These transcripts are AI-generated, and spelling may not be 100% accurate (especially for names, places, and methodologies).
I think there is this paradox because especially during pregnancy
for some people
it’s the first time they’ve started to get this window
into listening to their body
and I think a lot of the time
the care during pregnancy is almost disguised as homework
because we’re looking after our baby
so it’s this selflessness and it’s a
oh I’m preparing for this new stage
so that’s why I’m bit more accountable
but then once we have baby
we often put ourselves onto the back burner
and we define motherhood as often being selfless
but at the same time like I said
if you are not feeling 100%
you won’t be able to give 100% and that’s the hard thing as well
Hello everybody and welcome to The Healthy Business Lab Podcast
where we interview amazing
allied health business owners to share their insights
knowledge with other people in the same space
and today I’m super excited to have Doctor Amy Norman
from Dynamic Chiropractic with us today
thank you for having me yeah
great to have you on board
and again I only give a very surface level introduction to people
cause I want people to introduce themselves and
and share a little bit of their expertise
and we always talk about business owners
looking after themselves first
and then the business so
I’d love for you to delve into a bit of your background
and share a bit about yourself
and what you do and those sorts of things
I’m a chiropractor by trade
I’ve got my own practice
Dynamic Chiropractic in the heart of Hurstville
the practice itself has going to is
we’re approaching five years at financial year
and then prior to that
I was contracting my services out to other clinics
but in that time since having my own business and clinic
I’ve also branched out and added aquanatal services in as well
so I look after a lot of mums and bubs
but I mean I do see everyone
but that’s predominantly what I’m probably more well known for now
is mums and bubs
and I take pregnant women in the water for aquatic fitness
essentially aquanatal
there’s only I think about three of us in New South Wales currently
so it is very very niche but it is fantastic
because only like three out of 10 pregnant women are getting
sufficient exercise during their pregnancy
that’s also what I do when I’m not in the practice
looking after patients on that table
yeah I love that and
we love a super niche here
we have a side business as well
which is super super niche in the software space around profit first
and cash flow forecasting
but I’d love for you to jump into that a little bit deeper
both arms of what you do
and talking about the benefits of what you’re doing and how you do it
because again there’s so many business owners out
there that are mums that are trying to do motherhood
trying to do business wearing all those hats
we all juggle so many things and so looking after ourselves
looking after our body to be able to do all the things we wanna do
why should people be looking after their spine and the nervous system
and all those sorts of things
looking after ourselves is so important
and I know that it is something that we harp on all the time
but I often think if I am not feeling 100%
I can’t give my kids
I can’t give my work 100% either and that’s not fair on anyone
I think there is this paradox because especially during pregnancy
for some people
it’s the first time they’ve started to get this window
into listening to their body
and I think a lot of the time
the care during pregnancy is almost disguised as homework
because we’re looking after our babies
it’s this selflessness and it’s a oh
I’m preparing for this new stage
so that’s why I’m bit more accountable
but then once we have baby
we often put ourselves onto the back burner
and we define motherhood as often being selfless
but at the same time like I said
if you are not feeling 100%
you won’t be able to give 100%
and that’s the hard thing as well because for a lot of us
we do define what we contribute to our family
our relationship our work isn’t into what we can bring to the table
so it’s so important and what I have learnt
definitely in the last five years since having my first
is that you can’t be so hard on yourself but at the same time
you can definitely have everything
you don’t really need to choose necessarily between having a career
and being a present parent
but it is very hard to give 100% at those things simultaneously
if you’ve got something that’s depleting your ability
to be at 100% in any capacity
it is additionally hard
to then dual task and juggle those things at 100% as well
cause that’s just the next level is the juggle I find
here, is it what you even just touched upon that little bit
and even going back to that point of motherhood
being the first time we’re listening to our bodies
like truly listening as you’ve got so much stuff going on inside
and knowing my wife on
we’re having each of our kids of that reflection
taking that ball inside and then going
