Kylie Austin [00:00:00]:
So having had experience with postpartum moms in my health and fitness career and through social media, and then also having a personal journey with pelvic health physical therapy myself, I had this inkling and this thought process that I wanted to learn more and I wanted to know more and I wanted to specialize in pelvic health.
Greg Todd [00:00:23]:
Gotcha.
Kylie Austin [00:00:24]:
Specifically. And so as soon as that opportunity came, which I look at that being laid off as an opportunity for myself, I really just jumped right back into school and I said, I'm going to get do this and get done with this and then take all those skills that I've learned and then do something great with it.
Greg Todd [00:01:15]:
It's been nine months or something like that.
Kylie Austin [00:01:16]:
That sounds good, right?
Tara Sullivan [00:01:17]:
Since March. Yeah.
Greg Todd [00:01:20]:
So anyways, you guys are going to be inspired today. There's going to be so many things that you're going to learn and I just, I'm thankful you guys are here live in the studio.
Tara Sullivan [00:01:31]:
Thank you for having us.
Greg Todd [00:01:32]:
So, Kylie Austin, Tara Sullivan, the creators of Mind the Body and Pelvia Ed, welcome to the Secrets for Success podcast.
Tara Sullivan [00:01:38]:
Thank you.
Greg Todd [00:01:39]:
Awesome. All right, so why don't you tell the people a little bit about who you all are? They're pelvic health therapists, but so much more than that. And can you just tell us a little bit about your journey as a therapist and really, like, bring us to what has happened over the last nine months? Yeah, it'd be great.
Tara Sullivan [00:02:01]:
It's been a crazy, amazing journey. So I've been a pelvic health therapist for 12 years and right out of school, I went into the hospital based outpatient system and I started the pelvic health clinic for the hospital. Got it going and started with like four patients on my schedule. And then when I left 12 years later, we had 12 different locations across the valley.
Greg Todd [00:02:26]:
Wow.
Tara Sullivan [00:02:27]:
So grew that program and built a foundation in the community as a pelvic health leader. And I was debating on going out on my own and my, my parents actually passed away and I got a tiny little bit of money and I wanted to do something that would really help my future with it. So I was like, well, maybe I'll just open a side practice, little cash, side hustle, and I'll just see patients on the weekend. And I'll still have my financial security job at the hospital because I'm a single mom and I don't have family and I, you know, you need that safety blanket. I never planned on leaving. And I was. So I did. I opened this little office and I had met Kylie because I was teaching.
Tara Sullivan [00:03:14]:
A guest lecturer. I was a guest lecturer at the PT school at Northern Arizona University where she was.
Greg Todd [00:03:20]:
You guys met?
Tara Sullivan [00:03:21]:
Yeah.
Greg Todd [00:03:21]:
Interesting. Okay.
Tara Sullivan [00:03:22]:
I did a guest lecture there and she came up to me and she was like, I want to be your student.
Greg Todd [00:03:26]:
And I was like, okay, but that's totally her.
Kylie Austin [00:03:30]:
She's my. She's.
Tara Sullivan [00:03:32]:
I went to school because I'm interested in pelvic health, and that's why I went to PT school. And I was like, great. Yeah, you can. And I was, you know, at the hospital still. And, um. And so she was doing a rotation at the hospital right at the time where I was like, I'm going to do this little side gig. And I asked her, what are you doing when you graduate? Because I'm going to be at the hospital four days a week and at my side hustle three days a week so you could rent out my little room four days a week when I'm at the hospital. And she was like, okay, sure, yeah, I'll do that.
Tara Sullivan [00:04:09]:
So then we went to Pelvis where we met you. And that's just a whole nother story in itself. But after that weekend at Pelvis, with your inspiration, I went to the hospital that Monday and I put my notice in and she said, I want to buy in. So I sold 50% to her. We're now 50, 50 partners. So I was only open three weeks by myself. And then we've been running ever since.
Greg Todd [00:04:40]:
Wow, what an amazing. Well, we're going to talk about what has happened since, because there's a lot to unpack since I think I would like to go back to a couple of things that I think are really important. There are people out there that are in a hospital based system that have built something amazing for their employer. And I want to ask you about that a little bit. So the first 12 years of your career, that's what you did. Would you change it?
Tara Sullivan [00:05:18]:
No.
Greg Todd [00:05:19]:
Okay. Because you know what? I wouldn't change my journey either. What do you feel? Because a lot of times I know I'm like, oh, go work for yourself. But what do you feel like the hospital did for you?
Tara Sullivan [00:05:32]:
It gave me security so I could become confident in my skills.
Greg Todd [00:05:37]:
Right.
Tara Sullivan [00:05:37]:
I didn't have to worry about my overhead. I didn't have to worry about finding. Well, I did. I did have to find the patients because it was a brand new program, but I still had the security of a paycheck while doing that, and I was able to become an expert in my specialty with that security blanket. It was also a nonprofit hospital, and I put my time in for the public loan, student forgiveness.
Greg Todd [00:06:03]:
Gotcha.
Tara Sullivan [00:06:04]:
And so I also had my student loan forgiven after 10 years for working there full time. And so I truly believe. You know, people had asked me, why aren't you on your own? Why aren't you on your own? Because people would seek me out to come to the hospital, but I was like, no, this is where I'm meant to be. And I got so much out of it. And it was. It was. Everything had to happen that way for me to have gone out on my own.
Greg Todd [00:06:31]:
Okay, can we talk about some other things? And I think, like, for me, I worked at CORA was the name of this outpatient rehabilitation facility. And before I went out on my own with renewal rehab, I worked at CORE for about a year and a half, right? And I started a brand new clinic with them, and I crushed it. Okay. In one year, I went from 0 patients to 19 patients per day average. Okay. And. And. And it was.
