Building a Purpose-Driven Chiropractic Life: A Conversation with Dr. Travis Corcoran

In this episode, I’m sitting down with Travis Corcoran to talk about something I don’t think we talk about enough in practice growth.

Purpose.

I’ve spent years surrounded by purpose-driven chiropractors, and I didn’t realize how rare that actually is until I started working with more practitioners who felt stuck, overwhelmed, and honestly disconnected from what they’re doing.

So in this conversation, we go deeper.

We talk about:

•  Why setting goals without knowing your purpose will always leave you feeling unfulfilled 
•  How having a clear framework changes the way you make decisions in your practice and your life 
•  The balance between logic and intuition and why you actually need both 
•  What I’d say to any practitioner who feels like they’re just “throwing spaghetti at the wall.” 

This episode is for you if you’ve ever:
 → Hit goals but still felt like something was missing
 → Questioned if you’re on the right path
 → Wanted more clarity, direction, and alignment in your work

Because the truth is, when you’re clear on your purpose, everything else starts to make a whole lot more sense.

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. Hag us, like us, and make sure you check us out online at gostiffless.com. The more I stand on this stage of staffless practice, the more I hear the same names repeated over and over. And Travis is one of the names that keeps coming across my desk. And we have a lot of buddies in common, which means anybody who is as loved as you are, Travis, with the people who I love, it automatically makes you someone who I love. So I'm excited to get to know you. Please share with our audience who are you, where are you, what do you do?

SPEAKER_00 0:58

I'm Dr. Travis Corcoran. I'm in Eindhoven, the Netherlands. And I am currently the president of the IFCO. I'm founder of Top Cairo. We have 30 offices in seven different countries, uh, primarily here in the Netherlands, where we started, where we have 19, operate in a franchise model. Outside of the Netherlands operates as licensees. So me and my partner are enjoying the sleepless nights, but it's totally worth it. I came here from Malaysia, where I first practiced for one year after graduating from Palmer College Chiropractic in 08. And prior to that, I got my degree in philosophy from University of Kentucky. And prior to that, I studied nuclear engineering in the US Navy.

SPEAKER_01 1:44

Whoa! So, okay. So where did you grow up?

SPEAKER_00 1:50

I was born in Flint, Michigan. And uh you can probably tell from the water there that uh it's had some profound impact on my health. We moved away when I was 10 to Ohio, and I'd lived in Lima, which is a massive industrial uh city that yeah, I wouldn't recommend you go to. And then from there I went to university and yeah, moved around quite a bit, then went to the military, then after military, which was Florida and South Carolina. After that, I went back to school, University of Kentucky, then worked as an engineer uh in Connecticut, then Chicago, then I got injured, and thank God one of the fellow engineers, uh Brian Rippingale, an English, a British gentleman, he sent me off to a chiropractor reluctantly, and that's what changed the course of my life forever.

SPEAKER_01 2:39

And for those of for those of us who don't know much about chiropractic, why chiropractic? What what's the big deal about it?

SPEAKER_00 2:51

Uh for me, it was it's eloquence. It's I like simple things that conform to principles. If it conforms to reasoning, I'm on board. That's just part of the philosophical education. You have to take courses in logic and pretty advanced logic. So for me, it was just a matter of conditional statements as premises that led to a deductively valid conclusion, and it was something I couldn't deny. And I saw how much value it added, what it did to my. I went in for I went in for back pain, but after the first six weeks, I was going three times a week for nine weeks. That was my care plan. And yeah, my back was feeling better, but it was within the four to six weeks. I this is high allergy season. I'm not using my asthma puffer, I didn't even realize it. And then I stopped using my glasses for the first time in a long time. Now that I'm 53, I mean it's 30 years old. But all these things changed and happened, and that poor chiropractor, as I interrogated her on what she was doing and how this all works, and it's all nonsense. Um, those things were happening, and I didn't understand, but thankfully she was very well grounded in the principles. Like schools have really sadly have dropped the ball because they need to make sure the students pass uh certain requirements, and that's diminished probably what they know and understand about real chiropractic. Um, however, I was blessed. She had kind of a parallel curriculum, and she could answer all those questions. She was very grounded in the philosophy. And I tell I say it like this she is highly trained to locate, detect, and correct subluxation. I, on the other hand, was highly trained to locate detect errors in reasoning.

SPEAKER_01 4:49

Well, let's see what is subluxation. Can you unpack that?

