Stress in a modern society is a big deal, and regular chiropractic care
is, I'm convinced, uh, one of the keys to dealing with that problem.
Dallas Burnett: Hey everybody.
We're talking to Dr. Kevin Power today.
What an amazing guy He is a Vitalistic chiropractor, former professor at Sherman
College of Chiropractic and recent retiree after 21 incredible years of
shaping the next generation of healers.
He has some incredible stories from leaving Australia on a one-way ticket
back in 1978 to building a life and legacy in the US growing up as one of.
Five.
Five Chiropractic brothers winning faculty member of the year twice and ringing
out to a retirement on a high note.
He is a great friend of mine.
You don't want to miss this incredible conversation.
Welcome, welcome, welcome.
I'm Dallas Burnett, sitting in my 1905 Koch Brothers barber
chair in Thrive Studios.
But more importantly today we have a great guest, a dedicated chiropractor
who immigrated from Australia.
He graduated from Sherman College in 1981.
He's built a thriving practice taught for over two decades.
He's earned top faculty honors.
Just celebrated a retirement and he is just touched thousands of lives.
He's also my personal, he man, he's fixed me so many times this is amazing.
So I'm, it's an honor, it's an honor to have
you on the show, uh, Dr. Kevin.
Kevin Powers: Well, a pleasure to be here.
Dallas Burnett: That's awesome.
Well, I am, I've been excited to have you, and we've actually talked about this
for quite some time, just, hey, would you be ever interested in being on the show?
Because, we've had so many great conversations.
So, um, your whole.
that you do is so intentional and I think that's one of the things that
we always, at the last 10% we always appreciate is leaders who are intentional.
And whether that is in treating patients or whether that is, in how
you run your practice or how you teach the students, it's just a lot
of intentionality in common sense.
And man, we have just had some of the best conversations while
I'm laying on my back or on my stomach while you're working on me.
And I was like, we have gotta do some of this on air because
people are missing out.
So, first of all, I just wanna just wanna bring you in and let everybody
know a little bit about who Kevin is, like you are from down under.
So talk to us a little bit about how you got into being a chiropractor and
what was like in Australia growing up in a house full of brothers.
Kevin Powers: Well, we go back a ways in the sense then that, uh, we actually
grew up on a little, uh, orchard and it was 20 acre citrus orchard.
We were farmers, you know, dad was a farmer.
And, um, so we play a weird coat of football in Australia
that's similar to rugby.
So you dress out like a soccer player, but you get hit real hard.
So we ended up, we ended up in a chiropractor's office quite a lot
'cause our parents were, you know, they, they believed in natural
sort of medicines and stuff.
So it's, it was all a domino effect.
The second El brother realized that he wanted to go to chiropractic school.
He went, then the next brother went, the next brother went, and they all got
back and were practicing in Australia.
And, um, I realized that I wanted to do something with my
life that had some significance.
Uh, prior to that you know, I didn't really have much direction.
And so out of all that came, yep, let's go to school.
So I, as you say, I bought a one way ticket to South Carolina to go
to Sherman College of Chiropractic.
And, uh.
Back in 78.
Um, but, you know, we had a good life in Australia.
I mean, there wasn't, we weren't wealthy people, but it was a good life.
And we had, the citrus orchard.
So we were organic before it was, there was organic, you know,
Dallas Burnett: Uh.
Kevin Powers: had fruit from a citrus tree that you could pick
right out your, your side door.
we had a chickens, chickens, a cow raw milk, the whole nine yards.
And, uh.
So it was a great life.
Played football, went to school, and, So having a, you know, a, career in
chiropractic was really a, a pivotal thing for me when I decided to do that.
And it's stood me in good stead for almost 45 years now.
So it's, it's been an amazing an amazing journey, really.
And you just follow the leading of where that takes you.
I operate my life outta faith.
The Lord has directed me in a lot of directions.
But you know, here I am sitting in South Carolina later.
I mean, who would've thunk it.
Dallas Burnett: when you came to Sherman, 'cause Sherman is known,
I guess, is it known globally?
Did you know about it in
Kevin Powers: yes,
Dallas Burnett: you,
was it that prominent?
Even across It is.
Kevin Powers: yes,
Uh, so the other three brothers had come to the states to go to school because.
you, there was no teaching institution in Australia.
You had to leave.
there was one getting started in the seventies, but you had to leave and
come to the states or go to England.
Um, I'd already been to England.
I'd eat a backpack and thing around there, so the adventure was, Hey, I get
to go live in America for three years.
Sign me up, man.
No problem.
Let's go and yeah, Sherman was in its infancy in those days, but, it, it's
grown into one of the premier chiropractic schools in the world, I believe.
And I know I'm a little biased 'cause it's my alma mater.
I taught there for all those years.
But, we, we educate excellent chiropractors at
Sherman College, so, yeah.
Love that.
Dallas Burnett: so now what, what made you decide, you came here for school?
you know, you went through this school.
What made you
decide to stay and not go back to down
Kevin Powers: Well, actually I did go back, so upon graduation,
Dallas Burnett: Ah, okay.
Kevin Powers: I'd gotten married when I was here in school and, and
so I'd said to, my bride, I said, well, if you're gonna be with me,
you've gotta move to Australia.
That was sort of a, sounds a little pedantic, but it was
like this, I'm going home so.
We, we went home and, uh, I, I did a two year associateship, worked
for another doc for a while, and then I started my own business.
But it was evident that living in Australia long term was
not gonna be good for my wife.
