From Reluctant Entrepreneur to a Business That Runs Better Without Her Treating

Colleen Davis never had some lifelong dream of owning a physical therapy practice.

In fact, when the opportunity first showed up, she didn't really want it.

She had spent years bouncing through almost every corner of physical therapy. Acute care. Neuro. Vestibular. Outpatient. Home health. She had seen the profession from a lot of different angles, including the version where clinicians are double and triple booked and trying to provide meaningful care while managing multiple patients at once.

Eventually, CrossFit pulled her in a completely different direction.

What started as a way to exercise became a community. That community led to an adaptive fitness class. The class eventually led to a treatment room. And that treatment room became GOAT Physical Therapy and Wellness in Gales Ferry, Connecticut.

Today, Colleen sees roughly five patients per week.

Her staff clinicians are busier.

The business is more organized.

She has more time for her family.

And one of the biggest lessons from her story is surprisingly simple:

Sometimes the best thing an owner can do for the practice is stop trying to personally do everything.

Colleen Didn't Start in Orthopedics

Colleen graduated with her master's in physical therapy in 2006.

Her first job was at a hospital in Connecticut.

Interestingly, she intentionally chose a setting where she felt weak.

Acute care and neuro hadn't been her strongest clinical rotations, so she figured there was no better time to improve than when everyone already expected her to be a new graduate figuring things out.

That decision gave her exposure to experienced clinicians who became important mentors.

She worked inpatient.

Outpatient.

Neuro.

Vestibular.

And eventually became the person who could handle some of the more complicated patients coming through the system.

It also taught her an approach that would follow her into business years later:

Try something.

See what happens.

Adjust.

Keep moving.

Then She Experienced High-Volume PT

A temporary move to Virginia Beach exposed Colleen to a very different version of outpatient physical therapy.

She had been hired as a neuro and vestibular specialist.

Then she found herself double and triple booked.

That's difficult in any setting.

It's particularly difficult when one patient may be dealing with advanced neurological disease while another is experiencing severe vestibular symptoms.

Colleen quickly realized this wasn't how she wanted to practice.

When she and her husband eventually returned to Connecticut, she made herself a promise.

She wasn't going back to that.

Home Health Solved One Problem and Created Another

Home health gave Colleen something she desperately wanted:

One-on-one care.

You can't exactly invite another patient into someone's living room while you're treating the first one.

She could focus.

Patients were happy to see her.

She felt like she was accomplishing something.

But home health came with another problem.

Documentation.

The paperwork became suffocating.

So once again, Colleen had found part of what she wanted from physical therapy without finding the complete answer.

That answer eventually came from somewhere she hadn't expected.

CrossFit Started as a Three-Month Experiment

After moving back to Connecticut, Colleen was going through a difficult period personally.

She decided exercise might help.

And the most ridiculous exercise option she could think of was CrossFit.

So she committed to doing it for three months.

She expected to hate it.

For the first couple of months, she pretty much did.

Then her coach convinced her to enter a competition.

Colleen and her partner finished near the bottom in almost everything.

Except rowing.

They finished third.

That was enough.

The competitive switch flipped.

Colleen was hooked.

The Gym Became Her Community

CrossFit eventually became much more than exercise.

The people at the gym became friends.

Colleen naturally started helping people with physical issues.

Stretching someone.

Looking at a movement.

Helping somebody work around an injury.

Eventually, the gym owner approached her about something more formal.

He wanted to offer an adaptive fitness class for people who needed more support than a traditional CrossFit class could provide.

Colleen had the clinical background to make it work.

So she started coaching it as a contractor.

That class would eventually become one of the foundations of GOAT.

She Still Didn't Want to Open a Practice

As the gym grew, the owner moved into a larger facility.

There was an office available.

Colleen's answer was basically:

No.

She wasn't opening a PT practice there.

Then the gym owner mentioned that he was contacting local physical therapy clinics to see whether someone else wanted the space.

That changed things.

These were Colleen's people.

She had been part of the community for years.

She had been helping them.

The thought of another PT coming into that environment and treating the people she cared about didn't sit well with her.

So she took the room.

Sometimes entrepreneurship starts because you desperately want to own a business.

Sometimes it starts because you don't want somebody else doing the thing you know you could do better.

Even the Name GOAT Started as a Joke

The original business name wasn't GOAT Physical Therapy and Wellness.

Colleen and her husband, Kevin, had settled on Dynamic Physical Therapy and Wellness.

They filled out the paperwork.

Then Kevin checked the domain.

There was already a Dynamic PT about 15 minutes away.

Back to the drawing board.

While they were sitting around trying to figure out another option, Kevin joked that Colleen was the best, so the practice should be called GOAT.

Greatest Of All Time.

GOAT Physical Therapy and Wellness.

Colleen thought it was a terrible idea.

A few drinks and several jokes later, the paperwork was being changed.

Years later, the joke became one of the most memorable brands in the PT Biz Mastermind.

And it gave Colleen endless opportunities for goat-related humor.

Kids could be "kids."

Patients could "join the herd."

The clinic could accumulate goat memorabilia.

It fit her personality.

That matters more than owners sometimes realize.

