How Jared & Afton Egan Built a Successful Physical Therapy Brand

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Rockstars. Thanks for listening. Today's episode, we're going to be focusing on how we can retain employees, grow our new patients, recruit more effectively, all using branding. If you're not familiar with what branding is, don't worry. We're going to explain what branding is, how it ties to culture, and how we use these things as our secret advantage to not just, like, keep great people, but explode our business in a way that makes it easier for us as owners. We're talking to Jared in Afton Egan. Jared is a physical therapy leader of leaders. He used to work with me in my old practice. He married Afton and an interior design expert and leader in her own right and have created this unique culture that when I walked into their open house five months ago, I literally was blown away. They're going to talk about what they did and all the small things they did to make their practice stand out in a way that I will never forget. And it gets emotional because we're talking about how branding ties to charities and how that impacts them. This is definitely an episode you're going to want to stick to the end of. Enjoy the show. So what are some of the challenges you guys are facing right now or lessons that maybe you've learned recently that might be relative to where you guys are right now?

One of the concepts we maybe wanted to talk about was branding, kind of as you saw how, for me, I had had some exposure to it. Like, you gave a training a long time ago on branding, and when. When we transitioned, and it was, you know, the importance of not just the color but all the different factors that go into that. And we talked about Chick Fil A, and it's like, okay, my pleasure. Right there's. It's not just the color.

It's not the color logo.

Right? That's like a whole experience. And we talk about the patient experience in physical therapy all the time, but we feel like we have, like, our brand is part of the experience and, like, everything that we provide from the second they walk in to the. When they go to the bathroom to when they, you know, like, every single, like, every.

Even when they go to the bathroom, like, you hit something on that. So is branding something that's top of mind for both of you guys right now?

It was very intentional for us at the beginning, and we're seeing how, like, that's been a huge, like, payout for us, and it's been really important, and we get a lot of comments on it, and people, like, keep coming and want to come and send all their friends and family, because of the way that they feel and how they tie that to some of our branding.

What are the results of your intentional branding that when you opened, because you opened May 28, May 20, you haven't been even open a year, not even five months. Okay, so you've been open for five months, but you started something very differently. You were very clear on your branding. What are the results that you're seeing in five months that you attribute to the branding?

Well, for me, it's, again, patients come in and, you know, probably statistics better than I do on the percentage of patients who drop out within the first three visits, you know, and so we thought, how can we create an experience that's so powerful, so almost like we call it, like, stimulating the senses in every single way. All senses. When you walk in, what does it sound like? What's the music? What does it smell like? What does it look like? That's a big one that we think of. Right. But what does it feel like? What's the temperature? How are you welcomed? But how do you feel cared for? And you feel cared for even when you go to the bathroom and there's amenities.

Yeah. Talk about the amenities in the bathroom. Afton, this was your idea.

What was my idea?

Because I went to the bathroom at your open house, and I was kind of blown away.

Yeah.

Which I don't think I'd say that again, blown away in the bathroom. But go ahead and tell me, like, what was it that you were thinking and what did you put in there and that kind of stuff.

When we were, you know, talking about what the experience would be with our patients and in our company.

I kind of. Because I have a background in interior design, because I'm a natural storyteller of spaces, it was very clear for me to walk in and go, okay, this is exactly how I would want to feel as a patient coming in here. This is how I would want to be taken care of. And so I can just kind of map out that story of start to finish, what your experience is like. And so, to me, I mean, I like hotels. I like going on vacation. I like luxury things. And that makes me feel valued and important and taken care of. And I notice those things. I notice when I. When, you know, you go to a hotel and pillows are folded a certain way, I just am very in tune to the small details of things. And so I've tried to implement that in how we do things at the clinic and how we train our team. Our pillows are literally folded like they would Be at a hotel, there's a specific folding process that we do. And in the bathrooms, I wanted it to feel like if you're coming into physical therapy and you are in pain, you are just barely post op, you are, you know, postpartum. You know, you don't feel good. I. If you need to go to the bathroom, I want you to feel like, oh, my gosh, maybe this was really hard just to come to therapy. And maybe you need to take a second in the bathroom and just like catch your breath. And we've got mints, we've got deodorant, we've got, you know, toothpicks, we've got, like, we care about you and we care about where you are and this journey in your life. And we want you to feel important because you are.