It was, you know, we're 10,000 miles away and, so I said, Hey,
we can, we can turn around.
I I know what America's like.
I love it.
It's, it's a great country.
There's a lot of opportunity there.
So we sold our practice, sold our house.
You know, here we go.
Moving again.
Three little kids, uh, on an airplane.
I'll, I'll tell you this little story.
I'm sitting on, on an airplane.
I'm halfway across the Pacific Ocean.
I've got a wife, three kids, and I'm going, what have I done?
You know,
Dallas Burnett: oh
Kevin Powers: and another crazy thing was
I'm sitting in the airport and I thought, where are my keys?
I've lost my keys, and I didn't have any.
No key to a,
Dallas Burnett: Oh.
Kevin Powers: no key to a car, no key to an office.
And it's like, oh, that's, that's a little micro what's happening.
So we, uh, yeah, I came back for basically family reasons and so, I knew I was coming
to South Carolina, which I love, let South Carolina, the south to me, is very similar
to the culture of Australia, the people.
very accepting.
I, I've, I've been so well accepted here.
Just no problem at all.
Now, they may not understand me too well sometimes, but,
Dallas Burnett: Well, that goes both ways in South Carolina.
Kevin Powers: so I,
Dallas Burnett: That's so
Kevin Powers: I, you know, I said about getting started again.
I, you know, I got a job and just made a lot of money just to pay the bills
and, Got a license in South Carolina, which was, you know, wasn't an easy
thing to do, but we got that taken care of and hung out in a shingle and it's,
it's been hung out ever since then.
Since 1988.
Yeah.
In South Carolina, so,
Dallas Burnett: That's
Kevin Powers: mm.
Dallas Burnett: That's amazing.
Kevin Powers: Yeah.
Dallas Burnett: Now, so I would love to talk a little bit about your.
Your, kind of tenure while you were teaching at Sherman as well, because
you're, you have a tremendous amount of insight and I gotta say like, so
I have had back issues since I was in my twenties, and a lot of that
comes from sports injuries and just not taking care of myself as good as
I probably should have in my teens.
And so, uh, had back issues and so I've got, I'd gone to different.
You know, different types of chiropractics.
Some people, you know, 'cause I always, when I was growing up, it was
kind of just like this thing where it's like, Ooh, I don't know, you,
you know, it was a, it was a kind of a, not taboo, but it was like, I was
too, I was just scared, you know?
I was like, I'm not going.
Somebody's gonna crack my neck in half.
I just thought, oh.
And so it was just this perception that, it was just kind of something there.
But I, but then when you get into a situation where you're in
so much pain.
You can't get outta
Kevin Powers: Ah,
Dallas Burnett: then all of a sudden all these kind of
options open up.
Kevin Powers: absolutely.
Dallas Burnett: And so,
uh,
yeah, so I started going to different people and I, and had some success
with just some relief, just, I was just looking for relief.
but what's so fascinating about.
How you do what you do is, it's so specific that it's more specific than
anybody else that I've ever gone to.
Now I've gone to the ones where they do the radio wave through a metal
rod behind your ear, and I've gone to some that'll grab your neck and
just, you know, and it's like you feel it go all the way down your spine.
You're like, is my head still attached?
but you are totally different.
I've never.
Okay, so you gotta tell the listeners, you gotta tell.
'cause I don't know, maybe their chiropractor does it this
way, but I've never met anybody that does it exactly like you.
And this is fascinating to me.
you will go and pick a vertebra on my back.
You will put your finger on it, press it, and I have my leg lifted
up and you push against my leg.
And you literally will do that per vertebra.
And then you go, oh.
Your C two's, not working right now.
When you first did that, I was like, this guy,
Kevin Powers: Yeah.
Surprising.
Dallas Burnett: there's no, Yeah.
right, right.
You know, but like, oh my gosh, it's incredible.
So first of all, does that work and what are you doing?
Because we've had these
conversations, but I
Kevin Powers: Yeah.
Dallas Burnett: else would like to hear it.
Kevin Powers: It, it, it's really a fascinating business.
it's called Applied So the word applied is pretty straightforward.
Kinesiology is just a study of the muscles.
And, uh, it was developed by a Dr. Go, George Goodhart back in
the thirties of the last century.
And so it, in essence, what we're doing, the body is always in a
process of adaptation, right?
So if it's hot.
We sweat.
If it's cold, we, we warm up.
You know, the body an innate ability to function, right?
So it's called the autonomic nervous system.
It's things happening that we don't control, right?
We don't have to think about our heart rate, our respiration rate.
We're not thinking about, um, how we're digesting our food.
It's all of those things.
Okay?
So the innate intelligence of the body is keeping that system running all the time.
So it's a totally integrated system.
It's really.
I mean, the human body is, is just so phenomenal.
We're still figuring stuff out about it, but the nervous system specifically,
the brain communicates with every cell to the body and back again.
So it's a communication out and there's a feedback loop, right?
We can all kind of understand that.
So I see the brain and nervous system as the software.
The spine is the hardware.
Alright?
So we can tap into that information and then in that system by muscle testing.
So if you have a vertebral misalignment at C two, like you said, it is
creating a certain interference to that communication system.
All right?
But the innate intelligence of the body is able to work around that.
The brain's incredible how it can do a work around.
And we all know about neuroplasticity now.
So it's not really, that's what I'm talking about, but the brain has the
ability to fun keep us functioning.
