Launching Online as a New Grad PT with Dr. Maria Wisman The Cheer Doctor

[00:00:00] Welcome to the Aaron LeBauer Show. This is the number one show for passionate,

[00:00:09] physical therapy and healthcare entrepreneurs looking to level up their

[00:00:13] income and impact on the world. If that's you then you're in the right place.

[00:00:17] So sit back, chill out and let's get into the show.

[00:00:24] Hey, welcome back to the Aaron LeBauer podcast. I'm your host Aaron and today I have a special

[00:00:33] guest Dr Maria Wiseman, the cheer doctor. Maria is a brand new physical therapist doing some amazing

[00:00:39] things in business and thought like I got to get her on the podcast to share what she's doing

[00:00:45] because truthfully I was on call with someone a few weeks ago and when I was telling about some

[00:00:50] of the people in our program who are younger and what they're doing she got really mad. And so I was like,

[00:00:56] all right we need to share with people like what's possible. So Maria welcome to the show. Thank you

[00:01:01] for having me. We said to be here. Yeah awesome. So tell us a little bit about who you are and what do

[00:01:07] you do? Let's start there. Okay so I am a physical therapist. I went to business called the cheer doctor

[00:01:15] just graduated in May of 2023 and started my business right away right after school. I knew I wanted

[00:01:20] to go cash based out on my own as soon as I graduated so I actually joined Aaron's group

[00:01:25] I think in March for I graduated so that I would have all the systems and things in place so that

[00:01:31] I was good to go in May once I graduated. So I've been doing the cash based physical therapy thing

[00:01:36] ever since I graduated in May when I was in school and college and undergrad I cheered at Ohio State

[00:01:42] and I was also on the USA cheer team. So I always knew that I wanted to work with cheer leaders

[00:01:46] and specialize in that niche because once one's a cheerleader have a big background with that

[00:01:53] and then also cheerleaders are just underserved. A lot of people don't understand this for it so

[00:01:59] just made a lot of sense for me to niche into that area right away. So now I work mostly with cheerleaders

[00:02:07] not solely with cheerleaders a lot of my physical therapy patients are just active individuals active

[00:02:12] adults that want to get better but in terms of personal training clients and I also do some online

[00:02:18] programming for clients those are all mostly cheerleaders and cheer teams that work with me

[00:02:25] for the straight conditioning. That's awesome. What I do. Dude that's dope. So you know because I'm

[00:02:32] a little ignorant there's cheer but then there's dance like kind of thing you know and then there's

[00:02:39] like stand on the sideline and not do cheer like there's a different. Yeah cheering that you do

[00:02:45] because you're doing like acrobatic stuff or like some of your videos you're spinning in the air

[00:02:49] faster than I can think right so can you jump break down like what those different like aspects

[00:02:56] of like cheer dance performance and stuff that you know there is so we can have just context

[00:03:00] around what you're doing. Yes so it can be kind of confusing so there is a lot of things

[00:03:05] that's called cheer so you got a school cheer where you're on the sideline you have competition

[00:03:09] cheer where you're competing against other teams doing routines and that's usually you can do that

[00:03:15] in the school level or at all star level which would be club cheer, you can cheer in college.

[00:03:21] You can dance in college and you'll also be on the sideline so a lot of people confuse the

[00:03:26] dancers with cheerleaders so there's lots of different types of cheerleading out there a lot of

[00:03:32] them are called the same thing so it can be really confusing. My population that I work with are

[00:03:37] cheerleaders who are very serious about wanting to improve their skill levels and tumbling,

[00:03:41] stunting, performing so cheerleaders that are competing and cheerleaders who want a cheer in

[00:03:46] college on a team that compete at a really high level like at a national level that's who I mostly

[00:03:51] work with. Awesome and are there and and the colleges that have like this level of cheer they just

[00:03:58] the big 10 colleges with massive football teams I mean are there like they're there four or five

[00:04:03] top ones or what's the because I want to do like the cheerleaders there have improved over time but

[00:04:08] they're not the same level of doing what you did right. Yeah so I find I don't think that this

[00:04:14] school really has a whole lot to do with how good your cheer it doesn't it doesn't so Ohio State

[00:04:22] you are under athletics as a cheer team so this is a big difference some cheer teams can be

[00:04:28] considered under athletics and they get all the resources to like strength conditioning coaches

[00:04:32] nutritionists sports psychologists and that is obviously very beneficial and very helpful

[00:04:37] and those teams often do really well at nationals but then you also have smaller schools community

[00:04:44] colleges that are just have always been well known for cheerleading like Navarro TVCC those schools

[00:04:50] are not necessarily big colleges but they just have a reputation to have really having really

[00:04:55] good cheer teams so you have kind of two different areas you have the community colleges that are

[00:04:59] really good at cheer and then you also have the higher the university programs that give more

[00:05:06] resources to your team that are also really good. Okay cool did tidal nine change cheer

[00:05:14] like and scholarships and participation and stuff like that like or you know because I think

[00:05:20] if you think about like cheerleading in the movie Greece like that's not you know like

[00:05:25] like what people treat me is like it's not really sport and athletic but like man what you guys

[00:05:29] are doing and my cousin's daughter does or did like is like crazy like it's awesome yeah I think

[00:05:36] tidal nine helps but I think that it's really dependent on the school whether they determine

[00:05:44] that your under athletics or not at Ohio State we were under athletics but we were not NCAA regulated

