052 - Local Chiropractor’s Secrets to Success - Aaron Dixon, DC

Welcome back for another episode of the PRACTICE: IMPOSSIBLE! Today, we have a special guest joining us, Aaron Dixon, DC, who is not only a Tampa Bay Rays Chiropractor, but also has an incredible story to share. In this episode, we dive deep into Aaron's journey and explore how he transitioned from serving in the military forces to pursuing a career in chiropractic medicine. His unique path is both inspiring and captivating, and you definitely don't want to miss out on hearing about it!

So grab your headphones, sit back, and get ready for an enlightening and entertaining episode as we delve into Aaron's incredible journey and uncover the truth about insurance companies. This episode is packed with valuable information and personal anecdotes that will leave you feeling empowered and informed. Don’t forget to share this episode with your friends and colleagues!

Show Notes

Discover how medical graduates, junior doctors, and young physicians can navigate residency training programs, surgical residency, and locum tenens to increase income, enjoy independent practice, decrease stress, achieve financial freedom, and retire early, while maintaining patient satisfaction and exploring physician side gigs to tackle medical school loans.

Transcript

Intro  0:00  
Welcome to the Practice Impossible Podcast. Where your host, Jude Pierre MD, also known as Coach JPMD discusses medical practice topics that will guide you through the maze that is the business of medicine, and teach you how to increase profits and help populations live long. Your mission should you choose to accept is to listen and be transformed. Now, here's your host, Coach JPMD.

Coach JPMD  0:24  
All right, welcome to the practice impossible podcast. I'm your host, Coach JPMD. That's me, thank you for listening to our audience. Thank you for sharing the show. That's the only way we get the word out. And today, we have a special guests. Aaron Dixon, chiropractor, who joins us this in season two. And as you know, we here tried to, to help our populations live long by increasing awareness of physical, mental and spiritual health globally. And physicians need the help of wise counsel wise business leaders in our community. And, and today we have live in studio with Aaron Dixon. So if you're listening to this podcast, you can also watch our podcasts for season two on YouTube, as well as Spotify. And, you know, Aaron, has helped me tremendously and not only myself, but he's helped my wife with some back issues, and I had some serious neck issues. And, you know, before we get into the episode, I have to do a disclaimer and disclosure, I guess, nothing discussed on this show. Or any of the shows before, shouldn't be taken as medical advice or treatment recommendations, listeners should contact their medical providers for advice. And so I kind of have to say that. So, Aaron? 

Aaron Dixon  1:46  
Yes, doctor? Yes. You got me here and

Coach JPMD  1:50  
Tell me. So tell us about yourself. Yeah. So,

Aaron Dixon  1:54  
Gosh, well, where do I start? I've been in practice for gosh, 11 years now. Got a family was married in 2019. And have a little girl was born in 2020. She's three and four months now. And she's amazing. And she's the most important thing in my life, obviously. And, yeah.

Coach JPMD  2:18  
So So you've been you lived in Tampa all your life?

Aaron Dixon  2:21  
No, no. So I grew up in Virginia. I was there till I was 18. And then I joined the military as an Air Force. So I left home at 18. And my parents ended up retiring down here. So once I got out of the service, I kind of followed them down here, so I could be close to my family. And then that was in 2004, or five. And I went to HCC USF for my pre med or biomedical science degree and then went to Palmer College and Daytona. So I've been in Florida since 2005.

Coach JPMD  2:51  
So you say you're Air Force? 

Aaron Dixon  2:52  
Yeah. No, no, this is funny. I was. I was a meteorologist weather forecaster. So yeah, so I'm kind of a weather geek, if you want to call it that. Um,

Coach JPMD  3:05  
so we're gonna talk about global warming. 

Aaron Dixon  3:07  
Yeah. Yeah, we could, I mean, the water is hot. It's, this is the hottest summer I can remember. So.

Coach JPMD  3:14  
So that makes me want to know about, you know, your, your previous life center. So as meteorologists you studied that?

Aaron Dixon  3:22  
Yes. So, um, the Air Force kind of put us through a kind of like a trade school, I guess you could say. So I was young, I was only 18. So I joined it right before 911. And I was in Biloxi, Mississippi for my my tech school. And it was about six months long. And they kind of teach you how to forecasts. But you obviously don't have any experience, you just kind of learned the science behind that. And it was actually looking back on it, it was pretty good education. And then we went to a hub, there's, I believe eight of them at the time, there probably is more now. And the hub that I was at was responsible for the weather in the southeast, and from Florida over to Alabama, of north to Virginia. And also a section of that hub is responsible for the weather in the Middle East, and also Southwest Asia, which is considered the Middle East. And so that was right before, right after 911. And then right before the Iraq War. So I was doing weather for at nine years old doing weather for the troops in the Air Force over there in Iraq and Afghanistan in 2002 2003. At like, 1920 years old, not even old enough to drink. So it was it was a cool experience. I didn't go anywhere. I didn't do anything brave. So, you know, I don't like to be like, oh, yeah, sir. You know, like, I don't like to, you know, kind of be that way to have the bravado of being a military guy, but at the same time, it was a great experience for me. I think it really forced me to mature in certain ways that I would think my peers might not?

Coach JPMD  5:03  
What will you how long were you in Adganistan? 

Aaron Dixon  5:05  
No, I wasn't, they actually didn't go. So I was I was in South Carolina, which is what a hub was. And we did all the weather over there, because

Coach JPMD  5:12  
I gotcha 

Aaron Dixon  5:12  
Back then, you know, even 2022 years ago, we could still do all that remotely and all that. So it was, it was a challenge. It was, but it was awesome. It was fun, I met some great people. You know, I think it really helped me grow in certain areas of my life that I said, my peers probably weren't given that opportunity. So 

Coach JPMD  5:31  
yeah, and so one of the things I always wondered about meteorologists is where do you get the data from? Because you gotta get it from the centralized location? And seems like everyone is getting fed the same data? As meteorologists? Are you also are you predicting stuff? Or are you getting predictions from the data.

