After a controversial change of leadership at Parker College of Chiropractic 7 years ago, which stunned the entire United States chiropractic community, Dr. Karl Parker, son of the late Dr. James Parker, was summarily “relieved of his duties” as President of the college, an institution founded by his late father, leaving the former PCC President and heir apparent to the Parker Foundation stripped of his birthright.
At the time, Dr. Karl, as he’s affectionately known in the profession—never down and certainly never out—pulled himself up by the bootstraps and, looking forward rather than at what might have been, set out to recreate himself and the legacy his father had left behind.
Legally prohibited from using even his father’s name or any reference to him in his promotional material, he launched his own seminar series, determined to continue serving the profession he loves as he had been taught. Within three months of leaving Parker College, he debuted the first of his own seminars, with nearly 500 DC’s and CA’s in attendance!
Then, not long after, Dr. Karl received another and more crushing blow when he lost his beloved son, Chance, to a lengthy battle with renal cell carcinoma. Chance who has been president of the Parker Professional Products, was also terminated shortly after his father and 2 years after his grandfather’s dismissal.
But, if ever anyone has personified the success principles he teaches, it has to be Dr. Karl Parker, whose credo throughout everything has remained “Be happy.”
In an interview with The American Chiropractor (TAC), Dr. Karl Parker shares his dream for chiropractic and a truly groundbreaking new approach to getting the message out to his professional colleagues—with a special offer to TAC readers, in particular.
TAC: It’s been 5 years since our last interview, Dr. Karl. Bring us up to date on what you’ve been doing.
Parker: I am still continuing the mission of service to chiropractic that was my father’s before me and that he instilled so well and deeply within me. We continue to use the full resources of the Parker family to bring greater success to chiropractors; only we are taking it to the next level, to encompass more than just success. Our mission is to bring greater health, abundance, peace and joy into the lives of all members of this profession and those they serve.
TAC: So, you are still doing seminars for chiropractors?
Parker: Yes, we are presenting at least 8 seminars a year: 2 in Las Vegas, 1 in Chicago, 1 in the Northeast and the rest in the South, most often in Dallas. Generally, the Las Vegas seminars are called our Main Events, which usually begin on Thursday and go to Sunday and have about 44 speakers and 100 classes in 8 tracks with 24 hours of CEU’s. Most of the others are our Weekend Specials, which begin on Friday night and go to noon Sunday, usually with about 12 speakers and 40 classes in 4 tracks with 20 hours of CEU’s with no lost time out of the office. We feel this system best serves our profession’s needs. Besides presenting the seminars, we have an organization called ParkerSource.
TAC: What is ParkerSource?
Parker: It is an affordable practice success membership organization that provides 8 modules of live success seminars, ongoing online practice success training, consultations, practice problem solutions from over 55 experts, over $5,000 of free practice products and services, annual license renewal and a buyers service that can save thousands…all for the small monthly fee of $97. Basically, it’s for doctors who want a very cost effective way to tap into all our resources to help their practices.
TAC: Well, that sounds innovative…and reasonable! Now, tell us about this dream you want to share.
Parker: That’s what this interview is all about. It is to announce that a 20-year dream of mine has finally come to pass. Now, for the first time ever, we are inviting ALL of TAC’s readers to attend a top 5 national chiropractic event with no registration or tuition fees, so basically…FREE!
TAC: How did this 20-year dream get started?
Parker: In 1985, my father turned his attention to growing the chiropractic college he founded and left me with the responsibility of running our family seminars and product company. As I became more of a visionary for the seminars and saw so many in chiropractic not making a good living, I felt it was my personal calling to make our seminars available to the profession so no one had an excuse for not making it, or not being highly successful—because excellent help was available. The only way to remove any excuses was to make the seminar available FREE! I well remember the night we had an executive conference to bring Dad up to date on how things were going and I announced I had a dream of giving our seminar away free by growing the product company large enough that it could support us in doing that.
TAC: How did he take that?
Parker: Oh, he didn’t like it much! I remember; he said, “Well, that’s a lofty goal…but you forgot one thing: the Law of Compensation!” So that was the end of that. Besides, it was taking all the resources of our organization to support the tremendous growth of the college.
TAC: What did he mean by the “Law of Compensation”?
Parker: He felt strongly it was important that the doctors pay something for the great value they were receiving from the seminars, as that would help move them to put the tools to work; and, if it were free, they may not see the value in it and not use the information for their greater benefit. And, of course, he was right, as usual!
TAC: If so, then why are you giving your top seminar of the year away to our readers?
