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Stephen Anderson's journey from a Division III basketball player to CEO of the largest private practice physical therapy organization in the U.S. is nothing short of remarkable. In our conversation, Stephen shares the lessons he learned about leadership, the value of teamwork, and how he embraced opportunities even when they seemed daunting. We talk about the importance of building a strong culture, learning from failure, and empowering others to lead from any position. If you've ever doubted your leadership potential or wondered how to navigate challenges in healthcare, Stephen's advice will inspire you to take that next step and embrace your own journey.Steve Anderson is the ex-CEO of Therapeutic Associates which is a physical therapy company that consists of 100 outpatient clinics in Washington, Oregon and Idaho and a major hospital contract in Southern California. The company was formed in 1952 and Steve was the 3 rd CEO and held that position for 19 years. He is also active nationally in the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA), was a Board of Trustee for The Foundation for Physical Therapy and was the President of The Private Practice Section of APTA for 6 years between 2002-2008. He was also awarded the most prestigious award the Section gives out annually to a physical therapist, the Robert G. Dicus Service Award in 2010. Steve received the APTA Leadership Advocacy Award in 2006 for his efforts in Washington D.C. and Washington State in the legislative arena. In 2012 Steve received the Distinguished Alumnus Award from Northwestern University Physical Therapy School. In 2016 Steve was awarded Physical Therapist of the Year by PTWA, APTA's Washington State Chapter. Steve is also a founder and facilitator of The Graham Sessions for the last 18 years. The conference is a think tank, discussion and debate forum held annually on a national platform.Learn more about our guest at:www.orangedotcoaching.comhttps://www.instagram.com/steveorangedot/Check out the new course on Self Funding Your Own Conference Attendance:https://healthcareeducationtransformationpodcast.com/conferenceIf you are taking the NPTE or are teaching those about to take the NPTE, visit the NPTE Final Frontier at www.NPTEFF.com and use code "HET" for 10% off all purchases at the website...and BREAKING NEWS!!!! They now have an OCS (and soon to be GCS) review option as well... You're welcome! You can also reach out to them on Instagram @npteff If you're a PT and you have student loan debt, you gotta talk to these guys. What makes them unique is that they view financial planning as like running hurdles on a track. And for PTs, the first hurdle many of us run into is student loan debt. Varela Financial will help you get over that hurdle. They not only take the time to explain to you which plans you individually qualify for and how those plans work, but they ALSO take the time to show you what YOUR individual case looks like mapped out within each option. So if you're looking for help on your student loan debt, or any area of your personal finances, we highly recommend working with them. You can check out Varela Financial out at varelafinancial.com. Feel free to reach out to us at: http://healthcareeducationtransformationpodcast.com/ https://www.facebook.com/HETPodcast https://twitter.com/HETpodcast Instagram: @hetpodcast @pteducator For more information on how we can optimize and standardize healthcare education and delivery, subscribe to the Healthcare Education Transformation Podcast on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts.
Rupal M Patel, PT, PhD is an Associate Professor in the School of Physical Therapy at Texas Woman's University (TWU) in Houston, Texas. Dr. Patel received her PhD in Health Promotion and Wellness from Rocky Mountain University of Health Professions in Provo, Utah in 2016, her MS in PT from TWU in Houston in 1991 and her BS in PT and biology from TWU in Denton in 1990. Her research streams include reduce risk factors for diabetes among an at-risk population, social and structural determinants of health and their impact on rehabilitation outcomes, factors influencing health behaviors among populations, and issues related to justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion in physical therapy. Besides her DPT teaching responsibilities, Dr. Patel also mentors PhD students during their didactic and dissertation phases. Service is part of Dr. Patel's life work and passion. She has been an active member of the APTA since 1988 and has served in various roles at the component and national level over the past 30 years. She was elected to national office to the APTA Nominating Committee in 2017 and served a chair in her final year (2020). Dr. Patel is a founding and current member of the APTA's Council on Prevention, Health Promotion, and Wellness, the Academy of Prevention and Health Promotion Therapies (APHPT), a board member and DEI Committee Co-Chair of the Physical Therapy Learning Institute (2018-present) and a board member of Empowering Women as Leaders, Inc. Houston Chapter (2023 – present). Dr. Patel currently serves as: the Federal Advocacy Liaison (FAL) for the Academy of Neurologic Physical Therapy (ANPT), the co-chair of the APTA Academy of Leadership and Innovation (ALI) Research Committee, a member of the ACAPT NEDIC PT Education and Advancement Pathway Task Force. She was recently elected to serve as chief delegate for Texas to the APTA House of Delegates (2024 – 2027) and has been appointed as the FAL for the APTA Academy of Education (2024). Leadership is a verb - defined by your actions, rather than a noun - defined by your title is a philosophy that Dr. Patel lives by in her ongoing service and leadership journey. Dr. Patel has presented at national and state physical therapy, public health, and rehabilitation conferences, has delivered one of the This I Believe speeches for The Graham Sessions, and also has appeared on numerous podcasts and national panels.
Stephen Rapposelli heard of a new business, StretchLabs, at The Graham Sessions, and immediately his heart sank. "How do they get away with providing what people believe to be PT?" he thought. However, instead of remaining despondent, he changed the question to, "How can I take advantage of this and build my own version of StretchLabs?" Since then, he's built a successful adjunct to his PT practice which provides services that his community will happily pay cash for, without the traditional PT overhead. Stephen opened his private practice in Delaware in 1992. He has grown to 3 clinics and has been voted the best PT business in his state for numerous years. Today, Stephen shares his story about how he developed a cash-based service and succeeded.Love the show? Subscribe, rate, review, and share! https://ptoclub.com/
Today on Eden Exchanges, we spoke to Director Graham Sessions of Carv'n It Up, a healthy carving and roast dinners franchise operating nationwide. Listen as Graham delves into his role at Carv'n It Up, the family dynamics and culture in the business, the point of difference in the market and how you can become a franchisee at Carv'n It Up.
Today on Eden Exchanges, we spoke to Director Graham Sessions of Carv'n It Up, a healthy carving and roast dinners franchise operating nationwide. Listen as Graham delves into his role at Carv'n It Up, the family dynamics and culture in the business, the point of difference in the market and how you can become a franchisee at Carv'n It Up.
In this episode, CEO of Performance Physical Therapy, Michelle Collie, talks about the business of physical therapy. Today, Michelle talks about the lack of business knowledge of physical therapy graduates, the belief that marketing and sales are bad, and the importance of encouraging entrepreneurship. How do we change the public's understanding of our roles in health care teams? Hear about the challenges Michelle has faced, how she maintains her company culture, and get some great advice, all on today's episode of The Healthy, Wealthy & Smart Podcast. Key Takeaways “I do think that it's our responsibility for the well-being of our profession that we do include some basic business information.” “People don't know what we do. We don't do a good job of explaining the value.” “Any way we can support small businesses is going to be helpful for the future of our profession.” “You definitely have to work on yourself a lot, and be very mindful of what you need as a person if you want to be a leader in an organisation.” “How you act at a holiday party or social event, is going to have a big impact on what your organisation is like.” “Get comfortable with the word ‘money'. It's not a bad word. Just think of money as one of the things that helps us be able to evolve as a profession and serve more people in our communities.” “Be curious about learning more about business.” “Believe in yourself earlier, and address the fears that you have of your lack of knowledge and your inability to do things. Make your mistakes earlier.” More about Michelle Collie [caption id="attachment_9677" align="alignleft" width="150"] headshot of Michelle Collie[/caption] Michelle Collie PT, DPT, MS is the CEO of Performance Physical Therapy, a privately held practice with clinics in Rhode Island and Massachusetts. Celebrating 21 years since it was founded, Performance employs over 230 people, with ongoing growth plans, including 2 new clinics opening this month. Performance PT has celebrated many accolades including being the recipient of the APTA-PPS Jane L. Snyder Practice of the Year, and 7 times, Rhode Island best places to work award. Michelle currently serves as the president of the RI chapter of the APTA and chair of the PPS PR and Marketing Committee. She was a member of the PPS Covid Advisory board and is a two- time recipient of the PPS board service award. Michelle is a board certified orthopedic clinical specialist. Suggested Keywords Well-being, Knowledge, Business, Physiotherapy, Culture, Marketing, Sales, Money, Entrepreneurship, Leadership, Healthy, Wealthy, Smart, APTA, PPS, Therapy, Recommended Resources August 20th Graham Sessions: https://ppsapta.org/events/graham-sessions Marketing Resources: https://ppsapta.org/practice-management/marketing-resources.cfm To learn more, follow Michelle at: Website: https://performanceptri.com Facebook: Performance Physical Therapy Instagram: @performanceptri Twitter: @performanceptri LinkedIn: Performance Physical Therapy RI YouTube: Performance Physical Therapy BizPT Round Table Talk Subscribe to Healthy, Wealthy & Smart: Website: https://podcast.healthywealthysmart.com Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/healthy-wealthy-smart/id532717264 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6ELmKwE4mSZXBB8TiQvp73 SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/healthywealthysmart Stitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/show/healthy-wealthy-smart iHeart Radio: https://www.iheart.com/podcast/263-healthy-wealthy-smart-27628927 Read the Full Transcript Here: Speaker 1 (00:03): Hey, Michelle. Welcome back to the podcast. I am so happy to have you here for this month, where we are talking all about the business of physical therapy. So welcome. Speaker 2 (00:13): Thank you, Karen. It's great to be here. Speaker 1 (00:15): And I mean, you and I have talked business in the past, like I said, in your intro, you have several offices within your business and you've really grown your business into a really great place to work. And I think that that's so important. It seems like your employees are happy. You're happy, and that is not an easy thing to do these days. So kudos to you for that. And that's one of the reasons why I wanted you to come and be part of this discussion this month, because you are a physical therapist with multiple locations. You're not just a solo preneur, right? So how many people before you go on, how many people do you employ, just so that people can get an idea of, you know, the, the breadth and width of your practice. Speaker 2 (01:04): We currently have approximately 230 employees. Now we've got openings case. Anyone's looking for a job, but as I know, everyone else is looking for employees as well. This is a common problem throughout the nation at the moment, but yes, 230, but still growing. Speaker 1 (01:21): Yeah. Which is amazing. I mean, that's, so I always think about that as they're in, like you're helping 230 people grow their wealth, improve their families, keep their lives going. I mean, it's a big deal. It's a lot of responsibility. Speaker 2 (01:37): It's a great point. And I kind of guess I love that opportunity to do that because people often say to me, oh, do you miss treating patients? And I am like, well, I do. But now I feel like I get to somehow have a larger impact on a whole lot more people. And I, yes, I love to treat patients. I love the care that we provide as physical therapists, but I do love knowing that I'm helping to provide a place for an employment for lots of people to work. And I especially felt that through COVID and the way that we were actually able to keep all of our stuff on, we did have to furlough for some of our administrative staff, but then ultimately we're able to bring everyone back. And and that was something that helped me get through the pandemic actually, knowing that I was able to have a positive impact on the fiscal sanity of all, for lack of a better term for many of the people in our community. Speaker 1 (02:32): Yeah. Which is amazing. And now, you know, this month we're talking all about business, you have a growing thriving business. So how much of the business of this business knowledge did you get when you graduated as a physical therapist? How much did you learn in PT school? Well, Speaker 2 (02:48): Probably about the same amount that every PT that's graduating these days you know, and to be fully transparent and clear, I took over performance. I actually purchased from the original founder. I was a clinic director there. It was a smaller practice with 16 employees and I was very pregnant, eight months pregnant. So I thought I was invincible. And through a seller finance note and an SBA loan, I somehow ended up with this practice and a lot of debt. And the first day that I officially owned it, which was I think three weeks before I had my first son, I walked into the office manager and said to them, don't tell anyone this, but people keep talking about financial statements, but I don't really know what they're talking about. So I prided myself on being a good PC and really loved that the value of physical therapy and what it provided to our community and patients. But when it came to actual business knowledge, especially those off to do with the financial management of an organization, and even thinking about things such as marketing and human resources, I would say I was completely ignorant and didn't have one scrap of knowledge. Speaker 1 (04:04): Right. And so this is obviously a huge deal challenge for our profession, right. So what can we do should, should these topics be included in school? Speaker 2 (04:16): I mean, I, of course I'm a proponent of it for a number of reasons. And I do, and I really respect those folks had in academia and I bought them, challenged them. You know, why don't you include some more business information and the curriculum. And the response is usually I revolve around time. We don't have enough time. And the other one is, is that always students don't want to learn that they want to learn physical therapy things. However, I do think that it's Sarah, truly a responsibility for the wellbeing of our profession, that we do include some basic business information. And that's not just because some people will want to go and start a business or be part of the business. So yeah, it will help those folks. But I do think for, let's say the staff PT, if a staff PT has a little bit more understanding of, let's say what marketing is, then they suddenly are better at advocating and speaking to their patients about the value of what we do. Speaker 2 (05:17): If someone is able to understand some of the communication skills that align with marketing and even sales, then we will suddenly see word of mouth referrals go up. When someone understands financial management a little bit more, they have a better understanding of how to code, how to negotiate your salary, the meaning of different kinds of salaries and what they mean in the longterm. So I think having some basic business information seats up every individual, no matter what setting they're working in to be a better manager and better, better more knowledgeable for the career and the longterm. We hear so often PTs talking about burnout. We hear them talking about lack of reimbursement and not getting paid enough and obviously student loans. But I think with empowering our graduate San UPTs with some bitter understanding of business and how it works, it actually gives them some foundational knowledge. So they actually can do something and make a difference rather than just this overall overwhelming complaints we hear, oh, we're not paid enough. Reimbursement keeps going down. Student loans are too high. We have at least problems with their proficient, but we need to empower our next generation to have some business knowledge. So they can ultimately help do something about this crisis that we're headed into. Speaker 1 (06:44): Yeah. And, and I think even being able to make a financial statement for yourself, it doesn't have to be a business. You don't have to own a business, but you should know, well, how much money are you bringing in? What are your costs after that money comes in? What are your debts and your liabilities? And you can look at that and, and make a budget. It may help you be able to better budget yourself to be able to pay off those student loans or, you know, do the things that you want to do. I mean, I find, I found that learning all of that has just been so eyeopening for me. Speaker 2 (07:19): Yeah. I couldn't agree more. And especially these days, we, you see different compensation packages coming out, different kinds of variable salaries. Oh, you know, if you work per diem versus full time, or maybe I do wanna, you know, have a side hustle, but understanding the long-term financial implications of those decisions can be really important and again, and how you to make the decisions that are best for your career. So you can actually work in the seating and provide the kind of care that you truly want to, and being out of balance out the money side of it and in the clinical side of it. Yeah. Speaker 1 (07:55): I couldn't agree more, I think, and I, you know, I do hope that at the very least when it comes to teaching business courses, I mean, at least help therapists understand the financial aspects of a business, whether that be a hospital, a skilled nursing facility, an inpatient facility and outpatient facility. I just think understanding that will give them a better idea. Like you said, of salaries negotiations, how much are you getting paid? Whether it be per code per patient, like you said before, you started a little, a little tweak and what you code and how much you code can compound exponentially. Speaker 2 (08:35): Exactly, exactly. Very small changes in your coding changes of business. But I also think speaking to that, having a knowledge of the kinds of employers that are out there, and that's a side of businesses as well, understanding the difference between for profit nonprofit, understanding the difference about PE and corporate owned and public on versus privately owned. There is not one that is better than the other at all. There a great PTs who are in corporate practices. There's also crappy PTs and corporate practices, same thing for private practice. It's all over the place. However, if individual PTs have a basic understanding of the, those different businesses and how they're set up, it gives them a more well-rounded approach to being part of that team, no matter who they decide to work for, or at least they want to go out in the business on their own. Speaker 1 (09:30): And, and I don't know if you have the answer to this, but do you have, can you think of off the top of your head, any resources that may be practicing PTs or new graduates can utilize to help them understand? Let's say to be more financially fluent in the physical therapy world. So let's say you didn't get it in school, which odds are you probably didn't. Where do you have any resources that people can learn more? Well, Speaker 2 (09:57): The one that's out there, which we don't actually do, I don't think a good enough job of messaging and marketing and here's, I can do that right now, but obviously the private practice section or, you know, and maybe it should be called the business section because it does have all the resources there for, for business. And again, that doesn't matter if you're a pediatric or orthopedic or in a hospital or in home care, the business of PT is everywhere. And I think the private practice section has tremendous amounts of resources for that they have, for instance, a whole series called finance 1 0 1, which is multiple videos, just on finance marketing 1 0 1. So educational opportunities, webinars, all of those, there's a huge amount of resources through the private practice section, their annual conference, and many, many people who work in all kinds of different settings come to get a through that chapter of the AP TA. So I would say for anyone with any business interests, it is a very non-threatening welcoming chapter for peoples that people at all different times in their career and all different kinds of practices to come to. Speaker 1 (11:09): Yeah. Excellent. All right. Thank you for that. So now you've said it a couple of times marketing and sales, and I know you're on the marketing committee, so