10 Lessons from 25 Years in Business

[00:00:00] Welcome to The Aaron LeBauer Show. This is the number one show for passionate physical therapy and healthcare entrepreneurs looking to level up their income and impact on the world. If that's you, then you're in the right place. So sit back, chill out, and let's get into the show.

[00:00:21] Hey, welcome back to The Aaron LeBauer Show. I'm your host Aaron. I don't know if you're watching this, maybe see I got a new camera because you can see more of my mic. So just trying this one out today.

[00:00:36] So today we're going to talk about the 10 lessons that I learned being in business for 25 years. So I was thinking the other day, I was like telling someone, telling my clients, I was like, Hey man, you know, it took me like five years to get the result you just got in eight months because he was like, Oh man, I'm only doing like $8,000 a month and I'm like, you're seven months in.

[00:00:57] And I was like, dude, it took me like, would it take me five years to get to 15k months in my PT clinic? And I was like, okay. So to get to 8k, I was like, that took me about three years. And then I was like, wait a minute.

[00:01:11] I started my first business in 1999. I've been in business for 25 years like, hold my, I was like, what year is it? I started my business in January. Let's see, 1999.

[00:01:23] I started my first business. So I enrolled in massage school in January sometime halfway through that year. I started, I mean, we were encouraged right away to start treating people for money. You know, once we were legal to practice in San Francisco, which was only a couple hundred hours.

[00:01:42] So by like April or May, around right now when I'm recording this, it's April 2024. I started treating people, my friends for, you know, for pay somewhere probably like, those January, February, March, probably around March, April.

[00:01:59] So it's just about 25 years in, which is super crazy. So that was a long time ago. It's 2024. That's 25 years ago. I was like, wow. Okay. So if I add that time on, it's not just three years or five years.

[00:02:14] It was more like 15 years because I started that business in 1999. I went back to PT school in 2006 and I graduated in 2000, December 2008 started my clinic in 2009.

[00:02:26] But along the way, so I started a business in San Francisco in 1999 doing massage and body work. I moved to San Luis Obispo in early 2004 and started my business up there.

[00:02:39] That lasted about 11 months. We were there for 12 months before we decided to move back to Greensboro. And I came to Greensboro, I started my practice here.

[00:02:52] I actually did work for someone else as doing massage therapy as I got things rolling. I had to get licensed and all that stuff.

[00:02:59] And then after doing that for a few years, I think it was around 2009. I didn't go back and look, but it was around 2009, 2010 that I started a con.

[00:03:10] Was it 2009? Let's see. Oh, 2009. I'm going to go chronologically. So that was 2005. I started my business in Greensboro.

[00:03:16] I went to PT school 2009. I started my PT clinic, LeBauer physical therapy that officially launched February 2009 because I couldn't apply for the Articles of Incorporation and do all this stuff until I think I applied for that.

[00:03:31] But I had to put a bunch of stuff in until I was licensed as a PT. I was licensed as a PT February 2009. And I did that.

[00:03:40] I did that for a few years. And then I think it was 2011, 2012 where I started a con-ed company with a friend of mine here who's an acupuncturist and massage therapist.

[00:03:50] And we did that together. And so that was one of those things where... So we started doing that.

[00:03:57] And then my coaching business started taking off. And the coaching business I started doing around the same time, 2012.

[00:04:07] Maybe... I can't remember exactly when they overlapped, but the coaching business technically wasn't a separate business from the clinic until 2019.

[00:04:15] But this one was. So, you know, but I started getting paid for consulting in 2012.

[00:04:22] I had sold my first online product, digital download in the spring of 2013.

[00:04:27] Pretty much everyone you know who's teaching cash practice and stuff has been through one of my like programs courses, downloads, etc. things.

[00:04:37] And that started in 2013. And then in 2014 is when I launched the Cash PT Blueprint which is coming up on 10 years this year.

[00:04:45] Which is really crazy. So that's not a separate business, but just to kind of recap, like I've started six businesses and I didn't come from an entrepreneurial family.

[00:04:56] I just started them because I kind of had to. It was what was encouraged in massage schools.

[00:05:01] Like you know, you can get a job in a spa, but you're going to make more doing it on your own.

[00:05:05] And the reason I got into massage therapy was so that I could make more than $14 an hour which I was getting working as a temp.

[00:05:13] I could make more than $25, $30 an hour and race my bike.

[00:05:19] It was enough to live on working four hours a day.

[00:05:22] So I would make if I worked at the spa, I was getting $21 an hour plus a tip and the average tips at the spa were between 15 and 20.

[00:05:29] So probably 17 bucks.

[00:05:31] My work was charging on my own.

[00:05:35] I was charging people. I think at first when I was in school it was like $45.

[00:05:38] And then when I got out, I finished and I was licensed.

[00:05:42] I wasn't really licensed in San Francisco. That's the weird thing.

[00:05:45] When I was finished with school it was 75 bucks.

[00:05:48] I think I might have creeped it up over there.

[00:05:51] And then I moved up to 80 bucks.

[00:05:53] And then there was this dot com, you know, like the dot com thing and boom.

[00:05:58] And I was like, all right, backed it down to $75 and then moved to North Carolina.

[00:06:02] I was able to charge 85.

