Nathan Shields on Achieving Success Through Consistency and Clarity

Rockstars. Today's episode features Nathan Shields. He's the CEO and founder of the Physical Therapy Owners Podcast and Facebook group. And coaching. I've known Nathan for 30 years. He was my first boss coming out of physical therapy school. We became partners. We. We expanded a business together. We sold that business. We've collaborated on multiple businesses. Nathan. To pinpoint what he's taught me into one introduction would be impossible to do. So let me just say this. I wouldn't be who I am without this guy. Nathan has helped me realize my strengths in multiple ways more than anyone else. And he has helped multiple people now in this coaching space make a difference in their world. And we're so excited to have this episode because we're going to be talking specifically about how to take vision and turn it into action, how small and simple steps are often the only path to making massive impact in our world and the worlds around us. So pay very close attention to his superpower, which is what I kicked the episode off with, in understanding how this leader operates. And I promise you'll learn lessons that will increase your impact over time. And so, without further ado, here's Nathan Shields.

All right, Nathan Shields, what is your superpower?

My man, My superpower. So this is a struggle for me because I'm not quite sure. Maybe I'm not introspective enough, but my superpower is. I feel like I have a consistency and a stability about me that leads to production. I'm always feeling the need to produce and, uh, sometimes to a unhealthy extent, but I'm always feeling the need to constantly be improving, constantly creating, constantly producing. And I think that that mindset has benefited me overall.

Yeah, I would. I would add to that and. And say that having known you for decades, I mean, that's a long time. That one of the ways that shows up is routine. You are a very routine person. I remember back when we would work together how, like, I knew there was Arby's day for lunch, down to a certain, like, what you would order. And it's not that. You see, the thing is, it's not that you were the same because you would vary, but you. Your consistency is the right word. I think it's a matter of understanding the power of routines in terms of how to create results. So I would rephrase it back that way. You have a superpower of understanding how to get results by taking those small steps I think most people take for granted and sticking to them over time. How has that helped you in your life?

That's the beauty of how I can really relate to.

The phrase small and simple things, great things come to pass. I really feel drawn to that as I look back at my lifetime. Because we always hear about the stories about the one hit wonders, the guys that bought bitcoin when it was $200 and now it's flourishing and, you know, go crazy amounts. But that's, I think that's the small minority of people that we hear about in the media and that get celebrated. Whereas the people who, the major, the large majority and the people get, the, who get the most work done are the ones who consistently produce. Right. And they not only have an idea of what they want to do, but then they start taking actions towards that actionable items that they actually do and don't just sit and dream consistently. And so as I look back at my life, I think it was a matter of consistent steps along the way that led to action, that led to the next action, that led to the next action. And then I can look back and say, oh, look, hey, look what I created. That's really cool.

Yeah. I think the first thing that comes to mind, if I can jump in, is your podcast, the podcast that you started three years, four years ago now.

Oh, dude, I think we're going on seven.

Oh, my gosh, sorry. I mean, this podcast is the dominant force in the physical therapy industry for entrepreneurs. I'd love for you to tell me a little bit how that was tied to what we're talking about.