Aaron Dixon  5:45  
You mean like models? Um, so this is me, this is 20 years ago, so I'm sure it's changed a lot. But yeah, I mean, we call it model forecasting is, you know, and then also actually forecasting. So like, nowadays, like you can look, anybody can pull up a model on on on the computer and see what's going to happen, right, and really, within the first couple 24, or 48 hours is probably fairly accurate. But there are things that you can look at that aren't going to be picked up models. And that's kind of the art I would think of being a weather forecaster meteorologist is not just blatantly saying, Okay, this is what all these models are telling me, this is what the forecast is, you know, like, actually interpret with satellite radar. What, extrapolate data from what's happening, you know, 500 miles away, and, and things like that. And that was that was the art of being meteorologists. And that was the fun part because especially over in Iraq, for example, there is no radar there. There wasn't radar, then back in 2000. In 2003, we had no right like, you have pulled the radar in your phone, like in America, we've had radar three, you know, 30-40 years, right. So

Coach JPMD  6:49  
So what's the radar and the satellite stuff?

Aaron Dixon  6:51  
Radar is picking up like, oh, gosh, no, no, I gotta think about this satellite is going to is a satellite looking down, right. And so you have really three things that you see with satellite, you see water vapor, you can see the temperatures of clouds. And then you can see actual visible like visual of what's going on, right? So you have to interpret those three things to kind of decide what's going on with the weather, whereas radar is looking at and I can't I can't really give you the science behind that. But

Coach JPMD  7:18  
So from what I remember with hurricanes, you have to actually have something on the ground to be able to detect what's going on. Yeah,

Aaron Dixon  7:26  
Yeah, that's the Radar. Radar is is looking at like so when you see the reds and the and the yellows, thunderstorms coming. That's really looking, I think it's looking at the density of precipitation that's in the clouds. I could be wrong. It's been a really long time. So

Coach JPMD  7:39  
I'm pressing you. We're not even here to talk about curious joy.

Aaron Dixon  7:43  
Yeah, no, I'm cool with talking about that. But anyways, my I guess my point was, it was much harder back then, in those areas, because they didn't have radar for once you couldn't be like some photo storm, or is that just the cloud? You know, like, I have no idea. And it snows in Iraq and I had no idea I missed that forecast. I was like, oh man like that. It's like two or three inches of a northern Iraq totally had no idea because they don't have any data. Like no one's kept methodological or climatological data, or didn't really, we didn't have anything. So like most of what we have in America, our models are built F over 100 years of data that's been fed into it right over there, he just didn't really have that. So we had to really kind of step up our game to kind of get things done, right. You know, because over there, like, you know, there's a lot of helicopters going out to save people, you know, to the helos going out to get these troops that are they're dying, you know, and so we have to be able to say, Hey, can you fly or can you not, you know, that's a decision that has to be made, and, you know, forecast as part of that. So it's not like here where it's like, yeah, you can ground the planes and everyone to be okay, over there. It's like, it's life or death. Yeah. So it was a little bit more challenging, I think for for a 20 year, 19 year old, you know, kid really, to do that stuff. But it was it was it was awesome. It was really good.

Coach JPMD  9:02  
And when when did you get married? 

Aaron Dixon  9:04  
Oh, gosh, when did I get married? That's just 19. So I had a big gap between when I got out of service, going to school and then getting married. Okay, yeah.

Coach JPMD  9:10  
Okay, so you went to school? Where'd you go to school again.

Aaron Dixon  9:13  
So I went to when I first got out of the service, I didn't have great high school grades. And part the reason why I went in, because that's a whole nother story. But, um, I, I could only get into HCC, right? So but I was once I had the military background, the discipline that I was taught, it was really easy. School was very simple for me, like I learned from every level that you just have to apply yourself and not leave everything last minute and it'll be fine. And I was able to do that. And if you just pay attention in class, like that's half of your stick for me was like, oh, gosh, look, look at this and learn I'm fine, you know, and so I went HCC got good grades there and then transferred to USF. That's where I got my pre med or biomedical science degree. And I was real proud of my self because I had done well in that school. I remember that a counselor that I had met, before I went from HCC to USF. She was like, Well, this is gonna be really hard for you. And we're gonna Okay, like, challenge accepted, you know, and so I remember I, my goal was to get straight A's. I didn't quite get there. But I was pretty close. And because I had originally planned to go to medical school, and you got to have very, very good grades to get to medical schools, you know, right. Well, most part, I would, I mean, I'm sure

Coach JPMD  10:27  
I was probably

Aaron Dixon  10:28  
I was, I was kind of, I just, I just really, like, took school seriously. Like, for me, it was like, the means for me to, like, become something you know. So I was very, very, very heart driven. When I once I got to USF to, you know, get all the A's and all the hard science classes just to prove them wrong, that I could do it, you know. So yeah, that was what I did in the early 2000s. And then I think 2009 is when I went to chiropractic school. So I, I wasn't really quite sure what direction of medicine I wanted to go into. I had toyed around with the idea of doing a nurse practitioner, and I was like, No, I don't want to do that I had originally wanted to do nutrition, and I decided that wasn't for me, either. And then I was getting physical therapy, and then I was going to do become an MD. And then I just kind of settled into chiropractic. And I remember I had just graduated and I thought I was gonna have to wait about a year, you know, and before I could get into a doctorate program, and I called the chiropractic school, I was like, you know, what, what's, what's the deal here? Like, they're like, Oh, we can get you in next month. I'm like, Alright, let's, that's easy. You know, and obviously, they have your requirements for you know, prerequisites and whatnot, but there is no interest exam. Okay, so that's a good and bad thing. And we can get into that later. But just as soon as

Coach JPMD  11:45  
that wasn't it wasn't in Florida. Yeah.

Aaron Dixon  11:46  
Yeah. 

Coach JPMD  11:47  
So which school is that? 

Aaron Dixon  11:48  
It's Palmer in Daytona. So calmer college is there's was three campuses now there's only two but Davenport, which is the what call it Fountainhead. Oh, yeah. Yeah, the fountainhead which is the very first chiropractic school ever, right. And there's a whole history behind it. And they obviously wanted to have more branches of the school. And so they opened one and I want to say San Jose, California, which is closed, and the one in Daytona, which is blossomed. And that opened in 2003, or four, and I started there about five or six years later. In 2009.

Coach JPMD  12:25  
Okay, yeah. So and how is that different from DOs?

