Blending In-Person and Virtual Client Management with Dr. Ray Gorman, PT
I'm thrilled to introduce you to Ray Gorman, PT! Our paths crossed serendipitously through an Instagram ad, and I'm so glad they did. After following his content, I reached out, and we quickly realized we share a lot of the same passions and goals. Ray is the owner of Engage Movement, a dynamic platform dedicated to helping coaches and rehab professionals build their dream businesses.
What sets Ray apart is his innovative approach, combining both in-person and virtual offerings to create a flexible, sustainable business model. His mission is to empower professionals to spend more time doing what they love without compromising their careers. Whether you're looking to expand your practice, diversify your services, or simply find more balance, Ray's expertise can guide you toward achieving those goals.
What we will be covering:
Tell us your story:
Ray: For me, I mean I had a lot of doubts. I knew that I wanted to be in the medical realm, but I didn't really know what I wanted to do. In full transparency, at 18 years old, I was not ready to commit the next 12 years of my life to medical school. So, I kind of started exploring in PT. While I was working at a PT Clinic, I ended up tearing my ACL. It really solidified my desire to go down that path and embark on that journey. One thing I didn't realize at the time was that as I was nearing the end phase of my rehab, I felt that what I was doing at the gym was a lot harder than what I was doing in the physical therapy clinic. I remember thinking to myself, "Why do I have to come in here to do these things? Why can't my PT just give me this program and let me communicate with them in a way where I could do this on my own?" I have a strength and conditioning background, so I also had some of those skills. I didn't realize it at the time, but that was the first seed planted for me in developing the model that we use today.
Fast forward, I go to PT school, graduate, and I'm an eager new grad. I thought I was going to make 100 grand out of school because I'm a doctor and I have this expensive piece of paper on the wall. That's what they told me. I get my first job offer, and it's $60,000. I remember talking with my clinical instructor at the time. She asked if I was comfortable with the clinic and what I would be doing from a patient volume perspective. I didn't work in a mill; I worked in a really good clinic where we saw two patients an hour. They gave us time for evaluations, and we only double-booked on the last appointment before lunch or at the end of the day. It was very manageable and sustainable, but it still wore me out. I saw many flaws in the model. I realized I wasn't working with the demographic of clients that I really wanted to work with. I wasn't working with people like me, which is who I really wanted to help. This feeling was compounded by picking up PRN hours at the skilled nursing home. I was working so hard to make money at that point in my life, and it left me feeling unfulfilled.
One day, I walked into the clinic at 6:30 in the morning to get my notes done early, and I remember thinking, "Is this what I'm going to do for the rest of my life? Is this going to be every single day? Am I going to walk into a box and stay there until I retire?" It just didn't make sense to me. That night, I went home, formed an LLC, connected with the gym I was at, and started seeing cash clients at the gym. I thought, "If they're going to pay me $50 an hour at the nursing home, why not charge $60 an hour at the gym?" I was drastically undervaluing my services because I didn't understand that part as a business owner. I still had an employee mindset and an hourly mindset. Luckily, I received some good advice that convinced me to raise my rates to at least $90 an hour.
Then, I started to see similar problems in my cash business from a burnout perspective. I realized that I could work with clients one-on-one, but they didn't need to come into physical therapy for an hour when they were already doing five to six hours of training in the CrossFit facility. That's when I started working with a company where we did everything online. I thought, "Why don't I mix everything into the best of both worlds?" I started using what we now call the Performance Provider Growth Model, which is our blended model that combines the high-value and high-skill aspects that we can do in person with a prescriptive exercise program delivered asynchronously to clients. This allows them to not be with a physical therapist in person but to have access to them so they can return to the activities they love.
Morgan: I love that. I think it's awesome! I'm already on board!
Ray: Yeah, so that was the model creation. Then, you go through and you kind of do a couple of things here and there. I worked for other people for a while after that. I went and worked in Division One Athletics. Then ultimately, I had a vision of what I wanted to do. The company that I was working with at the time to build some of the online stuff really just started to split apart. It was the best thing; it was one of the hardest and one of the best things that ever happened to me because it created space for me to actually go all in on myself.
