Hire for Heart. Train for Skill. Grow Through Relationships.

What if the biggest hiring mistake chiropractors make isn't who they hire... but what they hire for?

In this episode, we break down why personality, attitude, and culture fit beat experience almost every time. You'll learn why shadow days can save you thousands, how a 90-day probation protects everyone, and why great teams are built—not found.

We also dive into something that's making a comeback: real human connection. From networking outside the office to hosting unforgettable patient appreciation dinners, you'll discover why the practices growing the fastest are creating relationships—not just appointments.

Inside this episode:

•  Why experience is overrated when hiring 
•  The interview process that actually predicts success 
•  The value of shadow shifts and probation periods 
•  How to build stronger professional relationships 
•  Why "Dinner With the Doc" is working again 
•  The quarterly patient appreciation strategy that generates loyalty and referrals 

If you want a stronger team, happier patients, and a practice people can't stop talking about, this episode is for you.

The #1 Chiropractic Growth Coordinator 

TheSpizz.com

ChiropracticResults.com

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

What's up, guys? Twisting the spiz, another mogul minute. Um, Amanda, I got to talk today about hiring and and and you know, you're one of the best to help associates become better closers and salespeople out there. But when you're hiring someone that you need to mold into that or innately has that stuff, what are you looking for? Like, what are what are things that like innately they might have that other people don't have when it comes to hiring a doc? Not talking about adjusting skills today. That I I we can talk about that, of course, but I want to talk about communication stuff and what you look for innately interviewing people.

SPEAKER_02 0:39

Absolutely. So the first time it is just a quick conversation just to see if you can connect with that individual. But really, it's about personality, personality, personality. So I want to hire someone who's an all-in employee, a team, a team player, someone who says yes, someone who's excited about your promotion, someone who's excited about the principal of the week, someone who's just has a great attitude. So a great attitude and it's really about their personality. It doesn't really matter where they've been. I'd almost rather mold someone.

SPEAKER_00 1:19

Yeah. When when you okay, so I want to talk about attitude. Is there any things that you can stress test them on? Are are you a believer in like having them like trial shadow and stuff like that in the office?

SPEAKER_02 1:30

Absolutely, absolutely. So I have them come in for a full shift or at least a few hours during a shift just to make sure, even before they start. Yeah because that's now you're seeing everything in in real time. I think it's really important to have someone shadow before they start because it could be totally different than what they thought, or vice versa, just to make sure it's a good fit. And you still don't know.

SPEAKER_00 1:51

Yeah, I I it's and and are you a believer in like having people on I hate the word probation, but probationary periods?

SPEAKER_02 1:59

Like I have a they they sign a 90-day probationary period in my office. Everyone has 90-day probationary. If they might not be the right fit, or I might not be the right fit. I think that that's super important that you do that in the beginning. If not, you can be locked into many things.

SPEAKER_00 2:14

Okay. So, tips out there for uh when you're hiring out there, you guys heard some good ones on that. I know that's a big bubble out there for people right now. A lot of people looking, and I now let's go back to the adjusting skills. Should I mean I mean, obviously, they got to have some skills, right?

SPEAKER_02 2:33

So, you know, some skills, but honestly, if you worked with someone day after day and you were showing them adjustments day after day and they've gone to chiropractic school, they're gonna get it. Sometimes they just need hands-on experience and more explanation. A lot of it is just that. So you can teach anyone to be a good adjuster with the right training and repetition, but to have the right mindset is much more difficult. And I just had an associate, um, I'm actually super proud of him, but you know, in the course decided to change fields. Um, this doctor has been just absolutely amazing, has been that person that came in in day one that he was the go-getter, he was happy. What can I do? How can I help you? What do you need, Dr. Athelblatt? And in the end of his schooling, he just sent to me that he got like the school spirit award. They're still doing that in medical school and nursing school and all of those different programs. And I there were three different awards. And I said, I'm just surprised you didn't get all three, because one was spirit, one was you know, the different all three. Yeah. But that's why I hired him in the beginning was because of that attitude. You can train anyone to adjust. That's been to chiropractic school.

