007: How Stress Affects the Body + Your Business with Krysti Wick

Kate Kordsmeier 0:00

Welcome back to the Success with Soul podcast. I'm your host Kate Kordsmeier. And this is episode number seven. I know I say this every episode but I am so excited to share with you today's episode, I've brought on my friend Dr. Krysti Wick. She is a family chiropractor at a high volume practice in small town, Wisconsin. She's also a thought leader and coach for one of the largest chiropractic training companies. She's the CEO of her own online business and group coaching program. In addition to her chiropractic practice, she has grown over 500% in the past six years, and she shares her story through speaking and mentoring inspiring colleagues to find their strength within and build the practice of their dreams. And she is coming on today to talk all about how chiropractic work she's going to break it down for us because I know that a lot of people still are like Wait, what is she? You're getting your back cracked and what's happening, right? So she's gonna break it down and talk about how improving your body's ability to adapt to stress will make you a better leader, a better entrepreneur, and honestly, just a better human. So we're going to talk about the three types of stress our bodies experience, how you can minimize and manage each. And then we're going to go into more of the business side of things. So the pros and cons of a brick and mortar business versus online. We have some hiring stuff that we're going to get into. It's a great episode, and I can't wait to share it with you. You're listening to the Success with Soul podcast with Kate Kordsmeier x journalists turned CEO of a multi six figure blog and online business. But it wasn't that long ago that Kate was a struggling entrepreneur who lacked confidence, clarity, and let's be honest money, but all those failures, experiments and lessons learned how Kate create a thriving business that impacts thousands and brings freedom, flexibility and fulfillment to her life. If you're ready to do the same and make something happen with holistic, soulful, step by step strategies from Kate and other experts, you're in the right place. here's your host, writer, educator, Mom, recovering perfectionist, bookworm and sushi connoisseur, Kate Kordsmeier. Krysti, welcome to the show. I'm so glad to have you.

Krysti Wick 2:30

So excited to be here. Thanks so much for having me.

Kate Kordsmeier 2:33

Yes. Well, you and I met for the first time officially, back in February. We are in a mastermind together. And we have so much in common. I feel like once we got to know each other, it's like, oh, we're soul sisters on so many different levels. So I'm glad to have you here with us.

Krysti Wick 2:53

Yeah, I so agree. I love the natural approach that you have to life and I'm so excited to chat about that today. So

Kate Kordsmeier 2:59

yeah. Okay, so I want people to get to know you a little bit better first. So you know, you're a CEO, you're a family chiropractor. You've got a high volume practice and Wisconsin, and you've got a coach for one of the largest chiropractic training companies. So, how'd you get here?

Krysti Wick 3:18

Yeah, I mean, this is always the question where you're like, how far back do you go? Right? Like, what do you like? So I got into chiropractic specifically, actually, when I was very young, so I had a pretty crazy back injury when I was 12. So I came into chiropractic from a more pain based perspective. But then as I was receiving care when I was young, I really just my eyes were open to this fantastic inside out approach to health and how we really have so many things already inside us that are designed to heal and it's just a matter of chiropractic helping to remove the interference to healing and I just fell in love with that philosophy in that thought process. had always wanted to be a pediatrician, actually. And so seeing the kids in, you know, my chiropractor's practice when I was growing up and seeing the fact that she could make her own hours and do her own thing, it was so palatable to me that I would be able to naturally help families and kids, but also have such an amazing quality of life. So I decided pretty early on that I wanted to be a chiropractor, and I started my own practice fresh out of school. I graduated when I was a wee little tot I was actually 22 years old when I graduated with my daughter. Yeah, it was a little It was a wild time. So I started my practice when I was 23, which you can imagine the comments from, from

literally, all the time, they'd come in and be like, are you old enough to be my doctor?

So yeah, I started fresh out of school, which, you know, was a really interesting book.

Kate Kordsmeier 5:00

And you went right into your own practice? Yeah,

Krysti Wick 5:03

yeah. Which is, is not necessarily usual, and especially when you're that young, so it just helped me grow for sure. And then, honestly, throughout that journey of figuring out the business side of things, and what I was just every year things, you know, presented themselves that helped me continue to move the practice forward. And then when I had my first child, about five years into practice, I really got clear on so many things with my message and how to reach more families in my area, mainly because I was able to experience kind of a chiropractic Miracle on my, in my own family. So my son, I had a really difficult birth with him. I had a lot of health challenges. I ended up with an emergency c section after being induced on a Tuesday, and my emergency c section was on a Friday. So my God,

I'm gonna spare you right now the full details.