[00:05:50] so we got all the benefits of being under athletics but didn't necessarily have to follow all the rules

[00:05:56] okay this can be good and then so the guys at the base you could juice all the testosterone you want

[00:06:02] and no no no no no we saw a drug testing but I don't think it was as regulated right right right

[00:06:10] okay all right we don't care quite as much okay cool so that's awesome so to that that gives me

[00:06:15] context like bicycle racing now when I was at Duke was a club but there's three or four colleges

[00:06:21] in North Carolina it's a it's a they have scholarships you know for yeah yeah I'm like wow

[00:06:26] like so that's the other thing with cheer is even though we're under athletic settle higher state

[00:06:30] we don't get any scholarship money from the university. So all of our scholarship money is raised

[00:06:35] through donors, people that have cheered there. I think that's how it works for most schools.

[00:06:40] And then there's like professional cheerleaders, like professional football teams and

[00:06:43] that's still different right? Yeah totally different. I would never, I probably wouldn't even ever

[00:06:49] make a professional cheer team because it's usually more dancing. Yeah and I don't have a dance

[00:06:55] background. So there are some professional level teams out there that do more stunting,

[00:07:01] tumbling, traditional cheerleading. But they don't they don't pay the best. It's not like a career

[00:07:07] you need. How many how many of your teammates were gymna... like were you a gymnast growing up

[00:07:11] and then you were like, oh I did, it did cheer. Like how'd you get into cheer and like where did

[00:07:15] like where are some people coming from in this community? And you know a lot of people start with

[00:07:21] gymnastics and then switch over to cheer. I, I guess I kind of did gymnastics. I did gymnastics

[00:07:26] when I was five, five and six years old and then I made the switch pretty quickly to cheerleaders.

[00:07:30] So I want to consider myself as having a big strong gymnastics background. I know a lot of people

[00:07:36] make that switch. So I and the sport is changing a lot. When I cheered so I did gymnastics when I was

[00:07:44] five or six, then I switched to an all-star team. So it was like a club cheer team where I learned

[00:07:47] stunting and tumbling. And then I actually quit that in six, six grade I think. And I just did

[00:07:54] school cheer sideline. Didn't really do much with it. In high school I just did sideline and

[00:08:00] never joined an all-star team again. But at the end of my high school career like junior senior year

[00:08:06] I decided I wanted to try out for college. So I just started taking private lessons like tumbling

[00:08:11] and stunting to prepare myself to try out for a college team because college cheer is so different

[00:08:15] than high school cheer is so different that all-star cheer. So everybody's path looks pretty

[00:08:20] different. I thought people asked me like do I need to be an all-star cheerleader before a cheer

[00:08:24] in college? Do I need to do high school cheer before a cheer in college? And the answer is no,

[00:08:28] like you can do a variety of things and still cheer in college. You just want to make sure your

[00:08:32] skill levels are up to par. That's awesome. So did you know where you're going to go to school or

[00:08:37] did you try out for a couple like did you go to Ohio State because of you know that you got on the

[00:08:42] cheer team? Are you going there already and you kind of like tried on or walked on or whatever?

[00:08:47] I knew I was going to go to Ohio State anyways. And when I went to Ohio State the process to get

[00:08:55] on the cheer team was a tryout. Everybody had a tryout regardless if you were on the team before

[00:09:00] or new to the team and you actually had to know that you were going to be at Ohio State

[00:09:05] before you tried out. Okay. Because trials are in May of your senior year. So now it's different

[00:09:11] because they don't do trials anymore. They do recruiting. So some of my clients are getting

[00:09:15] recruited as juniors to cheer at Ohio State and their options are a little bit more open than

[00:09:21] when I was cheering. So when you decided all right, I want to go cheer at Ohio State. What did you

[00:09:27] do to prepare besides just doing like tumbling lessons? And what would you do differently if you went

[00:09:32] back to coach yourself again? Yeah. So I was doing tumbling lessons and stunting lessons

[00:09:41] and I have a couple times a week. And then I was doing some strength and conditioning on my own.

[00:09:49] I didn't really have any guidance and it had a personal trainer or anybody helping me.

[00:09:53] I also ran cross country and track in high school and I seem to constantly have injuries from

[00:09:59] like tumbling and running and we never went into the weight room as a cheer team,

[00:10:03] we never went into the weight room as a cross country track team. So I tried to do some stuff on my own

[00:10:09] but I don't think that I really was able to reach my full potential with what I was doing.

[00:10:19] It was good enough at the time to get me on to the Ohio State cheer team. Nowadays it would not

[00:10:25] be good enough looking back at my tryout for Ohio State cheer. If I did the same trial, I did

[00:10:30] I can't remember how long ago it was seven years ago maybe. If I did that same tryout today,

[00:10:35] I probably wouldn't make the team. So now kids are having to start to take their strength and

[00:10:40] conditioning a little bit more seriously get more help before they get to the collegial level because

[00:10:44] it's just more competitive now. Right. When did you find like strength and conditioning and weight

[00:10:49] lifting? Like where did that enter the scene for you and what did it do for you? What was the benefit?

[00:10:56] So I kind of dabbled with it a little bit in high school but didn't have any guidance

[00:11:00] and that helped a little bit. And then it wasn't until I got to college and started working with

[00:11:05] the Ohio State strength conditioning coaches that I really noticed a big difference and had a huge

[00:11:11] like aha moment of the strength conditioning thing is what I had been lacking in high school.

