Be the Best You to Provide the Best Chiropractic Service – Bo Mullen DC – Chiro Hustle Podcast 505
I am 35 years old, married to my wife Jamie who is also a chiropractor and I have 2 kids (Max 10, Mason 7). I grew up in WA state and went to Palmer Davenport. My wife and I graduated in 2015 after having our first son in school we came home and had our second just after graduation.
We moved to Gig Harbor, WA in 2016 and started Harbor Life Chiropractic. Currently, we have a family-based practice and my wife specializes in pediatrics and pre and post-natal care. We are looking to expand to another location this year as well.
In our personal time, we are involved with our church often. My favorite new thing there is that I am now leading the middle and high school youth groups. We plan to utilize this blessing of leading kids through some tough years and plan to make a nonprofit that is centered around community clean up and eventual community fields and/or youth center construction.
We are always trying to stay in the present moment while being aware of where God is trying to take us.
TRANSCRIPT
SPEAKER_02: You've made the Chiro Hustle.
JAMES CHESTER (HOST): Sit back and learn from the greatest influencers in the profession on the world's number one ChiroProject podcast. Before we dive into this powerful episode, please remember to subscribe to our channels and give us a 5-star rating on iTunes and to continue hustling.
This episode is sponsored by Transact Card, Align Life, NeuroInfinity, Imaging Services, ChiroHealth USA, ChiroMoguls, Pure Chiro Notes, Titronics, Sherman College of Chiropractic, New Patients in a Box, Life Chiropractic College West, Pro Hockey Chiros, Pro Baseball Chiros, and the IFCO. Well, let's hustle.
LUKE MILLETT (PRODUCER): Hey guys, welcome to episode 505 of the Chiro Hustle podcast. I'm your producer, Luke Millett, and here's your host, James Chester.
JAMES CHESTER (HOST): So today we have the opportunity of interviewing Dr. Bo Mullen. And if you want to hear the story about how to be the best you to provide the best service, stay tuned. Welcome back. This is another episode of the Chiro Hustle podcast. I am beyond pumped for having Bo Mullen on. I think it's going to be lots of great information, but we just had a 42-minute conversation before this episode started. So I was just really thankful to have the opportunity to light the microphone up, and now we got this episode rolling. So this is episode 503. I actually let him know a lot of the big why. Why do we do what we do over here at Chiro Hustle? Where did I come from, in a way? But this episode's about him. But before we jump into this episode about Dr. Bo Mullen, I'm just going to let you guys know the why and the ethos behind Chiro Hustle. And it's to support the chiropractic profession, but first of all, we do support freedom of speech. I'm sure everybody's seen over the past couple of years how that's a concern, just for all people. But specifically in Chiropractic, there's people out there always trying to chip away at the language in a lexicon and the history of this profession. So what we do is preserve that. We do also believe in family health freedom and medical freedom. Those are big things. Dr. Bo had an issue over the past couple of years where they had some people that weren't happy with his guidelines and how he wanted to run his own business. So those things are, as they say, essential or non-essential, well, it's essential to stand up for what you believe in. And family freedom and medical freedom are things that are, you know, I'll die on the hill for that. Yes. And then as we go, we'll get a bit more philosophical on our opener. So we do protect the sacred trust. If you don't know what that is, go do a search on your favorite search engine for BJ Palmer's sacred trust. It's his last words. You're going to learn so much about chiropractic. If you didn't ever know about the sacred trust, figure out how to protect it yourself. And then we do support subluxation-based chiropractic and intelligence and universal intelligence. We believe that when man or woman, the physical gets adjusted, it connects them to man or woman, the spiritual. And with that being said, Dr. Bo Mullen, welcome to the show.
DR BO MULLEN DC (GUEST): Thanks, buddy. I'm very excited to be here. I kind of got lost in our conversation and realized that we hadn't even started yet or didn't realize. So super pumped, man. This is cool.
JAMES CHESTER (HOST): Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You know, it's one of those things that chiropractic is such a profound thing that if you meet somebody and you dial in with the right frequency to that person, you could talk about it for endless hours. Yes. And I think that we were on that. And I know and it's good though, it's good because I feel like you got a chance to fill your tank and I got a chance to fill my tank. And the question set that we roll through is going to be a lot more fun now.
DR BO MULLEN DC (GUEST): Cool. Yeah, man. It was good. It's again, like you said, it's nice to chat with someone that speaks the lingo, so to
JAMES CHESTER (HOST): speak. Yeah. So you went to Palmer. Tell me about your early experience going to Palmer.
