From Treating 50 Hours to 0 Hours and Opening a Second Location with Steve Edwards

[00:00:00] Yeah, that was a hard lesson to learn, you know, because I wasted 18 months. 18 months of just, like I said, just falling right back into old habits. And I just, I think, where could I be today? You know, had I not done even that, I just realized I need to have somebody that just not necessarily holds me accountable, that helps me hold myself accountable. Somebody who's already been there, that has the ideas, somebody that can recognize what I'm not doing correctly, right?

[00:00:30] Welcome to the Private Practice Owners Club. Your hosts and coaches, Nathan Shields, scaled his practice and exited for millions, while Adam Robin went from working 60 hours a week in one clinic to scaling to multiple clinics while working less than four hours per week remotely. This podcast is meant to share with you exactly how they did it and how you can build a business that supports the lifestyle that you truly desire.

[00:00:53] And don't forget to join the Private Practice Owners Club community on Facebook, where we are obsessed with providing even more resources that help owners, just like you, win the game of private practice. Hello, and welcome to the Private Practice Owners Club podcast. I'm your host, Adam Robin. Today, got a special guest, the number one PT in Las Vegas, my guy, Mr. Steve Edwards of Achieve Physical Therapy. What's up, Steve?

[00:01:23] Not much. Happy to be here. I'm happy you're here too, man. Yeah. Actually, I am kind of happy I'm here. Not necessarily podcast-wise happy, but just, we talked about this a couple of times we've talked this week. I just, I feel the strength, you know, when I get to talk to you guys and bounce ideas off of you. So yeah, I'm happy to be here. Yeah, man. I don't know. Did you hear the podcast we did with Kenny? Yeah. And he was like, he said something that was just so awesome. He said, man, I went home the other day and I told my wife, I actually had a good day today.

[00:01:54] Right? I was like, isn't that cool, man? Like, you can actually grow your business and have good days. That's what it's all about, man. That's what it's all about. So we've been working together for about a year now. And so like, you've gotten to learn a lot about me. I've gotten to learn a lot about you and I just love you, bro. Like, seriously. Like, I remember when we did the conference in Florida and like, I walked up on that rooftop and I saw you, I almost started crying. I just was like, Steve, give me a hug.

[00:02:19] And my wife likes you, man. Like we had dinner that night or the next night. And like, my wife was like, I love Stevie. So awesome. You know? And so I thought we'd bring you on and share it. Talk about your story. Talk about what you're doing. And you know, I know there's a lot of things that you're working on and that you've overcome and that your vision is expanding. And I'm hoping that we can inspire some of the listeners along their journey. Yeah, definitely. Definitely.

[00:02:41] So if you want to learn more about Steve, just search Steve Edwards in the podcast notes and you'll find, I think you've been on like three times, three or four times, right? I think it was my third. Yeah. Third time. So why don't we just like quick introduction? Who are you? Where are you from? And what are you about? Yeah. Okay. So my name is Steve Edwards. Been a physical therapist for 27 years now, coming up on 27 years in Las Vegas. Had a private practice here for 20 years.

[00:03:08] You listen to the other podcasts, you can hear every mistake I've ever made and then some and multiple mistakes, you know, the same mistake multiple times too. I just, I think I just finally realized over time what it is, just how I was kind of stuck in a rut, how I got out and just the opportunities that come as a result of being able to coach with you guys.

[00:03:31] I think that's where I just noticed my biggest gains is when I was coaching with Nathan specifically. And now over this last year with you, just every little, I mean, when we meet, I just take it all in. I sit there, take notes, try to feed it to the team. That's where I see my growth.

[00:03:46] I can recall back on my journey. Like I'm still learning. Like I haven't been doing this for terribly long. So like, I'm still learning a lot. And, but I can remember like every time that I have been in a place of stagnation, stuck, lost, not having a good time. Every time it's always related to times where I wasn't seeking outside counsel. I wasn't, I kind of got disconnected from a network of people who can like challenge me and who can help me shape my perspective.

[00:04:12] But I'm always kind of like wandered off. Yeah, that's exactly what happened to me. Cause I was working with Nathan for a while. I felt like he got me to a great place. I felt like I was, I was doing really well, right? We had a plan in place for another therapist to come in. I was going to step out of treatment. Some things happen where I lost a therapist at the same time. So I thought this is only going to be temporary where I'm going to just, I'm going to hire another one. And I noticed, and that's the time where I kind of said, you know, I can probably do this on my own. I don't need, I'll say, well, I got this, right? I got this.