[00:11:16] Specifically the strength portion. I had just been lacking. I was just weak. I wanted to be a

[00:11:21] flyer. Flyers are usually small, want to be light to be thrown in the air so I always thought

[00:11:25] that lifting would make me bulkier. And then I got to Ohio State and I realized that the training

[00:11:29] program that they had all their flyers on was pretty much heavy lifting, getting stronger.

[00:11:34] And it made such a difference for me. It like reduced my injuries. I had all these aches and pains

[00:11:40] from running and tumbling in high school that just seemed to go way after a few months of being

[00:11:43] at Ohio State with their consistent strength conditioning program. And then my skills just exploded.

[00:11:49] Like I went from barely being able to do, I mean people might not know what this means. A hand

[00:11:54] and hand stunt is when you do like a handstand on somebody else's hands. I couldn't even do that

[00:11:59] when I tried out with the best guy on the team my first year at Ohio State and then two years

[00:12:05] later, I was doing like the hardest elites you could do in trying out for USA cheer and ended up being

[00:12:09] on the USA cheer team. So I just had a big like exponential improvement in my skills and I attribute a

[00:12:14] lot of that to being on a consistent strength conditioning program and having all those resources

[00:12:19] that I did at Ohio State. Right, that's awesome. So Ohio State has that, but a lot of schools don't

[00:12:24] is that actually funny, right? Yeah, so a lot of schools don't even do one cheer programs

[00:12:30] sometimes don't. It just all depends whether the university sees you under athletics and if there's

[00:12:36] room for you in the weight room and yeah, yeah, also variables. So how'd you go from cheer to PT school?

[00:12:43] Was there like some experience you had where like I need to be at PT versus like a banker?

[00:12:48] You know I, so a lot of my classmates have a specific injury story where they went to physical therapy

[00:12:56] and then realized they really liked it and wanted to do that with their career. I didn't necessarily

[00:13:00] have a story like that but I was a business finance major in undergrad and I just started realizing

[00:13:07] throughout the years that that's not what I wanted to do. I didn't want to sit behind a desk,

[00:13:12] nine to five do that kind of work and I had a lot of experience with like the athletic trainers

[00:13:18] and the medical side of things being a part of a high-state cheer team and I knew that I wanted

[00:13:23] a job where I'd be on my feet helping people kind of like those trainers were able to help me.

[00:13:28] So that's when I made the switch, I think it was around my sophomore junior year of undergrad

[00:13:32] that I decided I wanted to go, wanted to go into PT and apply to PT school.

[00:13:36] Yeah, when you got to PT school, was it what you expected?

[00:13:39] Um, I don't think it's a yes and no. I don't think I prepared for PT school maybe quite as much

[00:13:49] as my peers did because I was an athlete in college and my schedule is really busy and in undergrad.

[00:13:55] I feel like my main focus, I did well in school, don't get me wrong but my main focus was like always

[00:14:01] how can I get better at cheer? How can I make the national team? So I would be traveling to

[00:14:06] compete at worlds and doing my final exam at like a coffee shop in like a different state. So

[00:14:13] I made school kind of work around my cheer schedule, I feel like and because of that I didn't get

[00:14:18] a whole lot of shadowing hours in the physical therapy clinics so I kind of feel like I didn't

[00:14:24] know exactly what I was getting into um because I didn't have that many shadowing hours and

[00:14:31] didn't see a whole lot of that clinical side of things. Yeah, but I also think that it's hard to

[00:14:36] get a really good idea of what the profession is like just by shadowing. It's not until you like

[00:14:41] have responsibility for patients and start documenting and seeing patients in school then you really

[00:14:47] start to feel like you understand what all it all entails to be a physical therapist. Right on.

[00:14:54] What happened? Like was there something happened in school like or experience you had where you were

[00:15:00] all right I got started business when I graduate like when did that like light bulb turn around? Yeah,

[00:15:06] that I had always kind of been thinking about it. I was in a private practice business group

[00:15:12] in physical therapy school. I would show up to some of the calls so it's always kind of in the back

[00:15:16] my mind but I never took action on it until my second year going into my third year of PT school

[00:15:24] I had a skilled nursing facility clinical it was my second clinical and I just started to realize

[00:15:31] that I did not want to be a physical therapist in the clinical setting seeing multiple patients

[00:15:37] a day documenting um having to listen to insurance like only able only being able to do certain

[00:15:44] exercises for certain patients because it'd be covered by their insurance and it's like this whole

[00:15:48] hoop log hoops you have to jump through when you work in the clinical setting. I just really started

[00:15:53] to despise it during my second clinical and that's when I started my personal training business

[00:15:59] it was called everyone should lift at the time because I was also really interested in working with

[00:16:05] adaptive athletes so people who had spinal cord injuries or abutations I wanted to help

[00:16:11] then learn how to lift in a way that is that often looks different than the general population

[00:16:18] and I named the business everyone should lift because I wanted to work with these underserved

[00:16:22] populations like the adaptive population and then also cheerleaders who don't usually lift.

