E508 | How To Handle More Local Competition

 

Local Competition. It's something that more and more cash-based practices are having to think about. Today, I wanted to give my thoughts on where your mindset should be when dealing with local competition popping up around you in your area. Enjoy.

• A lot of people have a problem but are not actively searching for a solution
• Being the best at that one thing
• Making decisions that are best for long-term outcomes

Ready to elevate your practice? Book a call at the link below with one of our expert consultants today and start your journey to delivering unparalleled physical therapy.

PT Everywhere: https://pteverywhere.com/

Do you enjoy the podcast?  If so, leave us a 5-star review on iTunes and tell a friend to do the same!

Are you a member of our free PT Entrepreneur Facebook Group? Join today!

Podcast Transcript

Danny: Hey, I've got a question for you. Do you know if you're tracking the right data, the right metrics, the right key performance indicators in your practice? This is something that's huge for us and really helps us make solid decisions within our business, but the prior software that we're using to run our practice made it really, really challenging.

To actually get that data out and use it in reports. Since we've switched to PPG everywhere, this has actually become way, way easier for us to be able to have the right data. We have a dashboard of all the things that we actually want to see, the metrics that we want to pull, and it makes our life a lot easier to pull the information that we need to make the right decisions within our business.

So if you're running blind and you're not tracking the right things, or you're. Hard time actually pulling everything together. I highly recommend you check out our friends at PT Everywhere and see what they've got going on with their software platform. It's what we use for our practice. It's been a game changer for us.

You can check 'em [email protected]. I think you really like it. So here's the question. How do physical therapists like us who don't wanna see 30 patients a day, who don't want to work home health and have real student loans create a career and life for ourselves that we've always dreamed about?

This is the question, and this podcast is the answer. My name's Danny Mate, and welcome to the PT Entrepreneur Podcast.

What's going on guys? Doc Danny here with a PT Entrepreneur podcast, and today we're talking about competition, local competition with other business owners, other cash and hybrid practices, uh, in your area and what to do about it. How to, like, think about it, how are your mindset, how your mindset should be, uh, and what you, you probably shouldn't do, uh, as well.

So I'll give you, you know, sort of a. Background for this in terms of why I'm talking about it, and it's something that we see more and. Um, hybrid and cash-based practices in particular popping up all over the country. And part of that honestly is because, because of us, which we're very actually proud of, the fact that we've been able to help so many practices, so many clinicians get started and, you know, really move towards building a model that.

Suits their clinical skillset better, but also allows them the opportunity to really create a significant better financial livelihood for themself and their and their families. And you know, one of the questions I get sometimes is, well, when, when is the market saturated? And at what point, uh, is it like not advantageous to maybe, you know, try to start a practice like this?

And to be honest with you, I don't know what that market saturation is, but we're nowhere near. Where I think we will be in five years, regardless of whether I keep doing a podcast about, you know, this type of business or not, um, or producing content in on, on it or having, you know, an education company that helps with this.

It doesn't really matter because the reality is, um, people see a opportunity that's better than, uh, the, the standard opportunities for most people coming outta school. Like what you have to keep in mind is if you're listening to. And you've started a practice, you know, uh, the trade off, right? Like it's, if you, you go work for somebody else in a high volume clinic, you go work home health, you do travel PT stuff, um, you know, and, and if you are in particular more of a active person, you enjoy working with more of an active population, um, you're not gonna get many of those people.

So you're gonna be working with a lot of people that you just don't like working with, and that wears you down very quickly. I have a good friend of mine that is an ortho pa. And he works for an orthopedic group that has really shifted their model more towards work comp and personal injury. He sees far less sort of athletic, uh, active sort of populations and injuries and far more auto, you know, accidents, uh, work accidents, different personal injury cases that they're working with on liens and stuff like that.

And, um, you know, I had lunch with him recently and he told me, he was like, man, I'm just getting so burnt out. With this population that I'm working with and the volume is high and you know, it's just, I think that setting in particular, it's, it's, it's challenging because if you really got into the profession cuz you wanna help people and now you're working with a group of people that it's advantageous for them not to feel better until you know the settlement of their case.

Uh, in many cases. They, they aren't gonna feel better, you know, even if they do or, you know, I mean there's, there's a lot of other factors there, right? So I'm, I'm not necessarily saying that's the case with everybody with those types of, uh, you know, personal injury and, and work comp cases, but you know, if your compensation tied to a claim is based on how bad you feel, it's like, it's likely that you're not gonna necessarily try to feel better until after that case is is closed.

Right? So for him, he's getting frustrated cause he's working with a lot of people that are just like, Not getting better. And then we started to question ourself. We started to question, well, am I not very good what I'm doing? Did I misdiagnosis this? Am I mistreating this? When in actuality it may have nothing to do with that.

