Host: So when Parker looks for speakers, that’s what we’re looking for, people to bring their A-plus game to you. And so, in that same token, every year they search out in the D.C. arena for somebody that does the same thing, that brings their A-plus game, no matter what. And there’s somebody that we really want to bring up here and recognize as a result of his work in the field, but I think we’ve got a quick video that we’re gonna run before we bring him up. Mike, can we throw that video up for me, please?
Dr. Tony DeRamus: I got into the profession by accident, like some people do. I didn’t really understand and know anything about chiropractic at the time, but I knew that I wanted to go that route. It wasn’t until I actually went to Parker Seminars, and when I left there at that time, I just knew that I was destined to be a chiropractor.
First time I attended a Parker Seminar was in school. Like I said, I was walking through the hallways, this little absent-minded kid, didn’t know anything about it, and I saw this crowd of people sitting there, and around this table, there’s this gentleman adjusting other people. I didn’t even know what adjustment was at the time.
So I laid on the table and had him adjust me and, of course, I was just amazed at what had happened, and then I walked straight from his table into a room with Jim Sigafoose and heard him speak. There’s no doubt that that changed my…the course of my career. It really initiated me to, “Wow, this is what I’m going to do for the rest of my life.”
As I got further into practice, I realized there are two things that we wanted to do. One is, I knew that we represented chiropractic very well. I’m very passionate about this profession, but we also recognized that associates in our profession didn’t always have the best opportunities, and so I knew that if I could duplicate what we had at that time, to represent chiropractic in the right way and then still at the same time give financial opportunities and just give our future doctors chances to really grow and fly.
I’m very passionate about the progression of this profession. Parker, I believe, creates a medium for me to be able to give back to the profession, the foundation, the future…well, obviously, to the students.
Parker does such a wonderful job with principles and practice, the philosophy, giving the students a fantastic education. I take time. I go speak at different universities for them for the improvement process. I donate when I can donate to the school for various things. It’s given me an avenue to be able to give back to the profession, and I can’t think of a better place to give back.
I do believe that patients are looking for something a little bit different today. They’re looking for a facility that has a nice presentation, feels good. We spent a lot of time in innovation, too. There are so many wonderful things that we have now to help our patients progress, to help them get better, that they should be used.
The third thing with us, hands down, is the relationships. Our facility should be that place that people go when they want to get away from the rest of their life.
I wouldn’t be who I am today if Parker wasn’t there. From business principles, from chiropractic philosophy and the different types of treatments, we have available to us, to even hanging out with successful chiropractors. We have so many wonderful and good people behind us now that it almost creates an energy in and of itself to push us forward.
When you really love what you do, when you were doing what you are called to do, I mean, that’s what wakes you up every day.
Host: So, folks, is there any doubt that this gentleman lives, breathes, and eats chiropractic? It is truly an honor to bring to you this morning the 2018 Parker Las Vegas Chiropractor of the Year, Dr. Tony DeRamus. Let’s get on our feet, everybody.
Host 2: Congratulations.
Dr. Tony DeRamus: Thank you.
Host: Congratulations.
Dr. Tony DeRamus: Appreciate that. Yeah, that’s awesome! Wow. How cool is this? It’s really humbling to be up here and an honor to be on the stage to receive an award like this in front of my colleagues, in front of the people that I treasure. But, you know, the gratitude really goes to these people in the front row here and the people that are still back at home, because they’re the ones that make it work. I mean, this is not lip service that we just give to them, we’d not be here without what they do for us. You know, you guys show up every single day, you just grind it out, and you play at such a high level, and I’ve got to thank you for that because this vision that we have now is becoming a reality because of you, and I can’t wait to have one of our other doctors on this stage one day, you know, receiving the same award.
But it is ironic, because in 2008, I quit. I gave up. I gave up on chiropractic, I gave up on you, and, unfortunately, I gave up on myself because I was confused. I got lost. You guys know there’s so much in-fighting in our profession about what’s right, what’s the right technique, what’s the right schedule, what’s a PVA, what’s that supposed to look like? And for people that are trying to find their path, it makes it very difficult. And so I thought I could do something different and be more successful, something I understood what I was doing, so I left. And then about six months later, God came knocking on my door, and when I opened it up, I got slapped really, really hard, and it knocked me into reality to say, “I know that I was born to be a chiropractor. This is what I am meant to do. This is what my calling is,” and when you get to that point, you really understand, and things change for you too.
