E520 | Ashley Matta Re-Cast Interview

Today's episode comes from December of 2017. It was one of the very first P.T. Entrepreneur Podcast episodes and my wife and I had been working on our practice for about 3.5 years to that point. This episode is great for anyone that is in business with their spouse or someone that is close to them. Enjoy!

• Understanding the roles you both should play
• Knowing if and when you should work with your spouse
• How to separate your spouse from being your co-worker at home

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Podcast Transcript

Danny: [00:00:00] 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 [00:01:00] 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, the PT Entrepreneur podcast. And today, uh, I'm gonna intro another recast. This one is, uh, especially, you know, um, close to, to the heart for me. This is, uh, with my wife Ashley. So this is, again, it's so interesting to hear parts of these actually. Dislike listening to my own podcast, but, uh, just remembering, remembering what are in some of these.

Um, had to go back and listen to some to be able to do these intros. And this is from December, 2017. Um, so at this point, [00:02:00] Um, Ashley and I had been working together for about three and a half years, uh, in Athletes Potential. And this is, this is one of the first like 10 podcasts, uh, inter interviews or episodes that I had with the PT Entrepreneur podcast.

And you know, now that you, you guys can't really listen to these because we have a, you know, a, a max number of episodes that we can have, uh, up in our feed. Um, I'm re-releasing some of these, and this was one that I laughed out loud a little bit at some of the. That we talk about in this. But um, in particular, if you work with your spouse, this is a, a really just sort of, um, candid convers.

From two people that work together in a business that, um, at this point now we've been married for 15 years. You know, we have a, we have two businesses. We have two children. We have two dogs. A cat that just won't seem to die, who was there before we got married. And we have a. You know, we, I think we have a pretty good [00:03:00] relationship and this is just a candid conversation of us and how we work together and, you know, advice that we have for people that are doing that.

So even if you have a business partner, this may be helpful, but definitely if you have a spouse and, and my, my wife does not really do anything forward facing. So it is rare. It is as rare as seeing Bigfoot to get, uh, Ashley on a podcast. And, uh, we did it, you know, I did. Uh, when 2017, and I don't think I've done it since.

So it's been five years since, uh, since we got her on the podcast. So I hope you enjoy this one. I hope that, uh, you get a lot out of it and I think Ashley's so smart. And she just does such a good job, you know, running, uh, running these type of practices, like the actual operations side of the actual, like, difficult part she does such a good job with.

And, uh, she's really, you know, not just obviously like, I like her quite a bit, uh, as a, as a life partner, uh, but as a business partner, she's awesome and I think you can learn a lot from her and, and, uh, [00:04:00] you know, I'm completely biased as well. So hope you enjoy this. And I hope that, uh, you know, you get a lot out of this and that you enjoy a little blast from the past as we release some of these recasts, uh, of the podcasts you can't listen to right now.

And, and, uh, bring 'em back so that you can. So as always, guys, thanks so much for listening and I'll catch you next week. What's up guys? Doc Danny here with the PT Entrepreneur Podcast, and I am extremely excited about this podcast episode because I have finally talked my wife into jumping on the podcast with me.

Ashley, Matt, mate, how are you tonight? I'm okay. Are you, are you excited about this? No. Are you You're not as excited as me.

Ashley: No. I'm, I'm a behind the scenes kind of person.

Danny: Well, you need to speak up a little bit because we only have one mic and it's between both of us. I'm a

Ashley: behind the scenes

Danny: kind of person.

There you go. So, Here's the deal. There's a couple things [00:05:00] that we want to talk about and I've been wanting to get Ashley on the podcast for a while. I tried to get her on the Docking Jock podcast for years, and that's a lie. It's not a lie. We wanna talk about post, post-pregnancy training and, uh, we'll get, we'll get to that point eventually, but for now, we wanna talk.

Business. We wanna talk about our business and we work together. So, um, it's an, it's an interesting relationship when, when your business partner is also the person you're married to, would you agree? Sure. You're gonna need to, um, have longer answers than one word answers

Ashley: if this is gonna work. Yes. You have to have a pretty.

Locked down marriage before you go into business together. I locked you down years ago. Yes. You're thinking of, Hey, maybe we should get a divorce. Uh, the last thing we wanna do to try to save our marriage is start a business. It's guaranteed to

Danny: end ending divorce. So you're saying if [00:06:00] your, if your relationship is built on a house of lies Yeah.

That a business will expose it all. Yes. Well, wh what do you think are the challenges of working with your spouse?

