E881 | I Was Right... 14 Years Later
Jan 06, 2026
Big Ship or Small Boat: Are You in the Right Organization?
In this episode, Danny goes back to his Army days in Hawaii and tells a story that every frustrated clinician should hear.
It starts at Schofield Barracks. He was the only PT for a brigade of several thousand soldiers. There was another PT covering another brigade and a shared strength coach. Between them, they were responsible for a massive group of people with a constant flow of overuse injuries, acute injuries, and deployment demands.
They could see the pattern. Soldiers were getting shipped out to civilian clinics every month. Readiness numbers were getting hammered. The system was bleeding money and still not getting soldiers what they needed.
So he and the strength coach put together a human performance proposal. The plan was simple. Add a few contract providers, build a small performance and rehab team inside the division, and keep soldiers in-house. The cost would be a few hundred thousand dollars a year. The savings and readiness impact would be worth millions.
They got a meeting with the division commander. This was not a stranger. He was a general, a patient Danny had spent hours with one on one, and someone who had personally benefited from the work they were already doing.
Danny walked into that meeting convinced they would get a yes.
They got a no.
The next day, the general pulled him aside and said he liked the idea but the Army was a big ship and it turned very slowly. That line stuck. Danny remembers thinking, if this is such an obvious win and we still can’t move, what kind of ship am I really on?
Fast forward more than ten years. His old strength coach calls and says, “Hey man, we were right. They finally built the human performance program we pitched.” The division is now doing what they proposed back in 2011–2012.
It only took 13 years.
The point of the story is not just that the military is slow. The point is to make you ask if you are in the right environment for how you are wired.
Big systems move slow. There is red tape, layers of approvals, and long timelines. That can feel safe and predictable. It can also feel suffocating if you like to move fast, solve problems, and test ideas.
Small clinics and entrepreneurship are the opposite. You can change things quickly. You do not need a committee to approve a new offer or a workshop. You get to decide how you treat, how you schedule, how you market. You also carry more personal risk and fewer safety nets.
Neither path is automatically good or bad. The key is fit.
If you find yourself constantly saying things like, “This is an obvious solution and nobody will act,” or “We could help people so much more if they would just let us change X,” that is a sign. If you feel like your best ideas die in meetings, that is a sign. If you get more energy from building things than from climbing someone else’s ladder, that is a sign.
You might be on the wrong ship.
Most PTs never planned to start a business. The story we are given is simple. Join a big clinic or hospital, become a clinic director, then maybe have a shot at regional leadership. That can be a great fit for someone who loves structure and is okay with slower change.
But if you are not that person, you probably will not be able to ignore it forever. If you keep pushing the feeling down that you are meant to build something different, it turns into regret later. And by then your options are usually smaller.
Trying something and having it not work out is easier to live with than never trying and always wondering what could have happened.
So if this episode hits a nerve, here are a few simple moves.
Look at your frustration honestly. Is it about one boss or one clinic, or is it about the entire system
Write down the version of care you would deliver if nobody could tell you “no”
Run the numbers on what it would take to replace your income in a small cash-based practice
Talk to people who already left big systems and ask what they wish they had done sooner
If you already know you are on the wrong ship, the next step is learning how to build your own boat in a smart way.
That is why PT Biz runs the free Part Time to Full Time 5-Day Challenge. It walks you through how much income you need to replace, how many patients you need to see, what to charge, and how to pick the best path to go all in based on your current situation.
👉 https://physicaltherapybiz.com/challenge
And if you are still stuck in a job where you spend more time in your EMR than with your patients, you do not have to wait for a policy change to get some of your time back. Claire, the AI scribe built for PTs, can take the documentation off your plate so you can actually be present with your patients and follow up with them instead of typing.
If you want, I can also turn this into an email promo or a couple of social captions to push listeners to this episode.
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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.
Podcast Transcript
Danny:
[00:00:00] Hey, what's going on, doc Danny here with the P TM Store podcast. And, uh, today I got a funny, [00:00:05] I had a funny little, uh, story to share with, uh, with everybody and [00:00:10] really highlight whether you're in the right organization or not, or [00:00:15] maybe you need to do your own thing. [00:00:20] So. Uh, I was stationed in Schofield Barracks, which is in Hawaii [00:00:25] for three years, whenever I was, uh, active duty, um, in the Army.
