The BIGGEST Mistake in Healthcare Today: Ignoring the Systems Approach

In this episode, Dr. Beau Beard sits down with Dr. Kyler Brown to explore what it truly means to take a systems approach to healthcare. Rather than isolating symptoms or chasing quick fixes, they dive into the power of looking at the human body as an interconnected ecosystem.

You’ll learn how systems thinking transforms patient care, why integration across musculoskeletal, functional, and lifestyle medicine is critical, and how clinicians can reimagine their role in guiding health outcomes. Whether you’re a healthcare professional, athlete, or someone who wants to better understand how your body works as a unified system, this conversation is packed with insights that can reshape your approach to health.

Full Transcript

Beau Beard (00:01.638)

I'm good. I'm actually better than I should be because I drove with this on the bed of my truck the entire way to work. And I literally was sitting in a mess. I was like, dude, check the driveway. Sorry, coffee cup down. And then I like got here. was like, dude, my day is off to an amazing start. So yeah.

Kyler (00:14.696)

Right.

Kyler (00:22.454)

Yeah, that's a win, dude. Where was it? Was it on the bed? Like on the edge? Got it.

Beau Beard (00:25.924)

Yeah, I have like a bag cover on my truck and it's like grippy and I was like, I couldn't see it and I'm like, look at my guy here is like, and like barely any spilled. So I also think that's just driver skill. That's what I'm assuming. Yeah.

Kyler (00:35.662)

Yeah. Soft turns like good center gravity. Yeah, totally.

Beau Beard (00:40.496)

And I watched half of F1 last night because my kids had to go to sleep, so I couldn't watch the rest. So I think that inspired me.

Kyler (00:48.354)

Mm-hmm. Totally, dude. I mean, it's... You gotta count your wins or there's no wins out there.

Beau Beard (00:54.16)

What have been up to, man?

Kyler (00:57.346)

Dude, just hammering to be honest. Yeah, I mean just so busy in a good way, but just tiger by the tail, know? Cool.

Beau Beard (01:00.581)

Yeah.

Beau Beard (01:06.352)

Well, let's get into it. That's where I wanted to start was, mean, literally what have you been up to? mean, I know I'll give an intro on this, you know, besides maybe just the practice stuff, I know there's a lot of new stuff, but how is the practice going?

Kyler (01:19.788)

It's really good. You know, I think, where I'm really lucky is that, you know, I didn't come up with any of this myself, but my mentors early on taught me that, and I know you and I have talked about this in the past, but it's worth revisiting is if you make it just about yourself, right? Then you're kind of stuck seeing all the patients yourself. And if you make your practice, something that is actually a system and an ecosystem that other really good professionals can operate in and.

Now, no one individual doctor is kind of stuck seeing every patient because you can really help people get better and the business can get results for people on its own. And so I'm really lucky in that my senior team, especially that is with me at WellSport, they're not only do I trust them implicitly, like clinically, but they're also just really actionable, smart, intelligent people that get results. so having that trust in our team and being able to rely on each other has obviously been huge for me individually, but also for the practice.

Beau Beard (02:17.018)

Who, so who are some of those mentors that you mentioned? Like who are the people that inspired this kind of setup or the way you, was it chiropractic mentors, business mentors, or just?

Kyler (02:25.428)

No. Yeah, it was definitely people outside the industry. you know, it's unfair cause I know there are Kairos or physios who have done this well before I did or you did, but, it was, you know, my brother, my father, and then other business mentors I have from other industries. I feel like our profession is really slow to adapt or adopt is a better word. What other industries know is standard practices, right? And

that idea of, wow, what if I scaled this and what if I don't make it just about me and trying to be the smartest person in the room or the smartest person in town, but rather create a business that can get results. Now you actually have a thing that can operate without you, but also you can have a thing that can grow and become bigger than what you could be by yourself.

Beau Beard (03:11.632)

Well, I had mentioned, you know, kind of the theme. I've done this podcast thing for a while now. So I was, I'm making it more selfish this season on purpose because I mean, why else would I do it? Yeah. So the, the period of life I'm in is kind of what you just explained is trying to not remove myself from the clinic, but making that a possibility. And then also making sure that, you know, quality wouldn't go down, that the expectations remain the same, both inside and outside from like what the public perceives.

Kyler (03:19.342)

As you should. It's your time.

Beau Beard (03:41.24)

so the theme isn't just, well, how did you, you know, do what you did in business? The theme is really like, well, how did your clinical expertise land you here or your expertise, whatever, you know, field or domain you're in? Because again, you may say, well, I've, you know, built a clinic where I don't have to be the epicenter of it, but at the same time, I mean,

You know, people are still seeking you out for clinical expertise, whether that's patients, other docs that are coming to work for you. I know that you're still heavily involved in the clinical education game, just both from what you're doing and what you're interested in. So what did the beginning of your practice look like in terms of what you're doing and how you built it clinically? And then how did that kind of evolve into what you're doing now in terms of like trying to create a scalable business where maybe you don't have to show up every day and treat patients?

Kyler (04:30.424)

Sure. Yeah, I mean, I think the biggest take home I'd start with, and then I'll dive a little deeper, is that it's my opinion that there is no success without work. And the work doesn't stop, it just evolves. And so I think, you know, I sound like the old guy on his porch, but if people early in their career think that at some point in your 40s or 50s that just checks show up in the mailbox and you don't have to do real work, that's just, it's unfortunate because they're being misled and they're...

they're probably being sold some technique or system that's giving them the promised land, but that person just wants to collect their money, right? So I think what's interesting, and I always talk about how my workload has changed. I haven't stopped working at all. In fact, sometimes I feel like I work more like early on when it was just me seeing patients and I had a full schedule. That was pretty sweet. Like you'd show up at whatever time you started and then you'd leave when you're done and you'd maybe, you know, you'd be at the dinner with the family or something and be like, I wonder if that guy's knees getting better.

But that was kind of the only stress you had, right? Or should I order that image now or should I send them to that ortho? All that kind of stuff,

Beau Beard (05:34.4)

a lot of work, but one job, technically.

Kyler (05:37.038)

One job and simple and the more you grow, you just crave simple. know you know this too. And complexity with humans is the hardest part because you know, a coworker that you love and trust might be going through just a personal hard time. So in your own life, you're like, Hey, I'm to step up for that teammate and help them out or give them extra time or whatever that could be. But the trickle down effect is okay, more work. And so that's where that ecosystem idea I always kind of come back to. There has to be harmony and balance and

There has to be times where I pick it up for you, you pick it up for me and all that stuff makes you stronger. But to go back to your original question, I think my own evolution and the industry has definitely gone this way. So I'm really glad I, if I dare say so I stayed with it. Right. Cause I think that's a big pitfall. Some people fall into a trap of they know what works and they just do that. And then they, it gets really monotonous and not only do their, their fire and their passion dissolve, but also their results change and the marketplace changes. so.

their business production has this like curve to it, right? Um, so staying with it is obviously huge, but I think early on it was, you know, I'm showing my age a little bit, but it was really, there was a lot of R2P at my school. came from the same place. CAPO was like a year ahead of me. So Palmer West now like RIP, but all this, like the West Coast Palmer West people before the school went under, um, it was a lot of ART. It was a lot of early stage rehab stuff and there weren't all these really cool systems out there.

