Greg Todd [00:00:00]:
Greg, I've got clients that are making hundreds of thousands of dollars in profit at their clinics dealing with the same problems as somebody else over here. So why is that the case? It's because they're operating at the highest level. It's imagination. They are thinking on, hey, these are the lemons that I have. This is how I make lemonade out of these lemons. They are thinking the other people aren't, and that's what it is. So, guys, if there's one thing to take away from what Jamie just said, if you aren't spending your time operating at the highest level of value, which is creating solutions to problems, you're not going to make a lot of money. But if you are, you're going to make a crap ton of money.
Greg Todd [00:00:43]:
Because whenever there's problems, I salivate. It's because I'm like, oh, my gosh. It's another thing I can create. It's the more money I can make.
Jamey Schrier [00:00:55]:
This is secrets for success.
Greg Todd [00:00:59]:
Welcome to the Secrets for Success podcast. I'm your host, Greg Todd. Thank you, as always for joining me. I have a very special guest on today. For those of you that are practice owners, please do me a favor right now. Go ahead and get out a notepad, get out a pen and start writing some notes because you're going to get some really, really, really good stuff from this guy. I met him a few months ago. I've known of him for many, many, many years, and we have finally gotten to meet up and we've built a relationship since then.
Greg Todd [00:01:31]:
So I just want to welcome him to the show. Jamie Schreier from Practice Freedom u. Welcome to the seekers for success.
Jamey Schrier [00:01:39]:
Oh, Greg, thank you so much. I'm so glad we finally made this happen because, you know, I've been hearing you forever. I don't even remember the crazy video you did. Remember that thing? I'm watching this video. I go, who is this guy? He has his own rap and video. Dude, this guy is doing some, some epic shit differently. He's not sucked into the normal type of stuff. So I'm so, so happy we connected at a previous event and able to do something.
Jamey Schrier [00:02:12]:
So thank you, sir.
Greg Todd [00:02:13]:
Yeah, man. Yeah, man. I appreciate you as well. I've known of you for many years. And when we were at the event, what was it? Clinic accelerator. Right? It was with Rick Lau. And I saw, I was like, wait, I know that guy. That's Jamie Shard.
Greg Todd [00:02:30]:
And so, anyways, I'm glad we finally got to meet up and we've kind of built a relationship since then. So let's. Let's get right into it. Let's. Let's give the people. Let's give people some good stuff. So why don't you tell those that don't know who you are kind of what your story is, and. And then we'll take it from there.
Jamey Schrier [00:02:48]:
Yeah. So, you know, physical therapist. Opened up my own practice. Always wanted to do it, just like so many other people. And I was good at clinical care. I just wanted to do it the way I wanted to do it. I didn't like the way other people were doing it, and I dove all in, and I'm telling you, for the first year, year and a half, two years, Greg, I was like, why is everyone complaining about business? This is the greatest thing in the world. We were busy.
Jamey Schrier [00:03:15]:
It was me and my fiance at the time, who's now my wife, Colleen. I was like, this is fun. I was making more money than I was when I was working as a therapist at a hospital. And around year three, the honeymoon started to end. Things started to get a little more stressful as we started to grow because we were busy. Or I had to hire other people, higher aids, and hire people to help with therapy and stuff. And I made the assumption that they just have my same work ethic, my same mentality towards taking care of people, and lo and behold, they really did it. Or at least those were the people that I was hiring, and I just didn't really know what I was doing hiring.
Jamey Schrier [00:04:04]:
I just said, hey, you have a license? Great. Come on in. Work for me. So the stress started to build, and as it started to build, life wasn't as rosy. We started to talk more about business at home, you know, all the negative stuff, that there wasn't a separation between the office at home. My wife was just getting tired of it. I was bitching and complaining a lot. I was putting so much money out.
Jamey Schrier [00:04:30]:
But they weren't hitting the utilization. They should be hitting and doing some of the things. So it was really going a little bit downhill. And then something just crazy happened. It was on a Sunday. My wife and I did a getaway weekend, one of very few. And we're driving back and windows down, we're in a good mood. My son's in the car, and we get a call.
Jamey Schrier [00:04:57]:
And my wife's smile turns to a very concerned look, and I go, what? She goes, it's my dad. Your place is on tv. It's. It's burning down. And I go, wow, good. I hope it freaking burns to the ground. That was the level I was at. I just didn't, I didn't want to go back.
Jamey Schrier [00:05:23]:
It was, I was working 60, 70 hours a week. I was working at home. I was trying to eke out a few dollars. I didn't see how we were going to grow. I didn't want to grow because it was so difficult. And pulled up to the office, whole things in flames. They're throwing out ube machines, they're throwing out plinth tables, they're throwing out my computers. My brand new, beautiful diplomas that we put on the nice wood gone.
Jamey Schrier [00:05:52]:
And I. She goes, why aren't you in a worse mood? I go, because I don't have to work tomorrow.