Your Brand Doesn't Have to Sound Like Every Other PT Clinic

There's a lesson here beyond the funny origin story.

A lot of clinics end up with names that are technically professional but completely forgettable.

Performance something.

Movement something.

Optimal something.

Sports and spine something.

There's nothing inherently wrong with those names.

But a brand becomes more powerful when it actually feels like the people behind it.

GOAT works because Colleen owns it.

It matches her personality.

People remember it.

The community recognizes it.

The brand became an extension of the business instead of simply a name printed above the door.

The First Patients Came From the Gym

GOAT officially started in March 2019.

Like many cash practices, the first patients weren't coming from sophisticated paid advertising campaigns.

They came from relationships.

People at the gym already knew Colleen.

They trusted her.

They had watched her coach.

Some had already asked her for help.

At first, she even treated some people for free because she wanted more practice with dry needling after taking a course.

Eventually, she started charging around $75 to $80 for a full hour.

Was that the perfect pricing model?

No.

But she had started.

That's more important than getting every detail right on day one.

Your First Version Doesn't Need to Be Your Final Version

This theme shows up repeatedly in Colleen's story.

She didn't know the perfect price.

She didn't have the perfect systems.

She didn't have a sophisticated CRM.

She didn't have a polished sales process.

She didn't even start with the name she originally wanted.

She started with what she had.

Then she improved it.

That's an important lesson for clinicians who spend months debating details before seeing their first patient.

Your first version is allowed to be imperfect.

In fact, it probably will be.

You can't optimize a business that doesn't exist.

Joining the Mastermind Accelerated the Business Side

Colleen was already listening to podcasts and learning about cash-based practice models.

Eventually, she heard Doc Danny interview someone she knew.

That made PT Biz feel more accessible.

So she booked a call.

During that conversation, Danny helped her rethink her pricing and parts of the business model.

Colleen originally expected to buy a smaller program.

She wasn't planning to join the Mastermind.

By the end of the conversation, she was seriously considering it.

There was only one minor issue.

Her business was basically making no money yet.

She needed to talk to Kevin.

She joined anyway.

That was around the summer of 2019.

Coaching Doesn't Turn Your Clinic Into a Franchise

One of the important ideas Colleen and Courtney discuss is that being part of a coaching community doesn't mean every clinic should operate identically.

Different owners can use completely different models.

One clinic's small-group training might look different from another's.

Pricing can vary.

Offers can vary.

Niches can vary.

The goal isn't to copy somebody else's clinic.

It's to see what is working across many practices, take the pieces that fit, and adapt them to your market, personality, patients, and goals.

Colleen's Functional Fitness program is a perfect example.

Functional Fitness Started With a Problem PTs See Every Day

Colleen had seen the same thing repeatedly throughout her clinical career.

A patient reaches the end of physical therapy.

Insurance stops covering visits.

The patient is told to keep exercising.

Then what?

For someone who already loves training, that may be fine.

But what about the person using a walker?

Someone with a neurological condition?

Someone who is intimidated by a normal gym?

Someone who has never exercised independently?

Someone who doesn't know how to modify movements safely?

Telling that person to "keep exercising" isn't much of a plan.

Colleen wanted to create the next step.

The Class Became a Bridge Between PT and Fitness

Her original adaptive fitness class eventually became Functional Fitness.

The concept remained the same.

Everything could be modified.

Someone using a wheelchair could participate.

Someone using a walker could participate.

A CrossFitter recovering from an injury could use it as a stepping stone back toward normal classes.

A person who had never exercised consistently could start building confidence.

The programming itself wasn't designed to impress other physical therapists.

That's part of why it worked.

PTs Can Make Exercise Too Complicated

Physical therapists love complexity.

We can debate exercise selection.

Loading parameters.

Movement quality.

Motor control.

Evidence.

Programming.

All of that has a place.

But Colleen makes an important point.

A huge percentage of adults barely exercise at all.

For them, the alternative to the theoretically perfect program may be doing nothing.

Functional Fitness doesn't need to be an elite strength and conditioning program.

It needs to get people moving consistently in an environment where they feel comfortable.

That's the win.

Simple Programming Makes the Class Accessible

The class is intentionally straightforward.

They might use short AMRAP-style blocks with a few movements and manageable rep counts.

Everybody can understand it.

Everybody can count the reps.

And when someone needs help, there's a physical therapist nearby who can modify almost anything.

That clinical skill becomes a major advantage.

The PT doesn't need to turn the class into a treatment session.

They simply have the ability to adapt the environment around the person.

That's especially valuable for people who would never feel comfortable walking into a traditional fitness setting.

Pricing Was Intentionally Accessible

Colleen's pricing philosophy for Functional Fitness is also interesting.

She doesn't price the class dramatically higher simply because a physical therapist is coaching it.

She looks at what boutique fitness facilities in the area charge.

If a popular specialty gym costs somewhere around $175 to $200 per month, GOAT's Functional Fitness membership can live in that general range.

Her reasoning is patient-first.

Someone who needs extra support shouldn't necessarily be financially punished because they're uncomfortable going to the loud, trendy gym down the street.

