How To Get Chiropractic Students to the Next Level w Dr Chad Polley DC – Chiro Hustle Podcast 531
Meet Dr. Chad Polley, a dedicated chiropractor based in Brandon, Florida. With board certification in neuropathy by the American College of Physical Medicine, Dr. Polley has an extensive background in rehabilitative care. He obtained his Doctor of Chiropractic degree from Life College of Chiropractic in Marietta, GA, following his graduation with a BS in Biology from Florida State University.
Growing up as a “military brat,” Dr. Polley attended 13 different schools before college and has lived in Riverview, FL for nearly 15 years. In his free time, he loves spending quality moments with his family at the beach and traveling to new destinations.
Additionally, Dr. Polley is passionate about supporting chiropractic students nationwide to prepare and pass their National Board Exams through a rigorous review program. Driven by his commitment to helping patients achieve optimal health and wellbeing, Dr. Polley remains up-to-date with the latest advancements in healthcare. His ultimate goal is to provide exceptional care, empowering his patients to regain their freedom and pursue the activities they love.
TRANSCRIPT
JAMES CHESTER (HOST): You made it to Chiro Hustle! Sit back and learn from the greatest influencers in the profession on the world's number one chiropractic podcast.
JAMES CHESTER (HOST): Before we dive into this powerful episode, please remember to subscribe to our channels and give us a 5-star rating on iTunes to continue hustling.
This episode is sponsored by the Transact Card, Align Life, Brain-based Health Solutions, Chiro HD, Imaging Services, Chiro Health USA, Chiro Moguls, Pure Chiro Notes, Titronics, Sherman College of Chiropractic, New Patients in a Box, Life Chiropractic College West, Pro Hockey Chiros, Pro Baseball Chiros, the IFCO, and 100% Chiropractic. LET’S HUSTLE !!!
LUKE MILLETT (PRODUCER): Hey guys, welcome to episode 531 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. Chad Polley. If you want to hear how he gets chiropractic students to the next level, stay tuned. Welcome back! This is another episode of the Chiro Hustle Podcast. They have Chad Polley coming on. It's episode 531. Can you guys believe that, I can, because I've done every single one of these. Actually love what we do over here. And before we get into this episode, Chad and I were just catching up before we hit the go live button, but I have to tell people the big Y before we get into Chad's story. And I think that the big Y is really important to our nation as a whole. And the big Y starts with this. Freedom of speech, the First Amendment. We're going way back in time, but these things really matter. And I saw how a lot of people were shadow banned and discredited and pushed down and suppressed. And we've never censored anyone on this show, which I think is really important for us to say because freedom of speech really matters to us as a platform. And as our audience gets to know us, we're very much patriots. And we believe in freedom of speech. We believe in medical freedom and family health freedom. Those are things that are near and dear to me. They're really important for families to be able to make decisions on their health choices, what they decide. So yeah, those things are really, really, really the front end of our big Y. But then as we get more philosophical, we do the show to protect BJ Palmer Sacred Trust. And if people don't know what that is, go to your favorite Surgeon Engine right now and look for BJ Palmer's last words or go for and look for BJ Palmer Sacred Trust. You're going to learn so much more about chiropractic than you previously did, even if you're a chiropractor and you've never read BJ Palmer's last words and what it means to be a chiropractor and know what the Sacred Trust is, it's so important. We do support subluxation based chiropractic. It's a big word, but I think it's fundamental to the lexicon and the language you know this profession. And then we go into the last bit of the intro and that is we also believe in innate intelligence and universal intelligence. We believe that when man or woman, the physical is adjusted, it connects them to man or woman, the spiritual. And with that being said, Dr. Chad, welcome to the show.
DR CHAD POLLEY DC (GUEST): Thanks Jim, appreciate you having me on.
JAMES CHESTER (HOST): Yeah, you know, there's a lot we're talking about before and I love those pre-interview chats, like I should sell those. That's where all the goods are when I have those, when nobody's on camera and we start talking, but that's when people share like the best stuff. Because you know, there's a safe space to talk shop and talk about whatever's going on, you know, but.
