Dr. Kent Belville: A Passion for Helping Patients

In this episode, I had the pleasure of speaking with Dr. Kent Belville, a 1984 graduate of Palmer College of Chiropractic, who has been practicing in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, for the past 40 years. As you listen to our conversation, it’s clear that Dr. Belville’s passion for helping patients and his commitment to his business are as strong as when he first began. His enthusiasm for chiropractic care continues to drive him each day.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:18

Welcome to the Wisconsin Chiropractic Association podcast and back to basics. I'm your host, Dr. Chris Resch, President of the Wisconsin Chiropractic Association. Today, I have the pleasure of speaking with Dr. Kent Bellville, a 1984 graduate of the Homer College of Chiropractic, who's been practicing in Noshkosh, Wisconsin for over 40 years. As you listen into our conversation, it's clear that Dr. Belville's passion for helping patients and his commitment to his business is as strong as when he first began. His enthusiasm for chiropractic care continues to drive him every single day. Another thing that's really cool is Dr. Kent's dedication to his work has become a real family affair. Several of his family members now play an important role in both the clinical and administrative sides of his successful practice. In recognition of his outstanding contributions, Dr. Kent is being honored with the Wisconsin Chiropractic Association's 2024 Lifetime Achievement Award at the upcoming WCA Fall Convention in Wisconsin Dell. So throughout this interview, you will gain insight into what it takes to build and maintain a successful practice that is still going strong after 40 years. You're also going to hear how excited Dr. Kent is to keep moving forward with the same energy and passion he's always had. I hope you enjoy my conversation with the 2024 recipient of the Wisconsin Chiropractic Association Lifetime Achievement Award, Dr. Kent Bellville. Dr.

SPEAKER_00 1:49

Kent Belleville, how are you doing today? I am great. Just finished your day at work, Chris.

SPEAKER_01 1:54

Fantastic. So first of all, I want to thank you for taking the time to go through our WCA podcast back to basics interview. Let's just kick this off. How did you and chiropractic get started in the first place, Kent?

SPEAKER_00 2:07

Well, you know, it's a pretty interesting story. I grew up in Nebraska. I went to college in South Dakota. And while I was there, I met a uh lady from Wisconsin, and uh she had been a patient since she was grade school for scoliosis in Stoughton, Wisconsin. So I got to know her and through her a little bit about chiropractic. So after about a year, she went back to Stoughton and went to school in Madison, and she was seeing a chiropractor in Stoughton. And he said to her, I would like to meet your boyfriend and talk to him about becoming a chiropractor. So I got on the plane for the first time in my life in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, which took me to Minneapolis and then to La Crosse and then to Madison. And interestingly enough, in La Crosse, the plane's on the ground. There's about five people on the plane. And a very distinguished gentleman gets on the plane and he's walking down the aisle. And in my quiet voice, I was saying, please don't sit next to me. Please don't sit next to me. And he sits right next to me. Oh wow. Like, oh no. I said, uh, so the plane takes off, and then we get in there and he turns to me and he said, Young man, what are you gonna do with the rest of your life? I said, Whoa. And so uh his name was Dr. Fred Barge, uh chiropractor, and he spent the next 30 minutes explaining why I should become a chiropractor. Now, mind you, I've never met a chiropractor. I'm going to visit a chiropractor, and he says to me, I know you'll become a chiropractor. And when you decide to become a chiropractor, I want you to use my name, and I'm gonna write this letter for you to help get into Palmer College of Chiropractic, and I'm on the board of trustees there right now. This is all on the plane. This is all on the plane, all in 30 minutes. And so I'm thinking, well, this has got to be kind of a God thing because I'm thinking this just doesn't happen in the natural. So I I got to Madison, uh, my girlfriend picked me up, drove to Stoughton, uh, got there at six o'clock at the chiropractic office, and he was about an hour running late, and I was just happy to be there. And he came and apologized for being late. And I'm thinking, I'm just here to learn. And he spent an hour and a half of his time after all day in practice explaining why I should become a chiropractor. And you could just see and hear the passion of his voice as he showed me x-rays and explained cases to me. And then when that was done, he gave me four books in chiropractic. He said, take these, read these, don't bring them back. And uh, I hope this helps in your decision in your future. And uh I read those, they all made sense to me. And a year later, I matriculated into Palmer College of Chiropractic in June of 1984. So if you do the math, that was 40 years ago. So that was my start. Uh kind of very interesting in the fact that uh never met one, I met two on the same trip. And uh, so I thought that was uh pretty exciting for a guy who's never been to a chiropractor.