There weren't a lot of, you couldn't go to RTP, DNS was just getting going. Name a system, FRC, no one ever heard of it. TPI was kind of a thing. So it was a little harder to go learn stuff and you definitely had to travel to go learn. That was another thing that I'm always jealous of with people coming out now. like, man, you guys can literally sign up and get SFMA level one online. That's cool, that's a huge edge. So I think early on I was really heavy in active release.

And just basically being an alternate solution for people who weren't getting better with conventional methods. And from a marketing or networking standpoint, that's what I always try to do is say yes to everything, right? There's no case or person you won't stay late for. You say yes to everything all the time. And then you really just try to be another option for people. And so that manual therapy kind of early pain relief bucket that worked consumers and patients crave that. That's why they call us, right? Like if someone has $200 extra in their bank account and they're feeling fine.

Kyler (08:04.558)

They're probably gonna go shopping or go to dinner. But when they're hurting, that's when they're gonna call someone like us. And so you need to be able to speak that pain language, but then also be responsible with it to where, okay, what are we gonna do with this person? What do they need to get better? Because the hardest part in our industry, as you know too, when you're not busy and you're just starting out, for example, when patients aren't there, you don't make money. Well, if someone gets better, you did your job, you did exactly what you want your product to be, and you're saying, I don't wanna make money.

And so I think a lot of people just have to mentally and emotionally commit to this idea that, short term, it's going to cost me Thursday afternoon or Friday morning. But if I'm doing the right stuff, six or 12 months from now, it's going to be totally different ballgame. And that's what I committed to early. And that really worked for me. And I've told these stories before in other podcasts and stuff, how some people who would come in and I would just say, get out of here. This is not me. You need to go see this person right away. And that person will refer 20 other people to you over the next five years.

And so that kind of ethical choice early, I think was one of the biggest things that we tried to do, which is don't string out treatment plans and really just try to get results for people, even if it's not our clinic.

Beau Beard (09:11.418)

Well, you had mentioned the change in the landscape of continuing education in terms of like just what was being taught, how much is being taught and then how much stuff has kind of been siloed, which I think is just a, it's a parallel of, you know, social media and all these, you know, there it's easier to put ideas out there. So by that, a byproduct of that is like, there's more people that are selling stuff and, know, more little, you know, camps, but also.

Kyler (09:27.108)

yeah.

Beau Beard (09:37.814)

My opinion is now because obviously I helped kind of start RTP was, on the board now advisory board. So I've kind of seen the whole run. And I mean, I tell our students and interns now I'm like, I don't know if I've done a little bit of a disservice in terms of like, you have so much, you feel this necessity to get it all done before you graduate because it is cheaper. And then you feel like it's kind of a resume builder, but then they get lost. And I think that, you know, you and I were of the same, was ART, basic Stu McGill stuff.

Kyler (09:42.254)

Mm-hmm.

Kyler (09:59.63)

Mm-hmm.

Kyler (10:06.68)

Mm-hmm.

Beau Beard (10:06.736)

you know, adjusting obviously, and then it's like, you get out and because you have so many or so few tools, you'd be really good at those tools. But then he also had to be a really good diagnostician. Cause you're like, I gotta make sure I know what I'm dealing with. Cause I don't have like this stuff to just MDT neurodynamic and DNS. And so I think that's been a disservice because of the amount of stuff. But I also think nowadays, like that's kind of my job from the clinical side with people that do come in from an intern or student standpoint is be like,

Kyler (10:21.805)

Yeah.

Beau Beard (10:36.282)

How do you make it simple? Like you said, like, that gets tougher and tougher when there's, it's not necessarily more information. It's just recycled information. But what are you in your clinical setup now? Because with a new doc or an intern or trying, you know, scale a doc up, what are some of the things that you do rest on still, or what's the fundamentals or the basis of treatment for you guys at WellSport?

Kyler (10:37.709)

Yeah.

Kyler (10:41.07)

Yeah.

Kyler (10:57.74)

Yeah, so I think the most important thing I think, the most important factor early is actually nothing to do with technique. It's about communication. It's about making sure the patient knows they're heard. And so I think what I see a lot, because we've had several associates come through, like I'm proud of our retention rate, but you one of my mentors who's not in our field, you know, he says, look, 70 % of people will leave your clinic and has nothing to with your clinic, right?

a parent gets ill or they want to move back home. And so that really helped me grow the business too, because then I started realizing, okay, not everyone's as invested as I am in the business per se. And hopefully they are. And some people become that way and they're God bless them. But at the other side, like some people are like, look, I want to learn from you for two years, and then I'm going to move home. And like having that honest, like clarity is actually wonderful. Because then you present that to clients and they get it too. And it's just like a positive experience, right? But

So going back to it, think we really make a big emphasis in day one on communication and making sure the patients know that they are heard, that we know what the problem is, what their fears are, what the plan is, if it's us or someone else. And then also kind of explaining that optionality of like, okay, if this plan A doesn't work, this is plan B. And I think that goes a long way. Like you and I both know dry needling on glute medias versus ART, we could debate that till the cows come home and everybody get in the comment section. But at the end of the day,

soft tissue, soft tissue, joint mobs, joint mobs, stability, stability, motor control. Like we can start to cook that cocktail over time and see how their body responds. And you know, some people won't want to get on the ground. Some people don't have a good place to anchor a band. So the exercises are always going to flow and evolve. But day one, it's about communication. And I always tell our new docs, like, don't worry about having the perfect diagnosis day one, have an idea, communicate. This is why I think this and have a really good conversation.

And then also just make sure they know that you're like thinking it through. think so many people skip ahead of that. They start going into lock bins and they start thinking about muscle grading. And you're like, the school brain almost paralyzes some of these new docs who are so well-meaning and so well-intentioned. Then they look kind of almost scattered and frantic to the patient and the patient's like, okay, what are we doing? Because they don't know what we know, right? And when they're walking to their car in the parking lot, they need to be able to go home and their spouse.

Kyler (13:21.262)

the teach back test, right? Like, hey, they said this, we're gonna do that. And they're like, great. And again, you and I both know too, you have to win sometimes like you're a chiropractor. So if they're walking in the car saying, okay, it's three times a week for 65 weeks, then you lost, right? Because they already have a preconceived idea that we're just a bunch of, know, ring the bell over and over type people. And that's, you gotta show that you're not that as well.

Beau Beard (13:45.504)

or a quick little story on that literally two days ago, a kid came in that had a bad fib fracture, has some growth plate stuff. Now the ortho they were seeing is kind of putting them down the road to children's because of the growth plate thing. And then they come back in here and I was kind of like, why is he back in here? Cause he's not really having pain. And they're like, well, he just doesn't do everything the same. And then they basically what his dad, goes, listen,

Kyler (13:48.27)

Yeah

Beau Beard (14:09.52)

We just need a plan. He goes like, are we supposed to do this children's visit? Like, what are we supposed to do with them here? Is he supposed to do agility and speed stuff or strength? And I was like, yeah, that I was like, that's what yeah, I go, that's what my job is. We're a quarterback because that is severely lacking in healthcare overall. Now as somebody at the epicenter of somebody's care, somebody to just create a plan. But what I've realized too is, and I'd like to hear your comment on this. A lot of the people that I look up to in our field in terms of like clinical expertise, like they are a hundred percent clinical sharp.

Kyler (14:17.121)

or not do it.

Kyler (14:25.39)

Thank

Beau Beard (14:39.63)

They're also wizards at that. They may just not be forward-facing about it. They're not like, this is what I'm doing. It's just, comes off because, you know, I've always said, competence build confidence. And I think that's the thing is like, they're completely competent. So then the confidence just rolls off and they just happen to be great communicators. And all of sudden it's like, they're the best clinical mind. It's like, maybe, but if they missed that other piece, they would be fumbling over the words and look, like you said, look scattered and it wouldn't matter how good you are.