Greg Todd [00:06:00]:
Wow.
Jamey Schrier [00:06:01]:
That was my mentality. I learned a lot about insurance. I mean, who would ever thought we'd have a fire? So I was underinsured, and so I contemplated actually, which I know is big right now, I contemplated just leaving the profession. I had friends making money, tons of money, doing other things, and they weren't as smart as me. They didn't have the schooling I did. And I was like, well, maybe I should do that. So after several weeks of just sitting there thinking, I was like, you know, I never really put any effort into learning the business of physical therapy. I put all my time and effort being a great clinician.
Jamey Schrier [00:06:35]:
So I said, you know, let me do that and let me give it everything I can. So I went back with a new energy. We rebuilt the place, and that's what I did. And I hired a business coach. I took some different programs. I read a lot more books, which I never really did before. And over the next nine years, I had. Well, over the next nine years, I applied.
Jamey Schrier [00:07:03]:
What I learned, failed, applied again, failed. It just kept going. I had one goal, to be able to not have to work on Monday. That was it. Not because my place was burned down is because I always hated Mondays. And if I knew I I didn't work on Mondays was because I had a team there taking care of things. And in 2013, I was completely removed from my schedule. My business grew almost 20%.
Jamey Schrier [00:07:35]:
I was making more money than I ever did. I was home a lot more. I had a great team in place, and I went, wow, this is owning a business. And I shared it on a podcast or, no, I shared it on a webinar, and a couple people reached out to me. They said, hey, can you help me do what you did? And I was like, I don't know. I guess that wasn't my intention. I just. People said I should share it.
Jamey Schrier [00:08:00]:
And next thing you know, I was helping people build and grow their businesses. And that was eleven years ago when I started practice freedom U. And now I've helped hundreds of owners and kind of build and grow and go through some of the same stuff that I did and do it faster and create a real business that provides the life that they want and doing the tried and true ways of building a practice.
Greg Todd [00:08:25]:
Wow, there's so many things to unpack with this story. I think I want to, if you don't mind, because I don't want to just like gloss over that because there was so much there that I think people will resonate with certain things. And the reason why I say that is because I know I just resonated with a few things. Number one, and for those of you listening, like, just nod your head if this is you, or you can text me at 813-534-6453 and tell me what part of the podcast is kind of resonating with you. The first thing was you believing that you can actually go and open up your own practice. And your rationale was, you were smarter than other people that have started a business, and you are a really good clinician. And so for me, that was my rationale as well. I felt like I was a really good clinician, and because I'm a good clinician, that should empower me or enable me to have a really good business, right? And I think a lot of people feel that.
Greg Todd [00:09:30]:
They're like, oh my gosh, I'm so good. I've spent so much time becoming a so called expert at this thing, I should be able to have a successful business. And then, so that was one of the first things. The second thing you said was that it actually was kind of a honeymoon for the first, like two ish years, right? And you tell me if I'm right or wrong, because I, well, I didn't really feel that way. For me, it sucked from the beginning, but I'm like, well, why was it a honeymoon for him? And I do think that even in the beginning, even though, like, my business didn't take off right away, renewal, rehab didn't take off right away, but I was happy. And for me, I think the reasons were because it was the first time in my career that I had clinical freedom. I wasn't rich, I wasn't making any big money, but I had clinical freedom at that time. Like, I didn't have someone telling me, a boss telling me, hey, you can't do that.
Greg Todd [00:10:32]:
You can't bill for this. I mean, I can bill for whatever I want, not would insurance pay for it or not. Well, that was a whole nother other story. But I could do what I want. I could be the way that I wanted to be with clients. Nobody was there telling me what I could or couldn't do. And so I feel like what I achieved was clinical freedom. Do you think that was the case for you?
Jamey Schrier [00:10:56]:
Yes and no. So a little bit more of the backstory is I was doing a side hustle back then. I'm old. We called it moonlighting, but now it's called a side hustle. So I had a side hustle where I was treating patients kind of on my own time. So I had a little bit of clientele I was doing out of someone else's office. So when I transferred to my own practice, I brought those people with me. Now, there wasn't a ton of people, but it was a little bit.
Jamey Schrier [00:11:28]:
So I knew on day one I was going to be able to generate some. Some revenue.
Greg Todd [00:11:32]:
Gotcha.
Jamey Schrier [00:11:32]:
I also had very sympathetic family and friends who were like, okay, I'll come to you. I mean, you know, I'll be transparent. My mom and dad had some problems. Come on in. Let's work that.
Greg Todd [00:11:46]:
Medicare. Yeah.
Jamey Schrier [00:11:49]:
So it was mostly that word of mouth. Jamie has his own place. I'm connected with people. My wife's connected. We grew up in this area. It wasn't like it was a place that no one knew me. So there was a little bit of an advantage there. But it didn't turn out to be so much of advantage because I wasn't aware of, because I really didn't track marketing.
