Will Power
Being a physical therapy entrepreneur can be unbelievably challenging at times. From patient care, to running the businesses, to balancing a family, it’s no wonder many entrepreneurs feel overwhelmed and burned out. Each Tuesday, join Will Humphreys, a retired private practice owner and medical entrepreneur, as he introduces game-changing leadership concepts and interviews other successful leaders in healthcare. If you want to start, scale, or sell your outpatient physical therapy business, this is for you. Together not only can we increase our income, impact and freedom, we can build the largest network of healthcare leaders in the world at the Will Power Podcast.
Will Power
Building a Purpose-Driven PT Practice with Angie McGilvrey
In this inspiring episode, Will interviews Angie McGilvrey, a visionary physical therapist who’s upscalling the industry with her primary care PT model. Angie shares her journey of building a practice that focuses on direct access, self-pay, and serving the “athlete-minded” individual. She discusses how she transitioned from a traditional insurance-based practice to a model that empowers patients and provides access to elite technologies. Angie also shares her powerful story of leading her team through a devastating hurricane, emphasizing the importance of purpose, vision, and building a strong team culture.
Key Takeaways:
- The power of vision and purpose in building a successful business.
- The importance of niching down and serving a specific target audience (the athlete-minded).
- The benefits of a direct access, self-pay model in physical therapy.
- How to create a strong team culture through branding, communication, and shared purpose.
- The importance of leading with questions and empowering your team.
- The power of combining your passion and purpose to create a larger impact.
- The importance of branding in creating a culture.
- The importance of language in creating a culture.
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Rock stars. Thanks for tuning in. This is an important episode. This is a game changing episode with Angie McGilvery and I don't say that lightly, angie. To put it into context, I've coached and worked with over 300 physical therapy businesses in the last five years. I would put her at the top 1% of the best leaders I've ever worked with. She is such a beautiful combination of challenge and support.
Speaker 1:I once coached their team where we did this exercise and asked who's the best leader that you've ever worked with? And usually people talk about one of their parents or Jesus or whatever. Everyone in that room said Angie. So we're going to talk about how she has completely changed the game and disrupted physical therapy in her own world and her vision for changing it down the road. However, we're going to be talking about purpose and how vision and purpose can not only be tactically applied to your business to get you unstuck and get you more profitable, but how it actually changes people's lives. She is a revolutionary athlete recovery specialist. She's worked with the USA Gymnastics man. She's just done so many different things. But I really want you to pay close attention to this episode and listen to it repeatedly and share it with anyone who owns a business. Enjoy the show. Okay. So, angie, you've got a lot going on. Let's get an update on your physical therapy practice and all these new things that you're doing. Give me an update.
Speaker 2:Well, well, we are disrupting the industry. That's what we're doing over here.
Speaker 1:Simply put, angie's disrupting the industry. Yes, you are, absolutely.
Speaker 2:We are building a model in the physical therapy industry primary care, PT and this is where the profession needs to go. This is where the profession should have started going back in 2020. And, yeah, we are creating a model in which we are the first point of contact for musculoskeletal pain injury prevention and optimization and that the consumer can come directly to, versus more of the insurance-driven approach where we really have shackles and are really limited by what we can do and what we can provide for them. And those are the big two pieces of how we're disrupting.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's huge. I think what's powerful, too, is this vision of primary care, pt, because that's so clear to me when I think about this is the idea that I see when you say that people getting hurt and going, oh I need to go see my doctor, and they're talking about their PT, like, oh, I hurt my shoulder, I need to go see my doctor about it. So they go to their physical therapist, who's an expert in that space. Tim Spooner was a guest on our show a couple months ago who stated how we, as a physical therapy industry, should be in charge of the $600 billion musculoskeletal space and not just be over this $34, $36 billion PT space that's almost subservient to all the different other types of medical services, and this is one of the main reasons I was so excited to have you all the different, you know other types of medical services. So you, more than and this is one of the main reasons I was so excited to have you in this on the show is that you're leading the charge more than anyone I know, in terms of application of this.
Speaker 1:You've always had this vision of like what to do, and so what you're, as you're disrupting what you're doing is you're eliminating insurance is what I heard you say or minimizing it, and you're getting direct access to the public. So can you walk me through what that model looks like? Like how are you? What does that actually look like If you're a patient with Apex physical therapy? What does that look like in terms of how I would come interact with your company versus a standard PT company?
