Stop Accepting Mediocrity

[00:00:00] Hey, what's up? Welcome back to the Aaron LeBauer Show. Today, I've got a little rant.

[00:00:05] I was a rant. I got a turn to say, I'm turning into a lesson but you know, we're going to talk about

[00:00:11] the status quo and accepting mediocrity today and want to do instead and how to

[00:00:16] get a life by design and give it to you. I made my name's Dr. Aaron LeBauer. I'm a physical therapist.

[00:00:23] I'm a cash-based physical therapy practice owner. I made business coach for physical therapists

[00:00:29] and how physical therapists make six and seven figures without relying on insurance companies.

[00:00:35] I'm a father in a Sagittarius, and I like riding bikes and kill bills. And lately

[00:00:42] I've just been as a, I don't know where you call it, a content creator. As a educator,

[00:00:49] as a someone putting myself out in front of others to get what I want to help them get what they want.

[00:00:55] I get a lot of, I was like, I get a lot of what hate negative comments, haters, etc.

[00:01:02] And sometimes those messages are really kind of hard to deal with but sometimes the way I deal with them

[00:01:10] is let my team answer the messages. Sometimes what I do is I screenshot things and I put up on

[00:01:16] Instagram and be like, see this person doesn't get it. I mean, you know, we've talked about that before.

[00:01:21] Sometimes it's the immediate thing is to go and talk about why you should stop thinking this way.

[00:01:28] And then, but if I start doing too much of that, I just attract more of the people.

[00:01:33] And it's through the energy and through the messages. So that's kind of like, as I start right

[00:01:39] my notes, I was like, okay, I can't come into this show. I'm be like, hey, let me talk about all the

[00:01:43] problems. I'm going to address some of the problems, but what I also want to do is address some of the

[00:01:49] positive things that you might resonate with and understand. And part of this is to me to show up and say,

[00:01:56] hey, here's my story. Here's where I was. This is what I expect out of people. And

[00:02:02] and I'm still like, I'm 15 years into PT. MPTs are still unimpressing me. Is that the right word?

[00:02:12] There's still not meeting my expectations. I have really high expectations of myself but I

[00:02:19] are expectations of our profession. And I'm still let down pretty much every day by physical therapist,

[00:02:25] but you know, by a lot of people in the world, by a lot of people in the world. However, my niche is physical

[00:02:30] therapy. And even OTs. So and I'm going to say a little sidebar, even OTs. Look, I've put about

[00:02:38] 20% of people who come through my programs of Ben OTs, some of my most successful clients

[00:02:43] could to a panesic Joe Mike, Julie Lee, who else is OT? There's a lot of OTs have come from

[00:02:51] my programs and even know their OTs. And I put that on a Facebook ad once I said, you know,

[00:02:58] it's a cash BD checklist and I said, and even OTs can use it. And because so many people

[00:03:03] have said, over the years Aaron, will can you help OTs? I could be a professional therapist,

[00:03:06] I'm like, yeah, absolutely. And then so I put it in a video, I'm like, even though it maybe

[00:03:10] ensures the way it came out, you know, and people still got mad. But that's the thing.

[00:03:16] Is what are you getting mad about? Are you getting mad about the right things or the wrong things?

[00:03:20] Like are you, you know, thinking that you're a, that you're a, play second

[00:03:26] fiddle to physical therapists, like OTs and while physical therapists, they play second

[00:03:31] fiddle to carpractors and carpractors, think they play second fiddle to, you know, medical doctors.

[00:03:35] I don't know what kind of complex osteopaus have. But seriously, I get hit with this stuff all the

[00:03:43] time. So let me just start by saying stop accepting mediocrity. That was the original

[00:03:51] title of this podcast. It might be still. But you have to stop accepting mediocrity in your life

[00:03:57] if you want to be great, you really have to understand that if you want to win, you got to be around

[00:04:03] winners. In order to win, you've got to have a winners mindset. In order to win,

[00:04:11] you need to learn from winners and you need to be around winners. You only need to learn the winning

[00:04:16] game. And the game most people are playing isn't the winning game. Most people are playing to

[00:04:22] lose. And playing to lose is a terrible game to play. You know, it's like that's like saying,

[00:04:30] I need to quit. I need to save 1000 bucks. So let me figure out how to save 1000 bucks.

[00:04:37] And it's to quit this thing. Okay, great. You quit that thing. You save 1000 bucks.

[00:04:41] All right, you're not a 1000 bucks richer. That 1000 bucks is going to end up somewhere else.

