IAM2850 – Chiropractor Passionate About Communicating Health in an Easy Way

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Transcription:

Dr. Matt Delgado 00:00
Be patient. So I think when we're all starting, we have this idea of how different our life is going to be in the future. How much better once we hit a certain goal or make X amount of money. But to tell you the truth, my life's no different than it was when I first started. I mean, there's different dollar amounts, yeah, but I have less time, which kind of sucks. But the process, I think being more process oriented and as long as you're keeping that process there, having fun with it, like what I said before, then just patience.

Gresham Harkless 01:00
Hello, hello, hello, this is Gresh from the I Am CEO podcast. I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Dr. Matt Delgado of Life Sparing Chiropractic. Dr. Mattis. Awesome to have me on the show.

Dr. Matt Delgado 01:09
Hey, thanks for having me.

Gresham Harkless 01:10
No problem. Super excited to have you on. And our guest today has been building an amazing chiropractic practice, largely using social media and influencer marketing. The better part of the story for the entrepreneurs is how he followed what everyone told him he needed to do to be successful. He business owner and he gave up with one foot in the grave. He was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease called graves disease from the hustle and grind. He then chose to redefine the rules and craft a business that works for his lifestyle. Please join me in welcoming from Austin,

Dr. Matt Delgado 01:35
Texas, a chiropractor, speaker and self proclaimed

Gresham Harkless 01:38
coffee snob, Dr. Matt Delgado. It's great to have you on the show. Are you ready to speak to the I Am CEO community?

Dr. Matt Delgado 01:43
I'm ready.

Gresham Harkless 01:44
Awesome. Let's do it. So I wanted to kick everything off, man, I know I touched on a little bit, but I want to hear a little bit more about your CEO story. What led you to get started with your business?

Dr. Matt Delgado 01:51
Yeah, so I guess maybe a better just rewind quick was even how I got into chiropractic was through changing my own app. I, I had headaches at 15 years old, chronic headaches. And I went to a chiropractor and immediately that was the first time in about a year I found this relief of pressure in my head. So that's what kind of led me to chiropractic. In the first place. And I think with most chiropractors I don't have a percentage, but I think most are self employed or start their own business at some point. Again, for me to answer your question, mine came sooner than expected. I was an associate in an office in a really big practice in Nebraska of all places for about three or four months. And I was working 75 hours a week. That hustle grind. And it just, it didn't feel right to me. And I noticed that the everyone in that office just, just wasn't happy. Just didn't feel happy. And that's the first time for me. It just kind of clicked that something's not right and this isn't the right way of doing it and everyone's kind of using the same systems and doing it the same way and it just didn't feel right. So I fast forward about six months later. I'm leaving a lot of details out here, but that's when I opened my own practice here in Austin, Texas. Came to a small little curtained off room sharing space with someone. Very humble beginnings compared to what it is today and what you see behind us.

Gresham Harkless 03:18
Nice. I definitely appreciate that. And obviously it's you know, hard to hear about, sorry to hear about, you know, the headaches and everything that you had to go through. But it sounds like that planet a sea for what led you to where you are today. And I don't know, definitely correct me if I'm wrong. I've always heard that you know the, the spine and chiropractic I guess medicine which actually like adjust that and it focuses on, that helps out with so many different things. A lot of times we may not realize like how important you know, that is. So you talking about your headache and realizing that being able to go to a chiropractor helped out. A lot of people don't realize a lot of those illnesses can be secured by that or helped at least.

Dr. Matt Delgado 03:48
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I had no idea. So I'll start with that. I mean I was 15, I had no idea what chiropractic was. And it was interesting even. Cause I was going to a health Mac and high school which is like a pre med high high school. And so you're learning all about different types of healthcare medicine. You get your feet wet really early on. They didn't talk about chiropractic once and I had no idea what it was. But after trying ibuprofen for about a year with no results, I figured hey, I gotta do something different. So I found My way into this chiropractor's office, happening to be my uncle. And yeah, absolutely. It changed my life. And we're, you know, for the people out there that maybe don't know what chiropractic is working with the nervous system, so your brain and your spinal cord, which literally controls everything, including our pain response. So that's how it helped me.

