Dr. Allen Miner: Hello everybody and welcome to the UAC Best Practices Podcast. I’m Dr. Allen Miner here with Dr. Brian Capra. Welcome, today.
Dr. Brian Capra: Hey, welcome everyone. Really excited again. Loving doing these now. We’re getting into a great rhythm. The Best Practices Podcast is short and sweet. Hopefully, you get a little gem, something you can learn and apply in your practice that will be the best practice for you. So today we have Dr. Peter Martone. He is a great friend. I feel like I say that every week, [chuckle] every time we do this. But awesome friend and has actually a really unique experience and journey that he’s been on, and we definitely want to help you guys learn about it. So, Pete, maybe you can give us a little nugget. How did you go from, or tell people, where your very successful practice into this international superstar in the sleep world. [chuckle]
Dr. Peter Martone: Wow. Yeah. No, that’s fantastic. I think as we all, regardless of who this is going out to, chiropractors, dentists, whatever you are, wherever you are in your life, we know especially chiropractic, adjusting people, you start to see patterns, you start to see things where people come in with the same problems over and over and over again. And then we as caregivers, practitioners, doctors, we come up with solutions. And these solutions are something that creates a uniqueness within our own practice, of who we are and what our flavor is, so when your patients then go out and they refer to you as their doctor, people love you, right? They’re saying, “You got to go see my doctor. I don’t know, they’re just going to fix you.” And you create this unique identifying brand, whatever it may be.
Dr. Peter Martone: And it wasn’t until, I would say, 10 years ago when I myself was practicing and I had my unique identifying brand, I was doing things, big lifestyle-based practice, and I had herniated my own disc. And when I herniated my disc, I’m in the emergency room, my leg is numb, I was in so much pain, screaming in pain. It was really a bad experience. And how could it have come to this? I’m a chiropractor. I’ve been dealing with this lifestyle-based practice, helping people with their own problems and I myself couldn’t help myself. And I was getting adjusted regularly.
Dr. Peter Martone: So, I reviewed 3,000 X-rays. I knew that there was a pattern, as we have our own practices. I looked at a pattern and I’m like, “Holy crap, I didn’t have back pain all of these years. I had a neck issue.” Then based on forward head posture and the righting reflex, my body adapted with the psoas major muscle spasm. So, I had a weak disc because the psoas major is the only muscle that attaches directly to a disc. So, then I started changing the way, I’m like, “Holy mackerel, how can I… What’s the most effective way for me to change something?” So, I ended up implementing sleep as part of my program. And I started putting pillows underneath my neck and I changed the way I sleep that changed my entire pattern of my body, got rid of my pain and I’m like, “Holy mackerel, I need to help… I need to really get out there and help my patients with this sleeping position issue because everybody sleeps on their side.”
Dr. Peter Martone: So, I started day in, day out, I came up with this whole protocol in the office to help people change the way that they sleep. And then it evolved, I’m like, “Wait a second.” My mission became big enough where it busted through the brick and mortar of my walls and I said, “Listen, I got to help the world with this.” So, my mission changed. And in order to stay congruent with my mission and my purpose, I had to develop this brand to be able to help the world restructure and improve the health, the quality of their life while they sleep. So that’s kind of how it happened.
Dr. Brian Capra: So, the idea is that… You said, “What can I change the most?” and what you’re saying is sleeping properly. Since you’re doing it, in theory, eight hours a night, you can get the most correction if the way you sleep is congruent with getting correction.
Dr. Peter Martone: Yeah. So, we came up with this principle called the corrective sleep therapy, where you take the eight hours… So as chiropractors, we understand that the nervous system controls everything in the human body and the structure affects the function. So, if the structure of your spine is such where you lose the cervical curve, you’re destroying the structure of your body and you’re doing that at night while you’re sleeping. So, take an advantage of the eight hours that you spend, potentially one hour… Eight hours you potentially spend in bed restructuring the spine. Our question is, when you’re sleeping, are you creating more… Are you creating a healthier individual when you wake up or you’re creating more disease when you wake up? And I argue the point that you’re creating more disease because you’re losing your structure when you sleep. So basically, I went from all my chiropractic experience, I took the lifestyle-based approach that I had, and I packaged it into a niche, and then I went out there into the world with sleep. That makes sense?
