Acculete: From Sick Care to True Healthcare with Greg Lothian

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Good evening and welcome to Nurse Maureen's
Health Show Podcast.
I'm Maureen McGrath, aregistered nurse, nurse,
continence advisor and sexualhealth educator, and, as you can
imagine, I am very interestedin physical health as well as
emotional and mental health, andI'm delighted to have my guest
on this evening.
Greg Lothian is an athletictherapist and entrepreneur and

(00:22):
the founder of AccuLeet, acompany leading a much-needed
revolution in health and fitness.
With over 29 years in theindustry and a background that
includes launching sportsmedicine clinics and serving 24
years as a firefighter, greg isknown for cutting through the
noise and delivering clear,effective strategies that get
results.
He's here today to challengethe status quo in physical

(00:44):
health why what we call ourhealthcare system is actually a
sick care system, and what thefuture of true health care can
look like.
Why adherence to exercise isone of the only two things we
should be focused on improving,and how physical health
practitioners can stop tradingtime for money by building
sustainable, outcome-basedcareers.

(01:06):
Greg's mission To makeevidence-based practice, real
adherence, effortless andremaining focused on healthspan,
not just lifespan the new goldstandard.
Good evening, greg.
How are you?

Speaker 2 (01:19):
I'm great.
It's awesome to be here.

Speaker 1 (01:20):
Thank you very much I'm awesome, I'm so delighted to
speak to you because, uh, thisis something I I just feel like
physical health is so tied tooverall health, and one time I
was working, uh, side by sidewith a doctor and a patient came
in with low back pain.
They had been a cyclist andthey were actually heading

(01:41):
toward depression because theywere unable to cycle or exercise
any longer because of the lowback pain.
And the doctor prescribed scanand manage.
I thought scan and manageWhatever is that in my head, of
course.
And the patient said well, whatdo you mean?
And she said, well, tylenol andAdvil, which can be brutal on

(02:03):
the kidneys and the gut and theliver, and then we'll scan you
every two years.
I mean, that was no treatmentat all for this gentleman and
you could see him just sinkdeeper.
You've been in this space fornearly three decades.
First of all, what do you thinkof something like that?

Speaker 2 (02:20):
I think, you know it's crazy, we see it so much
that I spent a career reallytrying to fight against the
system.
That was, you know, at first itwas a, you know, I saw it as a
fight against the system andreally, because I worked in

(02:40):
varsity athletics and then Imoved into the public space
after my whole goal became tobring that elite model into the
public space and really, whenyou look at the elite model,
there is no monitor, progresstype of thing like that.

(03:01):
It doesn't exist, becausethere's a high need to get these
people back to what they'redoing as quickly as possible.
And I really felt, like youknow these, our public system
right now, that is truly ourhealthcare system, is a sick
care system.
Excuse me, the sick care systemit's really it's an important

(03:23):
system, but it's reallyimportant if you, you know you
think you're dying or you havesomething like that.
That's really needs to beaddressed right now, whereas
somebody like that with low backpain and it's, this is really
more about healthspan and health, true healthcare, and with
these kinds of people, you haveto be getting to the cause.
You really you know the modelthat we still have years later.

(03:49):
I've changed my entire modelI've worked.
I do not work like the rest ofthe standardized model in
physical health works right now,because this, you know, coming
to see a practitioner two orthree times or going to see a
doctor that's just going to scanand monitor you over time is
purely addressing the symptoms.
It's not looking at what'sactually causing this problem

(04:11):
and how do we turn it around.
We see so many active peoplebecome exactly that depressed
because they can't do the thingsthey love to do and you know I
think, tony Robbins,no-transcript they're really

(04:46):
reliant on these, your physician, to give you the advice or give
you the referral to fix yourproblem.
And our system isn't fixing theproblem, they're just
addressing the symptoms.
Absolutely the biggest changeneeds to happen.

Speaker 1 (05:02):
Yeah, they don't even send patients off at times to
physical therapists or trainersor personal coaches or you know.
It's just kind of, you know,grin and bear it.
Basically, you've been in thisspace, greg, for nearly three
decades.
What drove you to createAcculite and what exactly is

(05:24):
Acculite?