That decision may not maximize revenue per class.

But it creates something else that is extremely valuable.

Longevity.

Some Members Have Been There Since 2019

GOAT has Functional Fitness members who have stayed for years.

Some have been around since the beginning.

That's extraordinary when you think about it.

A patient might complete a traditional plan of care in a few months.

A membership relationship can continue for years.

That creates Recurring Revenue.

But the value goes much further than the monthly membership payment.

Those people become part of the clinic's community.

And communities compound.

Functional Fitness Became a Stability Layer

The class itself isn't necessarily GOAT's biggest revenue generator.

It doesn't need to be.

The membership creates a Stability Layer underneath the traditional patient model.

Those members already trust GOAT.

When their neck starts bothering them, where do they go?

GOAT.

When their child gets hurt playing Little League?

GOAT.

When their sister needs a PT?

GOAT.

When a friend mentions pain?

They recommend GOAT.

You don't have to reacquire these people every time they need help.

The relationship never really ended.

Stop Thinking of Discharge as the End

Colleen's original idea was essentially to create a better discharge plan.

That concept has become increasingly important for cash-based practices.

Why should every successful plan of care end with:

Good luck. Call us if something goes wrong.

For some patients, that makes sense.

For others, there is a natural next step.

Performance.

Fitness.

Strength.

Maintenance.

Recovery.

Accountability.

Ongoing access.

The relationship can change without disappearing.

Maintenance Isn't a Dirty Word

The traditional medical model often makes clinicians uncomfortable with the idea of maintenance.

But not every ongoing relationship needs to be framed as indefinite skilled physical therapy.

There are people who simply benefit from structured exercise in a setting that understands their limitations.

There are people who want help staying active.

There are people who enjoy the community.

There are people who need a bridge between rehabilitation and independent fitness.

Creating an appropriate continuity option can serve those people better than discharging them into nothing.

Continuity Changes Lifetime Value

From a business standpoint, the economics are significant.

A patient who comes in for one plan of care has a certain lifetime value.

A patient who completes a plan of care, stays in a membership for years, returns when new issues arise, and refers multiple family members has a completely different lifetime value.

You aren't accomplishing that by squeezing more money out of the original injury.

You're creating more ways to remain useful to the patient over time.

That's exactly what a strong continuity model should do.

The Best Members Can Become Your Best Marketing Channel

Colleen describes her long-term Functional Fitness members as essentially part of GOAT's marketing team.

That's what happens when someone has a strong relationship with a business.

They don't need an affiliate link.

They don't need a formal referral script.

They simply talk about the place.

Their kids come in.

Their friends come in.

Their siblings come in.

The relationship generates new relationships.

These are Super Brand Ambassadors.

And because the referral comes from someone who has been around GOAT for years, the trust transfer is incredibly strong.

This Model Can Work in Hybrid Practices Too

The Functional Fitness concept isn't limited to fully cash-based clinics.

A hybrid or insurance-based practice can face the exact same problem.

Insurance-covered care ends.

The patient still needs a place to continue.

An exercise membership can create a clean transition into a cash service.

The details matter.

You need the right space.

You need appropriate boundaries between skilled PT and fitness.

You need a program people actually want.

But strategically, it can solve two problems at once.

Patients get continuity.

The clinic gets recurring revenue.

Then GOAT Ran Into a Completely Different Problem

By 2024, Colleen felt like she finally had the pieces.

She had clinicians.

She had an admin.

The practice was busy.

Schedules were roughly 75% full.

From the outside, that sounds like success.

Internally, Colleen was getting crushed.

She was treating a full caseload while also trying to learn HubSpot.

Marketing.

Paid ads.

Workshops.

Lead follow-up.

Business operations.

And everything else that comes with owning a growing clinic.

Meanwhile, she was also a wife and a mom of two kids.

Her husband traveled frequently for work.

There was nowhere else for the hours to come from.

So Colleen kept adding them.

The Business Was Growing, but the Owner Was Burning Out

Colleen describes that period as constantly feeling like everything was on fire.

She'd be treating a patient while notifications hit her watch.

An email needed an answer.

A bill hadn't been paid.

Something needed to be fixed.

A marketing task was unfinished.

A workshop needed to be organized.

Then she'd go home and still have more work waiting.

She was working 60, 70, sometimes 80 hours per week.

She wasn't exercising consistently.

She wasn't eating well.

She wasn't taking care of herself.

And despite having a team, she was still trying to carry almost every part of the business.

More Revenue Doesn't Automatically Create a Better Business

This is one of the most important stages for clinic owners to understand.

The business can look healthier while your life gets worse.

You can add providers.

Fill schedules.

Increase revenue.

Move into a bigger facility.

Launch new marketing.

And still create a job for yourself that is significantly worse than the one you originally left.

That's why scalability can't be measured only by revenue.

You have to look at what the business requires from the owner.

If growth requires you to work 80 hours every week, you've built something bigger.

You haven't necessarily built something better.

Her Lead PT Told Her What She Didn't Want to Admit

Eventually, Colleen talked to Amy, her lead physical therapist and first W-2 clinician.

Colleen thought she probably needed to treat fewer patients.

