E608 | Does It Ever Get Easier?

In this podcast episode, Dr. Danny shares his insights on entrepreneurship and whether it ever gets easier. He responds to a question from a member of the PT Biz Mastermind program who had recently experienced the departure of their second staff member after a year.

Dr. Danny explains that although the stress and challenges associated with starting and running a business do not disappear, they do become more manageable over time. He compares it to parenting, where the problems become more complex, but one becomes better equipped to handle them. He also emphasizes the importance of the people one works with in a business, who can both bring joy and cause stress.

Dr. Danny also highlights that managing these challenges leads to personal development and the possibility of time and financial freedom. He concludes that the struggles and stressors associated with starting a business are worth it and it is the best way to live.

Dr. Danny goes on to suggest that getting support and assistance is one of the best ways to reduce the steep learning curve of business. They highlight the importance of not trying to do everything on one's own and seeking advice and support from someone who has already achieved success in the same field. They also note that running a business is still hard, even with help, but it is worth it.

Overall, this episode offers valuable insights into the challenges of entrepreneurship and the importance of seeking support and assistance to make the journey a little less daunting.

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Podcast Transcript

Danny: Hey, real quick, before we get started, head over to Facebook and join the PT entrepreneurs Facebook group. If you haven't done so yet, we have monthly live trainings going on there. There's an opportunity for you to join in the conversation instead of just listening to what I have to say on this podcast, as well as the people that I bring on.

And it's a really cool place to join about 6, 000 other clinicians that are. Honestly, trying to change the landscape of our profession through these cash and hybrid practices. One other thing that's really cool is we have a guide in there. That's a quick start guide. When you join, you can go and check this out.

There's about seven videos that we've curated that are the most common questions we get in the best case studies that we've found to really help you start, grow, and scale your practice up to seven figures. So if you haven't done so yet, head to Facebook, request to join the PT entrepreneurs, Facebook group.

You have to be a clinician. We're going to check you out. We don't just let anybody in. But if you are, Hey there, go ahead, get signed up. We'd love to have a conversation with you in that group.

So here's the question. How do physical therapists like us who don't want to 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 is Danny Matei and welcome to the PT entrepreneur podcast.

What's going on guys. Doc Danny here. With the PT entrepreneur podcast, and today we're talking about entrepreneurship and does it ever get easier? And I got this question from a mastermind member recently And one of the things we do within that program is we use basically a voice message app where they can Send whatever questions they have to me and the other business partners and coaches that we have within our mastermind.

And then, we can answer it and get back to them. And, it's funny, sometimes it's very tactical things. And sometimes it's very non tactical, but just more mindset things, right? It's more challenges that they're dealing with and it's not. As tactical as a, Hey, what payment process should I use or something like that?

And very often it's not that. And I had somebody that recently they had a staff member leave. So they've had some turnover. They, it was their first staff clinician. And this is the second one that they've had basically be there for about a year and then move on to another job.

So super frustrating for this person. And one thing they asked me was like, man. Does this ever get easier in regards to entrepreneurship? Does it ever just get easier? Cause it feels real hard right now. It feels super heavy to, to show up and get up every morning and still, go through the grind that is.

Starting, growing, and frankly, running a business. And, I thought it was an interesting question because having been through the stage that person is in right now, some of you might be there right now as well. It does suck when things are just not going your way. And it's interesting because it feels like when things are not going your way, It's not just one thing.

It's multiple things. It seems like it piles on, and you ask yourself, is this worth it, is it worth it? Because I think back, for instance, whenever I was in the army and I was seeing patients the way, just doing my job in a clinic at my brigade, whatever I would.

I would go home and I wouldn't think about work really at all, unless I was maybe looking up something about a patient that maybe I was stuck on, reading a new article or diving into maybe a new approach for something. And really that was just like clinical progression, right? That's probably no different than any other clinician that's trying to do a decent job with their patients.