we are going to dive into that. So what about the belief that marketing and sales is bad? Like it's icky. It's like people should know what we do. Why do we have to go out and market ourselves and be like, quote unquote used salesman, used car salesman, not use salesman. Speaker 2 (11:38): So incredible. I tried to flip it and say that to me, marketing and sales, we should call it advocacy because what it is is actually advocating for who we are and what we do. I was speaking to a student the other day, actually. And I love speaking to students because it's really interesting to hear when and how they learn their sort of opinions and biases. And this student was telling me about their clinical affiliation and that he couldn't understand why all doctors weren't telling their patients about direct access and we have direct access, but doctors don't tell their patients. And I see this, I say to the student, I see, did you, did you, does your mother know what [inaudible] is? And he goes, no, I had to explain it. And I see it. So let's first of all, stop using this word direct access because no one understands what it is we like to use it. Speaker 2 (12:36): But first of all, we have to be able to communicate and let people know. And then I said, do you think that the average doctor healthcare professional knows that you could see us without a referral? I don't know that because we never tell them how are they supposed to know that? So I think what it is is when we're marketing is really about advocating or educating people don't know who we are and what we do Magento here's my random guests is that 40% of PTs. And I just made that number up. But I asked a lot of people, 40% of PTs got into the field of PT because they were injured as teenagers. And they learned about the field and I was one of them. And I, I would love to know what percentage of PTs out there had ACL tears, because there is every second PTI made is like, yeah, I told my ACL when I was like 15 and I fell in love with my PTs. Speaker 2 (13:28): And I realized what a difference it made to my life. And then I decided I want to be a PT. Like, why do we have to be, you know, we experienced it. That's how we found out about it. But yet we don't want to tell other people about it. We think it's icky for some reason. So I just always try and push people. People don't know what we do. We don't do a good job of explaining the value. People have biases and think, oh, you just helped someone after they've had a stroke to walk things like that. But I think it's time that we don't just say, yes, we take care of all different kinds of people. Get them back to their life and doing what they want to love. We actually have to take it a step further and say, no, no, we're actually a major solution. When it comes to the issues with MSK, MSK ailments are a huge problem in our society. And we have the ability to keep people moving so we can decrease those downstream costs, such as knee replacements, hip replacements, chronic illnesses, your diabetes, your obesity, your hypertension. So the value in Walt we can do and create is way, way more than even what we message on a day-to-day basis at this stage. And we have to do a bit, your job of it. Speaker 1 (14:40): How do we do a better job? That's the question, the million dollar question, great. Speaker 2 (14:46): How do we do a better job? You know, I've worked at PPS and we've tried to pull PR committees and PR companies to help us with it. But I think at the end of the day, what we've found most useful is is doing grassroots advocacy work, ensuring that every student comes out and understands how to describe and how to talk about and the meaning of it. Yeah. Yeah. Speaker 1 (15:14): And, and I, like, I always tell people, if you want people to know what you do, what we do as physical therapists and you have to put yourself out there to do it. So it's not just talking to each other within the profession. We know what we do. You know, I always encourage people like you know, pitch yourself to your local newspaper, get a column, right. Like I said, this too, like in my PPS talk that was online last year. I went step-by-step and taught people how to do that. And then a couple of weeks later, I got an email from a woman who watched it and she said, I, I, I was able to get a column with my local newspaper Speaker 2 (15:59): Colson. Exactly. You put yourself out there and don't think I just have to be a PT in the clinics. I like you do a podcast. Mine's very different. My podcasts I do with different healthcare providers in our community, including PTs. And we discuss things such as how to stop running or picking your right running shoes, or what do you do if you've got back pain or how did you manage through COVID, but putting out information so that people in the community see, you see you as experts in movement and health and wellbeing and not just the clinician that your primary care doc seems to you once they don't know what to do with you because of your ongoing back pain. We're a whole lot more. Speaker 1 (16:44): Yeah. Yeah. And I think physical therapists in general, this is just my opinion, but they really need to get off the sidelines and start taking control because a lot of this, like, is it up to the AP TA to do all of this? No. You know, as an individual physical therapist, you have to put yourself out there as well. Speaker 2 (17:03): You really do. And I, I do get a little frustrated when I see people on social media bashing the, a PTA about all the things that a PTA should be doing. I think what we've seen in the year, we've seen changes in our profession such as, Hey, we're all now doctors, a PT thinking that this label would suddenly change how the public and how healthcare providers perceived us a new title, a new label, or a fancy ed doesn't change who we are. It's how we behave. So we have to behave like professionals. We have to stop being on the sidelines and actually get in and play the game. When it comes to health care, sit at the right board tables, be confident and comfortable calling out local docs, countable care organizations, insurers, and letting them know the role and the value that we provide. Speaker 1 (17:57): Yeah. Perfect. Couldn't have said it better. Excellent. Now, you know, this whole month is all about small business or not small business, but about businesses, entrepreneurship. And, you know, in speaking, before we went on the air, we were saying how important small businesses and entrepreneurship is to I think bringing back this country after hopefully as COVID starts to recede. So can you talk a little bit more about that? Speaker 2 (18:27): Yeah. I mean, you see it in every industry, that's entrepreneurship, these are where the new ideas, the crazy ideas and small businesses have the opportunity, the luxury to be savvy and make quick changes in what they do. COVID sore that, I mean, who were the first folks to suddenly provide telehealth services? It wasn't the big corporate or hospital run facilities. It was the savvy small businesses who were able to flip their operations overnight and suddenly implement telehealth. And of course that led the way for everyone else being able to follow. So I think COVID helped to prove it and show that that is the way that the world works. Entrepreneurship, small businesses seems to drive innovation. I think now in the world of physical therapy, we are seeing major challenges with reimbursement and payment. I personally, and a big fan of my moving towards value-based payment. Speaker 2 (19:24): I really despise the whole, you know, the more you do, the more you get paid, I would much rather the, we are paid to keep or get our patients healthy and have good outcomes and just find the journey to get there. But I think it's small businesses that had the opportunity to, to take on risk and try different ways, whether it's with employers or whether it's with healthcare insurance, healthcare insurance companies like go to these different organizations and pitch, then pitch different ideas. Now you're going to get turned down probably 90% of the time. That's okay. But then you're going to find little pilots and you're going to find opportunities. And even when I look around the country, now I hear from colleagues and peers who are like, oh, I'm in this kind of financial model where we're doing health screenings and we're just taking care of the lives. And someone else says, oh, we've got a subscription paced program to keep people moving. So there's different pilots going on. And it's small business that has the ability to be innovative and do those that then we can ultimately model after. So I think any way we can small support small businesses is going to be helpful for the future of their proficiency. Speaker 1 (20:39): Yeah. And I love that. You said they could be more innovative and nimble and, and that's true. That's true. Most entrepreneurs because they don't have to go through a million different boards and get approval from XYZ. They could say, well, this is what I'm seeing in the market. This is what our clients want. So let's try it. Speaker 2 (20:59): Exactly, exactly. And you can do it at a clinic level. You can do it at company level. You can do it with, oh, let's try this program at this clinic and see if it works. And yeah, you can be very savvy and very timing and get these things done quickly. It's small business might not have all the resources and may not have whether that's financial or brains like people power, but usually entrepreneurs are pretty savvy about finding solutions to some of those challenges and problems. And that's where the likes of PPS and a PTA can be really helpful because it's pretty easy to find other people with that business or entrepreneurial ship desires that can come together and help each other. Yeah, Speaker 1 (21:41): I agree. And now, you know, as we're talking about business and you have a thriving business at this point, but what were the challenges of your business and a view as an entrepreneur now, I think you mentioned one of them earlier being, having no idea what financial statements were, I'd say that's a challenge. But for people listening for who might be maybe wanting to dip their feet into the entrepreneurial pond, so to speak, what are some challenges that came up for you and what did you do to overcome them? Speaker 2 (22:21): As you said, that I started writing out a list of challenges because I've made a lot of mistakes. I've had many challenges. I heard an interesting quote. I read an interesting quote today, actually. If I could have my time again, what would I make? All the mistakes, same mistakes. Yeah, I would, I would've just done them a lot sooner. So I could've got the mistakes out of the way earlier, but I think some of the challenges, a lot of the challenges were with delegation and leading things go, it's very hard to step away from patient care when that's something that you're very comfortable with and you think you're good at so managing time and I hear that coming up a lot with business owners, how much, you know, should I treat patients or not, not, there's no right answer there. You know, it depends what makes you happy. Speaker 2 (23:06): And it depends what you enjoy doing. So delegation was a big pot. Someone else told me the other day, I liked this quote as well. You know, you're delegating enough. If you want to have a growing business that if three times a day, you cringe now you cringe because you had given something, a project or a task or something to do at work to someone else so that they have the opportunity to grow and evolve. But you cringe because you look at them doing it and thinking, oh, I could do it a little bit faster. I could do it a little bit better, or I might do it a different way, but that's okay. And you have to get to that stage of going like, you know, you could call it 80 20 rule, but that rule of going like it's, it's actually a gift to be out on power and allow other people to grow and evolve. Speaker 2 (23:53): So learning how to manage that can be had the culture things interesting. When you've got a very small practice, the culture just happens automatically and you have this amazing culture as a practice grows and evolves. You have to become much more disciplined and diligent about how to actually execute on maintaining and having a great culture. So something you have to be aware of putting the systems in place as you grow and evolve, the more systems you have in the place in place, the smoother things can run. And it creates actually a structure, a structure that actually allows innovation and allows people to be creative, but they've got the walls and the guidelines of how to do that in a safe way. So I don't know, those are the key things that came to mind for me. You know, it really comes back to managing your time, how you delegate, how you let go of things. Speaker 2 (24:47): You got to keep becoming more and more humble that every year I realized how much I don't know. And it just seems to be almost, it's like my list of things I don't know, actually is increasing. So I'm not sure if I'm just getting older and losing my memory, or if I'm just becoming more aware of how clueless I am, but I guess I'm comfortable owning that at the stage. So I think, and being comfortable with who you are and your own skin, you definitely have to work on yourself a lot, take care of yourself a lot and and be very mindful of what you need as a person, if you want to be a leader in an organization. Speaker 1 (25:20): And what is your advice to maintain culture as your company grows? Because that's like you said, I'm really glad you brought that up because people join your company because of the culture. And if you grow and you let it go, or something happens, then people are going to leave. So how did, how did you do that? How did, what is your company culture and how did you maintain it? Speaker 2 (25:44): I liked the question. What is your company culture? Because I mean, I think of our culture is a very much like work hard, play hard, definitely a lot of fundraising up a lot of philanthropy, a lot of giving back to the community. Now, maybe what would happen 15 years ago, it would have been like, Hey, let's all dress down this month for this great organization and get together and do a 5k for them. And they will go out to her via what's. The net would stay the same for a great culture and getting to know people as individuals now, as with a larger organization, we have to be much more diligent about or more mindful about hearing from all of our people who should we dress down for and choose carefully based on the feedback and then communicated appropriately, have some PR involved the social media, making sure everything's much more streamlined. Speaker 2 (26:38): So all of the good happens, but it just takes a lot more work. It just doesn't happen quite so easily. So you just have to put the work into it determining what kind of feel you want it, social events, what kind of behavior expect again, you know, speaking your late leadership, how you act at a holiday party or at a social event is going to have a big impact on what your organization is like. And if you want to dress up like a pirate and dance around, which is what I do then yeah. You're going to create a different kind of culture to someone who's going to come across in a different way. So you just gotta be really mindful that as you grow, people are watching you and how you behave and that's going to drive it a lot of the culture. Speaker 1 (27:20): Yeah. I think that's thanks for elaborating on that because I feel like that's a piece of the entrepreneurial pie that often doesn't get addressed. Speaker 2 (27:30): I agree. I think especially if you have a smaller company as that grows, you think you can, it's easy to forget about culture because it almost seems fun and that is fun. And it almost seems like, is it silly that we're talking about what events or what we're going to do to build culture, what team building things, but it's really, really important because your people are everything. And if we're, I always just say to my stuff, sometimes people say to me, what do you actually do? And I'm like, really my job is to keep you all happy. That's really all it comes down to because when you're happy, you'll give good care. If you're miserable, the care you give sucks. If you're happy, you give good care. And if you happy you'll stay. So my job is to keep everyone here simply saying Speaker 1 (28:16): You're the C H O chief happiness officer officer. Exactly. Pretty much. Yeah. Well, that's a great title. Actually. You should put that on your cards. Bring that up to PPS. Ask how, asked how many businesses in PPS have a chief happiness officer. Yeah. And see, see what we can see what shakes out on that one. But yeah, I, thanks for elaborating on that. I just really wanted the listeners to understand that your business is more than dollars and cents Speaker 2 (28:48): Completely, completely. And if it was just business dollars and saints, it would be kind of boring. I do think it's wonderful. Seeing the PTs, who own practices, they do it with no matter what the size you do. It, we all love people and making people happy and better. And whether you're their employer or their physical therapist, it's not that much different. Speaker 1 (29:09): Right. Absolutely. And now before we wrap things up, what are the key takeaways you want the listeners to come away with with R D from our discussion today? Speaker 2 (29:19): I would say that get comfortable with the word money. I know I'm going to go straight to business. It's not a bad word. It's not a bad word. And as PTs, we don't like talking about it. Oh, I don't want to talk about my salary or I don't want to do this, or I think I should get paid more, but I don't really want to understand it. Like, it's just, just think of money is just one of the things that helps us actually actually be able to evolve as a profession and serve more people in our communities. I don't know if that came across very professionally or not, but I do think people should be comfortable with it. Be proud of what you do. And when someone at the local bub you're a barbecue, or when you're grilling with friends, complaints to you about your back, their back pain, help them and tell them what you do and make sure they get the care they need. And don't sit back and, and let them have to try to figure it out on their own. And and just be curious about learning more about business. It's not scary and it will help. The more you understand, you'll have more control over the decisions you make. And I actually think you become a better clinician because you're more mindful of the value of the services that you're providing. Speaker 1 (30:32): Excellent. And where can people find you if they want to get in touch? Do they have questions? They want to learn more about your business? Speaker 2 (30:39): Pretty easy to find live up in little road, mighty Rhode Island. We like to call it. So email's the easiest way. You've I, and through my practice, performance PT, R i.com. You'll find me on Facebook and on Twitter as well. I'm not as savvy on social media, some of you, but I love getting emails from people and helping other PT students, practice owners, different kinds of business owners out there. Speaker 1 (31:06): Great. And we'll have the link to your website at our website at podcast at healthy, wealthy, smart.com in the show notes for this show. So people can one click and get straight to your website to see what your business is all about. And if they have any questions, like Michelle said, highly encourage you reaching out to her and emailing her to ask questions. That's what we are here for. And Michelle before. Last question is knowing where you are now in your life and career. What advice would you give yourself as a new grad? Speaker 2 (31:39): Well, that's a good question. What advice would I give myself as a new grad who as a new grad, I would just as a new grad, I would say, believe in yourself earlier and address the fears that you have of your lack of knowledge and your inability to do things. So, yeah. Maybe make your mistakes earlier. Michelle is what I want to say. Speaker 1 (32:06): Excellent advice. Well, thank you so much for coming on for our month of business. And of course, we'll see you in a couple of weeks at our business round table, which will be on the 27th of July. Think at 8:00 PM Eastern standard time where it will be you and Eric and mellow and Josh funk and Shantay Cofield AKA the movement. Maestro people probably know her better with her Twitter, with her Instagram handle than her actual name. But I'm really looking forward to that. I think we'll a really robust conversation because we've got just like PPS, we've got those four different personas, totally nailed down. We've got your solo preneur, we've got your more traditional PT practice, which is Michelle's. We've got a newer grad with an, a growing practice in Josh and we've got a non traditional PT. So working as a physical therapist, but not with patients in Shantay. So and that was total coincidence. I didn't even know that when I plan this out. Perfect. So I'm really looking forward to it. Speaker 2 (33:15): So, and I just think it's really cool when you get these different kinds of business owners who are PTs and all different kinds of businesses. It's awesome. Yeah. Speaker 1 (33:24): Yeah. We'll have a nice, a nice step meeting of the minds. So everybody definitely sign up for that. And the link for that is also in the show notes for our round table. So Michelle, thank you so much for coming on and I hope to see you hope to see you soon. I hope to see you too. Speaker 2 (33:41): Karen. Thank you so much. Of Speaker 1 (33:43): Course. And everyone, thanks for listening. Have a great couple of days and stay healthy, wealthy and smart.