SPEAKER_01 4:58

That is a pretty amazing story. Two chiropractors, one day, one trip. Yes. Next thing you know, you're off at Palmer College in 1984.

SPEAKER_00 5:06

Oh, I'm sorry, I matriculated in 81, and then I graduated uh in the in the accelerated course of the how they did that back then in uh three years later in 1984.

SPEAKER_01 5:17

Very cool.

SPEAKER_00 5:18

Then off to Oshkosh? Uh we had gotten married uh a month after I graduated from regular college, and then a month before I started Palmer. So when we got done, it was kind of like, well, where do you practice? Nebraska where I'm from, or Wisconsin, where she's from. At that time, Wisconsin was just a much better state for chiropractic uh laws. Uh, people were more familiar with it. And uh she said you'd probably stay married longer if you went to Wisconsin. So the decision was easy. So we came to Oshkosh, uh, her parents Stoughton. So I thought being about two hours away then was kind of a good distance, and it and Oshkosh just being kind of a medium-sized city close to Milwaukee and Green Bay, but just a good place to raise a family.

SPEAKER_01 6:00

And when you started in Oskosh, did you start your own practice or did you become associate somewhere?

SPEAKER_00 6:06

Yeah, I was an associate for two years, and then in 1986, I opened up on a very small office on the south side of Oshkosh, and it was 880 square feet uh total. And uh I say that because I'm in a building now with 12,000 square feet. So uh, but it was a perfect place to start an office, and uh it was very exciting in the beginning.

SPEAKER_01 6:28

So to say that again, your office space right now is how big? It's 12,000 square feet. Okay, 800 square feet to 12,000 square feet. Yes. Wow, that's crazy. Yes. So okay, I want to understand a little bit about a typical day in the in the office back in 1984, 85-ish, versus you know, now 40 years later. Can you walk me through that a little bit?

SPEAKER_00 6:51

Yeah, so uh, you know, it was obviously pretty small. My x-ray room was also my office, and so uh every room had multiple functions. Um, my wife ran the front desk, and across that was a nursery for our children. So she would uh we were having a baby about every year, and so the baby was always right across from the front desk. And uh the patient seemed to love the whole idea of the family, the wife. Uh, I'm there. So I would walk out, um, uh receive the patient, bring them back to the treatment room, adjust them, and bring them back to the front desk and check them out. And uh that's what we did. So, you know, and back then when I opened up an Oshkosh, no one had night hours. So I had two nights I worked till eight o'clock at night. So the days Monday and Wednesday were from eight to eight. And then I also worked Saturdays from nine to twelve. So I worked six days a week, which um uh I I did for 40 years. So typical day was a lot less technology back in 1984. There was no ultrasound, there was no interferential. That came later, of course, certainly no lasers. So it was it was pretty uh what chiropractic had been for years, which was let's x-ray the patient, let's find the subluxation, let's do the uh spinal adjustments to correct it. And uh all the uh more high-tech stuff came later, of course.

SPEAKER_01 8:14

So let's talk a little bit about chiropractic techniques back then and now. So just specifically, you know, when it comes to chiropractic technique, we'll talk about the other stuff later. What what what do you gravitate towards?

SPEAKER_00 8:25

So, you know, uh, when you come out of Palmer College, everybody calls it the Palmer Package, of course, which was a little bit of uh, you know, the standard drop pieces for the pelvis and they also side posture in the Gonsted and that kind of thing. So that's pretty much what I did for uh a long time. And then um then I was having a lot of trouble treating people with uh herniated discs. So a friend said, you know, I heard about this table called the Cox Flexion Distraction Table. Sure. So I went, I went, uh, got certified with Dr. Jim Cox down in Chicago. And I was at that time, I was a second person to get certified in the state of Wisconsin with Dr. Browning out of Sheboygan being the first. And that was probably one of the biggest changes in my chiropractic career was adding uh the Cox traction treatment to my disc patients. And it really uh made my practice take off in ways other things haven't. So along the way, we added uh activator, and then later on we went for the impulse, which was electronic versus a manual approach to the uh machine tool. And uh that's kind of what we've done. And then we've added some therapies along with that, which a lot of offices have now as standard, but they weren't back then.

