Want to see how Kim Nartker, PTA is crushing it with her PT workshops? Then check out the video and case study below…
Watch the video below to find out how she’s doing it!
If you’d prefer to read the transcription, rather than watch the video or listen to the audio, check out our conversation below but real quick….
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Transcript
Chad: Hey everybody, welcome to another awesome show. I am really excited for you to hear from our guest today, Kim Nartker.
Kim has a very unique story. She is not only a private PT practice owner, she is also a PTA.
I say that with the sincerest compliments because so many times I hear physical therapy practice owners thinking that they need to have a DPT or 17 letters after their name.
Kim has just blasted through all of those myths and she is rocking it right now in her practice.
I really want to dig in and get behind exactly what she is doing and implementing that is helping her practice, Stretch Physical Therapy, blow up right now.
So welcome to the call, Kim.
Kim: Thank you so much, Chad. I am honored to be here.
Chad: Can you walk us through, fill in the blanks for us a little bit? When did you open up private practice? Exactly where you are at? How many clinics you have? What your staff looks like etc?
Kim: I opened May of 2013 hoping to open as an out of network provider.
I hired my first PT and was sort of pushed into no I don’t have enough people and the PT telling me what I needed to do. I needed to go and get into all of the insurances that I could just to fill up my schedule. I did that.
The first year in private practice was pretty dim.
I think we were about at, by the end of the first year, 25 visits a week which were not a whole lot.
I had to let go of that therapist. We weren’t on the same line.
Then started the BPTM program, I believe it was July of 2015.
Wow. I was just struggling. I couldn’t get doctors to refer. I was getting people in and we were getting great results with the people that we were getting in. But people were telling me, “I didn’t even know you were here.” It was all word of mouth but it was just very, very slow word of mouth.
Chad: What things when you first opened up, did you try? Were you doing physician drop-offs, doctor lunches? Were you advertising in the local paper, on the radio? What types of things were you doing to try to increase your patients coming in?
Kim: To gain exposure, I joined every networking club in the area that I could join to just get the word out for me to build a trust with the community. Then I also knocked on all of the doctor’s doors that I knew. And yes, I spent a fortune on doctor’s lunches and felt completely ignored. I had a hard time getting through the front desk or just anything.
Chad: So that did not work out well for you? Is that what I’m hearing?
Kim: It was a total flop. I have some good stories that we could sit down and talk about. We won’t even bring them up here.
Chad: We will do another episode just on physician lunch disasters.
Kim: Perfect.
Chad: So you try that and then what was your breaking point where you knew that you had to do something different probably right before July of 2015? What was it that you knew that you had to do something?
Can you walk us through that thought process?
Kim: Absolutely.
I was getting ebb and flow and it was just word of mouth referrals.
There was no consistency.
Once we finished a person, I had no means re-marketing and standardizing number of visits coming in.
It was pretty much going to networking groups and feeling like I was having to compare myself to a chiropractor and then promote my services over and above a chiro’s.
We are a heavy chiro area. Every time that I would do that and try to get a partnership with a chiro, I would hear from them, “Oh, we do that. We take care of that.” So it was constantly I felt like everybody I could talk to them but then if the chiro talked to them and they had a relationship then they were going to go to their chiro.
Chad: Same thing here. That is exactly what we go through.
So you started in the program. Started fixing your funnel and doing green ink letter, 7 Step Killer Exam, everything else.
Right now, what system or what part of the system is working for you the best? Or what is your favorite one?
Kim: I would say 7 Step Killer Exam.
Chad: Can you walk us through what that is? I know that I know what it is but…
Kim: Mostly it is really…without saying it…it is giving the therapist the understanding that they are communicating with the patient, looking at the problem, describing the problem to them and then telling them what successful treatment looks like to help them get better.
We are relating it to functional tasks that they are unable to do.
And prior to that, the therapists were just taking range of motion measurements, strength measurements and doing our findings. Then setting goals and establishing it basing it on what we found.
Now it is basing it on what the patient wants, what they want their outcomes to become with their therapy and then providing the goals to be that step to step process to get them to where they want to be.
Chad: Great. So the way that I always think of that, the result of that and literally having a conversation with the patient about their problem in their language is that they will stay on and they won’t drop off.
They don’t forget their schedule and they are bought into the process more.
Is that what you are finding as well?
Kim: It is a much better buy in and an understanding and relationship between the therapist that you care and you have empathy towards what they are going through.
Chad: Awesome. That is one of my favorite systems as well. I know you are also crushing with workshops as well. Can you talk with us about what you are doing there and what is working for you within workshops?