[00:06:04] But let me just kind of roll back.

[00:06:08] So I've learned a lot in those 25 years.

[00:06:11] There's a few episodes already on some of these lessons.

[00:06:16] So if you need more, you can go back and check them out.

[00:06:20] But it took me 23 years to make a million dollars in a year.

[00:06:24] I wrote that down because I calculated it.

[00:06:27] It was like, wow, it did.

[00:06:29] It took me 23 years of being in business to get to a place where I did that in a year.

[00:06:33] And so you may be thinking, oh my gosh, this is taking forever.

[00:06:37] Well, like it's not this whole thing around the iceberg, you know, like the overnight success.

[00:06:42] You just see the tip of the iceberg.

[00:06:44] You don't see all the work that's gone on all the time.

[00:06:47] The blood sweat tears, the agony, you know, the successes, the triumphs.

[00:06:50] I mean, all those things.

[00:06:52] Yeah, you probably don't see those.

[00:06:54] I mean, I've had someone message me last year and be like, who are you?

[00:06:57] You're brand new to this whole cash PD thing stealing someone else's thing.

[00:07:00] And I'm like, whatever.

[00:07:03] Like that person was the one who was, you know, taking my ideas and trying to sell them as their own.

[00:07:09] But, you know, you can't, that's not a winning argument.

[00:07:12] But people might just see me.

[00:07:14] Maybe you're getting out of school and you've, this is your first episode or maybe you crawled out from under a rock.

[00:07:20] I have talked to people who have successful cash practices and I was like, you've never heard of me.

[00:07:24] Like, okay, not that it's my ego, but I need to go back to my Facebook ads guy and be like, right, if a PT hasn't heard of me, you're not doing the job right.

[00:07:33] Like every, that's one of my goals is everyone should know who I am and what the opportunities are in cash based PT.

[00:07:41] So they know about the cash based PT thing and cash PT, but they don't know always that it's Aaron or people are busy and paying attention.

[00:07:47] But that's also the mindset that I have is that everyone should know who I am at this point, especially I've got red hair.

[00:07:53] I should be no mistaking who I am.

[00:07:56] That wasn't the goal that I got in this for.

[00:07:59] I got in this because people asked me for help, not because I decided that this was like the right business to have.

[00:08:05] But as the coaching business grew, that's where the con ed business started to take it back seat.

[00:08:12] And I was like, hey, I got more need to spend more time doing the coaching because that's more of my passion than teaching con ed.

[00:08:16] And that was one of the things, there was a lot of things nuances in that why that didn't work out.

[00:08:21] It's also the same reason I stopped teaching yoga.

[00:08:24] I used to teach yoga twice a week and you know, I was supposed to practice twice a week.

[00:08:29] And so under the studio didn't want me only there just to teach twice a week.

[00:08:35] So what that meant was I would practice at nine on Tuesdays and I would teach, nine 30 on Tuesdays and I would teach the noon.

[00:08:40] And I'd have about an hour in the middle to do work and cool down and then prep for the next class.

[00:08:46] And I was basically at the yoga studio every Tuesday morning and every Saturday morning.

[00:08:50] And it took time away from work and clients, patients, family.

[00:08:54] And so I stopped that.

[00:08:56] So like I said, it's taken me 23 years to get to where I'm at.

[00:09:00] So this isn't one of the lessons.

[00:09:03] But don't compare your year one to my year 25 or your year 10 to my 25 or your year two to someone else's year five.

[00:09:10] And compare you to you. Where were you last year? Are you one better?

[00:09:13] And it doesn't always mean are you making more money?

[00:09:16] It's money is an ordinal way to measure success, but it's not the only way.

[00:09:21] And success comes in lifestyle wins time.

[00:09:25] You know how much, how do you do enjoy your career?

[00:09:29] You know, and do you have money in the bank that because money does solve problems.

[00:09:34] So let me go through these 10 lessons for you.

[00:09:37] I wouldn't say these are in any particular order because they're the order which they came out of my head.

[00:09:42] Let's call it that number one, stay the course.

[00:09:48] You know, you only lose when you quit.

[00:09:51] And I've put that on a few social media posts recently because it's really it.

[00:09:55] If you if you don't quit, you're never going to lose.

[00:09:57] You got to stay the course.

[00:09:59] You got to set a goal and you just keep going after it.

[00:10:01] Don't let that good idea fairy come after you shiny object syndrome.

[00:10:05] It'll pull you off or maybe you have a few, a few things that don't work out the way you want them to.

[00:10:13] And then you quit and then you got to start all over again or you now you just reinforce that.

[00:10:20] Hey, when I start stuff, I don't succeed kind of mindset.

[00:10:24] And you're like, oh, I wouldn't ever do this next thing.

[00:10:26] You really got to make up your mind.

[00:10:29] You know, like don't don't perseverate forever.

[00:10:32] Don't don't sit on the fence forever.

[00:10:35] But once you make a decision, you're like, I'm going to do this thing.

[00:10:38] Stay the course.

[00:10:40] You know, the things that pull you off course or family and friends that aren't in the same game as you.

[00:10:44] They're in life with you, but they're not playing the same game of life.

[00:10:48] They're playing maybe I have a job game and you're playing that I'm trying to run a business game or I got big massive goals game.

