s a whole psychological topic but, again, it’s vision, desire, passion to serve humanity is the powerful vehicle, life saving vehicle of chiropractic but strategy and then execution is the most important component of that.
Dr. Smith: So let me ask you this. It’s one thing to have that vision, or I find this, if you have that vision and then you search for that strategy and you find it, and then there is action that you need to take but then do you ever feel that little sensation inside where you’re just like, “I don’t want to take it anymore action”? You know what I mean? You’re like, “Jeez”. I don’t know if it’s — let me think of the word — like self-control or not enough will power or whatever it is. You see that vision and you want it but it’s like the work that it takes to get there, how do you push yourself through it, or how do you do it every day and make yourself take enough action even though you don’t want to?
Dr. Yachter: Couple of factors involved there. One of course is you have to build a good team around you, a great team around you where you’re not the mule pulling everything uphill, so that’s a really crucial factor and obviously there is a lot behind that discussion. But you have to make sure that you’re not necessarily, I don’t even like word delegate, you just have to make sure you have a team that’s willing to help you and that’s really what it boils down to, and they are happy to serve, they want to be the part of the mission, and they’re going come to you and say, “Hey let me do that.” That’s the kind of team you want.
You don’t want a situation where you’re pushing stuff down and saying, “You do that,” and throwing stuff like people are your slaves around you. You want to have a team around you that’s so willing that they’re saying, “No, no, give that to me. You do what you’re good at.” You want them come to you and saying that to you, and so that’s a crucial component of it.
But of course as Zig Ziglar and all the success experts always reminds us, you’re going to be . . . Charlie Tremendous Jones, I think, gets credited for saying this, “You’re going to be the same person you’re five years from now with the exception of the books and tapes that you listen to and read, and the people you surround yourself with.” The people you surround yourself with create accountability, create the level the bar’s going to be set at and are going to provide you with the inspiration and motivation, if it’s the right group, they are going to give you the nurturing and nourishment and the strength, to give you endurance and stamina to want to keep going.
Inspiration is always going to be in front of you. That’s why we created Elevation Health is to provide that environment where doctors are always plugging in, they’re always getting fed. I just got off the phone. Every week, I do a 20-minute philosophy call. I go through the GreenBooks. We went through a GreenBook every quarter and we have all the Elevation Health doctors get on the line and they love it, they feel like they’re getting fed. They get their spirits renewed and re-dipped and re-strengthened and recharged every single Thursday for 20 minutes.
It’s a quick shot, you get on, you get off the phone, it’s recorded, they can go back and we go deep into the GreenBooks and we extrapolate out what these things mean. They go back to their office, they take it with them and they start talking it down and that reignites the passion side of them and it keeps the momentum going when they’re doing little things like that each week and have the right peer group in front of them.
Dr. Smith: I’ve been fortunate, I’ve been blessed to do a lot of interviews with some big, just some amazing people on chiropractic, and you’re definitely one of them, and people of your caliber. I’ve noticed two things. Number one is that working on yourself is important, that person that you want to become. Number two, though, every single person I’ve interviewed in the caliber like I find yourself, has a great work ethic and I mean they work hard, they work their ass off, really. How much of your success do you contribute to work ethic and how much do you recommend we build that?
Dr. Yachter: It’s important how it’s developed, [inaudible 00:07:42] to have us chant and dynamic essentials, “Work is fun, I love to work, work is fun, I love to work,” you would say that as a student, you’d see it 1,000 times at DE, and half the time I was wondering, “Is this guy a lunatic?” It’s like, “Why am I chanting this?” but that stuff got deep down in me.
We have to get around people that we, first of all, model a work ethic if you don’t have one yet. I know you and I, we have that. I know little bit about you. I know I did, I know you did, we grew up with role models to show what work ethic looks like.
One of the things that bothers me, in chiropractic, inside, outside of chiropractic is you listen to people talk about like, “Work smarter, don’t work harder, and work only three days a week and do this.” It’s like, you know what, the most successful people are the hardest working people. Look it, I was watching the Shark Tank the other night and it’s the only thing I’ll watch. Maybe every few weeks I’ll watch few episodes. I love it.
Dr. Smith: Same here.
