Transcription
Well, hello students, and welcome to another rendition of a Life University assembly. I'm Dr. Jill Omars, Vice President of University Advancement and Enrollment, and your assembly coordinator. Uh, I'm thrilled today to have on as our guest a gentleman that I've become great friends with over the last couple years. He is a December 1998 graduate of Life Chiropractic College. He started practice in the Atlanta region in January of 1999. As I've been practicing in this area ever since, you know, when you graduate, you're gonna have a lot of options to look at. You certainly have the option of going into your own private practice. You have the option of becoming an associate or of joining an organization as a contractor or maybe even a franchise organization. There are all these opportunities that we'll have, and our guest today, Dr. Patrick Greco, has actually practiced in a couple of those different systems, if you like. He started off in private practice and has gone on to be a regional developer with The Joint Corporation. So please welcome my friend, certainly a friend of Life University, a donor to Life University, who actually supports student scholarships, Dr. Patrick Greco.
Dr. Greco, thanks for joining us this morning.
Thanks, Doc. It's great to be here. It's it's an honor, almost surreal, to be part of, you know, part of an assembly, something that I remember going through every Thursday, um, at, um, at Life when I was in school.
Well, the floor is yours, sir. Uh, inspire our students, tell them your story, give them some advice, and let's just hear what you've got to share with our student body.
Awesome. Well, hey everyone, I'm Dr. Greco. Um, I am a, um, I'm with the Joint Chiropractic, um, uh, uh, system, and um, I'm just here today to just kind of tell you a little bit about different facets of uh, business related to uh, to the Joint or to to chiropractic, chiropractic industry, um, and um, just to kind of put it into into perspective, just being part of of these assemblies, it's so important, and and I remember when I was in school, I didn't want to go to, I don't want to go to assemblies on Thursday. I don't want to go see Sid drop the keys. I didn't understand it, but hindsight looking back, I really wish I was more engaged and really and really took advantage of those opportunities. Um, Sid Williams at the time when he was the president of the school, he was surreal. He's the reason why we're here. So you know, take that into account when when you are at school, take advantage of everything that you can because you know, hindsight it really does play a part in in your not only your professional but your personal life. So I'd like to start out right now just telling you a little bit of a backstory about myself so you can kind of understand where I come from.
Um, there were two main facets that really kind of got me into chiropractic. When I was a kid, I was scrawny. Um, I was picked on, I was bullied, and you know, it's really just uh, you know, very uncomfortable. Um, you know, I went when I was in school, and what my dad did one day, he noticed it, and he bought me a weight set. So I just I went down the basement every day after school, and I would work out those weights, and then I really I really just kind of got to terms and understood the power of the body, the power of strength, um, the power that you know, when you when you get strong and you take care of yourself that you have confidence, it builds your confidence. What it also does is it helps fend off as fend off those bullies. So that was one thing that really kind of got me engaged in the more physical aspect of life. The second thing was my father. My father was a great guy, cared about me, he got me the weight set, but he wasn't happy himself. He would he would come home, he's a roofer, he'd come home from work, he'd lay on the couch every day, and every day he'd lay on the couch longer and longer and just more and more unhealthy as as the years went by, and those were two really main facets that really just kind of got me um, laser focused on the importance of the physical body and and how strengthening and keeping it well is so important to your overall being.
So uh, anyway, um, I ended up going to um, college. I went to chiropractic. I went to Seton Hall University in uh, South Orange, New Jersey, and uh, I went there as a business, I was gonna be a business major and if I get it, getting a finance degree until I took my first finance course. It was horrible. I had no idea what the professors were talking about. An economics, no idea, failed terribly. So I was kind of lost. I didn't know what to do. So what I did is I just started, I kind of went back to that whole physical being and the importance of physical fitness and wellness, and I I decided I was going to go down the route of um, I got a degree in health and physical education school, and I was going to be a physical therapist. I'm not a physical therapist, like a personal trainer. I wanted to I really wanted to help people get well. I didn't really want to work on athletes or anything like that. I wanted to focus back on my father. I wanted to help someone like that get the strength to get off the couch and to be happy and be well and get healthy.