[00:10:54] So you only lose when you quit.

[00:10:56] So stay the course because even if you just stay the course, you'll outpace a whole lot of your competition.

[00:11:01] Number two, I had to learn this one from my dad.

[00:11:05] You know, if you don't know or haven't been on one of my webinars, my dad's a cardiologist.

[00:11:12] My uncles are physicians, my grandfather, great uncle physicians.

[00:11:15] One of my dad's mentors was Eugene Stead and Eugene Stead wrote this blue book.

[00:11:23] It's called Just Say For Me.

[00:11:25] I got it right here.

[00:11:27] I can read a random quote from it, but one of the things I learned from my dad, which he learned from his mentor Eugene Stead was that if you do right by the patients,

[00:11:38] the money, the finances, everything's going to come along with that.

[00:11:41] You have to do right by your customer.

[00:11:44] You know, it's if we can do this for the person we're serving.

[00:11:49] It's like service first and then everything else will come.

[00:11:51] I mean, so the money in the bank is like thank you notes from your patients.

[00:11:55] Right? That's how we have a good money mindset.

[00:11:58] But at the same time, if I was in this for money, I had this conversation with a few people, but you know, look, I'd go into banking or finance.

[00:12:06] You know, I'm not in this to make money.

[00:12:08] I didn't start the coaching business to make money.

[00:12:10] I didn't start my PT clinic to make money.

[00:12:13] I did it because I didn't want the headaches that came along with being an employee or running it in at work practice.

[00:12:18] And I did the coaching business not because I'm like, ooh, that's a great way to make money.

[00:12:22] Let me go teach this.

[00:12:24] I actually didn't believe people were actually going to buy memberships to the cash PT blueprint.

[00:12:30] You can ask John Schumacher.

[00:12:32] I didn't believe it.

[00:12:34] He was like, you have a six figure business like no way.

[00:12:36] Like people aren't going to do this, but people asked me for help and I had a few people asked for help and I gave him help for free and they did nothing with it.

[00:12:41] And so I said, all right, one woman decided offered to pay.

[00:12:43] I said, great, this is what I charge.

[00:12:44] And let's go.

[00:12:46] And I charge that for the first 25 people that enrolled in the course, 200 bucks.

[00:12:51] I mean, I was crazy.

[00:12:54] So, and then it just kind of built from there.

[00:12:57] And it's not a hobby.

[00:12:59] It's my business.

[00:13:01] It's how I, it's one of the ways I put food on the table.

[00:13:05] But if you do right by, I mean, it's like so you stay the course, you do right by your customers, your patients.

[00:13:11] I mean, like I'm all in.

[00:13:13] Like I tell all my new clients, like I'm here for you.

[00:13:16] This is my job is to help you do and whatever resources you need.

[00:13:20] I'm here to provide them.

[00:13:22] But I'm really not here.

[00:13:24] I'm not here to spoon feed you.

[00:13:26] I'm here to guide you because like I can show you how to fish, but if I can teach you how to dig a hole and stock it with fish, then you can fish anywhere you want.

[00:13:33] And that's really what we do in our mastermind and through my code private coaching programs is teach you how to create, not just how to do it.

[00:13:40] But how to, you know, repeat stuff.

[00:13:43] So that's it.

[00:13:45] Do right by your patients and customers.

[00:13:47] And number three, partnerships are tough.

[00:13:50] Partnerships relationships are tough.

[00:13:55] You know, I think there's a couple of things I've been in partnerships with and you know, one of them was my marriage, one of them, you know, through the clinic.

[00:14:01] I've got other partners and businesses and affiliates and other relationships.

[00:14:06] And I've had people ask me to, you know, be on the board of advisor, their company and take, you know, get some equity, etc.

[00:14:13] I mean, I've had all different kinds of things.

[00:14:15] I'm not going to talk about all those scenarios on this show.

[00:14:17] Maybe that's another episode, but they're tough.

[00:14:21] I would say the number one thing is make sure it's a proven product before you invest too much time, money and energy in it.

[00:14:27] Make sure, you know, because I've had plenty of people approach me before they've sold anything to partner with them or refer them people or etc.

[00:14:35] It happens a lot.

[00:14:37] And make sure that it's actually a proven product.

[00:14:41] Make sure it's something that people are already willing to buy unless you're part of creating it from the ground up and you really absolutely believe in it.

[00:14:51] You know, that's definitely one thing.

[00:14:53] The other thing I would say is make sure you have clear, not only just clear expectations, but what does it look like from the beginning if this doesn't work out?

[00:15:01] What's the exit clause?

[00:15:03] I learned that.

[00:15:05] I picked up that from James Shramko at our boardroom event in Australia a few weeks ago.

[00:15:12] He was talking about when he does partnership deals, he's like always have an exit clause at the beginning.

[00:15:18] You know, it's like a buyout clause.

[00:15:19] Here's what happens if, you know, because he'll take a percentage stake of someone's business, maybe an exchange for coaching.

[00:15:26] We didn't go into the super details of it, but it's like partly it's coaching and resources, etc.

[00:15:31] You know, like Alex from Ozy does this.

[00:15:33] I mean, people that buy into venture capitalists, they buy businesses, they have an exit plan like, hey, we're coming in.