It may literally have to do with the motivation of the person you're working with. This, this is was the case with me in the army. Uh, especially towards the end, you know, uh, of my career. I was in a clinic where I was working with a lot of people that were exiting the military, the, their va, um, ratings were, were the next step for them.

I was doing some of. And, you know, I, I started to get really frustrated because a lot of the people I was working with, these weren't getting better. And eventually I just gotta the point where I, I would've people come in and I'd say, listen, I get it. You're on the tail end of your career. You know, you're about to go ahead and submit a packet for, you know, disability and like, do you want to actually work on stuff to get better right now?

Or do you want me to just document what's, you know, what's wrong with you so that you have. A paperwork that goes along with what you're saying subjectively. And the funny thing was well over half of the people that I talked to were like, look, sir. Uh, I just wanna get this documented. This is something that's been going on for a long time.

I'm in, I'm on my way out. Like, I don't have time to do all this PT stuff right now. I'm doing all this, you know, clearing, like, it'd be great if I could just come, you know, like we can talk about what's going on. You can document it, you can look over everything, do some assessment, um, and, uh, and follow up and, and do what they needed to, for me to be able to document the injuries that they had.

That in many cases, a lot of these people hadn't said shit about it for years because they were too busy and they didn't wanna be put on, you know, limitations with their job. You know, but I got frustrated with trying to get him better and they didn't want to get better. Like, they're like, I'm gonna wait until I get outta the military.

Cause a lot of my problems will probably go away cause I'm not gonna be doing some of the things that are really bothering me. So, you know, that wore me down. That made me very frustrated. And when I started working in a population where I had. Ideal customers, clients, whatever you wanna call 'em, patients, people get freaking upset if you don't call 'em patients, whatever you call it.

People that work with you, right? Uh, that, that group of people, when they're motivated and you enjoy working with that population cuz you have similar interests, active individuals trying to stay that way. It is an absolute like joy to work with those people. It's great. It doesn't feel like work the same way that grinding out 20 plus people a day, and a lot of them, you know, just chronic pain, treating themself terrible, just honestly health problems that are showing up as muscle skeletal problems.

I, I, you could never go back. I could never go back to the traditional setting because I just enjoy the people I work with so much. I enjoy working on problems where we can be like super proactive and educate people and they wanna learn. Like, that is such a gift to be able to work with people that want to know what you know, because they want to improve their life.

They want to stay active, they want to get back to the sport they're playing, you know, they wanna be better at it. They want to improve performance, whatever it might be. The stuff that we sort of get really excited about, That's what we want to work with, and it doesn't really feel like work when you get a chance to work with that type of population.

And one of the biggest benefits to this type of. To a cash or hybrid practice where you're really limiting the number of people you're seeing per day and you are going out of your way to attract and try to find the clients that you really enjoy working with, is the fact that you get a lot of enjoyment and personal satisfaction out of your day in comparison to many of the settings that you know that I've worked in, whether it be.

You know, a neuro, uh, facility where I'm not interested in neuro, and if I had to work there, I'd be super, like, bored. Like it's not the, my passion working at a VA clinic. Uh, you know, and like that quite possibly is the most depressing place in the world. Uh, I, you know, working inpatient at a VA clinic is just like, That's a difficult thing to do.

Um, if you wanna work with a active, healthy population, right? I mean, there's plenty of people where those jobs are perfect for them, but if you're like me and you like to, you like to train, you, like to be active, you like to play sports, you like to work with people that like to do that, youth athletes, adult athletes, you know, just people being active and healthy.

Those, those types of settings, you just go and you, you die there a little inside every single day. And one of the best benefits of these businesses are the people that we get a chance to work with. What I'm getting at with this long drawn out story is the fact that when you think about other people in your area, competition in your area, why would you want to deny them the opportunity to be able to enjoy their work just as much as you think about that for a second.

Why would you take somebody. For all intensive purposes, probably a really good person. There's very few just really bad people that are physical therapists. It, it's a profession where we help people. So let's, let's be honest. I mean, there's definitely outliers and there's people that are assholes in every profession, but by and large, our profession is a profession of really nice people that like to be really nice to other people and help those people get outta.

So why would you want to deny someone else from being able to experience the satisfaction and joy associated with working with their ideal customers and creating a better existence job? Financial security for themself and their family by doing so. That's what you're basically saying when you're saying, oh, like I need, you know, what, what do I do about this competition in my area?

You're, I think you're looking at it the wrong way. I'm not saying that you need to like roll over and, and not do what you need to do, but you need to keep in mind that you are in the same place as those people. You're in the same place as anybody around you. And why would you want to deny them the opportunity to have, you know, more satisfaction in what they do and frankly, use their, their skillset in a way where it.

