Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Gordon Payne. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Alright, Gordon thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. It’s always helpful to hear about times when someone’s had to take a risk – how did they think through the decision, why did they take the risk, and what ended up happening. We’d love to hear about a risk you’ve taken.

Broadening Horizons

I have been in chiropractic practice for ten years and it has been a blessing both to me and my patients. We have seen thousands of cases resolved, made life long partnerships, and have had the ability to celebrate with our patients in ways I never would have imagined. Our system was working and I was proud of the care we delivered. That being said, I started to desire a challenge outside of healthcare so I started doing some small business investing. Those experiences led me into the world of commercial real estate. After after having some personal success in multiple avenues investing on my own I found a niche I enjoyed; RV Parks, Campgrounds, and Storage. So in 2021 I started Mercy Capital Investments; a Christian-based private equity fund that brings investors together for profit and purpose. In 2021 we closed our first campground property with MC and are putting together good opportunities in a competitive market. Time was becoming limited and I had a decision to make. Healthcare or Commercial Real-estate. I prayed about it long and hard and felt like the answer was to make both work. So over a period of a year I down sized my practice to two days a week, helped my employees transition to even better opportunities, automated scheduling and payments, and used my time to focus solely on patient care. It was risky but my schedule continues to fill 100% and it creates the space I need to pursue other callings. I think with hard work where there is passion and purpose there is also prosperity. I am having a blast during my days in clinic and out of clinic.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I knew I wanted to help people. I have always been passionate about lending a helping hand and felt like I had good foresight into finding solutions. I thought being a doctor I could have a career dedicated to helping people. This led me to Chiropractic where you get to work hands on with the patient to make palpable changes in their structure, health, and life. In 2008 I graduated from Texas Tech University and in 2011 from Parker University. I opened a results driven sports chiropractic clinic; ProForm Clinics. We had success with a doctor based facility where the doctors handled the patient care from intake to therapy ensuring a personal and professional approach to traditional chiropractic.

Over 10 years in practice we have always tried to stay on top of research and results. What I have learned is that the 1:1 relationship where the doctor truly knows the patient is the most effective and results driven practice. So through everything we do we have kept the doctor/patient relationship a top priority.

Our patients know that we are going to use integrity, skill, knowledge, and hard work to drive results and because of that the patients can trust us over and over again.

I have taken that same approach to investing. Our investors, partners, sellers, and buyers are confidant we will do what we say we will. We want to work with good people, to do big things, the right way.

Let’s move on to buying businesses – can you talk to us about your experience with business acquisitions?

I have bought and sold multiple companies and the process is always a little different but I would say the due diligence period is crucial, ask the hard questions, look at the desired end result for both the buyer and seller and hypothetically try to kill the deal for both sides and if you cant find a good reason to kill the deal then you’ve probably got a good ground floor to build an acquisition or sale. At the end of the day the relationship is worth more then the deal. We want to make the right decisions for the people sitting across from us because we want to do business with them again in the future.

Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?

Having a reputation for putting a fair offer on the table the first time and not trying to lock up properties under contract that we don’t intend to close. So many REITs are doing that and leaving such a bad taste in sellers mouths that its creating opportunities for companies like ours to do the right thing and both parties win.