[00:04:46] It's much easier to make 1000 bucks than it is to save 1000 bucks. If you can look through

[00:04:52] your expenses each month, I mean, how many Netflix subscriptions can you cancel? The save

[00:04:57] 1000 bucks. That's a lot. I mean, I just was looking at my Netflix and it was like,

[00:05:03] you know, $22 for ultra high definition TV streaming and $17 for normal high definition streaming.

[00:05:11] I was like, I don't have a, I don't have a new high-deft TV. I was like, why do I need to pay

[00:05:16] this extra $4? You know, I mean, the only difference was I can download titles to six devices,

[00:05:23] not just two. I was like, no one in my house downloads the movies. I was in there to, you know,

[00:05:28] change the password and update a couple things and I was like, okay, so I save five bucks a month.

[00:05:36] That's not going to change my life. I mean, hey, I do that 100 times. I can save 500 bucks.

[00:05:42] I don't have 100 different subscriptions. So, that's just an example. It's much easier to

[00:05:49] help one more person change their life than it is to, you know, make micro changes in your life.

[00:05:55] Unless we're talking top-level sport cycling basketball football cricket. I don't know what

[00:06:01] ever sport you play. At that level, small percent changes can be really big. Here's the quote that

[00:06:09] I learned this from my business coach, Taki. Taki more. He was teaching as a training so that

[00:06:16] you can design what our year looks like. I do the same training for my own clients and our

[00:06:20] platinum mastermind and cash PTA academy. And as a quote is, when you live a life by default,

[00:06:25] you get what you got. When you live a life by design, you get what you want. Does it make sense?

[00:06:30] When you live a life by default, you get what you got. I mean, I'm just going to get what I got

[00:06:34] because I'm not trying to change anything. I'm not trying to do anything different. I might say,

[00:06:39] I'm doing better, but I'm just living by default walking through life like a zombie doing what's

[00:06:46] expected of me. But when you live a life by the design, you get what you want. In order to live a

[00:06:51] life by design, a lot of times you have to do it. Other people don't want you to do. A lot of times

[00:06:57] you have to do things that other people are going to try to shoot you down for. I'm going

[00:07:03] to tell you aren't right or unethical or wrong. Your dreams are too big. And part of that strategy is

[00:07:09] to say, okay, here's my non-negotiables. Here's my, and here's my vacations that I want to take.

[00:07:15] Here's my weekends off. Here's my training sessions. Here's my important pieces for work. And then we

[00:07:21] fill in the other pieces and whatnot. But the question I have is, when are you physical therapists?

[00:07:33] When is our profession? When are you on a shoot occupational therapists?

[00:07:37] When are you going to stop accepting mediocrity and a saddest quote?

[00:07:41] Right? When I got to PD school, I expected something different. Something

[00:07:45] better. I was doing massage therapy before. And then went to 10 month school. I remember,

[00:07:51] okay, I graduated from Duke University and we were like, well, why'd you go to Duke? And now you're

[00:07:55] going to go get a certificate, like a trade certificate, and be a massage therapist. That's

[00:08:00] not a real job. Whatever. I knew it was a path for me to get what I wanted. Okay, I could go to

[00:08:06] massage school four days a week. Now, five days a week for four hours. And then I could eat lunch

[00:08:13] and go train on my bike for four hours. I don't have to study. You know, as hands-on stuff,

[00:08:18] there's some stuff I had to memorize, like bones, attachments, insertions or agents, all that stuff.

[00:08:22] But I knew it was going to get me what I wanted, which was the ability to race bicycles.

[00:08:26] And I knew that I could train when I was in school. And I knew that when I got out of school,

[00:08:30] I could work for four hours a day. I worked for myself and make $75, $85 dollars an hour,

[00:08:36] work for someone else. Make $20, $25 dollars an hour plus a tip. I tip on an $80 to $100

[00:08:41] service is about $15 to $20 bucks. That's pretty good for 25 years ago. Unfortunately,

[00:08:47] massage therapists are making about the same now in 2024 that they did in 1999 when I went to

[00:08:53] massage school. And it's still better than what most physical therapists are making. Which crazy?

[00:09:00] Right? You spend $100,000 on your, um, your degree and you're making $38 to $40.

[00:09:07] Okay. I mean, I totally get that. That's better than manager at Chick-fil-A, but not much. Why are we

[00:09:14] making so little? Well, advanced degrees don't qualify us for higher income because insurance is

[00:09:23] driving the payment model and insurance don't care about you, me or anyone else. Okay. So I pulled this out.

[00:09:31] There was an email I wrote about, I was say two years ago. Let me see when this was.

[00:09:38] Oh, this is September 24th, 2021. I'm not going to read. It was a really long,

[00:09:49] it was a really long email. It was back when I did patients in profits on demand. I'm looking

[00:09:56] at it. It's like back when I was promoting patients in profits on demand the first time.

