April 25, 2024 • 32 mins
#053 Ever felt like you've hit a professional ceiling, especially in a field as challenging as Rehab? Stephen's journey from travel physical therapy to Chief Operating Officer (COO) of a tech startup will inspire you with its raw honesty and innovative thinking. Stephen's story serves as an example of how traditional roles in healthcare can often come with financial ceilings. Faced with the hard reality of insurance reimbursements dictating income potential, Stephen, alongside his wife, also a traveling physical therapist, began exploring various avenues to achieve their financial goals faster.
In this episode, we discuss the pros and cons of travel physical therapy, what Stephen and his wife did to achieve their family's financial goals faster, different income streams, and how he got to be the COO of Ergonauts.
If you ever felt as a rehab professional, undervalued financially with stagnant financial prospects at a largely undervalued pay rate, then you're going to want to listen to this episode with Stephen and how he met his family's financial goals a decade sooner than if he were to be a full-time clinician exclusively,
As we wrap up, Steven's impressive tapestry of income streams comes into full view. From the picturesque charm of running an Airbnb to the nuanced work within the Southern Ute Indian Tribe healthcare system, he exemplifies the breadth of opportunities available to those willing to look beyond traditional career avenues. His insights into startup growth, patient care, and the entrepreneurial spirit are invaluable for anyone seeking to enrich their professional life. Tune in and let Steven's multifaceted experiences illuminate your path toward a vibrant and prosperous career landscape.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Intro (00:01):
Welcome to the Rehab Rebels podcast.
Are you a rehab professionalready to transition to an
alternative career?
Hear inspiring stories fromothers just like you and learn
the best ways to bridge yourcareer gap.
This podcast has you covered.
Now here's your host, doctor ofphysical therapy and podcaster,
tanner Welsh.
Tanner Welsch (00:21):
Welcome back to another episode of Rehab Rebels.
For this episode and movingforwards, I'm going to do a
little bit more of anintroduction of the guests and
reasons why it might be good tolisten, by capturing and
presenting the universal themesor relatable concepts from the
(00:42):
individual guest's particularstory.
With today's guest, steven, ifyou ever felt as a rehab
professional, undervaluedfinancially, with stagnant
financial prospects, at alargely undervalued pay rate,
then you're going to want tolisten to this episode with
Steven and how he met hisfamily's financial goals a
decade sooner than if he were tobe a full-time clinician
(01:05):
exclusively With that.
I'm going to give a little bitof background before we bring
Steven on.
He was born and raised inColumbus, ohio, briefly spent a
few years as a high schoolteacher in Kentucky before
attending and graduating fromphysical therapy school at the
University of Kentucky.
He is currently the solephysical therapist for a local
(01:25):
Indian tribe, as well as the COOof Ergonaut, and he graduated
with his DPT in 2011 and beganworking in the outpatient ortho
setting for a few years,obtained his board-certified
orthopedics and immediatelybegan travel physical therapy
along with his wife, intendingto travel for only two years,
(01:45):
but ended up traveling foraround seven and in the last
three with their daughter withthem.
That's pretty exciting andunique.
So welcome, steven, to thepodcast.
Thanks for having me.
Yeah, yeah, thanks for comingon and sharing your story with
us.
I gotta ask how was the doingtravel, physical therapy with a
(02:06):
daughter there for a few years?
What was that like?
Stephen Stockhausen (02:09):
Oh man, it was great.
It was great.
We're pretty firm believersthat your life doesn't end when
you have kids, it's just they'rejoining your family.
You don't have to totallychange your lifestyle just
because you have a little one.
You know.
Tag it along with you and rightfrom the start we tried to keep
that up.
Then we had her in Durango,Colorado, and then, I think she
(02:30):
was three weeks old, we moved toKentucky, you know, and then we
were there for five months astravelers and then all the way
back to the Bay Area inCalifornia and she's the best
old travel buddy ever.
She can go anywhere.
It's great.
Start them early, they don'tknow any different.
Tanner Welsch (02:43):
Right, when did you guys stay, you know, when
you had your daughter, whatsettings were you staying at?
I know some people you knowcarry a fifth wheel or they rent
out places.
What worked for you guys withyour family?
Stephen Stockhausen (02:54):
Oh yeah, good question.
We actually got this a lot.
So we chose to go the route ofjust finding unfertilized
apartments ourselves.
We're pretty good at the secantbind and we actually one of our
little side hustles where we'retraveling is we'd like to
furniture flip.
And so you know we get theseunfurnished places, go get some
used furniture someplace and youknow we're a little bit
(03:15):
creative and dress it up, makeit look nice, use it for however
long the contract is and thensell it.
And they actually worked outreally well because then we
could travel and you know I justhave a tundra and my wife has a
little Subaru and we didn't.
We didn't tow anything and we'dhave to bring furniture.
We had a little beddingsituation that we really liked,
like the Cadillac of CampingRatchets.
(03:36):
It was amazing.
So we actually enjoyed usingthat.
So we didn't need a bed.
It was great, I mean.
So that's what we ended updoing.
But a lot of people go agencycan find you housing or you can
do a furnished finder, but wechose to on our own unfurnished
and then flip some stuff andgenerally paid for itself or
made us a little fun money.
Tanner Welsch (03:55):
For sure that's really scrappy and pretty clever
.
So yeah, nice, what.
This ties back into the openingcomments with the financial
aspect behind our careers.
But what's your story behindthe first sense of awareness
that things weren't quite rightwithin your rehab career?
Stephen Stockhausen (04:14):
Yeah, I would say it's probably probably
about after the first year orso.
My goals when I got out of PTschool was I wanted to become an
OCS, an A-out fellow, and thenon my own clinic, you know out,
I was purely an outpatient guy.
That's all I wanted to do.
Athletes is my background andwithin that first year I worked
in mentorship with our twoclinic owners and their
(04:34):
fantastic clinic ownership.
And then we started talkingabout maybe buying into the
practice after I traveled.
So I had gotten into this job.
They understood in a couple ofyears my wife and I want to
travel for a little bit and itwas going to work out perfect
because one of the owners was inhis sixties or so and he was
going to retire and the otherone was 20 years younger and so
it'd be perfect.
You know, I leave for a coupleof years, buy him out and great
(04:55):
transition.
So we started looking at thenumbers and this whole time I'm
thinking, oh, I'm not being paidwhat I'm worth.
You know, I need even moreexperience.
I'm going to make so much moremoney.
And then I see what insurancecompanies are paying for our
services and I'm just there'snothing left in the pot to pay
me more.
It totally changed myperspective.
I used to have this little bitof predatory clinic owners, you
(05:16):
know, just abusing and abusingnew hires and that does happen
for sure.
But once I made thatrealization of my ceiling is so
low, even owning my own practice, unless I turn into a PT mill,
which you know and I'm sureprobably 90% of your outpatient
audience is working at onebecause that's what they all
have to be at this point andthat's not the way any of us
(05:38):
were taught to treat in school.
Tanner Welsch (05:39):
So that was when I realized it's got to be
something different, it's got tobe a better route than this,
for sure, and so that's where itgoes back to meeting your
financial goals with you andyour family.
When you hit that point, it wasman, this, this isn't what I
thought, what it was.
So then, what happened?
What did you end up pivoting to, or what was your new direction
after that?
Stephen Stockhausen (05:58):
Well, that was a big driver behind us,
traveling for much longer.
The original plan was two yearsbecause we didn't realize it
was going to be so great and sowe took our.
This is crazy.
We took our very first traveljobs and home health in the Bay
Area and, mind you, we took jobs.
Making is like 200, 250 a weekafter tax more than I would
(06:20):
bring home in two weeks here inColorado, and we were stoked.
Little did we know that Iforget what it was $1,600 a week
or something.
In the Bay Area.
Home Health is probably $400 or$500 a week less than what we
should have been making.
But we were oblivious.
We're new travelers.
There was no blogs out thereback when we started and we were
(06:42):
just so stoked we were makingtons of money and anyways, it
was great.
And that's where there's somuch more out there.
I mean these larger companies.
They have different negotiatedrates and Home Health pays
really, really well fortravelers especially.
And then next started usrealizing, oh, we do this a
little longer.
We're out of our cumulative$300 grand in debt that the two
(07:03):
of us had, because she's atherapist as well.