SPEAKER_00 4:53

Yeah, subluxation is uh condition of a vertebrates lost as proper juxtaposition with the one above or below, or both to an extent less than luxation, which impinges nerves and interferes with transmission of mental impulse. Or you could just say those vital messages, messages of or pertaining to vitae or life, when you impinge on the nerve, just like I were to impinge, I like that better than the pressure on the hose, right? Like you're playing a the guitar, and your intelligence knows what the perfect song is. You want to transmit to that, yes, over those chords, but I'm pushing, I just impinge those strings. It's gonna it's gonna mess up the music.

SPEAKER_01 5:35

It's gonna, it's gonna um it's gonna numb it. It's gonna, you know, it's so funny because we I'm a lover of chiropractic. I I came I came through the through a different door where I was introduced to the principles before I was introduced to what most of the United States knows as chiropractic. So I came in knowing the green books, I came in knowing the experience of an adjustment more than I know anything to be true. And then I went to school and I was like, this isn't what chiropractic is at all. So, and it's been this interesting, you know, I always say the adjustment makes me feel like my skin fits. And I know that, I know that, I know that, I know that that's true. Whereas you are more of a philosopher and you know the logic and you know the reasoning behind it. I just know that my body, my body works better. I can wiggle my toes faster when I send the impulse down from my brain and my right. So um how is everybody in your life getting adjusted? Is it a common theme in your life? Are there people who don't?

SPEAKER_00 6:41

Yeah, for sure. Most of it, well, one of my good friends, he's an endodontologist, he basically does root canals. He's the one guy, and uh I mean we're still friends, but he's the one guy that just won't do it. And it's it's funny. He's a specialist in his field, right?

SPEAKER_01 6:55

Dentists or a specialist dentist, so and chiropractors try to relate to dentists all the time, but this one guy is quite stubborn, and but we have a good laugh about it, and uh yeah, as long as you're laughing in it, you gotta you gotta think that the vibration of your nerve system has to somehow revolve, right? If you could stand on a pulpit and let's say that you could, and let's say that this is the pulpit and you could scream out to the masses what we do as chiropractorists, what do you say to them from all over the world? Whoever is listening, what would make it really easy for the guy who's picking up the garbage or the waitress who's serving your breakfast? Why do they need to get adjusted?

SPEAKER_00 7:41

Because they want the best opportunity in life possible and the best return on investment. So I I mean, if you're doing yoga, you're moving perfectly, you're eating perfectly, you've got the perfect emotional relationships, everything in the world is just great. There's zero stress. Your life is still, you are not getting a hundred percent of that nutritional value or a hundred percent of that movement and exercise value as long as subluxation exists. So, like you have the perfect diet, but if let's say 20% of the mental impulse or the innate force or the transmission of vital messages, 20% of that is reduced or interfered with, then you're getting 20% less of all that you invest in that great diet, all that you invest in your gym membership and sport, and 20% less out of your relationships, or 50% or 60%. It depends how much interference there is in those vital messages. So the best bang for your buck in terms of health care and the most eloquent system that we've been blessed with is chiropractic care. And I it's the easiest thing to describe, too. I've done it on stage a few times where I just I'll bring someone up to say, I don't care what you're dealing with, whether it's back pain, cancer, bad breath, I don't care. But if I've got my hands around your throat and I'm squeeze, I'm squeezing, it's not enough to kill you, but you're having a difficult time breathing. Is your life better when I stop squeezing or if I continue to squeeze?

SPEAKER_02 9:10

Right.

SPEAKER_00 9:11

It's but I don't care if you've got diabetes, headaches, migraines, back pain, uh sarcoma, bad body odor, your life will be better when I stop choking you.

SPEAKER_01 9:22

And what do you say to somebody when they sit up after an adjustment and they say it still hurts right here?

SPEAKER_00 9:28

I say, Yeah, that's what I expect. You've been doing this for for a while.

SPEAKER_01 9:34

I felt like that sucks.

SPEAKER_00 9:37

I I've I used to say that too, but I don't want to diminish their pain. I just want to give them a pull.

SPEAKER_02 9:43

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 9:44

There and when they ask too, like, when's this? I used to be real smart.

SPEAKER_02 9:47

Like, right.

SPEAKER_00 9:48

When's it gonna get better? Is it August 23rd at 3 p.m.? I you know, I said it gets better when you heal.