[00:10:02] I can, I probably need to recent this because it really resonated with my clients and she wrote me back.

[00:10:07] But I was saying not in 2021. I was promoting patients in profits, which is a, which is a five week

[00:10:13] boot camp that I did. And this is one where if you've heard me talk about Owen Johnson,

[00:10:19] he's Owen and Jen, they've been on the podcast a couple of times, Owen did some coaching with us

[00:10:23] for a while as well. He's got a, you know, multi therapist cash practice out in San Diego doing

[00:10:32] at least 65k months. That's the last time I checked in with him about four or five months ago.

[00:10:39] And Owen started with this, this program and this program and he in this program,

[00:10:44] he leveraged it in the strategies to do $7,400 in his first month in business as a physical therapist,

[00:10:49] cash practice owner. So, but Laura, Laura Johnson was in my mastermind back in 2017 or 2018.

[00:10:59] I've been doing this for a little while and she wrote me and she said, Aaron,

[00:11:04] I'm going to read what she said because it's brief, but here's the thing. She said,

[00:11:08] Aaron, I'm just glad I click on email here and there. You made a big impact on me and while I

[00:11:12] made building grow more slowly, I have sustainability power and I still resonate with what you say.

[00:11:17] You know, so this is 2021. I think she started in cash PT blueprint and then

[00:11:24] went into the mastermind. She was one of the first people when I went and looked back in as

[00:11:28] like she did the check list, the toolkit, the blueprint. She did my intercircle program which was

[00:11:34] close now no longer. And then she went from that. That was a monthly membership

[00:11:38] and then she went into our mastermind. And she said, this got me today what you wrote.

[00:11:43] And this is what I she says, I came into physical therapy profession expecting you to take a

[00:11:47] leap forward and said I found island in a profession that was afraid of talking about money,

[00:11:51] afraid of asking for what was right, afraid of fighting back against docs and insurance

[00:11:55] docs and quotes. Insurance companies because they might not agree with us about the patient's

[00:11:59] diagnosis or treatment plan and stop paying or referring. I think we can both agree that the established

[00:12:04] way of doing a building a PT business and marketing to docs and taking insurance doesn't work

[00:12:10] as fucked up. And quote, so I got the whole email. I'm not going to read it but she said,

[00:12:16] yes, keep going keep saying these things. I'm so happy. I'm charging what I'm worth and doing

[00:12:20] what I'm best at even and especially if it's different. She said different PT and we're

[00:12:25] helping so many people on a love my job and I'm attracting my perfect patients and I do

[00:12:30] each and every one of them and they pay me for the amazing transformation and I hope that I'm giving

[00:12:37] them that. I'm so happy to be outside of the fucked up healthcare world and everyone to be

[00:12:42] quote, normal anyways, I want to get results and help a shit ton of people and do it authentically.

[00:12:47] It took me a while to learn what to say and what I'm worth and how to do it all but I'm so glad

[00:12:51] I did and thank you again for the pieces and aha's and tangibles you gave me two or three years

[00:12:57] later. I finally nailed the sales calls for ferals are coming in with no effort. People by packages

[00:13:02] without flinching but I don't need them to. I'm super confident about who I can help and I'm stopping

[00:13:09] teaching a gym class among other things because it's too stressful and not worth my energy.

[00:13:13] This is the kind of PT I always wanted to be. I love my job, I love my patients, I love my schedule.

[00:13:18] I get to do other things like have a life. Thank you and keep going Laura.

[00:13:23] This is really awesome. I don't know, it took me three years exactly to really process that and

[00:13:33] share that and share it. I mean I've not shared this with anyone. I just printed out and put it on my

[00:13:38] board when I walk in the door so thank you Laura if you're listening. So you know it took Laura

[00:13:45] a little while to get there and so here's the thing as comparisons the thief of joy so when you

[00:13:50] come into one of my programs and funny like I've had people go oh I'm not doing as good as everyone

[00:13:55] else I need to quit and other people go I'm doing better than everyone else I need to quit. I'm like

[00:14:01] do you guys understand like both end of the spectrum? You're getting it wrong.

[00:14:08] You might feel like a superstar and you know you're letting your ego get to you and you're like I'm

[00:14:15] around winners okay and then at the bottom you're like I'm not as good as everyone else.