So that was the first moment werealized we should probably
keep traveling period, maybe notnecessarily Home Health, but
traveling because there'sgenerally a little bit more pay
there and they could haveexplored that option for seven
and a half years.
Tanner Welsch (07:18):
Okay, since you did quite a bit of traveling, I
got to ask what are some thingsthat you liked about the travel
therapy and some things that youdidn't like about the travel
therapy?
Stephen Stockhausen (07:29):
There's really nothing.
Almost every aspect of it is.
It's great.
If you're adventurous, you liketo see new places, if you like
to know, you're the person whodoesn't want to necessarily do
the touristing thing, you wantto find the little locals.
Bar the little.
It's perfect because you'rethere for three months, six
months, nine months or even 12.
So you get to get that insiderlocals perspective.
(07:49):
That was, I think, the bestpart is really discovering
different places that we're atbecause you're there for so long
.
You're not just in and out in aweekend or even a week.
I think that's the best part.
The only real negative was thecommunity.
We got to the point where wehad a little group and so we
jumped a couple jobs followingthis group of friends and that
was awesome.
But then life takes youdifferent directions and every
(08:11):
time you change a spot you arelooking for new friends and
reconnecting, which again, for alot of people, is awesome.
They love it and we got prettygood at it.
But starting over and finding acommunity each time is a little
bit of a challenge and at theend I think that's part of why
we came back home.
We had a three year old at thatpoint and for whatever reason,
our friend group here becamecloser with them here while we
(08:34):
were.
Every time we'd come back home.
It was just a closer bond.
So I don't know, we just gotlucky with that.
We didn't grow apart.
Yeah, I think that'd be thenegative.
That'd be the only negative.
But there's stuff like thedifferent meetup groups and I
was playing in these little pickup soccer games just trying to
meet people and yeah, it workedout pretty well.
Tanner Welsch (08:52):
Okay, what were the different settings that you
tried and or really liked orgravitated towards?
Stephen Stockhausen (08:57):
Home health is the best quality of life and
pay.
When you look at those two,especially when you're in a new
area, you're driving around,you're driving past the little
market that you would have neverseen on Yelp or whatever.
The pay is the best.
You're generally done withpatients in a six hour timeframe
or so and then you're adocument from wherever you want.
We lived in the South Coast ofCalifornia for a while and we'd
(09:19):
go to a vineyard and have a winetasting and type it on our
computers doing documentation.
It's pretty great.
We did outpatient Outpatientpays really well up in Alaska
because there's no PT schools.
That was a great location wise.
That's amazing up there.
And then I did a sniff inKentucky at one point.
It was horrible.
I won't work sniff again.
It was too depressing for mepersonally.
(09:40):
Yeah, I think that's just movesthree, but we did a lot on home
health.
Tanner Welsch (09:45):
I've talked to a few people about it as well and
that's what I've heard is reallythe downside is the starting
over with the new relationshipsevery time you have to move.
There's no grounded network offriends or whatever, because
it's always changing every timeyou're moving.
But everything else seems to bepretty great.
And for home health, I'm stillcurrently a home health physical
(10:06):
therapist and really do enjoyit and love the flexible
schedule and it's one of thehigher paying settings.
So, 100% on all that, you didsome travel therapy.
You come back and I'm curiouswhat are some other?
And we'll get to your COOphysician, but what are some
other things that you guys weredoing to reach your financial
goals faster?
The travel therapy totallymakes sense and then you come
(10:28):
back.
So what were some other thingsthat maybe you tried and or
maybe you're still doing?
Stephen Stockhausen (10:33):
Yeah.
So the big one for us was weknew our little town here in
Colorado is where we wanted toend up.
So we spent two years beforeour little girl was born and
then we didn't buy our womantill she was one.
So we spent three years lookingfor the right property to
possibly settle down here backin back in Colorado.
And part of the reason we tookso much time is again, we know
(10:55):
we love this area.
Outpatient physical therapydoesn't pay really well Somehow.
It's so rural that you'redriving all day and the way
their contracts are structuredit just doesn't make it as great
as home health and the littletown where you knock out your
five or six patients in a dayand you only have 10 minutes
between one year and you mightgo an hour to your next patient.
So we knew we weren't going to.
(11:16):
Our jobs weren't necessarilygoing to make us meet our goals,
and so we're looking for theright property.
Things that we're reallywanting is something I had some
sort of income potential as afail.
Stay Maybe it has multiple lotsso we could split the lots and
if we had to sell one off as acushion of, things were harder
coming back home, then weanticipated, we didn't really
(11:36):
know how it was going to be.
They were both PG's and we'recoming into a small town, so
it's two people looking for avery small handful of jobs.
So that was a big one.
So we bought our place in 2018.
And then we immediately beganAirbnbing it out while we were
still on contract.
So we bought the home in 18 andthen took jobs in the Bay Area.
(11:57):
Really for the next two years wewere in and out, but pretty
much for two years.
So for pretty much two years wewere in California while
Airbnbing out our house, and sowe were able to have someone
else paying our mortgage whilewe're still making the good
travel money.
And we started with that ofrealizing we can do something on
the side.
We can leverage what we alreadyown to help us out financially
(12:19):
a little bit.
And then when we came back herepermanently in the summer of
2020, we were obviously livingin the house.
We couldn't Airbnb that out, butpart of what we ended up doing
was renovating our garage, whichinitially was a log cabin.
The family who built this housewas living in this log cabin,
which now is the garage, so ithad all the guts.
(12:42):
You know it had all theeverything we needed, and so we
just updated it and it lookedbeautiful.
I mean, we did hire a lot of itout, but anyway.
So we have a guest there rightnow.
We've been Airbnbing that outstraight.
It's not a stop.
Huh, yeah, it's been not a stop.
And so you know, part of thereason for a big, big reason
that was so great is coming backhome with a three-year-old in
(13:03):
our little town.
I think our PRN job that mywife got quoted for was maybe
$10 an hour more than whatchildcare was going to cost us.
So why work your butt off tohave someone else raising your
child?
And so we just if we couldoffset that $10 an hour, which
is no brainer for an apartment.
So, yeah, she was able to stayhome and work.
She worked part-time.
She's got a little bit of aremote job through a home health
(13:25):
agency that was trying to donew things during COVID, you
know, and so she did that for acouple of years and actually
just recently, within the lasttwo months, went back into the
clinic part-time herself.
Tanner Welsch (13:35):
How did you guys actually manage to rent out or
do the Airbnb?
Were you guys actually livingin a whole other state?
Because you know you got toclean up after somebody and then
get it ready for the nextperson and all that.
How did all that work when youguys were actually living in
another state?
Stephen Stockhausen (13:52):
We were really fortunate.
We built a great relationshipwith a local lady who is our
cleaner and so she basicallyserved as property manager.
I mean, I think we hadsomething forget what it was
something hit the house andbroke that piece of siding or I
don't remember what happened,but you know she's oh, my
boyfriend does this stuff andwe'll fix it real quick.
It was awesome and we luckedout and we had some friends.
(14:12):
One year we were back inCalifornia and they got five
feet of snow on our roof.
You can't leave that on yourroof and I don't know how much
you're familiar with snow.
But friends orchestratedeverything and got people to
come and shovel our drinkingroof while we were gone.
So we just managed arelationship.
So it was all about havingthose relationships and that's
what worked well for us.
(14:32):
And we, you know, we had tostructure our rentals.
We had to really communicatewith her on the schedule.
Hey, we, we can't do a same dayturnover.
In fact, for her I think sheneeded two days just because she
had other calling, which, nowthat we're here on the property,
we'll do a same day turnoverand keep that unit filled as
much as the can.
That's an extra 200 bucks.
Yeah, so it's all about justmanaging finding the right
(14:53):
people.
You know it's like any businessright Finding the right people
managing those relationships.
Tanner Welsch (14:57):
Okay, so you're back and you guys got the Airbnb
stuff going and you're.
Are you done traveling?
Where do you get to your COOposition and how?
How is all that going for you?
How did that start?
What's the store?
Stephen Stockhausen (15:11):
there Started with LinkedIn.
So I was on on LinkedIn and I,you know I've dabbled in, I've
done some clinic director stuffand managing clinics in the past
, so I had that experiencebefore.
