Jan 11, 2023
Read the conversation below
Yoni Rosenblatt: Welcome back to the True Sports Physical Therapy Podcast. We got Dr. Zach Adams with us. I'm thrilled to have you here. Are you nervous at all being on this podcast?
Zach Adams: I am indeed a little bit nervous.
Yoni Rosenblatt: Okay. Do not be nervous. This is just an easy conversation for our one or two listeners that we actually have subscribed to the podcast. So, no worries. We're just having a conversation. But I'm excited to have this conversation because I want to know, I want you to jog my memory, what it's like to become a physical therapist, to prepare for the boards and then all the way to where you are now, two and a half years in running an entire clinic and growing a clinic and what that has been like for you. So answer for me this, how did you prepare for your board exams while you were working at True Sports?
Zach Adams: I think that working while preparing for the board exams helped me kind of coordinate my day, and it gave me a little bit of break from just living in the books. And I think it tapped into my experience at Lebanon Valley College where playing football into grad school, having a little bit more structure when it's, I can't procrastinate, I can't wait to study, when do I find the gym? It just transitioned into now I'm working, I'm treating, I'm reading about orthopedic issues. I'm putting that into practice. A good reminder to yourself as to, "Hey, I just did three years of school. I can do this. I'm actively doing this, it's just another checked box while I study."
Yoni Rosenblatt: Yeah. And you make a good point. Some of the skills you learned as a college athlete, you're just applying those skills professionally. You're in undergrad and then into grad school. You're playing high level D3 football and trying to juggle, getting both your undergrad and then graduate degree, your doctorate, you were already used to juggling things. Walk me through how it was similar when you entered the professional atmosphere.
Zach Adams: It was very similar in that the... Your teammates now just become your coworkers. The timeframes are the same. Like you have blocked meetings where those are now become your treatment slots. You have your practices, your game schedules, your prep for the games becomes your prep for patients. Your day to day feels... There's a lot of carryover in that. I definitely think that it helped to prepare me. I'm probably not drawing the best clear lines to that, but I think overall the biggest similarity is just the preparation. So your day to day, you know, I have to check X, Y, Z. I need to prepare for X, I can't do anything about Y but I know from this time to this time that's where I have to be. And then Z, I can prepare a little bit for that. And then the rest is kind of off the cuff, so.
Yoni Rosenblatt: So I'll do what I often do, which is I disagree with your comment of you're not drawing direct lines or parallels because you're doing exactly that. And it reminds me of a phrase that my financial advisor always says, which is business is business. And so, as you prepare for a given session, it's just that, it's preparation, right? So you prepared for a game, let's say, well, now you're preparing for a patient. You prepared for a bigger game. You're preparing and readying yourself for your board exams. It's the same thing. Business is business. Right? And so you are drawing direct parallels from your graduate school education and experience to your professional experience. In your two and a half years since you've been a doctor of physical therapy, a practicing doctor of physical therapy, what shocked you coming out of grad school that you weren't necessarily prepared for?
Zach Adams: I think the thing that I was most surprised by was more how to navigate insurances [chuckle] that was something that you talk about briefly in school, you talk about your documentation, but now the real world application of that is like, I'm writing this awesome plan of care. I am doing my objective measures. They're hitting some of them, not all of them. I think they're medically appropriate to continue. We're getting shut down and navigating like, okay, now I need to do peer-to-peers. What's my process through that like? I think that was the most... The thing that surprised me the most when I'm taking the didactic and then putting it into clinical practice.
Yoni Rosenblatt: Okay. So now flip that a little bit. You are talking to graduate students today. You're leading that class, outpatient sports rehab 101. You want to teach them how to prepare for that peer-to-peer with insurance where you're fighting for your patient. How would you educate the new grad as to how to handle that?