DR BO MULLEN DC (GUEST): Yeah. So my wife and I, we were living in Redmond, Washington, had a couple of really good jobs right out of undergrad. And even though things were good, it was like, this isn't where we want to stay. We always, I always knew I wanted to go to school again for chiropractic. And so we cut our lease short in December and we just moved to Davenport. We didn't visit. We didn't, I'd never been to anywhere between Montana and like Florida, like literally most of the country had never been there. But I just knew I was like, if I'm going, I want to go to where it all started. I love standing somewhere where something significant happened and kind of just like, what if I was there? Right? And so we pulled up to Davenport, Iowa 10:30 at night on a January winter snowiness. And we pull up to this duplex that we rented via Craigslist. And it was not what they showed us. I'll put it that way. And I turn around and my wife's crying and we have our stuff in a moving truck. We got our dog and our cat and like, we spent one night there and left and got our money back and we're homeless for like a day and found a house. So the start was really like, huh, did we do the right thing? But we settled in, we found our place. Our moving truck was 32 days late. So we lived off like a frying pan from Walmart in our suitcases for a month and an air mattress. But man, it's so cool now to think about how it started. But Palmer was great. We had a baby, my wife and I both went through Palmer at the same time. She had our first baby the day after our first year ended finals were Thursday. She had him Friday. A teammate of mine on the rugby team, his wife was watching their daughter while he was in school and watched her son for five bucks an hour, which was like a godsend and they became our best friends and like their family would invite us to Christmas stuff because they were drivable. So it was perfect. It was like our Midwest family. So Palmer's crazy, played rugby there. You know, having a kid, having to, we both had jobs. We both went to school. But I just think that it was like, you know, again, you're in a storm and like, oh, why me? Why me versus what should I do? God, what should I do? And I think I look back then and now sometimes things seem crazy and busy and I'm just like, this is nothing compared to being in school with jobs in the kid. So it was a fun time, but it was wild. It was, it was not everybody's normal chiropractic school experience being married with a newborn. But I think it pushed me to do as much as I could. At least at that point in my life, I think I pushed myself pretty far. I probably could have done more, but it was a lot of time.
JAMES CHESTER (HOST): How did you decide that you wanted to be a chiropractor? Because I think that that's like a fundamental of our show. People talk about like, how do they like were inspired to become a chiropractor? And I know in your bio, you talk a little bit about when you're a family member. So that's a chiropractor.
DR BO MULLEN DC (GUEST): Yep. So my uncle went to Palmer, Davenport, graduated in 1974. You know, got to sit in front of Clarence Gonstead in real life and learn from him. So it was pretty cool. And I just, I always remember like, whether it was a vacation they went on or their house was different or they were happy or, you know, like there was just something different about Uncle Lou and, you know, everybody's got their faults. I'm not going to say he was a saint because nobody is, but he was always just, it was just different than the other three siblings. And not that they're bad, but he lived differently. And I loved getting adjusted when I went to call it in high school. Like people said they'd never been to a chiropractor and that just was like, I didn't know that people didn't go. So that's kind of how we grew up. Very chiropractor bubble went to school, thought I wanted to be an orthopedic surgeon for a little while, shadowed some surgeons in undergrad that was actually really fun. But I was at a Seahawks game right after undergrad and my buddy Brandon, who his uncle and mine were actually business partners for a long time as Docs. I was dying. I was on crutches because I broke my ankle and he adjusted me on the back of the truck. And it was just awesome. And I was like, Oh, thanks man. That's great. And we're driving home that night and I looked to my wife and I said, I don't want to have to do a residency where they tell me and I don't want to have to be in an OR to use my skills. Like, I want to help people all the flipping time. Like I loved what happened to me today. And the next day we cut the lease and planned our move. And that like, so it was always there. But then that moment I just knew. And then I, you know, even going through school, like it was good and I knew chiropractic was awesome. But it wasn't until a few years into practice that I really kind of, about the time I found Kairos, it really kind of ignited me like I'd never been before. And like the last three, four years, man, it just been different. And I didn't have that huge aha moment. Like some people do. I wasn't hurt and chiropractic didn't, you know, restore help restore me. But it was that adjustment and it was finding Kairos. Those two influential moments have turned me into what I am now, I would say.
JAMES CHESTER (HOST): So I think that there's a lot to be said about the Kairos training culture. Share some sentiments that you have about being a part of that culture. Yeah. And how it's helping support chiropractic across the board.