[00:16:28] So I just made a like square space website one day published some information posted on Instagram

[00:16:37] and then it's really started to get some local people interested in personal training and that's kind

[00:16:42] of how I started the route of starting my own business and planning for doing the cash-based

[00:16:49] physical therapy as soon as I graduated. Awesome so before you graduated like how many

[00:16:55] how much were you working how much like were you earning like in your own business like before

[00:16:59] graduating where were you? Not very I wasn't making a whole lot it was just kind of doing it on the side

[00:17:06] I also didn't do a great job like tracking my metrics but I was charging at first like $40

[00:17:12] an hour and maybe seeing like two or three people a week so I was not making that much money

[00:17:20] I want to say like my best month was probably like a thousand or two thousand. Yeah so it's

[00:17:25] couple hundred and we'll under it like about a thousand ish but yeah it was probably better than

[00:17:30] driving Uber working at like oh yeah Barnes and Noble. Yeah and it was what I wanted to do so

[00:17:36] yeah and it yeah that's awesome so then if I remember correctly you we you messaged me

[00:17:44] and we're like hey Aaron I'm gonna be in Greensboro can we meet and you know I'm like I get messages all

[00:17:49] the time like would you know sure like Shelby and Greensboro but we met and we chatted and you enrolled

[00:17:56] in the cash pt blueprint like like what December before you graduated something like that like

[00:18:04] yeah you know a lot of people are like I can't even I need to wait and I need to do this like

[00:18:08] how'd you know that like what was the thing that whether it convinced you this is the right program

[00:18:11] or really that you needed to start working now before you graduated on your business like how did

[00:18:16] you how did you have that conviction to know that like I need to do this. I just knew that I

[00:18:22] did not want to graduate and have a clinical job like I just knew that that was not for me.

[00:18:28] A lot of people think that you need to have clinical experience first before you start your own practice

[00:18:36] but I also had a lot of friends that wanted to start their own practice and they went into a clinical

[00:18:43] job right after school to kind of boost their confidence help prepare them to see patients on their

[00:18:49] and a lot of them said that they didn't actually get any of the mentorship that they were promised.

[00:18:55] They were just kind of thrown into it seeing multiple patients today didn't really get a whole

[00:18:59] lot of time to actually think about what they wanted to do with the patients so they just kind of

[00:19:04] were going through the motions at this clinical job and a lot of them told me that they didn't feel

[00:19:09] like it helped prepare them at all to start this on their own yeah so I knew I didn't want that same

[00:19:15] route I knew that I wanted mentorship in the business aspect but also the clinical aspect

[00:19:23] so I knew right away that I was going to have to join a business group or some kind of mentorship

[00:19:29] group and that's why I reached out to you. I was super surprised that you answered actually because

[00:19:34] I figured he probably gets a thousand emails a day and I'm asking to like come to his clinic

[00:19:39] and talk to him for free and he probably charges like a lot more to do these kind of consultations

[00:19:44] but my boyfriend's family is in Greensboro so we were in Greensboro for Christmas and I was like

[00:19:49] oh just try and reach out and see what happens if I can just get in and then I ended up scheduling

[00:19:54] an appointment like a physical therapy appointment at your clinic so that I could see how the

[00:19:58] process went for a new patient so I got to see all your intake forms and got to go through the

[00:20:05] process of like a total body diagnostic and how that all works and then after that I got to talk

[00:20:11] to you a little bit more about business and then that's when I enjoyed the cash PT blueprint.

[00:20:15] Yep, now it's awesome and you paid to be a patient in our clinic right?

[00:20:18] Yes yes and I got to see kind of how like the packages are like I got to see how that whole

[00:20:25] process worked of how you get people to pay for the next appointment and with the package deals

[00:20:30] kind of looked like and sounds like it was worth the one-time investment. Oh yeah it was for sure

[00:20:36] worth it because after that I like wrote down a bunch of notes of exactly how the appointment went

[00:20:41] and I started modeling my just personal training appointments after that and I immediately started

[00:20:46] making more money just with those notes that I took from visiting your practice.

[00:20:51] That's dope and that's really cool because I didn't really know that I knew that you know

[00:20:55] I've offered this to people where you know I'm like hey you know I can't really do like weeks

[00:21:01] of shadowing because it's just kind of that and you know it's like I know people do it it's

[00:21:07] just not the way that I want to do things. I hate when I was shadowing I was falling asleep right

[00:21:12] I need to be doing something yeah but I've offered people to come in and pay and most times

[00:21:17] people say no why would I do that but I'm like you experience what it's like for yourself like

[00:21:23] you get a lot out of it right? Yeah definitely got a lot more out of that than shadowing

[00:21:27] like I kind of said already in my undergrad experience my shadowing didn't really prepare me well

[00:21:34] for your understanding what the physical therapy job would be like. Nice so the other thing that you did

[00:21:41] was you joined our mastermind before you graduated and I think that in person retreat was the same

[00:21:46] weekend as graduation or walking or something like that yeah so I joined the mastermind I went to

[00:21:53] PT BizCon in March and then I joined at PT BizCon yeah join the mastermind and then the first

[00:22:02] retreat was in May during my graduation at the school and I decided to go to the retreat instead

[00:22:08] because that was way more important. Yeah that's cool so what I want to know is what I think I mean

[00:22:15] I think Aaron knows but what I want people to understand is like what was that process and decision-making

[00:22:20] process for you to be like this piece is more important than the graduation because like I

[00:22:26] have a lot of classmates that would never have done that you know like how did you get to that point

[00:22:31] where you're like you know this is more important for my future than you know graduating and