Ashley: Uh, I would say for most business owners it probably, Stops. You never stop thinking about the business. It just goes on and on and on. And so then when your spouse is your business partner, it's hard to turn that off.

So for us, we cook dinner every night and then we put the kids to bed, and then usually we knock out some more work. So it's hard to turn that off, and that's one of the, the biggest issues that I see. So if you can't do that sometimes, then you're just gonna, you're not gonna connect. You're only gonna become Danny, my business partner.

Danny, my husband. Well, that sounds sad. Well, yes. I'm not saying that's where we are. I'm saying you asked what's hard about being a business owner. Yeah,

Danny: I agree. And I [00:07:00] feel like, uh, it's an easy thing to bring up talking about the business when you shouldn't be talking about the business like that. Having those set.

Parameters of like, don't bring up work. Yes, that's, this is not the time and the place and this and that can be really challenging when you say, Okay, well let's go grab lunch and, you know, alright, we're gonna talk about the kids and the next thing you know, we're bringing up some problem that we have at, at work.

It can be really hard to not like, kind of turn that off and, um, you know, ha have a, have a set barrier as to like, when you're supposed to talk about the stuff when you're not. Um, so what, what have you noticed in terms of, uh, working with me in particular and, uh, being married to an entrepreneur? Uh, what are the, what are the challenges associated?

Ashley: Where do

Danny: I start? Just lay it, lay it all out. This is gonna be so good. No, I want to hear just like, make me feel really small.

Ashley: [00:08:00] No, uh, it's mostly, uh, a joy to be married to you, Danny. Well, that's what I was looking for. Uh, no. You know how I feel about you and I think that you're one of the smartest people in the world and it.

Fun to be able to work with you. Uh, it can be really frustrating at times because you have these great big ideas and then you're like, oh, hey, by the way, implement that shit. And I'm like, yeah, no, that's not gonna happen. Or Yeah, that's gonna happen, but I don't really want to, or Yeah, cool. Let's do that together.

Uh, so you just have to figure out how to work with the different parts. I feel like Danny and I are lucky because what is it you're the.

Danny: Visionary and integrator. Yes.

Ashley: You're the visionary and I'm the integrator. So Danny has the great, big ideas and I'm the one that can implement them. If you had a business where both of you had, or if you had a business partner and both of you were integrators, or both of you were, uh, were, what's the [00:09:00] other one?

And keep forgetting. Visionary. Visionary.

Danny: It sounds cooler than it is. It's really.

Ashley: Yeah. But if you had somebody that you both just had great ideas, but you didn't know how to start a business, or you didn't know how to run a business or to invoice people, then that's great. That great idea is not gonna do anything for you.

So I feel like we're pretty lucky that we naturally fell into these roles together, and so we can accomplish a lot. Um, I honestly forgot what your original question was.

Danny: I kind of did too. I just, I just, I. Got caught staring at you. You're just so beautiful. It's uh, amazing. Oh my god. People can't see this, but this is some sort of weird form of like foreplay.

I think it's really odd. I'm now, she's even more angry. Gonna need you to edit that out. That's not getting edited out. Now here's the deal. I've been married for 10 years. We got a super solid relationship. Two little kids. And I don't think there's anybody that I would want to work with in the capacity that, that, that you and I work with, then you.

And it's, it's because, uh, you're, you offset my [00:10:00] weaknesses really, really well. And I think this, this doesn't have to be your spouse necessarily, but I've been asked by quite a few people at this point, I'm thinking about my wife coming on and working with me, you know, and my response is always, well, What do you enjoy doing?

What's your skillset? What does she enjoy doing and what's her skillset? If there were two integrators, nothing. Nothing would ever happen because there would just be nothing but. Well, we're gonna plan and, well, we haven't, we need a backup plan. And well, we haven't planned this out and we gotta figure this out.

And those, so they, they, they spent all his time on the subtle details of things and that's great, but they never actually accomplished anything. Now, if it was two visionaries that, uh, decided to partner up together, All they would do is sit in a room and whiteboard shit with each other and, and just get super excited about this awesome idea they have.

And then they would get discouraged a week later when they decided they wanted to move on to this other [00:11:00] idea. So, so if you don't have that, that match, the correct match of, uh, offsetting your skillset, it's a terrible idea to get involved with your spouse cuz it's going to be, cause a lot of stress. So what would you define your roles are primarily within athletes potential?

Because this is probably be something where we can start looking at if you have, uh, this relationship, what should you guys really be doing?