The people they want to impact, but as well as puts themself in a, in a more secure financial position. I had to come to terms with this with two, uh, staff members that we had that left. Um, our clinic and, you know, went and started their own practices, um, very close to where our practice is. You know, both of them.

Um, are great people. Like, let me put this in perspective. The, the two, the two staff members we've had that, uh, that left to do their own thing. I like them so much. I think they're great people. I enjoy being around them. I like their families. You know, I, I root for them. I, I think that they are just the kind of people that deserve to have success and, you know, our practice wasn't the place where they could continue to grow.

Now I. Say that I wasn't frustrated by it because it creates turbulence in our own business and it slows us down. And it's confusing for our clientele, uh, that we work with about, well, why did so and so leave? Or where did they go? And you know, it, it's hard when that happens. And for us, it's happened twice.

And to have that happened twice and then have those clinicians open, prac open their practices within, you know, a short distance within a mile or two from where we're at. It, it's, it's not the easiest thing, right? Uh, it really isn't. But they're not the only ones. Right? Like we opened our practice and it was, there were two practices in the area of Atlanta where we're at, probably within a five mile radius.

And now in that same area, last I checked, there were nine. Uh, there's probably, it's probably double digits at this point. Um, you know, that, that's just that I'm aware of. So let's just call it 10. So we went from two to 10 in a fairly small radius. And you know what, uh, my practice is doing fine, right? Like we're, we're, we're great.

The practices around us are thriving. And Eli, it comes down to the fact that there are so many people that don't know. They have a, like they know they have a problem, but they don't know that there's actually like, Uh, a solution or people like us out there that can help them. Um, the, the vast majority of people fall into this bucket of, you know, having something that's, that's bothering them, but they're not actively so, you know, searching for a problem, maybe it's not quite as bad as it needs to be for them to really go out and try to get some help with it.

Like maybe they just have general back pain, but it hasn't stopped them from picking up their kids yet or something like that. Um, and then there's a subset of people that do have a problem and. Like they just don't know what to do about it. And then there's a subset of people that have a problem and are actively looking for you.

That's actually a small percentage of the, of the people. A small percentage of the population is actively looking for you, a tiny percentage. And if we really look at where, you know, we can function, and it is in trying to educate and get as many people aware of what we do and what's going on with, with our businesses, what we can help people with, uh, than anything else.

There's a massive number of people that live in that area. So when we look at how to handle competition, how to handle, um, you know, other practices opening around. There's a few things that, that I can say that I've learned. Um, and I'll, I'll tell you some stuff that personally I've gone through that I don't think you should do.

So the first thing that I don't think you should do is get angry about it. Is get angry about it and then like go on social media or on their website and just like read all about what they have going on and what they're doing. And like you just go down the rabbit hole. Getting angry and digging into, you know, as far as far as the perception of a business, how things are going.

And I can tell you, it doesn't tell you the whole picture. I've worked with many, many business owners like personally. Hundreds. Like we've, with our programs, we've helped over a thousand practices get started or scale, um, all around the world. So this isn't the, you know, this isn't just theory. I'm telling you, this is what people do.

They, they go down the rabbit hole of this stuff. They start looking at. You know what this other person is doing? They start to see, oh, they have a staff member or they have an admin, and I don't have an admin. Damn, they must be like, they're better than me. And Tey Roosevelt, he's famously said, comparison is the thief of joy.

And keep that in mind. Comparison is the thief of joy, and if you want to feel shitty about yourself, just go and compare yourself to other people around you. Here's what you're gonna find. You're gonna find some people that you're ahead of, and it's gonna make you feel a little bit better, and then you're gonna find other people that are ahead of you and it's gonna make you feel like you haven't accomplished anything.

And this idea of the comparison of your businesses is such a silly thing to do because you have no clue how that person is actually doing. I can tell you I've worked with businesses that on, if you looked at their website, you're like, oh man, five staff members and multiple locations, and then I get a chance to work with that owner and he's barely profitable.

What, what, what is going on? Like how are you running your business in a way where you're barely making any money and you have a team of people underneath you in multiple locations? It's because they run their business terribly. They have no idea how to like manage finances, but on paper they look really successful.

If you were to look at that and you would think to yourself, ah man, I suck compared to so-and-so. But in actuality, They suck and they're struggling and they're stressed out and you have no idea. You know, if what they're doing aligns with what they want to do, because winning the game isn't necessarily just based off of money and revenue and the size of your business.

It is a very easy thing to look at, to compare, and in some people's mind that is the game. That's the game that they're playing. It's the game that they wanna win. But in life, your game can be different. My game is not grow the biggest business. You know, sell it for a hundred million dollars. And what, I don't know.

