July 8, 2025 • 43 mins
Welcome back to the Will Power Podcast's special season, "AI versus Virtual Assistants"! This episode is a game-changer, especially if you dream of building a thriving business without losing your mind, or your spouse. Our guest, Lance Gross, just returned from a ten-day Bahamas vacation, boat and all, with zero work calls to return. Seriously.
Lance and his wife own over 25 locations and a small empire of businesses, yet he's more relaxed than a koala on melatonin. How? He's mastered the art of freedom, chill leadership, and building a business that runs itself.
In this masterclass, we dive deep into:
- Scaling a private practice without sacrificing sanity or relationships.
- The surprising impact of small, $8 Sonic drink investments on team morale and retention (he's lost only one therapist in 7 years!).
- Lance's secret weapon: not just one, but seven virtual assistants, with VAs even hiring VAs!
- The "Who, Not How" mindset and its profound influence on his entrepreneurial journey.
- How to build layers of leadership and systems (even old-school paper ones!) that protect your time and empower your team.
- The philosophy behind his decision to personally treat patients, even though he doesn't have to.
- Why Lance is all in on Virtual Assistants and his current perspective on Artificial Intelligence.
- Rapid-fire questions covering his top book, time-saver hacks, biggest business regrets, and more!
If you're ready to learn how to cultivate a freedom growth mindset and build a business that allows you to truly live life on purpose, this episode is for you. Buckle up, Rockstars, and get ready to transform your approach to business and life!
Don't forget: If freedom had a love language, it'd be delegation! If you're tired of wearing all the hats, book a free discovery call at virtualrockstar.com and see how a Virtual Assistant can free you up. We've paired hundreds of private practice owners with their ideal virtual rockstar assistants, helping them save over $20,000 per year in profit per hire. You deserve a business that gives more than it takes!
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):
Welcome back to the Willpower Podcast and our
special season of AI versusvirtual assistants.
Our guest is Lance Gross, andthis episode, guys, is amazing.
I would have killed to listento this episode 10 years ago.
Lance just came back from a10-day Bahamas vacation where he
rented a boat with some friendsand after 10 days he didn't
(00:21):
have a single call to return anywork he had to do.
He's either a wizard or he hasto return any work he had to do.
He's either a wizard or he hasmastered something the rest of
us want to learn.
Spoiler alert it's both Lanceand his wife own 25 plus
locations and a small empire ofbusinesses, and somehow this guy
is more relaxed than a koala onmelatonin.
(00:41):
We talk about how he scaled hisprivate practice without losing
his mind or his spouse, and howhe was able to benefit his team
with small $8 Sonic Drinkinvestments that sometimes were
the best investments he made.
Oh, and his VAs.
Not only does he have a smallteam of VAs, but he's got
virtual assistants hiringvirtual assistants.
(01:01):
So buckle up.
We're diving into a masterclasson freedom, chill leadership
and how to build a business thatruns while you're on a boat
somewhere in the world.
Let's roll.
What's one thing you wish youwould stop doing way sooner in
your business?
Speaker 2 (01:15):
I'm treating patients .
I do that every day, so Iprobably need to stop doing that
as much, and I probably shouldhave stopped doing that a little
while back, to be honest.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
Well, Lance, thank you so much for being a part of
the Willpower Podcast specialseason VAs versus AI.
I want you to first just setthe table for your audience a
little bit here.
Tell us about your businesses,the size of your organization,
(01:50):
and then I'd love for you toexplain afterwards your purpose
and path, like why did youchoose the thing that you're
doing right now?
Speaker 2 (01:53):
Okay, oh, thanks for thanks for having me first.
Good to see you again.
Um, so I'm, my name is LanceGross.
I'm a physical therapist.
My wife's also a physicaltherapist.
We're from North Arkansas.
Um, been a therapist for 28years.
Uh, had therapists.
We're from North Arkansas, beena therapist for 28 years.
Had my own business that wholetime.
Have only been in theoutpatient business for about
seven years.
We currently have 24 outpatientlocations opening our 25th
(02:14):
August, the 1st.
So we're over 25 locationsacross North Arkansas and one in
Southern Missouri.
Also, I'm a half owner of a DMEcompany, half owner of an
assisted living retirementcommunity, half owner of a
residential care facility, halfowner of a home care business,
half owner of commercial realestates and all those things.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
So yeah, that's a lot .
Before you go into the why, itsounds like you have your
private practice with themultiple locations and you're
expanding rapidly that you ownas the primary owner, and then
you have partners and all theseother businesses.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
Right.
So my wife and I are the onlyowners of the therapy business.
We're the primary a hundredpercent owners of that, and then
the other business I'm going tohave a partner in.
The others.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
So yeah, and then let me let me, before we get into
the why of it, I do want peopleto hear this.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
Tell me how many business calls you had in that
10 day period.
Oh, when I was okay, so I was,we were talking.
Before that came on, I was.
I was actually gone last weekon vacation for 10 days and I
had zero business calls thewhole 10 days.
So and came back and everythingwas just still on keel, running
smooth, so yeah, remember,freedom isn't just possible.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
It's kind of the point.
If this episode helped youlaugh, 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.
Want more behind the scenesstuff?
Then hit us up on the socials.
Now go delegate something andtake a nap.
(03:43):
You've earned it, yeah, guys.
So, rockstars, are you catchingthe vibe now of the new season?
You heard the first episodelast week, that short
introduction about the mindset.
So now we're talking aboutresults.
Do you want that, rockstars?
Then buckle up Like we'regetting into this freedom growth
mindset and we're going to talkabout, like, the latest trends
and everything.
But first let's go back to themindset with Lance.
(04:05):
Lance, tell me about your why,like, what was the purpose that
got you into this space and whyyou're doing all these things?
What's your driving forcebehind it?
Speaker 2 (04:15):
Well, that's changed over the years, of course.
So, you know, at first, whenyou're the first sole owner of a
business and the soleproprietor and you're the only
one ever then your idea thereand remind them in was, you know
, to make a good living, to makemoney or to have your own place
so you can be the boss and incharge.
Um, as that's evolved now towhere I've gotten way more
people on my team, my passionnow is, honestly, it's for them
(04:36):
to have a great place to work,so like for those people to have
a great place to go to workevery day that they can be at
forever, for like a lifetimecareer, that we're setting up a
place for them to be able to dothat, and that's honestly what I
like doing and it's to thatwe're getting to that point.
I think we're really close tothat precipice where people that
are on our team like feel likethis is the home place they're
going to be forever and they'regoing to stay here and work for
(04:58):
our company forever and ever so.
And then now, later on in mycareer, at 54 years old today
not today, but my birthday isgoing to all back it up as we're
speaking 54 right, um, I'mlooking at you know, not
stopping of course, but windingdown to where I'm stepping away,
kind of like I did last weekwhen I was able to vacation not
(05:18):
had not be the one running thebusiness the business kind of
went to itself.
So that's, that's where that's,I guess it's where, if that
makes, I wouldn't have the twosides of it.
I'm in for being the chief cookand bottle washer Now.
I'm just like setting thecharting, the course.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
Yeah, it's amazing to think about how your purpose is
twofold and one of them isdeeply personal.
The first one is the team, andthat's a big thing for people
listening and it was a big shiftfor me was when I realized that
the team that I was buildingwas the greatest gift that I
could build and, ironically,that's when my freedom and money
increased.
But I love that you're beingreally direct Lance around this
(05:53):
thing called like yeah, I'm 54.
I don't want to be workingcrazy hours anymore.
So it's the other side of thesame coin and it's your purpose.
Your purpose is to live lifeand love what you're doing and
to be able to leave for 10 daysand not have all these messages
pop up.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
Yep.
Yes, it was pretty enjoyable onvacation.
Speaker 1 (06:13):
Yeah, I'm super jealous.
So, listen, I want people torelate to you.
Can you share a time where youcan explain how you can relate
and connect to people's strife,like the pain of building these
things, because there's a timein your life where you
experience that?
Speaker 2 (06:27):
Right, right.
So I'm painting the picturehere where I'm just sitting back
with all these businesses doingcrazy.
I'm doing nothing.
Well, that's not really thecase.
This hasn't been the way fromthe start.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
No, you're hyper-entrepreneurial.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
Right.
So for 25, 28 years it was medoing everything, working just
around the clock-ish.
So start early in the morning,6, do notes until midnight, work
weekends, try to fill in thegaps.
Someone's off I'm coveringSomeone doesn't show up?
I'm going to cover their shift.
Someone's sick?
I'm the one.
(06:58):
I was it doing everything.
So that was the way it was foryears and years and years and
strife that was some of thestrife.
And then, or hardship, probablythe biggest time I would say,
was when we made a decision.
So our history of our businesswe were a contract company for
years where I'd be contractedtherapists with home health
agencies, hospitals, schools,nursing homes, whatever.
(07:19):
So we had a bunch of staff orteam members that we contracted
out.
There came a point in time,seven years ago now, where I was
thinking man, I'm getting closeto 50, my business is just all
based on these contracts, thewhole thing, and if someone else
comes in and takes my contractsor someone decides to hire
their own therapist, my businessis gone overnight.
(07:39):
So I said, what well, what canI do?
So we decided to go into ourjust kind of brick and mortar
type private practice setting.
So I announced to our staff,our team at our Christmas party.
I say you guys ever thoughtabout having our own clinics?
Anybody want their own therapyclinic?
And like they're all like, yeah, let's do that.
So we opened five clinics inlike four months.
So we went from a Decembermeeting to open our first clinic
(08:01):
in March and by I think, may orJune we had five clinics open
and at the same time we werebuilding a house, my wife and I
building a house and our kidswere in high school at the time.
Oh yeah, all kinds of athleticsports.
So I might I had I had zerohours in every day and $0.
Because if you go from a prettynice profitable contract
business where there's really nooverhead whatsoever other than
(08:23):
paying salaries, and also nowyou're opening five new
practices with buildings andequipment and all those things
and there's no revenue comingbecause you have no patients yet
, uh it was pretty stressful, uhpretty stressful time for me
and my wife and if I'm a littleeven keel on things like things
don't really upset me too muchand my wife is the same way oh,
(08:43):
is she the same way?
Speaker 1 (08:44):
because I've always been jealous about how you're.
You know, hey, you owe amillion dollars.
You, you won a million dollars.
Speaker 2 (08:49):
You're like cool either one right, same text,
yeah, and, but we're the sameway.
I'm a little more even than sheis.
She's yeah she, she steadies mea little more.
She's like, hey, you shouldpaint it in here because we're
bleeding over here.
We should look at this and andI'm like, oh okay, it'll be okay
, it'll stop eventually, correct?
Speaker 1 (09:06):
So it's amazing I will say, especially having had
high schoolers how difficultthat is.
In addition, there's like afinancial and emotional
bankruptcy that's occurringthere in that journey.
And the other thing, rock stars, I want you to hear, as Lance
is talking, is that he's only onthis PT practice for seven
years.
Right, I mean you're in yourlate forties, when you started.
Speaker 2 (09:26):
Right, yeah, I wish I .
I wish I would've done thiswhen I was 25.
It would have been a lot better.
Speaker 1 (09:35):
Yeah.
So rockstar is no matter whereyou are.
Remember this rule it's notyour age, it's the stage.
It's not your age, it's a stage.
Don't look around and say, oh,I'm too old or I'm it's too late
for me to get on social mediaor to figure this crap out Like
this is.
This is legitimately an example.
This is why I'm starting theseason with Lance.
He is an example of what'spossible and I love, lance, that
you've.
You've put yourself in thisposition, in your, in your stage
of life, where you're likereally accelerating and
(09:55):
recognizing like, hey, what do Iwant?
Like you're not a victim to the, to that piece of it, where
you're just like feelingoverwhelmed.
