Local Market Monopoly

Disclaimer: The transcription below is provided for your convenience. Please excuse any mistakes that the automated service made in translation.

Broken Arrow Chiropractor, Dr. Ring: We definitely make a conscious effort to put our best, to always be a positive influence on our patients, whatever they're going through outside of the office. When they walk through the door, we want to ensure that we're giving them the best experience that we can. And first of all, that starts with us knowing who they are, knowing their name and calling them by their name. Number two, we want to be sure that we're smiling. We're putting out positive energy because that's so infectious in a positive way. It can really, really turn their day around. If they're coming in and something's going on, we smile, we use their name. We're real uplifting. It can definitely kind of redirect the direction of that day. And so we just want to ensure that when you're in our office, whether it's for five minutes or 20 minutes, whatever it is that, you know, you're in the right place, you're happy to be here. And that we're, we're definitely doing all that we can to show you that we appreciated the fact that you chose us.

Clarence Fisher: Hey, welcome back to Local Market Monopoly. I'm Clarence Fisher and on this week's small business spotlight series, we're going to dive into health, good health, so living our best life. And if we suffer from back pain, neck pain, headaches, other maladies, as we so often do is we spend most of our time inside at desks. It can kind of put a damper on banks. So this week we're going to talk with dr. Travis Ring, who number one is a great marketer in his local market, but it's also a great family chiropractor to discuss some of the myths and misconceptions that I actually had about chiropractic and that you may have to, how to break the cycle of bad habits that can lead to pain. And how can you take chiropractic, which is an elective thing, to take that approach to improve your overall health? Stay tuned. We'll be right back. with Dr. Travis Ring.

: You're listening to local market monopoly with Clarence Fisher, uncovering the tools tactics, and strategies. The most successful small businesses use to dominate their local market and own the block.

Clarence & Mr. Ring: Dr. Travis Ring, welcome to the show. Thank you, sir, man. I'm so glad to have you here. Tell us about Eastern Oklahoma chiropractic and how you're helping your patients. And I really appreciate you having me on first of all. So at our office, we are a family centered health and wellness office. We deliver chiropractic. The biggest thing that we do is that we just, I say we're problem solvers. We really help people with their health. Namely, when they're having some physical pain, like low back pain, neck pain, or headaches, we find out where they're at and we offer some solutions to get them back on track. We take care of children all the way up to the elderly at different stages in life. We have different problems, health issues that we come across. And so we have a whole plethora of things that we can help. And our main focus is just getting the back aligned because that helps the body function better. And when the body functions better, we see health expressed

Clarence Fisher: You, my friend are pretty healthy looking for sure. So if you Google Dr. Ring, do you have your, if I Google Dr. Ring, do you pop up with all these pictures and stuff?

Dr. Ring: Yeah, probably. I'm sure I do. Hopefully, they're all good pictures, but yeah, but yeah, as far as my personal health, I definitely try to eat. Right. I try to exercise, you know, four or five days a week, my wife is active. My kids are active. We're outside quite a bit. We live in a great neighborhood on a great street. And so we're usually outside running around chasing the dog, that sort of thing. So I try to, I try to live the part and look the part and not just speak the part.

Clarence Fisher: Yeah. Which is so great, which is so great because unfortunately I don't find this with chiropractors a lot, but with, with MDs unfortunately, they don't look like they're taking the advice that they're giving people.

Dr. Ring: Yeah. Yeah. We hear that a lot. Especially from women, they say go to a chiropractic convention sometimes and you'll be pleasantly surprised. So we feel like if we look the part that patients will be more likely to listen to our advice because we're obviously doing something right. And so we can kind of speak from authority based on how we look and how our health is expressed personally.

Clarence Fisher: Absolutely. I have a, I have a family friend who is a chiropractor and he came down for, I believe it was a holiday. And for this particular get together, he said, okay, I'm going to do the cooking. Right. And my man made this, this beer kind of smoked chicken, but it was like a grass-fed chicken. And then everything we had was super, super good, but it was super, super healthy. And I don't know, in my mind, I'm just like, man chiropractors really do live it. And like I heard you say once that the Bible says that we're guaranteed 120. So like you're, you're, you're trying to get that 120, right?

Dr. Ring: Yeah. As long as I can hit 120 and still be functional and still, you know, be, be with it, you know, definitely, you know, give me, give me all, I can bring it on.

Clarence Fisher: And that's another thing, the functionality, but then we'll talk about the advantages of feeling great living pain-free maximizing health, because I came in to see you and you know, for those listening, I use dr. Ring. He is my chiropractor. I came in to see you and you had, it was a leg day or something. And I said, well, were you, were you lifting 300 pounds or something like that? And you were like, man, I just want to maintain function. So, I mean, what's the, what's the big thing there. Yeah. So

Dr. Ring: I mean, our bodies were designed and created to be active and to move. And so there are different aspects of health and fitness that we can get into. But the biggest thing is I might not be the biggest guy out there, but I want to be lean and I want to be functional. I want to be able to move well. I want to be able to get up and off the floor. I want to be able, to run and jump and chase my kids. So, you know, for my health and fitness and all that, it comes down to just being, being functional and then, you know, moving. Right.

Clarence Fisher: Yeah. And that's a big thing. Big advantage. I think when we talk about the advantages of, you know, maximizing your health feeling great, the kids are a big one. I mean, I've seen videos of you doing the video dances with your kids, with your kids. And you know, there are so many people that just can't do that. And then, you know, at my age, I've got grandkids and I think it's really important to be able to, to play with grandkids. You just don't want to let that stuff go and chiropractic plays. Now I know chiropractic plays a huge part in that. What are some of the biggest myths that maybe you've heard that people have surrounding that chiropractic? Yeah.