Speaker 2 (05:29):
you to create Acculite, and what exactly is
Acculite?
So one of the earliest shiftsthat happened in our industry
was that we started talkingabout the fact that we needed to
run an evidence-based practice.
Right, there was a lot when Ifirst got into it.
You know it's a lot of justguessing at what was best for
athletes and what we should bedoing and talking about
performance.
And we had this shift that wentinto looking at the research

(05:52):
and finding out what was goingon.
But I kept looking at it andthinking to myself like yeah,
okay, there is some evidencethere, but there's really not a
lot.
The know like the human body isa very complicated thing and if
we're not looking at it from acase-by-case measure, then we're
not really looking at a solidbase of evidence.

(06:15):
For years I just shopped for asolution, something that you
know.
We use force dynamometers inour industry.
The problem with forcedynamometers is they're
egregiously expensive.
So typically what's happeningif you're working in a space
with a bunch of otherpractitioners is you might have
one forced dynamometer becausethey're, you know, when I got
into the industry they're, youknow, $4,000.

(06:36):
And the problem with having onemeasuring device with multiple
practitioners in a space is if Ican't use it all the time, I'll
never use it.
Because if I'm going to do anassessment and I get objective
measures with this person andthen not with that person, or I
get objective measures with youthe first time and then you come

(06:57):
back and I can't use the toolbecause somebody else is using
it what ends up happening isthese very expensive devices end
up living in a drawer somewhereand nobody uses.
So I shopped and shopped foryears to try and see if there
was a better solution.
And you know I went throughlike using luggage scales, and I

(07:17):
actually found a.
It was a fish scale was one ofthe ones that I found.
It was good for up to 400pounds of force.
And I was like what?
And I could buy this thing for60 bucks.
And I was like there's.
I don't understand thisdisconnect between this device
that's ultimately pretty strong,it's got bad software in it,
but that's a pretty big leapfrom 60 to a thousand, 2000,

(07:41):
$3,000.
So dollars.
So I got sick of it.
So I put a team together andsaid like let's just make one.
Let's make what we need, whatwe actually need.
We need it to be affordable, weneed it to measure more than
just one time force, you know.
So let's create the, a toolthat can give us the metrics we

(08:03):
need to not only help the PHPs,do you know, make more
intelligent decisions, but alsoso that we can get this
technology into the hands of thepeople that need it the most,
which are the people that aretraining.
So we created educationalcontent, first of all to help
practitioners understand how totransition the motivation to the

(08:26):
client, because it's I oftentell practitioners this it's
great to be the source ofinspiration for your clients.
You cannot be their source ofmotivation, because if anything
changes in that situation, thenthat person stops training.
So we have to make exercise theclient's idea, and if we can do
that, that's great.
So I and I've spent a careertrying to figure that out.

(08:46):
So we have educational contentto help them understand that
process.
And then we use the metricsthat we get from our device to a
help us make more intelligentdecisions.
So we're making betterprescription decisions and and
you know it's it's when you'redoing things with objective
measures.
It's just, everything is easier, there's no guesswork involved.

(09:10):
And then we created a, an app,very straightforward.
It's easy to create an app noteasy but straightforward to
create an app these days, andall the app does is track
everything that's going on, sothat, a, we can, over time,
prove that the interventionsthat we're giving to these
people are actually working, and, two, so that people that are

(09:33):
training with this on a regularbasis every day they train, they
get their metrics, they can bemotivated to see progress on an
everyday basis.
The, the equivalent you knowthat we talk about is like the
10,000 steps program.
10,000 steps program worksbecause it's an objective number
that you know people who aren'tnecessarily into health can

(09:55):
easily understand and worktowards.
And if we can start to do thatfor strength training, then it's
really important because youknow, whether it's injury, rehab
or fitness, strength is theonly metric you can measure.
That affects all causes ofmortality, and that's from
cancer, to liver disease, todiabetes, to everything, to

(10:17):
mental stress, to, you know,mental health issues, and this
is not conjecture.
This is in our scientific andthis is not conjecture.
This is in our scientificliterature that this is true.