You know, what I would love toknow is is like from that place
where you were going through agreat deal of strife to where
you and, by the way, before weget any further into how you got
from there to here tell peoplewhat you do with your time now
(10:16):
oh, so my my like during thedaytime time yeah, like we were
talking about, yeah so I treatpatients, so I'd still treat
patients throughout the week.
Speaker 2 (10:23):
So this week, today's friday, as we're filming this
and it's noonish noonish whereI'm at um I've already done
three evals this morning.
I've got three more scheduledthis afternoon.
It'll make I'll have 23evaluations done this week.
So I do I do typically anywherefrom 15 to 25 evaluations in
the out patient clinics per weekand then everything else but.
(10:43):
But I like doing that, I enjoyseeing patients, I enjoy being
around, I enjoy being around myteam.
Speaker 1 (10:49):
Do you have to treat?
Speaker 2 (10:51):
No, no, I don't have to.
Speaker 1 (10:54):
No.
So, rockstar, I want Lance tosay that to you because I want
you to hear that treating isn'tbad.
But there is such a differencebetween building a company that
runs on its own and choosing togo in and Lance and I were
talking before that we hitrecord that like one of the main
reasons you're doing this is toreally just to show your people
that you're willing to walk thewalk and talk the talk that
that you set as the leader.
You don't have to, but youchoose to.
Speaker 2 (11:15):
I do choose to.
Yeah, I could.
I mean at this point I couldstay home every day and and do
something different.
But used to, I've alwaystreated so.
I used to.
You know, four years ago orthree or probably three years
ago now.
I would treat all day and thengo home and like manage the
business all night.
So go home and then like workon books, payroll and all those
things.
Well, now we have other folksin place to do much of that
stuff.
(11:36):
So I don't I have to really dothat.
I still, obviously I still dosome looking at numbers and
financials and making surethings are on track, but as far
as the day-to-day operations, Idon't really have a whole lot to
do with that.
Speaker 1 (11:46):
You know I don't want to put words in your mouth, but
as you're talking, I'm hearingDan Sullivan in my head about
who, not how.
Speaker 2 (11:52):
It's a great book.
Speaker 1 (11:53):
Yeah, how much did that concept play into that
transformation of where you weredoing everything to where you
are now?
Speaker 2 (12:05):
Right.
So I actually read that bookthe first time.
I think you gave it to me to betruthful, sure, yep, and that's
what prompted us to hire ourdirector of operations.
Some of you might call her aCEO or whatever, but she's our
director of operations.
Hired her almost three yearsago, I believe now, and that's
been a huge burden off of myselfand off of my wife.
So just running a day-to-dayoperations of everything, she
oversees the whole business.
Speaker 1 (12:25):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
From hiring, firing, credentialing, payroll.
She oversees all those things.
And then there's other peoplethat blow around her team that
should do those tasks.
But she makes sure they'rebeing done and her and I
obviously talk every day.
A report at the end of the day,kind of a summation of what's
going on.
What do I need to addressmyself?
Those things.
Speaker 1 (12:43):
Yeah, rockstars.
I want you to hear how he'sdescribing what freedom looks
like.
It's his passion.
Going back to your team, lanceof like, you're really
passionate about creating aplace where people are so
thrilled to get up and go towork, to be a part of things,
and that's one of the reasonsthat you're driven to treat.
It's not just because you stilllike to treat, it's because you
like to be with your people andthen you know, but in a way
(13:03):
that serves you.
But yet Lance is still free andable to take these big breaks
if he needs to.
And I just again, that's what aCEO I always tell people I think
the most important roles thatCEOs need to remember that they
have is, first is visionary,second is cultural leader and
then third is team development.
If they can be in that space,they can have ultimate you know,
(13:24):
ultimate profit and freedom tobe able to do what they want.
So, lance, let's get into someof these things that you've.
I want to ask you some reallyspecific questions for our
audience.
Around some of the freedomhelpers that you've had, can you
tell me what is something thatyou've implemented in your
practice that has freed you upoutside of hiring people?
Speaker 2 (13:44):
Outside of hiring people.
What has freed you up outsideof hiring people?
Outside of hiring people wouldjust free us up.
So well, hiring people peoplefree us up.
I mean people that take thingsoff us.
So we do put in systems.
Obviously we have systems inplace that do things, so we have
teams of people that dodifferent stuff.
So, just from in a physicaltherapy practice I'm assuming
most people watch this or somekind of physical therapist
(14:05):
practice owners.
Speaker 1 (14:07):
PT, OTS, LP are most of our audience.
Speaker 2 (14:09):
So most everybody understands what I'm talking
about.
When you're worried aboutcredentialing and revenue cycle
management and referrals comingin and marketing and all those
things and if you're the a lotof you guys may be sole practice
owners, where you have your ownpractice, but where you have
your own practices we were doingall those things.
So we have people that do eachone of those things.
We have a whole marketing crewthat just takes care of that.
We have a whole credentialingcrew that takes care of just
credentialing.
We have a whole team that justtakes care of new referrals
(14:31):
coming in and insurance authorverifications.
We have a whole team of peoplethat take care of authorizations
.
So all these things are doneindividually and they all report
to one person and it comes backto this anyway.
Speaker 1 (14:43):
So the leadership thing you hit kind of hard.
It's hard because I saidwithout people to challenge you,
because I know that people isthe main way that you've grown.
But it sounds like what you didsay it was systems.
I heard like you've implementedlike some processes and then
leadership.
So let's talk about systemsreally quick.
Like what do you, do you useGoogle docs?
Like how, when you say systems,what does that look like in
your company?
Speaker 2 (15:03):
So systems are well.
Funny enough, a lot of ours areon paper.
Speaker 1 (15:07):
So straight up old school paper systems they're
really like right down.
Speaker 2 (15:09):
Here's what we do, here's our outline of what we're
going to do, and we do that.
So it's hard to explain thatthere's so many.
We have you know, weeklymeetings, weekly things.
People check in.
So if you're on that team,report to that person.
They've got tasks they've gotto complete and once they're
completed everything's good.
(15:30):
If they're not completed,they're marked in red and then
they report back to her and ifshe can't figure it out, then
she goes to our director ofoperations.
If she can't get a problemsolved, then it comes to me.
So it's like a three-tier thingbefore it comes to me.
No summit ever gets to me.
Honestly, Everything is done.
Speaker 1 (15:49):
It's already organized in that way.
Let me summarize this becauseLance is living it so well.
I'm going to take a step backand give you a little bit of
perspective, because thesethings that Lance is doing is
like gravity and sometimes weget worked up in terms of like.
Should I use an online trainingplatform?
Should I do a paper?
Worked up in terms of like?
Should I use an online trainingplatform?
Should I do a paper?
(16:10):
Look, you can't deny Lance'sresults with pen and paper
systems in some of the casesthat he's built it out.
But here are the things thatare universal for anyone who
gets totally freed up, thatLance is demonstrating.
That first piece is havingaccountability meetings.
Meetings are a huge part ofculture and in those meetings,
matt isn't just or sorry.
Lance is looking at statisticsas well as green, yellow, red,
(16:31):
and then he's got leadership,and then you have layers of
leadership, so that it's almostprotective of you and only comes
certain things come to you.
So let me ask you this, lancewhat are the things that do come
to you Like?
You've got layers of peoplehandling most things, so what
are the types of things that youdo want to come to you?
Speaker 2 (16:49):
Things I want to come to me, like if we're seeing a,
obviously any kind of um HRissues, which we hardly ever
have like those usually come tome quick, like this comes down
to having to have a crucialconversation with someone that's
usually me, that has to havethat Like the end I'll be all if
there's someone's not pullingtheir weight, someone doing a
thing you know they need to bekind of put back on.
Speaker 1 (17:10):
I'm guessing they've been coached already to a degree
, but you're coming in more likeyou're not having the first
conversation as much as like thelast.
Speaker 2 (17:16):
Yeah, yeah, right, I'm, yeah, I'm dad's coming home
.
They don't want to talk to me,so talk to me.
That's that.
And anything that's going to bea financial leak or a problem,
I need to address that.
So anything that looks likethere's something here that's
costing us money more than it'sbringing in.
(17:38):
So we don't want to makemillions of dollars on
everything we do, but we want tomake at least something.
We don't want to lose money onanything we do, so we've got to
monitor all that.
So everything we do.
But we want to make at leastsomething.
We don't want to lose money onanything we do, so we got to
monitor all that.
So if we see a profit leaksomewhere, I got to figure that
out, and that usually comes tome to figure out what's
happening with that, and I'mPretty good at finding out where
the issue is on that.
Speaker 1 (17:55):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (17:56):
Awesome stuff.
Speaker 1 (17:59):
Those things have really added up over time and we
could do podcast upon podcastabout all those things and I'm
tempted to dive in there.
But let me ask you this lastquestion what's the best
business purchase that you'vemade under $100 that has
impacted your business?
Speaker 2 (18:14):
Business purchase under $100.
Speaker 1 (18:16):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (18:19):
Wow, what can you get for under $100?
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (18:24):
It may not even be a question that we use moving
forward, but I'm curious to see.
Speaker 2 (18:28):
I don't know.
Honestly, I don't know AnythingI could invest in my team
honestly with that.
So just.
But you know, buying them,buying them things to work with,
doesn't really affect them, butinvesting in them.
So you know, it could be assimple thing as stopping a sonic
and pick up some side drinks totake to them on the way oh my
gosh, that's such a good answer.
(18:48):
I didn't know if we were goingto come up with anything but
that's a great answer so like asmall treat for your team member
.
That's it.
Yeah, yeah, we do.
Yeah, I mean we can do a wholeother podcast about building
teams and staff retention andall those things, because we
have I don't even know how manyemployees we have.
I don't know, honestly at themoment Hundreds Counting all the
businesses, but we've only lostone therapist in the past seven
(19:09):
years.
That's left us.
Speaker 1 (19:11):
You guys listen to what just happened.
He's got hundreds of employees.
He's lost one therapist in howlong?
Speaker 2 (19:16):
Oh, seven, seven years Okay.
Speaker 1 (19:22):
So listen, hey, rockstars, will you put in the
comments if you want episodes onthat, because I'm building this
next season for Q4.
I'm trying to piece thattogether.
So, rockstars, I need yourfeedback to know.
Is that what you want to learnmore about?
I would love to go into that,but right now I want to pivot,
lance, because, as you know, thetheme of this season is
artificial intelligence versusvirtual assistants, and you have
how many virtual assistants?
Speaker 2 (19:42):
Seven altogether, seven across the board.
Should I use five in my PTpractice and we have two in our
DME business at the moment andwe're going to add a third in
our DME business just right nextweek.
We'll be looking for aninterview for a third one.
So if you're talking aboutfreeing up time and freeing up
labor, so you mentioned earlierabout, can I you mind if I talk
(20:04):
for a minute?
Speaker 1 (20:05):
Always, always, yeah, okay.
Speaker 2 (20:07):
So you mentioned earlier what strife is.
I kind of mentioned the bigthing.
You know, opening mentioned thebig thing of the clinics.
That was strapped to me.
But daily, daily worries orthings are our staff or team
turnover.
So I mentioned we haven't lostit there, we haven't lost a
therapist in one therapist inseven years.
But ancillary staff members,those are the hardest to keep.
Front desk people, insuranceverification people,
(20:30):
authorization, people that justdon't work behind the scenes and
you can't pay them enough tokeep them.
I mean you can't, you can'tafford to pay them enough to
keep them because someone elseoffers them 50 cents more to go
do the same kind of job or workfrom home.
They, they jump at that.
So we have, even though we havefantastic benefits, fantastic
culture, all those things,people that make those kinds of
wages for 50 cents more.
(20:51):
They're going to think theymight leave for that.
Does that make sense?
I mean, I'm just being honest.