Kate Kordsmeier 5:58

I'm 36 weeks pregnant at the time of this recording and like don't

tell me stories like this

Krysti Wick 6:03

No I'm not here to tell the tale

I live to tell the tale My son is amazing but he had some some health challenges early on he's in the nick you and I checked and adjusted him you know every few hours when he was in the nick you myself mainly because, you know, it's just it was something I was really called to do. Like I obviously could have called someone else but I, I just wasn't close enough with another chiropractor, A and B. I just felt like it was the right thing for me to do it by my own hand. And so really, he was supposed to potentially be in the nephew for 16 weeks and he laughed when he was five days old. Completely, like amazing turnout. All the Nikki nurses were like we've never seen anything like this. And so after that experience as a fresh mom, it was such a spark for me to just really put down a lot of my own little limiting beliefs when it came to growing the practice and sharing the message. And you know, chiropractic is not necessarily not a mainstream thought process. Most people don't understand what we do. They don't think it's important for your health. And so I had a lot of challenges, sharing the message as often as I would have liked to, but that's really what you know, kind of spurred my practice into what it is today where I have multiple other doctors that work for me. As you mentioned, we have a high volume practice that we see you know, hundreds and hundreds of families every week and it's just it's like my, it's my first baby like my practices. My, my very first baby and really that situation with my son is what sparked so much growth. But then, about four years after he was born, I started coaching other chiropractors in a specific company in chiropractic. And then a little over a year ago, I started my own coaching company for women in chiropractic, just to help them put down some of those same limiting limiting beliefs and be able to share the message so

Kate Kordsmeier 7:55

your coaching program is more to help other chiropractors start Their own practice or run their practice, or

Krysti Wick 8:02

it's mainly not for startup. So it's mainly for women that have already been in practice for two to three years. And it's mainly personal and professional development. So how do we make sure that any of your own hesitations about your skills in running a business or, you know, delivering amazing results? As a chiropractor, how do we make sure that we get you through those, and remembering all these skills and amazing aptitude that you have, so that you can grow your practice. And then on the flip side of that, we receive literally one class in graduate school on how to run a business and it is a three month class and that is all so most of us have no more than that. Most, yeah, how to run a business. And so in the last 13 years of being in practice myself, I just share all the things you know, systems and growth and all the things to make sure that they feel supported to optimize their business because running Practice is business you can be a fantastic Yeah. And a terrible business person and you're not going to be successful. I love that so much. I have

Kate Kordsmeier 9:07

so many questions for you right now. I think I want to take it first is to talk just a little bit more about chiropractic care because like you said, I think it's still obviously every year I'm sure it gets a little more mainstream, but it's far from it and I know personally, I came into chiropractic care as a patient obviously, after I had a minor car accident but I had bad whiplash from a fender bender basically and couldn't like move my head from side to side and had really bad shoulder pain. My ribs kept popping out and yada yada So anyway, I went to this chiropractor who specialized in like car accident injury chiropractic, but actually I really enjoyed it, even though I went in kind of being like, this is like, I felt like it was one of those things like the little that you see on the side of a bus or something that's like personal injury attorney, you know, but I was really moved by it and it worked right. So then I felt so much better so quickly. I couldn't believe it. And so then I started trying to find a chiropractor that was more in line with my own personal ethos. And I really, then got super into it when I was pregnant with my first child and was so amazed by how much there were just different things. I had inner costal neuralgia, which, for anybody who's listening and doesn't know is like, nerve pain in your ribs, and it was unbearable when I was pregnant with my first and they use this tuning fork at my chiropractor and it was gone like in a matter of days, I couldn't believe it and so I have been totally turned on to it. But then my family like my parents, and Particular. And of course, you know, they're an older generation. And this is a very new thing. And it's very woowoo to them, even though I'm like, this is medicine.

But my dad is always like, well,

I just don't understand it. You know, I don't. And I, one of the things I always say is, do you understand how like Tylenol works? And he's, you know, no, I got Will you trust that? Why do you have to understand something in order to, like, see that? Well, it works. I mean, there's a lot of things like I don't understand acupuncture, but it works like gangbusters. And so I just got, well, if it's working, I'm not gonna question it, and I don't need to understand it. So anyway, that was a very long winded way of asking you, how do you approach skeptics about chiropractic? And as a chiropractor, you can obviously answer with much more knowledge on like, this is what we're actually doing. This is how it works.

Krysti Wick 11:54

But I love the analogy I literally just wrote down your Tylenol analogy. I'm like, I'm gonna use so Good and it's true. I mean, this is the number one thing that we hear over and over in, you know, in our practices because people just, they have a preconceived notion about what we do, which is similar to your experience. Okay, so like most people, when they think about chiropractic, they think about back pain, neck pain, headaches, and they think, you know, there's a bone out of place in your spine, and a chiropractor just you and puts the bone back in place. There's a small amount of truth to that. But really, most people are so connected to the fact that we're bone doctors, but we are actually nerve doctors. So literally use the spine because the spine is the protective mechanism for your nervous system. And so for those of you that have never heard, you know, the term nervous system, it's your brain, your spinal cord, and then all of the nerves that exit your spinal cord are literally the information superhighway for the brain. To talk to every single organ, tissue and gland in the body. So that nervous system is how your brain communicates healing. So like if you cut your hand, you obviously don't have to like mentally tell your hand to heal, right you have a paper cut, your nervous system is going to take messages from the brain, it's going to coordinate the healing response so that your hand heals. But what happens over time is stress can build up in your system. So obviously, we're all faced with stressors every single day. Physical stressors, chemical stressors, emotional stressors, like the stress all around us and your nerves are responsible for perceiving that stress. And so those nerves can become less adequate with communication because of that stress. And so as chiropractors we are trained to find the areas of the spine, you know, in conjunction with the nerves that accent there. Where that communication has created a problem, it's basically, you know, jams like the communication isn't working appropriately. And so it's our job to find that spot, and to be able to improve the nerve function in that area, by you know, stimulating motion. And when we give an adjustment, there's a whole cascade of effects that happens in your body. But the end result is that we're removing the interference from the communication to that area so that the brain can talk to every place in the body at its highest level. Because that's essentially what creates the maximum amount of health in your body is if your brain has uninterrupted communication, to navigate that healing. So, like my when I taught my son who's now almost eight, like what I taught him when he was four, like what an adjustment does, I just taught him like an adjustment helps your brain talk to your body, so you can heal. And that's like that's all you need to know is it just helps your brain talk to your So that your healing potential is working.