[00:04:42] And man, I just fell right back into old habits immediately, which is kind of sad, but I think I stayed there for like 18 months and I still listen to the podcast and I heard you on the podcast. I thought, you know what? And this is right when I think you and Nathan, you just kind of joined Nathan. We're going to start coaching with him. I said, let me reach out to Adam. Can I see where we're at? And that was what? Just about a year ago. Yeah. Yeah. I was in that rough 15 months, you know, just kind of floundering, going nowhere.

[00:05:10] Well, there's a lesson to be learned there that I think maybe I just realized. It's kind of like when they say, when you sell your practice, one day, everybody's going to sell their practice. But if you want to sell your practice, call Tanny Crawford with Martin Hill Care Advisors. Shout out Tanny. But if you ever get to a place where you want to sell your practice, what most people who have done it before will tell you is always make sure you have a vision of what's next for yourself. Right. What's the next chapter look like? Get clear on what that is and have something that you're stepping into.

[00:05:37] Because if the game is, I'm just going to figure it out, you're probably going to get really detached and lost. And I'm wondering if maybe like you kind of like left the coaching company, which is fine. Like you could take breaks and stuff. But like, what's next? Like, is there another coach you maybe need to hire? Is there a different area of your business that you should get involved in? Leave from a place of choice because I'm going into something and not from like, I'm going to kind of figure it out because we're not good at that. Yeah, that was a hard lesson to learn, you know, because I wasted 18 months.

[00:06:04] 18 months of just, like I said, just falling right back into old habits. And I just, I think, where could I be today? You know, had I not done that? I just realized I need to have somebody that just not necessarily holds me accountable, but helps me hold myself accountable. Somebody who's already been there that has the ideas, somebody that can recognize what I'm not doing correctly. Right. We talked about this coaching session. We talked about that specifically with my skill set, mindset and driving execution.

[00:06:34] On something I really need to work on if I want to change some things. And that's, that was extremely helpful. That's not something I'm going to come up with on my own. I'm just not. Yeah. And it's not always about, as the coach, you start to develop and you'll develop, you develop a skill with your team, but like you, you start to really hone in your skill of like listening, listening to the language. Right. And the language matters. And when you start listening to people talk, you can hear what they're saying, but you can also hear what they're not saying.

[00:06:59] And you can hear things like lack of confidence, a little bit of insecurity around a certain topic. And as soon as you hear that, it's like, Hey, wait a minute, let's don't leave that point. Tell me a little bit more about that. Right. And once we dive in, you can recognize like, boom, there's your weakness point. It's like actually really just like a lack of commitment around a certain thing. Maybe it's the way you're communicating or the clarity that you have around something. And as soon as you find it and you empower yourself again, you're like, Oh wow, actually I do. I'm in control of this.

[00:07:23] You know, but it's hard to see that in yourself. And it's, you know, Nathan always says it's hard to see the painting when you're in the painting. Right. Yeah. And I'll tell you what, just even after we talked about that, I felt like my last two leadership meetings and the team meeting this last Tuesday were, were night and day different, completely different feeling just from the team and from my leadership team as well.

[00:07:43] Yeah. And so it's like, how do we systemize that? Right. It's like, what needs to go on the agenda as a reminder to keep this type of rhythm without having to think about it? Is it a prompt? Is it a question? Is it a, for instance, make one of Nathan's favorite prompts is there's no pink elephants. Every meeting he starts with, Hey, reminder, there's no pink elephants in this room. Does anybody clear on that? Right.

[00:08:07] So, and he prompts that and he's intentional about that every meeting because he's probably made that mistake in the past. Right. As an example, one of my prompts on my agenda is let's be sure we get our conversations down to specific action items and agreements.

[00:08:22] Because what we have tended to do in the past is we have these rah-rah conversations in the leadership meeting and they're all cool and fun, but what does done look like? Let's get down to specific accountability and action items. And that's our prompt. And that's our reminder, our intro to our meeting. And that holds me accountable. That holds the team accountable. You level up your meetings, right? You level up your meetings and then you level up your impact in the organization.

[00:08:46] Yeah. I feel like I'm just barely beginning to recognize what is missing from those meetings. Instead, initially it was just, let's get a meeting on the schedule. Let's actually block time off. Let's get a leadership team. Let's get a meeting. Let's create an agenda. Let's go through the agenda. And then realizing that becomes stale and something more needs to happen. And I think that's right where I'm at where, you know, there needs to be some accountability for my leadership team. There needs to be some action items. There needs to be some specific, a specific plan.

