August 26, 2025 • 58 mins
Ever feel like you’re stuck in the daily grind of your private practice? Dr. Natalie Tilton, a Division 1 athlete, multi-business owner, and mother of two, is proof that you can break free and build a life of purpose. In this inspiring conversation, she shares her journey from a collegiate athlete to a four-clinic physical therapy empire owner.
Natalie reveals the surprising "Forrest Gump" calling that inspired her career and the heartbreaking moment with her father-in-law that fuels her mission to ensure no one in her world ever feels unseen or unheard. She also unpacks the power of delegation, from small tasks like walking the dog to big, legacy-building projects, and how leveraging virtual assistants and AI tools like Jane has given her the time and freedom to focus on what truly matters.
This episode is packed with insights for any private practice owner looking to reclaim their time, find their purpose, and create a joyful, successful business.
In this episode, you’ll discover:
- The "Forrest Gump" Inspiration: How a pivotal movie scene sparked Natalie's passion for helping people break through their limitations.
- The Power of Delegation: Why entrusting tasks to others isn't about giving away "crap," but about empowering your team and buying back your time.
- Finding Freedom in a Storm: The mindset of a collegiate athlete applied to entrepreneurship and how to embrace challenges as a way to get stronger.
- The Secret to Building a Thriving Team: Why small gestures, like handing out spearmint gum, can have a huge impact.
- AI vs. VA: How Dr. Tilton leverages both artificial intelligence and virtual assistants to create a seamless, human-centered practice.
Links & Resources:
- Dr. Natalie Tilton’s Instagram: @abilityallies
- Jane App: https://abilityallies.janeapp.com/
- Book Mentioned: Building a StoryBrand: Clarify Your Message So Customers Will Listen by Donald Miller
This episode is packed with insights for any private practice owner looking to reclaim their time, find their purpose, and create a joyful, successful business.
Virtual Rockstars specialize in helping support or replace all non-clinical roles.
Learn how a Virtual Rockstar can help scale your physical therapy practice.
Subscribe here to our completely free Stress-Free PT Newsletter for your weekly dose of joy.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, rockstars, what do you get when you cross a
Division?
I athlete, a mother of two, amulti-business owner with a
heart the size of New Hampshireyou get Dr Natalie Tilton.
In this episode, natalie shareshow grit gum and game-changing
virtual assistants helped herscale to four physical therapy
clinics, while launchingwellness events, honoring
(00:21):
30-year legacies and raising twotoddlers with her
entrepreneurial husband.
But what really sets Natalieapart is her soul deep mission
to never let anyone in her worldfeel stuck or unseen, from a
life-changing moment with herfather-in-law to a Forrest Gump
inspiring.
Calling Natalie is proof thatthe personal pain can fuel a
(00:45):
professional purpose.
So we're going to unpack howshe stays sane when she breaks
down and how she creates joy forher team, her patients and
herself.
So if you're a private practiceowner who wants to create more
time and meaning in your life,this one's for you.
Enjoy the show.
Enjoy the show.
(01:06):
All right, natalie, I am soexcited for the world to get to
know you.
Let's get it all started.
Set the table for the audience.
Tell us about your privatepractice, your organization and
why you do what you do.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
Absolutely, and thank you so much, will, for having
me.
I really appreciate it.
I loved meeting you at the P3PTconference and we just hit off
that vibe and I'm reallyappreciative to come onto your
podcast first of all.
So thank you.
Yeah, so I am Dr Natalie Tilton.
I own Ability Allies PhysicalTherapy.
We are a private practice onthe seacoast of New Hampshire
(01:44):
and we now have four locations,which is a recent growth that
just happened.
I have been a physicaltherapist for a bit of over 18
years.
I graduated from NortheasternUniversity in Boston and I
really had always had anentrepreneurial bug in me and
(02:07):
five years ago I said you knowwhat this is it?
I want to help people.
I want to grow a practice andreally establish something that
I can help a lot of people outthere, and I'm really happy to
say that it's growing and it'sgoing very well.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
Yeah, it's amazing and it's so fun because you're
one of those entrepreneursentrepreneurs for this season,
ai versus VA.
I was very specific on lookingfor some people who just had
lots of irons in lots of fires.
So, briefly, tell the audienceall the businesses that you and
your spouse run not that it'snot going to detail, just like
count them out run, not thatlet's not go into detail, just
(02:47):
like count them out Uh, four, sothere's four companies, maybe
five.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
Yeah, it could be five.
Yeah, he could be hiding one,like knowing him, yeah.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
So you have this multi-location business.
He has three yes, your husbandhas three and you and then you
have two, two little boys.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
Correct.
Yes, yeah.
And then, uh, properties toolike properties, properties to
manage um whole, like brick andmortar businesses he, yeah.
And then properties too Likeproperties to manage whole, like
brick and mortar businesses hehas three, I have one, and then
we have a property that we worktogether and then, yeah, two
little boys.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
Yeah, ages again.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
Two and four.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
So I want the ages, because when you hear two, I
know there's audience memberswho are like groaning, like oh
that's so much.
Yes, and my question, becauseobviously that's why I want you
on the show.
You couldn't be where you areif you weren't a master of
creating space and freedom.
As a addicted entrepreneur likeme.
You are then filling it withnew things and that's why that
(03:40):
resume of busyness starts tolook insane.
But it's really about howyou've created freedom, which
we're going to get into in alittle bit.
Remember, freedom isn't justpossible, it's kind of the point
.
If this episode helped you laugh, learn or at least cancel one
meeting, go ahead and hitsubscribe, share it with your
overworked friend and leave areview.
I read every single one,usually while avoiding emails.
(04:02):
Want more behind the scenesstuff?
Then hit us up on the socials.
Now go delegate something andtake a nap.
You've earned it.
But the thing I want theaudience to know right now,
natalie, is why Not?
Why all the busyness?
Like what drives you deep down?
Like what is it that put you ina position where you care as
much as you do about yourbusiness and businesses to push
(04:24):
all this forward?
Speaker 2 (04:26):
Yeah, I mean, that's an excellent question and it
really comes into a sense ofeven, honestly, will.
When I was younger, every youknow the little participation
awards or the you know trackawards or field hockey awards it
would always be like Natalie'stenacious that is the word
Tenacious, tenacious and so it'sabout being a go-getter, it's
(04:48):
about seeing a problem or andfinding a solution to it, and I
think that that is reallywholeheartedly in the root of my
soul is to be able to helppeople and be able to problem
solve in tasks and challenges.
I love health and medicine andI'm a really big nerd at heart
(05:09):
as well.
So when it comes to science,health and medicine, and
athleticism for that matter aswell, keeping all of those
qualities combined and havingthat tenacious nature of this is
a challenge.
I am going to go after this andif it, if I'm having problems,
I'm going to resolve it ineither a different way, a
(05:30):
different tactic, looking at it,a different approach, but at
the end of the day, my, my goalis to solve it and to make or or
to make it better.
I think, when it comes totowards, um, people, I'm I'm
very social, I'm a very socialbutterfly, unlike my husband Um.
But you know, when it comes topeople, that just really
(05:52):
generates towards my soul thatpeople sometimes need a hero in
their life.
They need someone to help um,empathize with them, listen to
their needs and be able to helpthem.
This is the best way that I canhelp people is helping um,
making practices that in a rootcare, in a root cause of their,
the quality of care and thepersonalization that they can
(06:14):
get at ability allies, um, I,I'm all for it Like, how how can
we do this and how can we makethis better?
Speaker 1 (06:21):
It's very powerful.
I heard you say in a summarythat you're passionate about
people and overcoming problemsby being a hero for them, at
least for until they can becometheir own, and I love that.
It's such a cool way ofdefining what's driving you to
do what you do, because I don'tthink it's about achievement.
(06:42):
I think if it was achievementand money, there'd be no way,
natalie, that you would be ableto have the motivation to
continue to create the spacesthat you do in your world, to
keep creating new businesses.
So it's really cool for me tosee what drives you as someone
who's hyper entrepreneurial,because you're also very happy.
I know you have your moments,but I won't get into that, but
(07:03):
ultimately, you have done a lot.
We.
You obviously were a collegiateathlete.
You talked about athleticism.
Um, let's talk about this.
One of the things that you'redoing that's really powerful
right now is that you hostwellness events and you see this
as like a way to communicateand connect with the community
and engage with them is whattransforms private practice.
(07:27):
How do you see that comingtogether?
Speaker 2 (07:30):
Yeah.
So I believe, as I've evolvedmy practice, and what really
hits home for me and you hadphrased it before the sense of
humanity my sense of humanitywhen you ask about wellness
events and workshops and thisand that I say that they are a
necessity in a person's practice, it really is how you can get
(07:53):
out there and think about themodel of your approach is that
you know when, in any healthcare setting, can you actually
go and see the person thatyou're working with before?
You're working with them, right, you're able to meet them, con
working with them, right, you'reable to meet them, converse
with them, vibe with them andany of that.
So even just being able to getout there and work with your
people in your community isreally helpful for prospective
(08:19):
patients.
You know, to learn about you.
But in reality, what hadessentially sparked my community
type of events that I do is myfather-in-law, so his name is
Bob and we actually call ourcommunity balance programs the
Bob Program for Build on BetterBalance and it started off four
(08:45):
years ago where my poorfather-in-law has a progressive
neurological disease and it'snot ALS, but it is a form of ALS
that prospectively his nerveshave degenerative myelination of
their nerves there andultimately we knew that he
wouldn't.
He wouldn't be able to walk anymore any longer.
(09:07):
So at this point four years ago, he was using a rollator in his
home and really having a lot ofdifficulty with his balance
overall.
So we hadn't heard from him infour days and it's always like
gets me.
So we hadn't heard from him infour days and it's always like
gets me.
Um.
So we hadn't heard from him infour days.
And, um, I, uh, I called himand I was like Bob, like what
(09:30):
are you doing?
How are you?
Like, how are you doing?
And he's like I'm stuck, Ican't, I can't get up from the
roll later, um, so he hadn'tgotten up from the roll later in
four days.
Speaker 1 (09:41):
He'd been on the floor.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
He was on, he was in sitting in his rollator he had,
he was in front of his desk andhe had stacked up some pillows
so that he could rest like justin a forward like seated stance.
And he said that he was soincredibly fearful of falling
and fearful that he would losehis balance and obviously get
really injured, that he justwasn't able to, you know, call
(10:06):
anybody or connect with anybody.
And I said to myself there isno way that I will let this
happen to anybody in my worldever again.
I don't.
This should never happen to asingle human being.
And so thus we've developed theBob program, which initially had
started as a completely freeprogram to the community in New
(10:30):
Hampshire, where we go in and wewill do training sessions with
a group of people Most of themare the geriatric age but we
essentially do a communitywellness type of program.
And ultimately it has now growninto five different towns that
(10:51):
we now will work with a recprogram in doing these sort of
balance, balance and wellness sothat people can have a better
sense of, you know, learningabout their balance, working on
their balance skills and reallygetting them more of fulfilling
life, because some of thesepeople are really fearful of
going out in the community, youknow, on uneven ground or, in
(11:13):
Bob's case, even in his own home.
So when you talk about, youknow your business and you know
what you can achieve and whatyou can do.
Um, this is like such a human,humanitarian and fulfilling
achievement for me.
Um, in in what I can do for mycommunity and what I can do for
my father-in-law and to honorhim as well.
(11:35):
Um, but, uh, their communityevents are a necessity in
anybody's practice.
Speaker 1 (11:41):
Thank you for sharing that.
I think what um that story didwas help us understand what
drives you better.
It's like that love and thatthat passion that you feel to be
somebody else's hero.
It's like, well, and I don't Iwant to use different language
because I don't want that tocome across Like yeah, I want to
be someone's hero, but likeyeah but, like my PT practice,
our purpose was to be the lightin the hope of life in the lives
(12:04):
of others.
We in the healthcare field wehave an opportunity to represent
hope and be heroes and teachthem to be here because there
are heroes right, and so thatwas really cool for me to hear
that driving force, but it alsowas a reflection of what you're
able to do when you haveprofitability and you have
freedom to be able to focus onproblems like that.