Zach Adams: I think a lot of it is confidence in... You need to walk into that peer-to-peer, have your objective measures in front of you, the ones that... Your well-written goals, your smart goals that you're writing. Have those in front of you as a reminder because during the conversation, they could say some things like, "I just don't believe that that's necessarily the case." And you can say, listen, this is something that we've tracked from day one. They have objectively gotten five degrees better, here's how we're going to get better moving forward. Here's why they can't do that at home. Here's where my expertise comes into play. And play towards your strengths. You just spent the last three years gathering all this information. Now you need to disseminate that to appear.
Yoni Rosenblatt: Yeah. And apply it.
Zach Adams: Who thinks that they can do that on their own. And you need to justify, really advocate for yourself. Would be my biggest recommendation for that.
Yoni Rosenblatt: Yeah. I think that's a really good recommendation and a good way to think about it. I think new grads often have an imposter syndrome. They think they're kind of playing a role of PT, but they're not really a seasoned PT yet. So how can they... What do they have to stand on to make their case? I think that plays into some of the preparation, preparing for that meeting that you touched on to say, "I'm gonna be ready to make that analysis, that assessment and relay that succinctly to the insurance world." So I think that's really valuable. One of the things I struggled with, and I still struggle with massively, is managing my treatment schedule. I have all these patients, if you're working in a good clinic, you have 45 minutes to an hour or so. One-On-One, if you're working in a mill, maybe you have 20 minutes. It has always been hard for me to stay on schedule and be ready for the next patient that's gonna walk in. How do you manage that as a new grad?
Zach Adams: As a new grad, and even through my clinical rotations, I think it is invaluable to spend the extra 25, 30 minutes before your day, even if that person no shows, you're like, that's good practice to prep for them and you're not writing out your session. That's not what my preparation consisted of. It's if they come in and they are feeling this way, these are the exercises that I think they're... Are going to challenge them the most, that are hitting our goals for that session. If I'm thrown a curve ball, you know where you're going, how can I build... Regress from that? So that we're still working towards the exercises that we want to get to.
Yoni Rosenblatt: Yeah. Yeah. And so you make a great point there. Your goals for the session, and this is where I would encourage really all PTs to put on their strength coach hat to say, what energy system am I trying to challenge with this session? And then within that framework of that goal, you say, okay, here are the few exercises that I know I can pull out or can adjust to achieve that same goal. So maybe it's bothering their knee a little bit. Okay, I'm gonna change the exercise a little bit. How am I gonna do that? And still trying to challenge them, whether it be aerobically or anaerobically, something like that. So that you have that laid out. I saw you do that just a few hours ago when you walked in a few minutes before your day started and really mapped out. And I saw you taking notes like you always do on your laptop of, I got this patient at say, 7:00 AM, I'm here at 6:45.
Yoni Rosenblatt: I wanna accomplish the following goals from 7:00 to 7:45. Here are a few paths I can take to do that. I witnessed you doing that today. So you're definitely practicing what you preach as it pertains to that. Now, you came on two and a half years ago. Walk me through what those next few months were, because so everyone who's listening understands, Zach, you came on as a staff physical therapist. You had illusions of grandeur that you wanted to one day run a clinic. You wanted to grow within a company and in your career. So walk me through the path you've taken to your role today as now a clinic director two and a half years in.
Zach Adams: I think the first step of that process kind of builds from that preparation for each patient was how in six months from now, am I going to be a better clinician than I am today?
Yoni Rosenblatt: What's the answer to that? How do you do that?
Zach Adams: I think it's treating every single patient as your own case study. I think too often we fall into, like, we see a common diagnosis like an ankle sprain. And you're like, okay, I could treat that with my eyes closed, don't. Or in session, how can I... Rather than, I know I could give them a different exercise that may get to the same goal, but how can I modify the exercise that I'm currently doing so that they can do it and know like, this is the goal we're working towards. And that's gonna help you kind of build your arsenal of exercises so that in 6, 8, 12 months, it's... I'm now getting more complex patients. I know how to adjust on the fly, that preparation doesn't hurt that adaptability is key in your beginning clinical growth in my opinion. I think also it's important, even though you just took your boards. I was pretty quick to try and jump into some continuing education. And it was a good shift for me early on where it's okay, it's no longer classroom. Someone is speaking at me. I am nervous about the test. Much like this podcast. But now you can just embrace the conversation, embrace the information that's being taught to you, and then really run with it.