But I sure as hell wasn't worried about is so and so going to show up tomorrow? Are we going to have the. Are we going to hit our budget numbers or are we going to have revenue? All these things that when you start a business, it is, there's a lot of stressors, there's a ton of stressors actually, and really can't say that those go away.

All I can say is that there's sort of these peaks and valleys, and when you're seeing progress and you're gaining momentum, when things are going the right direction, it feels awesome. Like it's such a fun thing to do and again, those of you that are listening to this that have a business You're going to understand what i'm talking about if you don't have a business I don't actually know how to explain this to you Because you just got to you just got to do it to be a part of what i'm talking about to really understand what i'm saying and It's just it's so fun when what you're doing is working and people are working together to achieve this common goal And the business is growing and you're seeing that you're gaining momentum.

And then all of a sudden it's like you get punched in the mouth by things that happened in life, and it's so similar to a book I used to read my kids all the time. They're too old for this now, but my favorite book to read my kids when they were younger is a Dr. Seuss book that is called all the places that you'll go.

And it is so spot on in life, but I really. Think about my career and entrepreneurship of, excitement and going out into the world. And you can go anywhere and it's thrilling. And then all of a sudden it gets real sketchy or scary and you get beat up a little bit and the world beat you down and you have a couple options, right?

You can stay small, you can retreat or you can work on, Hey, how do I. How do I take where I'm at? And I fail forward, I learned from what I, what went wrong and I fail forward and it's a really hard thing to do over and over again and I'll give you a really good example.

Just recently we had a live event in San Antonio and the week leading up to that live event, we had our payroll processor basically got punted off the. The state registration for our company in one of the states that we have employees. So we couldn't pay these people like directly through that pain processor.

So one of our business partners on the phone with the state trying to figure out what's going on. This is right before pay period, right before we have.

The book that I wrote we got a cease and desist order from a group that had a trademark on part of the name of that book, and it was a very serious legal infringement that we had to quickly change and work with our intellectual property attorney to make sure that we were doing the right thing so that we didn't end up in a lawsuit unknowingly from, a phrase that's pretty commonplace that we didn't actually realize was even trademarked, right?

So all this leading into a live event where, we have, a couple hundred people that are coming into San Antonio, Texas at the time and and worst timing ever, cause we have so much stuff that's coming together at the end, and then you throw on people that are, have been prior clients of ours that now are working in on the business consulting side with with other clinicians and it's no different than somebody that.

Was a clinician at your office and they go off and they start their practice down the road from you or whatever it's just things like that. That don't, that aren't really like the most fun thing in the world. They're tedious, they're stressful, they're time intensive and they happen at every stage of the business.

And it doesn't really ever go away. It's not like that all the time. Again, you have these peaks and valleys. We'll start making all this progress. Everything's clicking. And then all of a sudden, there's a problem. Something happens that we have to solve. It's... It's a pro and a con because part of the reason why entrepreneurship is so interesting to be a part of is that you never know what's going to happen.

It's thrilling. It's also, it's thrilling in a way that, that is also somewhat can be catastrophic. Cause of the out, I guess the. Ramifications of whether something goes well or not can really affect your ability to have that business or run a successful business. But then there's times where it's super easy and it feels great.

And you're like, man, this is awesome. Everything is running smoothly, but no doubt for sure. Something will happen eventually. That's going to, punch you in the mouth again and you're going to have to decide shit. All right. Am I going to figure this out and fail forward or am I going to retreat or stay small or.

Whatever, maybe you get out of what you're doing and you go back to something that was just an easier life for you because it's not that important for you or it doesn't make as much of a difference in your life as you were hoping that it would. I thought to myself why is it now with all the things that we've had to deal with, just like basically every other business order, which is why I'm bringing this up.

It's not. It's not specific to me. Everybody that starts a business has a low level of stress. They deal with on a regular basis. And the most important people that you work with the people you get the most satisfaction out of working with your employees. Your team that you build it's the best part of every business.

To be honest, it's the people you get a chance to be with and form a team with and work together with. I think it's the absolute best part of the business. They're the same people that will drive you fucking crazy and stress you out so bad. And it's very similar to children. It's just, it's very similar to kids.

