The Lean Practice Podcast

Two agencies, fifteen hundred a month plus ad spend, no return, and a post asking if anyone can recommend someone better. There isn't one. And that was never the problem. Angus and Nathan get into why paid ads get so expensive at this time of year, what to do about it, and why the practices that panic every December never had a plan to begin with. We cover: Why Nike and JB Hi-Fi turn your billboar...

Being a chiropractor isn't enough anymore. The degree still matters. It just doesn't separate you from anyone. First Hotline episode where Chiros sent in voice notes and I answered them. Ryan Hyslop asks whether we need a proper post-grad pathway like medicine, and why funding is the wall we keep running into. I break down the practice numbers in plain English: cost per lead, cost per new patient,...

The profession looks toxic online. In person, it’s one of the best communities you’ll find. So why are so many practice owners sitting in their clinics alone, not talking to anyone? In this episode Angus and Nathan get into the community problem no one admits to, what it actually costs you to stay siloed, and why the people who invest in relationships are the ones who call someone the day after th...

Scan your website free: https://newpatientengine.com/scan Most chiro websites haven’t changed since 2015, load in 32 seconds on a phone, and say the same thing as every other clinic in the suburb. In this episode Angus sits down with Dr Jake Currie — chiropractor, lean practice operator, and the guy behind New Patient Engine — to talk about what actually makes a website work in 2026, why AI is now...

The risk and reward on hiring someone has moved, and it has not moved in the owner's favour. In this episode we go through why, what the October award restructure does to the numbers, and what both sides of the desk should be doing about it before the decision gets made for them. We cover: Why the risk and reward on hiring an associate has moved, and who it has moved against The 1 October restruct...

I was 25, home at 8pm on a Tuesday, sitting on the back deck thinking I was going to have a heart attack. That was the job. This one's different. Brandon flipped it and interviewed me for his series with business owners, so for once I'm the one answering the questions. We talk about why I took a financial hit to leave and why it was still the right call, the real estate seminar where every speaker...

The lean model is needed. People just don't seem to be ready to hear it yet. In this episode we unpack why, the sunk cost trap, the stages of change the profession is moving through, and what the early warning signs look like if you're starting to suspect your model isn't working the way it used to. We cover: Why the maths of a lean solo practice works but owners can't see it through their own sun...

The associate who feels like they're holding the place together. The owner who thinks the associate doesn't see the full picture. Both are usually right and both are usually missing something. This one is the honest version of a conversation that almost never gets had early enough. We cover: Why the person doing the most work is almost always the last one to understand what ownership actually cost...

No theory. No hindsight bias dressed up as advice. Two people who've actually done it, restarted it, and watched hundreds of others go through it, talking through what they'd genuinely do differently from day one. We cover: Why uni clinic is your first practice and most people waste it How to work out where you sit on the spectrum before you waste two years in the wrong place Why going regional is...

Some owners bring on an associate to buy back time and end up working more, earning less, and running on empty. That's the hollowed out owner. Nathan breaks down why it happens. Hiring before the model is set, contracts that never spell out what both sides actually owe each other, and a break-even that quietly climbs from 50 visits a week to 80 or more once wages, super, payroll tax and admin cost...

If you're the only one in the room, what happens when you can't be? That's the real question behind every "lean doesn't work" post this week. Angus and Nathan get into the actual vulnerability, no safety net if you're sick, injured, or having a kid, and why the fix isn't a bigger practice, it's a more adaptable one. Locums, sublease models, reciprocal shifts with another chiro, and running your fi...

Someone we know owns seven practices. He said he'd be better off with one. Everyone in the room knew he was right. Aaron joins Angus and Nathan to pull apart the high-volume, multi-associate model and why it's built on a risk most owners refuse to name. Their best associate is one skill-acquisition period away from opening two doors down. They get into buyouts versus file transfer fees, why non-co...

Chiro adjustment prices moved from around $65 to $75 over a decade. Everything else didn't. Most of the reason is fear dressed up as strategy. We get into what your price says about you before anyone walks in, why low volume doesn't automatically mean high fees, rural versus city pricing, grandfathering without wrecking your own margin, and the difference between a front-end offer and your actual...

What does the worst possible chiropractic practice look like? Shopping centre, second floor, no natural light, four associates on day one, $65 a visit, five year lease, no marketing plan, and a spin-the-wheel care model. We built it. Then we tore it down and built the opposite. We cover: Why the coaching pyramid is just copies of copies — and how context collapse is ruining business advice in the...

We pulled apart a few pieces of chiro advice going round this week. The $49 offer guy who runs a $49 offer. The whiteboard maths that takes an associate from 30 to 40 PVA with a red marker. The post about why niching is lazy that then describes a niche. Then we un-rip all of it. How to get over the fear of posting, why imposter syndrome is a good sign, why the haters were never going to book anywa...

Naval Ravikant put it best. If you have to sell, the marketing was bad. If you have to market, the product was bad. Twelve adjustments over six weeks isn't a product stack. It's one product pulled into pieces and read back as a list. That's why the marketing runs dry, that's why the ROF feels like a sweat session, and that's why nobody wants to niche. Nathan and I get into what a real product stac...

Everyone quoted the dropout stat for a couple of years. Nobody could ever find where the number came from. We can both see why it happens now. Most of the time it isn't the profession. It's an overcorrection, a model that was never yours, and an identity welded to being a chiropractor instead of the person who solves the problem. For the associate who almost quit and couldn't work out why.

Everyone thinks hiring an associate means stepping back and watching the money come in. It doesn't. In this episode Angus, Nathan, and Aaron break down what an associate actually costs — financially, emotionally, and operationally — and why most owners get blindsided by it. We cover: Why Doug Heron's $150k number from 2010 is still relevant today The stability score — how to know if your practice...

Talking ceilings, what they are and how to get past them.

Good owners, bad associates or bad owners good associates? 

Running through old school and new school techniques to run lean marketing for your practice.

Your practice doesn't have a tech problem. It has a subscription problem. What you actually need, what you're probably paying for that you don't, and the three questions to work it out.

1000 p/w practices to adjustments in the back of a van. In this ep we speak the various types of models and what is actually possible in the chiropractic profession. 

We've had some heat in the IG comments from coaches who view lean as a "scarcity mindset", so in this ep we clear up what lean actually is. Hint: it's a practice so good people say "holy sh*t, how do you do it?".

The only advice anyone seems to give chiropractors is increase your lifetime value. It's not wrong. It's just missing the most important variable, the person doing the work.