Break My Neck?

– Most people are like, they find out what I do and they’re like “You’re a chiropractor?” I’m like “Yeah.” “You don’t act like one.” And I’m like “Well, how many do you know?” First of all.

– What am I supposed to act like?

– Okay so what does a chiropractor act like?

– It’s a very eclectic crowd, there’s some interesting people.

– How many years of schooling to become a chiropractor?

– Just, the bare minimum I think you can get through at is like six years.

– How many years did you do?

– I did eight because I wanted a bachelor degree. And that kind of, when they accept people there, like that can be kind of that pushing point to get in versus, if they have like 500 people apply, “Well I’m gonna take you because you have “the bachelor degree and this guy doesn’t.”

– Yeah, where did you get your education? Iowa State?

– Iowa State, yeah. Finished out, got my BA, BS? BS in psychology, and went to Palmer. Then it took my like, I waited, it was either like five weeks to start at Palmer, or the next semester, when that one started it was like seven months ’cause I had to apply for an extension ’cause you can only do like six months in between schooling.

– Okay.

– So I just worked the whole time and stayed here in Cedar Rapids, and then went there. And that’s four years.

– Okay.

– So. $213,000 of student loans later, I’m. Officially this morning I put an extra $1000 on my loan, that I’m actually–

– Congratulations!

– I’m at $89,800 that I owe.

– Congratulations. We didn’t have that much for Matt. But, I’ll tell you when we paid it off, that was pretty exciting.

– Hey, I can’t wait, it’s just consistently chipping away at it, and just watching it nick down.

– It’s hard when you’re young and you think it’s never gonna, that you’re never gonna have to pay on it.

– Yep. And I’ll still, like, even if I talk to my dad about it, I’d still never sit there and say like, “You were right.” I’m too stubborn.

– So you don’t want him to watch this then.

– He wouldn’t watch it. You think I’m bad with technology?

– Matt went to Iowa State too. We were married and I helped him through school. So his, the majority of his loans were from his first year. And then he, it was like half of his loans were from the first year, and then the other half of his final loan was from the final three years.

– Really?

– Yeah, because I worked, so I was taking care of the majority of the living expenses, and then because we were married it went by our income instead of his parents so he got more financial aid too.

– I’d be like hey, I got like $2,000 extra this semester. There’s this car I want.

– Okay yeah, so that’s the other thing. Well, first, I’ve gotta introduce you, and then I wanna talk about your cars.

– Oh gosh. Everybody has their thing, and one thing with chiropractors that’s really universal I’ve noticed is it seems like they’re all a jack of all trades. Like everyone can like, very handy, like that is one thing with all the guys, like all of my friends, all pretty mechanically inclined and can do a lot of wood working stuff and stuff around the house, so.

– Cool, ’cause you, what is it called, renovate? You don’t renovate cars, what do you? Fix them up and?

– When I have time, yeah, I mean. What do you want, I guess fixing them up. I have that one Dodge Rampage that I’ve had for I think like six or seven years. It’s getting to the end of it, but, I’ve been waiting, the guy’s had it for a year, it was a patient of mine that’s been doing the body work on it and I’ve been pretty patient with him on finishing it up, but I understand, he’s got a family so he does it in his free time, and I’ve barely got any free time to even do it myself, so.

– Well thanks for being on the podcast then.

– Thanks for having me.

– So, I’m introducing my, I’m Sarah Banowetz, this is the Banowetz Marketing Podcast, and our guest today is Casey Coberly. So Casey is a chiropractor and he owns Coberly Chiropractic. It’s been 10 years, you just celebrated your 10 year anniversary.

– Correct.

– So congratulations.

– Thank you.

– And I know Casey because he plays basketball with my husband. Three times a week, unless you’re getting injured.

– Well, it’s getting down now.

– Or Matt’s getting injured, so, yeah.

– At least it’s neither of us hurting each other. I don’t think he’s gotten me yet.

– Knock on wood.

– Ah, that doesn’t matter anymore.

– ‘Cause you’re gonna take a three week break.

– I will be off for a little bit, so.

– Yeah, probably let your eye heal, and then.