So basically what happened wasbuilding relationships.
I connected with this gentlemanon on LinkedIn who was doing
some pretty interesting thingswith the UK school of
(15:32):
engineering and ergonomic fieldand you know I was just curious
and we had a lot of the sameconnections because we went to
we both went to university andhe taught and I I went there as
a student and transitioned intoa phone call and we just hit it
off and where he was taking thisergonomics company was more
(15:53):
into the broader safety andwellness field and that was sort
of my opportunity to possiblyleverage our skills as
therapists right.
Essentially what he wasbuilding out at the time before
I was anything was a platform tohelp do ergonomic evaluations
super fast, so essentially fouror five times faster than what
(16:13):
you could do in person.
I did ergonomic evaluations outhere.
We're three roles, so there's areally big backpack company.
That's their home offices nearhere.
I won't share their, their nameor anything but the biggest in
backpacking.
They're out in the four cornersarea.
I did their ergonomicevaluations paper and pencil,
ruler, all this stuff and ittakes forever.
(16:33):
I had no idea if it was anygood.
I just sent them this reportwith a bunch of dimensions and
they get a desk that's tall anda chair.
That's these dimensions.
Here you can go HR person, gobuy this stuff, and now they
have to go look up all the specsand anyways, essentially what
we were able to, this gentlemanwas able to put together again
before I had any role in helpingthem, an app that just does it
(16:54):
at all.
It looks at all the factorsergonomic factors, fines, what's
safe and then, for example, aswe include, this chair will work
for you, this desk will work,this everything, boom, boom.
There's no thinking right andso it's just easy.
It's fast and from what Iunderstand from our testing
again, this is not my field, butfrom our testing it's more
effective than a professionalpaper and pencil just relying on
(17:16):
their own expertise, becauseyou can't skip steps, it's
standardized right, it's usingthe power of technology.
So that's what he was buildingout and man, physical therapists
need to start using this stuffbecause at the same time I was
in California again, side hustleall the time.
We're starting to work withLuna.
If you're familiar with Lunacare, yeah, definitely, they're
nationwide now, but they werenobody.
(17:37):
I mean me and two or threeother people were their initial
physician liaison team going outto doctors.
You like talking to doctors?
Hey, give us your patients,they're desperate for anybody.
They took me to help them dothat stuff.
It was crazy.
And so I'm like man the sidehustle.
I'm already treating people intheir office.
I'm already treating people inhome, in the gym.
I don't physical therapiststake this tool and we're already
(17:57):
going there.
Go to their office, go to theirgym, go to their whatever Boom,
boom, boom.
You do their evaluation andthen maybe we can prevent some
of these problems that we'retreating or we can get them out
of pain and then keep them outof pain while they're working.
And then, of course, covid hitsand everyone's dual workstation
employee or now we have twiceas many workstations which
you've twice there are going tohave like risk factors.
(18:18):
So there's a big potentialthere.
So that was the initial.
Okay, I see the big picture.
I want to get involved.
I want to get this to PT'sbecause these ergonomic
evaluations you can do with ourtool.
You can do it in like 20minutes if you're not chatty.
It's all about personality,right.
So you got some people going totake a logger and in certain
markets, if you're in a big city, you're looking at 400 bucks a
pop.
(18:38):
That is way better than the $72a visit that you know
healthcare based in this littletherapist here in Durango per
session.
I mean that's ridiculous andthat's for a whole session.
So there's just a lot ofpotential stuff.
Tanner Welsch (18:50):
When I got involved Okay, so you see the
big picture and see theimportance of this.
How did you start and then getto the COO position?
It sounds maybe you did someconsulting and worked with them
initially and then they justreally loved what you did.
Stephen Stockhausen (19:03):
And tell me All the famous stories of
startups, you know, in thegarage and everyone's doing
everything I was in on this allhands meeting, we had and they
share this document.
And then they make thestatement that this is our, this
is our marketing document andwe're going to, we're going to
watch it, we're a share itimmediately.
And I'm looking at it and it'slike a data sheet features.
(19:25):
It's a list of I don't know howelse to describe it.
If you bought the old schoolcomputer and you look on the
back and it's got this much RAMand this much boom, boom, boom,
boom.
It's just a bullet list.
Long story short, it was not amarketing piece, it was a, it
was a data sheet.
And that's why I was stupid andI said that's not a great tool.
I think we should do somethingdifferent.
(19:45):
And she now our CEO but Iforget what she was at the time
she's worked in sales andmarketing her own career in tech
and, yeah, this is not what weneed.
And so the, the founders, goahead and make it sure sounds
good, I'm okay, yes, I'll do it,I'll give it a shot.
And so that's how it started.
I mean, it was just as a Safetyconsultant, the little bit of
(20:07):
the physical therapy market.
You know we've got a productthat we're hoping to get more
home safety related, so I was intalks about that and then all
of a sudden I'm writing everysingle word on our website and
I'm facilitating.
Now I manage our LinkedIn, Imanage all this other upper-ish
old stuff.
I started training some of theother people on edge little by
little, so it's not your typicalroute that I would say 99% of
(20:31):
COO's get into.
You know they all have massive,massive amounts of experience
and we're early stage startupwhere I have the role because no
one else can do it right.
We're just too early on forsure.
Tanner Welsch (20:43):
What are the practical, non-obvious skills
that make you a great fit forthis role as COO?
Stephen Stockhausen (20:49):
I think as a as a clinician, you're already
trained to see patterns and tosee how things connect and
that's sort of I would say if Ihave one real skill.
I'm not super smart, I'll bereally honest, but they all work
harder than almost everybodyelse.
I was a kid in PT school whomade the study guide for
everyone and I didn't make itfor everyone, I made it for
myself and then I just sharebecause I needed to put in the
(21:12):
work right and I needed theattention to detail I think
being able to see how thoseseemingly disparate things can
connect and possibly bring aboutsomething positive right.
So I would say that'd be themost non-obvious skill, that the
one thing I've gone for, yeah,but you know I had background in
, again, marketing clinics.
I worked with Luna early on,like I was saying, and their
(21:34):
physician liaison team, so goingout and talking to doctors and
explaining how to tell thatstory a little bit.
I think everyone should havesome sales and marketing
experience and that's one of theareas where physical therapy
school just is terror.
I mean it's we had no businesstraining, none when most of us
are gonna be working at privateclinics and possibly managing
(21:55):
for sure.
Tanner Welsch (21:55):
What do you love most about your new reality?
Stephen Stockhausen (21:59):
Because I'm still full-time Working with
patients.
I have the benefit of that sortof intrinsic value of helping
people, getting them out of pain.
I really enjoy this populationthat I'm with.
I work for an indigenouspopulation to try about here
something I'd know no experienceat all with being a suburb kid
from Ohio, you know and so Ihave that, but then also like to
(22:22):
change it up.
I'm doing this stuff withergonauts.
We've got a product line thatwe're hoping to launch here in
the next 18 months.
That literally would be ahundred million people.
I'm truly impacting people on ahumongous scale, and so it has
the potential of both aspects.
I think that's the best part.
And then also, honestly, withthat Airbnb, it gives us a
little bit of flexibility.
So my wife and I, we took ourlittle one and spent a month in
(22:45):
Costa Rica last year to learnSpanish and dispersion.
We didn't quite come out even,but it wasn't thousands and
thousands of dollars gone,because we rented our whole
place out for a month and that'scovers a mortgage plus half our
trip.
Tanner Welsch (22:58):
It sounds like a win-win for sure.
Stephen Stockhausen (23:00):
It's work, though, right, it takes time.
We've been doing it for alittle while, so we've got a
dialed in, right?
I dislike people thinking athere's ever anything such as
passive income.
I've sold courses.
We were some of the originaltravel therapy bloggers, right.
So blogging before you knowyour social media influencers
really, pt adventures it's stillup there.
It's a hundred and somethingarticles the original travel.
(23:21):
It's a great resource.
Still.
It's all evergreen.
It's great we speak at thetravel convention every year.
But that's not passive either,right?
So when I stopped activelyupdating site, guess what goes
away?
All the income that site drives.
So there's no such thing aspassive income.
And then you know, things takework and it takes time to get
good at it.
