Bringing Visibility And Growth Into The Business with Courtney Edgecomb

Hi, welcome to the Pelby Biz Podcast. Are you a pelvic health PT or ot? Struggling to start your own practice? This podcast helps pelvic health PTs and OTs get out of debt, gain the income they desire, be able to treat patients without insurance restraints, and learn how to create time freedom for yourself and your family. I'm your host, Dr. Kelly Alhui, founder of Ortho Pelvic Physical Therapy, Pelvic health Business Grower and Pelvi Biz. Over the last two years, I went from a solo entrepreneur to a seven person team in counting. I'm here to help provide a clear path to grow your pelvic health business as fast as possible so that you can gain the time freedom, decrease debt, increase income and live the life that you desire. Before we get started today, make sure you click the link in our bio to grab your ticket for pelvi biz.

Now let's get into today's episode. Welcome guys to Pelviz. I'm your host, Dr. Kelly El Huey. I'm here with Courtney Edgecombe today. Super, super excited. Go ahead Courtney and welcome yourself and tell us about your practice.

Thanks. Yeah, so my name is Courtney Edgecombe. I am a pelvic health physical therapist in New Haven, Connecticut. I have a practice called Regenerative Edge Physical Therapy and Wellness which focuses on pelvic health and orthopedics and sports.

Yeah, that's awesome. So Courtney and I have known each other. So with that being said, I know that her husband is a PT as well. So Courtney, can you kind of give us why you started your practice? What was it like with both your husband and you being a PT and like what made you decide to do pelvic health and you know, what is he doing and kind of tell us that dynamic.

Yeah, sure. So interestingly enough, we just kind of going back a little bit. Husband and I met when we were both in Boston. I was in PT school at Northeastern and he had graduated and was working as a therapist at a traditional ortho clinic. And one of my internships as a PTA while I was in school ended up being at his practice. And anyway, so we met kind of through work and that kind of stuff. And long story short, here we are married, but we lived in Boston together for a while, then we were out in LA and worked there and we both started with orthopedics and was kind of down that trajectory and as I was working probably a year or so into an orthopedic setting, I wasn't enjoying it. But I felt like there were pieces that I was missing. And I kind of heard the buzz in the PT community about pelvic health and all this and I thought, okay, that sounds pretty interesting. And I, from the start, just as a young kid, had always kind of been interested in birth. And I don't know exactly why. I can't tell you an exact reason. But anyways, so, you know, I dragged one of my co workers and we go to Public Health one from Herman and Wallace. What we all take exactly. You know, you're kind of like, oh God, we're going to be doing internal if I really mess with my co work here. No, just we're good friends.

I remember Courtney bending over and someone putting electrodes in my butt right around my anus and I. And we were attached still. And I remember being like, crap. And now I have to Kegels together too. Like it was just the most bizarre experience ever.

Totally. Yeah. It's definitely not your traditional ET course, but while we were there during those three days, it was just like a million light bulbs going off. It just felt like this was what I really wanted to do. I resonated with it so much, not only from a provider standpoint of being able to now meet a group of the population who have been going through so many of these different struggles and challenges with urinary bowel sexual function differences. And it felt just so much more to me, like you're really being intimate, you're really changing someone's quality of life. And it just really resonated with me that way. But also personally, I've dealt with different sides of things like constipation, urinary urgency. And so it was kind of just like, oh my gosh, like I didn't even know we could do these things for that. And yeah, so it was really, really fascinating. So fast forward a little bit. And I ended up at a clinic in LA in Southern California and worked there at a pelvic health center for almost two years with them and really had one on one mentoring. Learned a ton, a lot to where I am today to them, and really just got to know what all this is about and kind of develop more of where my future was going with it and as kind of learning along the way there. My interest really is highly in getting people back to exercise. I am an exercise person. I consider myself an athlete. I really prioritize working out and exercising. I have my entire life and I thoroughly enjoy it and I want to be able to show others how they can enjoy it as well. Or get back to enjoying it after been going through these challenges. So whether that's someone that is prenatal, postpartum or male, female, dealing with various other issues that is keeping them from doing exercises and activities they love, that really is where my heart is. And I just felt like I wasn't really able to do that in the setting that I was in. I just, I just felt a little bit limited there and also different. You know, we wanted to kind of move east coast, come back towards our family. And so together we decided to start our practice. Definitely a leap of faith. And I am not a risk taker. I have not considered myself that my entire life. And here I am running a business and pretending that I'm a risk taker. No, I'm just kidding.