DR CHAD POLLEY DC (GUEST): Well, Jim, I appreciate you talking about the intro and freedom of speech. And you know, sometimes we take that for granted and we're filming today on June 6th. It's the 79th anniversary of D-Day. And I don't think there's a day that embodies the idea that freedom isn't free. And I had the opportunity to walk those beaches four years ago on the 75th anniversary. Like I get goosebumps now just thinking about it. And you know, walking, walking those beaches and getting the opportunity to climb the bluffs and sit there in a German pill box and a bunker and look down on that beach and see the sight lines of no cover, no nothing. And man, we just did not give up. We kept, we were resolved. We knew what our mission was. And you know, we prevailed. And so again, I want to thank you for bringing those things up and just, you know, a subtle reminder not so subtle that, you know, freedom isn't free. And there are a number of people that came before us that made the ultimate sacrifice so that you and I get the opportunity to hang out and do a cool last podcast.
JAMES CHESTER (HOST): You know, the sentiments real. And from reading your bio, I know that you grew up in a military family. So you know, there's a lot that people have done to serve our country and to be able to make it to where we can open up our front doors without fear.
DR CHAD POLLEY DC (GUEST): Exactly right.
JAMES CHESTER (HOST): You know, and I think that even the bigger conversation is making sure that families are safe. And that's, you know, the impetus of, you know, protecting the nation. But also it's for like making sure that, you know, parents can make good decisions for how they raise their children. That's that's America, you know, like, I, I'm sorry, but the last couple years have been a huge strain energetically on so many people, even wealthy people. But the people that don't have much, they've been at the mercy of the decision, people that make decisions for them. And I just want people to know that chiropractors always give love and serve. And you have the ability to come into any chiropractic office, no matter where it is, and get an exam, get your spine checked for a subluxation. And if necessary, chiropractor will talk to you about adjusting you. And I think that there's nothing greater than a chiropractic lifestyle of talk time and time again that I've never met anybody that got a chiropractic lifestyle. It's life got worse. Right. And I have met people that fell into the pill mill and went the opposite direction and took more drugs and had more surgeries and they were limited forever. So that's a big part of the show is to let people know that they do have an option and chiropractic does save people's lives, whether they understand that or not. But every spine that's under care is one spine that's healthier and it's a healthier community and it's a healthier population. So yeah, man, it's a great, it's a great, we're kicking this off the right way, Dr. Chad. So let's go into you a little bit as the practitioner and you said that you've been doing your professional chiropracts for the past 23 years. But what led up to that decision to become a chiropractor?
DR CHAD POLLEY DC (GUEST): Well, you know, it's funny. I don't, you know, I don't have maybe that story where, you know, I was saved or, you know, by a chiropractor when I was told that, you know, I had no other choices. I was, I was at Florida State University. I was getting a biology degree and a chemistry minor on track to do something in healthcare and where I thought I was going to go with was worth a don shot. I want to be an orthodontist. I had braces. My uncle was an orthodontist and I liked that idea. And one night I'm sitting with my wife's father. We weren't married at the time and we're having a beer and he said, you know what? I really think that you should go into chiropractic. And I really had no idea, really no background in chiropractic, right? My, we were a military family. All we really knew was allopathic medicine. And we was an optometrist by training and by trade, but, you know, he was doing, you know, eye movements and brain mapping and really taking it from a holistic space. He was really intuitive. And so I started to explore it and I ended up going to school, having never been adjusted. And that's probably pretty atypical, right? It's 1996. I got to school and actually took some time off of school. There was a time where I wasn't sure if I really wanted to pursue it. My first two quarters at life to be perfectly honest with you were a little tough because it was a completely different paradigm and I had been exposed to my entire life. The Olympics happened to be, you know, that summer I needed to have reconstructive surgery on my shoulder. So I wanted to take some time and just make sure, okay, is this where I'm supposed to be? And had the surgery and sat down with some, some friends that I'd met at school and just had some good conversations about, you know, chiropractic and philosophy and just kind of dug a little deeper. And when I made the decision, you know what, I'm going back and now I'm going full throttle. And really where it came about was even a year after that, when I got into outpatient clinic at life, at least at the time, you were responsible for getting your own patients, right? And just like the real world, you weren't hanging out of clinic and having people come in or have relationships now like some schools do with the VA, which I think is awesome. You had to go out and get your own and at the time I was working in restaurants and bars. So it's pretty easy for me to grab, you know, all the serving staff and get them in. But the one patient that changed everything was actually my, was my brother. He's a couple years younger than I am. He's got a genetic condition called spinal muscle atrophy. It's a neurological disorder that affects the anterior horn cell. So it's a lower motor neuron lesion, just like a subluxation is, right? The problem is not all the messages coming down from the brain could lead the spinal cord and then innovate, innovate his muscles. So, you know, he was weak. He was a wheelchair and it's a progressive type of disorder. We started seeing him three times a week and it was pretty incredible. The changes that we were able to make in pretty short order, not just range of motion, but strength, being able for him to move around much easier, whether it's transitioning from his wheelchair into, you know, into a car seat or, you know, under the commode. These things that were now being done with much more ease, which gave him something, independence that sometimes he had to rely on other people for. And you know, he'd never been adjusted before. And in fact, no one had ever talked to us about chiropractic before, not one single person is that got a neurological condition and no one talked about how important it was to keep, you know, a spine healthy and to check for subluxation. So, you know, when I got to see those chances and really experienced them and not just that it was a patient, but more importantly, it was my brother and a family member that really kind of got me, you know, locked and loaded in terms of, okay, here's what I'm doing. Here's my purpose. Go.
