Speaker: 0:01

Welcome to the Heart Led Business Show, where compassion meets commerce and leaders lead with love. Join your host, Tom Jackobs, as he delves into the insightful conversations with visionary business leaders who defy the status quo, putting humanity first and profit second. From heartfelt strategies to inspiring stories, this podcast is your compass in the world of conscious capitalism. So buckle up and let's go. Let your heart guide your business journey.

Tom: 0:36

Minds and brace your spines folks. We've got Dr. Stacey Francis riding the radio wave, cracking us up and aligning us right. She's not just a master of the backbone, but a big-hearted business bell, balancing bodies and books. So get ready for a journey from fatigued to fabulous on the Heart-Led Business Show. So keep those ears keen and let's delve deep into the backstory of her business journey. Dr. Stacey, thank you for coming here. How are you?

Dr. Stacey Francis: 1:06

Thank you for having me. And I think that was the best introduction I've ever gotten.

Tom: 1:11

Awesome! Yeah, I have to admit, I run it through a ChatGPT and I ask for plenty of alliteration because that's one of my favorite things, is alliterations. Go figure.

Dr. Stacey Francis: 1:23

Oh, that's fabulous!

Tom: 1:25

Yeah, it's kind of fun. So, you know, I like to ask all of our guests, the very first question is always what's your definition of a heart-led business?

Dr. Stacey Francis: 1:34

Oh yes. So, it's so important to me to be heart-led and you've got to understand that as a chiropractor and a functional medicine doctor. I'm seeing many patients who have come from allopathic medicine, have come from MDs and DOs and the traditional way of doing things, and they've struggled with that system. They've fallen through the cracks, they've been mistreated, they've been misdiagnosed, they've not been heard. And so I'm here to change all that, and to not only allow them to be heard and give them the time for that and the space for that, but I am a bloodhound when it comes to finding out the root cause. And so I will work diligently myself, I will gather other colleagues, and I will work towards finding out what's going on and how we can resolve it. in a natural way, if that is possible. So that's my heart-led business.

Tom: 2:43

really, but putting the patient first is what I heard from that. Is that correct?

Dr. Stacey Francis: 2:48

Yeah, it really is. And it's not that MDs and DOs and the traditionals don't do that. But their time is limited and they're only guided by their education. And once they're out of school, it takes a really concentrated effort for them to have time to do anything but review and know about the next drug that's coming their way. So all these drugs are produced so rapidly, they have to know what they are, what they're for, what contraindications are, what patients use it on, what to not, how to use it off label. They have a big job to do. So it's not their fault that this is happening. It's the system's fault that this is happening. When they're only educated by pharmaceutical companies, it takes a lot of time and effort for them to step outside of that system and look further. And the benefit of me coming as a chiropractor and having a very strong nutritional education. It allowed me to use my biochemistry and help patients without the burden of having to know all about the medications. Although I learn about the medications as my patients are taking them, because if the patient's coming in and it's a medication I'm not familiar with, guess what? My next. You know, book of study is going to be, is going to be that and how that's implicating them. In fact, how it's depleting them of nutrients so that we can support them to keep them strong and not need the next drug because of the depletion that that drug's causing. Does that makes sense?

Tom: 4:28

Oh yeah, absolutely. You know, I remember once I was at my doctor's office in Houston and I could hear through the door, the drug rep prepping the doctor on some kind of cream, and it was literally, 20 seconds. Like that's as much time that he gave to the drug rep to give him the lowdown on this new drug. And then it ended up just, Oh yeah, put it in the sample cabinet. We'll get to it. And then onto the next patient, which is just crazy. You know?

Dr. Stacey Francis: 4:58

It is crazy. Now I've worked at doctor's offices where the office manager would knock on the door after three minutes and tell the doctor you're taking too long.

Tom: 5:08

Oh, wow. Well, and that's not just, you know, the doctor's fault, but in the pharmaceuticals fault, but also the insurance that...

Dr. Stacey Francis: 5:16

It's 100 percent that.

Tom: 5:18

Yeah. I remember the old meme or some meme that was like, there's three people in the exam room with you, you, the doctor and the insurance company.

