Lead with Purpose and Profit with Passion with Garrett Salpeter

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Welcome to the Willpower podcast, Rockstars. Thanks again for tuning in. And today's episode does not disappoint. Today's special guest is the CEO and founder of a company called New Fit. His name is Garrett Salpatur and he is a phenomenal leader. We're going to be jumping right in to this new concept called the Entrepreneurial Operating System, or eos. The this is a company that many of my friends are using right now to systematize their business. And it has changed the game for them because it provides the systems and the training necessary to get the owner out of the business. So we talk a lot about coaching on this channel. We're gonna dive into that, then we're gonna segue into how having the right systems actually helps us promote the spiritual mission of our business. And then lastly, we're gonna be deep diving into the newbie, which is the featured product at New Fit, which is revolutionizing patient care across the industry. I thing out of saying this personally, I legitimately believe in this product because of what I've seen it do for my, my friends, businesses and their patients. It's an electrical stimulation device like no other. So before you disregard that, pay close attention. The studies on this thing will blow your mind. And Garrett, as an amazing leader, is going to do a masterclass on how to build a team based around systems and still inject the art or the spiritual side of things. Enjoy the show. Okay, so Garrett, you were saying right before we hit record that the most significant thing you've done to grow you as a leader in your business was something called an EOS system. Can you tell the audience what that is?

Yeah. So EOS stands for Entrepreneurial Operating System, and it's most commonly known as the system for operating a business. That's taught in the book Traction by Gino Wickman. So the book is called Traction. And I'm probably like many of you listening to this, where, you know, I'm not like a business guy who found an opportunity. I was actually really passionate about this work. And then my background is engineering and neuroscience, and I actually worked with several clinicians in the Austin, Texas area and saw ways to improve the methodology this technology over time. And so I came at this from the perspective of actually treating people or collaborating in the treatment of people and developing technology. And then I had to really learn the business side, as I'm sure many of you, if you're a physical therapist, become a practice owner. You don't really learn those business skills. And so for me reading this book was probably the single biggest quantum step in growth in my own knowledge base and understanding of how to operate a business. It really taught me the fundamentals. For example, it helped me take this whole broad spectrum of things in a business and break it down to, okay, there's really three for there's customer acquisition, marketing and sales. There's delivery of goods or services, operations, so to speak. And then there's finances, administration of the business, sort of these three verticals. And there has to be a strategy for how to have someone accountable for owning and driving forward those elements of the business. And so I learned from that book and really have just implemented what was done there with minimal change, but learned how to create an organization effectively, how to find the right people, identify the right people, get them in the right seats, structure the organization so that it works as efficiently and effectively as possible, and then also how to with that team, how to do effective strategic planning, how to have effective meetings. That's one thing that I've learned too along the way is I used to think that meetings were a distraction from the work that I really should be doing. And. And then I've learned that as a leader, meetings really are my. That's like my, you know, NFL players prepare for the game on Sunday, that's like my Sunday. That's like my game, you know, to be in a meeting, to lead an effective meeting, facilitate an effective meeting, drive it towards a conclusion where we're either taking action on something or clarifying something, you know, whatever the purpose is, you know. So this system is. Helps us understand how to get a business structured appropriately, how to do planning, how to run effective meetings, how to have a scorecard and measurements along the way. So you're not just finding out at the end of the month or the quarter how you did, but you have leading indicators so you can pull levers and make changes and do different things along the way to give yourself the best chance of success and getting a good report at the end of the month or the quarter or the year, whatever it might be. So there's a lot in that, and we've really, really adopted that system. And it's so cool to see that it frees up a lot of the burden that I felt before doing this in order to kind of piece things together and sort of run everything. You know, it frees up a lot of that burden and it sort of creates this like, lateral pressure in a positive way on everyone, accountability. Because, you know, in weekly meetings for us on the leadership team or for people in their Departments, there's in the weekly meeting, there's weekly commitments. You know, there's things that people are responsible for doing and no one wants to get up in front of the leadership team, in front of the department, say, you know what, I didn't do that this week. Right. So there's certainly other systems that have that, but that element of accountability and it sort of creates the foundation, the framework that we can really build our business on top of.