[00:09:16] Carried out by someone other than just myself in terms of the goals for the company. Love it, man. Yeah. And so it's like, it's not always about doing more things. Like you're having the meeting, you're doing the meeting, it's on the agenda, but then it's like, okay, you're doing that. Like, let's get way better at it. Cause there's always levels to that stuff. You know what I mean? You've been to a powerful meeting where you've been inspired. You've been like, wow, there's a new level of inspiration and direction in the company now because of this meeting. How do we have those all the time? And just create that standard, right? And really just

[00:09:46] starts with you as a leader, you know, getting clear. I think that's what I'm just, unfortunately it's just taken, I'm a slow learner apparently, but it takes me a minute to get it, but we'll get there. But just recognize that now. So we're talking about meetings and what a boring thing to talk about. You know what I mean? Like, but they're so fun. You know what I mean? And the reason why I like meetings is because it forces you to lead.

[00:10:09] There's nothing more inspiring to me than watching a leader stand for what they believe in whenever they're not quite sure if everybody's going to be on board with them or not. You know what I mean? And like, you have to get up there and you have to kind of like, make a stand for it and you kind of, you're nervous about it, but then you keep on and you slowly shift the mindset and the beliefs inside that room over time. And that's the thing that kind of elevates you.

[00:10:34] Yeah. You'll see it from the team too, the expectation of what that meeting needs to be as well compared to initially when it was, why are we doing this? Why are we doing a value? Why are we talking about a value? Why are we talking about our wins? Why are we talking about the patient's ultimate goal? To now, okay, yeah, I've got this to share. I've been thinking about this for the week, whatever that may be. So it is nice to see kind of the evolution of the team through those meetings too.

[00:10:57] Yeah. And so I want to rewind a little bit because you weren't really having those meetings in the beginning, right? Well, maybe you were in the beginning, but maybe not the leadership component. You know what? I had a leadership team that consisted of myself and my admin, but we didn't have a set time for the leadership meeting. We would just kind of, because I was treating patients. So in between patients, if I had a break, I'm like, Hey, let's talk for 20 minutes. I got 20 minutes now, but we definitely were doing a team meeting.

[00:11:26] And even the thought of blocking off time when people could be seeing patients for a team meeting initially made no sense to me whatsoever. Yeah. So I wasn't doing any of that initially when we spoke that first time back in January. I mean, like I said, I've kind of just fallen right back into old habits, dig in with the treatment and hopefully productivity is there. Yeah. And so it's been about a year. And I remember you were basically treating full-time when we started, right? Yeah. You're basically treating full-time in the clinic.

[00:11:54] And I remember I said, Hey, I want you to write down your vision, write down your vision of what you want to create. And I remember you wrote down something crazy. You remember what it was? I don't. I mean, I, I mean, it might be to be out of treating patients. I, well, you were, you said you wanted to open 10 clinics. Oh, that's right. Cause we went over all of my, you know, like, Hey, we got it. That's right. That's right. So I said, wow, that's inspiring. Now that's something I can, you know, I can get excited about that. Right.

[00:12:19] And I think that once you started realizing that there was a way bigger vision that we needed to play, you started recognizing like, there's more things I got to do here. Right. So I think that's, that was fun. When we started, we kind of started with that vision and then it was like, all right, we got to step out of treatment. And it's interesting too, because just to be able to get to that point, there were so many, I don't know, smaller goals or just different things that had to fall into place to be able to, that took time.

[00:12:46] You know, I was thinking, Hey, listen, I can be out of, I wanted to be out of treatment in two months and just, yeah, things just took time because I didn't have really necessarily anything in place to support that. There was another milestone that I recall. And it was this idea of like finances, because there's always some fear and uncertainty around finances. So I don't remember, no, if you remember, we dove into them, we pulled out your metrics because you were kind of like, I don't really know if I can do that. I don't know if I can afford this. Talk us through that. Like, what was that like?

[00:13:15] Well, that's always, I mean, you go back to my older podcast with Nathan, that was always a worry of mine was financials. And so it seems like every time I go to take a step, whether that be growth or whatever, it's just a change in the business, then financials come into play. The thought of financials, can I afford to do this? Can I afford to ask? And it seems like up to that point, and especially when I wasn't coaching anymore, every decision I was making was based off of fear of finances.