Speaker 1 (20:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:55):
So, after you spent months or weeks or years
training them to do the thingsyou wanted to do whether it's
authorizations or verificationsor those things that they have
to do and they do them well, andthen they leave you for another
$2 to work for a dentistsomewhere.
Speaker 1 (21:12):
We've all been in that position, Lance.
I used to tell my wife she'd go.
How was your day?
And, like everyone at the frontdesk showed up, it went great.
Yes, exactly.
Speaker 2 (21:19):
So so that's what I was saying, so, so, so those
were the things we were havingissues with.
Like we were, we we obviouslyhave seen some growth.
So we've seen tremendous growthfrom one clinic to 25 clinics
in seven years.
So with that comes addingmultitudes of people to try to
keep up with all these things wehave to do every day
Verifications, authorizations,denials, all that stuff and we
(21:41):
just we're having troublekeeping up with that, even
though we had great people thatcouldn't do it all by themselves
.
So we have basically one persontrying to do authorizations for
27 clinics.
Well, that's an impossible task.
So the virtual assistant optioncame along and we added one.
We thought we'll give you know,let's give this a try, see how
this goes Hired one, came onboard, had some experience with
(22:06):
authorizations, which we wereable to step in the role and
help that out.
We're like, okay, that's takena significant load off of this
one person that's been doing itfor a long time.
So we had hired another one,and then another one and another
one.
Anyway, so now at this point weused to have someone stateside
that did authorizations andoversee that team.
Well, now our virtualassistants we have one there.
His name is Archie.
He is in charge of the.
(22:27):
He has four that work for him.
So he's in charge and we givehim promotion.
He's totally in charge of allour authorizations, all our
verifications.
The last virtual assembly wehired, he did the hiring we
interviewed.
He actually hired them, pickedthem out who he wanted.
We just sat back and listenedto him talk.
And now he trains them all andhe oversees everything they do.
So he gives us a report eachweek of what's going on and we
essentially don't have to worryabout them.
(22:48):
It's literally seamless.
So we get a referral that comesinto us, we send the stuff to
them, they verify the insurance,they do authorization part.
They just take care of it andit's very organized and they
actually live in the Philippines.
Some people may not know thatthey all live in the Philippines
.
The virtual assistants do so.
(23:09):
They do their training.
They listen to him more becausehe's Filipino.
So when he's training them theybuy into it and they're all a
team because he's Filipino.
So when he's training them theybuy into it and they're all a
team.
So that has been giant bothmentally, not having to worry
about those things anymore, nothaving to worry.
So if our authorization persondidn't show up to work that day.
Who's going to do all?
Who's going to checkauthorizations?
(23:29):
I don't know.
I have no idea.
I wouldn't even know where tostart.
So know, I have no idea, Iwouldn't even know where to
start.
So we'll be dead in the waterwhen nothing's getting
authorized, cause I would noteven know where to start that Um
.
But now we're.
We're at a point where that's Imean that's, it's covered and
it's a, it's a worry off,totally off of all our plates.
Speaker 1 (23:44):
That's amazing and you know, again, I think what's
great is that you have a companywith systems that have really
supported that and as you'veimplemented that, it's so
obviously refreshing to hearthat there's solutions, because
that was so hard for me andthat's one of the reasons I'm
passionate about.
The virtual assistant side, asyou know, is like that was I
remember hiring people andthey'd show up like they were
doing me a favor versus thevirtual assistants now who,
(24:06):
honestly, will cry when they gethired.
And this is like life changing,I think, for the audience.
I think what they would want toknow is you know, how does your
team communicate with your VAs?
Like, how do you work with yourVAs remotely?
That would be different thanhow you'd work with somebody you
know stateside.
Speaker 2 (24:21):
Great.
So we, our VAs, are.
They're part of our team likeanybody else, like they're
literally part of like everysingle correspondence.
We get every email we send outevery talk we do.
We do a weekly meeting like aweekly Zoom meeting.
We get every email.
We send out every talk.
We do a weekly meeting like aweekly Zoom meeting.
Every Tuesday morning we havewhat we call our back office
meeting, which is ourauthorization, credentialing
marketing team.
All those people come togetherfor a Zoom meeting and I'm on
(24:42):
that meeting.
Every Tuesday morning we spendan hour and a half or so going
over topics of the last week,topics of the next week coming
up, and the VAs are on thereevery time.
So they're just like everybodyelse on the team.
As far as our communication withthem daily, we set them up on a
Zoom, so we're on aninternational Zoom with them and
the Zoom is essentially openall day long.
So it's basically like they'rein the office.
(25:03):
They're just literally amonitor sitting to the side of
someone's desk and if the VA hasa question, they just say, hey,
steve, and they go oh, what doyou need?
And they just ask the questionand literally it's just open all
day long.
So it's an open communication.
They're just on a screen.
Have you ever watched Big BangTheory and you see the one where
Sheldon has these like thescreen and he walks around the
house?
That's kind of what it's like.
They're just right there.
Speaker 1 (25:25):
That's so funny because I've never thought of
that in any way.
Speaker 2 (25:30):
They're right there at easy access all day long and
they we give them all.
They all get their own companyemail address.
So they have their own companyemail, the international Zoom.
They actually use that.
They can use that to call with.
So they can actually use thatsystem to make phone calls to
the States with.
And we have them set up with alocal number.
So if they have to call adoctor's office or an insurance
company, it looks like a localnumber showing up and we go
(25:51):
through some VPN stuff forsecurity and things like that
for for all of them.
But the communication is reallypretty easy, like once you're
used to talking on a zoom withsomeone, it's it's just like
they're in the room with you.
It's not.
It's not.
And they worked our same hours,you know, eight to five, monday
to Friday.
Speaker 1 (26:04):
Yeah, it's.
I always tell people it's not ahard muscle to learn, it's just
a little.
For this is that the power ofbringing them into your culture
is the key thing that has to bedone, but medical private
practice owners do that so well,especially PTOTs and SLPs.
(26:25):
Your whole focus is buildingyour team.
I wonder what that's like forthe Filipinos, because you're
benefiting all these amazingAmericans who are blessed to
live in the greatest country onthe earth, but then you have
Filipinos who are coming fromalso a great country, but they
don't have the same financialopportunities that we have.
I just wonder what that's likefor them to be able to work for
(26:45):
you and I don't really have aquestion here, as much as just
like a statement that I thinkit's really neat that your focus
is on your, your culture, andthat it's actually becoming
global, like you're impactingpeople, but um, I mean, we do we
do it.
Speaker 2 (26:59):
Do we do us?
Well, if all of our new hirescome on board, we do us.
I mean it looked like a welcomepackage.
Speaker 1 (27:04):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (27:05):
They just get a welcome package from us.
But the I know this is workingthe team and you know a couple
of two or three t-shirts andsome like swag you know, that
has our logos on it some cupsand tumblers and all this thing.
Well, the Filipinos get themtoo, so we send them to them all
you ship it to the Philippines.
I do so they all get one too.
They all get a box with alltheir T-shirts, and so we treat
them like anybody else on ourteam.
Speaker 1 (27:27):
What have they said when they got those packages?
Because I know they don't getthat.
Speaker 2 (27:30):
Oh yeah, they love that, so it's so.
They're no different to anybodyelse that works stateside.
So no difference to us amazing.
Speaker 1 (27:37):
Yeah, and how was that?
When you were first adoptingthat, how did your american team
respond to like oh, becausethere's like a total stigma
right about like yeah beingoutsourced overseas and not
understanding the english like.
How did your team respond?
Speaker 2 (27:48):
yep.
So there was definite Iwouldn't say pushback, but
definite skepticism going intothat, like, how's this going to
work?
Is not going to work, I don'tsee how this is going to work,
so let's just try it, let's justbe the pilot program, let's
just see how this goes, let'sjust give it a whirl.
If it doesn't work out easyenough, we can cut it loose
after a month and just let it goso.
But after that now it's likehey, everybody that works like
(28:19):
in your stateside they're likehey, can I get a va?
Do I need a?
Speaker 1 (28:20):
but he wants someone of their own, like their own
little their own va, to helpthem do stuff.
I'm like you're swell, hang on,so yeah.
Yeah, I think the idea is thatvas are going to replace
americans, which they can tosome degree, but, like, the
positions that are already areharder to fill.
But the people who are great,they're seeing them as like a
personal value add.
It's like, oh, you're takingcare of me If I get a VA.
Um, you know, lance, justtelling you from personal
experience, like my personal VAwas a big shift for me, just
having someone to go through myemails and stuff, cause that was
(28:42):
a big shift.
And um, where's your vision foryou with?
The last thing I'll ask you onthe VAs is where's your vision
at this point with VAs?
Do you have any thoughts onnext steps for you?
Speaker 2 (28:57):
Um, yeah, we're gonna .
We'll keep adding more and moreso to do, to do that, those,
those things.
So, those things that are, likewe mentioned earlier
authorizations, verifications um, we do for our dma company.
They do billing, so we have twothat do billing for our dma
company wow well, pt practicewill be outsourced to billing.
So we don't do any in-house.
We in-house that we wouldprobably use some vas or
probably outsource that um, butour DME campaign is billing and
we're adding more for there.
So probably anything we talkabout it internally quite a bit
(29:19):
in our meetings weekly, anythingthat we could that we need
someone to be very dependable,very reliable and that's going
to stay with us.
We're probably going to putthem in that role that they can
do what they can do.
Anybody that can work from home, we can use a VA to do it.
Does that make sense?
Speaker 1 (29:35):
Yeah, I love it.
Speaker 2 (29:37):
If you can work from home and do this job, then a VA
can do it.
Speaker 1 (29:40):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (29:40):
And the VAs that come .
I mean, some of you peopledon't realize this.
They're pretty educated.
They're pretty educated.
So two of ours are actuallyphysical therapists.
Two of our VAs actually have aPT license.
They're actually licensedphysical therapists in the
Philippines.
So they already speak ourlanguage, they can read notes,
they can read diagnosis codes.
They already know how to do allthat.
Archie came from a billingbackground.
He actually worked for you andyour billing company.
(30:01):
Yeah Right, he had a billingbackground.
So billing and coding is heknows all that stuff.
So it's not like you have totrain them.
You have to train them.
All you have to train them onis your systems.
Really, you have to train themon your EMR platform and kind of
the way you like things done,because they kind of have a good
knowledge base of everythingelse and they're rapid, they can
learn and, like anybody else,if you hire someone stateside
(30:21):
they're not going to know whatto do.
You have to train them so.
So it's no different.
Speaker 1 (30:25):
Yeah, lance, such a powerful summary there of the
VAs.
Thank you for that.
Now let's shift over toartificial intelligence.
Are you guys implementing anyAI tools right now?
Speaker 2 (30:35):
None Interesting, and how?
Speaker 1 (30:38):
come?
How come at this point?
What's the?
Is it just the lack ofknowledge of what's out there,
or have you looked at thingsYou're like?
Eh, not for me.
Speaker 2 (30:50):
Like, where are you at with that?
Yeah, I've looked at severalthings over the years, the last
few years, and just nothing.
I'm kind of waiting a littlebit, I guess, until things get
to.
I mean, things are great now,it looks like, but just a little
more, a little smoother.
I guess.
Our EMR that we had currentlyused doesn't use any AI tools in
it.
Who do you use?
Right now, we use Strata PT,strata PT.
(31:10):
Right now, we use strata pt,strata pt.
Yeah, they don't have any aitools in in their software at
the moment or that we can access, so we just don't.
We just don't do that.
I'm not opposed to it.
I mean I think it'd be great,but we just don't.
Speaker 1 (31:18):
We just haven't yet yet it sounds like, yeah, it
sounds like to me, you know it'scoming, but you're, you're in a
position where you're whatyou're doing is working so well.
