SHORTS 18 | Normal Is Boring with Jane Brewer

Let's have some fun. Welcome to the LocoShortz podcast created by LocoThinkTank. In this podcast series, Loco Experience Coordinator Deb Piles will unfold bite-sized business learnings through conversational interviews with successful small business owners, topical experts, and community leaders. Together, they'll take listeners through the often crazy experience of founding and growing an enterprise or an idea. So listen in and listen up, because these small business stories may just have the secret ingredient you've been missing for your recipe for small business success. Hi, welcome to the LocoShortz podcast. This is your host Debby Piles, and I'm excited to introduce Dr. Jane Brewer of Precision Chiropractic. She's in Johnstown and is a doctor of chiropractic who focuses on neuro structural correction. I can't even pronounce it right. But I'll let her explain what that is. Not only does she understand why it is that many individuals are experiencing the effects of conditions, what do you call it, conditions secondary to structural shift of the spine. Anyway, I'm going to go ahead and let her start if you could give us a little bit of your background and how you got started with your business. Awesome. Thanks for having me, Deb. I know it's been like a couple tries for us to get to see if we can finally be here. Yeah, so I had a really interesting lead up into my career as a chiropractor. I had about 11 years in between undergrad where I got an art degree and going back to school to become a chiropractor. So that was kind of a cool adventure. Chiropractic changed my own life personally and inspired me to go back to school after that length of time and studied and got my degree in 2014 and kind of knew, like you said in the intro, it's a neurostructural chiropractic, so people call it upper cervical chiropractic. I'm kind of a specialist in the upper neck. There's not many of us who do what we do. And I became passionate about that after that type of adjustment really changed and transformed my own health and my own outlook on what true health actually means. So graduated in 2014, my husband and I had lives on the western slope for about nine or ten years before leaving for chiropractic school. So we kind of knew that we would always make it back to Colorado after I was finished with school and we landed in Fort Collins and there is this history. Yes, open precision chiropractic in July of 2015. So we're about to turn six years old in about a month. And it's been, thank you. It's been quite the adventure. So tell me a little bit more. I'm really curious about this art degree and how that got you into chiropractic. I did it. I don't know. People are, you know, you go to undergrad or at least I did right out of high school. And that's kind of what, not I want to say was what was expected of me. It just was what we did and went to undergrad at age 18. And I'm like, cool, you're 18 years old. What do you want to do with your life? And I was like, oh, I'm good at making things. So I'm going to be an art major. And it was, you know, proof to be pretty useful. My focus was in photography and graphic design. So that's actually been really beneficial for me to carry into my business ownership. Because I'm really particular about what things look like all of our marketing materials, logo branding. I have, I like to think anyways that I have a good eye for stuff like that. And I attribute that to my art degree from my younger years. That's amazing. Because startups or business owners don't have that background. Totally. Well, and then always hearing about marketing and being a struggle. So. Yeah. But then doing a total 180 to using the other side of my brain going from a very art-based world to a very science-based world, it was a shift for sure. Oh my goodness. So tell me about, describe your services a little more and what your special sauce is. Got it. So, you know, we tend to see cases that most any other conventional or traditional carpractor would see most people think to come see a carpractor when their neck hurts or their back hurts, right? So we do great with those folks. But because of our niche or our specialty, we tend to see much more complex cases. I like to say my bread and butter are folks that are having conditions like migraines, headaches, vertigo, you know, dizziness, numbness, tingling. You know, we see a lot of folks with autoimmune issues like MS, lots of folks with fibromyalgia. You know, the list goes on and on. Take care of people post concussion. But it's all because of the area of the spine that we focus on. It's the junction where the head and the neck meet, that bone that sits there is called the atlas kind of like Atlas and Greek mythology, who bears the weight of the world. Our atlas bears the weight of our head and it really is the structural foundation of the spine. It's easy to think of the foundation of something at the bottom, but that's the most really movable part of our spine. We got to be able to move our head, but it also leaves a vulnerability there. And when people have an accident or an injury or just wear and tear of normal everyday life, it's often the weak link of the chain. And since