EP56: The $2 That Was Costing Me Everything

In 2010, I was one year into building Corrective Chiropractic. I was grinding hard, doing everything myself, and convinced I was being responsible with money. Then my business coach caught me asking a valet for $2 change — and told me that single moment explained exactly why I was stuck.

This episode is the story of that conversation, what it revealed about the scarcity operating system running my entire life, and the slow, intentional work of rewiring it. We're talking about the gas tank you fill on empty, the laundry you do on your last pair, the marketing you run in a panic — and what all of it is really telling you about who you believe you are.

Fifteen years later, I handed a valet a $20 in the Cayman Islands and didn't think twice. Same scenario. Completely different man. That gap is what this episode is about.

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Transcript

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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 Don't forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode. What's up everybody? Welcome back. Austin Co podcast. We are episode 56. Crazy to think. Man, I hope you guys are really enjoying this As much as I've been doing this, we're coming up on the one year anniversary mark, which is really wild to think about, and it's been really cool to hear a lot of testimonials from so many of you. I get to hear it from many of you in the. Freedom Accelerator program that is absolutely crushing it. A lot of two 50 K quarters. A lot of records. Awesome to hear that. And then also with the Empire Group, just hearing a lot of scalability now starting to think a bit differently about the business. Gosh, it's the Chiro 80 stuff now that we're able to push into chiropractic results.com to really start boosting your ai. Presence, which is gonna be huge. And those that get ahead of that, think about that. You're doing spinal health scores on everybody, why not just push it directly to chiropractic results, which takes two clicks? Yeah, man, it's what a quarter. What A quarter. And I've got a really good story that I wanna share today that if I do my job right. Somewhere in the middle of this thing, you're gonna start to hear yourself. 'cause I've been in this situation many times and I believe this is a moment that is gonna be definitely worth more than anything. I could, put into some slideshow doing a coaching session do it a growth summit. This to me is gonna be a story that hopefully will resonate with many of you. And as you move into Q2, really start making some different decisions and lemme take you back. And 2010, I'm one year in practice. I started my practice in Buckhead Atlanta, 2009. Back then it was called Cohen Chiropractic Center. Horrible name. I decided to rebrand it to corrective Chiropractic, but that didn't happen in 2012, but I opened that clinic back in 2009, right in the middle of a recession. And looking back, right? You think about it, either one of the boldest things I've ever done or the dumbest decision ever made. But it, I appreciated that decision because that made me stronger for when things like COVID hit or really tough times, because it definitely made you grind and think differently about the world. But dude, I was hungry in 2010, 2009 when I was young. 27, 28 years old, I was fired up. Big vision, and that's something I've always had, is I've always been a big vision guy. And always been somebody who's good about putting in things into action to as well, right? My life now is different than what I thought it would look based on this vision that I had for, but very grateful for where it is right now. And the reality was that year one was definitely humbling. In years, I was not prepared for, back then in 2009, you really had to sell a chiropractic as a necessity, not a luxury. The world was different. There was no Facebook there. Marketing, there was no, there wasn't just like the marketing and the social proof that there is now. Really, it was a lot of person to person relationship building, which is exactly, which was great. And, I was doing a lot of events on the weekends, a lot of grinding showing up early, staying late, doing new patient exams over lunch, doing 'em before work, staying late after work. Every hat in the office. I was that person, the doctor, the marketer, the front desk, the janitor, like accountant, the what, whatever you want to call it, right? That was my role. And, like I would get home from work and I would just get right onto my computer and I'm on clip art, essentially like building flyers. This is pre-day of virtual assistants and ai and none of this existed. So I was very desperate to make something work. And I was scared to death that it just, it wouldn't, and I'm somebody who's always had a business coach always. That to me is maybe one of the most important things. I've opened up the door to many of you for the Ascent program, which I would say is a very wise investment to be able to work with me. A lot of really good stuff has happened this year for those that have, but always been somebody who's had a coach. And there's been times I've definitely questioned it, right? Like I'd go through maybe a couple weeks, right? And know if there was value in the coaching. But if I look back on the 10 years of having the same coach, that coach was doing exactly what I needed and I didn't see it at that time. And we'll get into that bit more later. But I remember being on the phone with him one day and I'm outside at a valet leaving a restaurant and I hand the valet guy five bucks. And I asked for $2 change. I said, Hey man can I get $2 back? My coach heard that and he was right there on the phone with me and he gets quiet for a second. He says, hold on. Did you just ask that guy for $2 back? I said, yeah dude. $2. Man. It's $2. Like money's tight right now. I just started my practice like less than a year ago, Austen. That right there, that is exactly why you're stuck. Yeah. And my first reaction when he first said this to me was be very defensive. 