In this testimonial, Jerry Durham, a 16‑year veteran physical‑therapy practice owner, explains how he partnered with strategic consultant Prateev Shah to transform his solo practice into a continent‑wide consulting business for physical therapists. Jerry describes his initial challenges—lack of strategic planning and accountability—and recounts meeting Prateev at the GKIC InfoSummit in Cleveland, where a striking "strategy wall" drew him in. After reading Prateev’s book and developing a relationship free of sales pressure, Jerry spent two intensive days in Germantown, Maryland, where they co‑created a detailed 1,000‑day (approximately three‑year) roadmap outlining short‑term actions, medium‑term milestones, and long‑term objectives. The plan also identified Jerry’s strengths to amplify, his weaknesses to offset, and provided access to a network of resources and contacts needed to build a scalable consulting practice for physical therapists across North America.
Chapters
Hello, my name is Jerry Durham. Um, I'm here with Prateev Shah out in Maryland, Germantown, Maryland, that I didn't know existed until I met this young man. So, um, again, my name is Jerry Durham. I am a physical therapy practice owner and I've had my business for 16 years and now I'm beginning to take what I've learned in my business practice and try to bring it to the masses. So I've got this content over here, I have these masses over here, how am I going to connect them? I have no idea. Been working on it for about 2 years maybe, and you know, just kind of plodding along. Got involved in GKIC, to be honest, and went to InfoSummit in Cleveland, Ohio, which I enjoy very much. And, uh, knowing that my strengths are not accountability So I need someone to hold me accountable, nor are they strategy in that tactical, get in the weeds kind of thing. Right. I see where I want to be. I know I'm here and I say I'm getting there, but I don't know how. So I go to GKFC in Cleveland. So much information, right? Piles and piles of notes. And on one of the breaks, I'm walking through the exhibit hall and I see this young man standing, um, not in the corner. He was front and center. And what drew me to him immediately was I saw strategy on the wall. I mean, plain and simple. Yeah, I mean, let's face it, look where we're standing. I saw strategy, and I'm not a strategy guy, and I'm— I will admit it, and I know that's my weakness. So I was immediately drawn in by— I saw a journey on the wall. It didn't matter whose, because I figured I could plug myself in. That's how we first connected. And then I'll tell you as a sales guy, as a business owner, was impressed. Ended up with his book, read his book within the first week of getting back, had conversations with him. And, you know, between us, there was never a sell. It was just, what do you need? How can I help? Right? It wasn't, well, let, you know, come do this, sign up for this. It wasn't. And very patient with me. I will be totally honest on that until we were ready, until I was ready to do work. And so here I am in Germantown. So that, that journey, that relationship, as I like to call it, started in— what month was that? It was summer '17, right? Yeah. Yeah. So what, it was about 8 months? About 8 months. About 8 months to get here. Yeah. Um, and now I'm here and I've now spent 2 days, full days, 2 full days in Germantown. And, um, nice little city, everything you need, a Dunkin' Donuts, uh, a great Zoe's Kitchen. So everything you need is here because Parteev is here. And the Indian store. And the Indian store. Yeah, the Indian— my first— now mind you, I have lots of Indian friends but never been in an Indian grocery store. So that's a whole story for another day. But now I'm leaving. What do I have? I have everything I've hoped for. I have in my phone, on the wall, on the computer, we have everything mapped out. Of how we are going to get from A to B. Not only A to B in 1 year, 2 years, 3 years, what I need to do over the next 2 weeks. And then once I get here, where we're going, and it all ties into that, you know, at the end of 3 years. And, you know, I didn't know Partee was going to sit down. Actually, what I love is the 1,000-day plan. And mind you, I'm not a math guy, so you think I sat down and figured out that was roughly 3 years? No. Yet my mind was about— I wanted to leave here knowing not just 1 year, but having that 3-year being the pinnacle. And guess what? No joke, that's what we worked on. So I have that strategy in place. I have the steps. I have access to people to help me create the things that I can't create. So to, to bring up my lesser strengths, you know, we, uh, we figured out what my strengths were so I can magnify those. And now we're just going to start spinning this wonderful consulting practice into something big for all physical therapists, not only in America but in North America too. Yep. Alright. Thank you.