LIVE from the Graham Sessions 2020 in Nashville, Tennessee, I welcome Erica Meloe on the show to discuss how to create a brand ambassador. Erica Meloe is a board certified physiotherapist in private practice in NYC. After a decade solving financial puzzles on Wall Street, Erica took her MBA and her problem-solving skills into the clinic. She specializes in treating patients with persistent unsolved pain and her mission is to raise awareness of the physical therapy profession to a level like no other. In this episode, we discuss: -The lack of public understanding of the role of a physical therapist -How to turn your patient into your brand ambassador -Inexpensive acts of kindness that will make you memorable -Why you should network outside of your profession -And so much more! Resources: Erica Meloe Website Tought to Treat Podcast Why do I hurt? Book Velocity Physio Website Erica Meloe Twitter Erica Meloe Facebook A big thank you to Net Health for sponsoring this episode! Check out Optima’s Top Trends For Outpatient Therapy In 2020! For more information on Erica: Erica Meloe is a board certified physiotherapist in private practice in NYC. After a decade solving financial puzzles on Wall Street, Erica took her MBA and her problem-solving skills into the clinic. She specializes in treating patients with persistent unsolved pain and her mission is to raise awareness of the physical therapy profession to a level like no other. Erica is co-host of the podcast "Tough To Treat: A physiotherapist's guide to managing those complex patients." She is also a thought leader in the profession and helps her patients, as well as her colleagues, empower themselves to lead and live with purpose. Erica has also been featured in Forbes, BBC, Women's Day, Better Homes and Gardens, Muscle and Fitness Hers, and Health Magazine. She is also co-host of the Women In PT Summit, held annually in NYC. Erica is actively involved in spreading the word on social media and at her website www.ericameloe.com Read the full transcript below: Karen Litzy (00:01): Hey everybody, welcome back to the podcast today. I am here with physical therapist, Erica Meloe and we are live in Nashville, Tennessee at the Graham sessions. And for those of you that don't know, Graham sessions is all about bringing up big bold ideas, things that might be controversial, things that may be we're not talking about as much in the profession and it's like a big think tank. And so today Erica and I are going to try and take that in, miniaturize it down to a podcast. So one of the things that really I guess gets to Erica is the lack of knowledge of what we as physical therapists do, how we operate and how we can help people. So Erica, what are some things that you have maybe even experienced? I'm sure this comes out of your experience as a practice owner and as a physical therapist for many years. So I'm just going to hand it over to you and let you kind of talk about some of the things that really get to you. And if you have any suggestions or solutions for other physical therapists or the general public that we can do to perhaps mitigate this situation. Erica Meloe (01:14): Well, thank you Karen. Thank you for having me on the podcast. Graham sessions is wonderful in Nashville. I've never been to Nashville, so I know it's quite nice. One of my mentors or business coaches asked me a while ago, what can't you shut up about and what I can't shut up about? I mean, there's many things, but this so irritates me is that people still, consumers and other healthcare professionals do not understand what we do at all. They don't understand. They think we're all exercise. And I know that this is a topic that's been beaten around for many, many years. And for me it's just, it drives me crazy. And I'll just tell you a story related to Karen. I had a patient of mine who just texted me. I'm an out of network practitioner and she has a certain like a deductible. Erica Meloe (02:03): She has to meet. She's like, well, I'm going to wait to see you. I'm going to wait to see. I'm going to go meet my deductible. I'm like, well, why don't you meet your deductible with me? Am I not as my profession? Not as valuable to you in your mind. And I think as a profession we need to start when we can talk about the marketing and the branding, but that's not what this is about. We need to start at the grassroots level with our patients. I mean our patients are our voices and we need to develop relationships with them and we need to actually make the ask. I think we sometimes in our profession, we're not shy, but we don't make the ask and I'm guilty of this. We don't make the ask of our patients. Erica Meloe (02:50): What is your view of me as a therapist? What is your view of me as a profession? How can I get a seat at the table? For example, you know in a discussion in Washington, how can I get a seat at the table? You know, at an AMA conference. I know a lot of physical therapists out there are speaking at other non PT conferences. But I think it first starts with our patients developing, we talked about you know, a lot of these business and leadership skills, these soft skills and yes, those are very important. But the relationship with our patients, the patients will get that word out. I mean there are time and time again, we both experienced it. You treat so-and-so and the word gets out. This physical therapist is different, this is what they do. And I think that starting with the interpersonal relationships, relationships matter, I think it was on Twitter, somebody mentioned recently that she spent 40 minutes on the phone talking to an insurance company or a doctor and was that worth her time? And you know, she got a lot of comments and it was like relationships matter and that's value to the patient. Karen Litzy (04:02): Oh, absolutely. So I agree with you. It's all about relationships and those relationships, that Alliance that you create with your patient, that patient then goes out and they become your ambassador and not only an ambassador for you, but an ambassador for the profession as a whole. So instead of saying, which we heard today, people say, I went to PT and it was crap and they didn't do anything. But instead, wouldn't it be great if all of us PTs are forming these relationships, are treating patients with the latest evidence, are not wasting people's time, are making people feel better. Or I would even argue making people more functional, getting people to an elite level of sport. And that's what physical therapists can do. And I feel like a lot of patients, if they have gone to a physical therapist and they say, I did, they just put a hot pack on me and then some Estim, then do my exercises. And then I left. And you know who that patient was? My own dad. My own dad was like, well, why would I do that? He's like, I can put a hot pack on at home and go to the gym. Well that's not quite the care that your talking about. Erica Meloe (05:21): Right. So that was your dad. So you know, he would never say anything to you like you know he would not basically say, you know, all physical therapists are like that because you're his daughter. So you know, I talk about, you know, building relationship with your patient and your patients. Number one are your advertising or your marketing and your brand. You know, we can spend a lot of money and we, you know, a lot of people do on all of these business courses and that, you know, marketing and the branding and the social media and that's all great. But if you don't have a relationship with your patient, it doesn't matter. Karen Litzy (05:58): What are some tips that you can give to the listeners to create a good relationship with your patient. Erica Meloe (06:03): But say, you know, and I speak from experience and seeing other therapists work over my years, go the extra mile for your patient. Go. There are many times in patients, for example, they're going, they'll email me, they'll text me and on weekends and I answer those text messages and I answer those emails and they are like, thank you so much for answering an email on a weekend. And yes, that's a very basic example, but actually matters to these people. Karen Litzy (06:37): Well, the basics matter. That's the simple little things that you can do that takes two seconds of your time. Erica Meloe (06:45): And also just listening to your patients. And yes, I do have a tendency to run a bit late when I see patients, but I will tell you, Karen's laughing cause you know, but if someone asks you a question and you're 10 minutes late for your next patient, you don't just say, I can't answer it now. You know, and this is obvious, but that patient, they may have gotten a hundred percent better with you, but they're, Oh, they're going to remember it. That last encounter. You need to make every encounter matter, whether it's listening to the patient, whether it's you know, listening to them about something that's unrelated to physical therapy. And going that extra mile. And asking the patient, you know, what do you want from this relationship? It's a relationship and it's a trusting relationship. And, once again, you know all the branding is fabulous, but they're your voice. Karen Litzy (07:49): Yeah, absolutely. And I think it's also important to remember that this isn't a relationship of you being above your patient. It's a partnership relationship. Erica Meloe (08:07): And what do partnerships do? You know, they give and they take and there's a sacrifice, but I would offer this advice is your patient is your patient for life. Right? It's like that lifespan practitioner that we talked about so often and they should be treated as such. For example, when they leave your office for, let's say you've seen them for 10 visits, their back pain's gone and they're kind of good to go, but they're not really, once again, we don't discharge patients, you just, you know, see them and then they come back whenever they've got something else going on. It's not a word I like to use that. It's funny, I often say I don't use discharge anymore. I actually say you know, I'll see you if you have any other problems, just just come on back and I will keep in touch. I actually think using direct mail, and I've tried this, said this before really helps. Erica Meloe (08:52): I actually send birthday cards out and thank you cards and thank you cards after I have a a new patient, I will send a thank you card. Thank you so much. Nice meeting you. And patients are saying they come back and they're like, that was a great touch. I really appreciated your card. Honestly go into your database. I’d get an Excel spreadsheet of all your birthdays of all their patients birthdays. It is an easy thing to do and then just note them down and write them, go on a Sunday, spend an hour and a half doing that. It will matter. I know, it's funny because I had an assistant of mine do that and I was like, Oh, she has a birthday very similar to mine and you know, and, and they actually do appreciate that. Erica Meloe (09:37): And you know, I've been a patient myself and I, you know, we hope we can get the odd email and everybody's about, you know, the email marketing. Yes. However, it's not the same. Karen Litzy: No, it's definitely not the same. And, and I also can appreciate those tips that you just gave, listening to the patient, sending a birthday card, a thank you card and helping them kind of understand what we do and taking the time for them. These are not huge things. You don't need a certification for it. You don't have to spend money for it unless you get a stamp or something. It's very easy, accessible ways for everyone to enhance that relationship. Erica Meloe (10:33): Right. I think someone mentioned today that you might not be the best therapist in the world, but if you've developed a relationship with your patient, that's golden. And I received something from one of my coaches recently and it was a card and it said the best is yet to come. And I was like, Whoa. I was so touched by that. And it took her what, maybe five minutes to write that and not even, and that, and I remember that. I remember that. And when someone is sending that to you before you have to renew a coaching program or before you have to do something, I'm going to renew. I'm going, of course I'm going to renew because that was a great touch. You know, that's the customer service that people forget that we actually need to do in our field. Karen Litzy: Well, it makes you feel quite simply that you matter. Yes. And isn't it great that we as physical therapists can give to our patients the gift that they matter because they might not be getting that elsewhere. So if you can do that for your patient, they're your brand ambassador for life. Erica Meloe (11:20): Absolutely. You know, and when I started early on, you know, as a business owner, I was actually afraid to ask my patients for referrals. You know, I really was. And to this day it still is hard, but it comes out a bit easier now, you know, if you know of anybody else that could need my services, I really enjoy treating the difficult patients. Just, you know, send them my way and it comes out easier that way and we all have a different view, but they fade like you, you will do that. Karen Litzy (11:54): And I remember thinking to myself, Oh, I don't want to do that. It sounds so slimy. Like used car salesman. I don't want to do that. I don't want to be that person. And I remember somebody saying to me, but you're not slimy. So it would never come out that way. So if you're not slimy and gross and you ask someone, Hey, listen, I love doing this. If you know someone, definitely send them my way. I'm accepting new patients anytime. Like it's only slimy I think if you're a slime ball. Erica Meloe (12:17): Exactly. And it comes out very you know, with integrity, right? And it's not, of course not because, and if you say it with the passion, like you just did, you know, I love to treat these patients. I love to treat patients just like you. How special is that, right? That you make them feel special and they'll be like, Oh, of course, you know, it's like asking for reviews on a podcast. Oh, I didn't know I had to write a review. You know, can you write me a review? Boom. They don't understand it. And I think that is a good relationship. And once they realize that you'll be in the top of their brain and then they're going to be like, well, that experience was very valuable to me. You know, the birthday cards, the, just developing the rapport, rapport and just establishing relationships that, where it's a, you know, a given a take, but it's almost like a marriage in a way. I mean I'm not married and I certainly know I'm experiencing that, but when you have business partners or podcast partners, it's a given a take. And the ones that last the longest are the ones that, that work together. They collaborate. That's the best recipe for success. Karen Litzy (13:24): Right? And exactly what Erica just described is how we as physical therapists can help the general public know what we do, right? So it goes back to the thing that gets Erica every time is people don't know what we do, but there are what 300,000 physical therapists in the United States? It's a lot of people. And so if we can make a difference with every person, then can that cause a little ripple that can become a wave. Erica Meloe (13:50): Right. And I would also urge patient physical therapist to go to conferences that are not physical therapy related. Go to a leadership conference, go to a medical writing conference. Go to an urology conference or a women's health conference or that's the wheel. You'll develop relationships and you'll be the brand ambassador cause you'll be the only physical therapist there. Karen Litzy (14:23): Very true. Right. Great advice. Well what are the big things that you want the listeners to take away from this? Erica Meloe (14:29): That it's the small things that really matter. It's kindness. That's my word of the year by the way. I remember had the word of the year, that's my word of the year. Kindness. It's the little things that matter. Sometimes we need to go back to business 101 like direct mail that actually does work. You know, it really does. That's the main thing. And don't be afraid to collaborate with nonphysical therapist acupuncture as they're developing a relationship there. Cause you will educate them, you really will. And you have to be passionate about this. If you don't, if you're not as passionate about it as I am, you'll do it like half assed in a way. And you know, so, but start with your patients and pick a few patients you really like and you, you know, send birthday cards, send thank you cards, do it for one or two months and see if you get any return on your $1 investment. It's nothing. Karen Litzy (15:27): Great advice. And now what advice would you give to yourself knowing where you are now in your life and in your career? What advice would you give to you as a new grad right out of PT school? Erica Meloe (15:40): Stop overthinking. I analyze, overanalyze everything and that's good and bad. And I think that if I were coming out of PT school right now, it's not the latest and greatest social media course or marketing course or branding course. You could easily do those via YouTube. I mean, and obviously, you know, but it's really about what are your strengths? We talked about this at the women in PT summit. You need to play to your strengths. Like I like to problem solve. That's one of my strengths and so I would suggest anybody coming out of PT school, do a deep dive into what your strengths are, there's many StrengthFinders is a great one. I would really do a deep dive into looking at what your strengths are and play off of those. Get really good at those and you will find ways to apply those in physical therapy. Karen Litzy (16:36): Fabulous. And where can people find you? Erica Meloe (16:38): Oh gosh. Online. We've got an Ericameloe.com my velocityphysiony.com and I'm in New York city right across from Bloomingdale's and all my Facebook, Twitter, Ericameloe. My podcast with my wonderful cohost, Susan Clinton. Tough to treat. And my book, Why do I hurt? Discover the surprising connections that caused physical pain and what to do about them. That's on Amazon, Barnes and noble Karen Litzy (16:50): Awesome. And just so everyone knows, we will have links to all of Erica's information under this episode at podcast.healthywealthysmart.com so Erica, thank you so much. Thanks so much for listening and have a great couple of days and stay healthy, wealthy, and smart. Thanks for listening and subscribing to the podcast! Make sure to connect with me on twitter, instagram and facebook to stay updated on all of the latest! Show your support for the show by leaving a rating and review on Apple Podcasts!