DR BO MULLEN DC (GUEST): Yeah. I think first of all, for me personally, we met Brett because he actually did a couple months of business consulting with us and helped us systemize some things and really aligned our practice with who we were. And I mean, numbers went up like over 20% in the first few months. And we didn't, I didn't feel like we changed a lot. It was the so's. That's what caught my attention was like, hey, I was looking forward to this video call every week because I just got so much from this guy. And then we stayed connected after it became friends and I attended a couple training camps and a seminar. Jamie and I got to speak at one of his winter immersions. Met Daniel D. Piazza there. He's a great guy. I don't know if you've heard his stuff, but anyway, I just, it really shook me that this group of people was like this instant family and you could see that they were family, but then you also didn't feel like you had to do anything to be in. They were just like, oh, let's open the circle, right? Come on in. And I just had never felt a group that I could be open and vulnerable with right away and feel heard and seen kind of like I'd never really been. I have some of the best friends in the world and I can honestly say that at some Kairos events like I have been heard and seen more than I have ever been. And I think there's just this love and this passion for health and healing and well-being and being the best you to be the best service, you know, giver service, servant heart. And so for me personally, it was incredible to be in a group that I could be in full expression and authentic me mode and be just a hundred percent loved and not judged. You know that quote from Walt Whitman be curious, not judgmental from Ted Lasso when he was playing darts. I thought that was pretty cool, but in terms of the actual what it's doing for the profession, I think that it's doing that experience that I had for many different people obviously, but I think it's just showing that this united front though we're all different and we're all from this place and that place and we like this kind of adjustment. We like that. We're trained the same way with the same core principles to treat the individual and connect with them. And then I love their shirt one of them. It says connection over correction. And there's just not a lot of people speaking about connecting with human beings anymore versus how to get the most adjustments and how to get the most new patients. And this is the best technique for the best result. Sometimes the best result is sitting down with someone and letting them speak before you even touch them and actually hearing them and letting them know that they're okay with you. And so I think for me, what it's going to do is it's going to show that you can do that and also be extremely successful in business and have a lot of people that have your back. When you feel like you're alone in that world, you're never going to be with that group.
JAMES CHESTER (HOST): So you gave some good lead-ins there for me. One of my mentors, Dr. Ed Osburn, who started the Chiropractor Philanthropist podcast to train me how to be a podcaster. I use a chiropractor, but he'd always say that we're more alike than we are different. And I always resonated with me. And I grew up playing soccer, played soccer for 22 years. And there's a saying with a Liverpool, I believe, that says you'll never walk alone. And that resonates with me too. And there's these certain things, this acknowledgment of having people around you that see you, they acknowledge you, they hear you, they make you feel valuable. It changes the conversation. It changes how you walk out of that room. And I think that that's what I've experienced with being around the group that are part of the Kairos training culture is. It is unity of diversity, but it also teaches people how to work together and to get their methods right to where they are artists of chiropractic. And I think that if you look at the triune, science, philosophy, and art, like we need more artistry of the adjustment more than ever. Like I talked to Kairos all time, but we're looking for like a second set of hands. And they come out of school or they're three years out or they're five years out and they're all nicked up and like they don't know how to find a home and deliver the goods because they're not cultured in the art of chiropractic. And they're not teaching it at schools, man.
DR BO MULLEN DC (GUEST): Oh, man. No, no, no, it's, I think that was probably why I switched so hard or had that switch flip for me was that, yeah, I took nine trimesters of philosophy at Palmer, but a lot of it is a history lesson, right? Which is good. But it did. It unlocked a level of artistry and philosophy and it takes you away from the nuts and bolts and the scientificness and the numbers of a business. And it kind of lets you just, like you said, be an artist for a minute and not think and just be. And I think that's to unlock that as invaluable.
JAMES CHESTER (HOST): Well history is important, but studying philosophy of the greats, the Martin Luther King, Jr., studying the philosophy of that, studying the philosophy of Gandhi, studying the philosophy of Mother Teresa, studying the philosophy of artists like Picasso and Van Gogh. Like that's philosophy that I believe also people need to have a foundation in so they can understand like what it means to have a soul mission, what it means to do bigger work than yourself. Yeah. I mean, I think that that's a big part of chiropractic I've got to know too is it's a give love serve. You have to give love and serve, but you also have to be able to make a business out of it. So I think that that was really cool that you shared that you're actually a part of a training program that actually taught you better business principles.
