Joe 0:47

Hey everyone, I'm here with Jennifer Niset, owner of Fit for Life Physical Therapy. Welcome Jennifer and thanks for coming on. Thanks

Jennifer 0:54

for

Joe 0:55

having me. So I've read a little bit about your story and I find it interesting and I'm sure we'll get into some experience I had, uh, uh, with what you had talked about in your story, but, uh, tell me a little bit about, uh, yourself and how you got into the

Jennifer 1:07

industry. Awesome. So I think I was first introduced to physical therapy in high school when I was a runner. and experienced an injury myself that was threatening to sideline me. And my parents took me to a physical therapist, and they were able to get me back on track. And at that point, it really was, um, I knew that I think I had heard of physical therapy and thought it was something that I might like to do. But, when I experienced an injury myself, and with their help was able to overcome it, and, and be given the tools that I needed to sort of help myself prevent the injuries from reoccurring, I knew that it was something that I wanted to do for myself. So, so physical therapy school was then on the, on the docket. So, fairly young

Joe 1:55

age, how old were you? Yeah, I was in high

Jennifer 1:57

school

Joe 1:57

probably. High school? Okay. Yeah, I played a lot of sports too. Dealt with a lot of injuries here and there. Yeah, yep. Um, so, tell me a little bit about your background. You know, once you, you've gone to school, now you've got your degree and you got into, into your line of work. Right. As a physical therapist.

Jennifer 2:20

So the beautiful part about physical therapy for me is as my family has grown, I've been able to make my career fit around my family, and that is a large part of my story. So I, though I have almost always practiced in outpatient orthopedics, over my family's growing years, there were times where I did some different things. So, um, we have four children now, and from 13 up to 20. But when they were little, you know, there was, I, I remember telling my husband when I was pregnant with our third. child that I was not gonna get three kids out of the house by 730 in the morning to go to be at work and so for a few years I did home health care and or I worked in a skilled nursing facility or I did PRN work on the weekends and I did that for several years. You know, I started in outpatient orthopedics as a new grad, worked in the hospital setting, worked in, in um, Different private practice outpatient settings and then took a little hiatus when my family was in the painful growing years Yeah, and um, and then I came back of course because outpatient orthopedics particularly spine pain Sciatica type of things neck pain is my passion So I got back into that probably when my about 12 or 12 or 13 years ago. I worked for 11 years at a very well known successful outpatient orthopedic clinic in Mentor and, um, had some life experiences happen which I can get into in a little more detail that sort of catapulted me down the path of starting my own practice in 2020.

Joe 4:07

Okay. So, a lot of time, I guess. And from what I understand, it was, there was a lot of time that was taken away from your family working in the practice at the facilities

Jennifer 4:20

that. What happened during the 11 years or so that I worked, um, in a very, very busy, successful outpatient clinic was, uh, though we were providing very good quality care, it was demanding physically for me and I was missing out on things that were happening with my growing family. So. that's part of the story of, of branching out on my own.

Joe 4:44

Gotcha. Okay. So let's get into it. Why did you start your own business?