Yeah. So what I heard you say is that it takes a degree of empathy, of understanding what that's like and what's so cool. Listen, I had a handful of practices for decades. It never occurred to me that the person I was working on all day as a therapist who I was helping deal with post op stuff, and I'm talking to them about their bathroom experience and how they transition off of commodes and whatever. Like, that was very top of mind for me functionally. But it never. Apart from having a bar for them to use to hold onto, I never thought about the emotional impact of having those details dialed in until I used the restroom at your open house. And it was very humbling for me because I considered myself, you know, a master at what I did. And here I was learning as I was using the restroom that I could feel cared for in a way. And I love that you talked about that afton, because ultimately they are coming in with all that emotional, like when they're going to the bathroom anywhere after post op in particular, they're really mindful of the process in a way that the rest of us are subconscious. We're not even thinking about consciously. So those little details. But you also, like, it was the color. Like, all of the colors matched your brand. And you said something I loved about being a storyteller of spaces. So is that. So that was the story you kind of told of someone having a post off experience in the bathroom. Talk about other parts of the clinic that you had a story for that you and Jared came together on.

So for our space, how it's designed. In this location, there is a conference room, like right off in the. To the front where you've got the waiting area and then we've got Kind of our conference room, office area.

And there's also a window so patients can see, and it's right there. I wanted that space since it would typically be so storage or, you know, office type things. I wanted it to feel more residential. I wanted it to feel more homey, welcoming, very clean, organized, intentional. And so when you first walk into our space, I wanted it to feel like you were walking into.

A place that you were comfortable in. It wasn't this, you know, just very bland and bleak and sad, you know.

You know, or boring.

Or boring. Yeah.

Kind of forgettable.

Yeah, it's very warm. It's very homey and inviting. We've got, you know, a wood feature wall. We've got. We're very intentional with, even down to the decor. I've got specific books that are in our branding colors that if someone wanted to read, they could. But, you know, all of the stuff on the, like, shelves in our office, which all the patients can see, it's all very thought out with all of the boxes and bins are labeled. It just looks like. Doesn't look like an office. It looks like a place in your house. So I was very intentional with that and bringing in plants and life. And we've got. My favorite part of the whole clinic is we have a big black and white blown up picture of Jared and I in front of our coming soon sign with our aerophysical therapy. I love that. I love that at the very beginning of where you can see that in our clinic. I love that when we go to collaborate as a team, you know, there's that picture there, and this is where it came from. This is where it started. This is the passion and the drive behind what we're doing. And I call it an open door policy. As far as all of the spaces in the clinic, there's an expectation that at any point a patient can walk into any of those spaces and it would be clean and acceptable for them to be there. The kitchen, the bathrooms, it's open door policy. So that's kind of what we preach to our team as well.

Yeah. You know, it takes a page out of Ray Kroc's Handbook for McDonald's. The founder of McDonald's, you know, one of the things he was notoriously known for was taking his franchisees and like, walking them around the outside of the facility and giving them the idea that, like, walk in as if you're a customer. Here we get so mind blind to the sight of our own practice. We just walk in, we do our work, we live there. It's like this big place, so we oftentimes lose sight of the forest being inside the tree, so to speak, culturally and branding wise. And so I love that you guys took this approach. And it was a neat mix of talent, seeing you two come together, because obviously you're this storyteller of spaces Afton and you married one of my good friends and someone I had the privilege of working with for years in my practice over at Rise Rehab and seeing Jared really be a cultural leader of that company. So, Jared, what do you think is the relationship between company culture and branding? If you could talk a little bit about what that means? Because you knew culture from our shared culture. Yeah. What did that mean for you? And then how did you create that?

Well, culture is what it feels like to work there. Right. Or to be a patient there. And that all goes into our branding and what it feels like to be, whether it's an employee or a patient. We wanted our team members to be proud of where they were, to want to represent our colors, our brand, our values, our purpose as a company. And that's very top of mind for us. We talk about it. We want to promote Aera physical therapy because we want to make a bigger impact on people's lives.

What's ERA's purpose?

