Dr. Brandon Livingood and  Tyler Doolittle , two leaders in the chiropractic and wellness industry, are at the helm of  100% Chiropractic , a fast-growing franchise with 120 locations across 27 states. The brand’s mission is to provide all-encompassing wellness solutions, integrating chiropractic care with massage therapy, stretch therapy and nutrition advice. With its innovative approach to health care, 100% Chiropractic is making strides in changing public perceptions about chiropractic care from a pain management solution to a proactive wellness routine. Recently, Livingood and Doolittle joined  Nick Powills on the  “Franchisor Hot Seat” podcast to share their journey and insights into franchising and health care. Livingood reflected on how 100% Chiropractic unexpectedly became a franchise in 2015 when their model of supporting chiropractors with business systems grew to 27 locations, requiring legal compliance as a franchisor. Since then, the brand has evolved to welcome both chiropractors and non-chiropractors as franchisees, offering an accessible entry point for those passionate about health and wellness. A key theme of the discussion was the importance of educating clients about the value of chiropractic care. “We take a whole education component here as well — taking x-rays, analyzing posture, sitting down, going over their nutrition, their stressors in life,” said Livingood. “That education component is vastly different than most and really helps the chiropractic patient understand why they’re even here. And then, ‘Here’s what we can do to help you.’”  Looking ahead, Doolittle emphasized the importance of brand recognition in achieving their vision. “If we’re going to change health care, it’s about brand recognition. We need a platform and an audience to speak to,” he said. “As we grow, it’s imperative that we use that audience and our patient count to implement those changes.”  With a focus on education, transparency and wellness, 100% Chiropractic is well-positioned to redefine health care and expand its impact nationwide. A transcript of Powills’ interview with Doolittle and Livingood has been provided below. It has been edited for brevity, clarity and style. Nick Powills: Brandon and Tyler, thanks for joining me. What I like to start off with, and both of you can take a swing at this, what is your accidental franchise story? How did you accidentally fall into franchising? Tyler Doolittle: Do you want to go first, Brandon? Brandon Livingood: Yeah, so I started with the company back in 2008, and it was two of us at that point. And we had great success partnering with doctors. I remember a phone call in 2015. The attorneys called me like, “Hey, guys, congrats, you're a franchise now.” We said, “What do you mean? No, we don't want to be a franchise. That might even be a dirty word. I don't think that's what we want to.” And he said, “Well, at this point, you got 27 of them or something like that.” They're all doing the same thing. So by definition, I became a franchisor not even really knowing that that's where we were headed. We filed our FDD [Franchise Disclosure Document], and here we are. So I totally fell into franchising. Doolittle: My story is a little bit different. I started my franchising career at The Joint Chiropractic. I worked for the competition — well, used to — until they poached me. About three and a half, four years ago, a colleague who worked at The Joint Chiropractic reached out to me because they needed help. I joined them, and from there, it became history — three or four years at The Joint. I eventually started talking with Brandon and  Jason Helfrich here at 100% Chiropractic. I love the model, especially the insurance model, so I made the transition to come over about a month and a half ago. Powills: Brandon, you're really an accidental franchise, but I assume it's because you set up the system as almost licensees. And then an attorney is like, “Hey, in order to be compliant, you have to be franchised.” Is that close to right? Livingood: Yeah. Those first 25-30 practices were just other doctors much like myself. You come out of school, you're a great chiropractor. You can take care of patients. You have no clue what you're doing on the business side of things. So we would take young docs, guys and gals, and say, “Hey, here's how you actually put your skills into work in a business model and by using systems.” At that point, when we got to that number, it was like, “Oh yeah, we got to comply now and actually follow the rules of franchising with 27 of them.” Powills: And how many locations do you guys have now? Livingood: There's 120 of them now, 27 different states all over the country and expanding rapidly. Powills: And is this more of a conversion? Are you still finding this as a conversion opportunity because you have to be a licensed chiropractor or is there another pathway in? Livingood: No, you can be a licensed chiropractor obviously to come in, and that's a great way to enter coming out of school. Then we opened a whole other branch honestly in 2019 — right before the pandemic — of non-chiropractors, people that were changing jobs, changing careers, moving on to something different. They said, “Hey, those are pretty cool.” Or sometimes even patients of ours said, “Those are pretty cool. Could I own one? I'm not a chiropractor.” The answer is yes, you can do that nationwide across the country. So that whole branch really expanded quickly as well. So we're really open now to anybody — doctor or non-doctor alike. Powills: Tyler, as coming from the competition, is part of this that the competition did a good job of creating awareness that this is a franchise opportunity and now you're able to say, “OK, here's our twist and make them better”? Doolittle: Without a doubt. Coming from The Joint Chiropractic and coming over here to 100%, the opportunity and the programs we have in place at 100% Chiropractic are really intriguing. Another reason I came over is because we have so many different pathways for revenue and growth here at 100% — especially with accepting health insurance and things like that — which allows you to operate in more states than if you didn’t accept health care. The upside is we’re in a really good stage at 100%, and the explosion for growth is right around the corner. Powills: Let’s get into the brand. All right, here’s my first conflicting statement. If I look at your franchise website, I think the biggest two gaps that exist in franchising are — if we all go back to the day before we were in franchise — and say, “Explain it,” we can’t do it.  