We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Lindsay Stephens a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Lindsay thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Was there a moment in your career that meaningfully altered your trajectory? If so, we’d love to hear the backstory.

I started a residency at the President’s Hospital in the DC metro area. It is a Military hospital so we worked with soldiers coming back from the Afghanistan and Iraq wars as well as local active duty military. We would consistently get patients that the traditional medical community could not help. They would do all the testing and imaging, drugs, procedures with no help and sending them to us was their last resort. Early on, I had patient, Marine, who served several tours in Afghanistan with severe back pain. After only a few sessions I realized I did not have the tools to help as a “chiropractor” so I took another tack…I sat down and just talked with him and after a heart to heart learned that he was only sleeping 2-3 hours a night due nightmares related to PTSD. We discussed this and after a lot of push back and hesitation agreed we needed to address this issue to have any chance of helping him move forward. His fear was every prior attempt resulted in a new drug prescription and he was not willing to continue on that path—he would rather suffer as he was than take more prescription drugs. I assured him I would not let that happen and advocated for a change in his support group (one that saw more combat). Within 2 weeks of attending his new support group, his pain was all but gone and he was sleeping 5-6 hrs a night. This was a huge moment for me. I realized a several things: #1. You have to listen!! Never assume. You are going on this journey with the person in front of you and in order to do so you can’t be so detached from them. #2 creating an environment of transparency and honesty. Establishing and creating a trusting relationship gave him the space to tell me the truth. he knew he could trust me to help him and but completely opening up I was able to have a handle on what was actually going so I could navigate him in a direction that was actually going to deliver results for him. So when I had the chance to open up a clinic I made sure that creating these transparent patient focused relationships was at the heart of what we do and how we would structure our business to help those people in need.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

I am a Chiropractor who specialized in physical rehab with 12 years experience working in all settings (private pay and insurance clinics, hospitals, field work). I was raised in Germany, military brat and traveled a lot as a kid. I decided to get into healthcare early in life. My extended family on both sides are extremely unhealthy (lifestyle wise) and I was raised with a strong emphasis on health and wellness. I was active playing soccer, swimming and dancing throughout my life and this idea of moving was at the core of my life day to day. That formed this idea of how I wanted my life to look and I never was interested in anything but movement and health. I eventually landed on chiropractic after a near death experience (my mom). I took her to see a chiropractor as part of her recovery and was hooked. The philosophy matched mine and it was exactly what I was looking for and the the rest as they say is history. I now offer chiropractic and physical rehab session as part of Motus. I personally work with people we are looking to take back their health, tired of feeling like a number and want to learn about themselves and how they can better their lives. We work a lot with people that have tried numerous other services and providers with no luck, so the difficult cases are our bread and butter. Because we are so personalized and focused on the person in front of us and their goals we never give up on them and that is what is so unique about our sessions. Overall Motus is a one stop shop of an immersive healthcare expereince, bridging the gap between healthcare and wellness. We offer the sessions I described above but live classes (yoga, fitness), virtual movement education platform and even memberships for long term support.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

Delivering on our promises! We are consistent with our results and respect everyone that walks through that door. That has made it easy for people to refer to us, knowing that they can trust us to help. Our service is our brand and we do everything we can to make sure it is always at the highest level.

Other than training/knowledge, what do you think is most helpful for succeeding in your field?

#1 be an expert in what you want to deliver. Too often people start a business and the core of what they want to deliver they know nothing about. If you want to deliver a specific product or service you or a business partner needs to be an expert. That will save a lot of heartache and ensure that you understand how to structure your business to deliver a product/service that actually solves for the problem at hand #2 branding/marketing/client research. Knowing and understanding this department of your business is critical and something I am just now learning and understanding. This is huge in terms of making you business successful longterm. Not only to be able to gain and retain client but also funneling learnings back into the business structure. I wish I had started this on day one because my road to success would of been much faster and less painful.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.motusclinic.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/motuswellfulnessclinic/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/motuswellfulnessclinic
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/motus-wellfulness-clinic/?viewAsMember=true
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/MotusClinic
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/motus-rehab-clinic-san-francisco-2

Image Credits
PC: Josh Edelson