ERA's purpose is to make an impact through every era.

Okay. Okay. So, rockstars, I'm going to pause for a second.

I call them cultural foundations. Purpose, vision, values, thinking. We talk about these things all the time. I had the great privilege of learning from expert coaches to teach me how fundamental all things were, how it all boils down to that. Branding culture all starts with knowing what we take a stand for in this world. And as owners, if we don't know how to rattle it off that quickly, there's some room for improvements. And so I just want to acknowledge you for having stated that briefly and so powerfully. I can remember that. I understand that. Because when I think of ERA now, I think of it even a little bit differently. I'm sure you've told me that historically, but just hearing you say that now. So you brought in that clarity of, like, here's. And you worked on that together as partners. Like, this is what the foundation is. You were, I'm guessing, more applicable in developing it from a operations perspective, whereas you were coming in more on the branding side and the development and design end of it. I will argue that most PT owners probably aren't design experts. And then so I just wanted to say that more to give myself permission as to why my clinics were so ugly compared to yours?

No, they were fine. Mine were nice. I had nice. But there was this. I can't communicate it to the rock stars listening enough. How? When I walked in, it was immediate. I walked in and it was like. It hit me because I was so not used to that coming into a PT practice. And what I love about physical therapy is that it's so homogenized. You only have to be a 1% difference to be in a completely different space. So that's what you brought. Go back into that. So you talked about branding being an element of culture because it's a lot of the featuring and the feeling of how things look, and then it's tied to your messaging. So how do you leverage that now with your team? How do you develop your culture with your team? And how does brand fit into that?

Yeah, well, part of our brand is how we live our values, right? How we show up for each other each day. Our purpose is to make an impact through every era. Our values are an acronym for Impact, Integrity, Mastery, Professionalism, Accountability, Candid Care and Team. And then we have our little phrases and sayings, and we talk about these, and we shout these out at our team meetings. And we live these. We don't just have it written down somewhere, we practice it. We live it. We hire based off of that mindset, and then we train more for the skill set. But it's just how we show up for our patients and truly making them feel like we live those values and we live our brand. Which part of our brand is how we act? That's what we message to our team, too. The way you show up, the way you carry yourself, you're representing our brand. And so really holding each other accountable to a higher standard of care that we want to provide, that no matter when someone walks in, no matter what room they walk in, no matter what, whatever it is, we are representing ourselves through our brand, through how we act, through how we show up. And that's shown through. And we get lots of patients sending their friends and family and referral sources and everything just really love us because they hear from their patients how special their experience was and how different it was from every other experience. So now I have a certain referral source who anytime a patient says, I've been to physical therapy, I didn't really like it. They say, go to Jared. Go to aerophysical therapy. You know, they, they, they, they. We've already, in a few short months, kind of built that trust as someone who will provide a better experience for Patients.

Yeah. And I just want to highlight for listeners some of the stats that we can't get. I don't, I really don't want to get into your specific stats on air, but like, you have been open for five months, you're in the hundreds of visits, you're in the process of hiring multiple physical therapists, you're profitable. And then some, like, you have this incredible success that ties back to the foundation of this. And I don't want to lead you down this road, but I'm assuming your branding and your cultural development had a significant piece to do with your success. Is that fair to say?

Absolutely.

What percentage would you give it if you had to give it a percentage?

I don't know. I don't know. A large, I mean, living our culture, I mean, you can give good care and get people to come back, but it just feels like a difference between slowly, slowly, painfully growing a clinic and what we're doing, which is like exploding, Exploding. And yeah, so it's been a big difference. And I do have to say, without a lot of the foundations that you gave me and without my strategic partner, Brian Wright, who's just been phenomenal in providing a lot of this clarity and focus and mindset and, and tools to help me implement into my practice has just been incredible. Couldn't have done it without every person in my life that has shaped me. And obviously Afton has been one of the biggest tangible day to day impacts. It's been very fun.

I love that that's one of the core concepts of our podcast, is the importance of understanding how who you know is way more important than what you know, your network is, your net worth. And so you've definitely created equal or more value for me. Afton, my question for you now, talking about this, like, storytelling of spaces, how have you thought through the branding aspect from the employee? We talked about the customer experience in the bathroom, and I'm sure there's overlap, but what special attention do you give to the employee experience when it comes to branding?