SPEAKER_01 9:38

Yeah, you probably are experiencing a lot of the things or have experienced just ahead of me. You're in practice for 40 years, I've been practice for 33. Your patients age up with you, right? So probably utilizing the activator a little bit more now than maybe you were in the first five years of your practice, just with the production of your patients. Absolutely. So you've noticed that same thing. So let's talk about other things in your practice other than the chiropractic adjustment.

SPEAKER_00 10:04

Yeah. So early on, um uh the law changed where um we could do uh physical therapy modalities, including ultrasound and interferential. And I thought that was a huge boom, not just to our practice, but especially for our patients, because we were able to do a lot more soft tissue work, and we did those for years. And then now the biggest thing that we've added probably in the last several years is we added a PLAS4 laser, which is just uh really a nice way to heal a lot of soft tissue injuries, and it's just really efficient way to take care of a lot of these injuries. Other other ways we used to use soft tissue like grass and ART or even some dry needling, and we've kind of put those off to the side and using the laser almost specifically for those. So there's not a lot of people that use ClassFort laser, but I would strongly recommend to those office that don't to pick that up because it's it's been very effective for us. So and then we also added uh rehab to our office, and we've we've had that now for uh probably 10 years. My one of my sons does the rehab in our office.

SPEAKER_01 11:10

So I'm gonna kind of merge two of the things that you mentioned. One, you mentioned that you're in a much bigger office right now, 12,000 square feet. That's a lot of lot of space. And two, you mentioned having kids every year or every other year. And what I do know about you and your practice, Kent, is you've got a you've got family practice, not only with your patients, but you've got family in your practice. Can you kind of bring our listeners up to speed on how family has joined you now?

SPEAKER_00 11:35

Yeah. So I have seven children. Uh, the first six were boys, and the seventh was our girl. So we could finally stop then. So as the kids went older, I never really tried to sway them, you know, one way or the other, but they seem to gravitate towards health in general. So I have two of my boys are um chiropractors, and then uh third is um he was in special forces army ranger, and then came out of that and decided to do rehab. So he does the uh rehab in our office, uh, and then the two boys uh do the chiropractic along with me, and then my daughter, who's uh here, um, then she runs the office right now, and uh she runs a pretty tight ship. And then my wife is also here and she does some of the books. So four out of my seven members, my family and my wife all work in the same building. It's been just a wonderful thing to uh assimilate all the members in our uh family into our office.

SPEAKER_01 12:34

I can relate, but not quite to that level. Uh my wife is a physical therapist and she's been working with me since day one. And my oldest daughter is a chiropractor, my youngest daughter's a physical therapist, my son is a finance guy, which he works for uh he has a corporate job in Milwaukee, but he does do all of our books and payroll. So yeah. Yeah, so so Thanksgiving dinner is kind of a combination of uh work conversations and other things, I'm sure. So, Kent, let's switch gears here a little bit about just you know practice in general, whether it's case management or business. If I had to ask you what does chiropractic success look like to you, how would you answer that?

SPEAKER_00 13:16

Well, you know, uh everybody has different levels of what success is. And for me, it's obviously that the schedule is full. That's important because that obviously pays the bills. But really establishing a practice where um everybody who comes in here uh gets better, it gets well. And if that doesn't happen, then we find a doctor, a specialty that fits them well. So a success is a happy, well, improved patient. It's the staff and the doctor all working for one, the purpose of uh making for uh a good patient base that comes in, comes in on time and uh gets very good care and from people who care a lot, and then go out and refer that sentiment to others in the community, and then we can continue to grow and do well with that.

SPEAKER_01 14:16

Yeah, it makes a lot of sense. So, in your introduction, I mentioned that Dr. Kent Bellville, our today's guest, is the 2024 recipient of the Wisconsin Chiropractic Association Lifetime Achievement Award. So we're talking to a pretty special guy who's had a great practice and a lot of practice success for 40 years. And that award is something that was nominated and voted upon by the Wisconsin Chiropractic Association Board of Directors. So it's it's quite a special award. You're you're in rare air and elite company with with that award, Dr. Bellville. So thank you so much. Yeah, my pleasure. So looking forward to uh handing you that award at the awards banquet at our fall convention here in a week and a half. So having said that, you've done a lot of things right. And you mentioned working with other healthcare providers in your office, and I'm assuming that meant in the community as well. And and where does collaboration of care fall into the whole chiropractic practice for you over the last 40 years?