Jamey Schrier [00:12:14]:
I didn't do any marketing. I just said, I'm great. That's why people are coming to me. No, that really wasn't the case. So when the numbers started to waffle and another therapist came on and wasn't really delivering the kind of care that I wanted, it was like a double edged sword, and the income started to go down. So the reason it was a little bit of a honeymoon is because of the work that I did beforehand with the side hustle and tapping into the network of staff. So when the honeymoon ended, it ended hard, really hard. And it was a blow because I did already have a small team in place.
Jamey Schrier [00:12:57]:
So when the fire came, I was really, like, in a tough, tough spot financially. I had to let you know, obviously, everyone go. So that's why it was a little bit of that honeymoon period in the beginning.
Greg Todd [00:13:10]:
Okay, I think this is gold for people. That are listening when you get started, and this happens to a lot of us, we get started, we come out the gate, and it's something new. You have a new business, and for many of you, you're very similar to Jamie, and that you have a circle of influence. I mean, pretty much all of us have a circle of influence, right? But in Jamie's case, he had a circle of influence, right? That circle of influence was family, friends, colleagues, coworkers. Okay? And that's like. And if you've been in an area and you're kind of, like, ingrained in that area, that circle of influence can kind of keep you going for a little bit, right? You know, it can get you your first one. 2510, 1520 clients, right? But eventually that wears off, right? And then there's got to be some type of systems and processes in place for how you are going to gain awareness, how you're going to gain people to even consider you, how you're going to get people from consideration to, hey, I've got intent. Like, I need help from someone, and then get people to actually say, hey, should I use Jamie? Should I use this place over here? Should I use that? Like, you've got to have a system in process for that.
Greg Todd [00:14:18]:
Now, if you don't have that and you got other expenses, it turns into kind of a firestorm. No pun intended, but it turns into a crazy situation.
Jamey Schrier [00:14:28]:
Thanks for that one. Yes. I just picture the smoke going up.
Greg Todd [00:14:34]:
I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I'm sorry I triggered you there. I'm sorry about that.
Jamey Schrier [00:14:39]:
I picture it right now, throwing my shit after the second floor window into the dumpster. And I was like, what the. No, you're absolutely right. We have to be a little naive, as I believe. We're all entrepreneurs, these business owners, these risk takers. We have to be a little naive to do it because we have this vision. So I just focused on this vision of, I'm going to have my own place, right? I'm going to do things the way I want. I'm going to set it up the way I want.
Jamey Schrier [00:15:06]:
So I needed that to get it started. But that naivete hurt because I didn't have any marketing plan. I didn't really think like that. I was really more focused on being able to take care of people and maybe just subconsciously assuming that they would tell other people and I'd be fine. And when I hire other people, I'll just figure it out. Like, I didn't really think past, like, today. And of course, that's. That's a mistake we make.
Jamey Schrier [00:15:34]:
We don't look at our business as a business. We don't create. I don't. I don't care about a whole huge business plan, but we need to have some type of plan in place. If not, you know, that's kind of like amateur hour. I was an amateur at the time. So, yeah, to your point, I mean, it's. It's exactly that.
Jamey Schrier [00:15:57]:
We. We come in and, you know, we use our network, and then we get busy, and then we stopped doing the things that got us busy. I stopped connecting and communicating with people in that network, and then I had to hire someone. Now I'm babysitting someone because I never really trained them. I just thought because they had a license and they seemed like a nice person, they were able to do it. That wasn't the case. Now the stress starts. You start doing more hours of your job, doing the things that you don't particularly love to do, and you stop doing the things that got you busy.
Greg Todd [00:16:28]:
Right. Wow. Okay. So now you have this, obviously, this line drawn in the sand, right? Your place burns down and you're not contemplating. All right, what should I do? Should I go into a whole different profession? Should I rebuild? But I'm going to have to rebuild and do this differently. And you're going through all these different things. We know which one you picked, and what happened after that yielded pretty much the thing that you wanted for yourself, which was to get off those Mondays. Right.
Greg Todd [00:17:06]:
And then it ended up going into it much more than that. So. I know that was a long journey. Right. But could you share with us a few things that you did on the other side of the fire versus what you did before the fire that made you want the fire. So. So. So what did you do? Um, you know, a couple things that could serve our listeners well.
Jamey Schrier [00:17:30]:
I think some things that are relevant, that what I did are even more prominent today. You hear about it with Simon Sinek and some other people out there. At the time, there was no Simon Sinek. I was just being advised. Jamie, what is it that you want and why is it important to you?
Greg Todd [00:17:48]:
Right.
Jamey Schrier [00:17:48]:
Simple question. And when I started to really think about it, remember, I had lots of time. I was just thinking about it. What is it that I want? I said, I've always thought of myself of being a business owner, being this entrepreneur, doing things the way I want to do them. And I know I'm smart enough to do it. I just don't know how to do it. And then I started diving into why that's important to me, because I went into this field because I want to help people. I want to make an impact in the world.