Dr. Stacey Francis: 5:28

And it's so sad because the insurance companies really do guide patient care. It tells you what labs to take. It tells you what drugs to take, what drugs you can take, how long you can take them, if you can do off label. And what most recently came to my attention is Vitamin D. Now we know that Vitamin D is so very important. In fact, low Vitamin D levels have been found in patients with autoimmunity and lots of dysfunction, skin cancer. There's so many, you know, osteoporosis and osteopenia. These are things that we know Vitamin D supports. And for a while there insurance was covering that. And then all of a sudden it wasn't.

Tom: 6:14

Really?

Dr. Stacey Francis: 6:14

And so now it's much harder to get a Vitamin D level in a typical yearly review than it was before, because insurance doesn't want to cover it. And a lot of doctors will not say, would you like this test anyways, even though it's not covered by insurance.

Tom: 6:32

Right.

Dr. Stacey Francis: 6:32

Instead, they just get their labs done. They think it's thorough because they trust their doctor. And when I say, well, what's your Vitamin D level? They look back. They haven't had it last year. They haven't had it the year before. They're like, I think I had it a few years ago. Yeah. When insurance covered it.

Tom: 6:49

Wow. And it's probably not that expensive to run that lab test either. I would imagine. Oh, that's crazy.

Dr. Stacey Francis: 6:55

No, typically not.

Tom: 6:56

So, going back to your business what inspired you to have a heart-led business and put those patients first. And, and it's, you know, maybe describe a little bit about your practice and how you operate.

Dr. Stacey Francis: 7:09

Yeah. Well it started long time ago when I was, you know, growing up and I had a lot of good nutritional influences in my family. Chiropractic influences, nutrition influences, and that really left a mark. And And as I was going through chiropractic school, I've got very sick and I needed help to get through that. And I had horrible stomach issues. I had horrible fatigue. And it was through functional medicine that I was brought through that and out of that. But it took something to shake me up to really get to that point. But then I knew, one, how I wanted to be treated. Two, what I needed to do to get there, which was lead a very clean life and be very cognizant about what influences have on our emotional state. Our mental state and our physical state. So my practice is very much let's, so when patients come in, not only do we do a structural exam, I'm a kinesiologist, so I do muscle testing to determine imbalances, which is really great to see because when I do muscle tests, not only do I get to see the results, but the patient gets to see the results. It goes from strong to weak and strong again. You know, once they're strong, we know everything's where it needs to be. And then with nutrition, I always ask, What are you eating? What time do you wake up? How much sleep do you get? What's the first thing you eat or drink? How much coffee do you have throughout the day? How much alcohol? You know, we go through the nitty-gritty and then we say, Okay, what is the bare minimum you can do? So, a lot of people want to get healthy. But I always ask, what are you willing to do?

Tom: 8:58

Yup.

Dr. Stacey Francis: 8:58

It takes something from people to change their way because we have this neurological programming. That our habits, we think of a habit as something we do good and it's a good habit or a bad habit, but we don't realize that just our day to day lives are habits. And to change that neural programming is, it takes something. And so sometimes I'll say, let's just add a protein to every meal, just a little bit more. Let's just move the needle and see how you feel. Let's just add the supplements that you are blatantly missing. So, I often do extensive lab work. You know, the lab work we get from our traditional system is often lacking. So, I look for different things that make it more complete. For instance, I cater to people that are tired and I cater to people with stomach aches. I do all the other things too, but those are my sweet spots. Those are the ones that come to me most. And that we can really make a difference pretty quickly. So when someone's coming that they're exhausted, you know, utterly exhausted, I have a quiz for that. If you're interested to take that, that will be in the links, but it will go through questions of thyroid. And when you get your blood work back, thyroid is typically only tested one value, sometimes two. If that one value is out, then sometimes two. So it's TSH, which is thyroid stimulating hormone. That's usually the only one they do. But lots can happen all the way down that cascade. There's many other thyroid markers that we need to look at because it indicates different things, especially autoimmunity There's about 40 percent of the population walking around with autoimmunity to their thyroid and don't know why they're exhausted But it's not found if that TSH is normal. So that's where patients are falling through the cracks They're exhausted. They go into their MDs. They say I'm exhausted, the MDs, they're thorough in their mind because they do that TSH. They say oh, you don't have a thyroid problem. But they didn't look down the cascade. They might do a glucose test, but they might not test insulin or hemoglobin A1C. They might check for anemias with different markers, but they won't check ferritin, which is stored iron. And that's what you really need to function and have that brain function and have that oxygen get to your brain. So, not only do I ask so many questions. In fact, that I have an intake form that people are, that took some more but it's thorough and we go through it. And we really like, you're giving me the information that's really going to help you get better. And now you're being heard. Now everything's on the table and we can rifle through it and see what's missing and see what pieces we need and what we need to do. And we start with things that are simple, that are doable, that are healthy. What do we need to remove? Is it that you're eating potato chips that are filled with vegetable oils every day? Okay, what if we just remove that or switch to a potato chip that has avocado oil or olive oil? Like, just move the needle enough to decrease inflammation and see if that makes a difference.