JAMES CHESTER (HOST): Yeah, certainty comes from a lot of different perspectives when we get faced with something like that. And sometimes somebody near and dear to us can be our number one catalyst that doesn't have to be your football injury or your car crash or your fall, your slip. Sometimes it's why we rise up is because of someone else. And I think that's really a cool story, man. And people don't like if people knew like most of the things that are going on with their like downstream health, if they just knew that getting adjusted like gave better human performance and adaptability and quality of life and you know, all the activities that daily living as the insurance companies look for. Like if you can bring people back to like quality of life quotient, every adjustments worth every dollar, every time at every clinic, you know, and I think that that's the big story is so many times people don't realize that like if somebody says, hey, you have something neurological, it's not a pill potion or a lotion that's going to give you like long term effect. Like sure, take that stuff, whatever. But like my good friend Eric Plasker always say chiropractic first chiropractic second chiropractic third chiropractic and drugs fourth chiropractic and drugs are surgery fifth and whatever intervention you're doing, just make sure you keep chiropractic along with it. You know, and I think that that's that's the most important thing for like the rehabilitative state of people is they'll stop doing this. They're like, Oh, my, my doctor told me not to go to you guys anymore. Like well, that's not a good idea. Right. So yeah, I think it's pretty cool. And you know, I think the other cool thing is you guys had to go get your own patients.
DR CHAD POLLEY DC (GUEST): Oh, yeah.
JAMES CHESTER (HOST): Like don't, don't go hunting in my fridge.
JAMES CHESTER (HOST): What did you do to go get people to come see in patient clinic or student clinic?
DR CHAD POLLEY DC (GUEST): Well, again, I was, I was pretty fortunate with where I worked. Again, I bartended and waited tables, you know, through college and then through chiropractic school. So, you know, I had a captive audience. They knew what I did. I worked there through actually even before I started to go to school there. So, you know, they knew me, I had a great rapport with everyone. And I mean, let's face it, servers, you know, bang themselves up bartenders, bang themselves up. You know, one point you're going to have neck issues, back issues. And you know, so that was a little easier, I think, for me, simply because of the situation that I was in. But I knew I knew people that struggled with it.
JAMES CHESTER (HOST): So yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So you're in the service industry before the service industry.
DR CHAD POLLEY DC (GUEST): Exactly.
JAMES CHESTER (HOST): So, while we're on this topic of building the student practice, what were some things that you did successfully to grow your private practice over the past 23 years that you really enjoyed doing, not things that you loathe doing, but things that worked that you enjoyed?
DR CHAD POLLEY DC (GUEST): Well, I mean, I just, I enjoyed, I enjoyed people. And I think building it around, you know, the patient experience is really important. You know, we're not, we're not, I was going to say a typical doctor, but I mean that in a positive way, right? You don't walk into my office and, you know, there's someone sitting behind a glass panel asking you for, you know, your ID and your insurance card. We want to make this an experience we come out from, you know, behind the front desk. We shake their hand, we call them by name. We sit down and we'll help them through the paperwork. We let them, we give them an office tour. We let them see what we're, you know, what we're all about. And so just from day one, we want to let them know that, you know, this is a place that you can come. It's where we serve you with empathy, where we actually take the time, you know, to listen. And my patients know, hey, if I'm running late, because I was with a new patient exam, no one gives me any grief about it because they know that I took that same amount of time. And sometimes my, you know, the girls at the front desk are ringing me ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. And I know that means I've got people stacked up there, but I'm not leaving that exam room. I'm not leaving that patient until I know that we've addressed every single one of their concerns. So I think of all the things in 20 some odd years, you know, really making it about the patient and what they experience while you're in, in your office is, is one of the best tried and true. It'll never go out of style. You know, you can't, you can't be blocked, you can't have white ads or black ads keep you from your stuff. All this is in house. You get to control it. And I think it's been the most rewarding thing over, you know, over two decades in terms of the way we bring people in and love on them when they're there.