Speaker 1 (10:28):
So and there's a lot of talk about that for women at
perimenopause, menopause andpost-menopause, it's a big focus
on, instead of, you know,trying to get to skinny, try to
get to strong and and I thinkthat's important for prevention
of falls and fractures, formobility issues, for reduction
of pain it has so many aspectsof so many benefits for women,

(10:52):
especially as they age, and wedon't think about strength and
women.
You know, I think you knowwomen oftentimes are focused on,
you know, being thin and being.
You know, being thin that'spretty much it Thin, pretty and
rich.

Speaker 2 (11:09):
Yeah, and the perimenopause one is, like you
know, really doing some intensestrength training at that period
in their lives is superimportant.
And you know, again, we've beenfighting this battle on the
practitioner side for a longtime.
This whole idea of strong isbig and really, when you look at
bodybuilders versus people whoare truly strong, it's not that

(11:32):
bodybuilders aren't strong, butpound for pound they're not as
strong as people who focus onpure strength.
So you know, first of all,dispelling uh misnomer that
being strong will make you big.
You don't need to be big to bevery strong.
But the other thing is like inthe industry right now, there's

(11:53):
finally a lot of information outthere where people are saying
that strength training is reallyimportant.
And if you listen to peoplelike peter attia and some of the
other, like huberman and someof the other people that are
really prevalent in the space,they talk about how strength is
one of the most importantmetrics and how the strong are

(12:15):
so much more healthy orresilient compared to people
that aren't strong.
And they have it a little bitwrong, because it's, yes, being
strong is important, but, moreto exactly what you were saying,
it's not strength alone thatkeeps you healthy.
It's the absence of strengththat makes you sick.

(12:37):
And what we have to look at iswhat is the what is the line
that we're crossing that bringspeople to this weakness?
And it's injury.
So you know whether you nevertrained your whole life and then
you fell and you broke your hip.
That line, when that injuryhappens, marks a huge decrease

(12:58):
in strength.
And we're seeing this not justwith people who haven't trained
over time.
We're seeing this with, you know, haven't trained and then you
know they break their hip whenthey're much later in life.
We're seeing this with youngathletes who have trained poorly
and then stopped trainingbecause they're in pain all the

(13:18):
time.
We see this with, you know, Isee it in my practice all the
time People that are sufferingwith back pain because you know
they've got poor biome.
All the time, people that aresuffering with back pain because
you know they've got poorbiomechanics and the system
isn't teaching them what to do.
And it's that, you know, thatdiscouragement, that lack of
education, that lack of feelinglike they're going to go

(13:40):
somewhere, that spirals themdown into this zone of weakness.
And that zone of weakness isreally dangerous.
It's the true marker betweenhealthspan lasting a long time,
you know, maximizing yourhealthspan and not maximizing it
.

Speaker 1 (13:59):
Right.
So I like to give the listenerssomething that they can sink
their teeth into and walk awaywith after listening.
So what would you say tosomebody and I see a lot of
people with low back pain or hippain or this girdle pain and
they're not thinking aboutstrength training what would you
say to them?
What's the education that isprovided, basically to help

(14:23):
people to work toward, you know,becoming stronger?

Speaker 2 (14:28):
So our education is focused on the physical health
practitioner.
So we, first of all.
One of the things that we talkto physical health practitioners
about often is when we doassessments with people.
They're very meaningful to us,but they're very arbitrary to

(14:49):
the end user.
So very too often people aregoing to physio or athletic
therapists like myself orwhoever else a kinesiologist,
strength coach, whatever and wedo an assessment and it's really
hard for the end user to buy inbecause they don't really truly
understand what's going on,even though I'm telling them

(15:09):
it's really important that youdo this stuff, truly understand
what's going on, even though I'mtelling them it's really
important that you do this stuffusing objective measures,
something that's very easy forsomebody to understand.
Somebody who's not into anatomy, somebody who's not into
biomechanics and all this sortof stuff can understand.
It's like, hey, you cangenerate, you know, 500 pounds
of accumulated force on yourright side and you can only
accumulate 200 on your left.