Tom: 12:22

Yeah. love that approach in terms of just doing the small things that will make the bigger impact. And then as people get successful, I'm sure that they get more compliant or they go down the rabbit hole of just, okay. Yeah. I want to do more. I want to do more. I want to do more. Do you, do you find that with, with some people that they start small and then...

Dr. Stacey Francis: 12:42

Absolutely.

Tom: 12:43

Yeah?

Dr. Stacey Francis: 12:43

Yes, and so actually there's a spectrum. There's the people that say I want to do it all right now. And then we will do that if they and then we kind of hold their hand through that and say are you being compliant? Are you doing all the things that we discussed? And then there's people that are like, oh just give me one thing to do, Okay, I'll stay away from fast food for three days. Okay, I can do that, right? It's like oh, I need to go to fast food restaurants, but I'll choose this and this instead of this, right? So we kind of like work with them because we're living these lives and we have different emotional capacities to change.

Tom: 13:22

Yeah.

Dr. Stacey Francis: 13:23

And so one of the main things that I'll share with your audience is that if they do this one thing, it usually moves the mark. And it helps balance blood sugar and get more nutrients into the body to help manage more anemias or thyroid issues or even inflammation. So, it's eating one serving of protein, two servings of above the ground veggies, that's low glycemic veggies, every three to four hours in a 12 hour time period.

Tom: 13:53

Okay.

Dr. Stacey Francis: 13:53

So protein is so important, right? It's important for your muscles, but it's also important for your immune system. It's important for you to be able to get up out of a chair when you get older, but that needs to be practiced early on so that you have that nutrient there for you. And then you need nutrients and that comes from your vegetables. But not your high carb vegetables like your grains, like your potatoes or your corn. It comes from broccoli and cauliflower and asparagus and red peppers and eat the rainbow, right?

Tom: 14:26

Yeah.

Dr. Stacey Francis: 14:27

And all those nutrients help repair insulin receptor sites. Helps give you the nutrients you need to heal. So you need all those nutrients. You need the protein. You need the fiber from the vegetables. And then we eat every three to four hours. That means no snacking.

Tom: 14:44

Right.

Dr. Stacey Francis: 14:44

Every protein and veggie is a meal. And then we do that every three to four hours. And to that proteins and veggies, you can add some rice, you can add some potato, you can add some fruit, but that's the core. And we give the GI system a rest every three to four hours, because when you snack after three to four hours, if you snack, you're not allowing your peristalsis, your migrating motor complex to work properly and to move things out. And that's when people get constipated. If you're constipated, you're just reabsorbing toxins. That's when we start getting sick and feeling ill and so every three to four hours and 12 hours we give you 12 hours at night just to rest your digestive tract and have your Immune system eat up those rogue cells that shouldn't be there. So simple, easy. You can do it. Everyone can do that.

Tom: 15:36

Absolutely. Yeah. I ran a nutrition program where it was exactly that four, four meals four hours apart. And you know, one of the things that, that the program director always said is not even one grape in between because it resets the system and you don't have that time to kind re-digest and all that. That's really great advice. Yeah.