DR BO MULLEN DC (GUEST): Oh, yeah. And now 100%. And like for example, working with Brett is probably one of the only reasons I feel confident now that I'm launching like consulting for chiropractors this year. And I got a client that's starting in June. I'm super pumped as I've always wanted to do it. But experiencing it from the consumer end and getting a really good product from someone who just wanted me to do better. And that was it, you know, and not getting into the price because it really wasn't that expensive. You could have charged a lot more based on what others are. And so it's just, it's authentic. And yeah, it is, it's, it's both. It's artistry business and holy like some of these guys that teach their, the science and this guy, Dr. Jordan Bonham in North Carolina, he's one of their facilitators. And he is truly a nerd and he'll say that himself. But like he pulls stuff from back here where you're like, I don't even remember my phone number from a kid. And you just heard that out from like three pages of a book. So they're backing it up to it's not just all, you know, hugging and feeling good. It's, it's info packed.
JAMES CHESTER (HOST): Yeah, I think it's important. I think I've had Jordan on the show is good guy. So let's talk marketing for a little bit. I love marketing. Because I told you I like have done crazy amounts of events and so much to like help get people into chiropractic clinics. So what do you like about marketing? What don't you like about marketing? What can we improve upon with marketing?
DR BO MULLEN DC (GUEST): Yeah, I think for me, I enjoy marketing. I think what I'm not good at personally is honestly just scheduling it out or remembering to do it on a consistent basis. In the past, I have not been attracted to screenings. But I also like, I think I just put my perception or my experience with some screenings onto me doing one. You know, like I quit drinking in December and I realized I used to drink a lot because it brought kind of the real me out. Like it made me feel comfortable. I don't need that anymore. Like I'm not that guy. And so I just threw it out. And I think that way about live events and screenings this year, that's what I really want to push in our town is in person stuff connecting. Like you said, if you meet one guy, you meet one guy because it was the guy you're supposed to meet. So I think as a chiropractor, being in person is massively important because when they come in and they've already spoken to you or some of your staff and they recognize them, it's not their first time in your office anymore. Like mentally, they're not a guest anymore. They're a member. And so I think that's huge. And I've really been into, again, I've been falling off, but just honestly stories on social media and giving that behind the scenes type look. I love the Brunson, like give them a new vehicle, state what they're probably thinking is their objection, solve it, form and tell them where you're at and boom, you're out, right? So it's like, I think being more present in where those people are, which to me is a lot of in their phones and walking around events in town. And marketing's always been kind of like a, oh yeah, marketing thought because we're super lucky to have a lot of new patients. And so that's something I'm always curious about too, because I feel like someone could come in and really rip our marketing up in a good way and humble me a little bit to get me going more.
JAMES CHESTER (HOST): Yeah, I think it's just one of those, for lack of a better word sobering things. We find out what, you know, I used to write for this newspaper called Quasity Times. You're probably familiar with it. Oh yeah. Yeah. So where as I got out of college, I was a sports journalist and there was this guy that played for the Quad City Mallards. And he said, they asked him how he made like the All-Star team. And he said, I took my greatest weakness and made it my strength. And he's like, I took all my off season and all I did is focused on the one thing that I was the worst at. And he said, I came back the next year and that's how I made the All-Star team. I'll never forget it. And I think that if everybody kind of had that type of idea to support their mission and vision, if they took something like they didn't like to do something or it wasn't something that they enjoyed, but they knew that was the missing part of their game. If they focused a couple months on that thing, they'd be surprised how the outcome would change. And I think the thing that you were telling me earlier is having the right coach and having the right mentor. A lot of times people fly blind. They don't have anybody see in their blind spots form. And the next thing you know, they crash.
DR BO MULLEN DC (GUEST): It's incredible. It's incredible what you don't see in your own world. When someone's like, do you want me to like take that thorn out for you? Like that might help, right? Yeah. But yeah, man, you're right. You got it and you don't know what you don't know.
SPEAKER_02: You've made it to Chiro Hustle.
JAMES CHESTER (HOST): Sit back and learn from the greatest influencers in the profession on the world's number one Chiropractic podcast.
This episode is sponsored by Transact Card, Align Life, NeuroInfinity, Imaging Services, ChiroHealth USA, ChiroMoguls, Pure Chiro Notes, Titronics, Sherman College of Chiropractic, New Patients in a Box, Life Chiropractic College West, Pro Hockey Chiros, Pro Baseball Chiros, and the IFCO. Well, let's hustle.
Well, let's go back to you a little bit because I know you got a couple of kids and your wife's a chiropractor and chiropractors think they're outside playing. They're good. And chiropractors are always like, from my lens, they're some of the most fit and healthy people out there and their pillows, their pillows are their community. They're not eating GMOs. They're not putting shots into their kids. They're farmed to table people. But what are you doing specifically to take care of you and your family to make sure you guys are staying healthy and not having, as they say, sick days?
