Episode 51: Nothing Goes As Planned, The Grips of a New Clinic with DPT’s Kindra Scott and Latisha McKenzie

e51 Physical Therapy Kindra Scott Latisha McKenzie 3

Physical Therapists Dr. Kindra Scott & Dr. Latisha McKenzie talk to Dr Trosclair on A Doctors Perspective Podcast

Banks won’t loan, marketing is hit or miss and other struggles of a physical therapy new clinic. Dr’s Kindra Scott and Latisha McKenzie don’t hold back about the journey and you hear determination but also frustration about best made plans.

Life Health Strength Physical Therapy clinic owners Dr. Kindra Scott DPT and Dr. Latisha McKenzie DPT have a beautiful physical therapy clinic in the Kelly Drive area of Philadelphia. Dr. Scott’s specialty is 3 and under and Dr McKenzie prefers more of the orthopedic with a heavy focus on neurological disorders (ALS, MS) in adults.

We learn that getting out of school you are well equipped for adults but to specialize in pediatrics like Dr Scott, then you have to earn your role and be a little fortunate to land a pediatric internship with little to no experience. Developmental delay in children (not rolling over by 1 years of age; for example) and cognitive issues due to mother on drugs or alcohol are a main overarching condition that she treats.

What type of treatment protocol length is expected with young patients?

Are there any repercussions to the mother who delivers a baby addicted to drugs and must undergo drug therapy to manage the withdrawal symptoms.

What do you do when banks won’t lend you money yet require you to have a signed lease?

What do you do when the limited marketing budget you have (plus time), just is not brining in the patients?

Misconception at a Physio Office: Can I get a relaxing massage?

Do these two Female Black Doctors see any prejudices in their day to day clinic? What has she learned from being one of the few Black and a Black Woman for that matter in a field dominated by white women in the acute setting and white men in private practice.

Dr. Scott recommends students to not underestimate the time requirement for a doctoral program. Dr. Mckenzie has seen great confidence in the young generation but still recommends being humble and flexible.

They learned every area of the business before hiring staff and that has made all the difference to them PLUS being motivated, flexible and teachable. They also give some tips on how to find staff. If you can’t afford a tech or a helper, they give a secret to get help while also helping the other person.

Dr’s McKenzie and Scott are in the grips of the day to day in clinic. Trying to figure out what marketing works best on a limited budget, the ups and downs of collections each month and learning the business side of how to translate excellent clinical skills to financial freedom.

What motivates them to show up for work each day in the midst of the grind and hustle of a new clinic?

A great thing about these two physical therapists is that they are willing to further educate themselves on conditions and procedures if a client comes in that they aren’t fully versed in to begin with. Listen to find out more about that and the rare condition that they are becoming specialized in.

We get a great glimpse of not only a Private Clinic owned by Moms and how those roles work out but also a business partner in the exact same situation. It’s a balance and a juggle but these two successful women are figuring it out and making sure family is a priority.

Run toward your vision because the road to becoming a doctor is not easy nor is building a new clinic. Opposition will creep up so your desire to succeed must be strong. Nothing tends to go as planned so be aware of that from the start.

Reach out to the guests at www.LHStherapy.com

Show notes can be found at www.adoctorsperspective.net/51 here you can also find tweetable quotes, links to things mentioned, the Travel Tip and a complete transcript.

This episode is a part of the African American Doctor Spotlight Series. Put your email for a Quick Reference PDF to save for future viewing.

Full Transcript of the Interview (probably has some grammatical errors). Just Click to expand

Justin Trosclair 0:03
Episode 51 nothing

new clinic

and today Dr. Kendra Scott

joined 2017 podcast Awards Nominated host Dr. Justin throw school as he gets a rare to see him look into the specialties, all types of doctors and guess plus marketing, travel tips, struggles, goals, and relationship advice. Let’s hear a doctor’s perspective.

Welcome back. This will be our last week of the African American holiday spotlight series. Can you believe this, we’re about seven episodes that we just hit Episode 50. So thanks for listening for feedback. And for making this show what it is today. I really do appreciate it. You should notice that I updated the podcast logo to my picture now. And as you can see on the show notes, each episode has a different picture. I was doing travel photos, the I switched up to like the logo with their photo in the title. And now I’m gonna try something different, where I use the person’s picture and I just put a small logo of mine. Let me know what you think. Okay. But today, we got two fantastic physical therapists who are in the middle of the grind. They’ve been open for about a year and a half. You can hear it in Dr. Scott’s voice who’s two thirds of the interview that they are up and down and you know that puts a toll on you give you start a clinic expected to be rock solid Do you got this experience in then, like your marketing doesn’t really pan out? Right. So take a listen. And then document Kinsey comes on in the last 15 minutes. It shares her viewpoints which is definitely a different perspective than our partners. So I think you will enjoy what they have to say today. I will say they are my avatar. The doctors who are kind of struggling, got some successes, they have some they have some struggles. Today’s guests are really my ideal listener. Also, if you have never company or no a good one, we’re looking to have some sponsors now and if you’ll notice, not gonna have a travel tip today, and I’m going to try something new not do a post episode wrap up so all the show notes can be found at a doctor’s perspective. Flash five one. Let’s go hashtag behind the curtain.

Live from Cajun country, Louisiana. We have an amazing guest today. She is a physical therapist. She is pediatric focused. The clinic itself does orthopedic and neurologic really excited to have them all the way from Philly. Dr. Kendra Scott.

Unknown 2:47
Hey, everybody.

Justin Trosclair 2:48
Hey, Well, welcome to the show to a doctor’s perspective. I noticed before we even jump into anything else on your website, y’all look like you’re in a very swanky town, part of town. All right on the river yet the building looks nice. What do you think? It helps?

Unknown 3:05
Oh, yeah, it’s a beautiful area of town. It’s a nice neighborhood. We get a lot of runners, a lot of athletes, people staying fit, running along Kelly drive. It’s it’s a nice place. Very cool.

Justin Trosclair 3:18
Well, let’s go back to the beginning. How did you become a Doctor of Physical therapy? And then how did you pick pediatrics is you guys have a lot of leeway in what you choose to do?

