Cracking the Stress Secret with Dr. Rashidian

Life as business owner, an entrepreneur, or human being on planet Earth is so stressful but that’s a good thing. We’re demystifying stress with the accomplished Dr. Amir Rashidian of the Mid-Atlantic Chiropractic Center on this week’s episode. He’s on a mission to change how we heal, how we view stress, and how we manage it. Hear about Dr. Rashidian’s childhood in pre-revolution Iran, his entrepreneurial journey, his own business blunder, and his secret to business. 

ABOUT DR. RASHIDIAN

Dr. Amir Rashidian founded the Mid-Atlantic Chiropractic Center in 2006 and is now serving over 18,000 patients annually. His practice takes a holistic approach to healing and focuses on promoting drugless, health solutions. Dr. Rashidian is a published author, serves on the board of directors for Habitat for Humanity, and is the chairman of the elder leadership team at Grace Community Church. He has received honors and awards, including Business Leader of the Year and Philanthropist of the Year. He is happily married since 2005 and has three sons.

HIGHLIGHTS

• 3:13 - Perfect days exists!
• 6:51 - Stress is good. Dr. Rashidian shares why
• 13:32 - A legacy of entrepreneurship and generosity
• 26:36 - Dr. Rashidian on finding his path to helping people heal the right way.
• 39:13 - Everyone has business blunders including our guest
• 43:45 - Serving your team and a community is great for business
• 56:22 - Enjoy your beginning - advice from Dr. Rashidian for new and aspiring entrepreneurs and business owners 

RESOURCES & LINKS

• Connect with Dr. Amir Rashidian on https://drrashidian.com/
• Check out Mid-Atlantic Chiropractic Center’s YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/@RealChiropractic and connect with the center at www.midatlanticclinic.com
• Purchase your copy of “Cracking the Stress Secret: How to Turn Pressure Into Power” at all major book retailers.
• Connect with Nicole on LinkedIn at ww.linkedin.com/in/nicole-donnelly-dmg
• Learn more about DMG Digital at dmgdigital.io

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Transcript

[00:00:00] Julie Basello: Hey there. Thanks for joining us for Tales of Misadventure, a podcast all about business blunders. On this podcast, Nicole Donnelly, founder of DMG Digital talks to entrepreneurs and learns how they turn their lemons into lemonade. DMG Digital is a content marketing agency focused on helping manufacturers attract new buyers through digital self-serve.

[00:00:24] Julie Basello: Nicole Donnelly is a fourth generation entrepreneur, 

[00:00:27] Julie Basello: a girl mom, and an avid traveler. Now let's head into a tale of misadventure with your host, Nicole Donnelly. 

[00:00:36] Nicole Donnelly: Hello and welcome to our show, tales of Misadventure with me, Nicole Donnelly. I'm the founder and president of DMG Digital. So I'm here with Dr. Amir Rashidian, and Amir is doing such great work as a chiropractor. I just wanna give our guests a little bit of a background on Dr. Rashidian, who he is and all about the magic [00:01:00] of what he's doing. So he is the founder of the Mid-Atlantic Chiropractic Center. This center was established in 2006 and serves over 18,000 patients annually.

[00:01:10] Nicole Donnelly: And what's really unique about this specific center is they focus on high tech diagnostics to detect and correct disturbances in the nervous system, and are really focused on promoting drugless health solutions, which I think all of us could really learn more about and try to implement more. So I'm excited to talk about that.

[00:01:28] Nicole Donnelly: And he's also serves on the board of directors for Habitat for Humanity, which can't wait for us to talk further about his experience there. And is also the chairman of the elder leadership team at Grace Community Church. He's won multiple honors and awards, including business Leader of the Year and Philanthropists of the Year, and he's also been happily married since 2005 and has three sons.

[00:01:51] Nicole Donnelly: Welcome to the show, Dr. Rashidian, and it's so great to have you here. Thank you for joining us. 

[00:01:57] Dr. Rashidian: It's my honor and pleasure. Thank you for having me. [00:02:00] 

[00:02:00] Nicole Donnelly: Yeah, very good. So our show is all about, we, we really, our show is all about entrepreneurs and we love to interview and entrepreneurs like yourself and really talk about kind of reducing the stigma of what it's like to be a business owner and this idea that you have it all figured out and you never make mistakes, and it's just like smooth sailing, right?

[00:02:23] Nicole Donnelly: So we wanna kind of like reduce the stigma there and really focus in on those times when things go wrong. What happened? What were those failures and more specifically, what d, what is it that entrepreneurs are doing like yourself when those failures come to turn them into opportunity? So that's kind of like what we love to talk about on the show.

[00:02:45] Nicole Donnelly: Can't wait to dive into that with you. But before we do, I love to start with this first question just to kind of like get to know a little bit about you personally and what you love to do. If you could describe a perfect [00:03:00] day in the life, like if you had, if you could be doing anything that you wanted, with anyone that you wanted, wherever you wanted to be, what would that day look like and what would you be doing?

[00:03:13] Dr. Rashidian: So I've had many perfect days. So it's, it's, it's not a fictional thing. I, I tell you, for, for my 10 year wedding anniversary, my wife and I went to an island in the British Virgin Islands. And we, we were on a beach that literally it was us and a mile down the beach was another couple, and there's nobody else there.

[00:03:36] Dr. Rashidian: And it was amazing. And, and we, we spent our days editing my first book so that we could get it published. And so, so I like beaches, love spending time with my wife, Brandy, and I enjoy finishing projects. So I, I feel like if, if I had anything I could do and I had the freedom to do it as much as I wanted, I'd probably be [00:04:00] working on some kind of project that excites me.

[00:04:02] Dr. Rashidian: I'd be doing it with her. And if I could do it on a beach, that's where I would be. 

[00:04:07] Nicole Donnelly: Oh, I love that. Like finding that that balance of, or integration if you will, the personal professional, your passion and all of that. So love that. And I love beaches too, and the Virgin Islands is such a stunning place to be, especially the British Virgin Islands.

[00:04:23] Nicole Donnelly: I've only been there once and I'll never forget just how those beautiful Jewel Hills coming out of the turquoise ocean. Just beautiful. So, so tell me what project are you work, what's exciting? You Now you just mentioned you love projects and you like to dive in. What project are you working on now that's got you all excited?

[00:04:41] Dr. Rashidian: Well, so I'm gonna think of promoting my second book. So which is, which is why I'd like to, you know, be here and speak to your audience and, and to you as well. But also you know, it was a year and a half ago, almost two years ago, my wife and I were on, in this beautiful resort, six star resort in [00:05:00] Arizona, having a blast.

[00:05:01] Dr. Rashidian: And I, I, just in conversation, I said, I feel like we've gotten a little too soft and we, you know, I feel like we we're comfortable where we are. We, we have two offices, a team of about 15 people, three doctors and, and things are rolling and things are smooth. I said, I think we're, we're too soft, we're too comfortable.

[00:05:22] Dr. Rashidian: I, I liked how it felt when we were just getting started. I want to, I want to get back to that. So, so what do you think we should do? And, and we kind of talked about it that day in the pool and we said, you know, I think we should maybe expand and, and grow more and maybe we're not done. Maybe we need to go for something bigger.

[00:05:39] Dr. Rashidian: So we said, all right, what if we take what we have as an organization and multiply it by a hundred? How would that look? How would that work? Wow. When you started brainstorming. And, and what's funny is when you start to make a decision like that and you decide, Hey, I want to get uncomfortable again. Well, the universe, God, everybody kind of conspires to make that come true.

[00:05:59] Dr. Rashidian: So [00:06:00] we came back and things started to kind of fall apart and we had to kind of rebuild the organization and, and we went from there. But that's the plan is just, just to grow. I think our brand of healthcare is something that's unique. It's, it's different than what people understand about healthcare and wellness and chiropractic care.

[00:06:18] Dr. Rashidian: And also a lot of people have a misconception about what stress is and how to handle stress properly. You know, we focus on reducing stress, but we don't even have a good definition of what that stress is. So we're gonna get that word out and we're gonna open up more centers and and, and really make the communities around us healthier.

[00:06:36] Nicole Donnelly: Oh, I love it. And I think that this book that you've just written talks all about stress, right? And I think that is so needed today. I think there's a lot of misunderstanding about stress. I think a certain amount of stress is good and healthy to have, but understanding how much is too much and all of that.

