EP42: Interview with Lauryn Brunclik on Long Form Trust, Real Wealth, and Not Burning Out

In this episode, I sit down with Lauryn Brunclik for a real, unscripted conversation about what actually matters when you’re building something that lasts.

We talk about why most chiropractors burn out even when the practice is “doing well,” the difference between CEO time and just doing more admin, and why long-form conversations build trust in a way shortcuts never will.

This episode goes behind the scenes of podcasting, personal brand, leadership, wealth, and identity. Not the polished version. The real one. The part most people turn the mics off for.

You’ll hear us unpack:

• Why CEO time isn’t paperwork and what it’s really for
• How long-form content creates trust, leverage, and opportunity
• The difference between revenue, wealth, and a rich life
• Why tolerating the wrong things quietly kills growth
• How clarity, impact, and relationships compound over time

If you’re building a business, leading a team, raising a family, and trying to do it without losing yourself in the process, this conversation will hit home.

No hype. No shortcuts. Just real talk about building the business and keeping the life.

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Transcript

0:00

This is the Austin Cohen Podcast where we talk real strategies for chiropractors ready to grow beyond the adjustment. If you're building a business, developing your leadership, and trying to build wealth without burning out, you are in the right place. Let's get to work The shit I love. See, this is the, but we have a Rogan esque podcast. I love your podcast. My fa it was my top five for 2020. I know. So was yours though. Let go. No, I just, I don't know. I've been on 20 Minute podcast before and like we have all this good stuff before and then all of a sudden she's okay, so let's start. And then we have this short conversation. I'm just getting funny. Like I, it takes me a minute. And then she like wraps it up and then we talk for another 15 minutes and I was like, damn, your audience wants all of this, but this will be interesting. What I love this is the, my episode's gonna be like the behind the scenes of how you do your episodes. So this is like a podcast training for people of we're gonna see when you decide to start and we'll go through your formalness and then we'll end. What I, it'll be good. This'll be good. This will be good. I love it. I couldn't do the so we've been recording, but no, my, if I do an interview,'cause I'm with you. If I do an interview or talk with somebody, it's gonna be more, it's gotta be more than 20 minutes. Otherwise I'm rushing through the content. It's not true value. And you're like yeah. I have the next question. Okay, you're in the middle of talking about, you can be in the middle of talking about like a day one experience and then the next question they ask you will be like, so tell me about your next vacation. You're thinking like, wait, how, what the fuck? Yeah. Synergy. That's another thing though too. Oh. Is'cause how many episode 2.2 a week. You're insane. How many episodes? I just started in May. I just started in May. That's a lot. Yeah, it is. But you know what it has been the most fun experience I've had by delivering this, I've only been focused at corrective chiropractic. That's all I've been doing for roughly about 13 years. And it's grinding out this empire company Yeah. Of chiropractic and. Over the last, like couple years was when I started, like we built our software, but we really didn't commercialize that. And then we started doing events. Yeah. And then this year I was like, you know what? Nah, I've got so much content, I wanna get outta this brain and extract it out. Yeah. And that's when the podcast started. And listen, a lot of it is a testament to you and a lot of the great work that you've done, I was like, all right, Lauren's podcasts are awesome. I wanna start doing podcasts now, but I had to do it. Here's the key. I had to do it where I knew it'd be sustainable. Yes. So I'm not gonna start something and then quit it. So for me, sustainability meant they were 20 minutes. Yep. They were all audio. And I could do them like just sitting in my car before I walk into the gym easy. And that's what I do. Yes. Yep. No, and that is exactly what I tell my personal brand students because we talk about long form and its necessity. Like you can only get so far with short form. Because like short form is the top of a funnel, long form is the middle of the funnel where you nurture these people, you get them to the point where they are willing to trust you. Right? Like people don't spend$20 anymore without some sort of trust. We've just become really overstimulated and over commercialized and too many programs and too many$27 gonna change your life. And then it doesn't. And we're busy and so no. And, but the long form, I tell people like it can be 10, 15 minutes long form is just longer than it's like a conversation with a friend. So I'm gonna give, I'm gonna do that. So this is great. You're talking about this. So Ca told you this is the shit you want. You're so good. It's you know what you're talking about. Dang, she's good. So wait, so wealth con, when you guys did that was last year. That was the first time I think I met you in person, right? That was 23. Oh, it was two years ago. No, it was last year ago. Was that 24? Oh my God. It was only 14 months ago. Yes. It was only 14 months ago. You're correct. Yeah. Whoa. And you know what I was I didn't really know that much about you and I just started like hearing your stuff. I knew Elise, but I didn't know you and I didn't really know Stephanie, but I was like, man and I started listening to your content. I was like, she's really funny and she also provides a lot of value. But also one thing I love about you is you're fricking real dude. I'm not even like the superficial stuff that's not me. I'm just look what I'm wearing right now, man. Like I I have value based on what I've built. Not like my shirts and my nice Gucci hat. That's just not who I, i've always loved like your realness, but I wish I took action. A lot of things you said earlier, so you're dude, exactly what you're talking about. When I started my event Growth Summit in 2024. Was the first time I ever did it, and I was only gonna have 25 people at it. That was my capacity. We sold it out. It took a little bit of time, it took a couple months to sell it out, but we sold it out. That was in February, 2020. That was April 24. Last year I did it again and we were gonna have 50 people and it sold out again. And I was thinking in my head, I was like, man, this is, but what happened was is I kept increasing the capacity and finding bigger rooms. It actually started selling out faster, but it started selling out faster because I worked on my brand and really getting it out there and building trust with my community. And it's almost like every single thing you talk about, and I wish I listened earlier, as I was building my, my, as I was building corrective chiropractic, I wish I talked, I did podcasts and I wish I had a personal brand. I wish I did newsletters and post it on social media. Like I don't know if you do a program or not, by the way, the teaching people how to do that, but I think you do. But that hashtag I do. I know you do. It's it is the, it is something. When people ask me nowadays and they, and we talk about I, that is one of the biggest teaching moments. I tell'em like, I wish I started a podcast earlier. I wish I had a newsletter earlier. Like those are the things I wish I, and now everything I've done, like Adventure Summit, sold out. Growth Summit's sold out in 2026. You already sold out. My Empire program, which is my coaching program I'm launching in 2026, sold out in 24 hours, six people. It was high ticket offer, but. But I, but it's because I built the trust. Yes. And which is a lot of things you're talking about. Yeah. That would've been very difficult in most chiropractors. What I've learned, and I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on this, is how many chiropractors when you launch a program are like, can we get on the phone? Because I've burned, been burned a lot of times in the past. A lot. A lot. I tried getting rid of discovery calls, sales calls. Yeah. No, that's not true because I do reject. So for our big, so I have a CEO program and I have a personal brand program. They are like completely different, but they're two sides of the same coin type of thing. So the CEO program is more expensive. It's a higher ticket thing. It's$7,500 and that is cash flow. It is like only for clinic owners. It is how to become rich. Do you have to have a minimum of revenue to do before you join program? Yes. So yes. So I've learned that. There, and that's why I like to get on the phone call and