Sure. Yeah. So my experience there was really funny because I'd never really heard of podcasts before. So this was probably, what, 10 years ago, my brother sent me a podcast that he found that related to my children. And I thought, that's really cool. And so I listened to that podcast and, and I think that guy was actually highlighted on Entrepreneurs on Fire. And I listen to Entrepreneurs on Fire a ton because he puts out every day. I'm like, okay, now it's a lot after you listen to it every day they're like, all these people start sounding the same. And then I thought, I wonder if there's a podcast about physical therapy business ownership. And so I started searching for physical therapy business ownership, and there were podcasts out there about how to treat patients better and how to market, but nothing like how to hire a physical therapist or how to get more production out of your team and that kind of stuff. And now, so the instant vision was, I want a podcast that talks about physical therapy business ownership. That's it. I don't care how to treat patients better. I don't care about marketing is. Is a portion of what you do as a business owner, but it's not what I want to cover. And so that was my vision for it. And I. I struggled for a couple of years because I had this vision and I wanted to do it. But you know me in tech, I'm okay with tech, but. But I would. I'd find myself in my closet trying to figure out. At the time they recommended GarageBand was a good audio source to edit audio. Audacity. I was trying, and I was sweating bullets like, I'm gonna totally mess up this audio track. And. And it was just like a practice audio track that I'm sweating bullets over, and I didn't know how to get it done. And so finally, like, this light bulb went off. Like, maybe there's a third party that does all this for me. And as soon as that. Dude, as soon as I found that, figured that out, I was like, okay, I just need to find that third party. Found them. And within a month, I had started doing my podcast episodes, right? And I thought it was really cool. I. I'd find myself being really excited every time I did a podcast and really nervous before each one. And. And it was a little adrenaline rush. But now, seven years later, I can look back and say, dude, I'm really proud of this library of audio slash video that any, pretty much any small business owner can look back and get some value from. It's just started with, and it was those little podcast snippets that were like, what courage comes before confidence? Kind of. Those kind of things, like, you're not going to be confident as. I'm not going to be confident as a podcaster until I've done the podcasts, right? And so it's that kind of stuff that kept me going.

I love it. You know, the power of small and simple things. You could be the master of the small, consistent things that matter, you know, because at the end of the day, now you have hundreds or, I don't know, thousands of episodes out. You've got this audience. I don't go to any industry event without hearing about you. We've walked together, and then later people come up to me and go, I heard that guy's voice. Was that Nathan Shields? And it's because of the consistency about the small things that were done. And I think, you know, I love that phrase that we greatly overestimate what we can do in a week, but dramatically underestimate what we can do in one year. Five years, 10 years. And it's so true. I just, you know, sometimes we just get wrapped up in wanting to be there now, recognizing that it is the small things and being consistent that add up over time. You know, the impact of. Of interest rates. Right. That multiplier of those types of investments in yourself. So as a coach, how does this show up for you? You. You obviously have the podcast. You're an experienced coach. How do you leverage the power that you have over routine and small and simple things to serve your. The people who work with you?

The example I want to use is something that. That we experienced ourselves and that I've done with you during the annual strategic planning sessions that we do and that you do with your team. But so say you have this goal for the end of the year, right? And there's this mile post marker. We want a million dollars in revenue. We're at 400,000 now, whatever that marker might be. And the beauty of Scott Fritz was how he would say, okay, that's out there. That's what you want to do by the end of the year. What are you going to do in the next 30 days to get there? And. And he would. We're like, wow, we need to come up with a plan and marketing. No, no, no, no, no, no. You're making it too hard. No, like, do you need to send an email? Like, yeah, okay, that's your. That's your next step. Send. Send the email by the end of the week.

And so he would always challenge us by saying, no, that's too. That's too much work. And as you consistently do that little by little, like, I do that with a lot of projects now. Like, I'm trying to. Honestly, I'm trying to build a spec home in Minnesota of all places. And I just have this list of things that need to get done in order to get through the sale and hit the profit margin that I want to make. And so I just kind of look at that and I'm like, am I even at that step yet? And what do I need to do to check that step off? And. And then there's like, smaller steps to get to that step. And so, yeah, I think that's something that maybe you can relate to. Maybe the team can relate to, is you have these big goals, and those are cool, but what are you going to do in the next week to get that done? Move towards that.

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Yeah, there's. There's always the negative self talk. Look at something that's relatively new or another level that I want to get to immediately. The voices in my head are like, what makes you think you can do that? That's crazy. You're not like that. That's not who you are. And that. And so getting past that negative self talk, I think is huge. How people are going to perceive you and see you, especially if you make mistakes along the way that might keep you from making the phone call or sending the email. Oh, I, you know, I don't know the vocabulary of that industry. So, like, I'm, as. I'm learning real estate, that's a big hiccup. Like, am I even asking for the right things and saying the right words or. Or because they might just get. Look at me like I'm stupid. So that's one thing I think that really keeps people is just the. That fear of how they're being going to be perceived.