Unknown 3:31
Well, the doctor part I went to school for physical therapy. And when I enrolled, they were doing away with the masters programs. So I did enter into a doctorate program. After that, you know, they give you a very general education, to where I can treat mostly adults. But if you were interested in certain specialties, like pediatrics, you would either try to get a pediatric internship. But if you weren’t as fortunate like myself, once you graduate, you try to get as many pediatric job as you can for people that will accept you with that experience. So that was around that I took I got I got I was fortunate. And I was able to land a job at like, Where was I Kennedy Krieger in Baltimore. I did a travel assignment one summer, so I literally traveled from Philly to Baltimore every day. Yeah. And then eventually, I landed a position in Abington and they needed some help. And then Nick, you, I volunteered? And then my last stop before here was Children’s

Justin Trosclair 4:36
Hospital. So you really did you were able to just get that first job that you can almost take anything, I just got to get the experience. Put your stripes and as they say, and then from then on, boom, you can start picking what

Unknown 4:48
you it was a 15 hour day between Amtrak and the shift. But it’s worth it.

Justin Trosclair 4:56
What can you do for pediatrics? What what kind of what does your day look like conditions, things like that.

Unknown 5:02
conditions, I get a lot of developmental delay. Children that may have been born early or born with certain syndromes that aren’t meeting the milestones that you know, your typical one year old is rolling, sitting, babbling, but someone who was born premature or born with a syndrome, you know, may not be able to roll yet and hear their one year old. More, you know, you’ll see children who maybe mom drink or she smoked and the kid comes out very frazzled. Like a little neonatal distress. We work on positioning techniques, you know, do’s and don’ts, you know, don’t talk too loud around this baby, put blankets around and keep the room dark. You know, they’ll prefer to be line this way versus that way. So a lot of positioning.

Justin Trosclair 5:47
And they’ve already figured obviously, at this point, they figure these things out and you can replicate it. Here’s the top three things that you can do for this type of kid at your, at your house, to see if you get the results, right.

It’s pretty successful. I mean, I assume it is, but the results are usually pretty astounding. So

Unknown 6:05
it depends on the diagnosis. So your kiddo with the the mom who maybe took drugs, that that’s the most stressful stressful for the kid is stressful for the caretakers, because that baby system has to wean off of those drugs. So typically, they’re not even released from the hospital until the doctors and nursing staff have given them whatever amount of medication that they need, you know, because they go through withdrawals to I want to go through withdrawals, that means nobody sleeps.

Justin Trosclair 6:37
Is that baby automatically removed from that mother or that family? Because of that situation? Oh,

Unknown 6:44
not necessarily. It depends on the reason why, you know, find out that mom was being abused herself. And that was how she coped so long, you know that the family is in a safer environment? You know, it depends the reasons why.

Justin Trosclair 7:01
Okay, so it’s not guarantee your quota crackhead or something and then your baby comes out. That’s interesting. How do you feel about that? I leave that to social work.

Unknown 7:16
My main concern most times is to get the baby comfortable. Because you want the mother comfortable, what you don’t want as a stressed out baby, which is what our internal stress out the family. So my job is to teach the family coping techniques, you know, the best ways to position the child or talk to the child or not talk to the child? You know, it really depends on the needs of the kid.

Justin Trosclair 7:41
Okay, do you do much with like autism and things like that?

Unknown 7:45
Not a whole lot, but I do have experience with autism.

Justin Trosclair 7:49
Okay, so who who do they go to? Is that as someone who’s done even more training in that realm of physical therapy, or is it like an occupational therapists are?

Unknown 7:58
So in Pennsylvania, you with autism, the Department of Education in Pennsylvania has certain programs like early intervention, and that’s more school base. So physical therapist can work in the school based setting. But in the school based setting, the family and the child would have educational support. So they’ll have a special instructor. You’ll have an occupational therapists, physical therapists, whatever it is that child needs, you’re going in a lot of diverse support from the educational system. Okay,

Justin Trosclair 8:31
Muslim that starts probably at a young age.

Unknown 8:33
Yes, yes, yes.

Justin Trosclair 8:36
We’re talking babies. But actually pediatrics goes all the way up to technically 1722. What? I’m way off on that one. Wow. 22. So do you find yourself focusing more five and under? Or do you get like a little league sports injuries, and

Unknown 8:52
I do accept little leave? am I passionate is infant five, and three, and under some of the hardest cases, I like that.

Unknown 9:01
So

Justin Trosclair 9:03
we’re going to transition you to somebody else now.

Well, I am curious, then every profession, especially when you’re dealing with kids, and like older people as well, and it’s anywhere there’s there’s there’s misconceptions about what you do and what your day might look like. Do you have any common ones that you would like to discuss? So yes,

Unknown 9:23
so one of the biggest misconceptions is that you’re going to come to physical therapy and get a massage.

Unknown 9:30
Yeah, that’s not the case. So what I do tell patients, you know, we’ll let them know you know, we have a great massage place next door, and we give you a massage, it’s not going to feel good, you know, we we will trigger point release. So we’re release attendant, that hurts. So you’re not going to come here for relaxing massage. That’s a very common misconception. Okay. I went to school for four years, my massage course was two months. Maybe once a week, though, I don’t even know a lot about it.

Justin Trosclair 10:01
The I’ll do a lot of tools, or you just kind of use your thumbs and those bicep tendon?

Unknown 10:06
elbows, thumbs. And then yes, some therapists do we use tool? Some of them use a some kind of ball? I don’t even know what it’s called.

Justin Trosclair 10:17
What about like payment? I’m going to study payment. But is there any misconceptions on this is physical therapy should be covered by my insurance, I’m not paying cash for anything y’all experience that

Unknown 10:28
know. So we’re pretty upfront with our clients, we will let them know, you know, when they sign their paperwork in the beginning, they know that they have a legal obligation to pay whatever their insurance company doesn’t pay. But we typically know what they’re coming for. So what will say is, if they’re coming for a syndrome, where we know insurance company doesn’t typically reimburse for that will let them know, this service may not be reimbursed by your insurance, you’ll have to pay cash. And you know, don’t give that consent day one.

Justin Trosclair 10:57
And then with the conditions that you treat, do you find that the plans are like months and months? Or can you get this taken care of in a couple of weeks,

Unknown 11:06
most of the clients six to eight weeks, they’re better. But then there are some who you know, need maintenance, certain diagnoses, you can see, you know, for the rest of their lives. That’s true.

