Starting a New Practice as a Chiropractor for Athletes

WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.519 Hi Everyone. Thank you for joining us for another episode of catch up with 2 00:00:04.639 --> 00:00:07.870 Cairo touch, our podcast series, where we talked about the state of the 3 00:00:07.870 --> 00:00:13.589 Chiropractic Profession, best practices and recommendations to manage and grow your practice and share 4 00:00:13.710 --> 00:00:17.670 expert advice with a variety of guest speakers. I'm one of your hosts, 5 00:00:17.710 --> 00:00:21.820 Dr Brian blest. I'm an account executive here with power touch, where I 6 00:00:21.899 --> 00:00:26.859 consult with chiropractors to determine which software solution is best for them. We have 7 00:00:26.980 --> 00:00:32.100 Dr Shay Start with us today talk about becoming a sports chiropractor and starting a 8 00:00:32.179 --> 00:00:37.329 brand new practice while working as an associate. Dr Stark just open her practice 9 00:00:37.329 --> 00:00:42.090 this month in Houston Texas. She used Chiro touch during her associate ship in 10 00:00:42.170 --> 00:00:46.049 Montana and has been gracious enough to take time out of her day to join 11 00:00:46.090 --> 00:00:49.689 us. Great to have you to day, Dr Stark. Great to be 12 00:00:49.850 --> 00:00:53.600 here. Thank you for inviting me. First of all, can you please 13 00:00:53.640 --> 00:00:57.880 tell the listeners a little bit about your new practice in your journey back to 14 00:00:58.039 --> 00:01:00.439 Houston, kind of how it all started for you? Yeah, absolutely so. 15 00:01:02.799 --> 00:01:08.230 My new practice is called Dark Chiropractic and sport and it's located on the 16 00:01:08.390 --> 00:01:12.510 north side of Houston, Texas. I, like you said, had done 17 00:01:12.549 --> 00:01:17.269 an associate ship in Bozeman, Montana, for about five and a half years 18 00:01:17.310 --> 00:01:22.780 right out of school and learned a ton of stuff. When I graduated, 19 00:01:22.900 --> 00:01:26.420 I had zero intention of ever starting a practice, to be honest with you, 20 00:01:27.579 --> 00:01:34.849 and it was my experience at my previous practice that I learned so much 21 00:01:36.650 --> 00:01:42.650 and really just got the confidence to move forward in my career and have a 22 00:01:42.730 --> 00:01:51.159 little bit more control of my career. I absolutely love all of my co 23 00:01:51.359 --> 00:01:53.599 workers and Montana and I wish them all the best and I'm still very good 24 00:01:53.640 --> 00:01:59.359 friends with all of them. I just kind of made the decision about six 25 00:01:59.480 --> 00:02:04.109 months ago that it was time to go home. I was born and raised 26 00:02:04.150 --> 00:02:08.389 in Houston and most of my family still lived here, so I just kind 27 00:02:08.389 --> 00:02:13.430 of made that decision. Like I've spent five and a half years in Montana 28 00:02:13.669 --> 00:02:19.620 and as beautiful as it is and as wonderful a city as Bozeman is and 29 00:02:20.620 --> 00:02:23.860 as wonderful as a practice as where I was at, it just didn't feel 30 00:02:23.860 --> 00:02:28.860 like home and so after weeks and weeks of just throwing it back and forth, 31 00:02:29.460 --> 00:02:31.530 I made the decision I'm just going to do it. If not now, 32 00:02:31.610 --> 00:02:37.169 then when? And so I kind of got the ball rolling back then 33 00:02:37.889 --> 00:02:43.210 and here I am. You know, that transitions to kind of a new 34 00:02:43.289 --> 00:02:45.360 chapter in your life of saying, okay, I'm going to so sick. 35 00:02:45.520 --> 00:02:46.960 That's what a lot of people do. Write a lot of chiropractors. They 36 00:02:47.000 --> 00:02:52.000 they start out this I need to learn. So they go and they associate 37 00:02:52.400 --> 00:02:55.960 and then they transition to either purchasing a practice, staying in associate or starting 38 00:02:57.039 --> 00:03:00.389 their own. So what has really been the biggest hurdle for you in opening 39 00:03:00.430 --> 00:03:05.509 up this new practice? In all honesty, the financial side of it. 40 00:03:06.030 --> 00:03:09.629 I take my hat off to anybody who starts a practice out of school. 