How to Build a Profitable Physical Therapy Business Without Burning Out with Alexander Wielohorski

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Rockstars.
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Today's guest used to engineer airplanes and car parts, and now he's engineering freedom for private practice owners.
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Meet Alexander Vyalorsky.
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He is an MBA mechanical engineer, former corporate exec and current COO of the largest privately owned physical therapy group in Alaska.
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Yeah, alaska, where your team might have to ride snowmobiles to get to work.
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But don't let the spreadsheets and the strategic planning fool you.
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This episode is so full of heart.
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Alexander gets real about what it takes to lead through burnout, delegate with confidence and scale a clinic without losing your sanity or your snow boots.
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He's got 25 years of clinical wisdom, an engineer's brain which completely changes the color of this episode, and a dry wit of someone who's lived through meetings in three different hemispheres.
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So whether you're leading a team, starting a practice or just wondering how the heck an aerospace guy ended up running a private practice, this one's for you.
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Enjoy the show.
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Man, alex, I am so grateful that you're coming virtually all the way from Alaska at one of the most beautiful times of the year to be up there.
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Thanks for being on the show.
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Hey, happy, happy to be here.
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Thank you for the invitation.
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Yeah, you were invited because you are a powerful leader of one of my favorite outpatient practices in Alaska?
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No question, and you have a very different background, so could you set the stage for us Tell us about you, your business and what got you into this industry?
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Perfect, yeah.
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So Advanced Physical Therapy of Alaska.
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We've been in operation for 25 years.
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This August, wow and we at this point we are the largest privately owned, alaska owned and Alaska operated physical therapy group in the state.
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We have six locations and still looking at opening more as we go forward and it's a clinic that is based on serving the community community.
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We see every single insurance, some of them at a loss, and so we don't turn away patients, and we are very into being able to serve the communities in the in this state, which means bigger towns like Anchorage and Fairbanks, and very small towns like Seward.
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I'm not a physical therapist.
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I don't come from this industry.
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I'm a mechanical engineer.
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I not a physical therapist.
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I don't come from this industry.
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I'm a mechanical engineer.
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I have a master in business.
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I come from aerospace industries and airports and airplanes completely different thing.
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You would think that physical therapy is simpler, but it's actually more complex because there's less resources.
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It's less structured, right, and what brought me into this industry is that I had my own experience 20 years ago in a car accident and I had to go to physical therapy and I was treated by this amazing person, which I'm still in contact with today and she was fully committed to me, to my recovery, to my process of walking again, and that showed me what a great quality physical therapy or therapist is.
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And then I have later experiences in life where I actually had to go physical therapy again on a small motorcycle accident and I was shown the worst side of it, where the business is more important than the quality of the healthcare that we we're providing, where I was one more patient of a group of 15 that were at the gym at the time I had no one-on-one attention and that, you know, that kind of showed me both sides of the coin.
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And then when I was able to have the opportunity to be a part of this group and I saw that they did physical therapy the way I liked it, the way it was done with me at my accident, I said I can show, or I can give some of my experience and my background to make this better and help them grow.
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You have a unique perspective in this.
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It's so passionate about the care?
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Because you were a patient, you were still driven in a way that lots of providers are, but you're an engineer.
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If freedom had a love language, it'd be delegation.
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So if you're tired of wearing all the hats the CEO hat, the insurance hat, the why am I doing payroll at midnight hat it's time to get help.
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You come to this business side of healthcare and private practice with an engineer and business mind.
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What are some of the unique challenges that you face?
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What are some of the things that make it hard for you to get freed up with what you're doing in your business?
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I got to say two things two things I got.
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The one thing is that there's got to be a focus so that we are in the health care business.
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Right, there's two pillars to that.
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Right, there's health care and there's business.
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We got to take care of them both at the same time, and one of the things that that happened in this group and I noticed in other groups as well is that health care takes 90 percent of the focus and business takes only 10.
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It's something that you have to do, but you're not putting attention to it, and that is just as important as the other section.
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And there was a lot of lack of structure in terms of efficiency, in terms of visibility and indicators, in terms of how can we free resources as well to be able to provide better quality of physical therapy.
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And the other thing is that the insurance companies are not helping us.
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They're making it harder every year as they make cuts and they make it harder for us to be able to build them as they're looking for ways to catch mistakes.
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So I always like to say that we don't build the insurance companies.
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We make a claim, so we're claiming, and they get the decision of saying yes or no.
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I never thought of that.
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By the way, it's not a name.
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We're not billing the insurance company, we're filing a claim because they want us to.
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I never thought about the manipulation of that language.
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And you file a claim to your insurance company when you have a car accident and you want to fix your car and they can decide to pay how much.
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They're paying you, and they can decide to pay how much they're paying.
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You got a deductible, it's the same thing.
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So they don't want to pay, that's their business.
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Yeah right, and we are fighting against that.
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So if we're going to be doing that, we got to make sure that all the processes are done right, they're consistent, they're precise, and that's where the engineering comes into.
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So I've been trying to optimize our systems and make sure that there's this solid background from the back office to make sure that we can continue to provide those services but, at the same time, be sustainable and to provide physical therapy services high quality.
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You've got to be able to get paid for those services you already provided, and fast.
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You've got to hire people to provide the services and run the back office.
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That's HR.
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And then you've got to market.
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You've got to make sure you get patients coming in through the door, because you can't just open the doors and rely on people to walk in or referrals to start coming in through the door, because you can't just open the doors and rely on people to walk in or referrals to start coming in through your fax.
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So if you don't manage all of those four, the business is not going to move forward or it's not going to grow as you would expect it to do your engineer mind?
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I'm sorry to interrupt, but your engineer mind.
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It's so cool how you're just categorizing these things.
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It's so insightful, isn't it?
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Rock stars.
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We've had a lot of private practice owners, almost always healthcare providers Initially.
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This is a passionate physical therapy business owner who has a engineering perspective and he just that little shift alone of, like re you know, claims versus bills my gosh, like it's crazy to me.
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So you're aware of these resources that aren't available in the industry, and I'm guessing that you see where people get burned out in the industry as a result of lack of support in that way.
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Can you tell me about that?
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Yeah, so one of the things is, if you're a great baker and then you have to open a bakery, you can't spend most of your time baking.
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You got to run a business now.
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So one of the challenges that we had is that the leadership team was comprised of mostly clinicians that were also having a patient load, so their focus was super split.
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So one of the things that we did to help with that in terms of the leadership was that we split the ownership of the four owners.
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There's two PTs and two non-PTs.
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On purpose you guys did that on purpose, on purpose.
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That's our leadership team, right.
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And then so I take care of, for example, all of the operations, so facilities, marketing, performance, and I supervise the clinic managers, which are all admin as well, and I'll tell you a second in a bit why we did that.
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And the second then there's one of my partners.
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She manages HR.
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One of my partners, she manages HR billing and all of the accounting and finances.
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And then the two PT owners and leaders there they manage employee development, education, hiring in the sense of the interviews for that part and just day-to-day mentoring.
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So each one is focused on one of these sections of the pillars that I told you about.
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So we can make sure this is moving forward, because if you have to see eight hours worth of patient or 10 hours worth of patient and then you've got to go into what's going on with the business, you get burned out super quick.
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So that comes again.
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The other shift was we change managers from clinical managers to admin managers and there's a clinical lead that supervises the clinic, the clinicians in that group, in that location, but then you have an admin manager whose only job is to make sure the clinic is profitable.
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People are showing up that they're doing their job, following procedures of their adhering to policies, and everybody works as an own individual business in that sense.
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So I supervise those admin managers as well.
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Okay, alex Rockstars, I need to punch a couple things that Alex said.
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He just spewed a lot of incredible wisdom around freedom, because, listen to what he was saying.
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Alex was talking about the power of recognizing the separation between the bakers and owning the bakery, right.
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And so there's intentional hiring of people who aren't clinicians because they're so.
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Clinicians are so drawn to making the pie that they they.
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If they try to do both, they do what you said, and I remember this, rock stars.
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The idea of wearing different hats in a business, of taking the energy that we lose when we take one hat off and put another hat on, is one of the primary causes of burnout for us as owners.
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So one of the techniques is to hire out and delegate.