SPEAKER_01 9:56

Because the truth is that we stop feeling when we're dead. We we don't have any symptoms once we're dead, and until then our body's gonna give us all kinds of signals and colors and sounds and experiences and vibrations. And um I over and over and over again will say, my job is not to make that go away, it's to turn the volume up so that you can better understand what your body is trying to signal into you. Let's go. I want to pivot. I want to talk about reasoning. I want to talk about your book, I want to know more about where it all came from, what it's all about. Give me the bird's eye view. 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 stress and more freedom. Now back to the show.

SPEAKER_00 11:03

Well, for the book that it was published 2202, 2022, like uh February 22nd, of the and it was just just post um pandemic time.

SPEAKER_01 11:16

Right.

SPEAKER_00 11:17

And that was a difficult time for a lot of people. It was uh, you know, a lot of people were emotionally heated. So discussions were heated, and emo uh like emotions took the front stage and reason took a backstage. I see that a lot in chiropractic, I see it in politics, education.

SPEAKER_01 11:33

Reason meaning logic.

SPEAKER_00 11:35

Yeah, yeah, logic, logic, the definition of logic is systematic reasoning conducted according to strict principles, principles defined as fundamental truths, useful or in a system or chain of reasoning. So I realize like having these emotional discussions can be uh draining, you know, it's and it often doesn't produce any significant or constructive change in the way people look at things. And I realized that if you could just for a moment set the emotions aside, and we were both new how logic operates, how our minds would operate when we actively engage them instead of always being reactive, like if we engage the mind to be active instead of sitting back reacting to everything, which is automatic response, that conversations and discussions would be far more productive for both parties. And then instead of having this discussion I just saw, I'd write a book that explains why, like what the benefits would be if you were to better understand how the mind acquires knowledge, uh, processes understanding, and then expresses it with rhetoric or wisdom. So I would always recommend this book, The Trivium by Sister Mary and Joseph, um, which is a real it's a real text on the first three liberal arts, um, grammar, logic, and rhetoric, or knowledge, understanding, wisdom. But it no one would take that book up because it never says what's in it for me, why would I study this? It just reads a whole school text. So I basically wrote my book as a way to hopefully inspire people to take an interest in this so that they see this is how it would impact your life. And I discussed it um briefly towards the end. Here are the five areas of your life, just at random. Five areas of your life that would be improved by practicing these three, the first three of the seven classical liberal arts. And at the beginning, I just set out like kind of some of the enemies of reasoning, critical thought, that's critical thought, and today I I looked at it like it's been it's been murdered. So you if you look at a murder case, I want to know who has means, opportunity, right? Like you look at it like a detective, and so that's how and I put forth a few suspects, you know, um big big media, big tech, academic, like legacy academia, legacy media. But I put together a few suspects, and then show how they might be killing critical thought, which holds us back from really like connecting with one another, learning more, getting correct knowledge and a true understanding, and then what are the things we can do to nurture and cultivate those skills, knowledge, understanding, wisdom, so that we can better impact a couple different areas of our life. And it's the book's also filled with a lot of suggested reading if you want to go further into any of the topics discussed.

SPEAKER_01 14:58

You're offering a framework, and you know, when I when I was 19, I got sober. I followed the Grateful Dead around for a long time. And by the time I was 19, I couldn't speak in complete sentences. I was a mess. And I got sober and I went into the 12-step program, and they taught me a framework, and they taught me how to um look at my stuff, say I'm sorry, clean up my side of the street, hit my knees, stay connected and rinse and repeat and rinse and repeat. And then I met my chiropractor, and the rest was history, but I still use that framework, like this, it's the language through which I speak. And I I it feels like my experience is a lot of people have lost their framework or there's no framework. And that's what they're searching for. And when they whether they come to my office because their baby's not in the right position or whatever their reason is, right? Um I I what I know is that they're looking for a framework. They're looking for a way to understand and move through the world that feels safe and connected. And I think that that's what you're doing with restoring reason. You're providing that, and it could be either it could be your framework, it could be reading one of Simon Sensan's books, it could be um going to the end of Andus that doesn't necessarily believe in chiropractic, but knows that he knows that he knows that when he's working on your mouth, he's his framework is trustworthy because he's he's the guy who does the thing. So can you talk to me about let's let's say that you met a 29-year-old who just graduated chiropractic school or naturopathic school or whatever the case may be, and they are without a framework and they're lost and they're trying, they're throwing the noodles at the wall to see what's going to stick. What do you say to that person?

SPEAKER_00 16:57

Uh first of until then, uh I'm getting there.

SPEAKER_01 17:01

Face down.