Kyler (14:58.402)

Yeah.

Beau Beard (15:09.306)

but they're just not out here selling a course on communication. They're just really good at it. So what, mean, what are your thoughts on that in terms of what do you guys do anything specific? know you said communication, but is there, you know, a book or a thought process or anything that you do to actually help, let's say a student or a new clinician gain some communication skills or start working on this instead of saying, Hey, you just got to be able to communicate better.

Kyler (15:12.814)

Totally. Yeah.

Kyler (15:33.786)

Yeah, I know exactly it's like pointing out the problem but not the solution, you know I think I totally agree with what you say by the way like I had a conversation with one of our newest docs about six months ago and you know, we had this guy with a really chronic Haglans and Achilles and It was two weeks and he's like, I don't know what to do. He's not getting better. I'm like, well You need to tell him it's gonna be nine to fifteen months like Isometric loading hard and progressive and there will be bad days along the way and I can say that just because I've seen 200 of them

Right? Same as you. But when I was a week out of school, I would have been lamenting that. I'd be like, Oh my God, just because you haven't had those reps over time and that confidence. So many people try to fake it. Right. But I think faking it does help, right? Keeping it simple does help, but also just educating and communicating however you get there. Even if it's a long way, making sure they know that one thing, they keep it simple thing. Like that's huge for patients because if you stack up their fears, you stack up their like nerves around like this.

this guy with long hair is gonna work on my leg now. There's a lot of variables for them that we're not thinking about that have nothing to do with our doctor. And so I think keeping it crazy simple and letting them know that like, I got you. And that's, think, the only thing that people should focus on. Everything else you can learn. You can fine tune your side bridge, your DNS five month. Fine tuning that stuff is fine, but you and I both know a really good DNS position done maybe 80 % is perfect is still helpful, right?

And the patient also doesn't know that. So if it takes them a week to get a perfect, so be it, right? You're not having them come in six times. So as far as resources go, man, that's a hard one. We've kind of crafted over time. I'm not going to try to say we invented the wheel here, but we have our checklist of things that what we really try to get to quickly is less about. So our practice is cash, right? We don't play the insurance game. Of course we produce super bills and we do the notes we need to and all that, but

We don't play the insurance game. so I actually think when you're a movement professional and you're trying to educate clients on why their lateral epicondyle hurts, you really actually almost dissuade them from information. If you start talking about diagnosis codes, because to me, diagnosing a thing is just saying, look, that's the thing that's hurting or fraying or torn, but it does nothing to explain movement, strength properties, et cetera. So we very quickly in our communication flow.

Kyler (17:56.654)

right, like to identify the area of pathology or insult, because we have to do that from our doctorate perspective. And then our form has a workflow where it's like, okay, now we're immediately going into the buckets of why, where did that come from? Yes, we can do NSAIDs, you can do cortisone, all these other things that may or may not be helpful long-term, but we can outline these plays that are options for the patient, while at the same time really start talking about, you know what, your right elbow and that tendon is so chronically inflamed because

The scapular control on that side is terrible. Look at this. And we start educating them away from that side of pain. And then going into those correctives early does a great deal, as you know, for the pain. And so if I can actually say, look, here are your options, PRPs down the list, you know, you can, here's all the things you could do and find it on the podcast Ville. You can find different things. Here's why we're not going to do them first. It's because we're to go for this movement thing. And then if you start to restore that, now I have every doctor at WellSport saying, here's your pain.

Here's the movement dysfunction. Here's the pain. Here's the movement dysfunction. And if it's a win for me, if our patients are all walking out saying, okay, this hurts because of this, even if they don't even know how to name the structure. And I think that's now you've educated someone to understand that their body's interconnected and movement problems are not a diagnosis.

Beau Beard (19:11.492)

When again, going back to that disservice of, you know, maybe the R2P model for students and just getting lost is what I started to see was, is like everybody came out and like just started rehab and everything. It's like, well, do you have an injury? Is there actual like a pathway anatomical thing? Because if there is, and you just go into let's load management, I mean, it could be the worst thing for the person for all sorts of reasons. So like one thing we've just kind of, we had, you know, I teach this art of assessment course, giant, you know,

Kyler (19:23.864)

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Beau Beard (19:40.208)

16 hour course and I was like, let's just have a checklist where like, is it injured or not? And then like, how does it move? And then how do you move around it? And then you kind of get out into like motor control and it's like, just do that. Like, and then that also makes it easier to explain. So when we're talking about that, like, you know, fake it till you make it confidence, competence.

I really think one of the things I've seen in early conditions in here is if you're not sure if there's an injury or not, you're just like, think it's pain, you know, this kind of being generated based on how you're using it versus like, I don't know if your tendons partially torn. That's where I see a lot of the lack of confidence. I'm like, we'll make sure you're like 100 % on that because that's our job. Like I was telling them if I was on the foot, you know, sidelines at a football game on Friday night, you only got one job. Like that's what matters. That's also what matters first here. And then we all know that like most of our people, it's not that

Kyler (20:24.024)

Yeah.

Beau Beard (20:31.024)

pathway anatomical thing that we're weighing heavier on. We just have to be aware of it and sometimes protect and sometimes move around. see, I'm glad you mentioned that because I think the simpler you can make stuff, which is tough because we're dealing with humans and pain and all this stuff, but like you can make it pretty easy in terms of like, what are we working on today? What are we going to work on tomorrow? Like you said, what are the, the black, what we call blackout, like what are the bad options down the road or the things that could be unforeseen and then just kind of lay it all out. And you know, if you do that, that's

Kyler (20:58.088)

a while. If you do that, that's your being.

Beau Beard (21:00.558)

you're being as confident as you can even though there's a ton of unknowns, but like let them know the unknowns. Like that's the thing that I think I tried to maybe hide maybe all of us a little bit like, I don't know, like let's not tell them about that scary thing. Cause if you do and it's true, you're like, God, they're with your so or you know, they need a surgery and it's like, well, no, tell them all that stuff. Like be the quarterback.

Kyler (21:05.72)

Yeah.

Kyler (21:16.408)

Sure.

Kyler (21:20.566)

Well, and I this conversation yesterday, you know, what if they were a part of their decision too? And you could say, what do you want to do? The book says, and MRI is not crazy here, but at the same time, your story says this, I'm seeing a ton of other dysfunctions everywhere else. And if you're not going to be a silly goose and go out there and just go do single leg plyos, then maybe we give it five days. But, and, and then a lot of times I'll frame it up. Like if it was my knee or my kid's knee, this is what I would do.

Right. But it comes with these caveats. You don't get to go pretend like you're ready to roll and just practice again. Right. Let's be intelligent about this. But at the same time, if I think it's MRI, like it's your job to have tough talks. And I think that's what comes with getting a doctorate is you need to be able to say, look, no one has a hundred percent certainty here, but I want an MRI for these reasons. And if they're like, I don't have insurance, it's cash pay everything. You might say, okay, fine. I get that. Then you're shut down for five days. Right. Like you might have to have these tough conversations with them.

