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In the 1995 movie, The American President, Michael Douglas portrayed President Andrew Shepherd. By the time K. Andrew Shepherd, a Plano, Texas, DC, finally settles down, being American president is probably all that will be left off his resume. And that’s only because the rules don’t allow naturalized citizens to hold our top office.
Shepherd, a native of New Zealand, has done just about everything else. He holds law and business degrees, is a certified chef, sang for New Zealand at the World Expo, and has a diploma in wine technology. He’s also owned a hotel with three restaurants and four bars, and has an eye toward starting a chain of luxury resorts in as soon as five years. FROM AN ACCIDENT TO CHIROPRACTIC COLLEGE Like many others, Shepherd became a chiropractor after personal experience with another DC turned him onto the profession. In his case, it was after a dramatic recovery from a horrific accident. Shepherd was paying his way through law school by working with the New Zealand ski team as a ski patroller when he took a nasty spill over a 45-foot cliff. Strapped to a backboard, he was flown by helicopter to a hospital where he was told he would not ski again and might not even walk. He sought out a chiropractor and spent every day in the DC’s office for six months. He’s not only walking today, but also skiing, bungee jumping, and even jumping out of airplanes. “I thought at that point, man, chiropractic is cool,” Shepherd says. “But I was still in law school, so I finished what I started.” He finished law school, then immediately looked into chiropractic. He looked at several chiropractic schools in a number of countries and eventually decided on Parker College of Chiropractic in Dallas. That decision ultimately led him to settle and practice in that area. He began to practice with a colleague in what was supposed to be a three-month, fill-in job. It lasted four years and Shepherd eventually became a partner. The plan, at that point, was to purchase the practice, but things didn’t work out. “We ended up as partnerships sometimes do, not always seeing eye-to-eye on all things,” Shepherd says. “So after four and a half years, I parted ways and started this new practice in August.” FROM GOOD TO GREAT Shepherd moved on to his current place, buying what he calls a “run-down” practice that he says needed some TLC from a business standpoint. “It had a lack of focus from the doctor who had it previously,” Shepherd recalls. “That manifested into very few patients through the door. Plus, all the décor and things generally inside, it was just not being run in a very good business and organizational manner. I remodeled the place and with my law and business background, got it back running again.”
Since taking over Mountain Health Chiropractic last August, Shepherd has turned the practice from a steady producer into a booming business. In the first six months of his ownership, practice numbers increased by 200 percent; revenue by 250 percent. He sees up to 190 patients per week and gross billings are projected to leap to $980,000 this year, up from $530,000 in 2006. Shepherd says his success can be attributed to two basic things: patient education and demanding patients to follow his program. It is, after all, for their own good. He focuses heavily on nutrition and organic products, a product of his culinary background, coupled with a startling discovery upon his initial journey to the United States. “When I first got off the plane here, it blew me away how unhealthy people looked and how obese they appeared to be,” Shepherd says, apologetically, not wanting to offend. “It stood out clearly to someone not used to seeing so many overweight people. I thought, rather than just complain about it, I had the opportunity to do something about it and to help people.” He believes the obesity problem in America is largely a product of poor education, working tremendously long hours, stress overload, an imbalance in lifestyle, and being overloaded with information about what is good and bad for them from a dietary standpoint. Seeing this country’s collective girth jolted him into becoming an educator of whole-food nutrition. Knowing he could only put a small dent in a big problem, he set out to help people get into better shape and take better care of themselves, “so we won’t have so many lifestyle diseases, like the cancers, the diabetes, the allergies, all of those things, which can all be reduced if not eliminated with proper exercise and habits,” he explains. ‘YES, YOU CAN’ Shepherd practices what he preaches. He’s in excellent condition. His kids have been adjusted since they were born. His family eats with an organic whole-food nutrition approach. He sets a standard, demands his patients follow it, and doesn’t allow any excuses. When patients tell him they can’t get their kids to follow the plan, he basically says, “Yes, you can.” “To me, you [the DC] are the biggest, and the biggest always wins,” he says. “It might take you awhile, but you can get them to do it. It’s really driven from personal experience and helping people take responsibility.”
