Meet Dr. Sarah Duke, DC

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Dr. Sarah Duke, DC a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Dr. Sarah, so great to have you with us and thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts with the community. So, let’s jump into something that stops so many people from going after their dreams – haters, nay-sayers, etc. We’d love to hear about how you dealt with that and persisted on your path.
I have found that distancing yourself from the haters and nay-sayers is crucial for long term success, personal growth and wellbeing. It took me years to realize it, but there has been a group of family members that have notoriously excluded me from events, talked behind my back and overall never had anything good to say about my life or my choices. What I noticed is during the times that I highly valued these people and thier opinions in my life, I experienced the least amount of success in my life. It was in the distance and exclusion from this family group, mostly initiated by them, that I learned that my greatest periods of success occurred without them telling me that my hopes and dreams were impossible, stupid and/or too hard. Ultimately, those were not my people. I still love them dearly, but I made a decision that I am more valuable than somebody else’s personal jealousy, hate or fear. I can only control myself and the love I show to the world and to the people who rely on me. Haters are just going to have to hate off to the side, or they can make a decision to do what it takes to level themselves up too. The truth is that not everybody understands or wants growth in thier life. Most are happy living in the comfort and complacency they’ve built around them, which is amazing for them if that’s what they want. For me, it’s in living and testing the bounds of uncomfortability and failure that greatly accelerates growth, success and makes a person truly exceptional. That is what I am aiming for everyday of my life, and anyone who truly knows me, knows this about me. I think if people maintain thier focus through the storms, that is where they find thier power.

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?
Austin Community Wellness is a business that my husband and I started 7 years ago to combine my talents in chiropractic and structural massage and his talents in lomi lomi massage and craniosacral therapy. We have created a one stop shop for all body care needs in Austin Texas with a specialization in prenatal and pediatric populations, and all of our work incorporates the Hawaiian aloha spirit. We just upgraded to a larger space last year, and we are encouraging growth everyday.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
Personally, I noticed a huge transition in the Wow factor behind my massage skills after completing a gross anatomy lab in chiropractic school. At the time I entered chiropractic school, I had already been a massage therapist for about 10 years, and I assume it was the visualization of how the muscles were patterned underneath the skin that really resonated with me after that class. This one class supercharged the mastery of my understanding of the body and how each individual joint moved, which is huge when your life’s work revolves around healing the fluidity of movement patterns. In addition to that gross anatomy class, I would say that going through the pediatric and prenatal post doctoral program was pivotal to my treatment of whole families from birth onward. I knew prior to going to chiropractic school that I wanted to specialize in pregnancy and pediatrics because I had a hard time finding someone to treat me when I was pregnant. I also got to witness my third child go through respiratory distress and thrive after receiving her first adjustment, which was such a magical experience and drives a lot of the passion that I have towards this work. Lastly, I would have to say that getting reintroduced to a technique I learned in school called Activator Methods a few years into opening my practice was a game changer. I took basic activator technique in school the semester that I had my third child. After going through labor, I showed up to class two weeks post partum dragging one of my legs because it was so hard to walk, and this instructor threw me on the table as a demonstration. She did the entire advanced protocol on me, and I walked out of that class 90% better with one treatment. I was sold immediately and got certified in advance protocol, but after school there were no jobs utilizing this technique. Since I didn’t use it, I slowly lost it, but one day I received a phone call that a local activator doctor had a stroke and needed coverage for his office while he recovered. I immediately accepted the work and relearned the protocol even though it meant 10-12 hour days for me covering his practice and then hoping over to my practice for 6 months. This was extremely hard work for me, but it drastically set me apart from the competition in Austin because this doctor and myself are the only two doctors doing this technique in South Austin. My best advice for someone who is looking to grow and scale is to take every opportunity to grow your skill level and skill set, and constantly ask questions. How can I do this better, more efficiently, differentiate myself, pivot the things that aren’t working out into things that are working out? Also keep in mind if business were easy, everybody would do it.

Thanks so much for sharing all these insights with us today. Before we go, is there a book that’s played in important role in your development?
Who by Geoff Smart and Randy Street has been a phenomenal eye opener for me as a business owner along with some business coaching sessions. I realized that I have been hiring people based on my own emotional intuition and a need for an employee on a whim with little to no effort or true exploration on my part. Rather than truly evaluating and defining what I need this person to do for the business’s growth and development and if they are a good fit based on thier track record. Previous hires for me have been coworkers from other jobs that I knew who needed work at the same times I was feeling overwhelmed with my tasks. There has been no interviewing multiple candidates to find the perfect fit or anything remotely like that. Most of my hires have been impulsive decisions, which luckilly have not been total disasters, but I do recognize that I haven’t always found the right people who truly loved and owned thier position. I also tend to expect too many additional tasks that are unrelated to the position that was hired for. This book has taught me to define the role you need very clearly and write out the exact job description you need with concrete deadlines for objectives. Coaching has taught me that employees have no desire to wear all the hats that you as the owner are willing to wear, and the reason your employees don’t own thier own business is because they don’t want to take on all that load and burden. They want one job, and as an employer, it is so important to recognize this.

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