well gotta know what’s going on inside my body
and there’s actually the thinking of that in a business context
that we will talk a little bit more
in due course as well but it’s like listening to your business
and it’s those just simple ideas of going
actually stopping and listening
yeah and feeling those sensations in the body cause it’s all
they’re all feedback it’s all messages
isn’t it yeah definitely
and basically
I explain this to my patients
if your brain is a computer and your body is the rest of the robot
the computer can only make the best decisions
based on what information it’s provided ultimately
chiropractic is I mean
everyone’s got different philosophies
but one of the things that we have in here is
we really wanna get your body and your brain talking to each other
really well and with the more information your brain receives
the better decisions it can make
so then we’re not just thinking about injury management
we’re trying to catch it and go beforehand
and it’s interesting with chiropractic
because I say we go get our eyes checked at least twice a year
we don’t wait till we blind in one eye before we get checked
we get our teeth checked frequently as well
twice a year and we don’t wait till we’ve chipped a tooth to be
then the reason why we’re getting assessed
so it’s still great to have that preventative component
because we use our bodies every day
and we need to nurture that
because you’ll get to a point where we need to make sure that
the demands that we’re asking of our body
is being matched by our abilities
so either we need to adjust what we’re asking from ourselves
or we need to adjust the capacity
that our body can actually take us through essentially
yeah that’s super cool
and I think you touch on a couple of things
I know my own journey with chiropractic
when I first started seeing chiropractor many
many years ago it was more that reactionary it was the oh yeah
things don’t feel right and it was going there
but it was really what you touched upon there
of the connection between brain and body
and the actual the penny dropping the light bulb moment of us like ah
yeah the brain and the nervous system ah
this is actually getting the nerves around the body
for those messages to go around
and that’s what then sort of sense that law
let’s get more into a preventative
a proactive approach of not just when
get the twinge in the body or whatever
that’s right love that you’ve shared that
so on that if you’ve got a preventative approach for that
if somebody had a takeaway and said
how often do you think somebody a general average person
I know it’s hard to say everybody’s different and yeah
and alike
but what would you suggest just to keep yourself in alignment
have that flow of nerves going where
and the messages getting where they need to get to
I think it really depends on what season of life you’re in
and there’s no cookie cutter approach to healthcare
because we’re all so different
but I would normally say as a general rule of thumb
if we can get someone between four to eight weeks
that’s pretty good
and it obviously depends on what they’re doing right
and it also takes into consideration
not only what your ergonomic demands are in that moment
but it also is reflective on things like
how much stuff are you doing in between those appointments
so if you’ve got those appointments
but then you’re not adjusting your ergonomics
you’re not stretching you’re not walking or moving in the water
or you’re not doing anything for yourself
that typically means that it’s gonna be harder to keep that
maintenance at more of a cost effective side of things
whereas if you are kind of going on the fly
and it’s almost like petrol right like you gonna
ideally put petrol in before the lights
not red or before you’ve clunked out in the middle of a main road
so but I think if we can typically get somewhere
between four to eight weeks
that’s pretty good for anyone
especially living in Sydney, the infrastructure
how long we spend commuting
our ergonomics is typically not great
a lot of furniture isn’t
very ergonomic so I think that’s also a factor
but yeah that would be my general rule of thumb
and then you start there and then you go from there
if four weeks felt great space it out
like just it should be trial and error
and that’s also what science is right
like testing things
seeing how that pans out and then modifying accordingly
so that would be my general advice
I go there, I know 100%
it’s a general
but even you touched upon that idea at the end of the day
experimenting it’s like cool
let’s have a starting point
let’s have an incremental approach
and again generally with most things
it will be a couple of ones closer together to feel where you’re at
and if you find the right practitioner
it’s going to help you to create the actual plan
and no one’s got a crystal ball right
like you could literally trip on your way out
and then have like a new thing that comes up
like no one really ever knows
and I often say if someone says that
they can already say how long it’s gonna take to fix