'cause I thought I was being responsible. I thought I was being smart. I thought I was doing what you're supposed to do when money is tight, which is watch every single dollar. And it's like you, you always hear these stories about money mindset and how money doesn't grow on trees. And a lot of these lack in scarcity belief systems. And, here's the thing about scarcity thinking is. That's what it tells you. Like to me, it disguises itself as wisdom, and you're trying to justify why it's okay to get that $2 back. Like it says, I'm just being realistic. I'm being careful, I'm making smart decisions. So you really never questioned it because it sounds reasonable. But my coach wasn't done and he started asking me questions when I got back into my car. And with every answer the picture. It got clear and a little harder for me to look at, but definitely one of the most transformational things that I ever did. One of, I remember the next question he asked me, he goes, Hey Austin when do you fill up your gas tank? And I said, when the light comes on I don't know man. I usually get about 30 miles left when the light comes on, that's when I fill it up. When the warning light is literally telling me I'm about to be straight on the side of the road yeah, that's when I fill it up. And then he said, laundry. I was like, when do you do your laundry? And I said I don't know. Like when I start getting to the pairs of underwear that I don't wanna wear anymore, man. There's literally nothing left. That's when I do laundry. And then he asked me about marketing. He's Hey, when do you guys do your marketing? Like, when do you guys have your marketing meetings? When do you guys do your strategic marketing event? And I said we don't really do that. We're not really doing that proactively. I'm just kinda doing that all the time. Right now, there's no standard operating rhythm that we have in our business. So if we notice that it's slower, then we're gonna definitely go heavier at it and. He let that sit with me for a minute, and then he said, Hey, Austen, do you see what's happening? Excuse me. Everything you're doing is reactive. Everything is at the last possible second. Like you're running your entire life, like you're in emergency mode and you don't even know it. Boom. That hit me hard. Why? He was right. I wasn't making decisions from a plan or a vision or a standard. I was making decisions from fear, from lack, and essentially from this low grade anxiety that something was about to run out and the $2 at the valet was not about the $2 if you're seeing this right, it was a symptom like that. $2 was a window into the operating system that was running every single thing in my life. So let's talk about scarcity thinking for a minute, right? Because I wanna make sure we're all using the same definition here. I think a lot of people hear scarcity mindset and they think, okay, that's just about money. That's a broke person thing, and they pretty much check out because they don't think it applies to them. Scarcity thinking is so much bigger than that, and it is so freaking sneaky guys. Scarcity thinking is the belief and usually by the way, it's an unconscious thing that there's not enough money. Hold up. Not enough time, not enough patience, not enough opportunity, not enough. Whatever resource. Resource feels most tight right now, and when you operate from that belief, every decision gets filtered through it. Every single one. It shows up as hesitation when you should probably moving a bit quicker. And this to me, was one of the most transformational things for my career to get me to where I've gotten to it. Literally, scarcity shows up, overthinking when the answer is obvious. Doing things yourself when you should be delegating undercharging because you're afraid the patient will say, no, not investing in your team, because what if they leave? How about this shows up as holding your marketing budget hostage based on last month's numbers? And here's the thing that nobody talks about. Scarcity thing is not just a personal character flaw. Literally, this thing can be contagious and it's something that can spread through your entire team. Your staff 100% feels it when you walk in the room. And your patients can feel it. When you present a care plan. There is an energy to a scarcity mindset. There's like this tightness that's in there and people pick up on it when they can't really name it, but they know what it is. And I've walked into clinics, coaching chiropractors, and I can tell within 10 minutes whether the doctor is operating from scarcity or abundance. Whatever resource that is, and I don't have to look at the numbers really to see this and you can feel it in the front desk, the way they greet you, whether the space feels alive or is it just like a functioning office, how the doctor talks about their fees. Like the numbers confirm what the energy already told me, think about that for a second. The numbers confirm what the energy told me. Now, lemme get back to the story by the way. 'cause I think their specifics here matter. After that conversation with my coach, I started paying attention and really paying attention because once you see it like it's not something you can unsee. And I started catching myself all the time, little moments of scarcity that I completely normalized and truly justified. And I would drive past the gas station like I needed gas and I was already late. And I would just get it tomorrow or I'd put off a phone call to like maybe a referral partner or a business partner. 