Healthy, Wealthy, & Smart Episode 358: Greg Todd, PT – Mentorship Matters
Dr. Jenna Kantor talks with Greg Todd, PT on Mentorship. Greg is a co-owner of a successful rehab program and is also a well-recognized PT spokesperson. In their conversation together they cover what mentorship is, work and lifetime management trade-offs, challenges and rewards of being a mentor, and much more!
Welcome to the Healthy, Wealthy, and Smart podcast. Each week we interview the best and brightest in physical therapy, wellness, and entrepreneurship. We give you cutting-edge information you need to live your best life healthy, wealthy, and smart. The information in this physical therapy podcast is for entertainment purposes only, and should not be used as personalized medical advice. And now here’s your host, Dr. Karen Litzy.
Welcome back to the podcast, everyone. Today’s episode is brought to you by Net Health. So I’m sure if you’re a business owner, you want to provide even better patient care and increase revenue for your clinic. What’s a great way to do it? Get hooked up with ReDoc powered by xfit. It’s a cloud-based fully integrated EMR and billing solution, plus you can opt in to completely outsource billing services. That’s the best way to optimize your revenue. So imagine PT billing, coding, and compliance experts taking the back office work off your hands and reporting to you, which allows you to do the things you love to do, like treat your patients and run your business. To learn more about ReDoc and the complete revenue cycle management services, check them out at nethealth.com/healthy.
All right, so thanks to Net Health and on to today’s podcast. So this podcast was recorded live at Smart Success PT 2018, which was in Florida over Memorial Day weekend, and our host, Jenna Kantor, sat down with the creator of SSPT Live and SSPT, Greg Todd. He is the co-owner of Renewal Rehabilitation in Wesley Chapel and Hyde Park. He graduated from Florida International University with a Bachelor’s of Science degree in Physical Therapy, and received his strength and conditioning certification through the National Strength and Conditioning Association in 2000.
He has over 15 years of experience in outpatient physical therapy. Greg is a board-certified orthopedic certified specialist through the American Physical Therapy Association, and has served as the official physical therapist for Saddlebrook Tennis and Golf Resorts for the past 10 years. He also works as a consultant for professional tennis players on the ATP and WTA tour.
Greg is also an avid runner and has completed four marathons, seven half-marathons, and numerous 5K races. Over the past 10 years, he has grown his two private practices from three to seventeen employees and has had a 10% increase in net revenue for the past eight consecutive years. He credits this to the amazing team culture of his company, using innovative marketing strategies, having a thorough understanding of the business of physical therapy, and embracing the use of technology as a way to connect more frequently with patients and build the brand of what makes physical therapists so vital and powerful to the healthcare industry. He now serves as a consultant for 12 medical and technology companies, and has lectured at numerous universities and nationally recognized seminars on his innovative business and technology strategies that he has used throughout his successful 15-year career.
So in today’s episode, Jenna and Greg talk about mentorship. It’s a great talk, I know you guys are going to love it. Greg is a powerhouse and he’s got a lot of enthusiasm for his practice and for the profession, and for mentoring up and coming physical therapists. So thanks to Jenna and Greg, and everyone enjoy today’s episode.
Hello, this is Jenna Kantor. I have the pleasure, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. I am so thrilled and honored today because I get to speak to Greg Todd, who is a mentor of mine. And when I say mentor, I have so much heart and emotion behind this because he has done so much for me as a physical therapy student and now a professional, and I could not be more grateful, and I thought it would be completely valuable to bring him on to this podcast so he could share even just a little taste, a glimpse of what I have received from him. So first of all, Greg, GT, I’m going to call you GT from now on in this. All right, so GT, what would be your specific definition of mentorship?
Mentorship is someone who has insight and has typically been through something that someone else, the mentee, is currently going through or has not been through. And a mentor is a really great listener that can identify that that particular person is going through something, and has experience of what it’s like to go through that. And they give them their insight of their experiences and how they would think about navigating through that.
Key word is think about navigating through that. A mentor doesn’t tell people what to do. A mentor just helps them to think independently. A really good mentor, that’s what you do, help people to think independently. You don’t want to make people dependent on you. You want to get them to where they can think for themselves and you encourage independent thinking.
Oh my gosh, this is so funny because now when you mentor me, I’m going to be thinking about this. I’m going, “Oh, he’s getting me to process this whole thing.” Oh my gosh, this is great. Well, why is it even valuable to have a mentor? Couldn’t you just go through your life without one?
You could. You could, but it’s like going through your life without a GPS. It’s like driving with no direction. You can just drive. Actually, many people do that. They just drive. The problem is that when you just drive, you eventually are going to run out of gas. So if you didn’t get to your destination, you have no one to blame but yourself. You didn’t seek direction. You were just driving. I personally want to go specific places, so I want direction on the fastest way, the best way to get there.