Dr. Ring: Yeah. So, you know, the biggest thing is number one, we do see people a lot when they're in crisis mode. When they're really laid up with low back pain, neck pain, or headaches, those are our number one drivers of patients into the office is when they're in some sort of physical pain. Usually, it's like a last resort they've dealt with it for so long. So people think that that's all that we do is just treat those symptomatic, you know, flare-ups. We're really great with that. We, we definitely can take care of patients when they're coming in when they're hurting, but our goal is, Hey, let's, let's find out why this is happening and let's strategize going forward so that we're not just treating it today for pain, but that we're also looking at the future so that we're putting ourselves in good positions to avoid those reoccurrences.

Dr. Ring: And those in those flare-ups, some will say, well, in order to do that, I got to keep coming. Right? And it's just like, anything else, if you want to keep feeling great, you got to keep doing the things that you were doing to get feeling great in the first place. But we found that with chiropractic, the frequency of visits, as we progressed through going from an active pain situation to a stabilization where we're now feeling great to a wellness and maintenance set that at the schedule, that frequency definitely backs off. And then we, we put a lot of responsibility onto the patient to stay active, to do stretches and exercises stabilization work to really keep the body function functioning well, and moving great. So the biggest myths would be that, Hey, I got to keep coming and it's, it's an opportunity to continue to feel great.

Dr. Ring: It's an elective therapy. Usually, you know, it's not going to make or break you, but most people want, once they come in and, they realize how good they feel, they don't realize until then how bad they truly felt. Some will say, Hey, I feel okay. I've never had new chiropractic before, but now I'm really starting to hurt more and more. And we know that they probably haven't felt as good as they thought they have, but when they hit that real big pain flare-up, it gets them motivated to take action. And so they like the feeling of being able to get up in the morning and move and not hurt. So it becomes like an addictive thing because they want to feel good all the time. And in the past they weren't

Clarence Fisher: Man. That is so true. I think one of them, one of the things that helped me in my kind of switched my paradigm is, is thinking of it. Like I put it in the same category now as working out. So like everybody knows that you really should be, should be working out, you know, a, what is it, 150 minutes of moderate exercise a week and two days, two or three days of strength training a week everybody's should be doing that. And it's an ongoing thing. So in my mind, if I'm thinking chiropractic is really part of that and in really a part that takes no effort on my part, right? So like that box can get checked pretty easily. Then it been for whatever reason in my mind, I'm like, okay, I need chiropractic. I need to keep chiropractic because at very least, I mean, that's a box that I know that I can check. Does that make sense?

Dr. Ring: Oh yeah, absolutely. You get out of your health, what you put into it. And so I think one of the big misconceptions about health, in general, is that it's all genetics driven. You read the Delta good hand, or you are dealt a bad hand. And the fact of the matter is genetics plays a part in it, but it's such a small part. The biggest thing that drives our health to the positive or to the negative or those daily decisions, the decisions to get that exercise and every day or every week, the decision, you know, to eat a proper diet and good nutrition versus grabbing the processed food, the fast food, the sugar drinks, those sorts of things, be sure that we're sleeping well, that we're, we're minimizing or eliminating stress through things like meditation or reading or prayer or quiet times, whatever helps you get to that place. So I think the biggest thing is that we want it to be spoonfed to us. We feel like we're at a disadvantage if we have bad genetics, but the fact of the matter is we're, we're blessed with having the ability to really direct our health for the good, but the bad news with that is that it really isn't our responsibility to make those decisions. So in the end, we have to just day in and day out, make those right decisions to really drive our health in a positive direction.

Clarence Fisher: A huge misconception that I've been guilty of as well.

Clarence Fisher: Believing that genetics play a way bigger role than they do. And because of that, it postponed you kind of take on this mentality that it doesn't matter what I do. And so you don't do what you need to do longer than how, how, what am I trying to say? Like, like you don't get into action as soon as you really should. Right. It's like, like for me, for some reason, I was like, I read some statistics about health for guys, my age, my race, but by the time they were 25. And so I was like, okay, well, if that's the case, then I'm just going to party to them, tell them 25. And then it was like, I got, I became 25 and I'm like, Oh, okay, well, I lived, so now what? And then my parents died young, you know? And then it's like, well, no matter what, but through the course of this hour, I started realizing that, you know, what, genetics play a smaller role than really what we think.

Dr. Ring: Yeah. Yeah, for sure. I mean, you know, definitely foolish to think that genetics doesn't play a role at all, but I think that, that it plays less of a role than what we've been told. And whenever you, you take the mentality that your, your hands been predetermined in, you've been dealt with, you've been dealt, you really feel powerless and hopeless. And in your situation, you know, you just, you just kind of took it with, with what you thought it was going to be, and you didn't really take action. So if you come to the realization that, Hey, you know, health is number one, our greatest asset, because it allows us to have jobs and live out our dreams. And the cool thing about it is that we have the ability to direct it. That's when you take the power back and that's when you can make those decisions, you know, for yourself and for your family to live out the health that, that you've been designed to have, and not just feel hopeless and powerless that, that you've been dealt a bad genetic hand.

Clarence Fisher: Absolutely. There's not there, there are even in disease. And tell me if I'm correct like, in disease, there are multiple things that contribute to disease. Like it's not just one thing. So even if you have a predisposition in your family for like heart disease, for instance, it's in your best bet to everything under control, and then, you know, things will pan out how they pan out, but the things that you can control, you definitely need to control, you know?

Dr. Ring: Yeah, yeah. For sure. You know, heart disease, diabetes, those, those sorts of things, even, even cancer, you know, those things are largely lifestyle driven. And the thing that kind of makes it looks like it's genetics a lot is that we kind of tend to mimic the habits that we were given when we were kids. So like, if our parents didn't live a healthy lifestyle, if they didn't exercise or eat, right. Well, odds are when we were kids, we didn't exercise or eat. Right. And so that kind of carries forward to adulthood. And then we, again, train our children the same thing. So we got to learn how to break that cycle. And, ha we have to realize that it's largely lifestyle-driven and habit driven. And so if we can, you know, if we can flip the script and start making those decisions, good decisions, um, and live the life of moderation as far as, you know, the bad decisions. Cause you know, like, listen, we're not, we're not all perfect, but if we can make more good decisions and bad decisions regarding our health, then we're going to have much, much better outcomes. And so you can have someone who's in a family where everybody has this disease, whether it's diabetes or heart disease, and you can break that cycle by really making those healthy decisions day in and day out.