Justin Trosclair 11:20
Just been like like said they’ve been on which syndrome in which spectrum there. Exactly. Okay, for yourself, personally, we’re doing a series right now, African American doctors, have you noticed any kind of I don’t want to say necessarily racism, but hindrances are perks to being an African American woman, Dr. In this 2017?

Unknown 11:39
Well, thank you perks, I can’t think of Well, I mean, parks, we stand out, because we’re a minority. So you know, when we go on Facebook or Instagram, and they’re like, Oh, it’s too black. That is, that’s great. that excites some people, you know,

Unknown 11:58
are just like,

Justin Trosclair 12:00
just people,

Unknown 12:02
hindrances. Quite a few hindrances, but we’re not so quick support black hard on that.

Unknown 12:10
Okay, we have noticed that, you know, people will come in, and they’ll look around at our space, and they just look like, Oh, this is beautiful. And we’re just looking like that. That’s supposed to be beautiful, you know? So

Justin Trosclair 12:24
it’s been interesting. Some of the answers we’ve had in the past few weeks. So I’m glad that it’s a you know, not as been a hallway, we’re not coming in, they find out who’s who’s the doctors and like, we gotta get we gotta get out now. Yeah, very good. One of the things we like to talk about is students, new doctors, those types of things. You have any advice for the growing classes out there?

Unknown 12:46
So our receptionist is here, she wants to go to school, as I tell her to cover her ears.

Unknown 12:52
It’s hard. It’s hard. Yeah. You’re not gonna last sleep. You may not feel too good about life.

Justin Trosclair 13:00
How many hours a day did you study would you say?

Unknown 13:03
So we were in school for nine hours, you had enough time to come home at night shower, eat, and then it was time to study again. So it’s all day and all night, Monday through Friday,

Justin Trosclair 13:15
for like, five years. Sorry, three, but I was counting, counting some of that undergrad

Unknown 13:22
grad wasn’t that bad undergrad, you know, had his challenges, but you still had a lot more free time. You don’t have any free time

Justin Trosclair 13:30
in grad school? No, it really, they really amp it up, like 21 hours is a light semester. And before that, you would never even consider that 21 hours. So you know,

Unknown 13:40
the light at the end of the tunnel is your internships, you do kind of get a break there. So even though you’re working for free, it’s you get a mental break you out in the real world, and you’re not in a book every single day, you will have to still study because your clinical instructors will ask things of you, but it’s a breather?

Justin Trosclair 14:01
Are there any seminars being that you’ve been out for a while that you would recommend to students to get while you’re in school, probably get it at a cheaper price than you would as a graduate that they should do? The better equip them later? No,

Unknown 14:14
no, you just gotta get in there and be ready to survive.

Justin Trosclair 14:24
So you have staff? Yes. How do you hire good staff? Is it? Is it all based on training? Are there certain qualities that you’re looking for? Before you hire someone? Yeah,

Unknown 14:32
there’s certain qualities we’re looking for. So factor McKinsey and I, we purposely tried to learn every area of the business before we hired staff. So we learned how to do the bill, we learned how to check in the patients and be the receptionist, we learned how to be the janitors. And now that we know what it takes. Now we know what we need. And we’re you know, we’re very flexible, we like to bring on someone who doesn’t necessarily have all the experience in the world, but is teachable. And so long as the person is teachable, and they’re flexible, and motivated, then it’s a good fit for us.

Justin Trosclair 15:11
Okay, have you ever used path patients? Or they’ll just kind of use certain websites? Or how do you try to find people

Unknown 15:19
we use? Indeed?

Justin Trosclair 15:21
Okay,

Unknown 15:22
um, what else? Do you play people? A lot of people have found us. That’s how we’ve gotten a lot of our stuff. We were great receptionist, she found us.

Justin Trosclair 15:34
They’re just, I want to work at a physical therapy office, and they just,

Unknown 15:38
we just get these random emails from people in the community. But yeah, people driving by, you know, see that we’re open a log on, you know, I guess to the website and get our information.

Unknown 15:52
We’ve been fortunate in that regard.

Justin Trosclair 15:55
Now, the only have any texts to help the doctors out, we call them like carbonic acid,

where they can kind of do this stuff that you don’t necessarily have to do. But yeah,

Unknown 16:04
no, we’re still a one man show with that. All right,

Justin Trosclair 16:09
no, I think that takes it to the next level, he really, whenever we were looking at that as as chiropractors and things is, you have to be pretty busy, right? You know, I’m not saying I’m busy. But there’s a certain level of business that you have to have three for like, okay, it’s worth the investment in hiring somebody to do certain aspects of the

Unknown 16:25
job. We have taken student volunteers before, like high school students who want to get hours before they go to college. So that’s been helpful, you know, especially with what kind of stuff do they do. So with me doing pediatrics, it’s a tremendous help to have someone else on the floor, because one thing about pediatrics is you put the kid in one spot, and they’re going to go on the complete opposite direction. So if you can have another set of hands to shake a toy, or just more them back to where I’m trying to get them, you know, they can do things like that. So their hands off with the patients, but they can follow my commands and my cues for us to both help the child you know, do what he or she needs to do.

Justin Trosclair 17:05
That’s perfect. And like you said, they’re getting experience. This is actually what the real world is like in that they can make a decision. Yeah, I should keep doing this or not.

Unknown 17:14
Right, right.

Justin Trosclair 17:16
Or you’re able to you’re an entrepreneur, and a doctor, when your own clinic, any kind of marketing that you’ll do on a regular basis that really works or how you’re getting clients

Unknown 17:25
really works. Social media has been the most recent endeavor of ours. And that’s obviously you know, where we found where you found us. Right, but no, we haven’t figured out what works. Yeah, we’re still you know, doing the face to face doctors meetings and walking into doctors offices, that’s not working so well. We mostly get our referrals from the insurance companies or clients that see the place and want to come here or or workman’s comp, don’t have business coaches that you can pay every month guides you like, here’s a better way to approach the medical doctors. So they pick you versus someone down the street. That would be great. No, no.

Justin Trosclair 18:11
That would be great.

Unknown 18:12
With great. Yeah.