Kids are the, my kids are the best part of my life besides my wife. And sometimes my kids suck because they're, they can be really, their kids, whatever they're dealing with stuff and it requires a lot of time and energy. And, it's. I'm not going to sit here and lie to you and just be like, Oh yeah, kids are the greatest thing ever.

They're the best thing in my life, no doubt. But man, sometimes they're tough. They're hard. It's hard to see your kids go through shit that they have to go through. When, there's really nothing that you can do about it. It's hard to see them make mistakes and fail. It's super hard to just stand by and just try to be that mentor that they need.

As they go through the world, as they go through life, and you hope that the things you're imparting on them are going to lead to a successful human being, a successful human being. Upstanding citizen, you know in our country and in the world and that's up to my wife and I like it's a lot of pressure But it doesn't mean you shouldn't have kids.

It means that it's they're so important It's so valuable for us and it's such an important thing for us to do. We take that very seriously And when I look at the people that you work with in your business A lot of the stressors, a lot of the problems that you'll have are going to come from those people as well.

But they're the best part, and it's this weird catch 22 that as you build your company, some of these people are just going to really irritate you, they're going to frustrate you, but they're also going to be the best part of the whole company that you've built along the way. You're going to learn so much about yourself and progress just by having to understand how to deal and and communicate and work with these other people.

And it's such a valuable thing. It's so important that it's worth continuing on. The by product of that, the by product of you being successful in this arena of entrepreneurship and your own business. The by product of that is the greatest personal development that you will go through from what I've found.

And on the back of that comes time and financial freedom, a life that other people wish that they could experience, but it doesn't come without massive effort and sacrifice. It doesn't come without that. You can't just fall into a successful business and everything works out without you having to put any effort into it.

That doesn't exist, not unless you just inherited a bunch of money and. You bought a passive business that somebody else runs, but even then you probably still have problems you're going to have to deal with. Do the problems go away? No. Do they get harder to deal with? Absolutely, they get harder to deal with.

You just become more well equipped to deal with them. It's very similar again to kids, right? The problems that my kids were dealing with when they were 3 and 5, versus the problems that they're dealing with now that they're 9 and 11. It's so much more complex and I mean hit middle school and high school yet, right?

It's i'm preparing for those guys. I had to start dealing with all kinds of issues that we haven't dealt with now but i'm a better parent today Than I was years ago when they were younger and as long as I keep working on those things I'm going to be better in a couple years than I am now and I look forward to that I want that challenge because it makes me a better person so I think that if you look at these struggles and these challenges that we deal with through the lens of What are you learning from it?

And is it worth it then your answer is there, right? Does it get easier? It doesn't get easier. You get better at dealing with things, but your problems also get harder to deal with. But is it worth it? A hundred percent for me, at least. I don't know how I would ever go back to doing anything else.

I'm chronically unemployable at this point. I don't even know what it would be like to have a job anymore. I work plenty hard, but it's really on my terms. Very. Rarely am I doing things that I absolutely hate doing, like that just doesn't really happen anymore because we've earned the right to be able to build a team and build people around, me that are really good at these other things that maybe I'm weak at and I struggle with doing, and they're awesome at, and we offset each other and that's a really great team that we get a chance to build. So for me, it's totally worth it. Totally worth it. Every time that you go through something like. All the crap that we dealt with before with this huge live event that we had, it sucks, and I've had plenty of challenges associated with that as far as dealing with stress, dealing with mental health associated with that and anxiety attacks and all kinds of shit that it'll just wear you down.

But. It also forces you to look in the mirror and say what do I need to improve? So that this isn't a problem again, because these problems aren't going away. So what is it that I need to do? Take a bet to take better care of myself. And that rubs off in so many other ways in my life that it's been so helpful that I, I don't want to avoid those problems.