Speaker 2:Yeah, sure, so you are correct, will that we are.
Speaker 2:We operate as an out of network or self-pay practice, with the exception of Medicare. From that standpoint, means that they are privileged to any and all of the services that we provide in the clinic, which most of them are not covered by insurance because they are of an elite and innovative level, to begin with. So we're talking about services like diagnostics, meaning a musculoskeletal ultrasound, where my team as a primary care specialist is not just clinically evaluating, but they're also looking under the hood at the integrity of, let's say, my patient's shoulder pain and finding out exactly what's going on. And then, in addition, we have adopted a few different elite technologies that are utilized in the professional athlete world. So things like NuFit technology or in Diba radio frequency, you know these are things that have, you know, only the elite and the professionals have been privy to. This is what Saquon Barkley rehabbed his ACL with, and that's why you know he's a he's a Superbowl champ now, and so my my patients also have access to the sort of things that you are not going to find um anywhere else.
Speaker 1:Yeah, these are very high level elements, like new fit, for example, like you mentioned there in all these professional teams. I just had the CEO of that company on my show last week and so he's. He was talking about how he found this idea and had this vision very similar to you in the sense that, like he wanted to disrupt or change the way things were being done. Cause when you hear electrical stimulation and physical therapy, if you're a PT owner or a leader, you're like, oh, whatever you know, like you just all these modalities right that don't, that are like band-aids or give you some temporary relief, but these things are changing the game. Like and that's kind of the physical therapy model that you're talking about too We've been doing insurance-based forever. Am I right to hear that your audience, the people you're serving, isn't general? Like it sounds like you're targeting athletes in your business, now more so than the past. Is that? Is that accurate, or am I wrong on that?
Speaker 2:No, that that's definitely true, definitely true. We like to think of it as either the athletes or the athlete-minded?
Speaker 1:Oh okay, so tell me about that. What's the athlete-minded? Because athlete I get. What's an athlete-minded person?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so our athlete-minded person is that person who understands the value of constant betterment and wants to continue to optimize their performance in whatever that is that they're doing in their life. And so sometimes that can be like an executive athlete. Sometimes that can be, you know, a golfer who you know is he's 75. And so he's not like my 25 year old CrossFit athlete, but he still wants to go out and do his best, still knows that he can optimize and get better and still wants to be able to make his own choices on how he can can better his life. Right, like, like. He still wants to be autonomous and take control of of what. What do these next years look like and what does my life look like? And so those folks who want to have control of being better all the time and not have an insurance company, tell them well, you can have two visits and you can see your PT for 15 minutes or whatever. That is right. So those are my athlete, athlete minded folks.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they get it. You know, I think this was so such a big point. Rock stars, when you hear this, angie is defining this phrase called the riches are in the niches. We hate the word riches when it comes to healthcare, but the concept being that the value is with when we specialize. That's the more healthcare appropriate way of saying that.
Speaker 1:So, as Angie has gotten really clear in her vision for what she wants to see in terms of the impact in the industry, she's been able to step that back to who can she serve? Because we, as Angie and you know this we can either help everyone a mile wide or we can help a select few of people go a mile deep. And it sounds like once you created this vision, you were able to scale that back to a very specific persona, and what's so brilliant about it from my perspective is that you didn't fall into the trap of thinking, well, I just want to serve athletes. You were able to identify a mindset which is still hyper niche but also has a larger market potential. How did you come up with that? By the way, what was it about the athlete-minded thing that like, how are you able to see that? And maybe you don't know, but I'm curious if you know.
Speaker 2:Yes, so it started with, as you said, the riches and the niches, right. It actually started back in 2018 when I got hyper-focused on we are going to serve the CrossFit athlete, and that was the avatar, that was the mission. I mean, put up rigs in the space, made it look like a CrossFit, like we're serving the CrossFit athlete. And what I found as we started on that journey is that I didn't just have the CrossFit athlete coming in, even though that was where you know we were putting all of our attention on. I started having runners come in, and I started having the high school football player come in and I started having, um, you know, high school soccer player and college volleyball. I started having, you know, more of these athletes come in.