SPEAKER_00 17:03

Yeah, face down. Let me check you. Um, I I would really I promote the trivium for a reason because I think until you've cultivated your mind, you are not thinking for yourself. You are often pursuing goals that have been imposed upon you or that you suppose for yourself. And so it's really hard to quote be successful um without, like you said, a framework. And the framework begins with your mind. If your mind is not under your control, the goals you're pursuing are likely not your own, right? So, and and then the first thing is stop making goals until you've defined your purpose. So that's something I do with a lot of the people that I coach and that with a lot of my colleagues. We go through like, and it's real quick, I can even tell you how it's done, it's so simple. But you have to know your purpose. What is your purpose? Because without that, and you're setting goals. This is why I see so many people so miserable, and they want to be happy in practice, right? They love what they do, it's so great, but they're hitting goals that leave them empty. Because those goals aren't set with your purpose in mind. A purpose is what you fill. You are fulfilled when you're fulfilling your purpose. So when I'm deciding what goals I want to set, I go, Well, if I achieve that, does it fulfill my purpose? If not, then that's not a goal I'm gonna set.

SPEAKER_01 18:36

Right.

SPEAKER_00 18:37

Then I would go to habits. So to talk to that 29-year-old, say, let's get your purpose, which will include your vision, right? Your vision and what's unique about you that you have to offer, and we'll put together a purpose statement. Then they can set goals, and you just check them. Does that fulfill your purpose? Then I wouldn't pursue that, right? Fulfilling someone else or some expectation from your parents or uh god forbid, insurance providers or something else.

SPEAKER_01 19:06

Which is you laugh, but that is so common.

SPEAKER_00 19:09

I know, I know. We've all been there. I can I'm speaking from experience. There are things that I thought were important to pursue, but they left me unfulfilled.

SPEAKER_02 19:19

Right.

SPEAKER_00 19:23

You know, it's not that I don't go through life without some frustrations and challenges, but my ship is steered towards and navigating towards goals that fulfill my purpose, leaving me fulfilled.

SPEAKER_01 19:37

You know, it's kind of like when you when my experience with staffess practice has been interesting because I spent I'm 26 years in practice, and I spent the majority of those years around chiropractors who were purpose-driven. And that's all I knew. Like, you know, I saw some of the opposite of that in school, but all of my friends are purpose-driven chiropractors. And when I started sharing the truths that were coming to me for staffless practice, I connected with a lot of chiropractors, NPTs, NDs, OTs, acupunctures, all of them who weren't purpose-driven. And my heart feels so sad for them because there's no, there's no why behind what they're doing. And they're just, again, throwing noodles at the wall. Maybe this will work, maybe that will work. So I saw very quickly, Travis, that most of the time we have to start where our feet are. And if we don't know what our purpose is, that's where we start, right? Because how do you make really important decisions around purchasing a building or having a baby or what you're gonna wear today, whatever it is, if you don't know, if I know that my purpose is to spread joy like wildfire all over the world. That's my purpose. That's why I'm on the planet. And I'll do the I'll sing my bird song to whomever will listen to it, right? So if I don't, if I lose sight of that, I get really grumpy, I get really disconnected and I forget. I forget why I'm here. So I want to bring you to the next question. What are you absolutely positive of? What are you totally sure about?

SPEAKER_00 21:20

Oh, so many things. Um, you might have to narrow that down. There's so many things to be certain.

SPEAKER_01 21:29

What do you know that you know that you know?

SPEAKER_00 21:33

Well, I know that there is an intelligence or an order in the universe that that that it operates and it's organized, and there are rules, there are universal laws, there are physical laws, and there are natural laws. Those are all different, but um I know that for certain that there is law, and it's now. It's it's a shame because I see like postmodernism is really taken off, unfortunately.

SPEAKER_01 22:05

But what do you mean by that?

SPEAKER_00 22:07

That uh things are all subjective, there is no objectivity, there's no such thing as truth, which that itself is a self-defeating statement.

SPEAKER_02 22:17

See, I actually say that's opposite of an axiom.