Jennifer 4:50

Okay. It's multifaceted. Um, I never thought I would own my own business. I, I was very happy doing what I was doing, providing the physical therapy and then just going home. Um, but I do believe that we, Um, need to live our life on purpose and I think I had an underlying sort of whisper that something, I knew things weren't going well. I wasn't doing well as a wife and a mom and, you know, and in my career and balancing all of these things with the time constraints and, um, and then life started happening. So the first thing that happened. I guess it's important to know that first, it wasn't functioning very well. It wasn't working very well, but I was comfortable. Uh, I felt loyalty to my employers. They were, you know, long time family friends. I loved them. They made, they formed me into the PT that I was. We were like family. But, uh, I didn't know what else I would do, honestly. So I just was in this season of, I'm just, I'm gonna stay here. Um, so I wasn't doing well prior to sort of a series of life events happening. The first of which was, um, in 2018 or 19. Um, my husband was diagnosed with prostate cancer at the age of 47. So, um, when that happens for anybody that has received a cancer diagnosis, It was life changing. Um, I'm not sure how my kids started school that year because he had surgery in August. Um, but friends and family helped out. Um, it was his cancer, but what was an important lesson for me there was it still happened to me. So I got him through the surgery and the recovery and when he was fine. Then, I wasn't, and realized I wasn't, and the, the stress of that led to some health issues of my, of my own. And so, that was the first indication that I needed to do something different, and as I was attempting to sort of take care of myself and come back from that, and we're learning to live in our life now, you know, after cancer, um. My soon to be, or she was 16, my six, our 16 year old daughter, who was like three days away from taking her driver's test. We were involved in a car accident two miles from our house at a very busy and common four way intersection that I drive by 10 times a day to take kids back and forth to school. So, uh, we were T boned from the driver's side, which resulted in a lateral whiplash and a concussion for me. Um, unfortunately she was fine, um, but that concussion would result in me missing about seven weeks of work and really gaining an appreciation for your brain. So it was honestly in that season of not being able to do anything, care for myself, my family work, um, that that's when the Holy Spirit worked honestly in my life. I'd been invited to do some Bible studies with a friend of mine for years, and I always sort of pushed that off. But now I had nothing but time, and coincidentally, in quotes, the Bible study that they were doing at that time was called Jonah. And if you know about the story of Jonah, he was running in the opposite direction of where God wanted him to go. And so it was in that season that I realized. and started to discern that I needed to do something different. But going somewhere else and providing physical therapy anywhere else was just going to feel the same and be the same under the same constraints. Uh, so I started to do a little research and study and I learned that there was this other way. And there was this group of physical therapists who were providing physical therapy out of network with insurance. Which meant we didn't have to practice under the time constraints and the productivity constraints and the whatever other limitations they wanted to place on us with regards to what we could do with the patient when they came in. And I prayed about it and I started talking about it and it kept coming back to me and reinforced positively. And as scared as I was to do that, I started taking action and I, I say that faith in action dispels fear as terrifying as it was, I did feel like it was a leap of faith and I opened my practice in January of 2020. I saw my first patient.

Joe 10:11

Yeah, that I liked what you said. And, um, about. Sometimes you're forced to slow down. Yeah, whatever that may look like. Yeah, right for who you are and what you do And I know it's happened to me a few times in my life You know that Being forced will Point you in the right direction. Yeah, and I love that. Yeah So you said 20 how long I've

Jennifer 10:39

been in business now, January 6 2020. I saw my first patient Okay.

Joe 10:43

So you were open through COVID then? Yeah, it

Jennifer 10:46

would be just before COVID. Which honestly I think was another blessing because we were just getting started. And it was just me and my first space was 500 square feet in the basement of a building. And during that time, March to April, physical therapy clinics, many of them did stay open. They were considered essential. But again, I had four children. In various stages of very important life events, junior year, you know, sophomore year, seventh grade and fourth grade, I've honestly, a lot of times people will tease me that four kids is a lot and isn't that I've never really, they come one at a time. So, you know, it is a lot, but you get used to it. I've never felt overwhelmed in my life. with four kids until COVID, and it was awful trying to help them all through their seasons of loss and a large. That's a large reason why I did close my doors for about a month because we were trying to figure out how to cope. But even then, when I did open back up in middle of April or later. My patients felt safe because it was just me. It was not a busy clinic, you know Yeah They didn't even have to pass another person coming into the building if they didn't want to and so it was slow But I was slowly growing anyways Oh, but you

Joe 12:17

had a family to take care of too that was not going to school and they were home So you had four kids at home, right?

Jennifer 12:25

So again, it was a blessing And, you know, I'm thankful that I had that freedom, which is, you know, why I did what I did, because I wanted time, time freedom, basically, to be with my family, which is the most important thing. Yeah, absolutely.

Joe 12:52

What's one thing during your business venture, um, that you didn't expect?