Ashley: So my job is to manage, uh, schedules. And I take care of all of the backend stuff. I work with a bookkeeper and a CPA for all of the financials, the day-to-day finances, I manage, uh, ordering supplies, basically everything that keeps athletes potential up and running website, our booking software, all of that good stuff.

And then I have Claire, our office manager that helps me with our social media. And she doesn't help me. She does it all. Um, so I kind of. As much as I [00:12:00] can be behind the scenes, I prefer it. Um, I only was recently in our very first Athlete's Potential YouTube video, and I think we only did five outtakes before I could stop laughing.

It's just not You have a Yeah, my

Danny: thing. Well, you have a problem, you. When you start laughing, I can't stop. You can't stop. So hopefully that doesn't happen on this podcast cause it's going really well. I'm thinking we should probably start a third podcast. Yeah, no. With you and me. And we could just do this every.

Couple days? No. Sounds terrible. Okay. Maybe not. But here, here, here's the deal. The, the roles are, are something that I, I want nothing to do with any of that stuff. I'm bad at it. I mess the schedule up all the time. Yes. I'm actually not really allowed to schedule things. No, he's not. You know, people email me and they're, they ask, you know, about scheduling a time to jump on a call or something like that, and I, I feel like kind of a douche bag being like, well, you gotta go through this route.

Right. But it's because I'm just bad and I. Meetings and I'll mess it up. It's not my strong suit. So, you know, [00:13:00] being able to actually have somebody that loves being organized and is like detail oriented is so important. And here's the other thing that happened as, as soon as you came on, our business went from, uh, me in an office by myself.

Seeing people and we'd got to a point where, you know, I mean, we're seeing what, a hundred to 120 patient visits a month? Probably before you came on. Yeah.

Ashley: I don't know. But you were extremely unorganized. I know that much. Oh,

Danny: terribly

Ashley: unorganized. There was, at that point in my life, I was a stay-at-home mom.

And I just couldn't take it. It was more stressful for me to see how unorganized he was than it was for me to not have him around cuz he was busy starting a business. So it was very natural for me to want to get in there and organize everything and, uh, be the boss of him at work and at home. Yeah, it just, it worked out so well for

Danny: me.

I've just submitted, I've just rolled over like an old dog and submitted in every way possible, like Danny

Ashley: was saying. Uh, He is not very [00:14:00] organized and he hates doing paperwork. And when you start a business, there's all kinds of paperwork. You gotta make sure you get your tax id. Uh, you can file as an LLC or an S corp.

And you, you have to take time and you have to do all of this and you have to research it, making sure you're HIPAA compliant. Um, and Danny doesn't care to do any of that, so you gotta make sure that. Somebody, whether it's your spouse or whoever, that can really get in there, figure out what laws you have to be, uh, compliant with in your state.

So that stuff is very important. And it's not the pretty stuff, it's not all of the fun physical therapy or podcasting bullshit, but it is a stuff that makes a business run. No,

Danny: you make it sound like what I do is so negligible. It's, you know, it, it, it really is. It's important to have organization within your business in, in for a couple reasons.

And here's why. Like I, you know, when I, when I was starting, uh, athlete's Potential, it was really [00:15:00] something that, um, grew faster than we expected. And a lot of it just had to do with the fact that, uh, we were teaching a lot. So we were getting in front of a lot of people and a lot of that had to do with me trying to just kind of, um, improve.

Public speaking skillset because I was teaching for mobility wa so I would teach a lot locally to kind of work on some of that stuff. And out of, out of that, we would just start to get patients that would come and see us. So, and then word of mouth, you know, happens and people are telling their friends and family and, and we just got busy a lot faster than we expected.

So, uh, it, when, when you look at your business, when it, when it goes through these different phases of growth, you have to look at what areas, if you were to. Double or triple your business overnight, what areas in your business would break? What systems would break? And for me it was a, a lot of systems were really important, you know, like documenting things that I was doing on a regular basis in terms of what we would want somebody else to do, and having a system in place to then teach a second provider to be able to do that.

And I wasn't [00:16:00] doing any of that stuff. I wasn't organizing things. I was kind of doing my own thing. I was the only one that knew the system. And by being able to bring Ashley in, that was frustrating. Oh, totally frustrating. It's, it was, it was frustrating for me to work in that because I couldn't get anybody to help me.