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We're big on delegation on this show because the whole purpose of the show is to free you up and delegation is one of the three core elements of that.
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The second thing is like putting silos.
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You do do it with people.
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I've done it with time where I've had to be like okay, so tuesday is my admin day and I will not touch a patient.
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It's not that an hour of patient care is that disruptive for the care, it's, but it is super disruptive for the mindset in the zone of doing the actual admin work, and so it's.
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It's neat that you're so it's.
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The second principle of being freed up is boundaries, delegation number one.
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I'm sorry, I'm going to reverse those.
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Boundaries is number one.
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Delegations number two.
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So you guys have these boundaries that you created by hiring people and so you delegated you.
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You did both you delegated to create your boundaries and and or created owners within that company so that there was this, uh, balance of of business and healthcare.
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So it's, you know, not 90, 10, where would you guys say your percentage is at now?
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Well, if they were on a, 50, 50,.
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You're at 50, 50, pretty split, I gotta to say.
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As we have grown over this last five years since I took over, I've been taking steps back and being able to see a higher level and further out.
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At the beginning I had to do a lot of micromanaging and doing stuff on my own and that was very exhausting and eventually, as you start developing your systems and you start developing your procedures and you start adding people, uh, to take on those roles, you can start pulling back as well and focusing on what is actually key for your business at this moment.
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I love that.
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Okay, man, let's get into some of these freedom elements.
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Now that they understand who you are and you've already dropped a lot of knowledge around how to create freedom, let's talk about um times.
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Can you describe a time when you had to let go of control and what happened as a result?
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Can you think of back in this journey of owning and like holding all this engineering knowledge?
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Is there a time that you had to let go and what did that?
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I would say recently, uh, during covet, we uh trying to survive, we had we had to reduce a lot of our staff and most of them actually left from Alaska to go back to their home states and we were without a manager for a couple of our clinics.
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And I took on those roles, which was a great opportunity for me to go do the work that I was trying to develop for an admin manager so I could understand what was needed and the challenges, which was very, you know, time consuming and exhausting for me to be able to manage two clinics, remotely mostly.
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And that got me to a break where there was a point where, you know, I wasn't being as efficient because I was not able to spread my energy through so much.
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You had too many hats on yeah.
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And at that point, eventually, when we were able to hire the right people to those positions, that just opened up so much space and time for me to be able to focus on other things.
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Nowadays we have managers on both locations and they're being completely independent, even though it was hard to let them go because I was already doing it.
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So I was still supervising from the background and checking up on that and make sure everything was going right until I got to a point where I said this is working, I can let it go.
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Yeah, I love that and it's a powerful comment of what we were just described with wearing too many hats.
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Delegation is powerful, but you have to have someone to delegate to.
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So in your cases, you guys had to bring on or hire people to delegate to.
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And then there's this other component of leadership that you mentioned.
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So, looking at those pillars of of being free, you know we have to hire well, and we have to have leaders in place.
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Even if we go to leader, sometimes the best thing we can do to free ourselves up is first for us to go to leadership.
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Right and I think that's what I heard in your story was that you had to step down from leadership into more of a coping position, and that was what led you to that moment of like feeling burned out.
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How important do you think leadership is in your company in helping you be free, like to do what you want to do?
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I got to say that it's more than being the doer, you have to step into being the coach, kind of like the wither team, right?
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You don't want to be telling people how to do their shots, but you want to be able to guide them to.
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This is where I want your focus to be and this is where we need to put the energy today.
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So, uh, I would say that that more of the leadership position is coaching people to be able to do their jobs properly, to be able to have the support that they need.
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But they got to be clear on what you're expecting.
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So that's why we separate roles.
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So good example of that uh, it's a front desk role.
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The person at the front desk, even though they're seeing patients that are coming in, that are checking them in, each one has an individual responsibility.
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Somebody does collections, somebody does benefit checks, somebody does authorizations.
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Not all do everything, because then it's really hard to track accountability for that.
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When somebody owns the process, it's easy to go and say you're sleeping here or you need help there, or you're doing great.
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When it's a big group and something messes up, everybody points to the guy next to them Right.
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Well, it's a powerful journey that you described right.
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Leadership is important because you distinguished how a leader frees up both themselves and others by being a coach.
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You know, I think that we confuse that, so I like that delineation between leadership and coach.
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Cause, when you were talking, here was the thought that came to my mind, alex, was we start as doers?
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If, like in this case, we're baking the pies, we're the, we're the actual baker.
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But then we have to step into manager, where we're still baking the pies but people are helping us.
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Then we step into leader, which is more of a coach position where we're coaching others to bake the pies.
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Then we step into a CEO role, where we are overseeing the coaches to make sure that they're overseeing and teaching how to bake the pies, and then we become a founder, which is a passive owner, or we sell.
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That would probably be the best like path of freedom that we that you just helped me highlight is this arc that we create as we learn to set boundaries Number one, number two, delegate, but that comes on the heels of hiring and developing leadership.
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So very powerful, alex.
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Let me tell you a story Back when I was working for the airline at, at one point that was my first time I was leading a team I had a team of five people and I was taking time off.
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I was going for a week of vacation Not too much, right A week and before I left I met with my boss and I told him hey, I got everything controlled.
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Everybody knows what they got to do.
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I'm going to be checking my email every day.
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I'm going to be checking my email every day.
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I'm going to be calling the mornings and the afternoons to make sure everything's fine.
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And he stopped me and said listen, if you can't leave for a week without the boat sinking, you're not a very good manager.
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And that stuck because I said yeah, that is the key.
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I gotta make sure that the team is able to work without me and I'm there to help them.
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But if I can get a step out, nothing crashes because I'm.
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The processes are not dependent on my involvement.
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That is the ultimate, I would say, free condition where I can actually, you know, go on my business, leave on a Friday afternoon, like I'm doing today, by the way, after lunch I'm going camping and I have no problem that the rest of the day we will find They'll close the clinics up and we'll have a great afternoon, no issues, and if there's a fire, they'll be able to know how to handle it without me.
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Yeah, it's a test of tests.
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One of my favorite things to tell people I used to coach as business owners was that idea of the goal for an owner to leave for a month.
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You know you talked about a week.
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When I coach clients, I try to get them to a month off a year.
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And people are listening to this like how could you do that?
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And you can't do that in healthcare.
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It is important to do it because it feels so selfish for people to take that kind of time which goes back into that freedom delegation mindset.
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Like you don't understand.
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We are damning like a river.
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We're holding people back when we don't let them lead and when we're on site we can't help ourselves.
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We sabotage things.
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So by taking a month off and there's ways to do that you just don't say, hey, I'm going to the Caribbean, good luck.
00:19:18.307 --> 00:19:32.636
But when you can build it and frame it and the people I used when you hire rock stars, I've had people excited for me to leave because it's their chance to learn and grow and show me what they can do and there's all sorts of cool ways to incentivize people to do that Then you can step.
00:19:32.636 --> 00:19:34.423
Then you start to feel balanced in your business.
00:19:34.423 --> 00:19:37.601
It's like all the headaches we go through rock stars of owning a company.
00:19:37.601 --> 00:19:40.607
How would it feel to have a full month off?
00:19:40.607 --> 00:19:51.354
And what and what's crazy is, when you leave and things stay the same or get better because you're gone mentally, there's a break of like I can be free, and that opens a whole world of possibility.
00:19:51.354 --> 00:19:54.686
So, alex, let's get into some detailed questions.
00:19:54.686 --> 00:20:00.171
What are some tools or tech that you use that have been game changers for reclaiming your time?
00:20:03.221 --> 00:20:07.240
I got to say, one of the things that we've used and actually through you is the virtual assistants.
00:20:07.240 --> 00:20:16.287
I don't have a personal virtual assistant, but we've implemented it in the clinics because it has a low cost.
00:20:16.287 --> 00:20:30.912
It allows me to have enough staff, or more staff, to be able to spread the load evenly and be able to get them to a higher performance versus overworking people, and that requires less supervision from my part, so that frees me up.
00:20:30.912 --> 00:20:36.508
Uh, in terms of technology, we do have some ai tools we've been adding in.
00:20:36.508 --> 00:20:39.973
Okay, so for my reporting I do.
