The K9PT Academy Podcast: Business lessons for canine rehab therapists

As business owners and entrepreneurs, we need to constantly be working on ourselves to overcome any insecurities and second thoughts we might be having about ourselves and this journey that we are on, and that includes working on our “courage muscle”. Much like a muscle, courage can be developed but it can also be lost. Every time we make a decision by taking the easy way out, we weaken our ability to develop that muscle and become more courageous, whereas whenever we make a bold and difficult decision we strengthen that muscle and work on our ability to become more courageous and resilient. Listen to this week's episode as we discuss: How to have the courage to make decisions and keep moving forward, even when it seems like everything is going against us How to have the courage to make decisions that go against the norm of what has been done in our field or against the expectations others have from us The importance of working on yourself and surrounding yourself with a community of peers and colleagues who are going along this same journey that you are on ... Thank you so much for listening to this episode and if you found this content valuable here are some additional ways we can help each other: 1) Go to www.k9ptacademy.com for more resources on business ownership, including our free Fee Calculator and Marketing Done Easy worksheet 2) Send us your question or subscribe to our weekly newsletter by emailing us at hello@k9ptacademy.com  3) Share this episode with a colleague who might also find it helpful :-) 4) Leave us a 5-star review so we can expand our reach and help more folks

Have you ever asked yourself and spent some time thinking about what the market of canine rehabilitation really needs and what are consumers asking for? Well, I did so recently and shared some of my thoughts on this topic with today's podcast episode. Listen to it as we discuss: It is not just about what we do, but how we do it Does the market need just more access to canine rehab? Or does the market actually need improved access to "true rehabilitation"? Are we building a business that exemplifies what we want from it? Or are we building a business based on a model of what has been done in our field before? What type of therapist or clinic is the market asking for?  The importance of collaborating amongst different professionals within our field Innovating to stay ahead and avoiding falling behind what the market is asking from us ... Thank you so much for listening to this episode and if you found this content valuable here are some additional ways we can help each other: 1) Go to www.k9ptacademy.com for more resources on business ownership, including our free Fee Calculator and Marketing Done Easy worksheet 2) Send us your question or subscribe to our weekly newsletter by emailing us at hello@k9ptacademy.com  3) Share this episode with a colleague who might also find it helpful :-) 4) Leave us a 5-star review so we can expand our reach and help more folks

Today we discuss the concept of "Real Time, Real Response", and that how that applies to the decisions we make as business owners and entrepreneurs. Listen to today's podcast episode as we discuss: You can only make the decisions you need to make today with the information you have available today Using numbers and metrics to guide our decision-making process while taking some of the emotional attachment we have from our business away from it How our business journey is much like a road trip where we need to use a GPS even if we already know where we are going so we can informed of any real time changes we might need to make What if our plan does not work? How do we move forward? ... Thank you so much for listening to this episode and if you found this content valuable here are some additional ways we can help each other: 1) Go to www.k9ptacademy.com for more resources on business ownership, including our free Fee Calculator and Marketing Done Easy worksheet 2) Send us your question or subscribe to our weekly newsletter by emailing us at hello@k9ptacademy.com  3) Share this episode with a colleague who might also find it helpful :-) 4) Leave us a 5-star review so we can expand our reach and help more folks

Every few months I go down to Florida to spend some time with my business mentor. I have been doing so for the past 6 years, and I can tell you with certainty that doing so is one of the biggest reasons for the success we have had with TheK9PT as well as my ability to help coach and mentor canine rehab therapists to achieve the same themselves. Why is that important? Listen to today's podcast as we discuss: The benefits of stepping out of the day-to-day and having time to think and reflect Setting yourself up to success by surrounding yourself with a community of other business owners who understand the challenges that you are going through Importance of regularly creating a game plan of what you are trying to achieve and the tasks needed for you to accomplish that Internal vs external accountability and why we usually work harder when we don't want to let other people down As I shared last week as well, we will soon be opening 3 new slots for new students to join our Incubator Mastermind program… if you would like to chat more about it then please follow the link below to fill out a form, and afterwards I will contact you so we can chat about it to see if it would be a good fit for you. https://www.k9ptacademy.com/Incubator ... Thank you so much for listening to this episode and if you found this content valuable here are some additional ways we can help each other: 1) Go to www.k9ptacademy.com for more resources on business ownership, including our free Fee Calculator and Marketing Done Easy worksheet 2) Send us your question or subscribe to our weekly newsletter by emailing us at hello@k9ptacademy.com  3) Share this episode with a colleague who might also find it helpful :-) 4) Leave us a 5-star review so we can expand our reach and help more folks