[00:13:43] And so the idea of getting out of treatment means that I'm going to hire a physical therapist to see patients. And then I'm going to do what? Right. Because first of all, I didn't know what my day was going to look like not seeing patients. And so the other thought was, is that they can't see as many patients. They're not going to be able to hold on to the patients. They're not going to be able to deliver care, you know, all those things.

[00:14:08] So if I step out and I get somebody else in here, then our numbers are going to drop. But so all of those different thought processes came through. But I think what I finally realized, well, one, when we went through the finances and realizing, yeah, I've got money there to be able to have a physical therapist, 100% to cover it. So that gave me confidence. And then I can go away from the fear. So the confidence was there. The evidence was there that, that we can afford it.

[00:14:32] We don't document a history of it. It's like, it's how much more proof do you need? It's been running this way for three years. Right. What I did too, is I, I put that number in a note and I made it my phone screenshot for a long time. Just when it came on, I would look at that number and go, you've got enough. You got enough. This is what you're using every month. This is what your revenue is. You have enough because for 20 years, 19 years or whatever it was, I'd been telling myself, you don't have enough. There's not enough here.

[00:14:59] And so I just needed that reference over and over again. But yeah, I mean, the evidence was there. Like you said, the, the history of being able to produce and have the financials in place to hire physical therapists was already there. So it was just a matter of getting some things in line and, and being able to make that move. Yeah. You mustered up the courage to go for it and you hired, I think two therapists, right? Didn't you hire like a PTA and a PT?

[00:15:23] I hired a PTA to the first of the year, kind of help with some of the other stuff we were doing. And then I was going to, I think I was taking a couple of afternoons off. So they would assist with that. And then when I completely moved out of treatment, then yeah, we hired a PT to take my spot. And that was, we started the process, I think in June and that individual came on in August.

[00:15:46] Nice. Now there was another thing that you mentioned that was really key. And it was this idea of like, yeah, but if I step out of treatment, they're not going to be able to treat like me. They're not going to be able to do the things like me. Right. All that stuff, all that stuff. Right. Tell me about that process. Like, how did you get over that? Well, this is another example of why you got to have a coach in place, right? Because those thoughts are, that's, that's just plaguing me forever and ever. And it's just a lot. It's just a lot, right?

[00:16:15] You just need somebody else to tell you something different. You only hear your voice telling you that you just got to hear somebody else and you got to see somebody else that's already done it. Yeah. And so we met and you're like, Hey, you got to do your, your like me program. And so we talked a little bit about that was, but in a sense it is.

[00:16:30] Why, what do I do that ensures a patient gets the quality care? They're going to schedule out their plan of care. They're going to be here for every visit that they're going to refer a friend or family member that, you know, they're going to be seen for second plan of care if they need to be right. That they are introduced every, all those little things. So, I mean, we started with the initial evaluation checklist. What do I say? Not so much. What special tests do I do? What do I say? How do I say it?

[00:16:59] And went through every little thing. What do I say at the end of the evaluation to the patient? How do I explain it? You know, come up with the handouts, the plan of care, have them sign the plan of care. The, what are we saying on the second visit? I did another checklist. What are we saying on the second visit? What are we saying on the third visit? All the way through the six, because I think we've talked about this, but fourth visit, right? Fourth visit, a patient is looking to leave you. Whether they're better or they're not better, they're looking to leave you. So what am I saying on the second visit? What was I saying on the third visit? And then, so came up with that.

[00:17:30] What are we doing in terms of talking to the patient or managing the patient, right? What kind of story are we presenting for them? What kind of picture are we presenting for them throughout the entire plan of care? So yeah, I just went step by step. I mean, it took months, right? We talked about it for months. Yeah. You worked on it for a while.

[00:17:46] Yeah. And we came up with every SOP there is. And then I created a video for that as well that went into the onboarding program. So when we brought on the therapist, they could just step right in. And yeah, the checklist were there for the initial evaluation. For second through sixth visit, how to schedule a patient, how to manage a patient, how to improve that new patient to discharge stat. For every stat, there's a video.

[00:18:12] And what I've noticed, well, two things really noticed. One that as a business owner, I could, and I think I've said this before, but I could never give my full attention to the patient. So as I'm working on the patient, my thought is, Hey, I wonder if we got that in because pay. Yeah. I wonder how many referrals we got today.