Yeah. Garrett, that is such a great overview of eos. I'm very familiar with it. I've read the books. One of my other favorite books from the same author is Rocket Fuel where they talk about the two types of personality types that come into things. But a couple of things you said I want to punch. The first is this idea that like you, you weren't a business owner who started, you know, chasing this passion. You just started chasing the passion and then you were building around it. I think every healthcare entrepreneur listening to this is feeling the exact same way. None of us have gone to business school. I will tell you that one of my favorite coaches once said that if we knew what we were getting into, we would have never have done it. I have a brother who has a double NBA. He has a very successful. He's been a very high ranking team member at Google and Dropbox. Very big. He's been at COO level. He has told me for years how he wish he had had the courage to start a business like me. And what I tell him is like if I had known what this was, I wouldn't have done it. Like it's, it's just who we are. But this, this thing called traction and this concept of EOS is the entrepreneur operating system. Every business owner who hasn't bought into something like that yet needs to. There's a few options out there. I used actually something called Gazelle's, which is Verne Harnish's book Scaling up. But that was actually, you know, 15 years ago. It's still very widely used. But I will tell you, in my world, I'm highly networked across. Outside of healthcare, the EOS system is where all my friends are going. The EOS system is the predominant system and they have implementers. Did you hire someone to help you implement as well?

So we self implemented and we did that in part because we had done. We were also doing some business coaching with a guy here in Austin who's a friend of mine who had a similar system and so that we got some coaching on how to implement sort of through that. So we didn't hire a formal EOS implementer, but I have several friends, fellow business owners that have, and that's been a positive experience. So if we didn't have this other coaching experience at the same time, we would have done that. And I definitely would recommend it for people just getting started.

Yeah, most of my friends do, too. And just like anything else with coaching, it's expensive. So, like, you're like, oh, my gosh, how am I going to spend this money? But your journey is not unique in the sense that people I know who've gone through it, they're like, wow, I've got this meeting rhythm set up. I've got systems and operating policies now that are keeping my people accountable. It frees people up. Is that. I mean, I don't want to read between the lines or put words in your mouth, Garrett, but has that been your journey? Do you feel like you've been freed up to focus on the part of the business that you're most passionate on as a result of the EOS system?

Yes, absolutely. And on that same theme, and also a few moments ago, you mentioned Rocket fuel, right? That relationship between the visionary and integrator. Yeah, that's something that in the last, you know, six months from the time we're having this conversation, I finally, you know, for the first time in this, I don't know, I mean, had a business for 16, 17 years, had the newbie out for eight years, you know, finally hired an integrator. And that was a big step for me. It was a lot of actually personal work to get over that sort of ego status of being like the only one in a C level position or, you know, something like that to sort of. To get over that. So it took some really personal growth work to get to that point and also finding the right person. We had a few people who we had considered for a role like that working with us on a consulting basis, saw that it didn't work. The gentleman we ended up hiring in that position, we also had working with us as a consultant and saw the contrast in a positive way that it did work and it was someone who we wanted to hire and invest in. But you talk about hiring an implementer, hiring an integrator, which is sort of like the COO to the CEO. Right. For people who aren't familiar with the term. But that is also another example where it's expensive to hire someone who has previous experience running or owning a business and brings that level of experience. But that is an investment that already in the span of less than a year has provided a tremendous return. And that both of those implementing EOs in the first place was a nice sense of a burden off my shoulders. And then hiring this integrator was another sense of, ah, good, now he can take and run with the things that I'm not as good at or don't have as much time to focus on. And just like you said, it gives me a chance to focus on the things that I do. So, like, in traction. As you know, everyone on the team has on the accountability chart, everyone has a few bullet points underneath their role. So for me, there's things like innovation and key relationships and things like that. And there's also the quote, unquote face of the company where I do our podcast and speak at events and have the opportunity to do something like this, have this conversation with you. And so it frees me up to be able to do stuff like that, which, quite frankly, I love. It doesn't even feel like work. I get to sit here and chat with Will. This is awesome.

I know. It's so crazy because, like, so this whole concept about rock stars, as you're listening, he was talking about integrator and visionary, just to kind of clear that up a little bit. Like, the visionary, according to the traction system, is an individual who is passionate about looking forward, comes up with lots of ideas, wants to innovate, wants to come up with different ideas of how to, like, make things better. The integrator loves to get it done. And the most common problem is that the visionary feels guilty that they're giving all the crap they don't want to do to the integrator because. Or they have a hard time letting it go because they have, you know, their sense of control around it. So, like, the integrator loves to do the thing, but they don't love thinking of the thing. They just want to be. They want the vision painted for them. They'll contribute to it, but ultimately it's more operational and functional based. So it's really cool because all of you who are listening to this rockstars, you're busy in your companies. And this concept I want to hit that Garrett's hitting upon is you have to buy back your time, you have to spend money and invest it in people. Like, you know, we're big on coaching in this podcast. You know, a company like an eos, we get nothing. We're getting nothing for promoting them. Let me just say Garrett and I did not get beforehand go, hey, how can we make referral fees on EOS systems. This is just us on the podcast doing you a solid and saying, hey, guys, this is a system. If you've been working with coaches and you've made pretty good progress, but you're looking for something to step up your game, you could add the EOS system in addition to your coach, or you could switch to a EOS coach and really get focused on the systems, because the EOS system is just that. These are operational components that are built into your company that offload the owner. But you have to buy back your time. You have to invest in the coach, you have to invest in the integrator. Like in Garrett's case, that he needed, you know, well before he started using it so that he could focus on doing what he loves. And. And now New Fit is growing. Like, I know you guys as a result of that. Here's the two things I know about your company, and I get nothing for saying this is that, number one, you do have a phenomenal culture. Shout out to Laura and Kara like, they are at all these events that I'm at across the industry, and they just have, like that. You can just sense the company culture. I've had a chance to really dive in deep with them about what makes your company great. They talk a huge amount about how great you are. They also talk about the product and how great it is, but they also talk about the culture and the feel of that. So for you, as you've looked at the EOS system, why don't you tell me what your top, like, favorite takeaways were? Maybe you've already mentioned it with your, like, meeting rhythms and stuff, but what were some of the key things that really moved the needle for you when you were implementing that EOS system?