Aaron Dixon  12:29  
Because I don't know I think DO is probably closer to MD.

Coach JPMD  12:32  
But they know they do manipulation? They do? Yeah,

Aaron Dixon  12:35  
I think that they are I knew that back 100 years ago, chiropractic and do are very similar. I think that DO kind of veered off more to MD side like to more allopathic medicine. Whereas chiropractic has been very holistic all the way through. I have no idea if DO is actually still manipulate or not. I think they do learn a bit whereas chiropractic, that's all we do. So our education from day one is some degree leading us to become spinal or joint manipulators within you know, three and a half years. So,

Coach JPMD  13:09  
so the three and a half year schooling is their board that you take on

Aaron Dixon  13:15  
national boards. Yeah, there's four parts. The boards, you know, there's people that don't do well on those. I was always a good test taker. So for me, it wasn't, you know, I took them really seriously, of course, but they weren't really that I didn't find them that difficult.

Coach JPMD  13:32  
Okay. And some of it is going to be I mean, oh, read, imagine that you have to have some practicals to actually manipulate?

Aaron Dixon  13:38  
Yeah. Okay. So the practicals are? A lot of it is like how to take a history, how did you an exam, certain examination tests, and also, it was, yeah, it was very practical. And that thought that was actually probably the best board we took, that was number four was like, because if you can't pass that you shouldn't be practicing. And I thought that was a very well, well written type of test, to really kind of in the schools, their job is to get you to pass your boards that your entire education is not only built to teach how to manipulate but also how to pass boards, because they want, you know, 99% of their students to graduate in passports. So they did a great job of preparing us for that.

Coach JPMD  14:18  
And as far as debt or schooling costs, how was that compared to?

Aaron Dixon  14:24  
Probably the same? 

Coach JPMD  14:25  
Really? 

Aaron Dixon  14:25  
Yeah, I mean, I shoot 200,000 Easy. 

Coach JPMD  14:27  
Oh, my God. 

Aaron Dixon  14:28  
Yeah, it's outrageous. Yeah, it's a lot. It's a lot.

Coach JPMD  14:32  
So then you really have to know your stuff to be able to mark it and start a business.

Aaron Dixon  14:36  
When it becomes difficult. Yeah, that's when it becomes 

Coach JPMD  14:38  
Tell me about that. 

Aaron Dixon  14:39  
Oh, that's, that's a tough one. So and I'm sure it's probably the same for medical doctors coming out of school. Like there's no real business training. So yeah, it seems there was a little bit we had one class, but it's not enough right.

Coach JPMD  14:54  
So one class in three and a half years, how to run a chiropractic correct

Aaron Dixon  14:59  
Yeah. So, in this, this is this is a lot to kind of break down. So let me start from the bottom here. So when I graduated, I, unlike most of my colleagues, I did not work for anybody. I was like, Well, I've always been able to accomplish whatever I put my mind to, right, I've always been able to do whatever I want, as long as I'm willing to put the work in. And I was like, This can't be any different, right? It's just probably like going to school passing a test, right? It's, it's, I just learned, I listen. And I learned from my mistakes and figure it out. And that's what I figured I would I would do much too far from this,

Coach JPMD  15:35  
that's fine.

Aaron Dixon  15:37  
So that's I just went out, I opened a practice and just got a business loan, which shocked me, they gave me one, but they did, I actually was working with a management company. In the beginning, that kind of that was, what they like to do is pick off fresh chiropractors and get them to dive into their system, and then not like a franchise, but you know, very, very planned out kind of procedures and, and all that stuff. And they helped me get the loan, and then they helped me, you know, find a place and kind of set it all up. Right. So that's what I did, which is unlike most doctors.

Coach JPMD  16:13  
So you had a management company helped you get the loan, but that management company was also going to take off yeah.

Aaron Dixon  16:19  
oh, yeah, they took their cut, they took their cut, so they didn't actually help me get the loan per se as and like have influence with the banks. They just provided me a good business plan. They kind of coached me through what to say and what to do. They kind of they use their prowess to kind of back me when I went in. And the believer, not the first bank I went into, they offered me a loan. And I think the downside to those management companies is they have a lot of ego. So they think that as long as you do exactly what they say, you will be rich, right. And it just for me, it didn't work that way. Because I you know, getting into certain things that they like to do. I mean, they're a little brill, I won't say that they weren't. But I believe that a lot of magic companies are slightly predatory towards new chiropractors, because we have no idea what we're doing. Right. And unfortunately, I think that it doesn't allow you to always have integrity, per se. And so I, I use them to help me, you know, grow initially, but eventually I was I was done with that. And I wanted to do things my way, the way I thought was more, you know, ethical, more more congruent with my my belief system, and allowed me more freedom to try treat people the way I wanted to, and do things the way I wanted to, and be as upfront as honest as I possibly could be. And that's the direction I took after working with them for a few years.

Coach JPMD  17:56  
So what would you say is the percentage of people who work with a management company like that coming out? 50%? 

Aaron Dixon  18:02  
I don't know. Probably, I would think it would be hard not to 

Coach JPMD  18:05  
really? 

Aaron Dixon  18:05  
Yeah, I mean, because think about unless you have a lot of business experience already. 

Coach JPMD  18:08  
So 80% 90%? 

Aaron Dixon  18:09  
I would think so i think most I think 95% of companies coming out don't work for themselves, they work for somebody else, which is probably the smart thing to do.

Coach JPMD  18:18  
So they get hired by another chiropractor. Who might have gone through that management company. Also. 

Aaron Dixon  18:23  
It's possible. Yeah, yeah. So some do some don't. And there's, there's a, there's a company that's for everybody, I'm sure. And then there's Mavericks out there that will just do it themselves. And, you know, that are just business minded, you know, people that can actually, you know, figure it out or know how to make the dollar and cents work in order to leverage the small amount of money they probably have in order to grow their their practices their business properly. So

Coach JPMD  18:50  
so so before we delve into the business, because I'm really interested in and understanding the payer breakdown. Yeah. Why is it that chiropractors get such a bad rap?

Aaron Dixon  19:00  
Well, that's a good, that's a good one. Um, so it probably has to do with perception of danger. That's one of them. 