it sits in such a crucial area, it can start to affect not just how you feel in your body, but how things are able to function. It's amazing. I mean, even you just talking about it now reminds me of my problems with my neck and I should have come to see you. My arms are long enough to go to Minnesota, but I can tell you. So tell me, what are some of the biggest challenges you've had with running your business? Oh, man, I can tell you with certainty that most of the biggest challenges come from in between my own ears and just getting past or I don't even say getting past it. I think owning a business is kind of a study and understanding yourself and your little nuances and your flaws and everything. And so I think most of the challenges are the ones that I've created for myself or the ones that I just can't get past on my own because of who I am. I think maybe every business owner struggles with stuff like that, but it's all learning. You know, I have, I'm grateful to have really amazing mentors, not just in the chiropractic profession, but in other professions and, you know, people to lean on when the road does get rough and it always does. And the problems don't ever go away. They just change as you grow. They just become different at each level of the game. And I think that is the challenge is just accepting the fact that there's always going to be a challenge. And I think focusing on the positives to come out of that is my challenge. Instead of the one crappy thing that happened, I almost said a bad word, I'm from New York and sometimes my inner New Yorker comes out, but, you know, like, one should he think and happen in a day amongst the sea of great things. And that'll be the one thing that my brain wants to focus on. So the challenge is shifting that perspective and focusing on all the good things and all the good that you're doing each day, instead of the one crappy thing that happened. So how do you help you make that yourself make that shift? Is your team aware of it or give me a little information or background on culture in your team? Totally. We've always been, I mean, talk about small business. She've always been a two person team for the most part. I open with one employee and she was with me for the first five and a half years of business. It was really amazing to have somebody grow with me for all of those years. And then I was so fortunate and so blessed to have another amazing woman take her place. And so I've always been surrounded by amazing women in my practice. And we have a very transparent, casual come as you are culture, our patients see that, our patients respect, respect that and enjoy that. You know, we're not your typical stuffy doctor's office. People call me Jane in the office. I don't expect people to call me Dr. Brewer. And we just pride ourselves on having a really approachable way of going about healthcare because I think that's really lacking in healthcare. Healthcare can be very impersonal. You know, I can't tell you how many people every day say, you know, you know, my doctor doesn't listen to me and, you know, if they don't believe me or I've tried this and that and nobody can get to the bottom of it. And I think the foundation of what we do is really our ability to meet that person where they're at and really listen to what's going on and work with them to come up with a solution. That's amazing. You're right. A lot of, I know me personally too, working with doctors and stuff, I've just never felt like you're hurt. Yeah. And they never take the time to really dig down and find out what the problem is. And I think that's what I appreciated about you guys when I met you, what kind of you're here. And you're ago now is before COVID. So I know in the before times, we have a new normal now. So what have you done? What happened during COVID and were you able to pivot and well, when the bottom first fell out and there was this initial like panic mode reaction, you know, we were part of a group. Chiropractors were part of a group of healthcare providers that included acupuncturists, massage therapists. So some of these other healing modalities, we were effectively shut down for a month. So we were closed from I want to say, um, end of March through the end of April, as the state order was written, it basically said that if somebody literally need to be losing life or limb for us to be able to see them and that's not really a chiropractic case. If somebody's losing life or limb, they probably shouldn't be coming to see me. And so I use that month to, you know, I went a lot of walks with my dad in the park with his dog and, you know, just tried to care for myself in the best way I can. I think that was really tough because I feel like what I do in the office with our patient care, this is the gift that I have for humanity. This is the useful thing that I do for people. It was really difficult to not be able to provide that service for other people and they wanted it. I had phone calls and emails every day saying, well, why can't you open? I'm like, oh, the governor's office. I don't know. So once we opened, we went on to have our busiest year ever in practice, which was so encouraging for a lot of reasons because it was my hope the whole