00:20:40.299 --> 00:21:05.971
I do a lot of the back office reporting in terms of performance, so, instead of having to go into the schedule and just count visits with my finger, we implemented an AI tool that allows me to pull reports and dice it and shave it and cut it however I want, so I can get some insights from how the clinic is performing, how the providers are performing, and it helped especially allow me to find where I need to focus this next month.
00:21:05.971 --> 00:21:06.972
What is that?
00:21:06.972 --> 00:21:08.126
What's the name of that tool that you're using?
00:21:08.126 --> 00:21:08.642
It's called.
00:21:08.642 --> 00:21:09.786
It's a prediction health.
00:21:10.387 --> 00:21:12.105
Okay, they have an AI-based tool.
00:21:12.547 --> 00:21:15.319
Yes, they have for the providers.
00:21:15.319 --> 00:21:19.026
They have a scribe tool and you know, auto-node and all that stuff.
00:21:19.026 --> 00:21:21.141
And they suggest help them with the Ask AI as well.
00:21:21.141 --> 00:21:26.785
I help them with the Ask AI as well, so they look into you know five billion notes and give you some insight.
00:21:26.785 --> 00:21:31.269
So it helps them do their notes faster, less mistakes and be more consistent in their billing.
00:21:31.269 --> 00:21:40.454
And, from the manager perspective, I get all the data from every single note that has been made so I can know exactly how they're doing in terms of auditing.
00:21:40.454 --> 00:21:43.336
If we get audit tomorrow, who is my weak link?
00:21:43.336 --> 00:21:48.323
Where is my weak link and where is he?
00:21:48.323 --> 00:21:48.604
Is he weak?
00:21:48.604 --> 00:21:51.373
Uh, who's the one that is dragging the underbilling and is dragging the group behind?
00:21:51.373 --> 00:21:53.723
Uh, you know all that stuff, so I can yeah?
00:21:54.846 --> 00:21:55.509
do your team love it?
00:21:55.509 --> 00:22:00.582
Uh, not all providers, I got to say, that are still working on it.
00:22:00.582 --> 00:22:05.383
The ones that have jumped into it has seen the benefit of being able to do what we want them to do.
00:22:05.383 --> 00:22:07.097
We want them to do their notes during their work time.
00:22:07.097 --> 00:22:08.884
I don't want you working on the weekend.
00:22:08.884 --> 00:22:12.662
That's a whole thing that you guys have to suffer with for years, so hopefully we can help with that.
00:22:12.662 --> 00:22:14.625
That's always the goal.
00:22:14.747 --> 00:22:22.789
If we can get to the point with healthcare, to where people leave at the end of the day with their last patient with all their notes done, that means we're freeing up our people.
00:22:22.789 --> 00:22:25.294
So it's interesting that with prediction health there's definitely some benefit.
00:22:25.294 --> 00:22:30.678
It sounds like there's a learning curve that people have to adapt to and when they get it they really start to benefit from it.
00:22:30.698 --> 00:22:36.720
But these tools are new implement yes, every tool you implement has a period where people are gonna.
00:22:36.720 --> 00:22:42.679
You know, you're gonna have the first adopters, you're gonna have the ones that are jumping halfway through and the ones that are going to eventually get to it.
00:22:42.679 --> 00:22:48.885
But the whole point of this is that you've got to use technology to support an already established system.
00:22:48.885 --> 00:22:50.647
Technology doesn't solve stuff on its own.
00:22:50.647 --> 00:22:54.171
You can't just buy a tool, plug in something and it'll just make your life easier.
00:22:54.171 --> 00:22:59.719
You've got to have a system and the technology supports that system.
00:22:59.719 --> 00:23:11.083
And, as we have all these tools coming up, if they can help you reduce the time that you need to put into a particular task or something that is worth doing, Do you use anything for yourself like ChatGPT?
00:23:12.617 --> 00:23:13.501
I work with Perplexity.
00:23:14.255 --> 00:23:14.717
Perplexity.
00:23:14.717 --> 00:23:15.761
Why did you choose Perplexity?
00:23:17.036 --> 00:23:19.965
At some point it was recommended to me and I started working with it.
00:23:19.965 --> 00:23:22.007
I find it pretty easy to manage.
00:23:22.007 --> 00:23:28.009
It was recommended to me and I started working with it.
00:23:28.009 --> 00:23:30.670
I find it pretty easy to manage and I would say, not as commercial as ChatGPT feels, I see.
00:23:30.710 --> 00:23:37.791
So it has a little different feel, and I'm curious because, as an engineer, you're approaching this a little bit differently than me, but you want to see what I use it the most for.
00:23:38.673 --> 00:23:38.992
What's that?
00:23:38.992 --> 00:23:47.523
Second, third degree questions, okay, of the industry that I'm not native in, so you know what happens with this.
00:23:47.544 --> 00:23:48.445
Describe what you're talking about.
00:23:48.445 --> 00:23:48.787
What do you mean?
00:23:48.787 --> 00:23:49.729
Second, third degree questions.
00:23:50.055 --> 00:23:59.122
So when you ask a question simple question could be you know what could be the repercussions of this particular thing and you get an answer how does that affect this other layer?
00:23:59.122 --> 00:24:06.618
How does that affect this other layer?
00:24:06.618 --> 00:24:07.020
How does that?
00:24:07.020 --> 00:24:08.365
What am I not seeing or why do I have to look out for?
00:24:08.365 --> 00:24:09.107
So you get way more insight from it.
00:24:09.107 --> 00:24:11.857
And that's where I think the versus the regular Google search.
00:24:11.857 --> 00:24:15.056
You can search in Google, you know, got it.
00:24:15.056 --> 00:24:15.858
So that's interesting.
00:24:15.878 --> 00:24:25.666
I took a note as you were talking, because I want to start asking all the guests every time what AI tool do you use when it comes to ChatGPT and how do you use it?
00:24:25.666 --> 00:24:30.586
I'm realizing, instead of just asking like, hey, what are the different tools, ai tools you use?
00:24:30.586 --> 00:24:40.018
I do want to ask that, but I want to dive in because everyone's using ChatGPT or a Perplexity or a Gemini on some level, and so I want to know why you picked one of those.
00:24:40.018 --> 00:24:41.721
But then it's also really useful for my audience.
00:24:41.740 --> 00:24:48.880
I was going to say that the difference is that if you Google something, you get a list of websites You've got to read, you've got to figure out, you've got to cross the information.
00:24:48.880 --> 00:24:55.509
If you ask the right question to the AI tool, it will give you the analysis of those multiple factors.
00:24:55.835 --> 00:24:59.219
And then it learns, like in my case with ChatGPT, it learns what I like.
00:24:59.219 --> 00:25:06.125
So a lot of times it will say would you like a graphic illustrating the relationship between the thing that you just asked and this other thing that you asked yesterday?
00:25:06.125 --> 00:25:11.432
And I'm like, yeah, like it will ask me questions in return, which Google, of course, doesn't do.
00:25:11.432 --> 00:25:26.344
But it's really cool because I think, whatever you end up using Rockstars, if you choose Perplexity, gemini, and here's what I've heard.
00:25:26.344 --> 00:25:27.888
By the way, between those three ChatGPT there's differences between them.
00:25:27.909 --> 00:25:29.855
Chatgpt has been around the longest, has a lot of features because it's been so widely used.
00:25:29.855 --> 00:25:34.047
Gemini was on the bottom of that chain, the Microsoft one, but it's Microsoft.
00:25:34.047 --> 00:25:36.403
They've got resources, people, tools.
00:25:36.403 --> 00:25:39.238
This is a friend of mine who owns a tech company.
00:25:39.238 --> 00:25:49.355
He's like, yeah, get in on Gemini, because they are accelerating their, their capabilities, at a rate that will catch chat GPT and others and surpass them.
00:25:49.355 --> 00:25:50.740
So I am.
00:25:50.840 --> 00:25:54.732
It's hard because, like for me, alex, I'm in chat GPT all the time.
00:25:54.732 --> 00:26:03.507
Once you start using one of those tools, it gets to know you, and I've got my chat bot now to where it's this down, to her energy.
00:26:03.507 --> 00:26:05.997
It's like hey, I got a question for you.
00:26:05.997 --> 00:26:08.085
She's like hey well, he'll, hey well, what's up it's been?