So what you end up doing is you don't have a business, you have a job and you work for a crazy person cuz you work for yourself and you'll just,

Ashley: and you should go read Danny's blog on athlete's potential about getting proper blood tests run to figure out how terrible your insides are in your hormone levels and.

Danny was overworked, wasn't sleeping well, just it was a terrible situation for him to have put himself in, but luckily he married me.

Danny: Oh, you saved my life. There's no doubt. Well, a lot of this also had to do with the fact that that first year I was traveling, like I think I traveled 26 out of those, out of the 52 weekends I was

Ashley: gone.

Danny got out of the military. Started teaching for Mobility Wad was traveling that much, started a business [00:17:00] and we moved to Atlanta. And oh, by the way, we had a one and a half year old, two-year old and or what was he two? Maggie was six months and Maggie was six months. So we had a lot going on. So, uh, like I said, if you're marriage isn't up to.

Task, then don't start a business together because all of that alone would have, you know, destroyed a good marriage. So. Well,

Danny: I mean, even I, I think we have a really good marriage and even us like, I mean, it's, look, it's not all, you know, roses with, with like, as you go through these stressful growth cycles, a move and starting a business and, you know, it's stressful and it can impact your family, uh, life as well.

So being able to understand. How to organize that correctly. Um, it can be, in some cases you almost have to learn the hard way a little bit, uh, to really figure out if. If that, if it's the right fit for you to do so. But I could tell you, you know, probably the [00:18:00] most important thing that's happened with us is the ability to organize and grow our business to the point where we can now, uh, have a lot more flexibility over our schedule.

And, you know, I, it's, it's. It's something that many people do not have where we don't have to be in the office to have a successful business. We could, honestly, I feel like we could move wherever we wanted to. And our employees are so freaking squared away and awesome that they would just, they would run the business just as well as we could.

Don't you think? Yeah. Yeah, definitely. And you know, and that means we can go. Go to the gym in the middle of the day, we can go pick our kids up at the, you know, the time that we need to. We don't have to put 'em in aftercare for four hours or whatever it is. We get to drop our kids off. We can make a lot of decisions based around spending time with our family.

And yeah, sometimes you have to work kind of odd hours and you do a podcast with your spouse at eight o'clock at

Ashley: night. I was about to say, yeah. You know, you put your kids to bed and then you start working again. So, well, not

Danny: [00:19:00] always. I mean, I feel like, yeah, no, early on definitely did more of that. And, and, um, but, but now to be able to share that with, with, you know, the person you're spending most of your time with is pretty awesome.

It's really cool. Um, and, you know, I would definitely recommend, like I. Taking a look at your skillsets, there's a test you could do called the Colby Test, k o l b e is what it's called. And it, it, it ranks you in terms of, uh, tasks that you enjoy. There's four buckets and, um, it, it, there's no, like, you know, there's no pass or fail on this.

It basically just tells you what your interests are in. And, uh, the goal is that you should find somebody that has the opposite skillset to you, the opposite. Um, something that compli. It's, yes, it's, it's, it's just you want somebody that enjoys doing the things that you don't, because some people like Ashley Love organization and they like, you know, neatness in, uh, in, in the books and they, they like systems and in the books, what are you in the mafia in the books.

I'm cooking the books. [00:20:00] And, and they, and they like, they, they like system systemized. Uh, you know, SOPs, they live off, uh, standard operating procedures. Other people are not, and that test is really interesting because when we got our scores back, we took this test, we were exactly opposite, like totally opposite which w which we can, we, I could have probably guessed that.

Yeah. But, and, and here's the other thing. It's not just like Ashley. Came into this and just, you know, whatever, just figured all this stuff out. I mean, she also has a background in running nonprofits, you know, and having to, no, you have a master's degree that's, you're, you're just like, undervaluing yourself.

And so there was already some amount of, then I wanna pay, raise a skill. Uh, you wanna pay raise? Geez, you gotta take that up with yourself. Uh, and you know, so the, the reality is maybe your spouse is different skillset than that. You know, it could be a cool opportunity. One of our favorite, um, couples in the world are the ettes.

I think that they are one of the best, uh, couples to model after if [00:21:00] you are thinking about working with your spouse. Hashtag goals. Hashtag goals, man, they're so awesome and they just are like, they're, we're gonna be like the Tourettes one day. One day. I don't know if we're ever be as cool as them, but, uh, never.

But they just, you know, and they prioritize their family. And I think that's the other thing it comes down to as well, is, um, if you have the opportunity and you feel like you guys would work well together, I would do it because, you know, you get to make, it's fun. It is

Ashley: fun. It can be super stressful, but we know what the other one's going through because we're doing it together.

