Dr. Stefanie Rodsater: Alright, welcome to the UAC Hot Seats, Anik. I’m so excited to have you here, and just start off by telling us where you practice, who you practice with, a little bit about your practice, just so we can get a little bare here on where you’re at.
Dr. Anik St Martin: Absolutely. So, my husband, Darin, and I are in Longview, Washington, which is southwest part of the state. We’ve been here for 22 years in practice. We have three other doctors who work with us. And it’s a family-driven practice, we see a lot of kids, a lot of pregnant moms, a lot of… Because of the diversity of the doctors that we have, a lot of athletes, and mostly just wellness, lifestyle-based chiropractic care. And we have eight massage therapists, a naturopath, and acupuncturist, and a reflexologist as well.
Dr. Stefanie Rodsater: Oh, wow. And that’s so fun.
Dr. Anik St Martin: It is.
Dr. Stefanie Rodsater: That’s a lot. And you have… Tell us a little bit about your family, too.
Dr. Anik St Martin: Yep. So, I have two boys. Darin and I have two kids, 17- and 19-year-old boys. The youngest is a junior in high school, and he’s an avid tennis player and just an amazing kid. And the older one, Simon, is a sophomore in Florida at Embry-Riddle University. He’s a pilot and in an aeronautical program there.
Dr. Stefanie Rodsater: That’s incredible.
Dr. Anik St Martin: Yeah. Yeah, they’re awesome.
Dr. Lynne Mouw: Wow. And I’ve watched you… You have some great stories. So, I was so excited that we were getting to interview you today. But I have to just jump in, because I spoke with you, I think it was around Christmas, right, and you called me…
Dr. Anik St Martin: Yes.
Dr. Lynne Mouw: And you were about to embark upon something amazing.
Dr. Anik St Martin: Yes.
Dr. Lynne Mouw: So, tell us all about it. What is your plan for this year?
Dr. Anik St Martin: Well, this year we’re just doing our thing, taking some time off, but working. We’re in a situation where… And these things, they seem like they sneak up on you, right, and I think that you guys might be close to the same boat, Lynne. Stefanie, your kids I know are a bit younger, but you get to the point where you’re seeing that time where your last child, or your kids, your younger ones are going to be out of the house and doing their own thing, and all of a sudden you start to think about, well, what do I want to do when I grow up, basically. [chuckle]
Dr. Anik St Martin: And that’s the situation Darin and I have been in. The boys… Marco is going to be gone in about a year and a half, he’s got some lofty dreams. And Darin and I recently discovered that we really love to sail. And we don’t really know what we’re doing at all, we’re pretty much the worst pirates we’ve ever met, [chuckle] but we’re having a lot of fun and we’re learning a lot. We bought a sailboat, and in the next, I don’t know, maybe two to three years we might want to take off for a bit. Meaning like a few years, and we’re trying to figure out… You and I had that conversation, Lynne, because we’re trying to figure out how to still potentially run our practice from afar. Because we feel so connected to our community, and our sense of mission here is so huge, and although we’d realized that what that looks like might change, we’re kind of thinking that we can do both. That if we have the right wheels turning, that we can still have huge impact and be involved and do all of those things that we love and still go explore the world and maybe figure out a different part of whatever our purpose might be. You know?
Dr. Stefanie Rodsater: I love that both mindset. I love it. So, what are some steps that you are taking to get yourself to a place where you can possibly run your practice from afar?
Dr. Anik St Martin: We just have an amazing team, and we have an incredible office manager. Honestly, that’s… And we’re very much practicing right now as though we’re not needed, and so we’re taking a lot of time off and trying to just kind of lead from the back, I guess you could say; let the team lead the team and lead the community, and Darin and I are just kind of showing up and having fun, adjusting patients and spending time… I absolutely love to spend time in the rooms with babies, that’s one of my favorite places to be, and so just kind of showing up as one of the doctors and letting everybody else lead the team. And it’s really happening. And I realize it’s taking a long time, I think, to get there. I don’t think it needs to take that long. Darin and I think are slow to launch sometimes, but we’ve pretty much are empowering them to have the vision and lead the vision, and honestly, I think COVID had a lot to do with that, because we had to be so clear about how we wanted to practice. And we were, and so they became… It just became a real sense of… The purpose came through. And I think the procedures are in place, and it just feels fairly simple to have them just take care of it, and they are. And so I don’t know what that looks like if we actually exit and are gone, for literally a few years, but I think it’s doable.
