Dr. Stefanie Rodsater: All right. Welcome to the Hot Seat. This is Dr. Aaron Street. And Dr. Aaron Street, where are you from?
Dr. Aaron Street: I am from a small town in northern Iowa, Osage Iowa.
Dr. Stefanie Rodsater: That’s awesome. Tell us a little bit about what brought you to Iowa and how you ended up there, and then just the beginnings of your practice. Give us a little insight to you.
Dr. Aaron Street: Sure. So, I’m originally from this community. I grew up here and so did my wife, and so just family is the main thing that brought us back. It’s one of those deals when I left and graduated from high school, I didn’t really expect that I would be back to this little, tiny town. It’s like 3600 people, a small rural farming community in Iowa. But after we went to Palmer and lived in Davenport and all that stuff. And when it came time to decide where we were going, we both just really realized that we wanted to be close to family and we kind of have our roots in this community, we felt confident that building a practice here would be pretty easy to do, minus a few of the shenanigans that I might have done growing up. I hope people had forgotten about that.
[laughter]
Dr. Aaron Street: So, we decided to move buying an existing practice from my chiropractor that I had growing up. It was a very basic pain practice, but he had a very good reputation in the community, so we were able to build and grow off of that. And I was just telling Lynne before we started that a lot of what we did with growth had a lot to do with the early beginnings of UAC. So back when Patrick was still doing On Purpose and when he was at CLA, we utilized a lot of that. And then for the very little run of their Creating Wellness program that they started through CLA and that’s a long time ago, a lot of people probably don’t remember that, but I was… I really took that and ran with it, and we kind of inserted ourselves into the community using Creating Wellness.
Dr. Aaron Street: So, that was more about nutrition, chiropractic lifestyle movement. And at that time, we were really pushing, doing a lot of… It was pre social media boom. So, a lot of it was just a lot of events in our community. We really used that to grow quickly to a very high-volume practice. So, our town is 3600 people, when we were at our top, we were seeing 800 patient visits a week, had about 10,000 active patients. And it all came from just doing education events in the community and word-of-mouth advertising. The most advertising I’ve ever really done is like, put my name in the phone book kind of a deal.
Dr. Stefanie Rodsater: What a way to make an impact in the community, though, like a smaller community and yet able to see that many people, that’s freaking awesome.
Dr. Aaron Street: And I love the town, I love the people, I grew up here. So, a lot of the people you see were like your high school teacher and your coach and your friend’s mom and stuff like that. So, it made it fun and easy. I feel like from the beginning we’ve had a very informal, very just, family-based wellness practice where we invite everybody in, meet them where they’re at, help educate them to where they want to go, but kind of a low pressure practice that way. And it’s worked out well in our little niche demographic where we live. So, it’s been a fun ride, for sure.
Dr. Lynne Mouw: I love all those reminders of the roots of the UAC. Right? I think we met at Total Solutions. Is that, where we… At Total Solutions… On the mountaintop?
[overlapping conversation]
Dr. Stefanie Rodsater: That’s so fun.
Dr. Aaron Street: Yeah, so Total Solutions is when… Is right before Patrick started the UAC, I went to Total Solutions and it was like my second or third time of going through it. But yeah, I was like in the trust fall group with Gary Young and some of those guys way back when, and so, yeah, early UAC involved…
Dr. Lynne Mouw: You were a founding member.
Dr. Aaron Street: My practice. What’s that?
Dr. Lynne Mouw: I think you’re a founding member.