(12:26):
So it drives you to create thefreedom, but it also is the why
behind it, in the sense that,like, yeah, I'm doing this so
that no one in my world ever hasto be stuck in a uh, in a
position for four days thatbroke my heart.
to hear that he was in thatposition and just suffered
through it and embarrassed, anddidn't want to fall.
So, um, yeah, I think so.
(12:47):
Now that we have an idea,natalie, of what drives you and
the wonderful heart that youhave, let's get in to like the
transformation of your life.
Like when you started all this,obviously, you weren't the
leader you are today.
So let's talk about a timewhere you had a breaking moment.
Have you ever had a breakingmoment that made you realize
(13:07):
that you had to free up moretime in your business?
Speaker 2 (13:10):
Yeah, I'm like, I'm like this morning, like this
morning I had it right.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
It's not like one and done.
It's a, it's a process.
Speaker 2 (13:16):
It's a process, yeah, and I think that it's like it's
phases.
It's phases in your life, it'sphases in your business, because
when I started my practice, myoldest son was four years old
and a lot of I think people,especially women out there, will
say, you know, oh, I can'tstart a business because I want
to start a family or I can't dothis because of any sort of like
(13:40):
personal reasons or whatnot.
But I started Ability Allieswhen I was, when my son, my
first son, was four, and then wewere opening up our second
clinic when I was pregnant withmy second.
So when you talk about freedomand whatnot, I think one of the
(14:01):
biggest pivotal moments I canthink of in my phase one of my
journey my best hire, I can tellyou right now was a personal
assistant Interesting, and I andyou know back, quote unquote,
back then I honestly wasn'tfamiliar with VAs or, but in any
(14:22):
sense, like you're getting,you're getting an assistant to
really help you, um, and so inthat phase I had basically
reached out to our localuniversity Um, if they had like
a Facebook page for mostly um,like babysitters or dog walkers,
you know, or anything like thatand I just put the post out
there and said hey, I'm a singlephysical therapist, um I w.
(14:46):
I would like someone to helpschedule patients or do the
faxes or walk my dog or babysitor take up my children, um, and
so I hired my first um assistant.
Her name was Jill.
I still absolutely love her andwe still we still text with
each other.
But she also was a marketingmajor, so she kind of helped me
(15:09):
with literally everything andshe jokes around too, she's.
She will still still say now,natalie, like that was my
favorite job, like because Icould walk.
I could walk chumly, or I couldfax a fax a note from a patient
you know, or this or that.
Fax a note from a patient youknow, or this or that, but you
know in terms of when you get to, you know higher level status
(15:30):
when it comes to, like, morebusinesses, more responsibility.
You need to delegate, you needto delegate your tasks and you
need to find a trustworthysource to help you with that.
You might take a little time tothink that through, but in all
end of it, you need to make sureyou're delegating and those are
(15:54):
the breakthroughs that you willfind to free you up in the
future.
Speaker 1 (15:59):
Yeah, rockstars.
I want you to really pay closeattention to what Natalie said
regarding her assistant, and shestill says it's her favorite
job.
Jill, it was because she walkedthe dog.
The reason I highlight that,rockstars, is because one of our
barriers that we put in ourheads around delegation is that
we feel like we don't want togive other people our crap, like
(16:21):
the stuff that we feel is likedemeaning or we hate doing we.
There is always someone on thisplanet who would love to do the
things we don't want to do, nomatter how how small, big,
frustrating those things are.
So, natalie, that was a hugebreakthrough because you learned
the power of delegation, thepower of buying back your time
(16:43):
by investing in someone.
And here's my favorite part Jillloved it.
She got to develop her skills.
She got a personal connectionto the leader you are.
She was able to feel like shewas making a difference, and I
think that's what we forget isthat when we hold on to these
things as leaders, we aredamning our progression like a
(17:07):
dam in a river, because we areholding the pressure in it.
It just keeps building.
There are people who want toflow on that river.
Man, it's so exciting whenrealizing, wow, we're blessing
them by having those thingshanded over to them.
So I have another question.
In your case, you were acollegiate athlete that mental
strength that you developed itwas cool for me to hear that you
have multiple breaking moments,cause that's me too.
When you go through that, howhas that mental training in that
(17:30):
physical world in collegeprepared you for owning a
business?
This is yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (17:36):
So you know being involved, um, in like division
one, collegiate athletics, theNew England field hockey team,
the US national field hockeyteam, those are those.
You don't come by withoutworking really, really hard, and
it's not a sense of normalcy ofworking hard.
(17:57):
It is that you are pushed tothe maximum, that you feel like
you could potentially be pushedto, that you feel like you could
potentially be pushed to.
And so I have this.
I have this phrase called you,call this a storm, and it's from
Forrest Gump, and I laughbecause Forrest Gump was
(18:18):
actually my inspiration tobecome a physical therapist,
like I knew.
I wanted yeah, yeah, yeah.
So like I knew I wanted to be adoctor or a nurse or something
in healthcare, but I didn'treally like blood or guts or
things like that.
And that scene in Forrest Gumpwhen he's got the leg braces and
he's starting to run and theleg braces fall off, and I
(18:39):
literally said that is what Iwant to do, that is what I want
to do.
If somebody can't walk, I wantto help them walk, like what.
We had to look that up.
My parents and I had to lookthat up.
What is that career?
And I and that was that was thestart of my like this is my
journey, I've meant to do this.
And so again from Forrest Gumpand Lieutenant Dan, they're on
(19:00):
the shrimp boat, they're up andthey're there.
You know there's lightninggoing on, there's a massive
torrential downpour andLieutenant Dan is yelling up at
the, at the sky.
You call this a storm.
And so it's kind of funny thatevery time like maybe some
bigger challenges might come upis that same phrase like you
call this, you call this a storm.
(19:21):
I can, I can work through this,I can get through this.
And you know it comes with alsogrit.
That is like a huge proponentof you know.
Grit, in my definition, is notnecessarily about just like
working hard and like grungingyour way through it.
It means that you have workedreally hard and if you still are
(19:44):
not getting where you need togo in your journey, whether
that's a success model, whetherthat's financially, whether
that's a structural component,is that you're trying again and
again and again finding thosealternative methods of
positivity, of success.
And I think, coming from saidexposure to those hardships and
(20:08):
those difficult times of thecollegiate error and the
national team error and whatnot,it was you had to go through a
lot of grit in order to findthat sort of success.
But, like I said, changing itand finding those solutions and
(20:30):
whatnot are exactly what isneeded and that to me, is like
winning in my book.
Speaker 1 (20:38):
That's amazing, rockstar.
Two things, she said.
I've got to really pump the gason a little bit here.
The first was this thing aboutyou called it a storm.
There is a mindset to be freeand it's not a matter.
I think we perceive, natalie,that people who are doing what
you're doing or like supersuccessful have just so much
(20:58):
freedom and they just figured itout.
It's not that they go throughstorms just like everybody else,
but there's a mindset that wecould get into multiple layers,
but the one that I want to hitupon is this you call this a
storm.
Rock stars, as you're lookingat your day, as you're trying to
cram all the things in thatyou're cramming in, let's
remember to show that grit.
You call this a storm becauseyou're stronger than that.
(21:20):
You're stronger than anything.
You're going through it.
It's okay that it's hard.
It's supposed to be hard.
You had a breaking moment thismorning, natalie.
I had one last week.
I feel like I'm on the verge ofanother one, if I'm being
honest, but it's one of thosewhere it's like bring it on
right.
The other thing is this conceptof freedom.
Isn't it powerful that what gotyou into this profession
(21:40):
healthcare, private practice,ownership is this idea of seeing
Forrest Gump break through andcreate movement and freedom.
And like that power of breakingthe bands of resistance and
what's holding us back is whatinspired you, inspired me,
inspired most people in ouraudience, to get into this
profession, and so I think, whenwe start putting on those leg
(22:01):
braces the metaphorical legbraces of our businesses we
understand that they're there tosupport us and cause us to get
stronger so that we can breakfree.
And so this is a powerful pieceof how you've been able to
illustrate your journey, andthank you for sharing that
mental piece of it, because Ithink that is such a big part of
this journey is that mental?
game that we go through.
Speaker 2 (22:22):
Yeah, thank you, and I talked about the the time
before, like phase one, right.
So phase one, my breakthroughwas hiring that um college
student essentially to do that.
My breakthrough now, now havingfour businesses and whatnot was
actually and this is, of course,a pitch to you but my, my
(22:45):
breakthrough now was hiring myrock star and I can tell you
that right now, um, that justhaving somebody help you with
all of the day-to-day tasks,helping you with the like you
were saying, the tasks that youmight not have time to do or
might not have the mentalcapacity to do so helping with
(23:06):
marketing, helping withscheduling, helping with faxing
and all of this and that my VAher name is Abby and I literally
cannot speak highly enoughabout her, and in fact you don't
know this yet, but I wanted totell you for so long that when
you were at the P3 PT conferenceand you started your lecture,
(23:28):
your part of the seminar, I saidto myself how fun would this be
to do?
A little kind of test, a littlechallenge?
So I messaged Abby as youstarted your talk and I said
this is a fresh, brand newproject.
I said I've got a new idea.
I want to do a golf event atthis place in Portsmouth and
(23:49):
we're going to have a golf prothere and we're going to have a
club fitter there and this, andthat I want you to make an
Instagram real, a post and anemail that can go out to all of
the sources and we're going tolaunch this event.
It was completed before youended your talk.
Speaker 1 (24:11):
You have got to be kidding me.
Speaker 2 (24:13):
So I'm sitting at your conference, literally
Abby's doing everything I neededto do.
So then, literally the next day, I'm sending Mike the email
saying send that out to youremail blast.
I'm texting Scott saying yep,uh, this he's the, he's our golf
pro that we work with.
Yep, Scott, this is a go, we'regoing to do this on June 26th,
(24:34):
Um yeah, obviously I'm honoredby that Cause that's my passion.
Speaker 1 (24:38):
My passion, as you know, is to free you up, and
that's the podcast.
That's all the things we do atthe virtual rockstar, but what's
cool about I just want to throwit back to you though, natalie
is the idea that again goingback to that mindset of freedom
is that you're at an event inOrlando and you are kind of like
the athlete again testing yourlimits.
Oh, I wonder what I can testthe limits of my team In this
(24:59):
case a virtual assistant andyou're pushing this idea out,
and it's like causing momentum.
I think there is a really bigcall for us to remember the
mindset of being free beginswith understanding that we're
worth it.
Number two, that, uh, otherpeople were blessing people when
we do it.
And then number three is thatwe are constantly thinking what
(25:21):
can I give to somebody else,like what, in your case?
What can I challenge them to do?
And that is so cool, I wouldlove to see that um social post
at some point, by the way.
Speaker 2 (25:29):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
It's on my Instagram right now.
Speaker 1 (25:33):
Okay, cool, we'll link hey, we'll link your
Instagram into the show notes soyou guys can see that post.
So I appreciate that piece ofit.
So let's get into um.
Since you already are obviouslya huge proponent of virtual
assistants and the show isreally in the seasons about kind
of all the things that setpeople free, let me ask you a
few questions here that are alittle bit more um, just freedom
based in general.
(25:53):
So, first of all, what's thebest business purchase under a
hundred dollars that has savedyou hours?
Speaker 2 (25:59):
Oh huh, that's a great question and I feel this
is like really, really silly,but like my gum.
Speaker 1 (26:07):
That's not silly.
Talk to me about it, though.
Why gum?
Speaker 2 (26:10):
Yeah, no, this is my gum right here, um, but it's
like my super go-to.
It's like my like thinking.
You know my thinking mechanism.
So people, uh, yeah, gum andsnacks, honestly, like the gum
is for me, I like, I like thegum, um, it just is something
I'm like chewing all day long.
I feel like it just kind ofgets my thoughts going and gets
(26:33):
my mental, my mental processgoing.
Um, also, uh, peppermint andspearmint kind of like calm the
mind.
So sometimes if I can get alittle flighty, this helps me
kind of simmer down a little bit.
Um, but then also, it's so funnyhow I love, um, like, when my
staff find something that theyreally enjoy, like snacks.