Dr. Lynne Mouw: COVID had so many clarifying moments, right, so there were so much bad, but so many good things came out of that time. So this because this is exciting, and I’m really interested in this topic about your office manager, and I think there’s probably a lot of people listening who have great staff in place. But, in particular, it sounds like she’s been a key to you being able to step out. So, what would you say are some of the qualities, or what are some of the ways that you’ve invested in her to get her in that place where you can now step out and really trust that your practice will continue to grow without you?
Dr. Anik St Martin: Absolutely, she’s been getting adjusted since she was 13, in our practice. We’ve known her for a long, long time, and so number one, I think that the person really needs to understand the chiropractic paradigm. She really takes care of herself, she eats really well, she has a degree in nutrition and exercise physiology, she gets it. She’s never gone a week without being adjusted in 17 years. And so, I think that’s primary, somebody who really understands chiropractic as much as you do, because they live the lifestyle. Also, for us it really came from a realization that we, Darin, and I, are terrible managers. We’re really not good at it and being able to realize what you thrive with and what you’re good at and be able to let go of the things that you haven’t even come close to mastering or don’t care to, for us that was a big one.
Dr. Anik St Martin: We don’t like to micromanage; we don’t like to look over people’s shoulders. We’ve never been good at that. And so we brought in a manager years and years ago to be able to start doing those things for us. And she didn’t know it all. She was young, she was educated, she understood chiropractic, she’s extremely loyal, we would trust her with everything, but she had never really done any management before, and so what I did is I hired some mentors for her. I have a really good friend who owns nine different coffee shops here in our area. They do a really good job, it’s franchised. And so, I actually reached out to her general manager and brought her in to mentor Skyler one-on-one.
Dr. Anik St Martin: And so, they met for a while, they still do meet at least once a month. And then I hired somebody who’s brilliant with numbers, and so I hired somebody who used to manage a really large medical clinic, who was really used to looking at the statistics and the numbers and the financials, and she really had the role of more of a CFO in that medical clinic. She had an understanding of those things much beyond, again, how Darin and I could do it. And so, I hired her, and she meets with our office manager regularly. And so she’s getting some mentorship much beyond what we could offer, or once again what we care to offer, because we’re just not that interested in that side of things. And so, she’s learning so much, and because she’s so engaged and she keeps learning and… I think she’s developing really, really well. And I also wonder sometimes if a really good office manager who is engaged and really believes in what you’re doing and is compensated super well is happy in her place or his place, I think maybe they’re more likely to stay forever than maybe a doctor. And I’ve been having these conversations with a lot of people. Maybe a lot of the doctors aren’t…
Dr. Anik St Martin: Maybe they don’t want to lead an entire practice. And so, at first again, they were like, who would we bring in to really lead the practice? Well, maybe that’s not the question, because we already have somebody capable of doing that, who can just make sure everybody’s doing what they’re supposed to be doing.
Dr. Stefanie Rodsater: I think that having that key person… So, I think, coming from a husband-and-wife practice, it is so good to be able to acknowledge the things that you’re both not good at, because usually you put two people together and you can find a lot of things are different and the strengths are different, but also acknowledging where that there is that lack and that hole to fill is so cool. Working with your husband, I know lots of people listening do work with their spouses too, what has been, number one, the favorite part about working with Darin, being able to… But maybe share with us a challenge that you’ve experienced as well?