41 00:03:10.110 --> 00:03:16.539 It is a huge financial commitment and I even underestimated it. Honestly, when 42 00:03:16.539 --> 00:03:20.139 I decided to open a practice. I was like, Oh, it'll be 43 00:03:20.180 --> 00:03:23.740 fine, I'll get a business loan, like all, just go and it'll 44 00:03:23.780 --> 00:03:30.770 be great. And then I started talking to banks and nobody wants to lend 45 00:03:30.770 --> 00:03:32.889 to a start up business. So then I had to get creative with it. 46 00:03:34.210 --> 00:03:37.490 But in all honesty, if I wasn't in such a good position in 47 00:03:37.610 --> 00:03:40.759 my associate ship, there's no way I could have done it, because financially. 48 00:03:42.000 --> 00:03:46.719 It's just a huge undertaking and there's a lot of stuff you don't know 49 00:03:47.120 --> 00:03:53.120 as an associate. You don't know the requirements of a business owner, and 50 00:03:53.280 --> 00:03:57.469 I gave myself six months to figure everything out. You know, I had 51 00:03:57.509 --> 00:04:01.789 told my employers back in January that I was going to go home and I 52 00:04:01.870 --> 00:04:06.349 was going to start a practice, and I use that six months to do 53 00:04:06.509 --> 00:04:13.699 every single step as much as I could before I got here, and thank 54 00:04:13.780 --> 00:04:17.420 God I did, because I needed every single one of those days to get 55 00:04:17.500 --> 00:04:21.459 things done. Things don't move as quickly as you think they would. And 56 00:04:21.620 --> 00:04:28.730 then, of course, covid hit and things slowed down patient wise in our 57 00:04:28.769 --> 00:04:31.009 practice for a little bit. So that gave me more time to focus on 58 00:04:31.529 --> 00:04:36.170 building my practice here, but then again it also caused delays because a lot 59 00:04:36.209 --> 00:04:42.160 of people weren't working. Things were slowed down as far as like Response Times. 60 00:04:43.000 --> 00:04:46.040 It was definitely a challenge, but I'm grateful that I did it the 61 00:04:46.079 --> 00:04:50.759 way that I did it and gave myself enough time to get things done and 62 00:04:51.120 --> 00:04:57.029 understand the little thing that I never had to worry about before. Can you 63 00:04:57.110 --> 00:05:00.990 elaborate a little bit more on, you know, what those little you know 64 00:05:00.029 --> 00:05:03.910 the nuances. They're a little bit more detail as to the extra information that 65 00:05:03.949 --> 00:05:08.860 they need to know. So I filed an LLC for my office and it 66 00:05:09.019 --> 00:05:13.139 then turned into a professional LLC, so a PLC because I, you know, 67 00:05:13.220 --> 00:05:16.939 hold a professional license. But that took several weeks to go through that 68 00:05:17.060 --> 00:05:23.689 entire process get it filed in the state of Texas and get all the paperwork 69 00:05:23.850 --> 00:05:27.370 approved and filed and everything. So that was a few weeks and then it 70 00:05:27.490 --> 00:05:30.649 came to the point where I needed to find a place to have an office. 71 00:05:31.050 --> 00:05:38.399 Now, luckily, I came to Houston back in March to work with 72 00:05:38.600 --> 00:05:42.920 the Houston livestock show and Rodeo as a sports medicine provided her and so I 73 00:05:43.160 --> 00:05:46.879 was here for about a week and I was able to meet with a real 74 00:05:46.040 --> 00:05:50.069 turn and look at different spaces and see what was available in different parts of 75 00:05:50.189 --> 00:05:56.110 town and costwise. So that was a huge thing. But finding a place 76 00:05:56.230 --> 00:06:00.750 to hold my office was a large undertaking as well. It's not as easy 77 00:06:00.790 --> 00:06:02.790 as you think