SPEAKER_00 15:20

So um I I have a large family, but I also come from a large family. I have uh one of eight kids. My mom was a nurse, two of my brothers are medical doctors, and and then another brother's a chiropractor. So early on, I always felt like it was important to melt the two professions together for the benefit of the patient. So early on, I was always trying to get chiropractic into the medical realm. And when I got here in 1984, it was pretty cold on the reception of meeting with medical doctors. In fact, there was only two, and they would do it kind of on the slide, so other doctors wouldn't know they were actually talking to chiropractors. But and that has come from that to, as you know, uh Chris, that now the doctors are calling you asking you for lunch and uh how you can get together. So one of the things I always wanted to do was uh try to be able to do things with my patients with medical doctors. So when they went there, they could say, Hey, I see Dr. Belva, he's a chiropractor, and they wouldn't make a face or make unkind words, which was what usually happened in the beginning. So um I worked really hard with the hospital here in town, emergency hospital, to uh get the okay to do uh MRIs and CT scans in the hospital. And so I was the first person, and maybe in the state of Wisconsin, I don't know that, but it had to be close because that was kind of cutting edge back in the uh 90s. So I actually met with the uh uh the ministry of the hospital, and he actually became a patient, and he kind of explained how I needed to do it step by step. And he said it would take probably two years for you to develop relationships that they could trust you, then then I could work with them to finally okay it. Because when it first started, uh the surgeon got wind of the fact that it might have a chiropractor come on board, and he said to him, You bring a chiropractor on board, you can just write my contract for Theta CART because I'm out of here. Wow. So it went from that two years later to I wasn't exactly welcomed, but they felt comfortable with me ordering MRIs as long as I had a co-doctor that would receive them to make sure that in case there was something on that film, that appropriate referral might be made. So I have done that uh you know for years. So and that just kind of went to then I started meeting the surgeons and I started mainly the ones that associate with the chiropractic, which is orthopedic surgery and um neurosurgery. And so I got to know the surgeons here then later on, the ones that you work with with at Neurospine and Neuroscience, but mainly neurospine for sure. But uh, and that relationship just kind of in the last 10 years, as you know, has blossomed into uh a very easy collaboration. Um, now the doctors, I have their numbers on my cell phone and uh the one at Neurospine in uh in Appleton. We talk almost once a week about patients, and and really all that comes uh at the benefit of the patient. And so when they walk in there, they know that they've seen me. I know they've seen him, and they feel so comfortable the fact that two doctors are talking about their care for the benefit of that patient.

SPEAKER_01 18:39

That's awesome. You've really blazed the trail uh and opened a lot of doors for the chiropractors, which then, like you said, open the doors for patients to collaborate then with not only chiropractic, but then medical care. And I know it's a two-way street. Uh, you're not always referring patients there, they're referring patients to you as well. Hello, everyone. I want to talk to you about the upcoming 2024 Women's Health and Wellness Forum. It's eight hours of CT for DCs, CTs, and CRTs. And two of those hours will count as nutrition credits. Here's another thing of note. You don't have to be a female to attend. The content is geared towards female patients, but not just female practitioners. I'm speaking from experience. I attended last year's event and it was fantastic. This year, our women's health and wellness forum will occur Saturday, November 16th at the Waterfront Hotel in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. Folks, that's the same location as last year's women's forum. This year, the hotel venue has a new name and new renovations. As always, we'll have fantastic speakers and topics. I encourage you to check out the content of the forum on the Wisconsin Caribbean Association website. You can read all about it there. Once again, the WCA Women's Health and Wellness Forum will occur Saturday, November 16th at the Waterfront Hotel in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. We hope to see you there. I'm sure your strategies of lifelong learning have been ingrained from the beginning from those four books that your chiropractic friend in Stoughton gave you and the conversation you had with Dr. Barge on the plane. But what's your source of learning? Are you a book reader? Do you like going to conferences? Do you like listening to podcasts? Are you an audio book? What works for you?