Clarence Fisher: So true. And I want to encourage anybody who's listening. If you have children and then you haven't been brought up to eat right and all that stuff. I mean, be courageous and try to do it because I believe exactly how dr. Ring, what dr. Ring is saying is like, we kind of perpetuate that in handed down and I get it. It's difficult because we've been brought up a certain way, but for the life of your children, I see like childhood obesity is such a huge thing right now. Try it and you know, and do it and make that switch and break the chain. I mean, it's, it's a huge thing.

Dr. Ring: Yeah. Yeah. For sure. We're seeing diseases now in shoulder, in that we didn't use to see whether it's type two diabetes, which used to be called adult-onset diabetes. Well, now we're seeing it in children. We're also seeing a lot of obesity. Like you mentioned, we're even seeing like higher incidents of cancer and stuff. So it's almost like once you've seen the light, you can't unsee it. And so at that point, you have to realize that, Hey, you know the truth now and you know what you need to do to break that cycle. And you gotta pass it down to your kids because it definitely is perpetuated generation after generation. And so, you know, my hope for me is that, Hey, I've, I've kind of learned this, this truth and I've, and I've educated myself. And I've, I found out things that I could do to help myself. And I definitely want to put my kids into a better situation than what I had in hopes that they will live it out and then it'll continue to fine-tune generation after generation, as opposed to perpetuating when negative health stereotype.

Clarence Fisher: Yeah. So when it comes to chiropractic, what are some of the common fears that people have about that, about using a chiropractor?

Dr. Ring: You know, a lot of those fears is our fear of the unknown, like this human nature for us to fear what we don't know, what we can't see, what we haven't experienced before. So I think fear one is that it's going to be a painful thing. Like the adjustment itself is going to hurt. You know, I'm going to get injured, you hear stories spread occasionally of people having negative health outcomes and things. But, but whenever you look at the, I guess the safety of chiropractic, I use the kind of use this analogy or kind of compare it to this. The safety of chiropractic is really off the charts. I mean, I'd be lying to you if I told you that there wasn't any sort of potential negative outcomes that can come from an adjustment, but I know that those are so minimal that the risks are far outweighed by the benefits.

Dr. Ring: And the way I kind of explain it to patients a lot of times is when they're asking about safety is I'll say insurance companies drive their premiums based on risk. If you're a bad driver, you've got a bad driving record and you're going to have higher insurance rates because the insurance is like, Hey, this person is a threat out there. And so we're going to make them pay more money per month because we know odds are, they're going to get into an accident, cost of damage or whatever. When it, when it comes to us, you know, we have to pay malpractice insurance to ensure that if there was, unfortunately, something that had happened, we're going to be covered by our malpractice insurance. And if you look at how much money I pay chiropractors in general pay, the number is just so, so low. I pay more a year for auto insurance for my wife and I than I do for my malpractice insurance.

Dr. Ring: And that's for a massive policy because the risk just isn't to the level that people think it is. Another misconception that people have. And I kind of highlighted it earlier was, was that it's, once you start going, you have to continue to go. And, you know, we have lots of patients who come in when they're, when they're in some sort of health situation, you have crisis there's pain and whatever. We can get them back on track. We're always going to encourage them. Hey, let's maintain some sort of, you know, wellness or maintenance schedule because we know that it's going to give us the best opportunity to feel good and to function well, going forward, it's always a decision that they have. They have the decision, they have the power to utilize chiropractic or not. And many who don't decide to continue on with like health and wellness, maintenance type adjustments.

Dr. Ring: Can you still feel good going, going forward? Some realize that you know, they got a really stressful work life. You know, maybe they're manual laborers, maybe their life home is real stressful. And so they want to maintain those adjustments. So the cool thing about it is it's definitely an elective thing. You don't have to continue to go, but I'm telling you, once you start going and you start feeling better like if you have headaches, you've had headaches for 20 years. He started getting adjusted. Those headaches go away. I'm telling you, you're going to want to keep that going forward. You're going to, you're going to want to continue to have those headaches eliminated because it's never fun going back. So I always tell patients, Hey, look, let's think back for a second where you were, when you first came in, right? You know where you were, you know, what you felt, you know what you're going through day in, day out.

Dr. Ring: Do you want to go back there? And they all say the same thing. No. So we at least encourage them, you know, to maintain some sort of health and wellness maintenance schedule for adjustments to avoid that. Reoccurrence but it's definitely not something that they have to continue to do, but just like anything else that is, that is good for you. Usually, if you stop doing it, you're going to see some regression, just like with exercise and fitness. If you woke up one day and you're, let's say 40 pounds overweight, first of all, you have to realize that you didn't get that way overnight. And if you wanted to make today, the day you make the change, you have to start putting in the work and the effort. Health is a journey, not a destination. And so just like with fitness, if you hit it, you get to the end and you hit your goal.

Dr. Ring: You know, you've lost that 40 pounds. You, you feel much, much better. Well, you know that you did that through exercise, which you probably weren't doing before. You probably, utilize a better diet, which you probably didn't have before. So you're going to want to maintain that going forward. Cause you know, if you regressed to the, to the habits that you were doing before, odds are what you'll regress back to where you were when you first started. So those are probably the two big misconceptions is that there's, there's danger with it, but really it's super safe. And then the other one is that once you start going, you have to keep going. There can be kind of a, kind of a weird stigma with chiropractic, but you know, as the years go on more and more people utilize chiropractic. And so it's becoming more of a widespread utilization. And so there's less negative stigma with that. Now your grandma and grandpa, they might still go, why are you going to the chiropractor? And at that point you can look at him. You can say grandma, because I feel great and I didn't use it. Great. And so I'm going to keep doing the chiropractic thing and you should too.

