November 7, 2024 • 43 mins
#067 Have you ever wondered what it takes to bring a physical product to market in the healthcare sector? Join us as we explore Shehla's inspiring journey from being a dedicated physical therapist to becoming the CEO of GoKnee LLC. She shares how her passion for helping knee replacement patients regain their mobility led her to develop a groundbreaking knee device and exercise program.
In this episode, Shehla shares the complexities of product development and marketing, from obtaining a utility patent to understanding the intricacies of targeting the right audience. You will learn about creating a prototype, navigating the patent process, and making strategic decisions about bringing the product to market while balancing entrepreneurship with family demands. Shella discusses the transformation from clinician to entrepreneur and the importance of value-based pricing over cost-plus pricing.
Despite her personal and professional challenges, Shehla's journey underscores the importance of seeking support, maintaining a resilient mindset, and staying true to one's vision. Shella touches on the unique experiences of being a solopreneur, a woman and having an ethnic background in a predominantly male-dominated industry. This episode is a must-listen for anyone interested in healthcare entrepreneurship, product development, and the transformative power of innovation.
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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 (00:20):
Welcome back to another Rehab Rebels episode.
Our guest today is Shella, a PTwho is the CEO of Goni LLC.
She was born in Liverpool,england, home of the Beatles.
She immigrated to Canada whenshe was a baby and grew up in
Prince Edward Island.
She went to PT school at I hopeI'm pronouncing this right
(00:44):
Dollhouse University in Halifax,nova Scotia, but has practiced
predominantly in the US.
She is a solopreneur of GoKneeLLC.
Her business partners exited in2021.
Goknee is an advanced homeexercise program for the total
knee replacement patient andincludes a patented knee device
(01:04):
and a customized exerciseprogram that is being used
across the US and Canada, kenyaand Australia.
Her professional PT career hasbeen primarily focused on
geriatrics, ranging fromlong-term care, skilled nursing
facilities and home health.
Her first job out of PT schoolwas in the US asa traveling PT.
(01:25):
It was the best way for her tomake money to be off her student
loans, as well as being able totravel around the US.
She fell in love with MiddleTennessee, where she has been
for the past 18 years.
Welcome to the show, shella.
Shehla Rooney (01:39):
Thank you for having me, Tanner.
Tanner Welsch (01:41):
It's a pleasure.
I am not going to waste anytime and I'm going to jump right
into.
How did your entrepreneurialjourney begin?
Shehla Rooney (01:49):
Well, I was going to say it's an unconventional
way, but the more I dig into howbusinesses start, it's usually
necessity is the mother ofinvention.
So I had a patient five yearsago that was struggling from
knee replacement and back then Ithought he shouldn't have been
meaning.
He was younger, he washealthier, he was motivated, he
(02:10):
was compliant, he was your greatknee replacement patient, was
really active, we were doingeverything that we knew to do
and his range of motion wasn'tcoming back.
Let's fast forward.
He went to the surgeon for afollow-up appointment.
Surgeons don't like your range.
We'll probably have to schedulean MUA the manipulation under
anesthesia.
Patient comes back and saysyou've got to be kidding me.
(02:30):
I'm doing everything you'retelling me to.
I'm very compliant, I don'twant another procedure.
And a colleague of mine, afellow PT, very creative.
She went to a local hardwarestore.
She built something, brought itback.
We figured out how we could usethis contraption to get the guy
to do some more aggressiveexercises on his own at home,
knowing he would do them.
And, lo and behold, it worked.
(02:51):
And I will tell you that forpeople that are listening, that
truly have the entrepreneurialbug, they're probably like oh my
God, that's fantastic, but weshelved it.
We put it back in the littleequipment closet with all the
walkers and the platform walkersand all that, and we just put
it away.
Solved a problem for a patient.
And then a couple of monthslater we had another lady and
anyways, now you fast forwardand you realize you have
(03:12):
something that can help a largerpopulation.
It was working and that's whenthe business idea started.
Tanner Welsch (03:19):
For sure.
Awesome, that's brilliant.
Totally makes sense.
There's a problem, you guyscome up with something and solve
it.
Can you give us a 50,000 footview as to the start of the
business, when it started withthis patient, to where you are
now?
And then I want to talk aboutsome struggles that you went
through and how you overcamethem.
Shehla Rooney (03:36):
We were really excited.
Again, I never wanted to be abusiness owner.
I loved being a PT, you know.
So I know a lot of people thatlisten to your show were always
missing something or looking forsomething.
Well, that wasn't me.
But the thing is, once I sawthat there was a possibility of
helping thousands, hundreds ofthousands, maybe millions of
people all over the world withthis product, that's exciting to
me.
I, by nature, want to helppeople, so this was something
(03:59):
that I was very passionate about.
The only issue was that we werevery naive.
So three physical therapistsstarted this company and we all
had the exact same skillset,which is we were really good
clinicians and that's it.
None of us had businessknowledge, none of us had
finance knowledge, none of ushad marketing knowledge, all the
things needed.
What happened was we justthought we have a product, oh,
(04:20):
there's a million people nextyear that are going to have this
surgery.
Let's figure out what we wantto charge for this and we're
going to be zillionaires.
I mean, you know, I know thatsounds foolish.
I mean we didn't say multiplyby a million, but we thought by
about 100,000, maybe 10% of themwill want to do this.
We were so naive, I mean, andso green I mean.
(04:45):
As I say this out loud to you, Iapologize to your listeners who
have been on a business journeyfor a long time, but now fast
forward five years.
I didn't understand the productadoption cycle.
I didn't understand what ittook to get a product to market.
I didn't understand so manythings.
But the consistency is I sawthe value, I saw the potential,
I wanted to help and I was goingto figure it out, and that's
where I'm at today.
I mean, my business partnersexited.
They clearly didn't see thevision that I saw and they
(05:07):
weren't as vested and I meanCOVID was really hard for
everybody, so no fault to theirs.
I don't blame anybody foranything, but I'm so thankful
that the idea was created by mycolleague and that she allowed
me to participate early on,because it's a constant joy
every day.
Tanner Welsch (05:23):
When did you guys start?
When did this businessofficially start?
Shehla Rooney (05:27):
2018.
Tanner Welsch (05:28):
Okay, all right, and then you guys actually
launched the product in 2020,right Right around COVID.
Shehla Rooney (05:34):
Yeah, yeah, and that's because I mean, patenting
is a process, research is aprocess.
So we started the business.
We created a company that hadthe intellectual property, like
we were the business owners ofthe intellectual property.
But yeah, I mean, we were stillhad our clinician hat on really
firmly on our head.
We had no idea that we couldsell this to the consumer
without the research you know,because we were healthcare
(05:57):
providers.
So everything has to beclinically proven, everything
needs to be evidence-based.
We put it on pause aboutselling it and generating any
revenue related to it, evenpeople that wanted to buy it.
So we officially launched.
January 2020 is when I quit myday job because the research had
come out at the end of 2019.
It was amazing.
Better meaning, these doctoratestudents were able to
(06:18):
clinically document why it wasworking so well.
We knew it was, but I'dforgotten some of my knowledge
from back in school.
So they explained thephysiology behind why it was
just so effective and I was like, okay, let's go, it's go time.
Tanner Welsch (06:30):
I think you're the first guest we've had on the
podcast that actually has aproduct, a physical product, and
so I am curious what the stagesof this are and can you talk us
through that, once you get theactual device locked in the
design, then patent, then bringto market.
But can you fill us in on allthat?
Shehla Rooney (06:50):
Gosh, you know you'd think I should be the
expert on this.
I feel like people have 50patents, are the expert.
But I will tell you my personaljourney.
We created something apparentlyit's called a prototype.
You find a patent attorney.
You know they have to do awhole dig deep to make sure
there's not something elsethat's already like this.
That's a nightmare in itself.
Our patent just came through forthe US, meaning it's patent
pending for like years.
(07:11):
I don't know if that's so thatwe keep paying money for it, I
don't know, but anyways, it's afour or five year process for
the patent to come through.
It's costly, it's timely, it'sa lot of back and forth with
engineers and patent attorneys,but during that time you can
tweak the product, itsappearance.
But we did what's called autility patent, meaning it's how
the device is used that ispatented.
(07:32):
So someone could change theappearance of it, but they can't
repeat the functionality of it,because it's a tool that allows
the individual to do thingslike joint mobilizations and
muscle energy techniques.
And so we wanted to patent notthe look of it.
We knew the look of it was lessto be desired and if anyone
goes to the website, yes, I'mgonna tell you my baby is ugly
(07:52):
but my baby is super smart.
But yeah, so that's how you comeup with a prototype.
You start in the patentingprocess.
You figure out what it isthat's unique about your product
, make sure there's nothing elsethat's out there coming down
the pipeline of the patentprocess.
But since it came through,we've tried to change the
appearance of it, not thefunctionality, with minimal
success.
So really, what you see todayis what the original device
(08:14):
looked like.
I mean, we added a few colorsand patent stickers and made in
the USA stuff like that, butit's pretty true to the initial
prototype, which is unheard of.
Apparently is what I've learned.
Tanner Welsch (08:29):
Most people's has a journey and it looks very
different what they're sellingtoday than what it was, but not
for us.
Thinking out loud, I wouldthink, mass producing this and
then bringing it to market.
Can you talk about those?
Shehla Rooney (08:35):
Yes, and let me tell you, we did what you said,
which is actually a mistake.
You don't mass produce untilyou know you have sales.
Okay, yeah yeah, yeah, see, wethought very similar there,
tanner.
We thought you know what weneed to produce this, because
the minute this goes live, Imean you know it's going to be a
product drop and it's going togo crazy like it does on TikTok.
But no, that's not the case.
Just because you have a productand a customer base that should
(08:58):
want it doesn't mean they'regoing to understand the value
and they're going to want toseparate their money for this
product, especially when it'snew, especially when surgeons
and therapists don't know aboutit Remember knee replacements.
It's an older demographic.
These guys want the endorsementof their surgeon or their
health professional.
I mean, I got a 20 year old sonwho was a TikTok guy told me
this is going to work, it'sgoing to work and I'm going to
(09:20):
do it right.
That's not how the oldergeneration works.
So, again, there was a lot oflack of knowledge on our part on
what it takes to cause behaviorchange for an individual to
purchase something with theirown cash that would benefit
their recovery.
And so, yes, we built theinventory, and that's saying of
if you build it, they will comeis not true for Shellarooni and
(09:41):
Kony.
Ok, it was for Kevin Costner,but it was not for us.
But yeah, so we built it.
They did dot com and we had aton of inventory for a very long
time.
I mean, keep in mind also I'mgoing to give myself a little
bit of grace we also didn'tanticipate COVID, ok that's fair
.
Tanner Welsch (09:57):
And then the next following step would be what's
it like bringing a physicalproduct to market?
I mean it, it sounds great youbeing able to get onto an
influencer on TikTok.
Have them market your stuffthat's in the health field.
But tell us your journey.
How did you guys go about it?
