IAM126- Chiropractor Dedicated to Save Our Populations from Chronic, Lifestyle-driven Disease States

Intro 0:02

Do you want to learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales and grow your business from successful entrepreneurs, startups, and CEOs without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresham Harkless values your time and is ready to share with you precisely the information you're in search of. This is the I AM CEO Podcast.

Gresham Harkless 0:27

Hello, hello, hello, this is Gresh from the I AM CEO Podcast and I have a very special guest on the show today. I have of Claire Fitzpatrick of Joy Health and Body. Claire, it's awesome to have you on the show. What I want to do is read a little bit more about Claire, so you can hear about all the awesome things that she's doing. And Claire Fitzpatrick is a chiropractor in Netherlands. She is also the originator of a business dream, Joy Health and Body, a wellness cooperative that aims to disrupt our current health care model by putting vitalistic integrative health professionals on the frontline of health care. She believes that because vitalistic health professionals work with nature to remove chemical, physical, emotional and environmental toxins, they are the first best hope and saving our population from chronic lifestyle driven disease states. Claire, are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?

Dr. Claire Fitzpatrick 1:15

Yeah, I'm ready. Let's go.

Gresham Harkless 1:16

Alright, let's do it. So the first question I had was just to hear I guess a little bit more about your CEO story, what led you to start your business?

Dr. Claire Fitzpatrick 1:22

Okay, so I'm a chiropractor by trade. And I've been a chiropractor since 2005. I was trained as GP general practitioner in the school that I went to. So I'm prepared to help diagnose people and send them to the appropriate specialist. That's basic training in the United States. So I practiced since 2005, in Connecticut, and New York City. And I don't want to be a general practitioner, I want to be a chiropractor. But it is nice to know that when a patient comes in, and I see that there's clearly something going on, like the beginning of celiac disease, metabolic syndrome is coming on, they've got some issues, they're dependent on different chemicals, VA them pharmaceuticals or other either like drinking or too much of that. But I know where to send them. So it was always really valuable to me to have a team of people to whom I can refer. Every years I noticed people come in to a chiropractor, when they're really don't want to be on drugs or surgery anymore. And they're casting about listening to friends, I don't know what to do, nothing's working. My doctor says that nothing can be done. And someone will say, well, have you tried chiropractic. So people are desperate by the time they get to me. And that's not the jewel of chiropractic tell you the honest truth. I can help people with herniated discs, and I do that seems to be my bread and butter, but fixing people to get them back into the life that got them, and the messy we're in is not the best way to use holistic health care. The best way to do it is when you're feeling like you're on top of the world, but you're feeling sort of, I'm not on my game anymore. I think maybe I need to go see somebody to help get me back on my game. And that's the beauty of holistic health care is catching people before they're so sick, that they crawl into a medical office and say help me I can't function like this anymore. Because people will not come to a doctor when they're in pain. They'll work through the pain mostly. It's when they can't function anymore when they can't get themselves out of bed from the pain when they can't sit through a day from the pain. So our medical staff is inundated with people who could have been caught before this had they been given lifestyle driven health care. And that's what chiropractic can give. That's what naturopathic medicine can give. That's what acupuncture can give. That's what massage therapy can give. We've got teams and teams, health coaches, psychologists, nutritionists that are waiting to see these people and we are underutilized. Meanwhile, our emergency systems, our doctor's offices are just swelling with patients and they're at their top when they're dealing with emergencies, that chronic lifestyle driven health care takes time. And it takes patience and it takes a team and it takes money. So not only is our health care system inundated in the wrong way, but we're spending too much money in it. People are going broke insurances are paying for it because they're supposed to pay for emergency care. So let's catch these people early. Let's change the way we see how healthcare is delivered. Why can't people view us as the first best place to go and then when there's a real emergency, then we have a team in the medical establishment to help us with that, too.

Gresham Harkless 4:49

That makes sense.

Dr. Claire Fitzpatrick 4:50

So yeah, the people that can help solve this problem shouldn't be starving. So I'm building teams of healthcare professionals that can do that.

Gresham Harkless 4:57

That's awesome, that's awesome that you're able to do that and like you said, a lot of times it's a last ditch approach, so to speak, when you're in some type of pain that they might call you, it sounds like and a lot of times, you could be a lot more on the offensive and making sure that you're taking care of your health and you're proactive and doing it instead of doing it as a last ditch effort. So I wanted to drill down a little bit deeper in here, I guess a little bit more on how you serve in the clients that you work with. I know you touched on it a little bit. And then also like, what do you consider to be like your quote-unquote, secret sauce?

