How To Reset Your Brain For Success In Cash Based PT

Show Notes

In this episode, we're discussing luck and how it's intertwined with our mindset. I'm sharing personal stories and insights that have shaped my journey in the world of physical therapy, emphasizing the importance of seeing challenges as opportunities. If you're facing hurdles in your cash-based PT practice, let's reframe them together and unlock your doors to success.

Get A Free Copy Of My Book:

5 Things You MUST Do to Build a Successful Cash-Based PT Practice

This quick, easy-to-read guide is your no-BS steps to what really works in building a Cash-Based Physical Therapy business.

👉 https://bit.ly/CashPTebook

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

Changing your lock has more to do with changing your mindset than it does actually changing your way. Right? Welcome to the doctor JJ Thomas podcast. Hi. I'm doctor JJ Thomas.

Dr. JJ Thomas: 00:15

Thanks so much for coming today. Looking forward to this episode. This one's kind of special to me because it has to do with luck, and as an Irish woman, luck is important to me. The title of this one is is change your luck and grow your cash based practice by 6 figures. This idea of this podcast came to me actually last weekend.

Dr. JJ Thomas: 00:35

I spent some time with family, and, a bunch of my aunts were circled around. We're sitting on the beach and my mom, and we were talking, telling old stories. They were telling old stories about my grandma and, grandpa. And of course my grandparents immigrated from Ireland, and one of the stories they were telling was actually about my great uncle John. And my grandmother and my great uncle John immigrated from Ireland way before my grandmother got married.

Dr. JJ Thomas: 01:03

But this was early probably, I think early 1900. They were living here, and my grandmother had a job as like a house aid. You know, she would do some cooking and things. She didn't love it, but they were, you know, they were determined to make a living. So she was working hard and and surviving, but what she really wanted to do was go to beauty school at the time.

Dr. JJ Thomas: 01:20

And my uncle John, he was doing well, doing contract work and doing things. My great uncle John. But one day, he was in a bar, in a pub in New York City, and, the story goes that he was he went to the bathroom, and I guess at the time, I I've never seen these, but at the time, the bathrooms in the pubs, a lot of them had like ceramic water tubs above, like up here, and you would pull a chain. And when you pull the chain, the water would gravity would pull the water down and flush the toilet. And so uncle John was in the pub, went to the bathroom, went to flush the toilet, the ceramic thing fell on his head.

Dr. JJ Thomas: 02:00

And and I'm sure it hurt like hell, but he was like, what the heck? And he went out to the manager and he's like, yo, Listen. I'm sure he didn't say yo. He's an Irishman, but he's broke. He said, this thing fell in my head.

Dr. JJ Thomas: 02:13

And and the manager was great and he was like, gosh, I'm so sorry. You know, let me let let me give you $200 for your troubles. I'm, you know, really sorry that happened. I can't believe that happened. And my uncle John took that $200, went right to my grandmother, his sister, and said, Tess, I came into some luck today.

Dr. JJ Thomas: 02:33

I have the money for you to go to beauty school. How cool is that? Like, a ceramic thing fell on his head, and his response is, I came into some luck today. I realized as my aunts are telling me this story, I'm like, gosh, changing your luck has more to do with changing your mindset than it does actually changing your luck. Right?

Dr. JJ Thomas: 02:57

So I started thinking about, is this true? Right? In in my mind, I'm like, gosh. What an amazing thing. He's he thought he was lucky.

Dr. JJ Thomas: 03:04

His ceramic thing fell on his head. He's like, I'm so lucky. And I thought, gosh, I'm really the same way. I think that's part of the reason I've been able to successfully grow my practice. Is that when I think about my journey of of growing as a clinician and as a business owner, one of the most pivotal times in my life was not a ceramic thing falling on my head but essentially, figuratively it was.

Dr. JJ Thomas: 03:28

In 2009, I became involved in dry needling. I I actually pursued it because I had a patient that had plateaued with his treatment and no one else that I knew could get him better could get him better. And I was like, I gotta find something to get this guy better. So there was only 3 people, 33, 300 people in the time in the country at the time, using dry needling. But I was like, I gotta pursue this.

Dr. JJ Thomas: 03:52

So I started pursuing dry needling and learning about it. I took my first course in 2009. Before I even went to the course, I wrote a letter to the board of physical therapists and I was in Delaware at the time. And I was like, I'm getting ready to go take this Con Ed course. I wanna make sure that I'm within my scope of practice and I was raised my mom was a lawyer, so I'm very careful of the law and, being in compliance with the law.

Dr. JJ Thomas: 04:17

So before I even went to the course, I took this. I took the liberty to write an email. Little did I know that, this was going to be a source of contention for the next 10 years, maybe even really. There are still some states where it's still a source of contention. But anyway, I went because it's the right thing to do.

Dr. JJ Thomas: 04:36

And I learned this technique and it helped started helping my patients. But with that, I also assumed the responsibility of ownership of helping advocate for our profession in the way of dry needling. Because after I wrote that first letter to the board, I realized we were getting some resistance from some other professionals out there. And so all of a sudden, I found myself at a a in a in a struggle where I I went to the board every month for a year trying to get them to, clarify legally that it was within our scope of practice. And then luckily, they did come to a point where they said, you know what?