Um, so I was going down that route, and a buddy of mine, he um, he went, she started going to chiropractic school. His uncle was a chiropractor. His uncle drove a nice brand new Lexus, at a beautiful house, a beautiful wife, beautiful kids, a house down the shore, and I was like, you know, that's what, you know, maybe I'll look at doing something like that. That sounds like it'd be a good life, and I could really focus on on the physical well-being of people and help them. So I went and I did my due diligence, and I started shadowing a family friend of ours as a chiropractor, went into her office, and um, just working with her, engaging with her, engaging with her staff. One thing I realized about her, she was a terrible person. She was horrible, absolutely horrible person, but I noticed when her patients came in, they were excited. They were excited to see her. They wanted to come and see her. They wanted to come in and get adjusted. It was it was a totally different mindset. It was it was so strange to me, and I watched, and when those people, they got down and they laid on the table, and they got up, they were transformed. They were absolutely transformed, and it blew my mind. You know, I I was I was thinking this woman, this herald terrible woman, she is having such a positive impact on these patients' lives. She's transforming their life for me when they get up and they're happy, they're happy to see her, they're happy to go about their day, and you know, um, really just kind of looking further into it, how's this going? You go to the medical doctor with your kid, you go to pediatrician, it smells antiseptic in there, nurses and the starchy white outfits, you get in, you get a shot, it's uncomfortable, and it's it's something that's really just a very transactional something. I noticed when you when you went to the medical doctor's office, it's very transactional, but when you go to the chiropractor's office, it's totally different. It's absolutely transformational. So that really really set a precedent in into what I really wanted to do, and that's what I did. I went to I went to Life University. I started in uh, September of 1994. Right, that's some prerequisites that I had to take, some like chemistry and and physics and um, you know, all those organic chemistry, all those fun courses, um, but um, anyway, I got, you know, I got through that, and when when I started my class there, we were part of the largest class that graduated um, at from Life University at the time, and it was it was really a turning point in my life. Um, I finally felt comfortable in myself personally. I came out as a gay man, and I felt accepted. I felt part of a group. I felt part of a family, and that's really what chiropractic brought me, but chiropractic school at Life felt me. I had a feeling of belonging the first time in my life I ever did. I really had a feeling of belonging, and that still stands true in the chiropractic community. We are so strong together, and we have such a sense of community and belonging. So that's how that's really kind of how that that road went down there, and I'm so appreciative of of the the connections, the relationships, education that I was able to receive through the university.
Um, after that, I you know, I graduated, and I he became an independent contractor um, at a chiropractor's office. Uh, then I went and I opened up my own my own practice. Uh, then I got involved in some massage MV franchises. I invested in, I had a couple of those, and I heard about The Joint. I saw it for a while, and it was it was something that just kind of uh, it was interesting. I looked at it, I was watching it, and I I really got introduced to it as you know, as the brand changed, and I kind of saw the benefits of the brand, of the model, the fact that it made chiropractic accessible to everyone. They didn't people didn't have to go through the rigmarole of the of having to use their insurance. They could really just the convenience factor of them getting in and getting out. I thought back to someone like my father, someone who might not be able to afford or have time to go to a traditional chiropractor, but this would be so easy for him to go and access this and go and go in and get well. People that may not be able to afford or have time to go to go, you know, spend, you know, an hour to to get adjusted, like you know, just like the construction workers, like the roofers, like the hairdressers and and servers, people in the service industry, people that really need uh, need care, they need to routine care, and that's something really that we all that we offer through the brand, and that really just um, you know, I I looked more into it, I got involved in it, and um, it really just um, it it really took off from there, and I'm extremely grateful for it. So that's that's a little tidbit of my backstory, how I how I got involved with with the brand and um and where we are today.