– Just smart that I came in on a Tuesday. I knew it was gonna happen. “Nobody hit me in the eye.” I got cut 30 minutes later.

– I’m glad you’re wearing a hat, ’cause I was thinking about this today while we were setting, I didn’t tell you last night when we were setting up the, I’m talking to Annalise behind one of the cameras, my video producer. I didn’t tell you that I knew which eye it was, ’cause you had posted it on Facebook, and I was like, “Oh, I had her set the camera up so that the camera is facing the bad eye.”

– Oh that’s perfect, it’s not swollen or anything.

– I was wondering if you were still using the tape or whatever, I’m like oh.

– I peeled it off this morning. It was, there was nothing that’s gonna cover it from here on out, it was not looking very–

– [Sarah] It doesn’t look bad.

– Well it was ugly underneath it, so.

– And then the hat is, like the shadow of your hat is covering the rest of it, so.

– I’m gonna just wear it for seeing people today, so. Everyone knows it’s my day off.

– So you got hit on Monday–

– Sunday.

– Sunday, you got hit on Sunday, and then you got hit again yesterday.

– Yes.

– Yeah, so now you’re gonna take a few weeks off.

– Maybe.

– Maybe.

– This is why I’m a good healthcare provider, ’cause it’s do as I say, not as I do.

– And he had his wife tape it up, who, I asked, “What does your wife do?” She’s an interior designer, not in the medical field, but.

– She had it good, it looks good.

– Brave, it does!

– [Casey] It would look worse if I did it.

– Yeah.

– It would’ve been hard to do on myself.

– Okay so what kind of cars are you working on? Do you have multiple ones, or?

– They’re all ’80s and ’90s turbo Dodge cars.

– [Sarah] Okay.

– I still, my daily drivers are still my Ford F-150 and then I got that Excursion that I drove today.

– So do you ever go out and do the racing at Hawkeye Downs? Like the independent racing?

– [Casey] I would love to do anything like that.

– Have you?

– [Casey] I thought about doing the motocross, like one–

– Yeah, the motocross, yeah.

– So one of my cars is, like the Autocross is gonna be possibly used for that if I can get free time to do it someday.

– My brother does it, and my cousin, they love it.

– I’m sure I would too, it’s–

– There’s a whole group of people, like a whole, yeah?

– I got a guy, I know a guy that does it a lot so I would like to, it’s just again, a matter of having free time to work on it. Currently, just, I don’t enjoy the fact that when people, we talk about it even, and it’s like I haven’t had time to do a lot of this stuff the past five years. Like the Rampage was one where I did probably a year and a half of work on it, and then we started having the kids–

– That’s true, ’cause you have–

– And my time is gone.

– Three little kids, right, yeah. I remember when our kids were little, people would even talk about TV shows and I was like “I don’t, what TV show? “I don’t even know what you’re talking about.”

– I watch them, it’s just what I fall asleep watching in five minutes.

– Well it was, at the time, like “Word World”. Like I didn’t know what was going on with, I’m getting caught up with things, I’m like, “How did I not know about this movie?” and then it turns out it was popular when my kids were really little. But “Word World”, I knew all about “Thomas the Tank Engine” and “Word World”, so.

– They have something different that they watch every single day.

– I think it’s “Peppa Pig” now.

– “Captain Underpants” was the show of the morning today, so.

– Okay, okay.

– At least I like half-way like a lot of that kind of stuff, it doesn’t bother me too much, but.

– Do they watch “Miranda Sings” on YouTube?

– No, there’s like a “Larva” show that Lane loves watching, that just, it is absolutely terrible. I can’t even, it’s something “Larva” or whatever, and just, there are a few of ’em that they pick and they watch that I’m like I can’t, like, we have to turn this off.

– There is, “Caillou” is that way. That’s an old one, but when my brother who’s 28 was a kid, little, “Caillou”, whiny “Caillou”, that one was terrible.

– “Power Rangers”, that’s what they were watching last night, I’m like, “You have to turn this off.” That is one I’ve never liked.

– [Sarah] I wanted to be the Pink Power Ranger.

– Oh my gosh.