[00:14:22] I'm around to meet people that win I'm not a winner you know it's like you both are you both in the right

[00:14:30] place you're just letting that need to be right all the time drive your decisions okay yes you need

[00:14:41] to hang out with people that are doing what you do and are winners and you know what if you've got

[00:14:48] a winning formula whether it's in treating patients or in something you didn't your business I mean

[00:14:54] I still it's your duty and obligation to share it with others. I'm not saying everyone needs to

[00:15:00] you know go out and start a coaching business because I've seen people try to do that and destroy

[00:15:05] their you know primary business in the process what I'm saying is you need to share your wins

[00:15:09] and even if that's just in a message or a comment or a message of encouragement to someone I don't

[00:15:17] know what testimonial whatever it is you need to share it just like if you believe that physical

[00:15:22] therapy is what people need you need to share that too and you need to not be afraid to share it

[00:15:31] and a little bit on the other hand sometimes when you use the word physical therapy people don't

[00:15:36] people get something else but let me just let me just finish this piece there's always an excuse

[00:15:42] for why you can or can't or why you should have shouldn't don't let the excuses get in your way

[00:15:48] if you know what you want then you know what you have to do and when you know what you want

[00:15:53] and when you have a path in front of you there's no excuses you just know exactly what you need to

[00:15:58] get there you know it may it may it will be hard the path is not easy but if you're willing

[00:16:07] to go down a path that most people won't go down then you're gonna find something that most

[00:16:14] people won't get if you want to be a business owner and you'll be successful you have to learn to eat

[00:16:21] a lot of shit you got to eat shit some days that's all you're doing is coming into work

[00:16:27] and eating shit and you know I used to say this and then I heard another good

[00:16:32] badrows he did a podcast on this about a month or two ago and I was like yes fucking hey

[00:16:39] you know thank you badrows for talking about it because and it is it's like to be successful

[00:16:46] means you have to do a lot of things you have to tolerate a lot of things that other people will not

[00:16:51] you're still not supposed to tolerate like everything you know you get the get the mediocrity out

[00:16:59] you know surrender so for the winners and then you just have to tolerate a lot of hard work

[00:17:04] you're gonna tolerate a lot of frustrations a lot of times you're gonna come into work

[00:17:07] me like this isn't the problem I came to work to solve today and you're just gonna have to solve

[00:17:12] that problem this isn't the thing I wanted to work on today I wanted to work on some melts

[00:17:20] and if you understand that and you're able to do it and you're able to do it you know with a

[00:17:26] smile in your face without burdening others but by turning it into a positive and solving the

[00:17:33] problems and understanding that we're not working hard for the weekend you know it's not like

[00:17:39] hey I'm gonna work hard and it's hump day and now I'm over the hump and now I'm living for the weekend

[00:17:44] now man I work on the weekends because I love what I do and if you love the process

[00:17:55] no matter how hard it is some days if you love the process and you love solving problems and

[00:18:01] you know you're good at it and just fall in love with the process because no one else loves the process

[00:18:07] they just love the reward and they're not willing to do the work to get the reward and that's why

[00:18:13] so a few people have it so here are a couple things that physical therapists need to stop tolerating

[00:18:21] or stop making excuses for and this is this one is like beating a dead horse right here

[00:18:28] the whole direct access thing I don't have direct access so I can't start a business I can't do it

[00:18:33] cash I can't do whatever who cares there's a simple solution it's been on my blog for over 10 years

[00:18:41] it's called the administrator referral you know direct access is not a limiter I can't do x you know

[00:18:50] anytime you find something I'm just gonna use as a you know oh I can't do I can't do it

[00:18:56] I can't but people won't okay those are just excuses you know like people won't pay

[00:19:04] I live my town is too small my town is too big um my business is not like yours my business unique

[00:19:11] I can't what you're doing is you're basically you're taking something that has been a

[00:19:17] limiter in the past or limiter for other people and using as a excuse for why you you can't

[00:19:21] to protect you from failure and that's totally fine and normal and you have to catch yourself saying

[00:19:28] this especially if you want to be successful and there's playing at times where I get called out on

[00:19:33] things like this too I'm like no I can't do that and someone in my life or team is like

[00:19:38] but yeah you can okay great so I'm just out of the people that believe in you and feed you

[00:19:45] and stop making excuses the other thing we can no longer tolerate and this is the big one

[00:19:51] and we've been talking about this for a long time when I'm waiting for the other shooter drop

[00:19:56] it's its whole insurance contracts yes I'm talking to you in network business owner yes I'm talking

[00:20:05] to you a pta private practice section supporter yes I'm talking to you a pta private practice section

[00:20:11] yes I'm talking to you physical therapists we can't no accept payments they do not keep the

[00:20:18] lights on you cannot I don't care if the lights are barely staying on and you've got 20% of

[00:20:26] your patients come in and you know like average payment is 100 bucks but if you're if you've got

[00:20:32] 1% or 50% of the people coming in and you know you're not in health care is paying 38 bucks