So you may get up this morning and not feel a hundred percent, but you
still go and you're going, but you have what we call a subluxation complex.
The, the word subluxation just that a vertebra is out of
alignment, but it's not dislocated.
It's a less than a dislocation.
So a sub is less than, but it's causing some nerve interference.
To the body.
All right, so I can muscle test you.
And then when I challenge that vertebra and push it further into a misalignment,
it's like a red flag to the body.
It says up, there's a problem here, but something's making it worse.
It will cause a short circuit in every muscle of your body
for three to five seconds.
And I can feel a little bit of a weakness in that muscle in your hamstring.
And that tells me that's the vertebra that I need to attend to.
Right there.
And you bring up the issue about what needs to be adjusted or not.
Uh, and the specificity of it is a hallmark of Sherman College.
We only adjust the thing that needs adjusted.
there are plenty of practitioners, in, in the world of chiropractic who will
adjust a lot of bones and move things around, and you'll get a lot of noise.
You'll get a lot of endorphin release, and that's awesome.
My belief is that we need to put minimum force into the
body to make the correction.
So I may find that you have a left ileum misalignment, a T six and a C two.
Those are the only things I'm adjusting that day, and so it's minimal input to
the body, but the body can use those forces that I'm putting in for good
to help open up that nerve pathway.
You function better.
Your nervous system functions better, your immune system's stronger.
You're clearer in your brain and your function.
This it, it's just a myriad of stuff that So I hope that gives you
some insight as to what that is.
That is.
Dallas Burnett: amazing.
I
love That And we talk about, we talk about being intentional and I mean even
down to like how you treat patients.
It's so specific.
It's so much more specific.
Even if sometimes you'll go to a chiropractor, they do an x-ray or they'll
do this, they that, but then they end up doing something that affects everything.
And you are the.
Only person that I've gone to.
specific.
And I just love that because I always am like, man, I don't feel
like I'm messing something else up.
it's like when you take the car to the mechanic and you want 'em to work
on your air conditioning, but then all of a sudden you're like, wait
a minute, my fuel light's going on.
Whatever.
You know, I just feel really, really.
It's just really nice.
It's really great and so intentional and so, uh, yeah, that was always,
that was just so fascinating.
Me.
I know there's a little thing that people, if you go to chiropractors, you're
probably like, wow, that's pretty cool.
But, but if you don't go to a chiropractor, well, you, you probably
Kevin Powers: Yeah.
Dallas Burnett: should
probably think about it.
Kevin Powers: there's, yeah, there's one other thing that I can talk
about there that I think is relevant.
so in the world of chiropractic, it, it's, it's very effective at dealing with
people's symptoms in a lot of ways, right?
So if you come, it's the classic low back pain, headache, neck pain scenario.
A chiropractic very effective at dealing with those problems for people.
Right.
But to me that's only that, that's just the beginning.
It's like That's the surface, that's the introduction.
That's what drives people to a chiropractor.
For me, I want to take you from that patient, that pain
management model into a wellness and optimum function level, right?
So if you are a, a businessman, you are, uh, whatever you do,
you're a plumber, whatever it is.
And, you know, you've gotta focus and be able really do your job well that day.
I'm all about having you to be adjusted on some sort of a regular basis.
I wanna maintain that nervous system functioning at your
highest potential, right?
So I have tons of people that come to me that have no symptoms.
Other people just don't.
Well, why, why are you going?
Well, I go because I want to function at as best I possibly
can and not get into trouble.
Right.
And so,
Dallas Burnett: Hundred
Kevin Powers: know, I love American football.
usually watch the college guys more than, uh, the pros.
But I was, I watched Super Bowl and those people are
functioning at that highest level.
Well, I guarantee you there's a chiropractor in every NFL team.
Because they know that they
Dallas Burnett: Oh
Kevin Powers: when they, when they get adjusted.
So that's just an example.
Um, we all in whatever our profession is doing what you do,
you know, you are a busy guy.
You, you know, you've got business dealings, you're traveling family,
everybody's got stuff going on.
And in the modern world,
Dallas Burnett: Yeah.
Kevin Powers: to, uh, keep that at a low e, if you will, and
keep it from overwhelming you.
Stress in a modern society is a big deal, and regular chiropractic care
is, I'm convinced, uh, one of the keys to dealing with that problem.
Dallas Burnett: I think that's so true, and I think that's, for
me, yeah, being proactive and not reactive is obviously, the best.
And so I think that your philosophy on that is so true because, and,
and it's gonna depend on the person.
If you're in an impact sport, you, you should be really, I wish I was,
I wish I'd have known about this when I was in high school and it would
probably have saved me some, pain down the road, if I would've had, some
of that done when I was a young man.
So, um, no, but that's great.
Well, I wanna talk a little bit about, your time at Sherman
because you've seen so many
students come through over the last 20 years.
Kevin Powers: Yeah.
Dallas Burnett: would
love
to just because
a, you're a technical expert.
You never stopped doing.
Chiropractic care.
So you're practicing, but you're also teaching.
So you have this cool mix of you're not only engaging with people on an
everyday basis, that's patients, but you're also engaging with students and
trying to convey the knowledge that you already have and the knowledge that
you're learning with these students.
And so I think that's awesome because it's very applicable.
What was some of the things that you most enjoyed, when you were
in, Sherman and able to interact with, the students at Sherman?
Kevin Powers: young people, and I can say that now 'cause
I'm not a young person anymore.
you know, they come in with a. Great enthusiasm for the profession.