Greg Todd [00:07:06]:
No, I'm sorry. They wanted me to get to 19 patients a day by the end of the year. First year, I was averaging 27 patients a day in that facility. Now, it gave me confidence that I could do this. And so although I do believe a lot of people could do what you did, Kylie, which is come out of school, out the gate and do it for me, that gave me the confidence so that if someone. You meet someone in San Diego, let's just say allegedly, and someone speaks into your life and could hear your. I'm like, okay, it's time now. It's time to fly.
Greg Todd [00:07:45]:
Okay? And. And you can, because you didn't have to take my advice on that. Right? But you did, and you. You. You were able to fly. Okay? And so. And so I think that's important for people to understand that some of us just need the confidence. And you had already built, like, come on, can you not build one on your own? You did 12 for them.
Tara Sullivan [00:08:04]:
Right?
Greg Todd [00:08:04]:
Right. So, you know, anyways, I get paid for that either, and you didn't get it paid for that. Okay? So. So now we talked about the. All right, so now we talked about the. The good part of that. Yeah, you got the confidence, and I could do it. Ra.
Tara Sullivan [00:08:18]:
Ra Ra.
Greg Todd [00:08:18]:
Okay, now let's talk about. You're pretty much at the top of your game in the pelvic health world. Okay? You were able to build 12. Help build 12 different locations, the staffing, this, that. Da, da, da. For a hospital. Let's talk about the fact that you, like the hospital alone wasn't enough. You had other things on the side, right?
Tara Sullivan [00:08:42]:
I had five other jobs.
Greg Todd [00:08:44]:
Five other jobs. Are y'all hearing that? He. Look, why did you need five other jobs?
Tara Sullivan [00:08:51]:
Well, I'm definitely one of those people who. I'm like, it's only me. I'm only relying on me. So I can't just rely on this one job. What if something happens here? Then I have to have this. Well, what if something happens here? Then I have to have this. So I would just kept. I just kept saying, yes, I'll.
Tara Sullivan [00:09:11]:
I'll teach that. I'll do that. Because I needed that financial security.
Greg Todd [00:09:16]:
Right. Okay. What we talked about today. So just to let you all know, Kylie and Tara are here for a weekend of working with me and my team. They're in my platinum Mastermind program. And I think this part is really important because this is actually something we talked about today together. Kylie, I'm sorry. Tara was at the top of her game, skill wise.
Greg Todd [00:09:41]:
I mean, probably in the top 1% of pelvic health. I mean, just call it. You could flex a little bit. Okay. You're really, really good. She teaches a lot of people across the country. We'll talk about, you know, some things that you do. But you were in a level one opportunity.
Tara Sullivan [00:09:57]:
Yeah.
Greg Todd [00:09:58]:
So because you were in a level one opportunity, even though your skillset is at a nine or a 10, and your energy was giving a lot, you had to work those other jobs to make ends meet.
Tara Sullivan [00:10:12]:
Yeah.
Greg Todd [00:10:13]:
So I want everybody to understand that, like, when I'm telling you all, I want you all to leverage yourself. I don't care if you leverage yourself through building a brick and mortar or you leverage itself through. Through building online or in your guys. Casey built both. I need you to leverage yourself because it's really, really hard to live. It's really hard to live if you. You didn't have those other jobs. So I.
Greg Todd [00:10:37]:
I'm here. I'm hearing that from you guys. You know, you guys know I work with. You know, Kelly, I'm just thinking of all the. All the therapists, the public health therapists that I have worked with over the years, and most of them just couldn't get by with one gigantic. It's because they're in a level one opportunity. And there used to be a time where you could be in a level one opportunity in like 2002, 2005, and you can, you can get by. But as a single mom, the way the world is now, it is really, really hard.
Greg Todd [00:11:07]:
And so I'm, I just want to tell you thank you for trusting in yourself that some crazy bald headed black man told, told you. Don't believe it, you guys.
Kylie Austin [00:11:19]:
I was like, okay, I believe him. I'm, I'm drinking the juice.
Greg Todd [00:11:27]:
Okay, fantastic.
Tara Sullivan [00:11:28]:
But it was nice because like for me, always hustling on my own to have Kylie come in. We did not know each other. Right. We were not friends, you know, I mean, not that we weren't enemies, but we weren't, we weren't friends. We had never hung out and we had met maybe. I mean, we could count the days we had spent spent together before we went into like, yeah, let's, let's do something together. Um, but it was like a feeling, you know, you gotta like trust your gut. I had that feeling with you.
Tara Sullivan [00:11:55]:
I had that feeling with Kylie. Like I knew something more was gonna come out of it and this. And the timing was finally right.
Greg Todd [00:12:02]:
Okay.
Kylie Austin [00:12:03]:
Everything aligned perfectly.
Greg Todd [00:12:04]:
All right. Now I want to transition over to you. So thanks for the segue. I appreciate it.
Tara Sullivan [00:12:08]:
You're welcome.
Greg Todd [00:12:08]:
So. So Kylie, you are I guess technically a new grant.
Kylie Austin [00:12:13]:
Yes. So I graduated last year, December.
Greg Todd [00:12:16]:
But you're not really new to like the world and how things work. So can you talk about your journey from even wanting to get into pt? What were you doing before? And I think that will kind of shed some light for everyone.