On this episode of the Healthy, Wealthy and Smart Podcast, I welcome Steve Anderson on the show to discuss leadership coaching. Steve is an Executive Coach with Orange Dot Coaching and the host of the Podcast, Profiles in Leadership. He is a former Board of Trustee for The Foundation for Physical Therapy and was the President of The Private Practice Section of APTA for 6 years between 2002-2008. In this episode, we discuss: -Why you should invest in a coach -The importance of outside perspective when you’re pursuing excellence -How to be open-minded and gracefully accept constructive criticism -Redefining your daily operations with purpose and vision -And so much more! Resources: Steve Anderson Twitter Steve Anderson Facebook Steve Anderson LinkedIn Orange Dot Coaching Website Episode 197: The Graham Sessions with Steve Anderson Profiles in Leadership Podcast Optima: A New Health Company A big thank you to Net Health for sponsoring this episode! For more information on Steve: Steve Anderson is the ex-CEO of Therapeutic Associates which is a physical therapy company that consists of 90 outpatient clinics in Washington, Oregon and Idaho and a major hospital contract in Southern California. He currently is an Executive Coach with Orange Dot Coaching and the host of the Podcast, Profiles in Leadership. He is a former Board of Trustee for The Foundation for Physical Therapy and was the President of The Private Practice Section of APTA for 6 years between 2002-2008. He was awarded the most prestigious award the Section gives out annually to a physical therapist, the Robert G. Dicus Service Award in 2010. Steve received the APTA Leadership Advocacy Award in 2006 for his efforts in Washington D.C. and Washington State in the legislative arena. In 2012 Steve received the Distinguished Alumnus Award from Northwestern University Physical Therapy School. In 2016 Steve was awarded Physical Therapist of the Year by PTWA, APTA’s Washington State Chapter. Currently Dr. Anderson works with business executives and their teams to improve their leadership skills and coaches them to improve communication skills and working together better as a team. He lives on Hood Canal in Washington state near Seattle with his wife Sharon. Read the full transcript below: Karen Litzy: 00:00 Hey Steve, welcome back to the podcast. I am happy to have you on. So thanks for joining me today. Steve Anderson: 00:07 Well, thank you Karen. I'm very happy to be on and I'm looking forward to our discussion. Karen Litzy: 00:13 Yeah. So last time you were on, we talked about Graham sessions and we'll have a link to that in the show notes to this podcast so people can kind of go back and learn more about that. But today we're going to be talking about the importance of having a coach. And first I'll swing it over to you if you want to kind of describe what you do as a coach and maybe what is your definition of a coach because there's a lot of coaches out there. Steve Anderson: 00:45 Okay. So what I am is I'm an executive coach and so that means that I deal mostly with leadership training and communication skills and things like that. So what I do specifically is I work with people that are running companies, CEO types, and executives that are in leadership roles. And so helping them develop their leadership and communication skills. But then I also like to work with teams. And so I have clients that I work with, the CEO and their executive staff on how they can communicate together and how they can work better as a team when they're trying to run their business and grow their business and so on. So that's pretty much what I do. You know, but the definition of a coach is just somebody to help you, you know, figure out. Steve Anderson: 01:40 I think what happens is we are in a very complex world and in our businesses and so on that they get very complex. I think a coach can help you simplify, look at things and simplified a little bit, help you kind of get out of your overwhelming rut, so to speak, and how you can start to look at things that are the smaller pieces and put that together and then just learn how to communicate with others and grow your business. And in a sense that doesn't seem so overwhelming or overpowering. I see a lot of my clients in that mode of, they're just, they're just overwhelmed and they've just got so much to do and so many things to look at that they don't really know what the next step is. Karen Litzy: 02:27 Yeah, I hear you there. I definitely feel like that on almost a daily basis. Now before we kind of go into a little bit more about coaching, just so the audience gets to kind of understand where you're coming from. So you are a physical therapist and you owned a multisite practice, but let me ask you this. You could have retired and just kind of spent the rest of your retirement hanging out and you know, relaxing. So why make that shift to being a coach? Steve Anderson: 03:04 Sure. So I was a physical therapist and came up through a company called therapeutic associates where I started out as a staff therapist and then I became a clinic director and eventually became the CEO of that company. And it had a very unique ownership structure in the sense that every director of every clinic in that company is an owner in the company. So I was certainly not the only owner in the company. I was one of many owners in the company. And so when I retired, you know, I retired fairly young, I guess when you look at what age people retire these days. And so I thought, well, you know, what do I want to do from here? I don't feel like I'm ready to just do nothing. And so I kinda did the soul search and say, what are things that I really like to do? Steve Anderson: 03:54 And when it comes right down to it, what I really liked to do is I just really liked to grow leaders and work with people as they're going through their journey. And so, I went and got certified in a program called insights discovery, which is a communication system or style and started reaching out to people and I've got some clients and worked with them and learned, you know, how to improve and get better at what I was doing. And so now I do it on, you know, certainly a part time basis. I'm not doing this full time by any means, but it brings me joy. It feels like I have a purpose and it's something that I just really look forward to doing. Karen Litzy: 04:39 I think that's such a great transition from the work you were doing as a physical therapist to the work that you're now doing as a coach. And for me, it gives a lot to think about because oftentimes, especially as a physical therapist, I know I felt this way when I graduated from college was, okay, I'm going to start working for a company and then I'm going to work there until I retire. And then that's it. So oftentimes, you know, it's hard for us to think far ahead, but being able to hear stories like yours I think can inspire a lot of people to say, Hey, wait a second. Like there's more to retirement or there's more to when, maybe whenever it is, you feel like your clinical work as a physical therapist is maybe run its course that you can use your physical therapy degree and you can use information, you can seek out new information in order to start a whole new career, but you're still firmly rooted in the physical therapy world. Steve Anderson: 05:43 Right. I think you bring up a really great point in the sense that, you know, you don't, when you come out of school and you start your profession, start your career, you know, you can't see often that thing that you want to do. In other words, it's hard to visualize what exactly I want to do and what exactly I want to be. And I see new professionals coming out kind of tortured with that a little bit. Like they wanted to do something but they can't see it other than just the day to day. You know, we're working with the patient. So I can just share my journey a little bit in the sense that, you know, I was an orthopedic physical therapist and I worked hard at being good at that skill and then I became a director and I realized that I really liked working with the team and working with people and people don't always, they think I'm just messing with them when I say this, but I was kind of a reluctant leader. I didn't go in thinking that this is what I want to do, this is how it's going to look. And, I just kind of evolved into that leadership role. And then as I took steps going through my career, all of a sudden I was voted to the CEO of a very large company at 41 years old. And to be honest with you, I was scared shitless. Karen Litzy: 07:03 I mean, I would be. Steve Anderson: 07:06 Yeah, I was excited to be in this position, but I'm like, Oh my gosh, I mean, you talk about imposter syndrome and I was like, what do I do now? Everyone thinks I'm going to have the answers. So at that point I didn't really know what coaching was or what coaching services wasn't. As a matter of fact, it was fairly a new concept to have a coach. And so I didn't have an opportunity to reach out to one and I didn't really know what to do. And so when I look back on that time, gosh, I could've really used a good coach. And so what I did was I looked for other ways to try and improve my position or my skills. And so I took a few college level or I mean graduate level MBA courses and they were okay, but they weren't really, you know, just resonating with me too much. Steve Anderson: 08:01 And so then I eventually found this group called Vistage and you may have heard of that, but that's an international group where they have CEOs that work together usually 12 to 15 in a group. They meet on a monthly basis and they basically just learn from each other and help solve each other's problems. And so it's like a group coaching, so set up and I was in that for seven and a half years and really, really learned a lot from that because I had, you know, peers to bounce things off or like could get vulnerable with you. Got to know him really well. And, I think when you can trust somebody and work with someone to get to that level of vulnerability, I think that's where the learning really takes place. Karen Litzy: 08:50 And that group that was multidisciplinary group, that wasn't just specifically for therapists or even just for health care, is that correct? Steve Anderson: 08:58 Exactly. In fact, I was the only CEO in that group from healthcare. And then they make sure that there's no competitors or you're not competing with anybody in that group. And so you start out kind of with people you don't know. And over a period of time you start to know and trust each other. And, and over a longer period of time you can really, you know, really get down to things that you have a tough time talking to most people about because you've really gotten to know these people. So I look at that as kind of a coaching relationship and the fact that my clients that I work with now, once they get to know me and once they trust me, you know, they can tell me the thing that they're afraid of or they can tell me the things that they don't know, without looking weak to the people they lead or without, you know, being their fear of, you know, people thinking maybe they don't really know what they're doing, but they can share that with the coach. And then we can get down to the real nitty gritty of that and what that means and how to work through that. Karen Litzy: 10:08 And it sounds like you were able to take what you learned there and combine it with what you learned through your career and then the extra courses taken after retirement to kind of hone your individual coaching skills in order to better grow your clients. Steve Anderson: 10:30 Right. And I think the emphasis on that scenario you just discussed was the experience. I think the experience you can't buy experience, you can't, you know, like when I look back on mistakes I made when I had less experience, you know, I wish I could go back and do those again cause I think I would do them a lot better. But yet that's how you learn. So hopefully a coach has the experience to help you, say this happened to me and this is how I went through it. And, and this is how I can see you maybe, you know, getting there. I do question or scratch my head sometimes when I see, cause I do see business coaches that have never run a business. Steve Anderson: 11:18 So that always kind of makes me feel like, well, you know, I want somebody who's been in the trenches. I want somebody who has worked through this before and can help me see some ways through it as opposed to someone who's just read a lot of books and knows all the catch phrases and the authors and so on. But I think the experience is the key there. And if we look at it from the clinical side, you know, if on the clinical side as a physical therapist, we probably refer to it more as a mentor, maybe then a coach. But same thing there. You want somebody who has experience and who has seen, you know, tens of thousands of patients and has that experience that you don't have that can help you maybe see through some things from their experience. And to me that's what makes it a really good mentor and a really good coach. Karen Litzy: 12:12 Yeah, I would agree with that. 100%. And you're right, there's nothing worse than seeing coaches advertise their services and they've had a business for less than a year. So, let's talk about pros and cons of having a coach. Let's get practical here. So what are the pros? So if someone's out there looking for a coach and they're on the fence, what are some pros to having a coach? Steve Anderson: 12:43 Well, again, I think I said a little bit earlier, but I think a good coach can help you simplify what you're trying to accomplish. You know, I think a good coach can look at a complex situation and help you make it simpler. You know, coaches can be your external eyes and ears and provide a more accurate picture of your reality and recognize fundamentals that you have and that you can improve on. And then just breaking down some actions that you do to make them more practical. To me, one of the things that I work a lot with my clients with is it seems so simple, but communicating with others is so powerful. And if you really know how you communicate yourself or what motivates you and how you come across, and then you really get to know the people that you're communicating with and what resonates with them, then you construct your language and you construct your behavior in a way that connects with them. Steve Anderson: 13:51 Because I can think that maybe my approach is I totally get it and I totally understand what I'm saying and I can look at the person across from me and they're looking at me like, you know, so I'm not connecting with them. So I have to know how to communicate that. And, you know, as we talk about it here, it seems simple, but I think there's a real skill to that. And I think there's a real ability to kind of craft your message in a way that connects with people. Karen Litzy: 14:26 Yeah. And I think whenever you talk about relationships, whether it be a personal relationship, a business relationship, the thing that tends to break it down more than anything else is lack of clear communication. Right? Steve Anderson: 14:47 I was just going to say, and it's like if you look at your family or you look at your people in your business, I've always believed that you don't treat everybody the same. I mean, you have to be fair, but when we're talking about communication, in other words, the way that I would approach one employee could be very different than another depending on who they are, and you know, how they communicate. And so I think a really good leader is able to go in and out of these different styles, I guess, of communication that resonate with that person. And it's not the same for everybody. Karen Litzy: 15:29 Yeah. And it's funny, I was just about to bring that up because I was going to ask you a question of, let's say we'll take a scenario here. You're the CEO of your physical therapy business and you've got two people working in your front desk and you've got four physical therapists, and let's say you, I don't know, you notice that you have an unusually high cancellation rate with your patients unusually high. And so you kind of want to get to the bottom of it. So how you would speak perhaps to the people working at your front desk may be a little different than how you would speak to the therapist because they have different roles in your business, right? Steve Anderson: 16:18 Absolutely. You have a different message for them. And, even when you look at your four physical therapists, let's say, out of those four physical therapists, you have an analytical person who thinks in very analytical terms. Well then the way to approach that would be to talk about the cancellations and no shows from a data perspective. You know, here's the numbers. Here's what it used to be. Here's what we want it to be here. You know, so you talk in very analytical ways. You may have someone else that has a real, you know, that they have more, they have a real caring about people in their feelings approach. And so you might talk to them about that situation and don't talk about analytics, but you might talk about, look at what our patients are missing. Look what we're not, we're not reaching their potential. We're not, you know, touching their hearts, you know, or whatever. So you talk more in those terms and then, other people, you will have different approaches. So I think that you have to know your people well enough to know that sitting in a meeting with six people, I'm giving the exact same message and expecting all of them to embrace it and have it resonate with them all at the same time is probably unlikely. Karen Litzy: 17:35 Gosh, it's so much more complicated than it seems at the surface, isn't it? Steve Anderson: 17:40 Well, it is, but I think that that's what most of us feel. And that's where I think a coach can come in and say, okay, it’s complicated, but we can make it simple. It's a step by step, day by day thing that we can break down. And then it's just like anything else, once you understand kind of the process, then it's practice and you just practice and you practice and you get better and you make some mistakes and yet you do some gaps. And yet, you know, you put your foot in your mouth. Sometimes you learn from that. And over time that's where experience starts to build and improve. Karen Litzy: 18:17 Yeah, I guess it is. Once you have that framework, can it become sort of a plug and play kind of practice thing? Steve Anderson: 18:28 It's good to break it down as simple as possible, but you're also dealing with humans. So just when you think that you just wouldn't, you'd think you've got it figured out. Someone will throw you a curve ball that you didn't see coming and so then you're going to have to, you know, readjust. But, it can be done much better than I think most people do it as just a general statement. You know, there's a great if I can put a plug in for this, a great Ted talk by Gawande, who most of us know who to go on deals and the title of the Ted talk is want to get good at something, get a coach. And he goes through the scenario of how, you know, he is a surgeon was thinking that he was doing pretty well and he improved and he improved. Steve Anderson: 19:20 And then he got to a point where he just couldn't, he felt like he'd hit his limit. He just wasn't improving much after that. So his question was, well, is this as good as it gets? Is this how I'm going to be? And I'm pretty happy with that, but you know, does that mean this is where I'm at? And then he decided to go back to Harvard medical school and hire a retired professor who was a surgeon and had him come in and watch one of his surgeries. And as he's doing the surgery, he says, Oh man, I'm killing this. This is going so well and I probably just wasted the guy's time and the guys and my money. Cause what's he going to tell me? This was going great. And then the guy came back with a whole two full pages of things that he could work on. Steve Anderson: 20:09 And he was kind of taken aback from it at first. But then he started doing that and he said, and I broke through that limit. I mean, he said, I'm a way better surgeon now. My infection rates are down, my outcomes are better. You know, and that just proved to him that anyone has a coach. And then he looks at the sports world and says, why is it that the number one tennis player in the world and the number one golfer in the world, they still have coaches. If they're the best, why would they have a coach? Well, because they need that extra eyes and that extra set of ears and so on to kind of help them break through the next level and the patients. And so I do think that that all of us could benefit from a coach or on the clinical side, a mentor. And I just think it's a really good way to spend your time and money to get to the next level. Karen Litzy: 21:01 Yeah. And, I love that you brought up that Ted talk. I'm familiar with that Ted talk. And you're right, it just shows that even when you think you're at the top of your game, to have that external eyes and ears on you because you don't know what you don't know. And so to have someone there to point that out in a constructive way and in a way that is going to make you improve, I think is the key. I think opposite, but as the person. So if I'm looking for a coach, I need to be mentally prepared for that person to maybe tell me things that are going to make me feel uncomfortable or that might hurt my feelings. I say that in quotes. But I think you have to be mentally prepared for change. Would you agree with that? As far as the people that you have coached in the past. Steve Anderson: 21:55 So, yes, you're exactly right. You know, as people that educate and all different ways, we know that the person who's going to learn something has to be in a position that they're ready to learn. In other words, they have to be open to the fact that they have to look at themselves and be willing to realize that there's things to learn and they need to be open to suggestion. And so, yes, I have had some clients