[00:06:51] Nicole Donnelly: So tell us a little bit more about what people can expect from your book and what your point of view is on stress and how we can be managing it here in the DC [00:07:00] area where you and I both live. I think it's a very common part of our everyday lives, right? So tell 

[00:07:05] Dr. Rashidian: Oh my goodness 

[00:07:05] Nicole Donnelly: me more about that. 

[00:07:07] Dr. Rashidian: Absolutely. You know, everyone, everyone has has been under stress and everyone knows what it feels like when you're overwhelmed by things. But what I want to make real, and this is the part that's a little controversial, is that you can't have or be or do anything you want without stress. You know? Nicole, you, you were on this amazing podcast.

[00:07:27] Dr. Rashidian: You helped so many people. But you can't tell me it's free from stress. And in fact, the more the larger your audience becomes, the more stress you're gonna have. Because the more responses you're gonna get, the more comments you're gonna get, the more criticism you're gonna get. And it you, you know that now you have to manage large number of guests and, and your budget changes.

[00:07:46] Dr. Rashidian: And every, it just, so the bigger you wanna get, the more stress you have to be willing to take on. It's the same with higher education. Let's say you wanna go for a you know, higher college degree. That's gonna come with stress. And you wanna grow your [00:08:00] family, every child you have, you're stress doubles.

[00:08:03] Nicole Donnelly: That is 

[00:08:04] Dr. Rashidian: have a great marriage, you better be willing to take on some stress. No, there's no marriage that's stress free. And if you wanna grow your business, which is what most of us here do, you better be willing to take on the stress. It's, it's like the prize fighter who's about to step into the ring and fight.

[00:08:19] Nicole Donnelly: Yeah. 

[00:08:19] Dr. Rashidian: He fight, he, he doesn't just step in the ring and fight. He trains for it. 

[00:08:22] Nicole Donnelly: Yeah. 

[00:08:23] Dr. Rashidian: So we have to understand is you want to grow. So, so I'll, I'll, I'll say this. Your level of health is determined exactly by how much stress you can safely handle and how successful you become is also dependent on how much stress you can safely handle.

[00:08:42] Dr. Rashidian: So then take it one step further. Your income is determined by how much stress you can safely handle. So you wanna make a larger income, be more successful, grow bigger, go further, and be healthier. You cannot reduce stress. It doesn't work that way. It's like me going to the [00:09:00] gym and every time I go to the gym, I lift less weight than I did the day before.

[00:09:05] Dr. Rashidian: I'm not gonna get stronger. I'm gonna get weaker. And eventually the weight I used to be able to lift, I can't lift anymore. 

[00:09:13] Nicole Donnelly: Oh. 

[00:09:13] Dr. Rashidian: So you have got to invite the stress. See, I've studied the successful people on the planet and you know, you are one of them. I guarantee there are people who look at you and go, Nicole, how do you get so much done in one day?

[00:09:26] Dr. Rashidian: I can't get that much done in a week. How are you doing all that? And you go, I don't know. I just do it. Well, it's because of who you are. You grew into that. 

[00:09:33] Nicole Donnelly: Yup. 

[00:09:34] Dr. Rashidian: Just like first grade was difficult when you had to spell three letter words of rat, bat, cat and hat. But when you were in 12th grade, someone gave you a spelling test with three letter words,

[00:09:45] Dr. Rashidian: you wouldn't have any problems with it. So you grow into that. The first employee you hire is, is tremendous stress on you. Oh my goodness, now I'm responsible for another person and I have to make, make payroll, and I have to make sure we market enough and produce [00:10:00] enough not to just feed me and my family, but there's another family that's dependent on it.

[00:10:04] Dr. Rashidian: And then you then, then you get used to that. So we get to a point where, yeah, I don't have too many employees, 15. It's not, it's not a big number by any standard, but you go, if I go back to just one or two employees, I, I would think it's so easy. I don't know why I was ever stressed out. So the goal is adaptation.

[00:10:23] Dr. Rashidian: See, the human body is designed to adapt on their stress. So if you want to adapt, you have to bring in the stress, but you can't put too much like you said it eloquently earlier. You can't put too much into you. 

[00:10:35] Nicole Donnelly: Yeah. 

[00:10:35] Dr. Rashidian: So there's a formula. A formula is imagine that you have a gap. Gap, G A P stands for the general adaptation potential, meaning this is how much stress you can safely adapt to.

[00:10:47] Dr. Rashidian: If your stress level goes above the gap, higher than that gap, you will be susceptible to illness and injury. As long as your stress level stays underneath, you are not susceptible to illness and injury. So an [00:11:00] example, it's springtime. Everybody's putting mulch in their garden. Let's say you, you go and spread mulch for three days in a row.

[00:11:06] Dr. Rashidian: The first day, no problem. Second day, no problem. Third day you go out, you throw out your back. Yeah, well, what's different? I, I did it two other days and it wasn't, it didn't hurt me, but this one did. Well, what'd you eat last night? I ate some Chinese food with some MSG in it. Okay, that just inflamed your body.

[00:11:21] Nicole Donnelly: Oh. 

[00:11:22] Dr. Rashidian: Then what happened this morning before you went outside? Oh, I had a, I had a fight with my spouse or my, my partner and, and now, now I go out there. Now I add the physical stress to the emotional stress. I was already under, and the chemical stress of the inflammation in my body, and the minute I picked up the bag of mulch, I threw out my bag.

[00:11:40] Nicole Donnelly: Interesting. 

[00:11:41] Dr. Rashidian: So that, that stress now, but you train for that. So now if, if that's your life, every day you adapt to it and then your back doesn't go out anymore. So you train for it, just like you trained for anything else. And I, I don't wanna go on a big monologue and talk to much. So, you know, stop me anytime.

[00:11:57] Nicole Donnelly: Oh my gosh. I love that. And I, I can't, [00:12:00] I'm, I'm gonna have to read this book so I can learn all about. Cuz I think the step there is to how do you incrementally add stress in a healthy way? And it sounds like your book really covers that, like, to just talk through what are the steps that you can take. And I love what you said earlier about how you were talking with your wife while you were on your vacation.

[00:12:17] Nicole Donnelly: You're like, I'm feeling too comfortable. And I think there's a definite like similarity there between stress and discomfort. Right? I was just having a conversation with my coach about this today and I was telling her, I was saying, I just wanna lean into the discomfort a little bit more. I wanna find like, enjoy the discomfort.

[00:12:37] Nicole Donnelly: Cuz I think along with what you were saying about stress, the more that we as leaders, entrepreneurs, you know, ambitious people who wanna grow, anyone who wants to grow, you have to get comfortable with discomfort. You have to be able to, and actually enjoy it. Otherwise, you're never gonna get anywhere that you wanna go.

[00:12:55] Nicole Donnelly: Right? You have to be able to, face the pain and, and be able to [00:13:00] visualize on the other side of that pain is, is the, you know, the, the reward for going through that, you know, that pain that you went through. Like, for example, when you go to the gym and you're lifting those weights, you know? So I love that.

[00:13:14] Nicole Donnelly: I'm, I think that's such a great, great project and so needed today because I, I think to your point, there is a lot of misconception out there about stress. People hear the word stress and they immediately think stress is a bad word, but you're absolutely right that there is a healthy level. So, very cool.

[00:13:31] Nicole Donnelly: Love that. Yeah. 

[00:13:32] Dr. Rashidian: Thank you. 

[00:13:32] Nicole Donnelly: So I would love to know, I think you, your story, your background is just an incredible example of how to adapt to stress in a, in a healthy way. And I just, I, I just think we should, our listeners would love to hear about your journey. Your journey and where you started and kind of how you ended up where you are today.

[00:13:54] Nicole Donnelly: I mean, you're incredibly successful in many different realms, right? You're, you're owning a [00:14:00] successful business that has scaled and grown, you know. As a chiropractor, you're a successful doctor. You have a beautiful family. You know, you're doing a lot of great work in the community, and that is absolutely the result of your ability to handle stress in a really productive and adaptive way.

[00:14:16] Nicole Donnelly: And that, I think that goes back to like how you've handled stress historically in your life. So let's talk about that. Like, tell us a little bit about where you grew up. I, I understand that you grew up in Iran. Correct? And it, that was right during a time of war. So tell our listeners a little bit more about what your, what your early childhood was like and what you kind of took away from that.

[00:14:36] Dr. Rashidian: Sure. Early childhood was, was easy because I was born in 1974. So that's five years before the revolution and we were doing well. My, my dad would take us to Europe every summer for at least a month, sometimes two months for vacation. So we get to travel the world and have a great time and, and do all the great things.