Kylie Austin [00:12:31]:
Yeah, like you said, I'm definitely a non traditional student. So my big job has been mom of three boys. So that's kind of what I really focus on is my being a mom to my sons. But before PT school, I was first an elementary school teacher. So I have a few years of experience doing that. Once I had my first son and my husband is in the military, so we moved around a lot. I just didn't think that that was a sustainable career for me. And so I went into the health and fitness world, particularly at home fitness, coaching people and things like that.
Kylie Austin [00:13:12]:
I also got my certified personal TR license and then was doing group and personal training on the side. Then I got into non profit profit leadership management with the ymca. And then, so when I was at the ymca, unfortunately Covid hit and I was immediately laid off because I was in the health and wellness position at that time.
Greg Todd [00:13:40]:
Gotcha.
Kylie Austin [00:13:41]:
So having had experience with postpartum moms in my health and fitness career and through social media, and then also having a personal journey with pelvic health physical therapy myself, I had this inkling and this thought process that I wanted to learn more and I wanted to know more and I wanted to specialize in pelvic health. Gotcha specifically. And so as soon as that opportunity came, which I look at that being laid off as an opportunity for myself, I really just jumped right back into school and I said, I'm going to get, do this and get done with this and then take all those skills that I've learned and then do something great with it. So I wasn't sure. I didn't know going, graduating, after I graduated PT school that I was going to immediately jump into buying my own business or being into a full time business ownership. Actually, that was the opposite of what I told my husband. I go and get some PD school. I said, oh no, I'll just get a nice job, I can be there for the kids and then I can just, you know, kind of work a little bit and not have to worry about, yeah, anything.
Kylie Austin [00:14:57]:
But I definitely had that feeling. And then all the stars aligned and I, I really was grateful to have met Tara. And I know, I don't know if I told you this before, but like, when I initially reached out to you as your student or as part of that lecture, I knew she was the best physical therapist, public health physical therapist in Arizona. And that's why I wanted to study under her. So, like, I knew that that's who I wanted to be with.
Greg Todd [00:15:26]:
Okay, so there's a couple really unique things about you that, that, that have stuck out to me. It seems like when you know, you want something, you just say like, I want this. And there's this energy that you put out that makes. Because I'm, I have to constantly have on my. It's not a BS meter, but it's a, like, who's going to waste my time meter, you know what I mean? And so I'm looking for certain things and I'm looking for people that are assertive, right? And so now I'm hearing, I thought it was just me, but you went to Tara as well. You're like, hey, I want to intern with you. Right? And I remember at the pelvis event, you know, you were just like, a lot of people sometimes are nervous to come up to me and you were like, no. I'm like, hey, can you do this? Or you know, can you do, can I interview you and da, da, da, da, da.
Greg Todd [00:16:26]:
And those things are powerful. Have you always been like that?
Kylie Austin [00:16:29]:
Always.
Greg Todd [00:16:29]:
Okay. You've always been like that.
Kylie Austin [00:16:31]:
I have a true, like, rooted belief that. And I love people and I love connecting with people and like, and I also live by the motto, if you're not doing something that scares you every day, you're not truly living.
Greg Todd [00:16:43]:
Right.
Kylie Austin [00:16:44]:
So I'm always trying to scare myself. And that was, I told you before, that was extremely scary to me to.
Tara Sullivan [00:16:51]:
Actually, literally when we walked into Pelvis, she goes, oh my God, Craig Todd is here. I didn't know he was going to be here. I want to talk to him. Like, she was just so like, you know, fangirling on you and the first thing she does is I want to interview you.
Greg Todd [00:17:09]:
Yeah, that's really awesome. That's really awesome. And I, I, I say that because that weekend whenever I'm look, if I'm at home, I'll veg out, okay. And I'll like, I'm a, I'm an introverted extrovert, Right. But when I'm on, all I want to do is serve people, but I want people to stick out and say, hey, listen, I'm going to extract as much as I can from this guy. You know what I mean? And you did that.
Kylie Austin [00:17:37]:
And I just, I like energies and I like vibes and so I want to be around that energy and you give that energy back too. So it's not that. And I also wanted to serve my audience, which was the Apta studios.
Greg Todd [00:17:51]:
Yeah.
Kylie Austin [00:17:51]:
I wanted to make sure that those people were served by you.
Greg Todd [00:17:56]:
Okay, let's talk about something else as well. So you were in the online kind of fitness world, right. And we kind of have an affinity, you know, towards that. And you saw how non healthcare professionals were serving people with health problems, Right. And you saw how they were able to do it at scale. Okay. When you went into PT school were like, while you were going through school were certain things like what? I'm not really getting this. Like, like, oh my gosh, I, I didn't know it was going to be like.
Greg Todd [00:18:28]:
Did you have any of those thoughts?
Kylie Austin [00:18:29]:
Oh my gosh, yes.
Tara Sullivan [00:18:31]:
Yeah.
Kylie Austin [00:18:31]:
Well, one, like, I feel like I was ahead of the game because I knew actually fitness, right. So like it was very interesting because very little time was spent on how do we actually exercise with these people.
Greg Todd [00:18:45]:
Right.
Kylie Austin [00:18:46]:
And so, and a lot of the hands on skills and things that we, and soft skills and things like that, none of that is really taught within our programs.
Greg Todd [00:18:54]:
Right.
Kylie Austin [00:18:54]:
They're teaching you how to think and they're teaching you how to like critically think, hopefully and then. And how to do research and how to, you know, memorize a lot of things.
Greg Todd [00:19:05]:
So what do you think is missing? Let me ask you that what you think is missing now that you know, you had this life prior, elementary school teacher in the, you know, a fitness professional, helping people online, doing some personal training, et cetera, et cetera, then you go to school. Now that you're out, what do you feel? One or two things that school is missing and not. And not equipping the students to be.
