Stop Waiting for Perfect

0:02 Broadcasting way too early from three separate Wi-Fi connections. It's PT Breakfast Club with Tony Meritato, Dave Kittle, and Jimmy McKay. Good PT Breakfast Club morning to you. I feel like we need our own cereal. We'll design that pretty soon. Tony Maritato, I'm Jimmy McKay. And I didn't forget that. That's how Airbnb started, didn't it? Or like they had a cereal element to the beginning of Airbnb. Like their own cereal? I want to say they created Obama O's. That was them? Dave, do you remember this story?

0:45 Not only did they create Obama O's, they also created Captain McCain's. No. Those are the two candidates in two thousand eight. Yeah, that's actually how they made their first like thirty K in revenue. Selling boxes of cereal did not see. I love stories like I geek on stories like that. And more so, when they were selling the first rooms for Airbnb, it was around that two thousand eight presidential race. And Obama went to some city wherever they were living and all the hotels were booked up. And so they were like, oh, we're going to we're going to just somehow advertise online like we have couches and floors and beds to sleep on.

1:32 And that's that's how they started. Yeah. Look, so what would happen if two physical therapists were like, you know what? We should create a cereal and start selling that cereal. Like, what do you think that conversation would sound like compared to these guys who created a cereal and generated thirty thousand dollars? it would be like, we can't do that. It's copyright, there's laws, there's all these restrictions and we have to get a LLC and an attorney. And I can even tell you how many things that I've done where I'm just like, yeah, good idea. Let's do it. Turn it into cash. I got yelled. I told this story yesterday to somebody off air and I was saying how when I first took over the radio station, I pretty much just copy what I copied what my boss did for the first sixty days.

2:18 My previous boss did like to get my feet wet. Right. I'd seen him do it for three years, but now I'm in charge. And then once you sort of spread your wings, I sort of did something like that where I didn't ask for permission. I asked for forgiveness afterwards and I got called in the office and, you know, a bunch of us yelled about it or whatever. In the end, we left as friends. My boss made me stay afterwards and was like, Jimmy, close the door. And I'm like, oh, this isn't good. And he goes, listen, you run my rock radio station. If you're not having a meeting like this once a month, I have questions like, why aren't you doing crazy stuff? It's it's. The boss can't tell me to go break the rules, but he was sort of telling me, like, I need you to be on the edge, because if you're not the edge, When the middle falls out, we're gonna look to you.

3:01 And I think we don't do that, right? I mean, I shared a video yesterday that performed pretty well, because I think it resonated, which is, I don't think insurance is bad. But if it's your only model, Are you shocked when you're like, oh, this sucks? I'm like, no. Got Dave over here who goes, I'm going to abandon that, right? I will eat what I kill, which is fine. I don't think it's all or nothing. It doesn't have to be, right? Whatever is right for you is right for you. I don't think insurance is bad. I also don't think it's good. If that were the only thing I were hanging my hat on, I would be nervous, right? Unless you understood the physics of the game. So I think most of the time people default to – Well, no one else is doing it. There's probably a good reason for it.

3:43 And people who invent serials go, nah, screw that. I'm going to give it a shot. Yeah. That's where the opportunity lies. Dave, I want to hear about some stuff that Dave is doing. But real quick, on the way in this morning, I was playing with ChatGVE. So I pitched you guys, hey, APTA needs to abandon the eighteen-year-olds. focus on the fifty-year-olds let's get a bunch of professionals into the profession um they've already been successful they've already been made their money so this morning coming in i'm like all right let's find something in between So I'm like, what would happen if a young person who would normally go into college takes ten years?

4:27 Anybody who's smart enough to get through PT school is more than smart enough to establish, get a job, make sixty thousand a year. Very conservative. So so I'm putting all these variables in. I'm like, all right, take a person goes from high school straight into employment. They're earning sixty thousand a year is like a general idea. Another person goes straight into college. They go through undergrad, go through graduate, they estimate the amount they're paying in tuition, estimate opportunity costs, all that kind of stuff. And the numbers were ridiculous. If somebody took ten years, got a job, earned income, put twenty percent into savings, invested that money during the eighteen to twenty eight timeframe versus the person who goes through PT school.

5:17 Even though that person comes out earning more, the time value of that money is significantly less. They have less time to compound, less time to invest. the the younger person getting the job is significantly better financially over a twenty or thirty year period but nobody does it nobody would even consider they're so freaked out and i know you guys are thinking the same thing you hear that voice in your head saying if i don't do it now i'm never gonna do it that's freaking ridiculous that is the most absurd excuse to go straight into college that i've ever heard yet it echoes in our head constantly Yep.