Jamey Schrier [00:18:19]:
I'm a healer. Helping the world heal, that's how I viewed myself. And that struck a chord with me. That was my purpose. I'm not going to give up because it's hard. That's not who I am. I just don't know what I'm doing. But guess what? I'm not the only person that ever started a business.
Jamey Schrier [00:18:40]:
So what if I just swallowed that ego and started to learn from others, which was hard for me. So, number one, I got really dialed in with, why am I doing this work? The world doesn't need another pt, right? They'll figure out. They'll go somewhere else, but it's important for me to do this work. So that was step one that I really got into. And then, of course, I even more specifically said, what would that look like? I wouldn't have to go to work on Monday. Like, that was like the thing, but it was much bigger than creating a business that could operate and run real well, serving people while allowing me to do what I felt I was really built for, which is managing, overseeing, seeing the vision, seeing the future, and doing all that. And then the second part was being open to getting help. Look, I'm like a lot of people.
Jamey Schrier [00:19:40]:
I got an ego. You know, I got a lot of questions, right. On tests over the years. I got a's. You know, you don't do that and get into school. So you have to get A's. Well, that means you're not wrong a lot. Then you get praised for doing that.
Jamey Schrier [00:19:54]:
And then, Greg, as I know you know, you start a business and it ain't about A's, right? It's about adapting and learning, and that's hard to do, hard to get over of. You know what? You're not so great. You're not so perfect. You got to learn how to fail and learn and move forward. You got to learn how to be more great. You have to learn to be open to other people's suggestions and ideas. So that was really the turning point when I started to look for who can help me get where I want to go, who's been there that I respect, that they have a picture that I want. And that's when I started then doing the third thing, which is I actually started investing in my future.
Jamey Schrier [00:20:41]:
And that was really like a new concept. Like, what do you mean, investing in my future? Well, somebody said, well, Jamie, you invested in school. And I go, I did. He goes, well, yeah, you went to school. You invested a bunch of money in the school for the hope of getting a license, for the hope of getting a job, for the hope eventually go from a practice. There was no guarantees in that. But you were so set on what you wanted and why you wanted it, you didn't care about the risk. So I had to reframe myself with the same type of thing.
Jamey Schrier [00:21:12]:
I wanted what I wanted, and I was going to invest in how to get it. And that's what then took me on the road of, you know, the marketing and the management operations and the hires and the financials and learning all of these components of business. And again, it wasn't a smooth road. I made a ton of mistakes, a hell of a lot more mistakes than what I got right. I've been stolen from, I've been investigated by the Department of Labor. I've had one of my staff arrested. I've been on tv saying, this guy was arrested at Schreier physical therapy. I have my sister in law calling me saying, are you going to jail? I'm like, what are you talking about? You're on tv.
Jamey Schrier [00:21:51]:
I have had some shit happen to me, but every time it did, I reframed it, as in, this is going to be a lesson that I learned to eventually maybe help someone else in the future and kept going and not give up because my purpose and my why were so strong. What I see today with. With people, especially younger folks, they're not grounded with what they want, so they get caught up with the shiny toys. And I'm sure you've seen it, Greg, and the shiny object going from one thing to the other, looking for the immediate reward and not really trying to build something of substance. And that's, at the time, I didn't realize this, but looking back, that's what I was doing. And once I was on that path, it was just a matter of time for me to just put in place the things that create the business that I wanted.
Greg Todd [00:22:43]:
Hmm. Why do you think that's the case for people? Why do you think people struggle so much with not being willing to just lock in, settle into something, and just go for it?
Jamey Schrier [00:22:59]:
Greg, I talk about this a lot with my own clients and stuff. And the number one greatest challenge we all have is distraction, is a lack of focus. And if you really step back and look at the world and what's happening, it's designed that way. You see the greatest economy that is out there is the attention economy, people want your attention. Your attention equals money. And there are very smart people, a lot smarter than me, that are very, very good at grabbing your attention without you even realizing it. You've seen the social dilemma, I imagine you've seen the subtleties of the phones and the colors and the games and the. And all the stuff they're doing because they want your attention.
Jamey Schrier [00:23:50]:
And if you're not careful, you fall into that trap and things are actually happening to you. You don't even realize it, but it's intentional. And you can't make any rational decisions because it's just constant coming at you. And most of us have one resource, initial resource, and that is, I'll just work harder. I'll just work harder. And then you work harder. You put more hours and more hours, and eventually you just get burned out. You get stressed out, you get overwhelmed.
Jamey Schrier [00:24:27]:
And when, you know, when emotion is high, intelligence is low, when you are in a high emotional state, you don't make great decisions. So now the decisions you're making within your business are causing problems. You think they're good at the time, but they're not because you're not in a great place, not thinking through. And it's just this perpetual thing that's happening. So that's what I think is going, actually, what I know is going on. It's our attention, our ability to focus, which means our ability to say no. It's hard saying no. We are yes people.