[00:15:39] We're providing you with these things, but if it doesn't work out, here's the exit plan.

[00:15:42] Here's the buyout clause.

[00:15:44] Always have that from the beginning.

[00:15:46] Okay.

[00:15:47] I learned this from my cousin Scott.

[00:15:49] If you've been on one of my webinars and you've seen the MRI of the, was it the Sagittal Sinus blood clot?

[00:15:57] That's my cousin Scott.

[00:15:59] He's one of the other entrepreneurs in my family.

[00:16:01] I was chatting with him like 12 years ago, you know, and I was like, dude, this is tough.

[00:16:05] This is like during the 2008-2009, you know, recession.

[00:16:11] He said, ride the wave.

[00:16:13] Sometimes you just got to ride the wave.

[00:16:15] I was like, got it.

[00:16:17] And then in 1999, during the dot-com boom.

[00:16:20] And then it was like 2001 when there was a dot-com bust in San Francisco and that was in San Francisco.

[00:16:25] So that's when I dropped my pricing from 80 an hour to 75.

[00:16:29] And that seemed to, you know, get rid of most of the price objections where at 80 people were like, oh, that's a little expensive.

[00:16:35] I was like, what if I just drop it to 75?

[00:16:38] You know, I was studying gorilla marketing from J Conrad Levinson back then.

[00:16:42] And he's already on like the third or fourth edition of his book.

[00:16:44] I don't know.

[00:16:46] But he's, the marketing now is very different than it was in 1999 and 2000.

[00:16:50] I survived the dot-com thing.

[00:16:52] I opened my cash practice two months before my wife was due with our first baby in an economic recession.

[00:17:02] In January 2009, it was almost the bottom of that like recession.

[00:17:06] You know, and I have people all the time tell me, Aaron, I can't get started until after the baby.

[00:17:10] I'm like, okay, cool.

[00:17:12] But I started before the baby and I started with a lot less knowledge than you have and access to resources, et cetera.

[00:17:17] So we can make excuses or not.

[00:17:20] And then in, you know, so we had that and then I have my business still survive 2020.

[00:17:25] My team and my business look a whole lot different now than they did before 2020.

[00:17:30] But we survived 2020 with the pandemic and economic crisis and we're still kind of in it.

[00:17:35] So there's ups and downs in businesses.

[00:17:40] Some months are going to be good, some months are going to be shit, some months are going to be great and you're going to, it's going to feel like shit.

[00:17:46] Some months are going to be, you look back and like, that was a great month.

[00:17:49] And you're like, oh, damn, the metrics look like shit.

[00:17:52] That's just the way it is.

[00:17:54] Ride the wave.

[00:17:56] And I would say even instead of just riding the wave, try to minimize the peaks and valleys.

[00:18:00] Like, great. We have a high.

[00:18:02] Okay, cool.

[00:18:03] You know, we need to maintain some sense of balance.

[00:18:07] And so as you ride the wave, just remember, you know, you can celebrate the peaks and get upset about the valleys.

[00:18:13] But if we kind of keep more of a level head through the whole thing, it's going to make this ride easier.

[00:18:19] Number five, build in some kind of MRR program, a monthly recurring revenue program.

[00:18:25] It may not be the core of your business, but it can minimize what I did.

[00:18:29] It helped me minimize the peaks and valleys.

[00:18:31] It's also, you know, the other thing that helps minimize those is having multiple streams of income.

[00:18:37] You know, whether it's the clinic or, you know, online course sales or, you know, teaching and doing, you know, treating patients or whatnot.

[00:18:46] You can have multiple streams of revenue and that helps.

[00:18:50] But I think it's monthly recurring revenue.

[00:18:54] There's two reasons that it is really good.

[00:18:56] One, it forces you to be creative and help people for a longer time.

[00:19:00] It's like you can start to, you can start to guesstimate how much money is coming in the next month.

[00:19:07] And that's why it's really awesome to have a program where people are paying every month.

[00:19:13] It's really awesome.

[00:19:15] But it can also become the primary thing.

[00:19:18] And that's one of the things that I was like, oh man, I don't want this to happen.

[00:19:21] Like where my coaching programs became, you know, as an MRR program became some of the primary things and there's still a lot of pressure.

[00:19:26] And one of my next goals, people are asking Aaron, what's next?

[00:19:30] Well, my next goal is to have my financial independence.

[00:19:34] And I'm going a little off topic, but this is the lesson is have some kind of recurring revenue that's more residual that doesn't necessarily rely on Aaron.

[00:19:43] So maybe like real estate dividends, other investment opportunities where those dividends cover your monthly expenses and the things that you do for work in quotes are the fun stuff.

[00:19:55] And that's really a bonus.

[00:19:57] So that's really like my next big like career goal is to build some kind of monthly recurring revenue that's more of a dividend off of investments and partnerships and businesses that aren't necessary real estate stocks, whatever aren't necessarily tied to Aaron doing the work or Aaron being like the face of the company.

[00:20:18] All right.

[00:20:20] Number six, let's see.

[00:20:22] Set impossible goals.

[00:20:23] Bigger than seem even realistic.

[00:20:27] You know, one of the things that got me out of bike racing was I beat all my goals and I didn't set new goals.