DR BO MULLEN DC (GUEST): Right. Well, I will say, I do believe we live a pretty healthy life. At the same time, when the kids get off the bus from school on Friday, there's this little market downtown called Finhomes. It's right on the water and we say Finhomes Friday and they can get a nice cream bar and a soda. And so it's like, yes, there's times where we do some treats, right? But it is. It's a reward type of thing. Like, we've got to earn Finhomes Fridays, right? Because it's special to eat that way. But for the most part, I think my wife and I kind of have a mirrored schedule where one of us usually has an open morning to get the kids to school and kind of be alone in the house to get some chores done or do something like this or read or whatever, work out. And so that's been super helpful not working at the same time all the time. Like I don't know how we thought things would get done, but they weren't. So that's really cool to come home to when you have four people in a house all the time and you come home for three hours and there's nobody in it, you can get everything you want done in the entire world. But what's been super cool lately is we have a couple service trades in town with gyms. So we have access to facilities, which we use, but we built a home gym during COVID. Our gyms stayed open, but honestly, it was like, it was just easier to have some stuff at home just in case. So we had got the same way, right. And so my son who just turned 10, the great golfer, like I genuinely believe he's better than me already. One of his first tournament last year is just honestly a little stud and he started playing baseball last year and he's very lean like his mom, built like her just skinny and strong and he wants to play football and he wants to play baseball and hit farther. So I said, okay, this is what you need to deadlift and you're going to do it how I say and when you have to go down and wait and technique, you're going to listen to me. And I gave him some things and for three, four weeks now, man, he's got his weekly alarm set on his iPad like not the night before, but for the week. Each day is different. He wakes up, we go down, we're tracking his weights and he's shaking me to wake up. Hey, dad, come on, we got to work out. That's cool. Dude, it's incredible. Like I still struggle to live this way and it's just cool. He's got a different mentality and I'm not saying he's Kobe or Michael, but just how they had to do it. He just has to. He has to do it.
JAMES CHESTER (HOST): I might ask him to mentor me.
DR BO MULLEN DC (GUEST): Honestly, like so that's been cool because I'm me up.
JAMES CHESTER (HOST): I buy the ice creams on Friday.
DR BO MULLEN DC (GUEST): Yeah, no good. Yeah. I know if it wasn't for him, I probably wouldn't work out as much either. But it's always been important to Jamie and I that even if they weren't working out with us that we would go tell them, this is what we're doing. You're income hangout, turn the TV on, hang out with us, but we wanted them to see us doing it together. But also that this is important. Like a lot of people will joke, oh, I need to get back to the gym. And I want them to see us do it. One of the scariest things, humbling things I ever heard was you tell your kids they can be whatever they want someday they're going to look at you and say, why aren't you doing that, dad? And I don't ever want to have them ask me that question. I want them to see me present with them, but pushing. Right. And so the kids is a huge motivator. We try to go on a lot of walks, you know, a sacrifice to work out to go on a bike ride with them or, you know, let them ride their scooters and take the dogs out. They're getting a little old now. So we usually leave the dogs at home at the time. But we just try to move, man. I really, we can all get sucked into screens. But we, if the sun's out, especially in Washington, we're outside until it's dark as much as we can be.
JAMES CHESTER (HOST): That's cool, man. Well, I appreciate the family sentiment. Yeah. It sounds like you got yourself a future star in your hands. Yeah.
DR BO MULLEN DC (GUEST): I told them not to forget about dad if he gets a big paycheck someday.
JAMES CHESTER (HOST): Send all the team in to get adjusted, kid.
DR BO MULLEN DC (GUEST): Yeah. You need to give me money. Just give me your friends. Yeah.
JAMES CHESTER (HOST): So, so let's, let's future pace a little bit in this profession that we both love. Where's it headed? What do you see happening? I know that you gave me this, this lengthy like message that you see it going, but share with our audience where your head space is around the future of this profession.