Dr. Allen Miner: You know, Pete, something I hear, and I know about you, is… I’ll connect the dots for everybody. You do have this brilliant gift of connecting things and in your case, I think patterns. And I’ve been with Pete with international film celebrities, with professional athletes, NBA players, and Pete has this way, he notice patterns, so… And this is entirely the only chiropractor I’ve ever seen do this is you doc, is you look at a person and because of how your brain works, you’ll go… I mean, I’ve watched you do it five times, you got a high ear or head tilt here, you got a high shoulder, this is rotating your low back, and so you actually… If I had to guess, you have pain in your right knee and numbness in…
Dr. Brian Capra: Yeah, you have a bunion on your right big toe. “What? How did you know that?”
Dr. Allen Miner: And it’s so engaging, like seriously, these people who are being… We’re in environments with UAC where these people are being inundated by hundreds of people who want their attention and Pete cuts through in two seconds because he tells them the truth about their bodies, which I just have to believe is how you wow your patients when they come in, but then to watch how you have evolved that special talent you had to linking it to sleep and using that as the rehab, we’ll call it, in-between the adjustments, that was…
Dr. Allen Miner: Because I remember, we’ve done CBP corrective work in our offices for years and use cervical orthotics and that was the basis when you explained your pillow to me that you developed was, “Look, man, if I can get them just starting to fall asleep on it, that’s 30, 45 minutes an hour or two that they’ve got that arc in place. How much more powerful is that than them being on an orthotic for 10 minutes?” He said, “Before you know it, because it’s a natural posture, they’re sleeping through the night on this, correcting that curve, and then it improves X, you know, A, B, C, D, E.” I just acknowledge that Pete, because a lot of our listeners, I think a lot of chiropractors see these patterns you alluded to in their own way, through their own life experience, through their own lens, but they maybe don’t have the vision that you did to connect that to “How do I explode this beyond,” like you said, “the brick and mortar of my practice to impacting the world?” And I don’t know, is that just something that was in you? Is there anybody that encouraged you? How did you get the vision to take this?
Dr. Allen Miner: And some people know, you watch what Pete’s doing as a sleep doctor, and not to name drop, but I mean, name drop, having the people that you’ve influenced and taught and been on their stages for their audiences and the online power of what you’ve done is truly inspiring. So how did you give yourself the freedom to step into that? Because when I first met you, you were a sole practitioner with a good little practice, and it’s been one of the most powerful and broad evolutions I’ve seen beyond the practice to the influence you’re having is as big as anybody I know in chiropractic. What are your thoughts on that?
Dr. Peter Martone: Well, so ultimately, I think what it really boils down to is being able to, the average individual, understand… I mean, I watch Are You Smarter Than A Fifth Grader and I couldn’t even get a lot of those questions right. So, you have to basically break down your conversation and do remedial term, like things that really make sense to an individual. And so, I just started to understand, look at patterns and be able to explain to people in a fundamental basic level, these are issues you’re having. And you have to base your stuff on laws.
Dr. Peter Martone: I got my ass handed to me four years out of practice when I spoke in front of… I was giving continuing education credits at Harvard Medical School at Mass General and I started to talk outside of chiropractic, I tried to speak in their terms. I got my ass handed to me. And I had… From that one point, I said, “I will never, ever speak without anchors.” So, what I started to do is I based all of my philosophy on laws. And the laws I use are the righting reflex, Davis’s law or Wolff’s law. These laws all chiropractors know. We all know them. And then when you start to apply and you go through the understanding of how things work based on those laws, it just… Things become super clear to you.
Dr. Peter Martone: And the righting reflex basically says, and we all know it, but in a simplistic way, instead of looking at it, body posture adjusts to head position. Simple. That’s it. So, if you hold your head to one side, your body posture is adapting to that. So, I wanted to know, how does the body posture adjust to head position? And then that’s where my ADD kind of goes through and rips through the old Guyton books and all of my physiology. I’m a kinesiologist. That was my minor in exercise physiology when I was back in undergrad. So, I love the study of biomechanics and how everything interrelates. Because the body doesn’t make mistakes, we know that in the chiropractic principles. The subluxation happens on the Aefarn pathway, not the Efferent pathway. So, what happens is there’s an issue with adaptation.
Dr. Peter Martone: So, the body creates a response and then the body adapts to it. So, there’s not an issue with dysfunction. The issue is with adaptation and adaptation comes through lifestyle. So, understanding how the body is adapting to your lifestyle is what I’m an expert in. So now I can look at people and tell you if you sprained your right ankle. If somebody sprains their right ankle, they’re going to have less rotation to the opposite side, to the left side. I already know that’s going to be the issue and I know that 80% of right-handed people are going to sprain their right ankle and they’re going to have less rotation to the left side. These are just things that I’ve been aware of. And then you can have a compensatory issue through a psoas major muscle spasm on the opposite side. These have just been all the, I guess, the things that I’ve been tied into.