Jamey Schrier [00:25:05]:
We are people pleasers, a lot of us. I know I am. I don't want to say no, but if you don't say no, you take on, and when you take on, it's too much.
Greg Todd [00:25:15]:
Yeah. You know, I think. Yeah. No, I 100% agree with you. And I. And I would add that I think that we have been trained and indoctrinated to be choosers. We choose, but we have been to be choosers. Choosers.
Greg Todd [00:25:29]:
So. So that means that we can make a choice, right? So, like, if there is a and there's b, I can make a choice. Okay, I pick a and I'm not going to pick b, and I pick a. And if I don't like what a gives me, okay, I'll just go and pick b now. Right? And we've been trained to do that over the years. We've been trained to choose, but we've never been trained to decide and decide. One of my mentors kind of gave me the definition of decide. Decide is to cut.
Greg Todd [00:25:56]:
It's to cut off all other possibilities. So once you make a decision. Like, when I made a decision to open up my practice and I took out a line of, you know, basically took out $180,000 loan on my house, 100,000 of it, I put into this clinic. Like, yeah, it sucked. And I wasn't making any money for a while, and I didn't have any patience and all the other stuff, but I made a decision, and I couldn't go back, so it didn't matter. It didn't matter. Like, I had to figure this out, and it's like, it's got to work, or it's got to work for me, right? And so eventually it did, and it's gone on to make millions of dollars.
Jamey Schrier [00:26:30]:
I love that perspective. I've heard of the decide in the cut, but the choose parts. An interesting thing when you grow up with multiple choice.
Greg Todd [00:26:39]:
Yeah.
Jamey Schrier [00:26:40]:
Happening is you're choosing the. The options in front of you.
Greg Todd [00:26:46]:
Right.
Jamey Schrier [00:26:46]:
The question is who's creating the question and the options in front of you.
Greg Todd [00:26:51]:
Yeah, you got it.
Jamey Schrier [00:26:52]:
That's the shift. I know you're smiling. That's the shift.
Greg Todd [00:26:56]:
Yeah.
Jamey Schrier [00:26:56]:
What if you're creating the questions right? So if you're creating the question, the question can change. You know, as a coach, people are like, well, what do you do? Do you. Do you tell me how to do this and tell me who to do that? Well, not exactly. I mean, there's a path, there's a plan, but the reality is your condition and what you just said, your dissent to choose. You've never been taught to actually how to ask the question, because when you ask the question, that leads you to the answer. Right. But when the question is being presented to you or you ask the wrong question, even the best answer, is it going to get you where you want to go?
Greg Todd [00:27:35]:
Yep. Yep.
Jamey Schrier [00:27:35]:
I was asking all of the wrong questions. I was choosing based on what I was being told to choose. Well, Jamie, I mean, I was told this. I don't know if you were told this, but I would say you should work for a little while, get a lay of the land, go to the hospital, kind of see everything. I knew I wanted to go in the business. I didn't go to the damn hospital for two and a half years. I was bored. In three months, I was like, this is ridiculous.
Jamey Schrier [00:27:59]:
So I get a part time job and all that, but when I started to learn actually, how to ask a better question of what's going on, what would have to happen for me not to show up on Monday mornings in my practice? You see, if no one's asking me that question, I'll never answer it.
Greg Todd [00:28:18]:
Right.
Jamey Schrier [00:28:18]:
But if I'm able to ask it, then I'm like, well, I would have to have someone else treating the patients, which means I have to learn how to hire and onboard and train. And do you start to go down a different path that isn't harder? It's just different than what you normally would do.
Greg Todd [00:28:33]:
It's just.
Jamey Schrier [00:28:34]:
So if it's okay with you, I'm gonna swipe that shoe. So. Thank you.
Greg Todd [00:28:37]:
Yeah. No, it's huge, man. It's really. What? It's so funny as I'm hearing you process of what it is that you should do when you were opening up your clinic, and then after, it's like you said, the first thing you did is I actually decided what it is that I want first. Like, what was my why? And I think for most people that are listening, I think we all want the same thing. We want to be able to be in a profession. Like, we want to be able to help people. Yes.
Greg Todd [00:29:10]:
But, you know, we also want to be able to have longevity. And the only way I see you all having longevity is you doing what Jamie did. It's also what I've done, and that is to build an asset. Okay? And this is one of the things that I tell my clients, like, you've got to start thinking of everything that you're doing is, I've got to build an asset. Okay? And an asset is something that will make me money by me bringing value to someone or a group of people with or without me. Sometimes it can be with me, but a lot of times, it can be without me. Right? Like, for instance, this past weekend, I was in south Florida because, you know, I had a family member that had a pretty serious, you know, medical procedure. But I had assets that were working.
Greg Todd [00:29:58]:
Right. And so, like, one asset was a place that I have a property I have here in. In Clearwater. Right? And I had another business coach rented out that space, and basically, that place made me nearly $1,000 for 5 hours. Right. Perfect. Okay. That's an asset working.