I do reject about 20% and I don't, I reject I lovingly say, you're not there yet. You're just not there yet. Let's talk next year, because they do need to have a personality. Not like a fun one, although, oh, there are certain personalities. I'm like, no I'm not your right coach. No. They need to have a grit, a drive, like a desire to get uncomfortable. Like not a victim mentality. And then they do need to probably be at least$250,000 a year. But here's where I used to say that was like a, for sure. I have seen, I've talked to clinic owners that were like, I'm only bringing in$350,000 a year. I basically, their mentality is I'm a loser. Da. And I'm like, okay like what's your overhead? What's your expenses? What's your staff? And they are like running a lean machine. And I'm like, hold up. So you're keeping. Like 2 75. And they're like, yeah, but they're just so focused on revenue. And I'm like, you need to shut the fuck up right now. You are making more money than a lot of docs doing seven figures in revenue. So that's, so like that yeah's the call. So that Getting away from'EM program, I tried getting away from him to actually answer your question. Yeah. But it just didn't work. Like people, even her moey talked about this when he was launching his most recent book, a hundred million dollar Business Models. Yeah. No Business models is most Oh, the new one. Yeah. And he talked about yes, I get it. You are a special snowflake. Everybody thinks can I just explain my situation? And so I still have calls because, but my commu, but my community, but my zip code. But my but my economy, oh no I hear that. The so CEO program, that one's in January, isn't it? Yeah. Yeah. We start end of January. So there'll be a free class Rich Doc masterclass coming up and that was an interest. By the way, is this your podcast? Have we started yet? We've already started. Oh, okay. I was like, do you have to do an intro? I was like all worried about you. I was, I appreciate your concern. I appreciate your concern. So we're, we have a free masterclass in January and I, it's called the Rich Doc Masterclass. And I had someone DM me a Cairo be like I love you, but that was a choice. And I was like, yeah, it was a choice. And it was one I like sweated over. Wait, what? What do you mean it was a choice? What was a choice? Rich. That's they were denoting, that word is like a negative term. Ooh. They weren't negative. They were like, it's like a lot of service focused. We're all servants of God. We, so I think that, as healthcare providers, I think we like to pretend that we are more in service because we're serving other people. But I think that anybody could be, you're called to be an accountant, whatever, a lawyer. So as anytime that you have a servant heart, it can be for tons of reasons. Our parents, the church, like society, we watch movies. If you just watch movies through the lens of looking for ways that we have been programmed to think that rich means. You lose all your values. You are not a Christian anymore. You are an asshole now. Like just watch movies. Like it is so in our face, the bad guy is always the rich CEO. They're always this, a lot of our parents, if you grew up middle class or lower middle class or on food stamps, so Kirby and I grew up really poor. Then you just, you'll hear your parents say stuff like, just weird stuff. My dad dropped while I was talking to him and he's talking about a family member. He is they have more money than they know what to do with. And I'm just like, oh, there it is. It's interesting. Yeah. And so I wanted to people say they, so people are very comfortable with the term wealth. Okay. We've wealth co like we're okay with wealth because wealth. I don't know exactly. I haven't fully deconstructed why we're okay with wealth as servants. Like our head is oh, I can still build wealth. It's maybe it's less chaotic. I don't know. But Rich, you say Rich and people are like no, that's greedy. That's bad. I'm not supposed to want that. Don't You're associating with the greed for money. Yes. All they care about is money. Yep. Yep. Hugely huge living belief as you and I both know. Yeah. So if you are at attach, if, and know the thing is like whether you are, whether you call it financial freedom, that's gonna give you time freedom. Whether you call it abundance, whether you call it wealth building, whether you call it, I wanna retire before I'm 55, whatever you call it. As your goal. I'm cool with that. It all means the same thing. Why do you want do most value, like value driven people want to build re wealth because I wanna pay my associate$150,000 plus a year. I just wanna make it rain over all of my employees. I want to be able to build on to my community. I want my kid like, so any value driven person, that's why they want that. It's not to do a Scrooge McDuck dive, although that would hurt, but but we know it's gonna take so much work to get there. Yeah. And that's on, that's interesting. I I'll give you something. So last year when we had our company retreat back in November. And my team, when we were talking about our vision, I always share my vision with like where we want to go as a company with my team. So we have a 2030 vision and I told'em, I said the 2030 vision for corrective chiropractic is every single location is at 75% utilization rate. Every single one across the board. And my one of my directors operations goes, but why do we want that? And I go, we want that. Because one of the questions we ask in my quarterly meetings with staff is, do you feel like you're rewarded or recognized properly? And I want a hundred percent yeses across the board whenever we ask that question to them. And she's like, all right, then that's our vision is a hundred percent yeses across the board that people feel like they're rewarded and recognized properly in this company. And that obviously can lead to what the end game is. I was like, man, that is a great reflection.'cause for me I'm like you, I'm like million dollar clinics and a million dollar clinics. All of you are making hundreds of thousands of dollars. And the impact you have on your communities and your staff is super happy and they're all like, abundant thing. And we broke it down though about like increasing our capacity, but then we broke down some of the questions and the feedback we hear, and really it made it actually real for our company and our team. Everybody got behind it and it was cool.'cause the math is actually easy, right? Like most chiropractors are already hitting their overhead. So it's like everything they're doing above that is almost pure profit now at 80, like 90%. So they're not like every, I always say this to my team, everybody is one relationship away from completely transforming their life. You and I have probably both had patients in our office that have maybe referred in hundreds of thousands of dollars or introduced us to a community member, or they've set us up somewhere, like in a business partnership and that transformed our practices. And every clinic is usually one relationship away. We met one lady one time who introduced us to the country club and that country club, we did an event with them in August of, it was 2016. It was the first event we did with them. That event that month just produced$60,000 just that month because they got, they let us come to their tennis tournaments. And from there, it's obviously snowballed into becoming a massive relationship for our company. But we're just all that close to having such an impact. That is such a cool twist on one of the business principles that we all we've all talked about referrals. Oh my God, how many podcasts are there about asking for referrals and, but that is the first time I've heard that spin on growing your practice through referrals. And I like it a lot more. It hits in a different way. It hits because there's you're seeing maximum potential out of everyone that you're, that is on your table already. Yeah. Okay. By the way, that employee asking you, why do we want that is a million dollar employee, that is somebody who knows his, her CEO and. Knows the right questions that need that's a COO level thinking, right? I was thinking the same. And at first I was like, what do you mean? Why do we want it? Because what do you mean? Why do I want this? Yeah. Because some of us are like, this is a dream that I have had since breakfast. And they're like, all right. But deep down, that's why like I think as entrepreneurs, like you, myself, all these other people, the reason why I think we grind so hard is like we want everybody to feel the same above, like it is service mentality. And to me, like rich is not, I don't identify rich as like clothes. I wear car, I drive house. I live in to me rich is experience within relationships. That's it. Like creating experience with the people that matter my life. And