"My first three years in practice sucked." My beginning wasn’t that unique of an experience - It usually starts with things like promises of mentoring, stacks of new patients, training, support, and you've probably heard those stories. Sadly, none of that eventuated. I pressed on for several years, seeing 50-60 patients in a 6 day work week.

I remember once looking at that six day work week, I was adding up all the hours, calculating how much I was earning, and it was the equivalent of a first year apprentice wage. Now, after studying five years and working for a further three, I would have been paid more working at McDonald's then as a Chiropractor…What made it worse is that I had no time to spend enjoying time with my Wife, my friends, and I wasn't feeling satisfied. I got to the point I was looking for a new career. That's when I realised I needed to do something different.  In my search, I found Jesse Middleton, who to me was familiar. I went through uni with him the year after he finished. And we had many mutual friends.

I didn't know him that well, but I knew he was doing really well in the country.  I reached out to Jesse, and let him know of my intentions. And then, thankfully, six months later, he contacted me, letting me know he'd just purchased a practice in Mudgee. I organised a day with Jesse at his practice in Bathurst,  to see if we'd make a good fit. And I remember, Starting working with him at 8am…

I got there 15 minutes early and he was already lined up, knee deep into adjusting people in the waiting room. I tagged alongside him, and just hung on for the ride for the next four hours. And in those four hours, we saw 50 patients…That's what I usually did in a six day week! And with that, he even had time to stop, offer me a protein shake.

We sat down and had a quick chat. After seeing this firsthand I was all in. I was convinced this guy was legit. And for the next three months, we worked together. Jesse would drive from Bathurst to Mudgee for an hour and a half. We'd work together. He'd help me find my feet. We'd transition to practice. Each week, we trained on relevant elements of building a practice. And over the course of the next eight years in that practice, we built it from just myself and my CA, seeing 50 patients a week, all the way through to three chiros, four staff, seeing over 500 patients a week. We even doubled the footprint of the practice. This time of my career was incredibly rewarding. It was exciting and it was satisfying. 

Financially, it allowed myself and my wife to purchase our first house. It also put me in a place within the community of trust and was well regarded amongst staff. Not just the general population, but the local healthcare community. I had the opportunity to get involved in sport like touch football, and I even ended up becoming the president of the hockey club. Myself and my wife had two children in Mudgee, and we made great friends that we still have today. The springboard it gave us, launching us into our 30s, setting us up well financially, propelling my career forward. Towards the end of my time in Mudgee, I had the privilege of caring for about 400 to 500 individuals in wellness and maintenance care, which meant I was only seeing a couple of new patients a week, but still seeing several hundred adjustments a week. 

Now we always had on our radar that one day we wanted to move to Orange. About two hours from Mudgee And we wanted more opportunities for our kids as they grew older and started school. So in discussions with Jesse, I asked if he'd be interested in partnering in Orange. And he was on board, and so we set out to make this actually a reality. Compared to Mudgee, which had been operating for 50 years, Orange is just a little baby. It's only three years old, but thankfully the systems and the training that we took from our time building Mudgee up into a huge practice, we were able to take that into Orange and from day one, launch with patients on the books.

…And by three months in, we're at capacity. Our next challenge now is finding the right chiropractor to join us here to go to that next level.  

So looking back on these past 11 years working with Aligned, working with Jesse, the most rewarding part has been that never ending pursuit of improvement. Constantly growing, constantly learning and developing myself as a person