Dr. Anik St Martin: Yes, absolutely. And that… Well, it’s interesting because we all work with our spouses, right? I think what I love about it is I can’t think of ever having a business partner, literally, that I would trust more in the entire world, right? We have each other’s backs on such a deep level, even such a spiritual level, I think that it’s just so much fun. And to be able to share in that, even I used to think we would come home after work and we would try not to talk about work, because the boys… For the boys’ sake, but then I realized it’s such a huge part of our lives, and it really just became a family practice for us as well. Our kids have grown up here, and I know that none of that would have been possible if my business partner maybe hadn’t been their dad.
Dr. Stefanie Rodsater: So true.
Dr. Anik St Martin: Totally. Right? And so, from a family dynamic point, I think that’s huge, and it’s changed their lives, and as far as the kids, I think in a much different way than if the scenario had been different somehow. I also think that Darin and I are just really good at, again, trusting what each other is good at. We know each other so well, right? And so, most of the time we don’t even really have to talk about what we’re doing because we know that we can trust each other in the hats that we’re wearing. And in the past, especially in the beginning of practice, part of the challenge was we were trying to share certain hats. And we realized that for us that doesn’t work. And so, we identified what we liked doing and what our strengths were, and we divided the hats between each other and we don’t share and we don’t meddle into each other’s business in terms of the roles we play at work, at all. We might ask each other for opinion and some advice, but really, we each have very specific things that we do and they’re very different one from the other.
Dr. Anik St Martin: And that’s the only place where we’ve really run into a challenge is where we’ve tried to share those, because it doesn’t work. We have completely different styles of doing things. Darin’s a perfectionist. I’m not. [chuckle] And we’ve run into trouble when we tried to just share roles. And so, it seems simple, but it took us a while to realize that.
Dr. Lynne Mouw: That is such good advice. That is so wise that you figured that out. And, I mean, that’s really, I would say, and Stef, I wonder if you would agree, that that is the key to working with your spouse, is what you said.
Dr. Stefanie Rodsater: Yeah.
Dr. Lynne Mouw: So that’s going to hopefully make you great captains, co-captains on this sailboat. Back to that, because I just know… I mean, you telling about how when your boys were little you guys hopped in a van, right, and lived in South America for a few months, just to get off the grid, and family time when they were little, and it’s just always been so inspiring to me. Your and Darin’s impetus to take these big, bold moves. Where does that come from and what have you seen in your life by acting on those adventures?
Dr. Anik St Martin: Yeah, it’s interesting. I think sometimes you have these ideas that don’t really go away. They show up and they seem irrational, and they seem… They’re not predictable and they’re not traditional maybe, but it’s an idea that just keeps coming to you, and when it comes it actually creates like a stir in you, maybe even physiologically or spiritually, or it just takes your breath away, and it seems so bold and crazy that you just kind of automatically toss it out the door. And Darin and I have learned that when those things keep coming back, we’ve just learned that we have to act on them. And usually, most of the time we have no idea why, we can’t explain why. That trip we did with the boys through South America, everybody thought we were crazy. Everybody thought we were going to get kidnapped and murdered, I mean really. And why would you take your boys and do this completely, obviously unvaccinated? And all the things came up. And we realized that in situations like that, you can’t answer all the questions. And in the moment, you answer one question, there are multiple other questions that give birth to themselves, it seems like.
Dr. Anik St Martin: And you’ll never have the answer, and to just kind of trust that… Trust in the process and trust that something will show up that you’re supposed to gain. And with that trip to South America, we were living in a Volkswagen van, and we were gone five months, and we went through some huge challenges, and we had no idea why we felt we needed to do that and leave our practice and be really off the grid, unable to communicate with our practice for most of it. And we came back… It wasn’t until we came back that we realized it made us so much closer as a family, and our trust factors went way up. And, honestly, sometimes Darin and I talk about this, our youngest Marco… I’ve written about this because I think it’s a really important thing to talk about, especially right now. Our youngest Marco was eight at the time, and he was a pretty… Despite everything that we were doing, right, the way he was born and the way he was raised and everything else, he had some sort of weird abdominal migraine situation, where he would wake up several times a week throwing up for hours. And we couldn’t identify it.