Morgan: Yeah, absolutely. I feel we'll kind of continue to get into this more. However, I think one of the highlights from your story so far is something that I feel a lot of, in particular, newer grads, but even therapists who have been working for five or 10 years are starting to realize. Like what you said, before we leave school, we have this degree, we think we're going to work in a clinic/hospital/Skilled Nursing Facility indefinitely, and it's going to be the best, and you're going to make all the money because you said that's what they say, or it's at least implied. You think that's what's going to happen, but in reality, there's a very real chance you're going to find out that there are a lot of things about that that you don't really. It's okay to look into other options, and that there are a lot of other options out there.
Ray: Unfortunately, I think that this is an important concept for people either in the workforce or entering the workforce. I didn't really understand how the business of physical therapy worked. I assumed it was similar to, let's say, the physician model.
But the reality is, for us, we have not really done anything as a profession to get compensated more for being more efficient. Everything is so tied to time and codes. Whereas, if you look at the physician model, it's like, "Oh, well, if they can do a surgery faster, they're getting paid more," which then means that they can do more surgeries and exponentially increase their revenue potential.
In PT, if you get a client better faster, that just means another client is getting on your schedule to fill your time because that's just the deal that we've made with the insurance companies - that we will trade you time for money. So, you just have to understand that.
Morgan: I think just learning a little bit about that opens your eyes a little bit more when you are looking for jobs. If you are, like you said, entering the workforce and looking at different corporate healthcare positions or what have you, traditional routes for a physical therapist, it's really important information to have.
Ray: Totally, and the volume at which you treat is likely going to be the thing that dictates your earning potential. So, for people out there who are saying, "Well, why can't I make more money as a physical therapist?" Well, because one of two things would have to happen: reimbursement rates would have to go up (that hasn't happened in who knows how long), or the volume of people that you see would have to go up.
Those are really the only two mechanisms of revenue generation within the clinic. Or you need to get creative and bring in a different revenue stream, but that's not really something that a lot of traditional clinics are looking to do.
So, I think that the more that we understand that, the more that we can either accept the situation that we're in or what we help physical therapists do is regain control of that and kind of take control of their own destiny. Because when you own your own business, now you've uncapped your earning potential and you have the opportunity to break through that ceiling.
I want to go back a little bit to the part where you were talking about yourself working as basically a cash-based clinic, doing one-to-one sessions, and then transitioning to a prescriptive exercise blended model
Ray: I was working in my clinic and also working with a company where everything we did was online. I saw the limitations and felt the constraints of what I was experiencing in person, as well as the missing aspects of the fully remote setup. It started to click for me that if I had a client with patellar tendinopathy, it was a pretty straightforward rehab process involving loading principles, return to sport, and reintegration of more dynamic, aggressive movements. I found that there wasn't much I needed to do in person; I didn't have to physically touch the person. At times, I felt like I was just spinning my wheels to fill the session with volume that didn't feel meaningful. In my head, I was thinking, "How can I get paid for my skill set, get my time back, and give the client their time back?"
In our profession, when a client comes to us in pain, the value of our services is high compared to the relatively low cost. However, as the client starts feeling better, the perceived value starts to decrease in relation to the cost. Once they are out of pain, they may question why they should continue paying $150-$200 per session when their pain is gone. The reality I saw was that a new problem arises: a mismatch between the loading potential of previously injured tissues and psychological readiness.
Clients may think they are ready to resume activities, but there is a gap between their tissues' actual state and their mindset. Instead of insisting on multiple weekly sessions to increase loading frequency, I started programming for clients to do on their own. This approach saved time and money for both parties. By converting my effective rate to $400 an hour and providing clients with a monthly plan, I could offer a more cost-effective solution while still delivering value. That's a pretty big win!
Morgan: Yeah for all parties!
Ray: So, that was kind of the evolution of how that really started to take off.
Morgan: I think that's really cool. Like I said, I'm already a fan, already on board!,
What kind of patients does this model work really well for? What kind of patients does it not work well for?
Ray: Good question! We generally work with a provider who operates within a buffer of the performance spectrum. We have a lot of clients who are in gyms or closely partner with gyms. They work with CrossFitters, powerlifters, Olympic weightlifters, runners, triathletes, Jiu-Jitsu athletes, and golfers. They work with people who are already on the behavior change end of the spectrum, who are already committed to being healthy. It's not your typical health insurance consumer. We find people who are heavily invested in their health, and we truly believe that there's a lot at stake for people when they lose their fitness. This is not only for those trying to gain it, but also for those who lose it.