time that whatever came out of this COVID experience, people would be empowered to be proactive about their health care, true health care, not reactionary to every little thing that went wrong because the best thing we can do, any of us is to make ourselves as inhospitable of a host to anything, a virus, a bacteria, a fungus, things that should not be living and multiplying in our bodies. All we can do is do our best to make ourselves as inhospitable to those creatures as possible. And that's hopefully what came out of this experience, at least that's how I'm choosing to look at it. And the reason why we saw so much growth last year is because chiropractic should be a part of a routine and natural health care practice for people. We get one spine and it houses the most important organ in our body. This is central nervous system. That controls and coordinates the function of literally everything else. And we need to care for that and make sure that it's working optimally so that our bodies are able to tolerate these things because we've lived out of planet with critters viruses, bacteria for eons, and they're never going away. So we need to fortify ourselves to be able to cope with those things better. I love hearing that and so true, so true, more proactive with our, and I can speak not from experience. It's something I'm learning to do myself. It's always a learning process. We always learn, you know, you find out there's a better way you make changes and it's one little step at a time. It's, you know, that's how, that's how good change happens. Unfortunately, you know, it's like, I ate a salad for lunch today, like my one salad am I healthy yet? It's like, no, it's this repetition over time that it, and it, it's like putting health in the bank. You know, every positive choice you make for yourself is depositing into that health account, so to speak. Love it. I had to write that down. Health in the bank, everybody. So what do you think your next milestones are? What are your plans for growth if you, if you want to grow? Like, yeah, that's, you know, that's one thing I think about all the time. You know, it's easy to look at other, like my colleagues, it's easy to look at their practices and be like, well, I want what she's doing or I want what he's doing. And if it's one thing I've learned is that you need to figure out what's right for you. And, you know, that's one thing actually has been great about being in my local think tank group is that we get to talk about these thoughts and ideas and, you know, just have this team of people to help you figure out what's going to work out best. You know, there's days where I want to build an empire and there's days where I think, man, I'd make somebody a great worker be and I would want to go work for somebody else because, you know, I don't want to be the hiring and firing department in the IT department and all the departments. I want to just take care of people. But the truth is I love what I do and, you know, eventually, I think there's amazing space for collaboration. I had a really incredible meeting with a clinic in Fort Collins that takes care of a lot of folks with concussion and we've been seeing incredible results with those patients. And I think that when we can collaborate with other healthcare providers for the best outcomes of our patients, that's what it's all about to me. So yeah, maybe the future looks like opening a satellite clinic in another location, bringing on an associate doctor, training somebody to do what I do because there does need to be more of us. We have people that drive for 3, 4, 5 hours to come see us like we need to have more ability to care for a greater population of people that want what we do. So I don't know. I haven't figured that out yet, but going into year six, we're definitely hitting some big goals. We've grown thank goodness year after year. I had set a milestone where I wanted to see 100 patients a week by our five year anniversary COVID kind of put a little damper on that, but I don't want to jinx it, Deb, but this week's the week we've got on the schedule. So as long as everyone shows up and we're going to hit that goal this week. Oh, that's amazing. You'll have to let me know after the day. I will. For those of you who don't know, Jane has been one of our founding members for one of our builders chapters. I think it's been almost two years that she's been part of that. And she's been a big advocate for us and helping grow more members and finding more members that we can continue to help small business owners. I also read that Jane was recently featured on what was at CNBC for being named one of synchronies, 2020 pillars, project winners. Can you tell me a little bit more about that? Yeah. This was one of those things that came out of that strange COVID time. So we we accept care credit in the office, which is a health care credit card. A lot of creditors accepted, it's, you know, we also use it when we take our cats to the vet. And there's a lot of different different ways that you can use care credit, but an email came across my inbox and I think it was the second year they did this pillars project. I might be wrong about that. And I'm sorry if I am, but synchrony is the