(26:55):
You know I'm all for it.
You know.
So if it makes them happy tohave a protein, a specific
protein bar in the clinicbecause they, they enjoy that,
perfect.
If they love dark chocolate,you know we're going to have
some extra special darkchocolates.
But honestly, I think that someof your best purchases is
(27:17):
really for the conglomerate ofthe group.
You know, not necessarily tohelp the patient, but if,
looking at a bigger picture, arethese little things able to
make our team more cohesive andhappy.
Speaker 1 (27:30):
Yeah, you know you're the second.
One of the my guests on thisseason who Lance Gross talked
about.
It was a $30 gift card to Sonicfor drinks.
He says that by far it's givenme so much freedom because I'm
investing my people.
I also love the Spearmint Gumthing.
It's a small investment thatproduces an experience of calm
and thinking, which is where youcreate space.
(27:51):
That was such a cool take onthat.
I actually never do this, butI'm going to share one that I
recently discovered with theaudience and with you.
That has been a game changerfor me.
I'm also very like driven andmotivated to like achieve, and
so I downloaded an app.
I've always been tracking likehabits that I'm trying to build,
and it's very time consumingand very annoying.
I had a long conversation witha chat GPT in a walk, and chat
(28:15):
GPT is like you just need an app, man.
This app that you need iscalled streak and I was like no
way, Cause I kid you not, I'msuch a nerd.
I had spreadsheets liketracking these things and
streaks.
I'm going to show it to thecamera.
It has, um, it has these.
Just you put in whatever yourhabits are, that you want to
form and it gamifies it.
And it's so simple.
(28:35):
It attaches to my health app onmy iPhone, so like you can see
how many steps I've already hadto date and my goal is 8,000.
It tells you how far I sleptlast night.
My goal is seven and a halfhours of sleep and I didn't make
it.
I'm tracking my food likeexercise.
It really just gamifies it.
And then they have a kidversion where my kids can brush
their teeth, make their bed.
Speaker 2 (28:57):
I love it.
Speaker 1 (28:58):
And you see how it's this really cool feedback
mechanism that takes no time.
So a couple of tidbits for you,rock stars, to free you up
Streaks the app, spearmint gumchewing and giving yourself time
to think and then rewardingyour team with protein bars.
That was a great answer.
(29:19):
What are tools and tech thathave been game changers for you
to reclaim your freedom?
Like what?
What other like tools or techhave you used, or do you use,
kind of like that, that app thatI just showed that has helped
you?
Speaker 2 (29:27):
Yeah, absolutely so in all honesty.
I mean, when we come down tophysical therapy, I am really a
stickler when it comes to likeefficiencies and obviously every
practice might operatedifferent and in our practice we
kind of needed a one one shopstop kind of, or one stop shop
(29:49):
kind of thing, or one-stop shopkind of thing.
So I like, when it comes tolike an EMR and whatnot, I was
such a psycho when it came tointerviewing like EMRs and I
almost felt bad, like it waslike a date where I was like I'm
sorry, it's me, not you, youknow.
And so the EMR that we, the EMRthat we use.
Speaker 1 (30:12):
But it is you.
Hey, it's me, not you, butreally it's you because you're
my RCM or whatever.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (30:17):
But when you think about it, the uniqueness of our
practice is that we've gotmultiple locations.
We have multiple providers.
We have a VA that needs to comein, we have a massage therapist
that rents a space, we haveevents that we do.
We have clinics that we dono-transcript EMR I don't even
(31:02):
have an affiliate with them, Ijust love them so much.
Um, but our other, yeah, it'sJane.
Speaker 1 (31:10):
Jane Okay, I've actually never heard of Jane and
I've worked myself in in thatphysical therapy space.
I've worked in easily over 12EMRs, either as a PT, a practice
owner, or as a medical billingcompany owner.
Speaker 2 (31:22):
Yep, yep, yep.
No, they are wonderful, um, andnot for nothing, but even I'm
also like a you know, with themultiple facets of all of it.
On top of all of that, it'spretty like it's not like one of
those like Meditech lookingtype of things.
It's legit really pretty tolook at and I just find it
(31:45):
wonderful, um, and I hope theygive me a discount for this
pitch.
Speaker 1 (31:48):
Yeah, jane, reach out to me.
We've got to get someaffiliates with all this
business.
But that's a really good tip tobit, so okay.
So another question what issomething you do in your spare
time that's only for you?
I have never asked thisquestion before and I like it
because I want to startnormalizing in our industry,
cause, you know, healer mindsetsis a real thing and it's it's
(32:10):
like, defined by people whoabsolutely give to the point
where they get victimized Likethey're.
They're victims in their ownworld, like I don't.
I never have time to work out.
So when there's time for youand it's so, it's not.
It could be a guilty pleasure.
But what's something you dojust for you, natalie?
Speaker 2 (32:25):
Um, I, I will have moments of um, stillness where I
just need to almost like likeescape, get out of my, get out
of my tizzy, get out of mywhirlwind, even when it comes to
my own like headspace.
(32:46):
So, and I mean stillness of themind, and I am you, if you told
me to run three marathons ormeditate for half an hour, like
really meditate, I would choosethe marathon.
I can't.
It's really difficult for me tofind mental stillness, and so
my own, my own thing that I dois is honestly kind of finding
(33:10):
time, times where I could bejust alone, like alone with my
thoughts, settle myself down.
That might be going for a walkin the woods, you know, that
might be just kind of likefloating in in water, like in in
stillness, but I just kind ofmake sure I don't have my phone
with me, I don't have anybodythat is, you know, conversing.
(33:34):
It's just these moments of likeokay, let's, let's settle,
let's settle down a little bit.
You know, even dry, Like I'm abig motor and people don't
really know this, but I'm a bigmotor enthusiast.
No, I didn't know that Even justlike going fast, like even if
you're like on a jet ski or afour-wheeler or car and you're
(33:54):
like have getting your zoomiesout, but still it's just me and
the wind coming at my face,where again you're just kind of
like trying to trying to settle,settle your, uh, your mind yeah
, I love that.
Speaker 1 (34:07):
Rock stars, get your zoomies out.
Get your zoomies out, Um, I youknow it's funny.
I think for a lot of peoplethere might be some connection
and enjoyment and speed.
I've never I've never pairedmeditation, which is something
I'm big on with, like themeditative experience of going
fast so for.
But I do, I have that withsnowboarding Like.
(34:28):
For me, I think that's that'ssomething that like when you're
in that space and there's alittle bit of risk involved, but
it's mostly kind of a serenething.
It's amazing how our minds willstart to disconnect from, like,
the busyness of it, right?
Speaker 2 (34:38):
Yes, yes.
Speaker 1 (34:40):
Okay, very cool.
So this has been phenomenal.
So this is AI versus VA.
You've talked a lot aboutfreedom.
You actually did a lot of likethe VA side of things.
Let's get into more of theartificial intelligence.
Um, are you experimenting withany AI tools like chat box,
scheduling, assistance, notesummarizers, like what have you?
What AI have you been workingwith at this point, if any?
Speaker 2 (35:02):
Yeah, yeah, I've been working with um, chat, gpt and,
to be honest with you, the moreI and I use my VA assists me in
using her AI tools to then dothe analytical, the logistics
(35:23):
and this and that.
So, for example, we might usemondaycom to schedule out when
we are going to promote aparticular event.
You know, it might happen amonth ahead of time.
We might do another, like aFacebook campaign, two weeks
(35:43):
ahead of time for signups or,like you know, there's kind of a
structure in place where AI hasassisted us in saying we say,
okay, we're going to do thisevent, when should we start
promoting it in terms of thetendencies and whatnot?
And it might say back oh, twomonths in advance.
Another time it might say onemonth in advance.
It might be when, in seasonally,you're hosting that event, you
(36:09):
know, for example, you might saylike, oh, I want to do like a
snowboarding.
You know event.
Like, obviously you're notgoing to do that in July in New
Hampshire, you know.
So you can essentially scheduleout an entire year's worth of
calendared and scheduled eventsfor a perspective of like, what
does your year look like?
(36:29):
Moving forward.
Look like moving forward, whichis super helpful for me in my
practice because we not only doevents, we do workshops, we do
seminars, I do public speakingevents in different places, and
then we also are fitting in ourcommunity support in that.
So it's like how does that allfit in Now?
Me personally, I will useChatGPT more in the creative
(36:51):
space because I'll have theseideas, but then I want something
more or maybe it just doesn'tfeel instinctively complete yet.
So ChatGPT will help me getinto that sort of headspace and
get different ideas in thatcreatively.
Speaker 1 (37:12):
Very cool.
You're leveraging both of thesefastest growing trends in
healthcare the VA and the AItogether.
Are there any other AI toolsthat you use, or is that the
majority of what you'recurrently working with?
Speaker 2 (37:24):
That's the majority of what we're currently working
with we are looking into.
Jane is starting to get an AIfeature involved with it, and so
that is another component thatwe are looking into getting into
our practice is what exactlydoes that look like in terms of
(37:45):
physical therapy and integratingAI into into that?
How is that going to free upyour time, which, of course, a
PT's free free time is spenttaking notes right, doing
charting and all of that and soif AI can assist us and our
clinicians in that process wheremaybe it's recording our
(38:07):
session or our verbiage withinthe clinical visit, then it's
putting all of that informationinto a note and you're just
simply reviewing and signingwhat's changing, what's
appropriate and whatnot.
Speaker 1 (38:21):
That is so cool, man, so it's really fun to see how
you're integrating that elementinto your Jane and Jane again,
reach out, let's talk.
But yeah, I love that.
How do you?
You know, some know some ownersworry that the AI component is
going to remove the human touchof our businesses.
How do you view that?
Speaker 2 (38:43):
I think it's impossible to do that.
You can because, at the end ofthe day, you're you, you know
and you're taking responsibilityfor what content you're putting
out there or what you knowverbiage you're putting out
there.
And I think when you understandthe importance of that humanity
and the human connection, theAI can just be utilized as a
(39:05):
tool, but not as, not as theleader that has enforced, like
what exactly you're doing.
At the end of the day, you'recarrying the task out.
You know, and in our field, inhealth and wellness, you're
always having that interpersonalconnection.
You know, and if that's what'simportant to you in your
(39:26):
business and your practice,you're going to make sure that
you have those facets in place.
You know.
And there are other, you know.
I just think about the PT world, how it's evolving, and people
will say like the kiosk, right,like you come in and patients
getting checked in by a kioskand not like a face-to-face you
know Um and I think that that'stotally up to you in in in the
(39:48):
circumstance of your business.
Um me the face to face.
I want that face to face.
It's always going to be reallyimportant to me in my practice
because our two pillars of ourservices are literally
personalization and high qualitycare.
So, you know, at the end of theday, you want to meet a face and
(40:11):
you want to, you know, buildyour brand in the way that you,
that you see fit, and I think AIcan help a little bit with that
.
But I think the human touch is,is really superior when it
comes to the, the humanitarianaspect of your, of your care.
Speaker 1 (40:29):
Yeah, absolutely Okay .
So since we've covered the AIside of things and you are a
master delegator, which issomething that I want to write a
book on, I'm not gonna take anote on that.
Actually, I'm gonna write abook on that.
How to delegate, becausedelegation is such a mindset
thing where you've talked aboutalready, but you, as a master
delegator, creating the space,filling it with more purpose
already.
But you, as a master delegator,creating the space, filling it
(40:51):
with more purpose, hopefullysome walks and floating and
meditation.
How do you?
How do you delegate to your VA?
Can you walk the audiencethrough your process of like
what is?
How is that process of yougoing?
You illustrated one earlier,but can you just kind of step
that out just for a few minutesand like, hey, this is when I'm
going to talk to my VA and havethem do something.
How do you give it to them andfollow up, know it's completed,
all those things?
Speaker 2 (41:12):
It is like so easy, Will Like so easy.
So I can be a little bit of asquirrel, a little bit of idea
here, idea there and whatnot.
Speaker 1 (41:24):
No.
Speaker 2 (41:27):
And oftentimes my delegations come at a point of
necessity, so like when I'm alsolike a super multitasker.