Oh, I'm so glad you, you asked me this.

I knew you'd probably have a great answer.

Well, I just, I love our team. I, I, they just, they don't come better than, than our team at ERA.

I, I mean, again, I kind of take it back to, okay, if I were in the workplace, how would I want to feel? How would I, you know, want to be treated? Um, they kind of joke around the clinic. They call me the clinic mom because I'm just kind of this nurturing presence and I just kind of do a little bit of everything and make sure everyone's needs are met. And that really is a lot of what I do. I specifically, when our employees are hired, they get, with all of their onboarding stuff. They. They also get like a welcome packet that is specific to them. They get. They fill out an entire questionnaire about important things that they like, like their start date so we can highlight when they hit like six months with us, a year with us, and different. I mean, we go down to like allergies and, and things they like to watch on tv. I, I want to know everything about them that is going to give them the best experience in the workplace because that's where they spend a lot of their time is with us. And I want to make sure that they are comfortable and happy and that ultimately reflects on patient care as well. So if they're not happy, you know, our patients aren't going to be happy either. And so I really do. They get the questionnaire, they fill it out and I immediately, I think one of our providers had said something to Jared and was like, oh, my gosh. I told her I liked these specific things in the break room and the next day it's there and I'm like, yeah, I'm just like the little fairy that kind of just goes in and makes sure. And I just love it. I love just being around everyone and making sure that they are all taken care of and really listened to. I check in on them quite a bit and we'll send out in our team text threads. I'm usually kind of going over, okay, here's the game plan. If you have any questions, any feedback. I really do like to make sure that they're heard and seen throughout this process and how valued they are for the growth that we've had. And I, I do make it a point to specifically highlight our employees with how monumental their impact has been to our success. It's. It's been them. We couldn't do it without them either. Um, so I make sure I'm a words of affirmation person. And so that's typically how I, I make sure that I highlight that if I feel it, I'm going to tell you.

Well, that was a fantastic answer, me affirming you verbally for that wonderful response. I, I will tell you and I mean that sincerely. So it's interesting because as you're talking about branding, Branding, it's not. It's so much more to you than branding. Like, branding is the word to describe the connection between what People see smell like the physical, what they experience to the. It's the tie between. Is how I'm learning this from you guys. It's the tie between what I see, smell, hear, taste, tied to the cultural foundation of what we stand for and what we believe in. Right. But for you, it seems like it means even more. Like. So what does branding mean to Afton?

I mean, because of my background in interior design, um, just. I have always been drawn to creating and just art across the board. Um, whether it's music or whatever it is. Um, I mean, branding does tell a story. I mean, I. I get comments on my bow all the time, and I've always worn a bow. That's part of my brain.

For those of you who are listening and not watching, check it out on YouTube. She has a bow. And I've never not seen you with a bow in your. Ha. Right.

And you probably never will. Yeah, I've. I've just always had a bow. People ask why. I don't know. It's just kind of my thing, and I just kind of like it. But it's kind of my brand. And. Because, like, what you just said, I've never not seen you without one. That's my brand, you know, and that's why it's important, because I'm going to kind of show up the same way every day, just like our clinic does.

I mean, to me, branding is definitely. I'm putting my feelings and emotions of how much I care about what we're doing and what we stand for. And I'm showing you in the best way I know how, which is telling a story. And so for me, it's all kind of jumbled into one. It's the story and the branding and the feeling of how much I care about. And we care about our patients and what we're doing, what we're providing.

Branding for you is the story of showing you how much you matter to us.

Yeah.

And there's consistency. It seems like consistency is a really big thing across the board there.

There's safety and knowing what to expect, isn't there?

Yeah.

Trust. Yeah.

Okay. Best book ever. Anyone listening? Hands down, most important business book I've ever read. The Speed of Trust. Stephen Covey, hands down. And I think what you guys are really building here is that concept of consistency around messaging and feeling. You know, McDonald's. I always go back to them because as much as they get ripped on, they're who they are for a reason. And they are so intentional about their branding and their storytelling that they Want children to have a certain feeling and experience. That's why it's like no matter what country in the world you're in, there are similarities that are so consistent. You know, you're in a McDonald's, you have a feeling that you're going to have that experience that ties back to your childhood. And it's because thoughtful people created stories around that. And the story also has a little bit to do with where we're going. So, Jared, what does your story and branding say about your vision? First, share your vision and then talk about how branding ties into that for you.