And then the second issue that many brands have to overcome is what is the positioning of the franchise opportunity. If I land on your website, I see a cup of coffee — like, “Oh, are you a coffee franchise?”  Now, I’m obviously smart enough to figure this out. I say all that, but I’m conflicted on saying it because I’ve grown just fine. So tell me the backdrop on why this brand and how you’re going about growing right now. Livingood: Well, I kind of piggyback off what Tyler was saying. I think chiropractic in general is still very misunderstood in the public. People think it’s a crack my back, take care of my neck pain type of thing. It has nothing to do with that. We can help people with those types of ailments, but it’s much more than that. So we’ve taken an approach to really do an all-encompassing wellness-type model where it’s not just chiropractic care. We implement massage and stretch therapy, our own line of supplements. We use cold laser therapy. So we’re really addressing the whole person — the whole body — when they come into our practice, where I can sit down and look at various elements of their health and then tailor a plan for them based on the services we offer. It’s not just a crack my back type of thing, which I think most people in the public think. So with that, I think it’s what Tyler was hinting to — not only profitability for the owners and doctors but an all-encompassing wellness approach for our patients. Powills: So that's been part of the transformation for exactly what you just said — the assumption the general public feels it's X. I mean, if I'm trying to create a comparison, I'll give a brief story. A long time ago, at an old agency I was at, I remember sitting with the founder of Massage Envy. This was when he had one location, and he said, “I think massage is misunderstood. It's seen as this very expensive thing you go to a spa for once a year, but it's really a wellness routine.” As a side note, my boss at the time said, there's no way that business is going to work. And the founder said, I want this to be like the Starbucks — I want it to be like Starbucks. A massage on every corner. Flash forward. Obviously, it's worked quite well. I would imagine there's a lot of similarities here. Obviously, the assumption is, “OK, my back hurts. I'm going to go to the chiropractor.” But the reality is there's a wellness routine that goes with it — that if it's a part of your routine, it's obviously going to make you live a stronger, healthier life.  Is that a similar path? The Joint has done a good job of doing it. And now you guys are doing it too. Is that what has to happen? Like, it's just a continuation of awareness? Livingood: When you walk in the clinics, they're gorgeous. Too many chiropractic clinics look like you stepped back in time about 20 years. It's like, let's get with the times — the technology, the look of a really great chiropractic location. And then once you're there, I think there does need to be an education component. Most people don't even know why they get adjusted. They're like, “I don’t know, this guy pushed on my back. Some noises came out. I felt better. I don’t know what happened, but it seemed to work.” Or it didn’t work and they’re like, “I’m never going back.” So we take a whole education component here as well — taking x-rays, analyzing posture, sitting down, going over their nutrition, their stressors in life. That education component is vastly different than most and really helps the chiropractic patient understand why they’re even here. And then, “Here’s what we can do to help you.” I think that’s been missing for a long time, and it’s why the profession has stayed stagnant, in my opinion, for quite some time. Patients need to understand the product better. And then, let’s package it in a way that makes it very attractive. Powills: So is new client acquisition done primarily through referral right now? Because you need other human beings to basically be the influencer and explain the value of what you guys are doing. Livingood: That’s always the best source for sure, once people are in there. I had people in my practice, when I was practicing, who were with me for a decade or more. We took care of some of their initial issues, and then they just stayed on wellness — like you’re saying, Nick — forever. So yes, that’s the best source. But we certainly target everything else — from social media to Groupon to TikTok. We’re not dumb on marketing. We’ve got to get out there and get eyeballs on the practice. Powills: Yes, but it’s still exactly what we just talked about. It’s still like in a Groupon ad — you have a paragraph to explain the value of wellness as it relates to this practice. And so it’s almost like you need long-form content in order to be able to do it. However, you guys are growing and the unit level economics are strong, so it’s a conflicting thing. It probably means there’s a ton of white space, but you’ve done a great job of building up a business on educating this type of consumer already. Livingood: Yeah, I think so. People even come to us and say, “I’ve been to chiropractors for years.” And as they’ve gone through what we call our first experience in the practice, they’re like, “I never knew that. No one ever did an x-ray of me. No one ever talked about my nutrition. I had no idea my left shoulder was three inches higher than my right.” They’ve never gone through these things, even though they’ve gotten chiropractic care over the years. It’s nice to be able to teach them that, show them what their body’s capable of, and how we can assist with that. Powills: Weird follow-up question, but it's relevant to me because I went through it. So, like the pre-nouveau stuff that's coming out where they're doing full-body MRIs to have predictability and understanding of how the body’s working — which is more on the predictive side or the pre-issue side — are these things going to help what you do? Because obviously, once you gain insight into what you just said — that maybe your body is misaligned or there's something you need — the more pre-education versus having to