So oftentimes when I findmyself on like the fourth task
that I'm kind of working on andI say to myself, oh, this is a
great idea.
Like I don't want to, I don'twant to lose the idea Just like
(41:47):
you writing down your book rightnow.
You know it's like I don't wantto lose the idea, Just like you
writing down your book rightnow.
You know it's like you don'twant to lose the idea.
But it literally can becompletely random where you you
might role is with your company,but most of the time I will
(42:12):
just literally I communicatewith our VA through WhatsApp, so
it's an immediate message ortext to her that I say I could
easily just say hey, I have anidea.
Let's like start, can you startmaking this?
And that might be a poster.
You know, I might say you knowwhat?
(42:33):
I'm looking around the clinicand I kind of want, I want like
a spine silhouette and I wantflowers to be decorated on it to
make it look pretty like, notjust like medical, but have some
sort of art to it, and I willliterally just text that to my
VA.
She'll go on Canva, she haslogins to all of our business
(42:58):
structures, whatnot.
But she'll go on and she'llstart designing a silhouette of
a spine through her AI, um, uh,uh, associates, or what, or
whatnot.
Um, and then I'll piece myideas more, more and more into
it, Um, and then ultimately shejust comes back with a foot,
(43:19):
with a graphic, Um, and I'll domy little tweaks and then, um,
we might go back and forth andwhatnot.
So ultimately, after usuallylike one or two passes, it's
done.
I think the longest projectthat we ever worked on was.
So the practice that we mergedwith that I bought is a 30-year
(43:45):
established private practice andI really wanted to do something
really important to, number one, launch this information to the
public, but, number two, reallyhonor them in the way that they
deserve.
Speaker 1 (44:00):
Wow.
So you're not just buying them,you're like totally
acknowledging the 30-year legacy, you're continuing it, you're
handling, grabbing the batonfrom them.
Speaker 2 (44:09):
Yes, exactly Exactly, and so I literally said to Abby
I want to do something speciallike that, and can we create a
video, or a reel for that matter, can we create a video doing
this?
Here are my ideas and I threwout a couple of ideas and again,
yeah, we did use AI together inworking on this.
Here are my ideas and I threwout the a couple of ideas and
(44:30):
again, yeah, we did use AItogether in working on this, but
we literally came up with kindof a little script, if you will,
or or a a like, like basicallyhow the video will flow.
And we look at the previousowner.
He's saying it's been 30 years,it time to hand it over.
He hands, he hands a chart over.
(44:52):
You see a hand come in no waythe chart and it pans away is
this a video you've actuallyfilmed it's on my instagram yeah
, send me the links to both ofthe the va creations.
Speaker 1 (45:03):
I'll put them in the notes.
Speaker 2 (45:05):
You guys go check out the show notes yeah, yeah, so
and it's like we literally andwe're not, we're not like media
production people here, it'sjust her and.
I splashing ideas together butin the end what came out?
The project that came out wasso beautiful and so heartfelt
and such an honor to the ownersand such a great reference of
(45:29):
hey, here's some really big newsSeacoast, new Hampshire.
You know, this is like reallycool and whatnot.
But Abby and I worked on thatproject for maybe I'm going to
say like a day or so Come on.
And that's just us talking backand forth.
That's not if I were toprobably put it in the amount of
(45:53):
hours, or or.
I think that if you clockedevery second that I had to chat
with her about this, it probablywas like maybe 48 minutes of my
time, of my time, and thenshe's working on it all in the
background, creating this likemasterpiece that we've, that
we've shared now.
Speaker 1 (46:11):
So yeah and think about that, four to eight
minutes and the result is itdoes so many things in my mind.
I saw them at once.
I'm trying to slow down.
It's honor, that man's legacy,how that video made him feel, is
huge.
It's almost like this, likecertificate literally, of
watching that video, of he's notjust handing it for the video,
(46:32):
but he's also like, oh, I'm done.
He feels honored.
You get to put yourself in aposition where you're building
on his legacy because you loveand support him and you're all
about breaking through thebraces of the Forrest Gump's
world In his case it wasbreaking through his to his
retirement, his last stage.
You're also in a place whereyou're PRing the crap out of it,
so you have all this greatpositive reflection.
So any relationship he held Iwas thinking about it when you
(46:54):
said it, if I was a patient ofhis company and I saw that video
he's happily handing it over.
My emotional handoff is there,which helps you grow your
business.
And then you have this likecreative, like element that goes
through your social media, thatjust promotes your business,
your purpose, your vision, allin four to eight minutes.
Speaker 2 (47:13):
Yes, yeah.
Speaker 1 (47:14):
Okay, well, huge.
One last VA question and thenwe're going to start wrapping
things up audience.
I always like to tell peoplewhen we're getting close to the
end, so anyway, so let's getinto it.
What is one of your tasks thatyour VA does regularly that
makes a huge difference in yourweek?
Speaker 2 (47:32):
She, she, always um, will greet you in like such a
positive way.
Wow, I know that probablywasn't like your, your task with
the question.
but that was what you're likewith the question, but that was
(47:52):
what.
What came to my head was sheliterally opens up with hi
Natalie, how are you doing?
Good morning, I really hopethat your day is anything.
Yeah, I hope that your day isgoing spectacular.
How can I help you?
And I'm just like, and then wewe ended on the same time, on
the same aspect is you know,today was a such a great day.
We got a lot done.
I I've emailed you the end ofday report.
(48:15):
I really hope that you have awonderful rest of your night.
Speaker 1 (48:20):
Yeah, natalie.
So the number one feedback Iget from clients isn't the fact
that they get freed up.
It's what you just said.
It's this really thing.
It still surprises me a littlebit, but I kind of get it.
Obviously, I have a team, myown of overseas, but it's this
idea of like, why let me ask youthat question why was that the
first thing that came to mind?
Speaker 2 (48:39):
I think just because it up, it uplifts a good state,
you can work to your highestefficiencies.
If you're gloomy or negative oranything, it's really hard to
(49:01):
find that great idea when youare just not in that space and
like just and not only that, butthe the power of positivity in
sending that to other people.
When I get those messages itmakes me then in my next email
(49:22):
to whoever it'd be, like Ireally hope that you're having a
good day right now.
I really hope that you'reenjoying the sunshine and just
like snowball, that positivity,snowball that happiness Cause.
At the end of the day, it'slike the pursuit of your
happiness is like is yours andyours alone.
(49:42):
So when you're, when you'relooking into these adventures
that you're creating in yourlife or in your business, people
are always like how do you doit, natalie?
It's like pursue it.
Speaker 1 (49:53):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (49:53):
Find your grit, find your power and in those, in
those aspects, if you can havepeople on your team that are
like-minded like you and thatcan have those moments of that
incredible sense of like joy inyour or even just a joyous
moment in your life can be liketransformative.
Speaker 1 (50:17):
It's so powerful and I think that there's a lot we
could say about, like hiringsomeone overseas with
life-changing money versus anentitled American.
I don't want to go down thatroute.
I think what the difference isthat business owners a lot of
times we hire people and theyhave their own domain, like it
does overlap with ours, but likewe're trying to like spin
plates and so you're havingleaders.
Great leaders we hire here inthe States are doing that.
(50:38):
There's something about hiringsomeone who's helping just me,
like they have other thingsmaybe, but there's elements of
overlap.
But that sweet loving concern,my Kim, who's probably listening
every time, it's the highest,like hi Will.
Sometimes they call me WillieWill, which we're at that level.
Willie Will, I'm like what's up, Kim, and just like immediately
(51:02):
there's a breakthrough.
So I appreciate you sharingthat that was a better answer to
the question that I was asking.
So, all right, let's get rightdown to our rapid fire.
And, natalie, are you ready tolock and load on this?
Sure, okay, top book.
That's blown your mind.
Speaker 2 (51:18):
Oh gosh, Um so, um funny and I would like the
phrase is grit right now.
So my aunt my aunt is also anentrepreneur and business owner.
She owns a dog biscuit bakerydown in Massachusetts and she
goes to all these businessconventions and this isn't even
like a published book.
(51:41):
She hands me a book and it'sliterally called Grit and it was
from FedEx FedEx, thecorporation.
It was a gift that they gavetheir clients.
I'm sorry, it's a gift thatthey gave their employees.
Every employee got this as agift and they interviewed all of
the top women executives ofFedEx and they had their
(52:04):
backstory and this and that, andit all had to do with grit and
how somebody.
You know they had people thathad come originally from India,
overseas, and they never thoughtthey could ever get a promotion
.
But you know, they got apromotion and now they're like
the VP of, like internationalsales at FedEx.
So that, honestly, has been alife-changing book and I'm sorry
(52:29):
that, like, the public can'tget it, but here's a great book.
It's in my desk.
It's on my desk, I'll show itto you.
But one of my favorite quotesfrom that book that I still use
with every interview today ispeople will ask like how, how,
um, how can do you have anyadvancement in your company?
(52:49):
Or what is the process ofleadership or managerial
promotions and whatnot?
And I will literally say, themoment that you step into that
clinic is when you are startingyour interview for management,
for leadership, for director,any of that.
The second you step in, whetheryou are a cleaner, whether you
(53:11):
are a admin, whether you're a PT, but that's like one of my
favorite quotes from that, fromthat book.
Speaker 1 (53:17):
Love that book and you can't have it, guys.
Number two what's your top timesaver hack?
What's your top time saver hack?
Speaker 2 (53:25):
Uh Abby.
Speaker 1 (53:27):
Number three what's one thing you wish you'd stopped
doing way sooner in yourbusiness?
Speaker 2 (53:34):
Um like giving in.
Speaker 1 (53:41):
What do you mean?
Speaker 2 (53:42):
I mean like, um, if, if there are things that can go
astray from your like I want tosay.
I don't want to say policies, Idon't really like that word,
but you know the kind of likeexcuses, of like pressure that
(54:03):
pressure, trying to likeaccommodate people.
You know, like in an example,right Like to like accommodate
people.
You know, like in an example,right Like.
So a patient in earlier on nowI am, I think I literally just
had my, my youngest son, hemight've been six weeks old I
want to say, and I had a patientreally wanting specific
(54:24):
appointments and I apologized.
I said I can't, like I at firstI was giving in.
I would have said, oh, let mesacrifice like everything I have
to like, you know, accommodatethe shift of this and that, and
is it a reasonable shift?
Yeah, you can do that, but whenyou realize like too much is
too much and you're still givingin, that's what leads you to
(54:49):
like those times where you'regoing to have a lot of
challenges moving forward.
So, finding that healthybalance and like when you, when
you learn not to give in, tokind of, maybe it may be
essentially setting a little bitof boundaries, you know, and
that might be with yourself tooLike boundaries are where it's
at.
Speaker 1 (55:07):
This is another.
I didn't ask you these boundaryquestions because they were
actually in my, my list, butboundaries is another mindset.
Powerful leaders who have lotsof freedom set very firm
boundaries and don't give inLove that answer.
What's, uh, what's the mosttime consuming task that you
secretly enjoy?
(55:27):
Sleep, okay, I'm, I'm, I'm withyou on that one.
What's the latest thing you've?
Speaker 2 (55:36):
delegated.
With the company merger we aretransitioning all of our
patients from our old EMR to ournew EMR.
So I, just just an hour or soago, just delegated three
different admins with threedifferent tasks.
One of them is looking at theschedule, transferring the
(55:56):
patients.
The second one is looking andtagging everybody's insurance
and looking up a billing andeligibility to all of those
patients.
The third person is looking upall the patients and then
connecting with their referralsources, because now that we're
changing EMRs we have toreconnect with the referral
(56:16):
sources to reattain the referralunder the new business entity.
Speaker 1 (56:20):
Nice.
Okay, here's the last question,and this is the question of the
season, natalie which is it?
Ai or VAs?
Oh, vas, okay, all right.
Seth, our amazing leader ofleaders, our creative specialist
, who's also editing thispodcast, let's show it on the
(56:42):
screen, since these episodesaren't necessarily being filmed
in order.
I don't even know where thetally is, but put it on the
screen right now for me, seth,va versus AI.
Where are we at for the season?
So, natalie, so amazing to bewith you.