Yeah, so we have a vision that we created. It's kind of like a three year, vivid vision as part of a book and everything that Brian had turned me on to. And so the vision is basically to grow and to spread and to make the largest impact we can in, in our community and then in the nation and in the world.

So don't know how far reaching that is yet. We've, we've kind of, like I said, reached out three years and we, we want to expand, we want to grow, we want to make as big of an impact as we can on as many lives as we can.

What does that mean in terms of, like, specifics? Do you have like, do you have a dream of certain number of locations? Do you have like, anything like that.

Within three years or just in general?

Yeah, both.

Within three years, we'd like to have three locations.

Look how specific that was.

Yeah.

So again, rockstars, you're listening. What's your vision? How clear is it? You know, Jared is a organic, powerful leader who already kind of went into this knowing in a way that I didn't when I started my journey. And you've got great mentors, but it's that clarity that's so powerful. I love that element of just like three years, three locations, easy to remember. I'll never forget. I'll never forget any of these things. And I'm, you know, I'm talking to you right now about it, so I can imagine for your team how clear that must be.

Yeah, we have a little poster, it's printed up. Everyone can read it. We hand it out in part of the onboarding paperwork. We have to rally around, around that vision and how we want to show up in the community, what kind of relationships we want with our referral sources, what kind of relationship we want with our social mission, which we give back to the Spina Bifida Community. Spina Bifida Association. We haven't talked about that yet, but That's. That's another thing.

Part of your brand.

Part of our. It's part of our brand, part of our culture, part of our mission.

And down to the color.

Down to the color.

The Spina Bifida association color, is that teal color? And that's.

Oh, my gosh.

Part of our. Yeah, so. Oh, boy.

Didn't know this was going to be on. On the Internet. Did you know this?

No.

So for those of you who are listening, again, this is the basket. You should jump over to YouTube or Spotify and check out the video podcast, because right here, I've got in my hands this gift that I got from both of you, something I love. And it's so specific. Obviously, we're in October as we're filming this, so it's got a Happy Halloween piece. There's some bones there. There's a water bottle. There's all this.

Did you see the card?

I did not see the card.

Oh, that's the best part.

See, it's truly. I'm bad at details, and I think someone who cares that you're detail and your level is able to produce details that are phenomenal. So I'm looking at this card now. It says, happy Halloween from ERA Physical Therapy, Keeping bones and bodies spooky strong. And it's got these skeletons. So this is a nice sample of what you create. It's one thing to have this. It was another thing that you brought it to me to be on the show. Right. So what is it about this color that speaks to you and colors and maybe in general, as you're coming up with schemes and plans for messaging, like, what do you think about in general? And then what. What made you land on this color right off?

What made us land on that color was the fact that the Spina Biff association of Arizona has that same kind of teal color.

So it was based on the charitable.

Purpose on our social mission.

And you wanted to match. I got chills. So it wasn't like a color. And then you picked the charity based on the color. It was like, what difference do we want to make? And looked at their branding and you mirrored it to create consistency across brands. Holy cow. That's brilliant.

Yeah.

Okay, so does it color matter? What if it was like a hot orange? Like, what would you have done?

I mean, I think we would have made it. Made it work. It's. It's. I mean, that's my forte is we would have made it work. But it was actually Jared's idea. We did talk about when we were Talking about our social mission, we definitely wanted to.

It needed to be geared towards advocacy in the disabled community. That's something that we live in our personal life as well. With my son who has spina bifida.

I didn't know that. Yes.

So my son Ranger is 8 and he has spina bifida. And it was, I had kind of said, you know, that would be great if when we're talking about our social mission, like this is something that we live, that you've seen as a stepdad and you've seen me go through as a, as a special needs parent and your stepson, that would be great. It's so needed more advocacy and more of a voice in the disabled community. And he said, why not let's gear towards Spina Bifida Association. And I mean it just took off from there and it just felt like, oh my gosh, duh, like of course. And we are just, well, there's such a need to, there's such a need.