where, you know, they kind of thought they were just doing really great and, you know, our discussions were more like them reaffirming, you know, that they did it right and that this is how it should be and whatever. And you're kinda on the other end of the lines, like, I'm okay, so then why am I on this call? Steve Anderson: 22:49 You know, so it's almost like they're using you to reaffirm to themselves how great they are. That has happened. But, it's rare. It doesn't usually happen. Usually the people that I work with are people that want to work with me because they want to get to the next level. They know that they and I don't really have any clients that are horrible at this. You know, it's kinda like Gawande said is it's people that are really functioning at very high levels but just want to get to the next level. And so, I think the people that are really bad at it are so bad that they don't even recognize that they need a coach or they can improve. I think the people that are the best clients are the ones that are functioning at a very high level. But no, they could maybe just get a little bit further, a little bit higher, if they had a boost or if they had somebody that could help them get there. Karen Litzy: 23:48 Yeah. That makes a lot of sense. And now we spoke about the pros. Let's talk about the cons. So I think maybe we might've just said one con that if you're not ready for a coach, then it might not work out so well for you. And that's coming from the person who's seeking. Right. So, yeah, I think you have to be really ready for it. And if you're not, then maybe it's not the right time, but are there any other potential cons that you can see? Steve Anderson: 24:19 Well, I think that, you know, the, the obvious one is it costs money, you know, and it takes time. You know, so, the way that I would answer that is yes. But then also, you know, look at how much money PT’s spend on con ed and going to conferences and things like that. That takes a lot of money and a lot of time too. So it is just a priority. And, you know, I believe that the return on investment, so to speak, is very high in coaching. Because you really are getting that one-on-one approach. So, and then the other mistake that I see people make sometimes is, you know, I work with a client for awhile and then they kind of say, Oh, okay, this is great. Let's stop now and I'm going to go work on this stuff and then I'll get back to you when I've had time to work on it, practice it. Steve Anderson: 25:15 And, I think that that's okay. But I do think that sometimes, just having a person continually working with you, even if it’s a lesser frequent time interval, I think it is good to reinforce that because it's hard to just take all this information and then drop everything and then just work on that without step-by-step approaches along the way. You know, it's kinda like I would make a reference to working with a patient that if you gave them a whole bunch of exercises and then say, okay, when you get all these exercises perfected, then come back and we'll go to the next one. Well, you can imagine what those exercises look like without some coaching along the way. If you returned in three months and said, okay, let's look at the exercises, you likely wouldn't even be able to recognize cause they changed them or they haven't done them. Right. And then they kind of, you know, one thing leads to another. Karen Litzy: 26:12 Right. Or because they don't have the accountability, they don't do them at all. Steve Anderson: 26:17 Yeah, that's true. Karen Litzy: 26:18 Right. So I think that's the other part of the coach. Steve Anderson: 26:22 Coaches will help you, you know, be responsible to help you, or be accountable is probably a better word. Karen Litzy: 26:32 Yeah, absolutely. Cause I know like I have certainly done continuing education courses and things like that and you learn so much and you're all gung ho. Then a couple of weeks later you're like, what? I haven't been doing everything that I learned at that course or I haven't been as diligent let's say. Steve Anderson: 26:58 Yeah, exactly. Right. And, I think the other thing that's kind of scary when you start any new thing is that you've probably heard of the J curve. You know, whenever we change behaviors or we try and improve on something, we kind of go in this J curve, which is, if you can imagine what a J looks like, a capital J, you start at a certain level and you dip down into the bottom of the J because you often sometimes get worse before you get better. And so it's that struggling time and that fumbling time and you just can't quite, you know, get it then, then you kind of come up on the other side of the right side of the J and then you reach a higher level. And so some people are unwilling or don't want to get into the bottom, bottom end of the J because it's frustrating. Sometimes you struggle and so, I mean some people would just rather, you know, go with the mediocrity and just keep going solid without the struggle. But sometimes you need to jump off the cliff and then get down into that lower J curve a little bit before you can really improve. Karen Litzy: 28:09 And I think it's also sometimes if you've had this level of success, let's say the, you know, high level executives or entrepreneurs who have multiple six figure businesses, you know, they have this certain level of success and I think you can get a little complacent and you can think to yourself, well, I am doing well, I'm already successful. What do I need a coach to help me get more? Like I'm there already. I've made it. So what do you say to that kind of comment? Steve Anderson: 28:41 Well, it just depends on what you want to do. You know, earlier in my career there was this Harvard business review article that was kinda, I used it as my management Bible cause it was, it just resonated with me so much. And the story was about the owner of Johnsonville sausage. This was in the day of Johnsonville sausage was only a Wisconsin company. And people who's constantly knew about it, but no one else knew about it. And he described how he was making ridiculous amount of money. He was really successful. He was just, you know, kinda on the top of everything, but he couldn't leave the factory without people calling them all the time. He was working horrendous hours, you know, all these things were happening. And so on the outside you would look at him and say, wow, he's so successful. Steve Anderson: 29:37 And then he went through this whole series of changing how he did things. Then in the title of the article is how I let my employees lead. And he grew leaders within the company and they took on the security responsibility and accountability. And so, you know, the end of the story is, is that now Johnsonville sausages, there across the country and probably international, he works less hours, makes more money and is happier and he's ever been. So, you know, I sometimes, as you said earlier, we can't always see what the other side looks like, but we just have to realize that there could be a better way. And then there could be a bigger prize at the end if you’re just willing to go down that road. Karen Litzy: 30:22 And I don't know many people who would argue against that. I think it's right. I mean that seems like it makes a lot of sense why to have working a little bit smarter, maybe still working hard but at least working smarter and making a better impact on the world, making a better impact with your patients. You know, being able to grow your business or your practice and seeing more patients help more people. So I think that another misconception when it comes to I really need a coach is that the coach is just for you and that no one else is going to benefit from it. Right. But that's not true, is it? And on that note, we're going to take a quick break to hear from our sponsor and be right back. Karen Litzy: 31:13 Are you interested in a free opportunity to check in with the latest thoughts of other rehab leaders? Well, I've got one for you. There's a new online rehab therapy community designed for the intersection of the clinical and business sides of rehab. It's the rehab therapy operational best practices forum, catchy name, right? It's all about habits and initiatives that juice up your attendance, revenue, workflows, documentation, compliance, efficiency and engagement while allowing your provider teams to keep their eye on the prize. There are patients and outcomes. I personally believe that a better connected rehab therapy profession has the power to help more people jump in, subscribe and join the conversation. Today. You can find the rehab therapy operational best practices forum @ www.nethealth.com/healthy. Steve Anderson: 32:06 It's certainly not true that your influence and who you work with and who you touch on a daily basis will greatly, you know, benefit from you being better at your job. And a lot of times it comes down to just helping you see, helping you find ways to resonate with what you're doing. I'll give you another personal example. So do you know who Seth Goden is? He's kind of a marketing guru guy. And, so, you know, I was in my CEO position and I'm overwhelmed like everybody else and there's so much to do and whatever. And so people used to always ask me, well, what do you do as a CEO? And I would always hesitate because it was like a kind of, what do I do? I answer emails, I talk on the phone, I go to meetings, I go, boy, is that, how boring does that sound? Steve Anderson: 33:04 You know? And so I happened to be hearing Seth godin and going at this lecture and he said that you have to find a way to even identify within yourself, what do I do and why do I do it? And he gave out some, some ideas and it really resonated with me and I got excited about. So I went home and I worked at it. And so now people say, when I was a CEO, they'd say, well, what do you do as CEO. And I go, I'm an ambassador for my company. I'm a storyteller and I grow leaders and that sounds a lot better. Karen Litzy: 33:42 That sounds so much better than I go to meetings and answer emails. Steve Anderson: 33:48 Exactly. And so you know, so now when I'm doing, I'm sitting there trying to get through my emails. I say, okay, what am I doing? Oh, okay, this email was because I'm being an ambassador for my company. Or this email was cause I'm helping this leader grow. This phone call was for this. And so now those things seem to have more meaning and more purpose. And it just changes my mindset. And so I think that's what a good coach can help you see sometimes. Karen Litzy: 34:18 Yeah. What a wonderful example. And I often wonder that I would even say to my patients sometimes who are like executives and CEOs, I was like, well, what do you do all day? And they're like, what do you mean? I'm like, you get into work. And then what happens? And it's amazing how many people are like, I dunno, I mean I go to meetings and I answer emails and I'm on the phone quite a bit, like telling me what they're physically doing at their job versus what is the meaning behind the job. And I think that's the distinction that you just made there very well. Steve Anderson: 34:56 Yeah. And I'll give you another example. On the other end of the spectrum, I talked at a PT school once, gave a lecture and a young man came up to me and said, God, I was really impressed with what you were saying and it was a talk on leadership and I was really impressed with it and it seems like you really know what you're doing. And he goes, could I come and just shadow you for a couple of days? And I said, you mean just my CEO job? And he goes, he goes, yeah, I'd love to just follow you and see what you're doing. Whatever. I said, Oh yeah, you're going to be bored to death. I mean, what am I going to be able to show you? I mean, you know, I'm sitting at a desk, I'm doing that. He says, why? And he wouldn't drop it. Steve Anderson: 35:37 So I thought, well, what the heck? So here, this a PT student came and shadowed me for a day and a half and he went to meetings with me and he sat there when I was on the phone and he watched me get caught up. I mean, it was just, you know, he just hung out with me. And when he left he said, Oh, this was really great. I'm kind of thinking, God, I hope I didn't bore him to death. And I got an email from him about six years later and he said, Hey, you remember me, I followed you in whatever. And he says, I just wanted you to know that that day and a half set me on my course roots and my career and now I'm doing this and now I'm doing that. And so it had a huge impact on him. It was very gratifying and it made me feel really good, but I had no idea. So through his eyes, he saw things that I, you know, thought was mundane and day to day, but he saw things that he remembered and helped him, you know, find the career position that he wants. So that was a good story. Karen Litzy: 36:38 Yeah. That's great. Yeah. And again, like you said, it's that external eyes and ears, you know, we often don't see what others see and you never know who's looking. You never know who's listening and you never know who's watching. Steve Anderson: 36:50 Right. Karen Litzy: 36:51 So what great examples. Steve Anderson: 36:56 Yeah. And that's another great point is when you are in a leadership role, people are looking and watching and everything you do and everything you say, matter. And, you shouldn't take it lightly. You shouldn't be afraid of it, but you should realize that you probably have a lot more influence than you realize. And so recognizing that and being aware of that and trying to make that message better, benefits everyone in life. Karen Litzy: 37:26 Yeah, totally. And now before we kind of wrap things up here, I have a question that I ask everyone and that's knowing where you are now in your life and in your career. What advice would you give to yourself as a new grad right out of physical therapy school? So pretend you're coaching yourself back in the day. Steve Anderson: 37:52 You know, I told this story earlier because I remember it like it was yesterday and I came out of school. I wanted to be, this good, you know, manual physical therapist as I could possibly be. And so I was doing a lot of extra study and study group work and so on. And I can remember driving home from one of those sessions, I was probably about two or probably two years out of school. And I remember almost becoming overwhelmed with how can I possibly be as good as I want to be, an understand all this information and hone my skills and see the diagnosis and so on, how I was just overwhelmed with it. And, so I look back and I got through it somehow, but I would have loved to have had a coach then or a mentor that said, no, you're doing exactly what you should do. Steve Anderson: 38:52 You're working on your craft, you're putting in the time and effort and then you just have to go step by step, day by day. As I said earlier, because I would never imagined I would someday be the CEO of a large private practice physical therapy company. It just had never entered my mind at that stage in my career. So instead of being overwhelmed with, you know, this knowledge I have to get in whatever, I just need to start my journey, keep going and keep, keep moving and putting in the time and effort and where I end up in or I evolve into, I may not be able to predict, but I just know, I just know it's going to be something exciting and fun. And as long as I make the right decisions along that journey, I can reach a level I would have never imagined I could reach. And I do see that in new professionals today and they're struggling with that, you know, a few years out of school. And so my advice to them as it would have been to myself is just keep moving forward, step by step. Take some risks, find some things that resonate and excites you and don't be afraid to try them and see where it leads. Karen Litzy: 40:15 Great advice. And now before we go, let's first talk about your podcast and then where people can find you. So talk about the podcast. Steve Anderson: 40:27 Okay. Well, I just want to say on this podcast, how inspirational and how helpful you were to me. Because as you probably remember, I thought, well, maybe I should do a podcast and I believe I called you and asked you some questions and I had not a clue how to start it and what to do. And, I really, I commend you and thank you very much for helping me answer some of those early questions and so on. So my podcast is called profiles in leadership and I just try and focus on leaders and then how they lead and just learn something from discussions with each one of them. I've been doing it about a year and a half now, a little bit longer. It's great. I mean, I've gotten some really fun, fun interviews, some inside the professional physical therapy profession and some are outside. I'm doing more outside the profession lately, which is fun. And, again, people ask me, why do you do the podcast? And, I say, because I learned something every time I do one, you know, every time I talk to somebody, I've been around a long time and with my experience, I still learn something every time. So it's like that, that gets me in the jazz and I'm inspired by that. So that's why I keep doing. Karen Litzy: 41:58 Yeah. And I also heard you say several times that it's fun, so why wouldn't you want to do something that's fun? Steve Anderson: 42:04 Exactly. And, and you improve. I mean, I heard somebody might've been Joe Rogan who said, you know, if you think I have a good podcast, you should listen to my first few. Karen Litzy: 42:15 Oh my God. Steve Anderson: 42:16 I think we all start at a certain level and if you're not improving, then you probably need to get out. Karen Litzy: 42:23 Yeah, probably Steve Anderson: 42:26 I'm doing it. I think mine are much better than my first ones were. So, you know, that keeps me going too in the sense that I, you know, we all like to get better. We all like self-mastery. If we're not improving, we're probably not not having fun. Karen Litzy: 42:42 Yeah. I mean, like I look back at like the first couple of interviews that I did and it was like a straight up boring interview for a job that was not good. It was like, I was not showing my personality. It was very much like, so Steve, tell me about your job and what you do. And it was so, Oh my gosh. Yeah, it was not good. But you know, you got to start, like you said, you got to start somewhere. And I just took courses on public speaking and improv courses in order to help me improve because I knew where my limitations were and what needed to be done. But yeah, I can totally relate to that. The first couple are no good, not good, and it's not because the guests weren't great. It was because of me. Steve Anderson: 43:33 Well, but look at the risk you took. I mean, to me that's how you reach a higher level of excellence is you're willing to take the risk. You are vulnerable. You were willing to be on camera and on audio and stick your neck out there and, you know, struggle through it a little bit and you improved. And then now you're, you know, you should be very happy with where you're at now because you do a wonderful job. So that's to me what it takes. And if we relate it back to coaching, it's the same thing. It's yeah, I need to take a risk. You need to be vulnerable. You need to realize that, you know, with work time and effort and practice, you're going to get better. And that's what it's all about. Karen Litzy: 44:19 Absolutely. Very well said. And where can people find you, find more about you and find more about your coaching business? Steve Anderson: 44:27 Sure. So, my podcast it's on all of the podcast platforms, but, probably the easiest way to find it is through iTunes. You just search for profiles with leadership, with Steve Anderson. I did some as I did with you early on. I was doing the videos. And so, I do have the video gallery. You can search YouTube for profiles in leadership with Steve Anderson and then also all my podcasts and all the videos that I've done are on my coaching website, which is orangedotcoaching.com and that's orange, the word dot coaching.com. And you can see my services there for coaching. And then if you go to click on the media center, that's where the podcast and the videos are stored. Karen Litzy: 45:18 Perfect. And just so everyone knows, we will have all of that information on the show notes at podcasts.Healthywealthysmart.com. So one click, we'll get to all of Steve's information. So Steve, thanks so much for taking the time out today and coming on the podcast. I appreciate it. I appreciate you. So thanks so much. Steve Anderson: 45:37 Well, thank you Karen. And again, I just thank you for your early mentorship to me when I was trying to figure this all out and I haven’t forgotten that and I'm very appreciative that you're willing to help me. Karen Litzy: 45:50 Anytime, anytime. You are quite welcome and everyone else, thanks so much for tuning in. Have a great couple of days and stay healthy, wealthy, and smart. Thanks for listening and subscribing to the podcast! Make sure to connect with me on twitter, instagram and facebook to stay updated on all of the latest! Show your support for the show by leaving a rating and review on iTunes!
This throw back episode was recorded at the 10 year anniversary of the Graham Sessions - a small conference hosted by the APTA's Private Practice Section. The setting is a small group (about 150 attendees) where there is only ONE rule. What's said there can leave, but you can't attribute any comment, quote or idea to a person. The goal being that people can say what they want, without a filter and get ideas into the profession to start to change it from the inside. It was recorded live in San Diego with Co-Host Karen Litzy of the Healthy, Wealthy, & Smart podcast Listen to how this event got started from the founders of this super secret, possibly difficult to find, and definitely hard to explain Sessions for the 10th anniversary. We talk where we've been, where PT is headed, and the rules of Fight Club. PT Pintcast proudly poured by Aureus Medical. Travel & direct hire opportunities nationwide.