Um, so now I'll tell you a little bit about The Joint story. Um, The Joint was um, it was established in 1999 by Dr. Fred Garrison and uh and his wife, Ann, and they opened a clinic in Tucson, Arizona. They started the clinic. They ended up selling the clinic. They moved to Atlanta, and they opened um, American Bindings, and from that point, it really just they tried to they tried to franchise it, and I looked, I paid attention. My clinic was in Midtown, so it was close by, and and they had a few a few clinics um, you know, scattered throughout throughout the city and and as well as throughout the country. Um, and then back in 2010, a Texas investment firm came in, and they acquired the the company from Fred Mann, and they relocated it out to Scottsdale, Arizona, and that's when they appointed John Leonicio as the CEO, and John was a founder and former CEO of Massage Envy. So what that really did is that really built um, something called brand confidence. People in the industry, in the side and with in in the franchise industry, people with um, you know, that were with Massage Envy, they saw what John was able to do and grow through the Massage Envy brand, and a lot of people thought they started buying licenses. It really just started opening up and embracing the the idea of of this concept, and as as we grew some more, we had some executive changes um, event in 2000, it was 2014, 15, 16, forget which year exactly, but um, The Joint actually went on went public. So we are publicly traded on NASDAQ. Um, our symbol is J-Y-N-T, if you want to want to check it out yourself, and um, that's when it really just it really started. It gave it a lot more momentum, a lot more capital to back it up and really start growing the brand. Um, we again had some other um, executive changes there, and in our current um, our current uh, CEO, he came in around uh, just after 2016, uh, Peter Holt, and Peter was with um, he was with a bunch of friend different franchise um, concepts. He was um, executive member of the IFA, which is the International Franchise Association. He was with brands like Mailboxes Etc., um, Tasty Brands, Planet Smoothie, um, and and he really came in and he he really helped. We were in a little a little bit of a a tight spot at the time. Um, when they did go public, they really focused on doing a lot of of franchise clinics, and it really it it uh, not franchise clinics, I'm sorry, corporate clinics, and um, how they they were treating the the franchise community. It was really we had a little bit of a discord. Peter came in, and he really focused on the importance of relationships, on the importance of relationships between the franchisee and the franchisor, and he really focused on bringing a franchise-centric brand um, back to life, and that's really what we did, and year over year, he has been shown exponential growth on implementing the proper aspects of a franchise brand, from bringing a proper operations um, team in, proper marketing team in, and the I T T uh, proper I T team in, which are actually we're upgrading our I T system right now from a POS space to a CRM, which is really going to give us just exponential growth in opportunities to focus on patient engagement and collecting data to really enhance um, our the different avenues of of our brand and of the corporation.
Um, so that's really where we are, really on the upward spiral right now. Currently, we have uh, over 600 clinics nationwide, and our goal is to have a thousand clinics open by the end of 2023, and with a projected cap at around 1900 clinics nationwide before we look at international growth. But as you know, as my role here at The Joint, I am a chiropractor, I'm a franchisee, I'm also a regional developer, and as a regional developer, what my job is is to focus on developing the brand um, by selling licenses to protect respect to franchisees, allow helping them support them and developing their clinics and maintain continued support, compliance, and consistency. So we we operate um, within compliance of our brand standards, and that's really what chiropractic, what franchising is about, is about focusing on brand standards, consistency, compliance within our brand so that our patients are able to go to any of our clinics nationwide and experience the same level of service that we have to offer. When I got involved um, you know, with The Joint, uh, initially I started as a regional developer. Um, I went, I knew some people um, that went fro with John Minicio from Massage Envy to to The Joint, and they were looking for regional developers, and they were scouting different areas in the country, and they were scouting Atlanta. So long story short, I jumped on a plane, I flew out there, and I came back with 30 licenses, developed 30 clinics in Atlanta. I had no idea how I was going to develop 30 licenses. It was um, it was a challenge, um, but the