[00:14:58] Dr. Rashidian: And what's neat [00:15:00] is back then Iran was considered such a amazing place. Frank Sinatra, Barbara Streisand, the Rat Pack, all these people, when they wanted to go on vacation, they would go to Iran. Now you hear people going to Dubai for vacation. But Iran, the capital, Tehran, was called the Paris of the Middle East because it was amazingly beautiful and it was very modernized.

[00:15:21] Dr. Rashidian: It was the most modernized area in the, in the entire Middle East. And the Shaw, Iran had great relations with the West, and they were becoming more and more modern and advanced. Then in 1979, I remember I was five years old. I'm in the backseat of our family, Datsun, Datsun is now called Nissan, but back in the day it was called a Datsun.

[00:15:44] Dr. Rashidian: And so I'm sitting in the back and, and we came around the corner. We were actually on our way to go to a friend's birthday party. One of my friend's birthday parties. And we came around the corner and it was gridlock traffic. Cars weren't moving and, and there was fighting in the streets and batons are flying.

[00:15:58] Dr. Rashidian: There's tear gas [00:16:00] and, and lots of yelling and screaming. And my dad said, get down and don't look. So I'm on the floor of the car and I'm, I, I feel the car shake. Every once in a while I hear my parents commenting, Hey, look at this, look at that. Oh my goodness, I can't believe this. And how are we gonna get out of here?

[00:16:16] Dr. Rashidian: And I thought, being a little kid, five years old, I think this is one of those action adventure movies. 

[00:16:22] Nicole Donnelly: Wow. 

[00:16:23] Dr. Rashidian: And I bet you there's a lot of exciting stuff going on, and I wanna look and see, and I, I remember I peeked up over the edge of the window. You know, the first thing I see is a guy walking with a knife stuck in his chest.

[00:16:33] Dr. Rashidian: And he's, there's blood and he's, he's saying some kind of prayer and he started to fall forward. I went back down and I never looked up again, but it feels like it was just yesterday. I mean, those images are right there. And that was the start of the Islamic Revolution in Iran. And everything changed. You know we had a beach house that the government confiscated because they said, you shouldn't own two houses.

[00:16:52] Dr. Rashidian: It's against the law. They literally beat my dad and dragged us out of that house because it was, because we [00:17:00] had two houses. So we, you know, we, there, there was a beautiful park. Where we lived, was up north by the Caspian Sea. So it was a small town, very beautiful. People would go there for vacations and we got to live there.

[00:17:14] Dr. Rashidian: It was really nice and this beautiful park across the street. We would go walk around the park, every day after dinner. And and it was, it was a beautiful, just a nice place to be, but they turned that into a prisoners of war camp, and they put walls up, barbed wire, and these POWs would escape every couple weeks.

[00:17:34] Dr. Rashidian: And so there'd be bullets flying through the streets and the kids had to run inside and hide. I mean, really, the world changed, 

[00:17:40] Nicole Donnelly: Gosh.

[00:17:40] Dr. Rashidian: instantly women had to dress differently. They had to cover their hair, if they went outside. And there, there was bombing. Now, I, I wasn't in the areas that were bombed a lot, but I do remember one time we were staying in Tehran and my mother said, make sure you turn on the radio before you go to sleep tonight.

[00:17:59] Dr. Rashidian: So I turned on [00:18:00] the radio and there was no programming. It was silent, but you turn up the volume just in case because they would put out air raid sirens. So a little after midnight, this siren blared through the radio and I jumped up out of bed and with my family, we walked out, walked down the hallway, went down the stairs to the basement, this building that we were in, and everybody, all the families from that building were in the basement waiting.

[00:18:21] Dr. Rashidian: And we heard the roar of this plane overhead. And then we heard the whistle of a bomb that had just been dropped. And the whistle is just getting louder and louder as the bomb is getting closer and closer. And you have no idea if that bomb is right over your head or if it's a block away and you just wait and hope and pray that you're not about to die.

[00:18:41] Dr. Rashidian: And when you hear the explosion, it's one of those bittersweet things where you go. Someone just got hurt. 

[00:18:47] Nicole Donnelly: Yeah. 

[00:18:47] Dr. Rashidian: But it wasn't us. And so anyway, it was pretty traumatic and scary, but the scariest time of my life actually wasn't the war or the fighting in the streets or the bullets. It was [00:19:00] actually arriving in the U.S. Because it's a different world.

[00:19:03] Dr. Rashidian: I'm a, I I was a kid. I was 11 years old, when we finally made it to the U.S. I, we landed in Los Angeles and I don't know the language. We, we, we had $500 cuz the, the Iranian government wouldn't allow you to take any more money out yet. You, you were only allowed to leave with $500. So we show up, just my, my mother and I and the place we were supposed to stay,

[00:19:23] Dr. Rashidian: that family took a look at us and said, we can't keep you here. You need to go. So we had to find a place to stay with our two suitcases. The airlines lost one of our suitcases. So half my clothes were gone. So, you know, all, all of that stuff really they're, they're great. I'm so glad it all happened. Just because I wouldn't, I wouldn't have this story to share today.

[00:19:45] Dr. Rashidian: And, and that's the least of it. You know, because ideally it's who you become that determines how well what you do work. So you, you look at anybody who's achieved anything in business as an entrepreneur or otherwise, it, they went [00:20:00] through certain things that made them the person they are, and because of who they are, what they do succeeds.

[00:20:07] Dr. Rashidian: You see it all the time. Two people will apply the same formula to business. They'll do the same marketing techniques and they, they, they, they use the same phone script or whatever it is, but one of them gets a lot of business and the other one can't get any business, and they're doing the same exact thing.

[00:20:21] Dr. Rashidian: It has nothing to do with what you're doing. It's who you are. Who do you need to be. 

[00:20:26] Nicole Donnelly: Interesting. 

[00:20:26] Dr. Rashidian: And what you go through makes you who you are. And so anyways, you know, we're, we're in Los Angeles. We finally found another home that, that the family was allowed was, was letting us stay there. But then, you know, we had to bounce around.

[00:20:39] Dr. Rashidian: And finally we ended up in an apartment where we were sharing the apartment with another lady and her kids. And so it was a two bedroom apartment, my mom and I were in one bedroom. Her and her three kids were in another bedroom. We shared the kitchen, living room and we stayed there for a year and a half.

[00:20:54] Dr. Rashidian: And what's really neat is this distant relative of ours [00:21:00] called my dad one day and said, I don't think your son should be on the West coast in Los Angeles. I think you should move him to the east coast. So I want to help you. I'm gonna buy a house, a small, it's a small townhouse. I'm gonna buy a, buy a house

[00:21:17] Dr. Rashidian: and and you move your family into that house and you pay me back. You know, but I'm not gonna charge you interest. You just pay me monthly, whatever you can. Dad could afford like 800 bucks a month. And so we paid him 800 bucks a month and we moved to the East coast to Maryland, and I started going school there.

[00:21:36] Dr. Rashidian: And that, that was I was 12 and a half, 13 years old at the time, and we stayed on the east coast since then. So you, you know right now you, you told everybody I serve on the board of directors at Habitat for Humanity. Actually, my term just ended and my wife is now serving on the board in my, in my seat.

[00:21:53] Dr. Rashidian: But one of the reasons was because this angel showed up and bought us a house. In fact, what's what's [00:22:00] amazing is after about nine or 10 years of my dad paying mortgage payments to him, he called dad and said, you can stop making payments. The house is yours. The, the deed is yours. I'm sending it over.

[00:22:11] Dr. Rashidian: You're done. And so literally we were given a house and, and someday, I know this'll happen. I don't know when, but I'd love to call up a family and do the same thing. Just say, Hey, I'm buying you a house and you don't have to pay it, pay for it, it's yours. It's a gift cuz I'm just paying it forward.

[00:22:30] Dr. Rashidian: Someone did it for me. And just when you can do it for someone else. So the next best thing is to serve on Habitat for Humanity, cuz that's what we do there is we, you know, we, we use volunteers and donated material to build homes and then those homes are at a reduced price, but they're beautiful homes for families that may not be able to buy a really expensive house, but they can afford that one cuz it was, you know, built with volunteer work.

[00:22:55] Nicole Donnelly: Oh, what a beautiful story. And this whole time your father was still in Iran? Did he come to the [00:23:00] States with you or?