'cause I was tired and yeah, I was doing, when things slowed down things don't slow down as we all know. Or like I would hold off on hiring even when I desperately needed help because I wasn't sure I could sustain the payroll. Many of us have done this before. I'm guilty of this as well, discounting my fees when a patient pushed, backed, not because the discount was right, I was scared to lose them. And here's the thing. None of those individual decisions and we've all been there, looked catastrophic as one isolated piece. They all had their justification, whether it was a reason, a story. But if I zoom out and look at all of it together, there's a pattern. You could see someone operating from a place of fear instead of faith. And you guys see these shirts all the time, right? Like faith over fear, more of a reacting mindset instead of leading in a very survival mode. And listen, I wanna be very clear, like I'm not saying there's anything wrong with being in a hard season financially. Like I've been there and a lot of people listening to this. Yeah. Some of you are there right now. Being tight on money is not the same thing as a scarcity thinking. The difference is whether you're making decisions from a place of lack or are you making it from a place of vision. And you can have very little money and still operate from abundance or you can have plenty of money. And still be running on scarcity, like I've seen both, and you can trust me on that one. The shift for me did not happen overnight, though. Very impossible. The conversation with my coach, what it did was it planted a seed and what did I have to do? I had to keep watering it. I had to keep catching myself and asking, wait, am I making this decision based because it's the right move or because I'm scared? And one of the first things he told me was to start practicing abundance in small, tangible ways every single day. Not huge ones, small ones, things that would start to train my brain to stop operating from a place of emergency mode. So fill up the gas tank before the light comes on. I now fill up my gas tank when it's halfway. Why do I need to wait for it to be on the red when the light comes on? That's a way, that's, that no, makes no sense. Do the laundry before you're completely out of options. Very easy to do that too as well. Run your marketing regardless of what the schedule looks like. How about this tip? Generously. What about your office space? Invest in Austin, invest in your people. Make decisions from where you're going, not from where you are right now. When I started investing in my people, my team, this didn't become about jobs people. This became about careers, and we can work together where it equally can be a win-win for both people here. And what I noticed over time was the small thing started to shift to something bigger. My energy changed, my confidence changed the way I talked about my practice. Guess what? That changed too as well. And also for some of you maybe near to hear this, the way I presented my care plans also begin to change. And eventually what happened? Byproduct the numbers changed. Revenue, profit. Was it immediately? No trajectory? Yes. And once I got outta my own way and stopped letting scarcity run the show, things started to open up. And ways I could not have manufactured by grinding harder. And I do think about this a lot when I'm working with chiropractors in my coaching programs, because I see it everywhere. I see docs that are unbelievable clinicians, literally, genuinely talented people with incredible outcomes. They're capped. They cannot get past a certain revenue number. They can't even hold onto their best team members like they're a players. They can't hold onto 'em for that long. Usually it's about 24 to 36 months. They also can't seem to attract the patients that actually they, that they wanna work with. And nine times out of 10, when we dig in. There's a scarcity operating system running the whole thing. How they practice their, how they price their services, whether they have morning huddles or not, whether they invest in their lobby experience, patient experience, have had the same chair since 2008, whether they're proactively reaching out to business partners or they're waiting for someone to call them. The most common thing I hear is I'll invest in that when we're doing. Better. I'll hire when I have more patience. I'll upgrade this space when the revenue goes up. You know what? I'll get a coach when I can afford it, and I wanna say this as lovingly as I can. That thinking is exactly what's keeping you where you are. You cannot wait until after you start leading like who you need to become. You have to become that person first. The day your team surpasses your leadership, they're gone. Why would they stay? What do they need you for? So hopefully you heard that sentence correctly. By the way, lemme see about this one though. You cannot wait. Until after to start leading, like who you need to become. You've gotta become that person first. And that is not some motivation poster. That is just how it works. The identity shift has to come before the results, and it is not the other way around. And I cannot understand so many of you that are on the fence right now for my Ascent program, and I get it because you've been burned by other chiropractor coaches, other programs. This I don't have contracts. You're not getting value, then leave. There's no sales pitch I'm giving you. It's just, it's how it is. And so many of you have gotten such great results that the mindset of you right now is oh, I've gotta implement. And that thinking again just drives us back to scarcity. It's like that fear of maybe having to like another monthly investment