one thing I did is I paid attention, and when I what I focused on is paying attention is I went after the low-hanging fruit first. First, I did, I know I sent messages, and I I tried to engage with a lot of chiropractors to get involved with the brand. What I did is I went to my fellow Massage Envy franchisees. They were familiar with the Massage MV brand, so they were they were, you know, I went on, I brought them on a tour. What I did is we went to our annual franchise conference in Scottsdale, Arizona, for um uh, for Massage Envy, and I hired a party bus. I invited them all on a party bus, and we got on that bus, we're gonna go visit three clinics, you know, visit a corporate home clinic, a franchise-owned clinic, and a doctor-owned clinic. We got on the bus, I filled it full of beer and wine, figured we'd have fun. Unfortunately, the bus didn't have any air conditioning. So that being said, we were driving around Scottsdale, Arizona, in April with no air conditioning, and guess what? Ever all anybody had to drink was beer and wine. So let me tell you, by the end of that tour, they were feeling great, and it was it was fantastic. Everyone bit, everyone purchased, and that was that that was just one, that was an awesome thing I did, um, but it really it really allowed for exponential growth in in the Atlanta market. Um, a few years later, I bought a few more licenses, and it expanded my territory to the rest of Georgia, and then around two and a half years ago, I um, I partnered with two chiropractors, and we acquired the development rights for Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana, and last February, I partnered with the regional developer group in New Jersey. So um, that being said, it's been great. I've sold over 80 franchise licenses and developed over 60 clinics um, in my in my territories. So it really just um, it it just makes me feel good that we're really able to expand chiropractic throughout the country and engage with patients who may not even been you know, ever been to a chiropractor before. Last year, um, our new patient in 2020, it was 27 of the new patients that walked in the door have never been to a chiropractor before. So that being said, we're really by making it accessible, we're inviting patients to come in and experience chiropractic and and see the benefits of it and really the benefits of it on their on their overall health.
However, you know, being a regional developer, sometimes it's a little fresh, it's a little stressful. Um, I have to support my franchisees. I have to sell clinics, develop clinics, and then I also have to um, focus on supporting them on on their on their clinic operations, their clinic growth, um, and I really got I really got caught up in the metrics. Um, I lost focus. I was focusing on our three KPIs, which are key performance indicators. Our first one is new patient growth, our second is total conversion, and our third is attrition, and then I was also focusing on year over year um, growth, month over month growth, sales growth, and it I lost focus. I just I I became it became very very transactional, and I I felt I started feeling a little lost. So I ended up engaging a um, a professional coach, an executive coach, her name is Lisa McLeod, and what she does, Lisa focuses on a purpose rather than a profit-driven approach to business, which is total game changer, and um, how our conversation started, I just gave her a call, introductory call, and she um, she asked me one question. She said, Dr. Greco, what's your mission statement? So brazenly, I just answered, Oh, we provide routine affordable chiropractic care. I knew I knew that I've been with the Joints in 2012. So she stopped me in my tracks and corrected me. So actually, your mission is to improve quality of life through routine affordable chiropractic care. The biggest professional slap in my face I've ever had, biggest I was floored. I lost focus. I was focusing on the metrics. I wasn't focusing on the most important part, our patients and improving their quality of life. So that really made me take a 180, and that's what I do now is and that's the message that I relate to to my franchisees, um, to my doctors, um, to our wellness coordinators, you know, and our operations managers is, you know, we're focusing on improving quality of life, and that's what you guys are you do as as chiropractors when you get out in the fields, that's what you're going to be doing, and you have to focus on that, focus on the importance of that. It means so much more than anything else, and uh, to be honest with you, prof, uh, purpose-driven businesses they actually perform on average 350 percent higher than a profit-driven um, practice. So really, you know, kind of focus on on that, on on on the purpose, on what you're here for, and what you're here for, you're really here for the best interest of the patients.
