In this candid podcast episode, Kelly Alhooie (joined by a co‑host, Speaker B) exposes the systemic failure of physical‑therapy (PT) and occupational‑therapy (OT) education to teach business fundamentals. She recounts her own experience of paying $230,000 for three years of manual‑therapy training, emerging with massive debt and no skills to run a profitable practice. Alhooie argues that the curriculum deliberately keeps graduates financially dependent, emphasizing clinical techniques while ignoring cash flow, marketing, and entrepreneurship. She stresses that successful practice ownership requires discipline, passion, a lifelong‑learning mindset, and self‑less leadership. The conversation highlights the transformative impact of mentorship and high‑ticket business coaching, contrasting it with low‑value continuing‑education (Con Ed) courses that merely add more debt. Listeners are urged to "wake up," start small by treating patients on the side, build confidence through real‑world outcomes, and invest in business coaching rather than additional manual‑therapy classes. The episode serves as a rallying cry for PT/OT professionals to reclaim control over their financial futures by acquiring business acumen and breaking free from a system that, according to the hosts, was designed to keep them broke.
Chapters
What your PT school never taught you about running a practice. Well, let me tell you, they taught you zero, at least zilch. I went to school 16 years ago and I can tell you there was not one ounce of talk about running your own business, especially cash. It wasn't even a thing. Um, so we got no training on it, and I guarantee you most of you guys as well have had zero training on running a practice. And this is where I think there's a massive disconnect where Not only do we feel sometimes we have to convince people that they wanna practice, but that the outcomes to having their own business is significantly better than if they work for someone else. And I don't think there's enough education around there, which is why we are making this content today so that you can really dive deep into really studying yourself. Like, do I really want my own business? I can tell you most of us don't come outta school wanting our own business. I didn't want my own business. I actually thought, oh my God, that sounds so stressful. I even said that multiple times. I was okay helping grow someone else's company because like I just felt good about it. Like I was like, I didn't know better. And not that it was like a bad thing. I just didn't know what was possible if you had your own company because no one actually like trained me on that, right? And so I think a lot of us are in this boat that, A, we don't want to start our own businesses, but I feel like in this day and age, in 2026, that everyone needs to start their own business. Now, I will say you have to have qualities to actually make the business succeed. You have to be disciplined. You have to be passionate about it.
I believe—
many people will say you don't, but I believe you have to be passionate about it. I believe you want to, want to massively help and make changes. I believe you have to be a lifelong student. I believe that you have to always try to put others first, um, and you're selfless— you're selfish— less— yeah, selfless. Um, those are things, and you have to try to lead as much as you possibly can. Those are things that make a good business owner, not that they want to do business, but that they have a massive passion to help people in a way that they want to help them. So if you guys are that person and you never thought like, oh, I, I would want a business. Like, no one's really ever thought that. But if you're like, I want to help people in the way that I want to help them, then I'm speaking to you, okay? Because that's who I'm like, that's who I was. I just wanted— I knew that there was a problem, I just didn't know actually how to fix it, if that makes sense. Like, I knew there was a problem that I wasn't treating the patients the way to my highest capability but I didn't know that there was a different way. I just didn't know until I started investing in mentorship, and then I was like, oh wow, this is the path. Like, oh my God, this is insane. And so I say that because PT school never ever taught us— whether PT, OT, whatever— like, it never taught us about business. It taught us how to do manual, it taught us how to do exercises, it taught us how to do a practical But they actually did a massive disservice because they basically taught us how to stay broke.
Thanks, PT school.
They taught us how to stay broke, and they taught us how to work in this system, and they taught us the system, and they did not equip us with any skills on how to better our lives. And we are paying them massive amounts of money And I feel like we got robbed. I really do. I feel like we got robbed. I paid $230,000 for 3 years of school and I came out of it so broke, no skill sets to pay that off. And it just is horrible when you look back on it. It wasn't until I reinvested into other programs to help me be able to launch, oh, you know, Pelvis Biz and Orthopelvic.
It's crazy.
They never taught us.
And the biggest thing is, is it was so crazy. They, they don't teach you, but you are investing in your— in skills. You, you— I paid $230,000 to learn manual techniques.
Okay, I'm investing in basically Con Ed in learning how to treat people.
But in that process, they never taught me any business stuff. So now I have had to pay over $500,000 in business coaching, guys, to very top-tiered coaches to teach me how to go from here to here. And most of y'all, which is crazy, Y'all are willing to invest $200-something thousand in your school to learn manual that provides no business training, but you're not willing to invest $5K, $10K, $20K in coaching programs that's actually going to make you money and get your freaking time back. It makes no freaking sense. Zero sense. Why are you willing to invest at first, but then you stop investing on the thing that actually provides a return. You learning more manual does not provide a return. It keeps you in the system and broke. That's what the school taught you. They want you to stay in the system. Oh my God.
Oh my God.
This makes me nuts. Of course they're not going to teach us business training because that would put us out of the system. Do I see— like, am I waking anyone up right now? Like, wake up! Stop playing small. And just— you can, you can start small. I said stop playing small, but you can start small. Start seeing patients on the side. Start doing that.
I mean, like, prove it to yourself. You mean like, damn, I can't do this.
Like, damn, my patient just had a really good outcome. Great, build up your self-confidence that way. You're still gonna need guidance because all you know how to do is go take another Con Ed class and go invest another weekend, pay another thousands of dollars to get you nowhere, to get your family nowhere. It makes no freaking sense. So start freaking investing, start investing in yourself, start investing in coaching. That's gonna actually change your freaking life. Stop investing in con ed. You know it freaking enough. You just paid $230K to know all the knowledge. If you don't think that that's enough, I don't know how much more you have to pay. I really don't. Start investing in new skills, business skills, not con ed. I cannot stress this enough. And the only way that you're going to gain confidence— y'all think you're going to gain confidence if you take another con ed class? No, they just spit more at you. The only way that you are going to gain confidence, and I say this to anyone that I bring on like and mentor, is that you have to actually go and do it. You know what that is? Treating patient after patient after patient after patient. That is the best freaking con ed class that you can ever have. Not another con ed course. And if you truly want to be a business owner, invest in business skills, which is business coaching, because that is the thing that's going to allow you to understand different pathways than you were ever taught, which then is going to be able to amplify your life, your client's life, your, your, your employees' life once you get to that stage. Like, I just can't stress this enough. It's crazy. Why did you stop investing?
Why? Because now you have all this debt? Because the debt didn't pay off? Because we did it all wrong. We did it all fucking wrong.
Like, literally, we did it all fucking wrong. Learn new business skills, period.