it would be. And then once I had a place, 78 00:06:02.990 --> 00:06:08.699 then it was every little thing that goes into having a business right. So 79 00:06:08.779 --> 00:06:12.220 then it comes down to who is your phone and Internet provider going to be? 80 00:06:12.899 --> 00:06:16.500 Who's going to be your electronic health records provider? Who's going to process 81 00:06:16.579 --> 00:06:23.610 your payments, all of those types of things. What is required for different 82 00:06:23.649 --> 00:06:27.290 systems? You know, can I do everything on Wi fi? Do I 83 00:06:27.529 --> 00:06:30.410 need static IP addresses? Things I'd never heard of in my life. I'm 84 00:06:30.449 --> 00:06:34.600 like, I have no idea. You need to buy equipment. And coming 85 00:06:34.720 --> 00:06:40.120 from a large practice like I did, we had everything. We had so 86 00:06:40.240 --> 00:06:43.920 many different state of the art technologies that we were able to use to help 87 00:06:43.959 --> 00:06:46.160 treat our patients. And then so it was like, okay, well, 88 00:06:46.199 --> 00:06:49.550 now I have to dial back everything I've been doing for five years and start 89 00:06:49.589 --> 00:06:51.949 from the beginning. So then it's like I had to think about it. 90 00:06:53.389 --> 00:06:58.790 What modalities do I want to offer in my practice? What soft tissue techniques 91 00:06:58.910 --> 00:07:01.740 do I want to offer? What taping techniques do I want to offer? 92 00:07:01.819 --> 00:07:04.699 And then it comes down to what do I need to do each of those 93 00:07:04.740 --> 00:07:08.540 things right? So then, as I why, I need to buy an 94 00:07:08.579 --> 00:07:11.420 instrument and I need to buy tape and I need to buy all of these 95 00:07:11.459 --> 00:07:15.420 other things to get things going. And then it's like okay, well, 96 00:07:15.459 --> 00:07:17.970 now I need to figure out how to buy office furniture and what I want. 97 00:07:18.370 --> 00:07:21.769 Is it going to fit in my face? What kind of insurance do 98 00:07:21.930 --> 00:07:29.089 I need, not just chiropractic side, but liability insurance for my practice? 99 00:07:29.769 --> 00:07:34.480 Do I need to worry about hiring a janitorial service or do I want to 100 00:07:34.560 --> 00:07:40.439 offer rehab? What Rehab tools do I need? There are so many things 101 00:07:40.879 --> 00:07:45.230 that I never had to consider before because someone else was doing it for me. 102 00:07:46.069 --> 00:07:47.949 Having you just gone through this, what do you say to somebody that 103 00:07:47.990 --> 00:07:53.110 might be looking to do the same thing? Two pieces of advice. Number 104 00:07:53.189 --> 00:07:59.220 one, give yourself plenty of time. Like for me, six months seemed 105 00:07:59.339 --> 00:08:03.379 like a long time, but when I look back at it, I don't 106 00:08:03.420 --> 00:08:07.259 think it was long enough. If I would have maybe started planning a year 107 00:08:07.300 --> 00:08:11.300 ago, I would have been in a much better place mentally and I wouldn't 108 00:08:11.339 --> 00:08:16.490 have had to rush to get things going. And then the second piece of 109 00:08:16.529 --> 00:08:22.290 advice is be prepared financially. Banks and financial institutions do not want to lend 110 00:08:22.769 --> 00:08:28.040 to a brand new business. So for me, I went from a practice 111 00:08:28.079 --> 00:08:31.960 of seven chiropractors and multiple locations to wanting to do it as all me. 112 00:08:33.519 --> 00:08:37.240 I do front desk, I do billing, I do chiropractic. I do 113 00:08:37.440 --> 00:08:41.360 everything. So I went from very big too very small, and I wasn't 114 00:08:41.399 --> 00:08:45.509 asking for a lot of money, but it's still difficult to find. So 115 00:08:46.309 --> 00:08:50.029 plan ahead. Starting your own practice is not a spur of the moment decision 116 00:08:50.909 --> 00:08:56.700 right, it's not a spontaneous decision like this is something that I would highly 117 00:08:56.899 --> 00:09:01.299 recommend, like start saving years ahead of time, have a nest egg so 118 00:09:01.379 --> 00:09:05.500 you don't necessarily have to borrow money from people, because that's very difficult. 