Why You Feel Broke Even When You’re Busy: A Conversation with Dr. Diana Smith

In this episode, I sit down with Dr. Diana Smith, someone whose name comes up again and again when it comes to finances, money mindset, and running a profitable practice.

I wanted to have this conversation because I see it all the time. Practice owners are busy, fully booked, and still feel like they are not making any money. I have been there too.

We talk about the Profit First model and why taking profit first instead of last can completely change how a practice operates. More importantly, we go deeper into what is really happening underneath it all.

In this conversation, I share
 • Why being busy does not always mean being profitable
 • How I personally approach Profit First in my own business
 • What happens when there is no structure around money
 • The mindset shifts that come with stepping into a CEO role

Diana also shares her story, including what happened when she lost a significant amount of money during a buildout, how it impacted her mentally and emotionally, and what she had to do to rebuild.

We also get into real talk about responsibility, decision-making, and what it takes to move forward when things feel hard.

If things feel messy, overwhelming, or unclear in a practice right now, this is a good place to start.

If this conversation resonated and finances are something being worked through right now, I highly recommend connecting with Diana and her work. You can learn more or reach out at chirobabe.com. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:04

You are listening to the Staffless Practice Podcast. We aim to serve the facilitators, practitioners, and teams of the wellness practices of our community with real deal Monday morning ready tools. Be sure to follow us wherever you're watching. Tag us, like us, and make sure you check us out online at gostaffless.com. Okay, my friends, this guest is exciting. So it's always fun to have a guest on the show who I really don't know you very well. And I can't wait to hear what you have to share. So what I know about Diana is her name goes around and around and around in the choreographic circles for if you need to get your act together when it comes to finances and money and abundance consciousness and practice, uh, Diana is the person. So please thank you so much for being here and please introduce yourself. Who are you? Where are you? What are you doing?

SPEAKER_00 1:04

Yeah, well, thank you so much for having me. Uh, my name is Dr. Diana Smith. Uh, some of you know me as Diana Husk. I got married a couple years ago and just finally changed my last name officially. Um, but I'm a family chiropractor. I'm based uh out of a little bit suburb of Atlanta, Georgia, and we serve mostly pregnant moms, babies, dads, uh, just the family, right? Everybody from womb to tomb. Uh, we do mostly memberships in our practice, and we made the switch a couple years ago, which has been really fun. And I also have a coaching brand. I started off mentoring a ton of students and a ton of chiropractors, and then realized that there's a need for startups, especially anybody that grosses less than$30,000 a month. Um, they don't know what to do when it comes to marketing, when it comes to managing finances. And so I created the Cairo Babe in order to basically be the mentor that I wish I had when I started my practice.

SPEAKER_01 2:08

Talk to us about, I know that you have done a lot of studying of the Profit First system, which I'm really excited to talk about because it's a system that I hold near and dear to my heart. I implement it every week. I sit with my profit first hour and I get out and I open up reasons. Yes, I'm all into it. So tell us a little bit about um the typical practice owner financial disorganization struggle and how you rectify that with your work.

SPEAKER_00 2:40

Yes. So I feel like most chiropractors aren't struggling because they don't make money, they struggle because they don't keep it. You know, you can be fully booked and still feel broke because it's a structure problem, not a volume problem. So, like I've always been of the mindset that like if you don't tell your money where to go, it disappears. And so, um, really at its core, profit first is just flipping the formula. Okay. So instead of it being like revenue minus expenses equals your profit, it's revenue minus profit equals your expenses. So you take your profit first and you run your business based on what's left.

SPEAKER_01 3:23

Can you say that calculation one more time?

SPEAKER_00 3:26

Yes. So instead of revenue minus expenses equals profit, it's revenue minus profit equals expenses.

SPEAKER_01 3:34

So if I had if I make a hundred dollars and um revenue minus profits, can you do it with an example of a hundred bucks?