[00:18:34] Yeah. I wonder what's going on with marketing, where are numbers, every thought about the business. I wonder if my therapists are doing this. I wonder what our percentage is.

[00:18:42] So, you know, a patient's coming and I'm trying to give them quality care. And I think I'm giving quality care, but my mind is not with them. I'm not giving them my full attention. So that's one thing I noticed. The second thing I noticed is that when all of these Like Me program, when the entire Like Me program was in place and the onboarding happened and they were trained appropriately, that our numbers actually went up when I stepped out, which I was, I did not expect that to happen at all.

[00:19:10] I think a lot of it is because these patients are actually getting full attention. They're better than you at it. And that's their only job is to treat. Right. They don't have to do all the things. Yeah. You know, and obviously when I stepped out, there were certain patients that were like, Oh, but I'm used to, I've been coming here for so long. I'm used to seeing Steve. And it was a minor issue.

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[00:21:02] Yeah, I remember when we had you worked on that program for a long time. The first one's always the hardest because you've never done it before. Right. But then you get the skill developing programs and creating control around things. Right. You learn the nuances of it. But it's really the first product that you deliver to your team. Right. It's really the first valuable piece of something that you give to your team besides a paycheck, which is I'm going to like help you be an awesome freaking therapist.

[00:21:30] Yeah, it's interesting, too, because I feel like as I was doing it, I didn't want, especially my therapist that had already been here, I didn't want them to feel like I was going in and saying, listen, these are the mandates. This is how this is going to work. This is what we're going to do. And so I had already written down what it is I do and then kind of brought them in and said, hey, listen, this is what we're going to create. Let's get some input from you as well. So they had some say, but for the most part, we were all on the same page.

[00:21:59] It was just a matter of putting it in place, training on it, making sure that it's actually being done following up on it. But they are so receptive because of that. Right. Because that was the first little bit that I give them. They were so receptive to everything else. I see that in our leadership team, too. Now, as they are dispersing that information to other team members. Right. And so like you hear how many maybe you don't hear it as much as I do, but I don't know if so much anymore, but I can't compete with the hospital systems.

[00:22:28] You're definitely competing with the hospital systems at this point. Right. Like, are they do they have a like me program? Probably not. You know what I mean? Probably not. It's crazy because I went to lunch with a buddy of mine, PT. He worked for me 10, 12 years ago. Something is back when we had a second clinic. And I just that second click. We can talk about it. It was a mess. It was just a joke. It was my managerial style was, hey, don't call me.

[00:22:55] Just please don't bug me with this because I'm already seeing 100 and whatever patients over here. And I went to him 10, 12 years ago and I said, hey, listen, if you just want this clinic, you can have it. It's yours. Take the patients. Take everything. And so I went to lunch with him a couple of weeks ago because he was shutting down. He's like, I just can't compete with all these orthopedic groups. They have their own PT. The hospital's right here. They have their own PT. And, you know, you get burned out as an owner. I was burned out as an owner. That just wears on you where you're trying to see patients.

[00:23:24] You're trying to be all the production and still deal with everything that is involved with owning a practice. And, yeah, it can beat you down. If you're not going to get the help, it just will continue to beat you down. And then you get those thoughts. Again, I can't compete with this. I can't compete with this. I can't compete with the hospital. You know, there's no hope here. The reimbursement is this. Whatever it may be. Those same lies. Yeah. And like we tell ourselves that I'm talking to myself, but we tell ourselves this lie of like, I'm just going to grind it, grind it out.

[00:23:54] And I'm going to get to the other side. And it's like, no, you're not. I can tell you it does not work. 20 years of that. It never changes. In fact, the longer you go, the more ingrained you get in those habits. You get deeper. You dig a deeper hole. You don't see an out ever. Yeah. Yeah. But and here's the thing. Like, it's really not everybody wants to open 50 clinics, right? Some people just want to have their one clinic.

[00:24:21] And like, dude, like a year of coaching will transform your life. You know what I mean? Like, it's a big deal. Well, I can tell you that. Yeah. I went 20 years trying to not trying to get out of patient treatment or at least whatever it was. And yeah, a year of coaching. And by month eight, I'm out of treatment. So, yeah. I remember when you did the like me program and, you know, it's the first piece of value that you that you actually give to your team.