So, yeah, we're in a prettygood spot now, but I'm doing
(23:43):
Airbnb for four or five yearsnow, so we figured it out.
Tanner Welsch (23:47):
For sure.
I'm glad we were talking aboutthis passive income, not really
passive income.
I'm curious what are thedifferent revenue streams that
you have that you're comfortablesharing?
We've talked about it like, Ithink, at least three, and I'm
curious which one you feel givesthe most value for your time
and return on your time.
Stephen Stockhausen (24:06):
When you look at the ceiling, the startup
obviously has the mostpotential right.
We're still very firmly indevelopment.
I've been here with them forfour years and we're still in
development.
The process is totallydifferent than people.
The hustle mentality is realand the hustle is not go hard,
go fast, it's don't stop.
(24:28):
My wife gets frustrated becauseshe's like you're on all these
meetings, you're on all thisstuff.
When are you guys going to bebought A?
That's not the goal.
The goal is to make somethingthat people just love.
But ultimately, yeah, that hasthe highest ceiling.
I don't know about.
As far as other rewards.
We really enjoy being Airbnbhosts on site.
We like meeting people.
(24:49):
Our town is outdoorsy.
It's in the mountains.
It's hard to get to.
It's a Lex for people like uswho want to get out and be in
the mountains and then come homeand have a nice place to sleep
and then get out again.
The guy right now he readsexpeditions as his job.
That's his whole business isrunning expeditions.
He has an insane life, so we doreally enjoy that.
(25:10):
We have two Airbnbs on theproperty.
One is a vintage airstream andthat is a huge pain in the butt.
It's super cute.
Anything old construction isjust every guess.
We're worried about Leaks,we're worried about various
problems, mice, because we'reout in the middle of nowhere.
The apartment is fantastic.
I would say.
One Airbnb on the property isquite rewarding.
(25:32):
People just thank us all thetime for having this.
We're like you guys are theones paying us all this money to
stay here.
I really enjoy patient care.
I guess because I've been out12 years now doing it for a
while a little bit of luster'swore off, but I still really
enjoy it.
I don't think I'll ever stoptreating patients.
I'm just not going to be doingit at the same time.
Tanner Welsch (25:51):
And I got to ask with the tribe that you're
working with is that fundedthrough the state or the county?
Is that how you get paid, or isthis your own business?
Or how is all of the financialsbehind that work?
Stephen Stockhausen (26:03):
That's actually a great little
discussion to have.
So you can be your own LLC andget hired by whatever the tribe.
Is that you would happen whatto work for my current position?
Our tribe took over their ownhealthcare.
So if they have the capabilityand the desire, tribes being
autonomous, they can do thatsovereign.
And so our tribe took overtheir own healthcare.
(26:26):
They manage it themselves andso I work for this tribe.
I'm not an IHS employee, I'mnot a federal employee.
So there's about an hour and ahalf way there's the other
clinic that's closest to us andthey're all federal.
It's all IHS employees, whichhas definite benefits pension,
and they have, I guess, greatvacation and the pay is fair.
(26:46):
But my particular situation isdifference.
I just work for this one entity.
Tanner Welsch (26:52):
Okay, so is that how you're set up then, as an
LLC or a sole proprietor andthey just pay you directly?
No, I'm a regular employee oftheir health system.
Stephen Stockhausen (27:01):
Yeah, so this particular tribe is broken
into two funds, right.
So they have what they callpermanent fund and then growth
fund.
So they have an investmentbranch of the tribe and then the
operations side.
So under operations is all theservices that travel members and
anyone tribal qualified gets.
So I can see anyone who is IHSeligible.
That's part of the deal, butI'm paid by.
(27:24):
My tribe is called the SouthernUte Indian tribe.
I'm paid by the Southern UteIndian tribe.
It's just like any corporatejob I do.
I draw, we do all that, and soit's just a regular business
Cool.
Tanner Welsch (27:35):
Thanks for explaining that.
That's pretty interesting.
Stephen Stockhausen (27:38):
Yeah, I thought I was going to be an IHS
employee, to be honest.
Tanner Welsch (27:41):
For some closing questions.
For real professionals whomaybe are looking for some
additional income or maybeanother stream of income, what
are some tips that or from yourexperience that you are willing
to share and to maybe help themget started, or what direction
to go?
Stephen Stockhausen (27:59):
Yeah Well, I think what matters most is
what your interests are.
You're a clinician looking tomake a little extra money and
you don't mind being in theclinic.
Prn is an easy trade.
You don't have to learn anyskill, you're just trading some
time for some money, right,doing the concierge thing.
If you're a little bit businessoriented and you're a little
bit entrepreneurial, starting atLLC is 50 bucks in most states
(28:21):
and two hours of your time andyou've got yourself a business
right.
Obviously, our product with theErgonauts is perfect for
clinicians trying to work alittle bit extra.
But you're going to have to bea bit entrepreneurial at first
sidehouse.
You're going to have to jump inyour own business on your own
clients, initially right now.
We're eventually going to besiphoning clients to our
evaluators, but we're not doingthat right now.
(28:41):
So that's a great option Again,trading less time for more
money and then, if you happen toown a property, leveraging what
you have already.
I think is so powerful.
So if you've got a two bedroomapartment, if you need to for a
little while, rent that otherapartment out.
You could probably pay yourentire rent, especially the way
rental prices have gone uplately.
You probably pay your wholerent with someone else and then
(29:04):
you're just sitting there rentfree, take that money and put it
into whatever it is you want toput into that.
Again, what do you want?
What do you like to do?
Work creative and we likeprojects a little bit.
If I had to start again and Ididn't own a property, I would
probably pick some vacant landand I'd put a yard or I'd put a
tiny home on it and then I'drent that out sidehouse.
(29:25):
So as much crap as Airbnb isthey're getting in the press
lately the short term rentalthey're talking about all
crashing or whatever.
If you're in this desirablespot and you can create
something that's unique again alittle bit of creativity the
business will keep coming.
You just have to be able toprovide something different.
You can't be these slum lordAirbnb places that you keep
seeing online.
I wish I had a better, moreconcise do this one thing answer
(29:47):
to your question.
But the key is you got to findsomething you like to do and you
can stick with it for a while,because If you can't stick with
it, it's not going to be.
We ran a blog that I mentionedbefore and that was awesome.
Paid for our kitchen renovation.
You know we made tens ofthousands of dollars on it.
We didn't make a penny for overtwo years.
You got to put in the time, yougot to put in the Well, you know
, with podcasts, right, I meanyou got to put in the time.
(30:09):
It's a hustle and you have tolike it and eventually it's
going to be worth it.
So I think, finding what youreally enjoy.
In your case, if you hatedpodcasting, there's no way
you're going to put in the timeto build up an audience and to
provide enough value whereyou're going to get sponsors, or
you just got to find what youlike.
You don't have to love it.
I'm not a big fan of the big.
Only do what you're passionateabout, because that's tricky.
(30:31):
I could say you're superpassionate about pottery and
then you make that your businessand now you're stuck rickin,
throwin pots all day long andyour hands are aching and hey,
so you don't always want tofollow the past.
Find something that you likeenough to stick with it.
I think that'd be my only realuseful piece of advice.
Tanner Welsch (30:50):
I think your spot on there for sure.
I'll chime in here too and justlet people know everything
we've talked about on theepisode.
We'll be in the show notes pageto dive in deeper and something
that we're doing on the rehabrubbles is actually going to be
exploring other side hustles andstreams of income and talking
about those things.
And a quick one that youmentioned right off the bat was
doing PRN stuff and with Luna,and we actually have a episode
(31:14):
with Melissa about Luna and wegot some content on the website
already about it.
For those that are interestedin maybe looking into that and
work for them PRN and thenergonauts as well, if those
individuals or physicaltherapists are looking to dive
into that and do some of that asa side hustle, that's an option
as well.
Stephen Stockhausen (31:32):
I didn't get a chance to mention it
before, but we'd love to throwyou and your audience a code and
get them a hundred bucks offthe training.
Honestly, my big goal isgetting as many people out there
out of an interest rate aspossible.
If I can help others there,it'd be great.
I'm sorry I didn't mention itearlier.
We'd definitely love to do thatfor you, Sure.
Tanner Welsch (31:51):
Thanks Steven.