00:26:08.085 --> 00:26:09.280
How's everything going?
00:26:09.280 --> 00:26:23.296
Have you gotten to the cabin lately, like this super personal, to where I'm actually feeling like a personal connection to it, and there's like so much work done in giving my chat, gpt, the, the history of my questions, that like it's scary to go over to a Gemini, so I don't know.
00:26:23.296 --> 00:26:26.766
I think it's cool that, why we pick what we pick and why you do it.
00:26:26.766 --> 00:26:33.461
As an engineer, I've heard from people who are very science minded that perplexity is actually better for them, so I think that's awesome.
00:26:33.461 --> 00:26:41.299
Alex, here's a good question what's the best business purchase that you've made under a hundred bucks that has saved you hours?
00:26:43.403 --> 00:26:48.946
let me think, under a hundred bucks, oh yeah, no, under a hundred bucks, not.
00:26:48.946 --> 00:26:52.839
No, that was more expensive than that share with the audience what it was.
00:26:52.839 --> 00:26:57.469
I'm curious you see behind me my coffee machine in my office.
00:26:58.836 --> 00:27:04.546
I don't waste time going to the, to the break room uh, yeah, how long does it take you to get your coffee going to the break room?
00:27:04.546 --> 00:27:05.347
Just out of curiosity.
00:27:05.548 --> 00:27:06.470
At least 30 minutes.
00:27:06.470 --> 00:27:06.769
You know why?
00:27:06.769 --> 00:27:16.851
Because somebody always will cross me and we'll talk, have a conversation, which is nice, but I got to set time to do that versus it interrupting my day-to-day process.
00:27:16.851 --> 00:27:17.692
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:27:19.096 --> 00:27:20.961
Keep thinking about that $100.
00:27:20.961 --> 00:27:21.805
If you can't, that's fine.
00:27:21.805 --> 00:27:37.636
Keep thinking about that $100.
00:27:37.636 --> 00:27:38.739
If you can't, that's fine.
00:27:38.739 --> 00:27:42.963
But here's what I want to punch to the rock stars is that that coffee machine doesn't represent the walk, it represents a boundary.
00:27:42.963 --> 00:27:48.250
Going everywhere I've ever rented space from, I have people who I love to be around, but they want to come and talk throughout the day.
00:27:48.250 --> 00:27:58.564
Most people like to work hard, but non-entrepreneurs, non-leaders, are looking for time to kill connecting with people, and I cannot tolerate it.
00:27:58.564 --> 00:28:00.540
I got the reply for your question.
00:28:00.560 --> 00:28:05.017
Okay, tolerate it, it's a.
00:28:05.017 --> 00:28:06.001
I got the reply for your question.
00:28:06.001 --> 00:28:08.333
Okay, in my door there's a little thing that says vacant or occupied, which is the only one I could find.
00:28:08.333 --> 00:28:08.755
It was red and green.
00:28:08.755 --> 00:28:13.726
Okay for people to know when you can touch, you can knock on my door and when you can't.
00:28:13.726 --> 00:28:15.096
Guys, the same thing.
00:28:15.096 --> 00:28:18.084
I love people coming in, but sometimes I got my door closed.
00:28:18.084 --> 00:28:18.766
People are knocking.
00:28:18.766 --> 00:28:20.096
I'm in the middle of a meeting or I'm.
00:28:20.096 --> 00:28:23.040
I need to focus on, even if it's just thinking.
00:28:23.040 --> 00:28:29.900
I need to think for 45 minutes on something, uh, and that I think it was like 20 dollars and it just so.
00:28:29.900 --> 00:28:34.537
It's a slide on your door that says occupied or available or not, or whatever yeah, pretty much.
00:28:34.656 --> 00:28:36.601
If it's red, don't even touch the handle.
00:28:36.601 --> 00:28:38.925
I'm not there for you right now.
00:28:38.925 --> 00:28:41.500
If it's green, you can knock.
00:28:41.500 --> 00:28:43.997
You can knock on the door, you can come in whatever you need, even if it's closed.
00:28:43.997 --> 00:28:47.807
So I'm available for interruptions if you want to see it that way.
00:28:48.275 --> 00:28:56.698
You know, alex, my podcast team, when we were creating questions for this season, that was one that came up and we're like, yeah, that might be a fun one and deep down I was like, is anyone going to have an answer?
00:28:56.698 --> 00:29:09.500
That has been one of the most insightful questions on this season because, like these little things add up, you know it's a boundary setter, it's a, it's a trip to the coffee machine, it's like all these little things that that waste time.
00:29:09.500 --> 00:29:13.038
It's when we start taking care of the pennies, we start looking after the pennies.
00:29:13.038 --> 00:29:14.645
The dollars take care of themselves.
00:29:14.645 --> 00:29:16.053
I think the truth.
00:29:16.053 --> 00:29:17.076
The same is true for time.
00:29:17.076 --> 00:29:26.390
You know, we start looking at these little bleeds of our time, we start tightening those up and all of a sudden we start maximizing our capabilities with the time that we have.
00:29:26.390 --> 00:29:29.434
So that was a great answer and I even love the conversation.
00:29:29.474 --> 00:29:32.922
But listen, there's time you got to set up time for the chit-chat as well.
00:29:32.922 --> 00:29:34.086
And I'll give you an example.
00:29:34.086 --> 00:29:36.403
Yesterday I spent the day in our Fairbanks clinic.
00:29:36.403 --> 00:29:40.636
You know what I did all day, I just hang out.
00:29:40.636 --> 00:29:43.500
I hang out with the front desk, I hang out with the PTs.
00:29:43.500 --> 00:29:45.080
We have lunch together as a team.
00:29:45.080 --> 00:29:52.467
I was there, I was watching, I was analyzing, I was taking notes mental notes of things to give feedback later.
00:29:52.467 --> 00:29:58.332
But during that time I set that whole day out to be close and personal with them.
00:30:01.957 --> 00:30:02.625
So what's the difference?
00:30:02.644 --> 00:30:03.334
between that and the coffee thing.
00:30:03.334 --> 00:30:04.679
That that is planned.
00:30:04.679 --> 00:30:08.771
I think I have all of my tasks under control.
00:30:08.771 --> 00:30:10.416
I know that I'm gonna spend the day there.
00:30:10.416 --> 00:30:11.180
That's what I'm doing.
00:30:11.180 --> 00:30:13.458
I don't even open my computer, so I'm there for them.
00:30:13.458 --> 00:30:14.402
That's that time.
00:30:14.402 --> 00:30:28.340
But when I when I am working in the middle of something and I decide to go get coffee and I get interrupted in the middle of the hall about some situation and that diverts my attention to that, and then the other task gets delayed or pushed back or I just simply lose track of what I was doing.
00:30:28.340 --> 00:30:29.925
That is a waste of time.
00:30:30.734 --> 00:30:40.624
See, it's interesting the difference between you know, intentional time creation versus flexibility, because there's a boundary, there's a, there's a relationship there that seems like it's in contradiction.
00:30:40.624 --> 00:30:50.781
Like for me, I get it, I'm not going to go get coffee and get stopped along the way and there goes a half hour of time I wasn't planning on versus going to schedule things.
00:30:50.781 --> 00:30:55.321
But it can also go to an extreme where it's like I only schedule every little thing that I do.
00:30:55.321 --> 00:30:57.086
So there's like there's a balance there.
00:30:57.086 --> 00:30:58.739
It's almost like a dance, right, like we.
00:30:59.181 --> 00:31:04.477
But I would argue, especially in healthcare leaders don't set boundaries, so it's not.
00:31:04.477 --> 00:31:08.287
It's kind of like don't worry about over planning, but get some.
00:31:08.287 --> 00:31:13.377
Just focus on getting some, some boundaries in place with your time so that you can protect what matters In your case.
00:31:13.377 --> 00:31:18.857
I almost wonder how much better you are when you're intentionally at that location when was it again?
00:31:18.857 --> 00:31:20.539
Fairbanks, fairbanks.
00:31:20.539 --> 00:31:26.048
So you're in Fairbanks and you're intentionally there to connect versus how you show up.