What final thoughts do you have?
Speaker 2 (57:00):
Honestly, I think that universe and fate have
wonderful connections that aregifted to us in our life and I
am so thankful to be connectedto.
You Will honestly like yourstory, your journey, and when we
connected at the conference youcould just feel the energy and
(57:23):
like, wow, like this is anotherperson who really enjoys making
the world a better place andhelping people and having that
sense of enthusiasm and, likeyou said, I love that phrase of
spreading light and love and Ithink that's wonderful and I'm
just really appreciative to havemet you.
Speaker 1 (57:43):
Natalie, thank you for those kind words.
They say your network is yournet worth and you are one of the
most valuable pieces of thatnetwork for me.
So thank you so much for beingon the show you are.
That was phenomenal.
Speaker 2 (57:56):
Thank you, so much Will Thank you.
Speaker 1 (57:57):
Thanks for tuning into the Willpower Podcast.
As always, this is WillHumphries, reminding you to lead
with love, live on purpose andnever give up your freedom.
Until next time.
Hey, rockstars, what do you get when you cross a
Division?
I athlete, a mother of two, amulti-business owner with a
heart the size of New Hampshireyou get Dr Natalie Tilton.
In this episode, natalie shareshow grit gum and game-changing
virtual assistants helped herscale to four physical therapy
clinics, while launchingwellness events, honoring
(00:21):
30-year legacies and raising twotoddlers with her
entrepreneurial husband.
But what really sets Natalieapart is her soul deep mission
to never let anyone in her worldfeel stuck or unseen, from a
life-changing moment with herfather-in-law to a Forrest Gump
inspiring.
Calling Natalie is proof thatthe personal pain can fuel a
(00:45):
professional purpose.
So we're going to unpack howshe stays sane when she breaks
down and how she creates joy forher team, her patients and
herself.
So if you're a private practiceowner who wants to create more
time and meaning in your life,this one's for you.
Enjoy the show.
Enjoy the show.
(01:06):
All right, natalie, I am soexcited for the world to get to
know you.
Let's get it all started.
Set the table for the audience.
Tell us about your privatepractice, your organization and
why you do what you do.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
Absolutely, and thank you so much, will, for having
me.
I really appreciate it.
I loved meeting you at the P3PTconference and we just hit off
that vibe and I'm reallyappreciative to come onto your
podcast first of all.
So thank you.
Yeah, so I am Dr Natalie Tilton.
I own Ability Allies PhysicalTherapy.
We are a private practice onthe seacoast of New Hampshire
(01:44):
and we now have four locations,which is a recent growth that
just happened.
I have been a physicaltherapist for a bit of over 18
years.
I graduated from NortheasternUniversity in Boston and I
really had always had anentrepreneurial bug in me and
(02:07):
five years ago I said you knowwhat this is it?
I want to help people.
I want to grow a practice andreally establish something that
I can help a lot of people outthere, and I'm really happy to
say that it's growing and it'sgoing very well.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
Yeah, it's amazing and it's so fun because you're
one of those entrepreneursentrepreneurs for this season,
ai versus VA.
I was very specific on lookingfor some people who just had
lots of irons in lots of fires.
So, briefly, tell the audienceall the businesses that you and
your spouse run not that it'snot going to detail, just like
count them out run, not thatlet's not go into detail, just
(02:47):
like count them out Uh, four, sothere's four companies, maybe
five.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
Yeah, it could be five.
Yeah, he could be hiding one,like knowing him, yeah.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
So you have this multi-location business.
He has three yes, your husbandhas three and you and then you
have two, two little boys.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
Correct.
Yes, yeah.
And then, uh, properties toolike properties, properties to
manage um whole, like brick andmortar businesses he, yeah.
And then properties too Likeproperties to manage whole, like
brick and mortar businesses hehas three, I have one, and then
we have a property that we worktogether and then, yeah, two
little boys.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
Yeah, ages again.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
Two and four.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
So I want the ages, because when you hear two, I
know there's audience memberswho are like groaning, like oh
that's so much.
Yes, and my question, becauseobviously that's why I want you
on the show.
You couldn't be where you areif you weren't a master of
creating space and freedom.
As a addicted entrepreneur likeme.
You are then filling it withnew things and that's why that
(03:40):
resume of busyness starts tolook insane.
But it's really about howyou've created freedom, which
we're going to get into in alittle bit.
Remember, freedom isn't justpossible, it's kind of the point
.
If this episode helped you laugh, learn or at least cancel one
meeting, go ahead and hitsubscribe, share it with your
overworked friend and leave areview.
I read every single one,usually while avoiding emails.
(04:02):
Want more behind the scenesstuff?
Then hit us up on the socials.
Now go delegate something andtake a nap.
You've earned it.
But the thing I want theaudience to know right now,
natalie, is why Not?
Why all the busyness?
Like what drives you deep down?
Like what is it that put you ina position where you care as
much as you do about yourbusiness and businesses to push
(04:24):
all this forward?
Speaker 2 (04:26):
Yeah, I mean, that's an excellent question and it
really comes into a sense ofeven, honestly, will.
When I was younger, every youknow the little participation
awards or the you know trackawards or field hockey awards it
would always be like Natalie'stenacious that is the word
Tenacious, tenacious and so it'sabout being a go-getter, it's
(04:48):
about seeing a problem or andfinding a solution to it, and I
think that that is reallywholeheartedly in the root of my
soul is to be able to helppeople and be able to problem
solve in tasks and challenges.
I love health and medicine andI'm a really big nerd at heart
(05:09):
as well.
So when it comes to science,health and medicine, and
athleticism for that matter aswell, keeping all of those
qualities combined and havingthat tenacious nature of this is
a challenge.
I am going to go after this andif it, if I'm having problems,
I'm going to resolve it ineither a different way, a
(05:30):
different tactic, looking at it,a different approach, but at
the end of the day, my, my goalis to solve it and to make or or
to make it better.
I think, when it comes totowards, um, people, I'm I'm
very social, I'm a very socialbutterfly, unlike my husband Um.
But you know, when it comes topeople, that just really
(05:52):
generates towards my soul thatpeople sometimes need a hero in
their life.
They need someone to help um,empathize with them, listen to
their needs and be able to helpthem.
This is the best way that I canhelp people is helping um,
making practices that in a rootcare, in a root cause of their,
the quality of care and thepersonalization that they can
(06:14):
get at ability allies, um, I,I'm all for it Like, how how can
we do this and how can we makethis better?
Speaker 1 (06:21):
It's very powerful.
I heard you say in a summarythat you're passionate about
people and overcoming problemsby being a hero for them, at
least for until they can becometheir own, and I love that.
It's such a cool way ofdefining what's driving you to
do what you do, because I don'tthink it's about achievement.
(06:42):
I think if it was achievementand money, there'd be no way,
natalie, that you would be ableto have the motivation to
continue to create the spacesthat you do in your world, to
keep creating new businesses.
So it's really cool for me tosee what drives you as someone
who's hyper entrepreneurial,because you're also very happy.
I know you have your moments,but I won't get into that, but
(07:03):
ultimately, you have done a lot.
We.
You obviously were a collegiateathlete.
You talked about athleticism.
Um, let's talk about this.
One of the things that you'redoing that's really powerful
right now is that you hostwellness events and you see this
as like a way to communicateand connect with the community
and engage with them is whattransforms private practice.
(07:27):
How do you see that comingtogether?
Speaker 2 (07:30):
Yeah.
So I believe, as I've evolvedmy practice, and what really
hits home for me and you hadphrased it before the sense of
humanity my sense of humanitywhen you ask about wellness
events and workshops and thisand that I say that they are a
necessity in a person's practice, it really is how you can get
(07:53):
out there and think about themodel of your approach is that
you know when, in any healthcare setting, can you actually
go and see the person thatyou're working with before?
You're working with them, right, you're able to meet them, con
working with them, right, you'reable to meet them, converse
with them, vibe with them andany of that.
So even just being able to getout there and work with your
people in your community isreally helpful for prospective
(08:19):
patients.
You know, to learn about you.
But in reality, what hadessentially sparked my community
type of events that I do is myfather-in-law, so his name is
Bob and we actually call ourcommunity balance programs the
Bob Program for Build on BetterBalance and it started off four
(08:45):
years ago where my poorfather-in-law has a progressive
neurological disease and it'snot ALS, but it is a form of ALS
that prospectively his nerveshave degenerative myelination of
their nerves there andultimately we knew that he
wouldn't.
He wouldn't be able to walk anymore any longer.
(09:07):
So at this point four years ago, he was using a rollator in his
home and really having a lot ofdifficulty with his balance
overall.
So we hadn't heard from him infour days and it's always like
gets me.
So we hadn't heard from him infour days and it's always like
gets me.
Um.
So we hadn't heard from him infour days.
And, um, I, uh, I called himand I was like Bob, like what
(09:30):
are you doing?
How are you?
Like, how are you doing?
And he's like I'm stuck, Ican't, I can't get up from the
roll later, um, so he hadn'tgotten up from the roll later in
four days.
Speaker 1 (09:41):
He'd been on the floor.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
He was on, he was in sitting in his rollator he had,
he was in front of his desk andhe had stacked up some pillows
so that he could rest like justin a forward like seated stance.
And he said that he was soincredibly fearful of falling
and fearful that he would losehis balance and obviously get
really injured, that he justwasn't able to, you know, call
(10:06):
anybody or connect with anybody.
And I said to myself there isno way that I will let this
happen to anybody in my worldever again.
I don't.
This should never happen to asingle human being.
And so thus we've developed theBob program, which initially had
started as a completely freeprogram to the community in New
(10:30):
Hampshire, where we go in and wewill do training sessions with
a group of people Most of themare the geriatric age but we
essentially do a communitywellness type of program.
And ultimately it has now growninto five different towns that
(10:51):
we now will work with a recprogram in doing these sort of
balance, balance and wellness sothat people can have a better
sense of, you know, learningabout their balance, working on
their balance skills and reallygetting them more of fulfilling
life, because some of thesepeople are really fearful of
going out in the community, youknow, on uneven ground or, in
(11:13):
Bob's case, even in his own home.
So when you talk about, youknow your business and you know
what you can achieve and whatyou can do.
Um, this is like such a human,humanitarian and fulfilling
achievement for me.
Um, in in what I can do for mycommunity and what I can do for
my father-in-law and to honorhim as well.
(11:35):
Um, but, uh, their communityevents are a necessity in
anybody's practice.
Speaker 1 (11:41):
Thank you for sharing that.
I think what um that story didwas help us understand what
drives you better.
It's like that love and thatthat passion that you feel to be
somebody else's hero.
It's like, well, and I don't Iwant to use different language
because I don't want that tocome across Like yeah, I want to
be someone's hero, but likeyeah but, like my PT practice,
our purpose was to be the lightin the hope of life in the lives
(12:04):
of others.
We in the healthcare field wehave an opportunity to represent
hope and be heroes and teachthem to be here because there
are heroes right, and so thatwas really cool for me to hear
that driving force, but it alsowas a reflection of what you're
able to do when you haveprofitability and you have
freedom to be able to focus onproblems like that.
(12:26):
So it drives you to create thefreedom, but it also is the why
behind it, in the sense that,like, yeah, I'm doing this so
that no one in my world ever hasto be stuck in a uh, in a
position for four days thatbroke my heart.
to hear that he was in thatposition and just suffered
through it and embarrassed, anddidn't want to fall.
So, um, yeah, I think so.
(12:47):
Now that we have an idea,natalie, of what drives you and
the wonderful heart that youhave, let's get in to like the
transformation of your life.
Like when you started all this,obviously, you weren't the
leader you are today.
So let's talk about a timewhere you had a breaking moment.
Have you ever had a breakingmoment that made you realize
(13:07):
that you had to free up moretime in your business?
Speaker 2 (13:10):
Yeah, I'm like, I'm like this morning, like this
morning I had it right.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
It's not like one and done.
It's a, it's a process.
Speaker 2 (13:16):
It's a process, yeah, and I think that it's like it's
phases.
