Dr. Ben Adkins - SEMO Times

At the Center of Everything
It seems like Ben Adkins is
at the center of everything.
From starting his Chiropractic
practice 8 months ago to introducing
most of Poplar Bluff to
facebook, the Boy Scouts, to
the Chamber Ambassadors, to
Ben’s newest passion project
+Bluffee, if it’s happening in
the community Ben Adkins is
probably near the center of it.
Merging his community
involvement with his practice
with his personal life involves
a ton of energy and an attitude
that attracts people to him.
With that in mind we decided
to do our first 573 Homes &
Lifestyles profile on Ben to
give you the opportunity to
learn more about Ben, what
is doing, and what the future
holds.
Ben Before Poplar
Bluff
Ben is originally from
Pocahontas and his father, Jim
Adkins in the radio business.
“I guess at some aspect marketing
is in my blood. My dad
is a whiz at promoting businesses
and I suppose I picked
up a little of his interests.”
Ben always knew he wanted to
be in the health field,
“I always wanted to
help people, and I
have always wanted
to be in the healthcare
field where I
get the chance to
make a difference in
people’s lives one on
one”. Ben decided
on Chiropractic in
part because of the
influence of Dr.
Ungerank of Pocahontas.
After graduating high school
Ben attended Arkansas State
University where he met his
wife Kelli. Ben received a degree
in biological sciences and
moved on to Logan College
of Chiropractic in St. Louis.
Logan University is one of the
foremost Chiropractic colleges
in the United States. “It was
hard, and we were crammed
into a house in Chesterfield,
but I enjoyed it and received a
tremendous education in how to
treat patients”, Adkins said.
Adversity Becomes Opportunity
After graduating college you
must pass boards before becoming
a practicing chiropractor.
Ben easily passed 3 of the 4
parts of the boards. However,
one of the parts, generally the
easiest part, was a problem for
Ben. “I knew the material, but I
suppose I was just anxious I just
had trouble with the one part”,
said Adkins.
The exam can only be taken
twice a year, so while waiting
to take the test, Ben took a job
working as a salesman at Better
Night Sleep Center in Poplar
Bluff. “While working there you
had some dead time in between
customers coming in. During
that time I began to read about
a guy named Jeremy Shoemaker
who had become wealthy
through working with websites.
I became very interested in the
ways people and businesses can
use the internet to reach people”,
said Adkins.
Dr. Ben
After passing his boards Ben began
practicing with Dr. Smoth-
in Doniphan and Poplar Bluff.
Ben said, “Dr. Smothers is a
great doctor who I would send
my family to for treatment. I
am very grateful to him for the
opportunity he gave me and I
learned a great deal from him”.
However, there came a time
when now Dr. Ben decided to
open his own practice. “I just
felt the time was right for me to
begin my own practice. There
were so many things to do in
order to get started, but I had a
lot of help from friends and the
Poplar Bluff Chamber of Commerce
was right there with me
every step of the way helping
me”, said Adkins.
Adkins Chiropractic opened at
805 West Pine in July of last
year, and has grown since day
one.
“We focus on patient care
with a high degree of personal
attention laying out all of their
options. Sometimes our patients
are better served by other doctors
in other specialties and we
refer patients all the time. Our
foremost concern is that our
patients needs are addressed”,
said Adkins.
If you think it is odd that an
office that opened in July is
known by most everyone in a
community you are not alone.
However, there are two
reasons for the near instant notoriety.
Ben is truly at the center
of everything in the community
and perhaps more importantly,
facebook.
Facebook
If you did a word association
with many people in Poplar
Bluff and said Facebook many
people would respond Ben
Adkins. “We have really built
our practice marketing on facebook.
We have over a thousand
friends now, but before we had
that many new patients would
come in and a surprising number
of them would mention my
Dr. Ben’s Favs
TV Show- Entourage
Sports Team –
Lakers
Website – mashable.
com
Restaurant (not
in 573) Lazzari’s, in
Jonesboro and the
Exotic Grill in Poplar
Bluff
Quote – “If you
can dream it, you can
achieve it. You will get
all you want in life if
you help enough other
people get what they
want.” Zig Ziglar
Phone- 573-785-
BACK
Email - ben@drbenadkins.com
Website - www.
drbenadkins.com
facebook page”, said Ben.
Ben has hosted a seminar
for other businesses on web
marketing and has a number of
interesting tips he has learned
through trial and error. He
commented, “It was interesting
that the way I built my page
was to talk mostly about me
personally and not my business.
People really like to read about
CONTINUED ON PAGE 37
573 Homes and lifestyles ers who operates his practice
Page 28