Dr. Yachter: Right? We talked about that. When I spoke in New Jersey I was talking a little bit about it. Mark Cuban, a billionaire, like the investors, when they interview, the investors like months down the road, they’re like, “So how is it going with Mark Cuban and these other guys? What’s it like working with them as you’re developing your business? Do you get to talk to them? Are they accessible?”
I was listening to an interview about Mark Cuban, the guy, he’s beyond a billionaire. I mean, the guy’s got more money than just a billion dollars and assets, like probably one of the hardest working people, probably puts in 20-hour days because it’s a passion, it’s a labor of love. These guys work hard and it’s really, again, if you said the word “hard” to him, he would probably spit on you and be like, “It’s not hard. I like doing it.”
Of course there’s balance, of course there’s time for recreation, but of course if it’s our passion what we do is recreation really, but of course you take vacations, you go away, you go wherever you want to go. I do a lot of traveling but I work hard, man. I am proud to say, I am very proud to say I may just adjust 18 hours, or 19 hours a week, 20 hours with my hands on people. But I am very proud to say that I can work some weeks 60, 70, 80 hours, 90 hours.
When I get home, outside of spending time with my family, I’ll work on a newsletter, I’ll work on designing things, writing things, and I enjoy that. I am proud to say that. I’m not proud to say the other thing. I’m proud to say how much I enjoy doing it what I love to do and executing on the strategies. It’s fun.
Yeah, the work ethic is hugely important and if the work ethic is not there, then you really want to check is your vision, your passion getting stale. It should be exciting to work and really put the time in and drive and fly places and speak, and contribute either on a clinical level or local or like what you’re doing. This is not work for you. I mean, you’re doing an interview or talking, you’re trying to bring something of value to the profession. You had to put in an extra hour or so today that’s going to add to your weekly load, but this is not work to you. You’re enjoying this and you are helping others.
Dr. Smith: Yeah, man, I enjoy more than anything else getting to talk to guys like you. One more question that I have is about congruency and that’s another thing I notice in people of great caliber is they’re very congruent with the message that they share. My question to you is where you always that way? Did you have to do work to build that congruency and how do we do that?
Dr. Yachter: Well, that’s relevant in terms of congruency, you’re saying like just in terms of practice and communicating who you are outside the practice, inside the practice?
Dr. Smith: Right, and so for instance when I do workshops or in my office for my patients and I’m telling them about nutrition, and I’m telling them to get adjusted, and I’m telling them to exercise. Then, you know what, I’m not perfect and I get this feeling of guilt every time I go home if I have a beer, and I’m better than 90% of the population out there but I feel like that hinders my confidence maybe and maybe something that doesn’t allow me to grow as fast as I should be able to.
Dr. Yachter: I think disclosure is the greatest form of congruency in terms of disclosing to your patients, when I communicate to the patients, for example we do a resign talk, I tell them, “Listen, it’s not a game of perfects. We don’t judge anybody here. It’s not a game of perfects but here is roadmap, here is the strategy.” We point it out, workshops and these different activities we have set up to create an environment that fosters support, that fosters advancing, that fosters moving in the right direction and that’s really whats it about and it’s same for me.
Nobody in this room is perfect. So as long as that’s being communicated and you’re not setting up the false air that everything you do is perfect or if a patient makes comment about that to you thinking that you’re like this unreachable standard, I always check them on that and say, “I’m just like you. We all fall short. Nobody is perfect,” and as long as you’re communicating that.
It really is something that we do. We are held to higher standard because we are wellness leaders, we’re community leaders. We’re thought leaders as Reggie Gold talked about. It’s almost kind a like the clergy in our town. We are held to a different standard, especially because the level of trust that people put in us.
I was getting my haircut yesterday and they were talking about the football player, whatever his name is, Rice, they were talking about, they had the video going and what he did to his wife in the elevator, that whole thing, that football player. It’s like you can never do that kind of stuff, you never supposed to but there is a relative nature in terms of incongruency. I mean, are you’re doing that kind of stuff when you’re at the office? Or are you maybe cracking a beer open? Or we’re having a glass of wine, I don’t think that’s necessarily incongruent. It’s a relative thing.
But I think it’s important for each individual doctor to establish in their heart what they feel is right and wrong, congruent with what they’re teaching and try to approximate that as much possible because when you resonate with that, when you’re true to yourself and you’re really resonating with that level of integrity and congruency that you feel you should be, you’re much more powerful when your presence is much more powerful.