So there were. There were a few and a few that directly contribute to culture. You know, it's interesting to contrast how I feel now versus how I felt, say, five years ago. You know, one of the biggest differences is right now I feel like, holy crap, we have a team that can take this thing to the next level, right?

We've got the rock stars that we want, right? People in the right seats. And five years ago, you know, I had.

I had a lot to learn as a person, not only as a business owner, but personally. I had some of these people pleasing tendencies, inabilities to set boundaries, and I allowed a couple bad apples, certainly not everyone, but allowed a couple people to get away with things and really drag down the company culture in a way that I didn't fully comprehend until I finally had the Courage to do something about it and get rid of a couple of the wrong people. And that made all the difference in the world. And traction helped me. Some of it. I sort of came to my senses, I would say beforehand, but this is part of why, just as a little quick tangent, part of why I say that running a business really is a spiritual journey, because the things that come up.

We really have to work on ourselves. And so many times what we get in life is not what we work for or what we want, but it's who we are. The outcomes we get in the external world are often a reflection of who we are internally. And working on who we are internally is often the fast track to not even the fast, the best path, like the most direct path to business success. So a little bit of an aside there, but traction talks so much about establishing core values and then using those as a filter for hiring for, you know, managing, promoting, retaining people on your team too. So that exercise has been immensely valuable in helping to establish and then preserve and maintain and continue to cultivate and grow a very healthy, vibrant, energetic culture. And then also, one other thing that I really like from the traction system is this, what they call ids, identify, discuss and solve issues. And they describe this process that we do in every weekly meeting of just keeping a running list of the issues that are always going to come up every week. There's something.

Various issues in the business, some severe, some minor, but there's a process and time set aside in the agenda of the weekly meeting to address those. And that along with we've also done a few different book clubs and talked about different things along the way. So that's one of the things that I think really helps us, is establishing this culture of not letting issues fester, not sweeping things under the rug, but talking about them in a way where it's really interesting balance. This is part of the, I would say, personal development, spiritual side of running a business is so much of it is really interpersonal communication and interactions and relationships and being able to. If you want to give someone negative feedback, it's so important that you have a foundation of safety and a sense of belonging first, because that is going to make someone feel safe. If they don't feel safe in a conversation, especially when they're getting negative feedback, if they don't feel safe, they're going to go into fight or flight. They're going to think either you're the idiot who doesn't even know what they're talking about or oh, my God, my job is on the line, I'm in trouble. I'm going to lose my job. They're going to go to all these different places. They're not even going to hear you or let alone have any productive dialogue. So being able to, as a leader, being able to lead with vulnerability, being able to admit mistakes, and being able to talk openly establishes this sense of safety and belonging. So you can have difficult conversations when they come up, which they're going to come up from time to time. So I think that. And having that framework of everyone being on the same page about discussing issues and intentionally bringing them up, not sweeping them under the rug, I think is a big part of that, too.

