Dr. Justine Blainey-Broker is ranked as one of the five busiest
chiropractors in Canada. Her mission statement is “to serve families
with love, education, and life-enhancing care so that they may innately
express their true potential and optimum health throughout life.”
Dr. Justine Blainey-Broker is ranked as one of the five busiest chiropractors in Canada. Her mission statement is “to serve families with love, education, and life-enhancing care so that they may innately express their true potential and optimum health throughout life.”
To play or not to play – there was no question!
Dr. Blainey-Broker tells us about some of her early experiences that strengthened her as a person:
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| Dr. Justine Blainey-Broker
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“I was raised in a family where girls had roles and boys had roles, I didn’t like the differences. My brother got to play hockey while I got to figure skate, dance and do ballet. My dad would watch my brother play hockey and cheer him on, but he didn’t come to watch me do figure eights.”
“So, it all started with some good old sibling rivalry.”
“I wanted to play hockey. My mom found me a girls’ hockey team and because I’d been figure skating, I made the all-star team four years above my age category. I asked to practice with my brother’s team to get better.”
“I started to get better, and the boys’ team asked me to play with them. There were huge differences between the boys teams and girl’s hockey and I wanted a part of the boy’s hockey experiences. But girls couldn’t play hockey with the boys. Or could they?”
“After four years of court cases, I changed the law in Ontario regarding girls on boy’s teams. I’d finally won my court case – I phoned up my coach; “I can play! I can play! I’m legal.””
“Mr. Brooks said, “I gave your spot to Jimmy last night.””
“I was in tears, devastated. It had been four years of fighting in court, hockey schools, people putting me down, lots of media that was not well-intentioned with bad information about whether I was gay, I’d never have kids or no one would like me because I was different and girls shouldn’t play hockey.”
“My brother, seeing me in tears, phoned the coach and said, “If there were a spot for my sister, could she have it? Mr. Brooks said, “Yes.” Dave said (it still brings tears), “I quit. My sister can have my spot.””
“I started playing boys hockey because of my brother. At 15 he gave up the most important thing to him, so I could have a place to play. He found a new team. We’re still best friends; he runs the wellness center here. We are partners and he was my mate-of-honor, he’s definitely my best friend.”
The road to chiropractic
“My brother suffers from Scheuermann’s kyphosis, a big hump in his mid-back, and he needed regular adjustments. That’s what led me to learn about chiropractic. Without regular adjustments he loses the feeling in his hands and can’t type. It affects his breathing, heart rate, and most importantly, his golf game and hockey.”
“As for myself, I was very, very sick as a child, in the hospital every month, on asthma sprays and on 222’s. I was taking them like candy, and also getting Demerol shots for migraines and different medications for upset stomach.”
“On my birthday, in my second-year of university, I was so high on all these drugs, I thought, “this is not the way.” I went for more natural methods, and I’ve never turned back.”
“I first saw Dr. Tom Sawa in Mississauga, and then later I began getting adjusted three-times-a-week at CMCC. Dr. Zamick was a huge leader for me. He said, “You should be a chiropractor!””
Building up from humble beginnings
“I was suffering in practice at about 100 patient visits a week and working 100 hours a week, volunteering everywhere. I was trying all this educational stuff, booths and spending so much money on marketing. Nothing was working. When I had the baby I lost 50 per cent of my patient visits. I was down to negative dollars.”
“I called Dr. Mike Reid and we went to his seminar. He had a competition; the prize was a second year of free coaching. I decided that I was going to win that prize. I observed other doctors. “If they can do it, I can do it.” It was more learning the skills from the pros around me, using their ideas and copying what they did that was great and making it my own plus a hard work ethic and willingness to put the sweat and the time in, that made the difference. What I had been doing wasn’t going to meet my goals.”
“I won the competition, went from 50 patient visits a week back up to 100 a week, serving more patients and not being ‘in the hole’ financially. Dr. Mike kept pushing me to do more, serve more and showed me how to do 200, 300, 400 and 500. He helped me with all the different blocks and hurdles, adding more staff, creating more strategies, teamwork and more training. Ultimately, my goal is to serve as many as I was meant to. I’ve been given a gift, and my job is to return that gift. I am fairly comfortable at 800 and 1,000. That’s just me – with my properly trained team.”