You know, they've either been to a chiropractor or they've had an
experience with one, and they see the value in what chiropractors can bring
to their, to a community or whatever.
a lot of energy there, which was really good for me.
You know, you get around young people and they're, they're fired up and it's
like, oh yeah, let's not lose the plot.
so.
Uh, 'cause we can get awfully distracted with stuff.
So to take those folks and say, you know, they can hardly find
a C two vertebra on a spine.
I mean, palpation, feeling what's going on in there is, is a key part of what we do.
And to bring them along.
And then suddenly you see the light go on.
Be, oh, that's how that works.
Oh, this is what we need to do in this situation.
And give them all these different scenarios and bring them from.
You know, completely unaware of how the spine works to a place
where they can do a good analysis.
You know, we were graduating people that were very competent chiropractors
before they ever left school.
And so that was
one of the things that I was always about.
I pushed the cohorts that I had to towards excellence.
Right.
I said, I don't want you to just fall out of chiropractic school.
I want you to jump outta here feeling totally ready to go.
And that every student that I had personally responsibility for, I can
say that wherever the com, whatever community they're in, and wherever they're
practicing, I know their practice members are getting excellent chiropractic care.
And to me that was a big deal.
I mean, as a, as an individual.
Yes, I'm touching your life, your family's life.
The, the patients that come to me today, uh, I don't know how many
students was directly responsible for, but I am indirectly impacting
all of their practice members.
And that blew my mind when I finally realized that I was, oh, now you're
doing something worthwhile power.
This is, this is good.
You it was just a huge deal.
So you had to take the enthusiasm of the student and mold them into something
where you, this was the other thing.
Take them from the mindset of a student.
'cause they've come out of undergrad and then we put 'em in this doctoral
program, which is a meat grinder.
Honestly, it's, it's, you know, a four year doctoral degree.
You've gotta stay on point and you, you work hard to get through that thing.
And then to mold them out of a student mentality into, now you've
gotta start thinking like a doctor.
It, and it's, it's different and, and you've gotta take on the mantle of it
because patients have an expectation that you know what you are doing and
that they're looking to you for advice.
And so
that was another deal to me to them into that professional mindset.
Dallas Burnett: I think that's so valuable.
you enjoyed the interaction with the students, their energy, this kind of
like what they brought and then you could bring your expertise to bear
on that so they didn't lose the plot.
I love how you say that.
That's so true.
And, but on the flip side, as you go through it, you start
realizing like the ripple
that you have.
It just got so much
Kevin Powers: Yes.
Dallas Burnett: because now you're training the people who are
helping communities on and on and on, and it just goes on and on.
So that, that's really, that's really cool.
That's really good.
so I would love to, I would love to talk a little bit about too, 'cause I think
this is where we get into, and I think you've already said some takeaways.
So if you listen to the last 10%, you may have said, well, wait a minute, how
has this got to do with leading people and how has this gotta to do with what
I'm
Kevin Powers: Hmm.
Dallas Burnett: and leading teams and coaching and whatnot.
I think you've already heard a couple things that, Kevin's.
Told us that are just really interesting to me and as it
relates to leadership and coaching.
Number one, he said earlier about how the body is always in a process of adaptation.
I think that as leaders that, that we've, we may not see that so
many times as we're leading teams, as we're leading organizations,
is that everything that we do.
Is causing people to react and adapt.
And no matter if it's how they're sitting at their desk, it's a
physical example in their ergonomics.
Or it could be, the snacks that we're providing, or it could
be the meetings and the stress that we're putting people under.
But it's understanding that whatever we do as a leader to.
To our team, with our team, through our team is going to cause their
bodies physically to do some type of adaptation to keep going.
And I think that, just being aware of that and that mindset of what am I
doing that's actually pushing my team to adapt in ways that are not only helpful
for them, but helpful for our team.
And what am I doing on the flip side?
What am I doing to my team that's causing them to potentially adapt in ways, those
Unintended consequences.
Dallas Burnett: that we don't, that we don't know, We didn't know was gonna
happen when we did this thing, when we implemented this new program, or
we did, we, we took this program away.
So I think that's one thing.
I also think that your drive towards, higher impact and purpose just, I think,
fueled you to do what you did well in developing others like you saw The higher
order, which you know, obviously is what you know is one of the reasons that you
could tell that because you not only care about the profession and feel like
the profession is worthy and there's purpose there, but you're calling to other
people to live through that excellence.
Like we were going to operate in this standard of excellence.
You're calling them to this higher standard and then you get to see the
fruit of that as they go out into the communities I think is something
that leaders should really be.
Focused on in finding in their own teams and their own leadership finding where
are you in that hierarchy of purpose?
You know, do you see the value that you're providing to society?
And then how are you calling others to live at this standard
of excellence so we can ripple, so we can get ripples, you know?
And, I think that's been, I mean, that's what coaching is all about.
we have coaches that.
to shows and have one-on-one coaching systems in the app and the whole deal.
And part of that is just.
is being a ripple, is creating that ripple.
And yeah.
So I think that's really great.
I think that's fantastic.
So let's talk a little bit about your business savvy, because you
operate your practice very different.
most chiropractics I go to, they'll have the front office
staff and they got the rooms in the back and it's the whole thing.
And.
you don't do that.
and it's very unique.
And so I would love for you to say kind of your philosophy, because I find it
in, I find it fascinating and it works.
So tell us a little bit about your philosophy.
Kevin Powers: That's really what comes to mind.