119 00:09:05.860 --> 00:09:11.970 And, if not, figure out before you start to commit to things, 120 00:09:11.370 --> 00:09:15.730 how you're going to get that money. How did you become you know that 121 00:09:15.850 --> 00:09:18.169 idea of I want to build a sports practice. Have you always been interested 122 00:09:18.169 --> 00:09:22.009 in treating athletes? Have you been an athlete? Yeah, so I was 123 00:09:22.129 --> 00:09:28.360 a volleyball player and I played High School, Club, junior college and then 124 00:09:28.559 --> 00:09:33.440 Division One. So I played twenty years and when I started to get really 125 00:09:33.600 --> 00:09:39.549 competitive, I started noticing at least every season I had some sort of major 126 00:09:39.750 --> 00:09:46.350 injury where I missed playing time. But never once, not in high school, 127 00:09:46.669 --> 00:09:50.470 not with my my club program, not at my junior college and not 128 00:09:50.590 --> 00:09:54.580 at a division one level. Had I ever heard of Chiropractic? I didn't 129 00:09:54.580 --> 00:10:00.700 know what Chiropractic was until I had graduated Undergrad. Like I had no idea, 130 00:10:01.340 --> 00:10:05.779 but I was really passionate about athletics. I was really passionate about sports 131 00:10:05.860 --> 00:10:09.970 medicine. My ultimate goal was to make sure that nobody went through the same 132 00:10:09.529 --> 00:10:13.610 experience that I did when it came to injuries. So I knew I always 133 00:10:13.610 --> 00:10:18.370 wanted to be involved in sports medicine. When I went to Undergrad, I 134 00:10:18.570 --> 00:10:22.399 had the goal of going to medical school. That was my past and then 135 00:10:24.159 --> 00:10:28.159 I wanted to take a year off after Undergrad because I was burnt out from 136 00:10:28.159 --> 00:10:31.279 being a student athlete and, you know, going through all those years of 137 00:10:31.320 --> 00:10:35.320 school. So I wanted to be your off. Well, at the time 138 00:10:35.360 --> 00:10:37.350 I didn't realize it took an entire year to apply to medical school. So 139 00:10:37.549 --> 00:10:43.350 one year turned into two years. And then as I got closer to preparing 140 00:10:43.429 --> 00:10:45.830 and I took my mcats and all that kind of stuff, I was like, 141 00:10:45.950 --> 00:10:48.350 you know what, this is really not what I want to do, 142 00:10:48.029 --> 00:10:52.419 because by that time I had had a shoulder surgery and I had had two 143 00:10:52.460 --> 00:10:56.139 knee surgeries and I was like, okay, if I go to medical school, 144 00:10:56.820 --> 00:11:01.539 what can I do with sports medicine. I can be an orthopedic surgeon 145 00:11:01.539 --> 00:11:05.690 or I can just be an orthopedic specialist at the sports injuries, but it's 146 00:11:05.730 --> 00:11:09.570 like neither one of those really ignited a fire in me, and so then 147 00:11:09.610 --> 00:11:16.889 I started looking at other options and a family friend of one of my friends 148 00:11:16.129 --> 00:11:20.840 was a chiropractor and I met her at a party and I was talking to 149 00:11:20.000 --> 00:11:24.480 her and she explained to me what Chiropractic was and then encouraged me to look 150 00:11:24.519 --> 00:11:28.120 into it. And so I did a little bit of research and I'm like, 151 00:11:28.200 --> 00:11:31.320 Oh, okay, there are different specialties in Chiropractic, like this is 152 00:11:31.399 --> 00:11:33.870 interesting. I was also looking at physicians assistant at the time. So I 153 00:11:33.909 --> 00:11:37.190 was like, well, if I can be a pea to an orthopedic surgeon, 154 00:11:37.350 --> 00:11:41.309 like I kind of could potentially have the best of both worlds. So 155 00:11:41.669 --> 00:11:46.379 when I got back calm, I contacted a pea and I contacted a chiropractor. 