Yoni Rosenblatt: Yeah. And really be present there to understand what it is that's transpiring. How did you know when you were ready to take someone under your wing? Because I think that's the hallmark of a clinic director is beginning to teach others and demonstrate to others. When did you really feel confident to be able to do that?
Zach Adams: Confident, I think came from my preparation before got much shorter where I was, okay, these... I know these people, these are the exercises I wanna get to. I'm comfortable with all of the evals coming in. Comfortable in my clinical judgment with that. I think that's kind of... And working with some of my colleagues who had students and being able to have them watch me talking with colleagues where you're growing your own clinical knowledge, that kind of boosted my confidence to say I'm ready to take a more mentorship leadership type role. And I think that comes with a lot of vulnerability and that you have to embrace that you can't know everything. And over the course of my tenure as clinic director, I think that has been my favorite aspect, is learning where my weaknesses are. How can we help each other to get to our goals collectively?
Yoni Rosenblatt: Yeah. And that's one of the things I've admired about your career path is your ability to roll with the punches. And God knows you've hit some speed bumps along the way towards your clinic directorship. But it's worth diving into those. So Zach, you came on, I think you were hire number one in One Clinic. And then we made another hire. And so now you had a clinic director and you were one of two staff PTs. And I think we even brought on a third and we're like, we start to see Zach show signs of, "Hey, this guy can be a clinic director." And one of those signs was your ability to handle adversity. Now sometimes that comes up in session. A patient just has, let's say anterior knee pain coming out of an ACL. We saw you beautifully adjust clinically.
Yoni Rosenblatt: Okay. So we're gonna take a step back from loading quad because it's bothering his knee. Let's hit his glute today. Let's kind of come back maybe after we do some recovery stuff. Calm the knee down, come back to the knee. Professionally speaking, we had you in a clinic where we were partnered with a gym and the gym all of a sudden sends me an email saying, "Hey we're failing on our lease, so we're gonna close up shop." And so we were left now with an entire clinic to ourselves, much higher overhead because of that for a few months. Then we transferred you to a different clinic and said, Zach, I'm telling you next time we have a clinic open up, we'll move you to that clinic and you'll be clinic director there. Your ability to just roll with those punches and just be there for the opportunity and be present for that opportunity, that opened my eyes as CEO of True Sports. It opened Tim Stone's eyes as COO of True sports to say, "Hey, we really got something here." Andrew Livingston, who's our regional director, we're all watching you, Zach, really handle these bumps and hurdles unflappably, like really calmly. Where did that come from? How do you know how to do that?
Zach Adams: I think that ties into more of my athletic background and also leadership background in sports, you can't control everybody. You can't control everything. But when everything hits the fan and it's not going your way, you can control how you react to it. In the sports world, it's managing injuries, managing people getting in trouble on your team. In the clinical world, it's, "Hey, I have to move clinics." Which you talk about as adversity. I think it was a blessing because it really helped me to get exposed to more clinicians who are fantastic clinicians that helped my clinical growth exponentially. So I think it ties a little bit into the athletic world and also academics as well, where it's, I was never the student who could never study and get all As. So I had to work for it. And there were times when I was looking at the classes going, "oh man, I like don't know how I'm gonna get through this. How do I manage my time? Because there's a class that I'm crushing right now and a class that's, hey, I need to spend a little bit more time on."
Yoni Rosenblatt: Yeah. Prioritizing.
Zach Adams: Yes.