Amy took it further.

She basically told her:

You probably need to treat none.

The business would run better if Colleen wasn't constantly distracted by patient care.

That's a difficult thing for a clinic owner to hear.

Especially when you've spent your entire career defining productivity through treatment.

But Amy could see what Colleen couldn't.

The clinic didn't need another busy clinician.

It needed an owner.

The Owner Was the Missing Employee

This is a strange transition.

Early in the business, the owner is usually the most valuable clinician.

You need to treat.

You need the revenue.

You need to create patient results.

You need to establish the reputation.

Eventually, the math changes.

Your highest-value contribution may no longer happen in the treatment room.

The business needs someone working on marketing.

Sales.

Systems.

Hiring.

Team development.

Lead management.

Retention.

Financials.

Operations.

Strategy.

If nobody is doing those things because the owner is treating all day, growth starts becoming chaotic.

Colleen Stepped Back From Patient Care

In early 2025, Colleen made the transition.

She kept a very small handful of patients.

But she largely stepped away from treatment.

Then something interesting happened.

Her staff clinicians got busier.

Instead of everyone sitting around 75% utilization while Colleen also carried a full schedule, her clinicians moved closer to 85% to 100% booked.

The owner stopped competing with her own staff for patients.

And she finally had time to work on the business itself.

The Business Started Running Better

This is the counterintuitive part.

Colleen was doing less of the work most physical therapists instinctively consider productive.

She wasn't treating nearly as many patients.

But the clinic improved.

She could focus on filling her clinicians' schedules.

She could work on marketing.

She could organize lead follow-up.

She could improve reactivation.

She could learn the CRM.

She could finally build the operational infrastructure that had been missing.

The owner became more valuable when she stopped trying to be the busiest provider.

You Need a New Definition of Productivity

This transition can be uncomfortable because clinicians are trained to measure productivity in tangible units.

How many patients did you see?

How many visits?

How many billable units?

How full was the schedule?

Then you become an owner and spend three hours building a system.

Did you accomplish anything?

Absolutely.

But it doesn't always feel that way.

Leadership work often creates delayed returns.

The SOP you write today might save hundreds of hours over the next five years.

The reactivation system you build this month may generate patients for years.

The employee you train may eventually take an entire department off your plate.

You have to learn to measure productivity differently.

Boundaries Had to Become Part of the Business Model

Colleen also had to relearn something embarrassingly simple.

Most people don't work 80 hours a week.

So she began creating more normal boundaries.

Work during work hours.

Stop working when work is supposed to stop.

Align the day more closely with when her kids were in school.

That doesn't mean entrepreneurship suddenly became effortless.

There are still nights when something needs to get finished.

There are still unusual weeks.

But those became exceptions instead of the operating system.

You Would Never Manage an Employee the Way You Manage Yourself

Courtney brings up a lesson shared on an earlier episode:

When you work for yourself, you can have a crazy person for a boss.

Owners ask themselves to do things they would never ask an employee to do.

Come in at 5 a.m.

Work all day.

Handle patients.

Fix the leak.

Answer leads.

Go to the workshop.

Finish the project at 11 p.m.

Then wake up and repeat it.

We call that entrepreneurship when sometimes it's simply poor job design.

If you wouldn't ask a valued employee to operate that way indefinitely, why are you building your own role that way?

Stepping Back Finally Created Time to Build

Once Colleen wasn't treating all day, she could finally address years of operational debt.

She started learning how to actually use HubSpot.

How should leads be tracked?

How should they be followed up with?

What happens after someone buys?

How do you reactivate previous patients?

How do you communicate consistently?

What does the GOAT evaluation actually look like?

How are packages presented?

What should the sales conversation sound like?

For years, many of those answers had simply lived inside Colleen's head.

Now they needed to become part of the business.

What Makes GOAT GOAT?

That's the question Colleen finally had time to answer.

Not philosophically.

Operationally.

What happens during an evaluation?

How does the team communicate the plan?

How does GOAT handle a phone consultation?

What information gets documented?

What happens next?

How are leads followed up with?

How does the team create the experience patients have come to expect?

Until those things are documented, you don't really have a repeatable business.

You have talented people trying to remember what the owner would probably do.

Systems Turn the Owner's Brain Into Company Knowledge

This is where many growing clinics get stuck.

The owner has systems.

They just don't realize they're systems.

Every time Colleen completed a phone consultation, she would enter information into Jane.

She'd document what they discussed.

She'd leave enough context so that if the person called again years later, she'd know what happened.

That is a system.

The problem was that it existed only in Colleen's head.

Then someone else started handling phone consults and didn't follow the same process.

Why would they?

Nobody had ever told them.

That is the difference between personally knowing how to do something and building a business that knows how to do it.

And once Colleen finally created enough space to work on those systems, GOAT started becoming far less dependent on her memory, her clinical schedule, and her willingness to keep everything together through sheer effort.

Then Colleen Found the Right Admin

Stepping away from patient care created time.

But time alone wasn't going to fix everything.

Colleen still needed help.

During this transition, GOAT had an intern helping with some administrative responsibilities. Colleen had hoped that person might eventually grow into a front-desk role, but it wasn't the right fit.