Um, it's rewarding and the flexibility is really big, and we haven't always had this flexibility. Danny's busted his ass getting all over Atlanta and traveling all over the country. So you have to get to those points, and you have to understand that especially when you start out, that's gonna be the hardest time of your life.

Um, but once you get past all of that point with, you [00:22:00] know, your end goal is whatever it is that you've set for yourself and your family, or if you don't have a family, whatever it is that you've set for yourself, we know that we want flexibility in our life to be able to travel with our kids and, uh, to go to Costco in the middle of the day and then come home and wrap Christmas gift.

That is nice. That happened today.

Danny: That happened today for you, you know, and my day was, I woke up, went to the gym, uh, came, uh, came back. You went and took the kids to, um, to school. And, uh, I worked on a little project at home. Went up, we had a meeting, middle of the day, um, grabbed some lunch together, and then we, uh, you left to go to Costco.

I worked on a little bit of other stuff and spent some time with our office manager. Um, and then I went and picked up our daughter at like 2 45 and we were back by around three and we got to hang out with her. Um, and, and I mean, and that gives us some flexibility over the day, early. It wasn't like that.

It was a, it was a lot of long hours and I don't know if anybody can start a business and not be, not expect [00:23:00] to put a lot of time in on the front end. And I, I, I, I mean, maybe it exists, but I don't think it exists in physical therapy. No. So, you know, keep that in mind. The first year is definitely tough and you have to understand that going in and, and if you can have that communication with your spouse that they know, like, Hey, I, I'm gonna be working a lot,

Ashley: whether you go into business with them or not, if you can communicate that to them, especially if you've got young kids at home or kids in general.

You've gotta be able to communicate that, that, hey, this is gonna be a tough year. I know you're not gonna be seeing the daily ins and outs of what's going on, but this is our goal. This is why I started this, or we started this, and go from there. And just know that everything can be super stressful day to day, but just keep that goal in mind.

Danny: You know, the, the other thing that I would, um, I would say is make sure that. Uh, being upfront and transparent with your spouse is something that you do, but also, um, [00:24:00] I think it's un it's important for them to understand what you're gonna, what, you know, as you build a business, it's, it's, um, it's stressful and there's certain times when you just need a break, you know?

Um, and, and your spouse will need a break too, especially if you have kids like we did. So, like just understanding how to. You know, you should understand how to like, read the body language of your spouse and their, you know, where they're at emotionally if they're super stressed out or whatever it is, like that's big and you gotta just be able to communicate that with each other.

And if you can't, then you're, you're in trouble. I mean, you're probably in trouble to begin with. You can't do that.

Ashley: Yeah. And another thing I'll say real quick is it's good, it's it, this is more if you are in a business relationship or you're in a business relationship with your spouse especially is take time every three months, six months, nine.

Check in, make sure like we take time. We usually go to our favorite coffee shop or one of our two favorite coffee shops. We sit down, all right, where are we? What are we looking at? What's our big picture? What are we working towards? Do we wanna change some something? But that's just good, like [00:25:00] management of a business anyways, but it really helps when it's your spouse, you can take that time, sit down and kind of map out how your business is going, because.

Both not on the same page, which can happen really easily and has happened with us. Uh, it messes things up, so you just have to make sure you have those resets every couple of months. Um, one of my favorite things to use is the Traction website, um, where there's a book called Traction, but then there's also an app called Traction with an X.

But anyways, um, I use that. Map out our long-term plan so we can go back to that and see are we on task for what we wanna do in the next three months, six months, whatever. Um, so those really help doing little things like that. Like, hey, I feel overwhelmed right now. Let's sit down together and figure this out, versus just trying to figure things out on your own.

And your spouse is over across the couch while Game of Thrones, playing in the background, feeling overwhelmed, trying to figure something out. Just come together and always talk it through.

Danny: Well, game of [00:26:00] Thrones is always playing at our house. Yeah, like 24 7. Yeah. Our kids love it. Love it. They love the Lancasters.

No, the uh, here's a question I have for you, and this is, Probably would be helpful for a lot of people that were in the same position I was where, okay, let's say you have a single man practice or single female practice, whatever, single person practice. Yes. Let's, let's be, let's, let's not make it male, female.

Mm-hmm. Single person practice. And, um, you're getting to the point where you're busy and you, you, you know, you need to start to organize this better to scale and grow. What's one of the like one or two things that that person could do to really set themself up to be able to, um, grow from there and be able to hire on more, uh, people.