Shepherd admits he has to educate patients on the benefits of the program. His patients, like those of most other chiropractors, come to him looking for relief of aches and pains. First-time chiropractic patients are seldom looking for nutritional help, no matter how badly they may need it. Shepherd immediately explains to them that often those aches and pains are a product of poor choices with the knife and fork. Besides, he wanted to do more than just adjust patients. Throughout his professional life, he has relished change. Rather than change professions, this time he merely altered the one he was in. “I decided to focus my attention more on wellness and education,” he says. “I think now that’s the message I kind of put out to the universe. I probably get that message out to 70 percent of my patients who are looking for that. The other 30 percent get it whether they want it or not. “The response, though, is phenomenal. They’re always calling to say thank you. It’s always unbelievable when they can come off their statin drugs or their blood-pressure and heart medications or their antidepressants. Some people who come in are on 17 different medications. When we’re done, they’re on one or two. Not only is it cheaper for them, but it gets quality of life back.” KIWI CHARISMA Patients who come to Shepherd have no choice in this matter. He pushes nutrition and gets them to buy in. His Kiwi accent and charisma win most of them over. He goes with a “my-way-or-the-highway” approach, but in a nice way. Most of all, he puts things in terms they understand. “I say, ‘If you owned a beautiful Porsche, would you put diesel in that gas tank?’ They all look at me like, ‘No, of course not.’” When Shepherd says the word “no,” it sounds more like “nay” as he enunciates it in his down-under brogue. “You’ve got to think of your body as that beautiful Porsche and what are you putting in it? Fast food and all that other stuff, that’s just plain sludge,” he says. He continues, “Your body is a direct reflection of what you’re putting into it. If you’re walking around with substandard nutrition in your body, yes, you’re going to have aches and pains and look and feel like crap. Patients need to start taking some responsibility for that as well. You’re not just going to walk through this office door and be touched by God and miraculously healed. You need to be a part of the healing as well.” Patients get the message and most of them stick to it. They see results as a product of lifestyle changes, rather than mere adjustments and other traditional chiropractic treatments. When that happens, his patients return for him to deal with all their problems, almost like self-referrals. Soon, their family members and friends follow. The nutritional focus also stems from Shepherd’s nationality. In New Zealand, people are healthy. They eat right and they stay in shape. Life expectancy in Shepherd’s homeland is 82 years for females and 76 years for males, numbers that are rising according to Statistics New Zealand. In comparison, American females are expected to live 80 years and males 74 years. Among large populations, a difference of two years is enormous. Shepherd attributes part of that to what he says is his native country’s world leadership in alternative healthcare. “You can’t sue for personal injury down under,” he says, referring to the types of lawsuits often labeled in the United States as frivolous. In New Zealand, the government controls personal injury. “We’re health-focused. We don’t like drugs. As a nation, we want to try that alternative route first.”
SMALLER COSTS, BIGGER PROFITS Shepherd attributes some of his success to streamlining his costs. Low square footage in his office, outsourced billing, buying in bulk, and being proactive in general are means of doing this. He estimates his overhead as little more than half of what similar practices cost, and he constantly looks for new ways to do things, then diving in when he finds them. “One mistake I definitely made was trying to overanalyze things,” he says. “That goes for everything in life. If my gut feeling is ‘go for it,’ I go for it. One of my mentors said that you have to learn to fail forward quickly. What that means is, ‘Try it, and if it doesn’t work, you have to get over it and move on, straight into the next thing.’ I’ve missed what could have been some really wonderful opportunities because I sat there and thought about it for too long. “Life is short, right? You’ve got to do as much as you can.”
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DR. ANDREW SHEPHERD’S
Todd Stumpf is an Ohio-based freelance writer and frequent contributor to Chiropractic Economics. Advertising | Classifieds | Cardpack | Datebook | Past Issues | Chiro History
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