Kylie Austin [00:19:33]:
Able to have, well, life skills in general. Like just being able to just simply what do you do after graduation? I'm sure many people struggled with like how do I write a resume or how do I come to my first like interview or appointment or how do I do an evaluation for the first time? I have so many friends that went through DPT school with me that are frozen in fear and not being able to translate all the skills that we learned clinically or in the books and we read about the textbooks of what to do. But then when they're faced with their first patient, they're to do, they're frozen.
Tara Sullivan [00:20:12]:
Yeah. And to teach you that you have to get a 9 to 5 job. I mean they don't teach you anything about business, how to go on your own, how to market or what.
Kylie Austin [00:20:22]:
Like yeah. What leadership skills are necessary for the future and not necessarily the just the.
Tara Sullivan [00:20:28]:
Moment that you're in.
Greg Todd [00:20:30]:
Right. Or even how to get what you want. You know, like, hey, what is it that you want? Like what's important to you? You know, is it, is it being able to be an authority in your community? Is it making money? Is it this that da da da da da. It's like, you know, certain things that people want and how to actually get what you want. Like I think you could do a masterclass on how to get what you want.
Tara Sullivan [00:20:54]:
Yeah.
Kylie Austin [00:20:55]:
You know, they mean I'll go with the person. Well, it's, and it's something I learned with my online fitness programs too. It's just like, it's repetitions and like pushing yourself outside of your box just a little bit by little bit and then you're going to be like, oh, this is easy. Right. The first bandaid rip off. Like that's going to be the hardest part. And then once you've like I like if I challenge myself to every person I meet, I'm complimenting them on something like they're having those little Interactions add up, right?
Greg Todd [00:21:29]:
Yeah, yeah. To totally get it. So now you all meet, you start to say, okay, you know what, there might be something here. Right? Who. Who was the one that. That kind of spurred the whole pelvis thing. By the way, shout out to Kelly.
Tara Sullivan [00:21:44]:
Alui Kelly.
Greg Todd [00:21:46]:
Yes, I.
Kylie Austin [00:21:48]:
You did. I saw Kelly stuff.
Tara Sullivan [00:21:50]:
I don't bali all any business. Okay. And she was like, I want to go to this healthy business. Yeah.
Kylie Austin [00:21:57]:
Kelly and I met in, well, while I was in school.
Greg Todd [00:22:01]:
Okay.
Kylie Austin [00:22:01]:
And so through like combined sections meaning and things like that. So we, we had a relationship already online. And so I said, hey, let's go. Let's do this thing. Well, you said you were going to.
Tara Sullivan [00:22:13]:
Go because, Mara, we weren't partners yet.
Greg Todd [00:22:15]:
Right, right, right, right.
Tara Sullivan [00:22:16]:
I said, well, I'll go with you. Yeah, the company will pay for it.
Kylie Austin [00:22:19]:
Which I was there our first time Our. Our families even met, I think.
Tara Sullivan [00:22:22]:
Yeah. Her husband watched my kid and her three kids while we were to San Diego together.
Kylie Austin [00:22:30]:
And we stayed near each other and everything.
Tara Sullivan [00:22:33]:
And I think that's when. That week and we were sparking more conversation about like, I don't want to be an independent contractor. I want to be a partner. I want to be an owner. I want to be more involved in this.
Greg Todd [00:22:44]:
Right.
Tara Sullivan [00:22:44]:
Yeah.
Kylie Austin [00:22:45]:
I had started like my own LLC just to kind of start collecting on an independent contractor fee. Just do little things on my own. And I already knew that I had that skillset of social media marketing and I had developed it and built it throughout my DPT school career because I, you know, volunteered for anything to do with social media or leadership and things like that. And I actually, I was telling students the other day I made my own job in PT school. I went to the NAU DPT program and I said, hey, I'm going to do your social media for you. Can you just pay me? Just give me some money for that?
Greg Todd [00:23:26]:
Right.
Kylie Austin [00:23:26]:
And so they did. And I ran the social media for the DPT school and I showed improvement in numbers and things like that. So I built those skill set, that skillset through school on my own, obviously. And then I was like, well, I have all of these business kind of skills that I can add to her actual ability as a pelvic health physical therapist. And my husband, of course, was concerned. He's like, well, don't you need to be, you know, doing the skills first is in for instead of like building your own business? I'm like, she's going to help me. And like, yeah, like those skills are kind of already the soft Skills that I've already possessed over the years. So.
Greg Todd [00:24:11]:
Okay, this is extremely important.
Kylie Austin [00:24:14]:
Yeah.
Greg Todd [00:24:14]:
Sorry, you were going to say.
Kylie Austin [00:24:15]:
I was just going to say at.
Tara Sullivan [00:24:16]:
That point when you met us, we had only been together like three weeks. Yeah. I mean, that was brand new for us.
Kylie Austin [00:24:24]:
When we hadn't had a space even at that point.
Tara Sullivan [00:24:26]:
No, we did.
Greg Todd [00:24:27]:
No.
Kylie Austin [00:24:27]:
Well, I mean, we hadn't moved into the space.
Tara Sullivan [00:24:30]:
Yep.
Kylie Austin [00:24:30]:
Because it was February when we went to.
Tara Sullivan [00:24:32]:
No, we went in March.
Greg Todd [00:24:33]:
March.
Tara Sullivan [00:24:34]:
You were three weeks in to that place.
Greg Todd [00:24:37]:
That place. Wow. Okay. There's something. There's something huge here that I feel like I need to tell everybody that's listening to the podcast, Those of you that are listening, that are new grads or you are still in school and you're listening to this podcast because you're trying to, like, you know, one day you want to create some business thing, you maybe want to go online, you want to create a clinic. Da, da, da, da, da. Okay, I want to talk to you right now, so I need you to listen up. Okay? Here is the key.