I always go yep
where’s that crystal ball wouldn’t we all love one
we would love one
and so if you wanna help people in the business side of things
get maybe not a crystal ball
but things that they can look at and insights that they can learn
and yeah wonder what might happen
you’ve been again in practice and again
you’ve got your sort of two arms of your business there
we love to share the business side of things
and the learnings of being in practice
what experiments have you done
we’ve already touched up on a little few but we’ll dig a bit deep
on on some of those
I think some of the main things was I prior to having my own practice
it was almost like
there was still certain things that was the norm within the industry
and I think once I then started to have my own practice
I was like okay
well it’s not so bad if I do things different
I think with the motherhood component
like that’s really added in another layer of how I look at things
in my practice
saying you’re child friendly and being child friendly are like
two different things naturally there’s stuff
that comes with that as well
but it was one of the experiments was
let’s take on the chance
and actually try and add a completely different modality
so it’s one thing if you’re adding in like
therapeutic ultrasound or dry needling
cause that’s kind of already on
under the umbrella of chiropractic at times
so then I added a whole new health modality that still compliments it
aquanatal was fantastic because it was still in my niche
but then potentially
patients are either going to funnel from either my practice
into the pool or vice versa
so I think that was really great
I initially had
the idea of doing that when I was not having my own practice
and then it kind of was approached with like
a bit of a wet blanket kind of response
when I was like oh
why not do this but then once it was my own practice
I was like let’s do it
let’s see what happens
can I just jump in there yeah
go from concept to then actually doing it
how did you approach that process instead of going
oh yeah now it’s like
I can actually control this and I can do it
how does that actually look
what process did you go through at that time
so it was actually during covid where I did a lot of the training
and it was different because traditionally for aquanatal
a lot of the time it was run by midwives
you still had to be a health practitioner within the pregnancy space
which I am but I just wasn’t a midwife
I was lucky that I had this fantastic relationship with Donna
who is a person that brought aquanatal to Australia
and she was kind enough to be like
well you do meet the criteria
like so I think
I feel like she took a chance
for me as well and that’s also
kind of
opened up possibilities for other types of health practitioners
to potentially do the course themselves
we did the course during Covid
then we had all the training side of things
and then it just slowly eventuated from there
and ultimately the demand was there
aquanatal is one of the few forms of exercise
if not the only exercise
that is completely suitable for all trimesters of pregnancy
and people can participate up until their waters break
whereas traditionally other things running
typically you stop about 26 weeks if you haven’t already
weight lifting, pilates
all that kind of stuff normally
has some sort of restrictions that you need to ease off
as you get towards your third trimester
it was fantastic, it was suitable for all levels of fitness
so you didn’t actually have to be a competent swimmer
to be able to participate
cause your head’s above the water all the time
if you had gestational diabetes
it was perfect for that as well
it was pelvic girdle friendly
whereas other exercises are not great for that
so it was in itself
this really great thing to be able to offer people in the area
so I was lucky that it’s also not saturated
in terms of the market itself
as well
yeah, nice something new
and I think even what you’re touching upon there
what I’m curious around is that idea of how much of that was kind of
like the awareness opened up like a flower
so to speak
as you sort of got into it more versus how much of it you sort of gone
yeah this is what’s going to happen as you sort of rolled it out
and the awareness how would you say there was a
a balance or not balancing the right word
but the how did that evolve
yeah I know what you mean
I didn’t really anticipate it to be how it has panned out
and I myself I have rheumatoid arthritis
initially I was like
this is at least a great opportunity for me to get in the water
cause I’m in the water with them
I get to be in there and I get to move my body
but it’s also under the hat of work
so this is like a win win for me to be able to kind of get a bit of a
a balance as well
and I had less guilt leaving my husband with the two kids because like
oh I’m working
it’s different to feel like oh
I’m going to a day spa
I was originally just happy to get in the water
move my body and I mean
I had my second pregnancy while I was an instructor