I don't even know what I would do with something you know of, of, of that size. Like that's not my game at all. My game is I want to have a business that. Actually helps people. I want to be involved in the process because I get a lot of enjoyment and personal satisfaction out of like the, the development of people, the development of businesses and business owners, and seeing them have success.

Like I have a lot of personal satisfaction with it. The same thing was the case when I was working with patients and I haven't seen a patient in, you know, a year and a half. I, I stopped seeing patients at the end of, um, 2020 so we could focus exclusively on PT biz. And the thing that I. The most about patient care is the journey.

It's watching somebody come in frustrated, you know, just not sure if they're gonna be able to avoid surgery or something like that. And then within a couple months they're like, they, they're back to anything and everything they want it to do and to hear them, you know, go through that, to watch it to be a part of it.

You know, to, to listen to them express so much, uh, you know, gratitude for what they're able to do now and for me to have. Been sort of their guide throughout that process. God, that's worth so much. It's worth a lot more than they pay me, I'll tell you that much. Like that is how much I enjoy and, and st and frankly still do enjoy working with people.

As far as musculoskeletal, uh, stuff go, I still, I still help people out on the side a little bit in, in my neighborhood. I don't charge 'em anything for it, but if something's got going on, a neighbor tweaked their back or something when I'm saying check out their shoulder like I do in, I do it in our garage and, you know, give 'em some stuff to do.

Um, hopefully it helps, right? Like I want them to get better and I think that most people. When it comes to business, when it comes to what they're trying to accomplish in business, yes, they want to have success in business, but we also enjoy helping people. We enjoy helping people that come in to see us in, in our, in our clinics.

And we have a different game that we're playing. We have a different score, you know, that we're keeping it, everybody's score can be different. That's the, that's the funny part about comparing yourself. Like you may be seeing somebody on paper that looks like they're killing it in business and they're.

Relationships are falling apart and crumbling at home because they've completely neglected all the people around them that are important. That's not a win. You know, like that is a loss. If, if, if you go through your career and you build a great business and your kids don't want to talk to you afterward because you're such a, you know.

Absent parent and frustrated person that can't control their emotions because your business is stressing you at home and that bleeds in into your home life, you suck. Okay? Listen to me, you suck. It's not about that. You're do. You're doing the wrong thing. You're focusing on the wrong thing, and you need to realize that the game is not just about money.

At a certain point, it's not. It's about a lot more than that. And it's about all the other areas of your life that you get to experience in the world that you get to enjoy with the people that you love and the people that you want to be around. And you want to help as many people as you possibly can while you're here because that is like, Incredibly fulfilling.

Much more fulfilling than making money. I can tell you, you know, for sure. It's a reason why so many people that are billionaires turn to philanthropy because it's where they get so much personal satisfaction. It's not of the money. Doesn't matter how much they have at that point, they, they have no desire for any more money at all.

And yet they want to help people. They wanna help people as much as they can. We get to help people and get paid for it. How freaking awesome is that? Like what a great business to own. So when you start looking at. All the people around you as far as competition goes, all it's gonna do is make you feel bad about yourself.

Don't do it. Don't even follow people in your

area

that are. Clinicians like you. I don't do it. I, I don't look at it, I don't think it's useful. I don't want to see what somebody's doing and then use that as something that I'm copying, uh, in my marketing, in, you know, whatever. In my, my website, I don't want to do that because that's inauthentic.

And if you're just copying somebody else, you're already behind where they're at. You have to be creative and think for yourself. So the number one thing you shouldn't do. Is get frustrated and compare yourself to other people by spending far too much time seeing what they're doing on social media and checking out their website.

The other thing that you have to keep in mind, and like I said before, these are people very similar to you that just want to have a better life for themself and their families and use their skillset in a way that they get more, you know, satisfaction out of. Keep that in mind because you wouldn't wanna take that away from somebody.

Um, you know, if this was, let's say we lived in a, a socialist society or a communist society or whatever, where everybody's just like, they're just trying to do the job that they can do, the state government is, is supporting them or whatever. Um, why would you wanna take away satisfaction that somebody's doing from them?

Why would you want them to not have satisfaction in their work? Like you wouldn't? Right? But in that, in that case, money is not an issue. Right. Obviously there's a lot of problems with that scenario outside. What I just mentioned, but in our society, we, we live in a capitalistic society, right? So you can make as much or as little money, uh, as you want, depends on how much value you're providing to the, the marketplace.

But keep in mind, these people are very similar to you. They have very similar goals, they have similar backgrounds, they come from same profession, and they deserve to have success as well. Right? So that's, that's the first thing that I would, I would say that you should not do, is like try to, um, try to compete with people and.