at the end of the day, like at the end of the day, that's all I'm gonna carry with me. When it comes down to the final day is looking back and thinking. We had our adventure summit. I don't know, have you ever heard of my Adventure Summit thing? Yes. Yeah. All right. So we were in the Grand Canyon 40 much, I hear it sold out for 2026, which is really annoying. We, no, we haven't sold bigger 2026 yet. No, I still have eight slots left, by the way. Oh. So we're ha we're halfway there. So 2026 is in August in the Teton Crest Trail, but when we did it in the Grand Canyon, I was talking to these guys and it's, it is all chiropractors. There's 16 of them. And it was like, we were in Arizona for 48 hours and 20 of those 48 hours was pure just hiking like 9,000 feet of elevation out and back. It was a grind. We were all dying. But what I told them is, I said, in five years from now, if I ask you how much revenue you did in 2025, you'll not remember that number or how much profit you did. But if I ask you, and I said what do you remember about 2025? You will name this event right here, and you'll name this experience because it challenged you, it got you uncomfortable, and that is a key core memory for you. All the other stuff is like. It allows you to create those opportunities. Yes, making money and the profits and the revenue provides that opportunity to do that. But you're not gonna remember how much money you made. You will remember hiking the Grand Canyon and doing 40 miles and through a suffer fest. But yeah. Wow. Wow. You were doing a terrible job of selling out those last eight. I'm, I was like, oh, maybe I should go. Fuck no. Nah, it my discomfort. Look, you know what we had it, I was gonna do like a co-ed one, but because we all stay in the same house, I just simple. I, so like the number one thing, if you ask me one, one thing I've learned from the podcast since we started in 2019 it is that men, millennial men are dealing with a lot of the same things that US females think are like. We've because the podcast started as only like a female chiropractic podcast. And then after two years, a year and a half, two years, it was like, okay, we're for all chiropractors type thing. Because I would have men just being like, I relate to that. They don't wanna miss their kids' soccer games either. They don't, they wanna be able to feel emotions. They're burning out from compassion fatigue also, like all of the stuff, it's so no, I think it's good that you have this man space. Like I think it's a thing that women started, I don't know when women started to come into their powers the 80 four years ago. So I think it's just good. I think social media is gonna help and things, people like you having events where vulnerability can happen. Is essential. And I don't think because of the nature and like this is womansplaining the shit out of this. So I'll say this and then ask, get your opinion. Have we started womansplaining yet? All the men are like, no, bitch, that's what you do all day. 2026, new work. You may have started. I tell my husband who's jacked, he's not getting enough protein and he is okay, thanks honey. Thanks anyways. Like I think the dynamic of men and women are, men are suppo, like men are supposed to be strong for women. They're supposed to care for women. And I'm okay with that male female dynamic. Like I think that's evolution that, but if you have women at, but I also think men need a place where they can be vulnerable and not always be presenting this strong front. And so if you bring women in I don't know, it kind of messes with the laws of evolution and I'm not supposed to be vulnerable in front of my wife. I'm supposed to care for my wife. So I like it. That's great. Yeah. The do you agree or no, I do agree. So there's a lot of guys, it's interesting, a lot of guys I work with, obviously I have a lot of males who I work with. I'd say my clientele for all my stuff is probably like 60, 60, 60 5% male, 30, 35 or 40 to 35% female. But the guys who do reach out a lot of'em are burned out. Yes. And it's very fascinating because surface level, when I first meet them and I hear how well their practice is doing, and, from the outside looking at their family it looks like and appears everything's doing very well. But looking behind the curtain, and when I talk to them at a deeper level it's, there's a lot of stress. There's a lot of burnout. Why? But it's like. They feel like they're supposed to be this protector and provider, which I actually agree. They are supposed to protect their family and they're supposed to provide for their family. Now, obviously there's different circumstances, but I'm just globalizing talking right now. And so the, what happens sometimes, these guys, like how often do they get checked in on like never? If they're, it is just grind grind. And a lot of guys are just building based on pure grind and they have no systems in their place, in their life. They have no frameworks built out and anywhere in their life, they have no hobbies, they have no friends. They're losing all the things that prevent that, that burnout phase and and that's something that like, I really wanted to work on with some of these guys doing this adventure summit, right? It's a group of 16 guys, a lot of'em are the same that keep coming back. It's a hard thing. It also challenges them and it also shows them like, alright, I'm freaking tougher than I think I am. But yeah, a lot of I've been hearing a lot of chiropractors recently on social media and some podcasts. And they're like saying things such as, you don't need friends to get to where you need to get to. And I'm like, wait, no. We should all have friends. Friends are great. It's now maybe who you associate with. Yes. Like I am a big believer in your circle of sphere and your sphere of influence, but you should a hundred percent have friends and you should a hundred percent have hobbies. And by the way, for those that don't have hobbies, and all you do is work, think of the things you can kids work or raise your kids. That's the other thing. Yeah. I like just they lose themself in just a hundred percent work and kids. Yeah. And that's a tough, that's an easy way to just I am a huge believer, like I shared earlier, like I've got core values that are built out. That's a system, that's a framework. Experiences and relationships. Everything lives and dies by that. Hobbies, friendships, like these things, there's a framework in there of like how many of those I do per calendar. Year two as well, how many outings I do, how many traditions we built out, how many memories we want do, but there's a system and a lot of people don't have the frameworks built out. And if they, but if they do that. Gosh, they could ease. These guys can easily prevent burnout. Not easily. They can prevent burnout by putting the work in though. But that's what's so hard, is so many people like, oh my God, I can just hear it over and over. This is one of the hardest things about doing discovery calls is because you talk to someone and you see the answer is so obvious and you can help them. Like you're talking, like if you're talking to someone and you're like, dude, you need to pick up a hobby and get some friends. Yeah. And then they come back with the time old answer of, I just don't have time. And it's you have to make it, you have to make it like, I hate when somebody comes after my like Netflix and chill time. But it's true. It's like you have to figure it out. You are wasting time somewhere. I'll talk to people who are doing like. Patient documentation over their lunch hour. And I'm like, no, get the fuck outta your office and go for a walk and lift something heavy. Like you cannot do this, no wonder. And so it's just you're gonna, you're right. You likely it's gonna be uncomfortable for you as you figure out how to rearrange things that, everything has a place and this is your comfort zone, right? Like we've just got this comfort zone and I don't know, it's So how old are you again? Austin? 43. 43? Yeah. Not to be 44. That's, that seems like a good age. 40. I'm excited about forties. I turned 40 this September, so I'm excited. Great age. For 40. But I think there's just this duh wisdom that starts to come as you get in your forties. And I'm gonna have to figure out how to have a lot more empathy for people in their like twenties and thirties, because I have to understand that I was a really stupid. 