Yeah, I love that. And Rockstars. I want you to really hear what Garrett said around this concept of how just having the right tools has made all the difference, because EOS has produced these tools that hit upon the different things that he discussed. From having crucial conversations to addressing company issues week to week. It's. There's something about a tool that makes it easier because otherwise we're in there just kind of grinding, trying to figure out, all right, so what is it that I've got to put together this time? And. And, you know, looking around corners because you don't know what else to do. So having a system of checks and balances is big. And then, Garrett, the thing that you said I want, I really loved is this idea that owning a business and being a business leader is a spiritual journey. I couldn't agree with that more. I remember when one of my coaches who is just. He called it our ministry, he's like, listen, whether or not you believe in God, he's like, this is a spiritual journey. This is your ministry of serving others. So if you do believe in God, this is how you can be. This is how you can manifest that service in the world is through your business. And it's. It is something that's really unique. I don't think all business owners are great people, but I would say that the majority of the business owners who are at least mom, pa, who bootstrap from the ground up, man, they're my peeps. They're my peeps. I don't care if it's healthcare or outside of healthcare, you know, So I love that piece of it being a spiritual journey. Here's my question for you, kind of leaning into that. What's maybe something spiritual or like personal that you've learned about you as a result of owning your business that has later increased your ability to impact your family.

There's quite A few things.

I think one that I mentioned earlier is through business, I became acutely and uncomfortably aware of some of my own patterns. You know, like this. People pleasing, inability to set boundaries, sort of difficulty having uncomfortable conversations. And so through various situations in my business journey, you know, I. It was just staring me right in the face, like, wow, I. If I really sit back and look, me doing or not doing this has allowed this to happen and led to this problem over time. So I understand. You know, it's like with great power comes great responsibility, but also with great responsibility comes great power. If I realize the part that I played in that, then I have some opportunity to actually change it. And learning that that kind of notion of extreme ownership, I think is something that serves me and many others well and something that I still will catch myself wanting to blame somebody else for this or that. So it's still an ongoing journey. I'm not saying I've arrived and I'm some sort of guru by any means, by any stretch of the imagination, but it is really cool to just see what happens here. So learning some of these different patterns and tendencies, I really like the notion and it's kind of both psychology and spiritual practice. The notion of internal family systems, which many people may have heard of, parts work or things like that, where, you know, our psychology has these different. Learns these different patterns, different behaviors. Like as a child, for example, you know, some people learn that they have to be compliant little kids, or they always have to, like, put on a happy face in order to get love and get a sense of belonging. Or, you know, they learn these people pleasing tendencies, or they learn that they have to act a certain way because they don't feel like they're worthy at their core. And, you know, those types of patterns lead to these certain behaviors. And it's really interesting to observe, either through meditation or just general daily life, some sort of mindfulness practice, if you call it that, to observe those patterns in oneself and see the results and then use that as an opportunity to reflect and perhaps get coaching or counseling or do some guided meditation work or things like that. But it's allowed me to really see some of those patterns. And it's been a catalyst for me to. In internal family systems, they talk about parts and the self, about how we actually, you know, oftentimes in our culture, we spend so much time trying to build ourselves up, to change ourselves, turn ourselves into something, when in this perspective, which I have come to agree with, the truth is that we actually have a foundation of a true self. That is complete. That is calm, courageous, curious, compassionate, connected. There's these eight Cs that they use to describe it. And oftentimes what we need is not necessarily to build more on top of it, but to unwind these compensatory behavioral and psychological patterns and get back to our true self, get back to who we really are. So that perspective I've actually experiences in business led me to that. And I think that's made me a better person, a better parent, you know, and better at relationships overall outside of business too.

Yeah, it's such a great concept to think about that the purest, most successful version of us is already there. And all we have to do, leadership is less about becoming something we're not and more about peeling away what's in the way. That's a really cool point that you just made there. What a great share on the spiritual side of owning your business. And it's funny how like something non spiritual and very like emotionless called systems, can unlock our ability to really learn these spiritual lessons. So, rock stars, as you're listening to this, here's my question for you to consider. What are some of the things that you are grateful to for your business? What are the lessons you've learned in your business that you're grateful for that have helped you become a better person? I want everyone listening to think about some of the challenges that you've overcome. Like, think when I say that. Everyone's got like specific images that flash to their mind of really intense problems that you have overcome. And I want you to take a second as you're listening to this, whether you're driving or exercising, and think about what are those lessons that you have learned that have benefited you and your family and show gratitude for that. Because so many times, rock stars, we get so round up in this idea of like being affected by our business that we forget what the gift and opportunity it is to have that responsibility, like Garrett said, and coincidentally that power. So I just want you guys to be swimming in that space as we are talking about this thing called a spiritual journey of business. And it's so cool that we landed on this, coming from a place originally of this objective, non emotional thing called systems, because it's the art in the science of what we do in physical therapy terms. Garrett, you know, it's like that idea of like, I know how to do a grade five manipulation on that joint, but do I know how to feel it with my hands? Do I know how to read the patient's face and communicate it to them so they don't guard like there's an art and a science to these things. And I think clearly what you've done so beautifully over at New Fit, which by the way, and not just saying this, I, it's one of my favorite companies in the physical therapy space is because you guys have a real grip on those two elements of the science and the. The art of it, you know, and one of the things we were talking about, you know, kind of pivoting our conversation a bit before we hit record, was how you have come to also recently realize how trust is such a vital part of this path for you in your business. You know, you were talking specifically about patient care, so we were talking internally about businesses using systems and understanding the. The art and the spiritual side of it. But now let's pivot into that thing called patient care and building trust with them. You were alluding that you have seen recently and learned how powerful it is to get how results build trust and retention with patients. Do you mind talking a little bit about that?