Coach JPMD  19:11  
Perception of danger

Aaron Dixon  19:12  
perception of danger, correct, right? So it looks scary, or it sounds scary, or it is perceived as dangerous based on the outward appearance of what a chiropractor is doing, right? twisting your neck pop and your neck doing things like your I mean, think about if you've never had a chiropractic adjustment for and you walk in, and it's usually the last option, right? Like I've tried everything else, I don't want surgery, let's try something different. I can't get rid of my back pain or can't get over my neck pain. It is a very I'm in pain, like this is a scary thing. Somebody's gonna manipulate my spine like I'm gonna get paralyzed. You know, that's, that's a common common fear. And I like to address that as it's common. It's and it's your perceived your perceiving that's what's going to occur. So I have to address that and It's okay. It's fine. Like that's that's a normal thing I hear people say to me all the time. And I just tell them like, it's one isn't dangerous. You know if it was we wouldn't be here, right. We've had a lot of fighting along the way to become relevant.

Coach JPMD  20:17  
accepted, accepted, right. 

Aaron Dixon  20:18  
We still aren't there. But we've come a long way. I think it's professional because we just don't really hurt people. Okay. Is it dangerous? No, it's not. It's just not right. Yeah, people I'm not breaking necks. You know, we're not paralyzing people. 

Coach JPMD  20:31  
So you've never paralyzed? 

Aaron Dixon  20:32  
Yeah, never, never

Coach JPMD  20:33  
No, no, broke someone's back?

Aaron Dixon  20:35  
We can't do that. No, no, you have to, despite his strong, you know, there's a lot of ligaments and muscles that protect it. Like I, you know, I could probably sprain strain somebody if I adjust them too hard. But no.

Coach JPMD  20:47  
You're gonna be taking a history, because I know that when I saw you, I mean, you. You took a thorough history. 

Aaron Dixon  20:51  
Absolutely. 

Coach JPMD  20:52  
You asked me questions you didn't you almost didn't want to manipulate because you weren't sure what was going on? 

Aaron Dixon  20:57  
Yeah. 

Coach JPMD  20:58  
Do some exercise. 

Aaron Dixon  20:58  
Yeah, yeah. I tried to in every patient is different, right. And I'm trying to remember how you, you you came in. And I do remember the year, I knew you had a disc thing going on there. And I know, a lot of times manipulation is helpful in short term palliative aspects when you're dealing with discogenic pain like that. So you know, obviously, we want our patients to feel better, and I want them to feel better as quick as I can.

Coach JPMD  21:19  
But so let me pause you there. Because you said we I probably had a discord. 

Aaron Dixon  21:24  
Right.  

Coach JPMD  21:25  
Discogenic Let me tell my audience that I never had an MRI. I didn't have an x ray. Dr. Dixon took a thorough history and understood that it was a discogenic problem based on what he asked me and how they examined me. Yeah, which I think is really important for people to hear. Because a lot of times, I think we flipped medicine, around. When I went to medical school, it was 80% of the diagnosis's were were obtained from the history and physical. Only 10% was labs 10% was x ray. Now we flipped it where 80% is actually MRI and X rays and diagnoses only 10% is is talking to the patient history and physical. So I think it's important for for audiences, even though you may not be wanting to get advice from me, and I don't want to give you advice. But I think it's just wise for you to understand that in medicine, you have to go to a doctor that's going to actually listen to you take a history and examine. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. And so.

Aaron Dixon  22:27  
So no, you're right. And that's what they taught us in chiropractic school. 80% of your diagnosis does come from history, or was it 80%? And then 10%, from exam and then the last 10%? And labs and whatnot. Yeah. And they taught us the same thing. And it's correct. It is 100%. Correct? Yeah, I used to go back to that management company, they would say take X rays, and everybody, everybody, everybody, because it was a way to generate revenue. Sorry, not generate revenue, but also generate revenue in this in the way of not just because you can build insurance. But because you can convince the patient, they need to see you a lot based on the X ray findings guys find, okay. And a lot of people don't talk about that. And this is probably going to ruffle some feathers. 

Coach JPMD  23:07  
It's okay. I'm here to practice. 

Aaron Dixon  23:09  
Do you believe that that an that is a large portion of the reason why some chiropractors take X rays now I understand it is a great screening tool to make sure you're not gonna hurt that patient. But I've tried to think of maybe hardly ever in the last 11 years have I taken an x ray? And it's said don't adjust that patient. It just unless you're dealing with like an acute fracture, you're not going to really or you're dealing with like say like, what's it called azaad and sodium, which is where the the dens is missing, like, or there's, like actual like, you know, the patient patient has RA and that goes to what's called but there's a ligament that kind of keeps the the dens from pushing back against the spinal cord with flexion. Like, that is something that would say don't manipulate but that's usually with an RA patient or somebody that might have some ligament or synovial damage there. I just don't I've never seen it, you know, they make in school, they make it seem like everyone is going you got to be careful to everybody, because, like they're all going to have stuff and it's just not the case. And so i from i will only take them to take imaging and it's clinically necessary. Yeah, right. I just won't. And I understand that some of my professional do it because they like to do line drawings to know their, their direction of adjustment based on their technique, and that's fine. That's their technique. And, you know, it's totally okay with that. But I just feel the way I treat is just not necessary unless I think there's some pathology there that is going to keep me from treating that patient. So and that's why I don't think we took x rays, you know, I can't remember

Coach JPMD  24:40  
no no, we didn't take any x rays. You saw me fairly frequently, and I had not been to a doctor that often. 

Aaron Dixon  24:46  
Right. Right, 

Coach JPMD  24:47  
you know, but I also was in a severe amount of pain. If I go to a doctor then it's got to be 

Aaron Dixon  24:52  
Sure Sure. Sure. Sure. 

Coach JPMD  24:54  
So plus so playing soccer and you know, I probably injured it there. 

Aaron Dixon  24:59  
Right right. Right. 

Coach JPMD  25:00  
But I saw some improvement I saw that you weren't looking to, you know, send me to an orthopedic surgeon for surgery. So I felt it was important for me to continue on the treatment plan that you recommended. And you explained to me that it was going to be over a couple of weeks. I shouldn't play soccer, I shouldn't do certain things. And I know after a while, listen, listen,

Aaron Dixon  25:23  
I love when my patients listen.