SPEAKER_00 20:31

So I'm kind of uh D, all the above. There you go. Uh I've always been an avid learner, and uh we'll just start with chiropractic for a for a moment, uh, because that's kind of the basis of this. But so in the beginning, I you know you come out of Palmer with I think a great basis for what you know. And then there's just a ton of stuff you need to know after that. So so I've always, and this is what I kind of preach to my my boys, is like try to find things that you need to learn that you're not good at. And uh, you know, for me initially, personal injury auto accidents. So I did Art Croft and did his uh Art Croft warrior class for three years, and I did uh cox flexion distraction. Uh obviously I did a ton of the WCA with their uh nutrition classes, and I st I still do those. And then I did the um uh I think the WCA sponsored the rehab, and I did that for three years. So I was always getting, you know, it's 40 hours every two years, but uh it wouldn't be unusual for me to get uh 200 hours in two years in the first 20 years of my practice. And I always thought I I need to I need to do that, and I need to do that, I need to do that. And so when I could, I always like to read books, and uh and I I love reading books. And then there was this one joke I read in Reader's Digest where it said, uh, what are you gonna do when you retire? And I said, I'm gonna finish my book. And they said, I didn't know you were writing one. I said, No, I'm reading one. And so And so I've backed off a little bit. So I I I can read a book about you know once every one to two weeks. And so I just love reading books. And for the longest time, I had a um a flip phone. So when 3G ended uh in June 30th of last year, my wife said, You gotta go down and get a new phone. I'm not going with you, and you gotta do it yourself, and you're gonna get a real phone for once. And she uh has now regretted that because my friends showed me how podcasts work, and now I can't get enough, there's not enough hours of the day for me to look at all the podcasts. And and I I really enjoy the health ones the most, but uh there's a wide range between religion, politics, health. There's just so many things I learned. So now I do that on the way to work and the way home from work, and then whatever else I can do in between. I almost never turn the TV on uh because there's so much I can still learn even after 40 years in practice.

SPEAKER_01 22:54

Well, that's interesting. And I'm I'm right with you because I've evolved into the podcast world myself as far as a lot of listening, and sometimes my wife and I look at each other. There's not enough time in the day to get all this information in. So so my next question was going to be, and you kind of already answered this, but what keeps you passionate and motivated to come to work every day?

SPEAKER_00 23:17

Yeah, so it's probably the easiest thing that I've done. And uh I'm gonna share the story with you because I don't know you know this or not. But in April this year, I had turned 65. So I went in for my Medicare wellness visits, the first one. And uh they said, uh, you're doing fine, but your blood pressure is a little high. And I said, Well, that's unusual because it's always so good. And he said, Why don't you keep an eye on it? And so two weeks later, it was up a little higher. So I said, You know, you better put me on some medication because uh my father died early of a heart attack, so I don't want that to happen. So uh he said, Do this. And then anyway, uh a few days later, my blood pressure was up to 210 over 110. So I my sons encouraged me to go in and get checked, and that led to open heart surgery. And that was done on April 15th. And I'm telling the story because they said you can't come back for three months after that. And I said, actually, I'm gonna come back in two months. And I said, uh, I will. And uh my family said no. I said no. I said, I missed chiropractic so much that on the day that I came back, which was two months to the day, I got up and my wife said, How do you feel? I said, I feel like a kid going back to school in the fall. I was so giddy about returning, seeing my patients and doing what I do. And and so, how do you stay passionate? I was like, How do you not be passionate? It's just something that I love so much that I just wanted to return to be part of that. And when you're part of that with your with your patients and you love what you do every day, getting up every day is a treat, not something that's mundane. And retirement to me looks like seeing patients as much as I can see them, and and also then a work-life balance as well. But chiropractic has always just been a passion, not a job, never been a job to me.

SPEAKER_01 25:13

You know, it's so cool. And every year, twice a year, I go to convention and I meet up with friends that I haven't talked to in a while, and we have these types of conversations. And I'm just so happy that we're recording this right now and we're able to share this and that message with so many chiropractors that are midway through their career, twilight of their career, and especially the young chiropractors that are either about to start their career or shortly into it. So that that's so cool. Well, let's just talk about uh that giddiness and going to work. What does a typical day look like for you?

SPEAKER_00 25:50

So uh for uh 35 years, I I I I kind of started at seven and went till six, and I works and I work six days a week, and I've cut back a few days just because um, you know, still recovering a little bit. But so a typical week for me is uh uh six days a week, and I love that. I I just you know, it's just something I think when you're a practitioner, you're and you're in it for I'll say the right reasons. I just like to be there. I like to be there daily if I can. Um, I think it's a great example for other doctors, especially my family. A typical day, I I start seeing the first patient around eight o'clock, uh, take a break about 12 for about 90 minutes, and that break includes a little lunch, a little nap, uh phone calls as we all make those, and then back at it at 1:30 and done at six, and then come home and walk my dog and back to bed at nine, but uh refreshed and uh ready to do it again the next day.

