The Skills You Need to Start Your Pelvic Health Practice

Welcome to Pelly biz podcast. I'm Dr. Kelly Alhui. I've grown my pelvic health practice, orthopelvic physical therapy, and now I'm helping pelvic health professionals do the same. Each week I give you the knowledge you need to grow your practice. Let's get into today's Episode before we get into today's episode, I'd like to.

Take a moment to introduce our sponsor, Jane. Jane is an all in one practice management software with features like online booking, scheduling, documentation and a PCI compliant payment solution. The time you spend with your patients and clients is valuable and filling filling out forms during their appointment can quickly take away from your time together. That's why the team at Jane has designed online intake forms that your patients can complete from the comfort of their homes and to help them remember to fill out their forms. Jane has your back with a friendly email reminder sent 24 hours before their appointment. This means that they arrive ready to start their appointment and you arrive ready to help. Jane's online intake forms are fully customizable to ensure you're collecting everything you need ahead of time, whether that's a credit card on file, insurance billing details or sign consent. You can build your intake forms from scratch or use a template from Jane's template library and customize it further to meet your practice needs. If you're interested in learning more, head to Jean App Guide or use the code polybizwenmill at signup to receive a one month grace period on your new account.

Today I'm gonna go over what are the skills you need to start a pelvic health clinic? What are they? What certifications? What do you need? So let's do our certifications first. Certification to start a pelvic health clinic is typically what we recommend is taking a Herman and Wallace Level 1 or an APTA, just the first level of pelvic health. These two courses are very introductory level of how to perform an internal exam and that is a starting point. Now there is the wcs, there is ocs, all the stuff, right? Okay. And you can take that, but you don't have to have that massive certification to prove to the world that you are an expert at pelvic health. I believe that pelvic health doesn't have to be so complicated, which most people tend to make it very complicated and doesn't have to be that way. It's all part of the system. So if you have a strong orthopedic background, then more than likely you're gonna be a great Pelvic health therapist. Because all you're doing is adding in the pelvic floor muscles and understanding a pressure control system. That's all it is. Okay? It's not overcomplicated. So and to do an internal exam, it's just like a trigger point release on your back. Same thing, you're pushing the muscle or maybe moving the hip around, maybe moving, you know, I move tendum of the, the hip. I'll put it in hip flexion, I'll put it in hip A B, A A adduction. So add D duction. I'll bring the hip over so I can really get to the external rotators while I'm into an internal exam. But they don't teach you this stuff in the lower level courses. But all you need is a lower level courses. I believe this is my personal belief, you just need that and then a good mentor and you're good to go. So besides that, what do you need to start a pelvic health clinic? Well, here we go. Most people think I'm going to say you need a table, you need some gloves, chuck pads, you need lotion. That's not what I'm going to say. What I'm going to say is you need to be okay with 50 no's a day. You literally need to be okay with that. That's the number one thing. When I walk into an office or when I go and approach someone, I'm already thinking in my head, I hope they tell me no. I hope they tell me no. I hope they tell me no. Because when I get a yes, then super ecstatic if I get a no, I'm like, yeah, I expected it doesn't make me that uncomfortable because I'm already expecting it. I'm already expecting the no. So sometimes if you approach it with that mentality of like I'm, they're already telling me no, it's fine, I'm just going to go try it anyways.

Why not?

They tell me no. Great. That's the outcome, I thought. But guess what, I'll be back the next week and maybe then they'll tell me yes. Maybe they're in a better mood. Maybe I approach them differently. Maybe, maybe I know more about their practice and go in there with, you know, hey, I see that you have a cold laser, used this vitamin C IV and you tend to use ozone. Can you tell me a little bit more about that? That's how I'm going in there and approaching them and maybe that then gets.

Me in the door.