Dr. Anik St Martin: We tried to make sure there was no pathology. We ruled out everything, we couldn’t figure out what was going on. We were working on his microbiome, he was seeing an acupuncturist obviously, was getting… We were doing all the things, but he just was very, very sick. And this was for years, it started when he was about two. And he was painfully shy. He was the kid that would hide under my dress if I was having a conversation with anyone else. And he was a bed wetter; he wet the bed every night of his life up until that moment. And when we were going on that… On that trip, in Ecuador, he got very, very, very sick, to the point like the type of illness and fever and severe illness where I told Darin, “Look, I’m taking him to a hospital and if I don’t get some answers by tomorrow, we’re flying home; I’m getting on a plane and I’m flying him home and… ” I was really terrified. And turns out he had dengue fever. And the fevers were so high and they lasted so long, like a good week, week and a half, and it was really…
Dr. Anik St Martin: He wasn’t eating, and he was losing a lot of weight very rapidly. And so I took him to this urgent care center and the hydrated him and explained that it was dengue. And I was sitting there with him, we were there about 12 hours, and he was just kind of not even coherent, you know? I’m just sitting there holding his hand and he comes to, out of this fever, literally comes to, and he looks at me and he goes, “Mom… ” First words out of his mouth were, “I’m not shy anymore.” No kidding.
Dr. Lynne Mouw: Wow.
Dr. Anik St Martin: And he never, ever again wet the bed or threw up ever again, not once. He’s 17 years old.
Dr. Lynne Mouw: Wow.
Dr. Anik St Martin: And Darin and I often talk about how… And it’s such a crazy-sounding story. And you’ve seen it with your patients, the babies that get the fevers and the developmental milestones and those things, but we came back… And in addition to everything else we gained from that trip; we really think that Marco needed dengue fever. [chuckle] To somehow get a reset, to get a serious part of the nervous system.
Dr. Lynne Mouw: Isn’t that just so interesting to think about, like, maybe you would have gone to a hospital sooner and he wouldn’t have gotten diagnosed, and…
Dr. Anik St Martin: Exactly.
Dr. Lynne Mouw: If he had been in the US, it would have played out totally different.
Dr. Anik St Martin: Totally, totally. And then we came back, and we thought, if the practice fails while we’re gone, it’s worth that… We had made all these decisions, like the what-ifs, the what-ifs, the what-ifs. And the opposite happened. We came back and our practice had grown in our absence. Probably because we got out of the way. I’m not sure. All these things that you just don’t see. And so, I really feel compelled to act on those thought flashes or those glimpses, those little whispers that keep coming back and back and back. And luckily, Darin and I are in line with that, and we can support each other through that quite a bit. We can act on it. Even when we’re scared or we don’t know what’s going on, it always seems to work out. And so that’s where we are now kind of again. It’s completely different, because now we don’t have kids in the mix and that sort of thing, but still.
Dr. Stefanie Rodsater: What a story. Thank you so much for sharing that with us. That was awesome.
Dr. Anik St Martin: Yeah.
Dr. Stefanie Rodsater: I have a question, just because I have little kids and I’m so excited to get them involved in my practice, and I already have in some capacity but, what… Just from a mom’s perspective, being a working mom and getting them involved in your practice, can you shed some light on that and maybe some little nuggets of advice too?
Dr. Anik St Martin: Absolutely, so, well, the kids are… They have always gotten adjusted here. And so, of course, they get adjusted at home, but Darin and I were always very, very specific about, when you get your weekly chiropractic adjustment it needs to be in the office ideally during our adjusting hours, so that they really feel the energy and see how that works and that there’s some intention behind it. We also had them both, and this may seem, I don’t know, but they both, since the time they were little, they clean the office twice a week. And so, Simon’s gone, but Marco still does that. He comes in, he drives now, he comes in on Tuesdays and Thursdays and spends 45 minutes doing the cleaning, between the time… Because we have cleaning people too, but on those two nights we don’t. And so, he really gets to see what is involved in keeping a space organized and clean. I think that’s really important. They also participate in all of our special days.