Speaker 2:And I took a step back and thought to myself why is it that I marketed to the CrossFit athlete but I'm having these other folks coming into the practice? How is this happening? And, um, that's where we started coining the athlete minded phrase, right, that they saw the oh, if they can serve this person, then they think like me, they do like me, they can serve me as well. And, just to take one more step back, the way that that all happened was back in 2017. I didn't realize this was happening at the time, but in 2017, I was at the gym as a CrossFitter and my coach said to me one day hey, ange, do you think you could help me with my shoulder? Very nonchalant, I was like oh yeah, sure, like like that would be great.
Speaker 2:I'd love to Um. At that point I had just gotten certified in a STEM therapy, and so I thought to myself, yes, great, I have something I know I can do to this CrossFitter. That's not something that he already knows Like he already knows how to work out and lift and do all these things but I have, like a very special tool that he can't get someplace else. So let me leverage that and I'm going to help him with his shoulder, and that kind of started the journey and the light bulb went off in my head of oh my gosh, these are the people I'm supposed to be serving. Because they think like me, they do things like me, I can help them the most.
Speaker 2:This is it, this is what I need to do, and that's how it started, and I didn't realize that for about three or four years, until this was all moving and going and looking back and saying, wait, how did I get here?
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's interesting because it feels organic when you're going through it. But the thing that you've done and this is a key element that we're going to hit on hard in this episode is that you were able to catch the vision of it Like it's you know, there was something about it in that moment. It didn't like occur to you that you're going to hyper specialize in this athlete mindset. You were just working with this CrossFitter going. I have something special to offer them and I'm passionate about it. I think those are the key elements passion and power. I'm very powerful in this thing because I got certified and I'm very passionate about it.
Speaker 1:So I'm saying this rock stars, as you're listening, because Angie is a literal example of how to get unstuck. Pay attention to what's going on around you. What are you doing that feeds your soul, that gives you energy, that you're really good at and that will start to unlock the population that we should be focusing on. And then we shut down these creative thoughts, angie, all the time and we're like, well, but I can't build a business on CrossFit and I need insurance and that's where most people die. But what you did, that's different and this is the key thing I want to get across to the audience in this episode is that you caught the vision, you were able to see it and then you trusted yourself to start acting in that place. So in my mind I wonder did you get the vision of disrupting healthcare later, or was that before? Was that just for me? From your experience, did that happen before or after you started, like recognizing the population you wanted to serve?
Speaker 2:I think that was after um, because I started seeing, uh, you know what we were doing, the results that we were getting, and I started hearing, uh, the, the. The feedback of this is different here.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:This is different. You guys don't do physical therapy like other people do. This is different. And just for some context, my market is Southwest Florida, so we have a large Medicare and aged demographic here, right, and so most physical therapy practices here and mine was in the beginning as well are built around mostly serving this demographic right. And so later on, as I started looking at and hearing feedback about how we were different you know, we look different, we feel different I realized that from a disruption standpoint, you know, one of those key ingredients is that you are serving an underserved market many times.
Speaker 2:And so I didn't realize I was doing this until after the fact. But and until after parents and after patients had said to me thank you so much for having this place, because we don't have a place to go Like we didn't have this and and and and. Thinking back on that, you know I then I had realized we did create something where this market was underserved. Those folks, those athletes or those athlete minded individuals, only had kind of your traditional physical therapy place in Southwest Florida where you were being treated next to, most likely, a hip replacement and watching that process with the walker and the and that sort of a thing Um and again. Nothing against. I mean that that is very valuable service we provide here in Southwest Florida.
Speaker 1:But as an athlete, it doesn't speak to that person.
Speaker 2:Correct. As an athlete myself, I'm thinking if I want somebody to fix my shoulder, that's not the same environment I feel like I'm going to get help in.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's interesting because recently my son was in Florida getting treatment for a head injury and we were super excited because a lot of professional athletes go to this place in northern Florida, but it was in the middle of this majorly wealthy retired community. So, like you know, my 21 year old son is in a room filled with retirees with gray hair, which, again, we're not trying to like bash any group of people. What we're talking about here is understanding who were meant to serve. So like if he had walked in there on the day where all the professional athletes were there, he would have felt very differently about the experience. And it's so funny that your people were like, wow, we don't have a place like this when they know there's lots of other PT practices.