5:58 I think now people would be more likely to do it, especially this next generation. And I did have a funny interaction on LinkedIn that I might bring up, which is all I have to say is the title of the interaction was These Kids Today. I think these kids today accept less crap because they have an opportunity to see other people accepting less crap, right? People's attention spans are shorter. Are they? Or do they have more options? I was talking to someone yesterday about how to create a job ad I'm like, do you really think they're scrolling text? Meet people where they are and you're on Indeed. No, you want to find the really good employee? They might not be looking. But if they found something, they're not stupid.

6:40 They'll go, hang on a second. I wasn't looking. Do you want the people who are begging and looking? That person might already be roasted on this profession or completely burnt out. Or do you want the winner? Winners aren't on Indeed. Where are they? They're on Instagram reels, scrolling, hanging out. If you can be there, you've got a chance. And I explained to this person who was like looking at me like I had two heads. I was like, this is the second screen. And I'm watching two different people and I'm estimating their ages. One person was in their thirties. One person I'm estimating in their fifties. The person in their fifties was like, people don't watch TV and scroll the internet. And the person in their thirties was like, Yeah, we do. We're holding a second screen the entire time, right?

7:23 Certain demographics. So if the attention span isn't the issue, The risk aversion isn't the issue. The kids these days isn't the issue. They know they have better different choices, different options than just go to college. And they see examples of people doing it every single day. That's why they're more apt, in my opinion, to skip the route. And who's feeling it now? If you're on LinkedIn and you hang out with any academics, you're seeing applications are varied. They're all over the place. God, Syracuse had to lay off a bunch of people. I mean, Syracuse acts like an Ivy League school. They're not an Ivy League school technically, but they like to pretend they are. They had to shut down a bunch of programs, and they're confused at why this is happening.

8:08 One university dropped five thousand employees, non-faculty. Non-faculty. They got rid of the support staff. Why? Because they weren't putting butts in seats. But it's really funny that they got rid of the support staff. Very odd to me. So I know I went on a little tangent there. But we did promise, Tony, we wanted to hear what Dave was talking about. What do you got going on? There's a couple things that you shared in the group chat. couple of things. I think another thing I didn't mention yet is I did one of these like, non BNI, but BNI meetings yesterday. So that's a little hook. And maybe we'll mention next time if we have time today. BNI is what is it Tony, like business networking, something that's like, it's like a national branded or franchise, like business networking, the whole point of it, you meet weekly or monthly or whatever, and you share referrals.

9:01 And I've been jaded with that, because I just I tried other ones in the past. And it was just like, It's just like attorneys and accountants referring customers to each other, but not like our ideal client. But there's some promise with what I did yesterday. But first, let's talk about marketing. We just hired a new agency. So the new marketer got him access to our Facebook ads manager, Facebook and Instagram. So meta ads manager, meta business sweep. And it's our CRM, our high level. And here's what prompted this. I saw online. So there's this physical therapist named Zachy. He's a practice owner in Las Vegas.

9:43 He's going to be on the podcast in a couple of weeks. He is super sharp. He's connected with Jordan Mather and Ben Boggy with Clinical Marketer. Those guys are all my friends and colleagues. So I watch their podcasts on Spotify. There's the video Spotify now. But anyway, so Zachy's super sharp. I can't wait for you to interview him. He's got maybe two or three clinics in Las Vegas. They're doing over seven figures. They're doing over a million in revenue. He's super sharp. And I watched one of his videos with this guy, Jeff Miller. Tony, do you know this guy Jeff Miller is marketing? I don't think so. So this guy, Jeff Miller is like a marketer, you know, maybe similar to like a lesser known Al Tramosi or I don't know, whatever.

10:31 So Zachy must have paid this guy however much to do like consulting on how to like run meta ads. And it's like a forty or forty one minute video on YouTube. It's completely for free. I told my wife, I think I've watched this video like ten to fifteen times a forty minute video the same video same video like i don't know i don't know how you i don't know how you guys learn but like if it's audiobooks or if it's a podcast i'll watch something and i'll i'll watch it like a second time and then i'm picking up different things and it's like it's like almost like my brain didn't allow me to like really it's normal here or comprehend right so i like i listen to it again let's do it again it's really fascinating because this guy jeff miller shows a screenshot on the Zoom call.

11:16 It's basically like a consulting call that Zachy put publicly. I'm assuming this guy, Jeff Miller, was okay with it. But it's basically like a paid consulting call that's public. So I basically get this free consulting help just through a free YouTube video. And it shows the awareness levels of marketing. So it goes from unaware to problem aware to solution aware and then service or product aware and then most aware. So unaware would be like a busy professional rolls out of bed in the morning and they have like back pain and stiffness, but like, they just, they're like, oh, it's because I'm stressed and I'm older and whatever.