You know, obviously the more catastrophic injury the easier it is to do right but the gray zone ones that you're talking about are huge and you know, sometimes what I'll tell like again the the newer physician is I'll tell them Let's pretend you think they you don't know if they have a grade 1b or 2a Medial gastroc strain, right? You're not sure no one cares today right unless they play on TV and We're worried about crazy time

So if we're in that situation, well guess what? We have every resource available to us. We're gonna do ultrasound right there. We're gonna do an MRI. Like we have every resource possible. But if I'm a normal person, in the grand scheme of things, seven days versus nine isn't that big a deal. And so you have time. Like you don't have to make the per, this isn't your national board test where you have to have the perfect answer before your two o'clock appointment, right? And so you can just say, look, we're gonna avoid this stuff for now here, but we're gonna load these other things and see how it evolves. And it's a.

thinking of it as more of a process. I just, the urgency and the stress I love, because those positions are always like, they mean well, right? Like they're like, I want to get this right. I really want to help this person and I want to deliver for this appointment. And I have a lot of debt, so I wouldn't pay this much. So I really want to give them all this value, you know? And so all the intents are good, but they just got to slow down and keep it simple. There's another thing that you said earlier that I'm trying to remember now that I kind of want to touch on, but it's,

Kyler (23:45.966)

Above all, think, oh, if we pin the business side of this, right, but I want to come back to the business part of it too, but everyone coming out saying, I'm not sure McGill big three or I'm not sure for dogs, right? They just start becoming rehab pros like crazy. You're kind of a dime a dozen, right? Like everyone can find McGill's big three on the internet, right? Like you're not standing out and you're not developing a relationship.

And so if we're talking clinical expertise, just throwing exercise at them sometimes isn't the move, right? Sometimes it is, right? But at the end of the day, if you're talking business side and you're trying to build your practice and build your schedule up, well, you need to be a doctor first. Like you went to all this trouble to get your doctorate. Don't be another rehab trainer. Right. And I think so many people want to become a coach and rehab trainer because that stuff's fun.

It's fun to get in the gym and throw med balls around. It's fun to come up with a cool exercise where the client's like, my God, my hip has never burned like that. It feels like there's a powerful feel there, I think for clinicians, but then they get sucked into like they don't stand out. And I think what does stand out is what you said earlier, which is I go there and I get a plan. Like this person has command of the landscape. They don't know every detail per se, but they have command of the landscape and they know if this doesn't happen, I'm going to send you here. And if that doesn't work, I'm going to do this. When this works, we're going to add that.

The command is a doctor who's doing plans. It's not someone who's like, God, dry needling and then that didn't work. So cervical adjustments and that didn't work. Now we're doing big three and this person doesn't even know why we're working on my low back because my shoulders, you know.

Beau Beard (25:23.472)

Well, and that it's, uh, yeah, it's such a great point. I'm not just saying that because this follow up statement, but in the course that I teach, I literally have a slide that I keep like bringing up. That's just says be a physician first and rehab specialist second, because it's just, that's what they're paying you for. First of all. And I also think to just kind of like put a bow on this is I used to think, and I don't, you I don't think this way completely. There's a little bit of that in there, but I used to think that the buy-in

Kyler (25:36.75)

100%.

Yeah, yeah.

Beau Beard (25:51.056)

via the communication was still my clinical skills, if that makes sense. So it was like, I knew I had to be a great communicator and create a relationship, but I thought that was based on how I communicated what was going on and then my outcomes. And it's like, like you said, some of the people that are the best at this may not be the most clinically competent or be able to recite a research article or tie all the components in a functional medicine. And they're just like, no, I got like.

Kyler (25:55.159)

Mm.

Kyler (26:03.405)

Mm-hmm.

Kyler (26:13.518)

He

Beau Beard (26:17.678)

And I'm not this sounds like a knock my wife, but I've said this before on podcasts, like she is world class, just by default, right? That's like her superpower of like bedside manner, empathy, building relationships, like, literally people would like, I think she could make them worse on a day and they would leave and be like, my god, I'm so glad I got to hear. And I would feel like I made somebody worse. I'm like, my god, they're never gonna come see me. Like, you know, it's just she has that superpower. And then she's clinically competent, which

Kyler (26:34.926)

She's the best.

Kyler (26:40.524)

Yeah.

Beau Beard (26:45.07)

is amazing. So you put those two together and she's like, well, yeah, it's easy to keep people coming in and build referrals and all that stuff. So in terms of well sport, so you started this thing, what's it look like now? So how many clinics do you have? How many clinicians do you have? Like what's going on nowadays?

Kyler (26:56.236)

Hmm?

Kyler (27:02.254)

Yeah. So what I've learned is there's this cliche ceiling that WellSport is right at, which is, um, you can build revenue and growth to a certain point, but if you don't have, it's the building analogy, right? I can build a two story house on a pretty simple foundation, but if I want to go 60 stories, I have to have more of a foundation. And so WellSport right now we've paused at three locations because we don't want to grow anymore. Part of that from a brick and mortar standpoint, at least in the short term. Um, but.

We it's partly also because we had an exponential bump and just all this virtual stuff because of all the other things we're doing. And so, you know, it's, it's just better, it's better margin to do virtual appointments all day rather than just say, Hey, look, I have five offices now, but nobody goes to them. so, you know, we have three offices. we, we do a ton of corporate wellness. have four corporate accounts. and the doctors are just hustling and the things I'm proud of is every office has a squat rack and kettlebells.

We're doing hard stuff. We're doing treatment stuff. We're doing needling, you know, so we're kind of running the whole spectrum of what I think a good acute patient care should be for pain and then obviously building them back up and so everybody well sports either Cairo physio physical therapist or rehab techs the rehab tech is such a Weird term because we have a rehab tech Sharice. I'll give her a shout out like she's so smart like what her license is isn't equate to what she's doing for people and and so it kind of goes in the whole bucket of

I'm degree agnostic at this point. Like the people who really know movement and who are movement physicians, like they really know how to load people and how to progress them and stuff. And so, you know, the game of the Cairo PT stuff, like that stuff I'm so over it, cause I don't care. Like at the end of the day, it's really about getting people back. so yeah, Wellsports is focused on building our foundation right now. Like, you know, a lot of boring things, but we brought in a fractional COO and they're doing a lot of things like helping me get rid of like things that, you know, basically covering my gaps.

Right? And time is obviously a problem for me, but also just, you know, I don't have the training is every ounce of business expertise I've had is because my mentors, it wasn't because I had an MBA or anything else. like the, having a real expert come in and plug in and to build these systems for us is going to be huge. And so we're doing a lot of work right now on that foundation building. I do want us to grow and I want us to expand and my senior team does as well. And so it's kind of fun to have an aligned group that is ambitious, but also understands the like.

Kyler (29:27.522)

the importance of getting that base strength up before you just try to grow fast and get messy.

Beau Beard (29:32.27)

I've got two questions in there in terms of like, where, where do you want this to go? But before that, what do you have any like, I mean, it could be a silly example of something like that. You know, CEO has helped eliminate or add or change that's been kind of just like, like almost like I can't believe it and think of that, or that's been such a game changer for a small like lever, anything that stands out.

Kyler (29:55.854)

Um, you know, I think what always the scope creep of any organization, could be a family dynamic or it could be a work, right? Is some people are just immediate problem solvers and they'll just like jump on a fire and put it out for you and not even think. And then other people are like, they don't see the fire. And I think it's really about like the book traction puts the best where it's like, get the right butts in the right seats. Well, before that.

you have to identify what seats do we need. And I think the big thing for WellSport was that we had a group of people who are all willing, they're all generalists, right? Like startup 101 is everybody's a generalist the first couple of years, right? Like you're cleaning toilets, you're cleaning windows and you're seeing patients. And then as it grows, you should become a specialist and you have really good specialists in each seat, right? And so what we really, the big aha moment for me was I had a group of people who were all willing to do everything.