You're kind of letting thebigger, because when I think
about big names, I know a numberof AI softwares, but like
that's part of this season isprobably on the AI side is going
to be more about discoveringfor the audience, like what is
even out there, because I don'tthink the you know, the two
(31:41):
fastest growing trends inhealthcare not just in PT or
OTSLP but like globallyhospitals is AI and virtual
assistance, and there's productsthat are popping up, but
they're early stage adapting, sosome of them are working well,
some of them aren't, and so Ireally wanted to know cause I
respect you, like where yourperspective is.
So you're really far down theroad with the VAs.
You're, you're open to AI.
(32:02):
You're just waiting to seewhat's going to be the ones that
are adaptable.
Speaker 2 (32:05):
We're definitely going to utilize AI.
There's no doubt Everybody'sgoing to, we're going to, but
right now, I mean, if you haveI'm sure you have and I have,
and a lot of folks have it'soverwhelming a little bit.
There's so many new AIcompanies out there and they all
have these things they saythey're going to do or can do
and you're like, can they reallydo that?
(32:26):
I'm not sure they can really dowhat they're saying for sure,
but because they all, they allsound so amazing and they're
going to save you like you'regoing to get time back.
You're going to be a timetraveler if you start using ai,
you're going to like have hoursback in your day, like extra
hour.
You know, I get 27 hours a dayinstead of 24 because you're
using our ad tool.
Um, I don't, yeah, I just Ijust don't know which one to
pick.
It'd be be like wow.
It'd be like you'd be like gointo a, go to the dance.
(32:48):
Look over there there's like 12pretty girls.
You're like okay, which one doI pick?
I want to, maybe a psychopath.
You don't want to pick herRight.
Speaker 1 (32:56):
You'll pick the one that chooses you, and I think
that's true for AI as well.
It's funny because, like, lookat just your chat GPTs right,
there's there's Gemini, there'sPerplexity, there's all these
different chat I don't even knowwhat to call them.
They're AI solutions, longlanguage model solutions that
you can use as a resource In myworld.
Lance, just to share for theaudience, I have this network
(33:19):
that has not a single healthcarecompany in it, and two of them
are tech companies that are verylike cutting edge, and so
they're teaching me a lot aboutit, and it is even still
overwhelming, because they'lltell me perplexity is good for
this, whereas chat GPT is goodfor that.
And then you have Google'sGemini, and this is the thing
I'll just kind of hit, kind offor the audience and maybe for
you as well.
Gemini Google got into it late,but Google has such a
(33:43):
powerhouse engine that just lastweek this is we're filming this
in the first full week of June.
Last week, gemini came out withthese video producing I think
it's VO three or something.
It's.
It's a.
You can start putting umprompts in and it will create
actual live video all artificialbut it looks real of people
talking and saying things, andso Google, because of their
(34:05):
resources and power they have,they've caught up to and in some
ways starting to pass, and thenpeople are projecting that will
be there.
So I, just for personal use forthe audience, cause I don't know
how much we're going to getinto AI I use chat GPT nonstop.
I don't communicate without it.
Um, I am going to for example,I don't have a meeting without
that on in the background, likean AI note taker in the
(34:26):
background, just because at theend of that meeting I can like
download the transcript, throwit into chat GPT and say please
create an email for all thedelegations with due dates and
identify anything that wasmissed that we can put into an
email.
So there's lots of ways that Ithink are going to be used.
But, lance, like you, I'm kindof sitting back a little bit and
partly excited about thisseason going.
(34:47):
What is the ai solutions thatpeople are going to bring up?
So, yeah, we'll see.
We'll see what comes up overtime, um, but I respect the fact
that, like you're leading thecharge when it comes to the
second fastest growing trend,which is vas, I think that's
awesome all right, man, let's dosome rapid fire questions.
You ready, ready, let's go.
Number one what is a top bookthat you have read that has
(35:08):
blown your mind?
Speaker 2 (35:09):
Yeah, who Not how?
Speaker 1 (35:11):
Who Not how Love?
Speaker 2 (35:12):
it.
It's a great book.
I've read quite a few booksrecently, but who Not how is
probably the one that has hadthe biggest impact on me lately
lately being the last threeyears.
So it prompted me to hire ourdirector of operations, which
took a huge burden off my plate,and then now it's got me
thinking about hiring otherpeople to do other things that I
(35:33):
I do.
So I mean I mean simply neverread that book.
It's like you need to hiresomeone to, like, mow your yard.
I mean that's like that couldbe the person.
I mean to be honest, so I stillmow, should hire someone to do
that to buy myself back a couplehours a week of time.
Speaker 1 (35:47):
But you know it's so funny about that.
I am Nathan Shields told meabout that book.
The great Nathan Shields, whoowns the PT owners podcast.
He was telling me about thatbook and I went, yeah, I got the
, I got the message from thetitle.
I think I'm good.
But then later I was onvacation and I was reading it
and I'm like, oh, it's a mindsetshifter.
And even our conversation, asyou and I are talking, Lance,
right now, I'm thinking aboutpeople like, oh, I need to hire
(36:08):
people.
I want to hire people to go dosome things that I'm doing right
now, cause that's a big book.
Speaker 2 (36:13):
Yeah, so that.
So normally I listened to bothtime there I listened audio
version to books, so I'd listento books, but who knows how I
was going to actually carry.
I carry it with me in my likewherever I go and worn, but it
stays in my backpack all thetime with me, so it's just my
travel book.
So I've read the whole thing inits entirety.
(36:33):
Never walk all the way through,but I've read the whole thing
in its entirety, probably fivetimes.
Just little snippets and pieceshere and there, if that makes
sense.
Speaker 1 (36:39):
Yeah, and rock stars listen to this.
Like you heard at the beginningof this episode, what Lance has
got going on and the freedomthat he is protecting and what
does he have tattered in his bagwho, not how, and I will, I
will throw, and I get it soundslike we're salesmen for this
book, but I will tell you we getnothing for that.
That book was such an easy read.
That was the weirdest thing.
It wasn't like this book whereI felt like I had to grind
(37:01):
through.
This was like an entertaining,like oh, I'm done so.
I love that you mentioned that.
Let's get to the secondquestion.
Uh, what's one of your top timesaver hacks?
Speaker 2 (37:11):
for me time saver hats, I guess.
I mean I'm wow, I don't know,um, I guess just delegating
things to other people.
I hate to say, but I don't likethe word delegate.
I really like that word toomuch.
Speaker 1 (37:23):
But you know empowering other people to take
on some responsibility, wowthat's way better.
Speaker 2 (37:26):
That's a way more like a way to say don't
responsibilities, Wow.
That's a way more elegant wayto say don't push me around.
That's a way more yes.
Speaker 1 (37:34):
This is such a fun episode, lance.
I just got to tell you this hasbeen such a blast because if I
had heard this episode 10 yearsago in my career, it would have
changed everything.
So, number three, what's onething you wish you would stop
doing way sooner in yourbusiness?
Speaker 2 (37:48):
That I would have stopped doing way sooner.
Mm-hmm wish you would stop doingway sooner in your business
that I would have stopped doingway sooner.
No, I mean honestly, I'vementioned we just now I'm
treating patients.
I could do that every day.
So like I probably need to stopdoing that as much and I
probably should have stoppeddoing that a little while back,
to be honest, so I could havemore time to work on the
business.
That have in the business, soto speak, um, and probably would
have been probably been waymore successful quicker if I'd
have done that years ago and butbut I I didn't.
(38:11):
But now somehow, somehow Imanaged to muddle through that
and it's still get the treatpatients and now it's kind of
the business kind of runs itselfwithout me having to be on the
phone all day or worried aboutthings happening, cause I was
such a good team in place thatthey take care of stuff.
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (38:26):
So, even though you wish you had done that a little
bit sooner and you're looking atit now, it's it's more of a,
it's more of an optimizationthan a judgment.
Okay, Number four what's themost time consuming task that
you secretly enjoy?
Speaker 2 (38:39):
Oh, so my, I I've still, you know, I still use pen
and paper for a lot of stuff, alot of things.
So I really just like enjoysitting back done and look at
like going through numbers, likeend of month numbers or end of
week numbers for eachcomparisons.
I love comparing trends for forflows, for percentage of growth
, percentage of whatever, andebbs and flows and how things go
(38:59):
, and I compare those month overmonth.
Like I know I know the lastweek of May is coming.
We're going to see a downtrendof 12%, because I know that's
coming, because it happens everyyear statistically.
So I just like doing that.
I do that almost every night.
I do some sort of statisticlooking at our business just to
make sure I can do a quick lookat our EMR setup and just how
things are turning.
Okay, everything's good here,and if I see a blip on the radar
, something's not right, I cango, we can go address that.
Speaker 1 (39:22):
Yeah, you love the power of you inspect what you
expect and the way that givesyou the information to make
decisions.
It might be why you're so evenkeel because you have knowledge.
Maybe, All right.
So what's the latest thing youdelegated?
Speaker 2 (39:35):
What did I do?
What have I delegated?
What have I empowered someoneelse to do for me there?
Speaker 1 (39:38):
we go.
What's the latest thing?
You've empowered someone elseto take off your plate.
I'm going to put that in mynotes.
That's a great way of phrasingyes, yeah.
Speaker 2 (39:47):
Probably honestly, the last thing kind of the
biggest thing was the last VA wehired.
I usually would sit in on thoseinterviews and go to that and
make the decision and we putthat off to Archie, the other VA
, and let him do that.
That's the last time I'm likeempowered him to do that, like
this purchase is going to workfor you anyway, so why are you
(40:08):
in my end?
But you don't need that.
I was there, I was on the callwith them, I introduced myself
and told them good luck in theinterview and then you know, let
them go and then let Archiepick it out and that's it.
Speaker 1 (40:15):
Archie picked the next VA, yeah.
Speaker 2 (40:17):
Yeah, a hundred percent.
Your VA, picked your next VA.
Speaker 1 (40:21):
By the way, Archie, I hope you're listening to this.
We miss you over it in theblack, but we're so grateful
that you're with Lance, becauseyou know you're growing in a way
that is just how you're meantto be.
So love that.
What an inspiring way.
Okay, last question.
This is the big question forthe season, In your opinion
which is it AI or virtualassistants?
Speaker 2 (40:41):
Wow, so I'm going to have to.
You know you vote for the hometeam, I guess, so you got to say
, since it's virtual assistants,but I probably ai.
I mean in the long term, 10years from now, we're gonna ai,
ai is gonna be I mean 90, 10years, probably less than that's
gonna take over every our wholelife.
I mean you're talking about thestuff google is doing where you
can just create a video likeyou're not gonna, where they
(41:02):
don't know.
I mean you already don't knowwhat's real and what's not.
I mean it's coming, pops up onyour phone or TV or movie or
anything that's like.
Is that real or not?
I have no idea, there's no wayto even tell.
Speaker 1 (41:12):
I agree, you know it's interesting and this is
true because, the owner of a VAcompany.
As we know, in 10 years we'redead in the water if we don't
start integrating AIaggressively.
So I agree, I think.
But guys at home, listen, thisisn't even an exciting episode.
So, uh, seth, the amazingpodcast editor that's not his
title, by the way, he's ourcreative specialist who's behind
(41:32):
the scenes.
Super big shout out to Seth,who we can't do any of this
without.
If you would, for the peoplewho are watching on YouTube or
any of the video platforms,let's see the score.
It's episode one.
So, yep, that's one for AI andzero for VAs.
But, lance, thank you so muchfor being on the show man, it
has been such a gift to be withyou and truly thank you for
(41:53):
embodying everything that I amtrying to help other people see
in terms of what's possible.
Any parting words?
Speaker 2 (42:00):
I think anybody's capable of doing great things if
they really set their mind toit Not that I've done great
things, but I've done goodthings and continue to get
better every day.