So um, that being said, um, I actually I consider myself I can't consider myself the luckiest person that works within The Joint brand because first, you know, I'm a chiropractor. I still practice in the clinics now, be it I just kind of cut back so because I I focus on a lot of administrative stuff, but I'm in there every week. I'm treating patients every week, so I get to liver with my two hands as a chiropractor. I get to deliver on our mission, and I get I get to touch, feel, treat, adjust our patients and show them the love of what we do and really ex personally extend extend our mission and the purpose of what we're doing to them. The second is a chiropractor. I know that's a chiropractor. I'm sorry, as a franchisee, I own three clinics myself, and what I'm doing is I'm giving my doctors the opportunity for employment. I'm giving my doctors the opportunity to come in and work and just totally patient-focused. They don't focus on any paperwork. All they do is their notes. They don't focus on any marketing, on any bills. All they do is they their job is to come in and love, treat, and and heal our patients. So I'm giving them the opportunity to just for employment and just to come in and deliver on our mission. But then as a regional developer, I'm giving I'm giving entrepreneurs, chiropractors, the opportunity to come out and open their own business. Some of these um, my franchisees that came from the corporate world to get out of that rat race and work for themselves, be their own boss, chiropractors the opportunity to come out there and open their own business under the guidance and support of The Joint brand, and then what they're doing is they're giving their doctors the opportunity for employment so they can get out there and deliver on our purpose. But also again, I'm also part of a group called NFAB, the National Franchise Advisory Board, and we're a group of nine franchisees, and we work directly with corporate, so we're the voice between the franchisee and uh to corporate, so we convey that message back and forth in communication to help really improve our brand and focus on any questions or any incidents or you know, any problems that they that they may they may incur to really increase our brand to really uh, bring us up to the next level. And that being said, last year in 2020, in my regions, we delivered over 600,000 patient visits, 600,000, and I consider myself to be a little part of every single one of those, every single one of those 600,000 adjustments that were performed that really that makes me go to bed happy at night, and I think that's a very powerful thing that that we're doing, um, and you know, that's really you know, that's that's really what we do um, you know, with within our Joint system.
Um, another thing that I really wanted to focus on is the importance of building relationships. You're in school, and you're going to be bogged down by homework, tests, papers. Don't let that get to you. That's just one part of your education. The other part is focusing on building relationships, not only with your fellow students but with your professors, with the staff at the school, with the secretaries, with the administrators, um, with with the yard guys, with the janitors, with the president, with Dr. Scott, with Dr. La Marche. Build those relationships. Go up to them, introduce yourself to people. If you go out and you go into the Socrates Cafe, go sit with someone you don't know, introduce yourself, build that relationship. That's what I do. I go to these annual franchise conferences and these regional developer conferences at our corporate offices and and these resorts that we have the events at. I never sit with people I don't know or that that I know because I already know them. It's an opportunity to meet someone else, introduce people, introduce those people who may be alone to your friends, build those relationships. I get out there, I go in the office, I meet every single employee there, every one of them, from Lancelot who's our office manager that works the front desk, you know, to the accounting teams, the IT team, to the development team, um, you know, you…
Know everyone there because when you need something, when I need something, all I have to do is make a call. They put a name with a face, and that’s what building those relationships is for—future growth. And you know you’re going to be focusing, like I said, on all of your academics, and that’s great, but don’t only focus on those. Get out there. Get out there. Get out there in the community. Educate people on the benefits of chiropractic. Expand your knowledge to them. That’s one of the most important things that you can ever do as a chiropractor—is really to educate people, build those relationships, and build upon that because those relationships are the most important part. That’s how I got involved with The Joint. How I got involved is because a friend of mine that worked—she was one of the real estate directors at Massage Envy. She left Massage Envy, and she followed John, and she went to—um, she went to the—uh—the Joint, and she was working there, and they were scouting for regional developers. I was the first person she called, so that was the reason I jumped on the plane, you know, and I went out there.