[00:24:48] And that is the thing that, you know, I feel like that is where owners really start to believe in themselves because they're like, wow, like I do have skills. I do have a lot to offer my team. And when you roll that out to your team, it's like, wow, like our place is awesome. Right. And then the confidence grows. And then it's like the visions comes after that. But I remember we got on a call and you're like, all right. You're like, Adam, I hired the new therapist. I rolled it out. It's working.

[00:25:16] I cannot believe it. It's actually working. I remember saying that to you. I was like, I can't believe. And I was like, they're falling for it in a sense. They're falling for it. These idiots. I was so happy to hear that, man. It's just such a cool thing. Like to hear that you're, you're just impacting people that way. You know, it's awesome. Like the patients are getting like the value they're getting. It's just incredible. So that, that allowed you to step out of treatment.

[00:25:44] And then, you know, this vision of like, Hey, I want to open up another clinic. I want to start developing leaders on my team. And I was like, all right, now we're getting into the good stuff. Right. So you started meeting with your two leaders to start building two clinic directors, one for each clinic. Right. But talk us through that process. Like how did you identify the leaders? What was your process around like starting to pour into them and to prepare them for being a clinic director?

[00:26:08] You know, it's interesting too, because with one of the therapists, one of the things I talked about is when I brought them on, I talked, talked to them about my vision. That my goal was growth. Like I'm just, I'm passionate about growth. I love seeing things grow and working on it, working on that growth. And so I said, you know, as I brought him, I said, that's, you know, I want somebody else who is passionate about growth because what I want to do is I want to open. And obviously I want to grow. We want to open more clinics.

[00:26:36] I want to provide an opportunity for you to be able to share in that growth, both professionally, financially. And so initially I was just going to be working with him and bringing on clinic director. And I talked to one of my other therapists who, when she came along, she wasn't, she's like, you know, I just really want to be staff therapist. Not too interested in it. I approached her again because I don't think she recognized that she's just a natural leader. People flock to her. She's an amazing person, amazing therapist.

[00:27:05] And so I approached her again and talked to her about it. She said, actually, you know what? I'm very interested in being a clinic director as well. So it worked out perfectly because second location. So yeah, I brought him in and I created a clinic director handbook that had everything you could ever imagine. And again, everything that I'd ever thought of, dealt with every policy procedure that they may have to deal with, HR, anything. And so we began to go over that, but then we incorporated the leadership.

[00:27:34] So I started a leadership program as well. And as I would meet with them weekly, that week I would work on that module in a sense of what we were going to work on this week. And we've blocked out an hour during the week. Every Thursday afternoon we meet. We do our leadership meeting. We go through just briefly the stats. And then we get into training, into leadership training.

[00:27:57] And what I have, you know what I love more than anything is when they walk out of it and I'm like, that was, that's the kind of stuff I want. You know, they'll always say, that's the kind of stuff I like. Because they don't know anything about how the business runs. They don't know anything in terms of front office. They don't recognize, even though we're doing KPIs, they don't understand what that actually, all those tiny components, how that leads to revenue. And so I just absolutely love meeting with them, going over it.

[00:28:24] And like I said, we've got a second office coming up, hopefully, hopefully March 31st. Hopefully you're going to sign a lease tomorrow. Oh, buddy. Yeah. I am freaking punk for you, man. Which is going to be a completely different experience than the second office I did. And all the work you've done. I mean, you've built three programs in a year, or I guess it was three. I mean, that's just some of the work you've done. But you've done a lot of work. And it's like, you don't get that work done buried in treatment. You just don't do it.

[00:28:53] And like what you've been able to create, like the foundation you've laid is going to just catapult you. I mean, that second clinic is going to rock. You've got a good marketing team in place. You've got some leaders in place. And then you'll do a third. And then you'll do a fourth. And then things will start to break again. And you'll be like, okay. You know, it's interesting because I was talking to my physician marketing coordinator this week in our meeting. And the week before I said, hey, listen, this is the plan with second office. We want to be marketing for two months prior to, and I absolutely loved it.

[00:29:23] She's like, great. I've got so many ideas about what I want to do with that. Yeah. So it's amazing how the team members start to come up with different ideas or however it is they can contribute to the success of the company. They're just all in. I couldn't be happier with them. Well, you've gotten clear on your vision, right? You've gotten clear on your vision and you've enrolled them into that vision and you've given them a framework, a roadmap on how to get where they want to go. So it's like, how can you not get excited about that?