Once that ended, Colleen sat down with Amy and Ben, her two staff clinicians.

The question was simple:

What do we actually need from an admin?

They started talking through the responsibilities.

Then they asked an even better question.

Who do we already know?

Both clinicians immediately said the same name.

Sandy.

Sometimes Your Best Hire Is Already in Your Community

Sandy wasn't a stranger applying through a job board.

She had been a Functional Fitness member for years.

GOAT had treated members of her family.

She lived in the community.

She knew the clinic.

She knew Colleen.

She already liked what GOAT was building.

And she worked in the front office of the local high school, so she had experience dealing with people and administrative responsibilities.

The team had barely finished discussing her when something almost too perfect happened.

The next day, Sandy approached Colleen.

She had heard the intern was leaving and asked whether GOAT happened to need administrative help.

Colleen hadn't written the job description.

She didn't know exactly what the hours would be.

The role wasn't completely defined.

But the answer was obvious.

Yes.

You Don't Always Need the Perfect Job Description First

Ideally, you should have clarity around a role before hiring.

You want to understand responsibilities.

Expectations.

Hours.

Compensation.

What success looks like.

But Colleen's experience also shows why owners shouldn't become paralyzed waiting for every detail to be perfect.

Sandy had the right traits.

She knew the business.

She cared about the community.

She was organized in ways Colleen wasn't.

And she wanted to help build.

So the job description became a living document.

As needs appeared, the role evolved.

Instead of trying to predict every administrative responsibility the clinic would ever have, they started with the problems that existed right now.

Hire People Who Are Good at the Things You Hate

Colleen is very open about one thing.

Administration is not her strength.

Organization doesn't come naturally to her.

At the time, GOAT had recently become Medicare nonparticipating, which created administrative responsibilities that had to be handled correctly.

Things needed to be faxed.

Information needed to be tracked.

Processes needed to happen consistently.

Colleen had a pile of tasks that she knew were important and absolutely did not want to manage.

She handed them to Sandy.

A few hours later, Sandy came back.

She had created a spreadsheet.

She had organized the process.

She had faxed what needed to be faxed.

She had checked the other Medicare patients.

She found something else that had been missed and handled that too.

A problem that might have consumed days of Colleen's attention had been organized in hours.

That's leverage.

The Right Person Doesn't Just Take Tasks Away

A great hire doesn't merely follow your checklist.

They improve the checklist.

That's what Colleen experienced with Sandy.

Colleen could hand her a messy problem.

Sandy would organize it.

She would create a tracking method.

She would notice missing pieces.

She would make the process better.

That's fundamentally different from hiring someone who needs the owner to explain every next move.

You want people who can eventually own outcomes, not simply complete isolated tasks.

It Helped That Sandy Already Trusted Colleen

There was another reason this relationship worked.

Sandy knew Colleen before she saw behind the curtain.

She knew Colleen was an excellent clinician.

She knew how much she cared about patients.

She had watched GOAT serve her own family.

So when Colleen handed over a disorganized administrative mess, Sandy didn't assume the entire business was incompetent.

She understood that this simply wasn't Colleen's strength.

That gave Colleen something incredibly important:

Permission to stop pretending she was good at everything.

Owners Are Often Afraid of Being Exposed

This is one reason hiring an admin can feel surprisingly scary.

The owner knows where all the messes are.

You know the spreadsheet you haven't updated.

The process that's held together with duct tape.

The leads sitting in three different places.

The document you can't find.

The task you've been procrastinating on for two weeks.

Then you're supposed to hire someone and show them all of it.

That can feel like exposing yourself.

What if they realize you don't actually have everything figured out?

Here's the reality:

You probably don't.

That's why you're hiring them.

You Don't Need to Clean Everything Up Before You Hire Help

There's a trap here.

Owners think:

Once I get organized, I'll hire an admin.

But getting organized may be exactly what the admin should help you do.

You don't need to hand someone complete chaos with zero direction.

But you also don't need to spend six months building a perfect administrative department before bringing in the person who may be much better equipped to build it.

Colleen's advice to the clinic owners she coaches now is pretty straightforward:

Hire the admin.

Find someone with the skill set and drive to build alongside you.

Then let the role evolve.

Your Existing Patients May Be a Recruiting Pool

One of the most interesting parts of Sandy's story is where she came from.

The GOAT community.

Courtney points out that many excellent administrative hires inside PT Biz clinics have come from people who already know the business.

Patients.

Former patients.

Members.

Friends of patients.

People already connected to the community.

That can be an incredibly valuable recruiting pool.

These people have already experienced your brand.

They understand your patients.

They may already believe in the mission.

You're not starting from zero.

Look for Someone Who Is Already All In

Sandy didn't just show up and process paperwork.

She wanted to help.

GOAT was participating in an event?

She wanted to know what she could do.

Could she run the computer?

Could she volunteer?

Could she wear the GOAT shirt and represent the clinic at a community event?

She was invested.

That's hard to teach.

You can train someone to use software.

You can teach a scheduling process.

You can create an SOP.

It's much harder to manufacture genuine enthusiasm for the business.