Speaker 1:So by standing out, you started to catch the vision is what I'm hearing?
Speaker 1:You started like, okay, I'm following this trail of breadcrumbs around people being excited about things that I'm excited about, that are different.
Speaker 1:And then you just kept going down that road and then at some point you could see the potential of how what you were doing was going to shift the industry at large, because somewhere in the middle there and this might be hard to answer and maybe we don't get there in this episode, but somewhere between serving that CrossFit CrossFit person and doing a stem and recognizing that you have something very unique to give a very specific population, somewhere along the lines that started, growing to the point where now you're, you're something very unique to give a very specific population, somewhere along the lines that started growing to the point where now you're taking very little insurance, you're building a brand new building where you are going to be servicing multiple health and wellness type services that are needful, that are really geared for this athlete-minded person. Right Somewhere in there you got this realization of its potential to shift the industry. Was that a gradual process? And if it wasn't, was there a distinct moment where it was like, oh aha.
Speaker 2:That is a great question. The first thing that comes to mind is that, as I started serving that population, of course there's a very different way that those people get into the clinic. Right, like this is not a fax referral from a physician, this is like direct to consumer marketing, right. And I think there was a switch when I saw that I could control how these people got to me. Versus I can go market and build rapport with a physician or an attorney or whatever this like third party, or take an insurance company and hope that, because I'm in network, or hope that because I bring somebody a lunch, they send me somebody. Versus hang on a second. You mean I can serve this person that I'm super excited to do. Plus, I can completely control that process because there's no red tape, there's no other, there's no barrier in between me and that person. So I think that was like. I think that was a big piece of it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the power of not being limited by insurance or the traditional model Like it went from being something really powerful to being like oh, traditional model, like it went. It went from being something really powerful to being like oh I, there's this, all this new thing I can do.
Speaker 1:You felt super empowered by it. So, okay, let me, let's go back through this process, because you go through, you get to this vision of of recognizing that now I love that you brought up that step, angie, because now you're like I can reach these people directly if I'm not limited by insurance, I don't have to go through a doctor, I can do whatever I want, which is what every other business owner outside of healthcare gets to do is pursue Facebook ads, whatever else we even feel like doing. There's so many different companies you can hire to help you find people in that world. So you open up that realization. Now the big question I have for you is, now that you're developing this vision and you're following that trail of breadcrumbs, how do you start getting a team to buy into this? Because I'm imagining you bought your team into an existing vision of a very traditional PT model, insurance-based elderly population. So what did that process look like for you to communicate this to your team?
Speaker 2:communicate this to your team. So, in that piece of knowing that we could control who we brought in and how we did this, it became very much like oh, you just mean direct access, right, and I knew it was so much more than no, we're not just. We're not talking about direct access, right. We're talking about that's a component, right, Like we have to be able to go directly to the consumer, but we're talking about something bigger. And so I think one of the first things we did is I had to name it. I had to name what I was doing, and that's where primary care physical therapy came from. And so being able to name that and define what that is for my team, I think that's where it started.
Speaker 1:You named the movement. It's like, hey, we're going to move over here and let's make it like a purpose-driven movement, and you gave it a branding name. This is such a great masterclass on branding Like it's almost. Vision is the overarching topic. For sure, catching the vision and by being really clear on your purpose and your power. But then there's this element of like, you know, branding, how, the power of messaging and branding and giving it a title. Did you get any resistance?
Speaker 2:No, um, not from my team. No.
Speaker 1:Did you get resistance from anyone? The public, patients? I don't know.
Speaker 2:As you may imagine, we've had some resistance from other folks in the medical community who have told us to stay in our own lane.
Speaker 1:Are you being serious? Other PTs or doctors or MDs? I mean or Physicians Phys physicians to stay in your own lane, oh because maybe they felt threatened that you were maybe pulling away from the population directly, versus like going to them with, you know, your hat in your hand. Please, sir, can I get a referral?
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. So yeah, that that was yeah, that's been something. That was yeah, that's been something. What a wonderful disruption.
Speaker 1:I don't think we're doing anything disruptive until we offend people Exactly, and I know that personally in my world as well. I've been talking to my coaches recently and being shocked about some of the things that I'm working on and people who I thought were like friends of mine are, like you know, threatened by it and causing some problems. So I think that when we are doing things differently, we do need to be prepared. That's the trade-off. You follow the system. There's not a lot of upside, but you'll keep everyone pleased Not you and your family, but everyone else will be really happy versus a disruptive leader who has a team that's dedicated and willing to move forward.