Yeah, we'll include all thatstuff in the show notes so
people can hop on board and getthe benefits of that and
progress further with you guysif it's a good fit for them.
But yeah, I'm really hoping toexpand really what we're talking
about out on the podcast andalso in the content on the
website.
Thank you for coming on andsharing your journey and some of
your insights.
I really appreciate having youcome on.
(32:12):
Thanks a lot, I appreciate it.
Intro (32:15):
Thank you for listening to the Rehab Rebels podcast.
If this podcast was useful,make sure to hit that subscribe
button and leave a review.
For more information abouttransitioning to alternative
careers, head to rehabrebelsorgor follow us on Instagram at
Rehab Rebels podcast.
We'll see you next time.
Welcome to the Rehab Rebels podcast.
Are you a rehab professionalready to transition to an
alternative career?
Hear inspiring stories fromothers just like you and learn
the best ways to bridge yourcareer gap.
This podcast has you covered.
Now here's your host, doctor ofphysical therapy and podcaster,
tanner Welsh.
Tanner Welsch (00:21):
Welcome back to another episode of Rehab Rebels.
For this episode and movingforwards, I'm going to do a
little bit more of anintroduction of the guests and
reasons why it might be good tolisten, by capturing and
presenting the universal themesor relatable concepts from the
(00:42):
individual guest's particularstory.
With today's guest, steven, ifyou ever felt as a rehab
professional, undervaluedfinancially, with stagnant
financial prospects, at alargely undervalued pay rate,
then you're going to want tolisten to this episode with
Steven and how he met hisfamily's financial goals a
decade sooner than if he were tobe a full-time clinician
(01:05):
exclusively With that.
I'm going to give a little bitof background before we bring
Steven on.
He was born and raised inColumbus, ohio, briefly spent a
few years as a high schoolteacher in Kentucky before
attending and graduating fromphysical therapy school at the
University of Kentucky.
He is currently the solephysical therapist for a local
(01:25):
Indian tribe, as well as the COOof Ergonaut, and he graduated
with his DPT in 2011 and beganworking in the outpatient ortho
setting for a few years,obtained his board-certified
orthopedics and immediatelybegan travel physical therapy
along with his wife, intendingto travel for only two years,
(01:45):
but ended up traveling foraround seven and in the last
three with their daughter withthem.
That's pretty exciting andunique.
So welcome, steven, to thepodcast.
Thanks for having me.
Yeah, yeah, thanks for comingon and sharing your story with
us.
I gotta ask how was the doingtravel, physical therapy with a
(02:06):
daughter there for a few years?
What was that like?
Stephen Stockhausen (02:09):
Oh man, it was great.
It was great.
We're pretty firm believersthat your life doesn't end when
you have kids, it's just they'rejoining your family.
You don't have to totallychange your lifestyle just
because you have a little one.
You know.
Tag it along with you and rightfrom the start we tried to keep
that up.
Then we had her in Durango,Colorado, and then, I think she
(02:30):
was three weeks old, we moved toKentucky, you know, and then we
were there for five months astravelers and then all the way
back to the Bay Area inCalifornia and she's the best
old travel buddy ever.
She can go anywhere.
It's great.
Start them early, they don'tknow any different.
Tanner Welsch (02:43):
Right, when did you guys stay, you know, when
you had your daughter, whatsettings were you staying at?
I know some people you knowcarry a fifth wheel or they rent
out places.
What worked for you guys withyour family?
Stephen Stockhausen (02:54):
Oh yeah, good question.
We actually got this a lot.
So we chose to go the route ofjust finding unfertilized
apartments ourselves.
We're pretty good at the secantbind and we actually one of our
little side hustles where we'retraveling is we'd like to
furniture flip.
And so you know we get theseunfurnished places, go get some
used furniture someplace and youknow we're a little bit
(03:15):
creative and dress it up, makeit look nice, use it for however
long the contract is and thensell it.
And they actually worked outreally well because then we
could travel and you know I justhave a tundra and my wife has a
little Subaru and we didn't.
We didn't tow anything and we'dhave to bring furniture.
We had a little beddingsituation that we really liked,
like the Cadillac of CampingRatchets.
(03:36):
It was amazing.
So we actually enjoyed usingthat.
So we didn't need a bed.
It was great, I mean.
So that's what we ended updoing.
But a lot of people go agencycan find you housing or you can
do a furnished finder, but wechose to on our own unfurnished
and then flip some stuff andgenerally paid for itself or
made us a little fun money.
Tanner Welsch (03:55):
For sure that's really scrappy and pretty clever
.
So yeah, nice, what.
This ties back into the openingcomments with the financial
aspect behind our careers.
But what's your story behindthe first sense of awareness
that things weren't quite rightwithin your rehab career?
Stephen Stockhausen (04:14):
Yeah, I would say it's probably probably
about after the first year orso.
My goals when I got out of PTschool was I wanted to become an
OCS, an A-out fellow, and thenon my own clinic, you know out,
I was purely an outpatient guy.
That's all I wanted to do.
Athletes is my background andwithin that first year I worked
in mentorship with our twoclinic owners and their
(04:34):
fantastic clinic ownership.
And then we started talkingabout maybe buying into the
practice after I traveled.
So I had gotten into this job.
They understood in a couple ofyears my wife and I want to
travel for a little bit and itwas going to work out perfect
because one of the owners was inhis sixties or so and he was
going to retire and the otherone was 20 years younger and so
it'd be perfect.
You know, I leave for a coupleof years, buy him out and great
(04:55):
transition.
So we started looking at thenumbers and this whole time I'm
thinking, oh, I'm not being paidwhat I'm worth.
You know, I need even moreexperience.
I'm going to make so much moremoney.
And then I see what insurancecompanies are paying for our
services and I'm just there'snothing left in the pot to pay
me more.
It totally changed myperspective.
I used to have this little bitof predatory clinic owners, you
(05:16):
know, just abusing and abusingnew hires and that does happen
for sure.
But once I made thatrealization of my ceiling is so
low, even owning my own practice, unless I turn into a PT mill,
which you know and I'm sureprobably 90% of your outpatient
audience is working at onebecause that's what they all
have to be at this point andthat's not the way any of us
(05:38):
were taught to treat in school.
Tanner Welsch (05:39):
So that was when I realized it's got to be
something different, it's got tobe a better route than this,
for sure, and so that's where itgoes back to meeting your
financial goals with you andyour family.
When you hit that point, it wasman, this, this isn't what I
thought, what it was.
So then, what happened?
What did you end up pivoting to, or what was your new direction
after that?
Stephen Stockhausen (05:58):
Well, that was a big driver behind us,
traveling for much longer.
The original plan was two yearsbecause we didn't realize it
was going to be so great and sowe took our.
This is crazy.
We took our very first traveljobs and home health in the Bay
Area and, mind you, we took jobs.
Making is like 200, 250 a weekafter tax more than I would
(06:20):
bring home in two weeks here inColorado, and we were stoked.
Little did we know that Iforget what it was $1,600 a week
or something.
In the Bay Area.
Home Health is probably $400 or$500 a week less than what we
should have been making.
But we were oblivious.
We're new travelers.
There was no blogs out thereback when we started and we were
(06:42):
just so stoked we were makingtons of money and anyways, it
was great.
And that's where there's somuch more out there.
I mean these larger companies.
They have different negotiatedrates and Home Health pays
really, really well fortravelers especially.
And then next started usrealizing, oh, we do this a
little longer.
We're out of our cumulative$300 grand in debt that the two
(07:03):
of us had, because she's atherapist as well.
So that was the first moment werealized we should probably
keep traveling period, maybe notnecessarily Home Health, but
traveling because there'sgenerally a little bit more pay
there and they could haveexplored that option for seven
and a half years.
Tanner Welsch (07:18):
Okay, since you did quite a bit of traveling, I
got to ask what are some thingsthat you liked about the travel
therapy and some things that youdidn't like about the travel
therapy?
Stephen Stockhausen (07:29):
There's really nothing.
Almost every aspect of it is.
It's great.
If you're adventurous, you liketo see new places, if you like
to know, you're the person whodoesn't want to necessarily do
the touristing thing, you wantto find the little locals.
Bar the little.