Kate Kordsmeier 15:03

Yeah. And I should. I love that explanation. And I should have mentioned too that in between this car accident and my pregnancy with my first son, I was seeing a chiropractor all that time for general wellness and like preventative measures, and then even things that you would not necessarily think like you think, Oh, I go get my bat cracked and it helps with my digestion. But there's all these things like hormone balance and digestion, and I have hypothyroidism and it was really powerful for that. And one thing that came up to after my son Jackson was born his way around the time that he was a year old. He started getting ear infections, and he had never had them throughout his first year of life. And then he had three or four and like a six week period and we could not get them under control and it was awful. He was so miserable, none of us were sleeping and I had stopped going to the car. Proctor because my chiropractor had moved and I hadn't found a new one yet. And so I was talking to a friend about it. She's like, you know, when my son was having ear infections, we started going to the chiropractor and they immediately went away. And so I thought, well get hurt. You know, I've tried everything else at this point. And we went and he has not had a single ear infection since we started going to the chiropractor. And I 100% attributed to going this is the only thing that we changed. And you wouldn't like you wouldn't think infection, chiropractic. Well, normal people went and I'm sure you think exactly exactly where your brain goes. But so

Krysti Wick 16:40

how does that work? Yeah, that's it. And this is one of the easiest explanations and when we talk to parents about this, they literally have like one of those moments like, Oh my gosh, like why doesn't everyone know about this? So yeah, there's a tiny muscle that controls opening and closing of the station to that tiny muscle obviously is served by nerves. And it, those nerves tell it when to contract and when to relax. And there's certain physical stressors that happen when a baby or toddler is developing. So like one of them is birth, like birth is very stressful to a baby. And then a toddler you can imagine, like think about how many times they fall down, all you know, and they're going through all these developmental changes. So if the nerves that serve that muscle become stressed, then those nerves will fire all the time and then that little muscle that controls the opening and closing of Eustachian tube starts to spasm or clamp down. And so essentially the fluid just continues to build up in the ears in an abnormal way because it's not draining properly. And if you have fluid welled up in the ears, obviously, it's you know, recipe for ear infections. So essentially we can look at the area where those nerves are serving, you know, that year and that muscle And all of that, and we can determine if that's a problem. And then by essentially doing an adjustment, stimulating that nerve, we can make sure that there's ease with that drainage. And then, you know, your infections can resolve. But it's so important to note, like when we talk about this stuff, people are always like, Oh, you know, I can't believe a chiropractor would claim to treat your infections. And here's the thing, like, we don't treat your infections, we don't treat any of the other things that you talked about digestion, all that we just remove the interference with those nerves, and then whatever the body is capable of that happens. So in this case, you know, he was capable of starting to drain his ears and he was capable of dealing with either the viral or bacterial issue that was going on because of that fluid. And so chiropractic just removed the interference from his ability to do that. So yeah, so interesting. And yeah, I know if my mom listens to this episode, she's gonna be like, I can't believe you said this on air. But it was fun. Because when he started getting ear infections and then I went to the chiropractor they asked me has he had any kind of like trauma or stress or anything to his body. And the day before he got his two days before he got his first ear infection, he had an accident at my mom's house, where he long story short, he fell out of a stroller and hit his head. And it was just like all these aha moments when I was talking to her of like, yes, and that's why he started it at a year because a year is kind of late for kids just start getting ear infections. Usually, if they're going to be, you know, the kind of kids that need tubes or have you know, chronic ear infections. It starts a little earlier and it just was like oh my gosh, yes, he had this like, it was a very minor had trauma. You know, he didn't even have a concussion or anything but it puts something out of alignment it Did you know, something to them. And then these earrings infection started, we got him back into alignment. We got every you know, his his nervous system and his brain communicating everything correctly. And then like you said, his body could take over from there. And yeah, it was a miracle. So thank you for doing the explanation on that. While we're on the topic of just how chiropractic care can help overall wellness, let's talk a little bit about like entrepreneurs and people especially in I was gonna say in the online space, but not necessarily people who sit at desks a lot. Because I know that personally, I've had a lot of issues of pain and suffering from sitting at a desk all day. So how can chiropractic care help those of us who are stuck at a desk most of the day, sir, so I mean, obviously, desk posture when I alluded to this super quickly before, but as chiropractors we look at the three different types of stress. So when people think about the word stress, most Most of us immediately go to emotional stress, mental stress, like that's how we define stress. But we forget physical stress, which is what you're describing hate, obviously, you know, we weren't designed to sit at a desk, we weren't designed to, you know, be in a certain posture, sedentary posture for a long period of time without changes. Most of us don't have very ergonomic setup. So like, especially everyone listening to this episode right now, like if you are all of a sudden, at home working on your laptop versus you know, normal life, you have to ask yourself, how you're going to set up, you know, your posture for a more long lasting, less stressful approach. But essentially, you know, sitting at a desk is just a physical stressor that can decrease how well everything is moving, and therefore how well those nerves are communicating. So it's a pretty simple, straightforward thing. But especially with entrepreneurs, one of the biggest things that I talked about, is that mental stress component. So I mean, as I'm training We're always going I mean, I get it, I am one, right. So we always have a million things in our brain. So many people that count on us so many ways that we are required to show up. And so all of that mental stress is perceived by your nervous system. So it's one of those like chiropractic is, in my opinion, the best hack at helping you adapt to stress like that's what we do is we essentially increase your body's ability to adapt to stress. And if you think about it, that way every entrepreneur should be like raising their hand and being like, heck yeah, I have the physical stress of sitting at my laptop, but I also have the mental emotional stress of, you know, all these things that I am required to do and I you know, I need to come up with new ideas and I need to come up with content so that all these people are, you know, clients or, or followers or whatever it is that are counting on me to be my bass, and that stress takes a toll and you We talked all about, you know, the difference between essentially fight and flight, and what we call rest and digest, which is a whole nother thing. I don't know if we have time to go down that path. But essentially, I just want you to think about if you're an entrepreneur, do you feel like you've been stuck in fight or flight for a long time, like has your nervous system just been locked on. And if that's the case, chiropractic is one of the best places to start with calming your nervous system and allowing your body to get out of that fight or flight stress response, because that's a normal response for acute stress. Like someone pulls out in front of you when you're driving that heart in your throat feeling that fight or flight that's normal to have for, you know, 60 seconds after someone pulls out in front of you. But what happens with the amount of stress we're under in today's society is that fight or flight response can just get locked on. And yeah, chiropractic can we can adjust you in a very specific way. Way to ensure that we're rebalancing your nervous system so that we're removing all of that fight or flight input, and allowing your body to get back to a more normal restful state so that you're not responding to every single stressor in an exacerbated way. Right? Like we I always, when I do like talks to moms, I'm like, hey, when your kid asks you for like the different flavor of applesauce and you lose your mind like that. That is an example that your body is in fight or flight. Like that amount of irritability is not normal. And I think especially for female entrepreneurs, we just have so many balls that were juggling, and you know, plates that were spinning that we just forget how stressed our body likely is. And so it's so important for that to be assessed on a regular basis and for you to have tools in place to manage that.

