The Breakaway Experience Podcast | Episode 4

The transcript is about a podcast recording on an airplane where the host, Dean, and CEO Shayna Cummins discuss their experience attending a Mastermind event. They talk about the importance of learning from others in the same industry and the value of having a business coach. They also discuss the concept of vulnerability and the need for continuous growth and improvement in business. They share their goals for expanding their business and implementing new projects. They emphasize the importance of teamwork and communication within their organization. They express their desire for their team to attend future events and continue learning and growing together. Alright, so we're going to start off this. This will be our first podcast that we're recording on the airplane. Very unique setting. But I want to give the audience know that my name's Dean. I have our CEO, Shayna Cummins, with us. We're currently in... where are we at right now, Shayna? We are on the airplane in Orlando, getting ready, ideally, to fly back to Baltimore. When were we just past that? Three days, can you tell us? Yeah, so we were at a Mastermind event, the renaissance that overlooks the world. We were meeting with over 300 businesses, a lot of physical therapists, massage therapists, chiropract. All just learning about business growth, marketing, sales, all the different aspects relating to what's going on from a business perspective in the world these days and how we need to shift what we're doing to be able to market to our patients and continue to be able to do what we love to do, which is help change people's lives. How long have you been coming to these events? Yeah, so I first met Paul. We did a marketing course with him called Accelerator in 2016. We waited a bit and dragged our feet, and then we finally signed up to be part of his Mastermind group in 2019. That was when we started coming down for these events that have only grown year after year. Gotcha. I'm assuming Paul, this Paul guy, I've never heard of him, but it seems like you have invested so much time and effort into coming to these events. Tell me, what caused you to keep coming to these events? I think in business, you relate to people that are doing the same thing or that have maybe already been through it and have progressed even farther than you have in business. Paul has four cash practices in the UK, and then he moved to Florida and opened up a coaching mastermind group. He really brings together so many business owners so that they can all learn together. I really admire Paul. He's my business coach, and he's a voice of reason. He's an outside perspective to be able to critically look at my business and give me the non-emotional advice that I sometimes need to hear As business owners, we are absolutely emotionally attached to our businesses to become our babies. He's fantastic doing incredible things in his life and business. Absolutely a mentor, someone I greatly admire. This is my first time, and I'm glad to actually come along with you to this event. It opened my eyes as far as marketing. It took away a lot of marketing perspective, but even personally, what do I want to do? It helps me think, who am I? Those are the questions that came up. It's a great reminder for all of us there, who are we really? For those who are the co-owners, you are you. You're the first person. The reason why you got into this is because you want to do something for you and for your family. Absolutely. I actually want to hear from you. What are some of your takeaways that you took from this BPM Live? One of my biggest takeaways is to become the expert, become the authority figure, which is something that is important to differentiate ourselves in business, making sure that we are specialists, which is a given for me. I'm a physical therapist, so my specialty is something that I fell in love with years ago. Beyond that actual specialty, just being known in the community as what we do and how we change lives and giving back to our community, the people that help and support us. That was a big takeaway for me. Becoming comfortably uncomfortable, I'm always reminded of. I did a TED Talk when I was down there, so that was a good way to push myself out of my comfort zone. I'm excited to hear how that comes about. As you mentioned, there were a lot of takeaways of who are you, what do you stand for, remembering back to why did we go into business in the first place, what are we looking for in the future, as well as being the magic of the business and protecting that, still wanting anything or anyone that you've got. You are the asset, like you said. You are truly the asset. Without you, there is no business. Without you, there is no patient. I totally agree, 100%. Yeah, so I have to protect that and having my team see that in a positive way. If I don't protect that, then I can't protect them and take care of my team, which then helps to take care of all of our patients. That's awesome. So much. We could keep going on about this. Tell me one of your takeaways. I think one of my takeaways was the vulnerability, knowing that I'm not the expert. To me, I'm not the expert at what I'm doing. I always need help. I think that's a great thing about this event is that you can always pull aside someone and ask them for help or come together. That's the thing we talked about in the aftermath is two people coming together to solve a problem. I think I needed that because this is a new path for me in the physical therapy world. First of all, because I don't know anything. Dude, marketing is such a newer thing for me. I really felt vulnerable, like an imposter. I shouldn't be here, but there are so many people that I've talked to that they're on the same path. They're trying to figure out, as a role, where do they fit in? And so it was scary coming to this event because I knew fish in a pond. There's always more smart people, people who've been doing this longer, like you and the original people. But I'm fine. I'm fine being vulnerable, knowing that this is going to take some time for me. I think that's one of my takeaways. I like that takeaway. And I think for me, what that meant in being vulnerable was, as a business owner, I try to protect my team from all the things that we're going through. And sometimes I probably need to share a little bit more so that they see where I'm coming from because then they'll be able to connect because I'm just like you and everyone else. So making sure that they really know a little bit more of what's happening and that I don't have to put it all in and just put on a game face and that a true team is going to stand with you. So that's kind of my takeaway as well. That's more what it meant to me. So switching gears, my next question to you is, what are your goals that you have in growing your business for 2024? So we're at the end of 2023, looking forward. What are some goals that you have personally