So then the next few months, what I did is I sat back and I reevaluated who I was as a chiropractor. Now, what did it mean to me to be a chiropractor? And I can stand on the stage today and I can tell you that in less than nine years, we are now on the verge of becoming one of the largest chiropractic companies in the country now. All because I got clear. That’s my money shot for you.
But I would be remiss if I didn’t stand up here and share just a couple of things with you that I think that made a difference with me. Now, there are thousands of things that we do every day that are contributing to your success, but I can tell you a few things that really stood out. And one was understanding what true leadership is. And true leadership is about empowering those people around you. True leadership is about making them into a leader, to carry on the mission. It’s an amazing thing when you can do that. We have a saying in our office that we’re a personal development company disguised as a chiropractic company because it means that much to us.
Now, the second thing is what I alluded to a few minutes ago, is you got to be you in chiropractic.This is truly an art, and you are an artist, and you have this canvas that you get to paint. But if you start practicing somebody else’s belief systems, or the way they practice and you don’t believe in it, you’re not going to get very far with it. If you try to make a living doing something you don’t believe in, there’s absolutely no return with that. You gotta create it. You gotta do it. And I don’t care what you do, as long as you represent chiropractic the right way and you do it with integrity. That’s all I care about. Just be you.
Now, the third thing, and people that know me, this is very dear to me, is this thing called discipline. And I know a lot of people will say they have discipline in their life, but the reality is not many people have it in those right areas. They just don’t have it. So I want to tell you a story, and the purpose of this story is really two-fold today. One is, for you guys that lack discipline in your life in those areas, I want this story to make you feel like a turd. Because this is about a 13-year-old boy. And that’s the second purpose, is that 13-year-old boy is my son.
And he did something recently, it was just fascinating, amazing to witness as a father. We were at Parker Dallas a while back, and Rich Froning, who, we know who Rich Froning is, was taking questions. My son stood up in the audience, and he asked Rich Froning, he said, “I do jiu-jitsu.” We’re a jiu-jitsu family. “Because I do jiu-jitsu and I want to become a world champion. Do you have any tips for me?” And, of course, Rich Froning, in his wisdom, being a father, he says, “Number one, listen to your father.” He said, “Number two, work really, really hard.” And then three weeks ago, Cayden actually answered that question on his own at one of the largest tournaments of jiu-jitsu in the world. We had people from Ukraine, Brazil, and Russia come to this tournament, and Cayden said, “I’m going to compete. Not only am I going to compete, I’m going to win. I’m winning gold.” And if you’ve ever experienced this yourself, you’ve experienced some other person, when they get in the zone and there’s so much confidence, they’re going to win. He believed he was going to win gold. And so then he started training for it as well. This is a 13-year-old kid. So he started training for this for three months, three hours a day of jiu-jitsu. His schedules…he would get up in the morning, go to school, go train jiu-jitsu for three hours, come home, do his homework, take a shower, go to bed, and then repeat, and repeat, and repeat. That’s discipline, absolute discipline.
But unfortunately, the day before we were about to leave for California, Cayden fell sick. So we had him in bed that night on a Friday, said, “Let’s see how you feel in the morning.” Like a good chiropractic baby woke up, he goes, “Man, I got a good immune system. I feel good.” And then about an hour later, things begin to settle in, he looked at me, he goes, “Dad, I’m tired.” By the time we got to California, we literally had to carry him off the plane, he was so sick. As a parent or as a father, to sit there and watch your kid cry, “Dad, I trained so hard for this,” and the only answer I had for him was, “It happens. There’s nothing we can do about it.”
Sunday morning he wakes up, the day of the fight, and he looked at me and he says, “Dad, I want to fight.” The only thing I say to him is, “Let’s do it.” So Cayden, with his congestion and everything else, he went to this tournament, the largest tournament in the world, and fought his way all the way to the finals match that day. It doesn’t end with a gold medal. I watched Cayden…after his scramble, I watched him get up, and he was fatigued, and unfortunately, his opponent saw the same thing, and he lost by a few points. But the fact that he got out of bed that day when he was sick and challenged himself, was valuable. What a lesson. But you know what’s even more important than that? The next day Cayden got up and he sent out an Instagram post and said, “I won silver medal at Pan Ams this year. I’ll be back next year for gold.”
You know what he didn’t do? He didn’t make any excuse. He didn’t tell anyone he was sick. That’s powerful, and I hope that it did make some of you in here feel like a turd, but I hope you understand the message behind that story. And one of my favorite sayings, I say this all the time, is “Doing what you need to do may not always make you happy, but it will make you great.”
Thank you guys for this. This is an amazing experience for me. It’s going to be a great day. Thank you so much.