[00:29:53] Everyone on a road trip to Disney World or Disneyland? And it's like, hard not to get excited about it, right? It's like, I'm going somewhere. Yay. Because if you're not growing, if you're not expanding, your vision needs to be big enough so that everybody else's vision can fit underneath it. If you're not growing, if your vision is not growing and expanding and evolving, like your people are going to leave you. Yeah, really. And that is a big selling point for us when we bring therapists on. When I'm interviewing a therapist is, listen, this is the plan. Year one, we do our mentorship. Year three, leadership program.

[00:30:22] Hopefully by year four, we've got some expansion. We've got something for you to be able to move into and become a clinic director. That's, you know, that's the goal. And you know, the thing is when therapists come out of school now, so many of them are so, so in debt, right? School is so expensive. And so that debt income ratio is just a burden on them. And they see kind of what their salary is and trying to get above anything more than what the usual raises are for the year, right? Standard living raise.

[00:30:51] And so just the potential of being able to get over that debt, be able to own a home, be able to have some autonomy in the clinic, be able to grow. And I think, I've just noticed that's a big selling point for a therapist. So I have a recruiting director, right? Who is, I followed your recruiting program. And so she is constantly recruiting. And I actually had to tell her to turn it off for a little bit. It was just filling up my day. It was filling too much of my day. Too many interviews, too many phone calls.

[00:31:21] I guess let's turn it off. Let's put it off for a minute. And for this second office, we obviously need to replace a therapist here. You know, based on our growth projections, we're hoping we're going to hire one, another one within three to four months. And I've got three therapists that I texted yesterday, just giving them an update, saying, hey, listen, this is where we're at that I've already interviewed. And they said, fantastic. Let me know when my first day is. All of them. Let me know when my first day is.

[00:31:46] So I do think that that opportunity to have profit sharing, to not feel that burden of that, you know, debt income ratio, at least see a pathway out of that is a big selling point for them, as well as, I mean, there's a, I think we have a great feel here in the office. And those are some of the other selling points as well. But really just anything they can to get that sense of feeling overwhelmed, if they can somehow get rid of that, get rid of whether that be the debt income,

[00:32:16] whether that be feeling some burnout because of documentation, you know, those are all selling points that we have for them. And so that's where I feel like we've kind of made some progress as well, is just being able to get the patients or get the therapists that we need in here as well, what we're looking to grow, how we're looking to grow. So you've got a big year coming. Yeah. Big year, man. Exciting year. What do you foresee being your biggest challenges?

[00:32:44] Maybe like the, in the near future and then like getting through the end of the year, like, what are you thinking? I would say the biggest one is making sure that the patient experience is not affected in any way. Yeah. Because we're obviously going to grow. We're going to bring on new staff and that second office. And we have a system in place. In fact, we talked about that in the leadership meeting today, talking about the patient experience.

[00:33:11] And here we have these systems in place to create this amazing experience for the patients, to offer incredible care. But there's obviously, there are gaps missing in the system. And so I want to make sure that we have those gaps. Those are bridged before we get into too far into this expansion, making sure that the thing just flows. The other thing too with that is, and this is something we've talked about for the last month.

[00:33:39] And this is one of our goals for 2025 is just weekly training for every department. I love it. I love that. Great idea. We're going to be training. So our front office every Thursday, technicians every Tuesday, our therapist as well, every Tuesday, every week there is training. Training on something. So remember those prompts we were talking about in the meetings? So what we do in our leadership team is one of our prompts is like, Hey, what are you reading? What are you learning? Everybody's responsible for learning something. It doesn't have to be what I'm learning. Some people read the Bible.

[00:34:08] Some people read business books. Some people read leadership. Some people. And so because everybody's responsible for sharing and teaching it, teaching it to us and teaching it to during our, our leader, our leadership programs. So things that you're learning in the book and the things that you're reading about marketing and about sales and about systems and about team meetings, like those are little mini lectures that you're giving to your team. And you're just building these people, building these people.

[00:34:38] And when you build your people, they can build the business. Yeah. I mean, I've heard that a million times. And I just, I love where my leadership team is right now. They're just, I feel like they're just on the edge of getting really to, to just go off. They really make an impact on the business that is not so much directed by me, but more self-directed because they understand exactly how this is going to work and how it affects them as well.

[00:35:06] So do you have, when you onboard your people on your team now, are you a part of that process? Or is that delegated fully? So front office technicians delegated completely. Therapist is me. And primarily because I've only done one therapist. But for this next one coming on, then I will take my clinic director with me as I do it. And then I'm going to start. Yeah. Pushing that. Yeah.

