We were lucky to catch up with Bob Griesse recently and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Bob, thanks for joining us today. If you had a defining moment that you feel really changed the trajectory of your career, we’d love to hear the story and details.
From the time I was a kid I had imagined being in a field where I was helping others. My parents tell stories of me as a child wanting to be a police officer and when I began college I was studying for a specialized program directed toward jobs in the Intelligence field for the military, federal agencies and businesses. I realized when I was there, through prayer and my courses, this wasn’t the field for me. Exploring what I was supposed to be doing was a big challenge. I tend to be the guy with the plan, and being uncertain was hard for me. It seemed even harder on the people closest to me because they weren’t used to seeing me that way, directionless. I went back to two experiences that helped me decide on my current field. The first was a catastrophic knee injury in high school sports that led me to a physical therapist who helped me recover after surgery. The second was that as a child, while we moved around the country, I had always benefitted from chiropractic care. A friend encouraged me to explore healthcare, specifically chiropractic. I shadowed my chiropractor and saw that he was happy, helping people, and could provide for his family. In my mind, what else could you need from a career?
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I’m a husband, father of 4, son, Chiropractic Physician, and business owner. My defining moment -I think- really highlights how I ended up here and hints at what my practice is really like. I had a second turning point where I felt called to leave the practice I was working in at the time and start my own practice. This was much sooner than the plans my wife and I originally had, but I became very clear to us this was the road I was supposed to follow. That led me to being recruited to join the HealthSource Chiropractic franchise (it’s more of a family than a franchise). I spent some time getting to know the home office (corporate) team and decided I wanted to own a HealthSource office.
When a patient comes in to my clinic, it might be strange for them because it’s warmer and more friendly than most medical offices, but it’s like a chiropractic and physical therapy office had a baby. We primarily offer 3 types of care: injury care, corrective/stability care, and maintenance/wellness care. Under that umbrella comes what I call a ‘Batman’ style approach (I love analogies & superheroes). What I mean is we have many tools: chiropractic adjustments, rehabilitative exercises, blading (IASTM), cupping, deep tissue laser, non-surgical decompression, functional nutrition, and -coming this year- dry needling. We believe, it’s our job with a thorough assessment to decide what tools fit each patient best and apply them to help our patients get back to doing what they love! That’s what makes us proud, being able to help patients in a way that allows them to live life more deeply by doing what brings them joy.
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
I started my practice in 2018 and it was a very challenging process from the buildout to grand open through the first 2 years, but I had a tremendous amount of support from family during that process. That support, especially from my wife and parents -who never waivered in their belief that the clinic, and my vision for it- kept me going when we hit hard days or even months. I remember a time my wife called me from the grocery store to check the bank account to see if we had enough to buy what was in the cart, and sadly, she had to put some things back. That hit me hard, but it prepared me well for the business challenges of the COVID pandemic. The first couple of weeks after the lockdowns began were hard, but two things helped. The mechanical change happened when a mentor of mine, Dr. Chris Tomshack, told me and others I know to double down and increase our marketing/advertising budget. IT WORKED. But the other came when I had a patient come in who’d had a severe re-injury to their lower back. At the end of the assessment and treatment that day, he thanked me. He said if not for us being open and willing to help he would’ve gone to the hospital and -especially at that time- likely contracted the virus. It gave me an opportunity to go back into the passion and purpose that fueled me in this career in the first place.
Do you have any insights you can share related to maintaining high team morale?
The best approach to this, in my opinion, is to get to know them. You certainly put yourself at risk, getting to know people, and loving them, puts you at risk of being burned, and you will get burned! But most of the people you get to know and love on will work harder for you because of it. I heard someone say once that loving some one means “willing the good of the other person as though you are that other person.” I try to employee that strategy in managing team members, whether they’re a ‘forever team member’ or a ‘for now team member’ I want my time with them to draw the most out of them that I can. Obviously, that benefits my practice and patients, but in turn it hopefully helps them to become the best version of themselves.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.healthsourcechiro.com/fairlawn
- Instagram: @healthsourcefairlawn
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HealthSourceChiropracticFairlawn/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bob-griesse-dc-cscs-0a490221
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfecSXub6fGPAtqRQYiaa5g
Image Credits
Kayla Coleman Grieve