[00:22:37] that you'd be willing to miss it like yeah well I think first of all I joined the group when I was

[00:22:45] still a student making less than like a thousand dollars a month so I really don't even have the

[00:22:51] money to be in the group but I knew I wanted to do it so I just pulled the trigger and just decided

[00:22:55] to join anyway and then immediately after I joined I was like okay now I need to take this seriously

[00:23:00] and start getting a return on my investment in this group and so I wanted to like take advantage

[00:23:05] of every opportunity that was available to me and the retreat was a huge like jumpstart for me

[00:23:11] getting my business ready and it was so much more important than just receiving my diploma by hand

[00:23:17] I can receive my diploma in the mail awesome so I think like if I'm I what I remember is something

[00:23:25] like we got started in the program and you brought in like not we set up a program for you

[00:23:30] even before you were licensed as a PT and you made what like 9k doing in the first few months

[00:23:35] can you tell us like what happened what we do yeah so the first call I got on with you after

[00:23:42] I joined the program was right I think it was around March April time a few weeks after I

[00:23:48] joined it and you were like you're going to do this 12 week program this is how much you're

[00:23:53] going to charge for it so you kind of walk me through the process and like told me exactly what

[00:23:57] I needed to do and I just took that information and ran with it and made like 12k that first month

[00:24:05] doing that program that you suggested that's doing that's really awesome you know I mean

[00:24:11] yeah that's like the thing that that this person got mad at I was like this is what you know

[00:24:17] the some of our clients are doing who are new and they're like and it's but I think the thing is

[00:24:22] is you have less to unlearn you were just like just telling what to do you've also been used

[00:24:26] to being coached you know as an athlete you're like coach tells me what to do I do it because I get

[00:24:31] stronger right yeah yeah also I think I'm just used to having a busy schedule there's a saying

[00:24:37] that I read in a book somewhere sometime I don't remember it was called but it was if you get

[00:24:42] if you want something to get done give it to a busy man and that's just so true because I have

[00:24:48] friends and I had friends at PT school who didn't do anything but PT and they struggled the most

[00:24:55] to get things done just because if you have all the time in the world to do something you'll never

[00:24:59] do it versus I was always at practice or had something else going on so if somebody gave me

[00:25:04] something to do I need to do it immediately before I got distracted with other things so that

[00:25:10] having that kind of busy schedule through undergrad and PT school helped prepare me for the

[00:25:16] busyness of the business world too right so being a business owner are you busier now than then

[00:25:23] you would be if you worked in the job or is it different like I guess it's just different I

[00:25:31] would say since I'm trying to grow a business right now it's busier but my time is my own so a lot

[00:25:37] of the things that I'm doing is on my own computer and I can do it at any time of the day that I

[00:25:42] want in any place that I want so my schedule is a lot more flexible than if I worked in a clinical

[00:25:50] setting even though I might be putting more hours in I also want to put those hours in and I can

[00:25:56] do that at any time that I want so it's a lot more fulfilling and a lot more rewarding and I'm

[00:26:01] also building a business that's gonna eventually get me some of my time back as I get older.

[00:26:06] Nice that's awesome so what does like Maria's week look like just general outline like when you're

[00:26:12] working when you see clients you've also got like this app so you're doing different things in

[00:26:16] social media like can you give us an outline of like some of the things that you do during the

[00:26:19] week and how that looks yeah so I will say one of my weaknesses is organization I know a lot of

[00:26:27] people like wake up at an exact certain time every day and have a very organized schedule I've

[00:26:33] been trying to get better about time blocking and doing that but I feel like I have a lot of

[00:26:39] different things going on so I do the physical therapy thing I do strength conditioning for cheerleaders

[00:26:43] and then I do online programming app access for cheerleaders and cheerteams usually in my day

[00:26:49] I will wake up around six or seven and try to get a lot of computer work done whether that's like

[00:26:56] Instagram reels making funnels adding to my website email marketing lead magnet type of things

[00:27:04] all do that for a few hours and then I won't usually start seeing people until noon and later

[00:27:14] so a lot of my physical therapy patients are usually around noon or later in the day

[00:27:20] I do a cheer workout class three times a week where I have a bunch of cheerleaders come into

[00:27:24] the clinic and work out with me and then other than that it's calls sprinkled in throughout the day

[00:27:33] and throughout the week so cheerteams the coaches will schedule calls with me to talk about their

[00:27:39] strength conditioning program and I'll tell them about the program that I offer and then

[00:27:45] individual cheerleaders will set up complication calls with me to decide whether they need physical

[00:27:50] therapy or strength training or some kind of online program so yeah you got a lot of those kind

[00:27:57] of an unorganized answer no that's cool so I think if there's one thing I was thinking as you're

[00:28:02] talking about that is like let's talk about that I think people would be interested in is

[00:28:06] kind of this combination of that like 12 week summer boot camp and this you know like your

[00:28:10] cheer workout class that you run like you're doing in person basically it's in person one to many

[00:28:15] training it's not one-on-one physical therapy you know and I think a lot of people are like well

[00:28:20] you know cash-based physical therapy has to be one-to-one because that's what's valuable but

[00:28:25] what you're showing is that there's a value in one to many models so can you just explain a little bit

[00:28:30] about your model how you set it up like what do we do to get what'd you do to get started like how's

[00:28:35] it work yeah I think the one the many models works really well when you have a very specific niche