20 something who knew everything And 30 something, but you're just like, oh my God, it's so obvious. Everything. You, but you were open to change though. Like I would bet you were good at looking within and making changes based on like behaviors and habits. A lot of people. And you do the same thing. It's funny, like hearing you talk. When I talk to clients too as well, I'm thinking in my brain like, wow, you already know everything. Why'd you even talk? Why do I even talk to you? You already know. You already know. You already figured out the whole world. Why are we even on this call? But it's interesting. Yeah, a lot of people you're right, you have to make the time. I burned out, dude, 2009 to 2015. All I did is work. I was working over a hundred hours a week easily. And I told myself, the reason why I don't have friends is because I don't have time for friends. And in 2015, I realized if I keep this up, this is not sustainable and I will burn out hard. So I had to start finding the people in my community. I listed out 52 people that I wanted to have meals with in 2016. And I listed out the 52 people of who I wanted to have with once a week. I wanna have a meal with these people once a week. And then I wanted to nurture those relationships because I can't just go to lunch with one of these guys and then expect them to call me back. I'm not like in their circle of calls, right? So then I did I was calling them, I was texting, I was like, Hey dude, and what I had to do, and I realized what I do is create experiences for them. I was like, Hey, I got an extra ticket to the Braves game. You wanna come with me? Hey, we're gonna go on this hunting trip. You guys wanna come on Sunday with us? And what it did is it built this really good sphere of people who now have these really great relationships with, but they're great fathers, they're great husbands, they're great business people. And to your point dude, it took work. But anything worth having in life does take work. Jay Shetty sat on his podcast like two years ago that we're so focused on balance and that, like there you're, we're, we are just supposed to have balance with our work and our friendships and our health and our spouse and our family and all of this at all given times. And he talked about that's not actually how it works. So like he talks about just having, there's gonna be a period of time where you're starting a business and there's not balance. You are hustling to build that business. So obviously you can go too far and burn relationships. Like you could ruin your marriage in the process, but do you regret those 13 years? So what I heard is oh, I built the business at the expense of friendships. But then I heard but yeah. Then you got that business to a good point. And then you were able to focus on friendships and you were able to build that in are no, was do you actually regret? No, I was not using my, I was not using my time correctly. It was, I was figuring you regret how you built it. Those, I don't regret it, but I wish I do. There's a part of me that wishes I, I committed like at least a two hours a week. So would it have been 102 hours or 98 at the best? The 98. I just didn't, okay. I didn't put, I put zero zero energy into a relationship. I know, but you're literally saying you would if a hundred if you only have a hundred percent Yeah. And obviously you didn't put a hundred percent into your business because you, but if you had a hundred hours in your business and you wanted to add. Two more hours of friendship building you would subtract from the business. So that would literally mean that you would've been okay with your business being 2% less? No, because I would've. No, you can't have, no. Here's why. If I give somebody, if I give somebody 60 days to do a goal, how long is it gonna take'em to complete that project? 59 and a half days. Alright. And if I give'em 30 days, are they gonna finish the same project in 30 days or 60 days? A hundred percent. So you give me 98 hours, I'm gonna get the same amount done in those 98 hours than I would in a hundred. Why? Because I have to be more present and more productive with my time. Most people associate time with being present. They think in their brain, they think balance. I meet people all the time that say this. They'd be like, oh, I just need to be home more. I'm like, or when you're home, you need to be home. Get off your phone. Like I have a friend, for example, one thing he did is a genius idea. He's not allowed to take phone calls anywhere, but in his office means that's where dad takes calls and that's where he does business. If he's not inside of his office, he's not on his phone, he's not taking calls, he's present with his family. I love that model. But so when you're, but if if I'm in my business, like great example, when I was in my business, early days, I remember a Friday I'd be leaving town to go, let's say to a vacation for three days on Tuesday. I was not in my office physically, I was there mentally. I was on vacation planning dinners and I've had to learn a quote that lives that I live and die by. Be where your feet are. Like I would bet you've done podcast interviews with people and you know they're not listening to what you say because they're probably on their phone, distracted. Maybe they're checking emails while they're on the phone with you. But one thing I've had to learn is this time, like that we blocked off to me is this is our time. And at 10 30 I'm gonna be driving to my Decatur office for a q one meeting, and then boom, at 11:00 AM boom, that's their time. And if it's for people that are trying to go multi-unit, like that's where I got good at being present, was I remember one of my team members, she said to me, she goes, I hate when you open more locations, why do you hate when I have more locations? She goes, because every time you open a more another location, this practice suffers. She'd be like, you, she'd be like you at 10 in the morning. You're like, you're taking calls for this office, but really you're supposed to be here doing new patient exams and report findings. I'm like, you're so right. I'm so not, I'm so distracted right now. 100% distracted. And when I got clear on what present time conscious looks like and feels like my kids would rather me take them to an arcade for an hour and a half and just like crank out, present time with them, play with them, jump around with them, do this rather than be downstairs with'em for three hours and they sit on their iPads. There's no meaningness to like that. There's no presence to that, but there's presence in going to that. And maybe you feel a different way, but my thought is no, I love it. I could easily, you give me 80 hours. Like I, it just, I, it's like one of my team members the other day said to me, he goes, in 20 26, 1 of my goals is to block f more block off, more CEO time. And I said, okay, what you gonna do with that time? He goes, oh, I'll do more like admin work and everything else. I go, oh, I go you. I go, just so you know I don't, he's probably listening to this right now and he knows I love him, so I'm happy to share this, but all my students are used to me just beating the shit outta him. But people can respect this comment. It's yes, you want to do that and block off that CEO EO time, but you're li there's no clarity in what you would even do with that time. Whatcha gonna do, just look at patient files, but they're uncomfortable with, I think CEO time is one of the most mushy mhy. What does it even mean anymore? Because going back to being uncomfortable, so if I told someone, Hey, I want you, you wanna get more time away from the office, but they're uncomfortable with nine to five, Monday through Friday. My associate is working, my employees are working. So therefore, okay, Tuesday, a Tuesday morning I'm gonna make that CEO time. Okay, cool. I'm all, I'm, what are you gonna do with it? I'm not sure, but I'm gonna be working. I'm gonna be working. And it's like, what if you were golfing? What if? And they're like, oh no. And so there's so many layers to this of I think that we just, we don't actually graduate, most of us do not graduate to a CEO level thought process. We get stuck at clocking in as a manager. And we just call it, we just call it I'm a CEO, where it's okay, yes, if I had. My COO, my director of ops at the clinic I'm sorry, Kirby's, the CEO, my director of ops at the clinic. If she said, Hey, I want more work from home time or whatever, I'd be like, okay, cool. Yeah. What are you gonna accomplish in this time? Because even though she's salary it's okay, yeah, but I'm not gonna pay you, what are you gonna do? What are you gonna make with this time? Yeah. And we're comfortable with that, but then we apply that same thing to us where it's no. You are the ceo O you are the one that is you have to be mentally healthy if you burn out. None of them have jobs. So like you have to have, we have to be okay that, I don't know if we just need to stop calling it CEO time. That's just this like thing we're hiding behind to be comfortable with i'm not serving patients directly in that time. I am gonna serve whatever my highest good is in that moment, on that Tuesday morning. And sometimes that might look like going to my kids' Christmas