You're Not Just a Physical Therapist, You're a Brand

Show Notes

In this episode, we discuss the truth of being not just a physical therapist but a genuine brand. It's not about external promotions; it's about the reflection you see in the mirror every day. Are you living by the values you preach? And we'll discuss the power of authenticity and how it can transform your cash-based PT practice. Remember, you're not just advising your patients; you're leading by example.

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What is The Dr. JJ Thomas Podcast?

Welcome to The Dr. JJ Thomas Podcast! Here I'll be talking all things physical therapy, raw and unplugged, giving you the unfiltered insights you've been searching for in your cash-based physical therapy business. If you're caught in the grind of the traditional model, swamped with paperwork, or feeling like you're not reaching your full potential as a physical therapist, this podcast was created just for you.

Dr. JJ Thomas: 00:00

You're your own advertising. Use yourself, use your habits, use your lifestyle as your own advertising. And whether patients know it or not, they're either gonna be drawn towards you or drawn away from you because of that. Welcome to the doctor JJ Thomas podcast. I'm doctor JJ Thomas.

Dr. JJ Thomas: 00:21

Thanks for coming and spending some time with us today. We're gonna talk about an advertising strategy that costs you nothing and pays out big time. It may not be what you think. So I get this question a lot. Like, I have a lot of friends that are getting into cash based practice or at least wanna get into cash based practice.

Dr. JJ Thomas: 00:39

And recently, especially since I have this move to help others work towards opening cash based practices, I've had friends of mine coming to me and saying, you know, JJ, one thing I'd love advice on is, how do I advertise? What's the best way to advertise? What have you seen the most success with? And I'll tell you, it's not external advertising. It's more internal advertising.

Dr. JJ Thomas: 01:04

And what I mean by that is the way you're gonna promote your business, the way you're gonna promote your skills and your product, if you will, your service, is actually by looking in the mirror. So every day you get up, you look in the mirror. That's your advertising model. And what I mean by that is in order to attract patients, in order to to attract new clients, new patients, and keep the ones you have, it first starts with you. You are your brand.

Dr. JJ Thomas: 01:36

You are your representative. You are what represents your product and service that you're providing, whether you like it or not. So even if a patient doesn't realize it, when they're looking at your social media, when they're having a conversation with you about anything, whether it's something from their physical therapy needs to how you're raising your children, you are the brand. That is what they're signing up for. Basically, that means get your shit together.

Dr. JJ Thomas: 02:07

Take some time in your own life to self reflect and figure out how you are you living your life by the values that you expect your patients to? Are you following your own advice? Are you getting up and exercising like you tell your patients to? Are you eating the way you suggest your patients to eat in order for optimal health? Are you getting enough sleep?

Dr. JJ Thomas: 02:30

Are you doing the things that you're recommending to other people? Because if you're not, it doesn't matter how many flyers you put out there. It doesn't matter how many web, designers and SEO, SEM people you hire. If the product if you are not representing what you're asking other people to do, it's not gonna be worth anything. Think about this.

Dr. JJ Thomas: 02:50

Think about to to sort of help honor this point, think about someone that you've worked with or worked for in the past that you didn't respect. Maybe you worked on a project with them. Maybe you worked for them. If you didn't respect them, chances are I'd like you to ask yourself, in fact, how did that project go? Did that project work out the way that the project manager was intending, the way that your leaders in that organization were intending?

Dr. JJ Thomas: 03:18

My guess is that if you didn't respect that person you were working with, that project didn't do so well. And so now take it one step further and ask yourself, why didn't you respect that person you were working with? Chances are it's because they felt like a fraud. They felt like they were selling something that they themselves didn't believe in, that they themselves didn't practice, or that they were asking you to do that they're not willing to do themselves. So they were like a fraud.

Dr. JJ Thomas: 03:47

Who wants to work for a fraud? Who wants to be associated with a product that's fraudulent? Right? So guess what? If we want our patients to believe in our product and our service, we better not be frauds.

Dr. JJ Thomas: 03:59

We better live, eat, sleep, breathe, believe what we're selling. And that's health and fitness. Right? So take your own advice and look in the mirror and get it done. And in the morning, when you're tired because you had a late night with the kids or whatever, ask remind yourself of that.

Dr. JJ Thomas: 04:17

You know what? I'm tired. I don't necessarily feel like getting up to exercise like I normally do. Okay. I gotta do it because I gotta look myself in the mirror next and ask myself if I'm being true to my own values and and to what I'm expect my expectations for my patients.

Dr. JJ Thomas: 04:33

So that's the that's the conceptual theory behind this. Right? You're your own advertising. Use yourself, use your habits, use your lifestyle advertising. And whether patients know it or not, they're either gonna be drawn towards you or drawn away from you because of that.

Dr. JJ Thomas: 04:49

So that's the conceptual model. Now I can give you actually an anecdotal, evidence of this. About a little over a year ago now, let me back up and say, luckily for me, back in college, I was able to form those habits because I found those habits that I live by and that my patients see me live by. Because I found that that worked for me, that that gave me, clarity of my own, vision, and it gave me, confidence, and it gave me the ability to accomplish lots of things just by taking control of my own life and my own, health needs. But I was challenged even further a little over a year ago when I tore my ACL.

Dr. JJ Thomas: 05:28

So 46 years old. I guess I was 45 at the time. 46 years old and my first, like, real injury that I knew was gonna be a long run to recovery. And it was a test. But, actually, that test, if you will, it allowed me to prove to myself and to other people that I do live by my own code, that I'm gonna take this challenge, and I'm gonna give I'm gonna take my own advice.