Yoni Rosenblatt: I mean, it seems like you were really good at prioritizing that. We definitely saw that your ability to kind of calm those voices in the back of your head that are constantly rolling. I know that they are and still deliver every single session. And we know it because we're constantly pinging our patients to say, how was your session with Zach? Did you get better? Was he attentive? You know, what were some of the struggles and how did you overcome them without fail? Heard outstanding feedback on you. So you were also able to manage what you could control. And in those given 45-minute blocks, you were controlling what you could control, which was the one patient in front of you and making them feel like a million bucks. And I think that really shines a bright light on how you have grown so quickly.
Zach Adams: Thank you.
Yoni Rosenblatt: Yeah. No problem. And so now that you're running a clinic, one of our busier clinics a place called Bear Hills, now you've had to grow that clinic from the bottom up. Tell me, what was the hardest part about starting a brand new clinic by yourself?
Zach Adams: I think the hardest part comes in, you need to trust the process, right? So there's always that beginning phase that I feel like if you're interested in, regardless of sector of business, any business at start where it's, oh my gosh, how is this gonna work? You have all of these aspirations, how do I put them into fruition? That kind of take a step back. What's step number one, right? We need to market, how are we gonna do that? Not just, oh yeah, we wanna treat all athletes. How are we gonna do that? It's like, no, we sat down, collectively made a plan and then started to put it into action. And I think the beginning, just that everyone has it, that fear to step off the porch, I say it, like I think that was kind of the most challenging, just to kind of suppress that. And then once that first patient walks through the door, once you really start to see, oh my gosh, I have six evals today. It's like, okay, now we're rolling.
Yoni Rosenblatt: We're rolling, we're rolling. Yeah. And I just went through this in another location of ours, sitting down with a clinic director where he has already got like a nice base, but breaking down that strategy of how you're finding referral sources, how you're developing those referral sources and relationships, dive into that. So once you had a couple of days where you're treating and every session is great to some extent how did you section off your referral sources and start to identify, here's where I'm gonna get patients?
Zach Adams: I think it... One, look at looking at your current caseload. Like, hey, who is already helping us and how can I help them? And then it's where do you want to go to? So that was probably the next step, just because I like to look further and then kind of take a step back and go, okay, break that down. How am I getting there? Whether that's if it's a physician, is it an email? Had I treated any of those patients? Okay, I have treated two of them. They went awesome. Fantastic. Let's just reach back out, see if they're still there. How can I help them? Can I get in front of them?
Yoni Rosenblatt: Them being the referral source? The doctor?
Zach Adams: Yes, them being the physician. And while you're kind of mapping through that process or even just thinking like, Hmm. It has been a while. I don't... I can't remember anybody offhand in the moment. Look around in the gym, we're surrounded by trainers. Every break that I had, rather than sitting there typing notes, getting ahead on documentation, you kind of actively seek out like, who can help me? How can I help them? I'm seeing somebody roll their ankle in a training session. Where are they going? Why aren't they coming to me? Why? I'm available, I'm here right now. How can I be in front of them? How can I talk to them? What are you doing this weekend? It's like, "oh, well, I'm going to help with the camp. How can I help you with your camp?"
Yoni Rosenblatt: Yep.
Zach Adams: I think that kind of plan structure and then where you branch from there is how... The recipe to building that fast.
Yoni Rosenblatt: Yeah, and you're describing prioritization, right? Like the notes will be there when you're done with your patients at 7 PM and maybe the gym is empty that's when you write the note. At 10 AM when the trainer is there and you don't have a patient, instead of writing the note, what is most important at that point in time? It's to be in front of the trainer. You've been so good at that at making yourself available to the trainer that's in the gym, but also in a Saturday morning camp. You're just gonna show up and maybe nothing comes of that being there, but maybe it does, and if it does, you're gonna reap the reward because you were there. So it's... It kinda goes back to that, I'm just gonna say yes, I'm just going to be there and make myself available. Give me some examples of those instances where you said, "This seems like a long shot to get a patient, but I'm gonna say yes."