Kate Kordsmeier 24:53

That is so interesting, too, especially during this time. So we're recording this in April. All and, you know, everybody's like mid quarantine and home with their kids all the time. And it's such a stressful, chaotic, just uncertain time for so many of us. And so I have a border collie, and she is 1,000% energy all the time. And I was just telling my husband yesterday, I'm like when I'm not stressed, she doesn't bother me at all. Like, I know how to manage her. I can take her for walks, I do the things, whatever this week, anything she does, like she looks at me the wrong way. And I am just like, losing my shit.

And

now that you say that I'm like, Oh, it's because I'm in fight or flight mode right now. It's like it's making me so irritable and I haven't been able to go to the chiropractor and address it in the way that I normally would. And of course, there's other things you can do to help your central nervous system which I'd love to chat further with you about But that that was definitely an aha moment when the when you just set them. Oh my God, that's what I'm doing. That's why she's driving me crazy. She's not any better or worse than she ever has been. I'm just stressed.

Krysti Wick 26:13

Yeah, sure. Yeah, yeah, of course. Yeah.

Kate Kordsmeier 26:20

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So speaking of then chronic stress and having your central nervous system be in this fight or flight mode. I mean, you're a mom, you're a business owner. You've got a lot of balls in the air other than chiropractic. How do you balance it all and and manage your stress? Yeah.

Krysti Wick 28:18

I mean, I really look constantly at those stress inputs. So obviously, like, I'm constantly thinking about what could be physically stressful. So how can I alter my day with regards like taking breaks with my posture, moving my body, making sure that I'm altering where my body is in space as much as humanly possible is, you know, is a big one. And then chemical stresses. The other one we haven't talked a lot about, you know, obviously, especially right now, I wouldn't say that I'm the best at making sure I'm not eating chocolate and all those things. I mean, because let's be honest, life is a little. We need chocolate right now.