You never know what fitness actually means to somebody. I've worked with people who were ex-alcoholics, ex-drug addicts, suicidal individuals, who turned their lives around from type two diabetes, or witnessed family members die of heart disease. When that's what's at stake for somebody, it becomes a more meaningful investment for them.
So, that's the ideal client for us. With our system, we talk about strength, balance, and some ways to squat vs. deadlift. This can regress all the way back to a 70-year-old client on a four-wheeled walker, or up to a CrossFit Games athlete if you understand the system well enough. As for the digital mechanism, we generally use it for the healthy, active individual who is looking to get back to those kinds of things.
Morgan: I think that makes sense to me. That definitely is where my mind is at about who this would work well for. The other thing that I'm thinking is, with it, it sounds the way that as a provider you're working with patients, it's a lot more hands-off than the traditional Physical Therapy model with the online programming and everything. So, I'm thinking, how do we make sure that our patients are compliant with the program in order to get the results? I feel there are probably both aspects on the end of the spectrum where you're already working with somebody and making sure that they keep up with the compliance and everything. But it also sounds like there's a lot in the sales and marketing of this kind of service and program where you are screening people out who are just not going to be a good fit for it anyway. And the people who do it are much more likely to be compliant as it is just because of who they are.
Ray: A common theme that I found in myself is I love flexibility. I absolutely hate being boxed into "this is the way that we do things." The model breeds flexibility, my business breeds flexibility, everything that I've created as I see this evolution of myself over time has allowed me to be very flexible with how I do things and how I get outcomes and results.
So it's not that this model is more hands-off, it's just that this model is only as hands-on as it needs to be. And so we are not an anti-manual therapy company, an anti-manual therapy model. I actually think it's an extremely powerful tool. Whatever you want to say about dependence, I think that a lot of times where clients see a lot of the value in what we do. Look, if I went into physical therapy and nobody put their hands on me, I'd be asking, "Why am I here?" That's my personal belief. I think that there has to be that hands-on component. I think it's very powerful. Now, I don't think that you can do only manual therapy and get results. I think the right blend of everything is there.
So understanding that concept really allows our providers and the clients that we work with to filter out two things. The biggest things that our qualifiers for going on what we call a prescriptive exercise program or that digital offer is where the client is at on the irritability/ how severe is the nature of their current state. If they have really high irritability, we're not going to put that person on a digital offer because we need to make decisions rep by rep, depth by depth. There's a more frequent decision-making process that comes into play. Now, as that irritability calms down, we can now go into session by session, week by week. We're not as worried about those flare-ups in the moment, that real-time feedback.
The second criteria is training IQ. So if I need to teach somebody the skill and I put them on a virtual office off and they don't know how to do the thing that I'm asking them to do, that would be a disqualifier. The thought process is that as the process goes along, as time goes along, irritability is going down, and training IQ is going up. So they become more and more appropriate for this process that we put them on.
Morgan: I love that. I have to just say Ray, something that I think is really unique about the way that you approach business coaching for physical therapists is it has a clinical element to it. I feel that's something that I really don't see all that often with all the options that are out there for coaching and consulting for PTs. I really admire that a lot. I think it's important.
I always share with people too as a physical therapy practice owner myself, I work with CrossFitters and I am in the pelvic health realm. So if you are a physical therapist and you want to work in those areas, it is a benefit to you to work with a coach who can discuss with you clinical situations.
Ray: Yeah, you've got to have a system, right? I think that it's funny. I'm sure you've seen this as well, but we go through this pendulum swing of everything matters and nothing matters. What we need to figure out is actually what matters right now. We've got to have a filtering system for that.
I love that you brought this up because one of the things that I do think makes us unique is the fact that part of our business model is actually the clinical and client management model that we teach. Because we have to teach you how to collect the data from the assessment, how to easily turn that data into a prescriptive exercise program, how to know when your client has enough capacity to return to sport, to progress to the next level, to get back on the field, to get back in the gym, to deadlift 300 pounds again. We have to teach you the system around that. I think what's kind of happened is I've seen this on Instagram, on the interwebs, is everybody saying you don't need a system, you need these principles. But nobody actually knows what that means, right? Nobody actually knows the decision-making criteria that goes into these things.