Jennifer 13:02

I think, well, the biggest learning curve for me has just been, been the business side of things that Again, I I used to joke that I I didn't you know, I didn't understand insurance. I didn't I just treated the patients, right? so to go from Somebody who was an employee in that mindset to an employer I'm not sure if that's answering your question, but that's been sort of I never expected that I would be a business owner. And

Joe 13:37

handling all the business part of it and in and doing the business itself. Right. Yeah. Right. So how does your business look now compared to when you first started? I

Jennifer 13:49

like that question. Um, we have, I have, we have been tremendously blessed. So, and there have been some continued God wings along, along the way. So for the first, um, Two years or so it was just me from treating the patients to scheduling them, um, changing the sheets, washing the linen. Oh, I know. I feel ya. All the things. I did all the things. Um, in August of 2021, my mom was diagnosed with stage four melanoma. brain tumor. It was not her first occurrence. She had had an eight year journey of it, with it, but this was, um, a pretty devastating discovery. And in December 20, on December 21st, she passed away at 66. That's young. Yeah. I think in my grief, in a season of sitting, Figuring out what am I supposed to do with this. I started again to get some whispers that maybe fit for life, which she was always very proud of. Should be more than just me. And that I had been able to grow it successfully enough to provide for my family, to have the time, freedom and financial ability to just be with my growing family. But if I wanted to make a bigger impact and help be the change that I felt the industry needs, I couldn't do that all on my own and have the same time freedom with my family. So, um, I hired a business coach and I needed systems and marketing and a team. Right. And so I've spent the last year and a half or so working on that. We I hired my administrative assistant Jenna in August of 2022, which freed me up to do more marketing and et cetera. And in January of this past year, I hired my first physical therapist, Raven Anspaugh, who is tremendous, both of those women. have been godsends and literally are helping, you know, with my growing team to be able to serve more people. In February, we, well, the end of January, we moved out of our very small 500 square foot space next door to 1, 800 square feet on the second story. of our building overlooking the golf course, Quail Hollow behind us with windows. We really moved up in the world from a basement with no windows to the second story with a beautiful view. And we're seeing tremendous growth in terms of the physical therapy side of things and the patients that we're able to serve. But with the added space, we're now able to offer community events. So, once a month we bring in, or we present, and we, we speak on something that helps keep our patients fit for life. And I've been able to add four, I call them partners in health, who are beautiful ladies that now help me provide additional services in this space, in the areas of functional health coaching, personal training, and therapeutic medical massage. So, It's really just sort of catapulting off tremendously, and I'm humbled and overwhelmed and excited about where we're going, honestly.

Joe 18:01

That's awesome. Congratulations. Thank you. So, would you say that's kind of what sets you apart from other businesses, other physical therapy businesses?

Jennifer 18:13

What I think sets us apart from other physical therapy businesses is we have time to see patients. To spend one on one time with patients. So when you come into our clinic you, you have one therapist who is your therapist and we have time to listen to the patient's story, which is after 24 years of sitting across from a patient listening to their story so many times by the time they get to us in our office, they're frustrated and because they've gone down many different roads and didn't get answers, solutions, relief, and have honestly wasted time and money and continued suffering by looking other places. Our practice, because we are out of network with insurance, it means if, if a patient comes in and they've been suffering with back pain, But they tweaked their knee while they were hiking this weekend, and that's acute and problematic. We can address that, that day, and, and immediately begin getting them relief from their symptoms. We're not held by the constraints of an insurance company saying, well, you have a prescription from a doctor for back pain, and that's the only thing that you can treat for this patient. You know, by the way, please, you know, bill four codes because, you know, you have to be so productive and that sort of thing. So, what sets us apart is, we, we have time to listen and to treat the patient. And honestly, our, my goal is that we are the go to providers for, for pain and injury when they strike. Physical therapists in Ohio for many, many years have now had direct access. That's not. commonly known, but you don't have to go to a doctor. You don't have to have an x ray or an imaging at all. You, you can start with a physical therapist who has the training. Your body, your musculoskeletal system, that's our expertise. With all due respect to physicians and chiropractors and, and, and all other medical professionals, um, your body is our specialty. And we're trained to know when there's red flags that need to be addressed and when, and we do communicate. It's actually state law that within 30 days of seeing a patient under direct access, you, we have to notify a physician that you're under our care. And so, you know, you can save yourself valuable time and money by going to see a physical therapist first. And the patients that do do that for us and with us, I think that's what sets us apart. Is they know they have a place to go quickly when something happens to them. And that they can get back on track quickly. Well,