Yes. Thank you for the kind words about New Fit and happy to share that. So for everyone listening, you know this. One of the things that we do in the EOS process in traction is to create your marketing message, talk about your core focus, talk about your three unique, sort of your sales pitch, what makes your company unique, why your potential customers should care, should work with you, etc. And I was so passionate about this work that it was, for me, it was give your patients a better experience, help them feel better. It was these things that were related to just the patient experience, patient outcomes. And it's, you know, a lot of clinicians, of course, value that of course care about patient outcomes, but they also are already skilled and trained clinicians. And so when we talk about that, it doesn't necessarily land because it's not solving an immediate problem that's top of mind for them. Whereas a lot of, a lot of, a lot of people listening to this, you might have issues more that you're thinking about. The things that keep you up at night are probably more related to, you know, how do I recruit and train and retain therapists. Right. Or how do I get more patients in the door, things like that. And so one of the things that's cool is that we have now seen both anecdotally and with actual objective data, that, you know, this process of NewFit methodology and using the newbie is in various clinics. Not only does it provide that increase in patient satisfaction, but it also leads to a financial Return in a way that speaks to business owners as well, more of the dollars and cents minded people. So it's kind of cool that you can get both the.

Art and the science, or the subjective and the objective, or the feel good and the do well by doing good kind of all of that together. And so like we did a pilot study, for example, with a large national clinic and they were using the newbie Nubi is our device neurobioelectric stimulator, just for reference. And they started using it in five locations. And they looked at all of their. It's very sophisticated. They track everything in their EMR and they saw some really wonderful things. Their patient satisfaction was already really good. It was in the high 80s, it was 88 or 89. When they used the newbie, it went up to 98. So that was cool. And that, however, doesn't necessarily translate to more dollars. You think that it will over time, but you have to look at the other things. So what they saw was an increase in arrival rate. They saw their 1, 2, 3 rate. It was kind of the dirty little secret. The number of patients that drop out within the first three sessions don't complete their plan of care because they think, oh, this isn't worth the copay, it's not worth the drive, I could do this myself, it's not going to help me whatever they think. So their 1, 2, 3 dropout rate was 16 to 17% and that was cut in half, went down to 8% when they used the newbie. So if you think about the increased retention and the number of patient visits that they're going to have, that increased volume is going to earn them a return on the purchase of the newbie in something like five or six months. So it was really, really wonderful to see that. And that is you talk about the speed of trust, which I know is one of your absolute favorite books. I know we've talked about. If you talk about the notion that one of the things that builds trust the best is results. If you get a result for somebody, they tend to trust you. And so working with newbie, many practice owners tell us this, many clinicians notice this and we've seen in our data 91 to 92% of patients experience tangible improvements, so functional improvements and or reductions in pain in their first session on the device. And we can talk about why that happens, but the headline is that that experience creates these wow moments, these aha moments for patients. And they are saying, well, of course I'd want to come back. This actually worked. This was well worth the time and the money and heck, yeah, I'm going to come back and complete my plan of care. So it sort of creates that, that dynamic there where you get that immediate buy in.

