Upper Cervical Marketing Podcast

In this episode of the UCM Podcast, Dr. Bill Davis explains how practice owners can maximize the value of their associate doctors beyond patient care. While associates help increase patient capacity and manage busy schedules, they can also play a crucial role in attracting new patients, strengthening community relationships, improving patient retention, and developing the practice team.  He emphasizes the importance of defining clear expectations, assigning dedicated time, and tracking performance through a job scorecard with key result areas (KRAs) and key performance indicators (KPIs). By implementing these responsibilities consistently, practice owners can build a stronger, more sustainable business while helping associate doctors develop their leadership skills, take greater ownership of practice growth, and better understand what it takes to run a successful chiropractic practice.

In this episode, Dr. Bill Davis explores how self-serving bias can limit leadership and prevent upper cervical chiropractic practices from reaching their full potential. He explains why practice owners may blame their teams or external circumstances for poor results without recognizing the role their own decisions, systems, and leadership habits play. Through practical examples, he shares how to identify recurring problems, improve team accountability, and use data and feedback to make better decisions. Listen to this episode to uncover potential leadership blind spots, gain a clearer perspective on your practice's challenges, and discover actionable ways to support sustainable growth.

Building a successful associate relationship doesn't end when the contract is signed, it starts on day one. In this episode, Dr. Bill Davis explains how intentional leadership, clear expectations, structured onboarding, transparent compensation, consistent communication, and meaningful career development can turn a new associate into a high-performing, committed long-term team member.  He breaks down the most common reasons associate relationships fail, from unclear roles and weak training to poor communication and limited growth opportunities, and shares practical systems—including a 90-day onboarding roadmap, role scorecards, performance metrics, regular coaching, and defined career paths—to create a relationship where both the associate and practice can grow.  The episode also explores how practices can protect their culture while giving associates opportunities to advance into leadership, management, profit-sharing, or even ownership.

Dr. Scott Baker joins the UCM Podcast to share his journey in upper cervical chiropractic, the legacy he inherited and the lessons he has learned from building a thriving practice and developing a strong team.  He explains why great chiropractic care goes far beyond technique—from creating safety and trust for patients to communicating with confidence, leading by example, and building an environment where people genuinely enjoy coming to the office.  Dr. Baker also shares exciting research from his practice examining changes in intervertebral disc space and spinal biomechanics following upper cervical care, along with his vision for larger, multi-office studies that could help advance the profession.  Finally, he discusses his experience working with UCM, why he believes practice growth requires more than marketing, and why the next generation of upper cervical doctors must step up to carry the profession forward. 

Why do some upper cervical practices thrive while others remain stuck, despite having talented doctors and hardworking teams? In this episode, Dr. Bill Davis breaks down the Seven Growth Stages of Upper Cervical Practice and reveals why sustainable growth isn't about doing more, it's about doing the right things in the right order.  From building a strong foundation and creating predictable patient flow to developing teams, strengthening leadership, expanding to multiple locations, and building a lasting legacy, each stage comes with its own challenges, priorities, and bottlenecks.  Dr. Davis shares real examples of practices that used this framework to move from being stuck to reaching new levels of growth, while also introducing UCM's three Practice Growth Memberships—Start, Align, and Elite, each designed to provide the tools, guidance, and support practices need at different stages of their journey.  The message is clear: the strategy that got you where you are may not be the strategy that gets you where you want to go. The key is knowing where you are, identifying what's holding you back, and having a clear roadmap for what comes next. 

In this episode of the UCM Podcast, Dr. Levi Wainwright shares his journey from discovering upper cervical care at Palmer Florida to becoming a board-certified NUCCA doctor and building a thriving practice in Tallahassee.  He discusses the mentors and experiences that shaped his pursuit of excellence, the challenges he faced while completing his NUCCA certification, and how he transformed his practice into a low-volume, high-value model focused on delivering exceptional care.  Dr. Wainwright also breaks down the importance of creating an outstanding patient experience—from the first phone call and scheduling process to the office environment, team interactions, and taking the time to understand what patients truly want to achieve.  Finally, Dr. Wainwright discusses his plans to bring an associate chiropractor into his practice, sharing his desire to train another doctor in NUCCA, shorten the learning curve, and help another practitioner build a rewarding career while reaching more people through upper cervical care.

In this episode of the UCM Podcast, Dr. Nicole Czech shares her remarkable journey from being a skeptical 12-year-old patient suffering from debilitating daily headaches and migraines to becoming an upper cervical chiropractor and practice owner. She discusses how her own transformation inspired her career, how an unexpected opportunity during COVID accelerated her path to owning an established practice, and the lessons she has learned about leadership, communication, team building, systems, and creating a consistent patient experience. Dr. Czech also shares some of her most memorable patient transformations, her approach to educating skeptical patients about upper cervical care, and her vision for making care more accessible in her Vancouver, Washington community. As her established practice continues to grow, Dr. Czech is also looking for an associate chiropractor to join her team, with an opportunity for mentorship, collaboration, and hands-on learning in an established upper cervical practice. 

In this episode of the UCM Podcast, Dr. Bill Davis explores why recruiting the right associate doctor for an upper cervical chiropractic practice is uniquely challenging. Because upper cervical care requires specialized clinical standards, explicit philosophy, and precise technique alignment, relying solely on traditional job boards or urgent "post and hope" tactics often fails. To solve this, Dr. Davis emphasizes the necessity of building continuous candidate pipelines early through direct engagement with chiropractic colleges, technique organizations, and active mentorship. He introduces UCM's Associate Talent Network and Associate Recruitment Program, designed to connect practices with pre-vetted students and doctors through deep career planning, structured candidate evaluations, and long-term onboarding support to enable sustainable practice growth 

In this episode of the UCM Podcast, Dr. Stanley Dombroski shares nearly 23 years of experience building a successful upper cervical practice from a small-town office in Zeeland, Michigan, to a multi-location practice serving a larger community. Dr. Stan explains how community outreach and patient education helped him create momentum early on, why telling "a story worth repeating" is at the heart of ethical practice growth, and how care plans and clear expectations improve patient commitment. He also dives into the systems he has developed to train and support associate doctors, including weekly training, detailed associate manuals, video instruction, scripting, and standardized processes across multiple locations. Dr. Stan is currently hiring an associate doctor for his Grand Rapids location, making this episode especially valuable for students, recent graduates, or practicing chiropractors looking for an opportunity to grow within an established upper cervical system.

In this episode, Dr. Bill Davis explains what it takes for upper cervical practices in Practice Growth Stages 4, 5, and 6 to successfully scale beyond the owner's personal efforts.  As practices expand to multiple doctors and locations, growth depends less on working harder and more on developing leaders, building standardized systems, maintaining culture, and creating a sustainable patient acquisition engine.  The episode walks through the unique challenges and bottlenecks at each stage—from owner dependency and inconsistent associate performance to leadership development and multi-location management—while emphasizing the importance of creating self-running organizations that consistently deliver exceptional patient care.  It concludes by introducing the UCM Elite™ Membership as a comprehensive solution designed to help practices build the leadership, infrastructure, marketing systems, and operational support needed to scale with confidence.