156 00:11:46.700 --> 00:11:50.100 Well, the PA never called me back at the Chiropractor, did I 157 00:11:50.259 --> 00:11:52.940 know? It's serendipitous. Every time I look back on it I'm life, 158 00:11:52.980 --> 00:11:58.179 wow, everything happens for a reason. So I went and shattered him and 159 00:11:58.259 --> 00:12:01.769 he was a fourth chiropractor and after the first day I was hooked. I 160 00:12:01.850 --> 00:12:07.289 said this is exactly what I want to do. I watched him do extra 161 00:12:07.409 --> 00:12:11.809 spinal adjustments, I watched him do obviously regular spinal adjustments, I watched new 162 00:12:11.889 --> 00:12:16.720 top tissue work, I watched him do different rehab techniques and things like that 163 00:12:16.879 --> 00:12:20.080 and I said this is amazing, this is exactly what I've been looking for. 164 00:12:20.799 --> 00:12:26.080 After that day, I went and started researching chiropractic school I was living 165 00:12:26.080 --> 00:12:28.799 in North Carolina at the time and so I was thinking. I'm like, 166 00:12:28.879 --> 00:12:31.870 okay, well, there's not a school in North Carolina. I had gone 167 00:12:31.909 --> 00:12:33.750 to high school in Arizona and I was like, well, there's not one 168 00:12:33.750 --> 00:12:39.269 in Arizona either. And then I stumbled upon Texas Chiropractic College, which is 169 00:12:39.309 --> 00:12:43.669 in outside of Houston, and I said done. I didn't even look at 170 00:12:43.710 --> 00:12:48.539 any other school and I applied to Texas chiropractic college and I got accepted and 171 00:12:48.379 --> 00:12:54.700 I moved back to Houston. About a month after I had moved back, 172 00:12:54.179 --> 00:12:58.610 I was playing a pickup game of volleyball tour. My acl on the other 173 00:12:58.649 --> 00:13:03.889 side ended up having three knee surgeries within three hundred sixty four days. So 174 00:13:03.009 --> 00:13:07.049 I had to defer chiropractic school for a couple of years, but I got 175 00:13:07.210 --> 00:13:13.480 to know a chiropractor here in Houston. He did my rehab from my acl 176 00:13:13.559 --> 00:13:18.600 reconstruction and my other two surgeries, and so I really continued with that passion 177 00:13:18.679 --> 00:13:22.080 for Chiropractic and then once I finally got to go to school, I was 178 00:13:22.120 --> 00:13:26.240 laser focused on what I wanted to do as far as a specialty. So 179 00:13:26.960 --> 00:13:31.870 when I was going through school I knew I always wanted to be involved in 180 00:13:31.149 --> 00:13:39.950 more stuff. So I held a position on my schools Student Body Association, 181 00:13:39.629 --> 00:13:46.940 I held a position for my school chapter of the student American Chiropractic Association. 182 00:13:46.980 --> 00:13:54.379 I kind of revitalized my schools chapter of the Sports Council. I traveled every 183 00:13:54.460 --> 00:14:01.570 year to different conferences and then I ended up serving two years on the National 184 00:14:01.649 --> 00:14:05.129 Student Executive Committee for the ACA Sports Council and it kind of just gave me 185 00:14:05.169 --> 00:14:11.159 a different perspective and I had all of these amazing mentors who are supports chiropractor 186 00:14:11.240 --> 00:14:16.440 who had been to the Olympics and treated professional athlete and ran these successful practices, 187 00:14:16.960 --> 00:14:22.559 and it was through that that I found my opportunity in Montana and work 188 00:14:22.639 --> 00:14:26.789 with one of the best four chiropractors in the country. So networking exactly. 