[laughter]
Dr. Aaron Street: Yeah. Yeah. We used to have our meetings in the CLA headquarters in Mahwah, New Jersey on the floor in a little conference room when it all started. But it was a lot of fun, and it was huge for me. I’m kind of isolated up here and a lot of the chiropractors in our area are just old school, come in when you need it kind of dudes. And that, nothing wrong with that. We’re in rural, very conservative agriculture, Iowa, but to be able to go out and be pushed and to mastermind and to have the accountability groups right out of the gates really helped me grow dramatically and quickly. And then as I grew, and I was telling Lynne this before we started too, I felt like my practice grew…
Dr. Aaron Street: Everything was great, we were kicking butt. I was able to… Back in the day when you first started seeing high volume and you’re talking to your buddies, like, “How many people do you see?” All that stupid, Johnson measuring stuff, things went well. But I kind of grew myself into a personality driven high volume practice that was very fulfilling to me personally, but really taking me away from family. And I have four kids, so there’s a certain point where a dad needs to be around a little more. And so, I really learned a lot. UAC helped me grow. UAC really helped me transition into more of a time freedom-based mindset with multiple streams of income, residual income, time freedom, financial freedom that way too. And I’ve kind of been reaping the benefits of that over the last 10 years as I’ve just really scaled back in my practice and see patients on a couple days a week, all cash wellness patients that are on a long-term plan that have been my patients for 20 years and let my associate doctors kind of handle a lot of the other stuff. And while I’m able to go to all my kids’ stuff and take a vacation…
Dr. Lynne Mouw: That’s great.
Dr. Aaron Street: And stuff.
Dr. Lynne Mouw: That so great, Aaron. So, talk to us about that, because in a smaller town, people knew you, this was your hometown, you built this practice. So, what were some of the ways, the tactical ways that you repositioned your practice so that you can put your associates out front and have your patients trust them and that way you could step back? I’m really interested in that. Tell us about it.
Dr. Aaron Street: First there was not much tactical involved. I just kind of stumbled through it and a lot of my training and help. Again, we’re kind of in a… I think certain concepts apply across the board; I think in my demographic. Again, we’re in a real tiny town, trust really matters. So, at first, I just tried to slowly refer and edify my associates, and that was kind of working, not working great. And then I realized I had to let my ego go and when we’re doing our educational events, instead of me being the dude up there speaking, I started scaling back and booking them in some of the education stuff, started putting them on the forefront of the things we were doing. And because of that, we were able to transition over.
Dr. Aaron Street: It was a pretty rocky road at first, though. And luckily, we’re in a kind of targeted market where we’ve developed ourselves as kind of the chiropractic practice in a 20,000-person county area. And so, we had a little bit of leeway on the mistakes we made on that, but ultimately it was just initially trying to get some of the patients that had seen me for a long time transitioning over. And it was a lot of edification. And then our new systems coming in would be more me doing the front-end patient, new patient stuff, kind of sharing a report of findings and then setting the treatment plan up with the other docs. And the hardcore people that didn’t want to change, we would set up like one of their visits with one of the other docs for their weekly treatment plan, things like that and slowly get them over into that trust circle. So, it was a little bit of a trying time, but slowly over time it worked great, and now it’s working well for that, and I appreciate it because I was able to scale back that way.
Dr. Aaron Street: Yeah. But it was… I’m no mastermind. I love the UAC so much for so many things. And even though I haven’t been as actively involved as I was in the beginning, I always, I… And this is going to date me too, I always feel like, George Costanza coming out of the cold water, in relationship to like you two rock stars and so I always feel like I’m kind of like the hick hillbilly to all the super successful people in UAC, but I still get to glean so much from that. And even the little bit just that I’m involved watching the events on the website and just following what people are doing. Like Lynne and Mark, what you guys have done and are doing and your other businesses, it’s very inspiring and motivating and it just kind of keeps those competitive kind of juices they don’t just sit back and become too complacent too.
Dr. Lynne Mouw: Well, yeah. Listen, don’t sell yourself short on the hillbilly stuff. Well, first of all, we’re from Iowa too. [laughter] We totally get it. There’s a lot of power. In that, just like something so satisfying. I’m not from Iowa, but I will forever ever be grateful for the people here and just all the doctors that are listening that are taking care of good people in towns all across America. That’s really just we’re… It’s so fulfilling and what we went to school for and just like the culmination of everything. But you’re also a numbers guy. So, what I do know about you, your financial, you’ve made some really good financial investments and you’ve gotten some… Done some things over the years. So, what’s… What would you say is some of the best investment or financial advice that you’ve gotten maybe over the last year? What’s up and coming for you?
