Returning to the Align Your Practice podcast is Dr. Joe Clarino to talk about his journey in leadership as a doctor, a business owner, and a champion of chiropractic. He and Dr. Joe Esposito work through the mindsets and belief systems necessary to lead in a world of unknowns. 

About the Guest:

Dr. Joseph Clarino

After a college career in football, Dr. Joe realized that his body and health would not have made it through the physical battles on and off the field, if not for the chiropractic care he had received regularly since he was 12 years old. After graduating from Towson State College, Dr. Joe’s strong passion for chiropractic brought him to Life University in Marietta, GA where he met his wife, Dr. Deb Cirone.

Several years into practicing chiropractic at their large family practice in Sugar Hill GA, Dr Joe was diagnosed with Hashimoto’s Disease. Rather than running in fear toward medicine that might make him feel better momentarily, he leaned into his faith and knowledge of how the human body functions and heals. Through relentless research, training, and care from other functional medicine doctors, Dr. Joe has been led down a new path, going from a life of pain and disease to one of health, freedom, and inspiration like he never imagined.

Since then, Dr. Joe has guided countless others in their journey from pain to optimal health as an expert in cellular healing. He continually shares his expertise on how everyone can achieve their best health, regardless of where they are starting.

Dr. Joe is currently celebrating 25 years at his chiropractic office, while still dedicating his time and sharing his expertise to coach other chiropractors to greater health and success as well as help the students who represent the future of chiropractic with the PEAK Program at Life University.

About the Host:

Dr. Joseph Esposito,CEO

Dr. Joseph Esposito, D.C., C.C.N. C.N.S., C.C.S.P., D.A.B.C.N., F.A.A.I.M. C.T.N., is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of AlignLife. As such, he is responsible for the direction of AlignLife as it expands further across a dynamic and rapidly changing healthcare landscape. Dr. Esposito has more than 20 years of experience in a broad range of businesses, including chiropractic, nutrition, technology, and internet marketing.

Dr. Esposito has extensive post-graduate academic accomplishments, as well as 15 years of experience managing successful chiropractic clinics in multiple states. He also is the founder and CEO of Aceva LLC, a service-based nutritional company providing products and services to the AlignLife clinics. As the former CFO of an internet publishing company, Dr. Esposito understands the power of leveraging the internet to impact the lives of millions of Americans.

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Dr. Joseph Esposito: Welcome to the Align your practice podcast is Dr. Joe Esposito. Today we're going to talk about how self reflection looking inward will help you build a massive, massive enterprise practice. We're here with my good friend, Dr. Joe Clarino, to discuss this topic, Joe, how you doing?

Dr. Joe Clarino: Hey, thanks for having me. Again, this is great.

Dr. Joseph Esposito: So yeah, this is a topic that you chose to bring up. And I think it's, it could be one of the most hits you between the eyes podcast we've done because it's about the individual. We've talked systems. We've talked leadership, we've talked marketing and growth. And this is more like, you know, right between the ice, self reflection. So give me your scoop on kicking this kicking the topic off?

Dr. Joe Clarino: Well, you know, you know, I had this disease for a long time, I'll call it disease. And I call it the comparative disease, right? So I compared myself to everybody, and everything, especially other chiropractors. So I go to conferences, I was a big deal, doctor for years, I had coaching with other coaching groups in the beginning. And I would look at someone that I felt felt that I had more talent, better communication skills, whatever, right, a better location. And they were doing four or five times the volume I was doing. And I couldn't understand it. And so I spent so much of my time, looking at what they were doing, and not paying attention to what I was doing. And then what was what wasn't doing properly or right. And when I started making those comparisons, I lived in that comparison. And all I did was started beating myself up every single day. Because we would get together and be like, Oh, how many new patients you got? I got I got 46 new patients, I was like, I got four, like, why am I getting and then it just kept snowballing into the point where I wanted to get out of this profession, really bad. Like, like, begged my wife let me out, I don't want to be a chiropractor anymore. I don't like it. It's not fun. I don't see the value in this. Like, it sucks, I'm not good at it. And she just kept telling me, You're not leaving me. Like you're not leaving me and you're not letting go this, you're too good. You just got to find your way. And I'm like, I can't find my way you don't understand. And I would just be pissed off. And it took me a long time and heard a lot of patients to make me understand that the fight wasn't against them. The fight was within me. And once you realize that, it becomes extremely powerful, right? Because the reality is, is that we all have a fight inside of us. Every single one. Everybody your teams do your spouse's Do your kids do. Everybody does. And when you can identify it early on and understand the fight recognize it, and know what you're fighting and why you're fighting it, then Then, and only then do I think you become a great leader. And you start to help other people become great leaders just because you're answering your own problems. And that's that was really the short of my, you know, my story? Well,