Another thing is, get involved. Um, just like I said earlier, you know, I went to school; I had to go to—I have to go to assembly every Thursday. No one wanted to go to assembly. Everybody’d watch Sid drop his keys, and we’re like, “Oh, he’s dropping his keys again; he’s talking about stepping on a dog’s tail, and he barks out his mouth.” Yes, he did; one of his favorite quotes he ever did, and I’m just like, “That’s stupid. That’s stupid.” Pushing it—it wasn’t—it was so insightful, and I kick myself—kick myself in the butt every time for not taking more advantage of that, for not getting out there and knocking on Sid’s door and introducing myself and talking to him. It was—that was such a missed opportunity that I had. So get involved. Get engaged. Go to the groups. Go to the—go to the, you know—the—is that you have to study for a test the next day? You know, you don’t have to get a hundred percent, but if there’s a—if there’s a seminar, if there’s a, you know, a group—the Gonstead group, you activate a group—go to the group, go meet people, go learn something, get your hands on something. That’s so much more important. You’re gonna—you’re gonna get through; you’re gonna pass the test, and if you don’t—if you get a C, you get a D, that’s fine—you passed. Just get out there and enjoy it. Enjoy the experience, and that’s what this—that’s what this is all about. It’s experiential. It’s more than just, you know, reading the books and going through everything. You really have to get engaged and meet people and learn as much as you can, because that’s really how you’re gonna end—um, you know, succeeding—um, not only—not only in practice, but in life. So those really make—it makes a world of difference on that. So, um, all right, Doc, let’s—um—open up some questions that we may have—um, you know, from here. I kind of went through my list a little too fast.
That’s okay. No, I—I appreciate that, and I—and certainly appreciate your—your vulnerability and your honesty as it relates to, you know, being in practice for a number of years and coming to a point where you recognized, after you hired your coach, that you actually lost your purpose, and that you would come back and get excited—get excited about the purpose, which is really to improve quality of life. And yes, it’s—it’s part of The Joint’s purpose statement, but I think in reality every chiropractor should have that in the forefront of their mind—is that our job, our chosen profession, our chosen purpose, is to help people improve their quality of life. So I love that’s part of your purpose statement, and certainly I was—I was blessed to have great mentors along the way and discovered that purpose was so important. So students listening to that, if you have not yet crafted your own personal purpose statement, I’m going to encourage you to start thinking about it. What will your purpose be? What’s your purpose now as a human being, and what will your purpose be when you enter practice at whatever level that you choose to enter practice? So I appreciate you sharing that, Patrick. Um, one thing—one thing getting back to, you know, to the—the purpose and what we do—um, you guys are going to be—deli—as chiropractors, you’re going to be throwing a few curveballs—um, especially through the medical community—um, they’re going to—they’re going to say bad things about you; they’re not going to like you, and don’t take that to heart. The thing is is what we offer as chiropractors is like nothing everyone—anyone offers out there. What we do is by focusing on the spine and focus on correcting the subluxation; it’s—it’s not like anything out there. It’s not—we’re not—we don’t deliver Band-Aids. We focus on the cause, and remember that is—you know, you get a headache; you can go and take some Tylenol, but you’re not doing anything to correct that underlying issue. And by going to the chiropractor and receiving that adjustment, fixing that subluxation, it’s gonna—you know, it—it’s like nothing that anyone else out there can deliver. And focus on the importance of that—that we are such a special niche. And when people—when people talk bad about you, talk bad about chiropractors, call you a bunch of names like “quack” or “witch doctor” or anything like that, you know, one of the reasons why is they may be a little scared; they may not understand; they may be that narrow-minded that they don’t understand the benefit of what we do. But if you think about—if I get—if I get a headache, I’m like, “I don’t want to take a Tylenol; I’m going to get adjusted,” because I could take that Tylenol, and three hours later that headache is going to be back. I get adjusted; it’s gone, and then I make sure to go the next day to get checked again just to make sure that I’m clear. So you know—you know, take that—you know, take that to heart—that what we do is so important and so different from anything else offered out there, you know, in the—in the health—health-related fields.
