E637 | The Power Of Difficult Conversations

In this episode, we explore the importance of having difficult conversations as a business owner. We delve into the benefits of addressing problems and issues directly, even if they may be uncomfortable. These conversations are crucial for the long-term success of a company, especially when changes need to be made to improve profitability or service structures.

Drawing from real-life scenarios, we discuss situations where difficult conversations are necessary, such as transitioning from a mobile to a brick-and-mortar practice and informing clients of the need for office visits. We acknowledge that clients often prioritize their own convenience and may not consider the business realities. By tackling these problems head-on, we prevent them from exacerbating further down the line.

Drawing upon personal experiences in the military, we emphasize the importance of planning and follow-up in difficult leadership conversations. We share a positive example of an employee who was let go but agreed it wasn't a good fit, leading to an open and productive discussion.

Throughout this episode, we make the case that having difficult conversations is a skill that business owners must practice to protect their businesses from potential damage. Although uncomfortable, these conversations foster honesty, accountability, and ultimately benefit both the business and the individuals involved.

Furthermore, mastering this skill can also have positive effects outside of work, benefiting personal relationships. We encourage listeners to embrace the adventure of business ownership and face challenges head-on.

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Podcast Transcript

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

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

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

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

So here's the question. How do physical therapists like us who don't want to see 30 patients a day who don't want to work home health and have real student loans, create a career and life for ourselves that we've always dreamed about? This is the question. And this podcast is the answer. My name is Danny Matei and welcome to the PT entrepreneur podcast.

What's going on guys. With a PT entrepreneur podcast. And today we're talking about one of the greatest side effects, one of the greatest benefits of running your own business. And for those of you that are in business for yourself, you might actually think. Of what I'm going to talk about as potentially a negative or one of the more challenging parts of running a business.

And I would agree, and that is having difficult and direct conversations with your staff and your customers. So recently I've had a few calls with people that we work with, um, you know, on different areas of the business that they're struggling with. The common theme for all of these was that they had to make a change or they had to have a conversation with a staff member that was going to be uncomfortable because.

They were either A, doing something that was putting their business in a position that didn't allow it to be successful or B, they had someone in their company that was doing things that also didn't allow their company to be successful, which means it could be, maybe they are not, uh, providing a service the way that you want, maybe they're not, Following a system in terms of how you want things to be tracked.

Maybe you need to change your pricing and change the structure of a service that you offer. And you have to have a difficult conversation with people you've been working with about why you have to charge more or change the way in which they are being, being worked with. And that's a hard thing to do because.

As a consumer, imagine this yourself, right? You're like, okay, I've been working with this person and you know, they charge X amount. Let's say they charge 80 a session to work with you. And that person knows now they're like, damn, now I got to, I've really got to be closer to like one 50 cause I've been grossly under charging.

Well, you have to have a conversation with that person because if you continue to charge. 80 for what you're doing. You're never going to be able to hire anybody in your company to grow past yourself. And if you have a vision for your company of wanting to have, you know, multiple clinicians and, uh, maybe, you know, coaches within that or other people that are going to be fulfilling services, you have to have enough revenue in order to pay those people.

And hopefully. Uh, good enough revenue stream and profitability in the business to pay them really, really well. Right. Not just the terrible salaries that some of our, our peers get coming out of school, but like an actual salary that is worth their skillset and still. Allows the business to be in a healthy position.

Like we obviously can't sabotage the business because we want to pay somebody more money. Uh, but they don't care. They don't know that. They just want to make as much as they can, right? So, but you have to pay them as much as you can while still having the business in a place where it's going to be healthy and profitable, um, you know for the long term, right?

It's because we used to always say when my wife when she was this is a non profit But it applies to for profits too. It's like no money, no mission. Well, if you're in a mission driven company, you need revenue. You need that money because money is what pays other people to be able to do the work that they do because they have to pay their mortgage.

They have to buy their groceries and all the things that they need in life. So when we look at where we're at and we realize damn i've got to have an uncomfortable conversation with These clients about not charging enough and I need to raise my rates or like let's say we have somebody that is going from a mobile practice to a brick and mortar practice This is very common that they have to have these difficult conversations with people that are used to you coming to their house Like if they're used to you coming to their house and charging 120 and now you tell them well I'm gonna need you to come to my office and I'm gonna charge 180 That probably isn't gonna go so well like if you if you if you put it out there like that There's lots obviously a lot better ways to say it than what I just said But that might be exactly what you need to do because what they don't know what that person doesn't know is number one You're you're not One, scale and pass yourself by doing that.

Two, you're spending 30 minutes each direction going to their house and then getting back or going wherever you're going after that. So now that one hour really is two hours of your time. So instead of you, yeah, you think, Oh, I'm making 60 or 120 an hour. No, you're making 60 an hour because you're spending an hour of commuting time just to go and do that.

And they don't care because it's convenient to them. Like, listen, people for the most part, they just want what they want, right? Right. Bye. They're not thinking about that, but if you put yourself in a bad spot because you're the one that agreed to it, well, now you're going to have to have a difficult conversation about, you know, what that looks like and what you're going to have to do next.

But I can tell you this much. I've had a lot of difficult conversations with people, both my time in the military when I was, uh, in leadership positions where, you know, people worked for me. I was their boss. And at a very young age, I didn't have a choice. I just get, you know, gets pushed into these positions because of, uh, because of rank and the way that the military works with seniority and it's never comfortable to have conversations with people about things that need to be.