Greg Todd [00:25:07]:
The key, if you want to do this sooner rather than later, is to learn non clinical skills and you need to create it. If you want to have leverage in the marketplace, meaning that you want to make more money at a job. Let's say you just want to be an employee, you just want to make more money at a job, you're not going to be able to position yourself as this clinical guru. Okay? That does not happen coming out of school. It's not possible. You can't do it. Okay. You just haven't had the reps yet.
Greg Todd [00:25:35]:
But what you can do is you could leverage yourself with non clinical skills. And when I look at that, Kylie, I see you had non clinical skills that Tara didn't really have. Tara had amazing clinical skills, but didn't have those skill sets. So she was able to see, wait a minute, we have something here. You had leverage in that area, you had leverage in another area where it's like, hey, I've got the client base, like, and I can teach you. And together it created this amazing union. Amazing union. So now let's talk about the last nine months.
Greg Todd [00:26:19]:
Yeah, let's talk about it. That's a fun case. And we kind of mapped it out today. What that has actually looked like.
Kylie Austin [00:26:24]:
March 1st, March open one space. It was 400 square foot space.
Tara Sullivan [00:26:29]:
It was my side hustle.
Kylie Austin [00:26:31]:
So we had. We shared one private office. So it's hard to like have two full time. Yeah.
Tara Sullivan [00:26:36]:
The initial plan was never that we were going to be there at the same time. So we just had one treatment room.
Greg Todd [00:26:41]:
Right.
Tara Sullivan [00:26:41]:
And. And then three weeks after opening our door, we had already made $18,000. By the time we went to pelvis. Now, we had made our 18 grand. So in three weeks of March, 18 grand.
Greg Todd [00:26:54]:
It's crazy. Okay, so that was my march. Okay, great. So they got up. Now, those of you. Oh, my God, I can't do. Listen, Tara had a really sizable following already, all right? She just needed to do her own thing. And automatically, by default, not everybody was to leave the hospital and come to her.
Greg Todd [00:27:14]:
But there was enough people that are like, you know what? I pay for certainty. And I don't want to see somebody else. I would rather see you. And even if I have to pay out of pocket, I'm going to see you. All right? So just letting you know that if you haven't made $18,000 in your first three weeks. Calm down. You have been doing this stuff for 12 years. Okay.
Greg Todd [00:27:33]:
All right. Okay.
Tara Sullivan [00:27:34]:
Yeah.
Greg Todd [00:27:34]:
So now after that.
Kylie Austin [00:27:36]:
So April came. April came, and we were like, well, the both of us are working, so we both need an office space. All we could get was two doors down in the same building. We got the same identical office space, but for myself. And so that's my pink palace. I love. And so now we had two spaces by that time, and we were doing great.
Tara Sullivan [00:27:57]:
And that was when we came back and we started doing our first handful of workshops. And then May was when we made our. Still to this day, our best month. 50 grand.
Greg Todd [00:28:08]:
50 grand in May. Okay, so. So they're doing quite good. Right? Okay. And they're off to the races. And then in June, they actually came to my event. They were already in, like, one of my entry level programs called the Invincible income system. They came to my event in June, decided to join my platinum mastermind.
Greg Todd [00:28:31]:
But what they wanted to do is something unique. It wasn't just their clinic. And I usually don't let people do this, but they want to do something. And when they brought the idea to me, I'm like, wow, this actually is really cool. So can you talk about what you ended up doing after June?
Kylie Austin [00:28:45]:
Yeah. So there. All of the things that we've been through with you, we're. We're pointing to. We can't just sustain one to one practice all the time. Like, we were both.
Tara Sullivan [00:28:57]:
If we're not there.
Kylie Austin [00:28:58]:
Yeah. And we were both already, like, feeling a little bit of that heat because she's working with 40 patients per week, and we're kind of MA. We're like, where do we go from here? Because we're almost maxing out at a certain extent. Extent. So we're like, no. Well, she has these five jobs still. She didn't. Yeah.
Kylie Austin [00:29:17]:
And she was educating people. Right. And she still, I mean, she's still educating people, but. And now we are going to actually capitalize on that. So. So basically we came up with the idea of pelv ed. And pelv ed is a online virtual residency program where we take a newbie or a person who is interested in doing pelvic health, physical therapy or occupational therapy and becoming a good clinician in pelvic health. So they're going from textbook knowledge.
Kylie Austin [00:29:52]:
Maybe they took a course, or maybe they took multiple courses. And then they. We saw that there was a gap between all the courses that she was teaching and the people that were actually getting into the clinic and being able to work with patients. And I'm seeing that my clinical skill set is. Or my non clinical skill set is a valuable transition between those two things.
Greg Todd [00:30:17]:
Okay, so what can we talk about the gaps that you were seeing? I mean, one of the things you said is the non clinical skill sets, some of the soft skills. Right. And what were some of the other things that you're like, man, this is the reason why someone like, they can read the books, they can do this, they can do that, but they can't translate it into, into turning it into patience.
Tara Sullivan [00:30:39]:
Yeah.
Greg Todd [00:30:40]:
What, what were some of those things that you were seeing?
Tara Sullivan [00:30:43]:
A lot of it is just, you know, you're so excited when you're taking that class.
Kylie Austin [00:30:47]:
Right.
Tara Sullivan [00:30:48]:
It's such a great class. And I, I still teach those classes. They're great and I love teaching them. But I remember even when I was taking a bunch of classes, you take the class and you're getting it and you're getting all this information, like, this is so great. And then you get to work on Monday and you're like, well, that patient doesn't even have that. And then, well, this patient does. But what did they say? How do I. I mean, I have the knowledge in my head, but how do I apply it? How do I put that on, you know, my hand skills or whatever we're doing?
Kylie Austin [00:31:20]:
And like, and where we found that that bridge is mentorship, honestly. And where all these new grads or people who are interested in pelvic health but never actually practicing in the field, they're not getting the mentorship either that was promised from their practice or promised from their actual residency program, which actually happens. And I hear this all the time, or just all these promises that were never fulfilled. Because how do you get from that coursework, that coursework. That coursework, or even the addiction to the coursework and having that like, oh, I need a little bit more knowledge before I can feel confident.
Greg Todd [00:32:04]:
They're just not able to practically apply it, you know, but they have a lot of the book, the book knowledge.
Tara Sullivan [00:32:11]:
I think it's so important to have someone who says, okay, remember what we taught you. Remember that Bradley's loop or remember, you know, whatever it is. And now this patient is presenting this way. How can you apply that and make them think about it? And then like. And that's where we try to bridge that gap of, okay, I have all the knowledge and I can actually apply it to the person.
Kylie Austin [00:32:36]:
Yeah. And we're challenging and holding people accountable to the actual getting those hands on experiences.
Tara Sullivan [00:32:43]:
Right.
Kylie Austin [00:32:43]:
One through. We actually created a pro bono clinic that people can come to to actually have those hands on experiences. And we've taken several members of the residency program through full plans of care with pro bono patients.
Greg Todd [00:33:00]:
Wow.
Tara Sullivan [00:33:01]:
Yep. Who had never had a patient who never had taken several courses, but was still doing ortho because they were too scared to actually apply it to the pelvic patient.
Greg Todd [00:33:11]:
Okay. You all are actually pretty brilliant. So there's a couple of things that I'm seeing here. All right, number one, guys, this is, by the way, this is how you come up with a great offer. And the first time that they release this offer, they were able to get, I think, seven, six or seven people to sign up for. Is that right? Okay. Which is really, really awesome. So let's talk about a few things that they did.
Greg Todd [00:33:36]:
All right, let's break this down. So number one is they saw a gap in the marketplace. So what's the gap? The gap is that people weren't able to take their book knowledge and turn it into a practical value, meaning serving people through pelvic health conditions that they had. Why? Well, this is what I've seen. What I'm seeing is that there are four levels of learning. And it looks like most people were stuck at level one of learning, which is learning about the thing. Okay. So learning about things, what we primarily do in school.
Greg Todd [00:34:09]:
Right. And it's. It's just accumulating book knowledge. Okay. The next level of learning is learning how to do the thing. Right. So that takes usually some systems and framework, but in order to learn how to do the thing, you have to see someone that's actually doing the thing. On someone else.
Greg Todd [00:34:29]:
Right. Enter your provo, you know, clinic. Right. Then let's take level three in learning, and that is actually doing the thing. So the fact that you guys were able to help people that maybe couldn't afford regular pelvic health services. So, yeah, this pro bono clinic, and they're just grateful for whatever help they can get. And it's allowing your students to be able to actually go to the third level of learning, which is doing the thing. Right.
Greg Todd [00:34:53]:
And then the goal is to get to the fourth level of learning, which is kind of where y'all are at, which is mastery. Right. You've done the thing so many times that now you can actually do the thing nearly subconsciously. Right. Like, right now, if I went down to tie my shoes, I could probably still do the podcast episode, because I know how to tie shoes subconsciously. I've mastered the tying shoe skill. Right, so you've mastered that skill, and that's the gap that you all filled in the marketplace. That's really cool.
Greg Todd [00:35:25]:
Okay, so now you have mind to body. You have Pelvia. And you guys, they started in March. They started in March. Now can we talk to everyone about the highs? We can talk income. We could talk whatever you all are comfortable with. And then let's also talk about the lows. Is that cool?
Tara Sullivan [00:35:47]:
Yeah, absolutely.
Greg Todd [00:35:48]:
Yeah.
Kylie Austin [00:35:49]:
So we definitely have had so many highs.
Tara Sullivan [00:35:52]:
I mean, more highs than lows. I would say more highs than lows.
Kylie Austin [00:35:56]:
The launch of Pelvia. So, like, that's our. That was obviously our first launch. And so. And that's virtual. I don't know if we said that. Yeah, that's the virtual effort.
Tara Sullivan [00:36:05]:
And see.
Greg Todd [00:36:06]:
Yeah.
Kylie Austin [00:36:06]:
Yeah. And I just love every. Because we meet every other week with these individuals versus on Zoom. And I love. The story is coming back. Like, I never understood it until you said it that way, or I was able to treat my first patient today.
Tara Sullivan [00:36:24]:
Or I discharged someone today.
Kylie Austin [00:36:26]:
It's just, like, amazing. And then, like, all of these people. So the people we actually hired out of the p. Of our program. So Pelviad. So we got. We found a PTA and we mentored her through the program, and we said, well, why don't you work for us? So. And then a few of them started their own businesses while they were in the program with us.
Greg Todd [00:36:52]:
It's amazing. Yeah, you guys have your own. You have your recruitment in house.
Kylie Austin [00:36:58]:
So now I think also for my high personally, is that we've done well with those two locations that we discussed earlier. Then we made a partnership with Another location that's closer to my home. And it also worked out that we're able to now have a second location in that location. And then we have big news, which is really exciting, right?