I mean, with what we do, you, you can use a lot of different, uh, equipment
and stuff and, tons of docs who have, you great practices that use sorts
of things, uh, modalities, you know, got heat pad that sort of stuff.
So for me it's, it is very simple in the sense that I have an adjusting
table, a desk and a chair and a, and a basic little And, and that's about it.
Um, but even when I was practicing full time, before I started teaching, I never
had more than one, um, like assistant, like chiropractic assistant, front
person, you know, front desk person.
because I wanted them to be interactive with my patient base too.
And we never had a situation where.
They were behind a glass petition, that type of thing.
That drives me crazy when I go to a, a doctor's office and you've gotta
look through this little window, you.
know, it's almost like they're scared to see you.
For us, it was like, we're here as a healing art.
And it's not just about the adjustment, but how you, how you
interact, how you answer the phone.
it it's things like that.
And when I had a CIO, I'd say, look.
You've gotta remember the person calling and may have a migraine
today, and they're not gonna respond in a very nice way necessarily.
We've gotta, we've gotta treat people where they're at.
So, keeping it down to now where I'm at, where I'm just, you know, part-time
hours, I take my own appointments, you know, I've had a couple of
calls this morning from people.
I answer the phone, I make the appointments, I talk to them,
we, you know, we, figure out what, when they need to come.
As you know, you come into my office, I've got a one room setup.
it's, 12 by 14 room.
I share a space in an office building, where I tap in you know,
I pay the, my landlord a flat fee.
I tap into this high speed internet.
you know, I'm an old school guy.
I still keep a paper file, which is, seems absurd to a lot of
people, but it works for me.
so, you know.
We, I take care of the, of the client.
You know, you come in, what's going on?
we, I do my thing and then I take a payment and we set up another appointment
if that's what you choose and you're out the door and it's seven to 10 minutes.
but I give one.
Dallas Burnett: That's right.
Kevin Powers: care in that seven to 10 minutes.
And, you know, it works And, it's, the overhead is very low.
Um, you know, I, my business model is very simple and you know, I'm thankful
I, don't have to work real hard anymore.
I'm not trying to crank a volume of people through my office.
That's not the goal.
It's the very opposite of anything.
You know, I wanna be able to hang out with you and how are the girls doing?
And, you know, what's happening in Florida?
Uh, I wanna I want that interaction and it, it brings to mind, mate, one of
the key things for me is, um, if any of your listeners and go study this, the
science of So this has come along in the last 10 or 15 years, maybe 20 years.
Where we now know that our words have an in a direct impact on how
the genetic helix functions, right?
How it, how it operates.
So here's the context.
If I get up today and it's a rainy day and I say, ah, it's a rainy day.
I don't like this.
Don't wanna go to work, that's having a negative impact on how my body functions.
Right.
but, so they'll, conversely, if I say, well, it's a rainy day, that's great.
I'm glad it's raining, because we need the rain and I'm choosing
them to have a a good day.
So for me, words are containers and we've gotta be very careful about
what we say and how we say it, because we can truly impact how the
body functions well, or it has a negative impact on that genetic helix.
This stuff blows my mind.
I mean, we're talking about quantum physics now, but it's, it's a reality.
so I was always taught to have a positive mental attitude, right?
Go listen to Zig Ziglar or whatever, someone, and that was great, but
now it's, you know, zigs gone.
But I mean, he had a huge infl influence on us.
And so, But now we know this is a science that's provable.
So.
What you experience when you come into my office is always going to
be a, a positive note, you know?
Yeah.
Look, if you come and you are in severe pain, I'm not gonna give
you a Pollyanna answer about that.
I'm gonna say, yeah, look, there's a problem here, but we have a
solution and we will work on this the next six or eight weeks.
And I'm, I, I don't say to people unless I know I can.
I don't say to them, I, can help you.
Because if people come and I can see that I cannot help them, I'm gonna
say, look, no, you need a surgeon.
You need a neurologist, you need another discipline.
And I guess it's a hallmark of, of what people would say about me is
Thank you doc, for telling me the truth that you are not the right guy for me.
And I. Super important.
You know, if if you need a if you need a surgery, you need a surgery, and, You
know, maybe, you know, I think that can happen quickly in a lot of cases, but
I'll I'll have people come and if I've seen them three or four times and I've
not moved the needle more than 10%, I'm gonna say, sorry, sir. Madam, uh, uh,
this is not the right place for you.
You need help somewhere else.
So.
I know I'm going down some rabbit trails there, perhaps, but it's that mindset of
I'm gonna lift people up, I'm going to give them hope, and it's, it's a big deal.
Dallas Burnett: Yeah.
Yeah, I mean, like you said, with the epigenetics, it's almost like
we're actually seeing that, um, you know, the, some of the old, adages
and, and, uh, some of the old sayings that, you know, have a positive mind,
mental attitude, positive mindset.
It's not only just a
feel good for the optimist, you know, for the, all the optimist out there,
it's actually something
that, our beliefs and our words are literally shaping, not,
you know, it's not like this.
Like you said, Pollyanna future, like, oh, everything's rosy, everything's happy.
No, it's literally, it's shaping how our bodies function.
It's like literally changing our the, so when we go into our office,
when we go into our team meetings or when we go into that, uh.
As a leader, especially those living in last 10%.
And that's one of the reasons I wanted to get you on the
show because we have leaders.
We call this the last 10% because, the quote back in the eighties, um, was, was
a computer programmer that said the first 90% of any project programming project
takes 90% of the effort and the last 10%.