Kate Kordsmeier 28:55

Now is exactly the time for chocolate

Krysti Wick 28:57

limiting my family's chemical Press exposure. You know, it looks like I'm definitely not a mom that doesn't allow my kids to have a range of things because I think it's important if you're super restricted with kids that they're going to develop some, some really challenging mental beliefs around food as they grow up. But like, my kids are, you know, we've had their food sensitivities tested, and we know what creates more stress and inflammation in their body. And obviously, like, when possible, you know, they're eating organic, and they are fully gluten free. And that's mainly just because I want to limit the amount of chemical exposure that they have. Because I know that that creates, it creates a central nervous system response. So, you know, that's another one. And then obviously, from an emotional perspective, you know, there's so many other central nervous system healing things out there that can be done. I'll be honest, like chiropractic has been so good to me and my family over the years like I'm such a firm believer For that, if you have chiropractic employed, like, it's going to be so much easier for you to not feel like you have to do so many other things because we're literally going to the source of how the nerves work. But from a mental emotional stress perspective, I'm always like, I'm almost always under a therapist care, like, I am a huge believer in in talk therapy, and I think we all have emotional things that need to be addressed. So that's a big one. And then I do a lot of those types of like questions and discussions with my kids, even though they're a little, I'm always talking to them about like, what their emotions look like and what's what they're capable of emotionally. So that's another big one with our family is just being honest about how we're feeling and how we're processing those feelings. And I, you know, grew up in the Midwest in a family where like, you didn't talk about those things like you just stuck them down and you kept going, you just kept charging forward and so I would say sometime, become a mom. That's One of my biggest tools is just making sure that I make space and time to think about how I'm feeling and to talk to my family about how they're feeling and, and all the people close to me. So this is another thing that I do with my clients is just giving them permission to express those things like that alone, in my opinion, is healing to your central nervous system, like, yeah, being willing to discuss those things. And so it's just a matter of prioritizing those three different areas like what do you know that you can alter, to limit your physical stress and your chemical stress and emotional stress? And so like, an easy thing to do is just sit down and like brain dump? What are all the physical stressors in your life? Like, chemically, what are you exposed to? Obviously, food is a big one, but there's lots of environmental chemicals. So, you know, for women that are listening, what are you putting on your skin? You know, what are you using for feminine care? Like there's so many different things that we don't think about, but yeah, obviously Kate, this is right up your alley. You know, the blog and everything as well I know that's a huge part of what you teach people is just looking at everything. And it's so

Kate Kordsmeier 32:09

yeah, I mean it definitely I love that you take a very holistic approach because it's never just one thing. It's never just the food or just sitting at a desk all day or whatever. That is the whole picture and yeah, to just put a couple shameless plugs in for Rutan rebel, which is my wellness blog. We have tons of content about obviously food exposure and things you can do to limit your chemical exposure from what you're eating. But then also like Christie said, what you're putting on your body, everything from skincare, shampoo, deodorant, I mean, this applies to men, women, babies, everybody we all use. Honestly dozens of products a day your hand soap, your body wash, all of that stuff. We have clean recommendations over there. And even just in your home like we have a water filtration For our entire house so that we're limiting our chemical exposure, that way we have air purifiers in every room of our house, you know, and there's really cheap ways to do it too, like plants are amazing natural purifiers of air. So having a lot of house plants, and there's things that you can do, you know, depending on where what the state of the world is in, when this comes out, you know, you may not be able to get to a chiropractor or go to see a therapist or something at this moment. But there are things you can still be doing at home to help you manage all three of those different stressors. And one last thing I'll say is that one thing I've recently started doing that has been insanely helpful is tapping. Have you ever done tapping?

Krysti Wick 33:44

I haven't done tapping regularly. No, but I've seen it be super successful with patients and colleagues too. So yeah,

Kate Kordsmeier 33:51

yeah. I've been using this app called the tapping solution. They actually have a bunch of free tapping meditations available now. Because of the COVID stuff going on, and everybody's super stressed about it, and when I feel myself just getting that, like totally wound up, I'll go and do a free 10 minute tapping meditation and it is amazing, like how much calmer and just more like, Oh, I can take a deep breath again, you know that feeling when like in your chest where you just feel like a deep breath feels really hard right now. It's like that's when you need it the most. But yeah, thank you this, this is all been so helpful. Okay, let's switch gears a little bit. I want to talk about you've got this brick and mortar medical practice, but you also have this online coaching program. So tell us about the difference pros and cons between the two. Sure. What do you enjoy about brick and mortar versus online and vice versa?

Krysti Wick 34:50

Think about that a little less you agree? So brick and mortar. I mean, honestly, the the first thing that comes to mind is hard. How enjoyable it is is it Literally was something that I could physically see being built. Like, it's the the energy of the people coming in, and I can literally, you know, I'm adjusting them, I'm telling you, I'm having these conversations, that energy is just unparalleled. So you know, even like, during this time to be completely honest and vulnerable, seeing that change, and go into this retraction kind of a winter period, you know, that's been really painful for me and watching this big, beautiful thing that I made from nothing, seeing all that energy change. So I mean, that's one of the best things about brick and mortar In my opinion, as you just you can see and feel and touch all the things and the energy. That's really probably the best part about it. Yeah, very

Kate Kordsmeier 35:45

tangible. Yeah.

Krysti Wick 35:46

Hopefully. You're an introvert too, right, Krysti?

Kate Kordsmeier 35:50

Yeah. Well, I just was thinking that as you were saying, like, hundreds of patients a week like is that very draining to your personality? It actually is, so

