Paul Gough

Free Marketing Plan Road Map for Physical Therapy Clinic Owners
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Why Limit Yourself To Being “Just” A Physical Therapist?

“Is an identity expansion needed?”  

What that means is very simple. 

I think you need to start thinking bigger and I think you need to change what that identity is. 

For example, the issue that many people have in business that stops them getting success in businesses they don’t like to hire, they don’t recruit, they don’t like this evil variable, inconsistent emotional beast. 

People are genuinely frightened about hiring. 

Because of all of the things that could go wrong. 

So, what happens is people get stuck in this idea of themselves of being a PT MPT, MPT, MPT – and maybe 5 or 10 years ago you wanted to be a great PT and because you had an identity of yourself as a great PT, you became a great PT. 

Fantastic, well done. 

The problem is now you’ve probably hit the ceiling. 

There’s only so much you can do, and the problem with being a PT is you can’t 10X your hours to 10X your income as you’re all finding out. The only option that you’ve got is people, right

How do we combine 10 people skills and their effort and their time in order to free you up, to give you more money or make you more money, but equally enhance your lifestyle. 

It’s very difficult, right? 

I wouldn’t swap my job for a highly paid doctor, a highly paid lawyer. 

You still have to go to work every day as a highly paid lawyer or a highly paid doctor. 

And at the end of it, it has a ceiling. You have to work 50 hours a week to get what you want, it has a ceiling. 

However, if the identity changes to be a team builder, I can build teams on both sides of the Atlantic. 

I can build teams in multiple businesses. I can build teams from anywhere in the world. 

I can put five people on this project. I can put five people on that one. I can put 10 on this site. 

I can put five in this area. I can put five in the marketing team.  

I can build a real estate company if my identity expands and goes past just being a great PT. 

What I’m capable of is so much more. Where a lot of people get stuck is in the identity that that’s probably relevant five years ago. 

It was right to think of yourself as needing to be a great beauty. 

That’s what you want it to be. That’s what you are. You’re never going to lose that. 

But when the ceiling is hit, it’s time for an upgrade. 

Try and get over the hang up that many people have with hiring, you’ve got to change that identity of yourself. 

If you see yourself as a PT, these people will become inconveniences and will treat them like inconveniences. 

And they’ll leave like inconveniences. 

I’ve watched the identity that’s this “I’m a physio and not somebody who hires people. I’m not business owner. I’m not a team builder.” But if I start to think of myself as a team builder, you have an expansive view. 

It’s like looking out on the Sahara Desert like it’s just forever, like your life literally will go like this, but most people’s view is like looking down a one-way street in Manhattan like, it just gets narrower. 

Because of that, life gets closed off. 

You have a narrow view of who you are, whereas when you open up the view of who you are, it becomes a bit more expansive. It’s endless. 

So, as you start to think about your growth and what you want, I think it starts with this identity expansion. 

Are you a great physio? Are you even a clinic owner? Or are you a team builder? 

I think a team builder is bigger than an entrepreneur. 

I could be an entrepreneur, but I can get stuck if I’m not a team. 

Just start with the genuine love of people and being around people, right? 

But then take it all the way to and know what I’m looking for and know what I want and know what your background needs to be and I’m going to get a kick, a thrill out of you coming into my life. 

Some will come in and do a tremendous job and then they’ll leave and that’s fine. 

But that’s cool as well, as long as they leave better people. 

All would, and I know they do, admit privately to having the time of their life in that period of time that they grew as people. 

Their confidence increased. They were definitely better people when they left my world and were definitely better employees. 

That’s what I hope that you crossed that barrier, that mental block that you might have about hiring people, where’s the expansion needed? 

Think about that. What do you want to do? 

Have unlimited possibilities for yourself. 

That’s a cool place to live, right? 

It’s a cool street to be on. You can live there and it’s alright and it’s nice. 

I was going to say it’s safe, but it probably isn’t. It’s just some fun stuff to do and it’s all right. 

Why not live or not live like that? 

Why not think of yourself as a celebrity? 

Now I’m a business owner. Great. That’s my new identity, but I’ve probably got a bigger one that I can claim celebrity in. 

There’s nothing special about somebody like me, who might be making a bit more money or doing something different. 

You get that little opportunity, and you just go get it. 

Somebody in your town is now figuring out how to be the celebrity. 

You’ll be mad when you start seeing them in the papers or on the TV. 

That it could have been you, and primarily it’s because you just don’t think you’re good enough to get it. 

Go after it. 


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