When you find someone who already has that, pay attention.

Hiring Creates Capacity, but Delegation Creates Leverage

Simply putting an admin on payroll doesn't solve the owner's problem.

You have to actually give them things.

That's where many owners struggle.

They hire help and then continue doing everything themselves.

Why?

Because it's faster.

Because they know how.

Because they don't want to explain it.

Because they don't want somebody to see the mess.

Because the task feels too important.

But if the owner keeps all the responsibilities, you've added payroll without creating leverage.

The value appears when ownership transfers.

Colleen Had to Become the Boss

This was part of a larger identity change.

For years, Colleen's primary identity was clinician.

Even after opening GOAT, she remained deeply embedded in patient care.

Then the business reached a point where that was no longer enough.

She needed to become the boss.

Not in the sense of walking around telling everyone what to do.

She needed to create direction.

Systems.

Meetings.

Expectations.

Processes.

Accountability.

A business can't scale indefinitely on everyone knowing Colleen well enough to guess what she wants.

Regular Staff Meetings Finally Became a Thing

For years, Colleen resisted some of the systems her coaches recommended.

Regular meetings were one example.

Block scheduling was another.

Marketing calendars.

Tracking.

Processes.

She jokes that PT Biz coaches sometimes had to repeat an idea until it sat there long enough for Colleen to eventually believe she'd thought of it herself.

But the resistance finally started breaking down.

Why?

Because she realized something fundamental:

If she didn't have a plan and wasn't measuring anything, she couldn't systematically improve anything.

You Can't Improve What Only Exists in Your Head

This is one of the most important lessons in Colleen's story.

Owners often say:

We don't really have a system for that.

Usually, that's not completely true.

Something happens every time.

The owner just hasn't documented it.

Maybe the system is good.

Maybe it's terrible.

But there is a repeated behavior.

Phone consult comes in.

You do something.

Patient finishes care.

You do something.

Lead doesn't book.

You do something.

New employee starts.

You do something.

If an activity happens repeatedly, you already have a process.

Writing it down gives you the opportunity to improve it and teach it.

Systems Don't Have to Be Complicated

The word "system" scares people because they imagine giant operating manuals.

Flowcharts.

Software automations.

Hundreds of pages of SOPs.

It doesn't have to start there.

A system can simply be:

When I finish a phone consult, I enter this information into Jane.

That's it.

Write it down.

Now another person can follow it.

Then you can improve it later.

The first goal isn't creating the world's greatest SOP library.

It's getting repeatable knowledge out of your head.

If Colleen Started Over, She'd Document Earlier

When Courtney asks what she would do differently if she started again, Colleen's answer is immediate.

She would write things down as she went.

Not six years later.

As she went.

Every time she figured out how she wanted something done, she would capture it.

That would make future hiring easier.

Training easier.

Delegation easier.

Quality control easier.

The business wouldn't have to reverse-engineer years of habits living inside the owner's brain.

Build the Airplane While You're Flying, but Write Down How You Built It

Most new clinic owners don't have the luxury of designing every system before opening.

You're going to figure things out in real time.

That's fine.

Colleen describes her early years as basically flying the airplane without bothering to build the rest of it.

A lot of entrepreneurs can relate.

The lesson isn't that you need a 200-page operations manual before your first patient.

It's that when you solve something, capture the solution.

You will thank yourself later.

Becoming a Coach Made Colleen a Better Owner

One of the most interesting developments in Colleen's story is that she eventually became a PT Biz coach herself.

She initially found the idea almost funny.

After years of resisting some of the advice her own coaches gave her, now she was going to coach other clinic owners?

But teaching changed the way she looked at her own business.

She could sit in a room with six or eight other practice owners and immediately see solutions to their problems.

Why?

Because she wasn't emotionally buried inside their businesses.

It's Easier to See the Picture When You're Not in the Frame

A clinic owner would describe feeling overwhelmed.

Too many ideas.

Too many priorities.

No idea what to do first.

Colleen could look at the situation and say:

Get everything out of your head.

Put it on the whiteboard.

Organize it.

Use your quarterly plan.

Prioritize it.

Execute.

Then she'd finish the coaching call and realize something uncomfortable.

She should probably do the exact thing she had just told them to do.

Teaching created accountability.

If You're Going to Coach It, You Should Probably Do It

Colleen would tell someone to use a block schedule.

Then realize she should have one.

She'd tell someone to create a marketing calendar.

Then realize GOAT should have one.

She'd tell another owner to document a process.

Then look at all the undocumented processes inside her own business.

That's one of the reasons coaching can sharpen leadership.

Explaining a principle to somebody else forces you to clarify it.

Then you have to decide whether you're willing to apply your own advice.

Community Can Shorten the Learning Curve

Colleen also highlights another advantage of being surrounded by other clinic owners.

Nobody has every answer.

Even experienced owners still have blind spots.

A newer owner may have a brilliant marketing idea.

Someone else may have solved a staffing problem differently.

Another clinic may have created an offer you've never considered.

The value isn't just having a coach tell you what to do.

It's being in a room where other people are solving similar problems from different angles.

You can borrow the useful pieces without copying the entire business.