Shehla Rooney (10:12):
You know these are such great questions, tanner
.
I don't even know that.
These are things that I'vestopped to think about in a
sequential order.
I think they were all happeningall at the same time.
If you have a product, nowyou're asking yourself who is
going to pay for it?
How is it going to get paid for?
So you have to ask yourself areyou going to go through the
insurance process?
Could we get this covered byMedicare or the large insurances
?
Are we going to go private pay?
(10:32):
And I'll be honest, ourdecision to go for a cash-based
private pay was simply becausewe could not afford the time and
the cost associated with tryingto get it covered by insurance.
Get it covered by insurance.
Just know that you don'tguarantee.
Once an insurance or Medicaredecides to cover it, they get to
dictate what the value of thatproduct is.
So if they decide it's similarto this other neat contraption
(10:54):
and the CPT code for that is$18.79, then all ofa sudden your
product could be devalued andit's done.
I mean, once Medicaredetermines what the cost value
is, every other insurance isgoing to follow along, and I'm
going to say, at the time whenwe looked at it, to even sit in
front of a board of Medicarereviewers for new products.
(11:14):
I mean, it was a six month waitlist and probably a $50,000,
like almost I'm going to calllike an entry ticket, but at the
time we didn't have the time,we didn't have the money and we
were being told by some expertsin the field you don't know what
they're going to value it at atwhich point.
You're done so with combinationof COVID, combination of limited
resources and funding,realizing that you know what we
(11:37):
need to not sell to 1 millionpeople.
We need to sell to the peoplethat will spend money on their
health and find those peoplethat spend money on high quality
sneakers, a good gym membership, so people who are doing
product businesses.
Those are the choices coveredby insurance.
Private pay it's nice whenthings are covered by insurance
because then doctors jump onboard, surgeons will endorse
(11:59):
products that are covered byinsurance.
The negative to cash pay ishealth professional endorsements
are much less.
We have biases as therapists.
We don't want patients to haveto pay money for something and
then surgeons don't like to eventalk to you.
If you have a cash-basedproduct, it lacks validity
because it doesn't have theinsurance backing.
Tanner Welsch (12:15):
Can I ask you how you overcame that barrier?
How did you market towards thatspecific audience who's willing
to spend money on their healthto have better recovery time and
better recovery in general?
Shehla Rooney (12:27):
Another good question.
I wish you were around duringthis journey to ask these
questions.
It's marketing.
We went through probably fivemarketing agencies until we
found the one that asked us theright questions and, like I said
, our naivety was at the time.
There was 700,000 people in theUS having knee replacement
surgery every year and ournumber was we just want to get
to 5% of those, but we didn'tknow how and we didn't know why.
(12:50):
But our thought was we weremaking financial projections
based on if we could just get to5% of the market.
In hindsight I say this outloud to you now how ridiculous
for us to think we were justgoing to randomly find them or
they were going to find us.
So the answer to your questionis meticulous, intentional
marketing, finding who yourideal customer is, knowing
everything about them, likepicturing one human being.
(13:12):
You know Miss Jones is 67 yearsold.
You know what leisureactivities is she doing?
Where is she going to eat?
What kind of activities is shedoing?
How old are her children?
How old are her grandchildren?
What was her job?
What was her education level?
How much did she make duringher lifetime?
Dig deep, because the personwho's on Medicaid, who's had an
amputated foot or is on foodstamps.
(13:34):
They're never going to be myclient, even though, as a
therapist, I want them to be.
The therapy hat is I want toput it in the hands of every
single person that can benefitfrom it.
My business hat is I want toput it in the hands of people
who understand the value of it.
And so we shifted our marketingto target the individuals, the
things that they want to hear.
Do you want to get back on thepickleball court?
(13:55):
Are you wanting to return totraveling?
Are you the reason your spousecan't do the things that you
want to do is because of yourknee pain.
So we changed that, and it washard for me when the marketing
guy that finally got it said tome you're not going after large
masses, you're going after avery niche individual who
understands, who will deviatefrom their surgeon's
recommendation, who willpurchase a product that their
(14:17):
therapist says they've neverheard of is very different,
right.
Tanner Welsch (14:21):
Yeah, that's wild , but it's so true.
Shehla Rooney (14:24):
So true.
So it was hard for me.
It was hard and even to thisday.
In the last two days I probablyget four people reach out on my
website who said I'm on a fixedincome.
I only make this much a month.
My husband died three monthsago and I have to do this
recovery on my own.
Can you give me one for free?
I mean, again, my therapy hat'slike yes, let me figure out how
to do that.
But I did that for the firstthree years and my business
(14:46):
partners had to exit.
We were in financial ruin.
I mean, I cannot do thatanymore.
So now my therapy hat's onreally firm and I have to say I
wish I could help you out.
Why don't you call me?
We'll have a free consultationabout your knee replacement
recovery and I can give you somesuggestions on what to do.
I can give you a discount.
I can offer you free shipping.
I'll give you something.
But I can't just give away.
(15:07):
It's a business.
Tanner Welsch (15:09):
Exactly.
Shehla Rooney (15:10):
So it's been hard , it's been really hard.
Tanner Welsch (15:12):
That's something I found too, and you pointed
this out right from the startthe rehab professionals.
In general, we are not educatedor have the experience,
especially right out of school,with business related things.
There's so many things,marketing, sales, and then there
is I don't know if it's acultural bias or this feeling of
(15:33):
should I really charge for this?
Can I charge this much?
Is that okay?
I don't know what you'd callthat.
What was that like for you?
What was your experience withall?
Shehla Rooney (15:41):
that that's a great point and I think anybody
who's listening, who's thinkingabout a product business.
You keep thinking about costplus price, meaning the cost of
the materials to build myproduct, which, again, if you go
to the website, the materialsare simplest.
You keep thinking that becauseyou know how much it costs to
buy the materials, you shouldadd a little bit of a surcharge
and that should be your pricepoint.
That's what I thought.
(16:01):
I thought it should only costthis much, very small amount.
But what your product is is nota cost plus value.
It's value-based pricing,meaning you're reducing a time
that person has spent in pain,You're getting them back to work
quicker, You're allowing themto travel faster, You're
allowing them to learn to playpickleball they are depressed
and devastated from years ofknee pain and you're giving them
(16:25):
the hope of getting back todoing the things that they want
to do.
So a faster recovery, less pain, more hope that's value, not
PVC and pool noodle.
I mean, I probably went throughat least six different pricing
models before I got one that Iunderstood and my gut felt good
about, and then I met thatmarketing team that I told you
(16:45):
helped me connect all the dotsand they said the same thing.
This is a goldmine.
You have something that reduces, not just a pain point, real
pain.
And in marketing you're taughtthat if it's too low you
eliminate a whole bunch ofpeople because they think
there's no value.
If it's too high, you have thepeople that can't afford it.
But again, if you're in themiddle you get nobody.
You need to pick what you want.
(17:07):
I said what do you think Ishould do?
And after talking to me formonths, we need to do a high
ticket item and it took a longtime for me to swallow that.
But he created a website aroundhigh ticket item.
He created branding andmessaging high ticket item.
So you know I'm no longerselling a knee device, I'm
selling a knee recovery program.
Our exercise program is from my26 years of experience.
It's all the research I've read, it's all the evidence I've
(17:29):
gathered, it's all the anecdotal, it's all the patients I've
treated.
The device, yes, was built at ahardware store, but the program
that comes with it, the safety,that's what they're buying, and
so value-based versus cost pluspricing is what you have to
consider in a product business.
Tanner Welsch (17:44):
I love that.
I think it's interesting too,some things that maybe we don't
consider, especially not beingin the business field.
Is you're talking about?
How do you price the productand some additional things.
I'm thinking about is obviouslyyour time employees time but
also budgets for marketing orlike things that we may not
actually understand, that arebaked into a lot of the brands
that we purchase, that we like,so they can have money to get
(18:07):
out there and get the marketingout there too.
Shehla Rooney (18:09):
We almost had three years of no revenue.
Oh, and my therapy hat was onfirmly, so I was giving a
hundred percent discounts toanybody who asked, because I
just wanted to get it in thehands of any patient to use it.
So if you had said I can'tafford it, I would have been
like it's okay, Tanner, you useit, you give me a testimonial
and we're going to call it.
Even that can't work for verylong.
(18:30):
So to me you're right.
We were in so much debt and on apersonal level I don't try to
live in debt and so it wasreally hard.
I didn't know what goodbusiness debt was or bad
business debt, and so we werelearning all that.
But you're exactly right, I didnot have an undergraduate in
business before I got into PTschool.
I did not take any businessclasses during my PT journey, so
(18:50):
we struggled on all fronts, andfor those of you out there that
are looking to start a productbusiness, I urge you to not
partner with three like-mindedPTs.
We only offered one uniquestrength and we all three had it
.
If I could go back and have acrystal ball, I would have been.
I need someone that hasfinancial funding, business loan
knowledge.
(19:10):
I need someone who hasmarketing sales knowledge.
So we were a company of onlyone strong suit, and that does
not equal an easy road 100%.
Tanner Welsch (19:22):
I couldn't have said it any better you need
marketing, you need finance, youneed all that, and if somebody
already has that experience,great.
Shehla Rooney (19:28):
And let's also for your audience listening.
This product can be used, likeyou said in the introduction, in
Kenya, in Australia.
So I don't need a marketingcompany that knows how to market
a local boutique.
I need a company who knows howto market an e-commerce,
cash-based, internationalbusiness.
And guess what?
(19:48):
I live in a small town inMiddle Tennessee.
How naive of me to think thatevery marketing agency would
know how to do that.
I mean, just like in physicaltherapy, someone comes to me
with a pelvic floor dysfunction.
It was not my strong suit,right?
If you gave me a pediatric, achild with something, it wasn't
my strong suit.
I was a geriatric specialist.
So to me, how naive of me tonot know what to ask the
(20:11):
marketing company.
And shame on the marketingcompany for not making sure they
understood what I needed sothey could give me what it
needed to go both ways.
Tanner Welsch (20:20):
And we're talking about a lot of crazy stuff.
And that's my next follow upquestion what is a personal
struggle that you went through,that you can think of, that
you're willing to share alongthis journey, and how did you
get through that?
Shehla Rooney (20:31):
Goodness, I mean, my brain is having a multitude
of things come to the surface.
How about I'll do a 30-secondround robin of all the personal
things and you decide which oneyou think would be advantageous
to discuss?
Obviously, I mentioned that2020, I quit my day job and
COVID happens financial ruin.
Right there In the middle ofCOVID, my husband asks for a
(20:53):
divorce after 25 years and threechildren.
Covid was hard on him in adifferent way.
He was a nursing homeadministrator, so very difficult
.
And then, at the end of 2020,my business partners are whoa.
We're now three years in andwe're not making any money, so
we don't know if we can continuethis in the middle of 2021.
They exit the two of them.
So now not only am I in debt,but I have to figure out how to
(21:13):
buy the two of them out Again,with possibly my marriage ending
and no financial money.