And, [00:00:30] um, while I was there, I had a buddy who is, uh, [00:00:35] was a strength coach. He and I would, you know, work together to teach speed and agility training and movement [00:00:40] courses. And, uh, he's. He just like in super high level [00:00:45] strength coach, just, um, a fantastic person and, uh, somebody [00:00:50] that I'm, I still, I'm fortunate enough to, to, you know, have as a, a friend today and [00:00:55] he, he called me, uh, yesterday and [00:01:00] he.
I said, Hey, you know, hey Danny, guess what? [00:01:05] We were right. And uh, I go, what are you talking about, man? He goes, you know, [00:01:10] remember when we pitched the division on this human performance project that we had? Well, [00:01:15] they, they're finally doing it. You know, so the backstory to this is in [00:01:20] 2011, 12 timeframe, uh, [00:01:25] me and this guy decided that we did not have enough resources and.
[00:01:30] Essentially I was the only physical therapist for a brigade, which is like 3,500 to 4,000 people. [00:01:35] He was sort of a shared resource with the clinic, which was essentially through the [00:01:40] hospital. And then there were, there was another physical therapist at the other brigade that was there. [00:01:45] So there really was only a couple of us for literally thousands and thousands of soldiers.
Um, [00:01:50] you know, probably 10,000 total if you're looking at the coverage of everything we have between the [00:01:55] aviation brigade and then the, the brigades that we were a part of, as well as the, the troop [00:02:00] clinic that we were at. So, you know, only a couple people for this massive number of, uh, [00:02:05] soldiers. So we came up with a proposal to, uh, [00:02:10] essentially, uh, bring on more.
Uh, assets, more [00:02:15] people, more help. And these were gonna be contract positions, so it's in the [00:02:20] government system. It's hard to hire GS employees, government employees, or are considered W2 [00:02:25] employees has a lot, there's a lot of red tape with that, but you, you can get, you can get along faster with contractors.[00:02:30]
So we put this proposal together and, um, schedule a time with the, [00:02:35] the division commander who is a general and was. Actually one of [00:02:40] my patients for months had hurt his chest in a bench press competition, [00:02:45] and um, I knew him pretty well. I had spent literally hours and hours [00:02:50] individually with this person.
And he was all about all the stuff I was doing. He's felt feeling a lot better. [00:02:55] I, you know, it just, a lot of the things he, he and I worked on, uh, just improved a lot of his [00:03:00] performance and, and he had a lot of miles on him. So I thought for sure, I said, man, we got this in the [00:03:05] bag, dude. Like, and I, I know this guy.
I feel strong about like our opportunity. We can save. [00:03:10] We can save a ton of money because we were essentially sending a lot of [00:03:15] people out into the, um, the civilian clinics every single month for [00:03:20] injuries that were happening. Not only that, but we had reduced, um, you know, uh, [00:03:25] percentages of people that were ready to deploy.
And that was a big metric that we were tracked on. So anyway, we put this [00:03:30] proposal together. And, uh, I think it's, I think it's gone [00:03:35] really well. We were only asking for a couple contracts. This literally would've been a couple hundred thousand dollars a year [00:03:40] in contractors to save millions, basically. Um, as well as improve [00:03:45] our ability to get people ready to deploy.
And, um, we got, we got [00:03:50] denied and I, I met with my. Uh, division commander, the, the guy that was [00:03:55] the general, that was a patient of mine, uh, the next day. And [00:04:00] I distinctly remember this conversation where he said, listen, captain Mateo, I like the [00:04:05] idea, but the Army's a big ship and it turns really slowly [00:04:10] and I was very frustrated.
Um. [00:04:15] I just remember saying, I remember like, sir, this makes no sense. Like, [00:04:20] this is just such an obvious thing that we're, that we should do. I don't know if I wanna be on a big ship like [00:04:25] this going forward. And that's the first time that I really thought to myself like, man, [00:04:30] am I in the wrong place? Um, as far as being able to, you know, like, [00:04:35] have any say over what was actually gonna happen now he called [00:04:40] me to let me know that they'd finally.
Uh, put something together very similar to what we pitched them [00:04:45] on, like 13 years ago. Okay. So put that, put that in mind. [00:04:50] And he's been there ever since. He's a GS employee. He's, he's not going anywhere. He's, uh, he's, he's in [00:04:55] charge of the training conditioning there and, and does an amazing job. But it was just so funny how excited he was.
He was like, we were right. We [00:05:00] finally won. You know? And I'm like, dude, this is over a decade later. This is crazy. [00:05:05] Like, how many things have changed in my life since then? Uh, but I, I [00:05:10] bring this up. Not necessarily just to talk about how slow the, the military is to make [00:05:15] changes in things, but to, I guess, to pose a question to you [00:05:20] are, are you in the right organization?