Justin Trosclair 18:14
I can’t believe that like chiropractors, my goodness, we are flooded. Everybody who was successful seems like they have their own coaching program business

Unknown 18:21
coach. Wow. Interesting. That’s the difficult part about physical therapy. There’s not a lot of guidance. I mean, I know within our professional organization, there is a private practice session. And we joined it one year, and we just didn’t find it helpful. You think I this has been a trial and error venture?

Justin Trosclair 18:45
That’s the truth? Well, you know, with Facebook, you mentioned social media, definitely it could. It could blow up if you there’s a lot of people out there that, you know, they’ll definitely take your money.

It’s a matter of getting to get the results to get those new people out there. We’re lucky next day, we found you on Instagram. And you’re definitely putting some things out there that could grab people’s attention. So right. I like that.

Unknown 19:09
So any suggestions that you have? Yeah.

Justin Trosclair 19:13
Well, one suggestion, I guess, since you asked. I’m curious when it comes to marketing to the medical doctors, y’all are already kind of in there. There’s training programs, they know that they’re supposed to send people to you guys and gals, for for rehab and stretching and rehabilitation. But as far as trying to be the person that they want, like that’s the hard part is Do you want more research? Do you need more apples and pears are sent to your office each week? You know,

Unknown 19:40
we have to get to the office managers. That’s the part we’re having a hard time with. Their like gatekeepers.

Justin Trosclair 19:48
I tried to do a, hey, this is who I am. What do you do? Maybe we it was four or five months. Okay. And for them it was this is just another Tuesday lunch to us. And we’re and I was thinking Wait, my shot as much as they like, they don’t even show up sometimes. So? Yeah, well, I don’t know that y’all sound like I’ll have your hands full. And trying to figure that out. There are some good podcast to my just not just mine quotes, but there’s some cash practice podcast just for physical therapists as well. I don’t know if they’ll listen to that. But they have some really cool stuff like working in CrossFit gym, you know, all kinds of crazy ideas to to boost their marketing. Yeah. Well, when it comes to goals, a lot of us have five year goal maybe even 10 years ago. Would you care to share any of yours? And how do you know if it’s worthy of your pursuit?

Unknown 20:35
Oh, let’s say five year we should be very short term goals. You know, just factor it’s it’s so hard to project five years stuck in the fire that we’re in right now.

Unknown 20:48
But how long have y’all been open? We’ve been open or a year and a half. At this point.

Justin Trosclair 20:54
You really are in the possibly the hardest part of a business right now.

Unknown 21:00
First, the liquid. Know, you know,

Justin Trosclair 21:03
the first six months I was in clinic had bought a clinic, and they redid the completely outside and the carpenter gum that parking lot. The only reason people even though we were open was some cheap dumb sign that out front of other road that said all businesses open during construction for the first six months, right? Oh, it was brutal. Yeah, yeah. Did y’all do any? I’m just curious now just kind of having a conversation. Y’all do any networking groups like business chamber stuff? Or like be an eye or anything like that?

Unknown 21:36
we’ve considered it But no, we haven’t gotten connected with the Chamber of

Justin Trosclair 21:40
Commerce yet. Yeah. There are groups. It’s called be an eye. And this isn’t a plug. I wish they were a sponsor or something. Right? It Have you heard of that? But I have Yes. Yeah. So that worked really well for me. But to be honest, I might have seen one or two physical therapist ever, in those groups. And I’m thinking, my goodness, that could be a gold mine. Because for me, it was a 10. x or more return on my investment every year. Okay, yeah. It because you know that it’s exclusive. So I was only chiropractor and there’s no physical therapies in the group, maybe massage therapist, but you know, we’re not like you said, if you want a massage and go down the street that I want to make you cry a little, that’s, that’s my massage.

Well, you’re in the middle of it all. Yeah, trying to be successful trying to just probably pay the bills on a consistent basis, get those new patients really start thriving, you know,

what gets you excited, what makes you wake up in the morning, and say, it’s worth it. I gotta come in on Monday, and just, I gotta keep going off.

Unknown 22:46
No, you know, all in all, it’s, you know, for how far we’ve come, we have seen successes, and it’s exciting. We do have a very beautiful, beautiful space. And I do feel like, you know, we stand out, you walk into our space, and it doesn’t look like your typical physical therapy practice. And we maintain it. So we make it work. So let’s say the relationship that I have with my office staff and with my business partner, Dr. Mackenzie, it makes it possible, it makes it very feasible. The patients, they’re great. You know, we’ve had some really, really wonderful people walk in here, and we get lots of positive feedback. You’ll have like a gym look, or is it more of a professional look, it’s a little bit of both, it’s more of a professional look. There’s a little bit of gym equipment here and there.

Justin Trosclair 23:41
Okay, yeah, no, no, I think you know what I mean? You didn’t walk into Planet Fitness that at all? No. Okay, it’s not like that. Okay.

Unknown 23:49
Right. We have the essentials, but we don’t have a whole lot of you know, heavy workout equipment.

Justin Trosclair 23:54
As far as your partner. They do orthopedic and are all neurology,

Unknown 23:59
so we both do a bit of orthopedics. But um, she my business partner, she is a big neuro, neuro girl.

Justin Trosclair 24:07
Does that mean what does that mean to to use that like strokes?

Unknown 24:12
Know mom’s strokes?

Unknown 24:15
als? Ms. Yes, she sees a lot.

Justin Trosclair 24:19
What about soccer injuries, football injuries, the all kind of go into that type of?

Unknown 24:24
So for Donald No, that’s not where our expertise is, there is a practice in the area. Like if we had big athlete, one to get back to sports, we would send them out, we can get you functional. You know,

Unknown 24:37
we can get you back to walk in or taking a jog. But I’m not getting you back to the NFL.

Justin Trosclair 24:44
Right? Right. If you had to pick a type of condition or type of patient that y’all would see 80% of your day with what would come to mind. orthopedic,

Unknown 24:55
a good status post surgery is how back pain these issues shoulders are does it doesn’t matter? Me shoulder, neck back hip

Justin Trosclair 25:04
with the people that you know, and then you kind of run with? Is it common for a certain physical therapy just to only do knees are only do shoulders like some orthopedic surgeons, that’s really all they do is like one joint,

Unknown 25:15
some PCs to do that. But now we do a little bit of everything, actually, you know? Yeah. And even like going back to your sports question. If there’s something that we aren’t good at, we have our dm staff that are specialized. And we do believe in research, we have taken some clients where we have absolutely no background in it. We’ve done research to keep the client and the client and as we actually work together will tell them from the beginning like listen, we’re not comfortable with this. We’ve never done this before. But we’ll look into it for you. And that’s

Justin Trosclair 25:50
that’s helped a lot. Are they receptive to that?