What would you do if you had no competition? What type of business would you run? How much would you charge? What decisions would you make that would be affected by the fact that no matter what you did, people wouldn’t have someone to compare you to? If you haven’t done so, those are great questions to think and ponder about. I recently shared some of my thoughts on those questions during one of our recent Incubator Mastermind calls, and today I wanted to share some of those thoughts with you on our podcast. Give it a listen as we discuss: If that was the case and we had no competition, would we truly charge whatever we want? Or even better, would we be willing to charge whatever we want? How our mindset towards money plays a factor on how much we charge Why price comparison by potential clients is a not a bad thing How the market is determined by the customer, and how we can ethically influence their willingness to work with us During our Incubator Mastermind call we went on to discuss the Success Triangle, and how we are able to build something that will help you stand out from the competition around you. As I shared last week as well, we will soon be opening 3 new slots for new students to join our Incubator Mastermind program… if you would like to chat more about it then please follow the link below to fill out a form, and afterwards I will contact you so we can chat about it to see if it would be a good fit for you. https://www.k9ptacademy.com/Incubator ... Thank you so much for listening to this episode and if you found this content valuable here are some additional ways we can help each other: 1) Go to www.k9ptacademy.com for more resources on business ownership, including our free Fee Calculator and Marketing Done Easy worksheet 2) Send us your question or subscribe to our weekly newsletter by emailing us at hello@k9ptacademy.com  3) Share this episode with a colleague who might also find it helpful :-) 4) Leave us a 5-star review so we can expand our reach and help more folks

The truth is that most of us in the field of canine rehab never planned on being an entrepreneur. It is not why we went to PT or vet school, nor the reason why we became a canine rehab therapist. All we wanted to do was help some dogs, but somewhere along that journey we realized that the only way for us to be able to do so on our own terms would be if we opened your own business, and then we became an entrepreneur. But, the problem is that we never learned anything about business or entrepreneurship in school or during our certification, but there are certain key skills and qualities that we can learn to leverage as entrepreneurs. Last weekend I discussed 6 of those traits that helps us succeed as entrepreneurs, and one of the biggest takeaways I heard from them from this session was the discussion around focus vs concentration. Listen to today's podcast episode as we discuss: The difference between focus and concentration What can cause us to lose focus? How do we stay focused? Do you want to learn what are the 5 other traits? Well, maybe I will share some of them in future episodes, otherwise we will soon be opening 3 new slots for new students to join our Incubator Mastermind program… if you would like to chat more about it then please follow the link in the show notes to fill out a form, and afterwards I will contact you so we can chat about it to see if it would be a good fit for you. https://www.k9ptacademy.com/Incubator ... Thank you so much for listening to this episode and if you found this content valuable here are some additional ways we can help each other: 1) Go to www.k9ptacademy.com for more resources on business ownership, including our free Fee Calculator and Marketing Done Easy worksheet 2) Send us your question or subscribe to our weekly newsletter by emailing us at hello@k9ptacademy.com  3) Share this episode with a colleague who might also find it helpful :-) 4) Leave us a 5-star review so we can expand our reach and help more folks

Today might be a bit of a controversial episode, and I am open to discussion because I understand there are many different marketing strategies that can work depending on each individual circumstance. However, for today's episode I want to discuss why I don't think you will find your ideal clients on Facebook. I will explain my thoughts behind it, and hopefully help you understand my thinking behind why I think that way, so listen to the full episode as we discuss: the different types of leads the traditional way most clinics have been marketing why your ideal client won't likely find you on Facebook what would I focus on instead ... Thank you so much for listening to this episode and if you found this content valuable here are some additional ways we can help each other: 1) Go to www.k9ptacademy.com for more resources on business ownership, including our free Fee Calculator and Marketing Done Easy worksheet 2) Send us your question or subscribe to our weekly newsletter by emailing us at hello@k9ptacademy.com  3) Share this episode with a colleague who might also find it helpful :-) 4) Leave us a 5-star review so we can expand our reach and help more folks