Dr. JJ Thomas: 05:16

We wanna make sure this is clear for you guys. So we wanna write this in the practice act. So that opened up doors for me. That opened up opportunity for me where I started working in conjunction with the APTA, the, the Delaware chapter of the APTA, and the federal bodies of the APTA to help guide other to help guide legislation towards dry needling at being formally written in the scope of practice in Delaware and other states. Then I was I was asked I was honored to be asked to go, to the the American Medical Association is who writes the CPT manuals.

Dr. JJ Thomas: 05:55

And APTA in conjunction with the, chiropractic association sponsored a, a new code for dry needling. And I was flattered. They emailed me and they said, would you be our expert on this to represent us for this dry needling code in this in the CPT 2020 manual. Amazing. So that struggle now I I guess I need to tell you more about that struggle.

Dr. JJ Thomas: 06:18

Every month for a year, I went to the board. And every month for a year, I did have some, as I said, contention from other professionals that we worked through as professionals. And then when it went to legislation, it actually took us 5 years in Delaware to actually get that actualized into legislation. 5 years. So 5 years of me taking time from my family, taking time from my patients, taking billable hours that I wasn't able to, actually get payment on myself.

Dr. JJ Thomas: 06:49

So there was a a financial hardship. There was a time hardship. But I never saw it like that. It was like the water tank on the head. It was like, wow.

Dr. JJ Thomas: 06:56

I'm so privileged. I'm so honored to represent our profession and to do this thing that's right. And it has paid me back a thousand fold because now I'm seen as the expert. And I and I am the expert because I put in the work. I was able to go travel to Washington state and and, advocate for them to have it written into their practice act.

Dr. JJ Thomas: 07:19

Like I said, the AMA thing was huge. So, and now, not only do I use this on my patients and I use this on the pros, I get to teach the pros how to use this on their patients, how to use this on their athletes. So it was a natural thing for me. Having the, I guess, natural tendency to want to do the right thing and to see this struggle as an opportunity. I'm gonna thank uncle John for that.

Dr. JJ Thomas: 07:43

I'm gonna say I'm thinking that it's just genetic and, but I'm sure all of you have it too. Being able to see this struggle as an needling practitioner. And had I not accepted that hardship, accepted that struggle in my life, I wouldn't be here. So what I was hoping to do with this episode outside of talking about how this has become true for me is I want you to ask yourself, what struggles or hardships do you find yourself in right now in your practice, in your cash based practice? What things are limiting you?

Dr. JJ Thomas: 08:27

What struggles are you having? And instead of hyper focusing on the struggles, let's take that struggle and let's rework it in our brain to turn it into luck, to turn it into an opportunity that's gonna make you much more successful. For example, let's say for instance you're having a hard time getting patients to justify paying you cash for your practice. That is actually a great opportunity. If they are struggling to pay you, it tells you one of 2 things.

Dr. JJ Thomas: 08:59

It tells you either number 1, you're not targeting the right market. Because if they don't see your value and they're not willing to pay for what they see in you, then they're either not the right patient for you and that tells you you need to look for the right market. Or if you're pretty sure you're addressing the right market, then you need to look within again. And maybe you don't have the particular skill set or their particular niche, I guess, tools, techniques that are going to make them justify paying you cash for what you do. And so, sure, it's a struggle.

Dr. JJ Thomas: 09:38

Sure, it's hard when you're going through it. Absolutely, it's not that much fun when you're going through it, but if you see that as now an opportunity, as a doorway, as a gateway, you can use that to drive you to get what you need. And that's patience buying. So find the right market, if you're not in the right market. Or if you don't have the right skill set, get out there and figure out what you need.

Dr. JJ Thomas: 10:02

Let's say one suggestion would be do what you're good at. Let's say you really you love to run and you really like treating runners because that's something that you are you're good at yourself. Go take every continuing education course you can that makes you the best gate anal gate analysis that there is out there. Read everything you can about it. Maybe go sign up to teach about it.

Dr. JJ Thomas: 10:30

I'm telling you, when you teach something, you know it like inside and out because you have to stand up there and explain it. So you know it with a whole another level. So you see, changing your luck really isn't it's not about it's not really luck. Don't tell my ancestors I'm saying that. It's really about your perception of luck.

Dr. JJ Thomas: 10:49

And all you need to do is take what you're perceiving as a struggle and realize that that is the gateway to your success. Use that information to problem solve and find a solution and your luck is going to be changed, you're gonna be very successful in what you do, and you can go around just like my uncle John said, saying, I came into some luck today. And trust me, it's worth it. If you're looking for ways to change your luck and you need help problem solving through your struggles or through your hardships, please leave a comments in comment below. I I happen to love helping people, whether it's patients or other clinicians just be better and be successful.

Dr. JJ Thomas: 11:28

So I would love to help you problem solve through this. Go ahead and leave a comment in the in the comment section below on YouTube or Spotify. Feel free to DM me on social media. And I look forward to working with you and talking more in the future.