E211 | Are You A Clinic Ninja?

On episode 211 of The PT Entrepreneur Podcast, I discuss a recent conversation I had with a colleague in San Antonio on the idea with chasing clinical excellence.

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Episode Transcription:

Danny: Hey, what's going on, guys? Doc Danny here with the PT Entrepreneur podcast and, I'm super excited to talk to you today about something that's; I had a conversation with recently with a friend of mine, out in San Antonio, and in regards to this idea of chasing excellence. And, you know, this is something that for me early on in my career, and many of you, hopefully, you're in the same stage where you are.

Continually trying to improve as a clinician were you trying to become the best clinician, the best practitioner, physical therapist, chiropractor, massage therapists, whatever it is. I don't know what you do. It's all the same to me. As long as you help people move better, the best person in the world at that position, this idea of excellence, this idea of chasing mastery that never actually

 happens. And when I was in San Antonio, on Saturday, I'll set the stage for you with a little context for this, as I, as I talk about it. So I got invited out to speak at an event for a fellowship group, run through the Institute of Athlete Regeneration. The guy that started the company, his name is Toko Nguyen, and he is impressive, man.

I've got to get him on the podcast, by the way. I enjoy getting a chance to sit down and talk with him and, and had like a four-hour dinner conversation about all kinds of stuff that I, that I geek out on. But one of these topics was the idea of chasing—clinical excellence. And for me, my role has changed significantly over the last few years as we've brought staff members on and as we have grown our business, and I've moved more into a business owner role and less of a clinical part.

And for me, that's just the direction that it has gone in. Then it will continue to go as our business continues to grow. But he said something that I thought was pretty profound. He said. If you're that good, you're going to have a waitlist and, and in some capacity. I think that that's true and some maybe not, but what he's talking about is if you're that good at what you do, everyone that you saw would tell everyone that they know it has an injury, that they would have to go and see you.

They would spew their opinion of how awesome you are all over everybody that they knew, and I look back on when we first started Athlete's Potential, and I knew nothing about marketing. I knew nothing about sales. I didn't know anything about systemizing a business or hiring people. I don't know shit.

What I did know was that's I was always trying to learn more and more, and this is the setting that you have to put yourself in. If you have a patient that comes in, and you're not getting them the results that you think you should. That should bother the crap out of you. You should become obsessed with figuring out what you're messing with, with learning about other techniques, other approaches, other people out there that maybe are solving a similar problem differently, should seek out that information, should seek out the growth potential that comes along with that.

Because of all of us. Can frankly improve clinically. Now, I think that the most prominent linchpin that I see is people that have a pretty good clinical skill set. They're like an eight out of a ten, but they know nothing about business. They decided to go into business for themselves, and it bombs flatlines, and it's because they don't understand how to get people in the door.

They don't understand how to engage with them, how to talk to them, and, and, and, and it's a massive problem in their business. But what if you were a 10 out of 10? Well, if you were clinically a 10 out of 10 hands down the best person in the city. How much marketing do you think you would need to do?

How? How much sales training do you think you would need to do? You know, how, how much would you learn to learn about Facebook ads? Let's, let's be honest, for a second, and when I look back at when we first started the the rapid growth that we had had nothing to do with my business skillset. It had to do with the fact that I was

100% the only word to describe it was obsessed. Obsessed with improving to become the best clinician in the world, not the city of Atlanta, the world. Like I want people coming in to work with me from all over the country, which happened within about six months of us getting out. It's crazy to think of somebody who would drive from halfway across the country.

Just to work with you, and if that's not happening to you, you need to get better as a clinician as well. You have to work on becoming a master. Excellent. In the clinical setting, as well as understanding the business side of things. This is where it gets so challenging whenever you go into business for yourself.

You have to understand these two roles, but you can't give up on the one which is the bread and butter of why people are coming to see you in the first place. And if people thought you were that good, and if you were really. That good of a clinician, you would have a full waitlist. You wouldn't have a single marketing issue whatsoever.

You wouldn't need to, because, for every one person that you saw, five more would come in to see you. And then from there, the same thing happens. Those five send more people your way, and then the people that they send more people your way and it spreads like wildfire. So I have to ask you a question, and I think that you need to be honest with yourself.