Dr. Stacey Francis: 16:00

So in my, in my book, I actually talk about that. It's called the supercharged method, your transformation from fatigue to energize it looks like that.

Tom: 16:08

Awesome.

Dr. Stacey Francis: 16:09

And it talks all about the why and the how to do those things.

Tom: 16:14

Yeah

Dr. Stacey Francis: 16:14

And it also goes through lab tests and other things that will help you get to where you need.

Tom: 16:20

Yeah. And I think it's really important to definitely talk about the why it's important to do that because that, that gives people that purpose in terms of, and then a little bit of education to know, you know, what, what's going on with it. That's good.

Dr. Stacey Francis: 16:32

Absolutely. And, and to when their family comes at them saying, But I thought this chocolate cake was healthy. It has whole eggs in it. Well, let's talk about that.

Tom: 16:44

of trailer too. Yeah. Cool. So let's talk a little bit about your business, the business side, since this is the Heart-Led Business Show. What kind of ups and downs have you had in having a heart-led business versus a, cause I'm sure as a chiropractor, you could have gone right into the insurance model and seen 40 or 50 patients a day and called it a day and, you know, go to the bank, but you know, what's happened for you over this period of time in terms of the ups and downs in terms of business side?

Dr. Stacey Francis: 17:18

Right. Well, the downside is that because I don't work with insurance companies, I can spend, the upside is I get to spend lots of time with my patient and I get to do whatever it's really necessary to get them to improve their health. I'm not dictated by what the insurance allows me to do, right? And so I have, I'm a team with my patient and even their extended health care system to help them get to where they need to go. The downside is people typically gravitate towards people that doctors that take their insurance.

Tom: 17:57

Yup.

Dr. Stacey Francis: 17:57

And when that happens, then they're getting caught in the same system that is broken.

Tom: 18:03

Yeah, the sick care system, not the healthcare, but the sick care.

Dr. Stacey Francis: 18:06

It really is. So

Tom: 18:07

how do you educate people that, you know, it's, the system is designed for when you get sick. If you don't want to get sick, you have to do it outside of that system. So how do you educate people in terms of, you know, you need to pay for your own maintenance?

Dr. Stacey Francis: 18:23

Social media, social media is number one. Because they're going to see social media before they even come into my office. And at that point, they will have seen enough about me to know that I'm a good bet. It would be worth their while to spend money out of their own pocket. And, you know, we give a coded receipt that they can submit for insurance, but they can do that in order to get better care.

Tom: 18:51

Yeah.

Dr. Stacey Francis: 18:51

Also, I, when they come in, we talk and we get results very quickly. And the results, you know, if the proof is in the pudding. And so when we get results quickly, then they can move on and unlike a lot of you know There's a lot of different ways people do chiropractic. There's a lot of different ways people do medical allopathic medicine.

Tom: 19:15

Yup.

Dr. Stacey Francis: 19:15

You have to find the doctor that's right for you and some of my patients they want to be there for two seconds. They want to come in get adjusted and go they're busy busy. Okay, we cater to that when that's necessary. And then some patients come to me because they need time with someone. They need to vent. They need to, because when they're stuck in an emotional state, that contributes to their health too. And if they're always sad, if they're always lonely, if they're, this is a way that they connect, can connect with the human being and actually share. And I'm not a therapist. I don't claim be, but they can actually share what is troubling them and get it off their chest. And that in itself is very healing.

Tom: 19:59

Yeah.

Dr. Stacey Francis: 20:00

Just being able to give the time and not being dictated by the insurance establishment of how many patients I need to see in a period of time.

Tom: 20:07

Yeah

Dr. Stacey Francis: 20:07

Is beneficial for my patients. And they notice that. They pay attention to that. And especially if they've been to other doctors, then they've noticed that.

Tom: 20:15

Yeah. So then how do you balance that with, cause I'm sure early on in your career, it was really kind of a struggle to kind of break outside of that mold and educate people that, you know, you need to pay for maintenance.