And it was not only disorganized and there's a little bit of who did what or you did that, you know, but it was also just, um, there wasn't the structure around what are all the seats we need and then who's good at that. Or as a group saying, you know what, none of us are good at this. Who do we bring in to make that work? Because me moonlighting as a CFO, not a good idea if we're going to grow, right? Me moonlighting is frankly, is a HR culture person. Not a good idea. Right. And so you look at this org chart and you're like, damn, that's a lot of people.

But the comforting part is, you don't have to fill those now, but knowing what that needs to be and where you grow into, that's huge. And so I think for us, the big aha moment was taking the real time, which is hard to do in our job, to just sit down and say, okay, what are all the seats I need? And then who's gonna do what and who's equipped for that? That's been the biggest step so far. And we haven't seen all the payoff from this, but I've had a ton of friends who've gone through this process, like a good friend of mine is a dentist, really successful.

He did the same thing and he says, dude, was life changing for him.

Beau Beard (31:51.78)

When I think immediately even I get a little like, because when you hear that you're like, all these roles, all these, and we're talking like executive roles and stuff. I imagine anybody that's in practice out there is listening to like, well, how are you going to afford this? Or what's, you know, what's the play? So again, you've been in practice how long now?

Kyler (32:05.262)

100%.

Kyler (32:10.39)

graduated in 06, so almost 20 years.

Beau Beard (32:12.176)

So yeah, a while. So you've had a while to create some income, create some capital, create relationships, then open up ability to maybe gain more capital. And you're just doing this 20 years into practice. I'm not saying somebody couldn't do it sooner, but I also think, well, I wouldn't say you're behind, but I think nowadays in particular, the thought is what? I'm gonna be five years in practice, I'm gonna start scaling this thing. And it's like one of the kill shots of any business, not just chiropractic practice,

Kyler (32:27.596)

Way behind.

Kyler (32:35.107)

Yeah.

Beau Beard (32:41.668)

you know, scaling too soon and not being ready for it and like collapse is just inevitable. What, for people listening that are in practice or students or you know, whatever it is, profession wise, are there any key like things to pay attention to or that you became aware of? You're like, God, I've got a, not fill a specific role, but like this has to change or we're at this like level now where I have, like I could scale or were there any just keys or you're just like, you know.

Kyler (32:47.854)

What? There people listening that

Beau Beard (33:08.826)

I want to make more money or I want to another location or was there like an organic like, yep, it's time to do this. Anything stand up?

Kyler (33:14.99)

Yeah, I mean, think that that zero to six year is kind of the most interesting one, right? Because when you come out, right, like we're all focused on, I just want to survive, right? I want to, you know, like your lens is just make money enough to pay and cover my loans. And yes, they all have ambition beyond that, but the focus is really like survival, right? So then depending on your effort and how much you're willing to say yes, and like, I love the Elon quote of if I work 100 hours a week and somebody else works 40 hours a week,

In five years, I'm kicking their ass, right? And so everybody needs to understand that the life, work, balance thing, if you're going to build something, it's not on the table right away. It's just not. if, unless you want to take 10 years and leave it up to chance, but like if you're willing to go six, seven days a week and say yes all the time and stay late for people and all that, those are the people I've seen consistently successful, right? So then let's pretend, okay, now I'm an individual and I got a busy schedule and it's starting to cook and I'm word of mouth referrals.

I think the first thing that everyone needs to do, if it's R2P, if it's great clinicians at school, coming out, I basically created a residency for myself. And so that to me, I always say was the single best thing I did. I forsake life quality, work balance early. I didn't make a ton of money, but I got amazing experience and I got to be in the room with brilliant people. And that to me, I feel like did so much for me at the five-year market. It sped me up to where

at the five year mark, was way ahead of where I would have been if I would started so. Because when you take on practice management and finding a lease and buying tables and all this capital, but also concern and stress and running schedules, like you don't want to also have to be stressing being a clinical, you know, execution, right? So that zero to two is just, people are so focused on that. But then around the two to four year mark, when you're starting to get full and you're busy and you're producing,

I think one of the best books I got was What Got You Here Won't Get You There. And it literally talks about the things that make you a successful entrepreneur are the same things that block your ability to scale. Right? Like the willingness to clean the windows means at the five-year mark, it's not because of ego or because you're fancy, but you shouldn't be cleaning windows, right? You should be either seeing more patients or you should be training a new doctor and using your expertise as a specialist.

Kyler (35:40.928)

rather than just saying, I'm willing to be a good worker. I see like, you know, my favorite analogy, one of my good friends has a pool, successful guy, real estate. He's not in our industry. He still cleans his own pool. And I go, I get it. But some business coaches would say, dude, that's 180 bucks a month. And if you wouldn't spend the seven hours on Saturday, trying to figure out your pH levels and go to the store five times, not only would you maybe be with your kids more, but maybe you just close another deal. And I do think people need to

start to think about that and think of themselves as an asset in the business. Like, do I want this asset doing this or that? And a lot of times I think people who are younger, early, they kind of look at that as ego and stuff, but it's really not. It's more about like, which asset are we using and which bud is in the right seat? And is that seat like working all the time? So I think that's the biggest kind of turning point, I think, that I see a lot of people sometimes don't make is.

they'll be 10 or 15 years in and they're still just a great solo practitioner with a great reputation and they're busy, but they're kind of handcuffed. Like, you know, they're kind of the guru idea, right? Where they're like handcuffed to where if I'm not there, we don't make money. And if I'm there, we make money. So I'm going to go all the time.

Beau Beard (36:51.824)

And I'll kind of give three points that I think would help some people is one problem I couldn't agree more on recognizing like your, if you're a good worker that will like eventually chain you because like that's how I grew up. Like I had blue collar parents and like, I feel guilty if I'm not doing every little thing. Like I'll see, I can tell everybody I go, if you see a piece trash, if you see pee on the toilet seat, whatever, like you better clean that up. I like that. That's the Disneyland approach, right? Like everybody just doing everything.

Kyler (37:19.95)

Sure. Nobody's too good. Right.

Beau Beard (37:21.968)

But then I'll do that. And then I'll show up on Saturday. I'm like, I got to build a strain for the driveway out here in the parking lot. I'm like, what the hell am doing? Like, but I just, and then you, the other part of me that's just as damaging as I, you know, quality. I'm like, Oh, I think I can do it a little bit better. And eventually like, you know, I know, you know, this adage, like if it's is 80 % as good as you would do it yourself, like you need to hand that thing off and be okay with it. And I'm, that's even probably harder for me. Cause I'm just like a little bit of a perfectionist. I'm like, I got it. I can do it. And then it's cheaper. And I'm like, yeah, good.

Kyler (37:50.648)

Right. Right.

Beau Beard (37:52.016)

It's like, those are two things that'll just anchor around your ankle and drag you to bottom of the ocean. I'm kind of blanking on the last point I was gonna make on that. Oh, I was gonna say when we talk about the guru mentality, like I'm all about, love nerd now and clinical competency. And if that's your game, here's my advice. Everybody that's been a guru also gets a handle.