that maybe you've thought of? So one of my goals is a little bit of an offshoot of the breakaway business, but it's to be able to continue to mentor therapists and pelvic floor. I love that and it's just such a broader reach that I'm able to do. So I want to be able to expand that in 2024. Also in terms of the clinic, I want to be more involved in community events. I want to, again, be able to give back to all of our patients as they've been so loyal to us for so many years. I would like to be able to expand our marketing and just be in the newspaper and be more involved in some of these local sporting events and things like that. So I think a big push for marketing and what are the areas that we haven't been able to spend much time in is a big goal for 2024. As far as the three things that you felt that you want to start to implement starting tomorrow, what are those three things that you think personally that you want to start implementing? Three things? Yeah, three things. Okay, so one would be that you and our team are spearheading our new project. We're going to create a health panel and we're going to bring in some local celebrities, just some of our patients, and we're going to create a full health panel to be able to, again, give back to the community and have people share their secrets on how they live healthy lives. So that's a project that I know you've already started on. Yes, I did. I'm excited. I am. I'm sure they are. Another thing that I want to implement immediately was there was a session that we went over step-by-step the sales process, and I think it's going to be huge for the whole team because it goes from the first phone call to the pre-consultation to when we're doing that evaluation in the treatment room. It was just such a wonderful step-by-step guide, and it really explained why we ask these certain questions so that we have the ability to connect with our patients. So that would be the second thing that I want to implement right away. What would be the third? Any of the other speakers, like Simon or Barry or... I don't know. Probably the third thing wouldn't be. It would be a little bit more... not necessarily concrete, but just going along the line of being more vulnerable and sharing more with my staff and connecting on a deeper level, not just as much on a surface level, but making sure that they know that I'm there for them and I truly care and I want them on my team, and that's how we've been able to get where we are. I think that would be the third thing, of just me opening up a little bit more. Yeah. It'll take time, I'm sure. I'll be patient with you. You'll be patient with me as far as... It is. This is a process. The thing is that... What do you say something about progress? You're not growing unless you're progressing, and it truly is. You normally said that you're either growing or dying. Yeah. That's all. Yeah, and that's true. And you, for just 2024, we want to help you grow your business. It's going to be some big steps, I should say. Yep, absolutely. All right. Well, Nadia mentioned about PPM Live and being here. Would you want your team to be with you on this next PPM Live? And if so, how many do you envision to go with you? Honestly, I would love for my team to be open and wanting to come down and wanting to learn and open their minds, and to know that they're going to hear things that maybe they don't agree with, and they're going to hear things that they don't necessarily like. And I'm in the same boat of that. I've been told things at these meetings that challenge my thinking, and that's the only way that then I can push to grow. So, I mean, I would love for Ian to come as well, right? Second time around. I'd love to have my manager at that time come, as well as our front office and any clinicians. So, I mean, we could try to beat Keith. Keith has seven, right? That means we have to have eight. We might be pushing it. And then Nick will be cheering you on when you're on stage. Yep. We can win the award. Biggest at U of M. All right. So, as we're coming to a close on this short podcast line. We're taking off. We're taking off right now. Right. Get ready. That must mean something. Tell our audience one thing that helped you become aware of what needs to get done or improved in either your business or personal life that you've been neglecting. Anything, something that, you know, has been in the back of your mind or that you've been pushing off to decide that you're like, you know, I should be doing that or I want to do this for my family. We were talking about earlier, like, you want to spend more vacation time. You know, you talked about doing that so you can get re-energized. I don't know. Like, what are some things? One thing, I guess. So, one thing that recently I kind of had, you know, a realization was that we recently brought on, you know, Dale Sol in the clinic, which has been incredible and just having someone dedicated to follow up is awesome. Now, what Jason and I recently realized was that we don't have a step process towards a little bit of, like, you know, we have a dedicated person to call all of our past patients, patients that have reached out and are interested on converted leads and whatnot, but we didn't have a step process of how we go about that. And even just being creative, which we recently went through at a panel meeting, I was like, what are all the ways we can reach out to our patients? You know, whether it's calling, texting, emailing, sending a letter, sending them a box of information about us. And that's something we're going to continue to build out a process so that it isn't a guessing game and we have a step-by-step method because another big takeaway I've had people have done that I've never been through as well is the fortunes of the follow-up. If you don't follow up, like, you will never see that person on your doorstep. Meaning, you will never be able to help them. You'll never be able to help them teach their life and enjoy being active, being with their families and help them reach their goals. As we conclude with this podcast, I thank you for giving me my time to do this with you and kind of pick your brain because it means a lot to me knowing that, you know, I, myself, have invested some time through what your vision and goals are because it helps me as an employee to know, you know, I guess, where you're going so I can continue to be there to back you up and to be a proponent for you. So, it means a lot to me. Thank you. Thank you, Ian. All right. As you can all find some more information about Shana and here at Breakaway Physical Therapy, our website is breakawaypt.com. You can also find us on Instagram, breakaway underscore pt. You'll see the breakaway sign as well on Facebook. But we will be doing this podcast frequently and continue to bring some more content for our community, for our, yeah, for those in Maryland and others who are following Shana's journey. So, thank you so much.