11:58 Like they don't even, they don't even like acknowledge that they have like an issue that's abnormal. They just think that's normal for them. They think that's normal for their, you know, forty, fifty year olds. Like they just think it's normal. And then, so problem aware would be like, okay, I actually do have back pain. It's more than stiffness now. And they kind of, you're confronting that over time, like over, it could be weeks, months, years, whatever. And I'm pretty sure, don't quote me, but I'm pretty sure then the next level would be like, solution aware. So it's like, okay, I have back pain and I could get a massage, acupuncture, chiropractic, PT, pain pills, maybe injections if I needed it. So I know that there are solutions and treatments out there, but I know that there's a ton of them and that's it.

12:46 There's so many options and people use that as why they don't take action and all that type of stuff. So then once the person knows that they have a problem, they acknowledge that they have a problem or they label it or diagnose it or they confront it, then they might start looking for solutions. So then the next step would be, product aware, or in this case would be service aware. So it's like, if you live in Ohio, you know, Tony Meritato, you look up total therapy solutions. If you're in New York city, you're like, okay, there's JAG physical therapy, there's professional, there's concierge pain relief, there's Tribeca PT. I mean, there's like a million different options just in PT, not even including acupuncture and everything else.

13:26 So I watched this video and then obviously most aware would be like the person that like wants to work with you and your practice, no matter what. So working, seeing this video and I'm like, I gotta find an agency. They're gonna have their own approach and then I'm gonna also bring in my approach. And so this approach is from this YouTube video and this agency, they're gonna probably do their own approach. But long story short, the whole point is, to do meta ads on Facebook and Instagram that are not just offers, not like, hey, ninety seven dollar initial evaluation at for your back pain or sciatica at our clinic or a home visit. Well, that's what I used to do. I used other agencies where every single ad was either running to a webinar with an offer or it was a direct offer.

14:08 This guy, Jeff Miller, says you run you run Facebook and Instagram ads with different verbiage from like the five different levels. so talking about the back pain like and i'm doing some videos like this now um that i'm posted that i'm posting on instagram and tick tock and facebook and all that where i'm just talking into the phone i'm using chat gpt to like make a script i got a teleprompter app uh trying to make it look natural but it's like top of funnel and then even more and more more serious so like i'm just doing these videos on unaware so like what are the hooks about back pain and stiffness what are the what's the type of content and verbiage to speak on and then the call to action is like dm us the word back and we can discuss like the next potential best step for you so the call to action is like almost like inquire or learn more it's not we have this three hundred fifty dollar evaluation or a ninety seven dollar uh discounted offer evaluation.

15:10 So does that make sense? Like it's using ads to take someone from a cold prospect down the different levels of awareness marketing to go from cold prospect to, I only wanna work with Concierge Pain Relief. So it's gonna take six to twelve ads for each person to see six to twelve ads over time to then call us and be like, I only wanna work with you guys. And the reason why it's funny is the agency that I signed up with, the guy Tucker is like, why us? Why me? Like, why now all that? And I'm like, well, yeah, because I saw six to twelve of your ads and I didn't I didn't book this call. So I had a call with him last week or whatever.

15:53 And I go, I didn't book this call on the first ad that I saw on Instagram. It was probably somewhere between and he goes, what, like six to twelve, six to ten. I'm like, yeah, I was like at least six to eight or ten or whatever. I don't even remember. Right. So the point is the strategy works. And now that's what we're going to start implementing soon as we're working on it. That's it. There's the spectrum, right? We think we jump from attention to action, right? And I think you can if you're Teemu, right? You see the cool thing and it's twelve dollars and you're like, I'll buy it now. Teemu is not trying to earn your trust. In fact, Teemu burns more trust than anybody on the planet because then when that thing arrives, it's trash. But you got sold.

16:35 You're selling something way more complex, way deeper. Why would we expect it to be attention to action? Of course, it's going to be attention to earned trust over time. I'm giving a talk at APTA Florida this weekend. This slide is on the deck, but I want to walk people through it. So first of all, you gotta send me the video link. Cause people are already, I'm already hearing people. I can hear people like Googling, trying to get that Jeff Miller, Jeff Miller. That was his name, Jeff Miller. Did you? Yeah. Did you find a Tony? You look like you were going over here. I'm looking for it. We'll share that in the show notes. Cause I'm smart enough to know. I want you to go down there and click it. Cause that's brilliant. I got like twelve minutes.

17:16 I got to jump a little early. So I wanted to talk about something that we were teasing with on Monday, on Tuesday. David Ogilvy, often cited as like, you know, the father of modern advertising and copywriting, just like kind of a legend, like wrote the book. Tony was like, we can bring people back from the dead. Like, you know, that like great question, like who are the three people you'd have dinner with? Right. You can do that with Trashy BT now. You can be like, I'm going to dinner party with Sigmund Freud and Abraham Lincoln and Gandhi. And you could just have conversations like. I understand that this is not actually Gandhi, but you can sort of play with ideas. We are a step away from the holodeck, right, from Star Trek The Next Generation.