Uh, focus on what they're doing as much as just focusing on what you're doing and know that there's great people around you that are trying to do similar things, and they should have that opportunity as well. Now, the thing that I would tell you, you should focus on, Is focusing on your avatar. Get very specific about your avatar.

And I, I deal this with this a lot within our clinical Rainmaker program where people are like, well, I think it, I, I'm really good with this and this and, you know, I'm a ocs. So pretty much anything orthopedic related and, and you know, I could tell you, if you focus on trying to be the go-to person for everybody, you end up being the go-to person for nobody.

Like you need to try to be. Person for a specific type of avatar. A a very specific type of avatar. Like I had, uh, one of our mastermind members, I had a follow up call with them, uh, this was a couple months ago. And, you know, they were telling me, you know, like they're, they worked a lot of runners and they, uh, they've done a good job of developing that niche and they're definitely one of the go-to people in their area for runners.

But what she said was funny was she was like, I'm getting all these moms, these are like moms that are sort of, Kind of outta shape and want to get back into shape that are, that are, that are working on that. But they have some, you know, musculoskeletal injuries, um, that are stopping them from that. And she's like, I'm seeing so many of them.

And, you know, I, I, I started laughing. I was like, that's great. That's awesome. You're, you're starting to now. Uh, expand your niche cuz it's just was running for the most part initially. Right? And now she has this great niche of helping moms that wanna be active again. And guess what? She's an active mom herself.

So go figure. No wonder people want to come and see her because they see themself in her and she's very, uh, fit, she's very, uh, active and they, they view that as an example of what they can do as well if they work. What a great place to be. You know, you get to help this group of people and you are now, you know, becoming a, the subject matter expert in your area for this specific avatar.

It starts with one, and when you start to dominate that it can spill over into other ones. Outside of that, you know, you have to define who your avatar is though, and you have to focus on that. I see people that are like, they want to work with runners, but then they also want to be the, the go-to CrossFit person in their area.

Like, you can't do both. You can't be. I know, I know you might be great with CrossFitters and runners, but you gotta focus on being the, whichever one you want, being the best at that one thing. And once you've established, you know, and, and put yourself in the place where you are dominating that niche. Then you have to really, uh, work on, you know, delivering world class outcomes.

And then lots of other people outside your niche will come your way. That's how it works. Uh, they will send their friends and family your way because you're awesome. You help them with a specific problem. A lot of those people will be within your niche, but a lot of them will be, you know, the spouse of the, the person you saw, the, the brother of the person you saw the, the son of the person, you saw the daughter, whatever.

But people in their ecosystem cuz you've built trust. So focus on your, Focus on your avatar. If you haven't gone through your avatar, like an avatar exercise, you gotta drill down very specifically to who these people are so that you know their pain points really well. You know where they're hanging out, you know what kind of information they're absorbing online, what they're looking for, what they're searching for, um, and put yourself in a place where you become a subject matter expert for that person.

I said this already, but you, you also need to focus on delivering a world class experience. Now, think of it this way. How many chain restaurants are there out there? Like a ton, right? And these chain restaurants are all over the place. They have pretty damn good food. Otherwise they wouldn't be a chain restaurant.

Like for real. You ever been to Red Robin? You ever have one of their burgers? They're fricking good, or I don't. Don't just poo poo chain restaurants. People out there are like, oh, it's gotta be farm a table. Sure. That shit's awesome too. But look, chain restaurants are legit for a reason. Now. They get food at lower cost, they have way more, you know, research and development.

They have way better branding and marketing. So how does a smaller restaurant compete with. Well, they have to compete by being really good at something by focus on being world class at something and or delivering a world class experience, right? A worldclass experience versus lower cost, you know, and better marketing.

And that's where you have to focus. If you really, really want to dominate an area as a smaller business, because you can't compete on a larger scale, you have to focus on delivering a world-class outcome. That means. You are a great educator and communicator. You are punctual, you are timely with follow ups with people.

You personalize things to them. You make the, uh, handoff to other providers when it is appropriate, no matter how that affects your business or it doesn't affect your business. You remember things about people that are specific to them and you treat them as if they are more than just a client. Recently we had one of our staff, uh, Staff, clinicians, one of his patients, um, had a death in the, had a death in the family.

Uh, his, one of his patient's moms died and he said, you know, I know her favorite flower. And uh, we said, great. So we're gonna send her flowers. We'll send her favorite flower. And just a card, you know, we're sorry for your loss. And we did that. And you know, the response that we got from that was really interesting.

Like she just was, couldn't believe that we went out of our way to do that just because we're a physical therapy clinic working with her. Like, think about that for a second. Like, that's intentional. That, that, that's not something you can automate. And that's not something that bigger businesses are frankly probably gonna care about and or have the time.