Gresham Harkless 04:35
Nice. Well, I definitely happy that of course, you found out a way to help yourself, but it sounds like you found out a way to help so many other people too, because it kind of sounds like I see like kind of parallels between that story and also your, your business journey as well too, where you kind of said that, you know, you have to find a better way instead of just kind of letting things happen, you decided to find that better way. For one, it was being and being able to use a chiropractor. The other was like how exactly you, you focus on your business and create that value based business around what you wanted to do?

Dr. Matt Delgado 05:02
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. No, that was a huge part of the journey and part of the story, for sure.

Gresham Harkless 05:06
Awesome. So people that, that, that come into your, your office in Austin, Texas, could you take us through exactly, like what you do with clients, how you serve them, some of the things that they can find there?

Dr. Matt Delgado 05:14
Yeah. So I think the first thing that brings almost anybody through the door is pain. Right. That's what drives us as humans and that's what we associate maybe chiropractic with. That's what I did, at least before I knew everything else around it and that. So anything from back pain, neck pain, you know, hip pain, foot and ankle, shoulder headaches, pain. But pain is just a symptom or a sign that there's some level of dysfunction in the body. So it's our job to really discover where that's coming from. So we look at the body mechanically because we know structure determines function. So we look at things like posture and motion and listen to someone's health history to figure out some of the things that are playing into why they're even experiencing pain. So once we find that, we start to address their spine. We start with the spine as chiropractors because it houses the most important thing in the body, our brain and our spinal cord. So we have any slight misalignment or mechanical alteration in our spine, one of the things that can come about is pain. Or we can have other things happen to lose function. Because our spine's controlling everything from our digestion to our immune system, our mood, our energy levels, and our sleep so commonly after we see pain, resolve for someone, those are some other things that we'll see improve with people as well.

Gresham Harkless 06:34
Nice. I definitely appreciate that because I've been to, you know, I'm outside our Washington, D.C. area, but I've been to a chiropractor here, and he was really, you know, pivotal on. On talking about how important chiropractic was. So that's where I got my education, what little education I have. And then also just hearing, you know, how it affects, like, literally so many parts of your overall health and how a lot of times when you have that person that knows that information, just as you've been able to kind of talk to you, kind of get not just, you know, one thing that can help you, but kind of a holistic approach, it sounds like, to. To your health, your health goals.

Dr. Matt Delgado 07:05
Yeah. And, you know, we use a team aggression here, and it's not just chiropractic. I mean, all we do in here is chiropractic. But through my own health struggles, which you cut, you mentioned briefly in the intro there, it was a whole team approach. Chiropractic was a foundation for my healing, But I found help through functional medicine doctors, through massage therapists, through acupuncturists. So we use a whole team of referrals in that sense. And it's a great community here in Austin, and there's many great practitioners, so we utilize everything and we really, truly believe that it takes a team of people and there's maybe a good or a better approach for, for certain people, for each individual.

Gresham Harkless 07:47
Yeah, I appreciate, appreciate that. And especially, you know, how, you know, it sounds like awareness about, like those different aspects is changing for the individual so that when they do have some type of pain, it's not just automatically, you know, go to take this pill or do. There's so many different aspects to it. And the fact that you can go to one person, you guys know, have that expertise yourself, but also have a. A wealth of individuals and referral partners you can kind of speak on and lean on, it definitely helps out so much as, like, helping everybody to be their healthiest self, I guess you could say.

Dr. Matt Delgado 08:14
Yes, absolutely.

Gresham Harkless 08:16
Nice. So I wanted to ask you for what I call your secret sauce. And you might have already touched on this, but do you feel like that's, you know, the, the having that health network, to have that philosophy is what kind of sets you apart and makes you unique?