Speaker 1:There's going to be some amount of disruption that's going to happen on the back end of that and then okay. So how long did this process take for you to transition from? It sounds like you still might even be in it. How long would you say that process has taken you? From the time that you made a firm decision that you were going to start taking direct access, cash pay and start minimizing your insurance, to where you are now? How long of a process has that been?
Speaker 2:It is a continual process, that is for sure. So this has probably been really hyper-focused over the last year to year, and a half so going from again, going from a practice that you know. My practice started in 2005, going from something that was built on in-network insurance, all of this right. Like you know, we had to unravel all of that. You know, I think that's a whole other conversation. Yeah, how we unraveled all of that and got to where we are now and, didn't, you know, let the bottom drop out.
Speaker 1:In addition, you had hurricanes happening. Angie, I remember working with you when you had more than once a devastating hurricane in Florida, just like pause your operations while you were in transition. That was devastating.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, that was, that was. That was something From a leadership standpoint. There's something to touch on. There will, if you want, please you, if you want me to, for a second, because that that's I mean, that's a huge, that's a very like that even makes me emotional to talk about that hurricane, like that was a huge, huge, um, you know, uh, when we look at the timeline right, like that's a big marker on the timeline of like this whole process and, um, you know we were in the um, you know we were in the thick of that was 2022 and we were in the thick of, okay, like starting this primary care PT journey, right, and then, like we're doing all these things where we're going to start really being different, and then, like that, I mean, that devastated our, our community. Um, but from a leadership standpoint, I think this is where it gets so important. If I can go back to the one thing like that, I think every leader, I don't care what the business is, can really do to grow and scale and create. The greatest impact is to make sure that you are super clear on your purpose and you lead with that purpose, no matter what. And so, um, our purpose is to change lives and that is super clear throughout our entire practice.
Speaker 2:And after that hurricane hit, um, I mean, I, I, what do you do other than you look back and you say what is our purpose? And you stay true to that. And so the way that we overcame that was my team continued to those who could get to me, continued to come in. I mean, we had no power, we had no water, we had nothing but continued to come in because I knew I had to still give them purpose and we still had to go change the lives in our community. So we were cutting down trees, we were cleaning up debris, we were, we were taking patients to doctor appointments when the doctor's office reopened because their car had floated away in the hurricane.
Speaker 2:We were, um, like it, it, it, it was, it was insane, but I knew that I still had to. We were taking supplies to the Island by boat. Every day we would come to the office and donate a pile and they'd get taken to the Island by by boat. Um, we were doing this and I was paying my people that they were getting paid to go cut down trees in in in the community, because that was that's my purpose, right, and? And so I just think that if there is one thing that I feel like as a leader that like has just really gotten me clarity and gotten me through like the most adverse of times that I've had up till this point in my career and I mean I've been through full-blown Medicare audits, I've been through COVID, just like everybody else, but this hurricane was definitely like the most adverse our community had faced. It's leading with purpose.
Speaker 1:Wow, it's amazing, the correlation between purpose and vision. I was so touched by your story and I was very lucky to be working with you in a B2B format and getting to meet with you, um on a regular basis during that timeframe, and I just remember thinking about what would I even do in my if I was in your shoes. Just this, cause it wasn't. You were shut down for a long time. How long were you completely like? How long before you were up and running back to normal? From the time that it shut to the time that you felt like you were back to normal? Cause there's stages of how long was that period?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so if you just look at like census, um in the in the clinic, uh, it was about two months.
Speaker 1:Oh, my gosh. I mean, you were just totally cut off at the knees and you dove into your savings to keep paying your team to live their purpose. I just the vision. You know, the purpose is the why, it's the thing that got you through it, and then vision is what you're building towards, you know, in retrospect now I wonder and I don't want to put words in your mouth, but I wonder did that that inflection point with that hurricane? Did that help you get closer to your vision somehow? Or was it just a huge delay?