Unknown 25:53
very receptive? Yes,

Justin Trosclair 25:54
that’s really cool. So it’s a growing process, you come in for a couple of weeks.

Unknown 26:00
suffer. Right now we have someone on our caseload, who has a very rare condition, and we bought a book, we studied this book, almost took a class, and we’ve been working with this patient for over a year now. And we’re in progress. And this is the only place in the area that she’s found that, you know, there are people willing to work with her. You know, that’s a big,

Justin Trosclair 26:23
that’s a big difference. Because there’s a lot of people that either they’ll try what they know, and it doesn’t work. Bye, bye. I mean, there’s people like you that will actually, let’s figure this out. Is it something that you can do and advertise or? Yeah, yeah, to that same condition and like, Hey, now we gotta practice full of these kind of.

Oh, nice. Very cool. Alright, so we’re gonna switch it up a little bit, get a little more personal. Okay. This will be a fun, fun question for you vacation. Are you able to take any vacation? We had a holiday coming up called Thanksgiving?

Unknown 26:55
Right, right.

Justin Trosclair 26:57
Are you able to take any extra time off? Or is this going to be a Thursday, often back to work on Friday?

Unknown 27:01
Oh, no. So daycare won’t allow me to go back to work on Friday, I have to stay home with my children.

Unknown 27:08
But we we do scheduled time off like that it’s necessary, we need a mental break. So as far as I’m concerned, the day after Thanksgiving will probably always be closed.

Justin Trosclair 27:21
Yeah, been there? There’s two of you, ladies, are you all able to just random day in May a random day in October, take a couple of days off for yourself and your family without having any issues? Yeah, do you find it difficult being a mom and the stereotypical roles of the mom having to be you know, the Briton, you know, not necessarily being the breadwinner all the time. But being a mom, and then now you’re a doctor got your own clinic, you have kids, there’s so many roles in your life. Has that been a challenge? Any advice for other moms out there to know that you can have it all in the sense?

Unknown 27:54
It’s, it is a challenge. One of the biggest takeaways Dr. Mackenzie and I probably have, you have to set boundaries. So we try this, we’re not always successful. But after school hours between like seven and 10, we try not to call each other, you know, to talk work related met. And it’s, as you know, between seven and 10, we’re eating dinner, we’re doing all the mom things. And you know, try to respect that value. So definitely just have to set boundaries. It’s possible. It’s not easy at all, but it’s doable, it can be done. Okay.

Justin Trosclair 28:30
And you did mention daycare. So you’re using daycare, not just your mama down the street, or anything like that.

Unknown 28:37
hours away, I would use her if she were here.

Unknown 28:42
Yeah, thank you.

Justin Trosclair 28:43
So we like to make you more of a human being. Sometimes we have these doctors, we put them on a pedestal. They just got everything together. Look at him. What else besides kid kid counts, though kids do count as a preoccupying your mind. But outside of work, what do you do to try to stay focused, have fun and just enjoy life.

Unknown 29:02
It’s too bad. You can see my facial expressions right now.

Justin Trosclair 29:07
I think we’ve all got to that point where we’re like, I work I tried to take care of my kid. And I can do right now to survive. Like, I’m in the midst of it all. Yeah. Would you like me spend family time? over a lot? Yeah. Would you like them? What would you What would you do?

Unknown 29:23
I think I’d love to shut my mind off for 24 hours. Because even even when there’s no work to be done, there’s always work to be done. You know, my partner and I, we business partner and I, it seems like things are always past do. So it kind of makes it hard to shut down. Even when things are slow. We do our best to get things done. But something always comes up. So what would we like to do? It’d be nice to steal away for like a week, you know, no phone, no computer, that would be ideal.

Justin Trosclair 29:57
Okay, do you have any advice, anybody out there who has a significant other, your own spouse, your significant other, to help keep the love alive and to feel connected? When you have so many things on your plate?

Unknown 30:09
Oh, it’s just like the kids, you got to make time for that person. So one of the things I’ve done was I, when I come home, it’s all about the family until that last person goes to sleep, which is my husband. So if it means I have to get back up at 1am and then start calling my business partner. That’s what we do. Okay, stay up very late, you know, getting things done, she’ll put her children asleep, I put mine asleep. And that’s what we do.

Justin Trosclair 30:36
What kind of questions would you have at one o’clock?

Unknown 30:39
Goodness, did you pay this bill? Did you do Mr. Song says no.

Unknown 30:45
There’s a lot. So all.

Justin Trosclair 30:48
I hope people are understanding. I don’t know if I’ve had a guest so far that are in your position right now. Or at least they were their position, honestly, that we are a new business. There’s so much going on. There’s so much to learn. It’s hard. Someone’s I’m guessing this is me fetching here. But some months, you’re like, wow, this is why I started. This is why I chose to do this. And then the next month you like, Huh, that’s a lot of mouths to feed this month. A lot of patients. So what do we have to do next month, and I just want people to know, like, it’s okay, this is kind of where we are. This is not everybody has seen $300,000 a month, and they just make it sound like wow, this is attainable. And in six months or less, you know, it’s 18 months in, and we’re trying to figure out marketing, we’re trying to figure out how to have this band router unplug. So,

Unknown 31:38
right.

Justin Trosclair 31:39
Oh, okay. So a lot of us have a morning routine or some kind of lunch routine that just gets us focused and gets us squared away for the day. Do you have anything?

Unknown 31:50
I mean, I try to get my my quiet time when I can. But I don’t have a set route. Okay, we’re very most of my morning routine and all is getting children readings, my husband’s already gone to work.

Justin Trosclair 32:03
And that’s your responsibility

Unknown 32:05
in the morning and he gets the evil shifts. Okay,

Justin Trosclair 32:09
do you have team meetings at work?

Unknown 32:10
We do. So in a perfect world, we’d have them every week. But no, we have the regularly though. Even if it’s not in person will do something over the phone where everyone can get together. We’re very flexible. We, I mean, I would say that we can adapt things always, always.