DR BO MULLEN DC (GUEST): Yeah. I think chiropractic has the potential to be incredibly united. Like we talked about unity through diversity, right? And it doesn't mean we all have to do it the same way, but we do all, I think when you really get down to it, we might say it different, but we just want people to be better. And we would love that if they could do it without any intervention besides facilitating innate intelligence and healing. Because really, that's all the adjustment does is facilitate, right? We don't fix anything. And so I've seen it struggle. You know, recently we had a lot of the schools pushing for, I don't even know how to put it different allopathic like methods to be introduced or taught or removing words that really our profession is built on. So I think we've seen plenty of fighting and infighting, but I also think that if you look at the hecticness of the medical world lately, like it really is not a lot about a chiropractic office, right? It's drugs and systems and hospitals overflowing and massive corporations not treating people. And it's the antithesis of you walking to a chiropractic office and most likely hopefully you are the attention point you are looked at, you are heard, you are seen, you are treated with actual hands on treatment, which a lot of times your surgeon won't even touch you sometimes till he cuts on you. And so not to be down on surgeons, I've had a few that have really helped me. But I think I would love to see it be the most united healthcare profession in the world in the sense that we are just constantly here for this ebbing and flowing with a consistent standard that doesn't need to waver through all the stuff, right? You can come back to the core of health, which is right here. I don't know how we see that because of the differences we do. I think that's the challenges. Does a Thompson-Gonstid, Chi-Rut, like does it all do the same thing, right? Like we talked about. So yeah, I don't know if I can tell where it's going, but my hope and my dream that's plausible is that we start coming more and more together to provide normalcy in some form of healthcare.
JAMES CHESTER (HOST): Well, it's a strong answer and I just want people to know that our listening is you get choices. That's what medical freedom is. That's what family health freedom is. And I do believe that chiropractic plays a special role in that position for people to have a choice. And I do think I'll say I've said this to quite a few people, not maybe on the record, but I feel like medical tyranny would be upon us if it wasn't for the chiropractic profession. I feel like the medical establishment has pretty much played chess with all parts of the profession. Now, like you said, they're removing languaging and philosophy from school. So they're castrating chiropractic from within the schools. Yes, very much. And they're watering it down and selling it out and they're retiring professors early and they're changing like the way that chiropractic is taught and delivered. So we do need to protect the sacred trust back to the opener again. You know, there's reasons I say the things that I say because these questions that I ask, they're fundamentally supported by the belief systems and the ethos that we carry forth with. So when you talk about a more unified profession, yeah, I think that if we don't unify, unify it long term, there will be checkmate and there will be medical tyranny. So chiropractors have to get together and support each other rather than pointing out the differences. They need to say, well, if we don't become more unified, if we don't lobby harder, if we don't stick up for our rights to practice. And you know, big part of this is I'll tell people a lot of time, man, is you got to support the state associations, because those are the people that support your licensing. And unfortunately, that's a game we all have to play. So I'm doing everything I can to support the executive directors of every state association right now.
DR BO MULLEN DC (GUEST): Yeah, go ahead. Go ahead.
JAMES CHESTER (HOST): I was just speaking at the Palmetto Chiropractic State Association. And you know, I think that they were asking me like, well, what would be like the one thing the ad campaign for chiropractic? And I was like chiropractic gets better people better faster. And that's the truth. Yeah. And they're like, well, that's more symptom based. And I'm like, well, people understand that. Sorry. Right. So we do have to meet them where they're at and get better fast with chiropractic. And I think that it's a really catchy thing for people to pay attention to. And if we really wanted to understand how all chiropractic works, like it gets people better faster.
LUKE MILLETT (PRODUCER): Yeah.
DR BO MULLEN DC (GUEST): Yeah. Yeah. The state association here played a little role and with our fine and getting that drop down and everything. And yeah, I think you're right. You got to again, you don't have to agree with every single thing, but we got to support what's supporting us, right?
JAMES CHESTER (HOST): And you know, I've talked to many executive directors and I'm just being clear. Like a lot of times they'll tell me how somebody becomes a member. It's because the something happens to them and prevents them from moving forward with practice. And then that's their impetus to looking for how can I get involved with the state association? Yep. Well, I think that that's the big thing is people just have to pay their dues. They have to support that. Those organizations, whether they like it or not, and then they have to support a larger organization like the ICA. They have to support organizations that support the future of chiropractic. And I think that that's really important. I agree. So transition. I know we're getting towards the edge of our time together. We've been on a call for quite some time, but I am curious, like, who are some of your heroes? Who's helped inspire you to become the practitioner that you are? And then the second part of that question is if you could spend an hour with anybody within or without the profession or outside the profession, who would that be?