– I kind of feel like I am. I might be.

– That show.

– I keep looking at Annalise, no one else can see Annalise, but here, hand this to me.

– Oh gosh.

– If I’m on it, you’re on it.

– Maybe we don’t have all of our, see, smile!

– I didn’t know what you were doing!

– Okay, so, Coberly Chiropractic. So 10 years, where are you located?

– Off Center Point Road, I’m like next to, is it Donut Land? I moved over next to that trail to try to utilize it and start working out and everything and that has worked out. And that was when we added the other chiropractors, so Jordan Bierman’s in there, and then a second massage therapist.

– Nice.

– So, it’s a–

– So that’s why you’re so busy.

– I enjoy going, yeah, well.

– You have to manage all the–

– No, they do their own thing. I’m not managing any of them, I just got busier going over to that location.

– Okay.

– It just kind of varies, I think my slowest day I’ve seen in the past, probably year is around 30-35 people in a day.

– [Sarah] For goodness sakes, that’s a–

– So I know that in this location I’ve seen it was like 86 on one day, that’s the most I’ve seen.

– Okay, so I have a question for you as a chiropractor. My biggest fear about seeing, and I do see a chiropractor, but my biggest fear about seeing a chiropractor is that they’re gonna break my neck. Has that ever happened, have you ever broken anyone’s neck? 35 people a day, you’d think, over 10 years, you’d think you’d have the chance to break a couple.

– My odds would be, I mean your biggest issue is gonna be like fracturing a rib. I think that their stat was, on graduation, was one-in-four, one-in-five chiropractors will break a rib in their lifetime, over their career.

– Okay, that’s a new one I had.

– I will not do it. Even with the volume I see, I’m confident enough that I won’t do it. I’m not an overly aggressive adjuster, I feel like I have a very good feel for adjusting people, and feel like adjustment-wise, I’m very capable.

– So what do you think about that thing where you wiggle the toes and you take the neck and you.

– Whatever tricks, there are some things–

– [Sarah] It won’t break your neck?

– No, no, you have to rotate it around a lot. Watch your little Sylvester Stallone movies and everything, that stuff doesn’t happen. The neck is my favorite area to adjust just because that is the area that everyone has so much anxiety with.

– Yeah, ’cause I have my guy use that little tapper thing.

– Really?

– Yeah, because I’m afraid of him breaking my neck.

– I have no problem with it. I’ve got guys that I’ll see that I just rather them use the activator to adjust my neck and my neck will go easy, so it works out just fine.

– See my fear is if I don’t actually relax and wiggle my toes, then I’ll tense up, then I will break my neck.

– [Casey] No, you’ll just strain the muscles.

– Oh, okay, see?

– [Casey] So that’s the problem with that.

– Okay, I’m fine with straining the muscles. Until I get hurt, then I won’t be fine with it.

– I’m pretty sure if you go back over chiropractic as a whole, nobody has ever broken anybody’s neck.

– Really?

– Yeah.

– Yeah, I guess I never did a Google research. People are gonna be watching this and they’re gonna be like, “Sarah, you’re so stupid.”

– My biggest thing, so 10 years in the practice and this is the first year that my insurance, my malpractice insurance went down I think $30. So you finally hit a threshold if you’ve had no claims against you, your insurance will start going down after being in practice.

– What’s your favorite part of being a chiropractor?

– I get to sit there and talk to people all day long. It’s not a job–

– I could see that.

– It really isn’t work, like I enjoy everybody that comes in there. I am an acquired taste, I have a new patient today, whether he will like me or not, he’s gonna know right away and I’ll know right away, but everyone that comes in, they enjoy the more relaxed environment. I’m not your fancy, flashy, shirt-and-tie kinda guy. I’ve worn flip-flops in my office about every day this summer, I just, I’m 10 years into practice, I’m gonna do what I wanna do now at this point.

– Did you, when you first started, did you wear like suits? Or like dress up?

– Yes, for, I dressed up a lot, I wore a tie, and I did it for a long time and it just gets in the way, I don’t understand it. I know like, you hear the, what is it? “Dress the part you wanna be, “where you wanna be successful, dress successful,” but, eh.