[00:23:01] Dr. Rashidian: He would go back and forth? Yeah, he would go back and forth. I, I'm part of his second marriage. So his, he had obligations with his first marriage and, 

[00:23:09] Nicole Donnelly: Yeah. 

[00:23:09] Dr. Rashidian: And there was a lot of complexities there as well.

[00:23:12] Dr. Rashidian: He had stopped working pretty much when I was born. Dad was 51 when I was born, so he, he, he had started a large construction company. 

[00:23:21] Nicole Donnelly: Yeah. 

[00:23:22] Dr. Rashidian: And he had built some hospitals, government buildings, apartment buildings, condo buildings. And he had sold most of them and he sold the company. He divided it to five separate companies and, and sold all of that.

[00:23:35] Dr. Rashidian: But then he kept a couple of the buildings and we just collect rent and that's, that's basically all he did. So but he traveled a lot and 

[00:23:42] Nicole Donnelly: Yeah.

[00:23:43] Dr. Rashidian: Sometimes I think he might have been in the mafia. I, I can't prove this, it's just 

[00:23:50] Nicole Donnelly: That's so funny. You think he might have been in the mafia? How about makes you think so? Well, what if 

[00:23:58] Dr. Rashidian: The kind of people he would hang around [00:24:00] with and the things he would do. 

[00:24:00] Nicole Donnelly: Oh, funny. I think what a cool legacy that is and to see you're basically following in his footsteps. I mean, he was a builder. You know, he, he was a success, able to successfully scale a construction business and you're, you're doing the same thing.

[00:24:14] Nicole Donnelly: So that's pretty remarkable. I also love that beautiful story of generosity that that family member who, you know, reached out in that way and what a great lesson that was for you and how that has inspired you to be able to impact so many people because of that one decision that they made. And I think, you know, sometimes we may downplay the impact that those decisions, that those acts of generosity that we, we do for other people.

[00:24:41] Nicole Donnelly: I mean, obviously not all of us can go out and buy someone a house, right? Like, let's be real. That would be a wonderful dream to be able to do that but even smaller acts of generosity have this ripple effect. And it's really cool to see how that one act of generosity inspired you and your wife to get so involved with the Habitat for Humanity and all the families that you've been able to [00:25:00] impact in that way is pretty cool.

[00:25:02] Nicole Donnelly: So. 

[00:25:02] Dr. Rashidian: Absolutely, you can't ever go wrong by being too generous. 

[00:25:06] Nicole Donnelly: Yeah. Cool. And so tell me a little bit about how you ended up becoming a chiropractor. So what, what made you decide to go in that direction? Let's talk there first and then I'd love to learn more about your specific, like your, your, what makes your practice unique in your, to compare to the others that are in the, the area.

[00:25:27] Dr. Rashidian: When we were still in Iran, my, my dad would take me with him and we'd go visit these villages and he would basically wanna show me where the underprivileged lived. And a lot of these villages are on the side of the mountain with no power lines, no plumbing, and sometimes he would bring a crew and he would run power lines for them and give them plumbing, just, just pro bono, just to help them out.

[00:25:48] Dr. Rashidian: And and, and in this one village we were at, a woman went into labor and she was in a lot of pain and no one knew what to do to help her. A midwife came over and knelt down, examined her, stood up, said, [00:26:00] I'm sorry, there's nothing I can do. There's no heartbeat. The, the baby's not alive, and, 

[00:26:03] Nicole Donnelly: Oh my God. 

[00:26:03] Dr. Rashidian: She's not gonna make it and she actually left. And the, there were no doctors. There were no hospitals, there was nothing. There was no medication. So basically she, her husband was right next to her holding her and I'm looking in the eyes of this young woman who was just told she's not gonna live another few hours. And I started to have this

[00:26:21] Dr. Rashidian: panic attack where your chest feels tight and you're, you're trying to catch your breath, how your heart's pounding and your, you know, tears were coming down my face and. Dad saw me. He picked me up, he held me. He carried me out of there. He calmed me down the, we climbed down the mountain. We got in our car to drive home. On the drive home,

[00:26:36] Dr. Rashidian: I said, dad, I don't wanna feel like that ever again. And he said, what are you gonna do about it? I said, I think I'm gonna go be a surgeon. I'll be the best surgeon in the whole world, and I'll carry my medical bag with me everywhere I go. I'm gonna save lives. So I was nine years old at the time, 10 years passed.

[00:26:52] Dr. Rashidian: I was 19. I was a student at George Washington University and I wanted to, you know, get into medical school and move on from there. And I went home for a [00:27:00] Christmas break and dad had a big thick white neck brace on, and he was, you could tell high on some severe painkillers and he couldn't lift his arms to give me a hug to say hello.

[00:27:09] Dr. Rashidian: He had shooting pain down both arms, numbness and weakness in his hands. And so we went doctor to doctor, trying to figure out what's wrong with dad. And every doctor we went to said, this is way beyond my skull. It's more serious. You got to go to this other doctor. We ended up in a neurosurgeon's office.

[00:27:26] Dr. Rashidian: The neurosurgeon said you need surgery and we need to slice you open from the base of the skull to the bottom of the neck. We're gonna break and remove the bones in the back of your spine, take pressure off the spinal cord. We're gonna put rods and screws on the sides, fuse your whole neck. You'll never turn your head again.

[00:27:40] Dr. Rashidian: You may not regain function of your hands, but we're hoping you'll have less pain and there's a chance you're gonna die because you're old. Dad was 70, at the time, and you know, but there's such a thing as a young 70 and an old 70. He wasn't the young 70. And so we had two more opinions and all three [00:28:00] neurosurgeons said he needs surgery.

[00:28:01] Dr. Rashidian: We got in a taxi to go home and I'm sitting in the back of the taxi carrying all of dad's x-rays, MRIs and CTs and medical records. Now they come on one CD. You know, back then, but they were filmed, you know? 

[00:28:12] Nicole Donnelly: Yeah. 

[00:28:12] Dr. Rashidian: This is, what, 30 years ago? And I looked over at my dad sitting next to me in the taxi.

[00:28:18] Dr. Rashidian: And I could tell he was in pain. He was just cringing because every bump that taxi hit was sending lightning bolts of pain through his body. Looking in his eyes, I could tell he didn't wanna live anymore. And I started to have the same feelings when I was watching that woman die in her husband's arms.

[00:28:32] Dr. Rashidian: And I'm looking at my own dad and I'm getting all tight in the chest, heart's pounding, having trouble catching my breath, starting to get teary eyed. The a taxi driver looked at dad and I in his rear view mirror and he says, sir, I know I noticed you're in a lot of pain and I know you asked me to take you home, but there's a chiropractor down the street, right here, would you rather me take you there? I don't know what he does, but I've heard he helps people like you. So I'm a 19 year old, know at all. [00:29:00] I believe in drugs and surgery at the time. He said, we need to go get our affairs together. He's having surgery next week. Dad was terrified of the surgery. So he's willing to do whatever and anything to not have that surgery.

[00:29:15] Dr. Rashidian: So he goes, yes, we're going. Let's try it. We pull up to this place. And the place was under construction, cuz I guess the doctor had just moved in. He was building it out and. There's drywall missing, there's dust paint flying everywhere. Walk in and go, this is a doctor's office. The guy showed up, shook our hands, brought crates.

[00:29:32] Dr. Rashidian: There were no chairs. He brought these crates for us to sit on. He brought a view box that he plugged into an open socket in the framing that's gonna be a wall someday. He took the MRIs that I was carrying, started reading the MRIs on the floor. And then he looked at my dad. He said, I can help you. He said, I'm not gonna do it by breaking anything in your neck or putting you on drugs or screws or rods in your neck and, and, and you're not gonna be on painkillers for the rest of your life.

[00:29:58] Dr. Rashidian: What I will do is adjust [00:30:00] the pressure off the nerves, little by little, using my hands. And as you notice the pressure coming off the nerves, your body will begin to self-heal and self-regulate. And he said, it's not gonna be easy. It's not gonna be quick. It's gonna be a long, hard, potentially painful road ahead.

[00:30:15] Dr. Rashidian: But if you don't want the surgery, this is your option. What do you wanna do? Dad said, you tell me what to do, I'll do it. He said, you gotta be here six days a week for six months. He said, done. He goes, it's gonna cost you about $9,000 and he wasn't working. He goes, all right, I'll borrow it. Let's do it. So he figured out a way to pay for it and he showed up six days a week for six months.