SPEAKER_01 26:44

So if I was going to ask you about what advice you would give to a young chiropractor, would you tell them that they should work from six to six or eight to six?

SPEAKER_00 26:55

Uh well, of course, that's what I'd tell them. Um, I think healthcare is a choice that you've made as a practitioner. It's different than being a banker or a lawyer. Uh, you're you've been given the right, and I say a right, a privilege, to take care of people. And they put a lot of trust and in your hands that you're gonna take care of them, you're gonna do a good job from them, and you're in it for the right reason. And I just really believe that you need to be there every day, or certainly enough hours in a day that you can that you can take care of their patient's needs. And if you can, if you're in a practice with maybe another doctor, so you can share those days, so then he can take those days when you're not there. And so the patient always has adequate access to you as a practitioner. And that's I just feel very important about that. And I would tell a young doctor, you're there right now to get started to work as much as you can. And I remember uh Virgil Strang, way back when I started at Palmer College, he said, You're here to burn the midnight oil, and that's what you need to do for your practice. And one of the people I've always admired was Clarence Gonsted out of Mount Horror, Wisconsin. And he was a crusader class of 1923. And uh you read his stories about what he did and how he worked, and he got there early, stayed till you know 10 at night with the Cox brothers. And then his wife would occasionally drive him around to the farms around Mount Horror because he was too tired, and he would make those calls until one in the morning and go back and do it the next day. And he worked until he was 85, 86, and it's only after he quit working that he passed away. So he was a guy that I always kind of look to. And so I would tell those young practitioners before you just automatically look into that work-life balance motto, uh, read about Clarence Gonstead of Mount Horeb and read about his life. And I think it was it just uh it was kind of who I looked up to and said, wow, that's the kind of guy I think I'm in in this profession for, was that kind of a guy. So and it was always uh he was pretty amazing to me, and he still is when I read about him.

SPEAKER_01 29:07

That's good stuff, it's really good. All right, 40 years, you know, you've had a great career, you're not done yet. I know that.

SPEAKER_00 29:15

Right.

SPEAKER_01 29:15

Um somewhere along the line, we all face adversity. We all face challenges. Do you have an example that you want to share? Maybe you do, maybe you don't, that maybe there was a challenge or two. And what happened? What did you do about it? And did you learn from it?

SPEAKER_00 29:33

So um by far the greatest adversity to me, my practice in the 40 years was in 1993, it was a Friday morning, and a gentleman who did not know in the front desk staff said, uh, this guy needs to talk to you. And uh he came down the hallway and he handed me a letter. And so that letter was a summons, and uh I was being I was being sued for malpractice. And they said they say the average doctor gets one lawsuit every 15 years. So I have one in 40 years. So it was like I took it personal, it was hard. And uh, so the first thing I did was read Fred Barge's book called Are You the Doctor, Doctor? And it was called The Joys of Motoring. And part of that joys of motoring is you will face adversity. And one of the things for doctors, and it's the hardest thing, is that you will be sued. And you'll take it personally, but don't. And and the the lawsuit takes a long time. It takes about three years from the start to the finish. And they they kept wanting to settle the case. And I said, I'm not settling this case for one dollar, not nothing. I said, This will have to go to trial. And it was important for me because I wanted to go to trial, I wanted to make the other side spend money, I wanted to make them tough for them, and I wanted it so I would win the case, and then other lawyers wouldn't take any cases because they have to spend$100,000 to gain one dollar, and that would help all the future chiropractors ahead of me because no one would get sued because they would read about the case of Kent Belville, who got sued, he wouldn't settle, even though the case was only for$50,000, he wouldn't settle, and it cost our firm$85,000 to settle the case. So three years later, the the uh jury trial lasted four days, and you can edit this part if you want, Chris. But Dr. Fred Shepard came down from Greed Bay to testify against me.

SPEAKER_01 31:31

You're kidding me.