Dr. JJ Thomas: 05:54

You know? You can't have a patient drinking the Kool Aid if you're not willing to drink the Kool Aid yourself. I drank my Kool Aid. I did everything that I would have had my patient do, and more. I had higher expectations for myself, in fact.

Dr. JJ Thomas: 06:05

And you know what happened after that? The amount of patients that were coming to us for ACL recovery after my injury has been exponentially greater. People saw the way I rehabbed my own ACL, and they were like, oh my god. That's what I need. I need a leader like that.

Dr. JJ Thomas: 06:23

So I didn't have to put a flyer out and say, hey, guess what? JJ Torrey ACL, this is how we're gonna do it. They saw it and they were drawn to it. So anecdotally, that was evidence for me. Right?

Dr. JJ Thomas: 06:35

There's actually been scientific evidence too, though, to support this. So look up Amy Cuddy, c u d d y. She did a TED talk. That's incredible. But beyond the TED talk, she did research in in her TED talk, she explained some research that she did.

Dr. JJ Thomas: 06:51

And in this research, basically, what she found is they studied primates. They studied alpha male primates. And they looked at behavioral patterns, but they also looked at hormones of these alpha male primates. Okay? And they also compared that to the best leaders in the world.

Dr. JJ Thomas: 07:11

And what they found is that the best leaders in the world and alpha male primates, you know what they have in common? They all have pretty high testosterone and low cortisol, that stress hormone that we all get when we're stressed. Right? So hormonally, leaders and alpha male primates are very similar. Crazy.

Dr. JJ Thomas: 07:30

On top of that, Amy Cuddy did some research where she said, hey. Can we manipulate how the body responds just by an action we do. By our posturing is what she decided to study. So what she did is she took lots of subjects, and she put them in a room, and she gave them a power posture. There's, like, 4 power postures.

Dr. JJ Thomas: 07:54

But she said, I you have to assume this power posture one of them is like Wonder Woman. 1 of them is like this. So you you you can imagine. Assume a power posture for 2 minutes. And they studied the hormonal levels pre and post 2 minutes.

Dr. JJ Thomas: 08:08

And they actually found that by 2 minutes of assuming a power posture, the testosterone of those individuals raised and the cortisol levels, the stress hormones, lowered. So you can actually make someone more of a leader hormonally by assuming 2 minutes of a power posture. Incredible. Let's take that now and apply that to getting your shit together. Right?

Dr. JJ Thomas: 08:34

2 minutes changes you hormonally. 2 minutes gives you qualities that are more like a leader. If you take that and you now work out for 15 minutes a day or you, you know, do something healthy for yourself, whether it's meditation, you make a decision, essentially. You make a decision for your health. That's an action.

Dr. JJ Thomas: 08:53

That's a power posture. If you do that for 30, 40 minutes a day, imagine how many changes you can make in your hormonal levels. I actually left out a piece. In her study, she also looked at, how other people perceive someone after they've assumed a power posture. And you're actually perceived more more with more authority, with more leadership abilities after 2 minutes of a power posture.

Dr. JJ Thomas: 09:20

So get your ass up, get your workout in, make the decisions that you're claiming everyone should do for themselves anyway. And then you're gonna know, hey, I'm not a fraud. I can look at my patients in the eye. I can look at myself in the mirror. And not only am I gonna feel more confident, they're gonna actually get the buy in that they need to go and have the guts to do what they need to do to make themselves better too.

Dr. JJ Thomas: 09:45

You know what happens down the road? Patients have the buy in. They believe in you. They believe in your product. They believe in your service, they believe in themselves.

Dr. JJ Thomas: 09:52

All of a sudden, they get better faster because they do what they're supposed to do. It's like one contagious, beautiful thing. It's advertising. It's free advertising. And then you don't have to pay a darn thing.

Dr. JJ Thomas: 10:04

In fact, the payout is greater because you feel better. You look better. You're, more successful. You're more of a leader, and all of that trickles into your patience and your outcomes. I wanna give one last story as an example to sort of wrap up this, this podcast, this episode.

Dr. JJ Thomas: 10:23

That is, another person that I think would be worth your while watching. If you if you don't know of him already, it's Bedros Kullian. Bedros is a very successful entrepreneur, and he's been so successful through the years as an entrepreneur. Now he coaches other people who want to succeed in in their businesses. And recently, I heard him speak, and, actually, it was a it was one of his live events.

Dr. JJ Thomas: 10:47

So it was a whole weekend of brilliant individuals who help people with leadership and business strategies. But at one point, when Bedros was speaking, he gave us he gave us a spiel, and then he invited people for questioning. He had microphones up. He probably took about 10 questions. At least 3 to 4 of those people, when they asked a business question, his answer was, get jacked.

Dr. JJ Thomas: 11:13

And I was actually with my husband at this thing and we're laughing. We're like, that's hilarious. But he's saying the same thing. He said, get jacked. Right?

Dr. JJ Thomas: 11:21

Like, take control of your own life before you're trying to run a business. You you have to show yourself, prove to yourself, and prove to others that your standards are here. And if you're not living the life that you're preaching, if you're not walking the walk and and you're just talking the talk, then you're not gonna be able to do it. So that's it, guys. If you want a successful business, start with yourself, look yourself in the mirror, ask yourself some hard questions, and just get on the horse and start riding because the the journey is excellent when you can just make some decisions that are gonna produce results that you're looking for.

Dr. JJ Thomas: 12:00

If you have any questions about this or any other topics that you'd like to hear, we'd love to hear from you. Please put questions in the q and a below. Feel free to DM me. Reach out anytime. And if you wanna hear more, just like and subscribe to our channel and feel free to click on the link in the description for the free ebook, for more advice on cash based practice learning as well.