bank that backs the care credit card. And they were offering grants to small business owner $10,000 grant in the opportunity to do some really cool networking online this year, not in person. And so I think it was during one of the, you know, the slower days when we had just open back up after COVID and people were still dipping their toes in the water, getting comfortable, getting back out into the world. And I was like, you know what? What the heck? I'll just apply for this grant and submitted the application and then promptly forgot about it. And then, you know, six weeks later, I get an email that said, you've been selected as a finalist. I'm like, finalist than what? I don't remember doing anything. And it was for that and had a Zoom interview and a couple of other steps in the process. And I was flabbergasted that I was chosen for that. It was really cool experience. It was the gift that kept on giving. I got to do this really cool Zoom call with Magic Johnson, who was my childhood basketball hero. It was so cool to just learn from same thing, learn from other business owners, hear about their paths and their challenges and what they've done to, you know, turn the ship around when things seem to be going sideways. It was just really neat. And that led into a couple interviews and then that article being published on CNBC. So it was crazy. That's exciting. I know they said, because you bring bold new thinking to the table, a leader who is passionate about her community and I can attest to that too. This is true. I love where I live. I love being part of the community outside of what I do. I mean, what I do is, you know, it's not just a job. It's a passion for sure. But then there's all this other stuff outside what I do in the office. Like I wanted to use my business and my clinic to do other good things for the community. So tell me a little bit about that. What are you doing? Oh, we were just talking about this before we did record. I'm on the board of directors and the secretary of the board of Loveland Habitat for Humanity Habitat has had a special place in my heart since I was an AmeriCorps member in 2000, 21 years ago. And so I did a year of AmeriCorps service in Portland, Oregon with the Habitat for Humanity affiliate out there. And since then, I've always had a special place in my heart for Habitat. And through my networking when I was first starting my practice, I had met Ben Steely, who is an incredible human. He was kind of the outreach coordinator for Loveland Habitat. He's getting ready to retire, but became friendly with Ben, volunteered a few days on the job site, and then a board vacancy became available. And that was the rest of his history. So I love being involved with them. I put together and sponsor a women build team every year, which is so much fun. And yeah, that's just one way that I love to stay plugged in. I also sponsor and ride with the Fort Polly's, which is a women's mountain bike team. Or not mountain bike team. They're just a cycling team. I'm mountain biking is one of my loves. And I don't know. Just lots of fun ways to get out and active and involved. What keeps you sharp? In my sharp. I consider myself a lifelong learner, and I don't ever want to stop growing and learning and pushing myself to become not just the best practitioner, but the best human being I can be. I am I'm in the middle of a two and a half year diplomat program and chiropractic. A diplomat is kind of chiropractic way of getting credentialed in your area of focus or specialty. So I'm working on my diplomat in chiropractic, cranioservical junction procedures, say that five times fast. Really all those fancy words to say that I will become credentialed in the specialty of being an expert in that head and neck alignment. That's that's your lifeline. If that's not on straight, if that area is not leveled out and sitting properly, if that's misaligned, there will be trouble down the road. And you know, if I have one chance, it's going to be that 100% of the time with my patients and and we that's why we get the results that we do. So I'm working on a two and a half year postdoctoral degree program to do that. I just think that if you stop learning, you stop growing and I don't know. I had a mentor that said, once you're right, you start to rot. Dr. Sid Williams, and that's true. You know, you can't, do you ever get there? I don't think you ever get there, but you got to keep trying. So and that kind of leads me to the next question is like, what advice would you give business owners that are starting out or that are having challenges? Any tips that you could provide or any insight? Yeah, and there's, I think I see this as two sides of the same coin. I think on one side, you really do want to have a support system. And I say this with love, but you need a support system outside of your family. You know, you need people that understand what you're going through. And you need people that really have walked in those shoes as well to know the, I guess the burden that you're carrying on your back as a business owner. But then the other side of that coin is you also need to be true to yourself. And you need to find your own way and what works for you. And that's something