[00:30:37] Dr. Rashidian: At the end of six months, dad walked into that doctor's office. The construction's done by now, you know, there's a receptionist behind the counter. There were chairs, not crates. And the office was packed full of patients. And dad walked up to the counter, he picked up the pen. He signed his own name, on the sign-in sheet, it was the first time he could actually hold the pen and use his hands.

[00:30:56] Dr. Rashidian: And he was so proud of himself. He started holding that pen up in the air, started [00:31:00] marching back and forth, showing everybody what he could do. And everyone laughed at him, cuz you know, who's this old man holding the pen over his head? But the receptionist remembered how much pain he used to be and what he couldn't do, and she started to cry.

[00:31:14] Dr. Rashidian: And so, so that from that moment on, dad was able to do everything. Never had surgery, never needed more medication. Dad lived another 18 years. He lived to be 88 years old. At 88, he was younger than when he was 70 because he'd get up in the morning exercise, go visit his friends. Most of them are in nursing homes, but not my dad.

[00:31:35] Dr. Rashidian: He's living a good life. He lived long enough to stand next to me as my best man. When I got married, he lived long enough to meet my first son when he was born. And that story is not just to tell you why I became a chiropractor, but I also want to ask a question. And the question is, when dad was sick, when he was hurting and suffering, was he the only one who suffered?

[00:31:57] Dr. Rashidian: And the answer is obviously no. [00:32:00] If anyone who cared about him suffered with him, me, my mother, we all suffered too. And so what you have to ask yourself is when you hurt, because you know what? It's really easy to let your health slide. It's really easy to not do the hard things to get healthier, get better, get stronger.

[00:32:19] Dr. Rashidian: And the easy thing leads you to a path where you end up depending on others, and being a burden on your loved ones, and you don't want them to suffer. See, we think if I take care of me, I'm being selfish. The fact is, if you take care of you, you're being unselfish. It's the, the most selfless thing you can do because you're not doing it for you.

[00:32:38] Dr. Rashidian: You're doing the hard work so that everybody around you benefits from it. How can you give someone your best if you are not at your best? 

[00:32:47] Nicole Donnelly: Yeah. 

[00:32:47] Dr. Rashidian: Do what needs to be done and it, it applies to business. Healthier people have better businesses. Healthier people are better marketers. Healthier people have more clients. Healthier people have people coming, coming around them going, what's your secret?

[00:32:58] Dr. Rashidian: How do you say so young, [00:33:00] healthy, and strong? 

[00:33:01] Nicole Donnelly: That's so true. 

[00:33:02] Dr. Rashidian: What, what makes us different, and I know you asked this question earlier, what makes our practice different is that we have this long-term vision for, for all of you. And the vision is first, feel better, but then work on becoming stronger. Because like I said, how strong you are determines, how much stress you can handle. And how much stress you can handle,

[00:33:18] Dr. Rashidian: determines how healthy you are. So feel better, get stronger, live longer, and feel younger. And it's a four step process, but it takes decades to accomplish this. So our vision for you is once you feel better, we train you to get stronger in the face of stress. And then we work on longevity. How do we keep adding years to your life?

[00:33:36] Dr. Rashidian: And then we wanna make sure how do you always feel younger than your age? And once we accomplish that, I mean, I mean, there's no end to it because you can never be too healthy and you can never feel too good. It's not possible. And, and that's where it is. But we'll use technology to do that. We'll do heart rate variability and we have a special device that will tell you exactly how much stress you can safely handle.[00:34:00] 

[00:34:00] Dr. Rashidian: And then we work on increasing that so that the stress in your life doesn't make you susceptible to illness and injury. 

[00:34:06] Nicole Donnelly: Ooh, I love that. And I think too, you pick your pain, right? People like you, you have a choice whatever you wanna do. You can choose to, you know, not exercise, eat the bad stuff, you know, just live a really poor lifestyle and live the easy, right?

[00:34:24] Nicole Donnelly: But you're gonna experience the pain later, right? Like, that's gonna be the pain later. Or you can choose the harder pain upfront, you know, making those hard choices, leaning into discomfort, leaning into the hard part. And man, the long-term rewards of that is gonna be way worth the pain, right? So you kind of choose, you choose your pain, like what kind of, what pain do you want?

[00:34:43] Nicole Donnelly: Do you want the pain that's gonna help you grow and be stronger? Or do you want the pain that's gonna turn you into some, someone who's weak and sick and, you know, can't, you know, mentally, physically? So I, I think that's so great and especially love the, I, I from what I was learning about your, your business, just the focus [00:35:00] on, you know, this, there's so much right now in our society where people are just

[00:35:05] Nicole Donnelly: prescribed medication to solve the symptoms, but it doesn't really resolve the deeper issue. And so I think, I love that you're really focusing on a solution that isn't, isn't one where you're just pushing pills on people or recommending that. And I think your dad's experience really speaks to that too.

[00:35:23] Nicole Donnelly: So, I do have a question for you though, and I think I know the answer, but what is your why, Dr. Rashidian? Why is it that you do what you do? Why is it that you're so, like, as just in speaking to you, I can see the passion that you have for, you wanna make an impact, you know. You really wanna make an impact in the lives of your patients, in your family, you know, in your community.

[00:35:47] Nicole Donnelly: And that really comes through. What is your why? Why is it, what is it that you, that drives you to want to do that? Like, what is it that you wanna be known for and why? 

[00:35:57] Dr. Rashidian: Well, you, you know, the Bible says to those much [00:36:00] is given, much is expected. And I, you know, I always say my, my mission is to honor and glorify God in everything that I do to, 

[00:36:12] Nicole Donnelly: Oh, I love that.

[00:36:13] Dr. Rashidian: Humbly serve his people to build lasting relationships and to establish an institution that'll continue to uphold these values and serve these objectives after I'm gone. And so I believe business is the best form of self-expression. 

[00:36:32] Nicole Donnelly: Yes. Agree. 

[00:36:33] Dr. Rashidian: You're like an artist who creates something but except it's alive.

[00:36:37] Nicole Donnelly: Yeah. 

[00:36:38] Dr. Rashidian: And if you do it right, it'll keep living after you go away. So that's, that's the why, is how do I set this up so that it'll keep doing the work that I want to do even when I'm gone. 

[00:36:53] Nicole Donnelly: Yes. Oh, I think that's such a beautiful legacy. So I myself am a fourth generation entrepreneur. My dad owned a [00:37:00] successful, successful eight figure business.

[00:37:01] Nicole Donnelly: My grandfather owned a separate, successful eight figure business. My great-grandfather owned a separate like, and so I have personally experienced and seen the beautiful impact that businesses bring to communities and families. And so I just love that. That's a wonderful, powerful, powerful why? It's very cool.

[00:37:19] Dr. Rashidian: Yeah. Very nice. 

[00:37:20] Nicole Donnelly: Yeah. 

[00:37:20] Dr. Rashidian: You know, real quick for, for everyone listening you, you probably think, oh, this guy's all about health. And I want to tell you something because e everyone says, don't, don't sacrifice your health for success. Okay. I'll give you that. You shouldn't, but should you sacrifice your success for your health?

[00:37:40] Dr. Rashidian: And I think that's wrong too. 

[00:37:43] Nicole Donnelly: That's so good. 

[00:37:43] Dr. Rashidian: That's very wrong. But what if, what if you're a healthy person who has nothing? 

[00:37:49] Nicole Donnelly: Yes. 

[00:37:49] Dr. Rashidian: And does nothing and serves no one. What use isthat? Don't sacrifice your dreams, your goals, your future aspirations, just because you wanna stay [00:38:00] healthy. 

[00:38:00] Nicole Donnelly: Yeah. 

[00:38:00] Dr. Rashidian: You have to want both.

[00:38:03] Dr. Rashidian: And believe you can have both. I, I think I, listen, it's not an easy life. I, you know, I, I, I work a lot of hours and I sleep very little, but I enjoy every second of it. 

[00:38:16] Nicole Donnelly: Yes. 

[00:38:16] Dr. Rashidian: And thank, thankfully, now we have the resources and we have the reach, and we have the lifestyle. That just is, is a dream come true.

[00:38:29] Dr. Rashidian: I mean, even 10 years ago, if you had said, this is gonna be your house and these are gonna be your kids, and the, these are the things you're gonna have, and these are places you're gonna go, and these are people you're gonna speak to, I'd be shocked. I'd say there's no way that's not going to happen. But, but it did and, and and I think there's, what we have to understand is stay true to your dreams, but do it in a healthy way.