Takes 90% of the
effort.
And so it's the tongue in cheek, right?
You know, so that last 10% closing it out feels like it takes just as much effort to
get to the first, through the first 90%.
And so if you want to live in that last 10%, what are you
doing on a daily basis to put
yourself in the right framework?
You have a great
Kevin Powers: Yep.
Dallas Burnett: to set you up so that you, when you see it
raining outside, you're like.
Hey, we needed the water.
I'm excited to see the grass is gonna get greener.
Or is your morning routine, you're waking up 10 minutes late, you're getting to
work a, you're getting to work in a bad mood and, uh, you know, and, and
then, and then you're rippling that out because obviously our words have effect
on other people.
So I think that message
Kevin Powers: Hmm.
Dallas Burnett: on.
coaching and leading teams.
I'd love to see, 'cause you're obviously well read and I mean, look, the, yeah,
you, if I could tell you the stories, I mean like he figured out there was,
my daughter was playing sports, she had an injury and she's actually had a
couple of different kinds of injuries and none of my kids, they're like me.
If you're gonna get something like almost died of rocky mountain, spite of
fevers, you can't get something normal.
You gotta get something rare and crazy and whatever.
You know, it can't be just the, oh, I pulled my hamstring.
Nah, that's way too easy.
So, uh, my oldest daughter had an issue that was a, it was a ligament
in the front of her hip that was just really hard to diagnose.
And, you know, you, I mean, it's incredible like you found it and it
was a very rare thing to be a problem.
And based on that, I mean, she's.
She was able to, you know, bounce back and, continue to play.
And she was, I mean, she couldn't walk and it was incredible.
So, you know what you're talking about.
you hear a lot of information, right?
So we're getting a lot of information, you know, from
the government, whether it's the, it's
very
Kevin Powers: Yeah.
Dallas Burnett: I think people sometimes
don't know what to believe because, one side says this and then the other side
says this, and if the other side said that before then they're wrong now.
And the other side said that before, they're wrong now.
And it's like, who knows?
Like, you know, first it's like, take your vaccine vaccines down.
It's like, don't take your vaccines down.
It's like, take some vaccines.
People are just like.
Really bombarded.
I would love to hear, as someone who is in the space, sees people, in all
kind of different conditions, what is your, philosophy on health and wellness?
'cause as leaders we wanna show up in the last 10%.
What should we, what do you feel like is making, huge impact in a positive way?
Kevin Powers: Yeah, it, it, it's, it's a big topic Dallas.
Uh, there's a lot to that, but there's some really basic
things that need to happen.
so yes, our, our mindset, our, our beliefs, you know, having
faith is a grounding thing for me.
and not everyone's gonna see that the same way, but that's,
that's where you start from.
It's what's in your mind and what you, what you feel you can achieve and have you
set your goals and all that sort of thing.
Right?
So mindset is a big deal.
but then on the physicality side of it, you know, we need to be
doing some sort of exercise.
You've gotta move and, you know, we are designed as human beings to walk
and move and, so for me, I'm, I'm not a, uh, exercise physiologist.
I, I don't have training in that, but I know people who do.
And so I'm gonna send you to who, whoever you need over there.
And maybe you need a massage therapist, you need some PT or whatever, but
basic movement and, and it's a chronic problem in modern society.
So many people are, sitting at a computer all day.
Sitting, as I say, is the new smoking.
I mean, it's just so detrimental to us to sit all the time.
So you've gotta move.
So it's some basic movement, movement stretching, some resistance bands.
You don't have to go to a gym.
You don't have to be a gym wrap.
I mean, you don't, that, that's old hat these days.
Um, the research on exercise is take the stairs, um, park.
Dallas Burnett: I like
that.
I like that on exercise is
Kevin Powers: instead of the elevator.
Uh, if you're going to a and you park in the back of the parking lot and you
walk up to the store, not drive around three times looking for a spot that's
close, it, it's that sort of mindset.
Now that's just one little sort of anecdotal thing.
So yes, getting some exercise is a big deal.
Um, and it doesn't have to be a lot.
It's the consistency, in my opinion.
Now that's a big deal.
And I'll get my people just, you know, if, if they're at a computer
all day, um, stop every hour for three minutes and do some squats,
do a couple of wall pushups things.
I mean, it's real easy to do.
There's tons of data on, you can go YouTube and all day long and find stuff.
I don't have to teach you how to do that.
You can go find that stuff.
it's an interesting thing about the nervous system.
I'll bring that up.
If you are focused on your job and you are doing what you gotta do,
if you stop every hour for that three minutes, it resets the brain.
And it's a matter of just standing up from where you are and going
and walking around in your office space and sitting back down again.
The brain went, oh, we've started over.
And it, it's like a reset.
It really is.
So that's just a little tidbit.
The next big thing, of course, is the dietary stuff.
Um.
So I love the idea of, of eating an ancestral diet, right?
So some people may not understand what that is.
The world of diets is so convoluted, it's so complex.
You know, should I be only eating meat?
Should only eating vegetables.
it's almost so overwhelming.
People would, ah.
I give up.
So my mantra now is, and what, I'm teaching people think ancestral what
did they eat a hundred years ago and where did that food come from?
Right?
So I'm gonna go back to my life and how I grew up.
you know, we ate food that came from within a 50 mile radius, and that's
a thing that's a big deal these days.