Krysti Wick 36:00

When I when I used to see that many by myself, so before I had other doctors and you know, we obviously it's grown from there, it was it was really difficult. And so that was a big part of my own awakening and growing the business was just starting to learn about myself even more and understanding that, that amount of interaction as well as you know, empathy, and there's so many feelings involved, obviously, when you're a care provider. So I really got clear pretty early on in that growth phase that I needed to have other chiropractors to help share the load. And obviously, you physically as one person, you know, you feeling that, you know, unless you're going to work all the time, which, you know, I wasn't interested in, I had really surpassed my ceiling of how many adjustments I could provide every week. So yeah, that's definitely draining, but it's still like, I am an entrepreneur, like I'm such a creator at heart that seeing that energy, evolve and transform Unlike the good we can do in our local community because we have this big beautiful business. Like that's the amazing part of a brick and mortar. Now that I've been in the online space kind of in different capacities for a few years, I will say like the downfall to brick and mortar is profit margin, like my profit margin on the chiropractic practice side as compared to, you know, my online business side is like, you could not, we're comparing like apples to like, come like, we're like not, not anywhere near the realm of the same. So that's one one downfall, obviously, just the amount of energy that it takes to keep all of those pieces of a brick and mortar going, in my opinion is a lot more. I mean, I obviously have to have a bigger team. There's so much that goes into having a physical space that you're proud of. I mean, right now I'm renovating a 5300 square foot office building and as much as I love design like it's making Favorite thing. It's like crazy dirt you can imagine right now like on top of everything else, it's like, if I had one more meeting about, like, the paint colors and whatever I you know, as much as I love that it's it's there's a lot that goes into keeping many little decisions, keeping your physical brand aligned and consistently adapting and growing to like, what it needs to look like in order to be cutting out. Yeah, like, that's a lot. There's a lot of things. And I think if you have a brick and mortar and you're listening to this, that's one of the first pieces of advice I always give everyone is making sure that you're investing time into that. I mean, especially based on whoever your ideal demographic is, you know, my ideal demographic is someone exactly like me. And so I'm extremely scrutiny of like, everything in my brick and mortar like how does everything look? How does it feel? How does it smell, like what fonts are we using what cut like everything is so important, and so that does require a lot of energy. So I would say those are like the two main kind of positive negative to the brick and mortar side and the online side. You know, the positive obviously, like, if I didn't have a brick and mortar, and I only had my online business, like, we would definitely have a house in a warm place somewhere. So like, Johnson, we could go work from anywhere. You know, this summer, we have a cabin. And so I can only stay at our cabin for a certain amount of time because I have a brick and mortar. So you know, the online in my opinion, the biggest Pro is that freedom that you like, if you have a laptop, you can work anywhere. I think that is like the most amazing thing in the whole wide world. And then obviously, a very close second would be the profitability like it's just insane how much further I can run with the same type of effort and like small team and I can get so much more return on that investment in the online side. So those

Kate Kordsmeier 39:58

Yeah, sorry, I didn't For you, is it just the obvious of like, the overhead expenses are just nothing compared to having a brick and mortar? Or is there something else that? I don't even know what I don't know?

Krysti Wick 40:12

Yeah, I mean, I think that's a big one is the overhead but in my opinion, the like, as part of the overhead the team, I see this as a common mistake, actually, in the online world. I think maybe coming from brick and mortar, seeing, you know, I physically need to have someone greeting someone at the desk, I physically need to have a human person like performing the tests in our office and, you know, assisting the doctors, I physically need to have other doctors so it's, there's only like, your capacity to get things done in a brick and mortar, when you have to physically be there to do the things is much different. And so you have to grow the team in a in a certain way. Whereas I think a lot of people apply that societal thinking to the online world and they kind of Get all of the things you can do in the online world to maximize your ability to have limited team resources, like what can you automate? And how can you make sure that you are using your zone of genius, in my opinion, like to the max before you start bringing on all of these other contractors and, you know, assistance and whatnot. So, and this is just like how I approached it. But, you know, last year was my first year in online business. And we only started really like accepting people in like late March, April, so I didn't even have a full year in 2019. And, you know, we almost made 300,000 in that time, and I literally had, like, amazing, and I had one part time helper. That's it like that. Yeah, all I had. And I think it was just because I was so committed to maximizing my profitability and I didn't want to just like I see so many options. But like feeling like they need to hire an expert for everything right off the bat. And I also have this mindset where I love experts and I have hired like a hired someone, of course to do my website and I hire copywriters, and that kind of thing. But I think there's so many tasks that you can train an amazing like, local person from an online business perspective. And you can limit your how much you're spending. And you can get such a better like connection and return on that investment. When you don't feel like you have to go hire an expert in your first year business that's done X number of lunches or whatever. Figure it out, like you're capable of having having a really profitable start. And so that's just something that I've been really like, relentless about when I started within the first year is I want this to be insanely profitable. Because I don't want to build something that I feel like I have to answer to that make sense. Yeah, it's like yes, it's heavy. I know what it feels like to have this huge overhead because I have it in my Oh, I wanted to, I wanted to switch everything with the online model, so that I really, really felt free that like, like right now. I mean, I certainly have, you know, it sounds crazy when everything first happened. But like, I'm lineside my revenue is not down much at all. And because I keep so much of that revenue, it has allowed me to feel safe right now, which is so important.

Kate Kordsmeier 43:31

Right? And, you know, we had this episode, it's a bonus episode that you can go back and listen to with Shauna game, and it was about COVID. And responding to this. And one of the things we talked about was that people are like, well, something like this is unlikely to happen again in the near future. And I mean, a we don't know that. But Shauna gave us a lot of examples of other things that can happen that can stress your business and you know, when you look When we actually look back at even in just the last 20 years, different recessions and natural disasters and things that have happened, where, yeah, having a physical space can be really difficult to weather those storms, whereas an online business can be a lot more resilient in that way not to say that online is better than brick and mortar, of course, we need both. But that's a good kind of distinction and something to think about. And it's kind of nice that you have both so that you get you know, you get some of each and hopefully it feels like the best of both worlds and not the opposite.