This throw back episode was recorded at the 10 year anniversary of the Graham Sessions - a small conference hosted by the APTA's Private Practice Section. The setting is a small group (about 150 attendees) where there is only ONE rule. What's said there can leave, but you can't attribute any comment, quote or idea to a person. The goal being that people can say what they want, without a filter and get ideas into the profession to start to change it from the inside. It was recorded live in San Diego with Co-Host Karen Litzy of the Healthy, Wealthy, & Smart podcast Listen to how this event got started from the founders of this super secret, possibly difficult to find, and definitely hard to explain Sessions for the 10th anniversary. We talk where we've been, where PT is headed, and the rules of Fight Club. PT Pintcast proudly poured by Aureus Medical. Travel & direct hire opportunities nationwide.
LIVE from Graham Sessions 2019 in Austin, Texas, Jenna Kantor guests hosts and interviews Lisa VanHoose, Monique Caruth and Kitiboni Adderley on their reflections from the conference. In this episode, we discuss: -The question that brought to light an uncomfortable conversation -How individuals with different backgrounds can have different perspectives -How the physical therapy profession can grow in their inclusion and diversity efforts -And so much more! Resources: Lisa VanHoose Twitter Monique Caruth Twitter Fyzio 4 You Website Kitiboni Adderley Twitter Handling Your Health Wellness and Rehab Website The Outcomes Summit: use the discount code LITZY For more information on Lisa: Lisa VanHoose, PhD, MPH, PT, CLT, CES, CKTP has practiced oncologic physical therapy since 1996. She serves as an Assistant Professor in the Physical Therapy Department at University of Central Arkansas. As a NIH and industry funded researcher, Dr. VanHoose investigates the effectiveness of various physical therapy interventions and socioecological models of secondary lymphedema. Dr. VanHoose served as the 2012-2016 President of the Oncology Section of the American Physical Therapy Association. For more information on Monique: Dr. Monique J. Caruth, DPT, is a three-time graduate of Howard University in Washington D.C. and has been a licensed and practicing physiotherapist in the state of Maryland for 10 years. She has worked in multiple settings such as acute hospital care, skilled nursing facilities, outpatient rehabilitation and home-health. She maintains membership with the American Physical Therapy Association, she is a member of the Public Relations Committee of the Home Health Section of the APTA and is the current Southern District Chair of the Maryland APTA Board Of Directors. For more information on Kitiboni: Kitiboni (Kiti) Adderley is the Owner & Senior Physical Therapist of Handling Your Health Wellness & Rehab. Kiti graduated from the University of the West Indies School of Physical Therapy, Jamaica, in 2000 and obtained her Doctorate of Physical Therapy from Utica College, Utica, New York, in 2017. Over the last 10 years, Kiti has been involved in an intensive study and mentorship of Oncology Rehabilitation and more specifically, Breast Cancer Rehab where her focus has been on limiting the side effects of cancer treatment including lymphedema, and improving the quality of life of cancer survivors. She has been a Certified Lymphedema Therapist since 2004. She is also a Certified Mastectomy Breast Prosthesis and Bra Fitter and Custom Compression Garment Fitter. For more information on Jenna: Jenna Kantor (co-founder) is a bubbly and energetic girl who was born and raised in Petaluma, California. Growing up, she trained and performed ballet throughout the United States. After earning a BA in Dance and Drama at the University of California, Irvine, she worked professionally in musical theatre for 15+ years with tours, regional theatres, & overseas (www.jennakantor.com) until she found herself ready to move onto a new chapter in her life – a career in Physical Therapy. Jenna is currently in her 3rd year at Columbia University’s Physical Therapy Program. She is also a co-founder of the podcast, “Physiotherapy Performance Perspectives,” has an evidence-based monthly YouTube series titled “Injury Prevention for Dancers,” is a NY SSIG Co-Founder, NYPTA Student Conclave 2017 Development Team, works with the NYPTA Greater New York Legislative Task Force and is the NYPTA Public Policy Committee Student Liaison. Jenna aspires to be a physical therapist for amateur and professional performers to help ensure long, healthy careers. To learn more, please check out her website: www.jennafkantor.wixsite.com/jkpt Read the full transcript below: Jenna Kantor: 00:00 Hello, this is Jenna Kantor with Healthy, Wealthy and Smart. And here I am at the Graham sessions in 2019 here. Where are we? We're in Austin, Texas. Yes, I'm with at least. And we're at the Driscoll. Yes. At the Driscoll. Yes. I'm here with Kiti Adderley, Monique Caruth and Lisa VanHoose. Thank you so much for being here, you guys. So I have decided I want to really talk about what went on today, what went on today in Graham sessions where we were not necessarily hurt as individuals. And I would like to really hit on this point. So actually Lisa, I'm going to start by handing the mic to you because you did go up and you spoke on a point. So I would love for you to talk about that. And then Monique, definitely please share afterwards and then I would love for you to share your insight on that as well. All right, here we go. Awesome. Lisa VanHoose: 00:52 So first of all, thank you so much for giving us this opportunity just to kind of reflect on today's activities. And so, I did ask a question this morning about the differences in the response to the opioid crisis versus the crack cocaine crisis. And I was asking one of our speakers who is quite knowledgeable in healthcare systems to get his perspective on that. And he basically said, that's not really my area. Right. And then gave a very generic answer and as I said earlier to people, I'm totally okay with you saying you don't know. But I think you also have to make sure that that person that you're speaking to knows that I still value your question and maybe even give some ideas of maybe who to talk to and this person would have had those resources. But, I guess it was quite evident to a lot of people in the room that they felt like I had been blown off. Lisa VanHoose: 01:48 So yes. So that was an interesting happenings today. Jenna Kantor: And actually bouncing off that, would you mind sharing how this has actually been a common occurrence for you? You kind of said like you've dealt with something like this before. Would you mind educating the listeners about your history and how this has happened in your past? Lisa VanHoose: I think, anytime, you know, not just within the PT profession but also just in society as general when we need to have conversations about the effects of racism. Both at a personal and systemic level, it's an uncomfortable conversation. And so I find that people try to bail out or they try to ignore the question or they blow the question off and ultimately it's just, we're not willing to have those crucial conversations and I think they almost try to minimize it. Right. Lisa VanHoose: 02:41 And I don't know if that comes from a place of, they're uncomfortable with the conversation or maybe they just feel like the conversations not worth their time. But, I can just tell you as just a African American woman in the US, this is a common occurrence. As an African American PT, I will admit it happens a lot within the profession. But I do think that there are those like you and like Karen and others that are willing to kind of move into that space because that's the only way we're going to make it better. Jenna Kantor: Thank you. Thank you for giving me that insight. Especially so because people don't see us right now, so, so they can really get a fuller picture of it. And now, Monique, would you mind sharing when you went up and spoke, how that experience was for you, what you were talking about and how you felt the issue that you are bringing up was acknowledged? Monique Caruth: 03:37 Well, as Lisa said, we're kind of used to talking and it going through one ear and out the next day and our issues not really being addressed. I think it comes from a point where a lot of Caucasians think that if you try to bring it up, they would be blamed for what was done 400 years ago, 300 years ago. So it comes from a place of guilt. They don't want to be seen as they have an advantage. And I think as blacks we had a role to play in it by saying, oh, you’re white and you’re privileged. So you had an advantage, which structurally there is an advantage. There is structural advantages as I was discussing with Lisa and Kiti last night that as an immigrant, even though I'm black, they're more benefits that I've received being here than someone who was born maybe in Washington DC or inner city Chicago or maybe even, Flint, Michigan. Monique Caruth: 04:51 I can drink clean water, I can open my tap and drink. What I don't have to worry about, you know, drinking led or anything like that. I can leave home with my windows open, my doors open and feel safe that my neighbors will be looking out for me and stuff that I can walk my neighborhood. So there are privileged even though I'm black, that some people that can afford and would I be ashamed of being in that position? No, acknowledge it. And even with an all black community, there are a lot of us, we may not have been born in a world of wealth. I wasn't, my parents sacrificed a lot to get me where I am today, but not because I have somewhat made it means that I have to ignore the other people that have struggled. Monique Caruth: 05:43 And this is a problem that I'm noticing in a lot of black communities, like when someone makes it or they become successful, Aka Ben Carson, Dr Ben Carson, we feel that if I can make it, why can't you? And because some of those people were not afforded the same privileges that you were afforded, and it's kinda not fair to make that statement that if I made it. So can you, and you can't tell people that you worked your butt off and pull yourself up by your bootstraps when you were afforded welfare stuff. Your, you know, your mom benefited from stuff. I was afforded scholarship so that I don't have to have $200,000 in debt. So I could afford to purchase a home after I graduated and all that stuff because I was not in debt. Monique Caruth: 06:47 And a lot of people do not have that luxury. So I can tell people if I can do it, you can do it too. I have to try to find ways to address their concerns and see how I can better help them to move forward and live better. And the problem within our profession is that many in leadership, even though they see themselves as making it, they don't want to have acknowledge that not everyone comes from the same place. It's not a level playing field. And they try to dismiss those by saying, Oh, if I can make it, everybody else can as well. Jenna Kantor: Thank you. Well said. Well said. Kiti. would you mind sharing in light of what everybody said, some of your thoughts on this matter? Kitiboni Adderley: 07:30 While it was interesting to watch the conversation, listen to the conversation today. I have a unique perspective in that I don't practice in the United States. I don't live in United States, but I frequently here taking part in education, but also watching the growth and development of the physical therapy profession. So I'm from The Bahamas and it's predominantly African descent population. Right? And so some of the issues that people of color in the United States deal with, we don't really deal with those in terms of that limitations and privileges. And you know, it's more of a socioeconomic for us. And once you can afford it, then you go and do. And, and I think we're pretty fortunate if we talk about while across the board that most people can afford some form of education and get it. Kitiboni Adderley: 08:30 So I'm in a unique position because I look African American, it was, I don't open my mouth. You don't know. And so I'm privy to some conversations on both sides of the role, you know, and if people are probably, so what do you think about this and how do you feel about that and how does it bother you? And you know, so while I'm not the typical African American and they see them start to take a step back and it sort of gives you the understanding that they don't truly understand that every person of color does not have the same story. And so you can approach us expecting us to have the same story. Right? Cause your three x three women of color here, one's born and bred African American ones born and bred Trinidad and transplanted United States and one's born and bred, still working in The Bahamas and the Caribbean. Kitiboni Adderley: 09:17 Good. So we all have different perspectives that we all come from different backgrounds and different experiences. But it was interesting and when Lisa asked a question and you know like, you know, people say you will, you know you need to bring it up if we don't talk about these things enough. And it's almost like, okay, you bring up the conversation. So the balls in play, it's tossed from one play at an accident and be like, Oh shit, we can handle, listen to bar this draft again. And so the conversation shuts down and you're like, but you didn't answer the question and you're like, you know, well, yeah, okay, well we'll throw the ball up in the air. And at another time, and I think this is where the frustration comes in for people of color that live in United States because you want us to have these conversations were given quote unquote, the opportunity to ask questions or have these discussions and the discussions come up and at the end of it it's like, okay, we just gave you the opportunity to discuss where do we go from here? Kitiboni Adderley: 10:14 What's done, what's the recourse, what's our next step? What's our plan of action? And when we talk about inclusion and diversity, if you're not going to take it to the next step, if you're not going to have a call to action, then what's the point? And this is why probably people of color don't come back out again because what's it's a bit, it's a bit annoying. It's like frustration because you stand there, you're waiting for a response. And I was like, oh, well, you know, this isn’t my field and I appreciate the honesty, but then let’s address this at some point we have to address this. So do we need another meeting just to address this? Do we have to have, you know, just, let's pick the topic and work on it. So like I said, it was a very unique perspective. Kitiboni Adderley: 10:57 I sort of like watching the response of the other people in the room and see how they respond to it, but the conversation needs to keep going for those of us who can tolerate it or have the patience to deal with it at this given time. And, it was a great experience. It was a good experience. Jenna Kantor: I love it. So I would have just one more question for each of you and it's what would you recommend we do as a profession, both individually and as a collective in order to grow in this manner? Monique Caruth: 11:37 Well, piggy backing off of what Kiti mentioned, I was sort of blown away too when he said that that's not his field because he's a reporter, he does documentary stuff all you was asking was one opinion you want asking for, you know, an analysis or anything. It was just an opinion and he refused to give that. And his excuse was, I don't know much about it and what was, it wasn't surprising but no one else in the crowd said well we then address her concern and immediately he was, she didn't put it in a way that made it seem or the crack epidemic was black and the opioid crisis as white. He was the one who drew it up cause I was actually praising her for how skillfully she worded it. I'm learning a lot of tack from obviously Lisa I'm not that tactful and my family tells me I need to be tactful, but it's that no one else said, okay, let's discuss it. Monique Caruth: 12:51 Really. Why, why is APTA making such a big push choose PT. Now. Versus in the 80s when the crack and the crack epidemic was destroying an entire city because DC was known for being chocolate city on the crack epidemic, wiped it out and it got judge all. Alright, it rebuilt it. But now again, it's trying to find like I went to Howard University, you know, I could walk around shore Howard and I'm like, am I in Georgetown? Because you don't recognize, you know, the people live in that. It has driven out a lot of blacks that were living in drug pocket. You know, it's now predominantly, young white lobbyist living in the area. So if we don't have the support of our colleagues, how can we address inclusion? How can we address equity if they're not willing to put themselves out there to say, Hey Lisa, I got your back. Monique Caruth: 14:05 We need to talk about this. We need to discuss it. Let's have a discussion. Your question was not answered. It wasn't even to say that it was acknowledged with a dignified response because we're spending millions of dollars under choose PT campaign. Why is it because the surgeon general is saying, oh there needs to be another alternative because Congress is trying to pass bills to lower the opioid crisis. Why? If you asking people to choose PT what makes it different? Okay. Even with the Medicaid population, the majority of people who receive Medicaid are black and brown. Are we fighting to get make that people have medicaid coverage or other stuff. Or are we fighting running down Cigna and blue cross blue shield and Humana and all those other types of insurances? Because we think the money is in these insurances. When they could dictate whatever they want, then you could provide a service and say you're providing quality service. Monique Caruth: 15:14 But if they say, oh, we're just gonna reimburse you $60 we are getting $60 and people on our income. So people complain on Twitter and on social media about, you know, insurance stuff. But if I see a medicaid patient in Maryland, I am guaranteed $89 and that person has the treatment. They’re being seen, they're getting better. It's guaranteed money. But a lot of people don't want to treat the Medicaid population because they think they're getting blacks or Hispanics. And I hear complaints like I don't really want to treat that population because we are going to have no shows and cancellations and all that stuff, which is bs. It's excuses. And we have to do better as a profession to acknowledge or biases and work on ways to help work with the population that we serve. Because let's face it, America is not going to remain white? It's gonna get mixed. We're going to have some more chocolate chips in the cookies. Okay. All right. It's going to be more than two chocolate chips in the whole cookie next time. Jenna Kantor: 16:33 Before I pass it to you, Kiti, I really like where you're going with this, Monique, and I think it's important to acknowledge why, which I didn't at the beginning. Why, why, why we're tapping on this one incident and really diving in and it's because what I learned today from my friends is that this is a common occurrence in the physical therapy industry. It's not just it and it's not just within our industry. It's what you guys deal with regularly. And if we are talking about our patients providing better patient care, we need to really, really be fully honest with where we are at. Even as they are speaking, I'm constantly asking myself, what are my things that I'm holding within me where I'm making assumptions about individuals? There's always room for growth. So please as you continue to listen to Kiti speak next, just keep letting this be an opportunity to reflect and grow. Kitiboni Adderley: 17:50 Okay, so I recognize that incident was uncomfortable. It was an uncomfortable conversation to have and it's okay to have uncomfortable conversations. As physical therapists, we have uncomfortable conversations with our patients all the time. We have uncomfortable conversations with our colleagues and we have to call them out on some mal action or when they call us out on something that need to do. And because the conversation is uncomfortable, it doesn't mean that we don't have it. We probably need to talk about it more. And so if there's anything that I want to say, I think we need to have more of these conversations and have them until they no longer become uncomfortable until we could actually sit down with, well no, I shouldn't say anybody but, but the people of influence, cause this is what it's really about. We were sitting with very influential people today and all of us there, I'm sure where people of influence and you know, this is what we need, this is what we need to use. And don't be afraid to have the conversation. As uncomfortable as it may make you feel. Why are we having this conversation? We want inclusion, we want diversity, we want a better profession. And those are the goals of the conversation. We shouldn't shy away from it. Jenna Kantor: Thank you. I'm gonna hand this over to Lisa for one last one last thing. Lisa VanHoose: 18:43 So I just want to talk about the fact that part of the conversation was this dodging right? Of a need to kind of have this very authentic and deep conversation. The other part of today's events that I'm still processing is this conversation about the need for changed to be incremental, right? Comfortable. And for those of us that are marginalized to understand that the majority feels like there has been significant change and that was communicated to me in some side conversations and I was challenged by one person that was like, well, I think you have this bias and you're not recognizing the change that has occurred and how that this is awesome that we're even in a place to have this, that we're having this conversation today. Lisa VanHoose: 19:46 You know, that you need to acknowledge that success that we've made. And so I do agree that, you know, what all work is good work and I will applaud you for what has been done today. But I also would say to people who feel that way, step back and say, okay, if the PT profession has not really changed as demographics in the last 30 years, and if you were an African American and Hispanic and Asian American, an Asian Pacific islander or someone of multiracial descent would you be okay with that? Saying that, you know what, I started applying to PT school when I was in my twenties and I'm finally maybe gonna get in my fifties and sixties. How would that feel? Right? That wasted life because you're waiting on this incremental change. And I think if we could just be empathetic and put ourselves in the other person's shoes and say, would I be okay with waiting 30 years for a change? Lisa VanHoose: 20:53 Would I be all right with that? But I often feel like when it is not your tribe that has to wait, you okay with telling somebody else to wait? Right? And so, I want to read this quote from Martin Luther King and it was from the letters from Barringham where he criticized white moderates and he said that a white moderate is someone who constantly says to you, I agree with your goal, with the goal that you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action. Who believes that he can set the time table for another man's freedom. Such a person according to King is someone who lives by a mythical concept of time and is constantly advising the Negro to wait for a more convenient season. And that's how I felt like today's conversation from some, not all was going. King also talked about the fact that that shallow understanding from people of goodwill is more frustrating than the absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Luke