SPEAKER_00 3:44

Yes. So if you made a hundred dollars, you would have your own formula based on what you want to take home. Not what you want to take home, but what is realistic to take home. So it's saying, like, I'm gonna take that profit first so that I am paying myself. I'm not just an employee of this business. I own and I lead this business. And so I'm gonna take this profit um of say you've decided it's 20%, right? That's a relatively healthy thing to take from gross profit. So I'm gonna take um that$100, that revenue, minus um my profit. I'm gonna take 20 of that, and then I'm gonna run my business based on that$80 that's left.

SPEAKER_01 4:25

It's brilliant. And then what if you have that$80 left and it's not enough money to cover what you have to pay for?

SPEAKER_00 4:34

Oh, that's a good question. So then then there's a hole in the system somewhere else. Either we aren't bringing in enough money to successfully run a business, there's a marketing issue, there's a conversion issue, there's a retention issue. Um, you know, but even as a startup, like I have always, I know there's practice management people out there that talk about having this big flashy practice when you open and your overhead's$15,000 a month, and that's just insanity to me. You should always open with like, okay, I my overhead is$2,500. I know that I can make at least, you know,$2,500 or more to be able to substantiate this. And so I feel like if you're if you're not able to take that profit, then there's that hole somewhere else. Your overhead is too high, you're not bringing in enough business. But what I have found through coaching a lot of women is not that they don't bring in enough money, they just don't know what to do with it when they have it, and they end up spending it on things they don't need to spend it on that don't help move the needle, that don't help grow their business, and then there's nothing left to take home. Right. And so it's just kind of flipping that a little bit and getting them to dig deeper into what they actually need to run their business and and then still being able to take home, not necessarily what they want to take home. Obviously, we're all gonna say we want to take home$500,000 a year, right? But like what's realistic where your practice is right now, let's take from that and then figure out a way to how to operate on the rest.

SPEAKER_01 6:04

Right. I love it. Um, would you say that uh you I have a lot of conversations with people who end up in my Zoom saying, hey Jody, I want to grow my practice, but I don't have enough money to invest in doing the thing. Is that consciousness or that um that mental framework common throughout the clients? You specifically have worked with chiropractors. Do you think that that's a common trend in chiropractic where um, like if if someone says I'm let's take Facebook ads, for example, I just started working with an ads company, it's expensive, right? However, it the return on investment is like stupid, it's sick, right? And so why wouldn't I why wouldn't I spend$2,000 a month on not for my practice, for staffless practice, right? Why wouldn't I do so? Do you find that people get tripped up in seeing this is an investment in my practice and it's worth spending? Can you talk about that?

SPEAKER_00 7:10

Yes, and I think that it's very common because we all live in this like scarcity mindset, especially because I work mostly with startups, right? So we just come out of school or we're just branching off to open our own practice as being an associate for however long. And we come from the scarcity mindset of what if there's not enough left over? What if there's not enough as a coach versus having the mindset shift of what am I missing out on? What am I leaving on the table by not investing in my personal growth by hiring a coach? Right. So I think that when we can start to think less like a student, less like a broke student, and more like a CEO, more like a leader of our actual business, um, then we start making smarter investments. And it doesn't mean that you need to go out and just spend every dime that you have. It's more of like, okay, if I'm gonna spend, say, for easy math again, like$100 on coaching, right? Can't is that going to at least bring me in an additional$100 that I wouldn't have had if I didn't have that growth from a coach?

SPEAKER_01 8:15

Do you think that looking at the other side of the coin, it's important in the coaching industry that we have them look at those numbers regularly? And that's where profit first comes. Like, can you imagine if the big shakers and movers in the specifically the chiropractic profession were was in if they were implementing the profit first system and then keeping their eyes on the prize with profit first, like on a bit right? Can you imagine that, Diana?

SPEAKER_00 8:43

Yeah, well, it forces discipline and clarity pretty fast. When you start telling your money where to go and you have a system for it, then that clarity of what needs to happen with that money is is fast, right? Because when money just sits in your account, you don't know what to do with it, and then all of a sudden it gets spent on random things because you think you have this money, but really you don't, and that's just not a wise investment.

