These transcripts are AI-generated, and spelling may not be 100% accurate (especially for names, places, and methodologies).
Craig Minter (0:00)
I love that, and it’s at the end of the day practicing what you preach. And it’s not necessarily about nobody’s perfect, but it’s like people can see the effort and see what’s going on behind the scenes, then it’s more likely to inspire other people at the end of the day to take action. And it
Matt & Marcus (0:14)
still happens in your personal life. Like I said with the business, there’s a seasonality to everything, and so you can’t be perfect all the time.
Craig Minter (0:39)
Hello everybody, and welcome to The Healthy Business Lab podcast, where we interview allied health and related business owners to share their experiences for other practitioners and business owners in a similar space, to basically share some insights, share some education and the like, so that we can build sustainable allied health practices. And I’m excited to have on the call with today a couple of journeys. I know, I know fairly well. We’ve got Matt and Marcus from connect health, but I’d love for each of you to give a little brief intro on yourself and the business there at Connect Health. And yeah, we’ll start from there.
Marcus (1:15)
Thanks. Craig. Kick off. Yeah, go for it, Marcus and we’re two of the five directors out of Connect Health. Here are the amalgamation of three businesses, actually, which came together the last few years and I have been working together for quite a few years. What was that eight years or so? Really? We get in that as the world went a little bit silly. A few years ago, business took a few hits and a few knocks, and we were chatting with a friend of ours in another clinic across town, and realized that we had a lot of similar problems, and shared problems were a whole lot easier. So we decided to merge our osteopathic clinics together. We have brought in another physio clinic and brought that component in as well. We already had massage and rehab training, but we brought in acupuncture and just made it more of an integrative health model. And, yeah, it’s been a bit of a roller coaster either in the
Craig Minter (2:04)
last Yeah, I’d love to jump in there. There a little bit Marcus and from that idea of, as you know, he’ll love to talk about experiments in business. And in some ways, you guys have gone through couple metamorphosis around that. I’d love you to sort of speak to that idea of creating an even more holistic approach and practice in some of the experiments, some of the outcomes, some of the learnings, maybe some things that didn’t go quite to plan or but also then the things that have gone well. So that can you sort of see, hear some of those insights, yeah,
Marcus (2:36)
of course. I mean, I think there’s always going to be bumps along the road. And I think I’d love to say that we had this very clear, laid out path of how it was going to go, but the road is a little bit more windy than that, and I think the key thing is keeping that vision of of what you’re after. We didn’t go out looking for a physio practice or practitioner. We had a really great relationship with this one person, and that one person kind of helped to form that next step. And I think there’s definitely been headaches along the way. And I think any nothing out of the ordinary to any other business, you know, we have problems with general legislation or employment, team cohesion overall, really, you know, I’m trying to pick at things which have gone wrong. But I think actually the grand scheme of things is we have really created this team which has emerged together in just a such a beautiful way, and whether the whole is greater than the sum of all parts. And I think the beauty is, when you come across three of your practitioners of completely different modalities, talking around a patient and coming at it from such different angles, and realizing that actually what we’re creating is not a siloed approach of, hey, I’m a trained osteopath, and it’s my way or the highway. It’s like, actually, we want the best for our patients, and that can come from a variety of different sources, and the different lenses that everyone brings is just really enhanced the whole practice in a way that we really have predicted, and it’s really been great. I mean, the whole approach that we want is to give the best possible outcome for that patient, and that may be that, you know, between our team, that we can offer them a great resolution. It may be that actually we’ve just got great networks beyond the clinic. And actually the quagmire of the health industry is a tricky landscape for for a lot of people, so if we can help them navigate their own health journey and just be their advocate for health, and that’s really become, I think, a bit more of our platform, obviously, the stuff in clinic, the stuff on the table here and but then actually just really helping them and showing them that path to better health. So that’s where we really see that great success. I
Craig Minter (4:27)
think, yeah, I love that. And I think my follow on sort of question from that is the notion of having that holistic approach, even the networks beyond your own practice. How have you found that? And I guess, what suggestions or recommendations have you got for other practitioners, slash business owners in this space, who are potentially looking at their sort of modality and haven’t explored that? Your journey going from that starting as videos and then bringing other modalities you’ve already touched upon how it come about a little bit as well. I guess the exponential benefits that you’ve seen from that, because that’s what I’m hearing