SPEAKER_00 3:46

Yeah, we were talking offline, guys. Uh, we're gonna be going uh to hang out with Karen Hanna, founder of Boshito Billing.

SPEAKER_02 3:54

So excited.

SPEAKER_00 3:56

And uh we're gonna whoa whoa, yeah. You should behind the scenes. I hope Karen listens to this episode. We're like, Amanda goes, are we gonna are we gonna like sleep in the in the river by the river? I go, oh no.

SPEAKER_01 4:09

I had to make sure before it was a final yes.

SPEAKER_00 4:13

I uh they asked me to go last year and I couldn't make it. And it's just we're it's tubing. I am not I am a I can find anything fun to do when it comes to having alcohol next to me. So um being in the water, water water works. Me and Karen like to we so I've done for years, me and Karen go to Mexico and we go to resorts, and we were joking when we were together a couple weeks ago, like we we we want to do a podcast about us being whiny white people who complain about uh the little small things that piss us off at resort.

SPEAKER_02 4:45

Yes, first world problems.

SPEAKER_00 4:48

That's what we should call the podcast. We should have we you know what we'll probably film a special episode when we're up there in August on that coming up in a couple weeks. Uh but you're a mogul. I mean, you get it, right? Like when you know, when you asked that question, I was going, Amanda, I would never put you in a situation where you have to sleep outside in a channel.

SPEAKER_02 5:06

Well, I was I was sort of asked, like you guys were talking about it. So, you know, I know that you didn't want to exclude me, but I was like, you know, I just wanted to make sure that I knew that.

SPEAKER_00 5:15

Well, this is the most fun person in the world. So you can have fun anywhere. I know you can have fun anywhere.

SPEAKER_02 5:20

I really can.

SPEAKER_00 5:21

But let's talk about let's let's have our own first world problems. Anything that you've had recently that's a great customer experience or a bad one. Oh, geez.

SPEAKER_02 5:36

Actually, I've had really good customer service recently.

SPEAKER_00 5:40

Tell me.

SPEAKER_02 5:41

So I've I've been going downtown Detroit recently, which I have not done in a really long time to different restaurants. And I went to this restaurant, Barda, on Thursday, downtown Detroit. If they did have a James Beard uh mention for something, I did read online, but my goodness, you could have taken this restaurant and dropped it in Vegas, you could have dropped it in Miami.

SPEAKER_00 6:04

I'm looking at the bar online right now, it looks cool.

SPEAKER_02 6:06

The food was it was just so delicious and the care and the attention, and I was like really taken aback. I'm like, I need to go downtown Detroit more.

SPEAKER_00 6:16

Would you used to do that when you were younger?

SPEAKER_02 6:18

No, you were not allowed. So when you when I was growing up, there were you didn't go downtown. There was no like public transportation downtown. You didn't go down. If you wanted to go to Canada, you had to go through the highway for one moment to go to the bridge. And my dad would be like, No, if you turn down the wrong road, that's it. And it was that, it was that dangerous then. Well, we're going back to like you know, the 80s, 70s, 80s. But now it's just it's very different, it's much safer. I mean, I wouldn't be just, you know, having a scavenger hunt down the road, but it's safe.

SPEAKER_00 6:54

Yeah, I I I you know, you're you're social, you I I've put I position, I I call you a socialite. You're you're you're a good party host, you're a good party goer. Were you always like that? Yes. Even in like, were you like in high school like that? Like, yes.

SPEAKER_02 7:12

Well, not that I had the space to entertain then or the means to entertain then, but in my head, I would knew I was gonna entertain. I love bringing people together, I love connecting people, I love get togethers, I love good food, good drinks, good conversation. That's what life's about.

SPEAKER_00 7:30

What do you think makes a part? Because this is a good thing for Kairos to hear about like when when they think about doing events, you know, they're always kind of so lame. They're like, I got cheese plate, and you know, it's like cheap food. I mean, if you're gonna do a party, do a fucking party, right?