Unknown 32:29
Always change. And between the two of us. I’m telling I have the best business partner alive for row between the two of us if it means she’s got to get my kids or I have to get hers or, you know, she’s got to cover my shift here at work. I have to cover hers. That’s what we do to make it happen.

Justin Trosclair 32:47
That’s awesome. So you can actually have a partnership where it works.

Unknown 32:50
It works. Yeah, that’s great.

Justin Trosclair 32:51
Did y’all have like a nice contract to sign the job? Do all the paperwork Okay, something

bad happens. We shared it. Okay. We get

good. Because some people don’t. I don’t know how many people you hear you like, they’re like, Oh, yeah. Things went south and then Oh, and I don’t want that that paper. All right. Let’s hope it never happens. I don’t want that to happen. I like to see things where you have any favorite books or podcasts or TV shows or anything that you secretly lover you definitely think people should check out.

Unknown 33:21
I won’t say other people should check it out. But I love just about every show that comes on Thursday night on ABC, Shonda Rhimes.

Unknown 33:30
All of the and then I like the home renovation shows too. So really gives you inspiration. Absolutely. And, you know, when when this business picks up, I want that big house with a big kitchen. And I need to know what you know

Justin Trosclair 33:44
what its gonna look like, need the Viking range, or can I go a little bit less? Oh, no, I need the vibe. Okay. You know, this is so funny. We, you know, my wife is Chinese and we’re going to go to our friends house who that’s one thing she loves to do is cook and I think she has a biking range. And she wants us to cook tonight. So I mean, I can’t even tell you the experience yet because it’s going to happen in a couple hours and I’m o RG you how it works out. Okay. Yeah. It’s gonna be great.

Unknown 34:13
Then pick.

Justin Trosclair 34:15
This is what we can look forward to one day. One of our phones, right, everybody is addicted to their phone. What is your favorite phone apps?

Unknown 34:24
I’m trying to peel away my addiction to the phone. I would like to not be addicted. I would like to leave my phone in a bag and run to Ardmore.

Justin Trosclair 34:38
We got we have a high dreamer over here. A lot of dreams on this lady’s plate given up the phone.

Unknown 34:44
I’m so you said favorite apps. I don’t I like to play game. Okay. I like word games. Does that mean like scratch that out? I can give you know, I don’t like Scrabble that’s too long. The one I used to love as a bookworm they probably need to make it anymore.

Justin Trosclair 35:01
I’m terrible at Scrabble. Everybody wants to use ci and get a million points off of and I’m like, Guys, I don’t even I’m bad at spelling. And you won’t let me look it up. I’m like, money out of here with it called spellcheck. Well,

they’ll check in an editor on Fiverr tell us it works, right? Anything that maybe you would you have on your mind that you would love to impart on us any wisdom, any encouragement, any real life experience that you think that we could definitely benefit from?

Unknown 35:32
Well, I mean, the whole cliche, don’t give up. It’s really hard. It’s hard. If you believe in God, now’s the time. It’s really hard. You know,

Unknown 35:43
whatever you do, just to find peace, you’re going to need it. But it’s worth it in the end. You know, we’re not doing this. Just because we thought it was easy. school wasn’t easy. You know, there’s a lot of things that we’ve gone through a life that were not easy, and something difficult is not enough to stop us. So you definitely have to have that inside of you that I don’t care how hard this is, I’m going to keep going. You have to be able to see the vision and run towards it. And can’t let let opposition throw you off of your path. Sounds good? How can people find more information with you gals? They can reach out to our website, it’s la HS therapy. com, they can call us to six, seven to 976499. Or they can reach out to us on Facebook or Instagram.

Justin Trosclair 36:34
Well, I’m so happy to have you on it has been it actually, it has been a pleasure. Because I like to see the different levels that people are at. And I want to encourage you to continue. And I know it might seem hard, but it’ll get it gets easier. Yeah.

I encourage you to find something some marketing that works. I love marketing. So that’s I’m a little biased than that. Like, I think it’s fun. If I could just spend anybody else’s money that be great.

Unknown 37:01
Can we talk more about this doctor?

Justin Trosclair 37:04
We go back with keeping communication about this because I passionate about it. But you know, sometimes if it doesn’t play out like you want when you’re in the middle of it. It’s tough

Unknown 37:13
right stuff.

Justin Trosclair 37:15
Have you all done any print? Is that anybody do that anymore?

Unknown 37:18
We’ve done? We’ve done brochures, business cards, post it notes, pins, we’ve done pediatric magazine, like print advertisements. Oh, you haven’t seen anything from it. But we do have printed materials. Okay.

Justin Trosclair 37:34
That’s about that. That’s one of those things that I’ve noticed, as well as these legend brochures that everybody needs you like, man, I just don’t think anybody looks at him. Even when you give it to somebody, they’re like, Hey, thanks for the picture.

good at business cards, I can take a picture of it. And then I’ll bet as well.

Unknown 37:52
That’s funny. Well,

Justin Trosclair 37:54
you rock. I appreciate your time. And

Unknown 37:59
Dr. Mackenzie just walked in, where she asked Yeah, I’m so sorry. I was late. I didn’t want to interrupt you guys are doing just having such a great conversation. That was great.

Justin Trosclair 38:09
Should I put her on the spot and see if she has anything to say?

Unknown 38:13
regarding what?

Justin Trosclair 38:16
Well, I’ll just ask you then, as far as being a physical therapists, orthopedic neurology beginning that this the start of your clinic, any advice for maybe young people who are trying to do what you’re doing, I have aspirations to have their own clinic. Any advice. You know,

Unknown 38:33
truthfully, speaking, I’ve had the pleasure of being a TA, view the universities in the area for their PT programs. And I’ve seen such a great level of confidence in the students that I feel like they can teach me some. But I would just based on that, I would say to be humble. And you know, Kendra was touching base about being adaptive and flexible. Those are the types of things that I feel like are going to be very helpful in your future. Reason being is because as we’ve experienced, nothing goes as planned. Or this, you know, this this day is a great example of that. So I just feel like if you can just be adaptable, and that’s going to not only just help you professionally with the business, but it also helped you with your plan of care with a patient? Because of course, there’s no textbook answer. That’s why you have to just take all the research and any resources that you have, and put it together for that specific patients.