[00:38:51] Nicole Donnelly: I love that. 

[00:38:52] Dr. Rashidian: Don't sacrifice one for the other. 

[00:38:54] Nicole Donnelly: Yeah. And I love that you say you can have both because you absolutely can. You absolutely can do it in a [00:39:00] healthy way. I'm on a mission to prove that. So tell me, I mean, I'm, I love hearing about your journey and where you are today. I think it's incredibly inspiring, but I'm sure it hasn't been all roses and daffodils building this business.

[00:39:13] Nicole Donnelly: So I would love to hear what do you, what has been like your biggest business blunder or one of them, whatever you're, you know, I, I, as an entrepreneur, I have them every day. Let's be real. But is there one in particular that you think would really resonate with, you know, our listeners who are all small business owners or aspiring small business owners who are looking to build something and is there like a story, love to like open the story bit book from Dr. Rashidian and, and have you tell us a story about maybe one of your biggest business blunders and what you did to turn that into lemonade. 

[00:39:49] Dr. Rashidian: You know, there, there's a lot. We've, we've been through we've been through, through a lot. We, we, we, we were almost evicted once. [00:40:00] 

[00:40:00] Nicole Donnelly: Wow. 

[00:40:00] Dr. Rashidian: We ended up in a place where we had a tax bill of tens of thousands of dollars and $47 in the bank.

[00:40:07] Nicole Donnelly: Wow. 

[00:40:07] Dr. Rashidian: And we somehow got through that. But, you know, I want to tell you something that's embarrassing to me, and that's, it's something that I'm actually ashamed of. But I, I think these are the moments that make us who we are. And 

[00:40:20] Nicole Donnelly: Yeah.

[00:40:20] Dr. Rashidian: I, I want you to understand, we're in the business of relationships.

[00:40:24] Nicole Donnelly: Yeah. 

[00:40:25] Dr. Rashidian: We're not, we're not in the business of making money. We're not in the business of providing healthcare or selling something or building something. Honestly, business is relationships and relationships are the most important thing. And so what based on the mistakes I've made, I truly believe that the people you work with are more important than your clients.

[00:40:46] Dr. Rashidian: So, so what, what you have to do is you, you know, right now when I hire someone, I tell them right off the bat, I want you to feel safe here because no patient of ours is ever going to accuse you of [00:41:00] something and you feel alone. I have your back every single time. If you are here, if I've hired you, that means I trust you and I believe in you.

[00:41:09] Dr. Rashidian: So if someone accuses you of something, I will take your side. Not their's.

[00:41:14] Nicole Donnelly: I love that. 

[00:41:14] Dr. Rashidian: Even if it means we lose a client. Even if it means we lose business. It doesn't matter. So we have to take care of ourselves. But I haven't always been like that and, and there's been times where I was more worried about what patients thought than, than, you know, than what my staff thought.

[00:41:30] Dr. Rashidian: One particular, particular story, I had a doctor who worked for us, said, and he had been with us for three months, but he hadn't learned the things that he needs to learn. He was really struggling with learning, and I wanna premise this because I have a learning disability. I, I have dyslexia, so, so I have to learn a specific way.

[00:41:47] Dr. Rashidian: Thankfully, God blessed me with this amazing memory where I memorize everything I see here in and breathe. 

[00:41:52] Nicole Donnelly: Oh, that's amazing. 

[00:41:54] Dr. Rashidian: Which helps. But not everybody's like that. But I know that I also have a disability when it comes [00:42:00] to that. And so I'm sitting in the room with this doctor. Now he's a doctor. So he's made it through chiropractic school.

[00:42:06] Nicole Donnelly: Yeah. 

[00:42:07] Dr. Rashidian: And, and he's passed all the tests. He's passed his boards. Clearly. He's, he is a very highly qualified person. Intelligent and, and I ask him this dumb question. I said, you know what, you're, you're not learning this. Do you have a learning disability? And it was the most insulting thing I've ever said.

[00:42:26] Dr. Rashidian: And I came from an honest place. 

[00:42:29] Nicole Donnelly: Right, right. 

[00:42:29] Dr. Rashidian: But you never ask someone if they have a learning disability. I mean, it's, it's an, it's an insult. 

[00:42:34] Nicole Donnelly: Oh man. 

[00:42:34] Dr. Rashidian: And so, so he, he said no, and then he, and he left. And the next day he gave me his letter of resignation. I apologized and we worked it out. But that is a terrible mistake.

[00:42:47] Dr. Rashidian: So we want to make sure, yeah. You know what if, if, if you have employees, they're there because of you. 

[00:42:54] Nicole Donnelly: Yeah. 

[00:42:54] Dr. Rashidian: So you have to treat them well. And and that, that, that's a moment I, I [00:43:00] regret every day I think about it. But it made me someone who respects our employees a whole lot more. Hopefully I treat them better.

[00:43:08] Dr. Rashidian: Leadership is key. You have to be a leader. And I, I believe our organization is what we call an upside down org chart. Everybody's seen those org charts, right? It looks like a pyramid, right? Yes. You're at the top. Yes. And then you've got your direct reports and the middle management and the customer service rep.

[00:43:25] Dr. Rashidian: And, and it's a big, and what I do is I flip that upside down and I go, our customers are here. And our, our, and, and our customer service people serve those customers. And the managers serve the customer representatives. And then the, the upper leadership crew, they serve the management team and I serve them.

[00:43:45] Dr. Rashidian: So I'm at the bottom and I have to serve them. And so what we do is we, we tell everybody, listen. Tell me your goals, your dreams, your aspirations. What do you want to accomplish? Your time here, you're going to be here, what, eight hours a day, five days a week, 40 hours a week? What do you want to accomplish?

[00:43:59] Dr. Rashidian: [00:44:00] What do you, what do you want out of this at the end of it? 

[00:44:02] Nicole Donnelly: Yeah. 

[00:44:02] Dr. Rashidian: And, and then we, we write down those goals. And then my job, we call that reverse accountability. So they hold me accountable for helping them hit their goals. I am accountable, not me holding them accountable for making my life better or making my dreams come true.

[00:44:19] Dr. Rashidian: It's so upside down org chart and the culture of reverse accountability. And I think having learned that and it's, it's a process. I still offend people. I have a strong personality. 

[00:44:30] Nicole Donnelly: Maybe you're not perfect. You know.

[00:44:33] Nicole Donnelly: Most type As do, right?

[00:44:35] Dr. Rashidian: Unfortunately. I wish I was, but 

[00:44:38] Nicole Donnelly: You know,, I've gotta be honest. I've never heard of the upside down org chart in all my years in business. I've, that is something new that I just learned and I'm, I'm super intrigued by that. I love it because I think it really does. It really emphasizes what I believe makes up every great culture, no matter where you go, is that service mindset, right?

[00:44:59] Nicole Donnelly: [00:45:00] You know, you're a person of faith. I am deep person of faith as well. And I think that's one of the things I really love about, you know, the Christian faith or any, you know, any, any faith is that it's really focused on how can I serve? What can I be doing to help support them? And you know, serve, serve God and use my God-given talents to help other people.

[00:45:19] Nicole Donnelly: And I think my experience has been when you lead that way, oh my gosh, it just, your impact is so much greater. You know? It's just, It's, it, you know, I've worked in organizations where it's been the opposite and you see it makes everyone play small. 

[00:45:36] Dr. Rashidian: Yeah. 

[00:45:36] Nicole Donnelly: And the minute that you focus on serving and trying to help support and teach and guide rather than directing, telling whatever you can just every, it just makes a huge impact.

[00:45:45] Nicole Donnelly: So. That's so beautiful. I love that. Thank you for sharing that very vulnerable business blunder. And it sounds like you really. You know, and I think that's important for people to know is like, we all make mistakes and [00:46:00] sometimes we're gonna make these really embarrassing, shameful mistakes. But how you've turned it into basically the way that you've built your culture and, and what you've done to kind of rectify that going forward is really inspiring.

[00:46:12] Nicole Donnelly: So thank you. Okay. I have 

[00:46:14] Dr. Rashidian: My pleasure. 

[00:46:14] Nicole Donnelly: A few, few more questions for you and it's about, you know, I'm in marketing. I own a content marketing agency. Let's talk about marketing. What have you tried to do to market your business since you started and what's worked and what hasn't? 

[00:46:29] Dr. Rashidian: Well, so my wife and I opened the business together back in 2006, and we didn't have a marketing budget.