I was just talking to somebody the other day. So if you don't know who Tim Brown is, Tim Brown has been able to organically surround himself with people that basically manage his schedule and his time. And that's not of his doing it's he is really good. And then people are like, Oh, this guy's really good. I want to be around him. And because he's a good guy, he builds a team that kind of manage like you're going to have to have that whether that happens on your own or you create it. But if you think you're to go guru it

Kyler (38:35.054)

that kind of manages like, you're gonna have to have that.

Beau Beard (38:41.518)

You just better have realistic expectations of how much money you're to make and how much time you have for other things in your life. Which is the next thing I want to get to is you've spent two decades building well sports, three locations, know, a multitude of clinicians and employees. And it sounds like you're foraying into other things. Like you mentioned the virtual window and that's, you know, the, the second part of the season is what are you able to do now that you've built success for yourself? Not that that train is stopping.

Kyler (38:51.55)

Sure, course.

Beau Beard (39:12.088)

It sounds like that's, you know, building steam, if anything. But what, what are you, you know, what are you going to, I guess, what do you want wealth port to be doing in five to seven years that is growing that, also allowing you to go into other realms and what other realms are you going into already? And I know, I kind of know that question's on T and F a little bit, but like what's next or what's different? Cause I know a lot of people go.

Kyler (39:22.958)

What do you want to do?

It's during that.

Kyler (39:34.92)

Sure.

Beau Beard (39:38.288)

get out of the clinical space, right? They're not operating clinics and they have something else. And I don't think you're a person that's just going to sit around and collect checks, regardless if you put or not. So where do you want WellSport to go? And then like, what else is on the horizon? Or what else are you involved in right now?

Kyler (39:44.655)

Right, right.

Kyler (39:53.696)

Yeah, I think, you one of my closest mentors always says, you know, in everybody's life, there's three pivot pivots minimum, right? Like there's a course change or a passion change or whatever. And so having this idea that your, your life timeline from a professional standpoint will have pivots, right? And so I think where I'm really lucky is that, we have gotten WellSport to the point, especially with my senior team and knowing that, you know, the ship ain't going to sink, right? Like they've got it. And

and taking that control problem I have, right? Like, cause anyone who's good in our business has, they like to control too. And perfectionist is another way to put it. And I think letting go of control and then realizing, wow, it's actually going faster now, the less like I'm in the way, it's a cool thing. And then like, I feel like there's this natural side of life where when those things happen, then other opportunities present themselves. And so, you know, I'm co-founder in another business, you know, with, with Peter and Luke and

It's called 10 Squared and that's been totally like re-vigorating for me because the depth and the science behind it and the way we're trying to create this project is really new and exciting, right? And so having this team at WellSport and having WellSport being what it is has allowed me this time that I can apply and it's not full-time but sometimes it is but like, you know, it's definitely I get to dabble if you will.

And being able to do that has been fun because guess what? Well, that feeds well sport. And now all of a sudden everything's kind of bouncing back and forth. And now you're just trying to create more of like an energy center around like whatever it is we're doing. And like the new project without going too much into it, it's more about, you know, let's remove the time constraints for people. Like what if we went all in on really, really good exercise? Like what, and we measure it along the way and we're measuring the results and they have.

so much contact and so much fluidity with their program that it's better than what proteins are getting, right? Because we're not having the, he has to play Thursday night or sorry, the physio has five other guys on the table, he can't get to you today. Like we've removed all that. And obviously that comes at a price, but we're using this as like our testing ground to really determine how much change can we make? And you know how all these things, like I think a lot of people get really impatient. Like they want to see, I put this work in, I want to pay off Saturday, right? Well.

Kyler (42:15.798)

We're 19 months into clients now, and now it's really fun because you're seeing people like we have a woman in her sixties who added six pounds of muscle on her dex. And like, you know, like just cool changes because we get to wave this wand of like, wow, what if we just removed all the other nonsense of life and just trained really well? And then we counted, obviously my part is we count for injuries. Do we insulate them? Do we rehab them? Do we concierge that out and send them somewhere and make sure it gets addressed? Like all those factors. It's fun. So I think to answer your question more directly, I think.

not being the guru and trying to build a business that you're a part of, but at the same time, you don't have to be just a person there with your name on the door creates flexibility and flexibility can be other things, right? Like I'm really proud. get to coach my kids teams, right? Like I can go to my son's baseball practice at four o'clock one day a week. And I have other doctors in my practice that are like that now too, right? Because I was lucky to be mentored on this idea that people will do what they're incentivized to do.

And I firmly believe that the career arc of a doctor, they need to get more freedom. They need to get more fluidity. Like I always said, I didn't start WellSport to become a hall monitor, right? Like if someone's seeing enough patients, I don't care, right? If we're not losing money and they're seeing and they're doing what they need for them, but also they're hitting their numbers for WellSport, then great. Like I don't care if you go to dentist appointment at 12. And so in that way, it's almost just like being your own practitioner, right? Like I, just,

there's no point in being a homeowner. Now, the hard part is some people new require you to be a homeowner, but they don't last long, right? Like they just don't have the maturity yet or the dedication, whatever it could be. And so the right people make it so easy. so I think, you know, long way of me saying that, I think if you can build your business up, if it's other practitioners or even just like more of a dynamic kind of ecosystem where there's some strength on site and massage and other things, that's a great thing because it does provide this window of opportunity when things

come up, you can actually realize those opportunities. Like I know you've done some golf stuff and like I like 10 years ago or something, I had a golfer that wanted me to travel with him. And I was like, honestly, it's not worth it for you or me. Like, we're both out here. Like this doesn't make any sense for us. And by the way, I know these two great people on tour, just see them while you're there and then see me when you're back. Because for you to cover what I would make in a week makes no sense for you. And conversely, I don't want to just work on one person. I'd rather

Kyler (44:42.616)

keep my rates lower and work on 100 people and affect my community rather than just the two to three fancy people.

Beau Beard (44:49.326)

Yeah, you talked about those pivots, just I want to touch on like the epicenter and like skill stacking. So want to pin that. But yeah, like I tell everybody, know, I went and I thought I was going to be the sports chiropractor going to the Olympics and all this stuff. And it took like me going to do my rotation at the USOC. And I was like, boy. No. So that, but that was good, right? Kind of a positive negative experience where you're like, yeah, I'm going to, I'm going to pivot a little bit and then

Kyler (44:57.4)

Yeah, like, I feel like...

Kyler (45:07.117)

Yeah

Beau Beard (45:14.992)

similar experience, know, pro athlete hires me to go live with them and rehab them. And then that turned into, Hey, do you want to come on the road? Which there were two decision points. I was about ready to have a kid and I was like, Oh, I can't do that. But then the, whole conversation of, well, you've been paying me this to do that. Like this is what it looks like. And even this is somebody that's making, you know, a lot of money in there like, Oh, I can't do that. And I was like, yeah, it's not worth it. Like we should both just go split ways and I'll find you somebody, which we did.

Kyler (45:39.267)

Yeah.

Beau Beard (45:43.216)

So yeah, I couldn't agree more on all that of knowing also like, what do you want to do? Don't think like you're obligated like, Oh, this is the route I've taken and like, Oh, that's the biggest play like to go work with this big name. And then all of a sudden you're miserable, even though you're making more money, you're tagged with this person, like, it'd be miserable. Like just don't do it. Like take an honest assessment, but going back to what you said about

you know, the endeavor with, know, Peter and Luke and 10 squared and, that's still driving things back to well sport. So it kind of creates this, you know, synergistic effect. Do you think it's important, you know, in particular for talking to our field to skill stack. So if you do start to dabble that it still plays within the vein, or do you think, man, if you want to go get into, you know, commercial real estate or I don't know, you know, start painting whatever, do think it's more important to keep?