Dr. Anik St Martin: We do a huge kid’s day once a year, and we try to have… A lot of the kids participate. Even the kids of the practice, we try to have them work it. But we try to put the boys in a leadership position during that time with kids’ day, because we’ll adjust hundreds of kids on that day. And they get to be part of that as photographers, or they will set up the space and greet people or things like that. They’ve been involved with some marketing, and when I do workshops and lectures, I often will have them attend even when they don’t want to, just so that…
Dr. Anik St Martin: And I pay them if they’re participating by creating a video or that sort of thing. But just to have them be there and see what it takes, how it’s not just… Because I wonder sometimes from their perspective if it seems easy, and I would love for them to feel like, “Yeah, this is easy, you can create the life you want,” but at the same time there needs to be some diligence and some intention. So, yeah, I try to just have them here as much as possible. And you know what’s interesting? Simon, our oldest son, is in his second year of college in Florida, and of course one of the most important things for us was to find him a chiropractor as soon… When we moved him in, we got a great referral from the Roundy’s actually, from Darryl, with an amazing chiropractor there. And he goes in weekly to get adjusted, and he says… And he’s got a wonderful life there, but he said it’s his favorite part of the week.
Dr. Anik St Martin: Because he goes there, and he really feels like he’s part of… It reminds him of family and home and the routine, and it makes him feel safe. And the chiropractic space is just so important, and all of our kids, the kids that grow up in this space, I think they’re going to look for that forever, as they should, and I think that’s really coming to fruition, like watching Simon, he does not miss an adjustment, you know? And I didn’t know how that was going to go. Honestly. But it’s so fun to see.
Dr. Lynne Mouw: Yeah, when your kids get older and you’ve been putting all this work and telling them these things, and then eventually they’re doing it. It’s like…
Dr. Anik St Martin: Yes.
Dr. Lynne Mouw: It is so rewarding.
Dr. Anik St Martin: You’re just like, oh my gosh, it worked.
[laughter]
Dr. Lynne Mouw: Well, this has just been absolutely amazing, and you and Darin both are one of my favorite people to talk to, because you’re just so cool and so inspiring, listening to… The thing I wrote down was just listening to the nudges. Right? Or the whispers, I love that, I take that so to heart. You guys have been members for how… I mean, I want to say five, six years, right?
Dr. Anik St Martin: Yes, five or six years.
Dr. Lynne Mouw: Tell us about that. What do you love about the UAC? What have you gotten from our group?
Dr. Anik St Martin: I think especially it was so refreshing for us when we first came to UAC, because we finally felt like we were in a group of people where we didn’t have to stifle our enthusiasm, for life and for what we do and for dreaming big and for the vision. I don’t know about you, but sometimes even with my friends who I love dearly, sometimes I feel like I have to hold back on my vision. Not even necessarily for career, but for life in general. And I feel like with UAC, not only is that allowed but it’s expected. And I can’t really think of too many other groups that I feel that with, and it’s really liberating to… And then to be able to find out that there are other people, who maybe not think exactly the same way we do but who are so inspiring and think outside the box on so many different levels, not just with business but with family and relationships and how they want to live. And it’s just been great. And my accountability group. Darin is in a great accountability group too, and we just cherish that, because to be able to connect again with those people on a weekly basis and truly be yourself, I think is so important. And it’s not something that we had 100% prior to finding UAC.
Dr. Stefanie Rodsater: Well, thank you so much for joining us today. Your stories were amazing. I absolutely loved this podcast today.
Dr. Anik St Martin: That’s awesome. You guys are awesome. Thank you so much for doing this.
Dr. Lynne Mouw: See you soon.
Dr. Anik St Martin: Yes. Have a great day. Bye.