[00:46:37] Dr. Rashidian: I, I, you know, that house that we were gifted? 

[00:46:40] Nicole Donnelly: Yes. 

[00:46:40] Dr. Rashidian: I mortgaged that and took out $43,000. I put $10,000 in the bank for operating expenses, and the rest of it went towards startup costs and 

[00:46:51] Nicole Donnelly: Wow. 

[00:46:51] Dr. Rashidian: Which, which is actually really low because our sec second location cost us a whole lot more than that, $220,000 to open.

[00:46:59] Dr. Rashidian: [00:47:00] But so, so there was no money for marketing. And so my wife and I decided we would just go door to door. Now, there was no COVID back then. And so we would dress up. In early morning, we'd go out and hang door hangers on people's doors, and then mid-morning we'd go to, we drew a mile wide radius around

[00:47:21] Dr. Rashidian: our location and we met every business owner, every manager, every shop, you know, worker in that one mile radius. So, so from then to like early afternoon, we'd go to restaurants and shops and stores and say, hey, can we ask you a couple questions? We're, we're looking to come to town. This is what we're thinking.

[00:47:41] Dr. Rashidian: And then afterwards in the evening, we would go door to door residentials and we'd knock on doors. So, and some of them would open a door and be really kind and answer our questions. And some of 'em would invite us in and, and make tea and, and have us sit down with them. And some of them would slam the door in our face.

[00:47:56] Dr. Rashidian: And every time you are about to knock on a door or ring a [00:48:00] doorbell, there's this severe anxiety going, who are we gonna meet? And what are they gonna say to us? But we, we met 1200 people in, in that span of time before we opened our doors. And so we'd go home and we'd write thank you notes. To everybody we met and we had their address cuz we went to their place.

[00:48:19] Dr. Rashidian: So we wrote a thank you note and, and signed it and sent it to them saying, hey, you were so gracious and, and it was great to meet you and we'll send you some information when we're ready to open our office. So then we had this list of 1200 people that we had already sent the thank you note to. Then when we were about to open the office, we sent letters out saying, hey, thanks to you and all your help.

[00:48:40] Dr. Rashidian: We finally were able to open and here's what our location is and we want to, as a gift and as a thank you, we wanna offer you a free evaluation. Come on in, we'll, we'll evaluate your spine, your x-rays on our, on us. No charge. We just want to thank you. So our first week we had 18 new patients come into the office [00:49:00] and everything built up from there.

[00:49:01] Dr. Rashidian: So marketing is, is three folds. I think. You have your advertising. You have your branding, and then you have public relations. So, so we, we wanna make sure we're doing those things. Branding is how do we make sure our name is visible in as many places as possible, even in the office, like when you walk in our floor, mat says Mid-Atlantic Chiropractic Center, you know?

[00:49:26] Nicole Donnelly: Yeah. 

[00:49:26] Dr. Rashidian: In both offices. We, we want logos in different places on every page, every form. The TVs, if the, the screensavers on the computers, you know, because name recognition is huge. So branding, cups. We have these water bottles that we give our patients. So when new, when patients come in, we have ice cold, bottled water.

[00:49:47] Dr. Rashidian: But it's wrapped in our logo. And so, so anyways, branding, you want your name to be seen. Your sign needs to be visible. And, and the advertising is, everyone knows about advertising. You know, now, nowadays there's [00:50:00] Google Ads and there's Facebook. Back in the day, we did newspaper ads and we'd, we'd write up advertorials, I guess, where like, you write a story, what's really advertisement.

[00:50:10] Nicole Donnelly: Yeah. 

[00:50:10] Dr. Rashidian: And put those in the papers and, and that did well. Nowadays, I don't think that does as well anymore and even Facebook's gotten kind of different, but that's all your department. My department is public relations. That's where most of our success came from, is get in the community and just give and serve and do, and it always comes back.

[00:50:31] Dr. Rashidian: So, you know, being involved in Habitat for Humanity helped a tremendous amount. So there was a time where Habitat needed a truck and I go, hey, this will be great. I'm going to get four other businesses with me. The five of us are gonna buy this truck and we're gonna wrap it with our logos. And then Habitat Humanity is gonna drive it to every construction site, and the whole city's gonna know our business.

[00:50:52] Dr. Rashidian: And I called attorney's offices, doctor's offices, you know, other construction crews. I, I called [00:51:00] everywhere. Nobody wanted to help pay for this truck. So I go, I get, I guess I'll buy the truck. So we bought the truck for Habitat for Humanity and wrapped it. Half of the truck says Habitat for Humanity. Half of it says Mid-Atlantic Chiropractic Centers.

[00:51:13] Dr. Rashidian: So, you know, then this thing's going around town all over the place when they're transporting it, you know, equipment and supplies or, or you know, whenever they have an event, they park it right out front and everyone's like, wow, Mid-Atlantic. Why, what's Mid-Atlantic Chiropractic have to do with, you know, Habitat for Humanity. And then they get to talk about it, and then they invite me to speak at different events, you know, and, and when I speak I just, I just say, hey, I'm a chiropractor from Mid-Atlantic Chiropractic, and then I speak, but then that leads to people going, hey, I've been looking for a chiropractor, maybe I'll go to your practice.

[00:51:47] Dr. Rashidian: And same with, you know, through church. We serve a lot in church. And then anytime we want to do something for marketing, we always team up with a nonprofit. So we'll say, hey you know, Child Advocacy [00:52:00] Center Against Child Abuse. We'll say, you know, we we're going to do a fundraising for you. Can we use your name?

[00:52:05] Dr. Rashidian: They're like, sure. And so we say, hey, every dollar that comes in through this event we're giving to Child Advocacy Center, we advertise that and people come and they become patients and then we give a lot of money to, to them. It, it's just a win-win situation. So I think public relations is the greatest opportunity in today's market.

[00:52:24] Dr. Rashidian: Then you promote those things and all of a sudden people love seeing that cuz they go, wow, these guys really just give and do a lot for the community. You can't ever give without receiving. It just seems like it comes back. A little while ago, I think it was three or four years ago, we started a something called MACC Christmas.

[00:52:43] Dr. Rashidian: M A C C is our acronym for Mid-Atlantic Chiropractic Centers. And MACC Christmas is we, we, we call local nonprofits and we say, will you nominate families in need? And our patients are gonna buy presents for their children. And so they [00:53:00] nominate the family. The family says, this is our wishlist for our kids' Christmas.

[00:53:04] Dr. Rashidian: And we put those on our Christmas tree and our patients pick up and start buy. We used to do Toys for Tots, but then I saw this article that said the presents you collect today sit in a warehouse for two years. Then they eventually do get to children on Christmas. 

[00:53:18] Nicole Donnelly: Oh, interesting. Yeah. 

[00:53:19] Dr. Rashidian: But they don't go right away, and we never know who they go to or whatever.

[00:53:23] Dr. Rashidian: So we said, we're going to have a big party. We're going to have a Christmas party and all these families are going to come to that party. We rented a hotel and we had all these families come, and a lot of these were kids whose parents are incarcerated, so they're in prison and, and so they're being raised by foster parents or, or aunt, aunts and uncles, and they all showed up.

[00:53:41] Dr. Rashidian: We had Santa Claus there, and the newspaper was there. The TV was there, and everybody's covering this. We were on the front page of the Frederick News Post as the chiropractor who gave Christmas presents to all these people. And our patients were allowed to come and see these families, meet the families they bought presents for.

[00:53:57] Dr. Rashidian: And what was amazing was we told the [00:54:00] families, give us a list and we're gonna buy you one thing on your list. Not everything. Well, what our patients picked up those lists, they bought everything. So every kid got several presents. Some of those presents were like an Xbox or a bike like, like a mountain bike.

[00:54:16] Dr. Rashidian: Not, not a cheap one, but expensive ones. Our patients went over the top and there's this mountain of presents on the on the side. And these kids are all coming in and we're giving them their presents. They're going home with bags of toys. It was beautiful. So, you know I think things like that, public relations is, is the third prong of marketing that people miss out on.

[00:54:39] Nicole Donnelly: That's a beautiful story. I think that speaks to the wonderful culture that you've created with your customers, right? In marketing, we're seeing a really big movement towards community-led marketing. Where your customers basically become the engine that fuels your, your, your, your new sales rather than, you know, [00:55:00] promoting on Google ads or Facebook, right?