If you, if you eat food that came from close by, you know, getting
strawberries in the middle of winter doesn't really make any sense.
Right?
But they've gotten 'em from Peru or wherever, and I got nothing against that.
But they had to spray 'em.
They had to do all this stuff and they had to refrigerate it and get it here
pre second World War, they didn't have refrigerated trucks, so you had to get
your stuff locally before it went bad.
Right?
So
if you can, if you can recreate that by going to the farmer's markets.
Find a local farmer that you can buy some meat from that's packaged.
Like there's people all around.
I'm in Greenville, South Carolina.
There are places around here that you can go.
Now, it requires a bit of effort.
You know, you can't just run down to a grocery store and
get that stuff necessarily.
I mean, there's some good stuff in the stores too, but if you
can go get unadulterated food, I guess is what I'm trying to say.
Good quality stuff.
Vegetables, meat, chicken, eggs.
I mean, I'm a raw egg fan, you know, I want a real egg, um,
call 'em real
Dallas Burnett: That's
Kevin Powers: eggs.
Dallas Burnett: That's
good.
Kevin Powers: and some people can't deal with this, but I drink basically raw milk.
There's a, there's a farmer down in Star South Carolina.
They deliver up through here.
It's, it's partially pasteurized, but it's not homogenized.
You know, the Kareem rises to the top.
I grew up on that, so it, it, I resonate with that, But some
people can't drink raw milk.
That's beside the point.
Try to find good nutrients.
But if you're gonna go to the grocery store, here's a simple thing.
Stay on the outside of the store.
Right?
Go to the produce, go to the meats.
Go to the cheeses and whatever, right?
Stay on the outside.
As soon as you put, buy something that's in a box, it's, it's not good for you.
Just, I'll be straight up.
Dallas Burnett: Yeah,
Kevin Powers: This.
I mean, you.
look on the back of a box, now everyone can do This.
There are words on there that I can't say, I don't know.
I don't know what that stuff is.
You know, you've got 28 chemicals in there.
None of that's good for my body.
None of it, you know, my body's not light in red, you know, polys saw, but 80,
I mean, I'm not detrimental in that.
I don't need that.
So when you put that stuff in your body, it's then.
Breaking you down in essence, so it might taste great.
Um, you know, that's fine.
So the whole low fat thing was, uh, I think foisted on, on people.
And, if you go back and research that, the data was manipulated to make it look
like that we should be eating low fat.
And in fact, I think that's completely wrong.
you know, a high, a high fat diet.
You know, minimal, some carbohydrates, you can have a real good balance.
So there's plenty of stuff to, to study and learn about how to do that.
one, one thing I'll mention for you and for your, you know, the people who
are watching this, a great resource for what I'm talking about is called
the Western a Price Foundation.
All right.
I'm a, a huge fan of Western a Price.
He was, um, a dentist in the, the twenties, so a hundred years ago.
And even then he started noticing the deterioration of the bone
structure in people's jaws.
And, he went and studied all around the world and looked at the Australian,
Dallas Burnett: Oh
Kevin Powers: the Australian Aborigines, the Eskimos, the people
in South America, and they had these vibrant teeth and good jaw bones.
And he's like, what's the deal?
And so, Western a price is an enormous, wonderful resource.
Dallas Burnett: Yeah, man, I think that's amazing.
And um, I think too, it's funny because I was on a plane flight with,
uh, someone, it was a young lady.
it was not too long ago.
It was probably two months ago.
And she was, getting married.
She was engaged and, and she was telling me about that.
And she was from Singapore and I've never been to Singapore.
So I was talking to her about.
Singapore, I was like, Hey, how did you, you know, where,
how did you get to America?
Where are you living?
And you know, I think her, fiance was from, oh man,
like Vietnam or, or Cambodia.
I'm not sure which one.
But she was from Singapore.
He was from another South Asian, country.
And I was like, all right.
So, what's the biggest thing that you've noticed about being in the States?
'cause she was working in this crypto firm, uh, and she was, she was doing,
they were doing some crypto investing.
It was a very interesting, it.
Thing.
They were just kinda the startup, but they had, you know, large
money, they were growing fast.
So I was talking to her about the crypto thing and just saying, what are you
guys doing and how are you doing it?
And all this stuff.
And so she said, I said, what's the biggest thing that you see
that's different than Singapore?
And she sat there for a minute and she thought about it
and she said, you know what?
I think I would say, the food.
I was like, the food, like, is it just like this too?
Is it more spicy, less spicy?
What's the, what's the deal?
Like, why, why would you say the food?
And she said, well, it's the food because everything here lasts longer.
And I went, like, what?
She said, oh yeah.
Like when you buy, when you buy bread in Singapore, it lasts a few days
and if you don't eat it, it goes bad.
But man, you can buy bread here and it'll last for weeks.
And she's like, anything I buy here lasts so much longer.
Then when I get it back in Singapore and I was just like, Ooh, we, I don't know.
So it's kind of interesting to your point.
'cause like, uh, at the end of the day, I think we've pumped ourselves so full
of these preservatives and things like that, that it's, yeah, we don't really
know what we're putting in our bodies.
And so, because we're not all experts on, the preservative, Reactions
with whatever our enzymes are in our DNA and whatever else in our body.
It's, it's, um, I could definitely see how that would be helpful.
So, yeah.
Thank you for that.
That's great wisdom, great advice.
And uh, you know, I think that's really good for our listeners.
So if you're listening to the last 10%.
If you wanna live in that last 10%, if you wanna be healthy,
some great advice mindset.