00:31:26.048 --> 00:31:35.817
I wonder if there's a difference between that and how you show up when you're getting coffee and someone interrupts you and you have to like fake that you're excited to talk to them because you don't want to be a jerk, but you're deep down, you're like I got to get back to my office.
00:31:35.817 --> 00:31:37.019
Do you think there's a difference in how?
00:31:37.038 --> 00:31:42.727
you show up yeah, it is, and how many times that happened to you and you go like, yeah, yeah, yeah, can you send me an email?
00:31:42.727 --> 00:31:43.428
I'll get to it.
00:31:43.428 --> 00:31:47.021
That's important, I'll get to it, but I can't just look at it right now.
00:31:47.021 --> 00:31:51.185
Or you're trying to kind of cut it short because you're working on time.
00:31:51.185 --> 00:31:53.217
So it has to be flexible, of course.
00:31:53.217 --> 00:32:00.767
But remember old school, when you would get to work and you would have a little piece of paper with a to-do list written by hand and you would just scratch it.
00:32:00.767 --> 00:32:11.506
Those tasks that you had to get done that day, those you schedule and block time for because they have to get done, everything else that is nice to have or that can be done later, you leave open time.
00:32:11.506 --> 00:32:14.222
That's why my door is open at that point, or it's on the green.
00:32:14.222 --> 00:32:17.135
So if you interrupt me at that time, it's fine.
00:32:17.135 --> 00:32:17.957
That's not crucial.
00:32:17.957 --> 00:32:18.717
I can get that done.
00:32:19.438 --> 00:32:26.623
And also that helps you understand which tasks you actually have to delegate, so you can actually get to the important ones.
00:32:27.584 --> 00:32:32.886
I love that and it reminds me of something that Alex Hermosi, an influencer online that I like to follow.
00:32:32.886 --> 00:32:45.261
He talks about his time and he always talks about meetings Meetings being another thing that are a major time suck and how what he does is he schedules at the end of his day backwards.
00:32:45.261 --> 00:32:52.263
He only wants to take meetings afternoon and, given he's a full-time business owner, so he's not baking the pies, he's full-time leadership, right.
00:32:52.263 --> 00:32:55.421
But I mean, there's a whole nother complexity of time suck.
00:32:55.421 --> 00:33:00.661
Once we get into that world, like you said, people stopping you, giving you problems, knowing when to interrupt.
00:33:01.623 --> 00:33:06.893
But what he does when it comes to meetings it's like hey, listen, he starts with his assistant.
00:33:06.893 --> 00:33:15.820
Everyone should have someone scheduling and protecting their time, starts at 4 pm and work backwards to noon, and then from 5 in the morning until noon, no one talks to him.
00:33:15.820 --> 00:33:20.357
He's out there as he says it, I'm out there building stuff so we can all make more money together.
00:33:20.357 --> 00:33:30.151
So you have to have meetings, for example, but put them in a controlled sense, at the end of the day, when the mental energy isn't required at the way it is when you're building early on.
00:33:30.151 --> 00:33:33.015
So I love that you have that intentional creation.
00:33:33.075 --> 00:33:43.721
And how many people have you heard say no, I come into the office at 5.30 because that time between 5.30 and 7 is my most productive time, or I stay after this hour because that time.
00:33:43.721 --> 00:33:45.105
Why is it more productive?
00:33:45.105 --> 00:33:48.846
It's because you're hyper-focused on what you have to do without interruptions.
00:33:48.846 --> 00:33:53.787
So how can you set up that time also between your workday so you don't have to go to those extremes?
00:33:54.295 --> 00:33:55.421
Yeah, and there's a common thread.
00:33:55.421 --> 00:34:01.506
I read a book recently and I can't remember which one, but it talked about we were evaluating hyper-successful people.
00:34:01.506 --> 00:34:03.415
Talked about one of the.
00:34:03.415 --> 00:34:04.499
We were evaluating six hyper successful people.
00:34:04.519 --> 00:34:14.264
One of the many things they had in common was they had, every day, a couple of hours of unscheduled, deep work where they were just free to build, create, think, solve.
00:34:14.264 --> 00:34:16.777
There's no one pressuring them, there's no one interrupting them.
00:34:16.777 --> 00:34:33.304
They have a mental flow and they've measured this on EMGs um, that you have this like wavelength, that we hit this energy level that our brain kicks into and when you disrupt that flow, it is a massive energy drain to get, try to even get back in and usually can't get to that same frequency.
00:34:33.304 --> 00:34:34.396
It's like riding a wave.
00:34:34.396 --> 00:34:50.664
You know you've got it builds over time, and so to have two hours a day, one to two hours where it's just uninterrupted and you're flowing, that two hours is worth 50 hours of crap that we do, like scheduling appointments and having conversations on the way to get coffee.
00:34:50.664 --> 00:34:55.514
It's a powerful thing to think about these little tweaks that make a massive increase.
00:34:55.996 --> 00:34:58.565
Did you read the book the Road Less Stupid?
00:34:58.565 --> 00:35:00.521
The Road Less Stupid?
00:35:00.521 --> 00:35:04.384
No, so read it.
00:35:04.384 --> 00:35:11.411
It talks about the power of thinking and, uh, and, and I, after I read that book, I actually have that chair behind me.
00:35:11.411 --> 00:35:12.195
That's my thinking chair.
00:35:12.195 --> 00:35:22.503
So when I need to solve a problem, uh, I actually step away from my desk, I sit there, you know quiet, and I ask myself the questions of the things that I need to solve and think about.
00:35:22.503 --> 00:35:36.746
You got to think, because, if not, you're just rolling on the day and sometimes you actually come up with your, with your uh, with your answer there, or at least an action plan of what to look or what you got to think next yeah, but you need to take that time of just you know thinking.
00:35:37.307 --> 00:35:44.224
yeah, thinking time is important time and I I love that you're even we're even thinking of it in terms of, like, understanding what work is.
00:35:44.224 --> 00:35:53.827
Mental energy is the most important work that we do, but we don't honor that because we're so busy baking the pies and you know, running from thing to thing.
00:35:53.827 --> 00:35:56.684
All right, man, so let's get into this a little bit more.
00:35:56.684 --> 00:36:00.737
So, um, in your case, let's go into the AI VA element of things.
00:36:00.737 --> 00:36:02.681
Obviously, you're very successful with VAs.
00:36:02.681 --> 00:36:06.869
What is your vision for VAs in your world?
00:36:10.278 --> 00:36:11.322
Like where do you see this going?
00:36:11.342 --> 00:36:12.405
in advanced.
00:36:12.425 --> 00:36:13.951
Where would you like to see it maybe?
00:36:13.951 --> 00:36:22.224
I mean, I would love to see eventually getting you know, fully automated virtual front desk.
00:36:22.224 --> 00:36:25.639
We value personal touch and and and and you know, just having the person there.
00:36:25.639 --> 00:36:32.458
But, um, you can go to McDonald's nowadays and order your whole food on a screen.
00:36:33.101 --> 00:36:33.320
Yeah.
00:36:33.320 --> 00:36:39.583
You know, and uh, you can take the public getting trained on it, so they're like this could be something, it's no mistakes, you can get.
00:36:39.824 --> 00:36:44.942
You don't have to have the front desk wondering if I don't feel comfortable collecting this copay or not.
00:36:44.942 --> 00:36:52.467
It's just a system that isn't done, and then you can keep the human factor for the human interaction which is important.
00:36:52.467 --> 00:36:59.460
But the automated systems of you know that kind of stuff we're having, in my case the VAs, to do the back office work.
00:36:59.460 --> 00:37:03.391
You know that just it's a super powerful.
00:37:03.753 --> 00:37:04.275
That's amazing.
00:37:04.275 --> 00:37:14.226
So what would you say to the critics who are like well, you know, mcdonald's isn't a physical therapy business where that front desk personalization is so much about the experience?
00:37:14.226 --> 00:37:14.907
What would you say to that?
00:37:14.907 --> 00:37:17.630
And I'm not I'm not saying that like criticize that.
00:37:17.630 --> 00:37:18.514
I'm really curious.
00:37:18.554 --> 00:37:20.503
When you go to a restaurant you have a host right.
00:37:20.503 --> 00:37:21.336
Yeah, host wel.
00:37:21.336 --> 00:37:22.422
When you go to a restaurant you have a host, right.