I got children that are missingtheir baseball season and
missing graduation.
I had two kids that weregraduated 2020 and 2021 from
high school.
So that's happening.
And then I'm dealing with thechildren, dealing with
depression and anxiety becauseof what's happening in our
personal lives.
So again, I felt there was alot of reasons to not continue.
(21:37):
Let me put it that way.
I just felt there was a lot ofreasons that they were saying
nobody wants to buy your product.
Doctors and surgeons andtherapists aren't endorsing it.
Marketing is not working.
But it was the wrong marketing.
You know you've got businesspartners that don't see value in
it.
They want to exit.
You know I have a spouse that'ssaying you know, our family
life is not working.
I mean, I don't know, there aresome good ones right there.
Tanner Welsch (21:59):
I love your honesty and sharing your journey
with us.
Thank you for that.
Appreciate you.
Shehla Rooney (22:07):
Yes, I would like to say for the audience
listening, the good thing.
Right now 2024, my husband andI have reunited.
We're back together.
My family's united, stilldealing with some mental health
issues with my children, buteverything's good.
My business partners again liveliterally two miles from my
home, so we have a goodrelationship.
They don't want to be on board,but they're seeing the traction
that Goni's getting and they'rerealizing they jumped ship when
(22:27):
it was difficult.
On a positive note, yeah, therewas a lot of struggle and strife
, but I think that what I don'tgive myself enough credit for
was I have a vision, I can seewhat Goni is going to be and,
yes, there's lots of things thatare speed bumps along the way.
You get to have a choice on howyou handle every fail, every
(22:48):
challenge, every struggle, thethings that were important to me
I fought for.
Also, part of Goni's revenueissues was me working, making a
concerted effort to work on mymarriage.
You can't grow a business andwork all the time, even though I
wanted to, when you're tryingto fix something like that.
So again, it was part of mylack of revenue and it was a
(23:10):
struggle for me.
That imposter syndrome ofeverything should be about the
business.
But that's not true, because youhave to ask yourself your why
right?
Why am I doing this?
It's for the financial freedom,the flexibility to travel with
my family, to grow old with myspouse.
So these people that were whocares?
If they buy your product andthey want to hang clothes on it,
you just sell, sell, sell.
It didn't feel right andluckily I had a few key people
that were like you, do what'sright for Shell, aruni and
(23:33):
everything else will fall intoplace.
And if you have to press pause,it's not going to be to the
doom of your company, and I'mthankful for the people that
told me that, because there's alot of people speaking in your
ear.
You got to work 14 hour daysand give up everything in life
in order to succeed and it's nottrue.
That's their bias.
Tanner Welsch (23:49):
That was my obvious question to ask you was
why did you keep going?
Why didn't you quit?
Is what I was thinking.
Shehla Rooney (23:55):
Yeah, no, I thought about it all the time.
I mean, you know and I thoughtabout it because I was I'm not
going to be able to financiallysupport this anymore Because my
husband was the one working thereal job and had the health
insurance so I could do thisdream thing how am I going to
co-parent and raise three kidsOwning a business that you're
passionate about is?
I think about it all the time.
I go to bed thinking about it,I wake up thinking about it.
I love working on the weekendsabout it because I love it, and
(24:17):
so part of me was I think I'mgoing to have to go back to a
nine to five job, weekends off,so I can be there for my kids.
But I'm so thankful that mychildren are, you know, now
they're 22, 20 and 14.
But at the time I remembersaying to them I think Goni may
not work out, my businesspartners have left, dad and I
are working on this, and I justremember my kids saying are you
kidding me?
They knew how excited I was.
They'd heard about every win.
(24:38):
I mean, we're big toppers in myfamily, and so I just remember,
especially the two older ones,saying you can't not do it, and
then my son.
Well, it's going to be yourlegacy.
It's the reason I'm going to beable to retire young.
He was joking, but he's goingto reap the benefits of this
successful journey.
But yeah, I will say that if Ididn't have the support of my
kids saying, we're good, we loveseeing you be passionate about
(24:58):
something, because if they hadsaid, yeah, we need you, I would
have made the self-sacrificethat moms make and I would have
done the right thing to get theregular paycheck with the
regular hours and I would haveput myself back in that box and
I would have been okay.
But I'm thankful that thatdidn't happen.
Tanner Welsch (25:13):
You need to write a book about this.
Shehla Rooney (25:17):
You have no idea so many things, but you know
what I also encourage businessowners.
There are opportunitiespresented every day.
Sometimes we're not open toseeing them.
Despite all the strife I wasgoing through, I also was doing
a personal journey and you'vetalked about this which I
applaud you for being open andvulnerable all the time.
I was doing counseling.
I was doing even hypnotherapyand meditation.
I was doing things that, let'ssay, five years ago I would have
(25:39):
called fluff.
I was a very black and whitehuman being.
I did a lot of reading andgrowing.
I'm very thankful for what wewent through because it caused a
deep dive into a personaljourney of growth and because of
that, I was seeingopportunities everywhere Instead
of seeing reasons to not pursue.
You can either wallow and belike everything is saying don't
(26:00):
do this, or it's saying workharder, find the right target
audience.
My marketing ramped up big timewhen I felt the urgency of not
having my financial support ofmy husband.
Tanner Welsch (26:11):
Let's talk about mindset.
How did aspects of your mindsetshift from when you started
this business journey till today, and talk about the story and
transition there.
Shehla Rooney (26:22):
I would have said I had a growth mindset before.
I've always wanted to learn andgrow, but I always was
selective in what I chose tolearn and grow in, whereas since
I've started the business,those topics are not selected by
me.
You have to understandQuickBooks, or you need to learn
about Stripe, or you need tofigure out how to do email
automation.
These are not topics that Ifind interesting or enjoyable,
(26:45):
but what I do find interestingand enjoyable is the outcome,
meaning when I automatesomething, oh my goodness, the
joy that it brings me to see itwork and save me time and that's
what everybody becomes abusiness owner is.
Eventually, you're not tradingtime for money, right.
Where I can wake up today Iwoke up, two sales showed up in
my website, I mean on my emailinbox right, you're just
(27:06):
generating income withoutactually doing a service.
That's the dream, right.
So I think that that's thebiggest mind shift is I'm
learning and growing in things Inever would have intentionally
chose to seek out.
It's the transition from aclinician's mindset to an
entrepreneur's mindset, which isI have a problem.
Before I solved it for onepatient.
(27:27):
Now I'm solving it for a globalcompany.
I have noticed that the abilityfor my brain to quickly go
through and filter through andsieve through maybe five things
I'm considering all of a suddenI'm getting to the answer
quicker, or I'm falling lessoften, or I'm failing quicker
and getting up quicker, meaningthe failure still happened, but
(27:49):
before it was.
A surgeon said your baby isugly, or I'll never endorse a
product that looks like that andI'd wallow.
Now I'm like that's a no fromthem.
Let's move on and find the onewho understands what I'm trying
to do.
Everybody is not your customer,but the ones that are your
customer will speak it from therooftop.
They'll do a Google reviewwithout asking.
They'll do a referral withoutany incentives.
That's the win.
Tanner Welsch (28:10):
That's how you know you've targeted for sure
your target, your primaryaudience member.
They recognize and understandthe value that you're giving
them, so much so that itaffected their life so much
they're willing to give you areview.
So I loved how you were talkingabout filling out the avatar
form with all the backgroundlike demographics and
psychographics of your targetaudience, and that's what they
(28:31):
talk about in online marketingand stuff too.
Shehla Rooney (28:33):
And Tanner, I don't want to make sure that
whoever's listening, make surethat that is a key takeaway.
So if you're having a lot ofnegative interactions with your
customers, it's because you arenot targeting the right customer
.
And I'll tell you, as abusiness owner, because there's
so much uncertainty withfinances and generating revenue,
we don't want to say no to thatclientele or that funnel of
(28:53):
individuals, because we don'twant to lose that money.
But I am here to say you areactually slowing your revenue
growth by going after the peoplethat are sucking your time and
your joy.
Tanner Welsch (29:05):
Yeah, that's awesome.
You're unique for the show inwhat you're offering and what
you're doing, and so I'm curiouswhat, being a solopreneur of a
business selling a product,being a woman having an ethnic
background Can you talk to usabout that?
What you've experienced, maybesome cultural things going on,
(29:25):
what do you got for us?
Shehla Rooney (29:26):
Let's talk about the positives, the positives of
and again, if anybody'slistening to this, I look
Pakistani because my parentswere Pakistani.
So I got the darker skin andI'll tell you the bias
associated with brown color skincolor is people assume I'm a
doctor.
So I won't lie that.
There are times that I havebeen on a Zoom call with a
doctor who assumed I was also adoctor and he gave me his time
(29:49):
of day because of his own biasand I didn't correct him.
So for the record, I knowthat's funny, but you got to use
what your mama gave you, right.
So there's an assumption thatI'm intelligent and I'll take
that.
But as for the female thing, mygo-knee business is targeting
surgeons and physical therapyclinic owners, which for the
most part that I have seen havebeen middle to later age white
(30:12):
men From a female biasstandpoint.
As a PT, I didn't feel it,because I think it's common
knowledge that there's a lot ofwomen in PT.
But when I became a businessowner and I had a product and I
was pitching it to these men, Iwill tell you I have lost track
of how many people said youreally need to make that device
look better.
I just got all the advice fromthe men because clearly I didn't
(30:33):
know anything about business.
Because I'm a female and evenfor those listening, I had to
change the cadence of my voicewhen I spoke to them, I used my
hands to talk.
I had to tone that down becauseit's very put-offing.
That was probably my bias fromthe female standpoint and my
cultural.
One more thing about mycultural thing is engineers,
(30:54):
lawyers and doctors those areyour three top three job choices
that when you're growing up inthe household you're like these
are your three.
What do you want to do?
When I wanted to become aphysical therapist, my dad was
like I guess that's okay, you'rea female, you're in the health
world.
But fast forward to now.
I'm a business owner, globalimpact, I speak internationally
and my dad is I don't want tosay embarrassed and I don't
(31:16):
think he'll ever listen to RehabRebels.
But he thinks I'm unemployed,there's no set paycheck, I don't
have a brick and mortar storebecause I'm in e-commerce.
I just ship them out.
I just ship them out.
So when people ask him, whatdoes his daughter do?
You can just hear him oh, she'sa physical therapist, she
specializes in geriatrics, she'sgot this.
He never says I'm a businessowner, which is so funny because
my friends' parents would belike she owns her own business
(31:39):
and she's killed.
No, not in my family, it's alittle, let's keep it on the
down low that she's anentrepreneur.
His entrepreneur means no moneyto my dad.
I mean, he supports me in thatdo what you got to do.
But he also thinks, since myhusband's financially, you know
has a full-time job, he's well,at least he's taking care of the
family while Shella doeswhatever she's doing.
But to pat my dad on the back,he's also the one that initiated
(32:02):
the growth mindset from thetime.
I mean, since I was a toddler,I was taught to always excel, be
competitive, do the best youcan.