Dr. Aaron Street: Well, for me, what I did really learn in UAC, again, taught me this, is to really, in investment or in time investment or in impact investment, I always look at impact and income being kind of two sides of the same coin, is just learning to start with what the end goal is. And again, I grew a giant practice achieving and at that point it was just serving people, loving it, and trying to get the biggest practice I could. And then what I learned is I need to scale back on what my goals are and start having different income streams that aren’t going to require me to be onsite in a place to get those. And so really looking at that more passive or residual side. I don’t think there’s any real passive income in the world. because I think you got to do your homework and strategize, and so I look at it as more residual.
Dr. Aaron Street: So, things you can put in place that will continue to pay over time that don’t require your time directly in for a time in time out. And so, I had a few things that I was lucky to kind of be involved with. A nutrition company that went really well became a seven-figure annual earner for me. And I had a lot of access and input, so it still was able to have me be involved and allow my side of my brain that really likes to help things grow and improve. So being able to consult with that company at a corporate level on their formulation side, on their marketing side, on their education side.
Dr. Aaron Street: But that didn’t require, I could do that from beach in Hawaii kind of a thing. That’s what I was looking for what I call coconut money. So, money you can make while sitting on the beach with my family was a big deal, because my family relationships were definitely strained during my 10 years of 80-hour weeks. And because I’m in a small town and you know everybody, when a patient calls you and like, “Oh, my kid has a state tournament game next week, can you come in on Sunday and work on them?” I was doing that. I became that guy because I felt so committed. And so just learning how to pull back and approaching things with the end in mind. And so, creating residual income streams, a nutrition company was big also at that point. Early UAC I was involved with Garrett Gunderson, who runs Wealth Factory and Jared Yellin, who was Patrick’s kind of assistant for years, who’s now went off and become an entrepreneur, he’s always got something super cool going on.
Dr. Aaron Street: Those guys were able to hook me up with both an investment philosophy and some actual investments that were geared towards residual passive income. Was able to get in on some early startup pre-IPO startup companies that have done really well. And so financially, it created that freedom while still keeping my foot in the door seeing patients and getting that that, what we all get, that pure joy out of serving people and educating about what chiropractic and educating about what our bodies are able to do if you give them what they need and remove that interference. Because I can’t imagine living without doing that. But not having it sacrifice my relationship with my wife or my kids in the process. So that’s kind of what I’ve been doing. I feel like for the last multiple years I’ve kind of been that guy in the movie that’s the retired CIA agent that they pan in on, that’s like chopping wood at some cabin in the middle of the wilderness. I’ve just kind of been watching chiropractic from afar and living my life and being very appreciative of the ability to do that.
Dr. Stefanie Rodsater: That’s so awesome. I wanted to hear what you were thinking as far as diving into pre… Or to passive incomes. I’m so glad you shared that with us. One of the other things I…
Dr. Aaron Street: Sorry, I didn’t mean to interrupt you. I think there’s… In today’s world with there’s so many options to do that and to be able to take what you’re great at which what you two both are, which is being ass kickers, being great public speakers, being amazing figureheads, you guys know that, and you guys are… I’m like I said, I’m George Costanza, and if I can do it anyone can do it.
[laughter]
Dr. Stefanie Rodsater: Oh, well I loved like some of the… I know we gave you a form to fill out before we got on or before we got onto the podcast and one of the things that you wrote was that I failed so many times that I feel successful. I want to dive into that just a little bit. Because I want to understand where that’s coming from and what… It’s so funny because talking to kids about failures and stuff like that, I feel like I, especially my five-year-old is just starting to play baseball and we say you don’t lose, you learn, it’s just…
Dr. Lynne Mouw: I love it.
Dr. Stefanie Rodsater: I think that that’s such a cool way to like look at things. So, I’d love to hear your dive into that just a little bit.