Dr. Matt Delgado 08:26
Uh, yeah, I. I do. I think it was through my whole health journey, my whole health struggle is what makes. Yeah, but Is what shaped that uniqueness. Because at 26 years old, I say it's an opportunity now that back then when I was living it, I wouldn't think of it as an opportunity, but I had the opportunity to live through a really challenging time where my. Just to paint a picture of it with what a Graves disease is. I don't need thyroid disease. And our thyroid controls. It's got an in controlling a lot in our body, Almost everything from metabolism, our immune system, our sleep, our energy levels. It just. It works in regulating a lot of the processes that happen in our body. So when your thyroid's off, you see a lot of things get thrown off. And some of the symptoms and signs at the time I was experiencing was major fatigue. My hair was falling out in chunks. I remember calling my mom, crying, like, wow, what the hell is going on? And I. It took me a solid year and a half of changing my lifestyle and drastically, too. This was at 26 or 27 years old. So, I mean, I, like, gave up things like drinking, which might not sound like much, but at that time, that's all I knew is like five or six. I was like, man, you go out for a happy hour, Right?

Gresham Harkless 09:35
Right.

Dr. Matt Delgado 09:37
But I couldn't, and I chose not to. And same with sugar. I gave it up immediately. Any sugar other than fruit. And even then, I minimize that. And with those habits in place, for a year and a half, I spent the autoimmune disease fully into remission, which the medical community at large, not all of them would want to treat this with something like radioactive drug to kill off the thyroid or just remove it completely. So there was no need for that. But I'd say that having lived through that, yes, absolutely. It shaped the way I practice now and my thoughts on health. And I wrote a whole wall here in my office right around the corner from where I'm sitting now, all about these things we believe statements. And it is like, we believe the human body is a living miracle. And we believe in the ability to defy the impossible, heal from any say, but that we just need consistency and commitment. And from a team, all the things you're mentioning.

Gresham Harkless 10:25
Yeah, no, that makes so much sense. And so do you think that it was being around, I think you said, your uncle at that young age that allowed you to kind of think that way. Because a lot of times when people go through illnesses or even frustrations in life, you know, it's a lot sometimes easier said than done than to think about a different way to do it. If somebody says, hey, we have to take out your thyroid or, hey, take this. Know, this injection of this pill, whatever that might be. A lot of people sometimes feel like that's the only way to do it. Do you think that that maybe laid that foundation to where you were able to say, hey, maybe that's not the only way. Let me try this or let me try that.

Dr. Matt Delgado 10:53
I think it was the philosophy of chiropractic. So being in chiropractic school opened doors to me. And I grew up on the west cup, so very health conscious, probably, you know, the most health conscious place in the country. If you had to pick one. I say the west coast is up there for sure. So just more of that holistic approach and believing in the body to be able to perform at its best or heal from anything, really. But in chiropractic school, for me, that's what solidified that. Being around a community of people that really believed wholeheartedly in that. I remember my first quarter going into chiropractic school. I. I got like, a cold and I took NyQuil, and one of my roommates chewed me out for taking nyquil. And I thought, like, what the hell was wrong with this girl? Like, why is she screaming at me for taking Nyquist? Nyquil? She's like, your body is spark. You can heal. You don't need to do that. And it drops. And like, so I don't go to that extreme ever. Right. But I found that kind of balance in the middle. And there's a time and a place for everything, including medicine or drugs. I'm not against it by any means.

Gresham Harkless 11:51
Yeah.

Dr. Matt Delgado 11:52
But I just found my own. My own way and my own path.

Gresham Harkless 11:55
I appreciate that tremendously. And I wanted to switch gears a little bit, and I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO hack. So this could be an Apple book or a habit that you have, but what makes you more effective? Efficient.