SPEAKER_01 9:08

And have you always been this good with money? Has it is it does it come naturally to you?

SPEAKER_00 9:14

Um honestly, yes. I wish I could be one of those people that was like, Oh, I struggled with like XYZ, but like my parents taught me from a young age. Like, I've worked since I was 15 years old. They taught me how to manage my money. My dad's a chiropractor, he owned a practice for you know a zillion years. And so I had an advantage in a sense, but I have gone through financial struggles. Like, I had a contractor steal uh multiple six figures from me when I did my build-out and my new practice um back in 2023 and almost completely bankrupted me. And so, like, I have had to go through a rebuilding process and get even smarter with my money. So it's not like I've just had everything handed to me and I haven't struggled, but I mean, I have always been very money motivated, very money conscious, uh, that type of thing. So I do think in some sense it comes naturally to me, but it's also a discipline.

SPEAKER_01 10:13

It is a discipline. Right. Let me, I want to ask you this question. Um, when I have a pregnant mama on the table, and I just this just happened in my practice this week. And she was, she's at the end of her pregnancy and she was complaining that her hands keep waking her up in the middle of the night. And I just talked through the breadcrumb trail with her. Well, what um what if your hands weren't waking you up? What would happen? And she's like, Well, what would happen is I would sleep through the night. And I said, and what if you slept through the night and then all of a sudden you had a baby and you were trying, you had to get up four times in the middle of the night. Do you think that that would be easier once your baby is born? Or do you think your hands waking you up now is making you it easier for when your baby's born? And she was like, Oh, I totally see this is part of prepping me to be a mom. When we talk about your contractor and them pulling the rug out from under and the lessons that we have to go through, and you know, it was just hands waking her up. It wasn't like a heart attack or a root canal, it was hands waking her up, right? So when we get these um life-changing experiences that look like a crap show at the time, it's like it has to be just loud enough for us to learn the lessons to get to the next stage of where we need to be in a leadership position. I found that the more I'm in flow in what I'm doing during the 12 hours I'm awake during the day or 15 hours, the more I'm in flow, the more I listen to my gut, the more I get adjusted, the more I take care of my body, the more relationships I focus on, the more gentle the lessons are. So can you speak to that? Like the contractor steals from you. It's ugly, it's hard. And then the next thing you said was it forced me to get da-da-da-da-da-da-da. Talk about the lessons in practice. I I can't wait to hear what you have to say. You're listening to the Staffless Practice podcast. If you're enjoying this episode, follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube. Just search Staffless Practice. If you see a like button or a follow button where you're watching or listening, tap it so you never miss a beat. Visit us at www.gostaffless.com for resources to help you run your practice with less stress and more freedom. Now back to the show.