Justin Trosclair 39:32
Are you telling me they don’t present as you’re expected to every time?

Unknown 39:37
Have these case studies that they do? And it’s just like, if it’s not in the textbook, or if it’s not on Google? It doesn’t happen? You know what I mean? Like, that’s how this generation is learning. And it’s just, it’s not enough. Exactly. I mean, yeah, if Google says it’s right, then it’s good enough. And you’re like, no, gotta go a little bit deeper.

Justin Trosclair 39:56
What’s one of the struggles that you guys have had, that you either a overcome are still just trying to claw your way out of right now? You know,

Unknown 40:10
what, so we were not fortunate enough to get a loan? Oh, two and

Unknown 40:18
four weeks open. You know, we did a lot of research, we made a business plan. And we talked to bankers and lenders, and all of them said, Oh, yes, you know, physical therapy practices, we fund to them. So we, you know, made this elaborate plan. And we got no funding.

Unknown 40:37
One of the most difficult things for us has been paying for this beautiful place.

Justin Trosclair 40:40
Because you had a

client, oh, wow, you’ve experienced you save money, and you still couldn’t get the loan. Wow. And there, they don’t give any guidance as to how to how to change that.

Unknown 40:55
The only thing they say is, you know, you guys have to share know that your business is generating enough income, and

Justin Trosclair 41:03
the business that hasn’t even opened the doors yet, right? Come back two years, when you have proof of money you like, well,

what am I supposed to do?

Unknown 41:11
And I just signed this lease. So

Justin Trosclair 41:14
yeah, that’s curious. So you were able to see you signed the lease before you got funding? Is that something that you would recommend people doing the opposite? If they were starting out, like secure funding first,

Unknown 41:25
um, you know what, to be honest with you, that’s something that we learned. Ideally, we wanted to have the loan first, however, we did learn throughout the process that they required us to have an established lease, before we can even apply for a loan. And that also went towards the credentialing with the insurance companies, really. So that’s why we

Justin Trosclair 41:46
Yeah, really. So all of a sudden, you’re on the hook for two or 3000 bucks a month, plus everything else? And then you’d like or, you know, how am I supposed to have this? Because I only have maybe what, three or four or five months of expenses available? If you’re lucky.

Unknown 41:58
If you’re lucky. That’s right.

Justin Trosclair 42:01
Okay, that’s fine. Just kidding. That’s not fun at all.

If you like challenges,

Unknown 42:10
give her that look like what

Justin Trosclair 42:13
is this guy talking about?

Unknown 42:15
Yeah, right.

Justin Trosclair 42:16
What else was a good? Let me look, remove them a little questions real quick. We’re getting a two for one right here and say, oh, marketing, yo guys are a pair. But you might have different ideas. As far as marketing, you have any ideas that what you want to do, or any, anything that you feel like has worked in the past that you need to keep doing their work so good, you quit, as they say,

Unknown 42:35
we have not gotten to that point where it’s worked so well, that we were definitely not there. I will say that I’m certain opportunities do present themselves as marketing opportunities. However, funding, so that’s always the issue for us, we always have to take into consideration the budget, and prioritize expenses, which then unfortunately, takes away from what we can do marketing wise. Yeah. So again, there great opportunities out here for marketing, we just, yeah, we just haven’t been able to utilize them yet. But you know, there’s a time factor in there, too. There’s a time factor. So we would love to go to these doctors offices, and, you know, be persistent and meet them. But if we’re the doctors offices, who’s cleaning the toilet? Who was watching the patient, you know, or treating the patient, right? Who’s submitting the billing? Yeah. So one of the things that we’re trying to do now is get marketing interns who, yes, who wants experiences not expecting money or a lot of money, but they need the experience, we have a lot for them to do. So that’s that’s our, you know, most recent goal for marketing, you know,

Justin Trosclair 43:44
I don’t know if y’all are into doing these, but I’ve done like five k sponsor, you know, try to be the doctor there, whatever. And my goodness, sometimes, it’s so much money, where you’re just like, Oh, this is my marketing budget this month. And yeah, how much hands on in my life to do because I’m definitely not playing such and such physical therapy on a sign. But I can be there to work out the charley horse, or throw some candies to tape on or something. Like, if this doesn’t work, I don’t have any more money for the rest of the month. Exactly.

Unknown 44:15
Yeah. Okay, we actually have an event coming up, that’s probably going to clean out the marketing budget account. So hopefully, you know, the biggest goal is just making sure that we have at least even one patient as a result of that, you know, then the investment was worthwhile. But

Justin Trosclair 44:32
you’ll capture email addresses.

Unknown 44:34
Yes, yes.

Justin Trosclair 44:39
I was guilty in the beginning. Oh, my goodness, it is like, oh, wait emails was Oh, no. All these events of our wasted. Here’s another good one. Just your viewpoint? Are you married or significant? Other?

Unknown 44:51
Um, yes.

Unknown 44:54
I have no suggestions. My counselor still has no suggestion. That’s

Unknown 45:04
interesting. You know, just

Justin Trosclair 45:07
the last few episodes that the four out of the seven doctors with the African American series were all PhDs in psychology talking about counseling and stuff. It was. It was good. They were they had some great information. I was shocked. I’m not shocked that they were had good information, just what they gave you like, Wow, that’s really good information. My goodness. Right? Okay. Let me think anything else here? Oh, this is always a fun one. any misconceptions about the treatment, physical therapy as a whole are being an African American female doctor, any misconceptions that you’ve experienced? I would like to clear up out there a lot of questions in one.

Unknown 45:45
My own misconception, to be honest with you, it’s not always about race. I will say that much. Okay. There are many times where I’m the only African American female African American overall, you know, in the room as a therapist, this is obviously I think it’s turning into a Caucasian female dominated profession. occasion insert setting. Yeah. And certain set of eyes more of it, I would say in the acute setting, yes. But an outpatient, it’s still, you know, Caucasian males world, in my opinion. But again, being the only African American, I’ve come to realize that it’s not always like, I may feel the insecurity or I may feel uncomfortable, initially. But, again, it’s I think it’s more you that’s the misconception. It’s not all yeah, it could just more so be me, then you know, everyone else, because at the end of the day, to be honest with you, if you know your stuff, you’re knowledgeable, people respect it. Yeah. And that’s the bottom line. Absolutely.