Clarence Fisher: Right. And hopefully, I won't bend over as much when I get older. Right. I don't, I don't know if that helps or not.

Dr. Ring: Yeah. You see less people shuffling around in the grocery store for sure. Years of abuse.

Clarence Fisher: Right, right. And so how does a person get past these fears? I mean, is it just research, maybe they go to your website or how, how do you find that a person gets over? I know for myself it was, it was just do it and see, because I was one of the people who said, well, you know, this, I was one of the people who said, I don't have any back pain. Right. And you kept saying, You'll benefit. Especially on my weight loss journey. Right. You're like, Hey man, you probably want to come in and see. And so I'm like, okay, well I will go in just to appease my friend and doctor here and low and behold, my spine is not straight and there has been damaged. So I'm going, like, how do people get over there? Number one, ignorance. And if they do have a fear, how do they get over the fear to come in?

Dr. Ring: Yeah. I mean, they're definitely is a lot of research out there. There's, there's lots of literature that they can read our website. Really. We, we strive to have a lot of UpToDate information as far as we have a great kind of like blog section to our website where you can read through different things. And it talks about different conditions. So, you know, reading and learning batting is one thing. The biggest thing is I think once, once problems get so bad and they've been through other avenues, it's like, what, what's next? What's left? I've done all this other stuff. And I'm still in the same situation. Things are getting worse. I've tried medication. That's not helping. It's making me feel worse. What else is there? So a lot of times we find that that we're usually like a last resort for a lot of people, unfortunately, but the cool thing is, is that once they come and they see us and we start working with them to get them back on track, the last resort became the thing that solved the problem.

Dr. Ring: And it became the thing that was really the answer to what they're going through. So it was really just kind of just give it a try. What's what's the worst that could happen. You could get better or you could not, those are really the two outcomes. And so until you really give it a try until you really go to the chiropractor, talk to them, like in our office, we do complimentary consultations. And so people can, if they have questions, hesitations, fears, concerns, whatever. They can sit across from me and we can talk about their health history and their background and what they're going through. I am more than happy to answer any questions that they have and put their minds at ease, because I know that if they have that, that mind is at ease with what they're sitting in there going through and what we can do to help it's going to make their decisions a lot more clearer. So we just, we just try to answer all their questions again. I think the biggest thing is it's just kind of fear of the unknown. So it's just, it's just pulling the trigger, making that step, just do it because you know, the worst that could happen to you is that you don't get better. But the vast majority of people we're talking like 90% plus C see great improvement in great benefits from chiropractic.

Clarence Fisher: You spoke about, about being the last resort. As a business owner, I'm just going to ask this, does that ever get kind of old that everyone comes in or most people come in like I've tried everything. So I guess I will try this.

Dr. Ring: I mean, you know, I've been in practice for 10 years and it used to bother me more than it does now, but now I know that in most cases there, they're in the right place. So however they, whatever journey they took to get to our office, Hey, they're here now. And, and that, that took a leap of faith that, that took them making the decision to come see us. And so I definitely respect that they're here now. Of course I would, I would love it if we were, we were more of the first resort or the first step. And for some people we are, but regardless of how they have the path, the journey they took to get to our office, I definitely appreciate and respect the fact that they're here now. And so I make it my personal goal and mission to make sure that they, they saw good about that decision and that it's a positive one for them.

Dr. Ring: So the cool thing for us is that I know that when we're the last resort and they've exhausted everything else and they're not having any success. S when I come in and when we start working with them, we start even in the adjustments and they start feeling better and functioning, well, then we become their heroes. But the biggest thing is, is that, you know, we were just a tool to help them get back on track. So it definitely bothers me less than it used to, but I do wish that people utilize chiropractic earlier than they do.

Clarence Fisher: Excellent. One of the things I really love about your practice, and this is probably why you have, what do you have a hundred and how many reviews do you have online?

Dr. Ring: We just eclipsed a hundred not long ago. So I think we're like in the 108 hundred and 110, somewhere in there, more than, way more than most in our region, for sure.

Clarence Fisher: Absolutely. And they're all like, I think it's 4.9 star or something like that. I mean, it's, it's crazy. What I was going to say is one of the things I really like about your practices is you have said that the 15 minutes or whatever I spend between the time I walk in your door and I believe you are conscious consciously making sure that that is a good time. So like that time that I spend with you is going to be a pleasant time, because remember I made a, I made a comment that you're always smiling whenever we walked through your door, like, there's this big smile, there's this, you know, Hey, glad to see you. And I was like, man, I get that. But it is always on so that you speak to your team about that?

Dr. Ring: Yeah. You know, we, we definitely make a conscious effort to put our best foot forward and to always be a positive influence to our patients, whatever they're going through outside of the office, when they walk through the door, we want to ensure that, that we're giving them the best experience that we can. And first of all, that starts with us knowing who they are, knowing their name and calling them by their name. Number two, we want to be sure that, that we're smiling. We're putting out positive energy because that's so infectious in a positive way. It can really turn their day around. If they're coming in and something's going on, we smile, we use their name. We're real uplifting. It can definitely kind of redirect the direction of that day. And so we just want to ensure that when you're in our office, whether it's for five minutes or 20 minutes, whatever it is that, you know, you're in the right place, you're happy to be here. And that we're, we're definitely doing all that we can to show you that we appreciated the fact that you chose us.

Clarence Fisher: I love it. What are other perceived obstacles that you think might be preventing people from using a chiropractor is time and money ever a big deal?