Yeah, it's so interesting, this concept of how trust builds results. Nothing gets trust. Excuse me, Nothing builds trust quicker than getting quick results, according to Stephen Covey. And the thing about the newbie, when it first came out, when NewFit first entered the market, I think I first saw you guys at a hands on diagnostic seminars event. I remember seeing you guys going, oh, cool, another new device. Like I did. I honestly just, I wasn't like, I don't trust it or whatever. But there's, there's just been so many devices. I remember being in PT school learning about diathermy, you know, this like magnetic coil thing that no one uses. You know, there's ultrasound was really big when I started trading and now very few, if anyone ever use it. Like, there's these things that have come and gone. We know that these equipment pieces are part of our business, so I don't immediately, like, put them down when I see something new come, but it doesn't stand out to me either. And I just remember thinking, I wonder what that is. And here's, here's what was interesting. The first people I talked to, I could mention their names, but I don't know if I can without embarrassing them. But these are, these are clients of yours, good friends of mine who would not lie. I was like, so why are you, what is it about this, this new fit newbie thing that you like? And they're like, well, immediately it's because we get results with our patients in a way that nothing else has. And that's, you know, I don't know how deep we want to get into in this episode, but, like, this is a machine that has not only gotten results so quick that it's starting to explode across the therapy world, but it's also in almost all these professional teams. I was in Colorado and Kara and Laura had to go to, I think it was the Rockies and it was like, oh, my gosh. And so, yeah, it's really cool that the newbie has gotten so much attention so fast, but this is what I love about the trust factor. So people who've been using that product and this concept, by the way, goes beyond the newbie, but just this idea of, like, with the newbie as an example, people who use it, the patients get an immediate result, so they keep coming back to their appointments, which is great. The other piece about this too that I've seen with my friends who use it is that they get immediate results in a different way. Their patients not only love it, but they're able to actually make additional revenue above what they've traditionally done in the insurance model. And that to me is the ultimate win, win, win. You've, you've helped create a product that increases the results of patients goals. Like then you turn around and you're increasing the results of your clients, the PT owners, getting the results they need financially. And so yeah, I just think that's really cool that you have found that. How did you discover this thing? Like how did you get in? How did this whole thing come about? I don't know the origin super story of the new fit company and newbie.

When you talk about, you know, how it gets these fast results for patients, I think it's worth diving into that and I think that.

Tell me how that happens first Will. So let's get into that.

Well, I think that'll come through when I tell my story too here. And.

It actually dates back to my time. I grew up in Chicago. I played ice hockey growing up. I played in college. I was really passionate about it. I was set to become an edge. I was a physics major, I was going to engineering graduate school. And I also, because of hockey, established a real passion for learning about physiology and exercise, exercise science and those sorts of things. I also had some injuries along the way and I became very disenfranchised with traditional physical therapy, traditional orthopedic medicine, for reasons people can probably guess. And.

I was in college and I had this experience where it was one of these pain to purpose really aha moments for me where I had some torn ligaments in my wrist. I thought I was going to have to get a surgery. And I met a chiropractic neurologist, a guy I got referred to through a friend of a friend. And he was the first one to really explain to me the importance of the nervous system in healing. Even though it's something that's orthopedic, that's more kind of hardware based. He was talking to me about the software and the nervous system and how the inhibitory and guarding neurological patterns locally influence or either support or don't support the healing process and also how globally how the autonomic nervous system is relevant. And so we did some more neurologically oriented treatments. And he also used on me a direct current device. It was an older one with these analog dials. It was more like a micro current type of thing. But I saw firsthand how using direct current and working with the nervous system actually allowed me to heal without surgery. And it was this amazing epiphany for me. And I was so having had the experiences I had, it meant even more. It was so exciting to me to find something that made sense scientifically from first principles. It was just this life changing experience. And I felt called going through that to share this type of work with as many people as I could. So I was already set to go to engineering graduate school here in Austin at the University of Texas. And when I was here, I sort of networked within the sports medicine world and ended up connecting with a guy who was the chiropractor for the UT football team and started working out of his private practice. So I'm not a clinician, but I was working underneath him and using older versions of electrical stimulation to actually treat people, to actually work with clients and patients. And I did this for seven or eight years and I got really passionate about what we were able to do with electrical stimulation, started to really see this opportunity to use electrical stimulation to change patterns of neuromuscular activation and accelerate the process of neuromuscular re education. I ended up going back to graduate school at UT for additional graduate work in neuroscience focusing on motor control. Wow.

Along the way, I was just waiting for someone to come out with something better and perhaps partner up and open more facilities around Austin. And then eventually I got to the point where I said, you know what, I have these ideas. I actually had a client who was a patent attorney who I talked to, and he was the first one who told me you could probably get some patents on some of your ideas. And I was like, oh, that's interesting. And finally got to the point where I was like, you know what, I'm going to do it. To heck with it, I'm going to do it myself. It's sort of like you said earlier, if you had known what you were getting into, you, you wouldn't have done it. If I had known how long, how expensive it was going to be to develop a medical device, oh my gosh, I don't know if I would have done it.

There's nothing about that that sounds exciting.

Hey, do you want to start a medical device? I'd be like, oh, buddy, no. I literally want to live a different life. But that's so cool because the difference was that you're, you're paying to purpose journey. Like you, you were suffering and you had a connection, so you had a driver for it, right? Like that's, I think, the difference.

Yeah, for sure, for sure. And so now that was a nearly three year journey to conceive of and launch and develop and get clearance on and start selling the newbie. And then as the time we're having this conversation, you know, it's been out between seven and a half and eight years and it's just been, it's been amazing to see. Yeah, like you mentioned sports teams. You know, there's 50 plus professional sports teams as of today across the major leagues in the United States. Here, come on. Using the newbie and several hundred clinics. And it's been amazing to see. There's still lights. Like we're going up a mountain and we've made it part of the way up. And we can look down and say, what a view. And then we can look up and see the peak and say, wow. And we've got a long way to go.