17:59 So, Tony, we decided to write or rewrite a job description or two based on David Ogilvy. I sat down to do that, and for some reason, I just wasn't prompting it right. It wasn't, it was not sounding like what I thought David Ogilvy was. So instead of like arguing with the machine, I went the other way. I was like, Tony's gonna do this. Why am I trying to out Tony, Tony? Don't do that. I went a different direction. I picked a job description. I stripped out most of the identifying factors. Like I didn't want the name in there. I don't want to call people out, but I wanted it to be a real job description. And then what did you do? How did you Ogilvy this? Because I want you to share yours. I'm just going to do the script that I would use and then I'll share. But I think neither of them are right or wrong.

18:41 They're just different. I actually completely forgot. So I did nothing. I'm completely unprepared. So you go ahead. All right. So what I did was I was arguing with this stupid thing and I was trying to get it to explain how Ogilvy would do it. And he was like, Chachi, but you kept giving me like the David Ogilvy, like lesson. I was like, I don't need you to teach me as David Ogilvy. I need you to work for me. And it wasn't doing it. And it's also seven o'clock in the morning. I was like, screw this. I'm done. So then I said, who's a modern day, really good teacher. Almost like the Airbnb guys we were talking about, which is like, instead of just being an ad reader, can I have a stake in the company? And then you don't pay me, I just want stake, and then I'll do all the ads for free.

19:22 And the answer is Ryan Reynolds. Ryan Reynolds figured this out with Mint Mobile and Aviation Gin, and he's like, I'm good-looking and famous right now, but in a couple years, I might not be good-looking or famous. Let me cash in and own something, which I think is a brilliant move. So I said... Ryan Reynolds is very punchy, breaks the fourth wall. I don't even think Deadpool is a stretch as an actor for him. I think he is sort of Deadpool-y. So I said, how do you do this? And again, to reiterate, if you didn't listen to the Tuesday's episode, the idea is you don't want a thousand people to apply. No one in talent acquisition wants that. That's a pile of turds. You know most of them are wrong.

20:03 You want to exclude people as quickly as possible. So I'm gonna read this ad. It's very specific too. It's a very niche type of PT in a very niche area. And I like that because if it works for this, why wouldn't it work for everything? I want the hard one. So here's my ad read. Give me Ryan Reynolds on. We're hiring a certified hand therapist in Alaska. That sentence just eliminated like, ninety-seven percent of LinkedIn. Perfect. Now that all the wrong people are gone, here's the job. This is a specialty hand and upper extremity practice. So if you've spent years becoming really good at hands, you actually get to do hands.

20:46 Wild concept, I know. There's great pay. Actually, I hate that phrase. There's pay. There's also a sign-on bonus. There are benefits, continuing ed and leadership development. Listen, all that's in there. And the company is employee-owned, not the we're all owners here in a motivational poster sense. Actual ownership. Now, let's get to this. Yes, Alaska. We're not going to call it an exciting relocation opportunity. It's Alaska. For some people, that's a hard no. Good. This job isn't for some people. It's for the certified hand therapist who hears specialty practice, employee ownership, Alaska, and thinks, okay, keep talking. If that's you, click here.

21:28 That's the ad. I wanted it to weed out. Ninety nine. Who's moving to Alaska? That's a hand therapist. Dude, you are looking for the needle in the largest haystack. But all you got to do is find one one. I think indeed ads are the wrong way to go. I mentioned this last last episode. I talked to some groups who were three X in their spend and getting thirty percent of their results. That is a race to the bottom. So that's how Ryan Reynolds would try to sell that job. Dave, what do you think? I like it. I even like it more when Jimmy reads it. I feel like my gut though, I don't want to be negative, but like to fill jobs in these like, I don't know, what do you want to call them?

22:17 Like more obscure locations? I feel like your best bet is to do clinical rotations and have a pipeline of students who circulate through there. And then that, I believe that would be the long-term solution. Now this is kind of like a short-term solution, like posting it and then getting it out there. So I talked with a group, that group, they are doing that. That is though, I said, what works for you? And what have you tried that has it? And they go, student affiliations. I go, all right, well, why aren't you milking that? And they go, we can only get so many. And some of them like- Figure, respectfully, figure out how to accept more students. How can you possibly do instead of one, can you do two instead of two?

22:57 Can you do four? Can you do like can you do like group? Can you have two clinical roles and then two like students that come into a rotation and they're doing more like admin business stuff if they're interested in private practice and business? Yeah, I would push that idea. Push it. Like I did years ago, I worked for, I think because Jimmy did pee briefly as well. I did a very short stint, ten something years ago at this outpatient pediatric sensory integration clinic. And they would have students from like NYU. And this this owner eventually sold and then became like a faculty member at one of these programs. And she would have. for dbt students at any given time like like minimal to no supervision like i'm not saying it was great or or right or whatever and like whatever the rules are but like how can they push it how can they have instead of one i don't disagree it'd be like can it be like group i don't disagree what i might do is yes and which is Asking a PT student to go to Alaska, two things.