Now I agree with you because another—another lesson I learned very early on from a mentor was it’s imperative that you have faith, confidence, and belief in your product, your services, and your ideas. He used to say you’ve got to have FCB in PSI. And what you just share there is—is that so the message of chiropractic—it’s pure; it’s simple. Some understand it; some don’t understand it, but trust that there’s always someone waiting to hear it. So I, in my own brain over the years, developed what I called my—my 4SW formula: Some will, some won’t; so what; someone is waiting. So just like you mentioned early on, you know, when you were younger, you got bullied a lot until you took presents and you trusted in yourself and you developed yourself where you had the confidence in yourself, and the same thing will happen professionally if you have faith, constant belief in your product, service, and ideas of chiropractic and in yourself. When people attempt to bully you, if you like—you’re not going to take that in stride—just—I mean, you’ll take it in strategy; you’ll just let it go; you’ll be able to just—yeah—just like water off a duck’s back, because it will happen. And I agree with Dr. Greco; it certainly will happen. And as you teach chiropractic, you teach the paradigm of chiropractic; you keep it pure; you keep it simple; you keep it unsolid, then some people are going to get it; they’re going to go, “Oh my gosh, I never understood that.” Even medical doctors—I had a number of medical doctors in my practice that were under regular chiropractic care with their families. Only once they understood it—the ones that never want to understand it—if you allow them to take control of your emotional state, they will crush you. However, when you attend assemblies, when you do pretty much everything Dr. Greco talked about—meet people, find mentors that will support you in your journey as a chiropractic student, that will be available to support you in your journey as you enter the practice of chiropractic—you’re going to have an exceptional career, which will lead you to have an exceptional life. It’s been my experience, but you’ve got to come with it with that faith—love—faith, confidence, and belief level, and you’ve got to show up, right, Dr. Greco?
You’ve got to show up. Yes, you got to show up. Uh, another thing that you really want to do is, as students, be inquisitive. Get out there. Don’t take—don’t take anyone’s word as law—um, just as—just as a medical community, you know, that sometimes—not—not all of them—they’re getting a lot more accepted, but a lot of them they may talk badly about chiropractic because they may not understand chiropractic, and they just have a perception of chiropractic that is something that they may have heard but they never really looked any further into it. And I actually—I personally dealt with that—um, with—with—um—with The Joint—with The Joint brand is when we first came out; we were a little different—um; we were sometimes—some people look at us as a little disrupter—um—in the chiropractic industry, and they came up with a bunch of perceptions, and what they did is they heard about those perceptions through other people, and they shared those perceptions, and they started believing those perceptions. But the one mistake they did is they never got inquisitive; they never looked into the brand; they never looked into what we were doing. So that being said, you know, sometimes, you know, and some people still are a little iffy about it, but they really don’t know, and you know it’s that saying, you know, “You know what you know; you know what you don’t know, but you don’t know what you don’t know.” So that being said, I invite you all just to be inquisitive; go out and look. I invite you all to come to our clinics, Doc. I—I—I can share my—my—my contact information with you all if you want to reach out to whoever it may be—um, feel free. Um, dr.greco@thejoint.com is my email—um, so shoot me an email anytime, and I’d be more than happy to have you come to any of our clinics in the metro Atlanta. We have 40 clinics, and you’re—you’re welcome to come and go visit any of our clinics—um—you know, in the system and just—just see what it is. You got—if you guys even need—you want a part-time job, come in and work in the clinic as a wellness coordinator; come and shadow our doctors; see what we do; understand our system and how—how awesome it is and how simple it is because what we do is all we do is focus on chiropractic. Some people say we’re the modern—the modern-day box on the wall, but it’s kind of what we are. We’re back to basics. That’s what we do as chiropractors is we focus at The Joint; we focus on chiropractic; we don’t do any physical therapy; we don’t do any—uh—any other modalities; we don’t sell—we don’t sell supplements; we don’t do traction or, you know, the decompression—um; we don’t do weight loss; we don’t do laser hair removal. A lot of these chiropractors have all these other modalities—um—you know, in their clinic that they’re doing; we don’t do that; we just focus strictly on pure, straight chiropractic. That’s what we do—back to the basics, and—um—that’s why, you know, I welcome you all to come and just see for yourself. Just—um—you know, come in and check us out. Maybe what I’ll do is I’ll host an open house for you all to come, and I’d love to have you all come and just—just see for yourself; see what the clinic is. We’ll get you some—some beer and wine and make it a party—um—and—uh—have it—have a great time. So I’d love to do that because you’re all more than welcome.