Greg Todd [00:30:17]:
Right. I got another place up in Georgia. Somebody rented it out for the weekend and maybe another thousand dollars. That's an asset. I have my physical therapy businesses. It made me money while I was with my family. That's another asset. Right.
Greg Todd [00:30:31]:
I have my online consulting business. That's another asset. I have my software business. That's another asset. So I think one of the biggest things that I'm hearing from Jamie and that many of you need to understand, is that if you're like, man, maybe it's not Mondays for you. Maybe it's Fridays that you want off. Maybe it's Monday, Wednesday, Friday that you want off. Here's the deal.
Greg Todd [00:30:53]:
It's never going to happen unless you build an asset. It means you have to build. You can build a physical therapy asset. That's a physical therapy business. You're running that. Totally different than, hey, I'm going to have my own clinic, and I'm going to be the person that's treat. That's not an asset. That means that only works with you.
Greg Todd [00:31:10]:
Okay? So you guys got to ask yourself, what's the asset that you want to build? Whether it's occupational therapy practice, a physical therapy practice, a speech therapy practice, real estate, like you investing in funds, crypto, like, whatever your thing is, you got to figure out, how do I build an asset? That's what Jamie did, okay? He said, I'm just gonna. I'm just gonna build an asset, right? And then once he learned, he's like, okay, well, how do you build an asset? Crap, I've got to learn how to have. In his case, this business was a physical therapy practice. That means that you actually have to have physical therapists or PTA's that are going to work for you. Okay? If not, then it will never work without you. Right? So he had to learn. Well, how the hell do I do that? Okay, well, that means I'm going to have to hire people. I'm going to probably have to lead them.
Greg Todd [00:31:56]:
They're going to have to want to buy into my mission. So now he has to learn a whole different skill set than what he learned, you know, when he was in school. Right? And so, guys, I think that's the big thing. You've gotta. You've got to take whatever it is that you're doing and learn how to build an asset from it. And if you do that, it's game over.
Jamey Schrier [00:32:16]:
Yeah, for sure. And it all starts with understanding. Like, well, what is it that you want? You just mentioned lots of different ways to generate revenue. Building assets. What is it that you want? Like, this is the deep stuff that most people never spend any time doing. It's all superficial, quick thinking, but it's. Why is this important to you? Like, you want to start a practice. Why? And the reason doing that's important, because if not, when things get hard, you'll shift and you'll keep shifting and you'll never establish anything.
Jamey Schrier [00:32:52]:
You know, one of the most powerful books I read, simple book. Rich dad, poor dad. Yeah, but he talked about this idea, especially in his next book, the cash flow quadrant. I'm sure you're familiar with that. He simply described how money comes in. Well, most of us start out as employees, right? Someone else is writing you a check. It could be a lot of money. If you're a doctor working for a hospital, you might make a lot of money, but you're still an employee.
Jamey Schrier [00:33:17]:
And then if you go on your own, which a lot of us do, especially if you have a small practice, cash base or whatever, you're a self employed, which is, you're basically the business, right? You don't have the overhead of hiring a clinician because you are that clinician. Is that an asset? Well, no. Without you, there's nothing there, but you get some tax advantages and stuff like that. But it's when you cross over the line to actually the big b of business. This is something that makes money without it still needs you, but you're not doing the day to day operations. You're not treating 40 hours a week. You're playing a different role. You can go on vacation, you can see a loved one that's having trouble, and your business continues to go.
Jamey Schrier [00:34:06]:
That's the focus. And once you have that type of business, and this is what I learned, and this is what I created with Shrier PT and now I created with PFU, is once you have that kind of business, your job is to create a great life. That's why we're doing this. Yes, we want to help people, but the first person you need to help is you. So build the life that you want. Have your business. Make more money than that. So then you can invest that and build wealth.
Jamey Schrier [00:34:32]:
That's when you become the investor. That's when you put money in the market or real estate or another business or whatever you want to do. But this vehicle, this machine is the key, and we all have that opportunity to do that. But if you don't build that, well, it's very difficult or impossible to build the other things.
Greg Todd [00:34:53]:
Well, yeah, 100%. 100%. Man. I hope you all are really listening in to what has been shared here. This is huge. A lot of people I've heard say, hey, Greg, because, like Jamie, I do a lot of online stuff, right. I. So I work with a lot of practice owners, but it's more on the online, you know, you know, component.
Greg Todd [00:35:17]:
I would say that's probably 75% of kind of my, my people. So it's, you know, they've got a cash practice, they've got insurance based practice, or they're coming right out of school and they're like, I want to go online. A lot of people think traditional practices are dead. I don't believe so. I would love to hear from you if you believe that. I'm assuming you don't. And can you explain to me why? I mean, it's kind of teeing up what we just talked about, but I think it's just the way that people look at it. So I would love for you to talk about that a little bit.