Dr. Matt Delgado 12:05
Okay. It's two words. You ready? Have fun. So I think in that sum again, when I rewind back into where I said I was working 75 hours a week and the job wasn't great, and I noticed they weren't happy, they weren't having fun. The money was rolling in and they were making more money. They were. I was, at the time, more than what they could ever spend the money on. But they were having fun and they were enjoying life. So when I rewrote this way of doing it for myself, at least, it's always included fun, whether it's here in the office or whether it's outside traveling, doing something to have fun.

Gresham Harkless 12:41
I definitely appreciate that hack. So now I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO nugget. So this is a word of wisdom or a piece of advice, or if you could hop into a time machine, what would you tell your younger business self?

Dr. Matt Delgado 12:51
Again, I got two words. Be patient. So I think when we're all starting, we have this idea of how different our life is going to be in the future. How much better once we hit a certain goal or make X amount of money. But to tell you the truth, my life's no different than it was when I first started. I mean, there's different dollar amounts. Yeah. But I have less time, which kind of sucks. But the process, I think being more process oriented and as long as you're keeping that process there and having fun with it, like what I said before, then just patience, right? Because they say what are the overnight success was built at three to five years. I think that's so true.

Gresham Harkless 13:28
Yeah.

Dr. Matt Delgado 13:29
Just keeping the process there. And when it's there long enough, you're going to see the results.

Gresham Harkless 13:33
Awesome. So now I want to ask you my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. And we're hoping to have different quote unquote CEOs on the show. So document. What does being a CEO means?

Dr. Matt Delgado 13:42
You. To me, it means being a leader in the community. So I think community is what we're founded on here at Live Spring Chiropractic. It's not just with your employees or whoever you have on your team, but I think it's really in the community. And I have other friends and maybe just I have a ton of friends in the health and wellness industry, whether it's owning IV bar, IV drip companies or other medical doctors or dentists or gems, you name it. And I think the ones that are doing the best are the ones that are part of the community. Like, you can't fake it. You're either out in the community and you're really supporting your community or you're not. I think it's important in any business or as any leader to be a part of your community. I have friends that are just trying to figure it out with all these things online. As far as marketing go, whatever the case may be, right. Everyone's looking for that secret hidden gem. When you get back to the basics and really the foundation of everything, pretty simple. And as long as those simple truths are there, and I think this is one of them, be a leader in your community. I think you'd be a Great boss, CEO, business owner, whatever you want to call it.

Gresham Harkless 14:42
Nice. Well, Dr. Matt, I appreciate that. I appreciate your time even more and what I want to do is pass you the mic, so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional you want to let our readers and listeners know and, and then of course how best they can get in contact with you and get a hold of you, see your Instagram and all the awesome things you guys are working on.

Dr. Matt Delgado 14:56
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. There's one thing that I think I'll leave you with that I. So I met with my mentor here in Austin last night and to me it was so cool finding mentorship and one of the things that she left me with her last night, the last thing that he had said and it still ringing in my ear today is to be remarkable. You gotta be different and you're doing the same things as everyone else. You're not gonna, you know, you're not gonna be there. And we just actually graphic is up on our windows. If you connect with us on Instagram, I think we already are. You'll see it. They're huge pictures of us with word bubbles that we can interchange the words saying things so we can say funny things or just have fun with it again. So at DoctorMatt Delgado at D R M A T T D E L G A D O We're on Instagram, we're on YouTube also. Again, the goal behind these are demystify chiropractic as a profession and let people see what we're the law forward things you want to see full adjustments. They're kind of what we do with office on YouTube. We are LifeSpring Cairo L I F E S P R I N G C H I R O so check us out, connect with us. DM us, message us. We're open books. We're real humans. We talk to people. There's nowhere lots on there so come find us.

Gresham Harkless 16:06
Awesome, awesome, awesome. And we will have the links and information as well in the show notes so that you can just click through and follow up and see all the awesome things you guys are doing and working on. But again, appreciate you appreciate your time and I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.