To do, but we do and we get to build these relationships that are very important and very healthy for our business, but also I think the right thing to do for other people. And that's what you have to focus on yourself. And if you are too busy comparing yourself to other people that you can't even focus on how to improve your own business, you're gonna lose.

You're gonna lose, and I know it's hard, but you gotta be able to focus on what you are doing and who you're working with, and who you're trying to help the most, and how to make that better, and how to deliver to them better, and how to have a better experience, because that's what's really gonna help insulate your business from competition.

That's the key. It's about insulating and creating a moat around your business. And the only way you can create a moat around your business, your service business, is by having a loyal customer base that knows that you dominate a niche, you're the specific person to go to in a niche, and they have the best things to say about you.

The best thing to say about you, and they want to refer their friends and family your way. They go out of their way to send people your way. That's the kind of business you want to have, and that only comes from being very spoke, very focused on avatar and delivering world-class service for sure. Now, the other thing you can do is you can focus on creating content that highlights who you want.

And how you help them. This is one of the easiest ways, I don't say easiest. This is one of the most proven ways to really develop trust with people. Think of this right now. This is gonna be a, a real meta moment. I am delivering you some information and some content based on experience that I have that hopefully helps you.

And if it does, then I get upgraded in terms of my ability to potentially help you with a bigger problem. And potentially you become a client. This is something I really like doing this. There's no doubt. I've been doing podcasts twice a week for six years straight. Haven't missed a week that I, I don't do it just because I, I, I think it's good for business.

I do it because I like it. I like sharing information. I like teaching. And this is a platform that I just, you know, I'm used to and I feel comfortable with, and I feel like I can get in front of a lot of people, um, at no cost to you, which is awesome, right? So it's just a really, really good way of educating.

But keep in mind, this is also a content marketing channel, right? I'm not over here talking about how to, you know, Create the best in-network practice and scales to 10 locations. I don't know shit about that. Nothing. So I'm not gonna talk about it. I know what I know based on the, the business that I own, the experience that I've gone through and the people that we help is very similar businesses to to what?

To what we own. And that's what I share. But this is also something that. Is building trust. If this resonates with, uh, you know, with you as you're listening to this, the same thing can happen with you and your business. Maybe it is a local podcast where you highlight people in your, you know, your niche. Um, you know that, that are, let's say it's runners and you're talking to running coaches and shoe store, uh, owners and, you know, nutrition coaches and, uh, other clinicians or active runners in your area, competitors.

Youth athletes coming back off injuries and stuff like that. You talk about all kinds of stuff on a, on a local podcast, maybe it's blogging. Maybe you like to write blog posts that are like guide style things for specific types of injuries. Maybe video is it for you and YouTube makes a lot of sense. Or Instagram or TikTok or Facebook or whatever.

Uh, it's a channel where you get to share your thoughts and you sharing your thoughts in a, in a concise way, in a manner that makes sense to people. It's gonna make you look like the subject matter expert as you probably are, you know, and content is a great way to do that. So focus on creating content that specifically helps the people that you want to be the go-to person for.

Don't try to be the go-to person for everybody. You gotta play the long game too. So keep this in mind. Don't be an asshole. Like, let me put it that way, if you know, okay, so-and-so has an office. In this gym. So whatever gym that might be, let's say it's a CrossFit gym, don't go to that gym and try to, um, Uproot that person, let's put it that way, you know, and, and go and say like, oh, they're not very good what they do.

I see a lot of people, you know, that are getting bad outcomes from them, and you should send people my way and try to backdoor them, uh, with the gym owner or the coaches that are there or something like that. I think that's just, it's just a bad idea. It's not a, it's not a good thing to do. You know? It, it's one of those things.

If you ask yourself, all right, if my, if my parents were watching this or if my, I always think to myself, I'm like, okay, if my grandfather's watching what I'm doing right now, like my actions and the way that I'm handling myself, would he be proud of, you know, what, what of what I'm doing? And pick a person that you respect.

And if the answer is no, then don't do it. Why is it, I don't understand why this is hard. I, this, this should be common sense, but it's, it's frankly not. Otherwise I wouldn't have to talk about this. Don't do things that are unethical. Don't do things that you wouldn't want somebody to do to you. You know, keep that in mind because your

reputation,

you get one, it carries forward with you forever.

Forever. And it's some something that I, you know, I personally. Uh, try very, very hard to do the right thing for everybody every single time. Uh, now I will hold people accountable that I think are not following through on what they say they're gonna do, and that's part of why we've had a lot of success with business, uh, development of other businesses as well.