Marcus (5:04)
from you. Yeah, well, I think one thing that we’ve sort of been able to unpack is the siloed sort of professions within this clinic. So we’re no longer osteos, physios, acupuncturist with more of a collective group that’s just here to help our patient the best we can. And so I think that’s maybe one of the first things you can do as a as a practitioner, is just saying, hey, look, actually, there’s, you know, many people out there with many ways to help people. And if we can actually get us all together, we can actually create a better outcome for our patients. Rather than just staying in our boxes and being like, I’m an osteo I only treat this and I this is my patient and all of that. So being more team orientated, and I think one of the things we had over the last couple of years is few clinics merged together, and we were quite busy, and we were looking for people to join the team, and we had this approach of trying to find people to come in. And I think we got to the point where we sort of needed people urgently, and so we sort of took on people that maybe didn’t fit, but I think in that mistake with those people, we’ve learned what we need as a clinic and as a team, and it was sort of a necessary mistake to make to have these learnings, so they’re going forward, the clinics even better. So I think that was actually something that worked in our favor in the end, and we had to go through that to get to where we are now. I think that’s maybe one thing we have learnt along the way. Yeah, you
Matt (6:16)
leave, leave your ego at the door. None of us have all the answers, and there’s a lot of smarter people out there than me, so we’re all in agreement of that. We’ve
Craig Minter (6:@3)
had a plenty of chats about that. That’s why I started myself with cool people, instead of highlighting getting the right people and the right fit for what you’ve shared being the mission and the outcomes that you’re after. And if team members aren’t embodying that, then, well, let’s make sure we get those right people in otherwise that move from the siloed approach to the more inclusive, collective approach truly will create some friction. Is that fair to say? Yeah,
Marcus (6:49)
and I think it’s still important to have those people on board, because it allowed us to sort of springboard into the next phase of the business, and now we have sort of the luxury of being able to be a little bit more selective with the people that we bring on. I think it was sort of a necessary thing to go through. And yeah, we learned a lot from that, and hopefully now we’re better for it.
Craig Minter (7:06)
Yeah, nice. And outside of having the multiple modalities and that really patient centered approach growing your business, any other experiments in the business that, again, that you’ve got learnings from at all, do you think are worth sharing? Well,
Craig Minter (7:58)
Actually, one of the ones that I was about to sort of change that at the end of the day, you guys have had some considerable growth with the amalgamation of the front businesses and those sorts of things. And so this idea of going in and sustaining and then growing and sustaining, and that idea of using your words, it’s the walking before you run
Matt (8:18)
sort of periods of consolidation of of that growth. So to otherwise, you build your your skyscraper with very shoddy foundations. And I think you really need to make sure that that base is is solid. And the wider you know, the more solid the base that, the higher that can go. Growth, for the sake of growth, is very quick to topple. And I
Marcus (8:35)
think it’s sort of recognizing that there’s sort of a seasonality to business where you like, you’ll go through a period of growth, and then you’ve got to sort of consolidate for a bit and reassess, and then grow some more. So it’s not just constantly growing or constantly consolidating. You sort of recognize that there is up and downs, and things will always be changing and sort of evolving with that is sort of really important to keep in mind. And
Matt (8:54)
I think interesting looking around the general economy at the moment, yeah, certainly got a few friends and different sorts of businesses that have not survived 24 Yeah, you see that around the place quite a lot. And I think maybe that’s sort of a post COVID hangover and the economy struggling, but I think we’ve managed to sail through last year pretty clean as I say. I think that sort of speaks to that foundation and sort of not trying to survive, which we’re still thriving. But I think just really got to take that bird’s eye view and say, Well, look, we don’t need to be bigger. And if we if the quality is at risk, let’s just consolidate, make sure that we are strong. And I think, as Matt said, I think sometimes just sticking to your lane can be important. And it’s very tempting to say, hey, there’s a great opportunity here. We could throw this in, we could throw that in, and all of a sudden, she just dilutes what we are and gives a confusing message. The adage I was often used for that is, if you want to go out and have a nice quality meal, you don’t go to the restaurant that does the Chinese and the fish and chips and the Italian you go to either go to one or the other. If you’re doing everything, you’re doing them all badly. Love
Craig Minter (9:55)