It's phases in your life, it'sphases in your business, because
when I started my practice, myoldest son was four years old
and a lot of I think people,especially women out there, will
say, you know, oh, I can'tstart a business because I want
to start a family or I can't dothis because of any sort of like
(13:40):
personal reasons or whatnot.
But I started Ability Allieswhen I was, when my son, my
first son, was four, and then wewere opening up our second
clinic when I was pregnant withmy second.
So when you talk about freedomand whatnot, I think one of the
(14:01):
biggest pivotal moments I canthink of in my phase one of my
journey my best hire, I can tellyou right now was a personal
assistant Interesting, and I andyou know back, quote unquote,
back then I honestly wasn'tfamiliar with VAs or, but in any
(14:22):
sense, like you're getting,you're getting an assistant to
really help you, um, and so inthat phase I had basically
reached out to our localuniversity Um, if they had like
a Facebook page for mostly um,like babysitters or dog walkers,
you know, or anything like thatand I just put the post out
there and said hey, I'm a singlephysical therapist, um I w.
(14:46):
I would like someone to helpschedule patients or do the
faxes or walk my dog or babysitor take up my children, um, and
so I hired my first um assistant.
Her name was Jill.
I still absolutely love her andwe still we still text with
each other.
But she also was a marketingmajor, so she kind of helped me
(15:09):
with literally everything andshe jokes around too, she's.
She will still still say now,natalie, like that was my
favorite job, like because Icould walk.
I could walk chumly, or I couldfax a fax a note from a patient
you know, or this or that.
Fax a note from a patient youknow, or this or that, but you
know in terms of when you get to, you know higher level status
(15:30):
when it comes to, like, morebusinesses, more responsibility.
You need to delegate, you needto delegate your tasks and you
need to find a trustworthysource to help you with that.
You might take a little time tothink that through, but in all
end of it, you need to make sureyou're delegating and those are
(15:54):
the breakthroughs that you willfind to free you up in the
future.
Speaker 1 (15:59):
Yeah, rockstars.
I want you to really pay closeattention to what Natalie said
regarding her assistant, and shestill says it's her favorite
job.
Jill, it was because she walkedthe dog.
The reason I highlight that,rockstars, is because one of our
barriers that we put in ourheads around delegation is that
we feel like we don't want togive other people our crap, like
(16:21):
the stuff that we feel is likedemeaning or we hate doing we.
There is always someone on thisplanet who would love to do the
things we don't want to do, nomatter how how small, big,
frustrating those things are.
So, natalie, that was a hugebreakthrough because you learned
the power of delegation, thepower of buying back your time
(16:43):
by investing in someone.
And here's my favorite part Jillloved it.
She got to develop her skills.
She got a personal connectionto the leader you are.
She was able to feel like shewas making a difference, and I
think that's what we forget isthat when we hold on to these
things as leaders, we aredamning our progression like a
(17:07):
dam in a river, because we areholding the pressure in it.
It just keeps building.
There are people who want toflow on that river.
Man, it's so exciting whenrealizing, wow, we're blessing
them by having those thingshanded over to them.
So I have another question.
In your case, you were acollegiate athlete that mental
strength that you developed itwas cool for me to hear that you
have multiple breaking moments,cause that's me too.
When you go through that, howhas that mental training in that
(17:30):
physical world in collegeprepared you for owning a
business?
This is yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (17:36):
So you know being involved, um, in like division
one, collegiate athletics, theNew England field hockey team,
the US national field hockeyteam, those are those.
You don't come by withoutworking really, really hard, and
it's not a sense of normalcy ofworking hard.
(17:57):
It is that you are pushed tothe maximum, that you feel like
you could potentially be pushedto, that you feel like you could
potentially be pushed to.
And so I have this.
I have this phrase called you,call this a storm, and it's from
Forrest Gump, and I laughbecause Forrest Gump was
(18:18):
actually my inspiration tobecome a physical therapist,
like I knew.
I wanted yeah, yeah, yeah.
So like I knew I wanted to be adoctor or a nurse or something
in healthcare, but I didn'treally like blood or guts or
things like that.
And that scene in Forrest Gumpwhen he's got the leg braces and
he's starting to run and theleg braces fall off, and I
(18:39):
literally said that is what Iwant to do, that is what I want
to do.
If somebody can't walk, I wantto help them walk, like what.
We had to look that up.
My parents and I had to lookthat up.
What is that career?
And I and that was that was thestart of my like this is my
journey, I've meant to do this.
And so again from Forrest Gumpand Lieutenant Dan, they're on
(19:00):
the shrimp boat, they're up andthey're there.
You know there's lightninggoing on, there's a massive
torrential downpour andLieutenant Dan is yelling up at
the, at the sky.
You call this a storm.
And so it's kind of funny thatevery time like maybe some
bigger challenges might come upis that same phrase like you
call this, you call this a storm.
(19:21):
I can, I can work through this,I can get through this.
And you know it comes with alsogrit.
That is like a huge proponentof you know.
Grit, in my definition, is notnecessarily about just like
working hard and like grungingyour way through it.
It means that you have workedreally hard and if you still are
(19:44):
not getting where you need togo in your journey, whether
that's a success model, whetherthat's financially, whether
that's a structural component,is that you're trying again and
again and again finding thosealternative methods of
positivity, of success.
And I think, coming from saidexposure to those hardships and
(20:08):
those difficult times of thecollegiate error and the
national team error and whatnot,it was you had to go through a
lot of grit in order to findthat sort of success.
But, like I said, changing itand finding those solutions and
(20:30):
whatnot are exactly what isneeded and that to me, is like
winning in my book.
Speaker 1 (20:38):
That's amazing, rockstar.
Two things, she said.
I've got to really pump the gason a little bit here.
The first was this thing aboutyou called it a storm.
There is a mindset to be freeand it's not a matter.
I think we perceive, natalie,that people who are doing what
you're doing or like supersuccessful have just so much
(20:58):
freedom and they just figured itout.
It's not that they go throughstorms just like everybody else,
but there's a mindset that wecould get into multiple layers,
but the one that I want to hitupon is this you call this a
storm.
Rock stars, as you're lookingat your day, as you're trying to
cram all the things in thatyou're cramming in, let's
remember to show that grit.
You call this a storm becauseyou're stronger than that.
(21:20):
You're stronger than anything.
You're going through it.
It's okay that it's hard.
It's supposed to be hard.
You had a breaking moment thismorning, natalie.
I had one last week.
I feel like I'm on the verge ofanother one, if I'm being
honest, but it's one of thosewhere it's like bring it on
right.
The other thing is this conceptof freedom.
Isn't it powerful that what gotyou into this profession
(21:40):
healthcare, private practice,ownership is this idea of seeing
Forrest Gump break through andcreate movement and freedom.
And like that power of breakingthe bands of resistance and
what's holding us back is whatinspired you, inspired me,
inspired most people in ouraudience, to get into this
profession, and so I think, whenwe start putting on those leg
(22:01):
braces the metaphorical legbraces of our businesses we
understand that they're there tosupport us and cause us to get
stronger so that we can breakfree.
And so this is a powerful pieceof how you've been able to
illustrate your journey, andthank you for sharing that
mental piece of it, because Ithink that is such a big part of
this journey is that mental?
game that we go through.
Speaker 2 (22:22):
Yeah, thank you, and I talked about the the time
before, like phase one, right.
So phase one, my breakthroughwas hiring that um college
student essentially to do that.
My breakthrough now, now havingfour businesses and whatnot was
actually and this is, of course,a pitch to you but my, my
(22:45):
breakthrough now was hiring myrock star and I can tell you
that right now, um, that justhaving somebody help you with
all of the day-to-day tasks,helping you with the like you
were saying, the tasks that youmight not have time to do or
might not have the mentalcapacity to do so helping with
(23:06):
marketing, helping withscheduling, helping with faxing
and all of this and that my VAher name is Abby and I literally
cannot speak highly enoughabout her, and in fact you don't
know this yet, but I wanted totell you for so long that when
you were at the P3 PT conferenceand you started your lecture,
(23:28):
your part of the seminar, I saidto myself how fun would this be
to do?
A little kind of test, a littlechallenge?
So I messaged Abby as youstarted your talk and I said
this is a fresh, brand newproject.
I said I've got a new idea.
I want to do a golf event atthis place in Portsmouth and
(23:49):
we're going to have a golf prothere and we're going to have a
club fitter there and this, andthat I want you to make an
Instagram real, a post and anemail that can go out to all of
the sources and we're going tolaunch this event.
It was completed before youended your talk.
Speaker 1 (24:11):
You have got to be kidding me.
Speaker 2 (24:13):
So I'm sitting at your conference, literally
Abby's doing everything I neededto do.
So then, literally the next day, I'm sending Mike the email
saying send that out to youremail blast.
I'm texting Scott saying yep,uh, this he's the, he's our golf
pro that we work with.
Yep, Scott, this is a go, we'regoing to do this on June 26th,
(24:34):
Um yeah, obviously I'm honoredby that Cause that's my passion.
Speaker 1 (24:38):
My passion, as you know, is to free you up, and
that's the podcast.
That's all the things we do atthe virtual rockstar, but what's
cool about I just want to throwit back to you though, natalie
is the idea that again goingback to that mindset of freedom
is that you're at an event inOrlando and you are kind of like
the athlete again testing yourlimits.
Oh, I wonder what I can testthe limits of my team In this
(24:59):
case a virtual assistant andyou're pushing this idea out,
and it's like causing momentum.
I think there is a really bigcall for us to remember the
mindset of being free beginswith understanding that we're
worth it.
Number two, that, uh, otherpeople were blessing people when
we do it.
And then number three is thatwe are constantly thinking what
(25:21):
can I give to somebody else,like what, in your case?
What can I challenge them to do?
And that is so cool, I wouldlove to see that um social post
at some point, by the way.
Speaker 2 (25:29):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
It's on my Instagram right now.
Speaker 1 (25:33):
Okay, cool, we'll link hey, we'll link your
Instagram into the show notes soyou guys can see that post.
So I appreciate that piece ofit.
So let's get into um.
Since you already are obviouslya huge proponent of virtual
assistants and the show isreally in the seasons about kind
of all the things that setpeople free, let me ask you a
few questions here that are alittle bit more um, just freedom
based in general.
(25:53):
So, first of all, what's thebest business purchase under a
hundred dollars that has savedyou hours?
Speaker 2 (25:59):
Oh huh, that's a great question and I feel this
is like really, really silly,but like my gum.
Speaker 1 (26:07):
That's not silly.
Talk to me about it, though.
Why gum?
Speaker 2 (26:10):
Yeah, no, this is my gum right here, um, but it's
like my super go-to.
It's like my like thinking.
You know my thinking mechanism.
So people, uh, yeah, gum andsnacks, honestly, like the gum
is for me, I like, I like thegum, um, it just is something
I'm like chewing all day long.
I feel like it just kind ofgets my thoughts going and gets
(26:33):
my mental, my mental processgoing.
Um, also, uh, peppermint andspearmint kind of like calm the
mind.
So sometimes if I can get alittle flighty, this helps me
kind of simmer down a little bit.
Um, but then also, it's so funnyhow I love, um, like, when my
staff find something that theyreally enjoy, like snacks.
(26:55):
You know I'm all for it.
You know.
So if it makes them happy tohave a protein, a specific
protein bar in the clinicbecause they, they enjoy that,
perfect.
If they love dark chocolate,you know we're going to have
some extra special darkchocolates.
But honestly, I think that someof your best purchases is
(27:17):
really for the conglomerate ofthe group.
You know, not necessarily tohelp the patient, but if,
looking at a bigger picture, arethese little things able to
make our team more cohesive andhappy.
Speaker 1 (27:30):
Yeah, you know you're the second.
One of the my guests on thisseason who Lance Gross talked
about.
It was a $30 gift card to Sonicfor drinks.
He says that by far it's givenme so much freedom because I'm
investing my people.
I also love the Spearmint Gumthing.
It's a small investment thatproduces an experience of calm
and thinking, which is where youcreate space.
(27:51):
That was such a cool take onthat.
I actually never do this, butI'm going to share one that I
recently discovered with theaudience and with you.
That has been a game changerfor me.