Kim: So I have been doing workshops for a little over a year now.
I started with just doing Every Door Direct Mail and now doing Product X which is killing it for me.
We are getting our registrants, I want to say 95% though Facebook.
I’m not doing any advertising or anything like that. I am looking for some partnering but that is not finalized yet.
So starting out my workshops, my Facebook ads, number one I am more well known in the community because of the Facebook ads. So people know what we do.
We actually had a person drop in Saturday after a workshop. He saw the workshop, is scheduled down the street and came down to check us out because he saw the ad on Facebook the night before on Facebook.
Chad: That is great.
Kim: So we have anywhere from 9 to 40 people attend our workshops and we are about an 80 to 90% conversion at this time.
I am the one doing the workshops.
We are not doing a demonstration. It is just for information purposes.
Everybody that walks through the door, I’ve been told that the information is just so valuable and how appreciative they are to be able to have come and learned what they learned.
Chad: That is great. So you have taken the information, the system that we share, you applied it to your own situation and you are still kicking butt with it.
Kim: Yes, exactly.
Chad: That is great, awesome. I know also that you are a valuable part of the BPTM community. You were nominated by your peers for Practice Owner of the Year which is awesome.
I forget how many votes that we had in there. But it is open to 600+ owners and I believe that you were in the top 5 so that is awesome for you.
What is your favorite part of the BPTM community that you have created so far, Kim?
Kim: By far it has to be the camaraderie of the other private practice owners through the Facebook page.
I have made so many close-knit friendships and relationships from the community that I know that at any time if I have a struggle or I’m stressed or I can’t figure something out, that somebody is just a phone call or a post on Facebook away to help me through the situation knowing that it is just tried and true and not just something that somebody is throwing at me to try.
Chad: It is real world advice from in the trenches. It is amazing to me that I will even have things, I will still think, “I’m the only one going through this right now.” Then I will ask about it and we will have like 20 people post, here is how to solve it.
It is so relieving to know that we are not out there on our own.
Kim: It definitely is.
Chad: You had talked about at the end of year one you were doing about 25 visits a week. Where are you at right now?
Kim: Now we are about 120. We are down because of the first of the year. But we are averaging about 140 to 150.
Chad: Ok and right before we hopped on this call, you shared a win with me which was you just had a workshop and how many people do you have registered for your next workshop already?
Kim: I think it is 28 just since the turnover to midnight Saturday night.
Chad: so that is 28 in less than 48 hours?
Kim: Correct.
Chad: That is pretty wild. So really, really cool stuff. Anything else that you want to share with BPTM Nation, Kim? And words of wisdom?
Kim: I would say anybody that is considering joining the BPTM Nation, you have to do it.
You don’t know. We are not taught in school how to market ourselves.
We don’t know a direct line of what we need to do.
BPTM and Chad gives you the information and then you can adapt it to whatever fits into your private practice.
They make you a superstar in your neighborhood.
People are reaching out to me. They know what we do and when I opened my practice they didn’t.
Without BPTM, I know that I would not be where I am right now. And I am looking forward to next year and beating some goals that I have set.
Chad: Nice, so what does that mean for you?
Go back again and think about 18 months ago, when you were struggling trying to figure that out to what you know now.
What you are applying now? What you are putting into action now and what that has done for practice, what does that mean to Kim on a personal level?
Kim: Well, you know the first 3 years, it was putting money right back into the practice.
Now I am getting 100% of my paycheck – which you know you get a certain percentage as you grow into 3 years.
So just in the past 5 months, I have been able to receive a full paycheck which is huge because 3 ½ years into it my husband is looking at this thinking, “Hey, honey, you have spent a lot of money on this and a lot of time.” So that. But also the freedom to know and the comfort to know that I can grow this and grow myself out of it and show my team how to run the practice the way I want it to be run.
And having that time that I can commit to my grandson, my family and of course myself.
Chad: Awesome. Thanks for being on the call here, Kim.
So if people want to learn more about what you are doing, this was just completely unscripted here but Kim has the best physical therapy Facebook page that I have ever seen.
So if they want to learn more about you and your practice, where can they go to?
Kim: Stretch Physical Therapy is our Facebook page. I think it is Stretch Physical Therapy and Total Wellness.
Chad: So if they go there and like it, they can see what you are up to?
Kim: Please like it. See what I am up to. You can copy anything that you want to.
Chad: Thanks, Kim. Thanks for being on the call here.
Kim: Thanks Chad I appreciate it.
Look out for my next blog – I’ll be sharing another practice owner’s success story and secrets…
-Chad