[00:28:41] so all the cheerleaders that come to me pretty much have the same goal in mind so it's pretty

[00:28:49] easy to make a plan that aligns with all their goals in terms of the workout session in person

[00:28:54] and then they usually pay for a package so I do the cheer workout classes in a six week

[00:29:00] package throughout the year and then in the summer it's just kind of a revamped boot camp where

[00:29:06] it's 10 or 12 weeks long and I offer other additional bonuses for the summer thing so they usually

[00:29:12] pay in packages and they get those three workout classes per week and then they also will sometimes

[00:29:21] have more individual specific questions and I offer them free injury assessments like 15 minute

[00:29:28] injury assessments for anybody who has any issues during the class or wants to talk to me that's

[00:29:33] enrolled in that kind of program so it kind of helps enroll people in physical therapy if they end

[00:29:38] up needing that one-on-one help because that is also something that is they definitely need the one-on-one

[00:29:46] at certain times but overall throughout the year they don't need that one-on-one they just need

[00:29:51] some kind of program to hold them accountable for the rest of the year yeah and are they

[00:29:56] are they doing like or is everyone doing the same six weeks blocks where is it like are they

[00:30:00] buying just uh six weeks worth of classes and like a punch card kind of thing how do you have that

[00:30:06] set up and how's that working well for you? And yes in the in-person classes for the six week

[00:30:12] classes they have the option to buy once a week for six weeks twice a week or three times a week

[00:30:19] so there's three different options and different times so that if it doesn't work

[00:30:24] for them they usually can find at least one time that works for them and then they just renew

[00:30:31] every six weeks usually and then for the summer program I don't give them the option to do once a

[00:30:36] week twice a week or three times a week it's just you have to do all three days a week at the summer

[00:30:40] boot camp intense like you need to be there for the whole thing. But that answered your question yeah

[00:30:45] yeah okay yeah because I think you know it's one of those things where it's like giving

[00:30:51] giving everyone a picture of like what you're doing and how you make it work it's like oh well

[00:30:54] like oh I can do that because I mean I think it's like so you've got what a handful of five or six

[00:31:00] people doing it instead of seeing them each one on one for the day you've got it in a group

[00:31:04] and the level at which their training isn't where you need to be monitoring them the whole time

[00:31:09] you can give them all a lot of benefit and generate more money per your hour than you might be able to

[00:31:16] ask you know one-on-one right yeah yeah and it's a way to keep them with me for longer and provide

[00:31:22] them value for longer because they're getting access to me for a cheaper price point than what

[00:31:26] would be like a one-on-one scenario weekly right so it's beneficial to both of us yeah that's awesome

[00:31:33] that's really cool and then you also are doing some online programming with teams and individuals are

[00:31:39] the I want to know a little bit more about that but my question is is are the in-person people

[00:31:43] getting access to that or is it what's the difference and you know can you tell us all about

[00:31:47] the online thing and how it interacts with the other parts of your business yeah so the online

[00:31:52] thing it's named Strength for Cheer for teams that want to join it and it's called the Making

[00:31:59] Map Program for Individual cheerleaders that want to join it essentially it is a Strength and

[00:32:05] Conditioning program that they get access through an app so I write their programming specific to

[00:32:12] their skill level and position on the team so for example there's like flyer versus basses options

[00:32:17] and then bodyweight basic intermediate advanced levels so they get access to their specific program

[00:32:23] free workouts a week in the app and then they also get access to a band group so it's kind of like

[00:32:28] a Facebook group but it's what cheerleaders and cheer teams usually use and that band group has

[00:32:33] everybody who's using my programming in there and we do guest speaker calls like I had a Olympian

[00:32:39] and dietician last month talk to everybody I'm having a sports psychologist come and talk with

[00:32:45] everybody they can send in videos in that group of their cheer skills and ask me to review them or

[00:32:50] send in questions about the lifting for the week or if they need modifications so it's a little

[00:32:55] bit more than just the Strength and Conditioning program online they get access to me via the band group

[00:33:02] through Zoom meetings and additional information with sports psychologist nutritionists and other

[00:33:07] aspects of other resources awesome that's cool and so it's individual access or teams and the teams

[00:33:16] are paying like per team or per athlete on the team kind of breakdown right yes awesome what's

[00:33:22] been the hardest part about getting people into that kind of program versus like in you know in

[00:33:27] person like what's been the biggest challenge yeah part of the challenge has been that cheerleaders

[00:33:35] and cheer teams have previously not used the weight room and it's just not really been a part of

[00:33:41] our culture to do that type of thing so part of it is like like a little bit of a culture shift and

[00:33:49] trying to get them to understand how weightlifting is important for their athletes and how it will

[00:33:54] benefit them and then the other part is when they see you in person it's a lot easier when

[00:34:01] you have something tangible you're getting access to an in-person service so it's a little bit

[00:34:08] easier for people to justify buying into something like that versus online they kind of have to

[00:34:14] trust you before they purchase the program because they're not necessarily gonna

[00:34:20] see everything that entails until they're in there right right and so what are some of the things

[00:34:26] you're doing to build trust with people and you know how reeducate them that like strength training

[00:34:32] is one of the things that they need like what where are you doing right now to like kind of how do

[00:34:37] you fix these problems right yeah a few things that I'm doing I just try to tell my story because