I'm also very like driven andmotivated to like achieve, and
so I downloaded an app.
I've always been tracking likehabits that I'm trying to build,
and it's very time consumingand very annoying.
I had a long conversation witha chat GPT in a walk, and chat
(28:15):
GPT is like you just need an app, man.
This app that you need iscalled streak and I was like no
way, Cause I kid you not, I'msuch a nerd.
I had spreadsheets liketracking these things and
streaks.
I'm going to show it to thecamera.
It has, um, it has these.
Just you put in whatever yourhabits are, that you want to
form and it gamifies it.
And it's so simple.
(28:35):
It attaches to my health app onmy iPhone, so like you can see
how many steps I've already hadto date and my goal is 8,000.
It tells you how far I sleptlast night.
My goal is seven and a halfhours of sleep and I didn't make
it.
I'm tracking my food likeexercise.
It really just gamifies it.
And then they have a kidversion where my kids can brush
their teeth, make their bed.
Speaker 2 (28:57):
I love it.
Speaker 1 (28:58):
And you see how it's this really cool feedback
mechanism that takes no time.
So a couple of tidbits for you,rock stars, to free you up
Streaks the app, spearmint gumchewing and giving yourself time
to think and then rewardingyour team with protein bars.
That was a great answer.
(29:19):
What are tools and tech thathave been game changers for you
to reclaim your freedom?
Like what?
What other like tools or techhave you used, or do you use,
kind of like that, that app thatI just showed that has helped
you?
Speaker 2 (29:27):
Yeah, absolutely so in all honesty.
I mean, when we come down tophysical therapy, I am really a
stickler when it comes to likeefficiencies and obviously every
practice might operatedifferent and in our practice we
kind of needed a one one shopstop kind of, or one stop shop
(29:49):
kind of thing, or one-stop shopkind of thing.
So I like, when it comes tolike an EMR and whatnot, I was
such a psycho when it came tointerviewing like EMRs and I
almost felt bad, like it waslike a date where I was like I'm
sorry, it's me, not you, youknow.
And so the EMR that we, the EMRthat we use.
Speaker 1 (30:12):
But it is you.
Hey, it's me, not you, butreally it's you because you're
my RCM or whatever.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (30:17):
But when you think about it, the uniqueness of our
practice is that we've gotmultiple locations.
We have multiple providers.
We have a VA that needs to comein, we have a massage therapist
that rents a space, we haveevents that we do.
We have clinics that we dono-transcript EMR I don't even
(31:02):
have an affiliate with them, Ijust love them so much.
Um, but our other, yeah, it'sJane.
Speaker 1 (31:10):
Jane Okay, I've actually never heard of Jane and
I've worked myself in in thatphysical therapy space.
I've worked in easily over 12EMRs, either as a PT, a practice
owner, or as a medical billingcompany owner.
Speaker 2 (31:22):
Yep, yep, yep.
No, they are wonderful, um, andnot for nothing, but even I'm
also like a you know, with themultiple facets of all of it.
On top of all of that, it'spretty like it's not like one of
those like Meditech lookingtype of things.
It's legit really pretty tolook at and I just find it
(31:45):
wonderful, um, and I hope theygive me a discount for this
pitch.
Speaker 1 (31:48):
Yeah, jane, reach out to me.
We've got to get someaffiliates with all this
business.
But that's a really good tip tobit, so okay.
So another question what issomething you do in your spare
time that's only for you?
I have never asked thisquestion before and I like it
because I want to startnormalizing in our industry,
cause, you know, healer mindsetsis a real thing and it's it's
(32:10):
like, defined by people whoabsolutely give to the point
where they get victimized Likethey're.
They're victims in their ownworld, like I don't.
I never have time to work out.
So when there's time for youand it's so, it's not.
It could be a guilty pleasure.
But what's something you dojust for you, natalie?
Speaker 2 (32:25):
Um, I, I will have moments of um, stillness where I
just need to almost like likeescape, get out of my, get out
of my tizzy, get out of mywhirlwind, even when it comes to
my own like headspace.
(32:46):
So, and I mean stillness of themind, and I am you, if you told
me to run three marathons ormeditate for half an hour, like
really meditate, I would choosethe marathon.
I can't.
It's really difficult for me tofind mental stillness, and so
my own, my own thing that I dois is honestly kind of finding
(33:10):
time, times where I could bejust alone, like alone with my
thoughts, settle myself down.
That might be going for a walkin the woods, you know, that
might be just kind of likefloating in in water, like in in
stillness, but I just kind ofmake sure I don't have my phone
with me, I don't have anybodythat is, you know, conversing.
(33:34):
It's just these moments of likeokay, let's, let's settle,
let's settle down a little bit.
You know, even dry, Like I'm abig motor and people don't
really know this, but I'm a bigmotor enthusiast.
No, I didn't know that Even justlike going fast, like even if
you're like on a jet ski or afour-wheeler or car and you're
(33:54):
like have getting your zoomiesout, but still it's just me and
the wind coming at my face,where again you're just kind of
like trying to trying to settle,settle your, uh, your mind yeah
, I love that.
Speaker 1 (34:07):
Rock stars, get your zoomies out.
Get your zoomies out, Um, I youknow it's funny.
I think for a lot of peoplethere might be some connection
and enjoyment and speed.
I've never I've never pairedmeditation, which is something
I'm big on with, like themeditative experience of going
fast so for.
But I do, I have that withsnowboarding Like.
(34:28):
For me, I think that's that'ssomething that like when you're
in that space and there's alittle bit of risk involved, but
it's mostly kind of a serenething.
It's amazing how our minds willstart to disconnect from, like,
the busyness of it, right?
Speaker 2 (34:38):
Yes, yes.
Speaker 1 (34:40):
Okay, very cool.
So this has been phenomenal.
So this is AI versus VA.
You've talked a lot aboutfreedom.
You actually did a lot of likethe VA side of things.
Let's get into more of theartificial intelligence.
Um, are you experimenting withany AI tools like chat box,
scheduling, assistance, notesummarizers, like what have you?
What AI have you been workingwith at this point, if any?
Speaker 2 (35:02):
Yeah, yeah, I've been working with um, chat, gpt and,
to be honest with you, the moreI and I use my VA assists me in
using her AI tools to then dothe analytical, the logistics
(35:23):
and this and that.
So, for example, we might usemondaycom to schedule out when
we are going to promote aparticular event.
You know, it might happen amonth ahead of time.
We might do another, like aFacebook campaign, two weeks
(35:43):
ahead of time for signups or,like you know, there's kind of a
structure in place where AI hasassisted us in saying we say,
okay, we're going to do thisevent, when should we start
promoting it in terms of thetendencies and whatnot?
And it might say back oh, twomonths in advance.
Another time it might say onemonth in advance.
It might be when, in seasonally,you're hosting that event, you
(36:09):
know, for example, you might saylike, oh, I want to do like a
snowboarding.
You know event.
Like, obviously you're notgoing to do that in July in New
Hampshire, you know.
So you can essentially scheduleout an entire year's worth of
calendared and scheduled eventsfor a perspective of like, what
does your year look like?
(36:29):
Moving forward.
Look like moving forward, whichis super helpful for me in my
practice because we not only doevents, we do workshops, we do
seminars, I do public speakingevents in different places, and
then we also are fitting in ourcommunity support in that.
So it's like how does that allfit in Now?
Me personally, I will useChatGPT more in the creative
(36:51):
space because I'll have theseideas, but then I want something
more or maybe it just doesn'tfeel instinctively complete yet.
So ChatGPT will help me getinto that sort of headspace and
get different ideas in thatcreatively.
Speaker 1 (37:12):
Very cool.
You're leveraging both of thesefastest growing trends in
healthcare the VA and the AItogether.
Are there any other AI toolsthat you use, or is that the
majority of what you'recurrently working with?
Speaker 2 (37:24):
That's the majority of what we're currently working
with we are looking into.
Jane is starting to get an AIfeature involved with it, and so
that is another component thatwe are looking into getting into
our practice is what exactlydoes that look like in terms of
(37:45):
physical therapy and integratingAI into into that?
How is that going to free upyour time, which, of course, a
PT's free free time is spenttaking notes right, doing
charting and all of that and soif AI can assist us and our
clinicians in that process wheremaybe it's recording our
(38:07):
session or our verbiage withinthe clinical visit, then it's
putting all of that informationinto a note and you're just
simply reviewing and signingwhat's changing, what's
appropriate and whatnot.
Speaker 1 (38:21):
That is so cool, man, so it's really fun to see how
you're integrating that elementinto your Jane and Jane again,
reach out, let's talk.
But yeah, I love that.
How do you?
You know, some know some ownersworry that the AI component is
going to remove the human touchof our businesses.
How do you view that?
Speaker 2 (38:43):
I think it's impossible to do that.
You can because, at the end ofthe day, you're you, you know
and you're taking responsibilityfor what content you're putting
out there or what you knowverbiage you're putting out
there.
And I think when you understandthe importance of that humanity
and the human connection, theAI can just be utilized as a
(39:05):
tool, but not as, not as theleader that has enforced, like
what exactly you're doing.
At the end of the day, you'recarrying the task out.
You know, and in our field, inhealth and wellness, you're
always having that interpersonalconnection.
You know, and if that's what'simportant to you in your
(39:26):
business and your practice,you're going to make sure that
you have those facets in place.
You know.
And there are other, you know.
I just think about the PT world, how it's evolving, and people
will say like the kiosk, right,like you come in and patients
getting checked in by a kioskand not like a face-to-face you
know Um and I think that that'stotally up to you in in in the
(39:48):
circumstance of your business.
Um me the face to face.
I want that face to face.
It's always going to be reallyimportant to me in my practice
because our two pillars of ourservices are literally
personalization and high qualitycare.
So, you know, at the end of theday, you want to meet a face and
(40:11):
you want to, you know, buildyour brand in the way that you,
that you see fit, and I think AIcan help a little bit with that
.
But I think the human touch is,is really superior when it
comes to the, the humanitarianaspect of your, of your care.
Speaker 1 (40:29):
Yeah, absolutely Okay .
So since we've covered the AIside of things and you are a
master delegator, which issomething that I want to write a
book on, I'm not gonna take anote on that.
Actually, I'm gonna write abook on that.
How to delegate, becausedelegation is such a mindset
thing where you've talked aboutalready, but you, as a master
delegator, creating the space,filling it with more purpose
already.
But you, as a master delegator,creating the space, filling it
(40:51):
with more purpose, hopefullysome walks and floating and
meditation.
How do you?
How do you delegate to your VA?
Can you walk the audiencethrough your process of like
what is?
How is that process of yougoing?
You illustrated one earlier,but can you just kind of step
that out just for a few minutesand like, hey, this is when I'm
going to talk to my VA and havethem do something.
How do you give it to them andfollow up, know it's completed,
all those things?
Speaker 2 (41:12):
It is like so easy, Will Like so easy.
So I can be a little bit of asquirrel, a little bit of idea
here, idea there and whatnot.
Speaker 1 (41:24):
No.
Speaker 2 (41:27):
And oftentimes my delegations come at a point of
necessity, so like when I'm alsolike a super multitasker.
So oftentimes when I findmyself on like the fourth task
that I'm kind of working on andI say to myself, oh, this is a
great idea.
Like I don't want to, I don'twant to lose the idea Just like
(41:47):
you writing down your book rightnow.
You know it's like I don't wantto lose the idea, Just like you
writing down your book rightnow.
You know it's like you don'twant to lose the idea.
But it literally can becompletely random where you you
might role is with your company,but most of the time I will
(42:12):
just literally I communicatewith our VA through WhatsApp, so
it's an immediate message ortext to her that I say I could
easily just say hey, I have anidea.
Let's like start, can you startmaking this?
And that might be a poster.
You know, I might say you knowwhat?
(42:33):
I'm looking around the clinicand I kind of want, I want like
a spine silhouette and I wantflowers to be decorated on it to
make it look pretty like, notjust like medical, but have some
sort of art to it, and I willliterally just text that to my
VA.
She'll go on Canva, she haslogins to all of our business
(42:58):
structures, whatnot.
