The Power of Positive Thinking: A Guide to Empowering Your Reality with Dr. Vic Manzo

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[00:00:00] Dr Vic Manzo: And I just started declaring what I wanted and what I realized is I was doing what other people were doing and not doing what I wanted to do, and that created the, the, the emptiness that created the unfulfillment in me.

[00:00:19] Bettina M Brown: Hello. Hello and welcome to In The Rising Podcast. My name is Bettina Brown and I'm thankful for your time today. You know, I really focus on. What will make us rise? Brings us to a life that we've dreamed of, we're excited about and we're energized about, and turning our back on things that don't bring us in that direction.

And often we can get a little confused with what that looks like, that we have to quit our job or quit our chosen profession and pick something completely different. But that's not necessarily the case. And my guest today is Dr. Vic Monzo, a chiropractor who is growing his coaching business in the world.

Of business coaching, but focusing on what makes you thrive in your chosen career path. And he shares his ups and downs and what his mindset is now. So I encourage you to listen to this podcast and I'm excited for you to hear our conversation. So thank you Dr. Vick, for being on In The Rising Podcast. I'm really excited, eager, and energized to talk to you as, As a fellow healthcare practitioner, I'm a physical therapist also in the coaching world.

But welcome, first of all, thank you for being here. 

[00:01:33] Dr Vic Manzo: I'm excited to be here. 

[00:01:35] Bettina M Brown: Awesome. So I listened to your story and I really, I really liked, and it resonated with me because I think it resonates with so many people. You grew up and you said you could feel that there was an issue with lack. Money, lack of something.

And that also drove you and, and pushed you. But share a little bit, like did that push you towards making sure you find a career initially that had X, y, Z money attached to it? Or how did you really move from that, childhood perspective? 

[00:02:12] Dr Vic Manzo: Yeah, it, it was, you know, it was just seeing things I didn't want to have for myself.

So growing. I mean, I didn't know I wanted to be a chiropractor. I didn't have intentions ever on being a chiropractor, but I did want to have something that had financial. I guess opportunities to have abundance. So like I thought about being a chef or maybe an architect, or maybe even a lawyer or, until I found out much reading I had to do as a lawyer, I was like, eh, I don't like reading that much.

, but I, you know, I was looking at careers and then my dad was like, he kept pushing me to be in computers. He's like, you, know, computers, they're easy for you. He's like, that's where money is. So eventually that was the, the, the kind of the path I was going to. But I wanted to look for something that would.

Some sort of financial stability. That's kind of what I was really, you know, in a way where not only just have enough money to meet, meet my means of living my lifestyle, but have access to do other things. So I would never have to worry about it. 

[00:03:05] Bettina M Brown: And you also talked about some health challenges that that became a focus for you with chiropractic.

Can you share a little bit like what happened with. 

[00:03:14] Dr Vic Manzo: Yeah, totally. So my mom's a, a fitness instructor and a yoga instructor. She's been doing it now for almost 30 pl, 37 years, give or take yoga for the last 20. And it was one of those things where she, just, from her lifestyle, she showed me that health was nutrition.

Supplements and exercise, right? And so, and I was like, okay, that looks like I see my mom, she's in good shape. And then I go, sometimes she used to work at the local civic center, so I would go play basketball when I'd come up maybe a little early, I'd see people in the class and what did I see? Same thing.

People were in great shape. So I started to be like, wow, this is health. So at 16 I started studying nutrition on my own, trying to learn, you know, what foods do what, what supplements can I take for certain things? And, And then 19 came and I was at playing rugby Fair, Arizona State. So, for those who know the sport of rugby, there is a lot of conditioning that goes on the rugby.

I mean, two and a half hours of practice where we're probably running for two hours. I mean, it's just a lot of, but I was in the great greatest shape of my life. I mean, I'm, I could run a five minute mile. I, and I could lift double my, my weight in many different categories. And it was just like, All this stuff.

My health, every month in my first year was declining. I would have all these different things showing up, like sensitivity, light headaches, digestive stuff, acne on my back. I never had acne in my life. , so many different things and I thought I had a blood disorder or something. So originally I wanted to go to the medical doctor and then my mom was the one who's like last minute goes, go see Dr.

Frank. And he was the chiropractor I saw when I was about a nine and a half to almost 11. And I said, okay, if you can get me in, let's. And long story short, he told me that he can get help me with all my symptoms before I went back to. But I'll need to go to chiropractic care for the rest of my life.

I'll need chiropractic care for the rest of my life. Cuz I had scoliosis, some other things. And what was fascinating, here's the thing that shifted me to become a chiropractor and it wasn't about money, even though I was like, can I make good money as a chiropractor? But again, cuz of what my background was, but it was, , upbringing was, but it was one of those things where, , in four months, nothing changed with my health.

I still took my supplements. I, I ate better than most college kids and, I, I was working out all the time and, but here's the thing. I got shredded. I went down to 10% body fat, which was crazy in four months, and here I am, been working out, doing the same thing for the whole year. And I was like, This is crazy.

Not only did all my symptoms go away, but I got in the greatest shape possible. And that's the only thing I can't, I'm not saying chiropractic creates quick weight loss. I mean, I can, I can now share ba now that I'm on the other side of things, of how that happened through different other, a afternoons.

But it was very fascinating for me. And then I said, you know what, man? This was so cool. I, I don't know how the heck he does that or what he did to me, but. I know there's other people that have way worse off health issues than I have. I need to go learn this thing. Mm-hmm. And I wanna learn how I can be a master of it, not just for, and it was originally I wanted to learn more for me, so I could take care of my health better, but at the same token than also help others.

[00:06:01] Bettina M Brown: So it was two sided. It was, you know, helping others, but also you saw yourself, you felt. I'm doing all the right things, but I'm just not exactly where I want to be. You go through school, you do all those things, and in your story that I listened to, you said I finally had what I thought I wanted and I still felt unfulfilled.

And that's, that's a huge thing. Like, it, it resonates of, of emptiness that even though you have so much or like being alone in a crowd, share how. Came to that realization. Was it slowly over time or was it just like, 

[00:06:41] Dr Vic Manzo: This is it. You know? It was, it was, it was, I wouldn't say it was solely over time cause I didn't think about it as I was making the exponential growths in my business financially.

But it was, I'll never forget, it was the fifth year and my accountant told me what I made that year and I just looked at my wife and my wife, she looked at what we made for sales and she's like, okay, what does that mean? And I kind of tried to tell her and she's just like, How, how's that possible? I said, you know what?

We, we were just doing very well. I mean, we were in the community do serving, helping so many people, but what I felt unfulfilled was, is I was conditioned cuz when I, when I was in chiropractic school, I studied so many chiropractors. Again, you gotta remember my mindset was I do not want, I want financial stability and to be successful.

So I wanted to see what successful chiropractors were, and I studied them and I saw 40, 50 different offices. It's trying to learn as much as I can from them. And then, um, when I came outta school, I was listening to chiropractors, the best entrepreneurs, listening to self-help motivation. I was listening to everything I could and how I can be successful.

And what happened is when I got there, I was burned out. I love chiropractic. I, I'm so passionate in what I do, and it was one of those things I looked at my wife and I just said, I don't get it. We hit a mark that many chiropractors will, will love to be in this place. So many people would love to be at this level, and yet I'm unfulfilled.

I said, there's, there's just something wrong here. And, and she's, she's just looking at me and I said, this is how it is and this is how my life has to be where I have to grind and I have to hustle and I have to sacrifice time. To where, you know, if I'm not in the office, I'm fo I'm, if I'm not in the office, in order to grow a business, you gotta be on the business not in it.

And so I'm like, if I have to spend all this time on it, plus in it and this and that, I don't have enough, our relationship could be so much better. I was like, my health could be so much better cuz as I was getting burned out so much, I had back issues showing up and other things would come and, and affect me to where it really hit the mark when I had eight months of like back pain.

Which that's a whole nother story, but long story. I just looked at her and I said, we're not doing this. I wanna run the office the way I wanna run it. Because I had a coach who was telling me like, meet where people are, so if you have a recommendation for care, she was like, you know, if they, they can't do it, or if they're level, they don't want to go to that level of health.

She's like, just meet where they are. So I, I trusted that for the first five years. But then I started to see results weren't coming the way I wanted to. I knew I could help people at a deeper level, and I just was like, you know what, if I was gonna run my office and this is what I did, I was just like, if I'm gonna choose how I wanna run my office, number one, I wanna be in pediatrics because they, they, they are the population that just keeps getting sicker and sicker and sicker.

And I wanna be a change and I wanna be able to help them from a neurological perspective as much as I can. And then I started to say, well, I don't wanna work as hard as I am. I wanna work 50. And I just started declaring what I wanted. And what I realized is I was doing what other people were doing and not doing what I wanted to do.

And that created the, the, the emptiness that created the unfulfillment in me. And then all of a sudden, within a year, we transformed the whole entire office. I took a 40% hit, you know, patients that weren't committing to care like they needed to. We just referred 'em out to other chiropractors who were more lenient on care and we really transformed our life around.

And now it was like a year and a half to where we got to a point where it was. This is crazy. I chose exactly how I wanted to do it and it wasn't crazy. There's some principles I understand about mindset, universal laws and all these other things that I applied, but it was one of those things where I just was like, I'm gonna put this to work.

And it was just amazing how, you know, I was told like a family wellness chiropractor has to work weekends, and I didn't work weekends. I was told I had to work at least four and a half days a week. I work three days a week. Um, and so I went against a lot of those, those those things, those, those, those those conditioning or state.

And, I started leading my success on me and I never had burnout ever again. And here's somebody who had it every four to six months and I, I didn't have any health issues anymore. My relationship expanded beyond ever, you know, my wife is my, yeah, it's just amazing where it has gone to. And, , and that is all because again, Choosing what I truly wanted out of my practice, outta my life, rather than, being told how I have to do something.

Because what we're told that, you know, in business you see it, if this person's successful, hey, just follow them. Do what they do, and, and, and you'll, you'll get to that level. Um, but if it's not congruent with you, it, it's g e. Either you're not gonna get to that level or you will, like I did, and you'll be unfulfilled.