[00:34:45] strength conditioning was a huge help for me in my career um traditionally from high school

[00:34:50] out they took collegiate and in the USA level so I try to tell my story as much as I can I created a

[00:34:57] lead magnet ebook about strength conditioning for cheerleaders so I give that out for free to

[00:35:01] cheer teams and cheerleaders who want help to just know a little bit more information about what

[00:35:06] strength conditioning can do for them help improve their skills um so those two things and then

[00:35:12] I also just try to be as active as I can on social media answering people's questions when somebody

[00:35:19] posts in a Facebook group asking for strength conditioning advice I try to give my advice when

[00:35:27] when I can and just uh I think I build rapport that way yeah just answer people's questions

[00:35:33] and be helpful when I need to be right on and so um you've you ended up with a pretty big like

[00:35:40] Instagram account like how did get big like what happened and then what are you doing to

[00:35:45] gonna take advantage of that yeah so I think it was two years ago now I was at an alumni cheer

[00:35:54] game so every year the alumni cheerleaders can come back to a high state to cheer for one football game

[00:36:00] so I was just stutting on the sideline and um one of the videos that I posted from that game

[00:36:08] ended up blowing up and going viral got like millions of views and from that video alone I got

[00:36:15] a hundred thousand followers so it was just like uh I just checked my phone one day and all of a

[00:36:22] sudden I had like thousands of people following me and it was just a really weird experience but

[00:36:27] immediately this is before I think this was before I even started my business yeah I think it's also

[00:36:32] kind of um gave me a little bit of a jump start to realize oh people are interested in this so I

[00:36:37] should start learning how to profit off of this so I immediately was like I have always followers now

[00:36:42] how do I take advantage of this and like make money and help people off of this and it was a lot

[00:36:49] harder than I thought I thought just because I had all these followers now that people would just

[00:36:55] click on my links and buy things and that is not how it worked at all um a lot of my followers I will say

[00:37:02] are not um necessarily as active and uh you know they came from that one video it didn't come

[00:37:13] from over time so what I'm doing now is trying to just continue to put value out there in social

[00:37:19] media and start fighting out who my true followers and true um people are that like my stuff and then

[00:37:27] um getting them onto my email list is the big thing so offering them free things to provide

[00:37:33] my value for them and then get them on my email list uh and then just continue providing for them

[00:37:38] until they feel like they need me and I can help them further with some of my paid offers awesome

[00:37:44] how um like where'd you start with your email list how big is it now and what's been the most

[00:37:50] effective thing to move people from social media to email my email list started at zero when I joined

[00:37:57] the uh mastermind and march I didn't even have an email software email marketing software I didn't

[00:38:03] like understand any of that stuff and since march of last year to now I've added 1,500 people

[00:38:11] to my email list nice and the biggest thing for that has been the free lead magnet on ebook

[00:38:19] for shrink conditioning for cheerleaders so um I just started posting it and grouped posting it

[00:38:26] on my social media telling people about it whenever I can offering it at any in person workshops that

[00:38:32] I was doing and it just started slowly building over time and then I just recently started an ad

[00:38:39] for it at the last retreat in February so I've only been running an ad for a couple weeks now

[00:38:44] for the book but it's been adding like 10 to 20 people a day based off of that ad yeah do you

[00:38:51] know how much you like how much you're spending on the ad and how much of the leads costing you do you

[00:38:55] know that right now I spend $20 a day on the ad and I probably get like 10 to 15 people on average

[00:39:04] so you're getting like into my email list $1.50 to $2 leads yeah yeah it's pretty dope so like for

[00:39:10] context like it's been six years since I could get dollar leads maybe more you know like my

[00:39:16] leads are like 12 to 20 bucks a lead and I'm really stoked so that's really awesome so like Maria

[00:39:21] that's like one of those signs that you know you've got like something that people want I mean the

[00:39:25] fact that you got a bunch of people organically but then you moved it to ads that's really great so

[00:39:32] tell me like what Sarah can you tell us like how does the you the first ebook you put out did it

[00:39:38] bring in a bunch of people where there are a couple changes you had to make in this process to

[00:39:41] offering a free lead magnet um I think I keep making changes like every day I think

[00:39:52] something that has helped me it a lot is just your saying of 80% is good enough

[00:39:59] so before I would spend a really long time thinking about things procrastinating before I put

[00:40:03] it out there for this ebook I just like through all the information from my brain onto a page and

[00:40:11] spent just a few days editing it making sure that it was good to go and then I just posted it

[00:40:16] um to people who needed help and it was I realized it was helping a lot of people and since I posted

[00:40:22] it I've gone in and made changes and edited it and added things to it so it keeps getting better

[00:40:27] um but people from the beginning have told me they've gotten value from it even when it was not my

[00:40:34] perfect version of the ebook so just like doing things implementing quickly has been super helpful for me

[00:40:40] um telling I realized that telling my story and posting old videos and that um that type of thing

[00:40:49] has been leading more people to download it um so just honing in on my copy writing skills and all

[00:40:57] that um I actually so I did try to do an ad last year actually like right when I made my first lead

[00:41:08] and I didn't really understand how ads worked I probably shouldn't have jumped right to doing that

[00:41:13] but I don't think I got like anyone to click on it I can't even remember what it said in the ad

[00:41:18] I can't even remember it wasn't good but so I have tried ads before before a couple weeks ago