189 00:14:26.870 --> 00:14:31.110 That's the number one thing. Networking is such a huge thing. But looking 190 00:14:31.230 --> 00:14:35.350 back at so funny because I'm like literally everything fell into place when it was 191 00:14:35.389 --> 00:14:39.179 supposed to to bring me to where I am right now. Except, like 192 00:14:39.419 --> 00:14:43.860 you know, that knee surgeries and during the acls and everything like that. 193 00:14:43.059 --> 00:14:48.220 Well, yeah, I mean I've had surgeries now. It's just at this 194 00:14:48.299 --> 00:14:52.259 point it is what it is. Going through it, though, it's further 195 00:14:52.500 --> 00:14:56.970 instilled in me my mission, which is to keep young athletes as healthy as 196 00:14:56.970 --> 00:15:01.409 possible so that they don't repeat my issues. You mentioned that you were treating 197 00:15:01.409 --> 00:15:03.850 down in Houston for like the Rodeo, right. Yeah, so how did 198 00:15:03.850 --> 00:15:07.480 you get hooked up with that, and explain of kind of, I guess, 199 00:15:07.600 --> 00:15:11.480 how you can, like how do you get connected with athletes and teens, 200 00:15:11.600 --> 00:15:16.159 and is it just networking still? Yes, absolutely so. I'm going 201 00:15:16.200 --> 00:15:18.960 to plug my organization here a little bit. As I said, like, 202 00:15:20.039 --> 00:15:24.350 I had served two years as on this the National Student Committee, Executive Committee 203 00:15:24.350 --> 00:15:28.230 for the ACA Sports Council. Well, about a year out of pool up 204 00:15:28.269 --> 00:15:31.750 in Montana, I get a phone call from the ACA Sport Council president at 205 00:15:31.789 --> 00:15:35.179 the time and she encouraged me to run for a position and I'm like, 206 00:15:35.419 --> 00:15:39.100 are you sure, like I'm one year out of school, I don't really 207 00:15:39.139 --> 00:15:41.539 know anything yet, and she goes absolutely, she goes, you did a 208 00:15:41.620 --> 00:15:46.419 great job on the student committee, like we want new blood in the organization 209 00:15:46.580 --> 00:15:48.059 and we think you're a great choice, and I'm like, okay. So 210 00:15:48.220 --> 00:15:54.009 I ran for secretary. It happened to be unopposed. I wasn't mad about 211 00:15:54.009 --> 00:16:00.129 it. So I got onto the ACA Sports Council Executive Committee back in two 212 00:16:00.129 --> 00:16:03.399 thousand and sixteen and I've worked my way up through almost all of the positions 213 00:16:03.440 --> 00:16:08.399 now and I'm currently the president of this National Fourth Organization, which still blows 214 00:16:08.440 --> 00:16:11.879 me away. I don't think I deserve it, but I appreciate being in 215 00:16:11.919 --> 00:16:18.559 the Bishop. One of the things that the ACA Sports Council does is it 216 00:16:18.750 --> 00:16:25.950 provides event opportunities to fourth chiropractors. So I've worked quite a few events on 217 00:16:26.110 --> 00:16:30.590 behalf of the ACA Sports Council all over the country. I've worked the national 218 00:16:30.629 --> 00:16:34.980 collegiate and high school taekwondo championships a couple of years ago. I had never 219 00:16:36.100 --> 00:16:37.980 worked a combat sport before. It was amazing. I fell in love with 220 00:16:38.059 --> 00:16:41.460 the sport. I would love to do something like that again. It's amazing. 221 00:16:42.059 --> 00:16:47.100 And then, of course, went back to my roots pretty quickly and 222 00:16:47.210 --> 00:16:52.690 I've worked several professional beach volleyball events where I was dealing with professional athletes and 223 00:16:53.529 --> 00:16:56.769 that was an amazing experience. You kind of go in there a little bit 224 00:16:56.809 --> 00:17:02.159 timid and then these athletes are so grateful for you being there and keeping them 225 00:17:02.240 --> 00:17:07.920 healthy that you immediately get over it and you just watch in awe how amazing 226 00:17:07.039 --> 00:17:14.039 these people functions on a daily basis, how at a high level they're performing, 227 00:17:14.519 --> 00:17:15.589 and you get to be a part of it and it's amazing. And 228 00:17:15.750 --> 00:17:21.829 then the Rodeo was kind of a fluke thing. One of my close friends 229 00:17:21.829 --> 00:17:25.670 are