How One Email Got Chiropractic Into Public Schools
Most chiropractors never look outside their four walls. Dr. Lona Cook's practice adjusts 400 students a week across 16 Wisconsin public schools, a program that started with one email to a superintendent. She also breaks down the mentor feedback that took her own visits from 200 to 300 in one quarter.
Episode Details
Most chiropractors think about scale in the same way: more patients, more locations, maybe a satellite office. Dr. Lona Cook took a different angle. Her practice now adjusts 400 students a week across 16 public schools in Wisconsin. As far as she knows, no other practice in the country is doing this. And it all started with one email to a superintendent.
Lona founded Cook Chiropractic Center in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin in 2010 and has spent 16 years building it into a 6-doctor, 2-practice operation with three chiropractors working full-time in the school system. She's also a coach at The Remarkable Practice. She originally walked into a New Beginnings philosophy seminar in New Jersey and sat through a visualization about a world where parents bring chiropractic records to kindergarten alongside vaccine records. She thought it sounded nice but wouldn't happen. Then the speaker said: "If you can't see it, you're part of the problem."
In this episode, Lona breaks down the actual sequence that turned that uncomfortable moment into a school-based program serving thousands of students. The first email wasn't about kids. It was about teachers. Wisconsin had just cut educational benefits and morale was low. Lona offered chiropractic to staff, paid through HSAs, on portable tables. A year later, an admin asked: why can't we do this with the students? She said, you tell me. The pilot started with 50 forms going home and 20 coming back signed.
The conversation also gets into the 200-to-300 visits-a-week jump that happened in one quarter, after Lona's mentor Tori Robison told her in front of a room: "You talk too much and you're too slow." Her response wasn't to defend herself. She came back to her practice and started asking, on every interaction, "does this really need to be said?" The change was that simple. She also covers her energy-based decision filter (why she sold her satellite practice early), why she's stopped chasing new patient volume in favor of unreasonable hospitality for the patients she already has, and what she'd do differently with $10,000 and zero patients today.
If you're a chiropractor stuck thinking the only way to grow is to add another room, another location, or another ad campaign, this episode is a model for what's possible outside the four walls of your office, taught by someone who built the model herself from a single email.
Key Takeaways
- Chiropractic in Public Schools Is Possible: Lona's practice adjusts 400 students a week across 16 Wisconsin public schools with three full-time chiropractors. As far as she knows, no other practice in the country is doing this at scale. Most chiropractors never even consider it.
- One Email Can Start a New Business Line: The school program started with a single email to a superintendent during a window when teacher benefits were getting cut. The lesson isn't about schools specifically. It's that opportunities exist outside your four walls if you're willing to write the first message.
- "You Talk Too Much and You're Too Slow": Lona's mentor told her this in front of a room. She didn't argue. She came back and started asking "does this really need to be said?" on every interaction. That single shift took her from 200 to 300 visits a week in one quarter.
- Energy as a Decision Filter: Lona uses energy alignment as a primary input alongside data. When her satellite practice no longer felt aligned, she offered to be bought out early. When her team felt unsteady, she doubled down on her vision instead of retreating into the operator role.
- You Will Feel the Same at $10M as You Do Now: Per her mentor on student loans. The way you feel about money is the way you feel about money. Reaching the next revenue tier doesn't change the inner experience, so reach for goals that are authentic to you.
- Marketing Flip: Roll Out the Red Carpet for the Patients You Already Have: Most operators chase new patient volume. Lona's bigger opportunity has been hospitality for patients already in care. Her team does post-shift huddles to plan custom touches: gifts to funerals, eggs from a doctor's farm in fall, wind chimes for milestones.
- Common Things, Commonly Well: The Remarkable Practice principle Lona builds her team around. Daily huddles to set the next three hours. Post-shift huddles to catch what needs follow-up. Weekly team trainings. Nothing flashy. Just the basics, run consistently.
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