Joe 21:41

I can tell you that I appreciate, tremendously appreciate people like yourself who are able to offer that because, you know, I've gone through things personally, but I've also gone through things just recently, you know, with aging parents, right? You know when you're going in for one thing But all of a sudden something comes up and it's on the appointment day and you know that well I can't get another appointment for three or four months Well, we only can see you for one because you know, we got to put these codes in for this particular one So I guess we can give you a choice. Which one would you prefer? It's annoying It's frustrating doesn't do yeah, and it does it just doesn't do too It doesn't do anything for the people who need the help. So absolutely appreciate what you do. Thank you. That's awesome. What was the hardest part during, uh, you know, starting your own business and being an entrepreneur?

Jennifer 22:39

Probably overcoming the inner voice.

Joe 22:47

Oh, I know what you're saying.

Jennifer 22:50

Can I do this? Should I do this? Um, well, am I good enough? Will they come? Um, I think the hardest part was starting. It's it continue that has continued, especially like, well, can I really, can I afford to Bring in somebody because now now before I hired staff if I failed it was just me and my family but now I have you know, so can I really afford to bring on people and Pay them and am I good enough and will they come those things still they still arise from time to time but I I really do think that faith in action dispels fear and I continue to be prayerful about what I'm doing and And there are, there are, there are challenges for sure, but, but he does continue to show me that, yeah, this is what you should be doing and they will come. Yeah. So,

Joe 23:58

yeah. And I agree with you. It's faith in action dispels fear. You have to, you know, believe in what you do, who you're doing it for,

Jennifer 24:08

right. Absolutely. I think the more, the more people that we serve and the more stories we hear, the more empowered and passionate we get when, when we have patients who, who have unfortunate stories.

Joe 24:25

Yeah, those are, those are victories. Right. I mean, right for us. Yeah, for you, you win your, your, your patients win, right? Is there feeling tremendous that you've helped them along? And I mean, you know, who wouldn't feel good, you know, as a practitioner, such as yourself about Helping people,

Jennifer 24:44

right? Yeah What's

Joe 24:46

the least favorite part about being an entrepreneur? the

Jennifer 24:55

Bookkeeping.

Joe 24:57

Amen. I hear you there, okay.

Jennifer 25:00

The accounting and bookkeeping, honestly. And I don't necessarily love all of the social media things that we have to do, and I can do it. Right.

Joe 25:15

But. It's taxing. It's a lot. Yeah. Especially if you're doing it. I mean. I do a lot of my own stuff, you know, and it's, it's taxing. You have to, okay, I got to set time aside to create this and I have to put this, you know, and it's, you know, you're, it's time

Jennifer 25:33

consuming. And not always for the greatest reward because who knows what algorithms they're looking for these days. I might be time to outsource that. Right.

Joe 25:44

This is somebody, somebody who, uh, Yeah. Knows how to, you know, put the play into play and yeah. What's a common myth about your industry that.

Jennifer 25:54

I think a common myth we've talked about a little bit already is that you have to see a physician or have an image or get a, what do you got, a referral or a prescription. Right. Yeah. That you have to, that you have to be seen by a doctor before you see, right. Honestly, many of us now. I've been practicing long enough that I, I'm not, but many of us are doctors of physical therapy. So, the myth is that you need to have a referral or see a doctor or have an image before you come to physical therapy. And, the truth is you, you do not. In fact, my, um, So, the one thing that I like to say, I guess it's my mission statement, is that we help active people overcome pain and injury quickly. Um, so that they can get back to doing what they love, often avoiding pain medication, imaging or injections. So really the idea is your physical therapist should be the go to person that you seek out for normal musculoskeletal pain problems and conditions.

Joe 27:09

Yeah, I mean, in my experience, you know. Because I'm a very active person. Um, Going to a doctor, a regular doctor, it's not, to me, for me it hasn't helped me. It's always been physical therapy. It's always been, or a chiropractor, or somebody who specializes in, you know, that particular, you know, whatever injury I may have had. Um, So, that's a good thing.