Yeah, you need principles, but you also need some decision-making criteria that back those things up. You need to know: do I need to progress this person, do I need to regress this person, do I need to give them more time to adapt? We can't just load it on everything and hope for the best. It just doesn't work.
Morgan: It's nice to have a system. It's nice to have a system for everything because then it's just going to make your life a lot easier and the results a lot better.
Ray: It takes a lot of the confusion and guesswork out. I feel now I'm noticing less and less confidence in providers that are coming out. I don't yet know what the cause of that is. I definitely think some of the things that we see online are the cause of that.
It almost makes you feel like you need something esoteric, like you have to achieve this thing to become the expert, you have to go get this residency, you have to go get this certification. The reality is you've got to get in the trenches, get your hands dirty, and do the thing.
Morgan: Yeah, we were just talking about it before we got on the interview today. Everything's going to be an experiment. In school, you learn all this stuff, and then in your job, you keep learning more stuff. You can pursue certifications, other courses, and more letters, and all the things. But at the end of the day, you're never going to feel like the expert until you try the thing and then you have experience to back up your knowledge.
Even if you're totally wrong, whatever your hypothesis was, you'll have experience to say, "Here's why I was 100% wrong, and we're going to do things differently." And that's important to remember.
Ray: Well, people don't understand how valuable that lesson is, right? So what we tend to see is this continuous over-preparation, this hyper-analysis, this pursuit of perfection before you launch. Not realizing that no matter how perfect your plan is, there are going to be audibles and adaptations that have to come along the way.
So instead of trying to make something perfect and then it doesn't work anyways, let's get it to 80%, let's put it out there, let's see what happens. Because every minute, every day, every week, every month that passes has an opportunity cost with it.
I've never met somebody who has opened their business and said, "I wish I would have waited another year." I wish I would have waited." I just, I've just never met anybody who said that. And something that I've started to kind of study within our clients, the clients that work with Engaged Movement is, what are the things that kind of make the people who get success the fastest? What are some of the attributes that those people have? And it really comes down to that experimentation and implementation. Are you willing to try before you're certain what the answer is going to be? That's a key criteria.
Morgan: Yeah, absolutely. I love that you guys are taking a look at those characteristics and criteria because that's been something that I've been trying to study as well in the past couple of years. I think that those are really important things to bring up whenever you're talking to somebody about potentially starting their own practice or their own business: "These are the key factors that I've seen in the most successful students" (or whatever it is). "How do you feel about those factors and the willingness to try", even though they're like, "I only know 50% of what I feel I need to know." Go try it and see what happens. Then being relentless about continuously trying.
Ray: I remember when I was going through some sales training, I was so scared and nervous to go into these role plays and really just look like an idiot because you freeze, right? That's what I was scared of. But I knew if I didn't do that, I would never improve my skills.
So the thing for me was, I am willing to implement the things that I've learned and I'm actually willing to lose the next three sales so that I can have a higher chance to help the next hundred people commit. Everybody talks about, that you have to delay gratification. That's delaying gratification. But the problem is when people try once and fail, they will default back to what they were doing, even though what they were doing wasn't working.
So you have to get over what we call those expected roadblocks. You have to get past those expected roadblocks if you're really going to make anything beneficial for yourself, for your business, or for your personal growth.
Morgan: Yeah, absolutely. The thing that I wanted to come back to that you had mentioned before, which I think kind of goes along with this, is the phrase:
Opportunity Cost
I would love to talk a little bit more about that and hear from you on that. I think it would be really important for our listeners to hear about if they're in a place where they're feeling afraid of starting, afraid of failing, and feeling stuck. I think it's very common for some of that fear to be like: "I'm afraid to invest money into this business, I'm afraid to invest time into this business, I'm afraid to try a thing and post a video, and then somebody thinks I look dumb." They get very stuck kind of in this one dimension around that fear. But I think it takes it to the next level to become aware of this concept of opportunity cost. Can you speak to that a little bit more?
Ray: I've got a good story on this, of the moment it clicked for me. At one point, I was working in Division One Athletics, another great clinic. I was paid hourly and I've gotten really lucky in my career that every job I've had has honestly been great. It's mostly me just needing more, needing to do more, right? I know that there are a lot of horror stories out there for people, but there was a day where my mindset changed. I was walking in, and I would work a 10-hour day, and I thought, "I'm going to be in here for 10 hours, I'm going to make $400."