Dr. Joseph Esposito: it's interesting, because the reason I wanted you to come on is because I've seen your leadership change, like on a 180 in two years. So I've known you we grew up in the same area of the same culture. And I was watching the way adverse situations the way he handled like, oh, and you bring such wisdom that not that you didn't have wisdom, but you brought the wisdom at the moment of the adversity to conflict that would normally create a crisis. I expect a crisis communication, a conflict. And you are not only like average, like you became like a sage in your ability to navigate. I couldn't even navigate it that way because it was so emotionally intelligent. And you ask questions, you were patient, and it was like I don't understand. So I appreciate the story. Because I know you're reading a lot of books for your team. I know you're maturing your leadership. So I'm thinking it's an academic thing. Something you learned. I'm thinking maybe it's, you know, it's just experience, but really, it's the fact that you shifted your consciousness the way you processed and knew it was coming from inside. And to my, my, my journey and a lot of the speaking I've done this podcast is I think a lot of us are caught in victimhood like it's all everything else's fault but mine and I got gotta fix this thing. So I'm going to dive in. And it's I'm a victim, and a victim. Once you're a victim you're taking you can't get ownership on your victim, that's the issue guys is you can't be empowered if your victim means you don't have control to change has nothing to do with us do with everything outside, you actually hand off ownership. As soon as you hear a victim and says, Well, he or she, the economy, the President, you can't even change it because you disempowered yourself. So I think if we get out of victimhood, we take ownership. And what you did was actually say, I'm not competing with anyone, I'm competing with myself. And that changed everything. Now the books helped. But it was the consciousness, right, the belief system, I guess, is what made the giant movement that I've seen in you.

Dr. Joe Clarino: Yeah, you know, I think the academic side of it makes your brain try to wrap around something that you don't understand, right? So like, Hey, this is how you do a new patient. This is how you report like, academically, you don't know how to do that. We teach you how to do that properly. Right. And now you have to get the emotional experience behind that to have the connection with the person to help lead them on the way to they understand what it takes to have great health, right? That's the academic is the is the is the is the step stool to the next step, right? It's the allowability to go there. So that's what academic did for me, right. But it's also conversations with people like you, and you know, all our other friends that we go to that, you know, you start to look at people and you understand how they act. And there's a sense of emulation that has to happen, in a sense, I'm trying to be them. But there's certain things that great leaders and great successful people do. And there's things that they don't do. And when you start to look at those things, like at some point, you have to say, well, those 10 people are doing that, and they're not doing that and they're all very successful, then you have to say, Well, I am not doing those things. And I'm not acting that way. Or I'm not saying those things, we're not thinking that way. And you have to challenge your own beliefs. Like we did the last podcast about next generation. Like, it's simple to look and say, Well, I am not doing those things. And I'm not acting that way. yet. I want those outcomes. Women to come they exist, like, I want the outcomes, but I don't do those like no, they don't, you can't you have you can't have you got to have them together, you got to act that way to have the outcomes. It's just that simple.

Dr. Joseph Esposito: I love the phrase success leaves clues. And I know our friend Steven talks about that a lot of success leaves clues, just look at the success and look at the clues that are given to you. And we talked about two things. One is competing with people. And that's where you're like trying to see what things they're doing. And instead, instead of competing with those successful people that you're around, is now you're just studying their mindset, how they're thinking and acting and leading and saying, How can I change my mindset to be more like that verse? What add or what? Right? It's different from features. Verse One, how are they operating? Right? They're operating differently than operating. They got that success. It wasn't the flyer, what you and I thought of in the beginning of practice, right? It's the fly hurts the marketing. That's what people were right.

Dr. Joe Clarino: I changed my new patient paperwork about 100 times. Legitimately I did like, I'm not kidding. I still have old calls from them. Like I have 100 Commission files. Yeah, because I thought it was the paperwork. And then to do the paperwork. I thought if I gave people a cheaper deal, that it made them want to accept my care more total opposite. Right now I do the 180 of it. Now I charged so much. I tried to scare you out of my office. It's weird. It's like the opposite. Right? Because it's such a different mindset in it. It's almost, it's not, it's not arrogant. I think it's a bad word around it. I think the word is probably more certain, like 25 years of being in the trenches seeing literally hundreds of 1000s of adjustments over my career, like you think at some point in time, I know what I know what I know, not to the point where I'm ignorant to not knowing something new. It's not I'm saying, but there are like after a while you see what you see. And you know what you know. And like when someone comes in, and they don't know that I know that they came to me, and it's my job, my job as a doctor, to lead them to the place that they don't know. That's the difference. And we're so afraid to step into that space. We're so afraid to lead them. We're so afraid to stand up for what we believe and know is true. And for the young doctors, they're so afraid because they don't know what I know. They don't see what we see. They don't know what we've experienced. And I beg them like I beg them to stand on our shoulders to understand that what I'm telling you is really true that this thing called chiropractic has incredible results. And it gets people well. And then I always say people in our office are better than people not our office right and healthier than that. that our office, it's on my front wall when you walk in the door, because I believe that not like to my core viscerally that if you walk in my door, you are going to get dipped in something today that you're not going to get out there. And if I can help lead you day in and day out, the time you come in, whether it's three minutes or 15 minutes, you're in my office, whether my team is pouring into you, I'm pouring into one of our associates and pouring into, you're getting dipped in something that the world's not telling you is true. And I take ownership to that. And because of that, I'm not going to let you leave there without hearing the truth, knowing the truth and understanding what I can give you. Sometimes they're so confused in their own ways, money, time, whatever it is, that they don't understand that if they go on the other side of it, they're rewarded for it. And they'll see the other side of it. And that's why I, I believe that you have to get people in your office for a period of time, so that you can show them promised land. And once you show them the promised land, they stay. It's just that simple. And that is true leadership.