SPEAKER_00 12:45

So it really woke me up because I was in such a kind of cushy space in my practice. I was like three-ish years into owning my own practice, and we had saved up a ton of cash to put down and like pay towards like expanding our clinic. And you know, there's money in the bank, money's coming in. We were having record months month after month. And so it was just like you're on this hive like this is just the new normal. And then you have somebody come in, you write a check, and they just literally take everything from you, and you have nothing to show for it. And you're like, Oh, what's what do I do now? I haven't, I like you have to pivot. It's kind of like, you know, I opened my practice in February of 2020, and then COVID hit three weeks later, and you're just like, you have to pivot. You have to be like, okay, things are different than I expected. And so what do I do? And you just get strategic. You can either say, Okay, well, I'm gonna go file bankruptcy. Okay, well, that's it, you know, or you can say, All right, what needs to happen? What needs to happen now? Like, what needs to change? Um, so I really sat down and I was like, okay, here's the numbers. Like, I was in a contract with like my build out as far as like I couldn't get out of it. Like, I'm doing this build out. So I'm like, uh, where do I get the money? How do I complete this project so I can get in the space and make even more money? Like, how do I still finish the job? And so it just forces you to think differently. It forces you back almost into a scarcity mindset that I hadn't been in in years, and say, all right, what's the new strategy? What's the what's the new strategy? Things are different. And so I think when you're you become a business owner and you're managing everything on your own, sometimes you do get a little complacent, and not to say that I deserve to have something wake me up or deserve to have something like that happen, but it it does force you to pivot and make different decisions and look at money differently and look at people differently and figure out, just figure it out. It builds resilience muscle to where now, if I had anything happen to me in my business, I'm like, I'm a fighter, I can do it, I can work. You just have to sit down and figure it out. Like, what is the game plan now? And that's that is why I like Profit First, because it does give you that framework of a game plan, right? It gives you that formula and it creates almost like boundaries with your finances, right? So instead of just like reacting to your expenses, you're operating more like a CEO, you're operating more like a business owner, right? That's what I had to do when that happened was just say, look, I'm a business owner here. I I call the shots, I'm in control of what's happening right now.

SPEAKER_01 15:39

Like I did the next time something happens like that, you're like, you can very easily say, Oh, I know this muscle. Yes, a muscle memory around this one.

SPEAKER_00 15:49

Yes. And I did go through, honestly, I went through some therapy after that because it's actually a really close friend that did that. And it just it messed with my mind a lot to where our profit actually went down. Like our, well, actually, I just our revenue went down for a few months because my head was so out of the game. I was like kind of traumatized. And um that, and then I finally was like, okay, either you're gonna sink or swim. Like, what do you like at this is a point where you get to decide, are you going to sink or are you gonna swim? And I was like, Well, I'm gonna, I'm gonna keep swimming as fast as I can and as hard as I can. If I end up drowning still, then at least I said I could I tried. Um, but no, I ended up, you know, I'm still in a rebuilding phase. I mean, it really took a number on my business, and we're still rebuilding from that. Happened like two years ago. Um, but we're, I mean, we're gonna make it. We're not, I'm not gonna be able to do it.

SPEAKER_01 16:43

If you guys, if you guys can imagine, like if you show up in Diana's Zoom and you're like, I'm screwed with money right now, I don't know what I'm doing, I don't know where to start. She comes with that experience. I guarantee you she's gonna be able to connect with you on a heart level, which is it's what so many of us need. If we're looking to be coached or supported time, energy, money-wise, um, there's nothing worse than getting into somebody's zoom and there's not a heart-centered connection where they're just spitting numbers at you. And it's kind of like the the um the character of the accountant sitting behind the big desk with all the papers piling up and they're just talking to you and spitting numbers and details at you. And I'm like, I don't know how to manage my money. And um, I think it's really cool that you're coming from a heart-centered place and you've been through it, you've gone through the fire and you come out the other end of it. And um, talk to me about what you say to the practice owner who is really struggling to make ends meet. Where do they start? Like, say they get say they make a hundred dollars today, they send us two people or they do two massages, and the the amount take home is a hundred bucks. Where do they start? What do they do? Do they pay their debt off? Do they buy lunch?

SPEAKER_00 18:07

Yeah, so I always say to start simple, even just separating your accounts creates awareness. So if you have everything just funneled into one bank account, I would start by creating that into, I know Profit First has five accounts that you're supposed to have. I think sometimes in early practice that can feel overwhelming. So even just separating it into two or three accounts where you're telling your money, I want this to go here and this to go here and this to go here. Like, even if you have like an operating expenses, a payroll, which is part of your profit because you're going to take from that payroll account, and then um a savings account. I think that even just starting there can just create that awareness for them so that they can give their money more direction. Cause like I said before, like people generally for the most part aren't really drowning, they just don't have that direction and clarity. Right. They have people coming in, they're they're creating revenue. It's just they don't know what to do with it. And so they feel overwhelmed and they feel like they're drowning. So just start simple and and pay yourself something, even if it's small, even if you're like, I'm gonna pay myself$50 a week. I don't care what it is. Like, take something home to where you feel like you are are getting paid for a service that you're providing to your own business. So like you said, um, uh you look at your numbers weekly, right? Like, don't look at them over the uh over the month or anything like that. I got to a point where I was looking at them every single day, especially after that contractor stole my money. I was like, I was looking at my numbers, what's going in, what's going on every single day. So um don't wait until you're making more to just get organized.