so
I actually got to have it twice a week for every week of my pregnancy
which was fantastic and definitely
I could tell the difference between the first and second
because that really was a secret weapon for me
but yeah
I didn’t anticipate it to be as busy because initially it was like oh
let’s just do it one class a week
and then overtime that started getting busier
and I was like okay
let’s now add in a different day
and it was different in the sense that
normally when I’m with patients
of course it’s like a one on one thing
your time is shared so differently in a group class
like fitness setting compared to a treatment modality
it definitely added variety
and I think I do like a little bit of variety and novelty in what I do
I don’t think I could do like a rinse and repeat day every day
and then you naturally just get to meet different waves of people
right like people aren’t pregnant forever
but then at the same time
people still keep having children
so you kind of get into this nice ebb and flow of movement
so again the evolution of what I’m hearing there
it’s actually brought about a number of benefits that weren’t
you had the idea
you had the concept, you rolled it out
but it has continued to be an evolving piece
but also the benefits that have come off the back of that
like you say you’ve talked about there of the variety and novelty
but even from the
business sense of leveraging your time at the end of the day yes
but also that component so
the two big ones from the business side of things that I’m picking up
is kind of that the one to many
which many practitioners struggle with
how do I actually just leverage my time a bit better
especially from managing life managing a family
yeah and it definitely changed the cash flow perspective as well
because people would be paying in advance
whereas normally people are paying for a service as they receive it
so it definitely changed the cash flow perspective
because sometimes people would be buying multiple passes in advance
so there was that component as well
which was great but I also think it also positioned me a bit higher
in terms of niching down and having that expertise
because it’s you know yes
a lot of people pediatrics and pregnancy care is quite niche in itself
but then to have that as well
just definitely added a extra layer of expertise in there
which I’m so grateful for yeah
cool and the flow
on effect from that as well
is something you touched upon a little bit earlier of
is the lifetime support that you’re giving your clients
and it is that notion of having
potentially clients before they become mothers
then hey you can follow them through the whole cycle of life
at the end of the day
by being able to continue to support them across that journey
which again has that been is bigger thing or bigger realisation before
is it sort of like oh
actually I thought there would be a bit of that
but it’s like wow
this is really played out I to another level
yeah I definitely did not anticipate how it would be now
and I think even just the trust building is there
people are more comfortable to be like
oh hey
would you be able to check my baby
is this something that we would be looking at
where else I think we would have kind of lost that opportunity
because a lot of the time
people don’t really know that
you could hypothetically take a chiropractor to a baby
or people are very scared about it
but because they trust you
and also throughout the class
we encourage women to comfortably speak
and that’s how we measure that the intensity is right
so if you were short of breath
and you feel like you can’t actually carry a conversation
the intensity is too high for that person
that was one of the perks because you’ve got this 50 minute
hour long class where not only are we chatting
but then the women are chatting to each other
they’re creating a community
they’re creating friends
there’s this multi level connection that they have with me
and also their peers essentially
and they get to meet people prior to having babies
because a lot of the time when you look at mothers groups
it’s typically after the fact
and most of the time it’s
you birth roughly around the same time in the same location
that’s what you have in common
whereas
they’ve got time to meet people beforehand and have that as well
which is fancy but yeah
I definitely did not anticipate it to be as wholesome as it is
that’s for sure that’s all I can think of
having gone through the birth process with my wife at the time
and I remember my chiropractic
I got the book I think is well adjusted babies and it’s like hey
I love this idea of doing this job
but we didn’t quite make
their different philosophies around the babies
but it’s like I can see that benefit of that
the lifetime cycle
and the benefits that flow through to your business from that of
in essence become a bit of a
the community hub which again just has
I’m guessing you get a lot of referral word of mouth
the community aspect it to your business as a result
is that a fair assumption?