Jamey Schrier [00:35:53]:
Yeah, no, they're not dead. There's certainly things happening over the last several years with consolidation and all of that. And obviously, when people are on social media voicing their opinion, they throw out all kinds of stuff and everyone gathers around. That's right. They're killing us and all that. There's certainly things going on out there, but we can't. I teach my clients, don't put any energy into something that you really can't change. If you want to go on Capitol Hill and do your thing, go for it.
Jamey Schrier [00:36:26]:
Other than that, spend your time focusing on how you can run and operate a better business. I've never seen a business, no matter what size, especially smaller ones that weren't leaking thousands and thousands of dollars in their business, tens of thousands of dollars in their business, depending what size, which means it's a business that's not operating well. It's not because you're getting declining reimbursements. It's not because it's hard to find pts. You as the owner are not operating your business well. So the first thing is become a better business owner. Learn actually how to streamline, learn how to use efficiencies, learn how to use technology. Right.
Jamey Schrier [00:37:06]:
You get better at building a business. Once you're doing that, you'll also then be learning how to adapt. You know, what's the saying? It's the, it's not the strongest that survives, but the one that can adapt the best. Right. The people that are doing well in the insurance world, and we have a ton of clients in the insurance world, we have cash based as well. But the ones in the insurance world, I mean, I just got off a call right before that. They're crushing it. They're crushing it.
Jamey Schrier [00:37:39]:
We're talking about hundreds of thousands of dollars, some millions of dollars in profit, not total revenue profit. They're still dealing with the same type of stuff, but it's how they're running their business. Now, let's say you're running a business that's $65 a visit insurance base and you choose to be like, I want to give quality care one an hour. Well, you know what? That business, no matter what you do, is not going to last.
Greg Todd [00:38:06]:
Right?
Jamey Schrier [00:38:06]:
It cannot last. So you have a choice to make. You can either adapt by increasing the amount you're getting somehow, or you have to change your business model.
Greg Todd [00:38:18]:
Right.
Jamey Schrier [00:38:18]:
You may have to see two or three an hour like the people in New York. Well, I don't want to do that. Well, that's fine, but there's a certain way to make money in your business, and if you're not willing to adapt to that because you're standing behind your morals of, but that's not quality care, which don't even get me started with that bullshit, then you're basically digging your own, you know, grave. What? One of the things that. That we do at PFU is we have to have a very open, honest conversation. Right. We assess where your business is and saying, look, what is it that you want? And if your business is not the vehicle to get you what you want, then you have some, as you said, decisions to make. There's no right and wrong answers with this.
Jamey Schrier [00:39:07]:
We try to get away from this, this idealistic of right and wrong. There are things that are aligned with where you want to go, and there are things that are not aligned. So many of us, especially if you have insurance base, you are doing things that are not aligned in what you want, which is why you're coming up against friction and problems. When you start to align things, like you align a spine, things move easier, things flow. So that's the place that we start. And in some cases, if your business model isn't aligned with where you want to go, you got to make some hard decisions and you have to adapt. A lot of times, initially, it's just about making your place run better. And your place will 100% run better.
Jamey Schrier [00:39:52]:
When you are removed from a lot of this day to day administrative junk that you don't like to do, that takes a shift in mindset and, of course, strategies of how to do it. Once you get into that place, you're making more money, things are operating well. Then you can actually see the future better. You can see what's happening. You're not scared of AI, you're adopting it, but you're not reacting to what everything. You're being proactive and intentional. The successful people out there that I've seen are intentional in what they're doing. They're not just jumping to what everyone is doing all the time.
Greg Todd [00:40:29]:
I love it. I love it. Okay, this has been fantastic. I'll add one more thing to that. You know, I talk about the four levels of value in the marketplace, right? I don't believe we get paid based on how much experience we have. I mean, at least for me, I get paid based on the value I'm bringing to the marketplace, right? And pretty much all of us have been trained, at least for those of you that are listening, that are in healthcare, you've been trained to operate at the implementation level, right? You learn how to do evaluations, treat if you're a pt, ot, or speech therapist, that's what you've learned how to do. Like, that's everything you've learned. Everything you take on the weekends is how to treat better or how to evaluate better.
Greg Todd [00:41:15]:
Right? Okay, but that's the lowest level of value. That's the same level of somebody flipping burgers at McDonald's, that's somebody working at Lowe's. And, right, I mean, it's like those people get paid minimum wage, we just get paid a little bit higher, but it's the lowest level. Right? Like even this, this past week I had a family member have open heart, you know, surgery. Right, okay, that was, that's still an implementer. It gets paid at a high level because a lot of people can't do that. But I mean, like, not to give out all my stuff, but I make more than that person. Okay.
