Where did you grow up and what was your childhood like? Did you have any particular experiences/stories that shaped your adult life?

I grew up in Greensboro, NC.

What is something you wish you would’ve realized earlier in your life?

I wish I could have spent more time around successful business owners when I was younger. I spend a lot of time around physicians, but never around entrepreneurs and it’s taken me a long time to realize that I can be a leader of a multi-million dollar business and manage a large team.

What are bad recommendations you hear in your profession or area of expertise?

The worst recommendation I hear is that owning a business requires a specific amount of time and experience in your field before you are qualified to start. For example, it’s common for physical therapists to tell me they were told by a mentor that they need at least 5 years of experience as a physical therapist and be able to get excellent “outcomes” before they start a business.

We all know great products and services that have failed because of mismanaged resources, money, and marketing dollars.

And conversely, inferior products that do much better than the competitor because of superior marketing, messaging, and business systems. Like VHS vs Beta. Sony’s Beta was a much better and higher quality product, but VHS was less expensive and easier for the masses to obtain and it became the standard.

Good results, great products, and being able to solve a problem along with the right marketing, messaging and leadership will determine the success of the business more than just relying on the greatness of the product or service alone. One needs to study business, marketing, sales, and leadership to be successful in business. The clinical results are just a bonus.

Tell me about one of the darker periods you’ve experienced in life. How you came out of it and what you learned from it?

2020 has been a pretty intense year. I’ve had a hard time creating inspiring content and prior to the lockdown was creating daily stories on Instagram and weekly videos on Facebook. At times it’s been hard to feel inspired to create content and share a message of hope when I’ve been buckled down making sure my two businesses survive and even thrive.

To say 2020 has been isolating is an understatement. It’s not what anyone expected and it has been one of the best things that have happened for us.

In my clinic we spent the summer giving to our community, creating new courses and content by repurposing already existing information and pieces of training. We worked hard to improve our marketing and sales systems and our 4th quarter of 2020 was even better than the 4th quarter I 2019.

I launched this same business in 2009 at the bottom of the Great Recession and the lessons I learned then and the lessons from 2020 are to be resilient, keep going, think outside of the box, and never quit.

What is one thing that you do that you feel has been the biggest contributor to your success so far?

The 1 thing that has been the biggest contributor to my success so far is working with mentors and coaches. I’ve worked with a few at different stages of my career and their guidance has helped significantly shorten the learning curve and trajectory of our growth. I couldn’t recommend working with a business coach enough for entrepreneurs looking to grow and scale. It’s the fastest way to the success you are looking to achieve. Find someone who’s where you want to be and invest in yourself and their services, trust the process, do the work and you’ll get the results you are looking for.

What is your morning routine?

I wake up at 5:30, get dressed, go to work, make coffee, get into some deep work for about an hour, go home to take the kids to school, work for 3 more hours, home to workout and have lunch at noon

What habit or behavior that you have pursued for a few years has most improved your life?

Exercising regularly. At one point in my life, I raced bicycles competitively and pushed my body to the limit. Now, I focus my workouts on improving my body and being healthy to lead my business and family. I currently train with kettlebells 3-4 days a week, do yoga once a week and go on a walk or hike with my family or play golf with my father. The focus is on moving and feeling well, not how much can I lift.

What are your strategies for being productive and using your time most efficiently?

• I time block and try to spend my mornings doing deep work, building systems, writing emails, taking action on my ideas.
• I schedule my coaching calls, interviews, and creative content for the afternoon.
• I keep a to-do list and judge my success based on my “done” list.

What book(s) have influenced your life the most? Why?

Guerilla Marketing by Jay Conrad Levinson, because this was the first marketing resource I found over 20 years ago that helped me transcend my inability to afford to advertise in major media when building my first business, a massage therapy practice in San Francisco. There was no way I could afford to advertise in the San Francisco Chronicle and while websites were a thing in 2000, internet advertising and social media marketing were not.

This book laid the foundation for my success today and jumpstarted my business using unconventional marketing methods (ie: guerilla marketing) to get people to become clients.

Do you have any quotes you live by or think of often?

“You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take!” – Wayne Gretzky