SPEAKER_01 19:49

Right. I sit down every Saturday morning and I I move, I allocate, and um running a practice growth partnership program is a lot different than running a practice because my practice is a one-woman show. It's super simple. It's money in, money out, a little bit to pay bills, right? Having 17 people on my team. And like you guys, if I don't sit down on Saturday morning and take a chunk of money and put it in a payroll account, the money, it's gonna look like I have a lot more money when payroll hits than I do because I haven't allocated it for payroll. So the bigger the the bigger the pie gets, the more this is necessary. But if we can start when the pie is really small, even if it's ten dollars at a time. And Profit First is a great book to start with too. Um they they suggest working with a bank called Relay. And I just opened my you guys have to understand, like I've gone to my bank twice over the past 25 years with like the new Profit First Jody, right? And I'm like, hey, let's change all my accounts, and they're like, here she goes again. And then like a week later, I'll forget what the accounts are for, right?

SPEAKER_00 21:05

Yeah, you have to name them, like go into your online account and like name each account. That's what I did. So I have one that's literally like I log in, says payroll, says opex, says you know, taxes, so all that kind of thing.

SPEAKER_01 21:18

You guys, it's it might sound crazy, but it is worth doing it. It's worth reaching out to Diana and saying, help me walk through this, help me get organized with this. Um, so what would you say to that person? What would you say to that chiropractor to calm them? Like they say to you, Diana, I can't pay my rent this month. I have one new person on the schedule in the next month. Um, I'm not having fun, I'm overweight, I'm underpaid, I'm not loved. Where do I start? What would you say?

SPEAKER_00 21:53

I would say, well, I'm kind of a tough love. Type of coach here. So I definitely lead with heart and love, but it's it's tough. And so I would I would tell that person, this is your choice, right? You are choosing to be depressed, you're choosing to only have one patient on the schedule, you are choosing to not be able to pay your rent, you are choosing to do that. Um, you have the same degree that I have, right? You and I have the same exact earning potential. I don't live in a huge city, I live in suburbia. We don't have rich people everywhere who come in and pay me thousands and thousands of dollars, right? We have the same earning potential, but it is based on choice and action. You make the choice to get out of bed, you make the choice to figure out how to get patients on your schedule, you figure out how to collect enough money. You sit down and say, My rent, my overhead that I have left to pay this month is this amount. How is that money going to come to me?

SPEAKER_01 23:04

It's a math equation. It doesn't have to be enough. And I will say that there have been times in my career where it truly didn't feel like I had a choice. I felt so deep in the hole that um I didn't feel like I could just make a choice and make things different. I felt like that, whether it's going through menopause or going through having babies or whatever it the story was at that time for me. I know that there are people listening to this podcast who are like, I literally cannot make this happen. And if that's the case, get help because anybody can get help. Anybody can say mercy, right? You might not have the tools to help yourself, but you can definitely have the tools to identify, I'm stuck and I need help.

SPEAKER_00 23:53

And until we that's also a choice to decide that, right? To recognize that as a choice to say, I feel stuck, I don't know what to do, but I know that I need something. I mean, that was one of the first I've always invested in coaching, group coaching, that sort of thing throughout my entire career since before I even opened my practice. But I had that, I realized that contractor took that money and at the end of November of 23, and in January, January 1st, the next year, I hired a one-on-one coach. I couldn't afford it. I had no freaking money. I had to put it on a credit card, but I was like, I need help, I need guidance, I need accountability, I need somebody to look me in the eyeballs over Zoom and tell me what I need to do to get out of this. And it doesn't necessarily need to need to be somebody who's been in it before. It's just like somebody who knows how to run a business. Tell me how I can be more profitable, tell me how I can get more patience in the door, help me help myself, right? But you can ask for help, but until you're willing to take action yourself, it'll things never nothing will change.