The Best Business Communities Make It Safe to Admit What You Don't Know

There can be a lot of insecurity when owners enter a room full of successful entrepreneurs.

Everyone else looks like they have it figured out.

You assume you're going to be exposed.

Then you realize everybody has a mess somewhere.

One person is great at marketing and terrible at finances.

Another has amazing systems but struggles with sales.

Someone has a packed clinic and can't hire.

Another has a great team and needs more leads.

The willingness to openly share those problems makes the room valuable.

You don't need to pretend.

You need to solve.

GOAT Eventually Built Enough Structure to Give Colleen Her Life Back

The result of all these changes isn't simply a cleaner CRM.

It's what the business allows Colleen to do now.

A normal week can include time working on the business.

Reviewing numbers.

Preparing for the next month.

Meeting people in the community.

And sometimes spending a Tuesday morning at the pickleball facility.

Part of that is because she likes pickleball.

Part of it is because she's wearing a GOAT shirt and meeting people.

That's a very different form of marketing than squeezing a workshop into the end of a 60-hour clinical week.

Marketing Can Look Like Living in Your Community

This is especially important for local cash practices.

Not every marketing activity needs to happen behind a laptop.

Colleen can go play pickleball.

Take Pilates.

Show up in places where active adults already spend time.

Build relationships.

Be known.

Be visible.

That works because she finally has time to do it.

When the owner is treating patients from morning until evening, community marketing gets pushed into nights and weekends.

Once the clinical schedule decreases, relationship-building can become part of the actual job.

She Can Be Present for Her Kids Again

The business also gives Colleen more flexibility around her family.

She can go to her daughter's soccer practice.

She can leave for a long weekend to attend her son's robotics competition.

She can be home when her kids need her.

That doesn't mean she never works late.

Sometimes she goes to the family event and finishes something afterward.

But there's an important difference.

She has options.

Before, if six patients were scheduled, she couldn't simply leave.

And she still had the business work waiting after the patients were done.

Now she has far more control over when the work happens.

Time Freedom Doesn't Mean Doing Nothing

This is worth emphasizing.

Getting out of treatment doesn't mean Colleen spends every afternoon playing pickleball.

She still works.

She reviews numbers.

She manages marketing.

She works on systems.

She supports the team.

She coaches.

She plans.

The difference is that she can allocate her time around the priorities of the business and her life.

That's what time freedom actually looks like.

It's not an empty calendar.

It's control over the calendar.

The Business Can Serve the Owner Too

Physical therapists are naturally patient-first.

That's a strength.

Colleen's entire practice reflects that philosophy.

Functional Fitness exists because she wanted patients to have somewhere to go after PT.

Pricing was influenced by accessibility.

The community matters.

But building a patient-first business doesn't require sacrificing the owner.

If the business serves patients beautifully while destroying the person who owns it, the model eventually becomes unsustainable.

The owner matters too.

Your Team May See the Bottleneck Before You Do

One of the most powerful moments in Colleen's story remains Amy telling her that the business might actually run better if she stopped treating.

That's a hard statement to hear.

It's also a sign of a healthy team relationship.

Amy wasn't asking Colleen to work less because she didn't care about the business.

She wanted Colleen focused on the work only Colleen could do.

Keep the staff schedules full.

Build the systems.

Grow the company.

Lead.

Sometimes the people around you can see your highest-value role more clearly than you can.

Listen to them.

Then Colleen Built a Membership Offer

One of the more recent examples of GOAT's progress came through a new membership offer.

Earlier in 2026, Colleen launched it.

And roughly 90% of the available spots sold.

That's a strong result by itself.

But the more interesting detail is what Colleen was doing while much of it happened.

She was on vacation.

That's a very different business from the one where every important activity depended on Colleen personally being in the clinic.

That's What Systems Are Supposed to Create

The goal of systems isn't documentation for the sake of documentation.

It's not filling Google Drive with SOPs nobody reads.

Systems are supposed to create consistency without requiring the owner to personally supervise every action.

A lead comes in.

The process continues.

Someone needs follow-up.

It happens.

A patient needs to be resold into the next appropriate service.

The team knows what to do.

A membership launches.

The business can execute.

That's when systems become freedom.

Recurring Revenue Becomes Even More Powerful When It Doesn't Depend on You

GOAT's story began with continuity almost by accident.

Functional Fitness gave discharged patients somewhere to continue.

Years later, Colleen continues building recurring offers into the business.

That matters because recurring revenue creates predictability.

Instead of starting every month at zero, some portion of revenue is already established.

Pair that with a team capable of delivering the service without the owner, and you create a much stronger Stability Layer.

That's one of the most important transitions from a solo practice to a scalable company.

The Business Is Better Because Colleen Treats Less

That can sound backwards to a physical therapist.

The owner is the most experienced clinician.

The owner built the reputation.

Patients may specifically ask for the owner.

So surely the business is strongest when the owner treats as much as possible.

Not necessarily.

There comes a point where every additional hour the owner spends treating is an hour not spent fixing a larger bottleneck.

If the team has available capacity, the owner may actually be taking patients away from clinicians whose schedules need to grow.