It's perfect because you'rethere for three months, six
months, nine months or even 12.
So you get to get that insiderlocals perspective.
(07:49):
That was, I think, the bestpart is really discovering
different places that we're atbecause you're there for so long
.
You're not just in and out in aweekend or even a week.
I think that's the best part.
The only real negative was thecommunity.
We got to the point where wehad a little group and so we
jumped a couple jobs followingthis group of friends and that
was awesome.
But then life takes youdifferent directions and every
(08:11):
time you change a spot you arelooking for new friends and
reconnecting, which again, for alot of people, is awesome.
They love it and we got prettygood at it.
But starting over and finding acommunity each time is a little
bit of a challenge and at theend I think that's part of why
we came back home.
We had a three year old at thatpoint and for whatever reason,
our friend group here becamecloser with them here while we
(08:34):
were.
Every time we'd come back home.
It was just a closer bond.
So I don't know, we just gotlucky with that.
We didn't grow apart.
Yeah, I think that'd be thenegative.
That'd be the only negative.
But there's stuff like thedifferent meetup groups and I
was playing in these little pickup soccer games just trying to
meet people and yeah, it workedout pretty well.
Tanner Welsch (08:52):
Okay, what were the different settings that you
tried and or really liked orgravitated towards?
Stephen Stockhausen (08:57):
Home health is the best quality of life and
pay.
When you look at those two,especially when you're in a new
area, you're driving around,you're driving past the little
market that you would have neverseen on Yelp or whatever.
The pay is the best.
You're generally done withpatients in a six hour timeframe
or so and then you're adocument from wherever you want.
We lived in the South Coast ofCalifornia for a while and we'd
(09:19):
go to a vineyard and have a winetasting and type it on our
computers doing documentation.
It's pretty great.
We did outpatient Outpatientpays really well up in Alaska
because there's no PT schools.
That was a great location wise.
That's amazing up there.
And then I did a sniff inKentucky at one point.
It was horrible.
I won't work sniff again.
It was too depressing for mepersonally.
(09:40):
Yeah, I think that's just movesthree, but we did a lot on home
health.
Tanner Welsch (09:45):
I've talked to a few people about it as well and
that's what I've heard is reallythe downside is the starting
over with the new relationshipsevery time you have to move.
There's no grounded network offriends or whatever, because
it's always changing every timeyou're moving.
But everything else seems to bepretty great.
And for home health, I'm stillcurrently a home health physical
(10:06):
therapist and really do enjoyit and love the flexible
schedule and it's one of thehigher paying settings.
So, 100% on all that, you didsome travel therapy.
You come back and I'm curiouswhat are some other?
And we'll get to your COOphysician, but what are some
other things that you guys weredoing to reach your financial
goals faster?
The travel therapy totallymakes sense and then you come
(10:28):
back.
So what were some other thingsthat maybe you tried and or
maybe you're still doing?
Stephen Stockhausen (10:33):
Yeah.
So the big one for us was weknew our little town here in
Colorado is where we wanted toend up.
So we spent two years beforeour little girl was born and
then we didn't buy our womantill she was one.
So we spent three years lookingfor the right property to
possibly settle down here backin back in Colorado.
And part of the reason we tookso much time is again, we know
(10:55):
we love this area.
Outpatient physical therapydoesn't pay really well Somehow.
It's so rural that you'redriving all day and the way
their contracts are structuredit just doesn't make it as great
as home health and the littletown where you knock out your
five or six patients in a dayand you only have 10 minutes
between one year and you mightgo an hour to your next patient.
So we knew we weren't going to.
(11:16):
Our jobs weren't necessarilygoing to make us meet our goals,
and so we're looking for theright property.
Things that we're reallywanting is something I had some
sort of income potential as afail.
Stay Maybe it has multiple lotsso we could split the lots and
if we had to sell one off as acushion of, things were harder
coming back home, then weanticipated, we didn't really
(11:36):
know how it was going to be.
They were both PG's and we'recoming into a small town, so
it's two people looking for avery small handful of jobs.
So that was a big one.
So we bought our place in 2018.
And then we immediately beganAirbnbing it out while we were
still on contract.
So we bought the home in 18 andthen took jobs in the Bay Area.
(11:57):
Really for the next two years wewere in and out, but pretty
much for two years.
So for pretty much two years wewere in California while
Airbnbing out our house, and sowe were able to have someone
else paying our mortgage whilewe're still making the good
travel money.
And we started with that ofrealizing we can do something on
the side.
We can leverage what we alreadyown to help us out financially
(12:19):
a little bit.
And then when we came back herepermanently in the summer of
2020, we were obviously livingin the house.
We couldn't Airbnb that out, butpart of what we ended up doing
was renovating our garage, whichinitially was a log cabin.
The family who built this housewas living in this log cabin,
which now is the garage, so ithad all the guts.
(12:42):
You know it had all theeverything we needed, and so we
just updated it and it lookedbeautiful.
I mean, we did hire a lot of itout, but anyway.
So we have a guest there rightnow.
We've been Airbnbing that outstraight.
It's not a stop.
Huh, yeah, it's been not a stop.
And so you know, part of thereason for a big, big reason
that was so great is coming backhome with a three-year-old in
(13:03):
our little town.
I think our PRN job that mywife got quoted for was maybe
$10 an hour more than whatchildcare was going to cost us.
So why work your butt off tohave someone else raising your
child?
And so we just if we couldoffset that $10 an hour, which
is no brainer for an apartment.
So, yeah, she was able to stayhome and work.
She worked part-time.
She's got a little bit of aremote job through a home health
(13:25):
agency that was trying to donew things during COVID, you
know, and so she did that for acouple of years and actually
just recently, within the lasttwo months, went back into the
clinic part-time herself.
Tanner Welsch (13:35):
How did you guys actually manage to rent out or
do the Airbnb?
Were you guys actually livingin a whole other state?
Because you know you got toclean up after somebody and then
get it ready for the nextperson and all that.
How did all that work when youguys were actually living in
another state?
Stephen Stockhausen (13:52):
We were really fortunate.
We built a great relationshipwith a local lady who is our
cleaner and so she basicallyserved as property manager.
I mean, I think we hadsomething forget what it was
something hit the house andbroke that piece of siding or I
don't remember what happened,but you know she's oh, my
boyfriend does this stuff andwe'll fix it real quick.
It was awesome and we luckedout and we had some friends.
(14:12):
One year we were back inCalifornia and they got five
feet of snow on our roof.
You can't leave that on yourroof and I don't know how much
you're familiar with snow.
But friends orchestratedeverything and got people to
come and shovel our drinkingroof while we were gone.
So we just managed arelationship.
So it was all about havingthose relationships and that's
what worked well for us.
(14:32):
And we, you know, we had tostructure our rentals.
We had to really communicatewith her on the schedule.
Hey, we, we can't do a same dayturnover.
In fact, for her I think sheneeded two days just because she
had other calling, which, nowthat we're here on the property,
we'll do a same day turnoverand keep that unit filled as
much as the can.
That's an extra 200 bucks.
Yeah, so it's all about justmanaging finding the right
(14:53):
people.
You know it's like any businessright Finding the right people
managing those relationships.
Tanner Welsch (14:57):
Okay, so you're back and you guys got the Airbnb
stuff going and you're.
Are you done traveling?
Where do you get to your COOposition and how?
How is all that going for you?
How did that start?
What's the store?
Stephen Stockhausen (15:11):
there Started with LinkedIn.
So I was on on LinkedIn and I,you know I've dabbled in, I've
done some clinic director stuffand managing clinics in the past
, so I had that experiencebefore.
So basically what happened wasbuilding relationships.
I connected with this gentlemanon on LinkedIn who was doing
some pretty interesting thingswith the UK school of
(15:32):
engineering and ergonomic fieldand you know I was just curious
and we had a lot of the sameconnections because we went to
we both went to university andhe taught and I I went there as
a student and transitioned intoa phone call and we just hit it
off and where he was taking thisergonomics company was more
(15:53):
into the broader safety andwellness field and that was sort
of my opportunity to possiblyleverage our skills as
therapists right.
Essentially what he wasbuilding out at the time before
I was anything was a platform tohelp do ergonomic evaluations
super fast, so essentially fouror five times faster than what
(16:13):
you could do in person.