warm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection. And I say that all the time because I would prefer that you be very honest with me and say, I don't really care about diversity and inclusion, but don't act like you're my ally. But then when it's time to have a hard conversation, you say, I can't do that. I'm like, choose a side, pick a side. There is no Switzerland. There is no inbetween. Jenna Kantor: 22:25 Thank you so much you guys. I'm so grateful to be having this conversation to finish it with a great Martin Luther King quote, which is absolutely incredible. I'm just full of gratitude, so thank you. I'm really looking forward to this coming out and people getting to share this joy of learning and growth that you have just shared with me right now. Lisa VanHoose: And thank you for being an ally. We really appreciate that. So we're not, I just want people to know, we're not saying that the African American or the immigrant experience is different from the Caucasian experience. I think we all have this commonality of being othered at one time or another, but yes, with being a white female LGBTQ, I think the complexities of who we are as a human, there's always going to be a time where you're an n of one or maybe of two and you get that feeling that, Ooh, am I supposed to be here? But I think what we're talking about is being empathetic and if we're going to talk about being physical therapists, being practitioners and compassionate, and we're going to provide this patient centered care, how can you tell me you're going to provide patient centered care when you can't even have a conversation with me as a colleague, right. When you can't even see me. So I just want the audience to know, that we're not coming from a place of being victims were coming from a place of really wanting to have collaborative conversations. Monique Caruth: 23:59 I like to view my colleagues as family members. There are times, as much as I love my family, my mom and my dad and my sisters and my brothers in law, there are times we will sit and have some of the most uncomfortable conversations, but at the end of it it’s out of love. It's all for us to grow as a family. And Yeah, you may not talk to the person for like a day or two, but you're like, shit, you know, that's my sister, that's my brother in law. You know, I have to love him. But you know, you try to hear their perspective, you try to make sure they hear your perspective and you come out on common ground so that the family can grow. And we don't treat this profession as a family, the ones who are marginalized are treated as step children. Monique Caruth: 24:57 And that's a bad thing because stepchildren usually revolt. And when they revolt, the ones who are comfortable with incremental change and are afraid of chasing the shiny new object. Because when I heard that comment today, I felt like the shiny new object was diversity, equity and inclusion that people were trying to avoid without saying it outright. And, someone who feels like they have been marginalized. It was like a low blow. So I, for one, appreciate people like you, Ann Wendel, Jerry Durham, Karen Litzy, and stuff. Who Have Sean Hagy and others, Dee Conetti, Sherry Teague reached out to us and say, how can we help? And you need people like that to be on your side. Martin Luther King needed white people. Okay. Rosa parks needed white people. Harriet Tubman needed white people to get where they're, even Mohammed Ali needed white people to be as successful as he is. We all need each other. If we are saying championing better together, how can you be better together if you're not willing to hear the reasons why you feel marginalized or victimized, it's not going to work. Stop turning around slogans or bumper stickers and start working on fixing the broken system that we have. That's all I'm asking for and we got to start working as a family, as uncomfortable as it may be. All right, we'll get over it and you're going to like and appreciate each other for it later on. Jenna Kantor: 26:44 Thank you guys for tuning in everyone, take care. Thanks for listening and subscribing to the podcast! Make sure to connect with me on twitter, instagram and facebook to stay updated on all of the latest! Show your support for the show by leaving a rating and review on iTunes!
LIVE from Graham Sessions in Austin, Texas, I welcome Justin Moore on the show to discuss the American Physical Therapy Association. Dr. Justin Moore, PT, DPT, a physical therapist and veteran of both the profession and the association with more than 20 years' experience, leads the American Physical Therapy Association in the role of CEO. He has been with APTA for 18 years and has held numerous positions, including executive vice president of public affairs, leading the public policy agenda and payment and communications departments, leading its federal and state affairs advocacy departments and serving as the association's lead lobbyist on Capitol Hill. In this episode, we discuss: -How the APTA strives to provide an inclusive experience as a macro organization -What Justin would change about the APTA -APTA’s role in the World Confederation for Physical Therapy -Justin’s biggest takeaway from the Graham Sessions -And so much more! Resources: Email: justinmoore@apta.org Justin Moore Twitter Justin Moore LinkedIn World Confederation for Physical Therapy Congress 2019 The Healing of America by T.R. Reid Book For more information on Justin: Justin Moore, PT, DPT, a physical therapist and veteran of both the profession and the association with more than 20 years' experience, leads the American Physical Therapy Association in the role of CEO. He has been with APTA for 18 years and has held numerous positions, including executive vice president of public affairs, leading the public policy agenda and payment and communications departments, leading its federal and state affairs advocacy departments and serving as the association's lead lobbyist on Capitol Hill. Moore also previously oversaw APTA's practice and research departments. He has been honored for his contributions to physical therapy and public policy by receiving the R. Charles Harker Policymaker Award from APTA's Health Policy and Administration Section and the Distinguished Service Award from APTA's Academy of Pediatric Physical Therapy. In addition, Moore has written, presented, and lectured on health policy, payment, and government affairs issues to a variety of health care and business groups across the country. Moore received his doctor of physical therapy degree from Simmons College in Boston, Massachusetts, in 2005, his master of physical therapy degree from University of Iowa in 1996, and his bachelor of science degree in dietetics from Iowa State University in 1993. He was honored by Iowa State University's College of Human Sciences with the Helen LaBaron Hilton Award in 2014 and the university's Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition's Alumni Impact Award in 2011, and he was the Family and Consumer Sciences' Young Alumnus of the Year in 2003. He also recently completed a 3-year term on Iowa State University's College of Human Sciences Board of Advisors. Moore was part of the inaugural Leadership Alexandria class in 2004 and served on the Northern Virginia Health Policy Forum Board of Directors. Read the full transcript below: Karen Litzy: 00:01 Hey Justin, welcome back to the podcast. I'm so happy to have you back. So we have a couple of questions to get through today and we also want to talk about the first half of Graham Sessions. So we are recording live at Graham sessions in Austin, Texas. And I've got a couple of questions for you and then we'll talk about your big takeaways from the morning session here at Graham sessions. So first thing is, and this will probably be addressed at Graham sessions tomorrow, but what is the APTA doing the American Physical Therapy Association doing to address the current needs of physical therapists, physical therapist assistants and students to ensure their membership is quote unquote worth it? Justin Moore: 00:44 Yeah, it's a great question. It's a question I get often and unfortunately don't have always a great answer because it is such a personal and passionate issue of how do you find value inside this community of APTA. And as you know, value has two meanings, an economic meaning, do you get a return in your investment? And so we look at the physical therapist and the physical therapist assistant of investing in APTA and do they get a return, so there's an economic part of this question, but there's also a principal part. Do you value APTA? And we'd like to focus on that. And then how can we really engage the physical therapist and the physical therapist assistant and really showing value to APTA and getting value from APTA. And I sort of look at it in Adam Grant's philosophy of give and take, you know, the transactional or economic value is what do you get from APTA? Justin Moore: 01:38 And then the give is what do you give to APTA? We're really blessed by our members giving to us and increasing the value for all. And I think the value at the end of the day, the take home value that PTs get from APTA is we're an unabashedly, aggressive about increasing the opportunities for physical therapists. So if you believe in that mission and that value, how do we continue to connect you to your colleagues? How do we continue to build a community that's going to make this career you've chosen make a difference in people's lives, but also return a fulfilling career to you. And so get that return on investment and that value. So, another thing I'll just tie is our board of directors has been really aggressively looking at how do we continue to be relevant to the next generation of clinicians. And we know healthcare is changing. We know business is changing and we have to be getting better at being relevant at the point of care. We have to get better at promoting the value of our profession and we have to get better at connecting our experts. And right now, I think that's what our strategic planning process is about, is how do we become more relevant to those individual clinicians and professionals. Karen Litzy: 02:50 And I think that's different from a couple of standpoints. One and we’ll probably talk a little bit about this tomorrow, is that APTA is obviously a macro organization. There's 101,000 members. So how do you incentivize members from one not dropping off, So a retention issue, right? And two, how do you attract them in to have that feel of more of a micro organization? Right? Cause it's all about the details and it's all about incentives. So how can the APTA, which is a very large organization and it needs to be that way. It can't be small. So how do you give a macro organization a micro feel? Justin Moore: 03:35 Yeah, absolutely. It's our greatest challenge. And I think, you know, one of the things that is very good about APTA is we interact with probably 95% of potential members in a five year period. So we have 80% market share of students, 30% market share of practicing professionals. It's a little less than 10% of physical therapist assistants. So we do engage with almost our entire community over a five year period. But we have to return value in the short term to keep them a member. And the greatest challenges that is, how do you let this very diverse clinical community, how do you build a spirit and harness the power of inclusion? So people can find their people so they can find their community inside this large network of professionals. And sometimes APTA has been too complex, too fragmented, and too divisive to achieve that objective. Justin Moore: 04:29 And so we have to look at those themes on a pretty regular basis is how do we become more inclusive? And so how do we help people find their people, their network of individuals, because they're going to get great value in that if they're going to be a better private practitioner, if there going to be a better pro Bono clinic operator? If they can connect to their people that's going to return value, how do we reduce the fragmentation? We all are committed to promoting the value of PT Well, if we're talking about the value of a certain part of PT, we're constantly competing inside the PT world. It really dilutes our impact. And we know that from data is we're a pretty fragmented community. And so we've got to reduce that fragmentation and build unity. And have to be better working together. Justin Moore: 05:17 We're not unified. The bigger you get, the harder it is to feel the intimacy. We had a consultant work with APTA’s board one time and he put up a matrix. He said, you can be three of the four things in the quadrant, but you can't be the two things that are across from each other. And the two things that cross each other in that matrix were intimacy and strategic. And so to be a strategic organization, can you still be intimate in an association of one where you address every need, every one, and we have to figure out, we're going to be a complex organization, but we have to figure out how to give an intimate experience, but be strategic in that intimate experience. Karen Litzy: And it's a challenge. It's a challenge for a large organization, but it's good to hear that that's on the minds of the people at APTA. Justin Moore: 06:06 Yeah. I think we've realized that we have fallen short at times of really being able to connect people, really giving people a sense of inclusion. Even though we've tried to be inclusive. If it is not conveying that to the end user or member and they don't feel included then we're missing the mark. Karen Litzy: One thing it's not about is the money. Justin Moore: We can give you in economics, I always tell the story is, you know, it is a federated model, has a complex new structure, but APTA dues are 295 in the realm of that, it's a pretty low price point inside of professional associations. If you compare us to other medical associations, other nursing professions, it's a pretty low price points. We probably return economic value for transactional value to the member, and show that value pretty well. But if they don't value their experience, it doesn't matter what the price point is. And so that's what we really have to work to achieve. Karen Litzy: 06:59 Yeah. Not Easy. I look forward to seeing what comes out in the next couple of years there. Okay. Moving on. If you can end with, maybe we already said this a little bit, but if you can change one thing about the APTA organization, what would it be and why? Justin Moore: 07:13 I think it would be to harness the power of inclusion. We've really been focused on that and how do we create a community that at times has been competitive or fragmented and how do we bring them together for commonality and unification around promoting the value of PT, promoting the brand of PT and we're going through a process right now at APTA of rebranding and we're going to be launching that in the next 12 months. And what we found is we went through the research on doing that is we're conveyed way too many opportunities to put your own perspective of what the value of PT is. And we need to really get unified and more inclusive in that march toward promoting our value. Karen Litzy: 07:57 Simplify the message a little bit more. It is hard because within physical therapy you have so many options of workplaces and how you work and who you work with and states and personalities. And I mean the list can go on and on. I would imagine having that sense of inclusivity among 101,000 members, but 300,000 PTs across the country is not easy when everyone is so diverse, diverse in race, religion, gender and diverse in practice settings. So it's like you have to not be, I'm trying to do everything but a master of none. Justin Moore: 08:43 If you're trying to do everything, you're actually doing nothing. That's sort of been a challenge for APTA. They're trying to be all things to all people and was at times maybe a little bit mediocre at everything. So we really have to do that. And I think the common theme is we've done some analysis both on the data side and then actually a social listing. And two themes come out about the PT community is we're pretty divisive. So when you guys see this is people like to tear other people down or can say that they're better at a certain thing than others. So if we could get away from that divisiveness and correct that, that would be great. If an outsider was looking at our dialogues, it would not be a positive experience. Karen Litzy: 09:36 I’ve had a patient tell me like what you guys really don't get along. I’ve seen some conversations on social media. And I was first of all shocked that a patient would actually bring that up so people are looking and they are reading. Justin Moore: 09:44 We've had outside consultants that have look at this and they said they can't believe two things. How some of our acting members tear us down. And so these are people who have already made a decision to join us but yet like to tear down the organization. And then what we found is when we were out looking at the research on our next strategic plan and looking at net promoter scores our highest distractor group, was some of our longest serving members, and essentially we figured out we're not engaging their expertise well enough. And so that was sort of a wake up call for us instead of saying, oh, why are former leaders tearing us down? We said, wait a minute, they're feeling lost. They're feeling not included. They have given a lot of time to this association and now they feel like they've been dropped off a cliff. And so how do we give them a parachute, how do we give them a glider? What can we do to keep them in the spirit of inclusion? Karen Litzy: 10:36 I think that's great because you know, in some conversations I had yesterday, someone brought up to me that it was really great and it was that the APTA has 101,000 quote unquote experts. So the organization is not the expert. They're the facilitators of all these experts that they have at their fingertips. And just think how much the organization can do by being a stellar facilitator of all those experts. Justin Moore: 11:05 APTA is a vehicle. We don't practice, we don't do research, right? We don't do, we do a little bit of education. We do a little bit for professional development, but we can be a vehicle where our educators can educate, our researchers can publish, our researchers can have access to funding and our practitioners can get that. So we have to really leverage our role as convener. Our role as networker. As a funder. The very basic principle of association is people come together for collective success. So they give us dues you use to put into a collective operation for PR, for advocacy, for all those things. And we've got to get better at that. Include that spirit of inclusion. Karen Litzy: 11:46 Perfect. Alright, next question. So the World Confederation of PT Conference is coming up in a few months in Geneva in May. So how is the APTA improving its outreach and involvement in the international world of physical therapy? Are you going to be in Geneva? Justin Moore: 11:54 Yeah, it's a big priority for APTA to be an international partner and contributor to global PT. And so WCPT is one part of that. It's not our inclusive effort. But APTA has a long history of involvement with WCPT including being one of the founding countries and including having at least a couple of presidents I believe. So, most recently, Marilyn Moffat was president of the WCPT. So we have a longstanding commitment and contribution to WCPT and the conference in Geneva will be a great community of international leaders where we can go and be in a posture of learning. So a lot of times we're not going to, we go and have a delegation at WCPT, but we're really going to interact with our colleagues in Australia and the UK and the Netherlands and really learn from their successes and how we can apply those back here. Justin Moore: 13:01 I think this morning at the Graham sessions when we heard T.R. Reid and it's a great book. I highly recommend it, but he went around and experienced healthcare in different countries. That's sort of what we do at WCPT. We go and we talk to the Netherlands of how did they stand up their registry? How did the UK be frontline in primary care, how did Australia get this great expertise in sports and orthopedics and manual therapy? And so what can we do to really leverage that global community to improve care back in the US as well. WCPT is just like APTA, it’s an organization. And so we have a responsibility as a member. It's interesting, WCPT doesn't have members that are individual physical therapists. Their membership is the organizations that comprise the countries. Justin Moore: 13:49 And so we are one of about over a little over a hundred member organizations at WCPT and we, you know, we take that responsibility very seriously and always are looking for opportunities to contribute to their objectives and especially when they're aligned with our objectives. Karen Litzy: I’m looking forward to going to Geneva. I can't wait. I think it's going to be awesome and I'm actually going to be staying with some international PTs. So one from Canada and one from Ireland. I go to a lot of international conferences. It has really changed the way that I practice, it has changed my outlook on the profession as a whole. And what you find when you talk to therapists from different countries, we're not all that different. The way we practice, the challenges that we all have in these different countries are very similar. And I found that to be very eye opening. Justin Moore: As a physical therapist who's gone into association management, I've gotten huge value from some of my colleagues of other physio therapy associations. Justin Moore: 14:46 So Cris Massis at the Australian physiotherapy association, he's just been a great role model. Someone to learn from. And it's nice because it's safe. You know, we're not competitors. He's got his lane. I got my lane and he's been a great resource. Mike Brennan, who was at the Canadian Association a few years ago has been a great reference and resource and I've just been able to observe a lot of these international CEOs and how they conduct their business. And it's been a great learning opportunity for me as well, a little different clinic than the practitioners. Karen Litzy: 15:20 The parallels are there and the APTA, we’re as clinicians trying to learn from each other and as heads of organizations you're trying to learn from each other. Justin Moore: It's one of the strongest things is the opportunity to interact with those other CEOs. Karen Litzy: So before we finish up, what were your biggest takeaways from the morning here at Graham sessions? Justin Moore: Well, I thought my biggest takeaway, or I don't know if it’s a takeaway or my biggest observation is a lot of thought provoking conversations are already starting. And this concept, and we're going to face this all the time, this concept of what is next in healthcare reform that was started by a T.R. Reid’s presentation, but also what does that mean for physical therapy and where do we need to change our lens? Where do we need to change our focus and how do we need to adapt to be part of the solution, not part of the problem was a key theme. There's a lot of brains in that room, and so I'm looking forward to how they process over the next several hours and come up with solutions. It's easy to point at the problems, but the solutions are always more complex. Karen Litzy: 16:29 So thank you so much for coming on. Thanks for listening and subscribing to the podcast! Make sure to connect with me on twitter, instagram and facebook to stay updated on all of the latest! Show your support for the show by leaving a rating and review on iTunes!