Dr. Joseph Esposito: And that's your change to studying your beliefs. First, studying your competition, right is looking at what people need, when you put that you didn't have that sign up before, when you put that sign up, it changed the way you behave, it changed the way you the tone of your voice, that conviction, your amplitude, your nonverbals, right, your energetic connection with people is like I truly believe people are healthier my office that changes the entire office. So if you're listening to this, and you're in victimhood where you're blaming your consultant, you're blaming your staff, you're blaming your forms and your mark, and you're blaming everything around you take no ownership, I would start with your belief systems. And what do you truly deep down believe? And it may not be what Joe believes or I believe, but what do you believe that you could stand behind and get your team to follow that belief. But that's a big thing for you, Joe, is your team doesn't think differently. They don't have their It's the belief system at office, everyone holds true to that statement that they believe everyone. People are healthier in that place. And outside of everyone on that team believes that, and that carries the culture, right? It's changing the culture versus trying to change the forms or chase the competition is what's our culture? What's our belief system? I think that's part of what you're saying in, you know, in the message for this podcast? Well, it's

Dr. Joe Clarino: funny, the ones that I was chasing Austin, their mission was very different than my mission. And I didn't realize that. Like, I realized, wow, what they want is different than what I want. I just didn't know what I wanted. And once I defined that, and once I started owning that. And once I started putting it on paper, and letting that really resonate with me and sit down with me. And then I did this thing called core values that we talked about all the time when I started looking at my values, like really what's important to me, what's, what's something that I really want to, like, hold dear to my heart, like, what is that? Like, you know, and I was like, Wow, that's crazy. And then once I started pouring that across my teams, and I learned their values and what was important to them? And did they share my vision, they don't have to own my vision, but to share my vision. And once they start to realize that they shared my vision that was like, wow, we actually actually have something here because, you know, they're getting, they're getting in line. They're like, Yeah, let's, let's go conquer the world. So it no longer became me focusing on someone else is mission, it became what is my mission and where we going forward. So it's like when you play a sport, like if you're, if you're worried about what they're doing on offense, while they just ran by you, because you're, you're looking, you're looking over here, and they ran by you. And you're like, Well, what happened, and they're trying to touchdown or whatever. And so you're missing it, because you're frozen in the moment, for being active and what you're doing. And I think your mission, and your values, and when you pour that over your teams becomes a very, very different effect on how you how your practice works.

Dr. Joseph Esposito: That's huge. That's huge. Because from dealing with chasing a competitor to refining your beliefs, and then getting your team to unify their beliefs. So now it's our belief. That's that transfer of leadership, I think is when it's not just Joe's belief, but it's, it's now our team's blade, then you can build leaders inside of the Unified mission. Very different than carrying your team on your back. All the time. It's like my mission, right? It's different in your office. I know everyone is on the same mission and that, to me, that's huge. Because then you're dragging your dictator. The energy is high when your energy's high. Energy is low and your energy's low verse, you walk in having a bad day and your team lifts you up. It's just a different level of you know, a belief system for a team and that takes maturity it takes time. First you got to learn the system takes time then you got to be a good leader, then you got to build leadership, right? I mean, that's so don't knock yourself if you're not there yet. It's where are you at right now? Like we were talking on the last podcast, what's the next iteration yourself? You should quantify that what you're looking You know, accomplish the next year, right when you're doing your strategy session is, I want to become X, personally, you got to put the stake in the ground of where you're trying to go. And then you can figure out the solutions and the answers, I think,