23:58 One, they're going to use it as a vacation and then dip. That's fine. But if you're saying if we get ten in here to eventually stay, your answer is get a hundred. How do we get a hundred in the next three years? I would say sweeten the deal. Free housing. Any objection the student might have, well, how am I going to find housing in Alaska or what am I going to do when I get there? You need to triple down on everything that isn't the job, right? Is that sort of what you're saying is sell everything that isn't the job? Because the job is going to be what the job is going to be. Tony, what do you think? You got to lead and own like the main part. I mean, for me, the biggest part is like, wow, like. That's a remote. It could be a remote location. So that you got to find people that are OK with that.

24:40 That's a tough location and a very specific. I mean, this is this is world class sniper territory. Yes. And so you're not wrong. You got you got to go find Navy SEAL physical therapy candidates. But the idea is you don't go sniper, you don't go with a sniper task with a shotgun. And the shotgun is indeed, right? Like that's where I would say, because then the next question would be, all right, Jimmy, let's say we're going to use your video. How do we, where do we target that? Is it just Instagram or do we put it in California? Like, do we say the Pacific Northwest is a skip and a jump? Or do we say, let's go to Florida because where's the, where's the craziest different, if you, if you love Florida, You ever want to go get cold and look at bears?

25:21 Like, I don't know. Tony, what do you think? Real quick before Tony. So they're looking for what? A CHT? A hand therapist? In Alaska. Okay. I know. I know Alaska. Okay. Also, you go on LinkedIn, whether it's the free version or the paid version. Paid version sucks anyway. Well, so I use Sales Navigator so I can send not almost unlimited in-mail messages, but like I can send a ton. I have like fifty to one hundred in any given time. I hardly ever get to zero. And then then it renews and reloads this practice. If they were also like I know they're serious, go on LinkedIn or Google, go on the Google machine and find every hand therapists in the country and try to dm them directly so either linkedin dm and maybe you got to pay for it because you get too many dms go uh and and either instagram facebook try to find a list of all this all the chcs or hand therapists in the country find their names and go on every social media platform and dm the the thing that i've said on this on this show a hundred times which is like hey we have this opportunity who might you know or you want to go direct and say i don't know if this is of interest to you but because you're a hand expert as well i wanted to run this across your table go to a hands con ed course company and say all right what do you got go to apta section on hands the handy people so you're saying put up a hand job description is what you're saying.

26:49 A specific hand jobs. Okay. Tony, go ahead. Get Jimmy, get out of here. All right. I'll see you guys. Oh, you're going to leave on that note. All right, just to finish that, since he was asking. Yeah, I mean, I think it's awesome. I love the copy. The copy sounds great. My approach would be, I think every geography, every state, every locale has a culture. Dave's in New York. There is a vibe, a culture to where you are that's probably very different than Ohio Midwest. we know people from Alaska we employed a guy from Alaska he went back to Alaska like there's something that draws people there and I would play on that culture that that uniqueness to it whether it's in social media or ads or whatever I would embody and the person who's sitting in Florida somewhere They're going to come across that content and be like, yeah, that sounds amazing.

27:54 And they're going to be drawn into it because it's Alaska and because of the weirdness of Alaska, the uniqueness. You take planes more than you take cars, you know, like they're just things that are there. I want to switch topics just a little bit. I shared this on the chat. I'm going to pull up a picture. Did you see this at all, Dave, the WNBA grandma? Nope. Nope. Okay. So, so for people who are watching, this is a, an Instagram, I don't know, channel page. Um, and it's a woman. She says, I think she said she's and she's working to become an MBA or WNBA athlete.

28:38 And so I'm looking at these videos. I saw the first one and I've seen a couple versions of this. Like there's a kid who who wants to make the varsity basketball team and he can't even shoot a basketball. There's just different versions of this. So I saw this one. I was like, there's something different about this. I can't put my finger on it. The views are decent. There's fifty eight posts on this account. They're only following two people. This is clearly not this woman's account. Like, immediately you realize this is not this eighty-eight year old woman's account. Most of these videos are her doing basketball drills, going into basketball shooting competitions, doing things.

29:23 And They're all voiceover. I'm not even positive it's her actual voice, but they're really well done. They're great little videos. So finally, this morning I went back and I was like, all right, I'm going to scroll all the way to the back to the beginning. This was the screenshot that I shared originally. Pull it back up here. I don't know where day one is. It's kind of interesting that there's no day one. But what I came to realize as I scroll through these videos is This guy in the bottom center, I believe that's his grandma. He and another guy started this business for athletic wear.