But no, but that's awesome. It gives people that aren't risk takers hope that, hey, you know, you really just need a really good mentor. I'm going to speak to that right there because that is huge. I think Herman and Wallace, level one is great. It's a great entry, you know, point to the field. I think everyone needs to take it before they even start trying to do anything on, you know, anyone. But I really think having a great mentor to show you and kind of guide you and then use what that mentor kind of taught you, but then put the exercise piece on it. I know in the past too, when I've had mentors, sometimes it was more hands on and like what they can do just on the bed and. And really my background as well is the movement based, where it's like, okay, now let's show them function. Right? So I think that's super, super important to hit that you can do the orthopedic and combine it with the pelvic health.

Totally. Yeah. Yeah. And so, you know, so my husband and I have our practice together. He's an ortho sports pt, so we started our business under the same name, same umbrella, but we both kind of have different sides of it, you know, so of course I'm doing the pelvic health side. Within that I have my realm of treating orthopedically and I keep that connection there. But the population I tend to see is more pelvic health based and he does more of your traditional orthopedic sports, getting back to activities after other injuries. So we work in different places, we kind of have things a little bit separately, but we do make business decisions together. And it's very interesting and it has given us some new growth and challenges to work with in Positive ways, you know, and at the end of the day, it's fine. I don't think I would really want to be doing this by myself. It's a lot to take on, and it's also really comforting to have someone else who understands what you're going through.

Right.

It's a whole nother side of being a physical therapist that I, you know, this is the first time I've really experienced it, so. And now I can relate to, you know, prior bosses that I've had and other friends, entrepreneurs, and it just sheds a whole nother light on things. So it's nice to have him. Even though we are doing somewhat different things, it's nice to have that together so we can share the experience.

Yeah. Does it ever create, like, do you guys go home and talk about it? Or, like, does it ever create a disconnect when you're at home and you're like, okay, we need to shut the business off?

Like, can we?

Or is like, is that hard or not?

At the beginning, it was definitely. We are coming up closer to a year. Not quite there yet. But at the beginning, it definitely was, especially as we had more time together and we weren't quite seeing as many patients yet. But we learned from various interactions that we really had to kind of set designated time, you know, so we. We really pick. Okay, whatever. It's going to be a Tuesday morning. This is our meeting time. We're going to talk about what we need to talk about. And that's like, business talk. And then we have kind of a good routine going of now. At the end of the day, past 6, 7pm we have dinner together. We probably watch a show together, and we just wind down. And that's just our time to, you know, maybe I'll ask him, like, oh, like, what do you have going on tomorrow? But, like, I'm not. We're not getting into the depth of things.

Right. You're not, like, planning. Yeah, yeah. The next year of what it looks like with the growth and all that?

Yeah, I've learned that. I've learned that mistake. So.

Okay, well, that's good because that's good, you know, because people. I mean, my husband and I are both pts, but he has nothing to do with my business and nor does he want to. And that's okay because he's just bred differently. I'm just going to put it that way. And that is a. Okay, so I just do all my business myself. And he actually still works at a outpatient orthopedic place that still takes Insurance and that's just his jam because he doesn't want to come home and think about it. So it's really interesting. Yeah. To hear couples making it work, which is awesome. And being able to be like, no, I'm time blocking and going to set these boundaries to where you do have the relationship. You can work together as a couple and work through and start a practice together and be able to. So for those people that don't know, Courtney is at a network as well. So she can spend some time with patients. She can really give good quality of care, which is awesome. So, you know, that's great to build a business off of that instead of, you know, we as we know, the traditional model of the insurance, you know.

Yeah, definitely. And you know, each person HPT is going to value somewhat something different, you know, and provide a different level of care and that's totally fine. And you know, both my husband and I really value the kind of one on one more personalized approach and staying away from the insurance side of things. And just we don't really like going down that road. We don't really see the value and that care from where we've been before. Again, nothing against anyone who is in that setting, but yeah, you know, we really value it and we have benefited from that kind of care ourselves and just really, it's spoken to us and it's something that we want to provide now to this community. So, yeah, it's been working pretty well.