Rachel Jermann, Founder of Talus Media News, comes onto HET Podcast to talk about communication issues across the physical therapy profession and solutions to some of these issues. Brandon and Rachel also discuss social media, perception of women leaders in the profession, podcasting as a medium to improve communication within the profession, & much more. Talus Media Website: http://www.talusmedia.org/ Talus Media News Podcast: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/talus-media-news/id1244441787?mt=2 Talus Media Talks Podcast: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/talus-media-talks/id1255575461?mt=2 PT Think Tank Website: https://ptthinktank.com/ Rachel's Twitter Page: https://twitter.com/RJGotAGoni Talus Media Twitter: https://twitter.com/talusmedia Talus Media Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TalusMedia/ Talus Media Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/talusmedia/ The PT Hustle Website: https://www.thepthustle.com/ Schedule an Appointment with Kyle Rice: www.passtheptboards.com HET LITE Tool: www.pteducator.com/het Anywhere Healthcare: https://anywhere.healthcare/ (code: HET) Biography: Rachel Jermann, PT, DPT is the Founder of Talus Media News (which is a podcast aimed at bringing the PT profession together by keeping informed about what is happening in the world of Physical Therapy) a recent graduate from the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee and an active member of the Wisconsin Physical Therapy Association, where she currently serves on the PR committee and as Alternate Delegate. She is immediate past president of the WPTA's Student Special Interest Group and recipient of the 2016 WPTA Student Emerging Leader Award. As former Executive Producer of PT Pintcast, she has been an invited media member to the American Physical Therapy Association's Combined Sections Meeting and National Student Conclave, as well as the Private Practice Section's Graham Sessions. She is currently a resident in the Northern California Kaiser Permanente Orthopedic Residency. She is also a contributor to PT Think Tank.
#OHR #Guiliani #Nunes #Graham #Sessions #NKorea
Wendy Sue Swanson, MD is a healthcare blogger @Seattlemamadoc, a Pediatrician, an executive in digital health, keynote speaker, TED Talk speaker, and advocate for using technology with patient care to reduce costs and increase intimacy with the provider/patient relationship.
We talked with Jerry Durham live at Graham Session 2018. We got into a range of topics and covered what has been up since Jerry was one of the original episodes to start off the PT Pintcast.
It’s Monday, January 22nd. Unless Congress was struck with a stroke of conciliatory behavior, the government is still shut down. First let’s look at some headlines from the PT world. The VA is leading the charge to be transparent with opioid prescriptions, home health patients on Medicare may not be getting the proper coverage they’ve been told they have, and prior authorization could get a “little” bit easier. Also, have you heard about this therapy cap? It’s kind of a big deal. Last but not least, we’re talking with guest Karen Litzy on the Graham Sessions. Talus Media News is a subsidiary of Talus Media: PT Views & PT News. You can find all interviews mentioned in this newscast on our sister channel, Talus Media Talks. Check us out on Twitter & Facebook @TalusMedia, and head to our website at talusmedia.org for more information.
New year, new Graham Sessions. I had the chance to sit down with Dr. Karen Litzy, host of the Healthy, Wealthy, & Smart podcast to discuss the 2018 Graham Sessions. If you don't know what Graham Sessions is, you're not alone. It's the exclusive conference (limited to less than 150 people) put on by the Private Practice Section of the American Physical Therapy Association where physical therapists can discuss the hot button issues in physical therapy without fear of repercussion (or their name being tossed around later). The rule is you can talk about what happened at Graham Sessions, but names aren't allowed.The conference has a series of discussions, or panels, interspersed with "What I Believe Talks" (think of these like the openers, the things that pump up the crowd). The entire conference is designed to get you to think and discuss. The conference doesn't necessarily close with an action plan--the goal is really to get the creative juices flowing. So let's talk Graham. We wanted to know about the lively debates. Karen delivered. Talus Media Talks is a subsidiary of Talus Media: PT Views & PT News. You can find physical therapy news on our sister channel, Talus Media News. Check us out on Twitter & Facebook @TalusMedia, and head to our website at talusmedia.org for more information.
Jimmy caught up with Kyle Ridgeway @ Grahman Sessions 2018 in San Diego CA.
Patrick Graham discusses his career as a Physical Therapist and how his business has had its ups and downs over the years. He also shares his journey as an organ recipient and his ordeal of almost dying before he could receive such a gift of life!
Efosa Guobadia is an emerging force in the physical therapy and philanthropic world. He has a service mindset and has created a company, Move Together to improve access to physical therapy for people of all economic levels. He has built and sustained a medical clinic in Guatemala and takes physical therapists and students to mentor the local PT's and provide service to those who need treatment. He is an inspiration and his positive vibe exudes to all those around him.
In this episode, I get to talk with Mike Eisenhart. Mike and I discuss his entrepreneurial journey, some current projects, his father's "drive-by" business book drop-offs, and a bit about the mysterious Graham Sessions. Mike notes that employers' healthcare spending is rising rapidly, and at least one-third of that expense is movement related. His mission is to help people through prevention while helping businesses save money and increase production through implementing cultural changes to promote healthier lifestyles. Mike is an entrepreneur, a physical therapist, the former president of the New Jersey Physical Therapy Association, and a passionate advocate for living healthy. He can be reached at Pro Activity and on Twitter @MikeEisenhart. I hope you enjoy this episode and please let me know what you think over at SturdyMcKee.com.
Thank you for listening to the Healthy Wealthy and Smart Podcast! LIVE from St. Petersburg, Florida post the Graham Sessions, Dr. Eric Robertson joins me to discuss population health! Dr. Eric Robertson, the founder of PTThinkTank.com and PTCoop.org, is the Director of the Kaiser Permanente Physical Therapy Fellowship in Advanced Manual Therapy in Northern California, and Clinical Assistant Professor at the University of Texas at El Paso. He specializes in orthopaedic manual physical therapy, radiology, evidence-based practice, and the impact of technology on healthcare. In this episode, we discuss: -Population health: The management of total health across different groups and the life spectrum -Why prevention should be a primary focus in healthcare -How population health addresses important objectives such as health literacy, resource management and access to care -And so much more! Innovators in healthcare reduce costs and improve quality care by intervening before complex conditions arise. Eric notes, “When you look at groups and systems that focus on population health by and large they are almost always focused on prevention.” Physical therapists should start to think beyond their traditional role in the healthcare system and treat patients as a whole and expand their realm of care. Eric believes physical therapists should, “Conceptualize yourself as a primary care provider.” Management decisions in population health are aligned to “[help] the patient enable their own pathway to health.” Eric believes prioritizing patient self-efficacy leads to better treatment outcomes and cost reduction. For more information on Eric: PT Think Tank’s founder, Eric is the Director of the Kaiser Permanente Hayward Fellowship in Advanced Manual Therapy in Northern California and Clinical Assistant Professor at the University of Texas at El Paso, where he teaching musculoskeletal physical therapy management. He received his physical therapy education from Quinnipiac University and Boston University. He is board certified in orthopaedic physical therapy and is a Fellow of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Manual Physical Therapists (AAOMPT). Dr. Robertson is a frequent national speaker on leveraging internet technology in health care and evidence-based practice. Eric is also faculty for Evidence in Motion, LLC and an editor for the EIM Musculoskeletal Learning Academy. Eric has authored several web-based continuing education courses for professional associations and several post-professional educational programs. At Regis University, Dr. Robertson researches the link between low back and hip pain as well as the use of instructional technology with physical therapist education. Dr. Robertson has a passion for the use of technology in healthcare and is a frequent national presenter as well as the founder of PTCoop.org, a curated, open-access collection of physical therapy learning resources. He specializes in information management and the use of social media in healthcare. On the personal side, Dr. Robertson enjoys bonsai trees, hanging with his two weimeraners, fast mountain bike decents, the outdoors, and has a penchant for being interested in way too many things at once! Resources discussed on this show: Eric Robertson Facebook Eric Robertson Twitter Kaiser Permanente Northern California Orthopaedic Manual Physical Therapy Fellowship and Orthopaedic Residency Kaiser Permanente Northern California Orthopaedic Manual Physical Therapy Fellowship and Orthopaedic Residency Twitter Kaiser Permanente Northern California Orthopaedic Manual Physical Therapy Fellowship and Orthopaedic Residency Facebook PT Think Tank Thanks for listening and subscribing to the podcast! Make sure to connect with me on twitter, instagram and facebook to stay updated on all of the latest! Show your support for the show by leaving a rating and review on iTunes! Have a great week and stay Healthy Wealthy and Smart! Xo Karen P.S. Do you want to be a stand out podcast guest? Make sure to grab the tools from the FREE eBook on the home page! Check out my blog post on the Top 10 Podcast Episodes of 2016!
On this week’s episode of the Healthy Wealthy and Smart Podcast, I join forces with the PT Pintcast and host Jimmy McKay PT, DPT to get a behind the scenes look at the Graham Sessions. This is the 10th anniversary of the Graham Sessions, which was founded by Steve Anderson, PT, DPT, Drew Bossen, PT, MBA and Patrick Graham PT, MBA. The Graham Sessions is a one and a half day meeting that allows physical therapists from across the country to come together and talk about the big issues facing our profession. In this episode we talk about: - Why the Graham Sessions were created - Their most memorable discussions from past sessions - How Steve's recent retirement affected his outlook on the profession and the session - How Patrick's recent health crisis changed his outlook on life and career - How to create and maintain a successful collaboration - And much more! After asking Patrick how his illness changed his outlook on life and career part of his answer included: "I don't think I worry about things as bad as I used to." On how to create and maintain a successful collaboration Steve said: "You need people you can be 100% transparent with." Patrick talks about the leadership of the profession and how important it is for the success of the Graham Sessions: "Continued support of our leadership to embrace something that is not of the norm says a lot about the 2 boards and the leadership and their vision for the profession." A huge thank you to the Patrick, Drew and Steve for allowing Jimmy and I to be part of the 10 year celebration of the Graham Sessions. It was an honor! Enjoy!
In this week’s episode of the Healthy Wealthy and Smart podcast, I speak with Ali Schoos, a private practice outpatient orthopedic and sports medicine physical therapist out of Bellevue, Washington. Ali joins me to discuss why her goal is to change the current PT mindset from episode based care to full lifespan primary care and why this change could be fundamental to your practice. In this episode, we talk about: -What is a primary care physical therapist -Why we should treat every patient like a direct access patient -How to incorporate patient education in your treatment plan -How physical therapists can impact the growing Alzheimer's population -The benefits of exercise on body and brain longevity -And so much more! Currently, about 5.4 million Americans are living with Alzheimer's and will ultimately die from the disease because there is no cure. By 2050, it is projected that 13.8 million people age 65 and older will be diagnosed with Alzheimer's and the associated costs are expected to grow to over 1 trillion dollars. Physical therapists are uniquely qualified to help provide the care needed for this patient population through preventative education and exercise-based treatments. Ultimately, we can help reduce future healthcare costs, improve quality of life for our patients, and slow the progression of the disease. For more information, be sure to check out the Alzheimer's Association for great informative resources. You can find more from Ali on twitter and check out her website here! If you would like to learn more about the Graham Sessions, check out this podcast with Steve Anderson! Thank you for listening and subscribing to the show! If you like what you're hearing, I would greatly appreciate you leaving a rating and/or a review on iTunes. Stay Healthy Wealthy and Smart! Xo Karen
If you are a physical therapist and you have not heard of the Graham Sessions...don't worry you are not alone! The first time I heard about this meeting was last year and even then I had no idea what it was all about. So this year I was able to register for the event which took place at the beautiful Biltmore Resort in Phoenix, AZ in January. Because most PTs have no idea what the Graham Sessions are or they heard about the Graham Sessions on social media and are feeling left out, this podcast with one of the founders of the Graham Sessions, Steve Anderson, PT will hopefully answer all of the questions you might have about this meeting. In this episode we talk about: * What are the Graham Sessions? * How did the Graham Sessions come about? (It involves a late night at a bar) * What were the topics covered in this year's Graham Sessions. * What were Steve's thoughts about the meeting this year. * What are Steve's thoughts on the future of the Graham Sessions. I want to thank Steve Anderson, PT for being on the podcast and for being so generous with his thoughts on this conference and the future of the Graham Sessions. As always thank you for tuning in and subscribing to the podcast! Have a great week and stay Healthy Wealthy & Smart! xo Karen