named after Amber Gregory. She is a sport chiropractor here in Houston as 230 00:17:25.750 --> 00:17:30.619 well. We graduated at text of Chiropractic College together and we've been friends ever 231 00:17:30.700 --> 00:17:33.420 since. I've dragged her around the country for years and years and years to 232 00:17:33.500 --> 00:17:38.619 different conferences and events and things like that, and she had been trying to 233 00:17:38.819 --> 00:17:45.529 get on the Rodeo Houston Sports Medicine Committee for a few years and she finally 234 00:17:45.730 --> 00:17:49.529 got on for two thousand and twenty. She had texted our group text and 235 00:17:49.690 --> 00:17:52.609 told us that and I was like that's so amazing, congratulations, I'm so 236 00:17:52.730 --> 00:17:56.569 proud of you. And then she sends me a private text message away from 237 00:17:56.569 --> 00:18:00.519 the group and she says so they asked me if I knew anybody else who 238 00:18:00.519 --> 00:18:06.400 would be potentially interested and I wanted to say you, but I wasn't sure 239 00:18:06.480 --> 00:18:08.759 if you could do it because you still live in Montana. And I told 240 00:18:08.799 --> 00:18:12.269 her I said absolutely, throw my name in the hat as if I have 241 00:18:12.390 --> 00:18:15.269 to figure it out, I'll figure it out. But I grew up going 242 00:18:15.470 --> 00:18:18.509 to the Houston livestock show and Rodeo. It's one of the biggest rodeos in 243 00:18:18.549 --> 00:18:22.230 the world. I was so stoked. And then to have them contact me 244 00:18:22.950 --> 00:18:26.630 and they asked me for information. You know, I sent them my cee 245 00:18:26.029 --> 00:18:30.380 and I said I'm a bio and that kind of stuff, and the committee 246 00:18:30.539 --> 00:18:33.740 woman, you know, need a pretty quickly, and she goes, we 247 00:18:33.940 --> 00:18:37.299 have to have you, like this resume of stellar like we have to have 248 00:18:37.460 --> 00:18:41.569 you. That's a testament to everything. It's like a prize for you going 249 00:18:41.609 --> 00:18:42.569 through, you know, like you said in school, I went through. 250 00:18:42.569 --> 00:18:45.009 I did all this in school. I was a president here, I was 251 00:18:45.049 --> 00:18:48.410 a secretary here. I work my butt off. Yeah, I networked at 252 00:18:48.450 --> 00:18:53.970 all comes together as a very impressive cv because you done the work. So 253 00:18:55.130 --> 00:18:59.079 I mean for younger practitioners out there or for other practitioners that want to get 254 00:18:59.079 --> 00:19:02.680 into the sport side of things, network, do some extra work out there, 255 00:19:02.759 --> 00:19:07.200 because that work pays off. And absolutely don't join your if you sort 256 00:19:07.240 --> 00:19:10.470 of want to be a sports charpector join the ESA Sports Council. Right, 257 00:19:10.589 --> 00:19:14.069 come on, I guarantee you guys are taking new members right. Absolutely, 258 00:19:14.549 --> 00:19:18.589 always, always, the traditional model is, you know, you've got your 259 00:19:18.630 --> 00:19:22.710 orthopedic, you've got your PT, you've got your athletic trainers. So when 260 00:19:22.710 --> 00:19:26.299 you're going into these professional sports arenas, I how are you co treating a 261 00:19:26.339 --> 00:19:30.779 kind of meshing with them, for say, when it comes to the treating 262 00:19:30.819 --> 00:19:34.900 of athletes, it's honestly one of my favorite things to do because we learn 263 00:19:36.099 --> 00:19:41.450 from each other, like that's the number one thing. You could be half 264 00:19:41.569 --> 00:19:45.730 of your game. Just got back from treating athletes at the Olympics, like 265 00:19:45.970 --> 00:19:51.210 whatever, and you walk into an event situation like that and you have to 266 00:19:51.369 --> 00:19:55.279 leave all of that at the front door. None of that matters. Ego 267 00:19:55.640 --> 00:20:00.960 has no place in sports medicine. And