Jennifer 27:41

Just have to get the message out.

Joe 27:43

Yes. Well, hopefully this helps get the message out, right? Share it with everybody. Yes. All right. What's the biggest challenge, um, that you're facing like right now in your business and how are you tackling it?

Jennifer 28:04

I, I think the biggest challenge is growing and growing. Um, quickly enough, the goal, uh, now is that I need to fill another therapist's schedule. So I'm sufficient, I'm sustaining myself with my current patients and with the referral basis that I have, but the challenge is bringing in a new therapist who came from a setting, um, of working with BWC, Bureau of Workers Comp, in a clinic that strictly dealt with that. So she, those patients. are bound to stay in network with their, you know, they have to see BWC providers. So she didn't come with a large, uh, referral base for herself, relatively as a young therapist also. So the challenge is, is growing the practice, marketing her and, and growing her schedule so that we can get her up to where she wants to be. Um, because ultimately the vision of fit for life in our current setting is, I'd like to bring on another therapist yet. So me plus two would adequately fill the space. And I think for now, because I'm, I'm done guessing what's God's doing, but for now I think that would be, um, sustainable and sufficient, sufficient for, for our practice. Um, so I'm. Um, I'm elevating my marketing, uh, activities, trying to go out and network a little bit more in the community, go to places where our people are, things like this will be helpful. Um, and I am looking at sort of, uh, hiring some help with marketing to, to get the word out a little more quickly than just the word of mouth referrals, which is largely what Fit for Life has run on for the past three years. Right. Yeah. So.

Joe 30:08

Okay. We'll talk, on a side note, so I remember to take this out, but on a side note, um, I may have an opportunity for you, marketing. Awesome. Um, I do some different things personally, myself, um, I sell it to other businesses. Um, cause it just, it translates from real estate to anything else. Uh, and I do use artificial intelligence. I know how to prompt it. I know how to create ideal client profiles. I can create content. For you for Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, whatever it is that you're looking for. So, well, if that's something you're interested in, I could talk to you a little bit more about it. Okay. All right. Okay, so let's get back to the podcast. All right. Um, What is one piece of advice that you would give to somebody who is trying to get into your industry? Whether it's start a business or just get into your industry.

Jennifer 31:10

Well, two different... Answers probably. Oh yeah. I would imagine there are. So if you're looking to become a physical therapist, um, obviously my first bit of advice would be to spend some time in, in different physical therapy settings. There's a lot of avenues that you can take as a physical therapist. I mean from pediatrics to geriatrics to stroke rehab and home health care and. It's just, there's a wide range of parts of life that we are able to touch. And so, I would say spend some time with some different physical therapy providers to see what a typical day is like. So just, yeah, any bit of good advice would be to spend some time in the industry and figure out if that's really how you want to spend your days. If you're looking to start your own. Practice, get help, I guess is the, uh, look for a mentor or a coach because both in the very beginning stages and when I was ready to grow my business, I invested in the business by mentorship and coaching. And that has tremendously shortened the learning curve in the business side of things by not trying to go it alone.

Joe 32:39

Yeah, there's no sense trying to reinvent the wheel and it's already been invented and you just need to learn how to ride. Give me the toolbox.

Jennifer 32:48

Right. Yeah,

Joe 32:49

yeah. So with that being said, um, who's been your most important professional mentor?

Jennifer 32:59

So there's a few PT gurus in the industry that we're doing out of Network PT. Um, Aaron LeBauer, Dr. Aaron LeBauer is. He's the gentleman that I used, uh, to help get me started at the very beginning and then later on here. I just follow some other professionals. Jared Carter is one and I listen to his podcast often, or I did when I was starting. Um, honestly, um, Carrie Craig, who owns Care for Pelvic Health, she's a neighbor to me now in business and started her own. pelvic floor out of network practice shortly after I did her and I have become quite good friends, but success partners also in terms of just women in business kind of walking the journey together and Problem solving and running, you know things back and forth between each other. So I would say her as well Yeah,

Joe 33:57

I think it's important. Yeah to have to have people by your side. Yep What's one lesson Your job has taught you, um, that you think everybody should learn at some point in their life.