[00:20:38] no matter how long you treat them and you're seeing them for a half hour and that doesn't keep the lights on

[00:20:44] if that costs if if the cost to do businesses more than what you're collecting

[00:20:50] you're losing and dying and you're dying a slow death if not a quick death and one day next year

[00:20:57] or 10 years or in two days they're going to decide to cut payments again and then what are

[00:21:03] you going to do what are you going to do to keep the lights on you can't you can't keep accepting it

[00:21:08] and you can go big and high volume great guess what when you have 700 visits a week

[00:21:14] and we start adding in cash visits you take one insurance company is what we did with Alan

[00:21:24] Lange and P.T. Innovations in El Srito drop some insurance contracts it's much easier to

[00:21:30] to justify in the Bay Area in San Francisco because real estate so high I mean New York DC

[00:21:37] I mean Jerry Derman Sturdy McKee also went out of network a long time ago

[00:21:44] and I'm going to put it on my old podcast long time ago because they couldn't afford you

[00:21:48] otherwise they weren't going to be able to afford the rent in San Francisco and I don't know

[00:21:52] if that practice is still around but what Alan did is we started offering $100 30 minute visits

[00:22:01] and Alan's doing 30 k a month in cash and you know what he didn't have to wait 30

[00:22:07] 60 90 days for it to pay pays now and at volume that's one of the big things it's made a massive

[00:22:15] difference to him this year just imagine $30,000 a month in cash he's got a new P.T.

[00:22:23] new grad doing 18 cash visits a day that's like nine hours a day treating patients

[00:22:29] cool I mean you know is he working the guy like a slave no because I've worked there and I know that

[00:22:36] he's the therapist is you know choosing to work that much because Alan doesn't make you work

[00:22:44] that much you know it's like he got work here 12 hours a day not like when I saw 43 patients a day

[00:22:49] and I was there for a 10 hour day but Alan's like yeah he's been doing 18 visits who 18 cash visits a

[00:22:55] by himself maybe it was 16 and maybe that's more reasonable but I know it's great and

[00:23:02] I mean Alan message me the other day what their update his update was and you know easily done $300,000

[00:23:10] this year in 2024 in cash and they've got five or six therapists so just imagine you know whether

[00:23:17] you're a small practice like so like a lot of my clients mk my Christy you know and we add some cash

[00:23:25] and it takes time away you know gives you time it gives you peace of mind and less stress doing

[00:23:31] other shit or we take a higher volume practice and add I mean that's still only 15% of the Alan's

[00:23:40] patients is cash 15% but we'll be dropping more and he's got you know five people, five admin

[00:23:47] staff and seven right therapists there so it takes some time to work it in but just a little small

[00:23:54] change in a higher volume practice makes a massive difference and guess what he's not losing money

[00:23:59] on those clients on those patients like he was when they were in network and unable to really accept

[00:24:08] I mean they can accept the insurance but it didn't pay and they had to use the other contracts to

[00:24:12] offset it so we can't keep accepting payments that don't keep the lights on and if you don't know

[00:24:20] then you need to go find out and then um you know look if you need some help figuring out how to

[00:24:28] get patients to say yes to cash when they've been paying you insurance how to get people to pay cash

[00:24:36] when they have an option to go down the street then maybe there's something I can do to help you out

[00:24:43] I've done this with lots of people this was the very first thing that I did most of my

[00:24:48] 101 consulting back in 2012 2013 was with in network business owners transition in the cash

[00:24:55] and then in the last year and a half two years that percentage of in network business owners

[00:25:01] transitioned to cash is much higher I mean also Aaron and and my and Aaron and his partner Mike

[00:25:08] are clients of mine now in our mastermind and we're adding cash and they just did it

[00:25:14] they did a very first package they sold us $800 he's like this is the most cash we've ever

[00:25:19] brought in in 12 years for one person and then they just did a six month or eight month ACL program

[00:25:26] for like 8,000 bucks I mean it's dope it's really awesome we have to stop having low expectations

[00:25:32] of our patients and this is for everyone okay this shows up in two play two ways I'm in network

[00:25:39] and insurance is only going to pay for 12 visits so we're only going to do 12 visits

[00:25:44] this shows up in cash based practice where we were so used to insurance only paying for 12 visits

[00:25:50] we're only going to give people the minimum we think can get them better because we're afraid

[00:25:54] of asking them for more money so we have to stop treating patients based on what their insurance

[00:26:01] will cover and instead of for what we actually think is best for them so if you are

[00:26:10] evaluating a patient you're like well you know what their insurance will only cover six visits

[00:26:14] so we're only going to do six visits you think that's ethical you really think that that's