Changed, but if it does have to happen. Um, it's something you have to do, otherwise it just gets worse and worse. Now think about this. What if you have somebody in your company that is an employee, so say this is like a staff clinician or a front desk staff or, or a trainer or whatever, and they are not living up to the standards that you have for your practice, whether it be professionalism, punctuality, um, you know, their detail with how they're following up with people, whatever, just their, their skillset in general.

You can either ignore it because you don't want to have confrontation, uh, and to have to have a direct conversation with somebody, or you can just. Start to develop a plan of how you want to communicate with this person, what you need to see them change, and then implement on that and follow up on that because it is hard when we have people that we work with that we get a chance to get to know.

And I recently had a conversation with somebody that we work with that had to let their front desk staff go. And he was very nervous about the conversation. You know, he got to know this person. He's like, I don't know what she's going to do for a living. And what was interesting was he followed up with me afterward and he said, you know what?

It went great She was thinking the same thing. This just wasn't working and it was like this You know sigh of relief almost between the two of them once he finally was like, I just think you'd be better off In a different company, like I don't think this is working and this person was like, I agree, you know, like I'm glad you said it because there's a lot of friction for whatever reason with, with this person in this role and it just wasn't working and you have to be able to have those conversations.

Otherwise you can just ignore them and ignore them and ignore them. And then next thing you know, like they're creating massive problems in your company. Now this is a skill set that you're going to have to. Force yourself into nobody wants to do this. Trust me. Nobody wants to do it. Even to this day.

I've had a lot of these conversations. I still don't like it, but I know I have to do it. It's the difference between, you know, discomfort and avoidance of that and discomfort and actually saying, okay, I know this is uncomfortable, but I have to do it because it is a positive thing overall and forcing yourself to actually do that.

But where this starts to really become a massive, Advantage to you. At least it's been this way for me in my life is this is not the only place that you have to have uncomfortable conversations. This is not the only time in your life, the only place in your life where you have to have, uh, you know, communication with people in, in a way where it's not a positive thing directly.

Think about outside of your business. If you have kids, You're going to have to have conversations with them that are not super fun. If you have siblings, same thing. If you have a spouse, same thing. You know, if you have people that you care for, uh, friends and you know, you see them doing something that they shouldn't do, like it's up to you to try to help them and that might mean having a difficult conversation with them.

So what a great side effect. Running a business is if you really think about it, this callous that you develop, you know, this hardening that happens from you having to take ownership and have these direct conversations allows you to be far more confident, far more consistent with the conversations that you know, you need to have that the people you're talking to, you know, they need to have with you as well and actually initiating those and doing a good job with those.

Because if you really think about what happens, you'll see this person that got let go. Well, They could either be miserable in this role and be doing a terrible job for as long as you keep them there, or you have a conversation with them. They say, yeah, I really don't like working here either. Now, all of a sudden they're looking for another job and they find something that's a far better fit and it fits their skillset.

And they're so much happier because of that, because you had the courage to talk to them about where they're at. They didn't have the courage to tell you. So you have to have these conversations. They're going to happen outside your business. They're going to happen in your, your day to day life. And you get a chance to really, you know, sharpen that sword.

In your business. Cause you're going to have to do it. You have to, to do with clients. You have to do it with staff. You got to do it all the time and it doesn't get easier, but I tell you what, you start to realize just how important it is, how beneficial it is. And you don't delay as much. You don't just, you know, push it off, push it off.

You rip the bandaid off. You do what you got to do because you know, it's important. So don't think of this as a negative thing. Think of this as a positive. I had somebody that brought, brought up the idea of a business to me in a, in a. A lens that I thought was really interesting, you know, they said most people view their business as a crucible that they have to endure versus viewing it as the greatest adventure that you could go on.

Like if you view your business, you could say this about life, view your business as a great adventure where you get to go on all these, you know, little mini adventures within it and learn all these things and challenge yourself. Like take that lens of what a great opportunity to experience, you know, the adventure of a lifetime versus I have to endure this because I don't have any other choice.

God, what a terrible, what a terrible way to live, but a lot of people do, they view it as, you know, something scary and something bad is always going to happen and they just have to survive. Like what a scarce way of looking at everything. And what a, what a lack of excitement that leads to versus an adventure, man, be what, be on an adventure.

You know, like learn these lessons because they're part of what makes it fun. You have scars from these things because that's what happens when you do something that has some risk to it. Like, have an adventure, don't just try to endure. So, direct conversations, something you're going to have to have. Get used to it, it's something that's going to be a superpower for you, outside of your business, and you get a chance to really, really get good at it, challenge yourself in the business.

Don't shy away from it, lean into it, have that conversation you know you need to have today.

Hey Peach Entrepreneurs, we have big... Exciting news, a new program that we just came out with. It is our PT biz part time to full time five day challenge over the course of five days, we get you crystal clear on exactly how much money you need to replace by getting you ultra clear on how much you're actually spending.

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It's going to help you get very clear on exactly what you need to do and when you're going to do it. That's what it's going to take. Action. If you're interested in signing up for this challenge, it's totally free. Head to physicaltherapybiz. com forward slash challenge. Get signed up there. Please enjoy.

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