Awesome. That's so awesome. So, Courtney, can you kind of give us a rundown of where you kind of started, you know, and kind of walk us through the path of the growth at least over the last, what, five months that I've known you? Five, six months that I've known you. That would be awesome to hear that breakdown of that.

Yeah. So, you know, like I said, we started almost a year ago. We literally just moved like a year ago in California. So we're, you know, obviously still adjusting to a lot here. But yeah, we started about a year ago and really it was from the very basics, you know, gathering your business titles and all that and whole new world. And prior to doing that, we had listened to a bunch of different podcasts, done a lot of different research, got our ducks in a row as we needed to, and then we really started more marketing side of things once we had, you know, this to show. And being new to the community was and still is a hurdle, you know, it has forced us in good ways to really get ourselves out there and meet, meet, meet, meet Meet talk, talk, talk, talk, talk. And can't stop because the more people we have on our side, the more people are going to be talking about us and spreading the word. You know, things like Instagram and Facebook only go so far and it's a headache sometimes to me. So, anyways, me too. I'm sure a lot of you can relate there, but, yeah, that has been one of the. The biggest hurdles is just making ourselves known, you know, so making that move.

And getting out there and saying, hey, I'm new in town. We did the same thing. We came from. From LA to Virginia. And yeah, it's just no one knows you and you're like, wait. But I was like this awesome practitioner back in la and now I come here and like, no one could give a crap about you, and you're like, okay, cool. I guess I got to build a new community.

Yeah. And, you know, there's some. Definitely a lot of fun in that because you get to really throw yourself out there and meet a lot of people and it's a whole new world that, you know, I never really opened myself to before. And, you know, I think another thing is, you know, we started off with trying to meet these different people and starting off with kind of just a mobile setting and, you know, packing up our car, going to the patient and doing it that way, which, you know, was fine, but again, just didn't really have a lot of awareness, didn't have a lot of visibility. So we worked that way for a couple of months and my husband actually did. There's a local CrossFit gym here that he has some space with. And so he's been at the gym quite a lot and being able to work with the different athletes that are there, whether they are just kind of looking to maintain their fitness, prevent injuries or injury comes up during the class, and then they go downstairs and see my husband and it works out well. That's awesome. So he's been in that setting for quite some time now. And I made the jump in September to rent some space from a massage studio. And that has definitely helped me grow quite a bit. I kind of went from seeing anywhere from three to five patients a week at a mobile setting and going to 10 to 15, depending on the week at this massage studio. And I'm there two days a week. That's kind of where I had the ability to start. And just with a little bit of a hurdle there, they didn't have room for me to add more days after I had gotten started. So I've been Kind of stuck with two days a week in the clinic, then I still do virtual, then I still do mobile. So I've got a very big mix of hybrid going on right now. But I am very, very excited that it looks like in March, so month ish from now, I am going to be heading into my own space. Space. Yay. Yes. I'm very excited about. I will be sharing this larger space with a doula and a childbirth educator. And so we will each kind of have our own designated areas and yeah, super excited about it.

That's super excited. I know that feeling when you're like, I can finally have my home. I don't have to like have everything. Like a table in the car, a table, you know, at this place, like, where's my lotion today? It's just nice to feel like settled and kind of homey and be like, I have my stuff, I know where I'm going. Conversely, some people like to change it up and be like, cool, I'm mobile today and then I'm at the office. I know personally I got tired of mobile. I think that that was the smartest move and I think for you too, from a financial perspective that it really, you know, is less overhead. But in the reality of it, you get so tired hauling that freaking table up and down stairs. I mean, we're in D.C. so like around D.C. we have so many townhomes here, it's just a pain in the butt. So, yeah, that's going to be awesome for you. I'm super, I'm super excited for you for that. It's going to be great.

Yeah, yeah, definitely. And I'm very excited to be sharing it with this doula. And she has a big community around her. She's been doing her work for 20 plus years in the community and so even though I feel like I'm not quite at the client mark quite yet to jump into that space, or I should say, I want to have more people. I feel super strong and comfortable with the fact of that this is the right move for me and it's going to bring in a lot more visibility, a lot more growth and just really allow me to do what I need and want to do.

