Messaging, Wellness & PT’s Trillion-Dollar Opportunity

0:03 All right, before we get started, a quick shout out to PT Breakfast Club. That's a weird meeting of the minds. Me, Tony Maritato, and Dave Kittle, live on YouTube every Tuesday and Thursday, eight thirty a.m. Eastern. Real talk, zero jargon, probably a little bit of jargon. And the conversations PTs actually want to have. Come hang with us live again Tuesday, Thursdays, eight thirty Eastern on YouTube. You can just follow at PT podcast. on the YouTubes. We've got a pretty cool, weird, I call it a ricochet. It doesn't make sense until it makes sense. The best fake physical therapist on LinkedIn. That's what we're calling him today. It'll make sense, I'm telling you. Never treated a day in his life, but somehow keeps getting mistaken for a PT all the time.

0:46 Currently obsessed with connecting wellness and longevity to the profession of physical therapy. Please welcome back to the show, Hunter McWhorter. Hunter, welcome back to the program, my man. Thanks. Thanks for having me. Excited to be back. What does it mean? I intro'd you. Best fake PT on the internet. You're mistaken for a PT. Why? How did that start? Where does this come from? Yeah, I always want to be a physical therapist and just decided to stay in the field without getting the DPT after my name. First of all, maybe not a horrible financial decision, but keep going. You found a niche. You found a narrow angle. Keep going. Yes. Yeah. And now seeing where it is, I'm like, hey, this might actually not be the worst, like you're saying, from a financial standpoint.

1:26 And so. been in it for so long now and i guess my content resonates every once in a while with people when i post on linkedin and recruiters just see oh you worked at pd solutions oh you've done stuff with physical and web pt like surely you have to be a pt and then i get fun traveling pt roles offers all the time i get all sorts of opportunities and it's always fun when they're like wait work what and i've even asked ai i'm like does it say anywhere on my linkedin that i'm a physical therapist even ai is tricked by it so that's how i'm like i probably need to really focus on some stronger rebranding so we're just embracing it now All right, so you're PT adjacent. You're sort of entrenched, but you come at it with a different angle.

2:06 So let's make this more of rapid fire questions. Answer one word, one sentence, one paragraph, one soliloquy, whatever you want to do. You've said this before. I want you to explain why. You think PTs are uniquely positioned for a trillion dollar wave. Help me understand this. I wouldn't mind getting a couple of drops of water from a trillion dollar wave. What's this mean? Yeah. So I feel like I didn't realize this until recently that most patients see their PTs more often than their actual primary care doctors. So they're seeing them all the time. And There's also an increase in education around the patient of, hey, I want to live longer.

2:49 Hey, I want to be healthier. You're seeing this health trend with wearables, with data, and it's slowly becoming a trillion dollar industry of longevity and wellness. And because of the frequency of which PTs see these people and because of the relationships they build, I feel like it's a really easy way for PTs to start seeing and be like, hold on. You're sleeping terribly. Have you thought about trying a supplement that might help you with sleep? Like little things like that. You're not shoving anything down anyone's throats. You're simply saying like, I hear what you're saying as a person. And so here's some solutions for you that might help. Or, hey, you're really struggling with weight loss. Like maybe there's something else out there, a medication or something like that could help.

3:31 And it's just helping leverage that relationship in the time you're investing in people. Why are PTs so anti-this? It's almost a visceral reaction. It feels like this is in our operating system or something like that. It's difficult to remove, but some embrace it, but most don't. Where does it come from? I think a lot of it just comes from the education system. They worked so hard to become doctors. There was such a push to transition from the master's program to a doctor's program that they're like, we have clear swim lanes. We have to stay in because we worked really hard to get here. And I don't want to jeopardize my future, my business. Totally fair. But at the same time, it's, hey, do no harm. We want to help make people do better.

4:11 If there's alternatives to it, what do you lose from just... suggesting it when they could go to rufus on amazon and it'll tell them hey you have this here's this suggestion here's that suggestion it's like people are trusting ai and the internet now why not try and help steer them in a healthier better direction yeah You got a hot take, and I like hot takes. I'm going to quote you, and then you got to back it up. You said the farmer's dog has better messaging than physical therapy. Break that down. What is the farmer's dog? Is that like one of those box subscriptions that comes in the mail? Yes. Their commercials are just heart-wrenching. They're almost up there with the please adopt this animal commercials. Oh, yeah.