And I think empowering yourteam or your people around you
whether it's whether your teamis your wife or your husband, or
whether your team is yourpeople that you work with every
day at work like empower them todo things and lead them and get
them to train the need and getthem to buy into you, to be part
(42:23):
of you and want to be aroundyou or part of your party
organization that has that's thekey they have to.
So if they don't want to cometo work with you every day,
nothing's going to work becauseyou can't do it yourself.
Speaker 1 (42:33):
No way.
Awesome, lance.
All right guys.
Well, thank you for tuning into the Willpower Podcast.
As always, this is WillHumphries reminding you to lead
with love, live on purpose and,above all, never give up.
Until next time.
Thanks for tuning into theWillpower Podcast.
As always, this is WillHumphries reminding you to lead
(42:53):
with love, live on purpose andnever give up your freedom.
Until next time.
Welcome back to the Willpower Podcast and our
special season of AI versusvirtual assistants.
Our guest is Lance Gross, andthis episode, guys, is amazing.
I would have killed to listento this episode 10 years ago.
Lance just came back from a10-day Bahamas vacation where he
rented a boat with some friendsand after 10 days he didn't
(00:21):
have a single call to return anywork he had to do.
He's either a wizard or he hasto return any work he had to do.
He's either a wizard or he hasmastered something the rest of
us want to learn.
Spoiler alert it's both Lanceand his wife own 25 plus
locations and a small empire ofbusinesses, and somehow this guy
is more relaxed than a koala onmelatonin.
(00:41):
We talk about how he scaled hisprivate practice without losing
his mind or his spouse, and howhe was able to benefit his team
with small $8 Sonic Drinkinvestments that sometimes were
the best investments he made.
Oh, and his VAs.
Not only does he have a smallteam of VAs, but he's got
virtual assistants hiringvirtual assistants.
(01:01):
So buckle up.
We're diving into a masterclasson freedom, chill leadership
and how to build a business thatruns while you're on a boat
somewhere in the world.
Let's roll.
What's one thing you wish youwould stop doing way sooner in
your business?
Speaker 2 (01:15):
I'm treating patients .
I do that every day, so Iprobably need to stop doing that
as much, and I probably shouldhave stopped doing that a little
while back, to be honest.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
Well, Lance, thank you so much for being a part of
the Willpower Podcast specialseason VAs versus AI.
I want you to first just setthe table for your audience a
little bit here.
Tell us about your businesses,the size of your organization,
(01:50):
and then I'd love for you toexplain afterwards your purpose
and path, like why did youchoose the thing that you're
doing right now?
Speaker 2 (01:53):
Okay, oh, thanks for thanks for having me first.
Good to see you again.
Um, so I'm, my name is LanceGross.
I'm a physical therapist.
My wife's also a physicaltherapist.
We're from North Arkansas.
Um, been a therapist for 28years.
Uh, had therapists.
We're from North Arkansas, beena therapist for 28 years.
Had my own business that wholetime.
Have only been in theoutpatient business for about
seven years.
We currently have 24 outpatientlocations opening our 25th
(02:14):
August, the 1st.
So we're over 25 locationsacross North Arkansas and one in
Southern Missouri.
Also, I'm a half owner of a DMEcompany, half owner of an
assisted living retirementcommunity, half owner of a
residential care facility, halfowner of a home care business,
half owner of commercial realestates and all those things.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
So yeah, that's a lot .
Before you go into the why, itsounds like you have your
private practice with themultiple locations and you're
expanding rapidly that you ownas the primary owner, and then
you have partners and all theseother businesses.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
Right.
So my wife and I are the onlyowners of the therapy business.
We're the primary a hundredpercent owners of that, and then
the other business I'm going tohave a partner in.
The others.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
So yeah, and then let me let me, before we get into
the why of it, I do want peopleto hear this.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
Tell me how many business calls you had in that
10 day period.
Oh, when I was okay, so I was,we were talking.
Before that came on, I was.
I was actually gone last weekon vacation for 10 days and I
had zero business calls thewhole 10 days.
So and came back and everythingwas just still on keel, running
smooth, so yeah, remember,freedom isn't just possible.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
It's kind of the point.
If this episode helped youlaugh, 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.
Want more behind the scenesstuff?
Then hit us up on the socials.
Now go delegate something andtake a nap.
(03:43):
You've earned it, yeah, guys.
So, rockstars, are you catchingthe vibe now of the new season?
You heard the first episodelast week, that short
introduction about the mindset.
So now we're talking aboutresults.
Do you want that, rockstars?
Then buckle up Like we'regetting into this freedom growth
mindset and we're going to talkabout, like, the latest trends
and everything.
But first let's go back to themindset with Lance.
(04:05):
Lance, tell me about your why,like, what was the purpose that
got you into this space and whyyou're doing all these things?
What's your driving forcebehind it?
Speaker 2 (04:15):
Well, that's changed over the years, of course.
So, you know, at first, whenyou're the first sole owner of a
business and the soleproprietor and you're the only
one ever then your idea thereand remind them in was, you know
, to make a good living, to makemoney or to have your own place
so you can be the boss and incharge.
Um, as that's evolved now towhere I've gotten way more
people on my team, my passionnow is, honestly, it's for them
(04:36):
to have a great place to work,so like for those people to have
a great place to go to workevery day that they can be at
forever, for like a lifetimecareer, that we're setting up a
place for them to be able to dothat, and that's honestly what I
like doing and it's to thatwe're getting to that point.
I think we're really close tothat precipice where people that
are on our team like feel likethis is the home place they're
going to be forever and they'regoing to stay here and work for
(04:58):
our company forever and ever so.
And then now, later on in mycareer, at 54 years old today
not today, but my birthday isgoing to all back it up as we're
speaking 54 right, um, I'mlooking at you know, not
stopping of course, but windingdown to where I'm stepping away,
kind of like I did last weekwhen I was able to vacation not
(05:18):
had not be the one running thebusiness the business kind of
went to itself.
So that's, that's where that's,I guess it's where, if that
makes, I wouldn't have the twosides of it.
I'm in for being the chief cookand bottle washer Now.
I'm just like setting thecharting, the course.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
Yeah, it's amazing to think about how your purpose is
twofold and one of them isdeeply personal.
The first one is the team, andthat's a big thing for people
listening and it was a big shiftfor me was when I realized that
the team that I was buildingwas the greatest gift that I
could build and, ironically,that's when my freedom and money
increased.
But I love that you're beingreally direct Lance around this
(05:53):
thing called like yeah, I'm 54.
I don't want to be workingcrazy hours anymore.
So it's the other side of thesame coin and it's your purpose.
Your purpose is to live lifeand love what you're doing and
to be able to leave for 10 daysand not have all these messages
pop up.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
Yep.
Yes, it was pretty enjoyable onvacation.
Speaker 1 (06:13):
Yeah, I'm super jealous.
So, listen, I want people torelate to you.
Can you share a time where youcan explain how you can relate
and connect to people's strife,like the pain of building these
things, because there's a timein your life where you
experience that?
Speaker 2 (06:27):
Right, right.
So I'm painting the picturehere where I'm just sitting back
with all these businesses doingcrazy.
I'm doing nothing.
Well, that's not really thecase.
This hasn't been the way fromthe start.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
No, you're hyper-entrepreneurial.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
Right.
So for 25, 28 years it was medoing everything, working just
around the clock-ish.
So start early in the morning,6, do notes until midnight, work
weekends, try to fill in thegaps.
Someone's off I'm coveringSomeone doesn't show up?
I'm going to cover their shift.
Someone's sick?
I'm the one.
(06:58):
I was it doing everything.
So that was the way it was foryears and years and years and
strife that was some of thestrife.
And then, or hardship, probablythe biggest time I would say,
was when we made a decision.
So our history of our businesswe were a contract company for
years where I'd be contractedtherapists with home health
agencies, hospitals, schools,nursing homes, whatever.
(07:19):
So we had a bunch of staff orteam members that we contracted
out.
There came a point in time,seven years ago now, where I was
thinking man, I'm getting closeto 50, my business is just all
based on these contracts, thewhole thing, and if someone else
comes in and takes my contractsor someone decides to hire
their own therapist, my businessis gone overnight.
(07:39):
So I said, what well, what canI do?
So we decided to go into ourjust kind of brick and mortar
type private practice setting.
So I announced to our staff,our team at our Christmas party.
I say you guys ever thoughtabout having our own clinics?
Anybody want their own therapyclinic?
And like they're all like, yeah, let's do that.
So we opened five clinics inlike four months.
So we went from a Decembermeeting to open our first clinic
(08:01):
in March and by I think, may orJune we had five clinics open
and at the same time we werebuilding a house, my wife and I
building a house and our kidswere in high school at the time.
Oh yeah, all kinds of athleticsports.
So I might I had I had zerohours in every day and $0.
Because if you go from a prettynice profitable contract
business where there's really nooverhead whatsoever other than
(08:23):
paying salaries, and also nowyou're opening five new
practices with buildings andequipment and all those things
and there's no revenue comingbecause you have no patients yet
, uh it was pretty stressful, uhpretty stressful time for me
and my wife and if I'm a littleeven keel on things like things
don't really upset me too muchand my wife is the same way oh,
(08:43):
is she the same way?
Speaker 1 (08:44):
because I've always been jealous about how you're.
You know, hey, you owe amillion dollars.
You, you won a million dollars.
Speaker 2 (08:49):
You're like cool either one right, same text,
yeah, and, but we're the sameway.
I'm a little more even than sheis.
She's yeah she, she steadies mea little more.
She's like, hey, you shouldpaint it in here because we're
bleeding over here.
We should look at this and andI'm like, oh okay, it'll be okay
, it'll stop eventually, correct?
Speaker 1 (09:06):
So it's amazing I will say, especially having had
high schoolers how difficultthat is.
In addition, there's like afinancial and emotional
bankruptcy that's occurringthere in that journey.
And the other thing, rock stars, I want you to hear, as Lance
is talking, is that he's only onthis PT practice for seven
years.
Right, I mean you're in yourlate forties, when you started.
Speaker 2 (09:26):
Right, yeah, I wish I .
I wish I would've done thiswhen I was 25.
It would have been a lot better.
Speaker 1 (09:35):
Yeah.
So rockstar is no matter whereyou are.
Remember this rule it's notyour age, it's the stage.
It's not your age, it's a stage.
Don't look around and say, oh,I'm too old or I'm it's too late
for me to get on social mediaor to figure this crap out Like
this is.
This is legitimately an example.
This is why I'm starting theseason with Lance.
He is an example of what'spossible and I love, lance, that
you've.
You've put yourself in thisposition, in your, in your stage
of life, where you're likereally accelerating and
(09:55):
recognizing like, hey, what do Iwant?
Like you're not a victim to the, to that piece of it, where
you're just like feelingoverwhelmed.
You know, what I would love toknow is is like from that place
where you were going through agreat deal of strife to where
you and, by the way, before weget any further into how you got
from there to here tell peoplewhat you do with your time now
(10:16):
oh, so my my like during thedaytime time yeah, like we were
talking about, yeah so I treatpatients, so I'd still treat
patients throughout the week.
Speaker 2 (10:23):
So this week, today's friday, as we're filming this
and it's noonish noonish whereI'm at um I've already done
three evals this morning.
I've got three more scheduledthis afternoon.
It'll make I'll have 23evaluations done this week.
So I do I do typically anywherefrom 15 to 25 evaluations in
the out patient clinics per weekand then everything else but.
(10:43):
But I like doing that, I enjoyseeing patients, I enjoy being
around, I enjoy being around myteam.
Speaker 1 (10:49):
Do you have to treat?
Speaker 2 (10:51):
No, no, I don't have to.
Speaker 1 (10:54):
No.
So, rockstar, I want Lance tosay that to you because I want
you to hear that treating isn'tbad.