Zach Adams: Yeah, I think it was a camp, a football camp that I went to over the summer it was two, yeah, years ago now. It was, I was looking at it, I was like, oh man, we can't... It wasn't "direct marketing" for the clinic I was at, I was like, "I don't really think this is going to amount to any patients coming to me." it turns out every person that I met there two and a half years later is still in my phone and actively talking to them. And that has led to more, like the network that I built going to that was much more beneficial than the individual or multiple patients I could have gotten from there.
Yoni Rosenblatt: Yeah, yeah, where did you learn that networking skill?
Zach Adams: I think that the... Honestly, I saw it a lot in you and Andrew, you guys were excellent at marketing. I went back, my first one, I don't think I said a word because I was just mesmerized by watching you guys network, bop around, talking to everybody, how those conversations went and I tried to emulate some of that. And then you gotta put your own twist on things, right?
Yoni Rosenblatt: Yeah, what's your twist?
Zach Adams: I think my big... I can't give away all my secrets, no.
Yoni Rosenblatt: Give away all your secrets, that's why we're here.
Zach Adams: I think the biggest twist that I have is I would much rather prefer direct face-to-face conversations and getting in front of people. So when I meet somebody it's can we try and get back in front of each other, rather than text communication or like Instagram messages. I'm not the best on social media, but I'm working on it. So I think that's kind of the twist is try and get in front of them and then how your... I don't know, I try and do everything with a smile. So it's like more just your nonverbal communication is let your personality show through in those, I think that's more of the twist is...
Yoni Rosenblatt: Well, you're great at that because that's what works for you. And I think it took you a second to realize I'm not this therapist, I'm Zach Adams, and I'm better one-on-one in their face so I'm gonna make myself available to do that. We have therapists on our team that are far better at the DMing, right? At virtual marketing, at social media, things of that nature. And it took me a while as a business owner to realize it doesn't matter how the therapist succeeds just that the therapist succeeds. So if Zach is better at one-on-one in-person communication, great, what do I care if he's not sending DMs as long as he's generating it another way, right? And same thing vice versa, a lot of people get scared getting in front of a microphone and being nervous in the middle of a conversation, and they would rather send a text and they would rather send an email, it doesn't matter, you gotta find out what works for you. Some of that is trial and error.
Zach Adams: Most of that is trial and error.
Yoni Rosenblatt: Most of that is trial and error, absolutely. And I think it's like, where do you feel comfortable and how do you put yourself in those positions. You also did a great job of surrounding yourself with other, like you said, clinicians, but mentors or coworkers, colleagues that allow you to have kind of a wide-reaching view to see here's how another therapist does that. Let me try that on, maybe that works, maybe it doesn't. I think that's another strong point that shouldn't go unnoticed is you have to continue to look at what everyone else is doing to figure out, hey, maybe there's something there, right? And so sometimes that kind of lands. Coming out of LVC, I don't know that much about the program. Was there any type of business education?
Zach Adams: In undergrad, there were some.
Yoni Rosenblatt: You took a business class in undergrad?
Zach Adams: Yeah, I took a business class.
Yoni Rosenblatt: Okay. And if you had to do it all over again, how would you change your preparation for graduate school?
Zach Adams: I don't know, like didactically or my...
Yoni Rosenblatt: Yes. First, define the word didactic.
Zach Adams: Like education, classes.
Yoni Rosenblatt: Okay, yeah.
Zach Adams: I don't know if I would change too much of my undergrad didactics and class work, I tried to structure, I maybe did it a little bit different than some other people on that. I was constantly taking summer classes to try and offload my fall semester and the spring semester if I could. But in terms of, I don't think I would change classes and I would encourage you, if you can, if that's achievable for you to do, really embrace the classes that you have. So when I knew I was starting to get into more exercise science-based, the anatomies, the physiologies, those are the ones that I spent the most time on and I didn't have to worry about writing the 15-page paper.
Yoni Rosenblatt: Yep.