that. A great analogy. And even I’ll probably come back to a couple of notes here I did for. It down here that I think, a great little nugget and takeaway is that idea of the growth for growth sake, and being conscious of that which ties back to that staying in your lane kind of idea. It’s a really poignant thing to for people to keep in mind, I think, and that seasonality that you mentioned, Matt as well, it’s the just being conscious. But there are those flows within years, but also within multiple years as you’re going through the different stages of your business. So thank you for sharing those sort of the evolution of their experiences there as well that I’d love to also go back to business owners specifically as well the idea of your expertise and what you’ve talked about there of looking after the health and wellness across a holistic approach for people and reflecting on us as business owners. And I know in the past as a business owner, I’ve been caught in the business of being busy and, you know, life, and one of the first things to sort of drop off sometimes is the looking after self. And again, the business naturally is challenged at those points and the like as business owners, something we need to be mindful of, but often aren’t in your space of being a business owner, but then also being in the health and wellness space of looking after people’s self. How can people take on the different approaches that you’ve got to look after themselves?
Matt (11:20)
I think that’s especially well be that a business owner or a health professional, I mean, you it’s very hard to preach what you’re not practicing yourself, and it’s very easy to give and you want to help as many people as you can, and then suddenly realize that actually what you’ve done is taken away from your own self. So I think actually starting to create those non negotiables and say, No, this is me first and then, and also protecting yourself from giving away too much, because the, you know, inevitably, the ones that suffer, either your loved ones, you know, your family, because you come home grumpy, so I had not your best self, or, you know, the focus that you’re not putting into your business, because you actually, I can just squeeze in that extra patient, oh, you know, don’t worry, and I’ll stay late for you. Or all of a sudden, it’s just like, then something else gets dropped. So gets dropped. It is important to keep those clear definitions. I mean my wake up call, as I say, the last few years have been massive, and COVID was a crazy old time, and then beyond that into this amalgamation. And this hasn’t 19 I was running ultra marathons and fighting for it, and then two months later, after my last one, we were into lockdowns, and that all started. And suddenly had that realization last year that I’m about 10 kilos heavier and out of shape. It’s just like, Okay, hang on a sec. Now this has got to draw that back. So entered myself into another one, which is in the five weeks time, and have sort of drawn that line, lost away, and got back to that. And I actually suddenly realized that I’m better when I’m doing this. I’m a better person. I’ve got better energy, and I’m actually better actually better at my job. So I think, you know, there’s no point in putting everything else first at your own expense. Because actually, you know, I think it’s incredibly selfless. It’s actually quite selfish to put everything else first. If you want to do the best, for business, for family, for everything, you need to put yourself first. So it sounds selfish, but actually, you’re better when you are at your peaks, make your non negotiables, make your must haves, and everything else will fit alongside well. But if you’re not looking after yourself, then everything else will crumble too. Yeah, I
Craig Minter (13:12)
love that, and that, even that point of squeezing in the client at the end of the day, if I’m squeezing them in the end of the day, are they getting the best of me? And have the people, have the clients before that actually truly got the best of me. If I know that I’ve squeezed somebody in later on in the day, I’ve got to pace myself, or whatever it is. So it’s a very interesting point. How about you, Matt? What’s your sort of take on that? And also giving a plug to some of the services that you guys provide, that holistic approach and some of those modalities that can help people and business owners be their best health Well,
Marcus (13:43)
I think what we do within this clinic is definitely encourage a lot of our team to go see other team members and get some treatment by them, whether it’s at a reduced cost or even for free. We sort of put that back on on the individual, but definitely encourage people to go in and look after themselves. You can’t give from an empty cup. So you know, you got to make sure that cup’s nice and full. That’s definitely something that we definitely encourage through the team. Yeah, for myself, it’s just setting a standard that I believe that is a good example, and then I can, I feel confident giving advice when I know that I’m sort of not the best I can be. You’re always trying to be better, but it’s sort of you set a standard, and you try to live that standard. And when people see that, and you give them advice, I feel like it sort of sticks a little bit more, rather than maybe the opposite, you know, they they look across the room and they see someone who’s not in shape, or, you know, not looking great, or looking tired, or, you know, breathing heavy, and it’s like, Ah, okay, I’ll take that and then get out the room and not really listen and go home and do their own things. Hopefully, it sort of gives people the confidence to trust a little bit more, and then, yeah, you can sort of live, live your advice and show people the way. Hopefully, I