so you go there and everybody respects 268 00:20:00.960 --> 00:20:07.150 each other as a provider and you watch, you listen, you clean table, 269 00:20:07.750 --> 00:20:12.029 you take out the garbage, you do your documentation, you do whatever 270 00:20:12.109 --> 00:20:17.470 you need to do to be a part of the team, whatever it is, 271 00:20:18.109 --> 00:20:21.980 but you stay humble and you do the work like that's the most important 272 00:20:21.980 --> 00:20:25.940 part of it. And there everybody else there is the same way and they're 273 00:20:25.940 --> 00:20:30.220 so interested to learn about you and where you come from and how you practice 274 00:20:30.339 --> 00:20:33.539 and what techniques you know and you work together. I was working in a 275 00:20:33.619 --> 00:20:40.730 VP event, which is professional beach volleyball, last year and we were getting 276 00:20:40.769 --> 00:20:45.170 towards the end of the day and a couple of guys just got off the 277 00:20:45.289 --> 00:20:51.599 court and we had probably three or four people working on each person just to 278 00:20:51.640 --> 00:20:53.359 kind of flush them out because they've been playing all days. So we had 279 00:20:53.880 --> 00:20:59.759 basically we had a provider on each limb and we were doing soft tissue stuff 280 00:20:59.839 --> 00:21:02.759 to help recover because they had to come back and play the next day, 281 00:21:03.359 --> 00:21:07.549 and so we were doing you know, fleurage or you know soft tissue techniques 282 00:21:07.589 --> 00:21:11.589 light massage, things like that, stretching like all kinds of stuff like that, 283 00:21:11.670 --> 00:21:15.309 but we were all working together. That's the most important thing. Like, 284 00:21:15.990 --> 00:21:22.740 nobody cares where you have been a how high you've gotten or how cool 285 00:21:22.779 --> 00:21:26.420 you think you are. It's what do you know right who you know may 286 00:21:26.500 --> 00:21:30.380 have gotten you in the door, but what you know is going to keep 287 00:21:30.420 --> 00:21:33.329 you there. Just go in there ready to learn, ready to watch and 288 00:21:33.490 --> 00:21:38.369 just ready to interact with some great people and it's a wonderful experience. That's 289 00:21:38.410 --> 00:21:42.609 great advice. Everything that you've done, everything you've gone through. You even 290 00:21:42.650 --> 00:21:45.410 starting this new business is tough, but, as you can see, stuff 291 00:21:45.450 --> 00:21:48.680 works out when you put your head down and you do the work. So 292 00:21:48.960 --> 00:21:52.319 you've done such a phenomenal job and I hope that we get enough listeners on 293 00:21:52.400 --> 00:21:56.079 here that really take it, those youngest practitioners especially that are coming off associate 294 00:21:56.200 --> 00:22:00.000 ships and want to build their practice, because you've done such an amazing job 295 00:22:00.039 --> 00:22:03.470 so far. Oh, thank you so much. Thank you again for taking 296 00:22:03.589 --> 00:22:07.869 the time out of your day. Absolutely and keep up the great work. 297 00:22:07.910 --> 00:22:11.309 Absolutely. So, Dr Stark, before we rock and roll here, where 298 00:22:11.390 --> 00:22:14.670 can people find out more about you? You can check out my website. 299 00:22:14.990 --> 00:22:22.259 It's www Cairo and sportcom, or you can check me out on instagram or 300 00:22:22.380 --> 00:22:26.059 facebook at start Cairo and Fort. To our listeners, thank you for catching 301 00:22:26.059 --> 00:22:29.420 up with Cairo touch. We'd love to hear from you. We have an 302 00:22:29.500 --> 00:22:33.089 inbox set up so you can email us at podcast at Cairo touchcom, where 303 00:22:33.089 --> 00:22:40.049 you can send questions, feedback comments. So let's podcast at Cairo touchcom and 304 00:22:40.210 --> 00:22:44.759 remember to tune in every week on Itunes, spotify, wherever you consume your 305 00:22:44.799 --> podcasts.