Zach Adams: Which I think that's probably why I wouldn't change too much about it. I wish I had more business experience going in, but I don't want that to take away from the experience that I had in there. And I thought about that when I was in undergrad. I'm a very hands-on learner, so when I took the business class, it seemed all hypothetical to me, very abstract. So the applicability, when I ask some of my business colleagues who were taking classes and they were actively in internships, it was like, well, that makes total sense to me, but they're also putting in the real world. So that was something I kind of put on the back burner and was hopefully... I'm actively seeking out how to learn more about it now.
Yoni Rosenblatt: Yeah, once you're out. Okay, so let me push back a little bit on that because my path was similar to yours in that I was a kinesiology undergrad degree. And it taught me movement science for the most part, it was biomechanics, it was anatomy, it was some of your basic sciences. And looking back, those are prereqs to get into graduate school, to physical therapy school, but when I got to physical therapy school, I was uniquely suited to just be good at that stuff. And then what do you do when you get to grad school? You learn it again, right? You learn those moving patterns again and I just feel like I could have studied that for the first time in graduate school, but now once I'm done with graduate school I only have one skill set. And so I knew nothing about business, I had no idea how to run a business, I didn't know anything about anything except basic anatomy, I wasn't even a good PT. It didn't even prepare me for that, right? I still had to learn how to be a PT. So had I had some basics, whether it be econ or intro to business or something like that.
Yoni Rosenblatt: I just felt like I would have been far better off or maybe another nuance to what it is we do for living like athletic training. Like why didn't I study athletic training in undergrad? How much that would have helped me? So I always say, thinking back, I wish I would have sprinkled a little bit more from my undergraduate programs to give me a wider breadth of skills and then narrow it as I head out of graduate school to get better at that skill maybe that would have helped me a little bit. I certainly understand doubling down on your strengths and learning the physiology and the pathophysiology as you go through, you gotta be good at that. It's just worth considering, how do I supplement that core curriculum instead of just doing core, core, core, core over and over? What do you think about that?
Zach Adams: Yeah, no, I agree. Maybe it's the liberal arts education, but I did have some other things. My core classes were all the sciences, but I definitely agree there were some things that I wish I had a broader scope on in preparation for becoming a sports PT. But at the same time, I don't know if, me looking back now, hindsight is always 2020, I don't know if I would have been able to grasp or even make all of that applicable.
Yoni Rosenblatt: That's why we have this pod. That's why we have this pod, so we can try to look back and make it better for the next generation. But it's... I just think it's worth considering and maybe it's not... How about this, maybe it's not, I'm gonna be a business undergrad degree and then get my doctorate, but maybe it's you're a kines undergrad, you're getting your doctorate of physical therapy, but maybe the things I can supplement are on my own. Maybe I'm reading a business book, I just didn't do that, maybe I'm listening to a business pod, or maybe I'm listening to a self-help pod, for lack of a better term, to build my soft skills. I didn't do any of that, and I feel like I'm forever now trying to catch up on that. So maybe that's a goal between.
Zach Adams: Yeah, that I can relate to where it was, I feel like right now most of what I'm trying to seek out is things that I missed before.
Yoni Rosenblatt: Yep, yep, and so how are you doing that? Where are you finding that stuff?
Zach Adams: I'm becoming a reader, an avid reader.
Yoni Rosenblatt: Pretty amazing, late into your 20s, that you're becoming a reader.
Zach Adams: Yeah, weird, I just thought of it.
Yoni Rosenblatt: It is weird. Okay, so what are you reading that's it has been super helpful.
Zach Adams: So I read, I just finished Atomic Habits, I just read it for the first time, Austin gave me Radical Candor.
Yoni Rosenblatt: Yeah, awesome.
Zach Adams: I started that yesterday actually.
Yoni Rosenblatt: That has come up a few times in the pod, awesome.
Zach Adams: Yep, I have been also flipping, you kind of flipped me on this, starting to listen to audiobooks. So I did do...
Yoni Rosenblatt: Do Hard Things.
Zach Adams: Yes, thank you, I was blanking and Dare to Lead by Brené Brown, that was one of that...