Then I realized I would only need to see three clients at my clinic to make $450 bucks. At that time, I was charging $150 an hour, and then I thought, "If I do the math on that, I could be making x amount." I don't remember what the number was, and the thing that clicked for me was that in that moment, I shifted from my job being a revenue-generating strategy to my job actually costing me money.
So, to me, the opportunity cost was that every hour I was in there wasn't making me $40, it was costing me $90. And every 10 hours I was in there was costing me 6 and a half hours of my time if I wanted to make the same amount of money.
So, if you have a $200,000 earning potential per year, which I don't think is crazy for a solo entrepreneur to have, and you are settling for $65-75,000, the delta between where you are and where you want to be is your opportunity cost. Right?
Now, the thing that you need to close that gap isn't just being a good physical therapist. It's not enough, sorry to break it to you guys. And for most of you who are probably listening to this, you are probably listening because you already feel you are a better therapist than most people out there. You don't need to feel bad about that. You feel you go above and beyond, you deliver more value than other therapists, you feel you are underserving your potential when you're in the clinic. You don't need more skill; you need different skills to figure out how to sell that skill.
So, whenever somebody is waiting, everything's getting more expensive. If people don't enroll with us this year, our program will be more expensive next year. Opportunity cost. If you have an opportunity to go do something with a cool organization and you say no, opportunity cost. At some point, you've got to realize that maybe the thing that's costing you is actually what you're doing right now.
Morgan: Yeah, and I think that's a really powerful way to put it. I hope that everybody reading goes back and re-reads that part about opportunity cost because it's true. We get so wrapped up in just the fear about what could happen.
This is something that I always bring up to people - everybody's always afraid of investing the money and not getting a return on it. Even if you try a little bit, you're probably going to break even. At the very least, you're going to break even. What if I try and it doesn't work? What if it takes up a bunch of my time? What if my boss finds out that I'm working for myself? Just all these little things, and we're always worried about what is the worst thing that could happen.
Then I'm always thinking, well, what is the best thing that could happen, actually? And why are you delaying it? Don't you owe it to yourself to see what is the best possible version of me in my life that I could have? Because even if it falls somewhere in the middle between the worst and the best thing, it's still better than where you are now.
Ray: The thing that I want to ask people is, "That's interesting? What would you need to do for this to not work?" And they'll say, "Well, I guess I wouldn't show up to the calls, I wouldn't implement the things." Are you going to do that?" And they'll say, "Well, no, I'm going to put in the work." So then why wouldn't it work?
It's so funny when you work them through that reverse logic of, "Yeah, look, it's not going to work if you don't do the things, if you don't take the risks, if you don't take the chance." But we talk about this for our clients. One of the things that we literally say when we're onboarding somebody is, "You've got to come on with a 'do what it takes' mentality." That means that your business isn't going to fail, that means that you will figure it out, and you will have support in order to help you figure it out.
I think the real fear for people in investing is, in a lot of cases, they don't actually understand how to best be coached, right? Because they're so used to showing up to practices and being told what to do. But when you get into business mentorship, when you get into business consulting, when you're working with somebody at that capacity, the reason why I am so successful working with my coaches is not because they coach me, it is because I bring things to be coached on.
I always show up to a meeting with my coach and say, "Hey, this is what's happening, this is what I'm thinking about doing. Poke holes in it or let me know if you think I'm missing something." At the end of the day, they're just facilitating me doing the thing myself. That's really the power of coaching.
Something I've noticed in my business is there is a direct correlation to revenue trajectory when I am paying somebody to coach me versus when I am not. I think it has to do with the fact that when I have something on the books that I need to show up prepared for, it constantly keeps me moving in the right direction.
So I tell people all the time, "Look, I'm constantly putting my money where my mouth is because how could I ask you to invest in coaching when I'm not investing in my skill set?" And a lot of times, I think people are just scared of success in a subconscious way. I think they're scared of how they're going to be perceived, I think they're scared of asking for money, and I think that they're more comfortable altruistically sacrificing themselves than taking the chance.
Morgan: Yeah, dear reader out there, I think this is definitely something to internalize and maybe journal about tomorrow. Talk to yourself about it because it's a really interesting concept. You have to become a different version of yourself to have a different life. You have to do something differently if you want something different, and that's scary and unknown.