Dr. Aaron Street: Yeah, well, I’ve always been that way. I was an athlete in high school and in college and was blessed to have some amazing mentors and coaches, and really, we used to call it the Fun Fight Failure was the model for success. My college coach, who actually I’m doing a couple big projects with now, he’s kind of hit the personal development speaker scene. But Fun Fight Failure. So, you always want to try to have fun. You learn how to fight and, in that mentality, fight just meant effort. You go all out when you do something, you give your best effort all the time. And then understanding that failure is just a way to learn, like you said. On the investing side, for example, in my goal of trying to find kind of unique and niche investments that are going to be kind of out of the box, residual income investments, I also lost a ridiculous amount of money.
[laughter]
Dr. Aaron Street: Fail time after time in my practice. And that’s why I like listening and you guys do such a good job with this podcast, listening to some of the rock stars. And one thing I would… I’m an ADHD freak and one thing I’ve never been great at is systems and procedures and sticking to them. And I know all the superstars do that. I try my best and we have some that work. But I’ve always been the guy that’s been, “That’s a good idea, let’s do it.” And then I do it and it works, or it doesn’t. And so, I’ve got a lot better at that as I’ve gotten older. But we’ve, just in my practice and in the other businesses that I’m involved with and in my life, I usually just take things and run and if they work… I’m pretty good at assessing, I feel like. We kind of have some, try to keep the numbers there so we know if they’re working or not and get out of them if they’re not, or at least adjust them.
Dr. Aaron Street: But sometimes I just take them and run and fail. And so, we’ve done so many things like that. I can’t even think of a great investment. Well, one, and this helped me too, but it was a big failure in the end. I started a County Coalition early on where we… My goal was to get the schools, the hospital, the grocery store, which is a big deal in small towns if anybody doesn’t know that, if you have a grocery store, the kind of influencers in the school, all on the same page. So, we wanted to create this all-inclusive creating wellness health system that if you go to the grocery store, there’d be a creating wellness section.
Dr. Aaron Street: If you went to the local restaurants, there’d be creating wellness items on the menu, at the school they were going to serve a creating wellness option. And we got right up to the end, everybody was on board. We worked on this for like a year and a half. Even the hospital was involved, which is something that I worked really hard to make happen and still have a really great referral relationship with them. But right at the end, the school shut it down. There was one lady who ran the school lunch that didn’t want to do it and so it kind of all fell apart. But as a result of doing that, we maintained relationships with the grocery store, the restaurant, the medical community in the town. And that was another thing that has still… That was like 15 years ago and that still continues to really feed our practice even now. So that’s one example of a pretty epic failure right at the end.
Dr. Lynne Mouw: I love it, right? Winners are just losers that didn’t quit.
[laughter]
Dr. Stefanie Rodsater: Yeah, so true.
Dr. Lynne Mouw: So selfishly, I’m really… I’m just really excited for you to come back around. I know you’ve said, as your schedule frees up, you’ll join us at events because you are such a cool guy. Every time I talk to you, and Mark said the same thing this morning, I said, “Hey, I’m talking to Aaron today.” He’s like, “Oh, man, I miss that guy.” So, you just have such a great light and just, you can just really feel your authenticity. So, I just want to share that with you and just…
Dr. Aaron Street: I will say, I know we got to get off here, but one early UAC, it’s something that I’ve grown into through personal development, but just realizing that being your authentic self, you don’t have to be a poser and you don’t have to say all the right things. At least for me, I’ve learned that from my happiness in my life. And for me to create impact and serve people in the world, and even in my own practice with my patients, just being informal. I like to joke around a lot. I love to have fun. I don’t like to be too accountable, like hold patients too aggressively accountable, because I make so many mistakes, I don’t expect them to live a perfect life. And so just finally owning that in my own life, that just to be my authentic self and not to apologize for that, just be who you are and kind of, you either like me or you don’t kind of a thing.
Dr. Aaron Street: That was a big deal because early on in practice, again, I was… I’m a competitive person and I always wanted to show up and talk to Patrick, like I was super cool or whatever, because I looked up to him so much and just realizing that he doesn’t give a shit, he doesn’t care, just be yourself. [laughter] I feel like early UAC really helped me a lot with that. And then there were some amazing guys. Like I was blessed to be early accountability partners with Amir Rashidian, who I think is the most high integrity first class human maybe on earth. And I remember once in accountability group, he was holding me accountable, basically calling me out on some bullshit and I got all worked up about it.