4:52 In the arms of an angel. Yes. Yes. Exactly. The Sarah McLachlan special. But farmer's dog, they do a great job. And it's like no human should ever have to eat processed foods for every single meal. And you resonate. You're like, yeah, that's true. Why should we be eating heavily processed foods? And then it hits you with your pet shouldn't either. Here's a farmer's dog, like natural organic food. It helps with their wellness, all of this. Like it improves their quality of life. And it makes it so short and resonates with you. Like, yeah, no one should be. doing this like why would anyone eat heavily processed food for every meal um it connects with PT you hear some people say it's only good after surgery it's only good if you're young like there's just so much mixed messaging that I feel like it could be super consolidated especially when you see the ad campaign CrossFit put together for CrossFit where it's like wow that's so clear Take out CrossFit, put in PT, and boom, there's your clarity of messaging.

5:49 And I just think more brands adopt it, yet PT is still the one that's like, we can do all these things and all these different flavors, but it just confuses the consumer. I had a professor in communication school advertising. He said, you're going to build a fake campaign. uh we were actually doing real fake campaigns for real organizations in the community so i thought that was brilliant because it felt like there were stakes um and he said you're one of the part of it is going to be a billboard a bumper sticker a t-shirt he said on the billboard you're allowed seven words on the t-shirt you're allowed like four on the on the on the bumper sticker you're allowed five like he put a limit he goes you can have more but everyone more than that you owe me a hundred dollars And two words in, it doubles.

6:33 You owe me two hundred dollars for the second word. You got real clear real quick because you realized there were guardrails. Yeah. I feel like if you ask a PT a question to give a presentation, the first thing they do is this. They're going to inhale because you're about to get seven paragraphs. Yeah. But that's not the right way to do it. No, and I think it's so cool what you're doing with APTA, different states, where I think recently you made a post about just like, hey, why isn't this clearly stated on the website? And that's what kind of dawned on me of like, okay, hold on. There's all these brands watching football, watching Time with Family, and you're seeing how concise some of the messaging is on these commercials. It's like, why not? And then seeing that post really got me thinking like, what is going on?

7:15 Why do we resist that? Why do we want to use two hundred when when when two words will do? I mean, I'm just going to keep kicking the dead horse, but I think it was a push for doctors, physical therapy. You've worked your tail off. You've got your bills. You got to pay like you're proud of yourself and what you do. And you want to make sure you do it to sort of fight against maybe that imposter syndrome of people. You're not a real doctor. It's like, no, I am. And this is all the reasons why. Like, yeah. To me, it's a justification of the degree. It's like, I can't wait to tell you. And I think it comes from a good place. I know it comes from a good place because I know enough PTs who are guilty of doing it. They know they even do it. They can't help it because they got so much inside.

7:56 They can't wait for it to pour out. My response would be, I want you to practice this. There's a great vocal coach who teaches people how to speak on stage. and he his exercise is this it's three so he says i want you to speak for five minutes don't care about the topic hit record don't think about it speak about it for five minutes hit end do nothing twenty four hours later bring the video up push play but uh i only want you to listen to it just focus on the audio yeah When you're done, maybe jot some mental notes down. Go away. Twenty four hours after that, I want you to come back. Push play. I want you to mute it.

8:36 I only want you to watch the visuals. Same thing when you're done. Mental notes. Third day. I only want you to read the transcript. And you'll start to the exercise I was taught in communication school, which mimics this. is you are performing sculpting. You're chopping away everything that doesn't need to be there. You're like, oh gosh, why don't I say those eleven words when two will do? This only comes about with work, and if you do it, you get better at it. How'd you get so good at speaking without filler words, Jimmy? I spoke with lots of filler words and then was forced by bosses in radio to listen to myself speak, and I got less crappy and less crappy and less crappy until I was pretty okay.

9:23 We don't that it's no, it's never part of the job, but it's part of the job it is, but this is hard and it's not on the syllabus. Right. So that's not easy to train. No. And who likes to hear their voice? Not a lot of people. I was in radio for fifteen years. Still never got used to it. Yeah. Yeah. Like I cringe coming on somebody's podcast. I have to listen to it again. And to your point, like, why did I say that? What's going on? But it forces you, like you're saying, to get uncomfortable and to grow and really try. So I think that's a great idea that I might start adopting. Thanks. All right. Finish this sentence for me. PT could change overnight if we just blank.

10:05 what would that be pt could change overnight hunter if we just blank i'm sure there's a bunch of things that could fit in this but what's one dang i think just collaborate more like put aside the egos i think you would change overnight if instead of viewing the therapist down the street from you as like your arch enemy be like hey might be patients that i can't treat that they can't treat like they like treating it i don't i'm out of network with some they're in network with some like just finding small ways to recognize that everyone's in this together and the collaboration is what really needs to elevate because i feel like in other healthcare silos there's a lot more collaboration and a lot less animosity of like oh they're trying to steal from me it's hey what are you doing well what's what's working out let's figure out a way to collaborate and work together because I don't know if you're seeing this.