Speaker 2:No, I like. In looking back now, I absolutely believe it was something that that helped us get closer to it. A hundred percent. I do because, in seeing the power of, of when you can lead with that purpose and know that that's driving your vision and driving your mission forwards, and to see that you can overcome the most adverse of times that I had ever experienced by doing that, it just it was just that much more impactful to me that you have to do this, like Ange, this is your calling, you have to do this.
Speaker 1:So yeah, it's amazing how our vision and our purpose is always met with great resistance, and the greater the purpose, the greater the resistance. But I don't think many people will go through what you went through when it comes to that hurricane, because even COVID not to minimize that, that was devastating. But there was PPP money, there were other support structures. When those hurricanes hit, there was nothing.
Speaker 1:And I remember you telling me, like you know what, well, I've decided we're just going to live our purpose and the way I was inspired by that that you were going to pay your people to go out there and cut down trees and take patients to their appointments and donate supplies, and that you were going through your savings, not knowing what the outcome was, in the middle of a pivot of your business model. I mean you're very successful. During that time frame though it was scary, I remember just from a sure book of business perspective if the hurricane hadn't hit, your volume of business was going to shrink dramatically. You were offending some of your referral sources. When we say disrupt, we're not talking about comfortable change, we're talking about massive discomfort in the dream, in their vision of a better future for all. So now you're kind of in.
Speaker 1:I mean, you're definitely, like you said, still there. Entrepreneur's work is never done but from where I'm sitting, you're there. Look at your business now. It is an inspiration to see not just what you've overcome but how your purpose and your vision have helped you develop something that's so different that I believe it's a model for the industry. I'm listening to, I always think about it from my rock stars perspective. What are? What they're thinking and asking is how? How did you develop leaders that that, like shared your purpose and vision and like are so dedicated? Cause, honestly, your group of leaders are some of the best dedicated leaders I've seen of any company I've coached with, and I've worked with over 300 practices in the last five years. So what? What do you do to help those leaders become the leaders they are?
Speaker 2:So I love that question right.
Speaker 1:I love that question.
Speaker 2:I have to like compartmentalize this for a second, because there's definitely lots of steps. So, first off, I think we go back to the branding piece, right? Um, not only did we brand a theme, but I also branded who we are, and we're a physical therapist of tomorrow, and we abbreviate that as a PTOT, and so this is a very PTOT, p-t-o-t. Physical therapist of tomorrow.
Speaker 1:Oh, sorry, ptot. Oh, you're giving me the acronym Sorry. Thank you, ptot.
Speaker 2:But that's what we call ourselves, right, we are pioneers and we are PTOTs, and so that is a huge piece in culture too, right? Like developing your own language and having your own culture and having this team that surrounds you and can help push you forwards, right? So I think, from a branding standpoint, like that's super, that's super important, because now they belong to this, to this elite group of of P? Tots and pioneers, and there's only certain people that we let in into that group, right to that group right.
Speaker 2:Right, we, from a strategic standpoint, we have quarterly, down to monthly, down to weekly, down to daily touch points with my team. So, like daily, it looks like you know something as easy as there's a 15 minute huddle every day. You know, quarterly, it's a two and a half hour meeting, right, yeah, in each and every one of those pieces, there's always some way that we are touching on purpose or vision. Always, what does that look like?
Speaker 1:Yeah, Give me just one example. I'm sure you do it lots of ways, but give me an example of that, because that's huge.
Speaker 2:Daily huddle when we're checking in. This is a very small strategic like what's the production? What do we need to do? Right, like there's just like that daily touch point, what's happening? The language. So again we go back to like language as a piece of culture. Right, the language is. If I'm the leader, like this isn't me saying this, this is one of my leaders. Saying that I've taught them is okay, matt, how many lives do you get to change this week?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I love that.
Speaker 2:It's very different than okay. Matt, how many patient visits are you seeing this week? Wow, it's very different.
Speaker 1:It's not even the same thing. You talk a lot. You're even using this example pre-record where I said, as an example, this mindset of people stepping into leadership full-time versus I'm stepping out of treating because it's like, oh, I'm leaving, I'm alienating my patients to chase money, versus I'm stepping into leadership to make sure the patients get a better experience and, by the way, so do you. So you know how many lives are you touching this week versus how many patient visits are you getting in. It's so hard for them to complain to you later and be like you're all about the money. You just want to work me to the bone. You're all about the money. I'm like because I want you to touch more lives. Hmm, explain to me how that's possible. Like they won't even go there because it's such an obvious.