Yeah. I mean, going back to just even with the massage therapist, you've already stated it. Hey, this has really helped me out. Right. And then you bringing having two more other providers that are in your same realm, in that same space, I mean, especially if this tool has been around for a while, it's only going to be beneficial for you. So that's even going to be an added bonus. And they're going to be, you know, have an added bonus having you in their space too, because they can directly refer and you guys can cross communicate and have that community approach, the collaborative approach. And that's what truly makes patience and feel comforted. They feel like they're taken care of. And it's really, it's a win win for every single person because everyone's getting the best care and the best quality out of the whole entire situation.

Yeah, definitely. Yeah. So it's, it's going to be a good move for both of us. We're both extremely, extremely excited.

How did you find this space, Courtney? Did you like find this doula somehow? Is that how, like, how did you get. Say this is. This would be a cool move to make.

Yeah. So she and I have been in communication together. You know, I had actually there's this Facebook group for birth professionals in Connecticut and I'm, I joined it early on and everything. And someone had posted back in the summer about a, like a postpartum International Day walk or something. I forget exactly what it was. Something for mental health. Mental health and postpartum. And anyways, and I was like, well, okay, like I'm gonna get myself out there and go, like, I don't know who any of these people are. This is totally not me, but I'm gonna go. And I went and this doula is kind of runs part of that. And so she was there and you know, I was kind of like, okay, I knew she was going and I knew who she was. I was like, okay, I gotta make sure I talk to her. And so we talked on part of our walk and that's how we first met. And we've been kind of refer and forth a little bit since then. And funny enough, so I was treating one of my clients in this massage studio a couple months ago and told her, you know, I'm probably going to start looking for a different space soon. I feel like I'm growing and need to get into that direction. Didn't think anything of it, just chatting. And she recently gave birth. And so somewhat over the course of her labor and everything, talked with this doula and kind of shared like, oh, Courtney is looking for this space, blah, blah, blah. And so after her birth, doula reached out to me and said, oh, da da da is, you know, saying that you're looking for space. So am I. Would you guys, would you want to, you know, look at something together? And long story, here we are. She had Actually found this particular space that we are likely going to. But yeah, it just kind of meshed. Yeah.

And you got yourself out there and if you didn't get yourself out there, you wouldn't have met each other.

Exactly.

I think that's so important for people that are listening to this to really understand that you just have to take action and you just have to get out there and act like, hey, I'm just going to go to this event, I'm going to see if who wants to be my friend at this event and whoever that may be. And it falls in my realm. Like, that's a huge, huge win and that's pretty much what happened to you. And now, you know, you guys are collaborating with space. She's really well known in the community. That's a win win, you know.

Definitely. Yeah. I mean, and it was nerve wracking as hell.

Yeah.

Like I said, it's just like not me to go and like open up and talk to a bunch of people, but you know, pays off and it's helping me grow personally and professionally and it's. It's definitely been a very eye opening and rewarding experience.

Yeah, it's been super awesome to see Courtney join pelvic health business grower for two months and she 2 to 3x her income in the two months that we were working together. And it's just been awesome to see her growth and you know, moving into this new space. It's going to be a new chapter, you know, potentially after this new space and the hire is going to come and, and it's just going to be lots of growth this year that I just can't wait to keep following you. I hope everyone else starts to follow you as well. And we can't wait to just see you just excel and you know, represent the pelvic health world and really get out there. So super pumped for you and thank you so much for coming on Pelby Biz podcast. We're super happy that you were able to come on, so thank you. Any parting words at all?

No, I mean, I think, you know, if anyone is considering starting a business, I definitely recommend starting with a business coach sooner than later. You think you might know some things, but there are just a lot of hurdles that come up, whether they're small or large. And it's just nice to have someone else who's been through this and who can coach you through it and point you in the right direction. There's been many moments where I feel completely disorganized and I don't know what to do next. And again, it's just a way to get you going in the right direction, give you some motivation and. And help you grow. And it is always going to be worth investing in yourself and you will not regret it for sure. So those are my parting words.

Honestly, investing in yourself is the best and biggest investment that you can make. Keep growing. Always you want to keep growing. That's so key. I think that's. That's awesome. We should leave off on that note. Courtney, go ahead and tell them where they can find you on social, where they can find your company as well. So we can make sure we put that in the show notes.

Totally. Yeah. So my Instagram is elvickptedge and on Facebook I am regpt R e d g e p t and our website is regpt.com awesome.

Thank you so much again for coming on. If you are ready to change your life, click the link in the show.

Notes to get your ticket to Pelby Biz. Let's go.