I did ergonomic evaluations outhere.
We're three roles, so there's areally big backpack company.
That's their home offices nearhere.
I won't share their, their nameor anything but the biggest in
backpacking.
They're out in the four cornersarea.
I did their ergonomicevaluations paper and pencil,
ruler, all this stuff and ittakes forever.
(16:33):
I had no idea if it was anygood.
I just sent them this reportwith a bunch of dimensions and
they get a desk that's tall anda chair.
That's these dimensions.
Here you can go HR person, gobuy this stuff, and now they
have to go look up all the specsand anyways, essentially what
we were able to, this gentlemanwas able to put together again
before I had any role in helpingthem, an app that just does it
(16:54):
at all.
It looks at all the factorsergonomic factors, fines, what's
safe and then, for example, aswe include, this chair will work
for you, this desk will work,this everything, boom, boom.
There's no thinking right andso it's just easy.
It's fast and from what Iunderstand from our testing
again, this is not my field, butfrom our testing it's more
effective than a professionalpaper and pencil just relying on
(17:16):
their own expertise, becauseyou can't skip steps, it's
standardized right, it's usingthe power of technology.
So that's what he was buildingout and man, physical therapists
need to start using this stuffbecause at the same time I was
in California again, side hustleall the time.
We're starting to work withLuna.
If you're familiar with Lunacare, yeah, definitely, they're
nationwide now, but they werenobody.
(17:37):
I mean me and two or threeother people were their initial
physician liaison team going outto doctors.
You like talking to doctors?
Hey, give us your patients,they're desperate for anybody.
They took me to help them dothat stuff.
It was crazy.
And so I'm like man the sidehustle.
I'm already treating people intheir office.
I'm already treating people inhome, in the gym.
I don't physical therapiststake this tool and we're already
(17:57):
going there.
Go to their office, go to theirgym, go to their whatever Boom,
boom, boom.
You do their evaluation andthen maybe we can prevent some
of these problems that we'retreating or we can get them out
of pain and then keep them outof pain while they're working.
And then, of course, covid hitsand everyone's dual workstation
employee or now we have twiceas many workstations which
you've twice there are going tohave like risk factors.
(18:18):
So there's a big potentialthere.
So that was the initial.
Okay, I see the big picture.
I want to get involved.
I want to get this to PT'sbecause these ergonomic
evaluations you can do with ourtool.
You can do it in like 20minutes if you're not chatty.
It's all about personality,right.
So you got some people going totake a logger and in certain
markets, if you're in a big city, you're looking at 400 bucks a
pop.
(18:38):
That is way better than the $72a visit that you know
healthcare based in this littletherapist here in Durango per
session.
I mean that's ridiculous andthat's for a whole session.
So there's just a lot ofpotential stuff.
Tanner Welsch (18:50):
When I got involved Okay, so you see the
big picture and see theimportance of this.
How did you start and then getto the COO position?
It sounds maybe you did someconsulting and worked with them
initially and then they justreally loved what you did.
Stephen Stockhausen (19:03):
And tell me All the famous stories of
startups, you know, in thegarage and everyone's doing
everything I was in on this allhands meeting, we had and they
share this document.
And then they make thestatement that this is our, this
is our marketing document andwe're going to, we're going to
watch it, we're a share itimmediately.
And I'm looking at it and it'slike a data sheet features.
(19:25):
It's a list of I don't know howelse to describe it.
If you bought the old schoolcomputer and you look on the
back and it's got this much RAMand this much boom, boom, boom,
boom.
It's just a bullet list.
Long story short, it was not amarketing piece, it was a, it
was a data sheet.
And that's why I was stupid andI said that's not a great tool.
I think we should do somethingdifferent.
(19:45):
And she now our CEO but Iforget what she was at the time
she's worked in sales andmarketing her own career in tech
and, yeah, this is not what weneed.
And so the, the founders, goahead and make it sure sounds
good, I'm okay, yes, I'll do it,I'll give it a shot.
And so that's how it started.
I mean, it was just as a Safetyconsultant, the little bit of
(20:07):
the physical therapy market.
You know we've got a productthat we're hoping to get more
home safety related, so I was intalks about that and then all
of a sudden I'm writing everysingle word on our website and
I'm facilitating.
Now I manage our LinkedIn, Imanage all this other upper-ish
old stuff.
I started training some of theother people on edge little by
little, so it's not your typicalroute that I would say 99% of
(20:31):
COO's get into.
You know they all have massive,massive amounts of experience
and we're early stage startupwhere I have the role because no
one else can do it right.
We're just too early on forsure.
Tanner Welsch (20:43):
What are the practical, non-obvious skills
that make you a great fit forthis role as COO?
Stephen Stockhausen (20:49):
I think as a as a clinician, you're already
trained to see patterns and tosee how things connect and
that's sort of I would say if Ihave one real skill.
I'm not super smart, I'll bereally honest, but they all work
harder than almost everybodyelse.
I was a kid in PT school whomade the study guide for
everyone and I didn't make itfor everyone, I made it for
myself and then I just sharebecause I needed to put in the
(21:12):
work right and I needed theattention to detail I think
being able to see how thoseseemingly disparate things can
connect and possibly bring aboutsomething positive right.
So I would say that'd be themost non-obvious skill, that the
one thing I've gone for, yeah,but you know I had background in
, again, marketing clinics.
I worked with Luna early on,like I was saying, and their
(21:34):
physician liaison team, so goingout and talking to doctors and
explaining how to tell thatstory a little bit.
I think everyone should havesome sales and marketing
experience and that's one of theareas where physical therapy
school just is terror.
I mean it's we had no businesstraining, none when most of us
are gonna be working at privateclinics and possibly managing
(21:55):
for sure.
Tanner Welsch (21:55):
What do you love most about your new reality?
Stephen Stockhausen (21:59):
Because I'm still full-time Working with
patients.
I have the benefit of that sortof intrinsic value of helping
people, getting them out of pain.
I really enjoy this populationthat I'm with.
I work for an indigenouspopulation to try about here
something I'd know no experienceat all with being a suburb kid
from Ohio, you know and so Ihave that, but then also like to
(22:22):
change it up.
I'm doing this stuff withergonauts.
We've got a product line thatwe're hoping to launch here in
the next 18 months.
That literally would be ahundred million people.
I'm truly impacting people on ahumongous scale, and so it has
the potential of both aspects.
I think that's the best part.
And then also, honestly, withthat Airbnb, it gives us a
little bit of flexibility.
So my wife and I, we took ourlittle one and spent a month in
(22:45):
Costa Rica last year to learnSpanish and dispersion.
We didn't quite come out even,but it wasn't thousands and
thousands of dollars gone,because we rented our whole
place out for a month and that'scovers a mortgage plus half our
trip.
Tanner Welsch (22:58):
It sounds like a win-win for sure.
Stephen Stockhausen (23:00):
It's work, though, right, it takes time.
We've been doing it for alittle while, so we've got a
dialed in, right?
I dislike people thinking athere's ever anything such as
passive income.
I've sold courses.
We were some of the originaltravel therapy bloggers, right.
So blogging before you knowyour social media influencers
really, pt adventures it's stillup there.
It's a hundred and somethingarticles the original travel.
(23:21):
It's a great resource.
Still.
It's all evergreen.
It's great we speak at thetravel convention every year.
But that's not passive either,right?
So when I stopped activelyupdating site, guess what goes
away?
All the income that site drives.
So there's no such thing aspassive income.
And then you know, things takework and it takes time to get
good at it.
So, yeah, we're in a prettygood spot now, but I'm doing
(23:43):
Airbnb for four or five yearsnow, so we figured it out.
Tanner Welsch (23:47):
For sure.
I'm glad we were talking aboutthis passive income, not really
passive income.
I'm curious what are thedifferent revenue streams that
you have that you're comfortablesharing?
We've talked about it like, Ithink, at least three, and I'm
curious which one you feel givesthe most value for your time
and return on your time.
Stephen Stockhausen (24:06):
When you look at the ceiling, the startup
obviously has the mostpotential right.
We're still very firmly indevelopment.
I've been here with them forfour years and we're still in
development.
The process is totallydifferent than people.
The hustle mentality is realand the hustle is not go hard,
go fast, it's don't stop.