But there is such a differencebetween building a company that
runs on its own and choosing togo in and Lance and I were
talking before that we hitrecord that like one of the main
reasons you're doing this is toreally just to show your people
that you're willing to walk thewalk and talk the talk that
that you set as the leader.
You don't have to, but youchoose to.
Speaker 2 (11:15):
I do choose to.
Yeah, I could.
I mean at this point I couldstay home every day and and do
something different.
But used to, I've alwaystreated so.
I used to.
You know, four years ago orthree or probably three years
ago now.
I would treat all day and thengo home and like manage the
business all night.
So go home and then like workon books, payroll and all those
things.
Well, now we have other folksin place to do much of that
stuff.
(11:36):
So I don't I have to really dothat.
I still, obviously I still dosome looking at numbers and
financials and making surethings are on track, but as far
as the day-to-day operations, Idon't really have a whole lot to
do with that.
Speaker 1 (11:46):
You know I don't want to put words in your mouth, but
as you're talking, I'm hearingDan Sullivan in my head about
who, not how.
Speaker 2 (11:52):
It's a great book.
Speaker 1 (11:53):
Yeah, how much did that concept play into that
transformation of where you weredoing everything to where you
are now?
Speaker 2 (12:05):
Right.
So I actually read that bookthe first time.
I think you gave it to me to betruthful, sure, yep, and that's
what prompted us to hire ourdirector of operations.
Some of you might call her aCEO or whatever, but she's our
director of operations.
Hired her almost three yearsago, I believe now, and that's
been a huge burden off of myselfand off of my wife.
So just running a day-to-dayoperations of everything, she
oversees the whole business.
Speaker 1 (12:25):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
From hiring, firing, credentialing, payroll.
She oversees all those things.
And then there's other peoplethat blow around her team that
should do those tasks.
But she makes sure they'rebeing done and her and I
obviously talk every day.
A report at the end of the day,kind of a summation of what's
going on.
What do I need to addressmyself?
Those things.
Speaker 1 (12:43):
Yeah, rockstars.
I want you to hear how he'sdescribing what freedom looks
like.
It's his passion.
Going back to your team, lanceof like, you're really
passionate about creating aplace where people are so
thrilled to get up and go towork, to be a part of things,
and that's one of the reasonsthat you're driven to treat.
It's not just because you stilllike to treat, it's because you
like to be with your people andthen you know, but in a way
(13:03):
that serves you.
But yet Lance is still free andable to take these big breaks
if he needs to.
And I just again, that's what aCEO I always tell people I think
the most important roles thatCEOs need to remember that they
have is, first is visionary,second is cultural leader and
then third is team development.
If they can be in that space,they can have ultimate you know,
(13:24):
ultimate profit and freedom tobe able to do what they want.
So, lance, let's get into someof these things that you've.
I want to ask you some reallyspecific questions for our
audience.
Around some of the freedomhelpers that you've had, can you
tell me what is something thatyou've implemented in your
practice that has freed you upoutside of hiring people?
Speaker 2 (13:44):
Outside of hiring people.
What has freed you up outsideof hiring people?
Outside of hiring people wouldjust free us up.
So well, hiring people peoplefree us up.
I mean people that take thingsoff us.
So we do put in systems.
Obviously we have systems inplace that do things, so we have
teams of people that dodifferent stuff.
So, just from in a physicaltherapy practice I'm assuming
most people watch this or somekind of physical therapist
(14:05):
practice owners.
Speaker 1 (14:07):
PT, OTS, LP are most of our audience.
Speaker 2 (14:09):
So most everybody understands what I'm talking
about.
When you're worried aboutcredentialing and revenue cycle
management and referrals comingin and marketing and all those
things and if you're the a lotof you guys may be sole practice
owners, where you have your ownpractice, but where you have
your own practices we were doingall those things.
So we have people that do eachone of those things.
We have a whole marketing crewthat just takes care of that.
We have a whole credentialingcrew that takes care of just
credentialing.
We have a whole team that justtakes care of new referrals
(14:31):
coming in and insurance authorverifications.
We have a whole team of peoplethat take care of authorizations
.
So all these things are doneindividually and they all report
to one person and it comes backto this anyway.
Speaker 1 (14:43):
So the leadership thing you hit kind of hard.
It's hard because I saidwithout people to challenge you,
because I know that people isthe main way that you've grown.
But it sounds like what you didsay it was systems.
I heard like you've implementedlike some processes and then
leadership.
So let's talk about systemsreally quick.
Like what do you, do you useGoogle docs?
Like how, when you say systems,what does that look like in
your company?
Speaker 2 (15:03):
So systems are well.
Funny enough, a lot of ours areon paper.
Speaker 1 (15:07):
So straight up old school paper systems they're
really like right down.
Speaker 2 (15:09):
Here's what we do, here's our outline of what we're
going to do, and we do that.
So it's hard to explain thatthere's so many.
We have you know, weeklymeetings, weekly things.
People check in.
So if you're on that team,report to that person.
They've got tasks they've gotto complete and once they're
completed everything's good.
(15:30):
If they're not completed,they're marked in red and then
they report back to her and ifshe can't figure it out, then
she goes to our director ofoperations.
If she can't get a problemsolved, then it comes to me.
So it's like a three-tier thingbefore it comes to me.
No summit ever gets to me.
Honestly, Everything is done.
Speaker 1 (15:49):
It's already organized in that way.
Let me summarize this becauseLance is living it so well.
I'm going to take a step backand give you a little bit of
perspective, because thesethings that Lance is doing is
like gravity and sometimes weget worked up in terms of like.
Should I use an online trainingplatform?
Should I do a paper?
Worked up in terms of like?
Should I use an online trainingplatform?
Should I do a paper?
(16:10):
Look, you can't deny Lance'sresults with pen and paper
systems in some of the casesthat he's built it out.
But here are the things thatare universal for anyone who
gets totally freed up, thatLance is demonstrating.
That first piece is havingaccountability meetings.
Meetings are a huge part ofculture and in those meetings,
matt isn't just or sorry.
Lance is looking at statisticsas well as green, yellow, red,
(16:31):
and then he's got leadership,and then you have layers of
leadership, so that it's almostprotective of you and only comes
certain things come to you.
So let me ask you this, lancewhat are the things that do come
to you Like?
You've got layers of peoplehandling most things, so what
are the types of things that youdo want to come to you?
Speaker 2 (16:49):
Things I want to come to me, like if we're seeing a,
obviously any kind of um HRissues, which we hardly ever
have like those usually come tome quick, like this comes down
to having to have a crucialconversation with someone that's
usually me, that has to havethat Like the end I'll be all if
there's someone's not pullingtheir weight, someone doing a
thing you know they need to bekind of put back on.
Speaker 1 (17:10):
I'm guessing they've been coached already to a degree
, but you're coming in more likeyou're not having the first
conversation as much as like thelast.
Speaker 2 (17:16):
Yeah, yeah, right, I'm, yeah, I'm dad's coming home
.
They don't want to talk to me,so talk to me.
That's that.
And anything that's going to bea financial leak or a problem,
I need to address that.
So anything that looks likethere's something here that's
costing us money more than it'sbringing in.
(17:38):
So we don't want to makemillions of dollars on
everything we do, but we want tomake at least something.
We don't want to lose money onanything we do, so we've got to
monitor all that.
So everything we do.
But we want to make at leastsomething.
We don't want to lose money onanything we do, so we got to
monitor all that.
So if we see a profit leaksomewhere, I got to figure that
out, and that usually comes tome to figure out what's
happening with that, and I'mPretty good at finding out where
the issue is on that.
Speaker 1 (17:55):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (17:56):
Awesome stuff.
Speaker 1 (17:59):
Those things have really added up over time and we
could do podcast upon podcastabout all those things and I'm
tempted to dive in there.
But let me ask you this lastquestion what's the best
business purchase that you'vemade under $100 that has
impacted your business?
Speaker 2 (18:14):
Business purchase under $100.
Speaker 1 (18:16):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (18:19):
Wow, what can you get for under $100?
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (18:24):
It may not even be a question that we use moving
forward, but I'm curious to see.
Speaker 2 (18:28):
I don't know.
Honestly, I don't know AnythingI could invest in my team
honestly with that.
So just.
But you know, buying them,buying them things to work with,
doesn't really affect them, butinvesting in them.
So you know, it could be assimple thing as stopping a sonic
and pick up some side drinks totake to them on the way oh my
gosh, that's such a good answer.
(18:48):
I didn't know if we were goingto come up with anything but
that's a great answer so like asmall treat for your team member
.
That's it.
Yeah, yeah, we do.
Yeah, I mean we can do a wholeother podcast about building
teams and staff retention andall those things, because we
have I don't even know how manyemployees we have.
I don't know, honestly at themoment Hundreds Counting all the
businesses, but we've only lostone therapist in the past seven
(19:09):
years.
That's left us.
Speaker 1 (19:11):
You guys listen to what just happened.
He's got hundreds of employees.
He's lost one therapist in howlong?
Speaker 2 (19:16):
Oh, seven, seven years Okay.
Speaker 1 (19:22):
So listen, hey, rockstars, will you put in the
comments if you want episodes onthat, because I'm building this
next season for Q4.
I'm trying to piece thattogether.
So, rockstars, I need yourfeedback to know.
Is that what you want to learnmore about?
I would love to go into that,but right now I want to pivot,
lance, because, as you know, thetheme of this season is
artificial intelligence versusvirtual assistants, and you have
how many virtual assistants?
Speaker 2 (19:42):
Seven altogether, seven across the board.
Should I use five in my PTpractice and we have two in our
DME business at the moment andwe're going to add a third in
our DME business just right nextweek.
We'll be looking for aninterview for a third one.
So if you're talking aboutfreeing up time and freeing up
labor, so you mentioned earlierabout, can I you mind if I talk
(20:04):
for a minute?
Speaker 1 (20:05):
Always, always, yeah, okay.
Speaker 2 (20:07):
So you mentioned earlier what strife is.
I kind of mentioned the bigthing.
You know, opening mentioned thebig thing of the clinics.
That was strapped to me.
But daily, daily worries orthings are our staff or team
turnover.
So I mentioned we haven't lostit there, we haven't lost a
therapist in one therapist inseven years.
But ancillary staff members,those are the hardest to keep.
Front desk people, insuranceverification people,
(20:30):
authorization, people that justdon't work behind the scenes and
you can't pay them enough tokeep them.
I mean you can't, you can'tafford to pay them enough to
keep them because someone elseoffers them 50 cents more to go
do the same kind of job or workfrom home.
They, they jump at that.
So we have, even though we havefantastic benefits, fantastic
culture, all those things,people that make those kinds of
wages for 50 cents more.
(20:51):
They're going to think theymight leave for that.
Does that make sense?
I mean, I'm just being honest.
Speaker 1 (20:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:55):
So, after you spent months or weeks or years
training them to do the thingsyou wanted to do whether it's
authorizations or verificationsor those things that they have
to do and they do them well, andthen they leave you for another
$2 to work for a dentistsomewhere.
Speaker 1 (21:12):
We've all been in that position, Lance.
I used to tell my wife she'd go.
How was your day?
And, like everyone at the frontdesk showed up, it went great.
Yes, exactly.
Speaker 2 (21:19):
So so that's what I was saying, so, so, so those
were the things we were havingissues with.
Like we were, we we obviouslyhave seen some growth.
So we've seen tremendous growthfrom one clinic to 25 clinics
in seven years.
So with that comes addingmultitudes of people to try to
keep up with all these things wehave to do every day
Verifications, authorizations,denials, all that stuff and we
(21:41):
just we're having troublekeeping up with that, even
though we had great people thatcouldn't do it all by themselves
.
So we have basically one persontrying to do authorizations for
27 clinics.
Well, that's an impossible task.
So the virtual assistant optioncame along and we added one.
