EP67: Potential Doesn’t Equal Performance

A great product, a talented team, and massive potential are not enough. In this episode, Dr. Austin Cohen breaks down the leadership lesson behind companies like Lucid and how the same principle applies inside a chiropractic practice. If your team feels unclear, inconsistent, or dependent on you for every decision, the issue may not be talent. It may be leadership clarity. Austin explains why vision has to become standards, standards have to become systems, and systems have to become performance.

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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 Cohen Podcast. Man, we are about eight days away from the halfway point for 2026. And man, some of you guys are on track with your goals, some of you guys are off track Some of you just need to make more commitment. You created the clarity, but you gotta commit first, and there and there's a differentiator between those two. And we talked about this at Growth Summit, right? It's like there's the four Cs. There's clarity, commitment, consistency, and then ultimately compound growth. And you can be clear and not h- do anything with the clarity that you've built out, and no commitment, but you gotta have all four. And it's okay. Maybe you're a little behind right now. That's okay. What are you gonna do to get back on track? To me, I love my birthday, looking at... Like, when I turn 45 next year, it's am I better now at 45 than I was at 44 as a human being? Not am I making more money, but overall, collectively of my life. And then I look at July 1. Where am I in alignment with what I set out last October? Am I on track or off track, and what do I need to do to correct the ship? And then in October is my favorite time because that's when I'll then plan for the upcoming year for 2027. So those are usually the three big dates I have in my life and one of those is coming up, so just really a good check-in for a lot of you, 'cause I think a lot of people will start to realize how far off they are from their goals, and what do they do? They quit. And that's really just the difference to me from what I see for those who have massive growth and those who don't is that level of consistency as things get really hard. So not really what I wanna talk about today. There is a little bit of clarity I do wanna talk about today. One thing that many of you guys have been hearing about on things that I talk about is on social media recently, I've just been sharing what I'm seeing in different companies and sports businesses, and some of the positives and some of the negatives around that, and then also providing a level of leadership around it and what's going on. So in today's world, you will have companies that have really good products and will still struggle, and this is true in chiropractic too as well. There's great chiropractors who still struggle. And one of the examples that's really shown up recently on my feed in some business articles that I read is a company called Lucid, the car f- company that many of you guys have heard about before. Unbelievable product, right? High-end brand, lot of potential. I would argue it's probably run by some of the smartest people ever. But just because the potential is there does not automatically turn into high performance for that. And that is gonna be true so much in so many of all of our businesses because at the end of the day you have the talent, but without direction, there will, can be underperforming players and underperforming company. So the thing I want you to be thinking about is the problem in their business that they may be thinking is their team, and they may s- be saying things such as, "Ah, man, our team at Lucid, they just don't get it. Like-" They're not bought in right now. They don't, they're not moving fast enough. They don't care as much as I do. And you may find yourself saying the exact same things. And, most of the time the real issue is not that those people are incapable, it's that leadership hasn't created enough clarity. And we'll just tie right back to this word again. And where is that clarity, right? It's around the vision of the company and the brand. Clarity around the standard. Clarity around what are the expectations that people have. Who owns what? What does winning actually look like, right? Lucid is interesting because from the outside you look at it and you can say, "Holy crap, they've got so much going for them." The car is unbelievable, the engineering, the positioning that they've got, the market opportunity, especially with gas prices as high as they are right now. But leadership is what will turn all of that into the execution, and that to me is where every business will either hit that compound growth that we talked about or they collapse. Now, for chiropractic it's the same thing Can you have a great location in chiropractic 100% and be a great adjuster, Gonstead, CBP, full spine, whatever it is, like top-notch? 100%. Do you maybe care massively about your patients and you have a team full of good people? Yeah. But the practice isn't growing. It's drifting because there's no clear leadership system. The friend de- front desk may do something one way, the CA does it a different way. The doctor is thinking about the big picture and the vision, but nobody knows it and what the big picture actually is. I've been guilty of that too as well. Everyone's gotta be in alignment of the vision. 2030 for corrective chiropractic, 75% utilization rate. It's very simple. There is a capacity each clinic has on what 100% looks like for their clinics. 