Krysti Wick 44:38

It definitely does. I can't imagine my life any other way than having both businesses for sure.

Kate Kordsmeier 44:45

So you plan to like your your five year plan is to keep both.

Krysti Wick 44:50

I mean, I think I've thought about this a ton mainly because of the freedom so obviously I could so my practice and I could just you know coach, other chiropractors But a big part of who I am is integrity and relatability. And I would never feel like I could, with full integrity coach other chiropractors to the best of my ability without being like, in it with them. I mean, I am right now all of my clients are getting the very best strategies because I am deciding with what's going on right now. Every single day, I have new decisions that I have to make in my practice. And so it would be difficult for me to share that with them if I wasn't actually in practice. And I think there's ways to scale your brick and mortar team to give you more freedom and you know, that's what I'm in the process of doing. So I don't anticipate closing my practice. I'm hoping that one of my kids wants to be a chiropractor so that they can just take it over and I don't ever have to you know worry about selling it But yeah, I mean there's there's definite challenges and having two large businesses that you I mean, I pretty much always feel like I'm being pulled in half but I'm The other hand, I don't think I would ever be able to scale the online side with my expertise if I didn't have that continuous growth experience of having the same experience that they do in their community in order.

Kate Kordsmeier 46:15

Yeah, I do think that is really important. It's something I've thought a lot about, too, with having a blog and then having this coaching program where I teach people how to make money blogging and feeling like I always need to have a blog if I'm going to be able to, in real time, keep up to date with what's happening in the blogging world. So I totally get that.

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Krysti Wick 50:15

know, right? No, I love that you're bringing this up because I'm pretty much in the exact same spot as you right now. You know, I'm in the process of hiring more help for the online side. And honestly, like, obviously, hiring an expert, you may get better results. Like that's, I think that needs to be sad. I think everyone in the online world maybe has gone to that model because they want to run so fast towards the results. And that's awesome. Like if you want to run fast, go for it. I want to run far. Like I want to make sure that my online business has just as much staying power as my brick and mortar. And even in my brick and mortar. I still feel like you The volume that we see have a very small but mighty team. I mean, we have three doctors and we have three assistants basically, they all have different, you know, roles and whatnot. So for the size of our business that's still very small. And I think because I've seen in both worlds, people go too far with it too fast. I am so much more about how can I be creative about my solution with hiring, so that I'm trying everything before I feel like I have to go dole out the like, you know, 10 x for the expert, you know, well, it means here's the thing, like I'm in the process of this right now. I told everyone I've only been doing this for years. So this I might fall completely on my face with this, this process, and that's okay. I think I just know myself well enough to know I need to learn in this way and I need to be able to maximize the human resources in my business. The best way possible before I feel like I need to go just spend a ton of money like I don't want to always just knee jerk reaction to like let's just spend a ton of money to fix this problem. But I will tell you that that has gotten me a little in trouble at times with my own work, right like i i overextend myself because of that. But I think in the online world, or any anywhere with regard to hiring, if you can get really some great skills around figuring out how people work, and how they tick, and like, what their natural abilities are, so I'm a huge like, Strengths Finder, nerd. So I use tools like strengthsfinder, and Colby, and all these things in order to understand how someone fundamentally works so that I know how I can fundamentally then train them to maximize their abilities in whatever Avenue i think is going to fit fast in my business. So I've done that really well on the bridge. mortar side, like I've always adapted, you know, my assistant roles as they grew within the company. And so that's what I'm looking to do in the online side first, and then I fully expect, you know, a year from now, two years from now, we might be at a different place in business where we need to have, you know, we need to go hire the professional launch expert, we need to go hire the professional copy, you know, that's might be something that we get to, but I'd much rather see how far we can get with this model first, before I just start throwing money around.

Kate Kordsmeier 53:35

Yeah. Well, I mean, I think it's good to acknowledge like, there's pros and cons to each and people have to figure out, you know, what they feel most comfortable with? What's your budget? I mean, maybe money is no issue. And so hiring the expert does just make the most sense. But yeah, I think for most people listening money is still an object. And so it's something that you know, we do have to consider, so we'll both have to report back like a year from now and see how how our strategies went with this with this model, because and I'll add to that I am a huge fan of, like you said, figuring out people's like innate natural abilities, making sure you have the right person in the right seat. And a lot of it is, you know, you can teach somebody skills, but you can't teach a personality type. You can't teach a work ethic and that kind of thing. So hiring more for the person and less for the skill set is something that I've heard a lot before too. But I, of course, I'm as a perfectionist, I'm like, Well, can I have both? Well, we look a lot too. And you mentioned Colby, and strengthsfinder. Those are awesome. And then we also look at personality tests like the enneagram or Myers Briggs, and try to find like the right fit both for our current team and the personality types that we already have, and when We feel like oh, we could really use somebody that has this because both my integrator and I are type three enneagram and we're just so similar in the people that I've been working with for a while that now are meeting her like oh my gosh, she's a mini you. And in some ways I'm like, Oh, it's great because like having a second me is, is great for the business. But in other ways I'm like, Well, I don't want just everybody on the team to be another me I I'm not perfect. I have things are like I've got gaps. I've got things that I don't know how to do or I'm not good at and so hiring people that fill those spaces, also being important,