Yoni Rosenblatt: Awesome.
Zach Adams: I started up, but yeah. So that's kind of my shift outside of the podcast, but I kind of started that in grad school where it was... That was a way for me to study while I exercised for better or for worse, but.
Yoni Rosenblatt: No, I think that that's awesome and I think it's a way to just broaden your skill set and to have a little bit more of a growth mindset, where the things that make a successful sports PT is not sports PT. That's baseline, that's barrier to entry, right? What makes you a special sports PT is, what would you say?
Zach Adams: I think what makes you a special outside of sports PT, PT in general is your ability to relate to people. You have to be able to talk to people, your interpersonal skills have to be very high, you're dealing with people in vulnerable situations, it can't be a talking down or even a lack of confidence in yourself. And your ability to educate like that's what we do, that's the most important part. So if I can't... If you don't trust me, if you don't believe in me, you're never gonna believe what I'm saying, no one is gonna get better. So that education piece I think falls directly into how do you relate?
Yoni Rosenblatt: Yeah, you're a teacher, we are teachers.
Zach Adams: Yes.
Yoni Rosenblatt: And you have to develop and nurture buy-in and rapport. What the good news is, and I've flipped my outlook on this, recently is you can improve on that. It is a skill just like picking up a guitar or just like learning anything new, it... Relating to people, connecting to people, you can work on, you can practice and you will invariably improve. And I've seen you do it, I've seen all of our PTs do it, I love that this education, this mindset is really seeping through the company. It's nice to see we are all trying to kind of pull ourselves up. I've learned more from you probably than vice versa.
Zach Adams: I disagree, but.
Yoni Rosenblatt: And I've certainly from the leadership that we have in place now is I've learned leadership techniques from those leaders. That has been super eye-opening to me. So I appreciate that from you and I'm humbled by that to say the least. So looking back in the last two and a half years, now that you've kind of built up this clinic, you're ready to hire again. So shameless plug if you wanna work for us, find us, send us a resume, we'd love to have you if you're awesome and we want someone with a growth mindset. So make sure you're reaching out and that's as easy as a simple DM, it is nuts the amount of DMs I now get that simply say two letters, PT. Because that's all we want from an application, from an applicant, send us that and then we'll walk you through like how to join our team if you're a great fit. I've seen that grow tremendously and that has been really cool to see. Now that you've gotten the clinic nice and busy, what would you say makes you a great clinic director?
Zach Adams: I think it's embracing a little... Embracing being uncomfortable and...
Yoni Rosenblatt: Embracing the suck.
Zach Adams: Yeah, embracing the suck. And what I mean by that is there are times when I think my team has looked to me and I've been able to pull through, right? But you never remember those, it's when your team looks to you and you don't have the answer or things aren't going exactly the way that you envisioned. Kind of embracing that aspect of how do I address this? How do I go forward? How do we not let it happen again? And then kind of watching it sprout afterward is more rewarding.
Yoni Rosenblatt: Yeah, what's the toughest conversation you've had as a clinic director that you weren't expecting? I'll tell you mine. How is that?
Zach Adams: Okay.
Yoni Rosenblatt: I don't know if it's the toughest, but I had... I tend to get these phone calls from every once in a while where I have a parent that will call me and tell me, My kid was rehabbing at your practice, they went to another practice and you guys screwed up XYZ. True Sports dropped the ball on whatever it was, whatever they think it was, loading or change of direction. And the therapist that we're working with now they told us that you totally missed this. How dare you take my kid and tell me that you're giving me the best and I didn't actually get the best. Hearing that as a business owner, as a clinician, that's really painful, it's really painful to hear. And I've definitely handled those conversations sometimes well and sometimes very poorly. I can very distinctly remember immediately jumping back and saying, "Whoa, ma'am, you're wrong. We did this, we did that. Your kid didn't do XYZ." Looking at that now, that's the wrong way to handle that conversation. What I try now to lean on is, "I'm really sorry that this didn't happen... "
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