(15:30):
Well, that's a pretty massiveimbalance.
How would you feel aboutcorrecting that?
So that's step one is help themdo assessments that help them
truly understand what's going on.
And then the second thing onthe end user side and we use
this, we educate practitionerson this as well is what is

(15:51):
strength training?
Strength training is not justhitting the gym.
There are many stages tostrength training and it's this
what I call the reconditioningzone.
So if you we have this vitalitypathway and the vitality
pathway is a whole bunch ofsteps the first three steps are
injury rehab.
So if the vitality pathwaystarts at the beginning, where
you know you're injured,incapacitated, basically as

(16:13):
close to dead without being dead, there's three stages there
early stage rehab, which is one,and two, stage one and two.
And then stage three is thatlate stage rehab, which is where
I tend to start working withpeople.
When people get to that stage,they stop being able to justify
going to a physio or going topaying these one-off

(16:35):
appointments because they'refeeling pretty good and up to
now we've been looking at itlike well, okay, so then you
should start your fitnessjourney.
But the thing is there's likefive other stages between that
moment and being ready forfitness.
So if you've got back pain, oneof the first things if you can

(16:56):
resolve your injuries, resolvethem.
You know, take the time toresolve.
Second thing you should look atis where are all your
imbalances?
So, before you launch intostrength training, if your body
is truly imbalanced whether it'smovement imbalance or strength
imbalance that needs to becorrected, because if it's not,
it's going to lead to poorbiomechanics and you're just
going to get kicked back downinto the injury zone.

(17:18):
And then the thing that I seethe most yes, we start
correcting imbalances right away, but the next thing is what we
call fundamental skills.
So when you ask somebody and Ido this, you know with every
single client it's like can youposition your lower back in its
ideal position and then maintainthat while you're under stress?

(17:42):
So, whether you're doing amovement or you're, you know,
pushing against something orpulling or lifting or whatever,
and 99% of the people that I'veworked with over almost 30 years
cannot do this, whether they'rehighly trained athletes or
never trained before.
So if you don't go through thisprocess of teaching them how to
do that and then go through thenext two processes, which is how

(18:06):
to teach them to do this understress, then inevitably they're
going to start a fitness journeyand they're going to be doing
things that are inappropriatefor what their body is able to
do and they're going to getkicked right back down to the
injury zone.
And I've spent a career helpingpeople bridge that,
reconditioning so that by thetime they want to, you know

(18:28):
their bodies are ready, they cango off, do whatever it is they
need to do to stay healthy andfit and not worry about injury.
And if they have some sort ofyou know, you know they got a
bike accident and they have aninjury.
Well, if they've already beenthrough the reconditioning
process, then they can resolvethe injury, make sure there's
not maybe an imbalance from thatjust one injury and then skip

(18:51):
the whole system, go back tofitness, and they can do this
for the rest of their lives.
And so I work with people.
When people sign up to workwith me, they have to work with
me for a year, and the wholeidea of a system like that is
that we go through everything toteach them and correct all the
things that are going on so thatthey never need me again, and

(19:14):
that's the way I think that's.
The vision of a true healthcaresystem to me is, in part, you
know, going through thereconditioning zone for people.

Speaker 1 (19:23):
Right.
And so you talk about anexercise prescription and I
imagine at the end of the yearpeople are stronger, healthier,
they understand, they'reeducated, they understand what
to do to move forward.
What is this exerciseprescription and how is that
going to change and how willAccolete impact that so?

Speaker 2 (19:46):
right now, we're doing a lot of guesswork when it
comes to our exerciseprescription.
You know, based on, you know,frameworks and templates that
people have created over theyears, you know if you have
shoulder problem, you shouldprobably do these three
exercises.
You know, and you see it online.
You look up, you know myshoulder sore, what exercises
should I do?
And it's you know.