Dr. Claire Fitzpatrick 5:24

Okay, so I used to in New York, I worked in an integrative office, but we had our own practice. So I saw my chiropractic clients, see acupuncture, saw her people, massage therapist, and so forth. And it was just super nice to be able to knock on the next door and go, Hey, can you come in here for a second and take a look at my patient. And then we just build this report right away? Patients like Oh, my God, I got a team right now. And they they're both speaking a different language, they both have a different superpower. To approach my problem, like, yeah, rock, paper, scissors, we got it all together. So it's just in New York, it's easy to build that network. But when you're like, life brought me to the Netherlands. And thank goodness, I love it here in Amsterdam. The healthcare is a little bit different here. So it's, they don't, if they think that you're too healthy, they'll turn you away, even if he fails. So people exaggerate their symptoms to get help. And it's so they're actually really seeking this care. The secret sauce is community. Because everybody knows how to eat well, everybody knows this was to exercise everybody knows just to get regular checkups. But do we, that's not really supported in the community. And so when you come in and get that kind of help, it's really, really helpful to have a health coach that is guided by doctors to keep a group together that are working on the same path. And statistically speaking, that goes really, really far. So just knowing that you're not alone, and that you're part of community, that this is the norm, and within the community makes all the difference in the world.

Gresham Harkless 7:07

Yeah, I would definitely say that's a great example of a secret sauce, because a lot of times, you especially you probably when you're going through some type of pain, or whatever illness, you kind of felt alone a lot of the time, so to be able to pull into the community, to be able to call, like you said, a health coach, and then have all these connections and be able to pull into the secret sauces of so many different people probably helps out so much as far as putting the patient at ease, pin the person at ease, but also putting those professionals as well at ease.

Dr. Claire Fitzpatrick 7:35

It's really helpful, because we, as a holistic health care professional, we're really overtrain so that we can spot patients then work together. But there's not really a social structure for us to work together, there seems to it's sort of a competitive model, almost like, Well, I tried acupuncture. Well, I tried physical therapy, well, I tried this, and then we tried to solve it. There's so that we seem, we can be very isolated even amongst each other. So why don't chiropractors refer to chiropractors? I'm one who does, I have a certain style? And I'll say, look, I think you might be better served by this chiropractor. And that's within our own little profession. So it's like, Oh, my God, I'm supposed to be God, I'm supposed to be able to do everything for to another god, why would I do that.

Gresham Harkless 8:27

Right

Dr. Claire Fitzpatrick 8:28

But if we stopped looking at it, like we're competing with one another, we were all gonna get much farther.

Gresham Harkless 8:37

Yeah, definitely. Yeah, it absolutely did. I always think of this word called coopetition, that I heard at a networking event where it's always you have people that you're cooperating with in their, quote-unquote, competitors, but you can get so much farther if you're working together rather than trying to compete against one another solely.

Dr. Claire Fitzpatrick 8:56

Yeah, exactly. And it's more helpful for the patient because the patient knows that they're not pitted against, they're not the center of being pitted against other people. And there's not this sort of, have you ever gone to like a doctor and suggests and you'd say, well, I went to this person, my friend told me to go here, and that you just see the doc go.

Gresham Harkless 9:16

Okay, they think they know everything,

Dr. Claire Fitzpatrick 9:17

And then they feel like, I can't tell them anything. What do you mean, you're not gonna tell your doctor because my doctor doesn't like then I'm going to a chiropractor, that ties your doctor needs to know that you're going to a chiropractor. I need to know when you're going somewhere else. So our work doesn't overlap.

Gresham Harkless 9:35

Exactly, exactly. Is that holistic mindset. And so now I wanted to switch gears a little bit and ask you for what I call a CEO hack. And this might be an app, a book or a habit that you have, but it's something that makes you more effective and efficient as a business owner.

Dr. Claire Fitzpatrick 9:49

Personally, if I didn't meditate, well, first of all, I gotta plug chiropractic. I gotta get adjusted once a week because I gotta turn on my nervous system because life gets me. So we have a luckily about a nice bunch of friends here in Amsterdam, we help each other, thank the gods for that. But for what I do, too, I meditate at least an hour a day, I don't care if I'm going to be late, I make sure I get in my meditation, because life is super stressful. And if I lose just two or three days of meditation, I'm starting to cast around in my head, like what's happening, and I gotta make sure that my vibration is high for everybody else, because people come in, and they they need to be on point. And meditation will do that. So that's for sure. One of my things. Also, I try to keep up with leaders who do a lot more than me, and who's accomplished a lot more than me. And have you ever heard of Sandy Krakowskie? I love her because she's super individualistic, she is insistent on being herself while building her business. And she empowers other people to be themselves like, and being secure in your unicorn status in order to do what you do. Instead of feeling like I gotta be just like this, that the other so I find her work really inspiring.

Gresham Harkless 11:07

So she like a business coach.

Dr. Claire Fitzpatrick 11:09

She's a business coach.

Gresham Harkless 11:11

Okay, awesome. Yeah. It's always empowering to kind of, well, I feel like when you see somebody that's been their unicorn or being their unique selves, it kind of gives, I guess, permission for everybody else to do the same. And you feel powerful when you see somebody doing that, that you kind of get attracted to that and you want to do it within yourself as well.

