"We are 100% in. We do everything that Breakthrough recommends and does. And we've seen tremendous growth, about 40% annual growth per year, visit volume and revenue. Breakthrough 100% has made that happen."
Growth-minded, and exhausted by all the strategizing it took to keep growing.
Four years ago GTS Physical Therapy ran 8 locations across Northern Arkansas. Lance had been a PT for 28 years and an owner for three. The clinics were busy enough, but every quarter felt like a campaign of its own. Try to market. Try to strategize. Try to get the next wave of patients in the door.
The bigger problem was talent. The work that actually drives growth at scale (AI automation, social ad creative, paid campaign management) isn't work a typical PT owner can hire for. "I would have to hire a person to do AI stuff. I would have to hire a person to do social media. I'd have to hire an ad executive to make these ads. I would have to hire 20 people to do what Breakthrough does."
Doing that internally wasn't realistic. Doing nothing meant the marketing roller coaster, and a ceiling on how many locations GTS could realistically add.
"We jumped in. 100% in. And we never looked back."
Lance signed on with Breakthrough and went all-in from day one. The decision he keeps coming back to: do everything Breakthrough recommends, in the order Breakthrough recommends it. No cherry-picking, no half-measures.
Workshop #1: a shoulder workshop, three weeks after joining
"We launched a campaign, ran a shoulder workshop. The first workshop we had like 50 to 60 people show up. Every space was packed. We had to borrow chairs from the business next door." That was the moment the model proved itself.
Workshops on a permanent rhythm, every clinic
Four years in, the workshops never stopped running. Any given workshop now pulls 20 to 30 attendees from the surrounding community. A reliable, repeatable engine for new evals.
Pro-grade paid social, run for them (not by them)
"The ads they run are pro-looking. Like really good ads." Lance's team schedules workshops and campaigns; Breakthrough's team produces the creative and runs the placements. The community sees the brand month after month, and starts to trust it.
The first AI text campaign: dormant patients, brought back
"We sent a text campaign to former patients: 'How are you feeling? Year-end's coming, your deductibles might be met, you're free to come back.' We had over 300 responses in one morning." All of it surfaced by Breakthrough's AI agent.
AI handles the volume. Admins handle the closes.
The marketing team's first reaction to AI was fear: "this is going to take our job away." What actually happened: AI generated more response volume than the team could've sourced manually. Admins are busier, but they're closing, not chasing.
One campaign = 55 plan-of-care patients in a day
From that single AI-driven text, 55 former patients came back to GTS for a new plan of care in a single day. "That didn't take us literally any time to do. We just said, send that out, and it went out."
"55 patients came back to us for a new plan of care, just from one AI-driven text campaign that didn't take us literally any time to do. Our marketing team didn't do anything. Breakthrough did it all."
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Since coming on with Breakthrough four years ago, GTS Physical Therapy expanded from 8 locations to 24, with another batch of openings in the pipeline. Visit volume and revenue have grown roughly 40% every single year. Lance puts the total revenue lift north of 150%.
The bigger shift isn't the location count. It's the operating posture. "Before, we were growth-minded, strategizing, trying to market ourselves, trying to do stuff. After four years on Breakthrough, it almost feels like it's on autopilot." Lance doesn't sit in Monday meetings asking how many evals are on the books next week. They just are.
And the unfair advantage compounds: every additional month of pro-grade ads running in the same communities builds the brand. "There's a brand in our communities now because they've seen so much of our advertising on social media that they trust in us. I don't have to worry about patients coming in. They just keep coming and the growth just keeps going."
"Almost like it's on autopilot. I don't have to worry about patients coming in. They just keep coming, and the growth just keeps going. It has to be attributed to what we do with Breakthrough."
Don't try to hire 20 specialists. Just plug in and do the work Breakthrough recommends.
The biggest mistake Lance sees other multi-site owners make is trying to build the marketing function themselves. AI engineer. Ad designer. Paid media specialist. Social media manager. It's an org chart most PT brands can't justify, can't recruit for, and can't manage.
"It takes all the worry off our plate. We schedule the workshops, schedule the ad campaigns ourselves, and Breakthrough does the rest." That's how 8 locations became 24, without the marketing function ballooning to match.