even though you're doing so well in practice right now and your ROI has been huge on all the stuff I've been teaching. I don't get it. And that's the stuff that holds people stuck. And I truly think that's what's got me to where I've gotten to, is just always saying yes, being open, knowing that my coaches have always had my best interest in mind. And what I've had to do, as many of is I've had to move outside of chiropractic in order to go now to business coaches real, like true business coaches of people doing things that I could only imagine doing that I can't understand yet, and being really scared. My business coaching right now is $7,500 a month. I hope you hear that and understand that scares me. And people would say, yeah, but he has that. But I did it before I was ready for that. And, I just, I hate hearing so many of you that are stuck because you've been burned in the past by this profession. I get it. Like I've been there. I'm telling you right now, if you follow and listen to things I'm saying, I've opened up 20 locations in my career of chiropractic offices. I'm, I've averaged over more than one practice a year. I don't want this to come off of ego, but I truly know what works and I've got the practices to back it up that are all cash high recurring revenue, high wellness plans, high retention, high conversions. My main location, my bucket office at 88% conversion in the last two months. This stuff works guys. Now let's fast forward to this week. This morning I was actually in the Cayman Islands. Grant Cayman family trip, just the four of us. Unbelievable experience. Just to be together as a family. This, this is why I do what I do, is to create those type of experiences and hopefully you guys are doing these things as well. And I pull up to the valet outside as we're about to leave and I look in my pocket and I have 80 bucks and it's four $20 bills. That's all I've got. And I hand over without thinking about it. I'm not doing math in my head. I don't ask for change, and I don't calculate what this valet service is worth and whether I'm overpaying. It's a thank you, and I move on and that valet person got a $20 tip, and as I'm in my car, it really hits me right. I'm back in that valley scenario 15 years later. Different country, different bank account, different life, but it's the same scenario. And the $20 I handed over without a second thought used to be the $2 I asked to get back. Same moment, different person. And I wanna be careful here because I don't want this to be about the money. I genuinely do not want to see out the money. I'm telling the story, or I'm not telling the story to flex on anybody. I'm telling it because the gap between the two moments. It's not a financial gap, it's an identity gap. It's a mindset gap. The financial part is the byproduct. The version of me in 2010 didn't need a bigger bank account. What he needed was a bigger belief system. He needed someone to hold up a mirror and say. The way you're moving through the world right now is a reflection of what you believe about yourself and what you believe is possible. And that's what my coach did for me that day at the valet. He did not gimme a business strategy. It was a moment of truth, and I'm grateful for that every single day. And here's what I wanna leave you with. I want you to think about your own valet moments. And I don't mean a literal valet, obviously. The play, and maybe this is, maybe it was a valet, by the way. Maybe you do ask for a change on a $5 bill. The place in your life or your business where scarcity is running the show, and you've called it something reasonable. You've called it being careful or being smart or being realistic. Hey, maybe this is that push that's gonna push you to join me on May 5th. Where are you filling up on empty? Where are you doing laundry on your last pair? Where are you running? Marketing on a panic instead of intention? And where are you asking for $2 back? Because I promise you. It's somewhere. We all have it somewhere, and the question is whether you're willing to see it. And once you see it, whether you're willing to do something about it, that's the key. The beautiful thing is about this, is that I wanna end on this, is the shift in mindset is available to you right now today. Not when the revenue is up, not when you finally feel ready. Not the next big month. Right now you can make one decision today from abundance. Instead of scarcity one, fill the gas tank before the light comes on. Find that business partner. Like for those of you that join my Ascent program, who are those of you joining it? I'm sending you. I'm having my marketing agent. Go out and send you 30 plus businesses that you can do cookie drop off program at now. We'll talk more in detail about that later, but you have over 30 businesses. Start reaching out. Invest in that team member before you completely backed into a corner. Hey, tip the valet drive without doing math. Start there. Start small. But here's what I want you to start. Start with intention because the small things, as we all know, are never really small. Their data, they are telling you and everyone around you. Who you believe you are and what you think you deserve. And I'll tell you right now, I know a lot of you who listen to these podcasts, you deserve a whole lot more than $2. Thanks for joining me today and I look forward to talking to you all next week. And if you have any questions about the Ascent program, it's a cent dot chiro eighty.com. The reason of Ascent is we are gonna the mountaintop baby. I promise you that. And I wanna stop having you be the hero, CEO. And start understanding what it looks like in order to start delegating and building your business. Have a great day. 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.