We thought we'll give you know,let's give this a try, see how
this goes Hired one, came onboard, had some experience with
(22:06):
authorizations, which we wereable to step in the role and
help that out.
We're like, okay, that's takena significant load off of this
one person that's been doing itfor a long time.
So we had hired another one,and then another one and another
one.
Anyway, so now at this point weused to have someone stateside
that did authorizations andoversee that team.
Well, now our virtualassistants we have one there.
His name is Archie.
He is in charge of the.
(22:27):
He has four that work for him.
So he's in charge and we givehim promotion.
He's totally in charge of allour authorizations, all our
verifications.
The last virtual assembly wehired, he did the hiring we
interviewed.
He actually hired them, pickedthem out who he wanted.
We just sat back and listenedto him talk.
And now he trains them all andhe oversees everything they do.
So he gives us a report eachweek of what's going on and we
essentially don't have to worryabout them.
(22:48):
It's literally seamless.
So we get a referral that comesinto us, we send the stuff to
them, they verify the insurance,they do authorization part.
They just take care of it andit's very organized and they
actually live in the Philippines.
Some people may not know thatthey all live in the Philippines
.
The virtual assistants do so.
(23:09):
They do their training.
They listen to him more becausehe's Filipino.
So when he's training them theybuy into it and they're all a
team because he's Filipino.
So when he's training them theybuy into it and they're all a
team.
So that has been giant bothmentally, not having to worry
about those things anymore, nothaving to worry.
So if our authorization persondidn't show up to work that day.
Who's going to do all?
Who's going to checkauthorizations?
(23:29):
I don't know.
I have no idea.
I wouldn't even know where tostart.
So know, I have no idea, Iwouldn't even know where to
start.
So we'll be dead in the waterwhen nothing's getting
authorized, cause I would noteven know where to start that Um
.
But now we're.
We're at a point where that's Imean that's, it's covered and
it's a, it's a worry off,totally off of all our plates.
Speaker 1 (23:44):
That's amazing and you know, again, I think what's
great is that you have a companywith systems that have really
supported that and as you'veimplemented that, it's so
obviously refreshing to hearthat there's solutions, because
that was so hard for me andthat's one of the reasons I'm
passionate about.
The virtual assistant side, asyou know, is like that was I
remember hiring people andthey'd show up like they were
doing me a favor versus thevirtual assistants now who,
(24:06):
honestly, will cry when they gethired.
And this is like life changing,I think, for the audience.
I think what they would want toknow is you know, how does your
team communicate with your VAs?
Like, how do you work with yourVAs remotely?
That would be different thanhow you'd work with somebody you
know stateside.
Speaker 2 (24:21):
Great.
So we, our VAs, are.
They're part of our team likeanybody else, like they're
literally part of like everysingle correspondence.
We get every email we send outevery talk we do.
We do a weekly meeting like aweekly Zoom meeting.
We get every email.
We send out every talk.
We do a weekly meeting like aweekly Zoom meeting.
Every Tuesday morning we havewhat we call our back office
meeting, which is ourauthorization, credentialing
marketing team.
All those people come togetherfor a Zoom meeting and I'm on
(24:42):
that meeting.
Every Tuesday morning we spendan hour and a half or so going
over topics of the last week,topics of the next week coming
up, and the VAs are on thereevery time.
So they're just like everybodyelse on the team.
As far as our communication withthem daily, we set them up on a
Zoom, so we're on aninternational Zoom with them and
the Zoom is essentially openall day long.
So it's basically like they'rein the office.
(25:03):
They're just literally amonitor sitting to the side of
someone's desk and if the VA hasa question, they just say, hey,
steve, and they go oh, what doyou need?
And they just ask the questionand literally it's just open all
day long.
So it's an open communication.
They're just on a screen.
Have you ever watched Big BangTheory and you see the one where
Sheldon has these like thescreen and he walks around the
house?
That's kind of what it's like.
They're just right there.
Speaker 1 (25:25):
That's so funny because I've never thought of
that in any way.
Speaker 2 (25:30):
They're right there at easy access all day long and
they we give them all.
They all get their own companyemail address.
So they have their own companyemail, the international Zoom.
They actually use that.
They can use that to call with.
So they can actually use thatsystem to make phone calls to
the States with.
And we have them set up with alocal number.
So if they have to call adoctor's office or an insurance
company, it looks like a localnumber showing up and we go
(25:51):
through some VPN stuff forsecurity and things like that
for for all of them.
But the communication is reallypretty easy, like once you're
used to talking on a zoom withsomeone, it's it's just like
they're in the room with you.
It's not.
It's not.
And they worked our same hours,you know, eight to five, monday
to Friday.
Speaker 1 (26:04):
Yeah, it's.
I always tell people it's not ahard muscle to learn, it's just
a little.
For this is that the power ofbringing them into your culture
is the key thing that has to bedone, but medical private
practice owners do that so well,especially PTOTs and SLPs.
(26:25):
Your whole focus is buildingyour team.
I wonder what that's like forthe Filipinos, because you're
benefiting all these amazingAmericans who are blessed to
live in the greatest country onthe earth, but then you have
Filipinos who are coming fromalso a great country, but they
don't have the same financialopportunities that we have.
I just wonder what that's likefor them to be able to work for
(26:45):
you and I don't really have aquestion here, as much as just
like a statement that I thinkit's really neat that your focus
is on your, your culture, andthat it's actually becoming
global, like you're impactingpeople, but um, I mean, we do we
do it.
Speaker 2 (26:59):
Do we do us?
Well, if all of our new hirescome on board, we do us.
I mean it looked like a welcomepackage.
Speaker 1 (27:04):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (27:05):
They just get a welcome package from us.
But the I know this is workingthe team and you know a couple
of two or three t-shirts andsome like swag you know, that
has our logos on it some cupsand tumblers and all this thing.
Well, the Filipinos get themtoo, so we send them to them all
you ship it to the Philippines.
I do so they all get one too.
They all get a box with alltheir T-shirts, and so we treat
them like anybody else on ourteam.
Speaker 1 (27:27):
What have they said when they got those packages?
Because I know they don't getthat.
Speaker 2 (27:30):
Oh yeah, they love that, so it's so.
They're no different to anybodyelse that works stateside.
So no difference to us amazing.
Speaker 1 (27:37):
Yeah, and how was that?
When you were first adoptingthat, how did your american team
respond to like oh, becausethere's like a total stigma
right about like yeah beingoutsourced overseas and not
understanding the english like.
How did your team respond?
Speaker 2 (27:48):
yep.
So there was definite Iwouldn't say pushback, but
definite skepticism going intothat, like, how's this going to
work?
Is not going to work, I don'tsee how this is going to work,
so let's just try it, let's justbe the pilot program, let's
just see how this goes, let'sjust give it a whirl.
If it doesn't work out easyenough, we can cut it loose
after a month and just let it goso.
But after that now it's likehey, everybody that works like
(28:19):
in your stateside they're likehey, can I get a va?
Do I need a?
Speaker 1 (28:20):
but he wants someone of their own, like their own
little their own va, to helpthem do stuff.
I'm like you're swell, hang on,so yeah.
Yeah, I think the idea is thatvas are going to replace
americans, which they can tosome degree, but, like, the
positions that are already areharder to fill.
But the people who are great,they're seeing them as like a
personal value add.
It's like, oh, you're takingcare of me If I get a VA.
Um, you know, lance, justtelling you from personal
experience, like my personal VAwas a big shift for me, just
having someone to go through myemails and stuff, cause that was
(28:42):
a big shift.
And um, where's your vision foryou with?
The last thing I'll ask you onthe VAs is where's your vision
at this point with VAs?
Do you have any thoughts onnext steps for you?
Speaker 2 (28:57):
Um, yeah, we're gonna .
We'll keep adding more and moreso to do, to do that, those,
those things.
So, those things that are, likewe mentioned earlier
authorizations, verifications um, we do for our dma company.
They do billing, so we have twothat do billing for our dma
company wow well, pt practicewill be outsourced to billing.
So we don't do any in-house.
We in-house that we wouldprobably use some vas or
probably outsource that um, butour DME campaign is billing and
we're adding more for there.
So probably anything we talkabout it internally quite a bit
(29:19):
in our meetings weekly, anythingthat we could that we need
someone to be very dependable,very reliable and that's going
to stay with us.
We're probably going to putthem in that role that they can
do what they can do.
Anybody that can work from home, we can use a VA to do it.
Does that make sense?
Speaker 1 (29:35):
Yeah, I love it.
Speaker 2 (29:37):
If you can work from home and do this job, then a VA
can do it.
Speaker 1 (29:40):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (29:40):
And the VAs that come .
I mean, some of you peopledon't realize this.
They're pretty educated.
They're pretty educated.
So two of ours are actuallyphysical therapists.
Two of our VAs actually have aPT license.
They're actually licensedphysical therapists in the
Philippines.
So they already speak ourlanguage, they can read notes,
they can read diagnosis codes.
They already know how to do allthat.
Archie came from a billingbackground.
He actually worked for you andyour billing company.
(30:01):
Yeah Right, he had a billingbackground.
So billing and coding is heknows all that stuff.
So it's not like you have totrain them.
You have to train them.
All you have to train them onis your systems.
Really, you have to train themon your EMR platform and kind of
the way you like things done,because they kind of have a good
knowledge base of everythingelse and they're rapid, they can
learn and, like anybody else,if you hire someone stateside
(30:21):
they're not going to know whatto do.
You have to train them so.
So it's no different.
Speaker 1 (30:25):
Yeah, lance, such a powerful summary there of the
VAs.
Thank you for that.
Now let's shift over toartificial intelligence.
Are you guys implementing anyAI tools right now?
Speaker 2 (30:35):
None Interesting, and how?
Speaker 1 (30:38):
come?
How come at this point?
What's the?
Is it just the lack ofknowledge of what's out there,
or have you looked at thingsYou're like?
Eh, not for me.
Speaker 2 (30:50):
Like, where are you at with that?
Yeah, I've looked at severalthings over the years, the last
few years, and just nothing.
I'm kind of waiting a littlebit, I guess, until things get
to.
I mean, things are great now,it looks like, but just a little
more, a little smoother.
I guess.
Our EMR that we had currentlyused doesn't use any AI tools in
it.
Who do you use?
Right now, we use Strata PT,strata PT.
(31:10):
Right now, we use strata pt,strata pt.
Yeah, they don't have any aitools in in their software at
the moment or that we can access, so we just don't.
We just don't do that.
I'm not opposed to it.
I mean I think it'd be great,but we just don't.
Speaker 1 (31:18):
We just haven't yet yet it sounds like, yeah, it
sounds like to me, you know it'scoming, but you're, you're in a
position where you're whatyou're doing is working so well.
You're kind of letting thebigger, because when I think
about big names, I know a numberof AI softwares, but like
that's part of this season isprobably on the AI side is going
to be more about discoveringfor the audience, like what is
even out there, because I don'tthink the you know, the two
(31:41):
fastest growing trends inhealthcare not just in PT or
OTSLP but like globallyhospitals is AI and virtual
assistance, and there's productsthat are popping up, but
they're early stage adapting, sosome of them are working well,
some of them aren't, and so Ireally wanted to know cause I
respect you, like where yourperspective is.
So you're really far down theroad with the VAs.
You're, you're open to AI.
(32:02):
You're just waiting to seewhat's going to be the ones that
are adaptable.
Speaker 2 (32:05):
We're definitely going to utilize AI.
There's no doubt Everybody'sgoing to, we're going to, but
right now, I mean, if you haveI'm sure you have and I have,
and a lot of folks have it'soverwhelming a little bit.
There's so many new AIcompanies out there and they all
have these things they saythey're going to do or can do
and you're like, can they reallydo that?
(32:26):
I'm not sure they can really dowhat they're saying for sure,
but because they all, they allsound so amazing and they're
going to save you like you'regoing to get time back.