SPEAKER_00 22:22

An axiom is a self-evident statement, like um the bachelor is single. Yeah, that's I mean it's inherent and thing, but when someone says there is no truth, well, okay, if that's true, then that statement is false. Things are true. You see what I mean? It it is self-contradictory, right? And there it's usually sadly, it's the most mostly it's the people that uh really hippy-dippy woo-woo, which is great, but when you take it to an extreme and you depart from objectivity and are wholly subjective, that's toxic. There now there's no balance. There are objective things in the world, there are subjective things, like your opinion, my opinion, my favorite color, your favorite color, my ideas, your ideas. But truth is an objective concept, and the denial of that is that's postmodernism, and it leads to solipsism and moral relativism, and that is a big problem. One of the easiest ways to dismiss it is to say uh you and I climb to the highest building here in the Netherlands, and my perspective and my I'm subjective, all subjective. I say it's just a two-meter drop and I jump. Well, I'll quickly meet objective reality in a matter of seconds, right? It's nice to say, and there are subjective things in the world, and that does add to the color and the diversity, but when it goes to an extreme end, you are now out of balance and toxic. That you are in denial of truth and objectivity, which also exists, they can coexist. If you were purely objective, you would be like uh an android robot. That's not someone I want to hang out with. It's not a comfortable uh sit down at the bar with kind of person, and there's no joy, there's no love, but the subjective person is equally dangerous.

SPEAKER_01 24:22

The subjective, wait a second, the subjective person who doesn't know that they're subjective, yeah, but or the ones that deny it, or they don't know, they don't know that they're subjective, and that is more common than not. So can you can you say someone's listening to this podcast and they're like, I have no idea what the F they're talking about right now? Bring that to the everyday conversation at the gym. Like, how does this how does what you're saying right now relate to the practice owner who is trying to just make it good, make it right, serve more people and less time with more joy?

SPEAKER_00 25:01

Well, the person that wants to do more, serve more, improve their practice, improve their life, they had better accept very quickly that there are objective things to look at. If I want to make changes in my business or practice or life, um, sadly I don't have metrics on everything, but if I do, those are great indicators on places where I might want to look or change.

SPEAKER_02 25:25

Right.

SPEAKER_00 25:25

If if I went from staff practice to a staffless practice, it'd be great to know what my revenue was, what my KPIs, and all this, and to compare the two. And even if it didn't balance, this is where subjectivity is also great. Okay, maybe my revenue is down, but I personally feel like more energized every day. So you need a balance, but if you did it purely subjectively, right? I just feel good giving all the care away for free. Okay, so I'm poverty in the street and poor. There must be a balance of both. That's what I would say to some 29-year-old or uh gym person or someone who wants to start their own practice. It's great that you want to pursue your passion, but it should be regulated according to some metrics or objectivity, minimally, at the at the bare minimum, I would say, right? You cannot just wing it, right? If that were the case, then imagine you get on a plane. I like to travel. If I get on the plane, but the pilot's like, I'm just gonna wing it, I'm just gonna see, I'm gonna fly it how I feel today. I'm not paying for that, right?

SPEAKER_01 26:38

It's nice to say, but you're not paying for a good mood, you're paying for precision.

SPEAKER_00 26:44

I want a professional. Now, subjectively, he's gonna choose uh the fish over the chicken for his dinner. I do okay, there's still subjectivity involved, but the professional part, like I want uh a professional pilot, same with uh heart surgery, if God forbid I ever needed it, but I want a professional, not someone that's just like, hey, let's see how I'm feeling today.

SPEAKER_01 27:08

Kind of listen.

SPEAKER_00 27:10

I'll take a new surgeon, please.

SPEAKER_01 27:14

With with one minute left, yeah. Um, how can people get in touch with you? How can you support them? How can they learn more?

SPEAKER_00 27:23

Well, if they're students, I'm like I'm always available, always available for chiropractic students. Um, and but I wish the best for all healthcare uh practitioners, especially in the natural realm. Uh they can always reach me at Travis at restoringreason.com or they can reach me at TC the DC at Gmail. Or just reach reach out to me on uh Facebook Messenger. I usually I respond to if you're a student of chiropractic, I respond right away.

SPEAKER_01 27:50

Um responded right away to me, you guys, but I had to send them a goodie box.

SPEAKER_00 27:54

You didn't have to, I was gonna do it anyway. You're just too good. That's all.

SPEAKER_01 27:58

I think you you're the your podcast survival kit. You guys, please reach out to Travis if you're feeling like you need some um grounding be below your feet and you need some direction for being successful in practice as a chiropractor, please reach out to Travis. You can reach out to me if you need support with stats. I have a um stats are not my jam, and I had to get really good at them in order to do what I'm doing. And I really uh made it one one piece at a time. I have a very clear template that I'm happy to share with you guys. Um, if you're listening, wherever you're listening, go make the world better with great care. Thank you so much for being here. Travis, please hang tight and thanks for being on the podcast today.

SPEAKER_00 28:44

Roger, thanks for having me, Joe.

SPEAKER_01 28:46

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.ghostafless.com for resources to help you run your practice with less craft and more freedom. Now back to the show.