Justin Trosclair 46:48
I’m really glad to hear this, because I was kind of nervous asking these questions, because obviously, I’m a white male. And I know that there’s certain areas of the country where that’s going to be a problem. And what I’m finding is, it’s not really being a problem, at least from what the guests have spoken about that it’s not really what they’re experiencing where people just like, I’m not coming to you like, just to be racist.

Unknown 47:09
I’m an experienced that. I mean, I would definitely advise any, any minority, just be comfortable in your own skin. Just be comfortable, know who you are, you know, you are not your color, you have a lot of attributes about yourself, you have knowledge that no one can take away, you’ve been given an opportunity, whether you’re white, black, Asian, or other, take the opportunity and run with it. Yeah, you know, if someone doesn’t accept you don’t always just assume it’s because you’re black, or because you’re Chinese it, they might not accept you, because they might see something in you that intimidates a lack of confidence.

Justin Trosclair 47:46
So talk about that. That’s a big one, isn’t it?

Unknown 47:49
Yeah, they smell it.

Justin Trosclair 47:50
It’s like, they can smell it, and they run away. Exactly. Because

Unknown 47:52
that’s how you gain patients trust. You know, when they say fake it till you make it? Yeah, that’s how you get through the evaluation. And then we do the research, not me specifically. But I’ve seen this in many settings, I’ve often told the students that, you know, you just have to gain that patients trust, and that comes through confidence. So that’s where you’re able to take off. You know, of course, we can never change the color of our skin or show our gender. Yeah. But that’s an opportunity where all that goes away, because these patients want help. So

Justin Trosclair 48:25
starting out, you graduated school, would you recommend people trying to start out on as an entrepreneur and their own thing? Or is it better to get experience in somebody else’s clinic or hospital?

Unknown 48:34
Oh, no good experience, because they don’t, they don’t teach you enough about being an entrepreneur in school, at least they didn’t want to be graduated whenever things might be different now. But we would definitely recommend recommend getting experience. Because even the hospital experience that we’ve gotten, has helped us here. It’s helped us to multitask, and a hospital all the lines and the wires and the bells and the whistles, the nurses and doctors, you learn how to multitask. And you have to you have to keep this patient alive when he’s on your way. So whenever here, you know, someone can call me on Skype and call me on the phone the facts and come through. And it’s some of those experiences that have prepared me for this. Very good.

Justin Trosclair 49:15
Well, I think a lot of your time, and I really appreciate it. But I’ll just throw it back one more time. Wrapping up. Dr. Leticia, do you happen to have any parting words that you would love to address for everybody out there? Before we we go today?

Unknown 49:29
Basically, for our listeners, we would just say if a business is something that I want to go for it, if you can afford the risk? Yeah, for not even if you can’t afford that much to you, it’s worth investing in, because we couldn’t afford the risk. And we are doing well. You know, things aren’t how we thought they would be a year and a half in. But we do come here and we are happy that we did this. You know, there are times that we have cried together together and apart agreed. Our husbands have with shoulders, you know, it’s not easy, but it’s worth it. We know that things will get better. And that’s what we we hold on to I’m hearing determination. Yes, yes, the show? Yeah,

Justin Trosclair 50:17
I’m seeing a lot of positive, positive things that you have to have. Otherwise, you’re gonna you’re gonna bow out. And it doesn’t sound like you guys are looking to bow out at all, you’re taking it on the chin, and just keep on pushing and making it and within the next few years, it’s going to be where you expect it to be. So I’m happy for you guys. I think you ladies are going to nail it. And that determination is palpable. Know, hilarious. By the way, the facial expressions have been just classic on my end, just so

Unknown 50:45
fun.

Unknown 50:49
I would have kept my eye on her at least five times. But because you can see us, you know we’re behaving.

Justin Trosclair 50:58
The best part of the interview is getting like real like real real right now. It’s fun.

Unknown 51:02
Yeah.

Unknown 51:04
Well,

Unknown 51:06
yeah, yeah, really? Yeah.

Justin Trosclair 51:07
Thank you so much, again for being on the show.

Thank you for listening to the podcast, a doctor’s perspective. Thank you for writing reviews on wherever you listen to it. ranking is five stars. Hopefully, listen, you all know I got a book out. I’ve been working on a version 2.0 right now if you buy it, same an email with the receipt and I can send you five bonus chapters. It’ll just be this long PDF, but we’re gonna have some nerve stretches creating and executing a budget ways to cut expenses. Optimal calorie consumption calculator fit directly for you and some ideas about fasting. So if you want to some of these bonus chapters before they released in version 2.0, just send me that receipt via email and I’ll get them over to you. As always, we got some t shirt designs for the logo for chiropractic. There’s also a by host a cup of coffee upgraded that it’s on the main web page. And lastly, stay tuned a secret project will be coming out definitely go to a doctor’s perspective. NET top right there are all the social media icons pick which one you love the follow most friend me like me Say hello. I’ll definitely respond back.

We just went hashtag behind the curtain and this episode has come to an end. I hope you got the right dose for your optimal life. Please spread the word about this podcast by telling to friends, share it on social media and visit the show notes on a doctor’s perspective. net to see all the references from today’s guest. A sincere thank you in advance. You’ve been listening to Dr. Justin trust Claire giving you a doctor’s perspective.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

About the Author
Dr. Justin Trosclair, D.C., an expert in Chiropractic Care, has been focusing on back and neck pain relief for over 12 years and has delivered treatment to more than 6000 patients. With advanced training in treating disc derangement conditions, you can count on him to keep up to date with the latest research in physical medicine for spinal pain. He has 5 years of hospital experience in China, is currently working in Germany, and had a private practice in Colorado for 6 years. Dr. Trosclair hosts a doctor to doctor interview podcast called ‘A Doctor’s Perspective‘ with over 220 episodes. During his free time he wrote 3 books. Today’s Choices Tomorrow’s Health (rebooting health in 4 categories), a Do-It- Yourself acupressure book for 40 common conditions called Needle-less Acupuncture, and a step by step guide to look like a local for Chinese dinner culture called Chinese Business Dinner Culture. If you have kids, you may be interested in his 6 series tri-lingual animal coloring book series (english, spanish and chinese).