DR BO MULLEN DC (GUEST): Yeah. That's good questions. I think, you know, heroes to me have always been like less of a big name, more of like a relationship to me. Ankeloo. Or like, yeah, you know, you look at, I think my grandfather kind of wrote that in the, would I spend an hour with and it'd be him? And he was a prisoner of war in World War II. And just like the happiest human being that I've ever met. But yet like the hardest crosses dude, you know, like, he just showed like you knew that you were in his love, man, because he was just different with you. And just for somebody like that to be just beaten down, man, like I can't even imagine what he went through. And we never really talked about it except for one day he shared some stuff, but he just showed me that like, man, the middle of something can be tough, but like, you never know what God's working on the other end of that. Because while you're head down in the mud, he's building something over here for you that you had to learn how to do over here to maintain or to handle, right? So just an example, not with always words, but just action. He's a guy, you know, I'd go and I knew his nap times and I could go ride my bike down and sit with him. And I knew I had to be out by a certain time so he could go do his stuff. But we just had such a cool relationship. And I think he taught me how to speak like a man, how to look somebody in the eye, how to shake their hand and how to have manners, but how to be loving. And that man, that is my hero for sure. If I could go back, not pick him. I think I think Mabel Palmer, man, I just, I don't know enough about her personally, which is probably the draw to her. But to think about what she was a part of and to be the first of so many things and to be part of the first of so many women's things in chiropractic and to live with a guy like BJ Palmer for that long, like, we all want to meet him. Let's meet the lady that like dealt with him. You know what I mean? So I just think she would have such an insight that we haven't really heard based on what we've learned in history and what's been written down by authors and things like that.
JAMES CHESTER (HOST): Well you know, and historical like reference, like she was the one that put together the AMP books when chiropractic should go into school at Palmer PCS, Palmer School of Chiropractic. She was the one that put the anatomy and physiology curriculum together. So she was actually she was teaching people about the functionality of the human body. You know, and I think I think that that's fascinating. And a buddy of mine named Todd Waters out of Michigan, he wrote a book about Mabel Palmer's life. Cool. So if you want to learn more about Mabel Palmer, go check out Todd Waters book. I think it might be called Finding Mabel. Okay. It could be something that you could follow up your expert secrets book with a chiropractic book on Mabel Palmer. And as soon as I read your like questions that you sent to me, then the answers that you sent to me as like, I'm going to plant this seed.
DR BO MULLEN DC (GUEST): Yeah, that's cool. I just wrote it down. I'll order it today.
JAMES CHESTER (HOST): Yeah. And then we finish up. I have a couple more questions, but we finish up and one of the things I really love to give people hope. I mean, we can sell hope all day, but when you hear about like the miracles that happen in chiropractic offices, that's one of the things that like really, it makes me fall in love every time after time of doing this show, which gives me the glory of going on is the miracles. And I know that you shared, you know, a story with me about a little toddler. So just share with us that miracle story. And then I'll ask you one final question and we'll close out.
DR BO MULLEN DC (GUEST): Yeah, man. I had to think because we've had some really cool, cool moments, but I think the biggest impact, not just on the patient, but to the family, like that exponential leap that you see this love and healing go out to was this little baby came in. I think he was right about three months old and this family's coming in and the baby's screaming in the car seat picks up the baby, kind of rocks him go. It does the like, okay, just need his mom and they get in and the mom like my new mom's looked tired. I get it. I have a bit of a new mom, but I've been a new parent, you know, I've seen it, but there's just this look of like helped me, right? Like desperate desperation and come to find out that if the baby's laying down on a crib or on the crib in the car seat, tummy time on the couch, cushy, doesn't matter. If the baby's laying flat, it's screaming unless it's held. So the mom's been sleeping like trying to be in like a recliner like this. I mean, it's terrible. They can't get a babysitter. They can't even go to the grocery store to get them done anything together outside of their home and they've never done anything without this baby because it's screaming when it's not being held like this. On top of that, the baby's puking like not spit up, but vomiting, projectile every time it eats, boom, losing losing all its food. It's losing weight, which is not a good thing for a baby. Right? Failure to thrive is a very big deal. And so the pediatrician says, okay, you need to try basically Prilosec and prescribes them heartburn medication to try to keep the stomach closed. As apparently God forgot to put Prilosec in that baby before it was born. So innately it was missing it. That's not true. That's a joke. So I'm following you. Yeah. Yeah. I just in case anybody was wondering, I don't feel it. So anyway, that doesn't work. And then the next suggestion is, well, there's something wrong with your breast milk. So you need to try formula. And then they went through, I think four, maybe five formulas by the time they come and nothing's changing, nothing's working. And my wife's explaining what they're going to do and why some things could be happening. And birth is extremely traumatic and we forget that. And there's a lot of, you know, she's going through everything and she's teaching them. And I really think it was three days a week for like less than three weeks. It was the seventh or eighth visit and they come in and they're like crying their eyes out telling us how amazing it is. And this baby sleeps and he just drove here and he slept in the car ride and they went on a date to get coffee where the mom watched the baby and they're just like, like you can't, I can't even explain the joy that we felt. And to see that like, you know, I'm going to downplay it, but nudging a couple of the spots on this baby, checking a couple of things. And just facilitating a little bit more function. It didn't make the baby stop spitting up. It changed a family. You know, and then they were confident to have more kids, right? So like they were even going into can we even have more kids? If this is how it's going to be at three months into their first one. And so to see a family be impacted and now to see that family running a local business, helping with mental health in our area and crushing it, like what would they be doing if they didn't have the time to go do that? And how many people wouldn't have gotten the mental health that they needed? It's that's what's big about this. It's it's the far we never know how far reaching something we do. Say or think might do, right? Like I know I just paraphrase that a little wrong, but it's so true that like your influence is not that human being. Your influence is their life and their life is involved with everything around them. And that to me is the number one, like I knew right away that's the story I wanted to tell.