So thank you for that invitation to our students, and your email address you said Dr. Dodd Greco, so that’s Dr. .greco@thejoint.com, correct? Correct. Just for them to know the spelling. And uh, certainly, you know, I did not have an opinion as to who The Joint really was, but I did choose to become inquisitive after I had met you here on campus, and as you know, I did go and sit in the reception room of your—your clinic—uh—near—I’m trying to think which one it was—I guess West Midtown, right? And right across from Ponce City Market. Exactly. Yes, the one on Ponce City Market. So I did spend some time and just sat in the reception room and observed people coming in and out and observed the doctors adjusting patients, and I was like, “Wow, this is like strict chiropractic.” And I chatted with a lot of people, including a lady at the front desk. I chatted with a CEO of a company who said, “I come here because it’s convenient for me; I do my grocery shopping at Whole Foods; I stop in; I get checked; I get adjusted; I’m on my way.” So it’s just a different model. And I also encourage all students, you know, before you graduate, make a commitment to visit a minimum of 50 chiropractic clinics. Just call and ask if you can go and observe; you can go shadow for 30 minutes, an hour; just go and observe, and you’ll be much more ready to enter the world of practice if you visit a lot of clinics because what you’re going to discover—you’re going to discover what you want to have—the type of practice you may want to have, and you’ll discover what you don’t want to have. And you don’t know what you don’t know until you see it in action. So Dr. Greco, uh, thanks so much for taking time out of your super busy schedule to be with our students today. Any closing comments from you, sir?
Um, no, I just—I really appreciate the—the opportunity that—that uh—you all are—are giving—giving me to—to present to the students and kind of educate them and—uh—about The Joint brand and let me share my—my backstory with you so you can kind of get more of an understanding of where I come from, and—um—you know, like I said, you know, the—you know, sometimes The Joint looks a little different, and I think one of the biggest—one of the biggest problems—um—that—that some of the chiropractic community may have when looking at it is they look at the price point and they look at our $29 intro, and what that is for the evaluation, exam, adjustment, but that’s—that—that is a marketing tactic to get people in the door and introduce them to chiropractic—um—and to our brand. But what really—what our patients love the most—it’s really not the affordability factor of it because all we do is we just do chiropractic adjustments—um—it’s the convenience factor; it’s the fact that you can—you’d have to make an appointment; you can walk into any clinic nationwide; we’re open standard retail hours—um—10—10 to 7, Monday through Friday; 10 to 4 on Saturday; and once we get to a certain—um—patient volume or clinics are open on Sundays from 12 to 6. There’s no insurance needed—um—and it just makes it that much more seamless just for patients to come in. So while they may be attracted initially by our introductory offer—um—it’s the convenience factor that really keeps them, and that’s really what we—that’s—that’s really what we do is what we strive to is just to give patients the opportunity to access routine care at their convenience so that not only do we get them well—ideally in the big—big picture—we want to keep them well.
Well, thank you very much for your message, and thanks for taking the time with our students, and uh—just know that we appreciate you; we’re—we’re proud that you’re a Life University alumnus and that you’re serving the community so well. Thanks for joining us. Thank you, everyone. Have a great day, and uh—have a great week. Enjoy the beautiful weather.