program. Sometimes it looks like playing pickleball with my friends. Sometimes it looks like meeting with the accountant but Tuesday morning is my highest good time. And just be okay with that of sometimes I'll be working because it's all work. It's all work. Lifting heavy weights. Pushing yourself as a CEO is part of the work. That was gold when you just fit by the way. That was that was editor. Take that. No, I'm just kidding. No, seriously. Take that and definitely document that somewhere. Hey, we should do a masterclass on let's do it building out CEO time and what that actually means. But by the way, the. That was pure goal, because you're right, like it's a talking point that people think oh, I need to do that. Okay, what do you do during that time? I look at my QuickBooks and I look at my patient files and I look at my stats. Okay, but what are you gonna do with that info? Like, how does that drive your business forward? That's what your ultimate goal is. That and I love, but I love that you have the personal stuff the personal stuff on there. How would that I think what they're really saying there is they want the freedom to breathe, because you're right. You're like, all whatcha gonna do with it? They just want the freedom to sit and allow their brain to be, it's not bored, but it is to be like, I am sitting here thinking about high level stuff that like, and that's uncomfortable. We like, we're like, okay, but I'm gonna do that from 10 to 10 30. And it's nah, you might need to just be doing nothing, going for, how are you seem like a runner. You run? I run, yeah. Oh, okay. So like, when I am training for a half marathon, the best things that come through downloads are, mile seven, mile eight, where you're just like that's all you were thinking about. And so people, that's what people are, I think at the crux of it, there's so many layers to what they're actually saying, but like one of the biggest ones is I just want the freedom to like, huh, what should we implement in 2026? What, philosophize about their philosoph, philosophize, philoso Raptor pH rap Nailed it. It's definitely Philoso Raptor about life. And that takes. A moment to slow down. They just wanna be able to slow down. That's what CEO time means for them. You know what's interesting is if I look back on any endurance challenge I've ever done in my entire life, and I've done different things. I've done, I've run a hundred miles, I've done Ironman, I've done all these crazy Swim to Alcatraz, I've done all these things. And what's great about those things is every single one of those years was a record year. And it, what it did is it forced me to have discipline those years. But to your point, once I got kickstarted in the run. My brain was just the thoughts and the creative genius that was coming through my brain was unbelievable. And that's, by the way, part of the, that's, there's a lot of reasons why I encourage everybody to get into doing a hard thing, like an endurance thing. But one of'em is that creative genius. I downloaded an app by the way I'll share is that everybody, there's an app called Boomerang and have you heard of this before? All right. This is great for people who have a false A DHD, like you and I, maybe I, at least I do. I don't speak for you, but at least I, no, first of all, brain all over the place. I dunno if you have false, you might. Yeah, I may have real. But the, what's interesting is we're able to function very well without medication. A hundred percent. Now, what's interesting is when you're running, you're, I don't know, I get tons of, I'm like thinking of my brain of people and ideas. So there's the app called Boomerang, and what I do is it automatically sends you an email. So I live and die by my email inbox. It's, I think I have four emails in my inbox, but it's more of like my to-do list as well. So what'll happen is I'll be running, I'll whip on my phone and I'll just open up Boomerang. I'll be like set up a Q1 for 2026. The word of the year is gonna be blank. And whatever it is. Or, hey, podcast topic, blah, blah, blah, blah. Lauren Brun hilarious podcast. This one. Take this note. Yeah. But anyways, it's a great, its a great, yeah. My friends have absolutely gotten out of breath Voice memos from me. Hey, sorry, I'm just I'm just on a run, so I was thinking she's running again. Yeah. Yay. Yeah. Wait. So real quick, 2026, right around the corner. What are some like things you're focused on? Do you have any words? Do you have any phrases you like? Is that, or do you do that? Yeah. Do you do like the word of the year, phrases of the year? What do you So I, I get like claustrophobic. About really. So I'm not huge into human design. I'm a huge Enneagram girl. But one of the things that I know about my human design is that I'm not supposed to specifically manifest. I don't know how they know that about the neutrons that, but like the, something about the neutrons, the day I was born, I, so I get claustrophobic when it comes to this is the word, because I'm like, but what if I change it? What if I, and I think I know I'm also really impulsive and I take action. I'm very comfortable with taking action and willing to pivot as soon as I see it, not. Working or applicable anymore. But like, when it comes to the word, like people, like when you say oh, this is my word, they'll send you a coffee mug with that word on it, and you're like, ow. You know what, about three hours later I was on a run and I changed it, I changed my word. So I'm sending you a coffee mug on whatever you tell me you're focusing on. It's gonna be like a coffee mug with a run on sentence of g Giftology for Lauren. Got it. I am I want to be really comfortable with abundance in 2025 or 2026. 2025 was a com It was an incredible year. We upleveled everything. It actually started. Like November of 24 when we took our family to Japan. It was just like showing, like you talked about like the richness. So yes, a lot of the things I'm about to do require a lot of money, but like how rich your life can be is a different level of comfort as well. Like we talk about oh, you're uncomfortable with money. People are also uncomfortable with how rich their life can feel with experiences. It's uncomfortable that I only work 10 hours a week at my clinic. Like it's uncomfortable. Uncomfortable for you. Yeah. I'm fine with it now, but yes. Uncomfortable for me. Like it's uncomfortable with how cushy. I work out, I just hired a trainer at the beginning of December and they, she works only with high performing women, high earner women, and she's okay, so getting, finding time to work, I'm like, oh no. I'll be like, it's an hour and a half basically of working out five, six days a week. And I was like, oh. And she's like, when are you gonna do this? I'm like, 10 to noon every day. Oh no problem. Don't worry about it's uncomfortable with that. It's uncomfortable with the gifts that we can do for each other, the experiences we can do for our children, what we can provide for our families. Like all of that it's uncomfortable. This level of abundance that came into our lives as a kid who grew up poor is uncomfortable. And so I know that in 2026, my word isn't abundance because that's already showing up. It's almost like. Acceptance that I'm allowed that I'm wor I don't send me a coffee mug with worthy or acceptance like is just like this thought that oh yeah, I'm okay with this. Because you start to separate, you start to separate from the general population. And so we self-sabotage with no, you can't go on another, you two European trips with your family in one year. What are you like? Ugh. And so we start, as we start to separate and our lives become so rich with you can't yeah, I can love my husband so much. Like our relationship can be that and this like you can get in the best shape of your life. You can like, and this and the best year at the clinic. So it is just being like, yeah, no, that's okay. And more. And like I'm not greedy for wanting like last year was the bomb and this year I'm gonna order two of everything. I love that. Question, do you, when you started your podcast in 2019 and it started to grow, did you ever deal with imposter syndrome of thinking like, man, all these people are like listening to what I'm saying, but am I deserving of even having these people listen to my stuff? Am I worthy of putting a program together? Did you ever deal with that? I deal with it to this day. Okay. Not necessarily. And an apo imposter syndrome's never about a hundred percent of your life, right? So the things that I used to feel imposter syndrome about I'm sure are different now, but I think that people think, most of the time I think people have imposter syndrome because they don't feel worthy to lead the people who are following them on whatever topic. So like imposter syndrome comes down to not feeling worthy