(20:08):
They call it evidence-basedpractice.
It's not really evidence-basedpractice.
It's not really evidence-basedpractice.
It's based on a little bit ofresearch.
You know, what we really needto do to provide people with
intelligent prescription ismeasure everything that's going
on.
So here's an example.
You know I was giving a guy ahamstring exercise.

(20:30):
An example.
You know it was giving guy ahamstring exercise and a lot of
times.
So I prescribe almost a hundredpercent using resistance bands.
I don't use any equipment oranything like that because most
people don't have theappropriate equipment at home.
I want them to be able totravel and train and do all this
sort of stuff, and you can doanything you want with using
elastics or resistance bands.

(20:51):
So I'm teaching him with thatand if we're using that, you're
getting no feedback.
So it's really hard to haveintelligent prescription or
anything like that.
So I'm working with this guy andwe're testing his hamstrings so
he can generate, in theposition he was in, about 30
pounds of force with his rightleg and he can generate about 35

(21:13):
pounds of force with his rightleg and he can generate about 35
pounds of force with his left.
As a practitioner it's a bit ofa difference, but I'm not even
sure I would have picked it upif I just measured it with my
hands, which most people in ourindustry are doing.
But then we continue and we doa force capacity test, which is
something that we do.
That's unique, that nobody elsedoes.
So we force them to go througha full set and see how much

(21:36):
force they can generate, forcethey can accumulate.
And on the 30-pound leg he canaccumulate about 450 pounds of
force in a single set withoutstopping.
And on the 35-pound leg he cangenerate 650 pounds of force.
And I'm like, wow, that's youknow, and this was early on,
when we just started, we hadprototype devices and I was like

(21:58):
, wow, that's a pretty bigdifference.
And so here's a guy who isn't apractitioner like me looks at
that and says, oh, wow, that'slike I really need to correct
that.
And then he says to me oh,that's true, I tore my hamstring
two years ago, which he hadfailed to tell me because he had
totally forgotten himself.

(22:19):
And I was like, oh well, thatmakes a lot of sense.
And now, so, from anintelligent prescription point
of view, what are we going to dowith this person?
Okay, we're going to take theseobjective measures, things that
we can really truly see, andtry and correct them.
And now, when you know,continuing forward over the
weeks, we can monitor hisimbalance, because he had

(22:42):
originally come to me with backpain.
If you have a huge hamstringimbalance like that and you're
an active person, then thetorque on your lower back during
activity is going to betremendous.
So without the numbers we neverwould have seen that, we never
would have been able tointelligently prescribe new

(23:02):
exercises to him to make surethat his imbalance goes away.

Speaker 1 (23:07):
And you never would have known about his torn
hamstring, either Never wouldhave known about his torn
hamstring, either Never wouldhave known about his torn
hamstring Right, because hesimply forgot what are we doing
wrong when it comes to creatingbuy-in from clients?
I mean, it sounds like maybethe assessment, but what are
some of the other things thatwe're doing wrong?

Speaker 2 (23:25):
So it starts with the assessment.
We have to have numbers oneverything.
We tend to try and rush throughthings.
There is this overwhelming pushin our industry to fix people
as quickly as possible and we'revery sensitive to their
pocketbook, right?
It's like, well, if I can fixthem in three sessions.

(23:48):
And that type of mindset isreally problematic, and I was
one of them.
I was always like, oh, theydon't need to see you know, like
why are chiropractors seeingthese people for so long, when
the reality is, if you look atsymptom treatment versus cause
treatment, symptom treatment youcan do in a few sessions, make

(24:09):
people feel better, to addressthe cause of things and truly
correct things.
You cannot do that, and so thebiggest problem is our mindset
towards what we are doing withpeople and what the expectation
is.
It's like, well, we want tosave the money.
Is this a money thing?

(24:29):
Is this a value thing?
Or is this?
Are we helping people livebetter lives?
That's the thing to me, and soI changed the model of my
practice to talk to people aboutwhat's the value in seeing me,
because if the value in seeingme is just feeling a little bit
better, then there's a lot ofother people that are interested
in doing that and I'm not oneof them.