Kyler (46:31.598)

Thank

Beau Beard (46:32.27)

building because the quick story I have on that is Brett Winchester, which is one of our mutual friends and maybe mentors. He bought all these rental properties and was kind of managing them. then I got talked to one day, go, how's that all go? I sold them all terrible idea. I was like, why? He just too much time. And it's not what I do. He goes, I'd rather just do stuff that I'm doing and build on that. So I always keep things like that in the back of my mind, but like, you know, what's your thoughts on that?

Kyler (46:37.422)

Mm-hmm.

all these rental

Kyler (46:45.37)

Yeah, yeah

Kyler (46:57.102)

So I couldn't agree with Brett Moore. I've done my own version of that, like how to rental property. it depends when you look, if you look in March, you're like, this is brilliant. I'm going to get rich. And then you look in May and you're like, this is the worst idea ever. You know, cause like a mold remediation or a water heater or whatever. Right. So short answer is for any of us who've gotten our doctorate, just lean on that heart, right? Sure. Dabble in other things if you want to, cause if it's a passion project or something, but I'll use like one of the,

The most senior docket at WellSport, Jordan, he works with Texas football, baseball, guys are rock star. He played baseball at Texas minor league. So he's just passionate about throwing and baseball, right? So his skill stack to use your term is he wanted to become like just so knowledgeable about shoulders and elbows, just because he's passionate about it, that he did a deep dive. And, you know, it was fun to watch Jordan's evolution over like four years of like what he knew about shoulders and whatever 2016 versus 2020. It's just like, it's wild. And

It's almost progressed to the point where if we get a tricky shoulder, everybody in our practice like just go see George. He'll nerd out and he'll put the matrix glasses on and figure it out. But like, I think people are way better off doing that because if you chase your passion, obviously it's going to sound cheesy, but if you chase your passion, it's not work. Right. And if you're skill stacking within our sphere, that just makes way more sense. You've invested so much money in becoming a doc and a physio, and you know all this stuff already. You know more than you think, you know, right? Cause you've your experience.

And then if you keep stacking that stuff, these little tools will come out and all of a sudden you're, you're really putting together cool rehab cases, but also you're a person now that other people around you can lean on, right? Newer doctors, other professionals in your practice, even orthopedic surgeons in the community will be like, Hey, what would you do for this? Like, well, this could be a superscapular nerve entrapment. Has anyone done decompressive techniques? Right? That's one of my favorite things to pick on all the time is everybody compresses the heck out of tissue. You show up and decompress it they feel better. They're like, who's this genius? You're like,

Not a genius, just took thermal traction or whatever else other skills you want to talk about. So I do think skill stacking within your expertise is where I would tell people to go because you invested so much on

Beau Beard (49:05.711)

Well, let's wrap up with this. So you mentioned the kind of cliche of like, you follow your passion, you know, you never work a day in your life, which I that second half is untrue. There's still a lot of hard work there. It's just maybe seems a little less stressful. But has your passion changed? Like the reason that you got into chiropractic is that changed as you went through practice or has there been a through line of what your actual passion is? Or is it actually, have you figured it out? So I think a lot of, for me, if I had to just kind of personally say it, I didn't want people to have the

Kyler (49:15.968)

sure. Yeah.

Kyler (49:31.267)

Yeah.

Beau Beard (49:35.184)

crappy scenario I did with an injury at a young age. Well, I've also realized like, that's why I got into but that's not why I stayed in it. So it has changed for me. So I'm just curious, like, is there been a through line or is there been an evolution there for you?

Kyler (49:42.382)

Hmm.

Kyler (49:48.472)

question. So why did you stay in it?

Beau Beard (49:50.96)

So I stayed in it for, know, we had this conversation the other day. So we, uh, we have a lot of interns that come in here, a lot of shadows, lot of preceptors, and we had somebody that was shadowing. And I was talking about the headache of working with the university, which might be your state, uh, trying to get preceptors in and that's where he was from. And he goes, what do you get out of it? And I was like, no, nothing. Like we, know, you guys show up and we have to actually pay the state for you to guys be here. he goes, so you guys don't get anything from the university. He was like blown away.

Kyler (50:05.102)

No.

Beau Beard (50:20.452)

Well, no, but I really enjoy students being here because I love the education experience of a student being in that clinical room with me, because it actually makes the whole it's like a triangle of communication between me, the student and the patient where the patient starts to realize like, it's educational to the level I've never experienced before. And having the student just creates an interface where it's not like I'm trying to educate the patient. But I can talk to the student and then the patient's like,

Kyler (50:40.622)

Hmm.

Beau Beard (50:48.72)

That's kind of cool. So I've seen a really, really interesting dynamic where the more you set up, like I just imagine a doctor going in with a bunch of residents, right? And they're doing rounds of, you know, if they're doing follow up visits. And it's like, when you do that, there's something magical that happens with a patient. And like, it makes it way more fun for me rather than going to me and like, Hey, how's your neck doing? They're like, ah, it's not better. And you're like, I think it's super scapular nerve. And then you're explaining like, why are we going to decompress? And I'm like, no, I'm going to say that to the student. And you just have to realize like, I'm here for you. I got the plan.

Kyler (51:01.368)

all of it.

Beau Beard (51:17.7)

but they get it without me giving it to them. And I think if I could figure out how to that without a student in the room, maybe I'll sell that method.

Kyler (51:18.36)

Right. Yeah.

Kyler (51:23.884)

Yeah, totally. But that human, makes it a little bit more like happy hour conversation and rather than like a high pressure situation. Yeah, totally.

Beau Beard (51:30.714)

Yeah, it's just way more fun. And that's why I've stayed is the education, not necessarily to educate a student, but just I love that interface. And again, that might change eventually where I don't want to see the same amount of patients and have an interface. But I think creating a clinical epicenter that's education focused is always going to be part of the farm. Yeah.

Kyler (51:48.802)

Yeah, that's cool. And I, you know, I think the other side of it too, which would kind of touch into my answer would be the ripple effect of, you know, if you help that person's back pain or whatever it could be, or you're teaching another doctor how to do stuff, like you're making an impact on society. And I think this has been something that just I've been enjoyed watching, like, like even with Peter's passion with his medicine 3.0, like I've totally completely looked at it the same way as rehab 3.0 like

I really lose sleep at night over shitty care. Pardon my French. Like it just drives me nuts. And I'm not trying to position myself as the only person who does good care, but definitely put me, label me as in the trenches, trying to do good care. Right. And I think it's an evolving field. And if you're trying to do good care, you're always watching, you're always learning and things like that. But, I mean, how many times have you heard it with your interns? I've heard a hundred times where it was just like my story. I started out athlete injury, no results became passionate about that.

Then when I was in school, I like, I'm going to work for a pro team and that's the holy grail. And then you see it and you're like, oh, that's that lifestyle is different. It's tough. There's tons of time constraints, pressure, yada yada. And then you start to realize, you know what the most rewarding cases are the high school kid who's the first one to go to college and his family on like a D three running scholarship. Right? Like those are the things that I still think back about. Like you and I both have been able to work on some fancy people and they're nice people too. They're normal people as well, but

that kid who is the first to go to college in a running scholarship or the person who does the 10K with their dad when he was sick. Like that's the stuff that you always look back at a career. like, that was cool. And so I think I haven't really thought about this. So thanks for making me get all deep. But like, I think for me, the passion is more the community side of it and maybe playing a small part in that ripple effect. And then that's what's cool about trying to create reach is what if it's beyond just the patients I see, right? What if it's

the patients everyone at Wellsport sees, or the people with educational tools or interns or people that work for us that then go on and start a practice. One of my second or third associates, second associate I ever had was forever ago. Couldn't have been worse. He wasn't ready, I wasn't ready. It was a disaster. We are really good friends now and he's killing it on the West Coast. He's a great doc, right? And it was just a great example of why things might not work out. It has nothing to do with anybody individually. It just wasn't good chemistry.