Ashley: So I would suggest taking a week and writing down every task that you do. And putting it in a Google Doc and then putting it into like a share drive, so it's somewhat organized. Uh, you can also film it using a [00:27:00] software like Cam Camtasia, that's mm-hmm. Camtasia. So if you're posting a blog, like, Hey, this is how I post a blog and walk through the steps to where it records your, you on your computer, walking the person through those steps.

Um, because let's say something happens. To you or to whoever, like somebody's gotta come in and fill that role probably. Um, so you wanna have all of that stuff, uh, in place. Um, for me, I created our. Standard operating procedure book just based off of a little bit what Danny does, but mostly the backend stuff.

Uh, the office manager, more type role, and I just documented everything. You just write it down, get it on paper, and then you can always train people. But if you don't have it written down, then you don't really know what you're doing. You'll just say, oh, I'll get to it. I'll get to it. But I would start off taking that week, write down everything, put it in a Google Doc, and then you have it.

You can always go back and adjust it, and that's a lot easier. To do versus having nothing. [00:28:00]

Danny: I think it's asking a lot too, to take a, to take a week when you're kind of in the weeds, seeing all the patients, trying to schedule all the patients, trying to get patients in the door. And it sounds like a lot, but taking that time to, and it doesn't have

Ashley: to be crazy detail, just, oh, on Mondays, I, you know, file all my receipts on Tuesdays.

Put a blog on our website, just write down those little tasks and then you can build on them gradually. But it helps if you see it all on paper, like, oh shit, you know, I feel like I'm all over the place, but I actually have a little bit of a process and an organization going on. So, um, I feel like most people probably have a little bit organization to their life.

They just don't know how to. Down onto something, whether that's paper, camtasia, whatever.

Danny: So it's replicated and, and yes, the, the Camtasia stuff, or you can use Zoom for this as well, where you, you basically do, uh, screen screen flow videos of tasks that you're doing. So anything you're repeating, [00:29:00] you know, consistently, whether that be, this is how we post a blog, um, this is how you edit a YouTube video and upload it.

This is how you schedule somebody. Anything that you're doing repeatedly that. Could get somebody else to do. Those are the tasks that she's talking about. So being able to write those out and being able to then, um,

Ashley: record those. Because ideally, you know, you start a business and you hopefully will grow and expand.

So you have somebody. So for me it was our office manager, Claire. So I gave her that. S o p I trained her. She has it all there for reference. She can go back to it with Danny, it was our other PTs. So, uh, all of that stuff is very, very helpful.

Danny: Yeah, definitely. And, and as you scale, like this could become so important, especially if somebody leaves, if you have an employee that, that has to, you know, move on to a different job or something.

You have, you have all your training procedures in place, so the transition is a lot smoother. Yes. Um, and, and as you, as you scale and maybe you open a second location or, uh, you [00:30:00] know, whatever you decide that you want to do, whatever point you get to in your business, that's gonna be kind of the cornerstone of the backend systems that you have.

And it's probably gonna be something you're gonna have to continu. Um, update as well. And it doesn't sound like the, to me, this stuff sounds super boring, right? Like I, I'm just sort of like,

Ashley: I'm ready to go type up a new SOP book

Danny: right now. I know you're so into SOPs and, uh, and, and to me, I'm just like, oh God, I hate SOPs.

It's so, so boring. But, you know, the thing is, if it wasn't for that, you, you're, you're not gonna be able to scale to more than just you. It's just, and if you do, that person is gonna be. Extremely unhappy working with you. Yes, because there's gonna be no organization, there's, there's no structure. And they're gonna feel like they're working for a crazy person, which they probably are.

And now, I, I was told one time by a mentor, you know, if, if it's just you, you don't have a business, you just have a job and you can't sell a job. You can't, you cannot sell. Your single man clinic to somebody else, it's not gonna work. It's not worth anything. If you have [00:31:00] employees and you can take yourself out of the business and that business still runs and and is profitable, that's something that is valuable.

That's something that is, uh, potentially sellable to, uh, an investor and practitioner, whatever it is. And you gotta understand if you're gonna start a business, There's no reason to start a business unless you feel like you can create something that is valuable long term. Yes. That's a lot of work. All right, so what's the most thing, what's the MO thing you're most excited about with our company going forward in the next few years?