Jennifer 34:13

I guess the thing that's coming to me is we need to listen to the whispers. And I do believe that everybody on this earth is here to live out their own specific God given purpose. And you need to try to do that if at all possible. I love

Joe 34:34

that. I agree. What's one thing about your job or field, industry, uh, of expertise that almost no one agrees with you about?

Jennifer 34:45

I think the fact that we are an out of network clinic is often an educational area that we need to. Yeah, I agree. To bring people up to speed on. It's a. It can be a barrier for some, I can

Joe 35:07

guarantee that most people are going to say, well, I've got to get a referral from my doctor,

Jennifer 35:11

or I need to use my insurance benefits because I pay a lot for insurance. Um, so I think that's probably, that's probably where, where I would answer. We, I would say we do in, especially bringing on Jenna and learning more, I would say we do in, especially bringing on Jenna and learning more, How to navigate this system. We do a really good job educating our patients now. Just because we are out of network with insurance does not mean you cannot use your insurance benefits. There are different insurance policies, different premiums, and certain plans do allow for out of network reimbursement. And we can help navigate those conversations and help you ask the right questions. And then we provide you with Um, the information that they need. So we do, you know, you do pay for the services up front, much like a chiropractor, um, but then the responsibility is on you to file the claim with your insurance and accept the reimbursement back. So you

Joe 36:20

get in, you'll at least guide them into how to do work that. Yes. Okay. What is the one indispensable tool that you have for your job? I mean, I guess that's, to me, that would make sense, right?

Jennifer 36:39

My head and my hands, uh, really are the two tools that I have to have, that we have to have as physical therapists to do our job.

Joe 36:50

Makes sense. At what point did you look at your business and say, wow, uh, this is a success? This will probably run into the question. What is success to you?

Jennifer 37:06

Yeah. Yeah, probably. I mean, when I was able to pay my bills and then take some for my family, I figured, okay, I can do this. Like so very quickly in my business, I cut my operating budget low and we lived off less for a while. And when I, When I realized within those first few months that it could be a profitable business enough for my family, then at that point it was successful. Um, financially, if that's how you want to define success, it's important. So however

Joe 37:50

it is for you, you know, it's different for everybody.

Jennifer 37:54

Well, with a growing family of four and two girls that, you know, now in college, it was. I needed it to be an income for our family. And it's

Joe 38:03

a piece of it, right? Yeah. And it changes. It's a moving target,

Jennifer 38:07

I think. Yeah. To get more precise into, you know, how do I know, or how do I define success, or is my business successful, I would say, I created Fit for Life so that I could be present with my family. So that if there was a t ball game at 7 o'clock on a Tuesday night, or a cross country race on a Wednesday evening, that I wouldn't miss it because I was at the office seeing patients late. So, my business is a success because I have been able to create a space where I can treat patients and provide them with life changing physical therapy services, but, but be present for my growing family. And I do miss some things. Sometimes you will when you have four children. Yeah, absolutely. But by and large, I am in charge of that now and can move patients and modify my schedule. And so for me, my business is successful because it's allowed me to be the best version of myself as a mom and a wife. And a physical therapist for my patients. That's

Joe 39:30

awesome. I love you for that. That's awesome So we're coming to the end so the podcast and where can listeners find you So I have a website. Okay, and I'll put all this in the in the description. Okay

Jennifer 39:46

So yeah, www. fit4 which is the number for life physical therapy, ohio. com We also are on Facebook with Fit for Life Physical Therapy. I have an Instagram page and a YouTube channel. Cool. Yeah.

Joe 40:04

All right. Very good. I'll put that all in description. Well, Jennifer. I want to thank you so much for coming on. This is actually been inspirational about what you've talked about and some of the things you talk about in business and things like that. And I greatly appreciate you for that and for coming out. So thank you. Thanks for having me. Yeah, this is, this was wonderful. And, and, and make sure you share this and, um, thank you again. Yeah,

Jennifer 40:29

absolutely.