Coach JPMD  25:26  
But I also had the privilege of seeing my wife go through some of the things. She did some exercise. She didn't have any imaging. And she got better. Yeah. And so now, I've done the things that I need to do to keep that from happening again. So how do we educate our physicians or other other private providers to understand that, that's what we need, we need to involve you in in the care of our patients, because it helps

Aaron Dixon  25:50  
Yeah, it does. It does. I just, for me, I like to, most patients are gonna be more educated than they were 30 years ago, because they have internet Right. Like and, and that's good and bad thing, right? 

Coach JPMD  26:02  
Yeah. Depends on what websites so websites are filled with pharmaceutical ads. Yeah, then you're not going to have them come up with a chiropractor on the side of the web page. non surgical or non medicinal treatments?

Aaron Dixon  26:20  
Well, there's a time and place for I do refer out for surgery. Yeah, for sure. There's a place for everything right. There's a time place for for narcotics, I'm sure there's a time and place for epidurals and cassette blocks. And

Coach JPMD  26:32  
but it shouldn't be there. It shouldn't be the majority. 

Aaron Dixon  26:34  
No, it shouldn't. I

Coach JPMD  26:35  
t should be the absolute minority. Absolutely. And we need to be able to coach our patients on being able to look at other modalities and not be afraid, like you were saying, Yeah, and it's all about education. And that's what we're trying to do here is educate not only our patients, but also really the providers that are afraid to go that route.

Aaron Dixon  26:54  
Yeah, yeah. Back to your I'm gonna go back to circle back, there's a couple things I wanted to talk about when it comes to, um, MRIs and exams, like, I think a lot of doctors, if they are good at a history and a good exam, they don't need an MRI, right. And the problem thing is patients, they think that that is the most important thing to get. And so most major medical insurances are going to fight you on ordering MRIs. So I know most of the time, like, they're gonna say, you need to have six weeks of conservative treatment before we will pay for an MRI. So I have to tell the patient, I'm like, X rays are useless. I'm not shooting radiation at you. So you have to either pay me more, or your insurance company has to pay me more, for no clinical reason. And they're like, Okay, MRI is the imaging choice, we really want to prove that there's a soft tissue injury or disc injury, but your insurance company is probably not gonna pay for it. But we're gonna get you better before six weeks anyways, that's our goal. We're not I'm you're out of the office, I'm sending you some reps needs ortho, probably,

Coach JPMD  27:52  
yeah, what I see in some of our patients is that they just won't go, they will go, they won't pay that $10 copay or $15 copay. It's insane. Yeah, sometimes I see some some of these things happening. And I need to get an MRI so that I can go and get, you know, epidural or pain management. So it's interesting to see that, and I think it really has to come from education.

Aaron Dixon  28:14  
Yeah, yeah. And patient education is tough. And this is something probably, newer practitioners, you know, this is good information for them to hear. Because, I mean, we're all guilty of not hearing everything that's been told to us. Right. And and I think that most of your patients, like they're not listening to you. So you have to be very simple. And what'd you say? You have to be very focused on what the patient wants, which is, I'll just continue to give me better. How much is this going to cost? And what can I do? Or what can I do right there? There? I mean, we're all selfish creatures, right? They're wanting to know, they don't want to feel pain anymore. They want to know how long this is going to take. So patient communication is, is it's an art. It's an art and it's not something you learn right away. You have to you have to get good at it. I think and I'm still learning.

Coach JPMD  29:03  
Yeah. And you have to, you have to actually do the work to get good at it also, just come to you. Yeah, so you have to go to conferences, you have to take courses, you have to speak to people who are more knowledgeable than you and, and so that's I think that's really important. And, and that if you do that, that's how you build a better business. Yeah, I agree. I think patients will trust you and come back.

Aaron Dixon  29:25  
It's the harder way to build in a sense of it takes longer, but it's more fulfilling and it's more self what's the word I'm looking for 

Coach JPMD  29:36  
fulfilling or not? 

Aaron Dixon  29:37  
No, it just it once you get a certain like X number of patients that have had a good experience with you and are happy with your treatment then it's just a cycle snowball. It's like a snowball. Yeah, a snowball effect. Exactly. And so I think that a lot of practitioners, especially in the chiropractic world, they're like, Oh, God, you open a practice. I need X amount of patients in the door now to make my overhead and pay myself right. And they're looking at it like I needed squeeze as many visits out of everybody that walks in the door as I can. The problem with that, it's like steroids, right? Yeah, you'll you'll build up quickly, but you'll not be self reliant the practice will be, once you take the steroids away, the practice is going to fall apart, because no one's going to, you know, refer to you back themselves or the family and friends, because you'd be like, Well, this guy made me come in, I was feeling good by like, for business, he made me come in for 10 more, I didn't really need those, you know, and then he tried to talk me into come in and see him, you know, every once a month, rest of my life, you know, and I think that sometimes that leaves a bad taste in people's mouths. Because people know, people know, like, when you're, they're being sold, right? You just know, like, we've been around the world long enough that we know that in somebody's trying to, I don't wanna say take advantage of us. But when somebody's like, yeah, you know, trying to get a little bit more out of me than this, you know, car sales and all that stuff, like, and I think that once patients realize your want main intention, your only goal is to give them relief, pain relief, or resolve their issue or help them you know, whatever it takes, right? And if you can't find them something they can and when people actually believe that and they know that that's your, you're genuine about that. Over time, then you're you just grow your business grows, because you're they're going to tell their family, their friends, they're going to remember you when you you know when that when it happens again, because it neck pain and back pain is gonna come back, probably, you know, they'll remember and then when their cousin or their uncle, you know, slips their discount in their lower back, they're gonna like you not go to my chiropractor, you know, he was, he gotta be better as quick as he could. He was honest, there's no fluff. There was no BS. It was just, let's get you better quick, you know? And that's absolutely right. You know, that's how I practice now. Yeah.

Coach JPMD  31:40  
Yeah So what's your payer mix? I know the chiropractor has some chiropractors do chiropractic. MVA. 

Aaron Dixon  31:49  
Yeah. 

Coach JPMD  31:51  
Personal Injury. 