There's something about electrical stimulation that honestly we're just kind of starting to tap into. And I think the new FIT company and newbie is really exploring that space in a way that's never been done. Because I was talking to Laura and Kara about stories that blew my freaking mind of this idea of like people with ALS who were able to have temporary relief in a way that's like miraculous. And there's. There's something about the electrical. I want to be very mindful about, you know, over promoting and whatever. But I. These aren't over promotions. These are literal stories and things that I've seen in my own experience with people outside of your company. I think there's something in this electric space that is meant our. We understand our nervous system probably the least of any system in our body. So there's something about electrical current and how we can leverage that for healing and promoting that you guys are really tapping into. If someone came to you and just said, hey, listen, how are you guys different than, you know, all the other electrical stim devices out there? What would you say to them? Just so for the audience they can hear what that is.

There's a few ways that it's different. The biggest is the use of direct current as opposed to alternating current. So just to close the loop, you know, we were talking about how a majority of patients have these aha moments, notice progress in their first session. Sometimes it feels impossibly quick, feels miraculous. Why is that happening? Well, it's happening because of the effect on the nervous system. It's happening because so many times we're focused on the tissues, the Bones, muscles, tendons, ligaments, discs. But a big part of why it takes so long to recover, why people have pain and limitation, is not the initial damage, but it's the neurological response, the guarding, the inhibition, the perception of threat that leads to pain. And so we're able to directly address that. And that oftentimes creates a large or small or something in between improvement, but it creates some improvement, functional improvement, often very quickly. And part of why we're able to do so much there, we care a lot about the nervous system for that reason. And part of why we're able to impact it in such a way and accelerate that process of neuromuscular education is because of the use of direct current. So there's interesting history there where the benefits of direct current were known back at least in the 1960s, 1970s. But there was always this problem where when you get it up to a high enough level to have a therapeutic effect, it would literally burn the skin. So the Soviets would burn the skin of some of their athletes and they could do that from other Russia, but we.

We were not doing that over here. And so direct current fell out of favor and in its place came alternating current. The modalities that people are familiar with, the tens units, the so called Russian stim, which what we think of as Russian stim, as alternating current, the NMEs, FES, interferential, those sorts of things. And the issue with that is that there's a couple. The biggest one is that alternating current, as that signal goes back and forth, positive, negative, positive, negative, it sends a signal to the nervous system to essentially co contract or have muscles fight against each other, agonist, antagonist, CO contraction. Everyone knows here when we're talking to patients, we describe it as it would be like if you were driving your car and you're hitting the gas pedal and the brake pedal, or if you have an electric car, the throttle and the brake pedal, at the same time you're fighting against your own internal resistance, your muscles are fighting against each other, and that becomes a limiting factor in how much you can take. So you don't get enough sensory and afferent input into the nervous system. And so in contrast, direct current allows us to speak more powerfully, more precisely, and yes, I'll say more directly to the nervous systems. You can get a lot more sensory and afferent input. And that allows us to do things like mapping, where we scan around on the body to identify where the guarding, inhibition, perception of threat is present and then stimulate that area to accelerate that process of recalibrating re educating the nervous system and the brain and changing these patterns of sensory and motor activation.

That's amazing. Yeah. And I think that's interesting that you guys have been able to harness that DC power in a way that has allowed the body to take more current so they can have the effect. Because at the end of the day, that's what we're seeing here. You know, people who are even into cold plunging right now, they'll talk about in the studies how there's like this neurological reset that happens over time through this, the stimulation of the cold, much less in a direct electrical current that's hitting the nervous system directly. What that's capable of doing to. To reset some of these patterns that are being. That are at least understood in our body. So it's amazing that you found, you found this path through the DC world, the direct current world, and they were able to harness it and put it in there. You may have said this, but just in case I missed it, how come your system doesn't cause burns on the patient like the Russians used to do? Like, how come your DC current isn't causing that kind of skin result?

Part of that is where I just feel immensely grateful that I found, like, this, this. This thing where my engineering and neuroscience and interests overlap. So in the engineering that was part of the special sauce, so to speak, is there's actually. It's a dual waveform. So you have this pulse direct current, and then there's a second waveform that essentially comes in in between those primary impulses, and it removes some of the charge buildup. Because the problem is, if you run a direct current, if you run a direct current, eventually it's. If you run it for long enough, steady, at a steady state, eventually the positive ions are going to accumulate around the negative electrode, negative ions will accumulate around positive, vice versa. So you have those charges build up, and then that builds up a lot of resistance. So as you try to pass more current through that, and the resistance gets higher and higher, the current can't pass through, so it dissipates as heat and causes burning.