I think now that I'm six years into this. I'm finally starting to figure out like I don't have to do it like everybody else is doing it. I can figure out my own way and and I can try something. And if it doesn't work, we stop doing that. We try something else. And I think it took me a long time to get comfortable with feeling like I can tinker and experiment. You know, I thought, okay, well, this is working. And I don't dare poke the beehive and disturb anything. Because what if I do that and everything just falls apart? But I think the longer you survive and thrive in business, the more you realize that, no, it's okay. You get to do this, how you want to do this. I created this so that I can create the life that I want. And it's okay to shift it and change it and grow with it. That's why we became our own business owners. That's true. So what would you say you're most proud of? Oh, goodness. I don't, I think I'm most proud of the community that we've created in my practice. And you know, there's hard days where I wake up in the morning. I'm like, that I want to, but when I get here and I get in the zone, I am really proud of what I created. And there's days, Deb, where I walk through my front door at the office. And I'm like, holy shit, I made this. Like, I did this. I built this and I started from nothing. And all of a sudden, it seems like with a lot of blood, sweat, and tears in the middle, that we have something that's really incredible. And I feel really proud of that. And mostly, I think I feel proud of the fact that I'm just kind of, I see myself as the facilitator for people to game back pieces of quality of life that they may have felt were gone forever. Yeah, that's, that's amazing. And something to actually what you're doing in the forest. Yeah, it's worth it. So I got to ask if you have any favorite books or quotes that you want to share. I, this only comes to mind because it's what I'm reading right now. Reading Nelson Mandela's autobiography, which is absolutely incredible. I was intimidated to pick it up for a long time because it's long. But he's an incredible storyteller, just the picture he paints of his childhood in South Africa. It's an amazing story of a truly amazing human being. So that's, that's what I'm working on right now. And then I guess business books, one of the best books I read was called Do the Work by Steven Pressfield. He wrote Legend of Bagger Vance. And I actually would recommend anything that he's written. He's also written an amazing book called the, let me see the, the War of Art. There's two. There's the Art of War and then there's, he's wrote the War of Art. And but Do the Work is really about identifying these areas where you feel resistance to your growth and using those points of resistance to guide your direction. Like you want to go in the direction of these points of resistance because that's how you're going to get better. So that's actually one of the best books I think I've read in the business world. And then I have to say, my family's quote growing up. And we have the family like button that we used to wear in our shirts that says normal is boring. That's the family tradition. Oh, love it. So one more question before we start to close this down. But what would you say your favorite hangout is, especially my living room. I don't know, I'm, it's funny. Like I'm not a natural extrovert at all. And so when I get through seeing patients at the end of the day, I am so content to just be at home, see my husband, pet the kiddies. But we do go out and about a lot. You know, for hanging out and socializing, I think the Odell patio is really awesome to just enjoy sunshine and the delicious beer. Now they have the winery. It was really good. We had our last cohort meeting for our think tank group there, which was nice. But then we're big outdoors people. My husband and I, you can always find us like on our mountain bikes or hiking, some trails, somewhere camping and red feather this weekend. Oh, red feathers, my favorite. So tell us how our listeners can reach you. We have an awesome website, www.precisionkyroco.com. And on there, you'll find pretty much anything you need to know about the practice. I am on social media, on Facebook and Instagram at Precisionkyroco. Those are the big ways they get a hold of us. So you can always call the office and say hi, four times. And what number is that 970-663-1617? It's awesome. Jane, it has been a pleasure and I appreciate your time and sitting in on the Sharks podcast. And hopefully I'll get to come visit you soon. I hope you do. It was great to virtually see you. And this was fun. Thank you for listening to today's episode of the Local Short podcast. This is Kurt Bear, founder of the Local Think Tank and host of the Local Experience podcast. If you or someone you know would be a great guest for our show, or if you'd like to know more about our small business owner, pure advisory chapters at Local Think Tank, please visit our website at localthinktank.com or email us at connect at localthinktank.com. That's LOCOthinktank.com. If you've enjoyed this series, don't forget to subscribe. We love great reviews and Apple podcasts for wherever you're listening. And until next time, stay local.