JAMES CHESTER (HOST): Well, I think to tie it up with a, with a awesome message is you built your practice out of personal relationships, whether you're a student or you're in private practice.
DR CHAD POLLEY DC (GUEST): Yep.
JAMES CHESTER (HOST): And people don't, there's a, there's an old cliche saying that people don't care how much you know until they know how much you care or something. Yeah. Don't care how much you know until they know how much you care. But I think it's true, man. And I think that any chiropractor that I've interviewed over the past five and a half years, the people that have the most like happy practices, it's not the amount of people that they see. It's the amount of people that they have built relationships with throughout that time. Absolutely. And I think that that's the biggest reward when you are a caregiver and a chiropractor and a give love, serve type profession. I think that when you do build that type of like relationship, you become a referral based practice.
DR CHAD POLLEY DC (GUEST): Absolutely.
JAMES CHESTER (HOST): And I'm always going to tell people about how awesome Dr. Chad was and how he spent time with me. And he talked to me about XYZ and he, you know, didn't only assess what's going on with my pain, but he talked to me about what's going on with my, my mindset, what's going on with what I'm eating. You know, there's a lot that goes into the person besides the pain model. So personal stuff, Dr. Chad, what do you do personally? Take care of yourself so other people can get the best care from you.
DR CHAD POLLEY DC (GUEST): Well, I blew a disc out back in 2018 and I was exercising. I was doing dead lifts. I knew I should have done that last set and I did it anyways. And yeah, not good. And I decided to double down and take my daughter to Disney that night, walk six or seven miles and ride a bunch of roller coasters. So again, I'm a glutton for punishment, I suppose. So my running days are over, but I do walk at least three miles, five to six days a week. I do some resistance training. I eat, you know, as healthy as I can, I'm not going to tell you that I'm out of the lane because guess what? I live in Tampa. I like Cuban sandwiches and I like pizza, right? And I make sure that's the, you know, not the rule, but kind of the kind of the exception. We take our, you know, we take a regiment of vitamins and supplements every day to keep our health up, to keep our immunity strong. And meditation. So I really try to, you know, it's the old eat well, think well, move well model. You know, I'm not here, I'm 51 years old. And I'm trying to think I had 48 years in terms of that should be about the age, no, I'm sorry, 42 years, it should be about the age that my grandchildren will be walking across the stage in high school and I made a commitment to be physically and mentally there for that graduation. So I'm, I'm trying to prepare myself in advance of that now.
JAMES CHESTER (HOST): Well I call that the north star. Yeah. And, and having that perspective on the future and having that guidance and that segue to like excellence for yourself, like my whole thing is I don't want to be a liability to people. Sure. I don't, I don't want to have some type of like disability where people have to look after me. And that's why, you know, I work out twice a day and live the way that I do and follow the chiropractic lifestyle. But I think that that's a, that's a really strategic way for you to go into the future. So I'm excited to watch what happens from now on. So let's talk about community again. Chiropractors building relationships. I know that they do a lot to support their local communities. Is there anything that you do or that you'd recommend to young docs to do?
DR CHAD POLLEY DC (GUEST): Get involved with the service organization. I mean, our clinic over the years has really supported hyper local charities, meaning high note that they are having a direct effect on the people that I serve. And that's not that there are national charities or even statewide charities that aren't fantastic and, and, and are very, are very worthy. In fact, one organization I'll talk about here in just a minute that really allows me to give back to the military community and to the veterans. But recently within the last year or so, I joined a rotary club. This particular rotary club is focused hyper hyper hyper local on people and on foundations in our immediate area. We do a number of fundraising events, some really cool, actually fundraising events. And we're able to, to raise close to $150,000 every year. But we're able to give back. And I look at, you know, what I'm able to do by joining a club like that versus what I was able to do just on my own in terms of, you know, giving back. And I can leverage that. You know, I can take the same amount that, that I was doing and leverage that with a service organization and now the growth just in what, what we're able to give back just kind of explodes. So doesn't have to be the rotary, but joining a service organization that you know has a direct impact on, on your local, your local community. I think is a great way to give back. It could be a church organization. But I, I think that's, that can be a really important, really important thing for you to do.
JAMES CHESTER (HOST): You made it to Chiro Hustle! Sit back and learn from the greatest influencers in the profession on the world's number one chiropractic podcast.