Dr. Claire Fitzpatrick 11:28

Yeah, well, whenever you're trying to do something to break a habit, like the habit of the hierarchy of how we see medical care, you're gonna get pushback, don't listen to his class at quack doesn't know anything. Just because it is a normal doesn't mean it's not the right way to go. But you got to be super strong and who you are, and keep pushing through that. Just let it roll off your back. And I'm not necessarily great at that. I've as a caregiver, I'm super empathetic. So I've had to work on toughening up my own shell and working through it.

Gresham Harkless 12:00

Yeah, that makes sense. But I think it's awesome, what you're what you're building and kind of innovating and changing the paradigm of health care, I think is a really big thing. And obviously, probably a difficult thing as well, too, sometimes. But it's great that you're pushing through, and I'm definitely sure that a bunch of people have benefited from it.

Dr. Claire Fitzpatrick 12:14

Oh, it's mammoth. So I don't think it's going to be done by one massive push. But it'll be done by a network of all of us working together to make things the new norm. Have you ever heard of Buckminster Fuller?

Gresham Harkless 12:27

I don't think so.

Dr. Claire Fitzpatrick 12:27

He's a scientist, he's a mathematician scientists that actually he's influenced my work a lot in tensegrity models on how the body isn't like a square unit. But when a force is placed on it, it distributes the force evenly throughout the system through the geometry of the system.

Gresham Harkless 12:43

Interesting.

Dr. Claire Fitzpatrick 12:44

Buckminster Fuller said something to the effect of, you don't change the status quo by pushing directly against it, you create a model that works better, and that but that model makes the other one obsolete. So that's what we're trying to hope to do peacefully.

Gresham Harkless 13:00

Nice, nice

Dr. Claire Fitzpatrick 13:01

In a way that makes sense for everybody. And it isn't combative. That is integrative into the gym.

Gresham Harkless 13:08

Yeah, that makes sense. It makes perfect sense because it's harder to push against something when you can sometimes kind of molder, a way around it to provide a better kind of option for people. And I love that. And I wanted to ask you now and you might have already touched on it. As far as a CEO nugget. And this is like a word of wisdom or piece of advice you might give to entrepreneurs or business owners or if you can happen to a time machine. What would you tell your younger business self?

Dr. Claire Fitzpatrick 13:31

Candid accountant. Now. You all yeah, that is the nugget. Don't try to do everything yourself. Do what you shine that and find people who shine at what you're not shiny it to help you do it. And you could find people with the same mission, but not the same talent. So it's the same principle. That's super important to do. And don't hide your dream. I can't tell you how many people have a dream. And they hide it. Like they're like, I don't want anybody see because then somebody else could take my dream and do it. And that's my idea. No one has your idea. They have similar idea. But your dream is your dream. And we all need you to share your dream as big as loud as possibly can. So stop it, you're gonna find people, if anything like hey, I have a similar dream. Can we team up and maybe I can bring this to the table because we got to get away from this competitive it's mine model the way we're doing things rather than to bow down. We had to lift each other up. So important.

Gresham Harkless 14:33

I love that CEO nugget and definitely rings true. And it's very important for us to kind of be in compete, but also be very cooperative, as I talked about before, because you want to be able to build your business but you also want to play in your unique brilliance. And once you do that, then nobody else has your unique brilliance so you can kind of be yourself and be comfortable in doing that. So I love that CEO nugget and now I wanted to ask you for my absolute favorite question, which is the definition for what it means to be a CEO, and we're hoping to have different quote-unquote CEOs on the show. So what does being a CEO means to you.

Dr. Claire Fitzpatrick 15:04

Courage and organization.

Gresham Harkless 15:06

I love it.

Dr. Claire Fitzpatrick 15:07

The courage not to quit even when you want to, to know when to pivot and change direction, but don't quit learn from it, don't quit, get organized so that you're not doing everything. Yeah, that was those were words of wisdom that I was given in 2004 by a mentor of mine named David Row, chiropractor in New York City. Courage and organization. I've never forgotten it.

Gresham Harkless 15:31

Yeah, it's huge and it rang true, because you definitely need both of them to be successful. That's a great definition of what it means to be a CEO and Claire, I truly appreciate you for taking some time out your schedule. What I want to do is pass you the mic just to see if there's anything additional, you want to let our readers and our listeners know and how best people can get in touch with you.

Dr. Claire Fitzpatrick 15:50

Oh, yeah, look at Joy Health and Body. My website is under construction. And yeah, if you want to recommend any web developers here, I know somebody. My number here is +310655603051. Joyhealthandbody, is my website. And yeah, if you want to be part of the stream, I'm looking for you please let me know.

Gresham Harkless 16:16

Awesome, awesome, awesome. And thank you so much for taking some time out of your schedule.

Dr. Claire Fitzpatrick 16:21

Appreciate the time bye bye.

Outro 16:23

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes Google Play and everywhere you listen to podcasts, SUBSCRIBE, and leave us a five-star rating grab CEO gear at www.ceogear.co. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless. Thank you for listening.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai