If you watch this episode, you'll notice the background looks a little different. We're technically still in Mission Viejo, but I set up our little studio to look like Indianapolis, home of this year's Blair Upper Cervical Chiropractic Society conference. Julie Rhino's company, Rhino Squad Virtual Assistants, graciously agreed to be one of our conference vendors, and I wanted to take the podcast "on the road" to honor that.
I've interviewed a lot of our conference vendors this year, and I love these conversations. The businesses that support us as doctors make it possible for us to serve our communities with amazing Blair care. But this one is personal. Julie traveled all the way to see me in person, and I got to give her a tour of the very space her company helped us grow into. The truth is, we had to move because we got so busy, and we're able to fill this new space with patients because we have the processes in place. Those processes exist because of the virtual assistants Julie helped me find.
The Entrepreneur's Curse
Julie comes from a long line of entrepreneurs. Her parents worked seven days a week, and dinner conversations were always about the business: how do we get more customers, how do we solve this problem. She watched her family ride the cycle of feast or famine, either on top of the world or feeling like the world was on top of them.
I laughed when she said that, because I think it might be the curse of every business owner. Even when things are going well, there's this little voice that says if we're not breaking a record every single month, we're about to lose everything. We joke that we didn't want to work 40 hours a week for someone else, so now we work 80 hours a week for ourselves.
Julie hit her breaking point when she found herself, yet again, doing all the admin in her company. She couldn't afford the level of support she needed, and she'll be the first to tell you she wasn't great at hiring. The great hires she'd made felt like luck. And then there were the hires she didn't know how to let go of, because she cared about them as people.
Becoming the Best at the Boring Stuff
When Julie first tried hiring virtual assistants overseas, it didn't go well. But she could see the possibility. If she could figure it out, she could finally afford the support she needed and help someone else build an amazing living at the same time.
When she found her first incredible assistant in the Philippines, she said she felt supported unlike anything she'd felt before. Her entrepreneur friends started asking for help finding their own, and she realized her success had been luck again, not a skill. So she decided to make it one. There's a saying in business that if you take the boring stuff and become the best in the world at it, you'll have a successful business. Julie set out to become the best in the world at hiring, onboarding, and caring for virtual assistants, and then helping businesses build systems that make more money in less time.
They Really Did Find Our Unicorn
When I first went through Rhino Squad's interview process, Julie told me, "We're going to find your unicorn." I smiled and thought, I doubt it. I know myself. I'm particular and extra in every way, all the time.
They found her. And then they found us a second one.
What impressed me most was the process behind it. Every candidate goes through screening, a background check, a written interview, an attention to detail test, and even a mock work day so the top applicants actually do the job before they start. At every step, the team asks one question: is this a potential unicorn? Because we're a healthcare practice, everything also had to be tested and confirmed for HIPAA compliance and cybersecurity before I ever sat down for an interview. They don't waste your time, because time is the one thing their clients don't have.
And as Julie pointed out, a rhino is basically a real life unicorn. It may not have wings and rainbows, but it works hard, and nobody stops a charging rhino.
Freedom on Both Sides of the World
One of the things I love most about Julie's company is how they care for their team. Rhino Squad has a happiness manager whose whole job is making sure their virtual assistants, now well over a hundred of them, are happy. Many of these assistants used to drive two hours each way to work night shifts at call centers that weren't paying them well. Now they work from home, with backup power and backup internet so nothing gets interrupted. We've gotten weather alerts about typhoons and earthquakes over the years, and in the two years I've worked with Rhino Squad, there hasn't been a single interruption.
Their assistants also receive health insurance, paid time off, coverage for their families, and even pet insurance. Julie said it simply: part of happiness is feeling safe and secure. When people feel secure, they're free to do their best work.
That really landed with me. Julie told me she used to believe that in business, someone always had to lose. She refused to sacrifice her employees or her customers, so she sacrificed herself. Now she builds for the win, win, win: the business owner, the team, and the customer. I've always believed I was blessed to be a blessing, and that's exactly what I see in how she runs her company.
What AI Looks Like in a Small Business Today
Our virtual assistants have already brought AI into our practice and streamlined processes we didn't even know could be streamlined. We didn't know what we didn't know. Julie shared a story about a construction company with a ridiculous tech stack and no clear view of how the business was performing. The owner was spending every night figuring out who was doing what the next day. Her team is installing a virtual assistant who will build one dashboard that connects all of those systems through AI.
She painted a picture I can't stop thinking about. Your virtual assistant clocks in, and their little AI helpers have already finished a stack of work overnight. And if you tried AI a while ago and decided it didn't work, Julie's advice is to try again, because it's good now.
I'll be honest with you. For years I said, "I'm not good with technology." I don't want to keep speaking that over my life, because there's power in the words we say. So now I say, "I'm learning." I recently set up a last-minute podcast interview completely by myself, scheduling and all, and I was so proud. But Julie reminded me of something I needed to hear. It's not my job to be on top of every piece of technology that has nothing to do with healing people.
Staying in My Zone of Genius
That's the heart of this whole conversation for me. I want to be a really good doctor. I want to be fully present in the room with my hands on my patients, holding space so their nervous systems feel safe enough to heal. Having the right support on the back end lets me do that, and it lets everyone on my team spend more time doing what they're great at too.
Our first virtual assistant works hours that run a little opposite to ours, which turns out to be a gift. When a patient texts at eight o'clock at night to change an appointment, it gets handled. Our second assistant works our hours and helps with medical billing and insurance tasks we never seemed to have time for, and her joy is contagious. Her picture, and her kitty's, hangs right alongside the rest of our team, because she is part of our team.
I like to think of myself as the one with the machete, clearing a path through the jungle so the people who come behind me have an easier walk. I've shared the tax strategies I invested in with my chiropractor friends, and Julie has offered to help us systematize even more of our practice with AI so other Blair doctors can benefit from what we learn. That's what I love about entrepreneurs like Julie. They figure out how to make their own businesses better, and then they share it so it's easier for all of us to succeed.
If you're a business owner reading this, here's a simple place to start. Write down everything you did this week, then circle the things only you can do. Everything else is a candidate for support. I promise you, getting your time back is one of the best gifts you can give yourself, your team, and the people you serve.
Listen to the full conversation with Julie Rhino on the Well Connected Podcast: Live Your Life in Alignment. Available wherever you get your podcasts.
Find Julie Rhino at rhinosquad.org. Find us at wellconnectedchiro.com.