We know that we've heard a lot on mindset.
We gotta get it right.
But hey, there's epigenetics that says it's not just feel good talk,
it's actual, it's actual proven science that we're learning more
about as we get into more quantum, which I actually study a lot about.
It's very interesting.
the whole, that whole genre, uh, you know, you don't have to be a gem rat.
I think that's a great point, uh, that Dr. Powers is making is like, Hey, look.
You know, I think everybody, it's the new year.
We wanna set goals, we wanna do all these things.
We wanna to make, we wanna be big, we wanna make bold impacts.
It's not about being bold, it's, it's just about being better.
Can we be the best at getting better?
We don't have to be the best.
We gotta be the best at getting better.
So somebody in the last 10% is gonna be the best at getting better.
And how do you get just a little bit better than when you are now,
when we talk about one-on-one.
And the one-on-one coaching system.
At the end of that set, every time we get through a one-on-one,
it's how do we want to get every single time we give a one-on-one?
The last question is, what do you want to commit to over the
next 30 days to get 1% better?
We're talking about micro movements.
Well, you know what?
You got some great, you got some great value bombs right there from, uh, Kevin.
He says, Hey, look, if you're sitting for an hour, take three minutes.
Stand up and walk around.
Just three minutes.
Walk to the bathroom, go get a cup of coffee, go get some water.
Reset, it resets your brain.
You sit back down and you're refresh and go again.
Hey, if you, if you haven't got time to go to the gym, I mean, my daughter's
trying to up her wall sit times because, uh, she's, she's, you know, she's trying
to do some off season training right now.
And so she's like, she's really hard on the wall.
Sits right now.
She's doing a lot of wall sits.
Hey, what are you doing?
Can you take three minutes?
Can you do a three minute wall sit?
If you can't, what's it?
Hey, if you just did that every day, you would be able to do a three
minute wall sit before you know it.
So it's not about going and working out two hours at the gym after work.
Can you stand up and do, and because it's gonna make you better, it's
gonna help you get to that last 10%.
I love that when he said stay outside the store.
I've never, I've never thought about that.
I've never thought about, , how we, how when you go into the
grocery store, he is right.
Exactly right.
I mean, all the produce and the milk and the meats and the fish.
And the cheeses and all that stuff are all on the outside.
It's all on the outside wall, but all the packaged goods are
right in the center of the store.
Maybe this is something everybody else knows.
I don't know.
I, I'm, I get lost in like the grocery store, black hole.
I, I go in there and it's like four hours later I'm coming out like with two things.
I'm like, duh.
You know?
But, uh, that's just me.
And so, um, if you, um, if you're like me, you don't wanna go to the grocery store.
Anyway.
And so, uh, that makes it simple.
If I can just stay on the outer wall and now just go in, turn to the right and I'll
come out on the left over at the register.
Done.
I don't have to worry about anything in the middle.
So that's really great, really great advice.
And so, yeah, so thank you for sharing that.
thank you for sharing that, uh, Kevin.
That's great.
Kevin Powers: Kevin, before we go, I wanna ask you one last question.
You have taught.
Multiple generations of students that have come through as you having your great
wisdom as a professor at Sherman, because you've seen so many different generations.
I wanted to hear if you have any insight for new or young leaders coming outta
school, whether that's in chiropractic care or any type of other occupation.
They're coming outta college or just getting in the workforce.
What advice would you give these new students that are
coming out and graduating?
Man, I just feel like if you set your sights on some things and you're
having some goals, that's important that whatever you are choosing to
do in life is that you give it 100%.
I know that's a sort of a cliche.
Go at it with all you that that you've got and keep it balanced though with your
life and health and wellbeing as you've got a family, and keep a balance, but
keep your goals focused on the long term.
Be willing to take some chances.
It's not always easy to step off the edge of the cliff, but I left
Australia with a one-way ticket.
I think you mentioned that earlier.
Not really knowing what I was getting into, but I was like,
I know I've gotta go do this.
And it's, it paid off dividends for me, and I think that's a key thing.
Let's just be totally focused on what we've gotta do.
And that intentionality pays dividends.
It just does.
It doesn't matter what you're doing.
Just get after it.
Get after it.
Be willing to give away all your keys on your way to the next, next level, right?
Yes.
If you're willing to sacrifice all your keys, you know you're
getting close, so that's good.
That's great wisdom.
Thank you for that advice.
For our young leaders coming out and, and for everyone, if you're
gonna go do something, go be great, go be excellent, go after it, and
be willing to put the work into it.
I think that's great.
Well, well listen, I appreciate your time, Kevin, for being on the show,
for Sharing Your wisdom would last 10% and I would love, thank you for you to
share with us if you have, we always ask the guest when we close the show.
Do you have any, anyone that you would like to hear as a guest on the last 10%?
Okay.
The one person that I think would be really valuable to the folks that
you know tune into you is the editor or the director of the Western, a
Price foundation that I mentioned.
Her name is Sally Fallon Morrell.
She will have great insights on all sorts of topics, but basically about how
to live well and what to eat and what to do, and so I think she'd be awesome.
Oh, that's awesome.
Awesome.
All right, that's great.
We'll have to reach out to Sally, see if we can get her as a guest on the last 10%.
And uh, Kevin, we appreciate your time today.
We appreciate everything that you do for the community, all the students
that you have taught, and the ripple that you've had on so many other
people and their help and wellbeing.
So thank you for being a guest on the last 10%.