I totally agree with that. From personal experience, I think the pressures that we have. We talked about this with an episode with Adam Kessel, how oftentimes success, we create it around the idea of what we were taught we're supposed to want. So we want to please others show up in a way, because at the end of the day, we're all looking for meaning. We're all looking for this thing about how I matter. And if we're in question around it too much, it becomes this thing that we let other people default. We default to other people's perspective of what matters. We want their input. It's that mindset that keeps us in the. In the gap, as Dan Sullivan says, and we are unable to tap into what we want and how to get there. So, okay, so self talk is definitely a big part of that. Any other factors you can think of?

Well, I, I keep thinking in my head as we're talking, like, what's, what's one thing that actually moved the needle? And I want to say the thing that's going to help you get over that hurdle. If I can take that next step. Is that okay?

Yeah.

Is just making a commitment. I'll give you a few examples. A couple years ago, I wanted to lose weight. And sure, I would go to the gym. I did CrossFit, and I gained muscle, didn't lose weight. I mean, I was getting thicker, but not. I wanted to slim down, no, not pick up. But nothing ever happened until I bought into the diet program that. No one wants to buy a diet program. I finally bought it, and guess what? A few months later, I had lost 20 pounds. I hit my mark that I wanted to hit, and I've been able to keep it off, essentially. And now I know how to eat better to keep it off. Go back to the podcast thing. Until I committed, I had to pay up front for those podcast episodes, right? So I had to commit, actually, financially. Comm. Maybe it's the financial commitment, commitment part of it. That. Because that's really a key. You can try to do it yourself, but you might as well pay the experts to learn how to do it better and faster and accelerate your growth. And so I had to pay for these podcast episodes up front. It's thousands of dollars for multiple episodes. And once I made that commitment, guess what? Damn sure I was going to start producing some episodes whether they were good or not, man. Right.

Consider us. What was the turning point in our ownership? For me, it was our trip to Seattle where they put the package in front of us for coaching and consulting. That was five figures, tens of thousands of dollars. And we were just like, I don't know, but something's got to change. And they. I made the commitment. I. We took the step. And our lives have been completely different since then, right?

Totally.

And so. And so for those. This comes back. Comes back around to people who they like. I just met with a physical therapist who wants to open a clinic this year, and he doesn't have a total clear vision about that, what that clinic looks like, whether it's in network with contracts out of network. He thought about maybe doing mobile pt, maybe not. But once he gets clear on what that looks like, what his ideal scene is, what's the next step for him? That commitment is, dude, go sign a lease. Guess what's gonna happen. You're gonna have a clinic really fast. So it's those little. You have to make. At some point, you have to make a commitment. Right. You know, when we buy the gym membership for $20 a month, we don't go. When we pay $200 a month to go to the gym. Guess what? I'm there three or four times a week making a difference, right? And. And so those. I think that that, number one, the fear of the financial commitment, like, maybe it won't work, and. And maybe I don't trust myself to follow through. Well, bet on yourself. Make the financial commitment. And that's when I've seen things change. When I've gotten coaches, when I've bought programs from experts, that's when I've paid the tuition to actually get better and learn.

You know what's interesting about that concept, too, is that I've experienced it on both sides where I have with you. For example, when we signed up in Seattle for those tens of thousands of dollars of coaching, we showed up because we paid. We paid attention. But I've also been the coach. I've had people pay me, and I've gone in at lower levels because I didn't believe in myself and I wanted to make it easy for people to afford it. I couldn't believe the difference when I took the same course, the same coaching, and I tripled or quadrupled the cost when I did that. It did require more on the sales end of explaining clearly what we were doing and why that mattered, but it resulted in people who were super committed when they paid, they paid attention. So people are out there saying, yeah, just throwing money on its own won't do it necessarily. I would argue that if you research the right solution, that's the difference. And none of us know for sure when we invest big money. I have never not had a coach in the last 20 years. I have paid money year over year. Every time I write that check, it hurts. It hurts a little bit less year over year. But the reason it hurts is because there's a risk involved. There's a betting on myself. Like you said, Nathan, when we can bet on ourselves and put our money where our dreams are, not where our mouth is, but our money where our dreams are. Even if the person isn't as amazing. I will tell you directly, Nathan, I've never had a bad coach. I've had coaches that were better than others, and some that I. And typically, the more I pay, the better they are. But more than anything, like for me, just having that dedicated space where I've put my commitment in there almost like calls forth the universe to produce results in a way that really matter. And so, yeah, I think if it doesn't hurt to financially invest, then we're really gauging that commitment in that moment around it. So you as a Coach, how do you help people? Obviously, they've paid you, right? So people come, they pay the money to invest with you and your team to help get results. They have a vision. Maybe you even help them clarify that. But after they get the vision created, what do you do at that point to help them take the next steps?