This episode is sponsored by the Transact Card, Align Life, Brain-based Health Solutions, Chiro HD, Imaging Services, Chiro Health USA, Chiro Moguls, Pure Chiro Notes, Titronics, Sherman College of Chiropractic, New Patients in a Box, Life Chiropractic College West, Pro Hockey Chiros, Pro Baseball Chiros, the IFCO, and 100% Chiropractic. LET’S HUSTLE !!!
Yeah, I'm looking up a quote right now, but I wish I had the guy that Joe Rogan has. I wish I had my own guy in the background looking stuff up for me. If you want to, if you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to, I can't, if you want to go far, go together. And I think that that's really what you just said. And if you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together. And the risk strengths and numbers. And you know, one of my mentors that taught me how to podcast would always tell me that we're more alike than we are different. And that's his sentiment towards a chiropractic profession. And I think that when you think about when we all have a penchant to give and, you know, have something to support and contribute to something bigger than ourselves, if you were to survey everybody there at all say, yeah, I want to do that. And most people just don't see the impacts. I think it's really cool that you're doing that on a hyper local status. And you know, it's nice to support stuff in your backyard, you know, I think it's really cool.
DR CHAD POLLEY DC (GUEST): And we got an opportunity about 10, 11 years ago to get involved. This is a national organization, but we deal with the local chapter here. It's called Honor Flight. And Honor Flight was created to get World War II vets up to the DC area so they can see their World War II memorial for the first time. This has done it absolutely no cost to the vet. Unfortunately, you know, 10 years ago, the plane was filled with World War II vets as they are unfortunately passing away. We've invited Korean, Korean War vets and now Vietnam vets. But it's incredible because you are assigned to a vet. You are their guardian and you spend the entire day with them. You fly up to DC and we've done everything from going to the Iwo Jima Memorial or the Air Force Memorial. We've been to Arlington. We always see the Lincoln Memorial, the Korean War Memorial and the Vietnam War Memorial along with the World War II Memorial. And you know, the stories that these guys and gals can tell, it's just absolutely incredible. And so we've been involved with that for quite some time. Again, hyper local because these are guys and gals that are living here. But the nationwide mission of Honor Flight is absolutely incredible. And if you have any interest in helping to support past veterans and getting to sit next to living history for an entire day, I'd encourage you to see if there's a local chapter and maybe if you can get involved that way too.
JAMES CHESTER (HOST): Wow. You know, that's a big takeaway for me because I think that once again, everybody wants to contribute to something and patriotism is something we have to like prop up again. You know, they kind of, they kind of put it in the back closet now. But we should talk about things like this that matter. Actually, there's a great, great, great, great chiropractor named Timothy Novelli. He created something called the Patriot Project. Okay. Where the chiropractors nationwide now provide gratis care to a handful of veterans or active military people at their clinics. And it's a service mission local. And chiropractors started this and every November he does something in Canton, Ohio called the Patriot Ball, where he brings out all these veterans and all their families. And he has a huge party for people. And it's done by a chiropractor, which I think is really, really powerful. So honor, fight and a Patriot Project, really cool things that chiropractors can get involved with.
DR CHAD POLLEY DC (GUEST): Yeah. I'd like to learn a little bit more about that. That would be something I would be, you know, absolutely open to dabbing in our office.
JAMES CHESTER (HOST): Yeah. I mean, the second film that we did called Project Patient, we track a couple of patients that started with the Patriot Project. And the feature case in our movies, Staff Sergeant Shiloh Harris, who's blown up in a Humvee and 70% of his body was burned. And chiropractic saved his life and we share that whole story. So there's definitely like, pull at your heartstrings, like how chiropractic saved this guy from killing himself. And now he's got a beautiful woman in his life and he's not on all these drugs. And I mean, you can only do so much with the guy that's 70% scarred from burns. But, you know, he chiropractic, he says, you know, chiropractic, the only thing that stopped me from committing suicide.
DR CHAD POLLEY DC (GUEST): It's powerful.
JAMES CHESTER (HOST): So yeah, Project Patient, the movie dot com, you guys can go watch it. But let's get, let's get into the question set again. And let's talk about your vision of where you see this profession going. I know I know on the question set, it says 20 years, but you could talk one year, you could talk five years, you can talk 10 years, like, what do you see chiropractic going towards?