Cuz some people, sometimes people just make excuses and they need somebody to say, dude, you're not doing the right. Go and do it. Like stop complaining about it. Just go try harder. All right? I know it's hard, but you can do this and people need that. But what we don't do is try to backdoor other business owners or, you know, you know, I just talk bad about other people or, you know, I don't even know what you could do, honestly, unethically in, in, uh, in these types of businesses.

Because we don't do it. You know, we just don't. And you shouldn't either, you shouldn't go around talking bad about other business owners trying to, you know, poach people's, uh, clients or, uh, going to a gym where they have an office and trying to, you know, uproot them in some way. And it happens and it's gonna happen more.

Because there's more and more people that are going into these type of businesses, whether they're in gyms or they're subleasing offices from, you know, other types of businesses or, or they're starting standalone offices, which is a lot of businesses now they're, they're moving to standalone locations, which I think is a better, you know, place to go.

And, you know, one thing that I always think about, And I have this quote in my office that says, waste no more time arguing what a good man is. Be one. Right? And that's a, that's a quote I think about all the time. Let's not argue about what a good person is, what a, what good actions are. We all know we see it.

We can tell if it is or not. We'll, we, we feel in our gut, oh man, this doesn't feel like the right thing. Or sometimes it's the other way around. It's like, Ugh, I'm nervous because I know I have to do this now. Cause I know it's the right thing. And you gotta follow that, you know, cuz that's the long game.

The more that you do the right things for yourself, for the people that work with you, for the people around you long term, the better your reputation is, the better it is for your business, the more opportunities are gonna come your way. Because a, a person who is trustworthy is rare. Let me say that again.

Listen, A person who's trustworthy is rare. Very few people are trustworthy. Very few people follow through on what they say they're gonna. You want to be one of those people because if you are. That's, that is incredibly attractive to other people. They wanna work with you. They wanna send business your way cuz they know you're gonna make them look good and they know you're gonna be honest and you're gonna do the right thing for them every single time.

No matter how it, uh, reflects on you and your business. They'll do the right thing and that's what you wanna do. That's where you wanna be. Play the long game. The, the last thing I'll say when it comes to this is that the cream always rises to the. We see this happen over and over again in many industries.

Now in our industry, uh, there is somewhat of an unfair, uh, playing field when it comes to. Like insurance practices versus what, what we can do, especially if they're bigger in, uh, like hospital contracted or partnered, uh, clinics, like the re the amount of reimbursement that some of those clinics can get is just significantly higher than you could, even if you started your own insurance practice.

Like, well, higher than that. Um, so it's not really a fair playing field, but when we look at cash, like fee for service practices, even if it's hybrid, you're taking a little bit of, I. The playing field is significantly more leveled because it's based off of the direct consumer wanting to come and work with you versus the hospital telling people where they should go.

Like you are educating this, the consumer, it's a direct response type of marketing where you are going out and finding those people and you're looking to try to bring them in to your ecosystem, especially early on. You have to do a lot of that. And with that, the playing field is very level and the.

Businesses, the best providers, the best, the people that provide the best experiences and are the most consistent for their, their niche and their avatar, and can be the most creative and have the strongest work ethic and are the best, uh, developers of other people to scale past themselves, they're gonna win.

And that's actually a good thing to, uh, to know and to think about. Like all you gotta do. Is focus on creating the best business, being the best business owner, being the best person, the best leader that you can possibly be, and you're gonna put yourself in a place where you're gonna win. If you do that long enough, most people will quit.

Most people will stop when things are difficult, or they have to keep doing them for, you know, how too long or longer than they think, and then they start to think that maybe there's a different way. And they start a search for those things and then they leave or they go and work for somebody else. And for you, if you all you know, is you just have to play your game for as long as you possibly can and make decisions that are best for long-term relationships and long-term outcomes.

That's all you gotta do. And focus on developing it better every day and making your people better every single day. That's all you gotta do. And you'll be fine. You'll be fine because you frankly don't. Much, uh, to have enough success with these types of businesses to make it worth pursuing, you know, for you to be able to double your income, uh, versus working for another practice.

You don't need that big of a practice to do that. It, it really is small. It's you and maybe you and another person, you and maybe two other people in your area, depending on, you know, what you're charging and how much overhead you have, and a number of other factors. So, You know, you don't have to be Amazon, you know, it is not the case.

You don't have to build this behemoth of a business. You can have a small business that's fun to run. You build a great culture and, uh, and you, and you live a great life that way. You know, it doesn't have to be anything more than that. You just need to focus on improving yourself and, and mastery of your area, your niche, every single day, and focus on what other people are doing, uh, less and less.