[00:20:34] I didn't set a new goal or feel like it was even realistic to become a pro cyclist like maybe physiologically, you know, you look at me look at my results and it was never going to be possible.

[00:20:45] But I didn't even have that goal.

[00:20:47] And so I just kind of got to this place where I was like, I have nothing more to ride for my goals and life had changed.

[00:20:51] And that's totally fine.

[00:20:54] Your goals are meant to be broken and you need impossible goals.

[00:20:58] Like what's that goal that you think is impossible now that you can work towards it starts to become realistic and then you have to set another bigger goal.

[00:21:05] So for instance, you know, it took me, let's see, for bike racing, it took me 15 years of racing bikes from the time I was probably first race I did was probably 1716 or 17 to when I was 33.

[00:21:20] So I don't know how many years that is a lot 16 years before I actually race the national championships.

[00:21:26] It took me a long time.

[00:21:28] They were years I didn't race.

[00:21:30] The reason I didn't train a lot of years I didn't have a coach, but as soon as I got a coach that sped up and I got to the national championships at Downers Grove, which is one of the most iconic criteria courses in America and they don't really hold the national championships there.

[00:21:42] Same year I raced Athens Twilight Criteria was probably one of the other biggest races.

[00:21:45] I had been to Belgium a few years before, but these were more like, you know, it took me a long time to get there.

[00:21:52] And my goal was to make a pro team and I got close.

[00:21:57] But even like my first goal is I'll be a category two then category one.

[00:22:00] But then it was like, when I missed out on the pro team that was my team, I didn't it didn't feel realistic to try to be make it on another team.

[00:22:09] And that's where it just kind of fizzled.

[00:22:11] So back in, I want to say 2018, 29, I don't know if the 2019 was probably 2018.

[00:22:20] I did a program with Gary J. White and one of the things we did was set impossible goals for I think your body, your business, your balance, your being spirituality, your family, etc.

[00:22:30] And the impossible goal I set at that time from my body, from fitness was being able to pass the strong first or you know, kettlebell like the strong first certification.

[00:22:41] I think there's the drag and door certification is very similar where the main limiter was, you know, snatching 24 kilograms, which is 53 pounds snatch it overhead 100 times in five minutes.

[00:22:51] I was like, that's impossible for me because at the time I wasn't even really snatching 16 kilograms, which is 32 pounds.

[00:22:57] And there's a kettlebell in between 20 kilograms.

[00:23:01] And I was like, well, 24 is impossible for me.

[00:23:03] I'm six three. It's like all about limiting beliefs as well. I'm six three.

[00:23:06] My arms aren't strong. They're not very big. That's impossible.

[00:23:09] There's no way in hell I'll be able to do that.

[00:23:11] My shoulders hurt. My shoulders aren't strong enough to tolerate the weight and it looks really violent and whatever.

[00:23:16] I was like, okay, this is something I want to do.

[00:23:19] I set that as an impossible goal.

[00:23:21] You know, and the whole goal was do 24 kilograms before I turned 50 because at the age of 50, the test weight goes down to 20 kilograms.

[00:23:32] So, okay, so great.

[00:23:35] I had that goal. I missed it.

[00:23:37] Right. I missed it.

[00:23:39] I did everything I could to do it, but I had a couple things happen last year.

[00:23:42] One, I was overstressed from, you know, just work life and, you know, having recently, you know, still working on getting through a divorce.

[00:23:50] I was finally divorced in the middle of the year.

[00:23:52] But at the beginning of the summer, I got a concussion which took me out of training for like six, eight weeks.

[00:23:57] And then in the end of the summer, I got another concussion which really messed with my exercise tolerance.

[00:24:01] And I wasn't able to train really heavily until I got to like November.

[00:24:07] That was in September until I got to the end of November, even December.

[00:24:11] December first is my birthday. And I was just like, it's not going to happen.

[00:24:14] But now I'm back to, yeah, I can exercise as hard as I want now and I'm getting stronger.

[00:24:18] But I reset that goal.

[00:24:20] I was like, hey, we're going to do that by the time 50, the 50th year is over.

[00:24:24] But I missed the goal, but whatever. That's the thing.

[00:24:27] It's like goals are made to be broken.

[00:24:29] But if you don't hit the goal, like my main goal with this is to have a strong and healthy body.

[00:24:34] Like I'm 50.

[00:24:36] I did three sets of six pull-ups this morning.

[00:24:39] I did get ups of 28 kilograms.

[00:24:41] I did four snatches every 30 seconds for 12 minutes with a 24 kilogram weight.

[00:24:46] There's a lot of people that can't do that.

[00:24:49] I mean, you know, there's people that can't do one pull-up or sit-ups, you know, and they're half my age.

[00:24:55] You know, so the goal really is cut me in toenails when I'm 95.

[00:25:00] I mean, the goal is here, but I have to set something to keep working so I have something to work.

[00:25:05] And then what's beyond strong first certification?

[00:25:08] Well, there's a level two and then there's like the iron, whatever.

[00:25:12] I mean, maybe I'll find a different one.

[00:25:13] But right now, kettlebells feel great and I'm just going to keep rocking with it.

[00:25:18] You know, I mean, I think that's the deal.