So that's important number two, I would say, is being uncomfortable. How uncomfortable can you be? And we all think, oh, yeah, I did something uncomfortable today. But when you really have to go in and cold call people or go into these offices and they don't know you, it's like you're a homeless person. I mean, when I first started, I started out on a trailhead, standing on a freaking trailhead, screaming at people. They didn't know me. I really honestly felt it was the lowest moment of my career, standing there yelling at people. I have a Doctor of Physical therapy degree and I am screaming at people to do a free movement assessment in the parking lot. I mean, come on. Like, who would have ever thought you have a doctorate degree and you're standing on the side of the freaking trail yelling at people? No one. But that's what it takes. That's what it takes to get your business up and running. People don't realize that. I think most of you, most of you all. Not all you guys, but most of you guys think, you know what, I'll just go make a couple connections. We'll go have some. All I hear about is coffee dates. Coffee dates. We'll have coffee dates. Coffee dates. More gray. Some people built their business on coffee dates. Great. And that may work for you, but what is a coffee date doing? What value am I providing at that coffee date? Am I just going to go there to chat? I'm not going to go there just to chat to someone. To me, that provides no value. So. Or if I'm there, you know, how can I actually help them? So maybe I'm there to help solve a problem for them. But at that, when I'm meeting with them, I'm going to truly help figure out what their problem is and how I can help be a part of their solution. Okay, same thing. If I do an Instagram live doing the same thing, I'm trying to figure out, how am I going to help them promoting their businesses on my social media page. Not me promoting mine. Promoting their businesses. That's how I'm going to help them. Okay, so when you're thinking about starting the clinic, instead of thinking, how am I going to get patients, think about, how am I going to help my community? It's a big question to ask yourself. And when you do that, you're going to win the game. Because when you help other people and you provide value to other people, they're going to be like, holy crap, why is this lady trying to help me out? Like, I'm going to notice her and they'll start paying attention to you. Okay? So you got to be very uncomfortable at all times. You got to hear a hundred no's. Like, I would make it a goal every single day. I went 10 people to tell me no or I want 20 people to tell me no. Okay. And make it like a badge of honor if they tell you no. But don't give up on them and keep going back and saying hi to them every single week, eventually you'll break them down. This is what I did when I got in with the five star hotels. Took me six months. Every single day I'd break down the doorman. Hey, Chef. The last thing I know he wanted to see was my face. But every single day, I just kept showing up. I just kept showing up. I kept showing up. Is anyone else doing that in Atlanta, Georgia? Nope, they are not. Okay. That's how you get in the door with these people. That's how you move the business forward. Be unique. I want you guys to be so unique. What I've realized is, and where I think I've had a lot of success is finding gaps. If everyone's going online and because their next online product is going to be the biggest hit and it's going to sell to seven figures in two seconds, then I'm going in person. If everyone's going online, because again, that's what they think is the next big thing. And it is. I mean, some of it is, yes. But I think people are also missing out on in person. And that's why I do pelvibiz events, to get people to come in person. And there's nothing like a connection in person with the energy. You can never build that online, ever. You can build great communities online, but you can't feel the same vibe that you get in person from connecting with people. It just doesn't happen. And I feel like a lot of people these days are trying to get away from that and going online because.

They think online just going to make them quick money.