SPEAKER_01 24:57

Right.

SPEAKER_00 24:58

Right? So it is still a choice to get up and do something. Because in my opinion, business doesn't have feelings, right? Like your business, you have feelings, your business does not have feelings. Your business does not care if you're either in, your business does not care if you're drowning, if you're tired, if you're overwhelmed, if you're overstimulated. Like I don't come from cushy, right? Like I didn't come from a great home life as a kid. I ended up in an abusive relationship and had two kids. And all while I was going through all of this stuff, and I still got up every single day and said, Diana, you are the creator of your own destiny. You decide what to do. So I got out of that relationship and it was really rigging hard. And I was so scared, and I did that in the middle of going through all this stuff with the contractor, and I got up every day and I said, What am I gonna do differently to make today better?

SPEAKER_01 25:56

Right. It's a it's a daily choice. And I think that it's such a good conversation, it's such an important conversation that we're having. I think that if you it's so funny. When I when I started staffless practice, I said to my friend Danielle Angela, I said, I am not gonna coach people. I have no interest in being a coach. And to this day, I'm not a coach. I don't, I we have coaches on my team. I don't because I'm I'm always trying to figure my shiggles out. And I feel like I have people like you where I can say, Oh, you have money issues right now. I got just the queen for you. You got to connect with Diana Smith, right? So find find the resources that are necessary to remove the the bottlenecks. Like if we look at a bottle, I don't have one sitting here, but let's just say that this was a bottle. Did you get your podcast gift box, by the way? Not yet. Let's say that this was a bottle and it came to a top, and the top was like this little tiny hole. What's the bottleneck in your life right now? Is it time? Is it money? Is it energy? And then figure out, identify what that thing is, and then who is the person that's gonna move push you through the subluxation or the stuck point of that of that moment of chaos? Um, with one minute left, is there anything else that you want to say or mention or give a shameless shout-out for your coaching, whatever you want to do?

SPEAKER_00 27:28

Um that's a good question. Um, I really think that when you have clarity with money, it changes how you lead everything, right? Even how you lead yourself, any future team if you choose to have a team. Um and so I don't think people have a money problem, they have a decision problem. They get decision fatigue and they can't commit to something, even if it's something small. And so I would say pick one thing and commit to it, right? Whether that's going with the profit first model, whether that's hiring a coach, whether that's just like pouring into yourself more, going to the gym more, eating better, just like any, just make one decision and be disciplined in it. And then you can build on that. It's not like you have to go and just overhaul overnight and make you know a million changes and that because that does feel overwhelming. Right. But if you're like, you know what, I'm gonna open up two extra free checking accounts and link them to my current one, and I'm gonna start moving money at this percentage when it comes in. Right. And that way money knows where it goes. I know what's happening more inside my business and with the finances. And then once you feel that for a couple weeks, then it's like, okay, what's the next decision I'm gonna make? Because it is a choice, it is a choice to show up for you.

SPEAKER_01 28:47

Great advice. So, you guys, thechirobabe.com, reach out to Diana if you have any questions. Diana, please stay in the podcast room for all of our guests. Go make the world better with great care. And thank you so much for listening today. Diana, you are an awesome guest. Thanks for being here.

SPEAKER_00 29:01

Thank you. Thanks for having me.

SPEAKER_01 29:03

You're listening to the Staffless Practice podcast. If you're enjoying this episode, follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube. Just search Staffless Practice. If you see a like button or a follow button where you're watching or listening, tap it so you never miss a beat. Visit us at www.gostafless.com for resources to help you run your practice with less grats and more freedom. Now, back to the show.