[00:55:03] Nicole Donnelly: And so there's this really night, this really exciting movement happening on like, how can you leverage your existing customers evangelist and have them basically sell for you, you know, and do that really well. And I just love that you're, it sounds like you have a really engaged community of customers and that they, and I just love hearing that story.

[00:55:23] Nicole Donnelly: The other thing I heard just along with public relations is just you hit the nail right on the head, Dr. Rashidian. It's about relationship. It's about building those relation. That's what great marketing is. It's about building relationships with people and really understanding what their needs were. 

[00:55:38] Nicole Donnelly: So when I heard you say you went door to door, you went door to door so that you could get to know each one of those potential patients. Those were your ideal customers. You wanted to know them, understand them, and help them, and you took the time to actually go out of your way to meet them, send them thank you cards.

[00:55:53] Nicole Donnelly: You know that it's all about taking those, building those relationships. So, man, I could talk to you all [00:56:00] day. This is awesome. This is like, I can't tell you, it's like a masterclass. I'm learning so much from you and from your, just your energy and everything. So thank you so much for your time. I want to be mindful of, so I do have one final question for you, and this is just a question of what advice would you give to any

[00:56:22] Nicole Donnelly: new entrepreneur who's maybe just getting started. Maybe there's someone listening who's, you know, younger in high school or college and like just dreaming of owning a business someday, or someone like us who are in the trenches and we've been doing it for years. What advice would you give to them? What would be like, you know, something that you would tell them to help, you know, to help them go for, I mean, you've given tons of advice, but what, what would be your final words of advice for, for anyone who wants to be an entrepreneur?

[00:56:51] Dr. Rashidian: The start of anything is absolutely beautiful. The excitement you have right now as you start your business, you'll never [00:57:00] have, ever again. You have to enjoy it. You can do everything. It can be hard. It can be difficult. You can be sleeping on the floor, you can be sleeping in your shop, on the floor with, with nothing.

[00:57:12] Dr. Rashidian: And trust me, you're gonna miss those days. So enjoy it. I remember I watched an interview with Bill Gates and Warren Buffett. They're friends, you know, and they were at MIT. 

[00:57:22] Nicole Donnelly: Yeah. 

[00:57:22] Dr. Rashidian: And, and they're the, the, it's all, it's on YouTube. I, most of the people, I've already watched it, but there's one time. This, this business student stands up and asks a question and he says, if you were to start over from the beginning, how would you do it?

[00:57:33] Dr. Rashidian: And these two guys, so Warren Buffett's a lot older than Bill Gates, but they're, they were both, you know, they're not young. They lit up like young children. They, they both simultaneously go and watch it cuz it's on YouTube. They, they both go, we'd love to start over. Those beginning days were amazing. And this, there was this excitement like, oh, we, we would do this, we'd do this, we'd do this.

[00:57:55] Dr. Rashidian: So listen, number one, you're going, you're going to, you're going be, be dealt a whole [00:58:00] lot of terrible things. And there's going to be resistance. There's gonna be obstacles. Your enemies are gonna show up out of nowhere and you have friends who are just waiting to say, I told you you wouldn't succeed. 

[00:58:13] Nicole Donnelly: Yes.

[00:58:13] Dr. Rashidian: And that's okay. That's when you know you are on the right track. Yes. That's when you know you're going in the right way. If everybody says you're going do great and you're going, you probably will fail. It's the people who go against the grain. 

[00:58:27] Nicole Donnelly: Yeah. 

[00:58:27] Dr. Rashidian: Be countercultural. Be counterintuitive. Don't do what everybody else is doing.

[00:58:33] Dr. Rashidian: Go for what you want and bootstrap it. Don't wait for the perfect situation, the perfect moment, perfect amount of money. Just go for it. You don't have money to market. Go door to door. 

[00:58:44] Nicole Donnelly: Exactly. 

[00:58:45] Dr. Rashidian: You don't have money. You know, my first office, it was in 2003 and I, I found a guy who, who was an urgent care center, medical doctor, nighttime, and I say, hey, who's in your office during the day?

[00:58:56] Dr. Rashidian: He said, nobody. I said, can I rent your space from 8:00 [00:59:00] AM to 6:00 PM. Cuz he went from 6:00 PM to 8:00 AM and I, and he goes, sure. I mean, it's empty anyways. I said, I can only pay you a $1,000 a month rent. He said, fine. You can find those opportunities and so I started, my first office was an urgent care center and all the equipment was his.

[00:59:17] Dr. Rashidian: I just showed up with a cell phone. I put my cell phone in the newspaper and the Yellowpages back when there were Yellowpages, you know, and people started calling. We started, we started a business. That business did really well. I sold that company. I, I owned half of it by the time I walked away, and I sold half of it for $54,000.

[00:59:34] Dr. Rashidian: I started it with $4,500. So $4,500 turned into $54,000, which helped me open the next office and the next office. And it, it just grows from there. So go after it. Be excited when something bad happens, just be like, yes! I'm just like those other people. You know when, when something goes wrong. Yeah, that's good!

[00:59:55] Dr. Rashidian: This is what I need. Just use that as fuel and you'll get there. [01:00:00] 

[01:00:00] Nicole Donnelly: Oh, that's such a great mindset. I love it. And just a, and the way you just had that was so, so much energy, like embracing it with such energy is so cool. And the resourcefulness, like, I think people, to me, my opinion is resourcefulness is the secret superpower of successful businesses.

[01:00:18] Nicole Donnelly: And maybe it's not so secret, but people talk a lot about like, oh, you know, to be a successful entrepreneur, you have to be majorly smart like Elon Musk, you know? You've gotta be this genius or whatever. And all these, I just think like, truly, like, the most gifted entrepreneurs I've ever known have been incredibly resourceful like yourself.

[01:00:36] Nicole Donnelly: I love that. It's like my daughters, we were on spring break last week and they were so bored. They're just like, we're waiting for the, the tour. We were in Paris and we, we were taking 'em to the Versailles, and they're, we're all sitting there and they're bored. They've got nothing to do and my youngest one sees this old wine cork on the, on the ground.

[01:00:51] Nicole Donnelly: It's like little tiny little wine cork. And she just walks over to it and starts kicking it around like a soccer ball. And then my oldest jumps in and the next thing you [01:01:00] know, they're laughing and kicking around this little wine cork, you know, and it just was like so inspiring to me. Watching them, I thought to myself, you don't need, like, all you need is just a silly little wine cork and in your business, like where are the old wine corks that you're totally not even paying attention to?

[01:01:15] Nicole Donnelly: That could become some, could become something, you know, could turn your business around or whatever. So I love that. This has been so amazing. Thank you so much for your time, Dr. Rashidian. 

[01:01:26] Dr. Rashidian: You're very welcome. 

[01:01:27] Nicole Donnelly: Yeah. And I hope you have a wonderful weekend. Is there anything, any final words that you'd like to share today?

[01:01:34] Nicole Donnelly: You get the last 

[01:01:34] Dr. Rashidian: No, I, I, I appreciate this. I, I wanna show you the cover of my book. This is the book. Yes, please do. You're interested. Go on Amazon or Barnes and Nobles, or any other book story. It should be everywhere. It's called Cracking the Stress Secret, How to Turn Pressure Into Power. I'd love it if you pick up a copy. If you're in the area, swing by, I'll sign it for you.

[01:01:53] Dr. Rashidian: And anyways, I, I, I enjoyed it very, very much. I'm thankful that you had me and gave me this opportunity. And [01:02:00] I wish you all the best of luck in everything, your business, your podcast, and everyone listening. Hopefully you got excited. Hopefully you're gonna you know, turn that into a passion to pursue your dreams.

[01:02:11] Nicole Donnelly: Very good. Yep. And where can people reach you if they wanna connect with you? 

[01:02:16] Dr. Rashidian: We have a YouTube channel called Real Chiropractic. We have our website is MidAtlanticClinic.com, and my author website is DrRashidian.com. So any of those have opportunities for you to contact me directly. Emails go to our front desk.

[01:02:33] Dr. Rashidian: Our staff will forward those to me. 

[01:02:36] Julie Basello: Tales of Misadventure is produced, edited, and moderated by Julie Bello with Basello Media Music by Marcus Wei. Special thanks to our amazing guests and the entire DMG Digital team. Visit us at DMGDigital.io to get access to all our podcast interviews and other helpful resources.

[01:02:54] Dr. Rashidian: And if you'd like to get updates on the latest and greatest, please sign up for our email newsletter. We'll see you next [01:03:00] time for another episode of Tales of Misadventure. Until then, keep falling forward.