– Well I think society is changing because you look at Mark Zuckerberg and everybody. Like to me, I’m wearing this, like, if I don’t have to, I won’t dress up.

– I am definitely of that mindset, and there’s times that I even get into arguments with Amber where it’s, “You need to dress up,” and I just don’t–

– It takes away from like actual work, like I would rather just get to work. Like I don’t wanna worry about my hair, makeup, and clothes. I mean I put foundation on for this, but, because I have to. But watch, a year from now this podcast is gonna be me with no makeup. ‘Cause that’s my normal day.

– I’m pretty sure I couldn’t dress any further down, like maybe a cutoff on, gym shorts or something.

– There you go, come in straight from basketball ’cause you’re back again.

– Oh my gosh, if I–

– If you stop getting injured.

– I probably won’t be playing at that point. Not to jinx it.

– Or you guys need to have like better rules or something, like will that help? Like don’t bring your full intensity and anger out on the court?

– That doesn’t work. I’m an example of that, and it’s hard to not go 100% and that’s why I get hurt.

– I know, like even as I said that, I’m thinking of telling Matt that, and no, he loves to play basketball and just put all of his intensity into it and stuff. You guys just have to stop–

– I love just jawing with him, and just chattering in his ear the whole time.

– Oh, so, the texting thing that you were talking about before we started recording. By the way, yeah, not you, Eric, Eric F. I won’t say his full name on here. So Eric, I had to mention that to him too because we were on a road trip, and Matt got a text from him and it was like, “Dude, like, where are you?” ‘Cause he never responds, so yeah, that is a normal thing where it’s like message, message, message, and then Matt will respond with like two words, like every two months, and then messages again. He does it with me, he does it with everyone. And I even ask him like, “You leave people on read!” And he’s like, “I don’t see a problem with it.”

– Doesn’t usually bother me too much.

– Well that’s good.

– This is different when it’s guys vs gals.

– Yeah, we– Annalise laughs behind the camera.

– Oh, okay, so we gotta to wrap this up, ’cause you got a patient to get to. Thanks for coming on the podcast.

– Thanks for having me.

– How do people book appointments with you? What’s your website, phone number?

– Website is just CoberlyChiro.com–

– [Sarah] Okay, can spell it with the–

– C-O-B-E-R-L-Y-C-H-I-R-O.com.

– [Sarah] Awesome.

– Or my phone number is 319-310-8148, and you can call or text, texting actually works out really well, I started doing that like 10 years ago. Nobody was doing it at that point, but with me only being in the office myself, it was really nice getting to the messages when I could. It was nice for you guys, anybody at work that you could sit there if you can’t have, be on the phone, you can text real quick. And now it’s definitely become a thing, so, I’m kind of a trendsetter.

– No, I agree, I appreciate it when I can text my appointment and very few, very few people, like very few companies I can do that with.

– It works out really well, and I have secretaries there now pretty much all the time, but it still allows them to get to everything since they’re juggling a bunch of different things.

– Yeah, yeah, sweet. Over on Center Point Road.

– Center Point Road. Don’t wait for the last second to schedule. I cannot get new patients in last second.

– Yeah, how long is it taking to book a new patient right now?

– It’s usually like three to five days for me to even get a new person in. Now if you’re existing, I can generally try to slip somebody in the day of or the next day.

– And I will say that it’s good, right, tell me if I’m wrong, but it is good to get in and do like preemptive work.

– It is, I have, and that’s the biggest thing with me is I’m not a sales person, I’m not gonna sit there and tell somebody, come in two to three times a week for the next six years of your life. I don’t believe in that, I don’t like that treatment plan, but a lot of people kind of realize on their own hey, I shouldn’t be feeling like this, and once I’ve done every, once every two/three weeks, that works for me, and I have a lot of maintenance care where people come in on those routines, so.

– Awesome, well book with Casey. He’s a great guy.

– My husband’s known him for many years.

– Been a while.

– And congratulations on your 10 years.

– Thank you.

– So thanks for coming on, and for everybody else, make sure you like and subscribe, follow us, and we will talk to you later! Bye!