Dr. Joe Clarino: you know, and I also think too, like you said, it takes time. And I think it's something that just double down on there is like, a team member come in. And, you know, very analytical, very detailed, came from a long history of management. Never been around chiropractic. But she has the same core beliefs that we do. And I was like, Oh, I can teach mechanics, I can't teach beliefs. Big difference. So when you got to hire the people that align with you, that's really important, right? And you got to, and I believe, also that the people you hang out with are a reflection of your beliefs, you hang out people that don't believe what you do, you're not going to you're not going to your beliefs and that strong, you know, my circle is big, but it's big around the globe. You know, like my local circles small, because my beliefs are high. And if you don't align with them, I don't hang out you. It's just that simple. It's just that easy. So it changes it, but my team member comes in and we hire, and it took her eight months of every huddle, going, Oh, Mrs. Jones was an eight out of 10. And now she's a one out of 10. She's improving her life's done that she started jogging again. And she's met three of our goals. And every every huddle was like, wow. And then we do the next person. Wow. Next person, wow, eight months, eight months, day in and day out eight months to finally one day I said, Hey, do you actually understand and believe what we're doing here? And she's like, What do you mean? I said, for the last eight months, you've given me nothing. But whilst at what point are you just going to let go and realize that this is this thing works. And I gave her eight months to get that eight months I gave her and she said, You know what? You're right. That was it. When I say light bulb, light bulb, I put her at the front now. She will not let them go, like, grabs them down. Like no, you're COVID you're coming in and get to just like, like, will not let them go. She's like, you don't know what I've seen here. You have to come in here. Like it, she owns it. But I gave her the space to get it. We're often we shove it down their throats and think that they're going to swallow this thing called chiropractic that we love and adore. And that they're all going to get it and it's gonna have this epiphany of ideas. And the reality of it is they don't right, and is given time to mature decide that. And I gave her eight months and I finally was like, now it's time. Now it's time to draw the line. And boom, she made a shift. And I gotta tell you, it's it's extremely powerful to watch someone go through that change. That's leadership.

That's interesting. Now, that birth,

Dr. Joe Clarino: she's a great leader. Right? She's an incredible leader. She birthed into that leadership. That's what we're talking about. Sorry, we're gonna say is

Dr. Joseph Esposito: that the general is that the woman with the vaccine Consortium? Yeah, she already had a belief of self healing. I mean, she had respect for herself. She doesn't follow rules. She follows her own integrity and what she believes herself like she was there. That's it? Well, it's funny. She's

Dr. Joe Clarino: a hardcore rule follower. Hardcore, like hardcore, like, standing on like bark like a dog. She'll do it like hardcore. But but there's a belief that you know what, that the spotty is a self healing organism, and has the ability to do so. And that does not need anything to interfere with it. And I'm giving you our words, but that's essentially what her belief was, right? And so I when I heard that I was like, wait a minute, I can't teach that, no matter what I say. It's either in you or it's not right. And it's just it was in her. And it was like when everything else we can teach. But I had to show her the path. I had a show it was about how to let her taste it every day, I learned how to just titrate it understand that what we did is he saw it and she filled her cup up and I knew when the cup was full, then I can be like, Hey, what are you going to drink it or not? And she was like, I'm drinking it. But that's where you have to sit back where if you're young and new. So often we want to run to the gun and get it done. And I think sometimes being great leaders is just letting things mature. And other times it's being you know, being active and pushing things right. So you got to know when that throttle is you got to know when that how that is. And it's not always a no, it's a gut. I think I've listened to my gut a lot more now than I've ever had when I was a young kid listen to my gut all the time, all the time. And I'd say it never steered me wrong. And for years I got away from it. I don't know why I lost my gut. I lost my mojo I got back to my gut again. And now I got my gut back. I just know when it's right. I know I think

Dr. Joseph Esposito: it was when you went when you started just chasing others and find out what they're doing. You didn't have your own gut, you're like, Oh, they're doing this. So we have to do this. You're there. Now you're behind your own belief system. And it's like, my heart means something. So if you're if you listen to this whole podcast, I think the lesson I'm taking away is that if you are that person, competitive assessment of everything around you, instead of focusing all that energy, of comparing yourself all of that energy, and put it into how you can better yourself. And what what Joe's saying is he created that belief system even put it on the wall, so everyone believes it, then he nurtured the group. So the conviction of the mission was so unified, the certainty was there. And he just explained the story of that one staff member who finally got it. If he were to put all his energy into competing or comparing to somebody else, you wouldn't have seen that stuff you wouldn't have created that. That that belief system that was so strong, that now you don't even have to carry that belief your team is carrying it for you. And that's that takes time. So hopefully you got some good awareness on your own through this podcast. That's a great storage. I really love that.

Dr. Joe Clarino: Thanks. Thanks for having me again.

Dr. Joseph Esposito: You're welcome. Awesome. That finished another podcast episode. Hope you guys learned something takeaway this time and we'll see you next time. Bye bye.