[00:26:21] best for the patient I don't think that's ethical I think that's unethical is it malpractice

[00:26:27] no I think I think surgeons orthopedic surgeons doing an injection for a bursitis and saying let's see

[00:26:34] if this work I think that's malpractice I think them sending patient to get an MRI and then

[00:26:40] letting the patients see the results without consulting them first in the patients freaking out

[00:26:45] because they go Google all the results I think that's malpractice I think it's malpractice the way

[00:26:51] even cone hospital here in Greensboro releases your the the results for your you know x-rays

[00:27:00] oncology reports etc before you're consulted with a healthcare provider I think that's malpractice

[00:27:05] okay let's get back um you know what these patients that you are not treating you're not offering

[00:27:15] the best possible service you know like the actual real plan of care because you're afraid that

[00:27:21] they're gonna have to pay because you wouldn't pay yourself they end up going them such therapy

[00:27:26] they end up going to stretch their yoga ploddies etc look when I was on massage therapist

[00:27:32] people came to me and said Aaron I've been to PT OT Pilates acupuncture I've been to the

[00:27:45] hurt I wasn't touching them in places that were crazy you know trapezius hamstring VMO

[00:27:56] infraspinatus okay quadrata slumberum that one's tough because the textbook I had in PT school

[00:28:03] I remember this Helen Hisslop and was at Sumant Gummery and if you know you know she says in there

[00:28:09] the quadrata slumberum is is is not a muscle that you can palpate and I'm just like raised my hand

[00:28:15] I'm like um but uh I can palpate it you know I don't know what her definition was or if it was

[00:28:22] a mist typing but it was like you can't palpate this muscle I'm like well I know if I put my thumb

[00:28:28] here and my elbow here and you you know hike your hip or resist your your you know your hip

[00:28:34] like I can feel that muscle I was like why does it say I can't palpate it because they probably

[00:28:39] didn't touch very many people people are getting let down by you or you maybe not you your colleagues

[00:28:48] our colleagues because you're making a plan of care for them that doesn't actually care for the patient

[00:28:54] you're making a plan of care that fits within the parameters of Susie and Iowa Susie and Iowa

[00:28:59] is not a healthcare provider do not let her decide what's best for your patients what you do is just

[00:29:04] to hear Mrs. Jones you've got this issue I think we need to see you 12 visits over the next 14

[00:29:11] weeks your insurance is going to cover 8 of them so the good news is you just have a 50% discount

[00:29:18] so the plan of care typically be $2000 but what it's only going to like $3000 and it's just

[00:29:25] going to cost you you're insurers going to pay for the first 2000 and they go sweet or they go oh well

[00:29:33] I'm going to go get it for free down the street and they go get eight visits three times a week and

[00:29:37] they still aren't paying so you get to choose that but as a healthcare provider you need to act

[00:29:42] independently of what the referring provider and the paying entity thanks because they're not in the room

[00:29:50] with you okay and we need to stop accepting mediocrity in ourselves okay how does that show up

[00:30:03] not really understanding like the real meaning of life not the meaning of life the meaning of being

[00:30:09] in business being and you know having a job you know and you know when I was in my 20s it was

[00:30:17] really difficult too so I'd look at my friends and we're like they're working for Arthur Anderson

[00:30:21] banking they're making I don't know they're making six figures I don't know what that really means my

[00:30:25] friend Sam is getting a $20,000 Christmas bonus but he hates his job so much he's going to quit

[00:30:29] knocked over and I'm making $1300 every two weeks as a bike messenger and I was just like I had no idea

[00:30:35] what it was really like or really meant or what I needed to do to make $100,000 a year I just knew

[00:30:41] I was never leaving it San Francisco gonna be able to afford a $3,500 a month mortgage to be able

[00:30:46] by home there so I think the idea is go to PT school and you don't expect to make six figures when

[00:30:55] you get out or not even having a concept as a business owner of what it means to make seven

[00:31:01] and the problem is insurance so many people are tied to insurance and even in the cash practice

[00:31:07] I'm not tied to insurance but I can only charge so much because of the public's expectation like

[00:31:12] in charge a lot and we can charge more but the public's expectation of what our service costs

[00:31:18] is low because so many practices are in network or cash practices are under charging

[00:31:25] that it's really hard to pay a PT $120,000 salary getting out of PT schools of Dr.