Parker: Because I want to, I can afford it, chiropractic needs it, and I feel it is the service-oriented thing to do. Organizations like The American Chiropractor, Myo-Logic Diagnostics, Texas Chiropractic College, as well as about 100 team members are supporting it and I have figured out a way that, I feel, does not violate the principle of compensation and can be perpetuated, so that it’s not a one shot deal, but can always be available to chiropractic, as long as enough doctors take advantage of it.
TAC: How can you give a top 5 national seminar away free, not violate the law of compensation and perpetuate it forever?
Parker: Low overhead, of course! Just kidding!
Well, actually, that is part of it; we do run a tight ship, but here’s how it works. The seminar is FREE of any registration or tuition fees to TAC readers. We are not charging them a fee for attending the seminar. There are two situations that make this possible. One, the FREE offer is for guests of the hotel we hold the seminar in. We have contracted with the hotel to reduce our hotel costs dramatically, in exchange for requiring the free seminar attendees to stay in their hotel. Secondly, there is a $100 Commitment Deposit per person, which will be refunded to be spent at the seminar.
TAC: So the attendees can come free, if they stay in the hotel. But what if they live in the area, have friends there they want to stay with or want to stay somewhere else?
Parker: We really need attendees to stay in the hotel to make the seminar’s hotel cost feasible and not charge a tuition fee. But, in those special situations, we can allow a few to do that with a $50 per 2 person “no hotel stay” fee and they can still take advantage of the free seminar, as that compensates for the loss of hotel credit for meeting rooms.
TAC: Why is there a deposit, if it is being refunded?
Parker: This is an important part of what makes this work, will allow us to perpetuate this indefinitely, and fulfills the law of compensation that concerned by father. The deposit creates a commitment. The deposit is fully refunded at the seminar in the form of what we are calling Bonu$$, for the express purpose of spending at the seminar. This serves several purposes. It, most of all, insures that the doctors will take home some tools to enhance their lives and their practices. It also helps us get more vendors to attend our expo that want to participate in accepting the Bonu$$ towards their products and services. The vendors can redeem the Bonu$$ for a percentage of face value. The doctors can spend their Bonu$$ with us for our products, services and other seminars we offer, which helps us be able to continue to provide this particular event free to the profession. We actually lose money on the seminar, but hope to make it up on product sales and vendor redemption of Bonu$$. And, the doctors can get full value for their deposits, making the seminar free of registration fees. Everybody wins!
TAC: What is the regular price of the seminar that doctors are saving?
Parker: Our standard seminar fee is $297 for doctors and $197 for staff and all others.
TAC: So all this really works? You can afford to continue to do this?
Parker: Yes, we can…IF we have enough doctors come and take advantage of such an excellent value. We need a minimum of 1000 attendees to be able to continue it. We did a trial experiment with this concept last February and that is how many we had. It really becomes feasible as we grow to 1500 to 2000 attendees, which we expect to do this coming January in Las Vegas. And the more that attend, the better seminar and expo we can provide, because this is all for the profession and it all goes back into making this a top event for the profession.
TAC: What kind of seminar do they get, since it is free?
Parker: One heck of a lot! But that is part of our problem in getting the word out about how great an event it is, because people don’t realize it is chock full of value, even though it is free. We don’t hold back. We have the same caliber of great speakers and course presentations we always have when we charge full fees. Nationally known professional speakers like Charles “Tremendous” Jones, top chiropractic instructors like Dr. Dan Murphy, and famous staff trainers like Sherry Hodge and many more. We will actually have at least 44 different speakers presenting over 100 classes in 8 tracks! And these are not just bait and switch introductory presentations; these are classes crammed with practical stuff you can use, and full courses where you can sink your teeth into some great training and go home having really learned something worthwhile—plus 24 hours of license renewal available with X-Ray, technique, risk management, CPR and more, that meet the full licensing criteria of almost every state.
TAC: Sounds great! We appreciate your making your dream available to our readers.
Parker: It is truly awesome! Everyone exclaims how wonderful the seminar experience is. Personally, I don’t believe there is any program that creates the sharing, loving, learning energy this seminar does; and I know there are none that do it for FREE! I sincerely appreciate TAC for allowing us to share this dream and wonderful experience with your readers. TAC has been and continues to be an excellent service dedicated to chiropractic for over 25 years…and we appreciate you!
Our sincere thanks to Dr. Karl and the Karl Parker Seminars for making this available to our readers. For more information, send a blank email to [email protected] or fax you email address or fax number to 509-352-8511 or call 888-4DR-KARL (437-5275).