But she'll go on and she'llstart designing a silhouette of
a spine through her AI, um, uh,uh, associates, or what, or
whatnot.
Um, and then I'll piece myideas more, more and more into
it, Um, and then ultimately shejust comes back with a foot,
(43:19):
with a graphic, Um, and I'll domy little tweaks and then, um,
we might go back and forth andwhatnot.
So ultimately, after usuallylike one or two passes, it's
done.
I think the longest projectthat we ever worked on was.
So the practice that we mergedwith that I bought is a 30-year
(43:45):
established private practice andI really wanted to do something
really important to, number one, launch this information to the
public, but, number two, reallyhonor them in the way that they
deserve.
Speaker 1 (44:00):
Wow.
So you're not just buying them,you're like totally
acknowledging the 30-year legacy, you're continuing it, you're
handling, grabbing the batonfrom them.
Speaker 2 (44:09):
Yes, exactly Exactly, and so I literally said to Abby
I want to do something speciallike that, and can we create a
video, or a reel for that matter, can we create a video doing
this?
Here are my ideas and I threwout a couple of ideas and again,
yeah, we did use AI together inworking on this.
Here are my ideas and I threwout the a couple of ideas and
(44:30):
again, yeah, we did use AItogether in working on this, but
we literally came up with kindof a little script, if you will,
or or a a like, like basicallyhow the video will flow.
And we look at the previousowner.
He's saying it's been 30 years,it time to hand it over.
He hands, he hands a chart over.
(44:52):
You see a hand come in no waythe chart and it pans away is
this a video you've actuallyfilmed it's on my instagram yeah
, send me the links to both ofthe the va creations.
Speaker 1 (45:03):
I'll put them in the notes.
Speaker 2 (45:05):
You guys go check out the show notes yeah, yeah, so
and it's like we literally andwe're not, we're not like media
production people here, it'sjust her and.
I splashing ideas together butin the end what came out?
The project that came out wasso beautiful and so heartfelt
and such an honor to the ownersand such a great reference of
(45:29):
hey, here's some really big newsSeacoast, new Hampshire.
You know, this is like reallycool and whatnot.
But Abby and I worked on thatproject for maybe I'm going to
say like a day or so Come on.
And that's just us talking backand forth.
That's not if I were toprobably put it in the amount of
(45:53):
hours, or or.
I think that if you clockedevery second that I had to chat
with her about this, it probablywas like maybe 48 minutes of my
time, of my time, and thenshe's working on it all in the
background, creating this likemasterpiece that we've, that
we've shared now.
Speaker 1 (46:11):
So yeah and think about that, four to eight
minutes and the result is itdoes so many things in my mind.
I saw them at once.
I'm trying to slow down.
It's honor, that man's legacy,how that video made him feel, is
huge.
It's almost like this, likecertificate literally, of
watching that video, of he's notjust handing it for the video,
(46:32):
but he's also like, oh, I'm done.
He feels honored.
You get to put yourself in aposition where you're building
on his legacy because you loveand support him and you're all
about breaking through thebraces of the Forrest Gump's
world In his case it wasbreaking through his to his
retirement, his last stage.
You're also in a place whereyou're PRing the crap out of it,
so you have all this greatpositive reflection.
So any relationship he held Iwas thinking about it when you
(46:54):
said it, if I was a patient ofhis company and I saw that video
he's happily handing it over.
My emotional handoff is there,which helps you grow your
business.
And then you have this likecreative, like element that goes
through your social media, thatjust promotes your business,
your purpose, your vision, allin four to eight minutes.
Speaker 2 (47:13):
Yes, yeah.
Speaker 1 (47:14):
Okay, well, huge.
One last VA question and thenwe're going to start wrapping
things up audience.
I always like to tell peoplewhen we're getting close to the
end, so anyway, so let's getinto it.
What is one of your tasks thatyour VA does regularly that
makes a huge difference in yourweek?
Speaker 2 (47:32):
She, she, always um, will greet you in like such a
positive way.
Wow, I know that probablywasn't like your, your task with
the question.
but that was what you're likewith the question, but that was
(47:52):
what.
What came to my head was sheliterally opens up with hi
Natalie, how are you doing?
Good morning, I really hopethat your day is anything.
Yeah, I hope that your day isgoing spectacular.
How can I help you?
And I'm just like, and then wewe ended on the same time, on
the same aspect is you know,today was a such a great day.
We got a lot done.
I I've emailed you the end ofday report.
(48:15):
I really hope that you have awonderful rest of your night.
Speaker 1 (48:20):
Yeah, natalie.
So the number one feedback Iget from clients isn't the fact
that they get freed up.
It's what you just said.
It's this really thing.
It still surprises me a littlebit, but I kind of get it.
Obviously, I have a team, myown of overseas, but it's this
idea of like, why let me ask youthat question why was that the
first thing that came to mind?
Speaker 2 (48:39):
I think just because it up, it uplifts a good state,
you can work to your highestefficiencies.
If you're gloomy or negative oranything, it's really hard to
(49:01):
find that great idea when youare just not in that space and
like just and not only that, butthe the power of positivity in
sending that to other people.
When I get those messages itmakes me then in my next email
(49:22):
to whoever it'd be, like Ireally hope that you're having a
good day right now.
I really hope that you'reenjoying the sunshine and just
like snowball, that positivity,snowball that happiness Cause.
At the end of the day, it'slike the pursuit of your
happiness is like is yours andyours alone.
(49:42):
So when you're, when you'relooking into these adventures
that you're creating in yourlife or in your business, people
are always like how do you doit, natalie?
It's like pursue it.
Speaker 1 (49:53):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (49:53):
Find your grit, find your power and in those, in
those aspects, if you can havepeople on your team that are
like-minded like you and thatcan have those moments of that
incredible sense of like joy inyour or even just a joyous
moment in your life can be liketransformative.
Speaker 1 (50:17):
It's so powerful and I think that there's a lot we
could say about, like hiringsomeone overseas with
life-changing money versus anentitled American.
I don't want to go down thatroute.
I think what the difference isthat business owners a lot of
times we hire people and theyhave their own domain, like it
does overlap with ours, but likewe're trying to like spin
plates and so you're havingleaders.
Great leaders we hire here inthe States are doing that.
(50:38):
There's something about hiringsomeone who's helping just me,
like they have other thingsmaybe, but there's elements of
overlap.
But that sweet loving concern,my Kim, who's probably listening
every time, it's the highest,like hi Will.
Sometimes they call me WillieWill, which we're at that level.
Willie Will, I'm like what's up, Kim, and just like immediately
(51:02):
there's a breakthrough.
So I appreciate you sharingthat that was a better answer to
the question that I was asking.
So, all right, let's get rightdown to our rapid fire.
And, natalie, are you ready tolock and load on this?
Sure, okay, top book.
That's blown your mind.
Speaker 2 (51:18):
Oh gosh, Um so, um funny and I would like the
phrase is grit right now.
So my aunt my aunt is also anentrepreneur and business owner.
She owns a dog biscuit bakerydown in Massachusetts and she
goes to all these businessconventions and this isn't even
like a published book.
(51:41):
She hands me a book and it'sliterally called Grit and it was
from FedEx FedEx, thecorporation.
It was a gift that they gavetheir clients.
I'm sorry, it's a gift thatthey gave their employees.
Every employee got this as agift and they interviewed all of
the top women executives ofFedEx and they had their
(52:04):
backstory and this and that, andit all had to do with grit and
how somebody.
You know they had people thathad come originally from India,
overseas, and they never thoughtthey could ever get a promotion
.
But you know, they got apromotion and now they're like
the VP of, like internationalsales at FedEx.
So that, honestly, has been alife-changing book and I'm sorry
(52:29):
that, like, the public can'tget it, but here's a great book.
It's in my desk.
It's on my desk, I'll show itto you.
But one of my favorite quotesfrom that book that I still use
with every interview today ispeople will ask like how, how,
um, how can do you have anyadvancement in your company?
(52:49):
Or what is the process ofleadership or managerial
promotions and whatnot?
And I will literally say, themoment that you step into that
clinic is when you are startingyour interview for management,
for leadership, for director,any of that.
The second you step in, whetheryou are a cleaner, whether you
(53:11):
are a admin, whether you're a PT, but that's like one of my
favorite quotes from that, fromthat book.
Speaker 1 (53:17):
Love that book and you can't have it, guys.
Number two what's your top timesaver hack?
What's your top time saver hack?
Speaker 2 (53:25):
Uh Abby.
Speaker 1 (53:27):
Number three what's one thing you wish you'd stopped
doing way sooner in yourbusiness?
Speaker 2 (53:34):
Um like giving in.
Speaker 1 (53:41):
What do you mean?
Speaker 2 (53:42):
I mean like, um, if, if there are things that can go
astray from your like I want tosay.
I don't want to say policies, Idon't really like that word,
but you know the kind of likeexcuses, of like pressure that
(54:03):
pressure, trying to likeaccommodate people.
You know, like in an example,right Like to like accommodate
people.
You know, like in an example,right Like.
So a patient in earlier on nowI am, I think I literally just
had my, my youngest son, hemight've been six weeks old I
want to say, and I had a patientreally wanting specific
(54:24):
appointments and I apologized.
I said I can't, like I at firstI was giving in.
I would have said, oh, let mesacrifice like everything I have
to like, you know, accommodatethe shift of this and that, and
is it a reasonable shift?
Yeah, you can do that, but whenyou realize like too much is
too much and you're still givingin, that's what leads you to
(54:49):
like those times where you'regoing to have a lot of
challenges moving forward.
So, finding that healthybalance and like when you, when
you learn not to give in, tokind of, maybe it may be
essentially setting a little bitof boundaries, you know, and
that might be with yourself tooLike boundaries are where it's
at.
Speaker 1 (55:07):
This is another.
I didn't ask you these boundaryquestions because they were
actually in my, my list, butboundaries is another mindset.
Powerful leaders who have lotsof freedom set very firm
boundaries and don't give inLove that answer.
What's, uh, what's the mosttime consuming task that you
secretly enjoy?
(55:27):
Sleep, okay, I'm, I'm, I'm withyou on that one.
What's the latest thing you've?
Speaker 2 (55:36):
delegated.
With the company merger we aretransitioning all of our
patients from our old EMR to ournew EMR.
So I, just just an hour or soago, just delegated three
different admins with threedifferent tasks.
One of them is looking at theschedule, transferring the
(55:56):
patients.
The second one is looking andtagging everybody's insurance
and looking up a billing andeligibility to all of those
patients.
The third person is looking upall the patients and then
connecting with their referralsources, because now that we're
changing EMRs we have toreconnect with the referral
(56:16):
sources to reattain the referralunder the new business entity.
Speaker 1 (56:20):
Nice.
Okay, here's the last question,and this is the question of the
season, natalie which is it?
Ai or VAs?
Oh, vas, okay, all right.
Seth, our amazing leader ofleaders, our creative specialist
, who's also editing thispodcast, let's show it on the
(56:42):
screen, since these episodesaren't necessarily being filmed
in order.
I don't even know where thetally is, but put it on the
screen right now for me, seth,va versus AI.
Where are we at for the season?
So, natalie, so amazing to bewith you.
What final thoughts do you have?
Speaker 2 (57:00):
Honestly, I think that universe and fate have
wonderful connections that aregifted to us in our life and I
am so thankful to be connectedto.
You Will honestly like yourstory, your journey, and when we
connected at the conference youcould just feel the energy and
(57:23):
like, wow, like this is anotherperson who really enjoys making
the world a better place andhelping people and having that
sense of enthusiasm and, likeyou said, I love that phrase of
spreading light and love and Ithink that's wonderful and I'm
just really appreciative to havemet you.
Speaker 1 (57:43):
Natalie, thank you for those kind words.
They say your network is yournet worth and you are one of the
most valuable pieces of thatnetwork for me.
So thank you so much for beingon the show you are.
That was phenomenal.
Speaker 2 (57:56):
Thank you, so much Will Thank you.
Speaker 1 (57:57):
Thanks for tuning into the Willpower Podcast.
As always, this is WillHumphries, reminding you to lead
with love, live on purpose andnever give up your freedom.
Until next time.
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