One of the biggest struggles we face as business owners and entrepreneurs in the field of canine rehab is figuring out how much to charge for our sessions. We all know that we have an issue in our field where many clinics undercharge for what we do, but the challenge is that we tend to undercharge not because we want to, but primarily because we have not shifted our money mindset. Listen to today's episode as we discuss: We need to realize that selling is about helping people make a decision and it can be done in a professional and ethical way Why do we shy away from selling?  What are people's real hesitation in potentially paying more for your services? Stop thinking that you are taking something away from them by collecting their money, and instead realize that you are giving them the solution to their problem Click here to download our FREE fee calculator: https://thek9pt.mykajabi.com/Fee-calculator ... Thank you so much for listening to this episode and if you found this content valuable here are some additional ways we can help each other: 1) Go to www.k9ptacademy.com for more resources on business ownership, including our free Fee Calculator and Marketing Done Easy worksheet 2) Send us your question or subscribe to our weekly newsletter by emailing us at hello@k9ptacademy.com  3) Share this episode with a colleague who might also find it helpful :-) 4) Leave us a 5-star review so we can expand our reach and help more folks

Many of us got into business ownership as canine rehab therapists without having much, if any, background in business, marketing, or general operations. While passion for what we do are a must to make this business thing work, we will eventually need to learn and develop a whole new set of skills related to entrepreneurship to make our business sustainable, but how do we balance out all the different roles and hats we need to wear as business owners? Listen to today's episode as we discuss: how clinical success requires the advancement of our clinical and communication skills, but business success requires mastery of business skills and tools the entrepreneurial curse, and why just working harder or longer hours is not always the solution stepping out of our comfort zone and wearing many hats of the business how to not let a particular role or hat define who we are ... Thank you so much for listening to this episode and if you found this content valuable here are some additional ways we can help each other: 1) Go to www.k9ptacademy.com for more resources on business ownership, including our free Fee Calculator and Marketing Done Easy worksheet 2) Send us your question or subscribe to our weekly newsletter by emailing us at hello@k9ptacademy.com  3) Share this episode with a colleague who might also find it helpful :-) 4) Leave us a 5-star review so we can expand our reach and help more folks

Through my experience over the last few years mentoring and coaching canine rehab therapists on how to operate a successful and sustainable canine rehab business, I have realized that there are some pillars as to what allows them to achieve that level of success. Those pillars need to be a constant with any canine rehab business, no matter if you are solo or have a team, or are mobile or have a brick and mortar clinic. We always need to keep 3 main things in mind: Invest in marketing, both from a financial but also from a time and energy perspective build a predictable lead generation system so you don't have to over rely on veterinary or word-of-mouth referrals build a selling process focused on education and information Listen to today's podcast episode to hear more about it and dive deeper into each one of those pillars!  Download our Google 101 Guide: https://www.k9ptacademy.com/google-machine  ... Thank you so much for listening to this episode and if you found this content valuable here are some additional ways we can help each other: 1) Go to www.k9ptacademy.com for more resources on business ownership, including our free Fee Calculator and Marketing Done Easy worksheet 2) Send us your question or subscribe to our weekly newsletter by emailing us at hello@k9ptacademy.com  3) Share this episode with a colleague who might also find it helpful :-) 4) Leave us a 5-star review so we can expand our reach and help more folks

A common challenge in the field of canine rehabilitation is the lack of industry standards when it comes to business metrics and finances. We have those established industry standards in veterinary medicine and with human physical therapy clinics, but not for our field which leads towards many business owners feeling unsure if they are running a sustainable business.  What percentage of our revenue should go towards payroll? How about fixed expenses or marketing? Of course those are all just numbers that help guide us, and they are not set on stone, but with today's podcast episode we discuss financial metrics and budgeting for the canine rehab business so you can a profitable and sustainable business, regardless if you have a clinic or do house calls.  Download our Free Fee Calculator: https://www.k9ptacademy.com/Fee-calculator  ... Thank you so much for listening to this episode and if you found this content valuable here are some additional ways we can help each other: 1) Go to www.k9ptacademy.com for more resources on business ownership, including our free Fee Calculator and Marketing Done Easy worksheet 2) Send us your question or subscribe to our weekly newsletter by emailing us at hello@k9ptacademy.com  3) Share this episode with a colleague who might also find it helpful :-) 4) Leave us a 5-star review so we can expand our reach and help more folks