to lead. A plethora of things, but I'm not a good Bible quote, but like I know biblically that like what somebody would say about that. God doesn't. He doesn't choose the qualified, he qualifies the chosen. And so imposter syndrome is going to continue to show up. So like waiting until you don't feel the imposter syndrome to lead is the people who aren't taking action. So it shows up today because I'm leading even more. The faster I run, the faster I'm leading. And so it's al it's kinda like watching a kid learn to walk where you're like, at the beginning they're like taking one or two steps and you're like, oh my God, I just can't wait until they're walking more stable. But anybody who knows kids has kids at these age knows the second that they're more stable, they start running the second they're, you're like, oh my God. I just, to this day I'll watch my 10-year-old sprint across a like, parking lot and be like don't FaceTime. Don't FaceTime. And so we're just, we just keep going faster as leaders and that's okay because that's we're different that way. We're different and we're never gonna, we're never gonna be like, okay. I actually feel super settled and I'm gonna only lead these humans on this topic. I, in some ways, I'm leading a whole group of people breaking wealth patterns as I'm breaking them myself. I just said like in 2026, I wanna get really comfortable with being rich, being like, it's awesome. Why can't I just say it's awesome and be comfortable with it because of programming. And so now it's happening in real time. I'm leading people on that and it's so do I feel like an Imposs imposter teaching a class called The Rich Doc Masterclass about that wasn't meant to be a weird, like guest drops in the thing. By the way, it's on Jay. No, just kidding. For today, only do I feel uncomfortable. With that. Not I don't know, that's just how I am of like what am I gonna do? Wait until 2027 until I feel like that's where you get the most authenticity and vulnerability from the leaders. But that's just my leadership style. No, it's always gonna be uncomfortable. I can tell there, by the way, there, just hearing you talk, it's great to hear just so much confidence. Like you have a lot of certainty, you have a lot of confidence, but also I don't hear any ego which is great. And so it's cool to hear like what you're working towards in 2026 too as well. But also, what about you though? What are you working towards, dude, so I've got, I got a couple my word. So you're actually, you remind me myself sometimes when you speak. It's really funny. You're like, I don't wanna put a word together. And what if I'm not working on that word, then am I, did I fail? Because I didn't accomplish that word, like I'm the exact same way, by the way. Yeah. Alright what's your coffee mug gonna say? Yeah, my coffee mug in 2025 would've said the word clarity. So in 2020, in January 1st, 2025, we asked our team just like how clear they were on the vision for where their roles, the company. And we, I really wanted to understand from people were they clear, like with the leadership of the company, and I didn't get the answers. I like, for me I want 10 out of tens, right? Like even if I see a seven, which actually don't even allow people to put sevens down, you have to put a six or an eight. I do not allow sevens'cause it's a default answer. I wanna know if I'm failing or passing. And what was interesting was I didn't get the score I wanted. So I made a commitment in 2025 to create clarity for my team on their role, the responsibility. What does success look like in their role? Who do they go to If they're not hitting success in that role, what are the KPIs that they're like targeting that they're working towards? So they know what success feels like to as well, how are they rewarded? Where's the clarity of the company going? And our word at our company retreat was clarity. And we had an EOS, which is an entrepreneur and operating system implementer come in and he led our company retreat in November and it was, it was a great year, but as we look into 20, in 20, 25 also, there's a lot of other, that was the company wide. And then for clarity as well, I was just, I was looking at clarity, like on, I don't wanna say the word, like personal brand, but essentially like kinda like all the stuff I've put together between like Chiro and 80 Growth Summit, adventure Summit, my Empire program. Like all the external things for beside corrective chiropractic. And I got real clear on that in 2025. So 2026 it's interesting, my word is impact for 2026. It's been, and that's your like soul's desire. Everything I do is run impact. Yes. If my, so one, one exercise I did with all 13 locations in the last 30 days was we went through to look at what was their utilization rate in 2025. Like our if we looked at a per perfect schedule for them, how close were they to a hundred percent of that. And some clinics hit like 30%, some were like 45%, some were 60%. And I shared that our company vision was to 75% company-wide. And I told them, I said, Hey, my word is impact for 2026, and if we can get you from 35% to 55%, that will 100% be impact for you. It'll be impact for your family. It'll be impact for your relationships. It'll be impact for your community. So like on the companywide side, like that's where I'm going with impact.'cause I know the difference it can make. And like I said earlier, and this is what I'm working with them on, is like literally some of these people are just that, like they are one relationship away from completely changing their lives. Like we have an influence that comes to our office and every time she posts about us, we get at least two new patients. A new patient for us is valued case value about eight is$4,000. So it's like$8,000. It's a hundred thousand dollars a year. Just on. One person. Can I ask you a question? Yeah. Okay. So let's say you're God and you're watching Austin and he's chosen his impact word. And don't ask me the question, you're not allowed to ask me the question back'cause I haven't thought about this at all. But again, like you said, like hearing you talk, I just hear. So let's say God's oh, that's a cute word. I love impact for you, what lesson, what word slash lesson do you think God would choose for you in 2026? Interesting. I have that already, and here's what it is. My, my phrase for 2026 to get to this is contract to expand. So what does that mean? I have locations that have been major distractions and sucking the life and blood out of me. Toxic people. Just, I can't go into the details, but there's been some bad stuff. We're like, I'm driving on Friday to close down one of them because it's just been taking it, I can't create impact. By holding on. And one thing, I just talked about this in my newsletter or my podcast last week, but it was all about tolerance. Something I tolerated. I'm not taking I'm removing tolerations. And that was something I've tolerated for a couple years. And why is because when I started going multi-unit, it felt good When I would go to places, this is an ego thing I'm about to share is I, it would feel good going to places and people would be like, dude, this guy's got 10 locations or 12 locations. Or 15 locations, whatever it is. And emotionally that felt good. Even though I knew deep down in my brain and my heart, they don't know what they're talking about. Yeah, on paper I have that, but three of'em lose money. You know what I mean? So but I tolerated that for ego purposes and that's a horrible way to live. And so this year I made a commitment to myself of what? And I wrote, I made a list of things I tol I've been tolerating in 2025, even in 2024, but things I've been tolerating. And that was one of them. And so that thing's getting shut down, but I'm also looking at other who, there's been people on my team who have tolerated, who aren't with us moving into 2026. I've really focused, and that's just clearing bottlenecks, right? Like when you cr when you clear a bottleneck, which is a very uncomfortable feeling, like major expansion happens. Right? You hold down a hose and you create that bottleneck and that hose, and you let it go. Who? And yeah. So I think he would be like, Austin, tolerate too much bullshit. Cut the fat and focus on the people that need you the most. And that's what we're doing. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I like that. The 2026. But I think, I see this in our profession, like when I first started and this profession was all about how many, what's your volume? Yeah, I was gonna say, I heard a lot of like ego shedding in that, but you can say tolerate, you can put a cute word on it. Yeah. Ego, ego shedding is not cute on a coffee mug. Not that word on that. You gotta like, people are like, what does that mean? You're like, find your own fucking business. It's my 2026 word from God. I, dude, let's, that was that was, people, but that was back in the days, like everybody had that. You go to a conference and you're not seeing that week we're all Yes. Loser, not about how much money you make. But it was all about your volume. Then. I was at a co I was at a conference a couple years ago and all people talked about to you was they're, they'd be like, oh yeah, I do 300 K or 400 k. I'm like, huh? And they're like, that's how much we do a month. I'm like, cool. I was like, what are y'all's profits on that? They're like it's not Austin. If you're doing 300,000 a month, you're making a lot of money. I was like. Are you that I don't know the Yeah, I know. It was like, it was the weirdest conversation and this company like sells you products and supplements. I don't want to use names of who they are, but all they talked about was monthly top line revenue. Huh. And it's been good to finally hear people like you and Josiah and just people just like when you say richness I don't think money, man. I think time with like my family. Like I think of I was in Aruba last week with doing like experiences like, and with my family. I'm going to later today, I'm leaving today and going to my buddy's farm for two days with my family, like that is richness. To me. All the other stuff that, like ego stuff that's out there. And I, I be, I feel very fortunate by the way to have learned a lot of this the hard way. At 43 I acquire clinics and one thing I've learned is when I'm reaching out to these docs who are like in their sixties or seventies. What they tell me is there's a lot of ego, by the way, in their practices.'cause the feelings they have on how much their practice is worth is really not what the numbers say. And I say no, as I was like, Hey, how much do you think you're, how much are you trying to sell your practice for? And they go I feel like it's worth 75% of the revenue. And I say every person who comes to your pays per visit, you don't have an associate, you don't have an EHR system and you take 80% insurance when you walk away. If you're gone for two weeks, the practice will do zero revenue. Your practice is almost worth$0, by the way. And they're like no. I've been in this community for 30 years. I've got 8,000 patient files. And I'm like, okay man I'm just telling you, those are feelings. And it's sad. Yeah. There's a Facebook group called Chiropractic Clinics for Sale and the amount of people that have been on there recently talking about how long they've had their practice listed for, they thought they were building an asset. And it ended up being what they thought it was like they could have took. So they, yeah. So hopefully people start listening and getting cues in and dude shed your ego shed. Build systems, build frameworks, create an asset, and God's good man. Amen. Yeah, it's wait are there tell me about experiences though, by the way. Do you have any experiences you wanna do in 2026? Yes. So many. Oh my gosh. I'm a travel junkie, so I love seeing your videos, by the way, when you do travel. The Japan one was amazing and it actually, oh, Japan was amazing. I'm fighting everything not to go back to Japan. At, we're gonna do something in June with the family. We don't, we honestly, we don't really know where we're gonna go yet. We got a week and a half that it could be Switzerland. My daughter doesn't wanna go where it's hot.'Cause like I would love to go to Morocco, but my 13 year old's ew, that's hot. Okay. What other experiences? I really don't have. I turned 40, so I would love some quality time with my girlfriends. Like I, I am somebody that doesn't have a lot of local friends. My friends are in Dallas, in Colorado, on the east coast, on the west coast, and they're just big picture people. And I would just love an experience that has like, all of us together and like our own little mastermind. I think that's one of the things I would love to call in, but that'd be cool. Yeah. Yeah. The hey, if Kirby wants to come do the Teton crash Trail, dude, Kirby, I know you're back there. Yes. 40, 40 miles. You made him nervous. Now he's oh, it's only 20. It's only 20 hours, but one, like one of the most beautiful places. God, I can't even explain. Like when we were out there in the Grand Canyon, I told my guy, the guys who I was with, I was like, guys. You can't even explain to people what this is like. This is not, and it's cool. It's like our country has so many beautiful places. It really does amazing. The more you see the world, the more you're like, oh, this is amazing. Like Italy is like nothing in American, but you're like, oh, Tuscany really similar to Napa guys. Like really? Si and there's all these like cool cities that you're like, oh, this is, yeah. So yeah, the world is cool, but like America fucking rocks. Fricking rocks, dude. And have you ever been to Jackson Hole before? No. Okay. That's where A lot, I haven't seen a lot of the middle of the the like Tetons Zion, because they're really hard to get to. And we've really prioritized direct flights because we live two hours from an airport. So we're gonna have to change it or just rent an RV or something because yeah, the national parks, they're not convenient to fly into. The n not at all. We actually had fly into Phoenix and Drive three, it was like three hours to drive there, so it was a lot. Wait, I got two questions I wanna ask you. Okay. There's something you've been talking about on your podcast recently. I'm curious, what have I been talking about? I think you've been talking about this and maybe you've been talking about social media, and correct me if I'm wrong, if you haven't been talking about it, then just say, Austin, I actually have not been talking about that. Did you say that you're gonna retire by 45, 47, 47? Now, is it to completely retire or is it to have the freedom to retire where then you get to do what you want to do when you want to do it? I'm just curious. I will never stop working. Okay. That would be another question. My I believe that first of all, I'm a workaholic. Second of all, I think that when you study the blue zones. Like work is one of the unanimous things that gets somebody to become a Arian, a centipede, to get someone to become a centipede, they have to keep working. So no, I want the freedom to do whatever the fuck I want and I do not wanna be dependent on, so I want our passive income. What it means is that our passive income and anybody who thinks that a personal brand is passive can spend a day. Yeah. Is that our passive income from investments? Real estate, crypto, and who knows what prayers for crypto in 2026. Maybe I'll retire in a year through all of our portfolio of investments that we are making our monthly freedom number. Okay, this is the amount that we not need to survive, but that we want. To live on comfortably. Now this isn't$2 million a year, right? We kinda recalculate it every year to make sure, but it's this level of yeah, it's enough for me to be within walking distance of an ocean for me to drink my coffee in the morning there for me to pay for a gym. Like to be able to work out to, and to have the freedom to invent new projects that are not like, okay, you need this launch to be six figures because you are like investments in so like right now we are in hustle mode. It is make money, invest money, buy properties, invest it. Now we're not doing it as much as Kirby would like because we have to balance our money personalities. And I also like to travel. But that's what that means is we are at a point of our monthly passive income, passive that I don't have to work, we don't have to. I will, but I don't have to, I don't always have to invent new projects. I was just really nervous that in seven years from now I don't know what I would listen to when I'm like training for my crazy hikes or runs and I was thinking to my brain like, you might need to find something else. Who knows? Move towards next. The thing is that if I close the podcast, I guarantee you within three weeks, it would be like, okay, so now there's this new voice memo delivering service that Lauren is. Yeah, no. No, I, yeah, it's no, I wouldn't quit. Maybe ai I'll have something where I'll be like, create a podcast of Lauren Brunswick for She Slaves and I want to taco. Yeah, I'll sell my hologram. I'll run with you. Maybe like this dude. That'll be, huh? No, that would be fun. Here I got one more. Okay. Because I was curious about that'cause I've seen you talk about that and I know what that meant to you, so now it's good to hear that. I love that by the way. The second one is for chiropractors that are moving into 2026, like you work with a lot of chiropractors and people I'm sure DM you ask you questions like same. I get the same stuff. What's something you're thinking chiropractors should be looking into, focusing on working on? Grow a fucking