You Don't Have to Choose Between Great Care and Great Money

Most chiropractors silently pick one side: bleeding-heart humanitarian who can't make money, or revenue-driven operator who lost the principle. Dr. Caleb Braddock argues that's a false choice. He grew up on a 3,000-acre Texas cattle ranch where money was always tight, then carried that poverty mentality into the early years of his practice. He flinched at his own pricing. He thought every patient was thinking "this is expensive." The mindset shift didn't happen because of a tactic. It happened because of a coach who told him he had an ethical duty to sell what he believed in.

Caleb has spent the last 20 years building Braddock Chiropractic & Family Wellness in Van Alstyne, Texas, a town of about 3,000 people. He scaled it to over 600 patient visits a week and a $3M practice. He then co-founded Genesis Back & Neck with his business partner Chad Gly, a bolt-on spinal decompression model that now operates in 80 to 90 chiropractic offices across the country, with a stated mission to save one million people from spine surgery.

In this episode, Caleb breaks down what he calls the negative brand equity problem in chiropractic. The public thinks you visit a chiropractor once for back pain, get one miraculous adjustment, and never come back. No other healthcare profession carries that baggage. The fix isn't louder marketing. It's communication. If Caleb had 15 minutes to teach one thing to a struggling practice owner, communication is the only thing on his list. He explains how Socratic questioning (taught to him by Joe Borio) lets a chiropractor lead a patient to their own conclusion instead of preaching at them, and walks Corey live through the brain-spine-stomach-acid-reflux question chain that turns a back-pain patient into a wellness believer.

The conversation gets specific on the Genesis story. Caleb's friend Chad always wanted to do spinal decompression. Caleb always thought it was sacrilege. Eight years ago they sat down and Chad said: of all the patients I've struggled to help, the bulging or herniated disc patient is the worst. They opened a single shared office in McKinney, Texas to test the model. Within six to eight months it was doing $70-90K a month in cash. A friend asked if they could install Genesis in his office. Then a friend of a friend. Now 80-90 offices later, Genesis takes 25% of the profit and the partnered doctor takes 75%. The model is built on a profit share, not a franchise fee, so Genesis only makes money when the partnered doctor does.

If you're stuck running a high-revenue practice that's drifted from the principle, a high-principle practice that's drifted from solvency, or a multi-doctor operation looking at adding a high-margin service line that doesn't compromise care, this episode is the playbook from someone who refused the false choice and built both sides.