30:06 They want to break into, you know, genius, genius. I don't know if you remember and one. And when they were trying to compete with Nike and under the refrigerator. Absolutely. So what these guys, and now I'm speculating, but I believe what these guys have done they created this account they know this account is going to do amazing i mean it's at twenty five thousand followers i like to bookmark accounts like this because i follow the journey as they grow i remember alex hermosi when he had two thousand followers on youtube and now he's over you know several million um but it was the same thing like i found his page i i started to follow i knew he was going to do something really great even though i had never heard of him before in my life this will be an interesting account but like this is the kind of thing that we talk about all the time nobody wants to hear from two young guys selling apparel it's just boring but you get the grandma who wants to try out for the wmba and you follow her journey and you get to know her and you listen to her and you build a relationship with her i guarantee you've shared some patient videos i share a ton of patient videos Every single one of us out there has that patient.

31:26 Super cute, very like magnetic personality. You can put them on camera. They're not going to go seek out the camera. Everybody loves that little lady, that little man. and this is where we would build an account to a million followers in less than a year just because our patient is so personable and and exciting to watch and we take them through this journey you know maybe it's not basketball maybe it's grandpa who's gonna go hike the grand canyon or or whatever it may be what are you thinking about that i i I feel like you've done this a little bit where you've made some of the clients almost like a mini...

32:12 I don't want to say like a celebrity. You put them in the spotlight, right? Yeah. Even though your clients... So there's the entertainment side, like when you had the older guy with the... the joke books and that type of stuff. Yeah. I don't, I don't know. Have you done any of the like storyline type stuff of like progression for clients where you also put the same type of spotlight on them, but it's more from like a progress clinical side. Maybe you've done it with like getting up from the ground or using like that floor to, you know, get off the floor chair or whatever. But have you, have you done some of that? If you have, I might've missed it.

32:52 I haven't done it. No, I've always talked about it. I've always wanted to. I think there's huge value in that. We get patients, you know, twenty four hours post-op from a total knee replacement through discharge. And I always say, like, I'm going to do that. But like most of us, I get busy in the clinic. I get busy with other things and I've never really put it together. But yeah, I think that's a brilliant idea for a series within what the channel provides. You know, so you could still do the one offs, you could still do the other stuff, but then you develop a series that a viewer starts to come back to and follow and watch the journey and relate to in that way.

33:36 I wish I would do it. There are things that I know I should do. I want to do that. I just don't know how to get myself to do it. That's one of those things. Got it. i have seen other practices do it where it's kind of just um part of their different videos but i'm trying to think of any physical therapy practice where they have recurring and uh progression of videos of someone and they they're mentioning their name you know bob or john or mary or whatever um where they're making them kind of like a they're the focus, they're the spotlight and that they're trying to build them up like a mini celebrity.

34:19 The thing that you showed of like the grandma with the basketball, like, that looks like the whole account is meant to be just the grandma trying to, you know, get better with basketball. Yeah. Which is genius. So most, most physical therapy practices, it's like they have their, like me and you, like, especially me, like we, we have our main account and then sometimes it's me and sometimes it's like one of my therapists and sometimes it's like one of our clients. Um, so yeah, I mean, it would kind of be extra work to like, I could have an account. Like, let's say I had a client that had made great progress. We tracked some videos over time. We had them like in our phone, like the way you have like a ton of videos in your phone.

34:59 Would it make sense to then have a new account like for, you know, Mr. Bob Total Therapy Solutions and like in the link of the bio is like to your website or whatever. But the whole account would be like the grandma playing basketball that would link back to that company that's, would you say like selling sports apparel or whatever? Yeah, yeah. I think there's, you could do it. Absolutely. I think there's value in that. but now you start moving further and further away from all right are you a physical therapist or are you media do you have a team together you know gary vee and alex and all these guys are putting out hundreds of pieces of content a day i'm struggling to hit twenty pieces of content a day um if you don't have that i do think the channels the social media platforms they're making it available so that you don't have to have different channels if you came to me like ten years ago i'd be like a hundred percent different channels do not pollute one channel with posting from another you know focus now youtube has um They have a heading inside their analytics platform.

36:10 I think it's called shows. I think it's called shows. Other Facebook and Instagram, I think they have series, which is kind of like playlists. So each of these platforms is trying to turn you into a network. CBS, NBC, Fox, they want you to have shows. Those shows are on a specific topic so you don't have to break out to create a new channel anymore. now you would put that content under that category within the platform itself. But I think for us, for PT clinicians in general, I think we totally could have buckets, content buckets. And that's the thing ChatGPT has developed for me, where maybe you have an anatomy bucket, where every day you're going to post something related to an anatomy illustration, image, example.

37:02 and then you have a success bucket. So you show that patient who's had some breakthrough and some great success. And if you have ten buckets and every day you're putting something in out of one of those buckets on your platform, You basically just run through that framework. That's what I'm working on to get me to ten reels. I think it's like eight photos and two text posts, but they all come out of these content buckets that I just follow. So I don't have to think about it anymore. And that probably makes it a lot easier for you to then repeatedly do it, right? Because you got to the point where like you had to do some of that planning and thinking up front, but then eventually you just like, for me now, and I'm sure for you, it's just like your brain is just almost on like autopilot when you have the videos.