11:00 So many people want to get into PT right now in terms of companies. Oh, sure. Yeah, yeah. There's so much technology available to practices that are probably very cheap because they're saying, hey, we just want reps. Just give us some feedback. That, I think, can really help where it's, hey, they have an Alt-G down the road. Maybe we can partner with them and help offset the cost of that for them or just send some of our patients there for certain things. I just feel like there's a huge opportunity to collaborate, and that's where it just doesn't seem to – Be encouraged or recognized. It feels like there's probably more opportunities to collaborate than there are to compete. Exactly. Myself included, we're probably built or our default is defensive, when it should be not offensive either, collaborative.

11:43 Exactly. Yeah. Quick thanks to one of our sponsors keeping us on the air, Brooks Rehabilitation Institute of Higher Learning. That's Brooks IHL. They're simply a place PTs go when they want to get really good. Whether you're thinking about orthopedics, geriatrics, or pediatrics, residencies and fellowships at Brooks IHL help you become the clinician people rely on. More information right now, if that's you, if you're on the edge of a diving board thinking about a residency or fellowship, Brooks IHL. dot o r g what what got you interested hunter in the wellness and longevity space in the first place again you said at the top of the show you're not a physical therapist but what about the wellness longevity health care made you start paying more attention Yeah, understanding firsthand the brokenness of the system.

12:31 So I was supposed to have my senior year of high school, a pretty simple back surgery that was gonna be a quick recovery, no PT necessary, here you go. Took seven years and seven surgeries later before it finally got figured out what's going on and realizing, hold on, the system isn't working the way it's supposed to be and then understood a lot about blood panel testing and realizing your body tells you a lot of what you need if you just listen to it like it'll help you be preventative in that sense and went down the rabbit hole listening to various podcasts reading different books and then all of a sudden um i have a whoop and so i started looking at the data differently and started seeing okay wait if i sleep more and don't need a meal later my sleep improves which then all these other metrics start improving like what if I actually start trying to understand how all this comes together and got the blood panel test, got on some supplements and started realizing like, huh, you mean gaining weight does take work because it's just ignoring it.

13:30 Things like that, that just, I didn't realize how simple it was to sort of take ownership of your health and start finding hacks from alternative perspectives that don't necessarily say, Hey, here's a surgery, here's a prescription, here's whatever it is. And we're going to keep you in the sick cycle because that's how we're making money off of you. Yeah. I love that. Um, why does physical therapy as a profession need more non physical therapists like Hunter? who care about the profession? Why do we need that? Why is that a need and not a nice to have? Yeah, I think because there's a bit of an echo chamber where everyone has the same ideas and everyone went to school, they all went to the same exact general course load and all training.

14:16 And so when you have people come in that don't have that perspective, they can offer new ideas and they can say, hey, well, what if we try this way? Or what if we do it that way? Let's try innovating this. And two, PTs only know what they know. And so oftentimes when I was selling into some of these practices, they didn't know billing. And so had they had somebody that understood billing that they're willing to bring in and do things, it could have been a whole different world for them. And they couldn't have been seeing six figure profit instead of six figure losses, things like that, where I think it just helps elevate the profession. Um, let me ask you this.

14:57 What can physical therapy as a profession learn from brands that communicate directly and simply with consumers? You mentioned CrossFit, you mentioned farmer's dog, but what are those things that they can learn from brands? You've done things like, I'm about to say a dirty word, bad word. It's selling. You've sold things. Which I think is, I love, I quote from my favorite Peloton instructor, I make suggestions, you make decisions, right? That's the simple way. Detaching yourself from the outcome is a great way to sell. I'm going to make a suggestion, you make a decision, and whatever decision, that's yours. But what can physical therapists, owners, clinicians, what can they learn from brands who communicate directly to consumers?

15:37 that it's a means for growth, that clearly it works because they're spending money into it. And if it wasn't working, they'd be saying, bye-bye, see you later. But I think healthcare as a whole is so used to potentially operating at a loss with insurance and all the other things that they have forgotten like, okay, hold on. Consumers are out there. They want to get healthier. They want to stop living in pain. They want to do all of these things. Pharmaceuticals run the ads and it gets them to go to their doctor to say, hey, what about this thing I saw a commercial on? Or pet food companies see it? There's so much there that I think if you just start viewing it from a lens of consumers are intelligent, they care about themselves now and you're seeing an increase in general health awareness.

16:24 Why not help motivate people and meet them where they are? This is a great time. Like, there's so much attention. Like, you know, I was walking with one of my friend's kids the other day and someone was smoking. And I remember the reaction from the kids. It was so weird to see someone in the wild smoking. But twenty years ago, that was not weird. And ten years ago, it wasn't weird. And now it's like, look what that person's doing. And the kid reiterated to me why it was bad for you. And I was like, we're in a moment right now where there's a big spotlight on health, wellness, taking care of yourself, what's good or bad for you. Just being aware. There's no right or wrong way or there's no one way to do a lot of these things, but people are hyper-conscious. Your radar is on where if you start giving them good signals over time, they're going to start nodding along with you and maybe they...