(24:52):
But if the value in seeing me isreally turning your life around
and being active and beingresilient and not worrying about
things every time you go tochoose an activity, you know
like you and some friends aregoing to go out skiing.
You know there are a lot ofpeople out there like I don't
ski anymore.
It's why don't you ski anymore?
Well, because I'm afraid.

(25:17):
Okay, well, maybe you should gothrough a process that gets you
to the point where you're notafraid and you can go do the
activities you love to do, youknow.
So I think it's a mindset andit's the mindset is driven by
insurance companies to getpeople you know better as
quickly as possible.
But what insurance companiesare starting?
You know they've realized for along time but they've never had
the system for it is.
If you can correct people's thecause of you know the problem

(25:40):
and keep people adhering to anytype of exercise, then the cost
on the system is much lessperiod for for.
For every dollar you spend as acorporation or a government or
anything like that on keepingpeople active, you can save up
to $8.
Per per per person in thehealthcare system.

(26:04):
Yeah, and this is this is reallyimportant for a healthcare
system.
It's important for the end user.
I mean, you know, you, we don'teven need to bring it down to,
like you know, whether it'ssaving dollars and cents, it
just, it's just makes more sensefor us as people to stay active
and fight against thissedentary lifestyle that we have

(26:27):
, so that we can really enjoyour lives as long as humanly
possible.

Speaker 1 (26:33):
Exactly.
And when you talk about backpain, taking people out of
activities and spending a littlebit, they're going to spend
money in other ways onapparatuses and devices and
they're going to lose moneybecause they're not going to be
able to go to work.
Absenteeism goes up.
You know, chronic pain is sucha big issue Low back pain,
injuries, you know that type ofthing If we can prevent all of

(26:56):
that and I see this or I seeAccolade as a prevention model
basically but why is clientbuy-in more important than
technical skill?

Speaker 2 (27:07):
Because it doesn't matter what you prescribe if
nobody's doing it.
It's just it comes down to we.
You know there are so manyintelligent practitioners out
there that are really into theirspace.
They love what they do, they'regood at it and if they can get
the right metrics, they can makereally intelligent decisions.

Speaker 1 (27:26):
And this device, the anchor that you talked about, is
it's really a motivationaldevice, isn't it?
It's kind of like I want to seehow, and you know, people are
lots of people are verycompetitive, even with
themselves, you know.
So they want to see, you knowhow much stronger they are this
week than they were last week,or compared with their friend
this week than they were lastweek, or compared with their
friend.

Speaker 2 (27:50):
Yeah, exactly, and it's, you know, it's.
Yeah, we knew it.
So it was funny.
Like three years ago we startedworking on this project and we
put a prototype together and ourembed software engineer or
computer engineer guy in all hehad for a screen was this tiny
little screen that he had lyingaround the as we built this
prototype and it was sort of oneinch by one inch.
It was a tiny little screen andme and one of my other partners

(28:12):
was the first time we wereworking with the new prototype
to test it out and to what youwere saying, it didn't matter
how small that screen was, wewanted to know what the numbers
were.
And as soon as you can givepeople numbers, it, you know, it
lights this thing in.
People like, okay, how strongam I?

(28:33):
Oh, how much stronger could Ibe?
You know how much can I, howmuch can I do and how much can I
accumulate, and it's.
It becomes more fun.
The whole thing becomes morefun because of our innate
competitive nature.

Speaker 1 (28:48):
Absolutely, and so let's get to the business model
aspect of this.
So I imagine this anchor isit's something that is provided
to clients by physical healthpractitioners, so it's a part of
the program, if you will.

Speaker 2 (29:03):
Yeah, so there's a part of the program, if you will
.
Yeah, so there's a few options.
So we go to the healthpractitioners and because it's
important that you know thehealth practitioners have a
device to work with, but it'sequally or more important that
it gets to the end user.
One of the things that weworked very heavily on was
getting the price point to thisthing down.
Very heavily on was getting theprice point to this thing down.

(29:24):
So you know, whereas with ourcompetitors some of them you
know that are like two $3,000devices for the same price, what
our model?