Kyler (54:13.93)

And it's fun to see him doing that. I play no part of that other than told him this is what you don't want to do. Right. And like he just wanted freedom and he's independent smart guy. So like he just wasn't meant to be an associate. And those are his words. And so we laugh about it now. But what I always say is it's really fun to see these people come through. And then you start to do the math. Like if that person sees 60 people a week, all of a sudden you're like, wow, 10,000 people serve like McDonald's are like doing better because of the work someone learned at R2P from you or Brett or

something from Capo or whatever it could be, right? And I think that's, if you don't focus on those wins and celebrate those, healthcare can be hard, right? And you wanna be proud of the work you're doing. You wanna focus on the wins that you're getting and take those moments to realize like, wow, this kid went on to college and we played a small part in that and that's a fun job to have. For me, it's way better than sitting behind a desk forever. Like I've done more Zooms last three years than I ever thought I would in my life and Zooms are not cool, right? I do much better in the rehab space.

or in the treatment room. It's just fun for me. I thrive there. But at the end of the day, like it's fun to have reach.

Beau Beard (55:18.714)

Well, not I, I mean, I've thought about it, but not that succinctly of yeah, the access to world-class care is kind of the, is the fun part because we're, we're in us. mean, in particular, if you technically said where our practices, we're not really in Birmingham or in Chelsea, which is like a town of 10,000 people with the, know, greater metro area of, know, a million plus, but it's yeah, it's the access of people walking in like, what, what is this? And then what I love hearing, which I know you've heard this a million times, like, why doesn't everybody do this? And you're like,

I don't know, that's maybe kind of one of our goals is to like, you know, spread that and, you know, at some point it's like, why would you want everybody to do what you're doing? It's like, if you're all doing good care, like then it, you know, it's no different than why did you choose your favorite restaurant? It's comes down to the relationship and personalities and you know, whatever fits that person rather than like, this care is technically better than the other. don't think we would hope that goes away, right? That would be the goal is like, there's not par and subpar care. It's like on the same level and then it's practitioner and business based, but

Kyler (56:15.587)

Yeah.

Beau Beard (56:17.2)

It's a good, excellent way to wrap up is to think that like, yeah, the people that have unlimited access, pro athletes, celebrities, like they can see the gurus and they can afford it they can travel or have them travel. You know, my person down the road that, you know, as a school teacher, they can't do that. But if they can have the same kind of care, you know, really, really close that level of care, that's, that is really cool.

Kyler (56:17.912)

Good. Excellent wait.

Kyler (56:39.118)

Yeah, and you just got to focus on that. think you got to meet them where they're at, but really truly say like, oh, don't try to gamify the system in your schedule. And if I do $2 more per appointment and all this, all this business coaching stuff, like you're not always doing right by people. And you're eventually going to kind of rub those quality people, those quality relationships. You'll start to rub them the wrong way.

Beau Beard (56:59.376)

And that's what here I'll just tell this as an interesting kind of business aside. When we this is a good business lesson, we send out surveys like every couple years, we'll just do a giant email survey, you know, hey, fill us out, please. I remember our first one, this just funny story, the only negative things we got, and we got like three of them. So it stuck out was like change the music, like don't listen to any country. And I was like, okay. So I was like, that's the only negative we're doing okay. But then a couple years later, as we got

Kyler (57:23.726)

Right.

Beau Beard (57:28.772)

busier, right? Just Sloan and I still, we didn't have an associate. We had changed no prices. We had upgraded offices, right? And we had changed how we treated it a little bit. So was a little more what we were doing was different. There were numerous comments in there that said they're too focused on money. Prices hadn't changed. Treatment, like trial care. Yeah, nothing had really changed in our minds. But then I kind of was like, why do they think that?

Kyler (57:40.142)

Mm-hmm.

Kyler (57:51.214)

I know it said anything, right?

Beau Beard (57:58.616)

And what I realized was we were busier. So it wasn't, it was how our front office staff and we were handling being busier. It seemed like we were elite. And sometimes you want to have that kind of portrayal a little bit. We were leaning on it too hard. And then I was like, nothing's changed. And they just think that we're like out here, like you can't get into us and we're too fancy. was like, no, we're just honestly busy. So again, that goes back to like honest assessments of like, why are people saying this and don't just be like, what are they wrong?

Kyler (58:20.078)

Yeah.

Kyler (58:26.476)

Yeah.

Beau Beard (58:26.81)

But that can sting and I want everybody have access to the fact that that access was being taken away showed me what that was a sign of handy to grow like that was that was the key that.

Kyler (58:37.134)

Well, it also, it really highlights how growth will unveil new issues that you're not even aware of, right? And, you know, like I wanna, one of my good friends, I've known a long time, I met him as a patient 15, 16 years ago, great guy, cyclist, and he messaged me yesterday and he was like, hey, I need you to check on my wrist. Are you too fancy now? Right? Cause of the stu, the, the, know, and I go, yeah, the 11 followers I picked up by being on Peter's podcast has made me so busy. I can't see it ever again. Like,

And he's just a trash talker, right? But it just goes to show like appearances versus what's reality. Like it's the same spot, you know.

Beau Beard (59:13.794)

Yeah, and that's, you know, it's something you're always kind of pushing back. Like we had a patient the other day that was, they had seen somebody in our practice and she called me, she goes, they really want to see you. And I go, everybody's the same. And she goes, there's a reason it's called the Andrews Institute. And I go, I, and I was like, I understand, but he's also retired and it's still called the Andrews Institute. it's, so he created something that he doesn't even exist anymore. It just has his name on it.

Kyler (59:33.262)

Right.

Beau Beard (59:38.958)

And that's, you know, at the heart of what both of us are trying to do. mean, our name is not in our practice's names. We're trying to expand without us being the guru and, you know, easier said than done some days. And that's kind of a good thing, but you know, in the end of the day, like that's kind of the job if you want to grow a business, which, like I said, that's at the heart of the season. And I think you've done an amazing job. So kudos to you for what you've done over the past two decades. And also I'm excited to see what you keep doing and you know, all the different direction it goes and just who you're involved with. I know exciting to you and.

Kyler (59:44.653)

Mm-hmm.

Beau Beard (01:00:08.916)

probably getting to work with different people that are amazing at their jobs. It's also, you know, probably invigorating some things that you didn't know you wanted to do or, you know, find out about yourself. So I'm extremely interested to see what you go do. And hopefully we have you on the podcast here, you know, in a couple of years and I don't know you're already fly to see me in your private jet and we do it in person. I mean, whatever happens.

Kyler (01:00:28.398)

Yeah, exactly. Dude, I'll be driving to you in my 2019 Ford, Yeah, man, I appreciate it very much. Thanks for having me on.

Beau Beard (01:00:34.48)

Wow.

Absolutely anytime man. Thank you again. Appreciate it

Kyler (01:00:42.104)

Cool, see you.