To this day, I reap the rewardsof that 100%.
Tanner Welsch (32:13):
Yeah, what is a question you wished you were
asked more?
Shehla Rooney (32:17):
From a business standpoint, I wish there were
more people that objected aboutmy business than were supportive
early on.
I think that when people saythey're going to start a
business, most people are like,yeah, you should do it, you're
going to love it.
And they give you the fluffyanswer, yeah, you're going to be
in control of your own schedule.
And I think that that's not thereason you go into business,
(32:37):
because you work harder thanyou've ever worked.
Yes, it feels good and whateverSomeone just recently said.
A really successfulentrepreneur said to me that
they have voluntarily workedbelow the poverty line for years
, meaning to grow their business.
They had to take such a lowsalary right.
It doesn't get advertised thatwhen you're in business, you're
going to make a whole lot lessand work a whole lot more for a
(32:59):
very long time.
Before that changes, before itpivots and goes in the other
direction, I wish people hadsaid why it wouldn't have worked
, meaning when we came up withthe product and we said what it
was going to do.
I mean, obviously the attorneysthat are forming our
corporation are like, yeah, yeah, you should do it.
The bankers are like, yeah,yeah, you know, sounds like a
good plan.
The business mentors, the localfree resources that are
(33:19):
supposed to mentor.
You know, yeah, yeah, yeah, youshould do it.
Marketing companies yeah, yeah,yeah, we're going to find your
customers.
I just wish that there had beenmore naysayers.
Let's tell you why this is notgoing to work.
You do know you're not going tosee money for five years.
You do know that you're goingto be in the hole.
Not that that's a negative.
I think that today I would havebeen able to receive and
(33:40):
overcome all those objections,instead of living the objections
and thinking there were reasonswhy my business was going to
fail.
And it's just like therapy Ifsomeone says my shoulders are
really bad, I can't use anythingthat involves my arms in order
to recover, then we justautomatically regroup and we
come up with something different.
Or if I know a patient hasdementia, I just automatically
change my plan of care, knowingwhat her deficits are.
(34:00):
But I feel like, as a businessowner, you don't know what your
deficits are.
No one's telling you what yourdeficits are.
They all want you to continueon this path without giving you
the I'm going to call it thebird's eye view of all the
reasons why this might not work.
That's not a negative view.
That's a realistic view.
And then you get to start yourbusiness with a realistic view.
Tanner Welsch (34:21):
I 100% agree.
There's so many things.
There are these great aspects ofbeing your own business owner
and getting things going andmaking your own schedule and
calling the shots and likeseeing what patients you want to
see when you want to see them,all that stuff.
But a lot of people don'tunderstand that.
It really seems pretty simpleon the surface and, okay, I'll
(34:41):
take a course or I'll learn orread a book and figure it out.
I'm not saying you won't learnand gain from that, but there's
just so much more to make it allwork and so much of the time,
even Rehab Rebels.
I'm investing in this to keepit going.
You know, recently just got asponsor, a little bit of light
at the end of the tunnel.
Maybe this is all going to payfor itself and work out, but a
(35:10):
lot of people put in years oftheir own time into something
that isn't necessarilygenerating any sort of money and
it's a risk.
It may work out, it may not,and if it does not work out well
, you could always go back totraditional therapy.
And there's two other aspectsof doing something that ideally
you're passionate about and youcan create a business about out
of if you want.
It's the networking and theconnections and the
relationships you'll make andthe skills that you've learned
(35:32):
now from actually going throughall that, even if it doesn't
turn out the way that youthought it was going to 100%
agreed.
Shehla Rooney (35:40):
Like I said, the journey that I've been on, I've
probably gotten at least four tofive degrees, honorary degrees
myself in sales and marketingand finance, and, you know,
entrepreneurship, business,whatever.
These are things that I'm goingto take with me forever in
whatever I do, whether it'sgrowing Goni, whether it's
selling Goni, whether it's doinga different business venture.
Tanner Welsch (36:06):
But yeah, these are skill sets I would never,
never, never have gotten,otherwise.
So what do?
Shehla Rooney (36:08):
you love about your current the reality that
you're in this solopreneur ofGoni?
What do you love about your newreality?
I love talking to customers.
I love when a surgeon or aninnovative PT reaches out to me
on LinkedIn and says hey, I sawyour product online.
It seems pretty cool.
Can we chat?
Yes, because the first twoyears I was reaching out to
everybody and nobody wanted tochat right, nobody wanted to
know about it.
So it's nice to be on thereceiving end of people finding
the product, wanting to learnmore.
(36:28):
Again, I just started gettingword of mouth referrals.
That's been a huge win for me.
I mean congratulations to youon the sponsorship.
I get what it takes for someoneto want to invest in your
business and what you're doingto help your financial journey.
So, yeah, I've just had a lotof wins.
And so what does my day looklike?
God, every day it's somethingdifferent.
(36:49):
I mean, every day it'ssomething.
I'm going to look at QuickBooksand I'm going to look at the
finances and try to move moneyaround to try to cover all the
bills that I have, or it's I'mmanufacturing and I'm boxing and
I'm printing labels.
I mean to be honest with youjust yesterday my headache was.
I had a return.
I'm not going to tell you that.
You know it was a surgeon whosaid return, that you don't need
it, which is so unfortunatebecause the patient found it,
(37:11):
bought it on their own andshared it with the surgeon
because they were so happy, andthen the surgeon said no, so
again, change bias.
But that was oh no.
They got an automated emailfrom my Klaviyo account that
said the device was shipped whenI created the return label.
What a stupid headache.
Today I'm going to figure outwhy did they get the wrong email
sent to them and I'll figure itout.
(37:31):
But every day is different.
I'm constantly listening topodcasts, which is how I found
you.
I'm constantly talking topeople I would never have had
contact with.
I'm reading books that wouldnever have been in my top 100.
Like I said, it's filling mythirst for problem solving,
which, once you become anentrepreneur, all of a sudden
you see all the problems.
When I was a PT, I just sawpatients' issues, but now I see
(37:53):
it everywhere, in everything.
Every day you could be on acustomer call for an hour.
You could be interviewing withsomeone on a podcast.
You could be trying to figureout Klaviyo email automation.
You could be trying to create aLinkedIn post that's
captivating and exciting.
It's scary, but somethingchanges at some point and it
becomes exciting.
Tanner Welsch (38:12):
Wonderful.
I love how you said if youbuild it, they will come is
completely, completely false.
I'm right there with you andyou know, just because you have
a website or a podcast doesn'tmean that people are going to be
knocking at your door to likeset up affiliations and
sponsorships.
I was actually reading anintake form from another guest
that's going to be on the showand she worded it Basically you
(38:34):
eat what you kill.
She's a copywriter, an onlinemarketer, and so part of how she
has to earn money, especiallysince she's her business is just
starting, is reaching out onher own to contact people and
drum up her own business.
People aren't coming to her.
You have to get around thatbarrier, even the mental aspect
out of it, to be able toactually have a successful
(38:55):
business.
Shehla Rooney (38:57):
Well, and if you think about it, when we work for
another PT employer, we show upand we're given a caseload.
We didn't have to go find thoseeight to 10 people and we don't
have to exchange their money.
We already got paid the minutewe showed up for work.
So it's a completely differentballgame.
If I don't reach out, if Idon't connect, if I don't do the
Google ad or I don't create aYouTube video, I don't create a
(39:17):
lead bag, got all these thingsthat are so new to me as a
business owner If I don't dothose things, then they will not
come.
And again, it's always.
You're just constantly pivotingand learning, and pivoting and
learning like, oh, why did thelast five people that bought
they already had their surgery?
Well, I must not be targetingthem right, because I want them
to buy my product before theyhave surgery.
So if they're buying it aftersurgery, then I'm missing
something in my marketing or mycontent that I'm creating.
(39:39):
It's just so interesting to methat there is and I know some
people listening might be likewell, it sounds like nothing's
ever good enough or you're justnever going to reach that
pinnacle, and I think that's thepeople who think like that
right now it's the still they'reon their mind shifter, because
to me I see that as thechallenge of oh that one didn't
work, which means again,einstein right.
He figured out 999 ways that alight bulb does not work, right.
(40:02):
So to me that's what I'm doing.
I found four marketing agenciesthat did not work until I found
the one that did.
It's actually quite to me, it'squite fulfilling.
I feel like all entrepreneurshave that zest for the thirst
for learning something andovercoming something, and I
think that that's fun.
Tanner Welsch (40:18):
For sure.
I guess here, just closing, Iwill say what I've noticed with
talking to people that areinterested in doing
entrepreneurial stuff orbusiness stuff the easiest point
of entry for the rehab field isdoing like a concierge rehab
business, where it's notnecessarily brick and mortar.
They go out to patients homeand treat them, and the best
(40:39):
marketing that I've heardeverybody say over and over
again you mentioned it yourselfthat you just got is word of
mouth.
You don't have to pay for it,you just deliver on your
services and your overall care,and then the rest talks for
itself.
It's like we talked aboutearlier getting that exact
target niche, audience orpatient, whatever they are going
to vouch for you if you'redelivering on everything that
(41:02):
they need.
Okay, I'll get off my littlesoapbox, and is there anything
else that you would like to addbefore we hop off the call?
Shehla Rooney (41:09):
Just all the uncertainty is normal, All the
fails are normal.
There is not one business,whether it's Elon Musk or Jeff
Bezos, or like he took 20 someyears to become what he is.
I think we have this.
You see a successful businessin your town and you just don't
know that.
The journey probably startedseven years before you saw what
you saw, and I think that ittakes longer than you do and I'm
(41:31):
not saying that to stop people.
I'm saying it to make sure youfinancially prepare for it.
You know, and mentally preparefor it.
So, if that's a key thing, Ithink imposter syndrome is
really key.
With health professionals, wethink we don't have any business
being in business, and I thinkthat you need to get over that
and I had a hard time faking ittill I make it.
I always use the word we,especially when my business
partners exited because Isounded so less significant.
(41:51):
I do this so I'd always say we.
But you know it doesn't matterand who cares right?
Who cares how big your thing is?
And when people ask, how isyour business doing, Don't feel
like it's only based on finances.
I just think that you need todefine what success looks for
you and truck it.
Everybody is on the strugglebus.
(42:12):
We all want to help each other.
We're really not in silos.
I don't want to sit there andnot help other people Ask for
help, ask for guidance.
But it's a long road, but it isdefinitely worth it 100%,
Shella.
Tanner Welsch (42:20):
We're going to put all of your info, contact
info in the show notes and Iwould love, for any of the rehab
you know, private practiceowners who are interested and
just want to know more.
Please reach out to ShellaRooney and hit her up.
I'm all about supporting us inthe community and this group of
(42:41):
rehab professionals, so let's doit and make it happen.
Shehla Rooney (42:44):
Yes, and if I could just say, I've learned
that if you don't ask, you don'tget.
So here's my quick ask Anybodylistening who is a private
practice owner or does conciergeor private pay or has a
business that they sell productsagain, reach out to me.