DR CHAD POLLEY DC (GUEST): You know, we talked a little bit about this, you know, before we, before we hopped on live and, you know, unfortunately, I have a little bit more of a pessimistic view and I love your optimism. I just, you know, I don't think things have changed a whole lot in 23 years, not within our profession. And the problem I think is that there's just a tremendous amount of infighting. And I, if we can't get that resolved and we can't break down some of those barriers, I'm not sure if things will be much different in five years, 10 years or 20 years, as much as I'd like that to change. So again, I know this is a little pessimistic, but unfortunately, I think that sometimes the, our biggest enemies in our profession is ourselves, right? Sometimes I don't think we can get out of our own way. And I love your perspective and I know you shared that with the, you know, beforehand, if you want to share that so everyone's on the same page. But that's a long way, long winded way of saying I'm just, I'm not sure in the current climate, if things don't move on that we're going to move on.
JAMES CHESTER (HOST): Yeah, I think it's, it's a sobering approach to a kind of a drunk status. I think that the profession kind of bumbles around into each other and they, oh, why'd you hit me? Why'd you bump into me? And if we could just like sober it up a little bit with like mutual respect. And I'm a part of this group called the chiropractic futures group and it's a, it's, I think really helping structure the profession in a really positive way. But I also think that there is such thing as unity through diversity. Like I, I've told people like if I go to 10 chiropractic offices, every chiropractor is going to adjust me differently. They're going to analyze my self-luxation differently. Some will do x-rays, some won't do x-rays. So there's no real like, you never know what you're going to get when you show up to a DC's office. So when there's that difference of artistic expression within the profession, you're going to get a difference in receiving of other person's style. So that's, that's the big thing is if people could just start to understand that everybody in chiropractic does things a little bit different and they're probably not ever going to do it like you. That's the best thing for people to, in the profession, start to understand at that baseline level of acceptance for another chiropractor and what they're doing as a doctor. Like you can't dictate the way somebody else is going to become a doctor. Correct. Like they're going to take care of people how they see fit. That's their license to heal. And I think that that's the part where chiropractors have to start looking in the mirror a little bit more and say, do I want that? Damn, I don't want that either. So I think that that's where we come to a place where the relationship with identity starts to improve. Um, and yeah, do I think that it's going to take some time for that to like course correct? Yeah, I mean, you just have to have, I guess better leaders. And that's where it all starts. And it starts with us and that's what I said, right? Like it starts with me. It starts with me to take down the division of techniques and the divisions of schools and the division of coaching groups. Like well, we've done with Kyra Hustle is very unique. We've broken down every barrier and border within the chiropractic profession and we've invited everybody in. And I think that that's what we really have to get back to is that the profession is quite the same. It's just the practitioners have different artistic approach.
DR CHAD POLLEY DC (GUEST): Well, you just nailed it. I mean, if we can just, we can get to the point where we can say, okay, I might not understand or agree with the approach, but you have the patient's best interest in mind, right? If we can all agree that whatever we're doing has that as the first and foremost behind our, you know, behind our actions and behind our philosophy. Okay. Right. Now we can have conversations. And I would love to see more of that.
JAMES CHESTER (HOST): Well, the chiropractic futures tagline is unity without uniformity.
DR CHAD POLLEY DC (GUEST): There you go.
JAMES CHESTER (HOST): And I think that that's once again, a sobering concept to a bunch of drunk ego people as people start to sort themselves out from internal. And they're like, yeah, I don't have to be like, you know, a TRT office or I don't have to be a Gons dead clinic or I don't have to be whatever technique I can be respected doing pinnacle. I can be respected doing chiropractic biophysics. I can be respected and everybody else, I respect them back. It's an honor. It's an honor system. Almost like we have to go back to like almost like martial arts is you have to respect people for their practice of their art.
DR CHAD POLLEY DC (GUEST): Right.
JAMES CHESTER (HOST): Um, moving on. Heroes. We talked about coming from a military family, but are there any chiropractic heroes that helped you become the person that you are today?