yeah I always think that’s the most important thing right
cause ultimately you could throw money at
hypothetically google ads and potentially be getting leads back
but I think word of mouth is always so important
because it means that someone has trusted you enough with
not only themselves but enough
to actually vouch on your ability
to help someone that they know and love
so I always think that that’s really important
and then what has been it feels new age
but it’s not really now but for a long time
it would be a bit surreal that people be like oh
I follow you on Instagram and that’s how I found you
and I’m like oh gosh
like 10 years ago that was like not a thing
like 10 years ago Instagram was just a picture format thing
there was no way to truly get that same kind of report building
and I think that’s it’s so great because the typical consumer now
we’re doing our research before we engage with people
we want to know where we’re going
are they legit do I trust them
and I think
at least when I have had people that have come in through there
we’ve got a higher chance of
of hitting it off because they’ve already
can tell if I’m their cup of tea for the most part
depending on how much you share on Instagram
but I’m pretty much an open book on there
so I feel like that has also helped
yes so what I was just thinking
there was another experiment coming into the social side of things
and how you’ve actually gone about the socials and marketing from
well I say marketing
but sharing information and
knowledge on socials
what experiments have you sort of done in that space
and you touch upon being an open book
so what’s your approach there
I think one of the main things was
I can’t think of anything more boring than people that show like
posture before and after photos
I was like okay
that’s not for me let’s do more educational
and I think the thing was
even though I see people from all different ages and genders
in my practice I kind of feel like I don’t need to tell you
if you have a sore neck or back
a chiropractor could potentially help you with that
however not many people know about pregnancy care
not many people know about pediatric care
so I niche down in that to the point where sometimes people go
I don’t know if I’m in the right place cause I have these things
I’m like yeah
well we see that
but sometimes it’s easier to niche down on social media
but that’s basically where it kind of started
it was more educational stuff
and I feel like it definitely took a bit
and I still am not great at
like the concept of selling myself
self to people I feel more comfortable in the education space
I’ve always enjoyed teaching
I’ve always enjoyed explaining things
or highlighting things that people didn’t
weren’t aware of
but yes I think over time
just making people more aware of like what they can do
or how they can either help themselves or what I can help them with
essentially so being a little bit more open with that
and I think when we were at UNI
it was very oh
like professionalism was almost defined as being quite detached
and I think in the world that we live in now
it’s such a personal thing
and people are gonna be trusting you to actually touch their bodies
so I mean
I wouldn’t want just someone that’s you know somewhat robotic
how would I trust them right
so I feel like allowing myself to be a little bit more honest
I think even with tomorrow and wednesday for example
I’ve had to move patients around because my son probably won’t be
fit enough to go to childcare
and I think for a long time prior to having my own practice
we almost had to pretend that we didn’t have a personal life
but I think to be honest and I mean
it’s probably also because I see a lot of mums and bubs in practice
they get it
cause if it’s not me asking to move the appointment around
it’s probably been them previously as well
so there is more of a give and take
we’ve got that rapport and like I said
I’ve been able to create a business that provides that flexibility
to make it work and I understand that’s a very privileged thing
to be able to lean on the village a little bit to do those things
but at the same time
if I didn’t lean on the village
it would be also very silly because I think in a work environment
if you didn’t delegate things to other people
and you carried all those tasks
it would be seen as a weakness professionally
so I like to remind myself that apart from it being motherhood related
if this was in any other setting
it would be weird for me to not ask for help
if I had access to help and resources
so that’s also something that I’ve had to accept
over time to be able to make it work
essentially as well
but yeah I think just being more candid
so many cool ideas and concepts there at the end of the day
just being yourself being authentic
educating and at the end of the day
the right people will come into your space
from both that word of mouth
through what you share which again is awesome
cause you’re sharing an amazing stuff here
and people come into your network
potential opportunities that may not be clients or collaborations
or learnings that this can kind of foster
that’s been some great shares
so I’d love to sort of round out the chat a little bit with some
transformations and client experience of any
any particular one or two that sort of stand out
in your mind as far as when I first started seeing you
whatever component of what you do
and where they’ve got to a result of what you do for them
yeah I think
and obviously
I’ll be general because we don’t wanna be too case specific
but I think some of the main things that come to mind is usually when