pair of balls. What does that mean? It means either. Sell your practice and associate and realize that you are actually more comfortable being an employee, being told what to do and living in a co. Like either just live in the comfort bubble or just keep your practice and realize that this is where you're happy, whether you realize it or not. You are comfortable making$300,000 gross revenue a year, 200. Like you're in your comfort zone and be just happy. You can live a great life. Maybe lo, see if you can like lower your hours, play with that, but just be okay, being comfortable or go no, I am deeply uncomfortable and I'm ready to move. You get to be in one of three buckets. Pick a bucket like either downsize your responsibilities, be totally content with the career you've chosen and where you are. Currently stagnating.'cause you don't have to stagnate forever. Like maybe you're in a period of raising kids. Like we were not doing this shit. Our kids are old. We have an 11-year-old and a soon to be 14-year-old. Kirby and I were talking like when our kids were zero to seven, we weren't starting a podcast. We were raising our kids. We were cool with our humble life because, so just accept where you're at right now or grow a pair and level up like, but don't keep doing the thing, the self or the like self torture of saying, I really wish I was that I'm a loser because I'm not that. I'm like, no, if you like, don't self torture. Just be accepting or. Be like, all right, I am uncomfortable with where I'm at and I'm going, I want, I'm willing to get uncomfortable to get to that next stage, and I'm okay with all three. Yeah. I think all three are necessary, and so many people hear that and they go, oh, I'm a loser if I'm not that third one wanting to level up. No, you're not. No, you're not like you are. Nobody is a loser in my life. If they are choosing to associate and be present with their family, nobody is a loser. If they came in and they're like, honestly, our clinic's doing this. I work 15 hours a week. I know I could make more, but I'm super happy. I'm like, damn, that sounds like you have created your heaven and I'm so happy for you. But we just, it's the ego. It's the ego of Ugh, if I'm not going for a seven figure clinic and I'm not like training for a double quintuple marathon and I'm not doing this I should want that. So I'm gonna tell myself I want that, even though I don't really want that. Interesting. I was I always think about this. If, when I first started in chiropractic, my options by the way were to go work somewhere making$40,000 base. And every adjustment we made over 200, 200 visits that week, I got an extra dollar and I was like, wait a minute. So if we do 300 a week, that's an extra$5,200 a year. That's 45 and I increase the Nah. I'm like, this ain't gonna work. Yeah. Or my other option was to open my own practice. Now I agree with you by the way. Like I, if I walked into a chiropractic class right now and asked, who here wants to own their own practice? I bet at least 80% raise their hand. 80% is exactly what I was gonna guess. But that's not, that's bad actually. Now, maybe that's on us as well. That's obviously on us in the profession now, a thousand oh nine. Nowadays, there's really good systems and really good opportunities that people can step into. Like for example, like we hire clinic CEOs, like who basically these are like lead doctors. But what I've done is I've given them a system and a framework and I work with them and we grow these clinics and many of them are doing better than most of my friends who own their own practice. And they have way more freedom. So it's interesting. It's like these people yeah, you can find great associate situations like amazing asso. And I see something and you post some of them by the way, don't you you share some of these ones. I'm thinking in my head, I'm like, it's a very different world now than it was when you and I first started. And man, I that's gonna be, I think I know what I'm gonna get you. I'm gonna get you a mug and the handle's gonna be two bowls and it's gonna have accept acceptance written around it. And that's your coffee mug for 2026. Damn it. Grow a pair. Grow a pair. And that just means grow a pair and accept where you're at then. That's also a different kind of courage, the different kind of courage that we just don't, we just don't glorify it on stages. Like the ability to be just so content with the stage of life you're at is a whole compare. They're comparing themselves though, dude. It's compare game. Yeah. It's I said this though, actually at y'all's conference, somebody was, I was talking to, somebody was like, oh, I really wanna be where you are. Like, dude, you're comparing like my chapter 35 to your chapter two. There's 33 chapters you need to go through to get to there's a lot of failures I've had to get to where I've gotten to and a lot of really hard things I've had to do. An uncomfortable situation I've had to force myself into in order to get to this point. But, dude, it's go at your own pace and dude what makes you happy? Who do you want to be? What are your values? Just the fun, the fundamentals, man. Listen, we're only gonna live here once on this earth. Might as well enjoy it. I know. I know. That's all we get. Dude, anything else you want to hit? I feel like we, we nailed a lot of this today. This was a fun conversation. I always love talking to you, by the way. It's always fun. We cover so many things. I love it. No, we could keep talking forever. We didn't even talk about personal brand. So we'll do another episode sometime. Yeah. Oh, we talked about centipedes. We talked about centipedes and philoso raptors. That was the word I was looking for. Philoso raptors, velociraptors, man. Great memory there. What's so people want to find information about you, like Instagram is the best place or Yeah, Instagram is definitely the best place. The handle is at Dr. Lauren, B-L-A-U-R-Y-N and the letter B. Yeah, that's where I'm definitely most active. Send me a dm. You will get a response from me that's me. I'm still with the people enough. No, I don't outsource as, I don't believe in that. Jasmine Starr, who is like a huge thing. She's answering her dms. You gotta, I dunno. We'll talk Austin. We'll do a call. We're gonna, I answer my dms. Okay. I do all that. I just want you to be posting in your feed too. Oh, okay. I do need to work on that. I think I avoided the personal brand conversation'cause you were gonna go through my Instagram and destroy me. Yeah. We'll do that off air. I probably should. We shoulda have done that. If it makes you feel better. I just did a consult a free, because he's a friend, but he's an eight figure chiro coach. And I just, I ripped him a new one too. I send him dms. What was your purpose of this reel? What's exactly happening here? Was this a so that's how you know you're in Lauren's love fest of personal branding is when I send you shit, what, what is happening? Or fix this, add captions. That means you love me. Thank you. It means I love you. It means I love you. So be prepared. Be prepared for the way I love delete. Blocked. All right, do hey, I hope we get to see each other in person in 2026. Yes. Yes. Meet you. I don't know when or where that will be, but I think there's I think we may have come up with a a masterclass, by the way, on the, I think so, too. The time, like building out a framework of what does that look like? The CEO time and clarity around that.'cause it's talking point, but is it really what is the value around that? So anyways, let's do that. All right. Hey, oh, good. On my podcast, I wanna thank everybody for listening. And you know what I didn't do, by the way, on? I usually start my podcast off with, I, I have a phrase I say, by the way, before I start, and everyone's gonna miss out on that. I usually start off and I say, what's up everybody? And they didn't get that do that for them guests, huh? Oh, I could not. Oh, I could not. Don't, yeah.'cause you didn't do you read intros or are you gonna use this as a part two? You should use this as multiple parts. By the way, you, if you're normally doing 20 minute episodes and you have guests on, break'em up. Get more man, Lauren. Yeah. Listen to Lauren. Everybody. I wish I listened to Lauren four years ago when I started listening to her stuff and I did. Now I do. Greg is all in your timing. It's all in your timing. Oh my gosh. Alright. Hey, you're the best. Have a good New Year's. Good to see you. Happy New Year's CEO program. Check it out. Coming in 2026. I know. I love people here before then. All right guys. Take care. All right. Bye. Don't forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode. To learn more about building your business, leadership, and life on purpose, visit chiro one eighty.com or follow Austin on Instagram at Dr. Austin Cohen.