DR CHAD POLLEY DC (GUEST): Um, no, when I, when I first thought of hero, um, honestly, the first person I thought it was my, my granddad. Yeah. Um, you know, he, um, you know, he, he, he lied about his age, um, and, and joined the Navy at 16 years old so he could, he could get into war war two. Um, you know, so he was a little younger and, um, you know, when I was born, he was only in his mid 40s and, um, man, the guy was like Superman to me. I mean, the guy, uh, he could literally fix jet engines. He could fix cars. He could turn around and, and, and birth a, a calf of, of a cow that was on the farm. I mean, the guy was, uh, he was MacGyver, former guy, very animal. He had some WD 40 and some duct tape and he could damn near fix, you know, he could damn near fix anything. Um, and so, um, you know, it was, uh, yeah, it was a picture of my, my, my grandmother and my granddad and, and they look like movie stars. I mean, I just, again, he was just larger than life. Um, and he did a lot of things well, but one thing he didn't do too well was, um, he didn't take good care of himself. And, uh, um, you know, he let diabetes and, and some other health concerns, you know, kind of, uh, you know, kind of get out of, uh, out of control a little bit. But, um, you know, the lessons that I, uh, that I learned from him, um, uh, you know, I still think about him almost, uh, you know, almost every day. I, I'm fortunate enough that I still have my, his wife, my grandmother is still alive, um, which is awesome. But, yeah, when, I don't know when, when I first saw the hero, that's what, you know, that's what I thought of. Um, I guess in the chiropractic space, one person that I really respect, um, because I like, I like his approach of keeping things evidence based, which can sometimes be a, you know, a negative term, but still embodies the philosophy of chiropractic to the end degree, the wholeism, the vitalism. Um, and that's James Chestnut. You know, I, I, I like his mission. Um, uh, I like his model of subluxation. Um, in my office, if we were, if I was in my office right now, you'd see a huge white board, um, you know, with subluxation and all the neural components of it. And I have conversations with my patients about that. Um, I'm not quite sure why 40% of our, our, uh, our field does. And, and so, I, I really, I really enjoy reading his stuff and reading his research, um, and, and seeing the way that he can marry, um, you know, sometimes those, those opposing, you know, those opposing viewpoints. So, um, maybe not a hero per se, you know, I, I'm not a hero per se, but, um, I can not even, I can't, I can't believe that this is a good thing. No, I'm not a hero per se, I'm a hero per se. But I think my team, my team, my team, my team, my team, my team, my team, my team, maybe not a hero per se, but someone I respect immensely in this field.
JAMES CHESTER (HOST): Yeah. I mean, that takes all of us, right? I had this analogy earlier about chiropractic being like an airplane. Like you need certain people to make the runway. You need certain people to do air traffic control. You need certain people to fly it. You need certain people to be passengers. You need certain people to dictate safety while on it. Like you have to have like a whole team of people. And I think that that's what I've learned most about asking that question is there's so many Sherpas out there that have gotten people to the top of their own mountains and have gotten people to launch and to believe in what they're doing. And a Dizzet team, it's a huge team. And if people don't think that they're on the chiropractic team and there's 60,000 strong of you, that they need to get woke up a little bit and know that there's only 60,000 of you and it's a small team. And we have to start playing together in order to win this big game. Absolutely. I just gave a talk two weekends ago or a weekend to go down in Colorado Springs. And I gave the analogy of chiropractic being on the chessboard of medical health, medical health, freedom. And we're really the only thing that separates medical tyranny and checkmate when it comes to the free world is the chiropractic profession. The chiropractic profession is the only thing that stands out there. That, you know, hasn't been swallowed up by big pharma and by that agenda. Everything else is an outside and perspective chiropractors still believe that the body heals from inside out. We believe that the body needs nothing extra in it. Simply needs no interference. Once it gets cleared, the body is a self healing organism. And the other part that doesn't believe in a sub-subluxation, they're mechanistic. Right. That they treat the body like a machine. Well, the body isn't a machine. It's organic matter. If I cut my finger right now, I don't have to like look at it and shout out and tell it to heal. Like, no, it heals on its own because it's always on a job. And I think that that's a part where we have to like re remind the people that our subluxation deniers that the profession was never founded upon that.
DR CHAD POLLEY DC (GUEST): Right. And that's what we just talked about before. I mean, uniting and getting getting groups like that together and moving the profession, you know, forward agreeing to disagree. But it's again, that's that's a tough nut to crack.
JAMES CHESTER (HOST): Yeah. And I think that in a grown up manner, this might has be popular and it might not ever be something people would appreciate. But pull out the box and gloves. Have a good scrap, you know, and quit doing it behind closed doors. And if you're going to. Yeah, I mean, watch it. Yeah, I mean, if people knew that there was going to be a real fight on their hands by their decisions that they made, they wouldn't make them.
DR CHAD POLLEY DC (GUEST): What would help?
JAMES CHESTER (HOST): Well, I posted the other day something about Mike Tyson's quote of everybody thinks it's good and fine until they get punched in the mouth. And I think that it's true. And if people were to be somewhat a little bit infringement of, you know, poor decision making, people would make different decisions. Nobody has a flinch response anymore. Right. So so tying up the conversation day at the Dr. Chad closes out with a miracle story, something that you've seen over the past 23 years that gives people a good takeaway.