Dr. Stacey Francis: 20:28

Well, so typically I don't put people on a plan. I don't put them, like a lot of doctors may do a whole like pay up front and then you'll have this whole wellness care in front of you. I don't do that, but I do have a policy. If you're in pain, come in every three days. And then I ask, give me a percentage of improvement. And as they're improving, we lengthen the visits in between, like we put time in between.

Tom: 20:56

Ah, okay.

Dr. Stacey Francis: 20:57

And that feels good to patients because they're, they can come to me and be very honest about how they're feeling. And when I was first starting out, it was slow and it was difficult, but it was really important to me that I give the care that's needed and not the care that's dictated.

Tom: 21:20

Yeah.

Dr. Stacey Francis: 21:21

It was just not important to me. So we struggled until we didn't struggle. And now I have enough following and enough of a, you know, credibility to get people to come.

Tom: 21:31

So if you look at some of your colleagues that may have graduated alongside you, that maybe one went the traditional insurance route and you went this route, is there a point where like they start off really strong and then just kind of stay in that line and maybe you were a little bit slower, but then there's a hockey stick that, yeah, like, did you witness?

Dr. Stacey Francis: 21:53

So, yes. Unfortunately, what it's come to is that on our Facebook group where chiropractors, especially women chiropractors congregate, there's so much talk about insurance. People that have gotten insurance for just a long period of time trying to get into cash practice because of the way insurance is pulling the amount that they're reimbursing and you have to chase insurance companies so hard to get even that one little portion of a payment back. And they're always trying to negotiate. Well, they owed you this much money, but will you take much?

Tom: 22:31

Oh my gosh.

Dr. Stacey Francis: 22:32

Zero or this much? And how can anyone function like that? And what kind of mental load is that on the doctor to work under those circumstances?

Tom: 22:42

Yeah, well plus you need another full-time equivalent to just deal with insurance or two full-times equivalent, you know, depending on how busy you're practicing.

Dr. Stacey Francis: 22:49

You're right. So you're paying for extra staff to submit for insurance and to chase the insurance reimbursement. And then when insurance, especially Medicare, is giving less and less, then what is keeping the practice afloat? It's very difficult. And I've seen many practitioners lose their practices. Because in that insurance model, when that breaks down, they don't have the structure beneath them and the patients are so dependent on insurance that they can't float.

Tom: 23:25

Yeah. That, I wonder if anybody's done a study to look at, you know, a true cash pay practice versus, you insurance, true insurance practice and see what really what the net income is with all the other stuff that, that the doctor in the practice has to pay for to take insurance. That'd be kind of interesting to, to look at. I think I'm just kind of, yeah, it'd be interesting. So, this has been a just a fabulous conversation, just understanding, you know, what you do in your practice, but also just kind of how you run the business as well to make sure that you're giving the care necessary that feels good to you and to your heart as well. So I really thank you very much for sharing that with with the audience. And if people are interested in learning a little bit more about about you and what you do, how can they get ahold of you?

Dr. Stacey Francis: 24:13

I'm at specificwellness.com that's my website. And on there is a quiz of if you're utterly exhausted, where that might be coming from. You can find me on all social media, Dr. Stacey Francis, and I'd love to hear from you and reach out. Let me know what's going on with you.

Tom: 24:33

Awesome. Thanks. And we'll link all that up into the show notes so that it's easy for everybody to find. And Dr. Stacey, thank you again so much for sharing your words of wisdom with us and coming onto the show. I really appreciate it.

Dr. Stacey Francis: 24:47

Thank you so much.

Tom: 24:48

No worries. And thank you listeners for watching the show today. If you're on YouTube or listening, if you're on Spotify or Apple or any of the other podcast platforms that are out there, I really do appreciate it. And so make sure you're checking out what Dr. Stacey is doing and has provided into the show notes. And also if you could do what other really cool and considerate listeners are doing, and that's sharing the show with others that could use the advice that was shared on today's show. So thank you very much for listening. And until next time, lead with your heart.

Speaker 2: 25:21

You've been listening to the Heart Led Business Show, hosted by Tom Jackobs. Join us next time for another inspiring journey into the heart of business.