So if you're listening to this and you're like, man, this feels hard right now, it is hard. It's super hard and it's the barrier to entry. It keeps people out, it keeps people out and it just lets the people in that really want it. And the ones that are successful, you deserve it because you have to earn it and you should be very proud of that.

So if you're dealing with problems, you're doing that out of your own, you're volunteering for that. You're volunteering for these problems that come your way because of what you're trying to achieve, the life you're trying to build, which I'm telling you. Is. It's such an awesome way to live.

It's such a unique lifestyle to have ultimate control over your time and to have financial freedom all while doing something that you actually really enjoy. You know how many people go to work every day and they hate it? Do you know how many people sit in their car every day and they hate it and they can't wait to leave and they sit there all day thinking about doing something besides what they're actually doing for work at that moment in that day?

It's a vast majority of people that are of working age in the entire country, and it's a sad existence, in my opinion. We're, we only get one life that I know of, but why would I squander that, hating what I do all day long? I would much rather love what I do and deal with the stressors associated with that as an exchange, than...

Sit in my car, drive to some job that I hate and do it every single day over and over again. And then wait until one day, maybe if I'm lucky, I get a chance to retire and then, Oh, I'm too old to actually do some shit that I would actually want to do in the first place. So if you're struggling with.

It's feeling tough in your business and entrepreneur, entrepreneurship and juggling your family and all that, like that's normal. That's normal. And the best thing you can do is really look at it as an opportunity to progress. If you're struggling with that, then the next best thing you can do is get somebody to help you because part of what I see, and it's not like I have business mentors to this day.

I have coaches that I hire. I'm in mastermind groups. I do that because. It's the easiest way for me to deal with the massive challenges that our business. And if you're struggling with that's what you need to look at next, whether it's my company or somebody else's company, but like getting support and help on what you're doing is one of the best ways.

Take that lead, that learning curve and make it a little less sharp, soften it up a little bit because you're seeing. What people are already doing, they can see around corners, give you advice about what to do, give you advice on what not to do in certain situations and things that could be really catastrophic in the business.

It's a great return on investment. It's the reason I do it every single year myself, not necessarily just the company that we work with PT biz, with the clients that we work with. So if you're struggling get help. Don't just try to do it all by yourself. You don't have to, there's not some.

Extra award you get because you try to figure it out on your own. That's what I used to think. I was like I want to have this story where I did everything on my own and no one ever helped me. I never had any business mentorship. I just figured all this out. What kind of ego, do you need?

And that I had for sure at the time to where I felt like I had to do this all by myself, just so I could tell everybody that I did it all by myself. Who cares? You think my family cared? Hell no, I guarantee you for the first few years when I was just barely sleeping and I was stressed out all the time and I was a dick to be around everybody, they sure as hell would have been like, Dad, get a coach, get some help because you're being an asshole.

That's what I was. And as soon as I started to figure things out and get help on what I was doing, my life got a hell of a lot easier, even though it's still hard. It's still hard. You don't have to worry about it. Like taking away the challenge of running a business. That shit's still hard. It doesn't go anywhere.

You at least just get some support and some help and somebody to bounce ideas off of or a group to, to work together with, to really try to get there together without making these catastrophic mistakes or without quitting, without just saying, this is too hard. I'm going back to whatever I was doing.

Whatever job I didn't really but I didn't really hate and I'm going to go live that life again. That's an ultimate failure for me. That's something I would never ever want to do. So if you're there, it's normal. Don't worry about it. Just keep pressing on, get back up, fail forward.

And if you feel stuck, get some help. Again, like I said, I don't care if it's me, just anybody that resonates with you, find somebody that you resonate with, that you feel like you can trust that's already accomplished what you're trying to do, and then get some help from that person so that your business isn't as hard as it would be if you're trying to figure it out all on your own.

So I hope this helps. I hope I didn't burst anybody's bubble of what entrepreneurship and what their life is going to look like one day when everything's easy and everybody's doing all the work for you and just sit there and eat Cheetos all day or whatever it is like. That ain't that shit doesn't happen ever.

Get used to it. It's hard. It's always hard, but it's worth

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