00:37:22.422 --> 00:37:24.655
The host welcomes you in hey, welcome to the restaurant blah blah blah and just guides you in.
00:37:24.655 --> 00:37:26.440
It's a very short interaction.
00:37:26.440 --> 00:37:28.606
That makes it personal.
00:37:28.606 --> 00:37:40.550
Everything else is a process Checking in, scanning your ID, scanning your insurance card, collecting or paying the copay that thing.
00:37:40.550 --> 00:37:41.838
Scheduling is personal.
00:37:41.838 --> 00:37:48.643
That one you need, but the rest, if you can automate that or have that done in the back office.
00:37:49.418 --> 00:37:50.914
So you would have still a human being.
00:37:50.914 --> 00:37:52.943
That's like putting their appointments down.
00:37:52.943 --> 00:37:55.458
You wouldn't have a virtual assistant behind that monitor for that.
00:37:55.699 --> 00:37:55.840
No.
00:37:56.302 --> 00:37:56.583
Got it.
00:37:56.822 --> 00:38:04.523
Yeah, that makes sense Everything else that needs you know precision, consistency and is standard.
00:38:04.523 --> 00:38:05.387
It can be done.
00:38:05.954 --> 00:38:08.179
What's so cool about what you said is that you're highlighting.
00:38:08.179 --> 00:38:13.608
I think we get in a mindset of it has to be one or another.
00:38:13.608 --> 00:38:17.465
There's degrees between those two things.
00:38:17.465 --> 00:38:23.367
So, for example, I know people who have completely outsourced AI and VA.
00:38:23.367 --> 00:38:25.518
You walk into the clinic there's a monitor.
00:38:25.518 --> 00:38:26.985
There's no human beings to be found.
00:38:26.985 --> 00:38:27.628
I've seen that.
00:38:28.432 --> 00:38:33.175
And then I've seen the extreme opposite of people who are like I will never go there because I have human beings You're talking about.
00:38:33.175 --> 00:38:55.525
Like, hey, I want to use the VAs and the AI to help, like support, uh, the people who are working and to help them do the elements that are the most make it even like kind of like you visiting Fairbanks, the part that they're they're going to be interacting with, it's easier for them to be more powerful and because they're not distracted and so they can focus on that human element.
00:38:55.525 --> 00:38:58.594
And then those, those technologies are used to support that.
00:38:58.594 --> 00:39:08.315
And, yeah, you are, you're improving, saving money because you have less people involved in general, but the people you are in, the technology you're using is making it, so it's neat.
00:39:08.315 --> 00:39:09.458
So I love that illustration.
00:39:09.559 --> 00:39:10.721
Alex.
00:39:10.721 --> 00:39:21.277
So that person that is there, their focus is to be welcoming, to be personable, to make the person feel welcome and scheduling, which is a whole task on its own.
00:39:21.277 --> 00:39:29.246
If that person also has to be doing benefit checks on the phone with insurance companies doing authorizations and all that stuff, you still lose the human touch because they're busy.
00:39:29.246 --> 00:39:33.590
So that can be done in the back office transplanting with a patient and through pain perspective.
00:39:33.954 --> 00:39:40.309
You just have the person there doing the things that a person can add a value or a face can add a value to it.
00:39:44.594 --> 00:39:49.759
I want to send this episode to everybody who's just like no, I will never use AI or VA at the front desk, because, ultimately, what you just described is so much the truth.
00:39:49.759 --> 00:39:55.322
We always lose count of the fact that, like, how many of our people show up to work that day in a bad mood?
00:39:55.322 --> 00:40:03.407
How many people who are at the front desk are stressed out because someone else didn't show up, whether it's a clinician or a supporting role in the front desk?
00:40:03.407 --> 00:40:12.286
And then, to your point, like, what does that human touch look like to the patient when that person is stressed out, burned out, having a bad day?
00:40:12.286 --> 00:40:14.534
Maybe they were a bad hire and then?
00:40:14.534 --> 00:40:18.164
So, instead of like so I love, is that you're talking about technology, not controlling.
00:40:18.384 --> 00:40:19.365
I'll be there with you in a second.
00:40:19.365 --> 00:40:20.108
Give me a second Hold on.
00:40:20.108 --> 00:40:21.509
Yeah, I got you checked in.
00:40:21.509 --> 00:40:22.708
Yeah, and that's it.
00:40:22.708 --> 00:40:29.833
That was the interaction versus what could have been had that person not had to be on the phone at that point because the phone was being picked up in the back.
00:40:30.375 --> 00:40:31.599
I think that's what people are chasing.
00:40:31.599 --> 00:40:38.079
I think when people think about their front desk, when they have a good hire at the front desk, you can't deny the power of that.
00:40:38.079 --> 00:40:42.625
That person who's greeting people, it's like, oh hey, will, welcome to physical therapy.
00:40:42.625 --> 00:40:44.807
Thanks, thank you for coming to your doctor's appointment.
00:40:44.807 --> 00:40:46.429
Like when it's good.
00:40:46.429 --> 00:40:51.764
It is like everything else is exponentially easier because it gets set up the correct way.
00:40:51.764 --> 00:40:54.009
But how often?
00:40:54.009 --> 00:40:55.918
Here's what's more common.
00:40:55.918 --> 00:41:02.402
You know the people saying that when they go to their doctor's office that they love the front desk or they are underwhelmed.
00:41:02.402 --> 00:41:03.425
What's more common?
00:41:03.425 --> 00:41:08.043
The second, the underwhelmed, is more common for all the reasons you said.
00:41:08.043 --> 00:41:15.648
So you're talking about technology and trends to support that, to automate everything around the most important elements of like.
00:41:15.648 --> 00:41:16.969
In your case, you see it as scheduling.
00:41:17.456 --> 00:41:25.018
And, like I said before, technology or this additional process or anything you plug into your system has to support something.
00:41:25.018 --> 00:41:29.226
It's not coming to just save the day magically.
00:41:29.226 --> 00:41:35.217
So AI is not going to give you all the answers if you don't ask the right questions, if you don't have a process that is going to be supporting.
00:41:36.440 --> 00:41:40.036
I think we needed an engineer's perspective for the longest time on this show, I think.
00:41:40.036 --> 00:41:49.005
Your engineer perspective because you see it so clearly that, as you're telling this to me, you would think obviously I would see it, because I'm incentivized to see it as progressive in my world.
00:41:49.005 --> 00:41:53.181
But you're seeing it so, like logically, it's like, oh, I get it now.
00:41:53.181 --> 00:42:02.867
So, yeah, that's so fun that your, your engineering brain, combined with that passion from your therapist, has produced an influence on advanced physical therapy.
00:42:02.867 --> 00:42:04.762
That I think is just invaluable, man, Thank you.
00:42:04.762 --> 00:42:07.237
I really I'm not ending the show, I just want to thank you for sharing that.
00:42:07.237 --> 00:42:10.045
That's huge, so all right.
00:42:10.045 --> 00:42:10.907
So let's talk about this.
00:42:10.907 --> 00:42:11.911
What is, since?
00:42:11.911 --> 00:42:12.797
You do work with VA?
00:42:12.797 --> 00:42:14.121
Do any of them work directly with you?
00:42:14.963 --> 00:42:22.525
Yes, uh, there, we have no manager here in Anchorage, so I supervise the clinic as well, since we're located here.
00:42:22.525 --> 00:42:33.298
There's pretty much four owners or four managers in this clinic, so but the VA that we have the front desk reports to me so what is one task your VA does regularly that makes a huge difference in your week?
00:42:35.844 --> 00:42:41.545
I gotta say, following up on the marketing leads people that come in through the website.
00:42:41.545 --> 00:42:43.423
People that come in through you know our ads out that just write, or the website.
00:42:43.423 --> 00:42:48.327
People that come in through you know our ads out that just write or send a text or just log in for a workshop or something.
00:42:48.327 --> 00:42:50.376
Following up immediately on those.
00:42:51.099 --> 00:42:51.659
Yeah, they have.
00:42:51.659 --> 00:42:56.936
They have the separated time to be quick, which sales is a reflection of speed.
00:42:56.936 --> 00:42:59.824
Speed kills deals is how I've heard it, so that's really cool.