Craig Minter (14:47)
love that, and it’s at the end of the day practicing what you preach. And it’s not necessarily about nobody’s perfect, but it’s more likely to inspire other people at the end of the day to take action. It still happens
Marcus (14:57)
in your personal life, like I said with the business there. A seasonality to everything. And so you can’t be perfect all the time. And like over Christmas, you definitely go and eat a little bit more, and you relax a little bit more. And you need that recovery, because then you got to hit the ground running in the new year. So it’s sort of acknowledging that, you know, you got to take a break. You can’t be full force all the time. And I think you can do that with the business and with yourself, and then advising that for patients and the team too. You know, take the breaks. We don’t want to work your ass off. You know, 365, days a year. We want you to take breaks and have holidays and have balance. Balance isn’t day to day necessarily. It might be you work hard for a month and take a break for a couple of weeks. So it’s changing the scope of that look as well, other than just day by day. So I think a lot of people like, I need balance. I need my day to be a little bit for me and a little bit for the business. I said, Oh, maybe it’s a week balance or a month balance, but yeah, so sort of just looking at it through that lens too.
Matt (15:52)
And I think sometimes wheels do fall off a little bit, and I think making sure that there’s not too much guilt associated with that, I think you can have days where you don’t eat right, or you skip your workout, or you something just doesn’t go to the plan that you had set and give another girl move on, start again tomorrow. And I think some people can let one little hiccup derail them from those bigger picture goals. And yeah, draw a line under it. Start again tomorrow, because we’re all human. Yeah,
Craig Minter (16:16)
I love what both of you, you have shared there across the whole boat is taking that bird’s eye view and looking at across a period, rather than getting so focused on just the one moment or that one space, that by being able to sort of come up and look from above, you can sort of find that balance, or see it and call it out, and then be able to plan around that for both yourselves and also the team and the business as a wider picture, yeah, for sure. So that’s been awesome. We’ve got a whole bunch of stuff there for individuals, and then obviously, business side of things as well. I’d love to round off this chat with a bit of a case study that both of you may have, if you can sort of, you’re thinking of one of the clients that you’ve worked with, or you’ve seen in the practice there, that they’ve come in with whatever challenges or the life they’ve got, but you’ve managed to take them over a period of time. I’d love to get some examples to share with our listening. There was
Marcus (17:11)
a particular individual who what we get here, or generally, as osteopaths, I’ve found as we sort of get the more chronic cases, because they’ve sort of gone from the doctor to the physio to something else, the Chiro, the acupuncturist, and we always sort of seem to be at the tail end of at the road, and they’re sort of like, this is the last resort. So I had a guy come in and he basically tried everything, tried the physio, tried the acupuncturist. Was getting better and then getting worse and not getting consistent change, starting to get quite depressed. And so, yeah, it wasn’t anything revolutionary, but it was more just trying to see the the whole picture. We treated his whole body, rather than just, you know, that he came with some low back pain and it was debilitating enough that he couldn’t go and exercise or do the gym and all that stuff that he loved. But yeah, we sort of looked at the whole body. Did treated the hip and the back and the upper back and all of this sort of stuff. But in the throughout the treatment, it’s sort of, it’s funny how, sort of, you almost become a little bit of a therapist for people as a well, you know, like a psychologist. I guess you sort of talk through life stuff while you’re treating them too. So you’re sort of doing two jobs at once. And so you start talking about personal stuff. Anyway, you opened up, and just having a chat with someone who has no biases, is just here to listen. And through that process, his back pain went away, whether that was because he was able to unload his sort of emotional stuff or there was actually issues within the tissue, it doesn’t really matter. Our goal, inherently, is just to get better people back to full function of life and enjoying things. But yeah, it was an amazing process. It probably took six months, but we were able to get him from eight, nine out of 10 some days, not able to get out of bed, to get him back to the gym, able to squat, dead lift, do all the things that he wanted to do. Yeah, it was, it was pretty awesome. It was like, Okay, I’m actually doing something right here. However it looks. It was, yeah, it was cool. Such
Craig Minter (18:56)
a good share. And I’m sitting there with some little goosebumps here because I literally thought, have I seen you guys, but you’re on the other side? Sounded like me as I just started seeing a local ostio Just before Christmas, because you have some back, chronic, back stuff that I especially frustrating and annoying. So again, I know personally that the impact of what that can have. I love that. Now. How about you, Marcus? Have you got one that you sort of sticks in your mind as well? Well, no.