Speaker 1:But you know, I just think that's such a beautiful example again of vision and purpose and how they come together. There's a distinct overlap, right, like if purpose is the why, vision is the where you know why we exist, but where we want to go with that purpose. And so having that connection, connect in the way that you use language for culture, is huge. So developing your leaders branding is, branding is a big part of your experience is what I'm realizing, like how you message things and how you present them to people. Is your team super honored to be PTAPs?
Speaker 2:Absolutely.
Speaker 1:Because they are. They are the PTs of tomorrow.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely, and um, they will too. Like they will when we have, you know, folks that are on board with us, like A players want to be with A players, right, and so if we do have somebody on board and that, you know, they'll come to me and they'll say this one's not working, like this is not, this one's not a P-top, this one's not working, you know, and it makes it I will say it makes it more challenging in a very challenging industry. Already, you know, but that's it, you know. From going back to your question, though, will, I'm like how do you build the leaders? Because this is something that, like, I want to, you know, I continuously want to get better at, because I think this is important across most all businesses is that, you know, as the CEO, as the owner, as the founder, you know, we do like to, at least I know in my case, we do like to control a lot of things.
Speaker 2:Yes, and we do like it when it's done our way, right.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah.
Speaker 2:And so I think that is one of the things that I really really continue to work on.
Speaker 2:Very, I really really continue to work on very, very hard on myself, on being able to step back and take the time to when somebody comes to me or when I see something happening that I'm like, oh my gosh, like we need to do this.
Speaker 2:Not to jump in and say, hey, we need to do this right To lead or so-and-so, but to pause and even though it's going to take more time and I know this is so hard and I'm not perfect at it but to stop and say let's talk about what's happening here. Why are you doing this, or why do you think we might want to change this, or where else do you think we could go with this and lead them with questions, right, like, like, instead of telling this is just the strategy that I've used instead of telling, trying to back up a second and just let me start asking you the why and many times I already know the answer that I want them to get to or sometimes they surprise me and they come up with something that I'm like, oh wow, I didn't even think about that, that's what we should do.
Speaker 1:You thought you knew and then come up with something better.
Speaker 2:Yes, that's what we should do. That's exactly right. But you know, I think that that's also that's been a mindset and a behavior shift for me, where I had to wrap my brain around that you don't know everything, you don't have to control everything, you don't need to always be the one Let your people do it, because you're not being a great leader if you're not developing them into leaders.
Speaker 1:That's a great comment and what a wonderful way of showing trust, the Speed of Trust being my favorite book of all time. When you allow, like when you're modeling, of asking them questions and letting them take ownership of it, it opens the possibility of something better. But even if it doesn't, it opens the reality of their capability and so how cool that you were able to build those leaders. But it starts with a vision, it starts with a purpose. Excuse me, it starts with a purpose, it gets reinforced with a vision, and branding is the connecting thing between the two is my takeaway from today's episode is that it starts with that purpose. Why I do what I do? Right To change lives. In your case, the vision disrupt the industry, become the PT, the primary PT, and then in the middle, is this branding of things like the PTATs and all the other language that we use. That's what gets people bought in, in addition to these other wonderful things that you mentioned.
Speaker 1:So, angie, this has been such a phenomenal episode. I know people are going to want to get a hold of you Before we get to your calls to action. We would be remiss if we didn't mention PT the dog. Pt the dog is a very special dog. You've written a children's book about your three-legged rescue dog that you've owned for years. You have a website called ptthedogcom. Would you mind sharing with the audience a little bit about what PT the dog represents for you and what you're doing with that children's book?
Speaker 2:Oh, thank you so much for asking. Yes, he is my heart. So I had heard on a podcast many years ago like you know, we've been talking today a lot about passion and purpose, right, that if you can combine your passion and your purpose in your career as well as personally, like it's a home run. And so PT the dog for me is combining my again going back to my purpose of changing lives, and it's combining my purpose of doing that through my community with with Apex, but also doing it to save and help more rescue dogs. And so I was able to bridge the gap and bring them both together, which happened completely organically when I saved this dog, petey, five years ago from a pound in Miami and his name was Petey, like the little rascals, p-e-t-e-y with the eye patch, you know and took him to the veterinarian's office to fix his leg. And I said I don't know, just call him Petey, I don't know, we just rescued him, just help fix his leg. And they literally wrote the words Petey on his intake paperwork.