I find that because when I tell somebody to do something, I make sure I’m doing it first. If I tell someone to do the Wobble Disc or all the different things or [inaudible 00:14:18], I make sure that I’m doing it. It won’t come out of my mouth unless I am doing it. Again, nobody is perfect but we have to make sure that we are [inaudible 00:14:28].
Dr. Smith: I found it help through my communication and recently, in fact in the last few months, because my wife is a chiropractor, so I’m always getting adjusted. I get adjusted by her a few times a week. I started driving about an hour every Saturday morning going to who I feel is one of the best chiropractors in the world but I travel and I go every Saturday morning now and I get adjusted and it helped me to communicate that message when patients are like, “Well, I couldn’t make it,” or, “I’m never on this side of town.” I found it very helpful to say, “You know what? I drive and hour every week to get adjusted.” I don’t know, it just felt like I was more congruent and it felt easier to share that message.
Dr. Yachter: That’s awesome, that’s awesome. Yeah, it brings your level of conviction to a whole different level.
Dr. Smith: Yeah, so as were kind of tying up, I want to know about more about Elevation Health. Tell us what your vision is for chiropractic, what you guys are doing and tell us how we can find more information out about that?
Dr. Yachter: Yeah, so our vision is to, number one, just make sure that we bring powerful principled resources to the profession and we have two divisions to what were doing to our vision. One is chiropractors and we have a bootcamp or a seminar coming up in November in Dallas, which is our home base. We have chiropractors who have, like yourself, you have your own office, you want to access to resources and what we do.
Really, where we excel is we have something call the flywheel strategy inside of our process and procedure that really has created the highest level of retention, the highest retention percentage in the entire profession. There are lot of people out there, a lot of great leaders in chiropractic that are great in their niches, either bringing patients in, speaking, their day one, day two process, their dinner or whatever it is.
Where we excel is our ability to retain people for a lifetime. We really have cracked the code on that through our signature, proprietary type of model that we’ve created through our educational model which is robust, powerful. Our founders have up to a 90% retention rate, which is a beautiful thing. Of course you always want to reach out and have more new patients and touch more lives, but you know that you’re not completely depended upon that, new patients for you livelihood or pay your bills, it’s a nice thing.
We have this process where we really teach how to nurture the patients the whole way through and really, for them, to develop enough value that you want to stay for life, very powerful.
Then of course we’re building offices in the Dallas-Forth Worth area and we’re allowing doctors to come train with us, intern with us and run an office, have an ability or an opportunity to run an office there and become an associate, and become an integrated part of Elevation Health in that way. So that’s the vision of the company, really to help the profession, help new chiropractors and provide powerful recourses in terms of building up principle chiropractors for long term growth and success.
If anybody wants any information I can give you a link. They can check out the seminar in November. We have one coming up in January in Lake Mary. It’s not even a mile down the road. It’s across the street from my office, and they can get to see my office, world-class wellness facility, amazing, very proud of it. Again, if they want to come to the November one, that’s in Dallas-Fort Worth and theme of that one is retention. We are going to unveil strategies that are just mindblowing and they are relevant. All of our founders are in practice. We practice every day and our technologies, our communication technologies, they’re accurate, they’re real-time and they’re relevant.
Dr. Smith: I think it’s huge that you guys are not only in practice, you run some of the most amazing practices in the world and you do that every single day so you’re able to share that, just skill or just the blessing that you have to get to do that every day, you get to share that passion with the people that you coach. Let me tell everybody out there listening, go to Dallas and go to Lake Mary because I personally, I got to go to Lake Mary, and have been to a seminar there and see your practice and it’s priceless. Pay what you have to get there and go see that.
Again, Dr. Yachter, thank you. I knew this was going to be an amazing interview and it absolutely blew my expectations. Thank you so much and we’re going to have a link below this video to get more information and to make sure that they can get a hold of you to be able to go to those events.
Dr. Yachter: Awesome. Tabor, I appreciate you, and thank you for what you’re doing it for the profession, and looking forward to a great future working with you.
Dr. Smith: Thanks, brother.
Certified by the New Jersey Department of Banking and Insurance