Matt (19:21)
Sort of add on to that. I mean, I mean, I love being the last port of call, because I think we do have a slightly different approach. And the real benefit, the real transformations, come from those who are just a little bit lost, not knowing where to go. And they have tried all sorts, and actually just saying, hey, look, you know, this is where your body’s at. This is where it wants to be. This is a potential path, you know, to get to that. And actually just seeing that route to wellness, that’s half the job done there. And as I think people just need to know that there is a way out, because it feels very doom and gloom, sort of life altering sometimes, and actually, so can break it down to, hey, look, these are this is what’s going on on a tissue level. This is what you can do. We don’t heal anyone. We don’t fix anyone. The body does a healing. We give it a nudge in the right direction, and just guiding them in that process. As to, like this is, you know, we can get this bit moving better, help the blood flow to the area the body is healing, not us. And I think, you know, we can see some pretty dramatic transformations, and that when that sort of leads to actually going well, yeah, we’ve helped mum, who’s and that leads on to, well, actually, we couldn’t probably help the kids, and then the husband comes in, and then all of a sudden, parents come in, and you’re looking after whole family and like, well, actually, you sort of that trusted health advocate for the whole family. And I think there’s no better compliment to something like to go, well, they’re fighting for their whole family’s well being. And that’s that certainly what gets me out of bed. I think here every day, absolutely
Craig Minter (20:38)
love that ripple effect and what you’ve mentioned there, and I think that ripple effect is in sharing the stories. And what we’re aiming to do is to highlight that we want more of those stories. We want more of those transformations, and we want more allied health practices being able to be sustainable and successful, so that we can get more of those stories in in some areas, whether it’s, you know, access to or and just the awareness of those things. So thank you so much for sharing that. And yeah, coming to to the end of the episode here, I’d love for you to be able to share if people do want to follow you, find you, come and see you. There’s no any details of where and how people can connect with you. And we’ll drop any links and details you now show no keys well, so people can find you and the like. But feel free to give yourself a bit of a plug here as to where people can check you out.
Matt (21:27)
We’re based in Hamilton, New Zealand, so we’ve got three clinics in Hamilton, one out in Raglan, a satellite clinic out there, but go to connect health Google that and connect health.nz I’m sure you’ll find it all through through there. We got Facebook and Instagram, if that’s your Avenue, but yeah, now just jump online, pick up the phone if we can help you out. Or just even if you’re not local, if you do have concerns, questions that you’ve been struggling with, you just need a bit of a point. So we’re always happy to jump on their own and give our two cents worth and see who we can help. Love it. Thank
Craig Minter (21:57)
you very valuable two cents worth, Two Gen so I really appreciate we’ll drop those links in the show notes for our listeners. And yeah, keep up the amazing work. And once again, for listeners out there, keep on following along and hearing great stories, great transformations, insights in running businesses and looking after yourself. Until next time, we’ll see you soon. Bye, thanks,
Marcus (22:16)
Craig, yes.
Craig Minter (22:17)
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