Dr. Ring: Yeah, for sure. I mean, you know, we're definitely mindful of costs. And so I would say when we're presenting someone with a care plan, Hey, this is what we want to do to get you back on track. The two biggest obstacles are definitely time because of work schedule and family schedule, you know, time is limited for sure. We're all super, super busy nowadays. And then money is definitely probably number two. Um, I'll tell you that we, we strive and we do all that we can to that we removed those obstacles as much as possible. So as far as cost goes, I always tell patients, you know, we've never turned a patient away for finances, but if you're committed to us, we'll work to find a way to resolve that issue. And so cost is definitely an issue, but we work our way around that.

Dr. Ring: I always tell people that, you know, look at chiropractic is not like a cost more or less. It's an investment. Like I said, before you get out of your health, what you put into it. And so if you're putting your dollars into areas that support your health, then the return on that investment is going to be astronomical. Can I throw some stats out at you? Okay. So here's just a couple of things that I kind of talk about the cost. So when people say that chiropractic costs too much, there was a study. They did, they, they followed around and patients for, I think it was a seven-year period. And they looked at those who utilize chiropractic. First, utilize them more like their primary care physician. And they found that those who use chiropractic more often spent 60%, less days in the hospital. They also had 59%, less hospital admissions to begin with.

Dr. Ring: They had 62% less outpatient surgeries and they consumed 85% less pharmaceutical drugs. So the front end investment in their health pay dividends and fewer hospital stays in fewer surgeries and in fewer medications taken. So whenever you look at it, you know, we try to encourage patients to look at it more of an investment in your health. And I'm going to say a thousand times, I feel like your health is your greatest asset because you know, your health is what gives you the ability to work a job or a career to provide for your family. It allows you to spend time with your children, your grandchildren, to do all those things that you dreamed about doing so without your health, what do you, what do you have? The man who has his health has a thousand dreams. The man who doesn't have his health has one and that's to regain that health.

Dr. Ring: So spend that money on the front end and then reap the rewards on the backend and, our care in our office. I use the term it's strangely affordable. An average care plan for us in our office has less than a half-day hospital stay. And so, you know, someone who's been in the hospital, you know, those, those bills are outrageous. And so our costs, I mean are less than a half-day in the hospital. And the biggest thing too is go out and start pricing surgeries. Well, start looking at how much it costs to have your back fused. If you let it go so far, the damage is irreversible and you need a surgery. You know, those are, those are six-figure operations. And so again, if you can do some things along the way to be proactive and preventative, invest on the front end, you're going to get that reward on the back end. Second one, as far as time goes, people oftentimes have had bad experiences.

Dr. Ring: Doctor's offices where they've, you know, they show up for a three o'clock appointment and they're looking at their watch and it's three 15, three 30, three 45. Finally, they're called that. And for me, that's just the doctor in that clinic, not respecting their time. And so for us, we're always going to work to keep our visits short and efficient, give you what you need, nothing more, nothing less so that we can respect everybody's time. We're also designed to be, to be flexible as far as scheduling. So we have lots of patients that are either salespeople or they're they're tradesmen, and they know I want to see them the next day. They're not quite sure when, so the girls will say, Hey, our hours are nine to one and three to six. You just find a time to come see us and we'll get you fit in when you get here. So for us, we have found ways to minimize those obstacles of costs and time we're as flexible as we can be.

Clarence Fisher: Man. Great, great answers. I had no idea about those stats. How is that? That a, I mean, a chiropractic visit can have that profound of an impact on overall health and longevity, like, and I'm sure I'm sure you're the spine, I guess, connected to everything, right?

Dr. Ring: Right. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. So there's definitely, you know, overall health benefits working with the nervous system, but you know I mean, the fact of the matter is people who utilize chiropractic probably make better health decisions elsewhere as well. But the biggest thing I think is that when we make that adjustment, it's more than just cracking the back to relieve some pain. Only 10% of nerves actually perceive pain. The other 90% of nerves in our body are actually function nerves. And, you know, they control certain organs and functions. And so when we're making those adjustments and we're taking some stress off that nervous system, we see a higher expression of health across the board, not just pain relief,

Clarence Fisher: That's a good point. And you're right. People that use chiropractic probably do look out for themselves in other ways, if you're not, if you say, Hey, I'm going to take, I want to maximize my health, which is a big thing. And they want to live pain free. I know right now, a big I'm going to ask you what are the mistakes that you see people make when they're on the road to trying to feel better, trying to get rid of some pain, maximize their health. And I know one of the big, big mistakes that that's happening right now is the opioid epidemic that is having, I don't know how, I don't know how we got here and I don't want to, you know, kind of take a big rabbit trail on that. But I mean, what do you find are some of the mistakes that people do when they're trying to get pain free?

Dr. Ring: For sure. You know, the prescription pain medication crisis is, is out of control. These medications are being prescribed way, way too much. And the negative are so profound. You know, we're having people that are, that are dying, literally dying from those medications, even when, when taken properly, you know, and then of course, there's those that become addicted to it. And then that leads to overdose and those sorts of things. So I know that with chiropractic and in other health alternative therapy fields, we can definitely fill that, fill that need for people who, who want to feel better. We want to be healthier, but who don't want to go down that path of prescription drugs. And so we really feel that, that we can provide that outlet for them to live a healthier life, to take control of their health and to do it without the prescription drugs, especially those medications you talked about earlier.

Dr. Ring: I think the biggest pitfall that people fall into a lot of times is they give up too soon. They take a look at where they're at and they see where they want to go. And they just see that as it's too big of a mountain to climb. And so we always want people to feel encouraged, and we want them to know that, Hey, you got, you got a ways to go, but let's just take it one literally one day at a time, every day you wake up, you make good decisions. And then, let's walk down this path together, wherever you're starting, it's irrelevant. You know, where you want to go. You put a plan in place to get there, and then just realize that you can do it. You gotta just keep doing it. And so I think the biggest thing is people tend to maybe give up too soon because they feel like that they've got too far to go, regardless of the fact that in a short amount of time, they made some significant improvements and some strides forward, they give up too soon.