Speaker 1:Come on.
Speaker 2:No, Petey the initials.
Speaker 1:And later Not knowing that you're a physical therapist, not knowing that's what you sign your name on hundreds of times a day.
Speaker 2:No, no, said pd. They heard pt and this is how his story got started. Um, so I was like he's gonna be my mascot. He's going to be like this is how I'm gonna bring both of these worlds together. So, yeah, um, he's a tripod, he. He's amazing. He comes to the office with us every day and we started taking him out into the community to teach kids about kindness and rescue dogs. And in doing that long story short, somebody caught wind of it and said I need to help you write a book about him so you can read his book to the kids in the community. And so a friend of mine helped me write and illustrate his story as a children's book. That we began then going into the community, going to YMCAs and churches and summer camps and whatnot, and we take PT, we take his book, and his book is all about teaching kindness and his message is to never give kindness and his messages to never give up, and teaching that powerful message to to our young folks. And so so, yeah, it's, it's.
Speaker 1:What a wonderful thing. On your website you can book time to have PT, the dog, come visit you as well.
Speaker 2:That's right. That's right, you can. And all of his books go to go to. So when the hurricane came, we can go back to the hurricane.
Speaker 1:That's right, connecting the dots.
Speaker 2:Yeah, this book had. Just it was like August that the book was done. The hurricane came in September and this was a huge, like pivotal, of OK, we can use the book to help the community. So we need to release the book now and we need to start a charity. And so we started a charity in his name and so all the proceeds from the book went and helped all the displaced animals and we gave to various shelters in our area after the hurricane and then that has just, you know, has just grown. And you know, last year, through the sales of his book and through the things that my husband and I do, we were able to donate um a little over $25,000 back into the animal rescue community last year.
Speaker 1:So rock stars. Are you paying close attention to this? When we're clear on our purpose and we know what our passion is, and if you combine those, we open the possibility of what can be. Angie could have very much, very much, just put her head down and grinded through that hurricane, but because of her love, because of her passion and her purpose, she produced something that is almost like how in the world could you even think of that? You wouldn't have thought of it, angie, if you weren't just trying to answer one question how can I live my purpose? That's the only question we should ask. Question how can I live my purpose? That's the only question we should ask, because, as I'm watching you as a student, I'm just going wow, that's all I need to ever ask myself is okay? What would living my purpose look like in this situation?
Speaker 1:And now in this situation, it looked like we're adopting a dog that probably most people wouldn't want. That dog, who had very little to live for, very little reality of ever being adopted, being adopted into a beautiful home where not only did he live and thrive, but became an example to inspire all of these other people and help endless and countless number of other animals. I mean. The power of purpose is just such a humbling thing to observe and that we get to be tools in the hands of God or the universe, whatever we believe. To be able to make those things come to bow is just such a blessing. So, angie, thank you for such a wonderful episode. How do people get ahold of you if they want to work for you, if they want to, if they're, if they're a PTAT. If they're not a PTAT, don't apply. But if you think you might be a PTAT, definitely apply. If you're another business owner who just wants to learn, how do they get hold of you, angie?
Speaker 2:Yeah, please. So LinkedIn is a great connection for me personally, angie McGilvery, and I think you'll link to that in the episode, right? Yep, so that's a great contact for me personally. If you want to follow what we're doing, uh, and the cool things, instagram is a great place to go to. Um, apex, uh, physical therapy SWFL, I believe, is Instagram handle. Um, our website, apexptfloridacom, has all of the all of the things on there on there as well.
Speaker 1:Thank you, Angie, for being on the show.
Speaker 2:Thank you Will my pleasure.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening rock stars. And if you're one of the many medical professionals and leaders who have had it dealing with the drama of hiring and training people that you think are overpriced, then let's think about how virtual assistants can offload you to do what you love, which is changing people's lives. In the show notes there's a link to jump on our calendar so that we can show you why. Linkedin shows that virtual assistance is the second fastest growing trend in healthcare, next to artificial intelligence. At no obligation, we'll see if this is a fit for you. I hope to talk to you soon.