Ashley: Uh, I. I just enjoy the fact that we've been able to employ three really awesome people so far. Mm-hmm. Uh, in three years. It's like one person a year basically. Yeah. Um, so that part's really exciting. Getting to see them grow and, uh, watching them. I mean, I don't know. I'm bad at this. You're

Danny: not [00:32:00] bad podcasting.

You're doing just fine. This is great. Yeah, no, I'm excited to see, I, I, I really would say I agree in terms of

Ashley: I'm gonna interrupt you. Yeah. I really like, uh, this is more personal level. Mm-hmm. But, uh, our kids love that we have a business and that's true. Watching them understand it a little bit more and talking about athlete's potential.

Yeah. And my dad is a iCal therapist. It's, that's really sweet. I really like that part. So I'm excited to see them comprehend that more as they get older. I'm

Danny: excited for them to get a little, little bit older so I can have them start cleaning the office and Yes. And doing, putting those tiny little hands to work manual labor tasks so that they don't feel become entitled.

Little jack asses. And, um, we don't need any more Trumps Well, they definitely want our kids to understand, you know, that we have a business and that we employ people. I think that's really cool that we, that we do that and that we've been able to do that. That is the most rewarding [00:33:00] thing that I've, um, I would say we've been able to accomplish is to.

Jobs for people that are, jobs that they really, really enjoy. And you better, I mean, uh, trust me, it's we're what we have in terms of the work hours, the ability to work with people one-on-one, highly motivated patients that you're not worried about what insurance is gonna pay for or not pay for. It is such a luxury to be able to work with people in that capacity in their current healthcare system.

And if you've never worked in a clinic, Where you, you saw a large volume and multiple people at one time. It's hard to, um, have perspective on what this one-on-one model is like for you as a practitioner. It's fun, it's awesome. And, you know, we've been able to create a position for them that not a lot of PTs are getting to be able to find and for them to really enjoy their job and then grow within that and become really good practitioners and, uh, that's huge.

The other thing with business, The ability [00:34:00] to, um, donate money to different groups has also been something that I thought has been great. Like, you know, just different groups that we, um, have able, have been able to support and be able to do that through, through our business is, is, is amazing. So it's not just all about revenue, but it's also about, you know, who can we help as well in, in the process.

And, and, um, and that's really cool. So we, we hope to continue to do that and, and. Continue to grow because the more, the more revenue you generate, the more impact you can have, period. It's not about how much money take home. I mean, I'll tell you straight frankly. Yeah. If you're, go ahead. Look, we, we haven't given ourself a pay raise until.

Last week.

Ashley: Yeah. Right. Oh, I've been scraping off the top for a

Danny: while. Oh, you've been, you've just been laundering money. I'm about to piece out. No, it's the re this, the reality is like, you know, you when, as you open a business, if you just pay yourself everything you make, you're gonna just like ruin your business.

Ashley: You're gonna ruin your business, and you're probably not in it for the right reasons to begin with. Yeah. And you should really [00:35:00] reevaluate what your objective is in.

Danny: Wow, that's harsh. Like what's your objective in life?

Ashley: Well, if you just go into business. Okay, so I feel like athlete's potential is successful because whether it's Claire or myself talking to somebody on the phone, we can convey to them why athlete's potential is the place for them when they.

Receive that appointment, uh, confirmation. And then they come to their appointment. They work with Danny. They work with Jackie, or they work with Jacob and they're with them for that full hour. We are listening to their problems. We help them with their pain, but then we also help them with their management of it.

I don't, I'm like losing train of. My train

Danny: of thought, it means management. Management of their like, uh,

Ashley: well of their pain, avoiding injury, continue to avoid injuries. That's just not what they get at a lot of places. Yeah. And so if like you think of a typical place, oh, your hip hurts. Okay, here, I'll fix it.

But then, oh, well you just told me to stop doing what I [00:36:00] love or whatever. Um, so I feel like athletes potential. Successful because people see that we genuinely care. If you go into business to just make a lot of money, you don't really give a shit about that person. So they're gonna see that, and then ultimately your business isn't gonna grow.

So what was the point of being a greedy little jerk?

Danny: Yeah, there's probably a lot better ways to make money too, than a cash-based physical therapy practice. Yeah, that's, I mean, you could get into some multi-level marketing, uh, program and, and, uh, pyramid scheme, all your friends. Um, and probably, oh, that's our question.

What's that? And, and, and probably, uh, prob probably do a lot better or go trade stocks or something like that, um, you know, in the, uh, I don't know. And, and make more money, but, You know, if, if, if, if you're in it for the right reasons, it's, it makes, uh, it makes the work more enjoyable. It makes, um, what you're doing have meaning.