Krysti Wick 55:38

like so important. I'm so ready. And obviously you can't use some of this when you're hiring because that's illegal. But write your job descriptions in a way to make sure that the those other types of people are attracted. Because I will say you know, having led a team for the last 13 years in brick and mortar, you hire people like you like you are Fundamentally drawn to people that are like you. And so, you know, like I said, I use strengthsfinder mainly and I have hired all relationship builder, quadrant people for years because you, you just are gravitating towards those people. So it's so important for you to figure out what, even if it feels uncomfortable. That's the point, right? Like, what are the things that you aren't good at? Like, I'm terrible with strategic thinking. And so I always have to really get out of my own head in order to find those resources because it just doesn't dry. So, yeah, so yeah.

Kate Kordsmeier 56:36

I love that. Well, before we wrap up, we have these five questions that we asked everybody on the show. They're quick, like, first thing that comes to your head, so don't overthink it. And we've kind of talked about some of these but we'll see if you have maybe a favorite that comes to the top so the first question is, what is your favorite way to make time for self care while running your own business? Oh,

Krysti Wick 56:58

like just watching So whether that's like a bath or reading or just getting into a place in my house where no one else is like my favorite self care is just quiet quiet with my thoughts kind of thing. Love it,

Kate Kordsmeier 57:13

love it. What is one tool or strategy that you use to help you with time management?

Krysti Wick 57:19

My full focus planner right now is kind of my main thing so it's the first planner I found that I just really use every day and I love so that's my number one.

Kate Kordsmeier 57:31

I love that. And what is the most powerful like business or mindset entrepreneurial book you've ever read? Just the one you go back to again and again. I

Krysti Wick 57:42

it's gonna become my favorite. I'm not fully through with it. Right now. I'm reading untamed by Glennon Doyle and it's like, it's like, every woman needs to read this book is amazing. It's amazing.

Kate Kordsmeier 57:56

I totally agree. I'm I'm about 70%. Through I think right now, have you gotten to the chapter about boys though? Yeah. Yeah, that one. I feel like I just wanted to highlight the entire chapter. I mean, probably because I have a son and you know, think about these things too. But obviously, we all have men in our life in some capacity. And that was like, that was a big thinker for me. Totally.

Krysti Wick 58:23

Yeah, I agree. I was just read it probably maybe a couple days ago, and I was like, I need to have my husband read this because, yeah, it's a mind blower. Agreed?

Kate Kordsmeier 58:33

For sure. Okay, do you have like a favorite quote or a mantra or an affirmation?

Krysti Wick 58:39

My I don't. It's not an A quote form. But I would say the the thing that I always go back to when I'm struggling is everything that I need I already have. And so that's true. I think in every everyone's world, how can you go inside to figure out an external problem, and that's allied with chiropractic philosophy. Choose only This is meaningful to me in so many ways. But I this has been my journey is just making sure that I don't feel like I always have to grasp that something new in order to fix, like, I don't even need to fix I have what I need. So, just, I love that that's so beautiful.

Kate Kordsmeier 59:18

And it's such like an abundant mindset to take to where you're not just living like with all these limiting beliefs of, Oh, I need this before I can do this. I don't you know, I love that. Okay, last question. What does Success with Soul mean to you? Oh,

Krysti Wick 59:37

actually, I would say just making sure that I'm staying true to my core values and what I truly believe is what I was put on this earth to do. So if I become successful, but it's not in line with my my passion and my purpose and my calling and my values, then what? Like what is that going to be in my life or I think it's just prioritizing who you know you've always been and continuing to find those parts of your your soul and your being as you are actively pursuing success and just combining those two worlds

as a regular thing

Kate Kordsmeier 1:00:17

love it thank you so much for being here Krysti where can people find

Krysti Wick 1:00:21

you? Um mostly instinct like Instagram is my favorite social platform so at Dr. Krysti My name is photo crazy my mom blessed me so it's try STI. And then you know my website is Dr. Krysti wix.com Awesome.

Kate Kordsmeier 1:00:38

Thank you again I loved having you. Thank you so much. Thanks for listening to the Success with Soul Podcast the place to be for holistic online business strategies and achieving more with less, as this show is a brand spanking new any and all support is greatly improved. Appreciate it. So if you haven't done so already, please subscribe on the apple podcast app, Google podcast, app, Spotify or wherever you listen. This makes it possible for me to continue to provide free helpful content and bring you amazing guests. You can also give us a rating and review with your honest feedback so we can improve and better serve you in the future. Plus, you could be featured on a future episode during our listener spotlights. Your reviews are super helpful and motivating to me personally. But beyond that reviews help with rankings, which helps others find the show and allows me to keep providing you with free content every single week. Share the podcast with your friends, family, coworkers, dogs, cats, neighbors, whoever. And don't forget to join the free Success with Soul Facebook community at successwithsoul.cos/Facebook. We have follow up conversations about the podcast episodes and I often go live to answer your burning questions. Plus, you'll get to hang out with like minded bloggers and heart centered online business owners exchanging priceless feedback, encouragement and other golden insight from the trenches. That's successwithsoul.co/Facebook. Until next time, remember to celebrate your progress, not perfection.