Dr. Ring: And I think another thing is I mentioned it earlier is that people feel like that health is a destination. And so once I do these things and I reached this health, it's like a summit of a mountain and I'm here, I've made it. And then they can just coast from there. But we know that the reason that they made those positive changes was because they made positive choices in their life. And so they have to keep those going. And so health for us, we say health is a journey, not a destination, it's a moving target. We have different things that come up in our life as we advance through age. And so always keep the pedal to the metal. Always keep making those positive choices. Don't give up too soon, but also realize that it's not a destination that you're going to arrive at. It's more or less a journey that you get to walk down. And, it's such a great journey.

Clarence Fisher: Man. I love this. You, you are full of soundbites. I don't know if you know this, but positive change. If you see the positive changes, they've made positive choices. I love it. I mean, there's all these little, little sayings, but I suppose, I mean, you've repeated this time and time and time again to people, right?

Dr. Ring: Yeah. I mean, I, you know, I'm putting it out on social media, typing it out. I say to patients, I say to friends and family, I mean, I definitely use these, these phrases a lot and you, I try to find ways to relate to people, you know, because oftentimes chiropractic is a foreign language to them. And so I found that if I can, if I can take them out of chiropractic and I can give them something that they understand, like exercise and fitness, or if it's, if it's a guy, we talk a lot about cars, you know, in alignment of their, of their vehicles and in servicing and maintenance of their vehicles, if I can relate chiropractic to that because they understand that, and then I can bring them back into chiropractic and connect those two dots. That's usually when people have like an aha moment, like, man, I didn't even think about that.

Dr. Ring: You know, because for guys, you know, we understand that we have to put in premium fuel into our vehicles so it performs properly. You know, we also know that we have to rotate the tires and change the oil and all that, so that the, the car runs smoothly, if we don't negative things happen. And so if we took as much time to do maintenance on our own selves and put in positive fuel into our bodies, then we do our vehicles. We would have really great health outcomes. So for me, it's just trying to get them out of chiropractic, relate something that they understand and then bring them back in because then they can connect the dots. And then that makes sense to them.

Clarence Fisher: Yeah. That's great. Can you share an example of kind of how you've helped one of your patients or overcome these obstacles that they were facing? Maybe they were in pain, maybe it's somebody who was, who they're great. And they just want to feel better. Just kind of an example of how you've helped them overcome all these obstacles that we've been talking about.

Dr. Ring: Yeah. Yeah. So we take care of lots of families in our office. We take care of lots of moms and dads, but also kids. And you know, our goal is to get the whole family involved in chiropractic and, and to be healthy and stuff. So probably my favorite chiropractic story that I've had in my years practicing was we had a little girl and she's not so little anymore. She's in high school, but when she was younger, we're talking probably five, six years ago, she came to us referred by her pediatrician. And what she was experiencing was whenever she went outside and it was hot or whatever, she exerted herself with like exercise, like playing on the playground, or she did karate, you know, martial arts, whenever she would do that kind of stuff, she would get incredibly overheated. Her heart rate would spike.

Dr. Ring: Her breathing would get really heavy and shallow. She gets super hot. And so the doctors were having her, she literally bought an ice vest that she could keep so that when she got overheated, she was put on this ice vest to cool herself down. And with her, you know, the parents of course saw this as an issue. And so they, they went on this journey to find the solution for her. And they went to specialist after specialist and did test after test medication after medication. And there was literally no change. So she was referred to us, she came to our office and we started talking to the mom and talking to the daughter about what she was going through. And we took some x-rays found out that she had some spinal misalignments, especially in her upper cervical spine, like upper part of her neck, where her brainstem and stuff is.

Dr. Ring: She had had a trampoline accident, like maybe a year or 18 months before where, where she kind of landed on her head and the parents didn't connect the dots, but all that stuff started then, you know, after she had the accident was when all our stuff started. So we looked at our X rays found out that she's got, she had some pretty egregious misalignments interrupt her neck, sort of working towards getting those corrected. And the way I explained to them, to the parents is you've got two main systems in your body. You got your sympathetic, which is your fight or flight, the bears and the bears chasing you. You run fast and there's also the rest and digest, which is more or less after you kind of hang out, chill out. So almost like a gas pedal and a brake. And so with her misalignment in her upper neck, she had constant gas pedal, constant sympathetic.

Dr. Ring: She was just going hard all the time. She wasn't trying to, but that's just how her body was functioning. And so as we sort of working with her and taking some stress off that neck and off that nervous system, I mean, it wasn't more than a couple of weeks. She was seeing some really significant changes and how she felt, not just from a pain standpoint, but also she wasn't getting overheated anymore. She was able to get back into karate, you know, back into all that stuff. She's able to kind of regain her, her childhood, because for so long, she had to make all these concessions for what she could and couldn't do, because she knew that if she overdid it, then she gets too hot. She'd get rolled busy and she'd almost pass out. So that's my favorite story, because I know that with her, where she was at, she'd gone through so much stuff.

Dr. Ring: So many doctors test medications that were just, that just didn't work. Where would she have been if she didn't come into our office? So we have countless people who live for 15, 20 years with headaches, and they become to realize that for them, the headaches are normal. We start working with them, start making some adjustments, taking some stress off the spine. Those headaches that were normal for them starts to disappear. And what was truly common to them was never normal. And pain is always a symptom of dysfunction. When we start working with people and again, encouraging them, we always want to be upfront with patients, Hey, based on what you're going through, based on how long it's been there and based on what your X rays look like, this is what we expected to take. And so we like to be upfront and outline kind of a plan of action for patients. And we just encourage them to keep walking down that path. Our hope is that we get there sooner than what we planned, but at least let's work towards this end result and this end goal. And so we know if we can keep people on the path, keep them moving, keep their joints in line and functioning properly, and then encourage them to make those decisions outside of that with diet and exercise. We know that way, way more times than not, they're going to get to their destination.