Like I said, either you canhelp your knee replacement
patients or chronic kneepatients.
You could create a revenuestream of bringing in new
clients.
You could use it as a marketingopportunity for surgeons who
(43:04):
are like hey, we're trying tofind someone who has a niche.
I can help with all thosethings, generate revenue and
word of mouth and increaseclientele.
I can help 100% Go team.
Tanner Welsch (43:14):
Yeah, Thanks Shella for coming on, Really
appreciate you.
Intro (43:17):
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 (00:20):
Welcome back to another Rehab Rebels episode.
Our guest today is Shella, a PTwho is the CEO of Goni LLC.
She was born in Liverpool,england, home of the Beatles.
She immigrated to Canada whenshe was a baby and grew up in
Prince Edward Island.
She went to PT school at I hopeI'm pronouncing this right
(00:44):
Dollhouse University in Halifax,nova Scotia, but has practiced
predominantly in the US.
She is a solopreneur of GoKneeLLC.
Her business partners exited in2021.
Goknee is an advanced homeexercise program for the total
knee replacement patient andincludes a patented knee device
(01:04):
and a customized exerciseprogram that is being used
across the US and Canada, kenyaand Australia.
Her professional PT career hasbeen primarily focused on
geriatrics, ranging fromlong-term care, skilled nursing
facilities and home health.
Her first job out of PT schoolwas in the US asa traveling PT.
(01:25):
It was the best way for her tomake money to be off her student
loans, as well as being able totravel around the US.
She fell in love with MiddleTennessee, where she has been
for the past 18 years.
Welcome to the show, shella.
Shehla Rooney (01:39):
Thank you for having me, Tanner.
Tanner Welsch (01:41):
It's a pleasure.
I am not going to waste anytime and I'm going to jump right
into.
How did your entrepreneurialjourney begin?
Shehla Rooney (01:49):
Well, I was going to say it's an unconventional
way, but the more I dig into howbusinesses start, it's usually
necessity is the mother ofinvention.
So I had a patient five yearsago that was struggling from
knee replacement and back then Ithought he shouldn't have been
meaning.
He was younger, he washealthier, he was motivated, he
(02:10):
was compliant, he was your greatknee replacement patient, was
really active, we were doingeverything that we knew to do
and his range of motion wasn'tcoming back.
Let's fast forward.
He went to the surgeon for afollow-up appointment.
Surgeons don't like your range.
We'll probably have to schedulean MUA the manipulation under
anesthesia.
Patient comes back and saysyou've got to be kidding me.
(02:30):
I'm doing everything you'retelling me to.
I'm very compliant, I don'twant another procedure.
And a colleague of mine, afellow PT, very creative.
She went to a local hardwarestore.
She built something, brought itback.
We figured out how we could usethis contraption to get the guy
to do some more aggressiveexercises on his own at home,
knowing he would do them.
And, lo and behold, it worked.
(02:51):
And I will tell you that forpeople that are listening, that
truly have the entrepreneurialbug, they're probably like oh my
God, that's fantastic, but weshelved it.
We put it back in the littleequipment closet with all the
walkers and the platform walkersand all that, and we just put
it away.
Solved a problem for a patient.
And then a couple of monthslater we had another lady and
anyways, now you fast forwardand you realize you have
(03:12):
something that can help a largerpopulation.
It was working and that's whenthe business idea started.
Tanner Welsch (03:19):
For sure.
Awesome, that's brilliant.
Totally makes sense.
There's a problem, you guyscome up with something and solve
it.
Can you give us a 50,000 footview as to the start of the
business, when it started withthis patient, to where you are
now?
And then I want to talk aboutsome struggles that you went
through and how you overcamethem.
Shehla Rooney (03:36):
We were really excited.
Again, I never wanted to be abusiness owner.
I loved being a PT, you know.
So I know a lot of people thatlisten to your show were always
missing something or looking forsomething.
Well, that wasn't me.
But the thing is, once I sawthat there was a possibility of
helping thousands, hundreds ofthousands, maybe millions of
people all over the world withthis product, that's exciting to
me.
I, by nature, want to helppeople, so this was something
(03:59):
that I was very passionate about.
The only issue was that we werevery naive.
So three physical therapistsstarted this company and we all
had the exact same skillset,which is we were really good
clinicians and that's it.
None of us had businessknowledge, none of us had
finance knowledge, none of ushad marketing knowledge, all the
things needed.
What happened was we justthought we have a product, oh,
(04:20):
there's a million people nextyear that are going to have this
surgery.
Let's figure out what we wantto charge for this and we're
going to be zillionaires.
I mean, you know, I know thatsounds foolish.
I mean we didn't say multiplyby a million, but we thought by
about 100,000, maybe 10% of themwill want to do this.
We were so naive, I mean, andso green I mean.
(04:45):
As I say this out loud to you, Iapologize to your listeners who
have been on a business journeyfor a long time, but now fast
forward five years.
I didn't understand the productadoption cycle.
I didn't understand what ittook to get a product to market.
I didn't understand so manythings.
But the consistency is I sawthe value, I saw the potential,
I wanted to help and I was goingto figure it out, and that's
where I'm at today.
I mean, my business partnersexited.
They clearly didn't see thevision that I saw and they
(05:07):
weren't as vested and I meanCOVID was really hard for
everybody, so no fault to theirs.
I don't blame anybody foranything, but I'm so thankful
that the idea was created by mycolleague and that she allowed
me to participate early on,because it's a constant joy
every day.
Tanner Welsch (05:23):
When did you guys start?
When did this businessofficially start?
Shehla Rooney (05:27):
2018.
Tanner Welsch (05:28):
Okay, all right, and then you guys actually
launched the product in 2020,right Right around COVID.
Shehla Rooney (05:34):
Yeah, yeah, and that's because I mean, patenting
is a process, research is aprocess.
So we started the business.
We created a company that hadthe intellectual property, like
we were the business owners ofthe intellectual property.
But yeah, I mean, we were stillhad our clinician hat on really
firmly on our head.
We had no idea that we couldsell this to the consumer
without the research you know,because we were healthcare
(05:57):
providers.
So everything has to beclinically proven, everything
needs to be evidence-based.
We put it on pause aboutselling it and generating any
revenue related to it, evenpeople that wanted to buy it.
So we officially launched.
January 2020 is when I quit myday job because the research had
come out at the end of 2019.
It was amazing.
Better meaning, these doctoratestudents were able to
(06:18):
clinically document why it wasworking so well.
We knew it was, but I'dforgotten some of my knowledge
from back in school.
So they explained thephysiology behind why it was
just so effective and I was like, okay, let's go, it's go time.
Tanner Welsch (06:30):
I think you're the first guest we've had on the
podcast that actually has aproduct, a physical product, and
so I am curious what the stagesof this are and can you talk us
through that, once you get theactual device locked in the
design, then patent, then bringto market.
But can you fill us in on allthat?
Shehla Rooney (06:50):
Gosh, you know you'd think I should be the
expert on this.
I feel like people have 50patents, are the expert.
But I will tell you my personaljourney.
We created something apparentlyit's called a prototype.
You find a patent attorney.
You know they have to do awhole dig deep to make sure
there's not something elsethat's already like this.
That's a nightmare in itself.
Our patent just came through forthe US, meaning it's patent
pending for like years.
(07:11):
I don't know if that's so thatwe keep paying money for it, I
don't know, but anyways, it's afour or five year process for
the patent to come through.
It's costly, it's timely, it'sa lot of back and forth with
engineers and patent attorneys,but during that time you can
tweak the product, itsappearance.
But we did what's called autility patent, meaning it's how
the device is used that ispatented.
(07:32):
So someone could change theappearance of it, but they can't
repeat the functionality of it,because it's a tool that allows
the individual to do thingslike joint mobilizations and
muscle energy techniques.
And so we wanted to patent notthe look of it.
We knew the look of it was lessto be desired and if anyone
goes to the website, yes, I'mgonna tell you my baby is ugly
(07:52):
but my baby is super smart.
But yeah, so that's how you comeup with a prototype.
You start in the patentingprocess.
You figure out what it isthat's unique about your product
, make sure there's nothing elsethat's out there coming down
the pipeline of the patentprocess.
But since it came through,we've tried to change the
appearance of it, not thefunctionality, with minimal
success.
So really, what you see todayis what the original device
(08:14):
looked like.
I mean, we added a few colorsand patent stickers and made in
the USA stuff like that, butit's pretty true to the initial
prototype, which is unheard of.
Apparently is what I've learned.
Tanner Welsch (08:29):
Most people's has a journey and it looks very
different what they're sellingtoday than what it was, but not
for us.
Thinking out loud, I wouldthink, mass producing this and
then bringing it to market.
Can you talk about those?
Shehla Rooney (08:35):
Yes, and let me tell you, we did what you said,
which is actually a mistake.
You don't mass produce untilyou know you have sales.
Okay, yeah yeah, yeah, see, wethought very similar there,
tanner.
We thought you know what weneed to produce this, because
the minute this goes live, Imean you know it's going to be a
product drop and it's going togo crazy like it does on TikTok.
But no, that's not the case.
Just because you have a productand a customer base that should
(08:58):
want it doesn't mean they'regoing to understand the value
and they're going to want toseparate their money for this
product, especially when it'snew, especially when surgeons
and therapists don't know aboutit Remember knee replacements.
It's an older demographic.
These guys want the endorsementof their surgeon or their
health professional.
I mean, I got a 20 year old sonwho was a TikTok guy told me
this is going to work, it'sgoing to work and I'm going to
(09:20):
do it right.
That's not how the oldergeneration works.
So, again, there was a lot oflack of knowledge on our part on
what it takes to cause behaviorchange for an individual to
purchase something with theirown cash that would benefit
their recovery.
And so, yes, we built theinventory, and that's saying of
if you build it, they will comeis not true for Shellarooni and
(09:41):
Kony.
Ok, it was for Kevin Costner,but it was not for us.
But yeah, so we built it.
They did dot com and we had aton of inventory for a very long
time.
I mean, keep in mind also I'mgoing to give myself a little
bit of grace we also didn'tanticipate COVID, ok that's fair
.
Tanner Welsch (09:57):
And then the next following step would be what's
it like bringing a physicalproduct to market?
I mean it, it sounds great youbeing able to get onto an
influencer on TikTok.
Have them market your stuffthat's in the health field.
But tell us your journey.
How did you guys go about it?
Shehla Rooney (10:12):
You know these are such great questions, tanner
.
I don't even know that.
These are things that I'vestopped to think about in a
sequential order.
I think they were all happeningall at the same time.
If you have a product, nowyou're asking yourself who is
going to pay for it?
How is it going to get paid for?
So you have to ask yourself areyou going to go through the
insurance process?
Could we get this covered byMedicare or the large insurances
?
Are we going to go private pay?
(10:32):
And I'll be honest, ourdecision to go for a cash-based
private pay was simply becausewe could not afford the time and
the cost associated with tryingto get it covered by insurance.