37:52 And now it's just like, I just have to, grab them, upload them, make sure it uploads properly, maybe a quick description, caption, whatever, but then it's out there. So it's like a little bit of thinking and planning up front, but then eventually it's like less mental load. It's more of just like manually posting them or using some other tool or whatever to post it. Which honestly, isn't that what we've done as clinicians, like in a good way? You know, I was thinking yesterday, so I don't know. I don't think you were on the show the other day. I took a student. I haven't had a student for like ten years. I don't think I've had a student since before COVID. It's a high school student, not a DPT student. She's thinking about PT versus orthopedic surgery.

38:35 And so yesterday, you know, when I've got this student, I can't control myself. I feel like I have to educate, I have to inform, I have to let them know what I'm thinking, why I'm thinking this. So at the two o'clock spot on my schedule, I had two patients, both female, both low back pain, but completely polar opposite contacts. Like one had spinal stenosis. She couldn't stand for very long. Soon as she sits, the symptoms turn off. The other one had a disc issue, couldn't sit. The longer she stood, the better she did. You know, one response to flexion, one response to extension, both of them classic examples of the condition.

39:17 but completely polar opposite but both have low back pain and so it gives me a chance to talk to this student kind of like explain look we do different things same kind of complaint but we approach it differently and for me and and for you and for so many people watching this You know, once you make kind of the general diagnosis, you do just kind of fall into autopilot. I feel myself saying the things that I say to a person with classic spinal stenosis. I feel myself doing the things that you do with a person with classic spinal stenosis. um the mental load is decreased because we've done it thousands of times thousands of reps you get up to the plate you're watching the pitcher you see the pitch coming this is where i always talk about baseball i'm like i understand reaction time and how fast that pitch is coming and how how little time you have to make the decision on swinging or don't swing but i really think there are elements subconsciously that you as the batter already you're thinking about when you just, you know who the pitcher is, you know how they're standing, you see what they're doing before the ball ever comes into view, you already kind of start to have an idea of what's gonna happen.

40:36 And so it's the same with this, it's the same in therapy, it's the same in media, it's the same in advertising and marketing and all of that stuff. Once you have the reps, it doesn't take that much more thought to execute. It takes some challenge and effort and reps and sometimes trial and error to do all that physical effort or mental effort on the front end to then get to the point where the decision-making process later becomes like second nature. Yeah, but eventually it does. Like when I was competing in martial arts, I wasn't sitting there thinking like, this is what I'm gonna do.

41:18 And if he does this, I'm gonna do that. You just respond. It's like innate because it happens so quickly. And that's what makes a professional athlete make it look so easy. Because the thought's gone. And I think that's where a lot of us now, I think it gets a negative connotation in PT. I shared that statement years ago where I was like, you shouldn't be thinking about documentation. Documentation should just come out. It just happens. You shouldn't be thinking about a lot of the things we do with a patient because you've done this thousands of times. And of course, that turned into, oh, you're not, you know, it doesn't require skill and you're not using your knowledge or whatever.

42:01 uh anyway what else has been on your mind lately um other than the meta ads um our our virtual assistant uh louise our who a patient client facing we call our care coordinator but it's just our virtual assistant in costa rica he's three weeks in or four weeks no crystal my new therapist this is her third week so louise is in his fourth week so we had a full week uh ramp up before crystal started um and it's amazing it's going really really well i as you and i and jimmy were talking we had a lead come in and you know made sure that you know he's he's got one person he's calling then he's got another person to call so um the the ability for someone to get one of our leads speak with them uh get their credit card information, book them onto the medical record, and then email and alert the therapist.

42:58 Like, hey, I got a new client evaluation booked on your calendar for this day and this time. And it's a clinic visit or a home visit. And if it's a home visit, here's the address. And then the payment gets processed by our admin, Kathy. Like it's just, oh my gosh, Tony, just... Just amazing, just amazing to continue to delegate and grow this team. That is not necessarily like a recent step, but it's been something that we've been working on and it's amazing. Now, let me ask you why virtual assistant out of the country as opposed to putting the time and effort to finding somebody locally?

43:41 Maybe we will. We're using this US-based company that I think they're affiliated with some cash physical therapy practice, one of the guys. Then he or his spouse or whatever, they started this company where, uh, and they were hitting, you know, I was getting targeted with ads even last year. So in twenty twenty five, I was getting targeted with these ads, which is like, uh, but it spoke directly to me. This is why. Because for me to for me to just go from scratch, right? Like, all right, I'm going to go out into Brooklyn. Let's see how my neighborhood I'm going to ask people who wants to be on the phone, who's going to be good with rejection, who's going to know how to or want to have the effort to put in time and effort to learn how to basically go through like almost like a framework and a script to sell self pay out of pocket physical therapy.