[00:31:31] Physical Therapy. It's almost impossible in insurance situation not impossible but really difficult

[00:31:39] especially in orthopedics, outpatient orthopedics and really hard in a cash practice because that

[00:31:47] person has to be willing to sell high-priced programs and they've been devalued they have to be

[00:31:55] good at the sales they had to be decent at treatment and they have to be good at connecting with people

[00:32:00] and we have to get them busy it's not like I said it's not impossible but it's just

[00:32:06] and so people don't expect to do that and then when you're you don't expect it it doesn't happen

[00:32:12] and if you do expect it and you want it right now the best way to get that is to go start your own thing

[00:32:17] and that's not for everyone but here's a couple things that people do

[00:32:24] that really sabotage us well one it's accepting these low paying insurance contracts but then it's

[00:32:29] you know as a PT charging let's say $25 per muscle for dry needling like okay now you're giving

[00:32:36] way your power as the decision maker and you're giving all the decision making power to the

[00:32:41] person sitting in front of you who's not taken you know in an anatomy class or human anatomy

[00:32:47] or done by a mechanics room shoot even gone to the needling seminar under charging you know you

[00:32:54] start a cash practice like having a charge $75 a session you know I'm just doing Pilates I'm not

[00:32:59] or I'm training I'm not doing PT or maybe I'm doing PT but it's still you're not so

[00:33:05] you're not charging more than a personal trainer or massage therapist and yet you're limited

[00:33:08] in your scope of practice more than a personal trainer other than touching people

[00:33:13] like in North Carolina you we can't recommend

[00:33:19] like nutrition supplements dietary guidelines etc I mean I can give guidelines in the

[00:33:25] public domain but I can't create a plan for people where his personal trainers can do

[00:33:29] whatever they want personal trainers can help you across state lines with your back pain by showing

[00:33:35] you how to work on a roller and as a PT I start doing that it looks more like PT and I'm not

[00:33:40] licensed the other state etc and when we're charging much less than these guys you know what

[00:33:45] reason they can charge what they charge and we can't is because we're not creating plans

[00:33:50] of care for our patients it really really help them we're only limiting it to what we think

[00:33:54] people will pay they're not better when they're done they're not as good as they expect when

[00:33:59] they're done and they like well I'm a go to yoga class yoga class I fix my back or Pilates will

[00:34:03] fix my back personal trainer why would it pay you know 150 bucks to see Dr Chris when I

[00:34:14] you know physical therapy for me I mean I've had people like that I have a new client

[00:34:20] just spoke with yesterday and she's a she just pilates in PT and she's saying you know

[00:34:26] she'll tell people that she does physical therapy and pilates etc and people like who

[00:34:31] Pilates she said people light up when she says Pilates I was like well we got to drop the physical

[00:34:34] therapy and you know we came up with a good um USP and we're just getting close to it and I was

[00:34:44] dropped physical therapy because when people hear that what they hear is I do hot packs

[00:34:48] like this ultrasound and Pilates and they're like ooh Pilates tell me more because as physical

[00:34:54] therapy profession we've failed to define what we do because we do we do too much and people think

[00:35:02] we're physical terrorists and we just put them on a bike and give them hot packs and walk away

[00:35:06] because to me people do that they still do okay we'd also don't know what 100 dollars is worth

[00:35:13] kind of talked about this before but I recently I just did a course launch for a cash PD blueprint

[00:35:21] then courses a $2500 program and it's worth it's easily worth $10,000 because people have come in

[00:35:27] taking that course and built six multiple six and even seven figure businesses and if you can take

[00:35:33] a class and make 100,000 out of what you learn then it's easily worth a tenth of what you can

[00:35:40] make any year I sell it for $2,500 typically sometimes typically in the last few years

[00:35:47] when I'll do a special do you know some webinars or you message me I get you in for $1500

[00:35:55] that was it last weekend two weekends ago we did it was a tenth anniversary of this course

[00:36:02] I think one of the last episodes we talked about it and I blew it out for a cheap cheap price

[00:36:09] knowing that if I make it too cheap there's going to bring people with a cheap mindset in but I was

[00:36:14] willing to do that because I want to get in the hands of as many people as possible right now

[00:36:20] because of the economy and where we're at and it's a tenth anniversary and I was like well when I

[00:36:24] first launched it it was $197 and I put I did 25 people that first weekend and so the special

[00:36:31] was $25 people at $1,000 and then $25,000 and then everyone else $4,000, $7 through the end of the weekend

[00:36:38] and I had no less than three people message me Sunday Sunday and even Monday saying hey

[00:36:45] I would have got in at $197 but now the price is higher if you can get me in at $197 I'll definitely buy it

[00:36:53] I'll definitely get in and I told them all no and they're like oh well then I'm not going to do it

[00:37:01] I mean okay there's a couple things here I could make a whole podcast episode on this but

[00:37:07] understand that and and I'm going to tell you I want you to understand what the lesson is to try to

[00:37:12] bring attention to this so you can see it in your clients your patients and even in yourself when you do this