SPEAKER_02 7:46

Yes, absolutely. It's what would you do for your family for you know, if you're having this party, that's what it should be like. And I'm going to do it next year. I'm going to invite you. But before COVID, I would have parties at the club. I would piggyback off of their parties. And I think it's really important for chiropractors. Not only do you want to make things exceptional in your own practice, but get to know other exceptional chiropractors or people who are grinding. And I would purposefully pull people from everywhere of chiropractic. It would purposely be someone from the women's group, purposely from the colleges, purposely from this group. I will, I loved bringing people together and seeing the conversations and, you know, good people, but pulling those people together. I think that's so fun. And to and you start to form bonds that you will never form on a Zoom call, in a board meeting, at any convention. When you start doing happy, just regular encounters, just time to hang out, that's when you hear the real stories and you really get to know people.

SPEAKER_00 8:51

Yeah. We used to do at my med spa when I was in California, we used to host um uh uh we call it goddess, goddess rewards parties. And that was our branding, and we would have um packages that were there, there was nothing in them. They were they were they were like fake boxes with like gifts, but we would give away like you know, 20 units of Botox, a syringe of Juvederm. Uh, we give away free lipo to one winner. And I remember this girl just they were everyone's just drunk and screaming at the they're like, I can't, what doctor does this? This is like in a good way, like this is kind of, you know, and and I I look at I look at what when I see most docks doing events, you know, and and dinner with a doc is coming back, um, because what's old is new again. Yes, you think, and and I love dinner with a doc. But what dinner and why dinner and a doc? Uh, did you ever do dinner with doc? I did lunch and learns. Lunch and learns, okay. Those were those were companies, though, right?

SPEAKER_02 9:53

I would go into companies, yes.

SPEAKER_00 9:54

Yeah. Same, same thing, like, like, like, like dinner with doc became very uh I I did I had a gay chiropractor out in San Francisco. Shout out David York. He's uh he who all he all wore wore purple. I I was in my 20s when I moved out there. I worked for him for a little bit, and he's like, we gotta have dinner with a doc every it's gotta be going every month, every month. And I'm like, and it was the same thing, and it was like the same location. I'm like, it's boring, like let's do some new shit, you know. Like he wasn't open to it. But the lunch and learns, the same thing that people get like, well, you know, Joe Sass was just telling me a story. He went to Wells Fargo and they couldn't, they they bought $350 worth of lunch, and him and his assistant were bringing it up, and his assistant forgot her driver's license or didn't have her wallet or something, and because of secure, they wouldn't let him in. I thought that was crazy. But I dinner with docs were back. Would you do your own take on dinner with docs if you if you yeah?

SPEAKER_02 10:53

So what I do, because I think of this as yes, it can bring a new patient, but yes, it's for retention, it's for it's for many different things, right? So I feel like the mogul way to do this is quarterly, you plan a very nice dinner at a very nice restaurant in your neighborhood or where your practice is, and you invite six people. That's usually three people, usually the people that I pick are families, like a husband and wife. So three different families. And I go and literally have a nice dinner and a nice time and talk about their families and what they're doing. Those are the few people that maybe get to know a little bit about me. Not that I'm not, I don't really talk about myself, right? But but in that, guess what happens in a year when that person needs to refer a chiropractor to someone? It is just as powerful, and but you've taken away the selling aspect of it, really, because you're there to appreciate them. This, these are I like to pick three of my favorite patients every so often. It's quarterly, every so often, and have a nice dinner. And I think that and then they get to know each other, which is really nice. I purposely pick people that I know are going to jive together. You guys or maybe could do business together.

SPEAKER_00 12:10

This is awesome. What a great we got some cool stuff next week. We're gonna share. We've we've been previewing on that. Stay tuned for that. Uh, we'll share our experiences a couple weeks as we go rafting together. I can't wait. Thanks for jamming today, doc.

SPEAKER_02 12:25

Thank you.