Get it covered by insurance.
Just know that you don'tguarantee.
Once an insurance or Medicaredecides to cover it, they get to
dictate what the value of thatproduct is.
So if they decide it's similarto this other neat contraption
(10:54):
and the CPT code for that is$18.79, then all ofa sudden your
product could be devalued andit's done.
I mean, once Medicaredetermines what the cost value
is, every other insurance isgoing to follow along, and I'm
going to say, at the time whenwe looked at it, to even sit in
front of a board of Medicarereviewers for new products.
(11:14):
I mean, it was a six month waitlist and probably a $50,000,
like almost I'm going to calllike an entry ticket, but at the
time we didn't have the time,we didn't have the money and we
were being told by some expertsin the field you don't know what
they're going to value it at atwhich point.
You're done so with combinationof COVID, combination of limited
resources and funding,realizing that you know what we
(11:37):
need to not sell to 1 millionpeople.
We need to sell to the peoplethat will spend money on their
health and find those peoplethat spend money on high quality
sneakers, a good gym membership, so people who are doing
product businesses.
Those are the choices coveredby insurance.
Private pay it's nice whenthings are covered by insurance
because then doctors jump onboard, surgeons will endorse
(11:59):
products that are covered byinsurance.
The negative to cash pay ishealth professional endorsements
are much less.
We have biases as therapists.
We don't want patients to haveto pay money for something and
then surgeons don't like to eventalk to you.
If you have a cash-basedproduct, it lacks validity
because it doesn't have theinsurance backing.
Tanner Welsch (12:15):
Can I ask you how you overcame that barrier?
How did you market towards thatspecific audience who's willing
to spend money on their healthto have better recovery time and
better recovery in general?
Shehla Rooney (12:27):
Another good question.
I wish you were around duringthis journey to ask these
questions.
It's marketing.
We went through probably fivemarketing agencies until we
found the one that asked us theright questions and, like I said
, our naivety was at the time.
There was 700,000 people in theUS having knee replacement
surgery every year and ournumber was we just want to get
to 5% of those, but we didn'tknow how and we didn't know why.
(12:50):
But our thought was we weremaking financial projections
based on if we could just get to5% of the market.
In hindsight I say this outloud to you now how ridiculous
for us to think we were justgoing to randomly find them or
they were going to find us.
So the answer to your questionis meticulous, intentional
marketing, finding who yourideal customer is, knowing
everything about them, likepicturing one human being.
(13:12):
You know Miss Jones is 67 yearsold.
You know what leisureactivities is she doing?
Where is she going to eat?
What kind of activities is shedoing?
How old are her children?
How old are her grandchildren?
What was her job?
What was her education level?
How much did she make duringher lifetime?
Dig deep, because the personwho's on Medicaid, who's had an
amputated foot or is on foodstamps.
(13:34):
They're never going to be myclient, even though, as a
therapist, I want them to be.
The therapy hat is I want toput it in the hands of every
single person that can benefitfrom it.
My business hat is I want toput it in the hands of people
who understand the value of it.
And so we shifted our marketingto target the individuals, the
things that they want to hear.
Do you want to get back on thepickleball court?
(13:55):
Are you wanting to return totraveling?
Are you the reason your spousecan't do the things that you
want to do is because of yourknee pain.
So we changed that, and it washard for me when the marketing
guy that finally got it said tome you're not going after large
masses, you're going after avery niche individual who
understands, who will deviatefrom their surgeon's
recommendation, who willpurchase a product that their
(14:17):
therapist says they've neverheard of is very different,
right.
Tanner Welsch (14:21):
Yeah, that's wild , but it's so true.
Shehla Rooney (14:24):
So true.
So it was hard for me.
It was hard and even to thisday.
In the last two days I probablyget four people reach out on my
website who said I'm on a fixedincome.
I only make this much a month.
My husband died three monthsago and I have to do this
recovery on my own.
Can you give me one for free?
I mean, again, my therapy hat'slike yes, let me figure out how
to do that.
But I did that for the firstthree years and my business
(14:46):
partners had to exit.
We were in financial ruin.
I mean, I cannot do thatanymore.
So now my therapy hat's onreally firm and I have to say I
wish I could help you out.
Why don't you call me?
We'll have a free consultationabout your knee replacement
recovery and I can give you somesuggestions on what to do.
I can give you a discount.
I can offer you free shipping.
I'll give you something.
But I can't just give away.
(15:07):
It's a business.
Tanner Welsch (15:09):
Exactly.
Shehla Rooney (15:10):
So it's been hard , it's been really hard.
Tanner Welsch (15:12):
That's something I found too, and you pointed
this out right from the startthe rehab professionals.
In general, we are not educatedor have the experience,
especially right out of school,with business related things.
There's so many things,marketing, sales, and then there
is I don't know if it's acultural bias or this feeling of
(15:33):
should I really charge for this?
Can I charge this much?
Is that okay?
I don't know what you'd callthat.
What was that like for you?
What was your experience withall?
Shehla Rooney (15:41):
that that's a great point and I think anybody
who's listening, who's thinkingabout a product business.
You keep thinking about costplus price, meaning the cost of
the materials to build myproduct, which, again, if you go
to the website, the materialsare simplest.
You keep thinking that becauseyou know how much it costs to
buy the materials, you shouldadd a little bit of a surcharge
and that should be your pricepoint.
That's what I thought.
(16:01):
I thought it should only costthis much, very small amount.
But what your product is is nota cost plus value.
It's value-based pricing,meaning you're reducing a time
that person has spent in pain,You're getting them back to work
quicker, You're allowing themto travel faster, You're
allowing them to learn to playpickleball they are depressed
and devastated from years ofknee pain and you're giving them
(16:25):
the hope of getting back todoing the things that they want
to do.
So a faster recovery, less pain, more hope that's value, not
PVC and pool noodle.
I mean, I probably went throughat least six different pricing
models before I got one that Iunderstood and my gut felt good
about, and then I met thatmarketing team that I told you
(16:45):
helped me connect all the dotsand they said the same thing.
This is a goldmine.
You have something that reduces, not just a pain point, real
pain.
And in marketing you're taughtthat if it's too low you
eliminate a whole bunch ofpeople because they think
there's no value.
If it's too high, you have thepeople that can't afford it.
But again, if you're in themiddle you get nobody.
You need to pick what you want.
(17:07):
I said what do you think Ishould do?
And after talking to me formonths, we need to do a high
ticket item and it took a longtime for me to swallow that.
But he created a website aroundhigh ticket item.
He created branding andmessaging high ticket item.
So you know I'm no longerselling a knee device, I'm
selling a knee recovery program.
Our exercise program is from my26 years of experience.
It's all the research I've read, it's all the evidence I've
(17:29):
gathered, it's all the anecdotal, it's all the patients I've
treated.
The device, yes, was built at ahardware store, but the program
that comes with it, the safety,that's what they're buying, and
so value-based versus cost pluspricing is what you have to
consider in a product business.
Tanner Welsch (17:44):
I love that.
I think it's interesting too,some things that maybe we don't
consider, especially not beingin the business field.
Is you're talking about?
How do you price the productand some additional things.
I'm thinking about is obviouslyyour time employees time but
also budgets for marketing orlike things that we may not
actually understand, that arebaked into a lot of the brands
that we purchase, that we like,so they can have money to get
(18:07):
out there and get the marketingout there too.
Shehla Rooney (18:09):
We almost had three years of no revenue.
Oh, and my therapy hat was onfirmly, so I was giving a
hundred percent discounts toanybody who asked, because I
just wanted to get it in thehands of any patient to use it.
So if you had said I can'tafford it, I would have been
like it's okay, Tanner, you useit, you give me a testimonial
and we're going to call it.
Even that can't work for verylong.
(18:30):
So to me you're right.
We were in so much debt and on apersonal level I don't try to
live in debt and so it wasreally hard.
I didn't know what goodbusiness debt was or bad
business debt, and so we werelearning all that.
But you're exactly right, I didnot have an undergraduate in
business before I got into PTschool.
I did not take any businessclasses during my PT journey, so
(18:50):
we struggled on all fronts, andfor those of you out there that
are looking to start a productbusiness, I urge you to not
partner with three like-mindedPTs.
We only offered one uniquestrength and we all three had it
.
If I could go back and have acrystal ball, I would have been.
I need someone that hasfinancial funding, business loan
knowledge.
(19:10):
I need someone who hasmarketing sales knowledge.
So we were a company of onlyone strong suit, and that does
not equal an easy road 100%.
Tanner Welsch (19:22):
I couldn't have said it any better you need
marketing, you need finance, youneed all that, and if somebody
already has that experience,great.
Shehla Rooney (19:28):
And let's also for your audience listening.
This product can be used, likeyou said in the introduction, in
Kenya, in Australia.
So I don't need a marketingcompany that knows how to market
a local boutique.
I need a company who knows howto market an e-commerce,
cash-based, internationalbusiness.
And guess what?
(19:48):
I live in a small town inMiddle Tennessee.
How naive of me to think thatevery marketing agency would
know how to do that.
I mean, just like in physicaltherapy, someone comes to me
with a pelvic floor dysfunction.
It was not my strong suit,right?
If you gave me a pediatric, achild with something, it wasn't
my strong suit.
I was a geriatric specialist.
So to me, how naive of me tonot know what to ask the
(20:11):
marketing company.
And shame on the marketingcompany for not making sure they
understood what I needed sothey could give me what it
needed to go both ways.
Tanner Welsch (20:20):
And we're talking about a lot of crazy stuff.
And that's my next follow upquestion what is a personal
struggle that you went through,that you can think of, that
you're willing to share alongthis journey, and how did you
get through that?
Shehla Rooney (20:31):
Goodness, I mean, my brain is having a multitude
of things come to the surface.
How about I'll do a 30-secondround robin of all the personal
things and you decide which oneyou think would be advantageous
to discuss?
Obviously, I mentioned that2020, I quit my day job and
COVID happens financial ruin.
Right there In the middle ofCOVID, my husband asks for a
(20:53):
divorce after 25 years and threechildren.
Covid was hard on him in adifferent way.
He was a nursing homeadministrator, so very difficult
.
And then, at the end of 2020,my business partners are whoa.
We're now three years in andwe're not making any money, so
we don't know if we can continuethis in the middle of 2021.
They exit the two of them.
So now not only am I in debt,but I have to figure out how to
(21:13):
buy the two of them out Again,with possibly my marriage ending
and no financial money.
I got children that are missingtheir baseball season and
missing graduation.
I had two kids that weregraduated 2020 and 2021 from
high school.
So that's happening.
And then I'm dealing with thechildren, dealing with
depression and anxiety becauseof what's happening in our
personal lives.
So again, I felt there was alot of reasons to not continue.
(21:37):
Let me put it that way.
I just felt there was a lot ofreasons that they were saying
nobody wants to buy your product.
Doctors and surgeons andtherapists aren't endorsing it.
Marketing is not working.
But it was the wrong marketing.