JAMES CHESTER (HOST): So very, very powerful. You know, that's that's why I do this thing, man. It's because I get a chance to make that bond with you. And I've had a chance to make that bond with almost 1200 chiropractors. And I call it weaving the tapestry of the profession and documenting it because I think that we have to weave stories together. One of my good friends Roberto Monica will always tell me is, Hey, James, you know, if we don't tell them the truth about chiropractic, someone will make up on us about us. He's he's from Brazil. Yeah, that's pretty good. And I think that, you know, when we think about like the profession, we have to continuously tell the story. And my first chiropractic seminar ever went to is called mile high chiropractic weekend and Denver. And I went to number one, I've been every single one of them. That's awesome. And it's my chiropractic family, you know, that's my family. I've been a part of that family for a long time. And the first one I saw this guy named Joe Borrio, he went up on stage and he said, tell the story, tell the story, tell the story. And I've just never stopped ever since that day. I've never stopped telling the story. And your story today impacted me. And I hope it impacts other people that will listen to us in the future. And I got two more questions. Yeah. If you're the last chiropractor on planet earth, whether profession survive.
DR BO MULLEN DC (GUEST): Oh, yes, yes, it would. I know I got a seven year old that's coming up in the ranks. I got at least one. And we've sent two front desk employees to chiropractic school now. Well, I didn't send them, but they went after working with us. So yes, I think I would. I'd grow it.
JAMES CHESTER (HOST): And then the last question is, is there anything I didn't ask you today that you'd like to show out their audience before we call it a night?
DR BO MULLEN DC (GUEST): Oh, man. I'm sure I'll think of something perfect right when we hang up. But I think one thing I tell a lot of people that come into our office, because we get a lot of people that come as their last resort versus their first option, which is how it should be first. But they're in there when they're in there. And I say, you know what? One of my favorite things to say or that I heard was the best time to planet trees 20 years ago and the second best time is today. And there's nothing else we can do other than take this gift of today and kick its ass in the best way. Like, that's the only thing that's what's really changed me lately is like, I got so excited for a vacation with my kids and my family. And then I was like, I got a pretty sweet work schedule. Like it's not that bad. Why can't I get this excited at home? Like every day sweet, you know what I mean? Compared to where I've been, especially. And so that's my thing is like, wake up tomorrow and just know that like, you just got gifted, man. But it wasn't just supposed to happen that you woke up. You were gifted this wake up and just plant the tree, man.
JAMES CHESTER (HOST): Well, my hope is we planted a tree with you today. Yeah, man. I think so. That you're ready to go out there and kick some more ass because of this interview.
DR BO MULLEN DC (GUEST): I love it. No, I had a great time. I really appreciate you taking the time. I'm glad it worked. And I'll go figure out what the heck my kids are getting into and go from there.
JAMES CHESTER (HOST): Well, I'll close out with everybody. And I'll tell everyone out that it listens to our show. You're just one story way. Keep hustling. I'll see you guys on the next episode. Thanks a lot, Bo. Thank you, man. I appreciate you.
DR BO MULLEN DC (GUEST): For sure.
JAMES CHESTER (HOST): Thanks for listening to Chiro Hustle. Don't forget to subscribe and check back next week to continue hustling.
HASHTAGS
#chiropractic #chiropracticcare #chiropracticadjustment #chiropracticworks #chiropracticmarketing #chiropracticassistant #ChiropracticCares #chiropractichealth #chiropractics #chiropracticneurology #chiropracticcollege #chiropracticdubai #chiropracticlifestyle #chiropracticforlife #chiropracticajustment #chiropracticforkids #chiropracticrocks #chiropracticphotos #chiropractictreatment #chiropracticforeveryone #chiropracticadjustments #chiropracticbenefits #chiropracticfirst #chiropracticseminar #chiropracticinstrument #chiropracticbiophysics #chiropracticstudent #chiropracticcampbelltown #chiropractichealthmonth