You're going to be a timetraveler if you start using ai,
you're going to like have hoursback in your day, like extra
hour.
You know, I get 27 hours a dayinstead of 24 because you're
using our ad tool.
Um, I don't, yeah, I just Ijust don't know which one to
pick.
It'd be be like wow.
It'd be like you'd be like gointo a, go to the dance.
(32:48):
Look over there there's like 12pretty girls.
You're like okay, which one doI pick?
I want to, maybe a psychopath.
You don't want to pick herRight.
Speaker 1 (32:56):
You'll pick the one that chooses you, and I think
that's true for AI as well.
It's funny because, like, lookat just your chat GPTs right,
there's there's Gemini, there'sPerplexity, there's all these
different chat I don't even knowwhat to call them.
They're AI solutions, longlanguage model solutions that
you can use as a resource In myworld.
Lance, just to share for theaudience, I have this network
(33:19):
that has not a single healthcarecompany in it, and two of them
are tech companies that are verylike cutting edge, and so
they're teaching me a lot aboutit, and it is even still
overwhelming, because they'lltell me perplexity is good for
this, whereas chat GPT is goodfor that.
And then you have Google'sGemini, and this is the thing
I'll just kind of hit, kind offor the audience and maybe for
you as well.
Gemini Google got into it late,but Google has such a
(33:43):
powerhouse engine that just lastweek this is we're filming this
in the first full week of June.
Last week, gemini came out withthese video producing I think
it's VO three or something.
It's.
It's a.
You can start putting umprompts in and it will create
actual live video all artificialbut it looks real of people
talking and saying things, andso Google, because of their
(34:05):
resources and power they have,they've caught up to and in some
ways starting to pass, and thenpeople are projecting that will
be there.
So I, just for personal use forthe audience, cause I don't know
how much we're going to getinto AI I use chat GPT nonstop.
I don't communicate without it.
Um, I am going to for example,I don't have a meeting without
that on in the background, likean AI note taker in the
(34:26):
background, just because at theend of that meeting I can like
download the transcript, throwit into chat GPT and say please
create an email for all thedelegations with due dates and
identify anything that wasmissed that we can put into an
email.
So there's lots of ways that Ithink are going to be used.
But, lance, like you, I'm kindof sitting back a little bit and
partly excited about thisseason going.
(34:47):
What is the ai solutions thatpeople are going to bring up?
So, yeah, we'll see.
We'll see what comes up overtime, um, but I respect the fact
that, like you're leading thecharge when it comes to the
second fastest growing trend,which is vas, I think that's
awesome all right, man, let's dosome rapid fire questions.
You ready, ready, let's go.
Number one what is a top bookthat you have read that has
(35:08):
blown your mind?
Speaker 2 (35:09):
Yeah, who Not how?
Speaker 1 (35:11):
Who Not how Love?
Speaker 2 (35:12):
it.
It's a great book.
I've read quite a few booksrecently, but who Not how is
probably the one that has hadthe biggest impact on me lately
lately being the last threeyears.
So it prompted me to hire ourdirector of operations, which
took a huge burden off my plate,and then now it's got me
thinking about hiring otherpeople to do other things that I
(35:33):
I do.
So I mean I mean simply neverread that book.
It's like you need to hiresomeone to, like, mow your yard.
I mean that's like that couldbe the person.
I mean to be honest, so I stillmow, should hire someone to do
that to buy myself back a couplehours a week of time.
Speaker 1 (35:47):
But you know it's so funny about that.
I am Nathan Shields told meabout that book.
The great Nathan Shields, whoowns the PT owners podcast.
He was telling me about thatbook and I went, yeah, I got the
, I got the message from thetitle.
I think I'm good.
But then later I was onvacation and I was reading it
and I'm like, oh, it's a mindsetshifter.
And even our conversation, asyou and I are talking, Lance,
right now, I'm thinking aboutpeople like, oh, I need to hire
(36:08):
people.
I want to hire people to go dosome things that I'm doing right
now, cause that's a big book.
Speaker 2 (36:13):
Yeah, so that.
So normally I listened to bothtime there I listened audio
version to books, so I'd listento books, but who knows how I
was going to actually carry.
I carry it with me in my likewherever I go and worn, but it
stays in my backpack all thetime with me, so it's just my
travel book.
So I've read the whole thing inits entirety.
(36:33):
Never walk all the way through,but I've read the whole thing
in its entirety, probably fivetimes.
Just little snippets and pieceshere and there, if that makes
sense.
Speaker 1 (36:39):
Yeah, and rock stars listen to this.
Like you heard at the beginningof this episode, what Lance has
got going on and the freedomthat he is protecting and what
does he have tattered in his bagwho, not how, and I will, I
will throw, and I get it soundslike we're salesmen for this
book, but I will tell you we getnothing for that.
That book was such an easy read.
That was the weirdest thing.
It wasn't like this book whereI felt like I had to grind
(37:01):
through.
This was like an entertaining,like oh, I'm done so.
I love that you mentioned that.
Let's get to the secondquestion.
Uh, what's one of your top timesaver hacks?
Speaker 2 (37:11):
for me time saver hats, I guess.
I mean I'm wow, I don't know,um, I guess just delegating
things to other people.
I hate to say, but I don't likethe word delegate.
I really like that word toomuch.
Speaker 1 (37:23):
But you know empowering other people to take
on some responsibility, wowthat's way better.
Speaker 2 (37:26):
That's a way more like a way to say don't
responsibilities, Wow.
That's a way more elegant wayto say don't push me around.
That's a way more yes.
Speaker 1 (37:34):
This is such a fun episode, lance.
I just got to tell you this hasbeen such a blast because if I
had heard this episode 10 yearsago in my career, it would have
changed everything.
So, number three, what's onething you wish you would stop
doing way sooner in yourbusiness?
Speaker 2 (37:48):
That I would have stopped doing way sooner.
Mm-hmm wish you would stop doingway sooner in your business
that I would have stopped doingway sooner.
No, I mean honestly, I'vementioned we just now I'm
treating patients.
I could do that every day.
So like I probably need to stopdoing that as much and I
probably should have stoppeddoing that a little while back,
to be honest, so I could havemore time to work on the
business.
That have in the business, soto speak, um, and probably would
have been probably been waymore successful quicker if I'd
have done that years ago and butbut I I didn't.
(38:11):
But now somehow, somehow Imanaged to muddle through that
and it's still get the treatpatients and now it's kind of
the business kind of runs itselfwithout me having to be on the
phone all day or worried aboutthings happening, cause I was
such a good team in place thatthey take care of stuff.
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (38:26):
So, even though you wish you had done that a little
bit sooner and you're looking atit now, it's it's more of a,
it's more of an optimizationthan a judgment.
Okay, Number four what's themost time consuming task that
you secretly enjoy?
Speaker 2 (38:39):
Oh, so my, I I've still, you know, I still use pen
and paper for a lot of stuff, alot of things.
So I really just like enjoysitting back done and look at
like going through numbers, likeend of month numbers or end of
week numbers for eachcomparisons.
I love comparing trends for forflows, for percentage of growth
, percentage of whatever, andebbs and flows and how things go
(38:59):
, and I compare those month overmonth.
Like I know I know the lastweek of May is coming.
We're going to see a downtrendof 12%, because I know that's
coming, because it happens everyyear statistically.
So I just like doing that.
I do that almost every night.
I do some sort of statisticlooking at our business just to
make sure I can do a quick lookat our EMR setup and just how
things are turning.
Okay, everything's good here,and if I see a blip on the radar
, something's not right, I cango, we can go address that.
Speaker 1 (39:22):
Yeah, you love the power of you inspect what you
expect and the way that givesyou the information to make
decisions.
It might be why you're so evenkeel because you have knowledge.
Maybe, All right.
So what's the latest thing youdelegated?
Speaker 2 (39:35):
What did I do?
What have I delegated?
What have I empowered someoneelse to do for me there?
Speaker 1 (39:38):
we go.
What's the latest thing?
You've empowered someone elseto take off your plate.
I'm going to put that in mynotes.
That's a great way of phrasingyes, yeah.
Speaker 2 (39:47):
Probably honestly, the last thing kind of the
biggest thing was the last VA wehired.
I usually would sit in on thoseinterviews and go to that and
make the decision and we putthat off to Archie, the other VA
, and let him do that.
That's the last time I'm likeempowered him to do that, like
this purchase is going to workfor you anyway, so why are you
(40:08):
in my end?
But you don't need that.
I was there, I was on the callwith them, I introduced myself
and told them good luck in theinterview and then you know, let
them go and then let Archiepick it out and that's it.
Speaker 1 (40:15):
Archie picked the next VA, yeah.
Speaker 2 (40:17):
Yeah, a hundred percent.
Your VA, picked your next VA.
Speaker 1 (40:21):
By the way, Archie, I hope you're listening to this.
We miss you over it in theblack, but we're so grateful
that you're with Lance, becauseyou know you're growing in a way
that is just how you're meantto be.
So love that.
What an inspiring way.
Okay, last question.
This is the big question forthe season, In your opinion
which is it AI or virtualassistants?
Speaker 2 (40:41):
Wow, so I'm going to have to.
You know you vote for the hometeam, I guess, so you got to say
, since it's virtual assistants,but I probably ai.
I mean in the long term, 10years from now, we're gonna ai,
ai is gonna be I mean 90, 10years, probably less than that's
gonna take over every our wholelife.
I mean you're talking about thestuff google is doing where you
can just create a video likeyou're not gonna, where they
(41:02):
don't know.
I mean you already don't knowwhat's real and what's not.
I mean it's coming, pops up onyour phone or TV or movie or
anything that's like.
Is that real or not?
I have no idea, there's no wayto even tell.
Speaker 1 (41:12):
I agree, you know it's interesting and this is
true because, the owner of a VAcompany.
As we know, in 10 years we'redead in the water if we don't
start integrating AIaggressively.
So I agree, I think.
But guys at home, listen, thisisn't even an exciting episode.
So, uh, seth, the amazingpodcast editor that's not his
title, by the way, he's ourcreative specialist who's behind
(41:32):
the scenes.
Super big shout out to Seth,who we can't do any of this
without.
If you would, for the peoplewho are watching on YouTube or
any of the video platforms,let's see the score.
It's episode one.
So, yep, that's one for AI andzero for VAs.
But, lance, thank you so muchfor being on the show man, it
has been such a gift to be withyou and truly thank you for
(41:53):
embodying everything that I amtrying to help other people see
in terms of what's possible.
Any parting words?
Speaker 2 (42:00):
I think anybody's capable of doing great things if
they really set their mind toit Not that I've done great
things, but I've done goodthings and continue to get
better every day.
And I think empowering yourteam or your people around you
whether it's whether your teamis your wife or your husband, or
whether your team is yourpeople that you work with every
day at work like empower them todo things and lead them and get
them to train the need and getthem to buy into you, to be part
(42:23):
of you and want to be aroundyou or part of your party
organization that has that's thekey they have to.
So if they don't want to cometo work with you every day,
nothing's going to work becauseyou can't do it yourself.
Speaker 1 (42:33):
No way.
Awesome, lance.
All right guys.
Well, thank you for tuning into the Willpower Podcast.
As always, this is WillHumphries reminding you to lead
with love, live on purpose and,above all, never give up.
Until next time.
Thanks for tuning into theWillpower Podcast.
As always, this is WillHumphries reminding you to lead
(42:53):
with love, live on purpose andnever give up your freedom.
Until next time.
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Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show
The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show. Clay Travis and Buck Sexton tackle the biggest stories in news, politics and current events with intelligence and humor. From the border crisis, to the madness of cancel culture and far-left missteps, Clay and Buck guide listeners through the latest headlines and hot topics with fun and entertaining conversations and opinions.