You know you've got businesspartners that don't see value in
it.
They want to exit.
You know I have a spouse that'ssaying you know, our family
life is not working.
I mean, I don't know, there aresome good ones right there.
Tanner Welsch (21:59):
I love your honesty and sharing your journey
with us.
Thank you for that.
Appreciate you.
Shehla Rooney (22:07):
Yes, I would like to say for the audience
listening, the good thing.
Right now 2024, my husband andI have reunited.
We're back together.
My family's united, stilldealing with some mental health
issues with my children, buteverything's good.
My business partners again liveliterally two miles from my
home, so we have a goodrelationship.
They don't want to be on board,but they're seeing the traction
that Goni's getting and they'rerealizing they jumped ship when
(22:27):
it was difficult.
On a positive note, yeah, therewas a lot of struggle and strife
, but I think that what I don'tgive myself enough credit for
was I have a vision, I can seewhat Goni is going to be and,
yes, there's lots of things thatare speed bumps along the way.
You get to have a choice on howyou handle every fail, every
(22:48):
challenge, every struggle, thethings that were important to me
I fought for.
Also, part of Goni's revenueissues was me working, making a
concerted effort to work on mymarriage.
You can't grow a business andwork all the time, even though I
wanted to, when you're tryingto fix something like that.
So again, it was part of mylack of revenue and it was a
(23:10):
struggle for me.
That imposter syndrome ofeverything should be about the
business.
But that's not true, because youhave to ask yourself your why
right?
Why am I doing this?
It's for the financial freedom,the flexibility to travel with
my family, to grow old with myspouse.
So these people that were whocares?
If they buy your product andthey want to hang clothes on it,
you just sell, sell, sell.
It didn't feel right andluckily I had a few key people
that were like you, do what'sright for Shell, aruni and
(23:33):
everything else will fall intoplace.
And if you have to press pause,it's not going to be to the
doom of your company, and I'mthankful for the people that
told me that, because there's alot of people speaking in your
ear.
You got to work 14 hour daysand give up everything in life
in order to succeed and it's nottrue.
That's their bias.
Tanner Welsch (23:49):
That was my obvious question to ask you was
why did you keep going?
Why didn't you quit?
Is what I was thinking.
Shehla Rooney (23:55):
Yeah, no, I thought about it all the time.
I mean, you know and I thoughtabout it because I was I'm not
going to be able to financiallysupport this anymore Because my
husband was the one working thereal job and had the health
insurance so I could do thisdream thing how am I going to
co-parent and raise three kidsOwning a business that you're
passionate about is?
I think about it all the time.
I go to bed thinking about it,I wake up thinking about it.
I love working on the weekendsabout it because I love it, and
(24:17):
so part of me was I think I'mgoing to have to go back to a
nine to five job, weekends off,so I can be there for my kids.
But I'm so thankful that mychildren are, you know, now
they're 22, 20 and 14.
But at the time I remembersaying to them I think Goni may
not work out, my businesspartners have left, dad and I
are working on this, and I justremember my kids saying are you
kidding me?
They knew how excited I was.
They'd heard about every win.
(24:38):
I mean, we're big toppers in myfamily, and so I just remember,
especially the two older ones,saying you can't not do it, and
then my son.
Well, it's going to be yourlegacy.
It's the reason I'm going to beable to retire young.
He was joking, but he's goingto reap the benefits of this
successful journey.
But yeah, I will say that if Ididn't have the support of my
kids saying, we're good, we loveseeing you be passionate about
(24:58):
something, because if they hadsaid, yeah, we need you, I would
have made the self-sacrificethat moms make and I would have
done the right thing to get theregular paycheck with the
regular hours and I would haveput myself back in that box and
I would have been okay.
But I'm thankful that thatdidn't happen.
Tanner Welsch (25:13):
You need to write a book about this.
Shehla Rooney (25:17):
You have no idea so many things, but you know
what I also encourage businessowners.
There are opportunitiespresented every day.
Sometimes we're not open toseeing them.
Despite all the strife I wasgoing through, I also was doing
a personal journey and you'vetalked about this which I
applaud you for being open andvulnerable all the time.
I was doing counseling.
I was doing even hypnotherapyand meditation.
I was doing things that, let'ssay, five years ago I would have
(25:39):
called fluff.
I was a very black and whitehuman being.
I did a lot of reading andgrowing.
I'm very thankful for what wewent through because it caused a
deep dive into a personaljourney of growth and because of
that, I was seeingopportunities everywhere Instead
of seeing reasons to not pursue.
You can either wallow and belike everything is saying don't
(26:00):
do this, or it's saying workharder, find the right target
audience.
My marketing ramped up big timewhen I felt the urgency of not
having my financial support ofmy husband.
Tanner Welsch (26:11):
Let's talk about mindset.
How did aspects of your mindsetshift from when you started
this business journey till today, and talk about the story and
transition there.
Shehla Rooney (26:22):
I would have said I had a growth mindset before.
I've always wanted to learn andgrow, but I always was
selective in what I chose tolearn and grow in, whereas since
I've started the business,those topics are not selected by
me.
You have to understandQuickBooks, or you need to learn
about Stripe, or you need tofigure out how to do email
automation.
These are not topics that Ifind interesting or enjoyable,
(26:45):
but what I do find interestingand enjoyable is the outcome,
meaning when I automatesomething, oh my goodness, the
joy that it brings me to see itwork and save me time and that's
what everybody becomes abusiness owner is.
Eventually, you're not tradingtime for money, right.
Where I can wake up today Iwoke up, two sales showed up in
my website, I mean on my emailinbox right, you're just
(27:06):
generating income withoutactually doing a service.
That's the dream, right.
So I think that that's thebiggest mind shift is I'm
learning and growing in things Inever would have intentionally
chose to seek out.
It's the transition from aclinician's mindset to an
entrepreneur's mindset, which isI have a problem.
Before I solved it for onepatient.
(27:27):
Now I'm solving it for a globalcompany.
I have noticed that the abilityfor my brain to quickly go
through and filter through andsieve through maybe five things
I'm considering all of a suddenI'm getting to the answer
quicker, or I'm falling lessoften, or I'm failing quicker
and getting up quicker, meaningthe failure still happened, but
(27:49):
before it was.
A surgeon said your baby isugly, or I'll never endorse a
product that looks like that andI'd wallow.
Now I'm like that's a no fromthem.
Let's move on and find the onewho understands what I'm trying
to do.
Everybody is not your customer,but the ones that are your
customer will speak it from therooftop.
They'll do a Google reviewwithout asking.
They'll do a referral withoutany incentives.
That's the win.
Tanner Welsch (28:10):
That's how you know you've targeted for sure
your target, your primaryaudience member.
They recognize and understandthe value that you're giving
them, so much so that itaffected their life so much
they're willing to give you areview.
So I loved how you were talkingabout filling out the avatar
form with all the backgroundlike demographics and
psychographics of your targetaudience, and that's what they
(28:31):
talk about in online marketingand stuff too.
Shehla Rooney (28:33):
And Tanner, I don't want to make sure that
whoever's listening, make surethat that is a key takeaway.
So if you're having a lot ofnegative interactions with your
customers, it's because you arenot targeting the right customer
.
And I'll tell you, as abusiness owner, because there's
so much uncertainty withfinances and generating revenue,
we don't want to say no to thatclientele or that funnel of
(28:53):
individuals, because we don'twant to lose that money.
But I am here to say you areactually slowing your revenue
growth by going after the peoplethat are sucking your time and
your joy.
Tanner Welsch (29:05):
Yeah, that's awesome.
You're unique for the show inwhat you're offering and what
you're doing, and so I'm curiouswhat, being a solopreneur of a
business selling a product,being a woman having an ethnic
background Can you talk to usabout that?
What you've experienced, maybesome cultural things going on,
(29:25):
what do you got for us?
Shehla Rooney (29:26):
Let's talk about the positives, the positives of
and again, if anybody'slistening to this, I look
Pakistani because my parentswere Pakistani.
So I got the darker skin andI'll tell you the bias
associated with brown color skincolor is people assume I'm a
doctor.
So I won't lie that.
There are times that I havebeen on a Zoom call with a
doctor who assumed I was also adoctor and he gave me his time
(29:49):
of day because of his own biasand I didn't correct him.
So for the record, I knowthat's funny, but you got to use
what your mama gave you, right.
So there's an assumption thatI'm intelligent and I'll take
that.
But as for the female thing, mygo-knee business is targeting
surgeons and physical therapyclinic owners, which for the
most part that I have seen havebeen middle to later age white
(30:12):
men From a female biasstandpoint.
As a PT, I didn't feel it,because I think it's common
knowledge that there's a lot ofwomen in PT.
But when I became a businessowner and I had a product and I
was pitching it to these men, Iwill tell you I have lost track
of how many people said youreally need to make that device
look better.
I just got all the advice fromthe men because clearly I didn't
(30:33):
know anything about business.
Because I'm a female and evenfor those listening, I had to
change the cadence of my voicewhen I spoke to them, I used my
hands to talk.
I had to tone that down becauseit's very put-offing.
That was probably my bias fromthe female standpoint and my
cultural.
One more thing about mycultural thing is engineers,
(30:54):
lawyers and doctors those areyour three top three job choices
that when you're growing up inthe household you're like these
are your three.
What do you want to do?
When I wanted to become aphysical therapist, my dad was
like I guess that's okay, you'rea female, you're in the health
world.
But fast forward to now.
I'm a business owner, globalimpact, I speak internationally
and my dad is I don't want tosay embarrassed and I don't
(31:16):
think he'll ever listen to RehabRebels.
But he thinks I'm unemployed,there's no set paycheck, I don't
have a brick and mortar storebecause I'm in e-commerce.
I just ship them out.
I just ship them out.
So when people ask him, whatdoes his daughter do?
You can just hear him oh, she'sa physical therapist, she
specializes in geriatrics, she'sgot this.
He never says I'm a businessowner, which is so funny because
my friends' parents would belike she owns her own business
(31:39):
and she's killed.
No, not in my family, it's alittle, let's keep it on the
down low that she's anentrepreneur.
His entrepreneur means no moneyto my dad.
I mean, he supports me in thatdo what you got to do.
But he also thinks, since myhusband's financially, you know
has a full-time job, he's well,at least he's taking care of the
family while Shella doeswhatever she's doing.
But to pat my dad on the back,he's also the one that initiated
(32:02):
the growth mindset from thetime.
I mean, since I was a toddler,I was taught to always excel, be
competitive, do the best youcan.
To this day, I reap the rewardsof that 100%.
Tanner Welsch (32:13):
Yeah, what is a question you wished you were
asked more?
Shehla Rooney (32:17):
From a business standpoint, I wish there were
more people that objected aboutmy business than were supportive
early on.
I think that when people saythey're going to start a
business, most people are like,yeah, you should do it, you're
going to love it.
And they give you the fluffyanswer, yeah, you're going to be
in control of your own schedule.
And I think that that's not thereason you go into business,
(32:37):
because you work harder thanyou've ever worked.