[00:25:22] Like is that it's not about, it's like there's the goal and there's the targets, you know, aim for the stars, hit the moon.

[00:25:29] Like that's totally cool.

[00:25:31] Like you really have to set these big goals and really think outside the box because a lot of people that we talk to, a lot of people I talk to,

[00:25:39] your goals are just to make $4,000 a month.

[00:25:42] I mean, you're never going to pay down your $200,000 student loans making 4K even 8K a month.

[00:25:47] You got to make more and people don't have realistic expectations or realistic goals or they're just afraid or there's a money mindset thing or something.

[00:25:55] But you really have to set really big unrealistic carry goals.

[00:25:58] It was like big, hairy audacious goals or something like that.

[00:26:01] B-A-D, bad goal, I don't know, big, hairy, B-Had, whatever the acronym is.

[00:26:06] But in bike racing, in kettlebells, in business, my biggest improvements came after I hired coaches.

[00:26:15] So in bike racing, I was a category three.

[00:26:18] I had spent some time in Belgium.

[00:26:20] Everyone told me you won't finish a race and I finished like my fourth race.

[00:26:23] I came back and I was like, man, okay, I'm close to upgrading.

[00:26:28] I think I had hired Ashley before that, before that summer, but I'd finished a year at category three and I was like, great,

[00:26:33] if I keep going, I'm probably make the category two.

[00:26:36] But I need a coach because I need to get going and I think it was, I want to say, I can't remember exactly,

[00:26:42] but I hired him and I went from three to two to one within two and a half years

[00:26:46] and it took me three years to get out of category three.

[00:26:49] And to get from category two to category one is really difficult because you're racing against pros

[00:26:55] and you have to score points against the pros to get whatever it was 30 points to upgrade.

[00:27:01] So I had to place like top five, top 10 and half the guys were pro racers to get enough points to upgrade from two to one.

[00:27:09] And it took me less time to go through category two than it did to go through category three.

[00:27:14] I spent a long time in category three years, a couple of years in college, a couple of years in San Francisco,

[00:27:20] some time in between.

[00:27:22] And when I started Kettlebells, I was doing it myself and I had Alicia Angelini was a coach for me

[00:27:28] and then it was like I set this impossible goal and I was like, Alicia, I need your help.

[00:27:32] And she's like, I'm going to PT school.

[00:27:34] And I think she's got a different last name.

[00:27:38] She's married since that time.

[00:27:40] So I'd said her name wrong.

[00:27:42] But anyways, then I hired Brett Jones.

[00:27:44] I was like, well, who better than the Kettlebell program director for Strongverse,

[00:27:48] the goat hired Brett and boom, strength goals have drastically improved.

[00:27:54] Same with business.

[00:27:55] He's a shoe mucker.

[00:27:57] He helped me actually sell the course that I mentioned before, the Cash PT blueprint.

[00:28:02] He told me, Aaron, you have a six figure business when I didn't believe it.

[00:28:05] Lewis Howes helped me out.

[00:28:07] Badros, I worked with him for five years.

[00:28:09] Business like did really well through that and then through and then with Taki Morfer going on four years.

[00:28:14] And each time I enrolled in one of these programs and stuck you through with these guys,

[00:28:19] like business, you know, took a, you know, went from category three to two to one.

[00:28:23] Now I'm in the pros.

[00:28:25] I mean, those things have literally helped me.

[00:28:27] Maybe they won't help you and that's totally fine.

[00:28:30] But I think if you do some of these other things, you'll see that it's not that I can't do it

[00:28:34] and figure it out on my own.

[00:28:36] What I'm doing is buying speed and time because I want to get there faster.

[00:28:38] Okay.

[00:28:40] That was a longer one, but there was more lessons in there.

[00:28:43] Number seven, your team and relationships you have now.

[00:28:47] Don't expect them to be the same as a team and relationships you have when you're 10 X from now,

[00:28:53] it's 10 X personal development, 10 X money, 10 X, you know, something else.

[00:28:59] I mean, the employees that I had pre pandemic are not the employees I have right now.

[00:29:04] I don't have, there's not one person who was working with me pre pandemic.

[00:29:08] Let's see other than Jake Campos and he's not an employee who's working with me now.

[00:29:15] Jake I've been working with for seven years.

[00:29:17] He's running my Facebook ads and we do some marketing stuff together.

[00:29:20] But all the employees in the clinic are different now than before the pandemic.

[00:29:26] The employees in my coaching business are different now.

[00:29:29] I don't have employees in my coaching business.

[00:29:31] I have virtual assistants and contractors before the pandemic.

[00:29:35] I had two employees or actually I had one employee and I hired the other, I think in 20 summer 2020 hired her when we couldn't even like sit next to each other.

[00:29:42] But they won't be the same.

[00:29:44] So I think the lesson is, is my expectation was I on board a client, a team member or somebody else and then they're going to stay in that seat forever as we grow.

[00:29:54] But you'll see is number nine is you bet on you and your own assets.

[00:29:59] So like you're going to keep growing.

[00:30:02] But the people you surround you with won't be always be the same and that's okay.

[00:30:06] I think that's the thing I want to share is that that's okay.

[00:30:08] Look, hiring is tough.