One of the most valuable assets you have as a business owner will be your ability to adapt to the circumstances around you and, as much as possible, try to stay ahead of things. Now, the issue becomes how do we stay ahead of things, especially when we are so busy with the day to day and don’t have the time to stop, think, and analyze? It can be very easy for any of us to get caught in that scenario, especially if we are seeing patients for a full schedule and then running the business on top of it, and that is why Thinking Time is so important.  However, how do we optimize our Thinking Time? A common challenge we face when it comes to figuring out the answer to the challenges we are facing in business is due to the fact that we are often focused on the wrong question, and because we are focused on the wrong question we will never find the right answer. But how do we find the right question to ask ourselves? Having the right answer is great, but having the right question is even better! Listen to today's episode to learn more about how to find the unasked question that will help you find the solution to your challenges! ... Thank you so much for listening to this episode and if you found this content valuable here are some additional ways we can help each other: 1) Go to www.k9ptacademy.com for more resources on business ownership, including our free Fee Calculator and Marketing Done Easy worksheet 2) Send us your question or subscribe to our weekly newsletter by emailing us at hello@k9ptacademy.com  3) Share this episode with a colleague who might also find it helpful :-) 4) Leave us a 5-star review so we can expand our reach and help more folks

Last week we talked about “how to stand out from the competition”, and along with it the fact that we need to charge enough to provide the level of service that PEOPLE WANT. Because of that, today I wanted to circle back around to something I truly enjoy helping canine rehab therapists with: figuring out how to raise their rates and charge what they are worth! There is often a debate in online forums and Facebook groups as to if we should post how much we charge on our website. That is a very good question, and I understand both sides of the argument, but with today's episode I wanted to share. my opinion and explain why I think we should not post our fees and rates on our website.  Do you want help figuring out how much you should be charging? I know that can be a hard thing to determine, but we simplified that for you with our free FEE CALCULATOR:  https://thek9pt.mykajabi.com/Fee-calculator ... Thank you so much for listening to this episode and if you found this content valuable here are some additional ways we can help each other: 1) Go to www.k9ptacademy.com for more resources on business ownership, including our free Fee Calculator and Marketing Done Easy worksheet 2) Send us your question or subscribe to our weekly newsletter by emailing us at hello@k9ptacademy.com  3) Share this episode with a colleague who might also find it helpful :-) 4) Leave us a 5-star review so we can expand our reach and help more folks

As the field of animal rehabilitation and physical therapy grows, so does the competition around us. Is hat a bad thing? Not at all because competition leads towards growth and innovation. However, you are probably wondering how do you stand out from your competition. Listen to today's episode as we discuss: There is no best cheapest around, and the importance of charging for the level of service that PEOPLE WANT Setting up a customer journey and experience that will set you apart and attract the right type of clients who value you and your time How marketing plays a vital role because their customer experience starts way before they actually see you for an appointment  Here is a big takeaway: You can’t just be the other alternative… the argument that you are just clinically better, or have the latest piece of equipment or whatever is just not enough to make yourself standout anymore.  How do you learn to develop a marketing strategy that will help you stand out? Follow this link to sign-up for our Marketing Blueprint program that I discuss at the end of the episode! This was a 4-week program that we ran last September and it was very well received, and now you will be able to have full access to it, including to all training videos and group calls, to review at your own pace.  https://www.k9ptacademy.com/marketing-blueprint ... Thank you so much for listening to this episode and if you found this content valuable here are some additional ways we can help each other: 1) Go to www.k9ptacademy.com for more resources on business ownership, including our free Fee Calculator and Marketing Done Easy worksheet 2) Send us your question or subscribe to our weekly newsletter by emailing us at hello@k9ptacademy.com  3) Share this episode with a colleague who might also find it helpful :-) 4) Leave us a 5-star review so we can expand our reach and help more folks

Earlier this month a lot of us watched the Super Bowl. It doesn’t matter if you watched because you love football, if you watched for the commercials, or to watch the halftime show with Usher, but if you watched the game then you saw Kansas City’s quarterback, Patrick Mahones, march his team down the field on a drive at the end of regulation where they had to at least score a field goal to send it to overtime. That type of drive in football is called the 2-minute drill because the offense is trying to move the ball quickly to score before the end of regulation, usually within the 2-minute warning at the of the game. Why am I talking about the super bow and the 2-minute drill? Well, that got me thinking into the importance of having that same type of strategy to different aspects of your business. For example: handling the intake phone calls communicating the framework as to how you can help their pets and discuss pricing  client communication Of course there could be more examples, but listen to this week's podcast to learn more about how to optimize those systems for your business much like the Kansas City Chiefs has optimized the 2-minute drill. ... Thank you so much for listening to this episode and if you found this content valuable here are some additional ways we can help each other: 1) Go to www.k9ptacademy.com for more resources on business ownership, including our free Fee Calculator and Marketing Done Easy worksheet 2) Send us your question or subscribe to our weekly newsletter by emailing us at hello@k9ptacademy.com  3) Share this episode with a colleague who might also find it helpful :-) 4) Leave us a 5-star review so we can expand our reach and help more folks l