solve a problem. The pre-work ends up being critical to us living a longer and healthier life. Livingood: Completely. I think our health care systems have had it backwards for a long time. We wait until stuff hits the fan, and then we say, “Oh man, I better do something.” If we can be more proactive than reactive, so much better. COVID brought this out, by the way. People started saying, “What could I possibly do to make sure my body is functioning at a high level?” As bad and weird as COVID was, I think that was helpful there. Powills: I love it. Let’s get to the investment. This seems fairly simple to me. The investment has to be right for you guys to have grown as much as you have. So, a very simple question — what’s the cost to get in, and what do you report in Item 19? Livingood: The numbers will range based on where you’re opening — Southern California or rural Nebraska — how many staff members, size, things like that. But I always tell people I’m chatting with, somewhere between $400,000 to $500,000 will put you into a practice all-in. That’s your equipment, your franchise fees and all the stuff to get one open and going. Powills: And what do you have in Item 19? Livingood: Item 19 is super strong. We’re very transparent. We like to put that in quartiles, even breaking it down from quartile one — all the top dogs — down to the bottom dogs in Q4. On average, clinics are pulling in $150,000 a year in profit. Solid to be jumping out of the gate with that. We have clinics exceeding that significantly and there are others obviously building up. We really try to show everything. I think that’s huge in the franchise world. I’ve seen some other Item 19s where there’s not much there, and I think, man, that would scare me as far as transparency. Powills: Well, I like that you said that last part. I think — and it’s such a simple example — the Jimmy John’s approach, when Jimmy John’s was coming out and saying, “Look at this big, giant gross sales number.” And if you really dove into the data, it was like for 17 locations — it wasn’t a system-wide average — but they used that as a leveraging point. Obviously, you have to make money to stay open, so they’ve done something right as a business, clearly. But I think for the novice buyer who doesn’t understand how the data works, the more you break down the information, the better. At least it gives you a sense of what the bottom and top look like, where you want to get to and who you need to talk to, to reach that level. When there’s more transparency in Item 19, it gives a buyer a lot more to work through. Let’s jump to the vision. What’s — as simple as this question is — the vision for the brand? Where do you see it going in the next year or so? Livingood: I think the initial vision was we have to start to change health care. And it goes back to what we said. That kind of sounds funny. Dr. Jason, our CEO and founder — his kids always laugh at him when he says, “I want to change health care.” He’s dead serious when he says it. I think it’s been backwards, like I said, for so long. We’re trying to bring this education and proactive approach to it. If we can do that through offering whole-body wellness, then that’s the vision of what we’re doing. And much like you, I think your example, Nick, is great — Massage Envy. Like you said, it was either deemed something super expensive that you don’t do often or something kind of creepy with a red light. You’re like, “What’s going on in that place?” They took it and made it actually really cool. I think the same thing with us. It’s time to put chiropractic on the forefront. We don’t cure and fix everything, but we can help people stay out of hospitals, out of surgeries and out of things of that nature. That’s the vision of what 100% is. Powills: Tyler, anything else you want to add to that? Doolittle: Yeah, I think if we’re going to the vision and if we’re going to change health care, it’s about brand recognition. We need a platform and an audience to speak to. As we grow, it’s imperative that we use that audience and our patient count to implement those changes. The perception of the general public and their view of chiropractic care needs to change gradually over time. That’s the goal. Obviously, we want patients in the door, but that doesn’t mean we don’t want to grow at the same time. Powills: That’s helpful. For what it’s worth — unsolicited advice. When I’m looking at your business opportunity, I think you’re doing a great job from a branding standpoint. Brand helps build credibility and you’ve done a great job there. If I bought the business tomorrow, I’d take 100% and use that as the North Star for franchisees, meaning here’s how we get you to 100%. You could almost cross-apply the same practice to how you onboard a franchisee. You’re going to start at 0% when onboarding with us, but to get you to 100% optimal, here’s the process. And here’s how we fit in from a support standpoint. I think when the name starts translating to why you, why now, and there’s a clear definition, you already have it in 100%. For a franchisee, 100% doesn’t mean they have to be the number one in the system. The goal is to get them as optimal as possible so the health and wellness of their franchise aligns with their expectations. Far too often, brands don’t separate out the businesses enough. Working with a customer is much different than working with a franchisee, but I think you already have an avatar in the 100% brand that you could cross-apply to franchising. So, that’s my unsolicited two cents. I think you’re doing good stuff, and you’re inching forward and making a difference. You’re going to move a mountain over time. The more noise in the marketplace about wellness and taking care of our bodies, the more customers will want to be in your infrastructure as well. Thanks for sharing some of your story with me today. Watch the full interview above or  on YouTube . For more interviews with those influencing the franchise industry, check out these stories on 1851 Franchise: Layne’s Chicken Fingers* CEO Garrett Reed Offers a Franchise Opportunity Built on Simplicity, Quality, and Real Estate Expertise From Franchisee to Franchisor: Founder and CEO Hansel Lynn’s Journey to Building theCoderSchool Dennis Cieri Shares How Fitness Factory Health Clubs Blends Strategic Growth with Franchisee-Centric Support