DR CHAD POLLEY DC (GUEST): Good miracle story. Well, I mean, you know, we're we're really blessed. If you've been practicing any amount of time, you know, you've seen you've seen miracles. I've seen a number of women that were told they were never have kids. And guess what? You know, next thing you know, boom, they're they're pregnant. You know, my brother is just such a is just such a strong, you know, powerful, powerful story as well. You know, I I'll tell you a story of when I when I first got into practice and literally I'd been in practice maybe three months and gentlemen came in. He's complaining of low back pain. And so, you know, we took an x-ray. And of course, this is back in the day where I was in some hot closet with a red lamp. You know, there was no digital processing then, right? You had to pray you didn't move. You had to pray you put the right, you know, KVP and M and and there. So I I developed the x-ray and I look at it and I knew right away. He had prostate cancer, you know, bright white L5 vertebrae. And I've been in practice. I'm in my late twenties and I got to go out and tell this 70 to some year old guy. He's got cancer. So, you know, I went out there and I explained. You know, explain what was going on that I wanted him to get to his primary ASAP, but that I was going to continue to adjust him because the finding on the x-ray was a different finding than the subluxation that I had also obviously uncovered. He ended up having to get he ended up having to get surgery. But he was a patient with me for a long, long time because he understood that, yeah, maybe that was also causing my back pain, but I also know I've got subluxation. I also know that I need to have my spine adjusted. And yeah, he was with me for, you know, for a really long time. And he was obviously very, very thankful because at first, he didn't want to get the x-ray. No, Doc, I just need an adjustment. So that was that was that was really kind of cool, especially, you know, being in practice just such a just such a short time.
JAMES CHESTER (HOST): Yeah, I think that this gives everybody hope and chiropractors to hope dealers, not dope dealers. True. And chiropractors does save people's lives. And as cliches, I might sound as they give people life to your years and years to their life.
DR CHAD POLLEY DC (GUEST): Abe Lincoln.
JAMES CHESTER (HOST): Yeah, man. And there's a lot to be said about these little one-liner things that I say all the time is that people just went down and wrote them. They would probably have a better understanding of what chiropractic really is.
DR CHAD POLLEY DC (GUEST): It's funny, Jim, that's that's I've been saying that for quite some time. That's that's my tagline that I use that, you know, it's not the years in your life. It's the life in your years, right?
JAMES CHESTER (HOST): Amen.
DR CHAD POLLEY DC (GUEST): Love and love.
JAMES CHESTER (HOST): And well, that's a good way to close out our show today. Are there any resources that you like to share with our audience today or if people want to reach out to you, where can we send them to?
DR CHAD POLLEY DC (GUEST): Well, I know we talked about it. I know you've got some students that listen. You know, I've been I've been teaching the board review for national boards now for longer than I've actually been practicing. So I specialize in in the part one review. They can look it up online. It's polyboardreviews.com. If they have any questions or they can reach out to me directly and I can I can maybe get in some resources or some direction or anything I can do to help the profession. And that's that's why I taught for as long as I did, you know, when you're one guy, you can only see, you know, so many people in a given week and a given month and a given year. But when I can help someone, you know, pass pass their boards and they can become licensed now, now it's a magnifying effect. It's exponential. And, you know, maybe there'll be someone that will tell someone who's whose child is has a neurological condition and need to get their spine checked, but didn't even know it. Maybe one of them will say, hey, have you ever considered chiropractic and then they can change if someone's life. So
JAMES CHESTER (HOST): well, that's the miracle and that's the wrap. I appreciate you being episode 531 of the Chiro House of podcast. I want you to have an awesome restaurant evening down there in central Florida. So close to Florida, right? Yep, coastal Florida. And with that being said, I just let everybody know, like I always do. You're just one story way. Keep hustling. I'll see you guys in the next episode. Bye for now. Thanks for listening to Chiro Hustle. Don't forget to subscribe and check back next week to continue hustling.
This episode was sponsored by the Transact Card, Align Life, Brain-based Health Solutions, Chiro HD, Imaging Services, Chiro Health USA, Chiro Moguls, Pure Chiro Notes, Titronics, Sherman College of Chiropractic, New Patients in a Box, Life Chiropractic College West, Pro Hockey Chiros, Pro Baseball Chiros, the IFCO, and 100% Chiropractic. LET’S HUSTLE !!!
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