In this solo presentation, Kelly Alhooie reflects on the painful launch of her business PelviBiz and extracts the core reasons why many physical therapy providers fail when starting a venture. She first discovers that having a great product and a prior brand does not guarantee market awareness; relentless marketing and branding are essential. She then emphasizes the need for deep customer discovery, auditing client pain points beyond assumptions, and recognizing how client priorities shift from immediate financial concerns to broader goals like leadership, culture, and work‑life integration. Alhooie argues that effective coaching requires digging past surface symptoms to address underlying beliefs and mindset, noting that most new coaches rely too heavily on tactile techniques and ignore the psychological roots of client struggles, often tied to perfectionism and parental expectations. She shares her own upbringing, where validation came from personal effort rather than external pressure, and frames this self‑validation as a model for entrepreneurs. The talk concludes with a call for providers to adopt a continuous problem‑solving mindset, avoid ego‑driven misconceptions, and view business growth as an ongoing journey rather than a finite finish line.
Chapters
So when I first launched PelviBiz, not one person bought. I thought, oh, I'm gonna create a funnel, I'm gonna create a website, I'm gonna put on my social media, everyone's gonna buy. No one bought. And by the way, there was high demand at the time, uh, for this because no one was doing it. And so I was like, I gotta be different, let me do this. And I realized that people didn't know who I was. I had an amazing product, I coached the heck out of, out of people, but people didn't know who I was. And I was like, well, you think so that they would do that because I've already, you know, built this other company? But no. So that's the first thing. Please let your ego go if you think that, you know, people know you because you built this brand. No, no one still knows you. Okay, you have to remember that. So you still have to market, market, market and brand, brand, brand. I think that's very huge. Sorry. Okay. Number 2 is the other thing I realized with this is I had to have more conversations. I didn't know 100% my people's pain point, even though I was them. Like, I was my people, meaning like I was the ideal client because I built what I want for my clients, right? And so like, it's like, well, this is what I want, but like, is that what my clients want? Do my clients have the same mentality? Do my clients have the same outcomes? Do my clients have the same wants? Do they have the same needs? Like, that's the— that's number 2, is you have to be able to to audit what the heck does your clients want. That's huge. Sorry, hold on. All right, so after that, I audited what my people wanted, and ultimately it came down to they want time with their family, they want money, they want to be able to pay off their student loans. It really was a sequence of things. And as you get in with clients, you're going to realize stuff changes. At first, when people come on with me, all they want is money and be able to pay off their student loans and get out of the job that they don't like. That's really it. And then as they develop with me, they start to realize it's less about the money, it's more about leadership, it's more about culture, it's more about integration, how they can integrate their work and their life. Um, it's more about trying to get time back And then ultimately they end up learning that they're going to create an asset with me and that they can either sell it, they can keep it, they can do whatever they want with it, but really it's going to make them money and be able to actually give them the life that they're looking to have. And most people don't get to that level because they give up actually at level 1. I would say most providers give up at level 1 and they think that they've made it because they replace their income. And that's just not it. And so my job and my goal is to get people truly to really what they want. There's no finish line. That's what I've also realized in coaching. There's no finish line. If you want to be an amazing coach, you always have to solve problems. You always have to solve problems, and you have to know the problems like so intricately, like deep down, of like truly what's the problem. Because a lot of times whatever people say, that's not the problem. It's deeper than that. And so you've got to be able to dig and go to the deeper why of that. And I think that's huge. And I don't think most coaches do that. Most, most coaches when they start out, and I was the same way, I was just strictly tactile, straight up tactile. And I realized probably 10% of the people need that. I'm one of the 10%. I absolutely love tactile. Uh, but what I realized is a lot of people are messed up here in their head, and they actually need more coaching from like beliefs and mindset, and they're worth it. And that their parents all messed them up trying to get them— that's what I realized. My parents did not, thank God. But I realized like they're just trying to get straight A's, and that's what made them all messed up in their head, that they have to be perfect and do things perfection. It perfectionistly. And for me, I didn't have parents like that. They were like, we're happy that you can even speak. So they were just thankful that, um, I just was in school. Like, we didn't even know I was gonna make it through high school. So like, they didn't put any pressure on me. They were happy I got a C. Like, so that didn't, it didn't mess with my head because I knew I was just giving it my all and that's what I do every single time. In life, and no matter whatever I take on, I give it my freaking all. And that's what truly matters. And so I guess I've just built that, that I flex that muscle because I've had to do it since I was, you know, in kindergarten, just flexing my own muscle of like, yep, I've gave it my all. I, I know deep down inside I gave it my all. There's nothing else I could do. And so it's not— there's the validation doesn't come from my parents, it's coming from my own self and knowing that I gave it everything I possibly could. And so I think, uh, when most people start a business, they think that it's just going to blow up because they know what they— they know, like, what they do is good, but no one knows about them. And I think that's just a misconception that a lot of people have to move past