Clarence Fisher: Yeah, that's cool. I hear these stories and I hear these stories with you firsthand, and you talk a lot about families. One of the things I was surprised in the very beginning was that when you talk about families, you talk about the entire family, especially, and even the kids. And there are like so many people that bring their kids, even babies to you. How, when did that become a thing for you?

Dr. Ring: I mean, for me, it was pretty much right, right from the start. A little background on me is when I was growing up, I knew I wanted to be in some sort of health field. I love math and science. I wasn't quite sure what I wanted to do. I was, I would say I was athletic. I played sports. I'm not sure how athletic I was, but I did. I did play football, basketball, baseball, growing up. I played baseball through high school and college. And so I thought I always wanted to work with, with athletes. And I wanted to do maybe some sports medicine type stuff. For some reason I've always been really, I don't know. I always like being around children, maybe cause I'm a kid at heart, I guess, but they're just such a magnetic personality. And they're just so full of life.

Dr. Ring: They're their little minds are just so positive. There's nothing that's been told to them. So I love being around kids. And so I actually entertain the thought of going to school to be a pediatrician rather than college. I shattered an office and just didn't get a great vibe for it. So when I got into chiropractic through an injury, whenever I was in college, I thought, okay, this is, this is cool. I had a great experience with my chiropractic experience. And so I want to help people feel better going forward too. I had no idea that chiropractors worked on kids, but when I got into school and I started learning more about, about the body, I started interacting with different professors and teachers and clinicians. You know, I realized that a lot of people utilize chiropractic, not just for, for pain management or injury prevention recovery, but they take their families there and they use it more like, like a health tool, you know, as part of their lifestyle.

Dr. Ring: And so for me, right out of the right from the beginning, I started seeing families. And it isn't always easy because a lot of times, you know, parents have these misconceptions about what chiropractic is for them. And then if this is what it is for me, then how could it help my child? And so there's, there's some education involved and stuff, but we, we always make it, make it a point to, to tell parents, Hey, it is so much easier to regain the health of a child when they're young then, and then keep that health positive going forward than it is to fix a broken adult. And I know that when people come in and they're in their thirties and forties and fifties and beyond, and they have years of stress and degeneration, I know that when I'm taking care of these kids and they're six, seven, eight, 12 years old, whatever it is, I know that I'm making positive changes in their life.

Dr. Ring: Presently that will also pay dividends going forward, because I know that all those things that, that get adults into our office started when they were much younger. And so if we can get kids back on the path to health, when they're little and then cultivate that health going forward, there are a lot better position. That little sound I use is as the twig is bent, so grows the tree. And so if we can keep, if we can get kids lined out, straightened out on the right path and then support that going forward, man, they're going to, they're going to have a life and a health that their parents probably didn't have.

Clarence Fisher: That's great, man. And you're giving me these ideas of creating these means out of your soundbites. I mean, we have to do that. We have to do that. And I think you're a kid at heart too. When you said that I, uh, well, a couple of things, number one is it is really cool to see the children. I pulled up one day and a family jumped out and this has happened multiple times. And a family jumped out, mom, dad, one or two kids. And the oldest kid has on the tee shirt that you give them. Right. When I walked in, that's great to see. And I do believe you are a kid at heart. An instance that pops into my head is being when we were at CrossFit for a very short time, I did CrossFit encouraged by doctor, Dr. Ring. And I am struggling. I'm telling you a strike, man. I'm over in the corner in the new guy. And so I'm struggling, but I turn around and you are like, not only have you finished what we're supposed to be doing, but you're running around trying to do handstands or headstands.

Dr. Ring: Right. Yeah. You know, it's funny. We, you know, we've got lots of great friends on our, on our block and on our street. And, um, everybody says that my wife has three kids, not two because they see me as just another one of her children.

Clarence Fisher: Yeah. So, so that's what inspired you to become a chiropractor you wanted to help athletes? That was the initial.

Dr. Ring: Yeah, so it was, for me, it was a, it was a personal experience. I was in a pretty significant car accident whenever I was younger. And I didn't really know that that had cost and damage. My parents ensured that I was, that I was okay in. But I think that really kind of started off some, you know, some bad things with, with me as far as my back and neck goes, when I was in college, I was playing baseball and I was doing some conditioning and I actually had I definitely strained my back really, really bad. And this is to the point where I, you know, I couldn't walk hardly. And unfortunately it wasn't like a Friday night. So I waited until Monday, but I went to the chiropractor and I was already going, my degree was going to be in a premed type degree, which was kind of open ended and allowed me to go into whatever healthcare field I wanted to go into.

Dr. Ring: But I wasn't quite sure what that was exactly for me. But after that back injury, when I went to a chiropractic office and I had the experience that I had, where they examine me did, x-rays found out what was wrong, gave me a care plan, executed it. And I saw the results. It kind of opened my eyes to, Hey, this is what I want to do for the rest of my life. I wanted to take care of people and help them with their pain. And then after I got into school, I learned more about chiropractic and I realized that, Hey, pain relief is just one aspect of it. There's, there's so much more to it. And so we try to work all avenues of chiropractic, not just pain management, but also family health and wellness.

Clarence Fisher: When you became a chiropractor. Yeah. I know there's lots that happens. Like I said, I have a family friend that I've been with through school and then seeing him move from practice to practice before, before making his own practice. Can you share a lesson that you learned early on that still impacts how you do business right now?