[00:35:35] I was going to say that that could be a really good opportunity for you to really see them flex that leadership muscle of being like, Hey, let's empower this employee. And you be in not necessarily hands-off, but more giving them some free reign to, and then honestly see, see how they handle it. Because you learn, you learn a lot more through, through teaching, right? Than being taught. It would be the same with the mentorship program. You know, with the therapist we brought on, I set up that year long mentorship program. There you go. Yeah. But yeah, I want to, yeah, we'll push that onto the clinic director as well. I'm excited, man.

[00:36:04] And so March 31st is the goal. That's the goal. That's the goal, man. What do you foresee being the biggest challenge? I mean, you mentioned the patient experience, but do you see leadership challenges or operational challenges on the horizon? Yeah. I think there's going to be some operational challenges. We go from one clinic to two, just in terms of billing. Not sure exactly staff wise, how much more staff we need, how many more individuals we need. There's just going to be some logistical issues that hopefully we're not having too many growing pains with.

[00:36:34] Like I said, when I did this in the past with a second location, no leadership team in place. There was nothing in place. It was just an opportunity. I think I mentioned orthopedic surgeon came to us, said, hey, I've got this office. You guys want to move into it? I'm going to move into the next one. And we said, sure. And, you know, I got a manager and said, don't bug me. And went from there. And so, yeah, it's completely different, completely different this time where at least we're aware that there's going to be some issues. I do feel like my clinic director is prepared, excited.

[00:37:01] He's excited about the opportunity to kind of have some autonomy, but also be in charge of the growth, be in charge of the training, to have an opportunity to build his team as well. And, you know, he talks about that every leadership meeting, you know, where are we at? What's going on here? And so I don't see too many. There's going to be some bumps in the road, no doubt. Yeah. You know, there's going to be some bumps in the road financially as well. It's going to take a bit of a hit.

[00:37:28] You know, I remember you saying after you opened your second one, you know, some of the thoughts you had is like, why would I do this? You know, you're sick for it. And then I'll say, okay, this is good. Forget about it. And then we'll do it again. So one thing that's cool for me to recognize is like, you're, you're really kind of like, you're building a new position in your company and it's the director of operations. So like, you're the manager of the clinic directors now. So, and that role will be replaced at some point.

[00:37:56] So one thing that really helped in our clinics is doing like a monthly or a quarterly site visit rhythm where we'd go out to the clinic and like block off the full day for the director. And we would go through front office and I'd have a checklist front office. You know, are they doing the script? Are they getting the referral schedule? And then I would sit in on the team meeting. I would review, do they have the big three? Are they following the policy and procedure? And then we would give the feedback to the clinic director.

[00:38:24] So essentially I'd have a full day audit of the site visit process that I would go through with the clinic directors. And then eventually that's the thing you can pass on to your director of operations. You know, it's interesting. I tried to write up, I thought, you know what? I'm VP of operations right now. And I know I'm going to want to give that hat off to somebody. And so I was trying to write up just kind of the handbook for VP of operations. And I noticed I didn't have a whole lot to write in, you know, to type up. There wasn't. Let's go figure it out. Yeah.

[00:38:52] I just don't have a whole lot of experience where I'm only focused on, you know, operations as opposed to treating patients and focus on operations and everything. So yeah, it'll be interesting as we go along here, what kind of goes into that manual and how I eventually pass that off as well. Awesome, man. So yeah, I'm thinking I'd love to, I think it would be really cool to get you back on the podcast, like either three, six or 12 months after you open that second location,

[00:39:19] you know, once you get through the storm, maybe more like six months, right? Probably six months. Yeah. Six months after you open and like what you learned, what the takeaways were, like what you wish you would have did different. If we can kind of get right on the edge of the lessons, that would be some tremendous value for the people listening and me too. Yeah, I'm all for that. Sound like a deal, man. Definitely. All right, brother. We'll be in touch. Hey, sounds good.

[00:39:48] Thanks for listening to the Private Practice Owners Club. If you enjoyed this episode, would you mind doing us a huge favor and leaving a review? This helps us get the podcast out to more clinic owners to help them create greater freedom and profits so they can own their future. And visit our website, ppoclub.com to find more resources and connect with us. We'll be right back. Bye. Bye. Bye. Thank you.