Yes, it feels good and whateverSomeone just recently said.
A really successfulentrepreneur said to me that
they have voluntarily workedbelow the poverty line for years
, meaning to grow their business.
They had to take such a lowsalary right.
It doesn't get advertised thatwhen you're in business, you're
going to make a whole lot lessand work a whole lot more for a
(32:59):
very long time.
Before that changes, before itpivots and goes in the other
direction, I wish people hadsaid why it wouldn't have worked
, meaning when we came up withthe product and we said what it
was going to do.
I mean, obviously the attorneysthat are forming our
corporation are like, yeah, yeah, you should do it.
The bankers are like, yeah,yeah, you know, sounds like a
good plan.
The business mentors, the localfree resources that are
(33:19):
supposed to mentor.
You know, yeah, yeah, yeah, youshould do it.
Marketing companies yeah, yeah,yeah, we're going to find your
customers.
I just wish that there had beenmore naysayers.
Let's tell you why this is notgoing to work.
You do know you're not going tosee money for five years.
You do know that you're goingto be in the hole.
Not that that's a negative.
I think that today I would havebeen able to receive and
(33:40):
overcome all those objections,instead of living the objections
and thinking there were reasonswhy my business was going to
fail.
And it's just like therapy Ifsomeone says my shoulders are
really bad, I can't use anythingthat involves my arms in order
to recover, then we justautomatically regroup and we
come up with something different.
Or if I know a patient hasdementia, I just automatically
change my plan of care, knowingwhat her deficits are.
(34:00):
But I feel like, as a businessowner, you don't know what your
deficits are.
No one's telling you what yourdeficits are.
They all want you to continueon this path without giving you
the I'm going to call it thebird's eye view of all the
reasons why this might not work.
That's not a negative view.
That's a realistic view.
And then you get to start yourbusiness with a realistic view.
Tanner Welsch (34:21):
I 100% agree.
There's so many things.
There are these great aspects ofbeing your own business owner
and getting things going andmaking your own schedule and
calling the shots and likeseeing what patients you want to
see when you want to see them,all that stuff.
But a lot of people don'tunderstand that.
It really seems pretty simpleon the surface and, okay, I'll
(34:41):
take a course or I'll learn orread a book and figure it out.
I'm not saying you won't learnand gain from that, but there's
just so much more to make it allwork and so much of the time,
even Rehab Rebels.
I'm investing in this to keepit going.
You know, recently just got asponsor, a little bit of light
at the end of the tunnel.
Maybe this is all going to payfor itself and work out, but a
(35:10):
lot of people put in years oftheir own time into something
that isn't necessarilygenerating any sort of money and
it's a risk.
It may work out, it may not,and if it does not work out well
, you could always go back totraditional therapy.
And there's two other aspectsof doing something that ideally
you're passionate about and youcan create a business about out
of if you want.
It's the networking and theconnections and the
relationships you'll make andthe skills that you've learned
(35:32):
now from actually going throughall that, even if it doesn't
turn out the way that youthought it was going to 100%
agreed.
Shehla Rooney (35:40):
Like I said, the journey that I've been on, I've
probably gotten at least four tofive degrees, honorary degrees
myself in sales and marketingand finance, and, you know,
entrepreneurship, business,whatever.
These are things that I'm goingto take with me forever in
whatever I do, whether it'sgrowing Goni, whether it's
selling Goni, whether it's doinga different business venture.
Tanner Welsch (36:06):
But yeah, these are skill sets I would never,
never, never have gotten,otherwise.
So what do?
Shehla Rooney (36:08):
you love about your current the reality that
you're in this solopreneur ofGoni?
What do you love about your newreality?
I love talking to customers.
I love when a surgeon or aninnovative PT reaches out to me
on LinkedIn and says hey, I sawyour product online.
It seems pretty cool.
Can we chat?
Yes, because the first twoyears I was reaching out to
everybody and nobody wanted tochat right, nobody wanted to
know about it.
So it's nice to be on thereceiving end of people finding
the product, wanting to learnmore.
(36:28):
Again, I just started gettingword of mouth referrals.
That's been a huge win for me.
I mean congratulations to youon the sponsorship.
I get what it takes for someoneto want to invest in your
business and what you're doingto help your financial journey.
So, yeah, I've just had a lotof wins.
And so what does my day looklike?
God, every day it's somethingdifferent.
(36:49):
I mean, every day it'ssomething.
I'm going to look at QuickBooksand I'm going to look at the
finances and try to move moneyaround to try to cover all the
bills that I have, or it's I'mmanufacturing and I'm boxing and
I'm printing labels.
I mean to be honest with youjust yesterday my headache was.
I had a return.
I'm not going to tell you that.
You know it was a surgeon whosaid return, that you don't need
it, which is so unfortunatebecause the patient found it,
(37:11):
bought it on their own andshared it with the surgeon
because they were so happy, andthen the surgeon said no, so
again, change bias.
But that was oh no.
They got an automated emailfrom my Klaviyo account that
said the device was shipped whenI created the return label.
What a stupid headache.
Today I'm going to figure outwhy did they get the wrong email
sent to them and I'll figure itout.
(37:31):
But every day is different.
I'm constantly listening topodcasts, which is how I found
you.
I'm constantly talking topeople I would never have had
contact with.
I'm reading books that wouldnever have been in my top 100.
Like I said, it's filling mythirst for problem solving,
which, once you become anentrepreneur, all of a sudden
you see all the problems.
When I was a PT, I just sawpatients' issues, but now I see
(37:53):
it everywhere, in everything.
Every day you could be on acustomer call for an hour.
You could be interviewing withsomeone on a podcast.
You could be trying to figureout Klaviyo email automation.
You could be trying to create aLinkedIn post that's
captivating and exciting.
It's scary, but somethingchanges at some point and it
becomes exciting.
Tanner Welsch (38:12):
Wonderful.
I love how you said if youbuild it, they will come is
completely, completely false.
I'm right there with you andyou know, just because you have
a website or a podcast doesn'tmean that people are going to be
knocking at your door to likeset up affiliations and
sponsorships.
I was actually reading anintake form from another guest
that's going to be on the showand she worded it Basically you
(38:34):
eat what you kill.
She's a copywriter, an onlinemarketer, and so part of how she
has to earn money, especiallysince she's her business is just
starting, is reaching out onher own to contact people and
drum up her own business.
People aren't coming to her.
You have to get around thatbarrier, even the mental aspect
out of it, to be able toactually have a successful
(38:55):
business.
Shehla Rooney (38:57):
Well, and if you think about it, when we work for
another PT employer, we show upand we're given a caseload.
We didn't have to go find thoseeight to 10 people and we don't
have to exchange their money.
We already got paid the minutewe showed up for work.
So it's a completely differentballgame.
If I don't reach out, if Idon't connect, if I don't do the
Google ad or I don't create aYouTube video, I don't create a
(39:17):
lead bag, got all these thingsthat are so new to me as a
business owner If I don't dothose things, then they will not
come.
And again, it's always.
You're just constantly pivotingand learning, and pivoting and
learning like, oh, why did thelast five people that bought
they already had their surgery?
Well, I must not be targetingthem right, because I want them
to buy my product before theyhave surgery.
So if they're buying it aftersurgery, then I'm missing
something in my marketing or mycontent that I'm creating.
(39:39):
It's just so interesting to methat there is and I know some
people listening might be likewell, it sounds like nothing's
ever good enough or you're justnever going to reach that
pinnacle, and I think that's thepeople who think like that
right now it's the still they'reon their mind shifter, because
to me I see that as thechallenge of oh that one didn't
work, which means again,einstein right.
He figured out 999 ways that alight bulb does not work, right.
(40:02):
So to me that's what I'm doing.
I found four marketing agenciesthat did not work until I found
the one that did.
It's actually quite to me, it'squite fulfilling.
I feel like all entrepreneurshave that zest for the thirst
for learning something andovercoming something, and I
think that that's fun.
Tanner Welsch (40:18):
For sure.
I guess here, just closing, Iwill say what I've noticed with
talking to people that areinterested in doing
entrepreneurial stuff orbusiness stuff the easiest point
of entry for the rehab field isdoing like a concierge rehab
business, where it's notnecessarily brick and mortar.
They go out to patients homeand treat them, and the best
(40:39):
marketing that I've heardeverybody say over and over
again you mentioned it yourselfthat you just got is word of
mouth.
You don't have to pay for it,you just deliver on your
services and your overall care,and then the rest talks for
itself.
It's like we talked aboutearlier getting that exact
target niche, audience orpatient, whatever they are going
to vouch for you if you'redelivering on everything that
(41:02):
they need.
Okay, I'll get off my littlesoapbox, and is there anything
else that you would like to addbefore we hop off the call?
Shehla Rooney (41:09):
Just all the uncertainty is normal, All the
fails are normal.
There is not one business,whether it's Elon Musk or Jeff
Bezos, or like he took 20 someyears to become what he is.
I think we have this.
You see a successful businessin your town and you just don't
know that.
The journey probably startedseven years before you saw what
you saw, and I think that ittakes longer than you do and I'm
(41:31):
not saying that to stop people.
I'm saying it to make sure youfinancially prepare for it.
You know, and mentally preparefor it.
So, if that's a key thing, Ithink imposter syndrome is
really key.
With health professionals, wethink we don't have any business
being in business, and I thinkthat you need to get over that
and I had a hard time faking ittill I make it.
I always use the word we,especially when my business
partners exited because Isounded so less significant.
(41:51):
I do this so I'd always say we.
But you know it doesn't matterand who cares right?
Who cares how big your thing is?
And when people ask, how isyour business doing, Don't feel
like it's only based on finances.
I just think that you need todefine what success looks for
you and truck it.
Everybody is on the strugglebus.
(42:12):
We all want to help each other.
We're really not in silos.
I don't want to sit there andnot help other people Ask for
help, ask for guidance.
But it's a long road, but it isdefinitely worth it 100%,
Shella.
Tanner Welsch (42:20):
We're going to put all of your info, contact
info in the show notes and Iwould love, for any of the rehab
you know, private practiceowners who are interested and
just want to know more.
Please reach out to ShellaRooney and hit her up.
I'm all about supporting us inthe community and this group of
(42:41):
rehab professionals, so let's doit and make it happen.
Shehla Rooney (42:44):
Yes, and if I could just say, I've learned
that if you don't ask, you don'tget.
So here's my quick ask Anybodylistening who is a private
practice owner or does conciergeor private pay or has a
business that they sell productsagain, reach out to me.
Like I said, either you canhelp your knee replacement
patients or chronic kneepatients.
You could create a revenuestream of bringing in new
clients.
You could use it as a marketingopportunity for surgeons who
(43:04):
are like hey, we're trying tofind someone who has a niche.
I can help with all thosethings, generate revenue and
word of mouth and increaseclientele.
I can help 100% Go team.
Tanner Welsch (43:14):
Yeah, Thanks Shella for coming on, Really
appreciate you.
Intro (43:17):
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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