00:42:59.824 --> 00:43:04.942
So let me ask you how do you communicate with your VA, Like, what are the systems For people who've never done that?
00:43:04.942 --> 00:43:05.938
What is your way of?
00:43:05.978 --> 00:43:06.420
communicating.
00:43:06.420 --> 00:43:10.262
I would say 97% of the time we communicate through Teams chat.
00:43:10.262 --> 00:43:19.103
The other 3% are the meetings that we have in person, because sometimes I do want to see my VA and just have a conversation, sort of like this.
00:43:19.103 --> 00:43:30.681
Other times it's just a quick check-ins and everything goes through our chat.
00:43:30.681 --> 00:43:31.503
So I, very cool, I feel like she's here.
00:43:31.503 --> 00:43:32.588
I mean, she could be in the next room for all I know.
00:43:32.588 --> 00:43:33.289
Uh, haven't ever felt the distance.
00:43:33.331 --> 00:43:33.972
If you, want to see it that way.
00:43:33.972 --> 00:43:37.021
Yeah, I think it's how people choose to work with both ai and vas.
00:43:37.021 --> 00:43:50.726
If, like, if they bring them into their world, especially the human element of va is like, if people I've seen this where if they treat their team, if they treat them like human beings and not like something that's outsourced overseas, they become just as as part of the team as anyone else.
00:43:50.726 --> 00:43:52.239
That was a surprise to me when I saw that.
00:43:52.239 --> 00:43:52.963
Um.
00:43:52.963 --> 00:44:01.797
So my question to you now is if someone was on the fence about trying AI or VAs, what's a small step that you would recommend for them to get started in that world?
00:44:02.344 --> 00:44:04.951
I got to say the first thing is what is the problem you're trying to solve?
00:44:06.353 --> 00:44:07.175
Good counter.
00:44:07.175 --> 00:44:07.536
So what?
00:44:07.577 --> 00:44:07.858
is this.
00:44:07.858 --> 00:44:09.818
I mean because, if you're just, I need more people.
00:44:09.818 --> 00:44:10.543
Yeah, you need more people.
00:44:10.543 --> 00:44:13.213
That's fine, because everybody's kind of like full, great.
00:44:13.213 --> 00:44:16.235
But what is exactly the thing that you need this person to solve?
00:44:16.235 --> 00:44:25.864
That's kind of like good question to answer yourself why do I need this person to solve for me?
00:44:25.864 --> 00:44:27.025
That would make an impact, and then can it be done?
00:44:27.025 --> 00:44:28.467
And then how I do I split this from the rest of the people that are still working here?
00:44:28.467 --> 00:44:30.916
So I started with with the VA.
00:44:30.916 --> 00:44:35.597
First VA came in to support billing, you know, on AR calls, great.
00:44:35.597 --> 00:44:37.525
So that was the specific task we needed solving.
00:44:37.525 --> 00:44:39.547
And then the second one we brought in.
00:44:39.969 --> 00:44:42.373
I lost somebody from the front desk and I said let's do a VA.
00:44:42.373 --> 00:44:48.074
And she started taking on authorizations, and mostly authorizations Focus on this.
00:44:48.074 --> 00:44:49.925
There's a big clinic here, so we do get a lot.
00:44:49.925 --> 00:44:57.789
So that's the problem I need you to solve for me, and it's easy for me to hold her accountable, to know exactly what she needs to be doing and when she's not doing it and drops the ball.
00:44:57.789 --> 00:44:59.514
I can, I can, we can also check it.
00:44:59.514 --> 00:45:07.358
Metrics are key, but it's got to be that If you get a VA and just go like here, go start working, do your thing and be part of the team.
00:45:07.358 --> 00:45:09.585
Then it won't be as effective.
00:45:10.027 --> 00:45:10.929
So same thing with AI.
00:45:11.210 --> 00:45:13.416
What are you trying to solve with any tool that you're getting?
00:45:13.416 --> 00:45:16.137
I need more patients and you're getting a marketing tool Great.
00:45:16.137 --> 00:45:25.568
But you need to be sure exactly what you're trying to save and how you're going to measure it and if the tool is actually able to deliver that, because everybody looks for the magical IT solution to come.
00:45:25.568 --> 00:45:26.871
You know, do it all.
00:45:27.391 --> 00:45:28.273
Well and you talked about.
00:45:28.273 --> 00:45:33.614
What's cool about the piece you said in the virtual assistant is that you delineated between delegation and dumping Rockstars.
00:45:33.614 --> 00:45:52.617
Do not ever hire a VA if you're in a position where you can't hire and train an in-person human being position where you can't hire and train an in-person human being If you're in a stage of business or a time where you are so spread thin that you don't have the time to onboard and to do some basic level training, even with a highly talented person.
00:45:52.617 --> 00:45:58.226
A VA is not going to be a magic bullet for you and, just like your AI thing, I think there's a lot of programs people could invest in.
00:45:58.226 --> 00:46:06.431
As you were thinking too, I was thinking, gosh, I would probably if I knew I loved your engineering brain again, it's so smart.
00:46:06.431 --> 00:46:21.762
If I can identify the problem that I saw I need to solve, I could go to chat, gpt or perplexity or Gemini and go here's my problem, thinking about virtual assistants, artificial intelligence and any other potential solutions.
00:46:21.762 --> 00:46:23.226
Where should I start in solving?
00:46:23.226 --> 00:46:31.615
That might be even a micro step of what you said, like let's just identify the problem, throw it into AI and just test the waters and be like, yeah, let's see what it says.
00:46:32.925 --> 00:46:48.978
I've gotten so dependent on that now I don't feel like in some cases, I can make a decision without checking with chat GPT first, because it at least makes it clear so here's my last question before we get into our rapid fire what you have been so successful as an owner, you have built and you have scaled.
00:46:48.978 --> 00:46:51.108
You know how to create time.
00:46:51.108 --> 00:46:55.038
So what are you doing with the time that you freed up for you?
00:46:55.038 --> 00:46:56.288
Like, what has?
00:46:56.288 --> 00:46:58.559
What are you doing now with that time?
00:46:58.559 --> 00:47:03.652
Because I know you're still very productive and busy, but what do you do just for you when you free yourself up?
00:47:04.735 --> 00:47:06.438
oh, I mean just spending more time with the family.
00:47:06.438 --> 00:47:10.913
I gotta say shorter days shorter days.
00:47:11.514 --> 00:47:12.215
And then what do you?
00:47:12.215 --> 00:47:19.769
You've told me privately what you've done with your family on previous when you and I've talked regularly like tell them some of the fun things you do in alaska I mean especially here in the summer.
00:47:19.869 --> 00:47:26.686
We go, you know, we go to boat to the lake, just uh, you know Keith's love doing the tubing or we go camping every single weekend.
00:47:26.686 --> 00:47:37.688
So one of the things I do in summer is I try to work, get my stuff done early in the week so I can leave earlier on Friday and go camping with the family without technology, which is just us spending time together.
00:47:38.989 --> 00:47:39.849
Sorry to interrupt, I just.
00:47:39.849 --> 00:47:44.014
I just realized you use technology to free yourself up, to be away from it.
00:47:44.333 --> 00:47:45.655
Yes, you have to be away from technology.
00:47:45.655 --> 00:47:47.317
Actually, we were camping this weekend.
00:47:47.317 --> 00:47:50.679
No cell signal, so we're off the grid.
00:47:50.679 --> 00:47:51.659
I'll find out.
00:47:51.659 --> 00:47:53.762
Anything that happened, I'll find out on Monday.
00:47:56.804 --> 00:47:56.985
Rockstars.
00:47:56.985 --> 00:47:57.487
What a powerful example.
00:47:57.487 --> 00:48:00.054
I want you to really hear what Alex is doing with his free time.
00:48:00.054 --> 00:48:00.896
This is the why.
00:48:00.896 --> 00:48:11.896
This is why we took this on to start a business and to grow and to work with each other, so that Alex's kids will remember his dad every summer camping Every summer.
00:48:12.277 --> 00:48:14.706
Think about how many times rock stars as you're listening.
00:48:14.706 --> 00:48:16.510
How many times did you go camping with your family?
