In this interview, pelvic floor therapist Erin Delaney recounts how she launched a cash‑based practice in Sarasota, Florida, in 2022 with the mentorship of Kelly Alhooie and the PelviBiz community. Starting with no clients, Erin earned $1,500 in her first month and $5,000 in the second while traveling to patients’ homes. Shortly after launch she discovered she was pregnant, and soon after faced a series of disruptive events: hurricanes that wiped out patient flow, maternity leave, and the need to restart the business multiple times. Kelly’s guidance encouraged Erin to pivot repeatedly—helping the community after storms, exploring unconventional outreach like coffee‑shop visits, and ultimately staging a bold vulva‑costume event that generated word‑of‑mouth buzz. Erin also tackled a deep‑seated money mindset, raising her prices and embracing a cash‑based model despite initial doubts about patients’ willingness to pay. With Kelly’s support, she built confidence through hands‑on training (including a rectal exam practice) and leveraged TikTok to become a social‑media guru, expanding both online and in‑person reach. The conversation highlights the power of mentorship, resilience, creative marketing, and mindset shifts in turning a modest start‑up into a thriving, family‑supporting practice.
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So I'm Erin Delaney. I'm in Sarasota, Florida, and I started working with you, Kelly, and PelviBiz in, I believe, 2022. I met you, and if you hear my kids in the background too, sorry, trying to get in the door. So I started my business cold turkey. I quit my job. I was very new to pelvic floor therapy as well. So Kelly not only mentored me in business, but she mentored me in as like a pelvic therapist, which I took you know, to be invaluable. So I got multiple mentorships from you and what started off as, you know, jumping off a cliff, basically I found out I was pregnant the same month that I started my business and I did not have any clients. So I look back at my first month and I made $1,500, uh, my first month and then it bumped up to $5,000. I was mobile, I was traveling to people's homes, I wasn't renting anywhere. Um, you know, I was doing the things. I was trying to do anything to get patients, because if you don't work, you don't get an income. And now I'm pregnant and I don't have any— anything to fall back on. But in the back of my head, um, your voice was always there, your encouragement was always there, your motivation was always there. And then we had a team and a group of people to lean on, which I think really helped me get through it. So as I started to get momentum, hurricanes hit, lost momentum, lost patients, people put pelvic floor therapy in the background and, you know, I lost a lot of business and I felt like I had to start over. Then I had the baby and I went on maternity leave and then I felt like I had to start over. Um, more hurricanes hit and you feel like you have to start over. So there was just a lot of pauses. I felt like in business that was an easy time to say, this is too difficult, I don't want to do it. Or, you know, there's too much effort having to go back and try to get patients again, going back to, you know, gyms and can I do more workshops with you guys? Do you, you know, where else can I go? So you you and I had a few talks of like, what else, where else can you exhaust? Have you gone to coffee shops? I was like, why would I go to a coffee shop? So I was like, I'm like, no, I didn't go to a coffee shop. But it was just something that didn't dawn on me at the time until you had said something like, did you go out of your comfort zone? Did you make an impression on these people? So not only did I do that, I had to stand out of my comfort zone, and that was something that was challenging and scary. And, you know, wearing a vulva costume, I didn't think I'd do that. My mom was appalled, and then by the end of the event, my mom was wearing it dancing. So people like warm up to the idea. It's just like, how can I make this fun and enticing? And now word of mouth has been incredible. I mean, the reviews have been incredible. Now people see, um, the benefit to a cash-based practice. And I'm, you know, I feel like I don't have to talk people into therapy. Um, I've overcome a money bias that I had myself. I had a very poor money mindset. I was very uncomfortable speaking on prices and upping my prices, as you strongly encouraged me to do. That was scary as well. So there's a lot of not only hoops that I had to jump through professionally, but I think personally in my story, I had to keep overcoming these self-doubts and confidence issues. And it's, it's been the most empowering thing that I've ever done and not only changed my life, it changed my family's life.
Yeah, and I can so speak to that too with Erin's story, guys. When Erin and I first met, she's like, Kelly, I'm in Florida, everyone has Medicare, no one's gonna want to pay cash. I don't know if you remember this, but this is a big belief you had. And then she was just like, yeah, I don't want to, I don't want to increase my prices. And then the hurricane came in and basically almost took her out. And I was like, Erin, today we're gonna go outside and help people chop up the wood, and you're gonna go— I was like, we gotta bring water to people. And she's like, What? I was like, yeah, this is what we're gonna go do. We gotta help the community out. You know, Natalie's on, she knows. Natalie's in Florida too. She, you know, she just experienced, um, with, you know, the Tampa stuff. So, you know, it's like— and then she was pregnant, and then we had to find her someone for maternity leave. And they were like, what are you gonna do with your patients? I still needed Erin to get paid on maternity leave. How are we gonna handle that? What do you do with space? Right? Like, all that stuff kept coming up. And the coolest thing about Erin is she just didn't stop. She was like, "I think I'm going to—" I was like, "No, you're not! Let's go! Let's go!" And she just kept coming back. She had like 9 lives, you know? And it just kept coming back and kept coming back. And I just was like, "Wow." Like, when, you know, shitty stuff is dealt with you, she just wouldn't let it take her out? And she didn't. And she's— this is now— she's just had her second baby, guys. And, you know, she's continuing to thrive in her clinic when she's going through all this. And it's just been amazing to see on the back end of it all. And she's like a TikTok star. Okay. By the way, if you don't follow her, by the way, on TikTok, she knows how to pop it. Okay, she knows how to dance and she's like a guru on TikTok and all these followers. And it's like, okay, how do we capitalize on that? How do we then also capitalize on in-person and hitting both of those markets I think is huge. So yeah, I think I still remember the time when Erin got on the phone with me and she was in her bedroom with this bed behind her and just her desk and she's like, I think I'm going to quit my job. She's like, I don't even know how to do an internal exam, Kelly. And I was like, no problem. I'll be down in Florida in like 3 months and you can do a rectal exam on me. I was like, Erin, come to the hotel. She comes and does a rectal exam on me. I was like, whatever we gotta do to build your confidence. I was like, let's do it. And so remember that? I do remember that very well.
I remember that. Cause I was like, really? And you're like, why not? That's your— my favorite word that you've ever told is pivot. Like, how do you pivot? Pivot, pivot. Erin, where are you? Pivot, Erin. Figure something else out. Do something else. I'm like, okay. It just never dawned on me. So without the guidance, I wouldn't— I don't think I would have been as creative to come up with a lot of the things. So, you know, it's— your mentorship's been pivotal. Yeah, no, it's been—
it's been super fun. It's been amazing. So, um, Super cool, Erin. Anything else you want to share, or—
No, I think that's me in a nutshell.
No, I love it. That's 100% you in a nutshell. That's awesome. That's awesome. Well, thank you again for coming on. I appreciate it.