Dr. Aaron Street: I might even called him a name or something. And I look back at that as like that one moment as a turning point in life for me on that being authentic and not trying to… You don’t need to hype yourself necessarily, especially to people like you guys, not to be a poser. And I’ve… I don’t know if I’ve ever told Amir thank you for that, but it was a big deal for me, that one moment. And I think our accountability group fell apart after that actually. But not because of that, just because of schedules and stuff. But that was something that really stayed with me over all these years and that’s, I don’t know, 15 years ago or something like that.
Dr. Lynne Mouw: So good. That is so good. Thank you.
Dr. Stefanie Rodsater: So good. Yeah. Because I think that the importance of those accountability groups is huge and sometimes, we don’t realize how there are some of those like life-changing moments when, especially when you’re holding other people accountable. So that’s really amazing. It’s funny because I was going to ask you, just as a closing question, what has kept you in UAC all these years? What do you feel like you’re really benefiting from? But I feel like that’s a great, that’s a great story in and of itself. But is there anything else you want to add to that, Aaron?
Dr. Aaron Street: Well, following… I’m not as active as I would like to be and a lot of it is because one of my core principles in my life right now is to be very present in my family. And my kids all play super high level club sports, and we’re at a point where I have four kids in four different cities like all over the country every weekend, and I just want to be there for that in that short time that they’re there. But just following the UAC, even from a little bit of an intermediate distance and seeing what’s going on and knowing what’s about being able to… Even remotely associate with a group like this, I think helps keep your mind in the game. And I know for a fact if I had never been part of UAC, a lot of the benefits of even understanding what I want out of life and where I’m at and how to achieve it, I would never would’ve been able to do it.
Dr. Aaron Street: I’d still be trying to keep a high volume practice together. I’d probably be divorced. I’m not even joking, I’m serious about that. So just being able to even know that you can make that transition and that there’s ways to do it and being influenced by people that have already went ahead of you. And that also just being confident that you can achieve kind of whatever you put your mind to and that people all around you and UAC is a perfect example, everybody’s doing that, and it’s gotten bigger and better all the time. So I think just keeping your head in the game is the biggest thing for me as far as being a member of UAC.
Dr. Stefanie Rodsater: I love it.
Dr. Lynne Mouw: I love that. Thank you so much for doing this, Aaron.
[laughter]
Dr. Lynne Mouw: That was awesome. So many nuggets in there and, yeah, I think it’s really a cool story and you’re so wise. And it just goes to show that just because you’re not at an event, it doesn’t mean that you don’t have value that you can get from the members and the relationships and I definitely second that. So…
Dr. Aaron Street: There’s no doubt the events are fun though when you get to talk to people.
[laughter]
Dr. Stefanie Rodsater: Heck yeah, [laughter],
Dr. Aaron Street: That’s really the… That was actually my favorite part, is drinking wine and telling jokes and staying up till 3:00am, talking chiropractic.
Dr. Aaron Street: Yeah, that’s actually the best part that I miss the most. So, UAC, and I’m sure it’s the same and just the close bonds you get with your accountability group, true deep friendships and respect, and I know you guys do a lot of traveling out in the world together. And like I said, I track it, I stalk it. I still look forward to it as my schedule slows down in my life. And that’s why I’ve been involved… I’ve been happily a little bit passively involved in UAC I think it’s still an amazing investment that easily gives back, even if you’re not all in, which I think if you go all in, that’s when you take over the world like you guys do. I’m just happy to be out in the wilderness and still just producing and enjoying my life and learning from afar sometimes too.
Dr. Lynne Mouw: So humble and you’re such a powerhouse. And thank you for all this wisdom you gave us today.
Dr. Aaron Street: Yeah, thank you both. Have a great…
[laughter]
Dr. Stefanie Rodsater: Thanks.