Tara Sullivan [00:37:24]:
Yeah. We're opening up actual clinic now. So we're not going to have two separate rooms. We're going to be together, and we're going to have five treatment rooms and an open gym. So we're just so excited about that, and we want to do more community events. And I think the highs for me have just been. There's so much more freedom to be with my son, not having to ask my boss for PTO or to leave early to take my kids somewhere to take the day off because he has the day off from school. Like, that's.
Tara Sullivan [00:37:56]:
That freedom is just priceless.
Greg Todd [00:37:58]:
Yeah.
Tara Sullivan [00:38:00]:
The lows, I think. I mean, the lows are the insecurity of it all.
Greg Todd [00:38:05]:
Right.
Tara Sullivan [00:38:05]:
Even though I have 100% faith in us, and I have faith in Kylie, and I have faith in myself, that and the universe, and that my parents are watching over me and that I have zero doubt that we're going to be successful and meet all of our goals, but you never know what could happen.
Kylie Austin [00:38:23]:
And it's scary. It's not guaranteed, and it's. It's a lot to start a business. And I mean, we try to best or prepare ourselves, but. And most businesses don't take in any money during the first year. We've been fortunate enough to get some money from, you know, be able to support ourselves still through this process, but.
Tara Sullivan [00:38:45]:
At the same time, because we are trying to grow, we've put all that money back in. You know, we're not. We're not taking home $10,000 paychecks a month or anything like that at all.
Kylie Austin [00:38:55]:
I haven't been able to pay, like, as far as, like, your salary that you were replacing. We haven't been able to pay that necessarily yet, but it's an investment.
Greg Todd [00:39:04]:
I think this is very important for people to understand. Can you let them know how much revenue you guys are brought in the first.
Tara Sullivan [00:39:11]:
Right now we're at around 250, I think, so eight months.
Greg Todd [00:39:16]:
Okay. So I need everybody to hear this. Everybody listening. I need you to understand. They brought in $250,000 of revenue in their first eight months of being open. Okay. And I go back to when I went into business for myself. I put down $180,000 is what I took out of.
Greg Todd [00:39:40]:
And I didn't have that money. Okay. But I took that out on a Line from my house. Okay. 100,000 of it is what I use for the business. And it took me, it took me five years to pay everything off because I was constantly reinvesting. I was constantly reinvesting, constantly reinvesting. But then it got to a point where I was basically bringing in like 125 grand as my base salary.
Greg Todd [00:40:12]:
This is like five years later. Right. My base salary, about $2,000 a month in just business stipend. Right. And, and all the other perks that came with it. But it took time. And I think if you, if you guys would have played a little smaller, I think you probably could have gotten your salary. But the problem is, is that you're not playing small.
Greg Todd [00:40:38]:
Right. So people are like, oh, my God, how do you make all that revenue? It's not a, it's, it's not just about the revenue that's coming in. It's about the investments that are going out in order to create this vision of what you all want to create.
Tara Sullivan [00:40:50]:
Yeah.
Greg Todd [00:40:51]:
And I think it's extremely important for us to understand that it's not just having the skill set to be able to do business. I feel like you have a great communication skill set. You have a great communication skill set. You have a great clinical skill set. You're obviously learning from her. And your clinical skill set's probably better than every single pelvic health new grad on the plan. Okay. All right.
Greg Todd [00:41:12]:
Okay, great. So all that's good, right? Fantastic. But what you both have together, you probably feed off each other is you have, you've built a really good investing skill set. And so you, you want something that's bigger than just. And this is really hard to do, working for somebody for 12 years. I have to be honest with you, it's like the minute that some money comes in, like you want to go into a fear based mode, like, oh my God, oh my God, we got to hold on to this. Okay. Okay, I got my salary back.
Greg Todd [00:41:43]:
And you haven't done that. So I really want to applaud you for that because that's a really, really, really, you know, big deal. So I'm just really proud of you.
Kylie Austin [00:41:50]:
And say, like, I'm a natural entrepreneur and I understand that part of it. That's not something that comes naturally for her, but that's why we're good.
Tara Sullivan [00:41:58]:
Part. Yeshua, this ball, I feel like, I mean, I had, I was able to build that program because I had the security of the hospital behind me, you know, like going out on a limb and doing it was not something that just came naturally for me. But I'm also the type of person that's like, well, if I'm in it, I'm in it to win it. Like, you can get it all. Like, I would rather cash out two IRAs, which I did to pay the bills, because we didn't pay ourselves that month because we put investment back into the business to get to that long term goal. So I'm willing to take those risks because I believe in it.
Kylie Austin [00:42:40]:
And she's willing to look at the big picture or where this is going in the future as an investment. And we are building an asset for our families and ourselves. And I think that's really important we keep our minds on that. But I feel very blessed and lucky that all we've really had to put into the business was we put 30,000 each into the business. But we've gotten that so much in returns.
Greg Todd [00:43:03]:
Yeah, there. There's one other skill set that I think both of you have, and I want everybody to understand this. I've talked about the communication skill set. I think it's extremely important. I think most of you unfortunately just don't have that skillset yet, which is why you struggle so much with conveying what it is that you actually do to give value to the world. And I think your communication skill set is not where your clinical skill set is. And so that's why you struggle so much. So just telling you that.
Greg Todd [00:43:32]:
So you guys know I love you, I love you, but I'm just keeping it 100. You don't have that yet. You got to build that. Okay, great. So we talked about the communication part. We also talked about the investing skill set. Okay. Both of you, you know, have been able to feed off of each other.
Greg Todd [00:43:45]:
You know, you both have it enough that you're able to say, hey, I'm going to take out 30k for me. I'm going to take off 3 30k. All right, let's do this thing right. But what I see that both of you have is a visionary skill set. Okay. By the way, those are the three skill sets that you need to be an entrepreneur to be right? So. So it might, might maybe come more natural to you or this. That what? But you both have it.