(24:28):
My wife gets frustrated becauseshe's like you're on all these
meetings, you're on all thisstuff.
When are you guys going to bebought A?
That's not the goal.
The goal is to make somethingthat people just love.
But ultimately, yeah, that hasthe highest ceiling.
I don't know about.
As far as other rewards.
We really enjoy being Airbnbhosts on site.
We like meeting people.
(24:49):
Our town is outdoorsy.
It's in the mountains.
It's hard to get to.
It's a Lex for people like uswho want to get out and be in
the mountains and then come homeand have a nice place to sleep
and then get out again.
The guy right now he readsexpeditions as his job.
That's his whole business isrunning expeditions.
He has an insane life, so we doreally enjoy that.
(25:10):
We have two Airbnbs on theproperty.
One is a vintage airstream andthat is a huge pain in the butt.
It's super cute.
Anything old construction isjust every guess.
We're worried about Leaks,we're worried about various
problems, mice, because we'reout in the middle of nowhere.
The apartment is fantastic.
I would say.
One Airbnb on the property isquite rewarding.
(25:32):
People just thank us all thetime for having this.
We're like you guys are theones paying us all this money to
stay here.
I really enjoy patient care.
I guess because I've been out12 years now doing it for a
while a little bit of luster'swore off, but I still really
enjoy it.
I don't think I'll ever stoptreating patients.
I'm just not going to be doingit at the same time.
Tanner Welsch (25:51):
And I got to ask with the tribe that you're
working with is that fundedthrough the state or the county?
Is that how you get paid, or isthis your own business?
Or how is all of the financialsbehind that work?
Stephen Stockhausen (26:03):
That's actually a great little
discussion to have.
So you can be your own LLC andget hired by whatever the tribe.
Is that you would happen whatto work for my current position?
Our tribe took over their ownhealthcare.
So if they have the capabilityand the desire, tribes being
autonomous, they can do thatsovereign.
And so our tribe took overtheir own healthcare.
(26:26):
They manage it themselves andso I work for this tribe.
I'm not an IHS employee, I'mnot a federal employee.
So there's about an hour and ahalf way there's the other
clinic that's closest to us andthey're all federal.
It's all IHS employees, whichhas definite benefits pension,
and they have, I guess, greatvacation and the pay is fair.
(26:46):
But my particular situation isdifference.
I just work for this one entity.
Tanner Welsch (26:52):
Okay, so is that how you're set up then, as an
LLC or a sole proprietor andthey just pay you directly?
No, I'm a regular employee oftheir health system.
Stephen Stockhausen (27:01):
Yeah, so this particular tribe is broken
into two funds, right.
So they have what they callpermanent fund and then growth
fund.
So they have an investmentbranch of the tribe and then the
operations side.
So under operations is all theservices that travel members and
anyone tribal qualified gets.
So I can see anyone who is IHSeligible.
That's part of the deal, butI'm paid by.
(27:24):
My tribe is called the SouthernUte Indian tribe.
I'm paid by the Southern UteIndian tribe.
It's just like any corporatejob I do.
I draw, we do all that, and soit's just a regular business
Cool.
Tanner Welsch (27:35):
Thanks for explaining that.
That's pretty interesting.
Stephen Stockhausen (27:38):
Yeah, I thought I was going to be an IHS
employee, to be honest.
Tanner Welsch (27:41):
For some closing questions.
For real professionals whomaybe are looking for some
additional income or maybeanother stream of income, what
are some tips that or from yourexperience that you are willing
to share and to maybe help themget started, or what direction
to go?
Stephen Stockhausen (27:59):
Yeah Well, I think what matters most is
what your interests are.
You're a clinician looking tomake a little extra money and
you don't mind being in theclinic.
Prn is an easy trade.
You don't have to learn anyskill, you're just trading some
time for some money, right,doing the concierge thing.
If you're a little bit businessoriented and you're a little
bit entrepreneurial, starting atLLC is 50 bucks in most states
(28:21):
and two hours of your time andyou've got yourself a business
right.
Obviously, our product with theErgonauts is perfect for
clinicians trying to work alittle bit extra.
But you're going to have to bea bit entrepreneurial at first
sidehouse.
You're going to have to jump inyour own business on your own
clients, initially right now.
We're eventually going to besiphoning clients to our
evaluators, but we're not doingthat right now.
(28:41):
So that's a great option Again,trading less time for more
money and then, if you happen toown a property, leveraging what
you have already.
I think is so powerful.
So if you've got a two bedroomapartment, if you need to for a
little while, rent that otherapartment out.
You could probably pay yourentire rent, especially the way
rental prices have gone uplately.
You probably pay your wholerent with someone else and then
(29:04):
you're just sitting there rentfree, take that money and put it
into whatever it is you want toput into that.
Again, what do you want?
What do you like to do?
Work creative and we likeprojects a little bit.
If I had to start again and Ididn't own a property, I would
probably pick some vacant landand I'd put a yard or I'd put a
tiny home on it and then I'drent that out sidehouse.
(29:25):
So as much crap as Airbnb isthey're getting in the press
lately the short term rentalthey're talking about all
crashing or whatever.
If you're in this desirablespot and you can create
something that's unique again alittle bit of creativity the
business will keep coming.
You just have to be able toprovide something different.
You can't be these slum lordAirbnb places that you keep
seeing online.
I wish I had a better, moreconcise do this one thing answer
(29:47):
to your question.
But the key is you got to findsomething you like to do and you
can stick with it for a while,because If you can't stick with
it, it's not going to be.
We ran a blog that I mentionedbefore and that was awesome.
Paid for our kitchen renovation.
You know we made tens ofthousands of dollars on it.
We didn't make a penny for overtwo years.
You got to put in the time, yougot to put in the Well, you know
, with podcasts, right, I meanyou got to put in the time.
(30:09):
It's a hustle and you have tolike it and eventually it's
going to be worth it.
So I think, finding what youreally enjoy.
In your case, if you hatedpodcasting, there's no way
you're going to put in the timeto build up an audience and to
provide enough value whereyou're going to get sponsors, or
you just got to find what youlike.
You don't have to love it.
I'm not a big fan of the big.
Only do what you're passionateabout, because that's tricky.
(30:31):
I could say you're superpassionate about pottery and
then you make that your businessand now you're stuck rickin,
throwin pots all day long andyour hands are aching and hey,
so you don't always want tofollow the past.
Find something that you likeenough to stick with it.
I think that'd be my only realuseful piece of advice.
Tanner Welsch (30:50):
I think your spot on there for sure.
I'll chime in here too and justlet people know everything
we've talked about on theepisode.
We'll be in the show notes pageto dive in deeper and something
that we're doing on the rehabrubbles is actually going to be
exploring other side hustles andstreams of income and talking
about those things.
And a quick one that youmentioned right off the bat was
doing PRN stuff and with Luna,and we actually have a episode
(31:14):
with Melissa about Luna and wegot some content on the website
already about it.
For those that are interestedin maybe looking into that and
work for them PRN and thenergonauts as well, if those
individuals or physicaltherapists are looking to dive
into that and do some of that asa side hustle, that's an option
as well.
Stephen Stockhausen (31:32):
I didn't get a chance to mention it
before, but we'd love to throwyou and your audience a code and
get them a hundred bucks offthe training.
Honestly, my big goal isgetting as many people out there
out of an interest rate aspossible.
If I can help others there,it'd be great.
I'm sorry I didn't mention itearlier.
We'd definitely love to do thatfor you, Sure.
Tanner Welsch (31:51):
Thanks Steven.
Yeah, we'll include all thatstuff in the show notes so
people can hop on board and getthe benefits of that and
progress further with you guysif it's a good fit for them.
But yeah, I'm really hoping toexpand really what we're talking
about out on the podcast andalso in the content on the
website.
Thank you for coming on andsharing your journey and some of
your insights.
I really appreciate having youcome on.
(32:12):
Thanks a lot, I appreciate it.
Intro (32:15):
Thank you for listening to the Rehab Rebels podcast.
If this podcast was useful,make sure to hit that subscribe
button and leave a review.
For more information abouttransitioning to alternative
careers, head to rehabrebelsorgor follow us on Instagram at
Rehab Rebels podcast.
We'll see you next time.
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