And you're gonna, you're. Way happier. I'll tell you cuz I've been on both sides of it and just focusing on what other people are doing and getting angry about it. It's like the worst, you know, you, you drag that over to your, to your other relationships. I had a friend once tell me like, don't let your bad day turn into your family's bad evening or your family's bad night.

Like, your kids don't give a a a crap. What's stressing you out? You know, they just want to, they wanna play monopoly with you. They want to go to the pool, they wanna jump on the trampoline. And if you're over there just sulking because things aren't going your way as far as business goes, you gotta change your state.

You gotta realize like, yeah, okay, it's a problem, you'll deal with it, but don't, don't. Neglect the people around you or treat them, you know, poorly because you're frustrated by something and so many of us do this, especially with the people that are closest to us. But keep that in mind. Why, why you do that?

It's like, you know, the, the, the worst thing you could do and exactly the opposite of probably what you want to do. Long term, but in the moment it might feel a little bit better. So stop focusing on what other people are doing. Just focus on what you're doing. You're gonna be a lot happier, you're gonna have a lot more success, a lot more positive, uh, positive outcomes.

And there's room for many, many, many people, many more businesses than what we have now. The, the amount of work that's out there that we, the amount of people that we can help is astounding. It's so much more than what you and I or any of our businesses can do. And there's many, many more businesses that are gonna move into this market and they're gonna have success and they're gonna help a lot of people along the way.

And I'm excited for that. So, you know, get ready for it. You're definitely gonna see more and more competition in your area, especially over the next five to 10 years, but understand why there's not a lot of other great options. These people see opportunities that are better than what they have right now.

They have massive debt, they have, you know, unfulfilled jobs. What are they supposed to do? Like there's a better. And you're gonna tell me that they're not gonna do that. Of course they are. So you have to focus on what you can focus on and what you can take care of that's gonna put you in the best place for success.

Long term. I hope this helps you. I hope that you decide, you know, take a chance on yourself and, and to really, uh, you know, make a business like this, um, work and part of your life, but, By doing so, you're putting yourself in territory where you're gonna have to really work on yourself really hard too. And this is one of those variables, one of those moments, um, where you know, when you start to have other competition around you, you can go one way or the other very easily.

Uh, and I hope that you decide to take my advice for this because I've made many mistake, many of the mistakes that I talk about. Um, you know, and, and honestly, I just hope that you don't because it is. It's, it's worth the, uh, the work it's worth, the development It's worth the effort and the challenge, um, you know, to, to grow a business like this because it's gonna change you, uh, in, in a very significant way.

It makes you a better person, um, if you get to the other side and, and not ruin everything, you know, along the way. And, uh, I hope that this helps because, um, if we can shortcut some of these, Challenges for you. I mean, that's, that's a win for us. So as always, guys, thanks so much for listening. We'll catch you next time.

Hey, Pete, entrepreneurs. We have big, exciting news, a new program that we just came out with that is our PT Biz part-time to full-time, five day challenge. Over the course of five days, we get you crystal clear on exactly how much money you need to replace by getting you a. Ultra clear on how much you're actually spending.

We get you crystal clear on the number of people you're getting to see, and the average visit rate you're going to need to have in order to replace your income to be able to go full-time. We go through three different strategies that you can take to go from part-time to full-time, and you can pick the one that's the best for you based on your current situation.

Then we share with you the sales and marketing systems that we use within our mastermind that you need to have as well. If you wanna go full-time in your own practice. And then finally we help you create a. Page business plan. That's right. Not these 15 day business plans. You wanna take the Small Business Association, a one day business plan that's gonna help you get very clear on exactly what you need to do and when you're gonna do it.

To take action if you're interested and sign up for this challenge is totally free. Head to physical therapy biz.com/challenge. Get signed up there. Please enjoy. We put a lot of energy into this. It's totally free. It's something I think is gonna help you tremendously, as long as you're willing to do the work.

If you're doing, doing the work and you're. Information put down and getting yourself ready to take action in a very organized way, you will have success, which is what we want. So head to physical therapy biz.com/challenge and get signed up today. Hey, real quick before you go, I just wanna say thank you so much for listening to this podcast, and I would love it if you got involved in the conversation.

So this is a one way channel. I'd love to hear back from you. I'd love to get you. Into the group that we have formed on Facebook. Our PT Entrepreneurs Facebook group has about 4,000 clinicians in there that are literally changing the face of our profession. I'd love for you to join the conversation, get connected with other clinicians all over the country.

I do live trainings in there with Yves Gege every single week, and we share resources that we don't share anywhere else outside of that group.So if you're serious about being a PT entrepreneur, a clinical rainmaker, head to that group. Get signed up. Go to facebook.com/groups/ptentrepreneur, or go to Facebook and just search for PT Entrepreneur. And we're gonna be the only group that pops up under that.