Aaron Dixon  31:51  
Yeah, I do that. Yes, I do. Personal Injury, motor vehicle accidents. Um, I would say that my paint, like the volume of what I, I guess my paint, I'll be talking about two different things about how much money we have coming in versus our what type of demographics of the patient there are. So I would say I'm probably like 30%, cash. Probably 40% major medical, and the rest is motor vehicle. Alright. But motor vehicles, a larger portion of income revenue, right, just pays better. I honestly don't know that breakdown? I think I should. But it's it's probably at least 50% of the revenue.

Coach JPMD  32:35  
And so that's where you get your agreements with your lawyers. And yeah, so we call LOA

Aaron Dixon  32:41  
LOPs, LOPs. That's, that's, that's a another long discussion that's been changed because of the laws that were just written. LOPs are something that back in the day, we would have the patient sign so that 

Coach JPMD  32:53  
What does LOP stand for?

Aaron Dixon  32:55  
A letter of protection that protects a medical lien, basically. So like, if you take an auto accident, patient rights, they they don't have any of their own personal injury protection. And a lawyer will say, hey, like, can you just hold your bill, don't build the patient, just hold it. And then when the case settles, we'll satisfy your bill, right, but letter of protection can help protect you. So that like, say you're working with a somebody that you didn't know, they couldn't settle the case, pay the pay off the patient, and you're left holding nothing, right. And so that was kind of the way things were done years ago. And in Florida. Now, there's some law changes that are kind of precluding attorneys from wanting that sign. But if you have a good relationship with an attorney, that you're working with it, you shouldn't have an issue with that. Right? They should, you know, because it's all about your good business practices, right? 

Coach JPMD  33:44  
Establishing relationships. 

Aaron Dixon  33:45  
Absolutely. And they know that and we know that to at least I hope most of my profession knows that. But motor vehicle, here's, here's how I look at it, those patients need care, okay? And I want to be a provide them pain management, pain relief, without them having to do things that are more aggressive, like getting cut open, and that some of them have to because they're, you know, they have too much injury, right. But I really want to be that that that provider that can give them the best pain management with conservative treatment versus you know, ablations or, you know, haven't discectomy and things like that. Of course there are times when that's needed. And I will say there's always a few times a year when I have to you know, I've tried everything I can and I just think gotta go see an orthopedic but motor vehicle accidents are generally more lucrative than other types of patient care. But there's also more risk with them because say, you know, sometimes you get a case there might not be they might not might settle for zero, you know, there might not be anything there and so, you sometimes you have to take hits like that where there's nothing there and you know, it is what it is it's part of the business. Yeah. But for me, I don't really think of it that way. I like to think of it as you know, I'm gonna take good care of this person, get them feeling better, do the right stuff for them. And eventually they will, they'll probably come back. You know, although refer somebody and it is what it is we can sometimes you have the right a lot of money off, and it is what it is. Yeah,

Coach JPMD  35:20  
Yeah I think if you if you have a good personal business plan as well, and if your household is

Aaron Dixon  35:26  
right. buying the car you don't need Yeah, I get it. We're all guilty of that.

Coach JPMD  35:34  
So, so there's another I think it's a revenue stream for you that you have. And that's the team physician for the Rays.

Aaron Dixon  35:41  
Yeah. So that's, I think that's more of a revenue stream in the sense of, I'm going to I can, it's a good marketing, right. So it's to say that that's what I do. So I'm the one of the team chiropractors for the Tampa Bay Rays. So cool. I just got that opportunity this year. It's awesome. It's amazing. And it's it's once a lifetime, really.

Coach JPMD  36:04  
So how did you get that? 

Aaron Dixon  36:06  
Yeah so a colleague of mine is already there. And he just said, Hey, you want to have this opportunity? I'm like, Absolutely, I do. You know, I would say no to that. But after doing it for already half a season now I tell you what, is is incredible. It's a great organization, the the players are amazing, everyone. It's a great locker room. It's a great staff. I can't say anything bad about them. Honestly, it's been such a great experience. I just go in there, I treat them and everyone's real appreciative. And then I go to the game afterwards. So it's great.

Coach JPMD  36:40  
Good seats. 

Aaron Dixon  36:41  
Yeah I do. I do. I do. They're great. They're great seats. Yeah. So it's, my wife really loves it too. Because she likes to go to the games. And she likes all that stuff. Yeah. She's awesome. Yeah, she she likes it. And so we, it's been awesome. And I hope they bring you back next year. So.

Coach JPMD  36:56  
So how many do they have? Usually? How many? How many chiropractors? 

Aaron Dixon  36:59  
Yeah I think there's, um, they have, they have three active chiropractors there. But we all kind of wheat, no one travels with the team. So we're just kind of splitting up a few days when they're home. So there's not I don't think there's a chiropractor there every day. They probably don't need one there every day. But you know, we're not really doing. I'm not managing issues, really, I'm just kind of there to provide adjustments. So because they have such a great training staff there that they're dealing with all these soft tissue injuries. That's not really my wheelhouse anyways, so I just go in there. It's just, you know, it's great. It's fun. It's awesome. Yeah, it's really cool experience. So I think it's helped me in private practice, too. Because obviously, I was little bit nervous when I first started just like, wow, working on these million dollar athletes. But I think it's in my staff is has mentioned this to me that my level of confidence might have increased, that made realizing that it was just to say that that's what I do, and then having to do that and do it well and be like, Wow, this is like I really have I don't say arrived, but like I feel more arrived, I guess within my profession. So it's awesome.

Coach JPMD  38:05  
Yeah. So what would you say to your younger self? One thing that you would tell you younger? So what the heck was that?

Aaron Dixon  38:12  
Be an anesthesiologist no.