How good clinically are you. Are you that good, or do you just think you're that good? Do you have room to improve? Because if you do, you need to understand where your limitations are. I still need to grow clinically for sure, especially with the amount of time that I've spent on the business side of things.

And it's been hugely impactful for us as we've grown our business. But even still, you know, if I want to work with people, which I still plan on doing, I enjoy it. I think it's one of the few professions where we get so much personal satisfaction. From working with people and the fact that we get to have a career where we can provide a perfect life for our family.

It's just like unparalleled. There's no other career that I would have chosen. There's no other profession. I really, I think I'm very fortunate, and we've lucked out, and you should feel the same way. You know, we get to go to work, genuinely help people, engage with them, connect with them, see the transformation, and, and have a good living for our, for ourselves at the same time.

But this idea of. Excellence within the clinical skillset is something that Togo challenged me on a little bit. And, and, and, you know, I'm glad he did because you know, for him, he has a practice in Houston and he's like, dude, I'm booked up. I've never done any marketing in my life—, which is, which is pretty amazing.

And you know, he has a strong relationship with the guy that owns a gym where he's at. It's done, done wonders for him, kind of getting those first few people in the door, but then he's fulfilled on that. He's, he's wowed, people. He is gone over in terms of their expectations. He's been the best clinical experience that these people have ever experienced.

And. That is remarkable, meaning worth remarking to other people about how awesome it is. That is rare. Very rare.  when you get to that point when you work on your communication ability, your hands-on ability, your programming ability, your ability to engage in progress, somebody along a continuum of solving a problem, the business side becomes much easier when you're a Ninja when you're a Ninja in the clinic.

You don't have to be that great at the business until you go to scale. Now you're going to get yourself busy. That's how you do it. You want it, single provider. Just get your schedule active, focused on becoming the best clinician in the area or the world, and whatever it is that you do. Seek out mentorship from the best people that you know and grow consistently.

Now, when you want to go to hire and scale is entirely different skillset, very challenging, much, much different. And. But learnable. You know, it's, it's a teachable skill. It's something that people can improve on, just like a clinical skill set. But when he, when he challenged me on this a little bit, I was, I'm glad that, you know, I had some time to reflect on it and look at, you know, what he was saying.

And, and I think that in many ways he's very right. If you're trying to improve your business as a single provider and you are not excellent. Clinician, not you think you're an excellent clinician. Other people believe that you're the most significant thing they've ever had a chance to work with and they're not sending everybody that they know to come to see you.

That is an objective measure that you still have a lot of room. To improve and you need to do self-study, you to get to con ed courses, you need to connect with other providers that can help problem-solve with you, challenge you, mentor you, would that be paid or that be free, whatever it is, find the right people, get connected with them and grow as a clinician because this idea of excellent supplies both in business skillset and in a clinical skillset.

And if it's just you right now and you're trying to figure out the business side of it, that's great. We can help with that. But you're trying to figure out the clinical Scott side of it. There are other people that are much better at that, and you understand that you have to become the world's best.

Whatever is you're trying to do, and focus on that. Chase, that mastery, that excellence, that will help you get more patients in the door in a very organic way and grow your reputation to a point where you can then scale past yourself, bring on other people, teaching what you're so damn good at. And let them be mentored in a way that very few people in our profession get right out of school so that they can grow as a clinician as well.

And you can impact more and more people. So that's my advice for you guys. Now, after my conversation, I had a great time out there. If you guys are looking to do any clinical education, I get nothing for this. I don't own the company. I have no affiliate fee, whatever it is. I was very impressed with this group, very impressed with Toko.

I've been very impressed with many of their instructors. Andrew, Keenan sous up in, in Charlotte is impressive. Check these guys out—Institute of athlete regeneration. I have nothing but great stuff to say about them. If you're looking to improve your clinical skillset, see what they've got going on, it could be a perfect fit for what you are looking for.

So guys, as always, thanks so much for listening to the PG entrepreneur podcast. I appreciate your time, and we'll catch you next time.

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