[00:37:17] okay they're going to not get the strategy the proven strategies that thousands of people have used

[00:37:24] to build a six-year cash practice because it's $100 more expensive okay they're

[00:37:31] asking their own question here the other thing is someone said oh well I logged in and you know

[00:37:36] when first it was $197 that logged in and the price change and I didn't buy it because I have this

[00:37:41] automated email that goes to people says hey you're in our cart and you didn't buy is something is

[00:37:46] everything okay they get well I logged in the price is higher so I didn't get it can I get in I was like

[00:37:52] you know what look in business speed wins and here's the deal if you sleep on a deal

[00:38:01] you lose out but did you really lose out getting uh $2000 course for $497 no you got $1500 discount

[00:38:10] and the other reason I do that is to encourage the right people to move forward because in business

[00:38:17] speed wins and um perfection is a business killer if you waiting for it be perfect or you're

[00:38:31] not ready to start a business okay what I did was encourage 25 of the right people to take

[00:38:39] action really quickly because if they can take action quickly then uh then they're gonna do well in

[00:38:46] business and that's really it and look it was $197 for 48 hours it was 48 hours until the

[00:38:52] 25th person purchased when's the morning to Friday morning and then the price went up and you know

[00:38:59] these people had 48 hours to make a decision yes or no cheapest price and if you can't make that

[00:39:03] decision in that 24 hour or 48 hours you're either not a good decision maker and you need to work on

[00:39:09] your decision making skills not ready for business and not really that interested in buying a business

[00:39:16] you're just starting a business and rolling in the course you're just trying to see if you can

[00:39:21] get in for cheaper when everyone else can't and uh that's not cool either but really it's

[00:39:29] about encouraging the right people to move forward quickly because people who make quick decisions

[00:39:35] do really well in business and you have to develop that muscle and if you're around

[00:39:40] other people that can't make decisions fast then you're around the wrong people if you want to be

[00:39:46] a successful business owner so and then I think the last thing is just more of a hey I'm a physical

[00:39:52] therapist um I expect you to take care of your body if I don't take care of mine that don't do what I

[00:39:58] say don't do what I do um like you gotta go and get treatment from in PT for your body I mean

[00:40:06] I've been this week once already last week my back's been bothering me for a few weeks

[00:40:12] because I've just been overworked over stressed and would have a lot of things and I get

[00:40:18] Dr. Chris to treat me and I probably need to go into day again or tomorrow because we got a

[00:40:23] specific competition ceremony um you know walk the walk and um everything you expect of your patients

[00:40:31] you should expect of yourself if you expected of yourself you should expect of your patients

[00:40:36] and this comes down to how you do your workouts how you do your how you treat your body how you

[00:40:42] how you think about money how you think about purchasing I mean people that come in my program

[00:40:47] by like they sell you know they have a hard time buying because they they have a hard time selling

[00:40:53] they have a hard time selling because they don't buy they don't buy um in the way that

[00:41:00] they should they're not thinking about like can I get into this program and for one night seven

[00:41:05] get one nugget or even four nights seven get one nugget of information is going to bring in one

[00:41:10] new patient who's going to come see me 10 times for 100 bucks which is way under charging and I'm up

[00:41:16] 500 bucks like that's really all you have to do um when you go and look into like a business program

[00:41:23] okay it's our duty and obligation to care for our own bodies like we expect our patients

[00:41:28] and spend like we expect people to buy from us so if you expect people to pay you 250 dollars

[00:41:34] an hour for PT you better be willing to go pay 250 an hour for PT to help your body or spend 150

[00:41:42] $200 on a massage work with a personal trainer like work with Brett Jones and then pay him 300 bucks a month

[00:41:49] and we meet on zoom twice a month and I'm like Brett let's just meet once you know like

[00:41:55] and he was like no we should meet twice and he I mean I'm working with him for a couple years and I'm

[00:41:58] stronger now than I then I was in my you know 30s and 40s and we have to have if we have high expectations of

[00:42:05] ourselves we have high expectations people around us that's great um just understand not everyone's going to

[00:42:12] the same standard of expectations that you have but just don't tolerate people in your life they're

[00:42:17] constantly extracting energy from you without replenishing it. Action being saying anxiety

[00:42:23] perfection is a business killer and remember 80% is good enough if this is Aaron L'Bauer and

[00:42:27] Aaron L'Bauer show thank you for listening if you have a PT business and you want to build a

[00:42:33] personalized game plan together with me to grow your business and create a lifestyle by design that you

[00:42:37] want just DM me the word game plan over on Instagram we're booking the time to chat and over on

[00:42:42] call with Aaron.com I'll see you on the next show peace.