Coach JPMD  38:16  
Don't go into medicine

Aaron Dixon  38:16  
Oh, yeah. Be a plumber? No. Oh, that's terrible. No, I depends on what year let's see if it was right after chiropractic school, right? During chiropractic school, I would say work for somebody else. Okay, because I would have probably be doing better. Now. If I had to work for somebody for four years, you know, that they don't pay? Well, you know, I make good money, but it's probably the same as residency, right? So it's, you know, to live like a resident. Yeah, exactly. So five years and learn the business side of things, you know, make your mistakes under somebody else's in somebody else's office, instead of like, when do you have to make your you have to make X amount of dollars to keep your doors open? You know, I think that would have been what I would told my pre business self. And if it was pre chiropractic, I would probably tell myself, you know, I think that's a good question. Um, you know, it would be hard pressed to be a chiropractor, I think only because it's, it's pretty difficult. I think we've successful within it. I think there's much easier directions within medicine to be financially successful. Now, I don't know how fulfilling other those areas of medicine are, mentally, right. So the best part of what I do is my interactions with humans and able to help them that's the best part. That's what makes it okay. The business side of things. I'm not a fan of sure a lot of doctors or chiropractors probably agree with me there. But the fulfilling nature of what I do I don't know how that would compare to other types of medicine is it is so fulfilling to be rheumatologist I have no idea. You know, I what about radiology? You're not really dealing with people,

Right? Yeah. Personality. Yeah, exactly. Or surgeon

Like I, you know, how, how great is it like is that? Are they happy? I have no idea. You know, like, I consider myself a happy person, right? So there's not just you can't just look at things as like, how easy is it for me to make a million dollars, right? Like, you can't always look at it like that. Because, you know, you can work 80 hours a week doing something you hate and maybe make a million dollars? Who knows? But do you really want to do that? Just hate what you do now. So you know, that's going off on a tangent here and kind of going around in a circle. So I guess, I think. But yeah, if I was, I would probably tell myself to make sure that I pursued something that was if I was going to choose a different side of medicine to maybe do more shadowing of those physicians, in order to see if that is something that I would enjoy doing. So that not only am I making good money, but I'm also loving what I do like those two things, like how often do you think those match? I'm most people? Probably not hardly anybody, right? We're in any profession, right? Where you're like, I am making really good money. And I really love what I'm doing. Like they both come to like, does that happen? Oh, you know, I think like my buddy, I was talking about earlier that he does the, the picking the way he goes the garage sales and picks that oh, yeah, he loves what he's doing. And he's doing pretty good. You know? And it's like, that's, like most people don't ever, like, do that, like, follow them.

Coach JPMD  40:04  
Definetly want to arrive that you want. You want to arrive there. Because I think if you if you do that, then that's where it's easy to make money. Right? Like, it's not hard to go to work. Like we were talking about the podcast. I actually liked it. 

Aaron Dixon  41:31  
Yeah. Right. Right. 

Coach JPMD  41:39  
I like educating, like talking to people, like helping other people. And I think if, if I didn't, then, you know, I probably wouldn't be doing this. Yeah, I wouldn't be successful.

Aaron Dixon  41:53  
Yeah, exactly. Exactly. I always tell younger people, you know, I have a patient now as younger and he always asked me like, things about what I'm doing. And he's trying to pick my brain, which I think is smart. And I'm always like, I always tell these younger folks, I'm like, do what you love. Yeah, that's the most important thing you gotta do you love? 

Coach JPMD  42:10  
Absolutely. 

Aaron Dixon  42:11  
You got to find something that you like to do, and be the best at it. And then chance chances of success are gonna go up much higher than you like, or like, Well, my dad was, was a, you know, a lawyer. So now I have to be the lawyer. Well, maybe you shouldn't, because maybe that's how much you love and would like to do. So. Yeah. 

Coach JPMD  42:26  
And then focus your intensity on it. Right? 

Aaron Dixon  42:28  
Yeah. 

Coach JPMD  42:28  
You got to focus it over time. And that's what's gonna bring you success. I mean, you can't do it's not gonna be overnight, right. But you also have to focus on it. Right? So

Aaron Dixon  42:36  
Right. That wasn't to go..

Coach JPMD  42:39  
Oh, you're fine. 

Aaron Dixon  42:41  
I tend to go off in tangents. All right.

Coach JPMD  42:43  
So I've been doing some things on the in season two, rapid fire, which is what we call it. Ask your questions to it. And see one word answers. Gotcha.

Aaron Dixon  42:53  
Oh, one word. Oh, God. I mean, difficult parts. One word, one word or phrase. An entire paragraph. I'm kidding.

Coach JPMD  43:00  
So favorite book. These are the easy ones.

Aaron Dixon  43:08  
You stumped me on that one. What have I been reading lately?

Coach JPMD  43:15  
It can be fiction 

Aaron Dixon  43:15  
Yeah, I just read a book by this guy. And then Peter Zeihan I had I forget the name of it. It says news book about about Deglobalization of the world. I'm like super interested in that. And like I heard actually got into that by watching a Joe Rogan podcast where he was on like, this guy is like the stuff you've seen was like mind boggling. So right now that's my favorite book, which is like, not what most people would have to research. His newest book, and it was I can't think of the name of it. 

Coach JPMD  43:41  
Cool. Favorite sports team? 

Aaron Dixon  43:43  
Oh, this is easy. Well, I should say the Tampa Bay Rays. And I tell you what, I've become a super, super huge fan of baseball this year and of that team, but I guess my childhood team was formerly known as the Washington Redskins. Now the Washington commanders I was diehard still am. It's tough to be a fan of theirs. But that would be my team.

Coach JPMD  44:05  
With Joe Gibbs, Joe Gibbs. 

Aaron Dixon  44:06  
Yeah. Joe Gibbs is great. Yeah. Gosh, that was the golden years. I was young though. I mean, they won a Super Bowl until 1991. So I was like, what, nine years old? So I don't really remember that much. 

Coach JPMD  44:16  
Actually, my my claim to knowing Joe Greg Riggs. Joe Gibbs, Joe Gibbs is when we had the earthquake in Haiti. Yeah. There were no flights to Haiti. 

Aaron Dixon  44:28  
Right. 

Coach JPMD  44:28  
We were doing a mission trip. 

Aaron Dixon  44:29  
Okay. 

Coach JPMD  44:30  
We went down to South Florida. And Joe Gibbs had donated his planes to go to Haiti. 

Aaron Dixon  44:36  
Wow. 

Coach JPMD  44:38  
Was this before he was 

Aaron Dixon  44:40  
After 2010 

Coach JPMD  44:41  
2010. So yeah

So he was doing the racing, right. So it's a Joe Gibbs racing team. 