[00:30:10] Partying ways with employees and business partners is harder because what it means is you second guess did I make the right decision?

[00:30:18] But you can't second guess whether you made the right decision or not.

[00:30:21] You have to make the right decision for now and you made the right decision Aaron made the right decision for now then but it's not the right decision for now today and we have to move on with that.

[00:30:31] So that's number seven.

[00:30:32] Number eight, I mean kind of ties into it.

[00:30:35] Embrace the mistakes and lessons.

[00:30:37] Embrace the mistakes and lessons because you will make them even if you do everything I say you will make mistakes.

[00:30:45] Things won't work for you the exact way they work for me because different time, different voice, different personality, different language, different location, different audience, etc.

[00:30:54] But that's why I teach frameworks and not necessarily just tactics.

[00:30:58] Okay.

[00:30:59] And you're going to make mistakes.

[00:31:02] Mistakes are part of the process.

[00:31:04] You have to fall down before you learn to walk.

[00:31:07] Even with my kids, I remember watching them fall and everyone at the grocery was like, oh my God, pick the kid up.

[00:31:12] I'm like, they'll get up on their own.

[00:31:14] If I don't react, my babies wouldn't like scream and cry out and you know, they may like if they were actually really hurt then I would like help them.

[00:31:21] But I'm going to give them like 30 seconds to figure it out.

[00:31:24] Right?

[00:31:25] So if you're willing to let your employees make mistakes, you have to be able to embrace the mistakes you make and blame yourself for making mistakes but move on from them.

[00:31:33] I've made plenty of mistakes.

[00:31:35] I will make more mistakes.

[00:31:37] I've shared it as many as I can on this podcast so that you don't have to make them too.

[00:31:41] But you know what?

[00:31:43] I've had plenty of people tell me, Aaron, don't do this, don't do that.

[00:31:46] And I'll still do it because I'm like seeing and believing.

[00:31:48] I got to feel it for myself or something like that and make mistakes.

[00:31:51] But then what you have to do is you have to take the lessons from those and apply them to your business because if you don't apply them, then that's when you start to lose.

[00:31:59] You know, you quit when you only lose when you quit and you lose when you don't apply them.

[00:32:03] You don't learn from the mistakes and lessons.

[00:32:05] You're trying to get a different result by doing the same thing over and over again.

[00:32:08] If you want to get something different, you have to do something different.

[00:32:13] And then you got to share the mistakes and lessons with other people, whether it's with me, with your clients, with your team, with whoever you...

[00:32:21] One of the best ways to learn is to teach.

[00:32:23] But if you want to get a different result, you've got to do something different.

[00:32:27] Otherwise, you'll keep getting the same result over and over again.

[00:32:31] Alright, number nine, you're your own best asset.

[00:32:34] So I mentioned this is talking about the team like you're your own best asset.

[00:32:37] Like you're going to be here for the long run, the people around you are going to change and that's okay.

[00:32:42] So bet on yourself and go all in.

[00:32:44] You cannot always rely on others to work even half as hard as you.

[00:32:47] Whether it's in a partnership or employees, they're not going to work.

[00:32:52] They don't have the same drive and passion.

[00:32:54] Maybe they do, but you can't rely on that.

[00:32:57] Trust your gut.

[00:32:59] These are the other pieces like trust yourself, bet on yourself, trust your gut.

[00:33:03] And I'm learning to do that even more now in the last few years.

[00:33:07] Even when other people are telling you something different.

[00:33:10] Maybe it's other people are advising you or maybe the person that you're getting a bad vibe from is telling you one thing,

[00:33:16] something else, trust your instincts because your instincts are there to keep you alive and successful.

[00:33:23] And then like I said, you're your own best asset.

[00:33:26] Go all in, burn the ships.

[00:33:28] Like don't keep another job or a side hustle like a PRN thing as a saving grace.

[00:33:35] Make it hard.

[00:33:37] Take some risk.

[00:33:39] The more you paint yourself into a corner, the harder you're going to fight to get out of it.

[00:33:42] And the more successful you'll be.

[00:33:44] Number 10.

[00:33:46] I already said this, but mentors and coaches have gotten me closer to my goals faster than I could have done on my own.

[00:33:52] I mean, that's just the way it is.

[00:33:55] My CIs, my cycling coach, my kettlebell coach, my business coach, you know, who else?

[00:34:03] What are their mentors?

[00:34:05] I mean, you know, CrossFit coach, we don't just show yoga teachers.

[00:34:08] We don't just show up and do yoga together.

[00:34:09] We do it with like an instructor in the class and it's very similar.

[00:34:15] Like, so I view business coaching is very similar to, you know, like I'm like a PT for your business.

[00:34:20] Let's use that analogy.

[00:34:22] Right? I'm like the as a business coach, I'm the therapist for your business.

[00:34:26] We analyze where the problem is and help you get into the goal.

[00:34:31] Talk about your goals, help you get to the goal faster than you can on your own.

[00:34:34] I mean, everyone, we all know back pain will resolve in two years,

[00:34:37] but do you want to do the best and the most you can do to get out of it?

[00:34:43] Yeah. That's why people come to see us in our clinic.

[00:34:45] So asking for help is one of the key things to getting, you know, getting forward faster in life.