00:48:16.510 --> 00:48:25.096
Or the equivalent of that time share that you would spend with your parents Now that you're older, what would you give to have more of those experiences?
00:48:25.096 --> 00:48:36.291
If you think backwards, I'm getting a little emotional just thinking about what I would have killed for now for me, as a younger kid, to have had more camping experiences with my parents.
00:48:36.291 --> 00:48:48.568
I think that's the thing we forget is that when we are busy, busy and we're feeling like we're, you know, weighed down, it's like, yeah, but the bigger fear and the bigger sad thing is that we're leaving behind these opportunities.
00:48:48.568 --> 00:48:57.630
So that's why we need to show grit and say you call this a storm and get to work, but we can't do it without technology.
00:48:57.630 --> 00:49:00.235
People, right?
00:49:00.795 --> 00:49:04.590
I want to add something more to that, and this is the PTs are going to relate to this.
00:49:04.590 --> 00:49:10.088
You got to look at the way you handle business and decisions you make, just as you see a patient.
00:49:10.088 --> 00:49:18.789
Are you going to treat the symptom, which means that you keep just overworking and working, and working but you're not going to solve the problem or are you going to diagnose it properly and solve the root cause?
00:49:18.789 --> 00:49:25.813
So the more you solve the root cause of the problem, regardless of the symptoms, the more time you have in the future because you have less problems.
00:49:25.813 --> 00:49:35.960
So pretty much that's kind of like the same logic right, work yourself out of the job, not work, you know, not let the work kill you work, you into the grave yeah.
00:49:35.980 --> 00:49:43.757
so sometimes you're treating the symptom, which is the day-to-day fires, just putting out fires and keep going, and that takes a lot of time and energy and you're not going anywhere, you're just staying put.
00:49:43.757 --> 00:49:45.306
It's going to be the same thing over and over.
00:49:45.306 --> 00:49:56.465
So find the root of the cost, diagnose it properly, treat it effectively, solve your business problems with technology if need be, after you realize exactly what you need to do.
00:49:57.427 --> 00:50:01.097
Yeah, I'm writing that down, I take little notes because I'm going to put a book together.
00:50:01.097 --> 00:50:15.831
And that's such a great illustration for healthcare providers is that they're running around treating their chronic inflammation and then, as soon as they start reducing some of the heat of that, they end up creating inflammation at another point.
00:50:15.831 --> 00:50:24.257
So instead of identifying the root cause and stopping the inflammation altogether, they're spinning themselves out and burning out.
00:50:24.257 --> 00:50:25.967
So, thank you, all right, alec.
00:50:25.967 --> 00:50:27.032
Thank you for jumping in on that.
00:50:27.032 --> 00:50:30.512
Let's rapid fire these next six questions.
00:50:30.512 --> 00:50:31.875
You ready?
00:50:31.875 --> 00:50:34.286
Ready Number one.
00:50:34.286 --> 00:50:36.534
What's the top book that's blown your mind?
00:50:38.507 --> 00:50:40.092
I got to say it would be.
00:50:40.092 --> 00:50:55.445
There's an old book I read at the beginning of my career called Execution, which is the art of getting things done, because we tend to delegate stuff we don't want to do, but we need done or we just need to.
00:50:55.445 --> 00:50:58.775
We procrastinate on tasks that we don't really want to take on.
00:50:58.775 --> 00:51:07.039
So this helps you structure, you know, in able to be able to get things done, uh, quickly also, so you get some free time.
00:51:10.985 --> 00:51:13.291
Love that book Number two top time saver hack.
00:51:13.851 --> 00:51:15.856
Uh, my agenda organizing my, my time.
00:51:23.106 --> 00:51:24.632
Love that Number three.
00:51:24.632 --> 00:51:24.934
What's the?
00:51:26.159 --> 00:51:37.030
one thing you wish you would stop doing way sooner in your business I got to say jumping in to put out the fires versus solution, yes, versus being the enabler for them to solve the problem.
00:51:37.751 --> 00:51:38.713
So they love that.
00:51:38.713 --> 00:51:43.619
Okay, Number four what's the most time-consuming task that you secretly enjoy?
00:51:45.144 --> 00:51:45.485
Reporting.
00:51:45.485 --> 00:51:54.612
I like just looking at the numbers and that stuff, Even though the managers have to create their own reports and they have to send me the analysis of it.
00:51:54.612 --> 00:51:56.789
I go through the whole thing anyway.
00:51:56.789 --> 00:51:58.193
So just like numbers.
00:51:58.835 --> 00:52:01.764
Okay, what's the latest thing that you've delegated, just like numbers.
00:52:01.764 --> 00:52:03.494
Okay, what's?
00:52:03.514 --> 00:52:05.224
the latest thing that you've delegated, latest thing that I've delegated.
00:52:06.829 --> 00:52:08.092
Hiring You've delegated hiring.
00:52:10.905 --> 00:52:12.226
I stopped being part of the interviews.
00:52:12.226 --> 00:52:26.914
I've let the managers step in as the admin analysis for their location so that they can see if it's a good cultural value added for a clinic and if it fits also their needs, because I used to do it at a higher level.
00:52:26.914 --> 00:52:29.275
But then they will go to a clinic and maybe not be a right fit.
00:52:29.275 --> 00:52:35.860
So we have the clinical director that does the clinical interview part of it and then the manager takes on that.
00:52:35.860 --> 00:52:39.362
So that was a good, happy thing to get rid of.
00:52:40.322 --> 00:52:40.963
So amazing.
00:52:44.387 --> 00:52:47.574
And also if they mish hire, it's on them, versus like when you hire them.
00:52:47.693 --> 00:52:50.498
If it's a bad hire, it's like well, thanks a lot, buddy Versus.
00:52:50.498 --> 00:52:55.902
If they do it, they learn and grow and have to like it makes them more intentional in their hiring because they don't want to be that person.
00:52:55.902 --> 00:53:06.476
And last question for the show, it's the question of the season Alex, is it AI or is it VAs?
00:53:07.586 --> 00:53:08.733
I say it's a combination of both.
00:53:09.315 --> 00:53:10.422
Combination of both.
00:53:10.422 --> 00:53:11.186
Why do you say that Once again?
00:53:11.447 --> 00:53:16.873
depends on the problem you want to solve, which one will help you solve that problem so you can be more efficient.
00:53:17.436 --> 00:53:19.567
Okay, Love that answer, seth.
00:53:19.567 --> 00:53:31.675
Our amazing video editor, slash creative specialist, is going to show on the YouTube Spotify people who are watching this episode what the score is as of now for the season.
00:53:31.675 --> 00:53:34.548
So, seth, if you'll put it up, that's where we are.
00:53:34.548 --> 00:53:35.070
I don't know.
00:53:35.070 --> 00:53:37.052
I'm excited to see this as much as everyone else is.
00:53:37.052 --> 00:53:40.072
Listen, alexander, it's been such a treat to be with you.
00:53:40.072 --> 00:53:42.293
I can't thank you enough personally for spending time with us.
00:53:42.293 --> 00:53:44.150
What are your closing thoughts?
00:53:45.686 --> 00:53:51.617
Uh, I gotta say that the uh, there's no cookie cutter solution for business.
00:53:51.617 --> 00:54:09.793
Uh, you gotta be flexible, you gotta figure out what's wrong, you gotta try different ways to to solve it and, uh, so, even if it's a AI or or a combination of AI and VA or just VA or just paper and a pen, whatever works for you, but you got to find what works for your business.
00:54:09.793 --> 00:54:17.150
The important thing is not keep putting out just the fires, but figure out what the fire started in the first place and how can you stop it from lighting up again.
00:54:18.576 --> 00:54:31.137
Well said, I can say anyone who's listening who might be considering to work at Advance that I used to own a practice up in Alaska and I remember just being super amazed by that business and the reputation.
00:54:31.137 --> 00:54:33.152
It is an incredibly good company to work for.
00:54:33.152 --> 00:54:42.110
If you want to get a hold of Alex, his information will be in the show notes and so, alex, not only thank you for being here, thanks for tuning into the Willpower Podcast.
00:54:42.110 --> 00:54:48.451
As always, this is Will Humphries, reminding you to lead with love, live on purpose and never give up your freedom.
00:54:48.451 --> 00:54:49.554
Until next time.