Greg Todd [00:41:46]:
It's just because I'm operating at a higher level, it's not that I'm as good. Right, okay, we need those people, but it's. It's an implementation level, and that's. Most of us as practice owners, we thought that if we were really good at that, that would allow us to have a great business. Right, but there's three levels higher than that. There's unification, which is overseeing all the people that implement in your company. There is communication, which is basically using your mouth to be able to create emotion and get movement from people. Right.
Greg Todd [00:42:18]:
That could be from potential clients, your staff. I found that a lot more valuable than the implementation, at least for me. Right. And then there's the highest level, which is what you just said, and you're like, Greg, I've got clients that are making hundreds of thousands of dollars in profit at their clinics dealing with the same problems as somebody else over here. So why is that? The case is because they're operating at the highest level. It's imagination they are thinking on, hey, these are the lemons that I have. This is how I make lemonade out of these lemons they are thinking, the other people aren't. That's what it is.
Greg Todd [00:42:57]:
So, guys, if there's one thing to take away from what Jamie just said, if you aren't spending your time operating at the highest level of value, which is creating solutions to problems, you're not going to make a lot of money. But if you are, you're going to make a crap ton of money. Because whenever there's problems, I salivate. It's because I'm like, oh, my gosh. It's another thing I can create. It's more money I can make. Right. When you are getting good at the skillset of communicating, basically.
Greg Todd [00:43:26]:
Now I just created an idea. I created something. I can now speak it, and I could clearly enunciate it to people. There's probably a skill set you want to work on. Cause that makes me a lot of money. That makes my practice owners that are doing extremely well a lot of money. Cause they're able to convey what it is that they're doing to people in a way that the normal Joe schmo can understand. Okay? Understand that you have put most of your intention, your effort, and you're enhancing skill set into implementation.
Greg Todd [00:43:54]:
It's the lowest level of value, and it doesn't make you a lot of money. So.
Jamey Schrier [00:43:58]:
And Greg, here's the thing behind that. It's worked. You invested money, you invested time, you practiced. And guess what? You are a very good clinician. If you want something different, meaning I want more time. I want more money. I want more control. I want to build assets.
Jamey Schrier [00:44:19]:
Well, assuming that the training you got is going to work for that, that's just crazy talk. It worked for the purpose that it works. You're a great clinician. And like you said, just from a payment standpoint, that's not going to pay as much as someone able to communicate and persuade people and engage people or someone that is running a business of that. So it all comes down to which, again, is a decision. What is it that you want? Because sometimes we don't have to have what I did or what you're doing. You can just do what you are doing, but you got to decide what that is. It's not.
Jamey Schrier [00:44:57]:
You're just throwing things and wasting time and putting energy toward things, but there's no alignment of where you're trying to go. When you get clear on what that outcome is, that destination, and you start aligning your actions, man, you can move quickly. Really quickly.
Greg Todd [00:45:16]:
100%. 100%. Well, this has been fantastic. I've enjoyed this conversation. We should probably do a part two at some point.
Jamey Schrier [00:45:27]:
You and I could be doing this.
Greg Todd [00:45:28]:
Yeah, we could do this a lot. Well, you said that you're coming down here to Tampa, so please hit me up when you get down here, and maybe I'll have you come into the studio next time. So I think that'd be awesome. That'd be great.
Jamey Schrier [00:45:38]:
Let's do it.
Greg Todd [00:45:39]:
All right, well, let me ask you something. Where can people find you if they want to find out more about your consulting, your coaching, and everything that you offer? Go ahead and tell them.
Jamey Schrier [00:45:49]:
So if you just want to follow me on the different channels, it's just amyshrier, whether it's Facebook or LinkedIn, the thing I like to do is I like to have people just understand where they are in their business and their journey. So the best thing to do is take a quiz. So I have something called the practice quiz, and I can leave it in the show notes or you can go to practicefreedomyou.com. but it's a short quiz. But what it does is I ask you questions that you may not have thought of, and when you answer them at the end, I give you a report of exactly what you should be doing and exactly what you should be focusing on based on how you answer the questions. And, of course, after that, if you like to have a conversation, I'm always open to having a conversation to see what we can do to possibly help you.
Greg Todd [00:46:34]:
Okay, guys, I will put that quiz in the show notes, okay? So you'll see in the show notes. Go ahead and look for it. If you don't, if you're just like, I'm listening to this and I'm driving. Whatnot, then do me a favor. Text me 813-534-6453 just text me Jamie's quiz, okay. Or pfu quiz, and I'll have my team send you over the link. You can take the quiz and get some help. I always say, you guys, awareness is the key.
Greg Todd [00:47:01]:
Like, you can't. You can't fix something if you're not aware of what's broken. So take the quiz. I'll probably do it myself just to see, you know, I could always improve. So. So who knows? All right, Jamie, I appreciate you, my brother. Thank you so much for coming on, and let's. Let's do this again.
Greg Todd [00:47:15]:
Cool.
Jamey Schrier [00:47:17]:
Thank you, man. Appreciate you.
Greg Todd [00:47:18]:
You got it. You got it. Awesome.