44:32 I mean, for me to just go and just start from scratch or my network. Hey, hey, network, who might you know that would be interested in working from home, working, you know, in a in a CRM like high level and call our leads back and call, you know, reactivate people and all that. Could I could I do all that? Yes, totally. but the company who ran meta ads last year to me, I was on a webinar and I was already warmed up with them. And I probably, I should have done this last year. And I didn't, I should have done this years ago or whatever, but I didn't. Um, but they coach and train these individuals where English is their second language and they have a minimal accent.

45:17 So probably just ease of use, Tony, probably just like, that's what was on the top of my mind. This company trains them, they coach them, they do call review, um, And then by the time they get in front of me, I get a couple of candidate videos and I get to see who sounds well reading like a cash PT script before I even speak with them. I get to see how they are on video and then do one or two interview calls. And then I had two of them start the last three weeks. And then the one that was better won the job. And our guy, Luis, is doing really well. Is that maybe a long-winded answer as to why?

45:59 No, no. Is there a significant price difference in what you're paying, whether it's somebody overseas versus somebody here? At the end of the day, when you add in all... Still significantly less. Then U S based or now listen in the, in the future. So someone I'm trying to remember who someone, someone pushed back and it might even have been Joey Albritton. I can't remember. It might've been him that I spoke with like in the past month or whatever, or someone on his team might've pushed back and said, you know, you're in New York city and you're trying to sell high ticket or whatever, like out of pocket.

46:43 physical therapy over time and packages and programs and all that type of stuff. Like, and they're like, wouldn't it make sense to pay someone that like knows the area, like that knows like the intersections and the museums, the restaurants. I was like, actually like, that's, That is, that does, you're right. Like that does make sense. And should I, should I consider paying that type of a person who can work remotely? Maybe they used to, maybe they're like you, they used to live in long Island. Maybe they used to live in New York city area. And then now they live in some other state like Florida or wherever else. Would that make sense to pay that type of person like. Seventy-five K or a hundred K or whatever, like, well, I don't know, whatever, or like base. And then some performance pay based off of like conversions and arrivals and all that.

47:25 And I was like, yeah, totally. But this company made it easy for me. They're targeting me with ads. I got warmed up last year on some webinars and saw what they do and saw their testimonials, spoke with the owner a couple of times. They just had a very easy process. So it's like, OK, at some point with business and making decisions, my my rule of thumb is like take action and get started. And then this might only be a temporary thing. And then maybe maybe in six to twelve months or whatever, maybe it is someone who lives in New York City and then I got to pay them like a full, you know, full salary or, you know, benefits and all that.

48:06 If I see progress, but I if there's some shortcomings with someone who where Spanish is their first language, English is their second language. They need Google Maps to pull up like the intersections and all that for home visits and scheduling. So that is absolutely a consideration. So any anyone watching or listening like Tony will will always kind of cut through the noise and find like what's what's what about this? Have you considered this? Have you thought about this? So I appreciate you, Tony. yeah well let's let's wrap it up i i think what this shows is like we're not married forever just because you started doing this this this was a low risk low barrier to entry easy to do test the water see what happens and and if it develops you know and you decide later that yeah i want to get somebody local i want to really double down on this absolutely at least now you have proof of concept It's just like bringing the PT student into the clinic before you extend an offer.

49:07 It gives you a chance to see what it's going to be like. Parting shot, Dave. Parting shot. It's like, yeah, it's never going to be perfect. So especially even if you're, if you're a staff PT looking to go do that job in Alaska, or if you're a practice owner like us, trying to navigate social media or your virtual assistant or whatever, or hiring or whatever, like you have to just take action knowing that it's never always going to be perfect or, or ideal. And the worst thing is, is to not take action so it's better to it's actually better for me to like go i'm gonna go hire this like virtual assistant that lives in costa rica even though tony's nicely like well i mean why would why did you do that basically like i'm putting words in your mouth like basically like why that route like of all routes like why that route and it's because it's better for me to take that route right now because that's the the next uh or next best alternative what's that like the there's like a some um abbreviation but like the next best alternative or whatever like that's the next best route for us right now and that's better than analysis by paralysis and not doing anything at all All right, guys, it is Thursday already.

50:26 My gosh, it's almost October. Come back. Watch eight thirty eight thirty a.m. Eastern time zone. See you Tuesday. See you Thursday. Dave, you have an amazing weekend. You too. Thanks. That's it. We're out. Boys, what the hell are you doing? Follow Tony Meritato on YouTube at Total Therapy Solution. Find Dave Kittle at conciergepainrelief.com and on YouTube at The Dave Kittle Show. And follow Jimmy McKay at PT Podcasts on YouTube, the socials, and wherever you binge podcasts you pretend are for CEUs. And hey, just a reminder, none of this was for advice. This was for entertainment only.

51:06 Our lawyers say that counts. Thanks, Keith.