Got it.

And so what we do is still get those benefits of direct current while.

Getting rid of that charge. Build up.

Exactly. Yeah, exactly. That's the right way to say it. And one other benefit, actually, in terms of direct current, we talked about this neuromuscular education. There's also these really interesting processes that have to do with tissue healing and regeneration, where the body's own healing process, this goes back to even before this, but in the 1980s, Dr. Robert Becker came out with this book called the Body Electric. And it describes how the body's own internal electric fields actually influence the processes of healing and remodeling, whether it be wound healing, damage that influences inflammation, influences all of the restructuring proteins, osteoblasts, fibroblasts, all those things. So these direct current electric fields can actually help influence, in a positive way, the body's own healing. And we just saw the results of this in a really fascinating study, which was really cool because it was, at least to my knowledge, the first of its kind that compared in humans head to head direct current versus alternating current.

Whoa.

So this study was just published February of 2025 in the Journal of Diagnostics.

We're filming this episode in February 2025.

Right. So a couple weeks before we're having this conversation. So the study just came out. It was with you mentioned, the hands on diagnostics group, it was done in partnership with them because they do these really sophisticated EMG and nerve conduction velocity testing, these electrodiagnostics. And so this study, just briefly, 150 diabetic neuropathy patients. And so these are patients for whom.

The standard of care is about symptom management, pain relief. No one really believes that they can heal or improve function in any meaningful way. And so we had 150 these diabetic neuropathy patients. 75 of them got traditional alternating current tens unit treatment. And with them we saw what people expected, a little bit of pain relief, but nothing really meaningful in terms of functional improvement with the direct current of the newbie. However, those patients, not only were they subjectively reporting improvements in pain sensation activities of daily living, we also saw increased EMG amplitude, increased nerve conduction velocity. So we're actually seeing regenerative changes in axons remyelination in these patients in just six weeks. So there actually are these. It's showing these physiological benefits of using direct current.

Unbelievable. That is so phenomenal. By the way, I want to pause for a second and acknowledge anyone who's listened to the episode at this point, because anyone who's like, more on the leadership side of my podcast, they tuned out probably 15 minutes ago when we started getting into the science of newbie. But I will tell you, the people who are listening are. Their minds are like. Yeah, like they're just soaking it in. So I want to acknowledge all the really intelligent people who've stayed with us because, Garrett, this is a huge deal. I think the thing that got me really lit up talking about that study about the remyelinization of nerves was this idea that I was talking to Laura and Kara about this. These people with like terminal disorders that are neurological based and how again, you're not like fixing them. But there's, there's some real hope around some of these temporary short term things that are being tested on that. Like, wow, we've never been able to eat, you know, now because of the newbie, they've been able to try these things. There's, there's, I think, I think I feel like you're on an iceberg. I feel like the New Fit is an iceberg and you guys are just scratching the surface of what this world is that you're uncovering. So it's great because profitability unlocks possibility. You're helping the, your partners make more money as they're treating patients, getting better results. But you're making, you're not doing New Fit to make money, you're making money to do more New Fit. Like, I can see that you're going to take that money, research it and continue to develop this product so that you can discover and you, if anyone's going to find a breakthrough that's going to change the world in this world, it's going to be New Fit. So I just really can't thank you enough for developing the product. And also not just that piece of it, but the business end of it, being able to create it in a way to where your clients are making more money, that their patients are having better results. I'm a huge fan, in case you can't tell. So, yeah, Garrett, listen, it's been phenomenal having you on the show. If people wanted to get a hold of you, if there's anything that they need, how do they do that?

Well, thank you very much for the kind words there. I appreciate it. I love the work you're doing and it's an honor to be able to collaborate with wonderful people like you who are also leading the industry, really, and different elements, different ways than we are. But it takes a village. It takes a village and you're doing wonderful work. So I really appreciate it. And for anyone interested in learning more about us, connecting with our team through the website is a great place to start. Www.new.fit that's n e u like neurological new fit. And then if you're on social media, we're most active on Instagram, newfitrfp for rehab fitness and performance. And I have a personal Instagram. Would love to connect with you there. Just my first and last name, Garrett saulpeter.

Garrett, thanks again for being on the show. Phenomenal discussion. I love this idea of talking about systems, the spiritual side of business trust, creating results with clients and then just learning about your fascinating product. Thanks for being on the show.

Thank you Will. Thank you Rockstars.

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 can 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.