Ray: Imagine you were working with a patient and they were saying, "Well, I want to change, but I don't want to stop doing anything that I'm doing." Right? We have to get them to understand that the reason why they are in this situation is because of the decisions that they're making based on their current perspective.
So, the fit person didn't get fit by just thinking about being fit; they got fit by behaving like a fit person. They started eating better, going to the gym, upping their step count, lifting weights, stopped drinking soda, and stopped binge drinking on the weekends. They had to start acting like the future version of themselves.
So, a good exercise is to ask, how does the future version of myself behave when presented with an offer for support that includes a monetary exchange? Do they think about it or act on it? Do they go back to safety or jump into the unknown because they know that's where the upside is?
For example, your program is DPT to CEO. You have to behave very differently when you are the CEO of your business, when you're the CEO of your life. How does the CEO that you want to be actually behave? Now, go start being that person.
Morgan: Yeah, absolutely, and that's why I like this title so much.
Ray: It's a good one.
Morgan: Thank you. It reminds me of trying to think of this quote, but it's something about "be, do, have." You have to do things in the opposite way, and I hate that I can't remember it exactly. Essentially, going along with what you're saying, you're never going to become who you want to be until you start doing the things that person would do.
You have the ability, power, and control to start doing some of those things right now. Eventually, by taking those actions, you'll become who you want to be.
Ray: And you can start small. When your partner asks you what you want for dinner, instead of saying, "I don't know, what do you want?" say what you want. I know that doesn't seem like a lot, but what it does is it starts to make you a decisive person. So if you feel you are an indecisive person, start making decisions. If you feel you're somebody who always needs to think about things, maybe you're at a store and you see a shirt that you like, don't say, "I'll think about it, I'll come back later," buy it. How many times have you come back and now they're sold out of your size?
These are small little things that will trigger the same nervous system response as a big decision. I know for me, to this day, when I get hit with, "Okay, here's the invoice for coaching," from a first experience, just like everybody else, I get that little weird pit in my stomach, just like everybody else. Now, the difference is, I know the exercise for me is going through with paying that invoice, signing up for the thing, investing in the coaching because it's what I said I wanted, and by that time, I am committed to making the change. There are small ways that you can start nudging your discomfort, so you can grow and expand.
Morgan: Yeah, I know a lot of us therapists always talk about wanting to work with motivated clients or patients.
Ray: I just want them to sign up. I just want them to find me and sign up. I don't want to have to do any convincing. 😆
Morgan: I think it starts with you because you yourself have to have that kind of energy when conducting yourself in your own life. You need to be willing to take initiative, pay for things, and commit. When you give off that vibe - as you were saying - where you're somebody who's decisive, who puts in the work to do things and make changes, you will attract those kinds of clients.
Ray: Or they will borrow that authority from you, right? That's another thing too. Sometimes you have to help people be like "Look, you're not here because I need you to work with me; you're here because you need help. And we can be the vehicle for help only if you allow it and only if you're actually committed to making the change that's required once you say yes."
I know one thing that we talked about was this concept of objection handling, but if I don't have somebody that is actually committed to making a change, navigating their objections doesn't matter. So it's like time out: Are you committed to making this change? Yes. Then let's just figure out the rest. Because that means I can help you. It doesn't even matter talking about money if the answer to that is no.
Morgan: Yeah, I love that and I think that it's something that is really important to bring up whenever you are having a conversation with somebody about working together, whether it's in the realm of business coaching, as a physical therapist, or as a healthcare provider. I love asking that question.
Something that I'll say is, "Okay, so we're getting to the end of our conversation. It seems we might be a good fit to work together, but based on what we've talked about and based on the XYZ service that I provide, on a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being 100%, how good of a fit does this service feel for your problem and for what you're looking for?"
If it's a two, then okay, that's great. Let me help you find somebody else. Making sure that there is the right fit and there is that sense of urgency and commitment from the client is really important for a good experience for everybody involved.
When it comes to working with clients in an online capacity, one of the most common worries that I hear is, "What about state lines? What do I do with that with my license?"
Ray: So, a couple of things, right? First off, most of our clients are working with clients that they are building the virtual side of their business based on the in-person aspect of their business. One thing I do want to say is, I know that there are a lot of these "build your online business, it's so easy, here's the dream" - building an online business is hard. It takes time. There is a long runway to meaningful revenue.