17:14 I make suggestions. You make decisions. Maybe they make a decision to now do the thing that you've been preaching for twenty years. But now they're ready to hear that song. And that's got to feel it's a pretty it's a moment right now. We should take advantage of that. Totally agree. And have you seen the research around the decrease in alcohol sales amongst? Yes. Yes. Like it's this whole thing of like there's an awakening, for lack of a better word, happening. And the PT is so primed for it. And it's crazy because I go to crunch. And they have PTs everywhere. They have treatment tables, they have hypervolts, they have norma techs to anyone that doesn't know anything. They're like, hey, this is a physical therapist.

17:54 Fine print says, no, that's a personal trainer that is cosplay as a. But there's there's a business model there because Crunch pays for those people to be there. They have people that show up that patient patients, the clients that they have built relationships with and so i think it's just showing there's a larger shift happening and gyms are taking advantage of it right next to major physical therapy practices it's like how how is this happening here like what's going on so i definitely think there's a unique opportunity it's happening in plain sight their cards are being shown and a lot of our professors looking at it and going but but but they're trying to say no when a lot of people in my opinion it sounds like yours should be saying yes and how do we collaborate going back to that collaboration piece you mentioned before yeah i want to say thanks to one of our sponsors because that's something you can do you can collaborate with sponsors uh the episode brought to you today by empower emr built specifically for physical therapy practices it's the only emr designed by pts to think like a pt see what makes them different at empoweremr.com all right uh hunter we're gonna do a quick three questions in a row the last one will be your parting shot but rapid fire questions number one why should physical therapists care about this conversation that we just had about things like communication collaboration uh branding you know saying it clearly why why should they care about this entire conversation this conversation is not on the syllabus at pt school but why should

19:25 they care Yeah, because come January, they're going to have to when deductibles reset, when all of a sudden it's a lot harder to find patients and it's a lot harder to hit your numbers and you're going to be overwhelmed with Medicare, which some people love, some people loathe. But now's the time to start thinking about it and giving yourself a four week headstart maybe to start saying, hey, let's just throw stuff at the wall and see what sticks because we have openings on our schedule. We don't really have a clear path to fill it. What's the worst thing that can happen? No messaging, no margin, no margin, no mission. So now you see attention goes to your mission. It's not just about the bottom line. The bottom line feeds your mission. No message, right?

20:06 No margin, no margin, no mission. Question two, what's something you believe that maybe the profession doesn't believe yet? What's something that Hunter knows to be true, believes to be true, that the profession isn't there yet on that you wish they were? Yeah. Supplements will not suddenly make you not a legit DPT. It's okay to recommend different supplements to people. It's okay to look into things like hormone replacement therapy, like things like that, that might actually benefit your patients. It's not going to suddenly put you on a watch list where the APTA will show up in your house and be like, you Googled this and we don't, this isn't on brand for us. Like give us your license. Like, no, just, Try and learn.

20:47 And worst case, you might start seeing some patients actually really respect you for that. And you gain tertiary business from that. Yep. Last thing we do on the episode is called the parting shot. That's just your mic drop moment, your soapbox statement. What's the last thing you want to leave with the audience as we wrap up today? What's your mantra? What's the thing? Yeah, I think the thing is you... As a practice owner, you control your own destiny. You don't have to continue to be beholden to the way things have always been done. You can find the companies, find the resources, find the partners out there to help make twenty twenty six be a super successful year and not just have to feel like there's a gun to your head and you have to do the same thing over and over again.

21:39 Yep. At PT Pinecast and the website, ptpinecast.com. Subscribe, share the episode with a colleague if you think it'll benefit. And don't forget to come hang out with us on PT Breakfast Club. We do want to do a PSA share for something that's close to my heart. That's Team Gleason. They're helping people live with ALS, stay independent with tech gear and real support from therapists, from technology, from industry. ALS takes a lot. Team Gleason gives something back. Support them at teamgleason.org. Hunter, if someone wanted to connect with you, where do you want them to go? What's the best route or routes to reach out to you? Yeah. LinkedIn. I'm super active on LinkedIn.

22:19 I'm probably sickening to some people, but I'm there. So you can slide into the DMs. You can comment, do whatever you want there. And then my email, phone number, all that's listed there as well. the greatest fake physical therapist on the interwebs on LinkedIn, Hunter McWhorter. We'd love to have you back on the show next month. Well, maybe we'll do like a quick marketing update and see how twenty twenty six is going to play out for us. Hunter, thanks for the time, man. Yeah, thank you.