Speaker 1 (29:39):
is that you can get 12 devices, so it's about $225
per device for the client.
Yeah, so that what happens isthe25 per device for the client.

Speaker 2 (29:45):
Yeah, so that what happens is the physical health
practitioner or the business,the clinic or whatever, will buy
the 12 devices and they havethree options.
If they're training in-house,they can just lend their clients
the device.
If they're prescribing exerciseand you know they want people
to do exercise on their own,which they should be doing they

(30:07):
can either rent the device, youknow, to the person for like
it's like $2 a day, or the enduser can buy it and from a

(30:30):
financial model for the, youknow, as an incentive to do this
, what the businesses could dois they can take the revenue
from the rental and or they cansell it to, as you know, as the
MSRP.
Or if you wanted to buy onedevice, they're $350.
And they can sell it at theretail price and make a little
bit of money.
It doesn't really make themmuch money because that's not
what their business model is.
But it's a little bit of anincentive for them.

(30:51):
And if they want to sell it forthe same price they bought it
for.
They can do that too.
But the idea is to be able toget it into the end user's hands
, and especially if you'rerenting it.
We have a model where you couldsort of set the price to your
rental price.
Your rental price can actuallybe zero if you want it to be.
But the thing is, in our world,you, you can't give somebody a,

(31:15):
you know a two or $300 deviceand then you know, have them not
show up again and leave with it.
So we have a QR code that helpstrack them so they can put a
credit card down and if theynever come back they get billed
for it.

Speaker 1 (31:30):
Right, right.
How do you coach practitionersto earn more while staying
focused on client outcomes andnot the corporate bottom line?

Speaker 2 (31:39):
So this is a big one.
So when you do math on clientacquisition versus client
retention, uh, it's reallyinteresting because you know the
, the.
Everybody in the fitnessindustry knows that it's less
costly to have people stickaround than to get new clients.
But in the, the, the therapymodel physiotherapy or

(32:04):
chiropractor or whatever theretends to be this high this, a
lot of attention on clientacquisition and not so much
tension on the on keeping peopledoing their stuff and sticking
around.
But if you do, if you do themath, you can make a

(32:25):
practitioner's life much, mucheasier by increasing retention.
So if you look at so, maybelike, let's say, your retention
is, you know, on average peoplestick around two months.
If you can increase that fromtwo months to three months,
you've effectively decreasedyour acquisition needs so your

(32:46):
marketing and your onboardingand all that sort of stuff by
30%.
And so here's where it's reallyinteresting.
The average practitioner isseeing 60 to 120 unique clients
a month, which is prettyastounding to keep track of.
In somebody who runs a businesslike I run my business I see 40

(33:11):
unique clients a year.
Now, first of all, I get to doa lot more with those people.
Second of all, it's a lot lesswork to keep up with what's
going on with these people andI'm making probably more revenue
and more consistent revenuethan these.

(33:32):
You know these people that arethat have low acquisition, low
retention rates, because whenyou have low retention rates,
you're also subject to times ofyear.
So now being you know a summeris coming, people are less
attention to you know, hangingout in gyms and doing all these
types of things.
They want to get outside, whichmakes sense.
So there's a decrease in yourbusiness at that time of year

(33:57):
and you know there's all theseseasonal things.
But when people sign up to workwith you for a year, like they
do with me, we account for thefact that they're going to be
there less often and all thatsort of stuff at different times
of the year and we make up forit and other times of the year
and it all works out in the endand it's just a.
It's a much.
You know my business is sorelaxed.

(34:19):
I know exactly who I'm workingwith when I'm working with them.
I get to work with them longterm.
I get to help them out with awhole bunch of different things
as we work over the year.

(34:42):
And it's so much easier to makea great living if you can
increase your retention and helppeople.
More Ironically, it's doingwhat's in the best interest of
the people, which is keepingthem exercising and doing the
things they need to do, andyou're going to make a better
living doing it.