[00:41:23] right right so I don't even remember what it said right part of that lesson is you gotta try

[00:41:27] things and fail at them right yeah you know you hit the you hit the jackpot on stuff what um

[00:41:34] that's really great so a few more questions before we finish up like where do you

[00:41:40] what do you see yourself in three years like where do you want to take this business like what's

[00:41:43] your ultimate goal with like with your business and why you're here yeah in three years I want to have

[00:41:51] like a hundred share teams on my strength and conditioning programming working with them to

[00:41:55] provide more resources to them at the school level teams that need it um and then I also want to be

[00:42:03] having the in-person physical therapy clinic to a point where I have other clinicians working

[00:42:08] under me so that I can step away and have time and place freedom when I need it so I want to be

[00:42:15] working with a lot of people mostly cheer teams online um a few in-person physical therapy and

[00:42:21] cheer clients with also the option of being able to have other clinicians and people helping me

[00:42:27] to run the business so that I will eventually be able to step away a little bit more in the future

[00:42:32] very cool what um the if you had a couple pieces of advice or wisdom to yourself a few years ago

[00:42:40] or to other you know maybe new grads or students who are thinking about doing something in business

[00:42:45] what would that be I think my best advice would be to just do it implement quickly the more time

[00:42:54] you spend thinking about something the more time that is passing with just opportunity wasted so

[00:43:01] if you're thinking about starting a business you probably just go ahead and start anyways and

[00:43:05] you're gonna learn your lessons along the way you probably won't do that great to start out with but

[00:43:10] make sure you have a mentor make sure you have people helping you implement quickly you'll fail a lot

[00:43:16] but you'll learn a lot along the way and you'll at least have people helping you guide you to the process so

[00:43:22] yeah implement fast get a mentor yeah oh I forgot to ask before um clinical mentor right do you have

[00:43:29] someone like what happens when a patient comes with a complex clinical case who do you turn to

[00:43:36] um so I just turned to somebody in the business group so in the mastermind group so the mastermind

[00:43:41] group is good for business coaching and mentorship but also everybody in there's in a different niche

[00:43:46] so anytime I get someone that's not a cheerleader or someone who has a complex case I'll post it in the

[00:43:51] Facebook group masterminds ask if anybody has any advice and I hopped on calls with some people on

[00:43:56] the mastermind that has helped me a lot with more complex patient cases so awesome yeah that's

[00:44:03] cool yeah I didn't even real you know I didn't even know yeah let's go to someone and ask the other

[00:44:08] days like well I was told not to start because would if I approached someone with a complex case and

[00:44:13] like are you safe to be around someone with an arterial line you know a nut trip over it you're

[00:44:18] good we just need people to contact and connect with did yeah so exactly that's awesome um Maria

[00:44:24] someone wants to connect with you online uh what's the best place to do that um so they can connect

[00:44:32] with me through my social media it's at the underscore cheer doctor or at Maria Wiseman and then

[00:44:39] my email is fine too Maria Wiseman at everyone should live.com those are probably and then my website

[00:44:46] the cheer doctor dot com okay perfect and you got some of the best cheer doctor swag that I've seen

[00:44:52] you had like the laptop cover yeah sweatshirt all that that's awesome where do you where do you

[00:44:59] go online to get all the swag um print it up so I did a webinar for my strength for cheer program

[00:45:10] for cheer teams I had I think I had like a hundred people sign up for the webinar and I had maybe

[00:45:17] 20 to 40 show up to it I had no teams by the program from the webinar so I again acted quickly

[00:45:26] it learned a lot of lessons got a lot of people on my email list um got a lot of benefit out of it

[00:45:32] but it was my first webinar so didn't have a whole lot of return in terms of seeing people join

[00:45:36] my program right away but somebody on that call does logo designs and has a cheer team in a different

[00:45:43] state and we did a trade so I gave her my program to her cheer team and she helped me create my

[00:45:48] new logo and actually new name she helped me change my name from everyone to live to the cheer doctor

[00:45:53] so I got a whole lot of value from that and since that webinar I've had those teams on my email

[00:45:59] list and they've been responding to me and communicating about starting the program at the start

[00:46:04] of this year so even though it didn't seem like a huge success at the time it's starting to

[00:46:08] pay back in the other ways dude that's awesome that's really cool like that's really that's a you

[00:46:13] know like some people go all that's a failure but you got some massive wins out of that

[00:46:17] that yeah sharing that's really cool that's really awesome Maria thank you so much for joining us

[00:46:22] on the show today this is great um I'm looking forward to seeing how you like just kind of crush it

[00:46:27] over the next few years um yeah like hey guys make sure you give Maria a follow check her out on

[00:46:33] Instagram uh we'll have like links in the show notes um and just go out get started and if you're

[00:46:39] a student I think the message is if you want it just go get it don't listen to the people telling you

[00:46:44] you can't find the people that they're gonna help you get there right Maria wouldn't you agree like

[00:46:49] for sure yeah that's awesome so uh thanks so much for being here Maria thank you guys for listening

[00:46:54] we'll see you on the next show um have a great day hey what's up it's Aaron thanks for listening

[00:47:00] to show if you enjoyed the episode and you'd like to help support the podcast please share it with

[00:47:05] others post about on social media relieve a five star rating and review overnight and to catch

[00:47:11] all the latest from me follow me over on Instagram at Aaron the Bauer thanks again and I'll see you next time