During a recent coaching call with our Incubator Mastermind students I recently discussed my formula for embracing growth and changes within our business, regardless if we are just starting or have a team working with us. Along that discussion I dove deeper into something that I thought it would be useful to share with our podcast audience, which is the concept of first diagnosing what is truly wrong with our business before looking for how to fix it. Listen to this episode as we discuss: why we need to step back and develop a true awareness of what is the true issue we are facing how that awareness translates into the real world with examples such as "I need more patients" or "I am struggling developing partnerships with veterinarians for referrals the importance of tracking metrics and KPIs to help us diagnose our business ... Thank you so much for listening to this episode and if you found this content valuable here are some additional ways we can help each other: 1) Go to www.k9ptacademy.com for more resources on business ownership, including our free Fee Calculator and Marketing Done Easy worksheet 2) Send us your question or subscribe to our weekly newsletter by emailing us at hello@k9ptacademy.com  3) Share this episode with a colleague who might also find it helpful :-) 4) Leave us a 5-star review so we can expand our reach and help more folks like you!

Yes, you got that right… today we are discussing some business lessons from Taylor Swift! Now, although I do enjoy her music on the radio or on Pandora, I am not a swiftie and apologize in advance if I get any part of her journey wrong. Even though someone like Taylor Swift is an artist by trade, in reality folks like her are innovators and there is always so much that we can learn from those individuals that we can carry over to our lives as business owners and entrepreneurs. Listen to the full episode as we discuss: the importance of creating an experience for your clients/patients that will help you differentiate yourself from any competition around you the power of marketing through story telling, and how that allows your audience to connect with you in an authentic and genuine way finding ways to repurpose what you are already doing to leverage new opportunities shaking it off from corporate and taking control of your narrative ... Thank you so much for listening to this episode and if you found this content valuable here are some additional ways we can help each other: 1) Go to www.k9ptacademy.com for more resources on business ownership, including our free Fee Calculator and Marketing Done Easy worksheet 2) Send us your question or subscribe to our weekly newsletter by emailing us at hello@k9ptacademy.com  3) Share this episode with a colleague who might also find it helpful :-) 4) Leave us a 5-star review so we can expand our reach and help more folks like you!

Back on episode 22 I discussed the concepts of Growth Valleys, and I wanted to bring that back today as it is relevant to the message I wanted you all to understand. Growth will never be linear and instead it will be made of peaks and valleys that will come along your journey. However, we should not work towards avoiding those valleys, and instead we need to work towards understanding how to make the most out of them. Listen to today's episode where I share how to shift our mindset and look at growth valleys as a positive thing, as well as understanding that although growth will come along with some growing pains, that does not mean that those challenges define who we are. We need to find our purpose and stay the course despite the challenges that we face, and we need to understand that the journey that we find ourselves in business and in life does not necessarily shape us, but who we are shapes our journey.  www.k9ptacademy.com hello@k9ptacademy.com 

I shared this last week already, but I was super excited that the team at Online Pet Health shared with their Vet Rehab Podcast the lecture I did back in 2022 for the Vet Rehab Summit focused on “when your best isn’t good enough – overcoming criticism to achieve excellence”. I actually watched that again because even though I was the presenter I wanted to hear the message again as a learning opportunity, and it got me thinking about today’s topic: how our goals as a business owner can lead to anxiety and angst, leading towards entrepreneurial imposter syndrome. Listen to today's episode and learn more about how setting our goals can actually lead to towards a feeling of anxiety and imposter syndrome, and most importantly, what we can do to keep moving forward!  www.k9ptacademy.com hello@k9ptacademy.com 

Yes, you read that right! How can we learn marketing lessons from a sleep consultant?  Our daughter has been struggling with her sleep over the last few months, and as you can imagine it has taken an enormous toll on us as well! Not just with the stress of it but of course with the lack of sleep that has been affecting all of us at home. It has been long enough now that we decided to look for professional help from a sleep consultant, and along that process I found myself on the customer side of the style of marketing that we use and that we teach to our mentees.  So yeah, you read that right! Why? Because business is business, and like we have mentioned before we are in the customer service industry and provide canine rehabilitation as a service. Listen to the full episode to learn more about how to make your marketing message stand out from your competition through: marketing the solution to their problem developing a message that connects with your audience building a website that delivers your message and more!!!! Turning on your Google machine: https://bit.ly/3ExaDEj www.k9ptacademy.com hello@k9ptacademy.com