Dr. Ring: Yeah, for me, you know, I think I had a misconception that I was just going to open up my office. I was going to pop a shingle up and patients were just going to flow in. And so I think I didn't understand what it was going to take to, you know, really put the work in to get my name out there, to build a brand and build a practice. So, you know, I learned that, Hey, it takes work and it's kind of a constant grind and I gotta always be on point. So for me, I think I just underestimated what it was going to take to start a practice from scratch, to run a business. It's been a really, really fun journey, ups and downs. And, you know, even, even today, we're where I'm at, where the practice is doing really, really well.

Dr. Ring: You know, there's still some moments in which I make some mistakes, but I always start to find ways to correct that mistake. I don't want to make the same mistake twice. So it's definitely, definitely a journey of owning a practice, running a business, but I'm still glad that I did, you know, lots of my classmates went into associate shifts where they're working for other doctors and really they were in situations where they were just kind of like their Aaron boy, you know, they were doing things that the doctor didn't want to do themselves. And they had my, my friends doing these things like marketing or screenings or doing exams, not really teaching them much, but more or less just kind of doing all the work that they didn't want to do themselves. And so I'm glad that I took that step right from school to open my own practice, because I know that most of those people who have got an associate ships quickly got out of them. And so I'm glad that I had that headstart starting my own practice right out of school.

Clarence Fisher: That's cool. And it is definitely not an easy failing. Business itself is not easy. It is, especially when, what I find a lot about chiropractors is you really, almost more than any other medical profession, like you really want to help people as the main thing, do you find that typically about chiropractors? Like you want to get people healthy.

Dr. Ring: Yeah. Yeah. For sure. I think that, you know, most of the people, at least all the ones that I hang out with share the same mindset that I have. And, you know, we feel like that, that we were kind of chosen for this health field and that we make it a personal mission for us to ensure that our community is as healthy as possible. And so we do all that we can to encourage and to live out that for our patients, for our families and for our communities.

Clarence Fisher: Yeah. What's the most important question that you think families need to ask when they're trying to consider embarking on this journey. Like you said, it's not a destination, it's a journey to feel great relieving all the pain, maximizing their health. What's the most important question that they need to ask themselves?

Dr. Ring: And that, that is a great, that's a great question. The biggest thing is, you know, I want, I want people to, to switch out of the reactionary mindset and get more proactive with their health. So when they're sitting in a doctor's office or when they're going through some health challenges, you know, ask themselves, where do I want to be? What direction do I want to go? And is, is this experience going to push me towards that goal? Or is it going to push me in the opposite direction? And I know it's kind of like a clandestine answer, I guess, but I just hope that people ultimately realize that it's a daily struggle. It's a, it's a daily journey, but it's so worth it, making those positive choices for you and your family.

Clarence Fisher: That's great. And so I've decided I'm going to go on this journey. What do you think the most important thing that families should consider when they're evaluating a chiropractor?

Dr. Ring: The kids that are a pretty good judge of character, I think we've had some families who come and see us and for whatever reason, maybe location, we're not necessarily all that convenient for them. And so they, they try other places, other offices and, chiropractors. And most of those, those families that are coming back one, because they just feel different when they're in our office because they know that we truly do care. But I think the biggest thing is just, you know, find, find an office that really resonates with what you believe. Find one that that is not too proud to take criticism or to answer questions. And that you just feel good whenever you walk into it, you can walk into doctor's offices and you probably have before, and you just don't feel right in there.

Dr. Ring: There's just not, you know, not a good vibe. Nobody looks happy and then you can walk into some offices and you can just see it on the people's faces that they know that they're in the right place. And when they know that they're in the right place, it really makes you feel like that you're in the right place.

Clarence Fisher: Good advice. So I want to thank you, man. I know, I know firsthand how busy you are. I just want to thank you for taking the time out to share. How can someone find out more about dr. Travis Eastern, Oklahoma chiropractic?

Dr. Ring: So you can find us on all the social media sites where we're heavily, I guess, the heaviest involved in Facebook, you know, we have a pretty good following in there. You can look it up on our website, which is Eastern Oklahoma chiropractic.com.

Dr. Ring: We have a website, which is http://www.EasternOklahomaChiropractic.com/, which directs you back to the main side of Eastern Oklahoma chiropractic.com. You can reach us by phone. Our office number here in Broken arrow is (918) 940-4630. You can just pop in and just say, hi, we have walk-ins every single day of people who have never been to the chiropractor and who want to come see us, you can find us on Google. You alluded to all of our, all of our reviews, and that's a great tool for us to be able to put patients' minds at ease too. You know, if you're looking for a chiropractor for you and your family, check out their online reputation, because if they've got great reviews, that really goes a long way to reassuring you that you're in the right place or physical address in Broken Arrow is 24 33 North Aspen Avenue.

Dr. Ring: We're right off the Broken Arrow expressway for those of you that are familiar with the area, right between the highway and the intersection, and just pop in some day and say, hello, like I said before, we have, we provide complimentary consultations so that if you just have questions and know, you just want to talk to me, I'm happy to sit down with you and answer whatever questions that you have. And then the girls on my front desk were always there to answer questions whenever it comes to scheduling, to billing, to insurance and all that. We just want to make sure that your experience is as seamless as possible and that we can eliminate as many obstacles and barriers to your health recovery as we can.

Clarence Fisher: Thank you so much. Thank you so much. And you want to make sure to check the show notes for any of these resources that we have there. Dr. Ring, I've taken a lot of your time and I'll let you go. But man, thank you so much for sharing today.

Dr. Ring: Clarence, I really appreciate the opportunity. I'm hoping to reach some people and gives them some, you know, some positive advice and it's really encouraging to them. I love talking about this stuff. I could talk about it all day. So anytime that you want to chat, give me a call.

Clarence Fisher: Alright. Thanks.

: We appreciate you listening to Local Market Monopoly. Be sure to rate, review and subscribe to the show and visit ClarenceFisher.com for more resources that will help you dominate your local market and own the block.