Well, that's coming back around is. That's. That's what you're investing in with me and with other coaches that you might find is what are the small steps that need to happen to actually make progress? Right. Someone mentioned it the other day. I was listening to a podcast, usually with a coach or without a coach, and I experienced this. Maybe you experienced it as well. I was experiencing the same year over and over again. It was like Groundhog's Day. Every year. My revenues were the same, my complaints were the same, the issues were the same. The employees might have been different, but it was still the same stuff. It was finally, when I got some coaching guidance, then they were number one. They showed me the steps that I needed to take that I wasn't taking and avoiding either, ignorantly, naively, whatever.

But I wasn't taking the proper steps to growth. And that's where. That's what we do as a coach and teach clients. And that's what I expect from my coach as well, is to show me the steps, be my guide, be my Obi Wan, so I can be the hero of my story and lead me to greater things. Right. And that's the idea with coaching, is to, number one, show you the steps, but then hold you accountable to those steps and. And then work through some of these hurdles. There's times where you have to kind of. You kind of have to, like, let some of my clients go. I've. Maybe you've seen it the same, but where they're just not taking the steps. Totally. That's just not a fit. I mean, you can't move an immovable object. If they're just. If they're so set in their ways that this won't happen, or I feel this way about it, well, then you're not coachable. At that point, we need to part ways. But a coach and a client relationship is best when the client can. Is willing to be teachable, coachable, and committed to change, doing something different and not stuck in their ways.

Yes, I agree completely. Having the ability to be coachable and take action, the magic formula that always must be present for people to move forward. But that investment you mentioned, man, really helps inspire action when people have discomfort around what they've invested in, they start to show up differently. Nathan, we've just scratched the surface around these topics and rockstars, what I'd like for you to do is to comment. No matter how you're consuming this, whether it's on the podcast or on the YouTube channel, I want you to mention where would you like to learn more from this step with Nathan? We're going to have him back obviously numerous times and he is a fountain of knowledge. What would you like to learn in this domain called taking actions towards realizing your your dream and your vision? Nathan, what's your call to action for people if they want to get a hold of you?

Yeah, so if you, if you're a physical therapist in that space and whether you're looking to open something or you are a physical therapy owner, definitely check out Physical Therapy Owners Club Podcast. We also have a Facebook group that consists of physical therapy owners as well as wannabe owners. That's Physical Therapy Owners Club. You can through the website ptoclub.com you can book a call with me and Adam. He is the, the director of our coaching services and we can talk to you about business, connect with you however, and also reach out to me nathanoclub.com But I'm on, you know, we'll do my podcast has the reels that go through the social media apps and stuff like that. Yeah, I'm, I'm all around, I guess with that stuff.

I've known Nathan, I don't know, I think it's 30 years now. Can't give him enough validity and appreciation for the impact he's made in my life and the lives of many others. So please reach out to him, guys. And Nathan, thank you so much for being on the podcast. I think we just scratched the surface of your superpower as well as what we're going to be talking about in future episodes around helping people realize their, their vision. Thank you so much for being on the show, man. I appreciate it.

Always, man. I'm ready.

Thank you for listening, rock stars. And if you're one of the many medical professionals and leaders who have had it dealing with the drama of hiring and training people that you think are overpriced, then let's think about how virtual assistants can offload you to do what you love, which is changing people's lives. In the show notes, there's a link to jump on our calendar so that we can show you why LinkedIn shows that virtual assistants is the second fastest growing trend in healthcare next to artificial intelligence. At no obligation, we'll see if this is a fit for you. I hope to talk to you soon.