[00:10:44] Bettina M Brown: And you'll be fatigued, not really in a place where you can enjoy what you've been working for. And, and one of the premises that I actually started my podcast on, I was working primarily with people going through cancer. And some of them was, they were in, in that phase that they were not gonna have very much longer.

Really changed my way of, of living. And it's just like that song, I don't endorse the song, but live like you were dying because we actually are. And, and there's something about that and it changed me. So, you know, and when I did my research working with my clients, it was. That the number one thing that anyone, when you ask them when they're on hospice, they regret living a life that someone else was supposed to live.

Like they didn't live their life. And it made me think. Am I living my life? You know? And uh, that's even where this podcast completely came out of living that way. And like you were, when you looked at what you were studying, I was like, yeah, I'm reading that too. I'm looking about that too. And how energy is, and quantum physics, believe it or not, is not boring when you look at it.

 And it's not over your head. If you just go back to the simple basics, universal law. What you put in comes back and it can come back even greater and you can feel alive in a different way. One of the things you said is burnout and I think a lot of us are burnt out in our jobs. We're burnt out in relationships because we may be repeating our original family or just somewhat.

We picked up we're, and we're definitely burnt out. All the bad news Constantly when you were in that transformation, you looked at your wife, you're like, we're, we're not gonna do this any anymore. This way we're gonna, we're gonna change it and make this work for us. Did you ever feel burnt out with the change because change is daunting?

[00:12:45] Dr Vic Manzo: No, I'm a guy who gets very excited with change. I mean, literally, like right now, I'm, I'm, I'm, seven months ago I moved to, to Knoxville from Chicago and I let my business go and decided to go full-time and do being a business coach. And I looked at my wife and I was just like, If we go this route, you, you wanna do this and really go after what we want?

And she's like, let's do it. You know? She goes, they'll give you the life you want. You're gonna be home more. You'll be ha you'll be able to choose your life. Not happier, but you'll choose your life on how you wanna dictate it. I know that's important to you. And, , I know we have a, we just had a new, a newborn, a couple weeks ago and, and, and she's like, I know with the family you wanna be involved with the family.

And I said, I do. I wanna be around and it's not, and then one of those things is my dad had to work. So he worked, you know, sometimes I didn't see my dad. I remember in high school I wouldn't, I some at one time I didn't see my dad almost for a whole month. Just from work, you know, when he came home, cuz he, when he came home to he, when he would go to sleep, I'd be at school.

When I get up, when I get home from school, he'd already be gone for the day going to work. And then, and then in the weekends he'd let, he'd lay carpet on the side. So sometimes if I had baseball games or sport games going on, I couldn't go work with him, so I wouldn't see him. And I was like telling my wife, I go, I, I don't want to do that.

You know, I know what that meant to have. I will want my dad around. I wanna be there for my kids every way I can. So it's, it's the change. Doing something like that, as long as I'm going after what I, what I want, I'm very, very excited for it. So it was an exciting time to. Was I nervous though about it? Yes.

I just took a 40% hit in six months. I, again, six months it took us up to get to a 40%. I looked at my wife, I go, all right, now we gotta be a little tight here a little bit, cuz we were living a life that was a little different than that. And um, but I just kept telling myself, I, you know, I'm just looking up going, I know this is where I want to go.

I'm, I'm, I'm going after what I want. You know, God, universe, everybody who's there, please just, you know, let me, um, hopefully this is the path and I'm just gonna put my heart and faith into this. And then, and then I just kept my focus on who I wanted to be. And from that moment, um, when I started to see things start to change, you get these little crumbs.

I was calling Brooke Crumbs down the world. That's when I was. This is happening, this is crazy. And then you look back and you're like, you're hitting the mark of where you wanted to in six months instead of like two years. You gave yourself, 50 % peds, patient volume is what I wanted. I was only seeing 5% when we first made this change.

[00:14:56] Bettina M Brown: Yes, and I I like how you say I put out there what I really want, what I really desire. When you did that, you know, it sound like your wife's super supportive. Do you feel like your. Profession when they saw what you were doing was as supportive? Like was that a concern for you?

[00:15:15] Dr Vic Manzo: I wouldn't say they were supportive or not. I mean, I had buddies of mine that were just like, you know, who are, who have colleagues and stuff are just looking like you're an amazing chiro. Why would you wanna let that go? Like you, you've built this, this, this community, and you have a life that's thriving.

Why would you choose to let that go and, and, and, and make that change? Um, but then some friends of mine are like, they, you know, some colleagues will look and they. You're destined to do more than just be a car. Like they're you, you, you have a vision to go bigger than that. And so, you know, for those who were saying one thing on the other side of it, it didn't bother me at all.

Because, you know, it's just, they see it in one aspect. I mean, I have family members are like that. Like, you guys have a wonderful life. Why would you want to change all that up to go in a different route? And I'm like, we're going after what we want. You know, this is, if we don't do it now, then. And like you were saying about people who pass away, right?

It's one thing they, the other thing is one of the top regrets they have too is like, is not doing something that they wanted to or seeing if they made that choice, what would.