It is massively condensed when you can develop that from a local epicenter. So, we are just straight up with people. If we work with somebody who is fully online, there are pretty strict criteria that they have to have for us to even want to help them or make it worth their time and investment because it can be frustrating on both ends. So, I want to put that out there.
Secondly, and this is not legal advice, but the biggest thing that matters is your words. How are you positioning your offer? How are you coming in and working as that person? I used to work with people all over the world, all over the US. I was not their physical therapist; I was A physical therapist who provided a performance and wellness service to them, that was coaching.
We are not the only profession that does that. I've got a buddy who is an attorney; he is my attorney. He says, "Yeah, we used to do this. We used to go to Florida, and we used to coach people on real estate on what we would do. We were not legally counseling them as their attorney; we were coaching them on the process."
So, I actually have a training or a conversation that I did for this with a lawyer. I'd be happy to send this to your followers. They can DM me, and I can always send it to them. But we talk about this exact concept, and so really, it's all about how you are positioning the service. I like to say, "Look, as a physical therapist, the main goal is to get you out of pain. As a performance and wellness side, the goal is to manipulate exercise in a smart, methodical way where the byproduct, in a lot of cases, happens to be you no longer having pain." That's a big differentiating factor, right? So be very careful with your language and the way that you position the offer, and I really like that byproduct approach.
Morgan: Yeah, I think that makes a lot of sense. Something that I always suggest to everybody is to have a written policy if you are providing multiple different services, whether they're in an online format or not. A written policy should outline what constitutes Physical Therapy, what it is, what it is not, and the same for any wellness or performance services. You need to have specific criteria as a client to be on the PT side or the performance side, so that you have something to refer to instead of making decisions on the fly with anyone you talk to.
Ray: Yeah, and our clients do get access to a sample suite of documents that I've used in the past as well.
There are either people who are thinking about starting a practice or they're already in it. What do you feel are your favorite parts about working for yourself and your least favorite parts?
Ray: My favorite part is being in control of the headaches that I create for myself. I think that a lot of people believe owning your business is really stressful. I don't really get a lot of stress from owning my business. I think it's because I am in control, so that is super beneficial for me. I've worked for companies where I made a lot of money and I had 10 to 20 times more stress, and I was miserable.
So for me, it's really having that control back and not having other people create headaches for me. That's something that I really enjoy.
The part that took me the longest to figure out... I think that this is something that a lot of people struggle with. Nobody's going to give you a checklist of what needs to be done because on any given day, where you are in the process, you have to be a little bit more flexible. You have to be a little bit more adaptable. It's not when you walk into the clinic, turn on the lights, start up the computers, go check the hydrocollator, make sure everything is good, and then your patients just start coming in, and you go through your day. You have to create that structure for yourself. You have to create boundaries for yourself.
I am not a hustle and grind 60-hour work weeks, sacrifice my weekends, sacrifice my evenings. That's not my style. That's not how we want our clients to be either. I am very much comfortable with just a longer runway and maintaining that peace for myself. So I think really establishing those boundaries is something that is initially hard, but will be the most beneficial thing that you can do within your business.
The only other thing that really drains me is just building out our systems and doing my budgeting stuff. I just have to do some of those things.
Morgan: Yeah, and for all the pros that are associated with this whole thing, it's definitely worthwhile to have to deal with those.
Ray: 1,000% I'll take that any day of the week.
Morgan: I love that you brought up the structure piece too because that's something that I've been trying to make a little bit more content about. It's a huge transition to go from working full-time for somebody else where the structure is made for you, to having to do it on your own and also maintain the structure yourself. It always just feels to me almost like I'm training a muscle to get stronger. Just committing to yourself is trainable.
Ray: And like when just in the gym, if you fall off one day, it doesn't mean that you are done. It's just next week, get back to your routine and let that routine become consistent with you. Just be okay being a little bit more flexible, a little bit more adaptable.
Morgan: Yeah, everything will be fine. It will all be fine.
Ray: It will be.
How to Contact Ray:
Website: www.engagemovement.com
In the programs page you can find out about what Ray calls the Performance Provider Growth Model. This is really their system and model of client management that allows you to blend your in-person and virtual services, ultimately helping you make more money in less time.
Instagram: @raygormandpt
Listen to this episode on my podcast!
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