75% is the goal by 2030, and we're gonna do whatever it takes to get there. And, you find yourself getting frustrated and saying things such as, "Oh, man, why can't they just figure this out?" They can't execute what hasn't been clearly defined, and the leadership lesson is that leadership is not just about having a big vision, but it's about out- making your vision usable to them, taking what is in your head and turning it into something your team can actually follow. So what does that mean? Clear expectations, if you're writing this down, clear communication, clear scorecards, a clear meeting rhythm, clear accountability, clear standards for how patient experience looks like, so that way they're getting the same thing every single time. Clear ownership of outcomes. Because if everything depends on the owner or the lead person remembering and reminding and reacting, then that business is not being led at all. It is 100% being dragged, and for those that have read the book Traction, you know a lot about what I'm talking about. What's really cool right now is for those of you in ascent right now and you're listening to this conversation or even Empire program, you're thinking and hearing this thinking, "All right. I've got a lot of this built out now. This is awesome to hear." Yeah. And I think this can be where a lot of practice owners get stuck. Everybody wants freedom, but they haven't created the structure 'cause it's hard, or they want accountability, but there's no clear standard, right? Like you want your team to take ownership- but they don't even have a scorecard of what to own. Or you want people to lead, but they've never been shown what leadership looks like inside the practice, and you're still wondering why everything runs through you. That is not a team problem. That is a leadership problem right there, 100%. This is why for those that wanna create really good patient experiences, I always teach, show your team what a really good experience looks like. Take them to a really nice restaurant. Take them to a very cool place that has experience. Actually, over the next couple days, my Empire program, which are, like, our high-level, my high-level consulting clients, we're gonna be visiting Chick-fil-A and talking to an owner who owns three Chick-fil-As. We're gonna be talking to the CFO of Inspire Brands. Yeah, that's the company that runs Dunkin' Donuts, Arby's high-level company. Then we're gonna be going to Delta and taking a tour of Delta and understanding the business around Delta. For those of you guys that have been to Growth Summit, you know on how I operate events. They're gonna be high level and they're gonna definitely be done in a very good way where there'll be a lot of learning from it too as well. A you look at Lucid the car company. I think it's showing something so important. A great product is not enough. The market is not gonna reward you because, oh, there's a lot of potential here. At some point of your business, that potential has gotta become execution, and execution comes from one area of your life, and it shows up when nobody's watching you, and that is leadership. Not hype, not ideas, not talent alone, leadership. So if you're a practice owner or a leader in your practice or a clinic CEO and you're listening to this, here's the question And I'll give you like five or six of them just so you can jot these down to think about. Where is your practice relying on potential instead of leadership right now? Where are you assuming your team knows what you mean? Because you're getting frustrated, by the way. But where are you frustrated with someone and maybe you haven't clearly defined the expectation? Where are you saying, gosh, they should know this, when the truth is it actually only exists in your head? That's the work. It's not just about being a great adjuster or the hardest worker or the one who cares the most. The work is becoming the kind of leader who can turn vision into standards. Standards will convert into systems and systems convert into performance. Your practice will never outgrow your leadership. If you're a level three leader, the second your team becomes level four leaders or level five leaders, they will 100% leave your practice. You will never get A players. If you're a C or a B player, you will never attract A players. Your team will always rise to the level of the clarity that you create for them. And if you want a high-performing practice, you can't hope people will just figure it out, man. You've gotta lead it. You gotta define what does winning look like and communicate it over and over. You've gotta, inspect what you expect. Think about that. You're, you have these hopes and these wishes and these wants. They came to you because they envisioned, they trusted your leadership. Now it's up to you to communicate that to them, but also deliver on it. Build a business where people know exactly where they're going, why it matters, and what standard they're being held to. That is leadership. And that is the difference between having potential and actually performing at a high level. For those of you in my ascent right now, we're in the process of building your ladder, but we're also building your floor, the floors of your company as well. The ladder of where people can go and the floor of the company of the people that work in, within your company so you can have high performers who are earning exactly what their goals are. For those of you guys that are interested in the Ascent program, which is my coaching program, that cohort two will begin on September 8th. For those that are interested in that, you've gotta go to the website ascent.chiro180.com, join the wait list. I will only take 20 people into that first into that second cohort. I think this will probably be my last cohort for 2026 just based on the holiday season, so I would highly recommend joining it for those that are looking to build really strong titanium-built businesses. But really start studying what are other businesses doing outside of chiropractic, because I know in our profession there's a lot of, "Here's what you should do." What are you doing in your own practice? What are, what is happening outside of the chiropractic space right now and also in the real world? So hopefully you guys enjoyed that. Go study, go learn, figure out exactly where you are as July 1, 2026 comes up to play, and I've got a special podcast coming to you in the next couple weeks. Have an awesome 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.