And that's, and that's really what's important long-term. So, and that's what people are gonna notice. Yeah. It's, it, it comes off and, um, it's very [00:37:00] apparent, you know, and the way that you treat people, long-term decisions is really important, uh, as well. So we think we, that's one thing that, that's your culture, right?

So like we've spent a good bit of. Looking at what do we want our culture to be like, what, how do we wanna empower our employees to be able to make decisions without us having to micromanage them and knowing that they're gonna make a decision that's based on our core values allows us to take that step back and know that, um, that they're gonna do the right thing.

You know? So culture, your standard operating procedure, these are all things that relate to a business developing.

Ashley: What's the b uh, the Zappo's book? The Zappo's book. Fantastic for culture and setting up a, a proper work environment, um, might be a little bit too fun-loving, but it, it pays off for them. And, uh, we feel like that is a really good representation of what we want athletes potential to be like.

And our employees know like, Hey, we can have fun. And Danny made a latte for Claire today and that was really awesome. But we, they also know, [00:38:00] oh, I have shit to do and I need to get that done as well. So. I don't know. Read the Zappos

Danny: book. Yeah, that's good. Delivering happiness, so, yeah. Oh, that's it. All right, you guys finally got what you wanted.

Thank God I, I finally. I finally got you on the podcast. I'm so excited for this. I can't wait to just put so much Facebook ad spend behind this so that everybody on the planet gets to hear you and I discuss our business, our, our relationship within the business outside of the business and, and what you should be looking at if you're thinking about working with your spouse, because it can work really well.

Um, you hear horror stories of like, I'll never work with your family, and well, oh,

Ashley: we had a family member tell us that it would not end well. And you know what?

Danny: Guess what? You're fucking wrong. I, I love proving people wrong. Nothing. I like more than doing that. So

Ashley: deep down we're miserable, but we're just

Danny: gonna prove that person.

Yeah. Deep down we're just so stubborn. We're just gonna keep going until the end because we don't want them to have the satisfaction of thinking they were right. And you

Ashley: guys will [00:39:00] never hear from me. Again,

Danny: potentially, uh, you'll hear from her on a semi-regular basis. We should get you on and we should get you and butters on here together.

Your, your cat is annoying. The hell outta me right now. She's meowing at the door like a little turd and ruining our podcast chemistry. And then she knows it. I know she knows it. So, no. Here's the deal. I think we should get you back on to talk about, um, I'm, I'm busy. Most important standard operating procedures within the business.

We can talk about top 10 and if, if you, if you would like

Ashley: to hear that, I'll like it to you and you can

Danny: read it out loud. No, here's the deal. If you would like that, I would love to get your feedback so that I can send these emails to Ashley. I'll forward them to her. Um, in fact, you can email her, it's ashley athletes potential.com.

Email her and say, Hey, I would love to get you back on the podcast so you can talk about standard operating procedures necessary in a successful business to grow past one. Physical therapist, new phone. Who diss? That's it. Yeah, that's it. All right, cool. Well, [00:40:00] Ashley, thank you so much for jumping on the podcast with me.

You are a pleasure to talk to, and I am so lucky that you decided to grace me with your podcasting presence tonight. You're welcome. Do you have any parting words for

Ashley: everybody? Uh, yeah, I'm gonna go catch up on

Danny: my shows. Go catch up on your shows. Yeah. Cool. All right, well, we're gonna hit end on this sucker.

Guys, thanks so much for listening to the PT Entrepreneur Podcast. If you like what you heard, I would 100% appreciate it. If you'd head over to iTunes. Leave a review, subscribe to the podcast. This is something that we do every Tuesday and Thursday. We have podcasts, releases, nothing but good information, actionable stuff for you guys.

So if you like it, hit subscribe. Leave us a rating, five star reviews. If it's a one star review, just keep that shit to yourself. Uh, and you know, it helps us support the podcast and push it forward. So guys, thanks so much for listening, and we'll catch you next time.

What's up, PT Entrepreneurs? We [00:41:00] have a new exciting challenge for you guys. It's our five day PT biz part-time to full-time challenge where we help you get crystal clear on how to actually go from a side hustle. To a full-time clinic, even if you haven't started yet. This is a great way to get yourself organized in preparation for eventually going full-time into your business.

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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 Eve Gigi every single week, and we share resources that we don't share anywhere else outside of that group.

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.