SPEAKER_00 31:32

Oh no, and and he did. So um uh uh and then uh Dr. Yeoman came and testified in my behalf, and he did such a wonderful job, and I'm so thankful to this day, even though it was a long time ago. And the jury came back and said uh that I did nothing wrong, there's no damages, and it was probably the most adverse yet the most rewarding time of my chiropractic career. I was never sued again, not even close, and nothing came. And and uh uh so that was adversity faced, and uh it's what every doctor I think, I think secretly fears the most is being sued from practice. I think. And so when you go through it and you're on the other side of it, you're a much stronger man and uh much better doctor, and yet I hope you know that people realize sometimes things just happen and you got to do the right thing and do your best and forget the rest.

SPEAKER_01 32:29

Wow, yeah, there's some inspiration there. So thank you for sharing that. Yeah, yeah, I don't wish that upon anybody, and but like you said, if you've been in practice long enough, it's most likely gonna happen or something like it anyway. Let's completely turn the table here, and I'm gonna ask you to maybe prop yourself up a little bit here, Kent. And now I want to ask you do you have a proudest moment in practice?

SPEAKER_00 32:52

Well, you know, the proudest moment for me was when um Palmer College has this thing, and I know you must have participated in this, is when um it's such a great thing. So the proudest moment I have is when I was on the stage in Davenport, Iowa, and you get to be on the stage and your son walks up there, and you get to give him his diploma and uh move the tassel over, and then watch him become a chiropractor and then him come into your practice. And it was such a deep moving moment, and I gotta do it twice.

SPEAKER_01 33:30

Very nice. So, yeah, there's a lot that goes into that. It's not more just you being on stage, it's all about uh passing on the legacy and the inspiration that it took for your son or for others, their daughter, to make that decision to follow their parents' footsteps. So we're gonna wrap this up pretty soon, but I gotta ask you a little bit about work culture. Again, you've been in practice for 40 years, very successful. What does it take to build a positive work culture in the office?

SPEAKER_00 33:59

Well, you know, first of all, I I yeah that starts from the top, right? So um one of the things that I've always thought very important is always do the right thing all the time. And I I think if uh your staff can see you as a model and somebody they can be proud to work for, that, you know, I do come in early, I do stay late, um I I'll see anybody at any time if that's what it takes. And I think that develops a culture like, wow, the guy that I work for, he does this. And then you have to have somebody who runs the office who says, because we do it this way, we always do it the right way, that's how we're gonna do this. And when you do right things consistently, good things consistently happen. And that's how you build a positive work culture.

SPEAKER_01 34:48

That's great advice. All right, Ken, we're gonna wrap this up. This is gonna be my final question, I promise. The future 40 years in practice. Do you have anything left as far as aspirations? Uh do you have a retirement plan, or are you just gonna keep burning that midnight oil?

SPEAKER_00 35:07

So I always had a goal of practicing for 50 years, and that was kind of one to be my legacy to my family, to my practice. So I have 40 years in, a little less than 10 years to go. And uh so my goal is to finish that, not at the level I'm doing uh with uh how many hours, but just slowly tapering down for those next 10 years. And hopefully um I have the health to do that. And uh I certainly have my family support. So uh that's my goal, and uh I hope to then ride away in the sunset after that.

SPEAKER_01 35:49

Very cool. Well, I'll tell you what, Dr. Bellville, we're just one or two communities away from each other, so I've been able to observe you the way you do business and the way you practice chiropractic for the 33 years that I've been in practice. And I've always thought of you as a trailblazer, an innovator. I know you're a family man, and I know your faith is very important to you, which uh I I'd like to say I join you on that. So uh I have a lot of great respect for you. So I want to thank you for spending the time with us on our podcast interview today. And I again very much look forward to handing you the Wisconsin Chiropractic Association Lifetime Achievement Award uh at our fall convention here in a week and a half. So thank you very much, Ken.

SPEAKER_00 36:34

I I just want to say when you called me that night, I I was I thought you're gonna be asking for money for the WCA, which it would have been fine too. But when when you called and said that, I literally got a tear in my eye. My wife goes, What's wrong? And I I said what you had said, she goes, Oh my gosh, that's amazing. So it was it was it was important for me to hear that. Um, it's kind of vindication for a life's work. So I appreciate it very much.

SPEAKER_01 37:01

Well, I'll look forward to observing you in action burning the midnight oil for the next 10 years, Kent. So thank you very much, and I'll see you soon. Thank you.