And I, I, I had no idea until obviously I married Afton and started interacting with Ranger and going to these, you know, the annual walk and roll that the spending association puts on. It's, you know, and talking about insurance issues and accessibility and just all these things that, you know, I had no idea. You know, you talk to patients and they kind of maybe tell you a little bit of insight on, on their lives, but just how, how deep that goes and the need for advocating even on a higher governmental, you know, law changing level is something we want to, we want to do in the future as well and also help, you know, financially. You know, we, we donate 25 to the Spina Bifid association for every patient referral we get from our patients. If they send their family and friends, we pay that forward. And so that's all kind of, we, we use our time, energy and efforts, but also as much as we can, finances and helping push that along.

You know, what's neat about this Too from a 10,000 foot perspective is I think a lot of times as business owners we get kind of lost in the strategy of how to do these things like the strategy of picking colors and what's the psychology of colors. But at the end of the day, what has made this such a clean through line for me is that you started with your heart as people and it's, you know, leadership is less about developing something we don't have and more about uncovering what's already there. And you did that so beautifully. To go what matters to me now as a Parent. Well, my son matters to me. And Spina bifida is a real thing that you live in and live daily. And so you're in this world. And so when you looked at your company, you didn't see that as two separate things. You saw it as a vehicle to promote a purpose. That's great. Listen to this story. As people are listening to this, I hope they're feeling lost like I am in this story that connect, that doesn't have a beginning or an end. It's circular, it's about like, yeah, it shows up like color, but it feels like family. Right. And that story bleeds into what my patients feel when they're using the restroom, my employees feel when they hit their six month anniversary, or what my son feels every day when he's struggling through an issue. And you've connected these things through your company. And I think that's the greatest thing about conscious capitalism is it gives us a vehicle to increase our impact to the world and money becomes this tool that we do it for to help us do more of the mission, not the other way around.

So I am greatly touched by how you guys have created this and I'll never think of your, your off color teal again. I wondered if it was more of like a psychological thing, but it wasn't. It wasn't how the color made you feel. It was how what that color's organization makes you feel. And you're just, you're continuing that through so your vision. Love that. Rockstars. As you're listening, I hope you're understanding this is also a masterclass on retention. According to LinkedIn, 88% of our people leave us because they don't see a future in the company for them. So it's our job to create the line in the sand, the purpose, the emotional connection and a future where they can grow. If I'm working with you guys and I have Afton looking out for me and Jared leading me and then I look to the future and I see growth, opportunity. And it's not just for me, it's for the Spina bifida organizations or whatever our stance is. I start to start to recognize this is a rare thing. This is a rare thing. So guys, listen, this has been a phenomenal episode. If people wanted to get a hold of you to learn more about branding, I'm going to go to Afton Branding. If people had questions on that element.

How do they get a hold of you?

I would say my email, which is pra physicaltherapy.come R A so, ara, physicaltherapy.com. yep.

Okay. And then, Jared, if people wanted to get a hold of you to understand more about how to work with the Spina Bifida foundation, work with you professionally as an employee, or collaborate with you on any level, how do they get ahold of you?

Yep, same thing, Jared. Eganiraphysicaltherapy.com, also our website you can contact that goes straight to my email and, you know, reach out to us that way as well. Give us a call. Yeah.

Okay. I'll put in the show notes and please remind me if you don't see them, that I'll put a link to the Spina Bifida foundation as well that you guys sponsor and support. And we will actually make a contribution as well for being a guest on our show. And frankly, because I feel so inclined after receiving this wonderful gift and basket. Thank you both for being powerful leaders and for being on the show.

Thank you so much for having us on.

It's awesome, guys. Thank you for taking time to listen to today's episode. If you found today's information to be useful, could you take a minute and help me? I would love it if you could leave a podcast review in your app so that other people who are looking for this information can find it. Plus, my dream is to have the largest network of medical entrepreneurs and leaders in the world so that together we can change healthcare to make it better for all. So, in addition, if you can think of anyone that you could send this to, not only would that mean a lot to me personally, but it would build this network so that we can make healthcare the way that we want it.