Aaron Dixon  44:45  
That's cool. 

Coach JPMD  44:46  
His planes flew us down. 

Aaron Dixon  44:47  
He's a good guy. 

Coach JPMD  44:48  
Yeah big heart 

Aaron Dixon  44:49  
You wouldn't find anybody in Washington DC that would say anything bad about him. So he's a he's a local hero. So cool.

Coach JPMD  44:56  
bad habit that you have

Aaron Dixon  45:00  
Oh cell phone use.

Coach JPMD  45:02  
Okay. One thing your wife really loves about you

Aaron Dixon  45:10  
oh gosh, um, humor.

Coach JPMD  45:14  
She really loves about her favorite vacation spot.

Aaron Dixon  45:20  
Oh, we love to cruise for cruisers. So we anywhere in the Caribbean 

Coach JPMD  45:24  
Caribbean. 

Aaron Dixon  45:24  
Yeah, we're when I say we say vacation I the cruise ship cruise ship. 

Coach JPMD  45:29  
Which cruise line? 

Aaron Dixon  45:29  
Oh, that's a good one carnival for a long time, but not a huge fan of them. Now they've kind of gone downhill. So I just wanted a Royal Caribbean cruise. Actually, it was awesome. So that might be my new favorites. 

Coach JPMD  45:40  
Okay, dream car. 

Aaron Dixon  45:41  
Dream Car. I'm a simple man. I like trucks. So probably a Ford Raptor. 

Coach JPMD  45:50  
Nice. 

Aaron Dixon  45:50  
Yeah.

Coach JPMD  45:51  
Last movie you saw

Aaron Dixon  45:57  
I just watched Flags of Our Fathers again. I love World War Two history.

Coach JPMD  46:01  
So I was hoping you were gonna say Barbie.

Aaron Dixon  46:04  
I want to see Oppenheimer that's I wanted to do that. And it's like three and three hours and 15 minutes long. 

Coach JPMD  46:08  
Oh, my. 

Aaron Dixon  46:09  
It's a long movie. Yeah. So I was trying to talk the wife and the kids go watch this. And she's like, it's too long. I'm like, that's the way it's what comes out on TV.

Coach JPMD  46:16  
Alright, one thing you would absolutely change the world if you had the power to do so.

Aaron Dixon  46:21  
Oh, geeze okay.

Coach JPMD  46:28  
It all the power of a magic wand you want this changed?

Aaron Dixon  46:33  
Ah. I mean, it's like, you gotta go with the big stuff then too. I mean, like, obviously, the easy answer is like world hunger. And, man, animal and child abuse. 

Coach JPMD  46:46  
Yeah. 

Aaron Dixon  46:47  
That's a good one

Coach JPMD  46:49  
the one spiritual habit that you have that you practice.

Aaron Dixon  46:53  
That I practice

Coach JPMD  46:55  
spiritual habit. 

Aaron Dixon  46:55  
Um, I don't want to say meditation, but I do a lot. Spend all the time like, especially in the morning is doing just spending time to think like no distractions, just kind of. I think that's a really good habit. A lot of people don't ever take the time to just take away the distractions just okay. Let's think about where I'm at. You know, and that's, I think your best decision making comes during those times. 

Coach JPMD  47:16  
Absolutely. And this may be a little hard. 

Aaron Dixon  47:22  
They're all hard. 

Coach JPMD  47:24  
Who is the fittest player on the race. 

Aaron Dixon  47:26  
Oh, gosh, fitness player. Probably. I mean, they're all in great shape.

Coach JPMD  47:32  
Careful now

Aaron Dixon  47:37  
That I've worked on for probably the pitcher Tyler Glassnow. Now he's in great shape. Yeah. Yeah, but those pitchers they have to be Yeah, they all have to be like, I mean, I guess if you're probably the most out of shape would probably I'm not gonna say anybody on the team obviously. But you think mostly are the pitchers that are the pitchers the the hitters, you know, the guys that just are homerun guys, you know, they don't have to do anything else. So but ya know, there are there's everybody on that team is in great shape. So yeah, 

Coach JPMD  48:03  
it's been a great episode 

Aaron Dixon  48:04  
It has been good? Okay, good. 

Coach JPMD  48:06  
Thank you so much. 

Aaron Dixon  48:07  
Yeah, sure. Sure. Well, how long have you been doing this?

Coach JPMD  48:09  
We've been doing this for about 50 minutes.

Aaron Dixon  48:11  
That's what I thought. Did I answer everything?

Coach JPMD  48:14  
I think so unless you want to add anything to your fellow chiropractor students coming out.

Aaron Dixon  48:18  
So chiropractic students, you're all listening to this. Man, I made a ton of mistakes in I did everything the hard way. So hopefully, I can provide some value for you. But you know, when I was in school, I thought that I had to learn every little thing, right? Like learn every technique, learn every type of carpenters, a lot of different branches of chiropractic, right, I thought I had to do all of that and really just gonna find something you like to do. And then really hammer that. And then work under a doctor that does that. And do that until you are not only good clinically, but you're also like, have some business acumen and then Then branch out start your own thing.

Coach JPMD  48:56  
That's great advice. Yeah. Awesome. Advice. Sure. How do we find you?

Aaron Dixon  49:00  
So I'm in North Dale Tampa. The name of the practice. It's a mouthful. It's a Tampa Back Pain Relief chiropractic. I chose that because that's what I do. And, you know, we take everybody, anybody, you know, Monday, Monday through Thursday, no Friday, so I'm good there. But yeah, that's, that's where I'm at.

Coach JPMD  49:18  
So we'll have you'll have your information in the show. 

Aaron Dixon  49:21  
Sure, sure. For sure. 

Coach JPMD  49:22  
We really appreciate you on the practice impossible podcast. And if you haven't done so, leave a review. Tell your friends, tell your chiropractors, tell you other doctors that we are here to help you understand the business of medicine. Sure. And to help you your population lives long. Because if we can't take care of ourselves, and we can help our patients. So thank you again for having us coming on. 

Aaron Dixon  49:46  
Yeah, thank you for the opportunity. I do appreciate it. It's been awesome. 

Coach JPMD  49:49  
Awesome. 

Aaron Dixon  49:49  
Cool.