oh I love proving people wrong at times when not only
not mostly
like when the patient themselves thinks this is how it’s gonna be
but usually if someone’s telling them how it’s gonna be and
it’s not great
a few things that come to mind
is typically when we have women that have
their babies in a breech position
and that is basically
instead of having their head down in their pelvis to be able to come
through the birthing canal
they’re the other way around
so their heads up and their feet and their pelvis is down as well
so a lot of the times depending on what stage of pregnancy they’re in
sometimes they’re told
you’re not gonna be able to have the birth that you envisioned
you’re most likely gonna have a Caesarian and for a lot of people
that is so disheartening
and it takes away some of that patient’s power
but I think there’s been so many times where we’ve done the work
we’ve created space and look
babies turned and they’ve had a fantastic birth
and their recovery’s been great
and to be able to be a piece of that puzzle
combined with all these other modalities
that has let them achieve their actual goal and their intention
and has set them up with long term confidence
that their bodies can do that
is always fantastic that always gives me a
fantastic dopamine boost when I’m at work
and I get these beautiful birthdays that come in
and i would actually relate it to one of my first major transformation
starting out in practice which I like to remind myself about
we had this five week old baby and he was just crying all the time
it was first time parents
they hadn’t really had anything more than a 20 minute block of non
crying and that was only when he would feed
and it would only be for 20 minutes
and you could tell like they were just so sleep deprived
they were defeated
and one thing that really got to me was she was like
maybe this is just his personality
like maybe he’s just not a happy kid
and babies even though they can’t articulate with you what’s going on
they still have all these different ways of telling us
that they’re not feeling 100%
but basically after our first session
they slept for a nice stint
they woke up for a feed and they resettled
and that just I don’t know
I just think if you ever kind of doubt if you’re doing a good job
I think to be able to give that to people
and to really change their parenting experience right
like I think if that was just them for a good chunk of time
not only would that impact how they think of their baby ultimately
and how they think of themselves as parents
and almost
this failure to be able to provide comfort to your kid would be so
disheartening right
like a lot of people think I’m meant to be a parent
and this is not what I envisioned
and to almost doubt not only themselves
but their baby’s personality so early on in life
and to be able to be like no
they actually are happy kid
they wanna connect with you
they wanna do all these things
that was just something that was stopping them from being there
like I think
that was just definitely one of those moments where I’m just like yeah
this is what I wanna do this is what I wanna provide for people
and I think a lot of the time yes
they’re happy
just actually have their concerns validated to be listened to
but then to actually have such a night and day contrast
of how things were going and how it is now was just
really rewarding for me to see
yeah what I’ve written down here is just truly life changing
at the end of the day
hearing that and knowing the flow on effects of that
being a parent ourselves
and knowing exactly the experience of the challenges of sleep
and the like and that’s great way to round off our chat
time is absolutely flown here
but that kind of transformation is something that again
why we want to share stories like those
the impacts that I like health businesses practices
business owners having on clients lives
and the ripple effect that
then creates is literally life changing
really appreciate you sharing that transformation
and sharing your experiments that have helped you do that over
and over and over again
and that’s what we’re all about
is making sure that we can have more great practices out there
having more of these sorts of experience
and building sustainable businesses as a result of these experiments
and the learnings that we can share around
so really appreciate you sharing your experiences today Amy
I’m sure there’s plenty of people out there
both from potential client side
and those that might wanna learn more from you
and collaborate more
and learn more about what you’re actually doing there
where’s the best place for people to connect with you
I feel like the easiest place would be on Instagram
I’m Doctor Amy Norman on there
sometimes people look at it and go
is that dreamy Norman but yes
it’s Doctor Amy Norman on Instagram
and then otherwise
you can catch me on LinkedIn
you can catch me on TikTok
which I’m trying to be a little bit more present on
but you know it’s just that juggle
and those self limiting beliefs that I definitely need
to work through at times
to be more present on there
but they’re the main ways
and then of course you can find me at my clinic
Dynamic Chiropractic which is located in Hurstville
awesome, well
we’ll share all those links in our show notes as well
to make sure people can be across those
and yeah really appreciate your time
and that’s over and out from us from another episode
hit the like hit the subscribe to hear more amazing chats like this
and make sure you
connect with Amy off the back of this chat
thank you very much Amy
oh thank you so much for having me