Speaker 1 (34:55):
And what would be that one piece of advice that
you'd give to any physicalhealth practitioner,
chiropractors, trainers, coaches, massage therapists who's
frustrated with low complianceor low income you know low
client base or you know notworking smart.
What would that advice be?

Speaker 2 (35:16):
Understand that people don't humans don't do
anything.
That's not their idea.
So stop trying to tell peopleand convince people that they
should or must do these thingsand start talking to people in
ways that allow the end user tomake the decision themselves.

(35:38):
And you know there's someeducation there.
There's lots of little mistakeswe're making that you know that
don't lead to adherence.
You know when we're tellingpeople, you know it's great to
give people analogies and whythings are important and all

(35:59):
that sort of stuff, but itdoesn't really help people make
the decision themselves.
You've got to hold peopleaccountable.
If they're not willing to workon the problem themselves, like
the client, then you probablyshouldn't work with them.
And that's actually part of myprocess.
Is, you know, and maybe notnecessarily a massage therapist

(36:22):
a little bit different, but anykind of practitioner who's
prescribing exercise you have to.
The first step in the processis making sure you're working
with people who are motivated tohelp themselves.
You're capturing them when theyshow up to your clinic or
whatever it is.
You're capturing them at a timethat they're highly motivated.
That's why they're there.
How do we keep that going?

(36:43):
And we keep that going bymaking the whole thing their
idea and helping the clientsrealize how important it is,
what the magnitude of theproblem is, and you're not
trying to sell them on something.

Speaker 1 (36:54):
You're trying to help them live a better life, and to
view it that way, and it's kindof basic relationship advice as
well, which I do a lot of,which is make them think it's
their idea, which often works.
I'm also feeling very guiltybecause I went to my
chiropractor with a bit of aback issue.
I was cured.
She said come back next week.
And I asked her do I need anyfollow-up?

(37:17):
Sure, why don't you come backonce more next week?
And I didn't go and I should.
I will, um, make thatappointment, but, um, where can
people go if they want to learnmore about accolade?

Speaker 2 (37:32):
yeah, so we're on social media accolade official
and, whether it's, you know,instagram or, I think, uh,
instagram, youtube, they canfind me on linkedin if they're
looking for some stuff, or youcan go to acculatecom for uh
some information on on what thatprogram is all about.

(37:52):
And, yeah, just getting intouch.
You know one one of our uh as acompany and as a group of
people that are working on this,we love to connect with
physical health practitionersfrom all over the place and have
discussions on how to make ourindustry better.
So, yeah, get in touch with usand find you know whether you

(38:15):
find the information there oryou have questions, yeah, hit us
up.

Speaker 1 (38:19):
We're an open book and that's acculetecom
A-C-C-U-L-E-T-Ecom Acculetecom.
Greg, it was awesome to speakto you this evening and I
learned a tremendous amount.
A lot of it makes senseActually, all of it makes sense
and yeah, I really appreciateall the information.

Speaker 2 (38:40):
Well, thanks for having me on.
It's great.
I love getting out and talkingto people about this stuff and,
yeah, I really appreciate it.

Speaker 1 (38:47):
Yeah, and I hope more practitioners operate the way
that you do and more clientsactually stick to training,
because that's what's important.
It's going to have so manyhealth benefits, not only for
you but for the health caresystem, for your tax dollars at
work and for your relationshipsand your jobs and everything

(39:08):
this physical health impacts somuch in your life.
My guest was Greg Lothian.
He's an athletic therapist, anentrepreneur and the founder of
Acculite, a company leading amuch-needed revolution in health
and fitness.
And I am Maureen McGrath, aregistered nurse, nurse,
continence advisor, sexualhealth educator and host of
Nurse Marines Health Showpodcast.

(39:29):
And if you found that thisepisode might be helpful for a
practitioner in your life, aphysical health practitioner or
somebody that is suffering withback pain or other issues,
physical illness you might wantto share this episode with them.
You can always find me onInstagram, on Facebook, on
LinkedIn and at my website,maureenmcgrathcom.

(39:52):
Thank you so much for tuning in.
I really appreciate it.
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