Right? I, I think this is [00:05:25] something to really keep in mind and sometimes you think you are [00:05:30] and sometimes you realize that you're not. And maybe for [00:05:35] you coming outta school, you thought to yourself, yeah, you know what? I'm gonna get a job with. [00:05:40] Name the big clinic chain. I'm going to rise [00:05:45] up the ranks as a clinic director and then a regional director, and then maybe I can [00:05:50] come on, as you know, in in the leadership team and whatever, right?
[00:05:55] And. That all sounds great until you get involved in bigger organizations [00:06:00] and then you realize that these bigger organizations are just big ships that turn really [00:06:05] slowly. Now, you may be totally fine with that. You may be somebody that's totally down for that, and you like [00:06:10] that. You may be the complete opposite, and you may be somebody that.[00:06:15]
That frustrates. And if you don't really know until you're, [00:06:20] you know, you're in those environments. But I can promise you this, if you're in a bigger [00:06:25] clinic organization, a bigger hospital organization, um, the likelihood that you're gonna have a whole [00:06:30] lot of say over what happens on a day-to-day basis with a clinic.
Or clinics that you're involved [00:06:35] in is a lot lower than if you're the person that's started those. And [00:06:40] you know, for me, looking back on it, you know, it's funny, I was talking, I was talking to this guy and, and, uh, he was like, [00:06:45] yeah, you know, I always tell people he is like, I have a lot of, you know, young officers that come through and they're asking for [00:06:50] career advice and, and he said, don't do.
What everybody else is doing, like go [00:06:55] against the grain. And he kind of brings up some of the things that I did not, not intentionally go against the grain. I just was like, I [00:07:00] thought this was maybe a better way of doing it. And I wouldn't necessarily ask for permission. I would, I would, uh, beg [00:07:05] for forgiveness after the fact.
So, so maybe I wasn't the best fit for the Army. And maybe [00:07:10] if that's you and you feel that way, you, maybe you're not the best fit for the organization that you're a part of. [00:07:15] And I would rather be in a little boat having complete control over where I'm going and what's [00:07:20] happening. Maybe I have a higher risk of, you know, whatever the boat [00:07:25] capsizing than a big boat, a big ship that I'm on.
But I would rather be in that environment. And I [00:07:30] think for a lot of people that are on the fence about entrepreneurship, if that's the right fit for them, [00:07:35] um, you know. That's normal. Most people in our profession do not go into this thinking [00:07:40] that we're gonna start our own thing. In fact, only 45% of our profession, four to 5% of our profession is [00:07:45] self-employed.
That's it. It's a very low percentage of, um, uh, you know, [00:07:50] of healthcare field. Uh, professionals that are self-employed or very, very low [00:07:55] typically tend to be very risk averse folks. But if you find yourself constantly [00:08:00] running into this frustrations of not being able to change things and you visibly feel and you see that there's, [00:08:05] things can be done a better way, or you want to be able to use your, your creativity to problem solve and do these different things, [00:08:10] um, it might just be a sign that you're on the wrong, you know, you're on the [00:08:15] wrong boat, and.
If you're listening to this podcast, you probably already realize that to some [00:08:20] degree, but maybe you're just too scared to make the change yet. Right. And you don't really know what to do [00:08:25] or what you should do, and that's fine too. Uh, I think it's just, it's just normal to, to [00:08:30] feel unsure of what to do, but, but also don't just push that down.
Like I think [00:08:35] that if you had just. Ignore the fact that you have this, this, this calling that you need to feel like you need to do [00:08:40] something else. You probably regret it if you don't try it. Um, even if you tried it and failed, you [00:08:45] know, I, I think that's better than not doing it at all, because at some point [00:08:50] you're not gonna be able to do that.
And regret is, you know, one of the worst things you can deal with that's [00:08:55] best when you're too old to, to, to change something. Right. So, anyway, just wanna share that. [00:09:00] If you're an organization and you feel like, uh, you're on a big ship that turns really slowly and it's [00:09:05] frustrating you, I've been there. Uh, don't wait over a decade for your ideas to come, [00:09:10] uh, come together If, uh, you really feel conviction about what it is that you wanna do, [00:09:15] and if you feel that way and you're not getting the creative outlet to change it, well, if you can't find the job, your [00:09:20] dreams, sometimes you gotta build [00:09:25] it.