Greg Todd [00:44:08]:
You both have it and you see a big vision for what it is that you want to do. And so anyways, I applaud you for it and I'm really proud of the both of you. Is there anything you want to share to maybe new pelvic health therapists or new Entrepreneurs, I mean, y'all have done everything. You're so Jamaican, right? Like, or new online business owners. Like maybe one thing, one or two things from each of you.
Tara Sullivan [00:44:35]:
I think for me, I think having a partner has been amazing. I mean, I mean, she's the backbone of the business and I rely on her so much. And I think if you are going to be an entrepreneur and you're going to have a partner, like, make sure you appreciate your partner, make sure you respect your partner, know their strengths and trust them in that process. And I think for her and I, like, we've never had a big nothing. Nothing ever big has, you know, we've never had like an argument or anything like that. But we've definitely been on different ends of the spectrum of wanting to move forward or understanding each other. You have to have those difficult conversations. We are self honest and candid with each other and there's no sugarcoating it, but, but still very respectful.
Tara Sullivan [00:45:23]:
And we're just like, this is where I'm at and I don't understand where you're at. Can you tell me? Get me there.
Greg Todd [00:45:28]:
Yeah.
Tara Sullivan [00:45:28]:
And she's patient with me because we think different. Yeah. And it, and if it's business wise, she'll have to say it five different ways until I'm like, oh, yeah, okay, that's cool. And then that's not easy, you know. So I think if you're going to choose a partner, like it's like a marriage. It is a marriage.
Kylie Austin [00:45:47]:
I know.
Tara Sullivan [00:45:47]:
Well, we're signing a five year lease and I was like, I've never been in a five year relationship before.
Kylie Austin [00:45:53]:
I'm like, I told everyone I'm getting married to Kyrie. We're signing papers and everything. You have to trust each other and you ought to be willing to have those tough conversations. So that's not easy for me. Like, it's something you have to practice and really be at. And luckily I have a good partner to practice with. But. And she pushes me as well to say like, you know, and you need to say what's on your mind.
Kylie Austin [00:46:18]:
Like, you cannot hold back on like something like that and let things like get resentful or frustrated at any point in time.
Greg Todd [00:46:26]:
Yeah. I don't know if you guys know this. In the businesses that I have, I actually have two businesses, two active businesses right now with partners and renewal Rehab is a partnership and I'm very thankful for that partnership because it forced me to learn how to communicate. I think by default, I'm actually a people pleaser and so I want to just usually take on everything. I don't want to get you upset. Let me just deal with everything. But I've had to learn how to have a lot of those tough conversations, and. And having those tough conversations might be easy in a relationship over here with my best buddy.
Greg Todd [00:47:05]:
It might not be as easy in a business relationship, et cetera, et cetera.
Tara Sullivan [00:47:09]:
So, anyways, I'm like, the opposite. I have to, like, reel myself in and like, oh, I can't just say everything that's on my mind.
Greg Todd [00:47:16]:
Yeah, yeah. You know, it's. It's. It's just two different people from two different walks of life that have a common vision and have dreams that can support one another, and you've used entrepreneurship to basically get there. I think it's just. To me, it's just really one of the coolest stories. So, anyways, thank you guys for being on the podcast. Can I just honor you both with a couple things before we finish? First, you.
Greg Todd [00:47:49]:
Tara, I. I just want to say that I'm really proud of you making a decision and not a choice. And, you know, I. I gave you some what I felt was wise counsel based on just getting. I'm really good off of energy and vibe. And I didn't know you for very long, but I said, hey, I think you need. Actually, I didn't say, I think you need. I said, you need to do this.
Kylie Austin [00:48:14]:
Yeah.
Tara Sullivan [00:48:15]:
Oh, yeah, I did. You're like, you're a fool if you don't do this.
Greg Todd [00:48:17]:
And. And, you know, a lot of people make choices. Very few people make decisions. And to make a choice is to say, okay, I could do this or I could do that. Right. To make a decision is to D side and D is cut off all other possibilities.
Tara Sullivan [00:48:39]:
Yeah.
Greg Todd [00:48:39]:
Most people don't decide because it's like, I make a choice. Okay, this is not good today. Here, let me just make another choice over here. You made a decision, you did it, and you never looked back. So I just want to. I just want to honor you for that. I think it's amazing. Kali, I want to tell you that I have.
Greg Todd [00:48:57]:
I have worked with many, many, many people. I've had, you know, thousands and thousands of clients. Very few have I seen with the level of grit and the level of intention, and in a world where there's so much flip flopping, it is nice to see someone that actually knows what they want and says, I'm going to go for it. And the level of confidence, I. You might struggle with confidence like crazy, but the level of confidence that you exuded at that San Diego event. I knew leaving that event that I was like, I don't, I don't know who this, this, this, this, this, this, this lady is, but I was like, I'm going to do whatever I can to make sure she wins. Having no clue you were going to be a client or being this or being that, but it's because of your disposition. Okay.
Greg Todd [00:49:53]:
And I talked about this on a podcast recently. You know, I like, if someone has a problem with your position, really, that's. That's their issue. Right? Okay. We're all different. Right. But if someone has a problem with your disposition, that's actually my, my problem. Right.
Greg Todd [00:50:08]:
Okay. And you have such an amazing disposition, and it makes people, like, want to go to bed for you. Just want to let you know that. So, anyways, both of you, super proud. Thank you for being out of Secrets for Success podcast.
Kylie Austin [00:50:22]:
You see much, right?