Dr. Brian Capra: If you haven’t gathered, one thing I know about Pete, I’ve gotten to know him over the years in UAC and had the pleasure of being… Another big part of UAC is having our accountability group, so I’ve had the pleasure of really getting to know Pete. And if you can’t get it, I’ll tell you. [laughter] He’s… A couple of things. He’s super passionate about what he does. It’s his purpose in life. And that’s why he’s not just knowledgeable. He lives this stuff. And he’s super compassionate. So, I think part of your success from my perspective has been that… For example, Pete is talking to an NBA superstar. I won’t say where, Pete, I’ll cover you.
[laughter]
Dr. Brian Capra: He has no idea this… I don’t even really like basketball, but I know who this guy is, right? And Pete is just talking to him and gets right… He just can’t help but get into the conversation because he’s so passionate about it and it’s really his purpose, part of his purpose. So, I just wanted to mention those things about you and that’s part of your success. So, if you want to replicate what Pete’s doing, make sure you’re doing something that you’re passionate about.
Dr. Allen Miner: Hey, Pete, before we…
Dr. Peter Martone: If people remember what you say in their presence, they will remember how you make them feel. So, it doesn’t matter how smart you are, just make them feel good.
Dr. Brian Capra: Yeah.
Dr. Allen Miner: Hey, Pete, to wrap it up, one last question, you’ve been in UAC now for how many years?
Dr. Peter Martone: Since the beginning. 12 years?
Dr. Allen Miner: Twelve, 13 years. What’s it done for you through this arc? Can you give a little insight into what this group… Because this group has seen you through quite an evolution or you’ve seen this group through quite an evolution, both. What’s it been for you in your career as a chiropractor?
Dr. Peter Martone: Well, when I first started practice, there was so much contradiction going on in my own head. I was a straight chiropractor, but I also was an exercise physiologist, and I was trying to gap the difference between, how do I practice and what do I talk about. There was just so much anxiety I had as an individual, really trying to find myself. And when I got into UAC, it was the first time I heard Patrick was speaking and talking about the philosophy and understanding who I was as an individual first, and then using my business to express and amplify that. So, I started to get into a lot of purpose work, and I’ve done a lot through UAC, and it led me on the path to really… Listen, you don’t identify yourself… My existence isn’t I’m a chiropractor, because I was put on this planet for a specific reason, and I express my sole purpose through chiropractic, yes, but who I was as an individual is really more to your success than what you are by a profession. So, I found out who I was as an individual, and then started to align my yeses and nos based on what my personal purpose was and the more I said yes to my congruency and the more I said no to things that would just open distractions, the more I became congruent, and I’ve been just… You take this amount of energy and you put it on a purpose-driven path, it doesn’t… It’s just a matter of time before success finds you.
Dr. Allen Miner: You’re really the epiphany of… Or the epitome of what UAC is, Pete, is a practitioner who’s built a successful practice and still yearns to serve this purpose on a bigger scale, so watching you evolve beyond your practice into the sleep doctor and developing the pillows and the products and the courses and the impact you’ve had is what the whole room of UAC has really evolved into as well, hasn’t it?
Dr. Peter Martone: Yeah, it’s been great. With the evolution of UAC, the quality of individual that we’re bringing into UAC, the new leadership that we have and just the conversations that are happening when we get together, it’s just such a powerful unique experience that I’ll be… I’ll be in it for the rest of my professional career.
Dr. Allen Miner: It’s awesome, doc. Well, Pete, we love you, man.
Dr. Brian Capra: Sorry to cut you off there. So, Pete, tell people… Pete, is the sleep system, is that something that other doctors can apply in their practices or is that something that you do?
Dr. Peter Martone: Yeah. No, they can apply it to their practice. We now started an affiliate program within chiropractic. But if they want to follow me, they can follow me at @drsleepright on Instagram or the product, which is the NeckNest, they can follow the NeckNest too on Instagram. And we’re just always posting content, trying to give people the tools that they can be able to live and change the structure while they sleep.
Dr. Allen Miner: Love it.
Dr. Brian Capra: Gotcha.
Dr. Allen Miner: Thanks for your time and your wisdom. Great job.
Dr. Brian Capra: Alright, brother.
