Discover how Sean Weatherston went from not paying himself for six months at a time to tripling his staff and revenue, and why he says Breakthrough “literally saved my business.”
On the Brink
Sean Weatherston has been a physical therapist for 26 years and opened his first clinic in Nampa, Idaho in 2005. Within five years, he had three locations and five therapists. Business felt good.
Then the landscape changed. The Affordable Care Act reshaped healthcare. Physician referrals dried up. Revenue flatlined.
“There were times where I wasn’t paying myself for six months at a time,” Sean said. “Getting to the point where, is this worthwhile to even stay in business? I can go work for a hospital clinic and probably make more money and have a lot less headache.”
But walking away wasn’t an option. He’d built this from nothing.
The stress pushed out a business partner. A new partnership formed, but the financial pressure made that rocky too. Sean found himself wondering if he’d have to close his doors.
Looking back, he sees it clearly: “I never would’ve opened the other two clinics because I wasn’t ready. We didn’t have the scale, we didn’t have anything. It’s a miracle that we’re still in business.”
Finding Another Way
Sean knew he needed to market his clinics, but he wasn’t a marketer. He didn’t want to schmooze doctors. And clearly, the old way wasn’t working.
“My biggest fear was I’m not a marketer. I don’t know how to do that,” he said. “Breakthrough showed me that there was another opportunity for private practices to succeed.”
He signed up expecting marketing services. What he got was something bigger: a system for direct access marketing, plus a network of other owners navigating the same challenges.
The results came fast. As soon as Sean started following Breakthrough’s recommendations, running campaigns, sending emails, and hosting workshops, new patients started coming in.
“Six months in, I was just telling myself, why didn’t I do this before? It’s just a constant stream of new patients.”
Building for the Future
Over the years, Sean has run campaigns for low back pain, peripheral neuropathy, balance and falls, rotator cuff, and knee pain. The shoulder and knee campaigns have driven the strongest results.
“In the several years that we’ve been doing those workshops and those funnels, we’ve had probably close to a thousand people come to our clinic just because of those funnels.”
He’s also added cash-based services to combat declining insurance reimbursements. Between the marketing and the new revenue streams, his practice looks nothing like it did eight years ago.
“Biggest success with Breakthrough? Going from wondering if I was gonna have to close my doors to tripling my staff and tripling my revenue in about eight years.”
His goals have changed too. What felt like a stretch goal six months ago now feels conservative.
“I can’t imagine my practice being open in three to five years without Breakthrough’s help. Instead of fighting with every other therapist in the world over a tiny pool of patients, we have a blue ocean of people that need our services.”
Eight years ago, Sean was wondering if he’d have to close his doors. Now he’s wondering how big he can grow.
“The joy that I get from being able to help people as a therapist, that’s the win for me. I go to bed very well at night knowing that we’re able to help even more people every day.”
