In this monologue, Kelly Alhooie reflects on how she founded her first physical therapy practice, Orthopelvic Physical Therapy, by channeling personal pain—both physical and mental—into business growth. She describes an unsustainable work rhythm of 6 AM to 8 PM, seven days a week, with sporadic self‑care that felt like a guilty luxury. A recent epiphany, sparked by her COO Julia, led her to use Google Calendar to block dedicated time for the gym, meals, and beach visits, turning self‑care into an automated, non‑negotiable part of her day. Kelly explains how this structured wellbeing challenges her old belief that constant pain equals success, and she vows to build her second company with intentional health practices embedded from the start.
Chapters
So what I realized when I first built my first company, and it was a physical therapy practice called Orthopelvic Physical Therapy. When I built it, it was purely out of pain. And I kind of recognized that as I was going through the journey, but now I really understand that. It was purely out of pain. Every single day was pain, pain, pain, pain. I thought that was just part of the process because I was in a painful situation and painful state, meaning I was in a place that I absolutely hated. And so I knew the only way to get out of that situation was through me being successful, okay? Meaning, AKA, um, helping a lot of people to be able to afford a different life. Okay. And I just this week had this epiphany. My COO, Julia, okay, she decided, she's like, Kelly, you know what, we're gonna, you know, I've been really changing just in general, like I've been changing my lifestyle, I've been changing my whole self, I've been, you know, going to the gym every single day. But she's like, we're really going to put this down on a calendar. And you guys are gonna be like, okay, great, what's significant about that? But what we did is it wasn't written, it wasn't like I wrote out on a Word document, it was on my freaking Google Calendar. And there is a difference between my Google Calendar and me writing it down on a piece of paper because I will lose that piece of paper in 2 seconds. The Google Calendar, however, does not get lost and it will ping you on what to do. And to me, this is an epiphany today that I was like, oh my God, this thing pings me. Like, and it just tells me what to do. Who on here that's listening would love to have someone just tell them what to do? Me. Okay, we don't have to think. And then I started— so this is what happened. This is what happened this week, and I want to bring this to your attention because I think this is a massive lesson. So on the Google Calendar, by the way, I start work at 6 AM and I don't stop until 8 o'clock PM at night. Okay, and I would say over the last, um, 6 months, I have just been just going, going, like those hours, just going, going, 7 days a week, by the way, 7 days a week, not 5, 7 days a week. Okay, and I will just sporadically fit in my workouts and then like, you know, maybe fit in my eating somewhere, and it wasn't like there wasn't a system to it. And then sometimes I would feel guilty about going to work out because I had so much to do to catch up I say catch up, that's how it feels, right? We all feel like we're behind. We're not really behind, it's just that we have a lot on our plate that we're trying to problem solve at the time, and we feel we don't have time to take care of ourselves. But the reality is we do. It's just that it feels less painful if you handle the problems of someone else than of taking care of yourself, if that makes sense. And so what we did, and this sounds so simple, but I'm telling you guys, I would use this hack Okay, what we actually blocked my schedule out and said gym, eat, like we literally put eat on my calendar. Okay, um, and Julia blocked it for like an hour and a half and then eating for another 30 minutes, so give me 2 hours. Oh, and then I also put beach so that I, you know, I live right by the beach, so it's like go to the beach, Kelly, you're right there. Okay, so what I did was my brain had to restructure because how I built my first business was purely out of pain. So in my head— and I need you guys, this is very applicable to you guys— because in my head I thought, if I am not in pain every second of the day, then I am not growing a business, because that's how I grew my very successful business. The first business around because I was just constantly okay with being in pain. Like, me being in pain knew I was growing. And I say pain, not physical pain. I mean, sometimes, but like mental pain. Like, there's just so many problems that you have to solve, right? And like being in a location I didn't like. Like, it was just a whole situation. That's the pain that I'm talking about, okay? And here By the way, I got positive reinforcement there because pain equals success in my head. But here I want to build the second company different.