That was happening at GOAT.

Once Colleen stepped back, her providers' schedules became fuller.

And she gained the time needed to build the systems supporting them.

The Owner Has to Graduate From Being the Product

Early on, patients may be buying you.

That's normal.

You are the brand.

You are the clinician.

You are the salesperson.

You are the experience.

But a scalable practice requires patients to eventually trust the organization.

GOAT has to mean something beyond Colleen Davis.

The evaluation needs to be excellent regardless of which clinician performs it.

The patient experience needs to remain consistent.

The team needs to communicate similarly.

The brand needs to carry trust.

That's why documenting "what makes GOAT GOAT" matters so much.

A Strong Team Gives the Owner More Ways to Grow

Once the owner is no longer responsible for delivering every visit, new opportunities become possible.

Colleen can spend three hours at a pickleball facility.

She can develop a community relationship.

She can improve reactivation.

She can build a new membership.

She can coach the team.

She can review numbers.

She can work on the next offer.

She can create systems.

Those activities may eventually generate far more value than another three patient visits.

That's leverage.

If You're Still Solo, Don't Wait to Start Building This

You don't need multiple clinicians before documenting your business.

You don't need a full-time admin.

You don't need sophisticated software.

Start now.

Every time you do something repeatedly, ask:

If somebody else had to do this tomorrow, what would they need to know?

Write it down.

Record a quick video.

Create a checklist.

Save the template.

Document the follow-up.

Name the process.

You're creating assets your future team can use.

The First Pancake Is Supposed to Suck

Courtney ends the conversation by asking what Colleen would tell the clinician who has been thinking about starting but hasn't taken the first step.

Colleen uses one of her favorite analogies.

The first pancake always sucks.

She has been making pancakes for years.

She has kids in high school.

And somehow, that first pancake still doesn't come out right.

Business works the same way.

Your first social media post might be terrible.

Your first logo may not last.

Your first offer may change.

Your first workshop may be awkward.

Your first system may need to be rewritten.

Fine.

Make the pancake.

Stop Treating Early Decisions Like They're Permanent

Clinicians delay starting because they want certainty.

What should the logo look like?

What should I post?

What should I charge?

What should the website say?

What should the business be called?

Those decisions feel enormous because they're happening before you have much data.

But most of them can change.

GOAT wasn't even supposed to be called GOAT.

Colleen changed pricing.

She changed services.

She changed how she spent her time.

She changed the team.

She changed her systems.

She changed her role.

The business evolved because she allowed it to.

Action Creates Information

Thinking about opening a clinic can teach you only so much.

Eventually, you need feedback from reality.

Put the post up.

Talk to the gym owner.

Treat the patient.

Run the class.

Make the offer.

Hire the admin.

Write the first SOP.

Then see what happens.

Action creates information.

Information allows you to make a better next decision.

That's how businesses actually get built.

You Don't Need to Know How the Final Version Works

Colleen started with an adaptive fitness class inside a CrossFit gym.

She didn't have a grand plan showing how that would eventually become GOAT Physical Therapy and Wellness.

She certainly didn't have a detailed roadmap showing how she'd eventually become a coach, build recurring revenue, step almost entirely out of patient care, and have a team operating the clinic.

She solved the next problem.

Then the next one.

That's enough.

Technology Spotlight

Documentation continues to be one of the biggest frustrations for physical therapists.

Colleen experienced that firsthand during her years in home health, where the paperwork could become overwhelming even when the patient care itself was rewarding.

And as you build a practice, reducing unnecessary administrative burden becomes even more important.

Claire is an AI scribe built specifically for PTs that dramatically reduces documentation time, allowing clinicians to focus on patient care instead of paperwork.

For a growing clinic, tools that give clinicians time back can also help protect the patient experience and reduce the amount of work following providers home.

👉 Try Claire free for 7 days

https://www.meetclaire.ai/?utm_source=preroll&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=pt_entrepreneurs

More PT Biz Training

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👉 PT Biz Training YouTube

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Final Thoughts

Colleen calls herself a reluctant entrepreneur.

She'd probably also admit she was a reluctant implementer.

But that's exactly what makes her story useful.

She didn't start because she had a perfect business plan.

She started because she saw an opportunity to help people in her community differently.

Then she figured things out as she went.

She created a continuity service before recurring revenue was some sophisticated business strategy.

She hired people she trusted.

She eventually admitted she couldn't keep treating full-time while also trying to lead the company.

She started documenting the systems that had lived in her head for years.

And the more she stepped into the owner role, the better the business began to operate.

Today, she can see a handful of patients instead of carrying a full caseload.

Her clinicians can stay busy.

Her admin can own work Colleen shouldn't be doing.

She can spend time building community relationships.

And she has more flexibility to be present for her family.

That's the bigger lesson.

Building a cash practice isn't just about replacing your salary.

It's about gradually creating a business that doesn't require you to sacrifice every available hour to keep it alive.

If you're already growing, ask yourself:

What am I still doing that the business no longer needs me to do?

And if you're still sitting on the sidelines because you haven't figured everything out yet, remember Colleen's advice.

The first pancake is probably going to suck.

Make it anyway.