[00:34:53] You know, I'm sure I could have eventually figured out on my own.

[00:34:56] I've definitely made a lot of mistakes.

[00:34:58] I've shared those along the way, but the number one mistake I won't make is quitting.

[00:35:02] I'm not going to quit on myself or my family or my clients.

[00:35:04] I'm not going to quit.

[00:35:06] I'm going to keep going. Some days are going to be hard, but I'm going to keep getting back up.

[00:35:09] Like I used to go ride bikes in 45 degree rain to train.

[00:35:13] Like, I don't know.

[00:35:15] I talked about doing 75 hard.

[00:35:17] I'll need to do 75 hard.

[00:35:19] I've done hard stupid hard shit.

[00:35:21] 45 degrees and raining and I'm going out for a four hour bike ride up to up Mount Tam

[00:35:25] and out to Point Rays station and back.

[00:35:28] You know, that's a six hour ride.

[00:35:30] I did that in the rain many times.

[00:35:31] You know, I'm not going to quit.

[00:35:35] I'm going to keep coming back and you can quit.

[00:35:37] That's cool. Go do something else.

[00:35:39] Totally fine. Aaron is still going to be here.

[00:35:41] You know, but if you have that no quit attitude, you're going to succeed.

[00:35:46] Like I said, it's been 25 years.

[00:35:48] I'm still here.

[00:35:50] Here's the bonus 11.

[00:35:52] I think it was really like you only lose when you quit and then you have to start all over again

[00:35:55] or suffer one more commitment that you made that you gave up on.

[00:35:57] So, you know, it's okay to course correct and change courses and decide, hey, I'm instead of doing this

[00:36:03] and I'm doing that one.

[00:36:05] That doesn't mean you're quitting, but you know, you just want to keep going.

[00:36:10] Instead of goal on something, get around the right people.

[00:36:13] Get the help you need by speed.

[00:36:15] Get there.

[00:36:17] That's the deal.

[00:36:19] I mean, so here's what real quick before I finish up, you grab a pen and paper

[00:36:23] or pull out an app on your phone.

[00:36:25] What's your big goal for your business?

[00:36:27] Pause this if you really want to.

[00:36:29] What's your big goal for your fitness and what's your big goal for your family?

[00:36:32] Right?

[00:36:34] And then find out what those goals are and then double them.

[00:36:37] And double the goal.

[00:36:39] Like it's hard to create a goal for family like happiness meter.

[00:36:42] There's not a happiness meter.

[00:36:44] I mean, maybe that I wish there was maybe someone's invented it,

[00:36:46] but how many days a week do you want to spend with your family or how much time?

[00:36:49] Like how many days a week you can pick up your kids from school?

[00:36:52] How many days of the year do you want to be out of town with family?

[00:36:54] Like those are measurable goals.

[00:36:57] Figure those out.

[00:36:59] Double them because why not?

[00:37:01] And then let's go to who's helping keep you accountable to hitting your goals,

[00:37:07] helping you get there faster and ensuring that you never quit.

[00:37:09] Who are you going to get to hold your feet to the fire when it gets hard?

[00:37:14] Right?

[00:37:17] Okay.

[00:37:19] 25 years in business.

[00:37:21] It's a long time, but there's another 25 in me.

[00:37:22] So if you're ready to come along the ride, let's rock and roll.

[00:37:26] And if you have a business and you want to go even faster and you think maybe that working together might be the next step or you'd be interested in brainstorming some ideas to see how we might help.

[00:37:35] Go to call with Aaron.com.

[00:37:37] That's pretty cool URL that I own.

[00:37:39] Call with Aaron AA Ron.com

[00:37:42] Or just find me on Instagram at Aaron LaBauer DM me the words all in.

[00:37:46] I'll send you some details, ask you some questions and we'll hop on a free 15 minute call to see if we can actually help.

[00:37:50] I'm not going to say anything on that call.

[00:37:53] But if we know we can help, we'll book in another time to chat about the how and see what it looks like to work together.

[00:37:59] All right.

[00:38:01] That's the end of this show for Aaron LaBauer show.

[00:38:03] The Aaron LaBauer show.

[00:38:05] If I was an Italian cyclist, I'd talk about myself from the third person.

[00:38:07] So the Aaron LaBauer is happy that you came and joined us today and Aaron will be happy to see you on the next show.

[00:38:15] Chat soon. Peace out. Go all in.

[00:38:17] Don't quit. Burn the ships.

[00:38:18] Hey, what's up? It's Aaron.

[00:38:20] Thanks so much for taking the time out of your day to listen to the show.

[00:38:23] If you have an established PT business and you want to 10 X your marketing time income impact and scale your business to multiple six or seven figures that I'd love to invite you to join me or someone on my team for a free strategy and scale session on this call will help you get clear on your goals, identify the obstacles in your way, uncover the hidden opportunities in your business and then we'll map out a three step action plan so that you have a clear plan.

[00:38:48] More fun, help even more people make even more money much quicker and you'll leave the session feeling clear, confident and excited about taking your physical therapy business to the next level.

[00:38:58] Sound good? That's a yes. Just DM me the word call over on Instagram at Aaron LaBauer and I'll get back to you with all the details.

[00:39:05] Thanks so much and we'll see you next week on the show.