And that's just not the case. It's really not the case. So be different and do the opposite of what everyone else is doing in your community. So if they're all putting on workshops in your community, great. How can you not put on workshops? And how can you maybe do a summit and get even more people involved than you would just at a one person workshop? Okay, like, where are the gaps? Where are the gaps in the market? That's where you want to insert yourself. That's very important. You need confidence. You need to Build your confidence. And how you do that is just trying the thing and not carrying what people think. Part of not caring what people think is, like, you know, for me, at least, I think it was more like I used to, like, wear makeup every single day. I used to do my hair. I used to look very cute all the time. And part of me just started, you know. You know what? I'm not going to put on makeup every single day and walk out in public and see the reactions you get. Oh, wow. No one really said anything. Okay, maybe I'll try this again. Oh, wow. No one said anything again. All right, cool. Or, like, I'm just going to throw on this outfit and I don't care what it looks like and walk out in public. That right there takes guts, courage, confidence, all the things. Okay. And just little, little bits of that. Even though it sounds so simple and stupid, it actually goes a long way and just builds your confidence. In addition to that, how you build your confidence is trying something that you've never done before. Try something new. Like, the other night, my husband and I went to a woodworking class. He knew. He knew that I would want to try it. I've never even sanded anything in my life. I've never. We made a charcuterie board. Okay. With this. I forgot what it's called, but this, like, river down the middle of it that had to take, like, a week to dry. Okay. We've never done any of this, but both of us went in with zero expectation. And we went in and we had to do stuff that we were very uncomfortable with. How to put the thing through the sander. My finger almost got chopped up. How to nail down the screw and make a board to make the frame for the thing. We didn't know we were in this class with all these. I mean, hire. They know how to redo bathrooms and all this kind of stuff. We had no clue. I mean, we hire people for that, right? So we were way over a head. But it was really fun because we both were able to figure out, wow. His strength is, like, the beauty and the art of, like, standing and refining the thing. My strength is, give me the freaking drill. Let me drill in the. Let me drill in the board and make everything, like, even and straight and all the things. So, like, we discover new things. And when you discover new things because you're doing a new task, it gives you an increase in confidence. So if people are like, I don't have confidence. I don't know how to build confidence. Put yourself in situations you've never even experienced before. That is actually going to build confidence and do it repetitively. So, um, I think that's big. You don't need to know money, really. I mean, yeah, you gotta start potentially a business bank account, but that comes later, right? You need to be able to talk to people. You need to be able to talk to all the introverts out there. If you're not talking to people, you gotta learn how to communicate. Ooh, that's a big one. That is a big, big one. How to communicate. This takes years and years and years even for us extroverts to say the right thing. A couple little words that are off here and there will like throw off the whole conversation and it could lose a deal. It could turn someone off. So learning how to communicate and read the room of people and like getting to know people's deeper why as well is very, very important. And trying to turn off the PT brain of doing the manual muscle testing and doing the range of motion and all that and truly like listening to the person and understanding their deep why and why they're actually coming to see you, that's very important. Very, very important. Because that's how they're going to get to. If you can communicate well, they're going to then get you. Oh, okay. So you're gonna take me from here to here. You're gonna teach them how you're bridging the gap and how you are gonna solve the problem. And that's why they're gonna pay you to become clients. If you can't do that, then it's gonna be very hard for you to have a business. So communication, communication, communication is. Might be. Besides being uncomfortable. On the top of that list is learning how to communicate. How you do that is hire a coach. If you hire a coach that knows how to talk to people, and that's key because that will help accelerate you. So I would say, you know, recap here. Being uncomfortable knowing how to communicate. Talk to people. Finding the gaps in the market is huge. Be unique. Do everything opposite than what everyone else is doing. That's huge. You could take your hormone and Wallace Level 1 or your APTA, okay? Those are really the skills that you're going to need to start a pelvic health clinic and get ready to hear a thousand no's. And you want to hear no's because that means you're actually talking to people. Don't be afraid of no's. The people that are afraid of the no's are the ones that are being held back and they're like, I'm stuck. I don't know what else to do. Because you don't want to hear the no. Why are we so uncomfortable with the no? That's my question. If you just say, you know what, I'm going to get the nosy. I'm going for the no's. I'm going for the nose every day. Well, great. Because eventually those no's, a hundred percent, I believe will become yeses. And that's just what you gotta do. You gotta. And you gotta believe. That's the other thing. You gotta believe. You gotta believe in you. You gotta believe in the product. You gotta believe in what you do is like, the best and that you're going to get the best results. You gotta have belief. That's the other thing. Add that one to the list.

Okay.

And if you believe, people will see it. If you're unsure about, like, oh, my God, I can't charge $200 for this visit. Oh, I'm gonna have a panic attack. People will see that and they'll be like, no way am I paying $200. Because you are not confident in your product. So that's important too. Believing that your product is the best and knowing the results that you get. So hopefully that helps. Guys, for those that are starting businesses, you got this. I really would make a scoreboard of, like, how many people can tell me no today. Honestly, if I was listening to this podcast afterwards, I'd be going, taking notes on that and saying, all right, today I'm going to get. I'm going to get 10 notes, and that's actually a massive win for you. Okay, you do that because no one's doing it. It'll put you over the top. Bye, guys. I consider myself a business and life coach. Are you ready to live the life of your dreams as an entrepreneur? If. Let's chat. See the episode notes below and go ahead and book a call. See you all next week.