The value of hard work and a great team
“Staff – we’re about 22, 10 directly work with me. Our office sees over 1,000 quite easily. My brother and I work very well together, and I also work well with my husband. When I have that team around me, it allows me to be the best I can be.”
“We start with a morning huddle. Adjusting is 6:45 a.m. until 10:30 a.m. and then another huddle at the end of the adjusting period. Longer appointments are from 11:00-11:30.p.m. Then more training, meetings, to the gym for some cardio, then back home to play with the kids and help with their homework. Back to the office at 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m , these are our peak adjusting hours and we can see quite a few people. We do doctor’s report talks and the reports of findings after that.”
“The office is open 71 hours a week. I’m adjusting about 24 hours a week, but I actually work 70 to 80 hours a week, whether its emails, creating speeches, getting research for patients or phone calls. Lots more goes on beyond the adjusting hours, therefore, I need my life very scheduled.”
“The challenge is training and sometimes that means training staff several times on the same thing. Year after year, it seems we gravitate to our bad habits. But refreshing the basics keeps the team passionate, excited and ready to adapt to changes.”
“I keep my staff motivated by taking them to four to seven seminars a years. We have staff meetings Tuesday and Thursday, and they last from 60 to 90 minutes each. Tuesday’s meeting is run by my office manager and Thursdays, each person teaches a topic so they become responsible for it.”
“We have an A-to-Z training three to four times a year where we go through all the different steps and important things from the initial phone call to their anniversary (completing one year). We also do vision days, a spa day, a day at the mall, or a wellness talk for the team and then take them go-karting with another office. This keeps them motivated; excited about their jobs, believing that they’re making a difference and making sure they know they are important to the team.”
“We have a Public Relations Health Assistant, Teena; she’s fabulous. She sets up and organizes over 30 booths and 15 to 20 exterior talks a year. She creates the handouts, slideshows, phone-calls, follow-up and thank you cards, referrals and testimonials. She makes sure the booth boxes are organized, clean and neat and the supplies are stocked. This takes a huge amount off my plate.”
“I surround myself with wonderful people. My husband is an amazing chiropractor. We balance our time and are very respectful of our careers. We work opposite hours, so he has the kids while I’m at the office and vice versa, except for one four hour shift a week, when we use our nanny.”
Motivation
“What gets me up in the morning and keeps me motivated? I was born and trained to be a great chiropractor, to serve others. To do it just for me, doesn’t work. For that single-parent mom that really needed us; or the child that wants to get back into the hockey game or the dad that’s off all his blood pressure medication and is going to live longer and be a better dad and eventually, a better grandfather. Those are the miracles that keep me going and get me excited about getting up.”
Patient Management
“There is no secret. It’s ongoing education! From the first day a patient comes into our office, he/she is educated about wellness care and long-term care. We hold monthly education events: and we, of course, have the results review talk, the first doctor’s report talk and then the anniversary talk with each patient.”
“We have subluxation quizzes and contests or we are ‘talking patient education’ during the adjustment with a passion that’s constantly evident. They are kept informed, participating and learning what chiropractic is. We’re here to serve the patients and help them live longer and have a better quality and quantity of life with chiropractic on their side.”
“Every patient comes to our wellness talk at the beginning of care and at the end of the year of care and sometimes one in the middle. Every month we have wellness talks which patients are expected to attend at least three of during the first year of care on topics of how to prevent a heart attack, poor fitness, ways to lose ten pounds or stress management.”
Giving back to the community
“Giving back to the community is important in our office; every team member must volunteer in some way, whether it’s Big Brothers, Big Sisters or coaching a team. My husband and I also volunteer every week. We sponsor back to our community by giving from $30-$40,000 a year.”
“I average 10 to 15 seminars, which includes other types of education such as: “family life”, an excellent seminar for couples.
Tips for success
“I am always looking at what other businesses are doing, even outside of chiropractic. I observe other chiropractic offices to see what their gems are.”
“Hang out with other successful people and limit your judgment until you’ve tried what they’ve tried. They’ve been there, done that, they’ve failed, they’ve learned. The more you hang out with these successful people the more you become like them. They are positive, energetic and have what you don’t have.”
“Learn from them.”
“My grandfather is 94; it’s amazing what I can still learn from him. There are gems and people with wisdom. I just want to soak it in.”
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