Say someone might be on the edge, thinking about getting a mentor. They’re thinking, “I’m not sure if this is the right time.” What would be your advice to someone on when they should seek out getting a mentor?
You seek out a mentor when you want to go somewhere that you don’t know the exact game plan of how to get there.
Okay. Well, what made you decide to become not only a mentor, a super mentor, because seriously, I mean, how many people are you a mentor of?
In my actual courses, it’s I think over 300 now that I’m actually the mentor for. But, I mean, I know it’s a heck of a lot more than that. It’s probably thousands of people that get mentorship and direction through the free content that I put out. But at the end of the day, it’s if you know that there’s somewhere that you want to go and you don’t have the exact blueprint of how you are going to get there, 100% certainty on how you’re going to get there, you seek out a mentor. That’s what you do. So most people should seek out a mentor yesterday.
Why do you love mentoring?
Because I’ve been through a lot in my career, and now that I have basically cracked the code, I’ve cracked the code to what you need to have a career in physical therapy that I deem successful. For me, it’s successful. It might not be successful for somebody else, but for me, it’s successful.
For me, it is the ability to not exclusively trade time for money, the ability to spend as much time as I want with the people that I love, the ability to have unlimited earning potential which then gives me more time, which allows me to have time to spend with the people that I love and to impact whatever things I’m interested in. Sorry, my voice is going, sorry.
Yeah. For those who do not know, which I did not say at the beginning, we are actually at Smart Success PT live here in 2018 in Clearwater, Florida. We are on our … It’s day four, it’s the final day. It has been a hype inspirational show, so both GT and I are extremely exhausted to say the least. Oh yeah. Oh yeah.
But honestly, we knew that doing this podcast would be really valuable to listeners. So even though we are super exhausted, we knew it was a hundred percent worth it to push through so this content could be available to others. So what sacrifices have you made to be available to your mentees? I mean, that’s a lot of people. I’m sure there are people who may be listening to this thinking, “Oh gosh, that’s not real.” So what sacrifices have you made and how is that even possible?
Well, it’s a lot of sacrifices that I’ve made mainly with my family and my original business, my traditional clinics. So the sacrifice of my family is that there’s a lot of times that I am personally investing in my students, that I’m not investing in my family. That’s a big thing. There are many times that it’s difficult for my family because I’m home, physically home, but I’m not physically there.
I mean, I’m invested in other people. And when I talk to people, I only give 100 … I give 100% with everything. Okay? I say no a lot, but I give the things that I do, I actually do 100%. So if I’m talking to you on the phone, if I’m talking to you via a Zoom call, I’m 100% locked into you, which means that I’m 0% locked into my family. And so that’s a huge sacrifice.
For my clinical business, my traditional clinics, I’ve had to pull back a lot from my daily interaction with them. I probably only go to the clinic once a week, if that. And I used to be there nearly every day. And the same thing that my mentees love me for it, my energy, my inspiration, my direction. Well, they now get 10% of what they used to get, because I’m investing in so many people.
So look in everything in life, whatever you say yes to, you’re saying no to something else. That’s something that I really come to understand. If I say yes to mentoring you, that means I said no to my kids. If I say yes to my kids, I said no to answering one of your Facebook messages. So it’s just understanding that you’re saying yes and no all the time.
But what I do get is that I have a balance in my life. That is a balance that works for Greg. And it’s a balance that works for Greg’s family. And we’ve created boundaries, but my balance is not the same balance as many other people. But that’s okay. That’s mine. That’s what mine is. So either way I understand with anything in life there are sacrifices. I enjoy my work, I enjoy what I do. And … But yes, there’s always sacrifices.
And on that note we’re going to take a quick break to hear from our sponsor.
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What would you say to anybody listening who thinks, “Oh, well he practices now. How could he be somebody who helps other physical therapists if he’s not having his hands on patients as much now?”
Well, that’s … I mean, that’s the thing. What I’m typically mentoring people with is not trading their time for money. I’m mentoring them with how to navigate their career and how to decide what is the next best step for them. Because remember what we talked about earlier. It’s, all right, we can put our foot on the pedal and we can burn gas, but if you don’t know where you’re going, you’re just wasting your time. You’re wasting everything. Now here’s the thing, I’m a damn good clinician. I’m a really, really, really good clinician.
Oh, we know. We’ve learned. We’ve seen you in action. All students know this. Yes.
So the interesting thing about it is that when I do go to the clinic the one time a week, and I do usually a two hour staff meeting, that’s actually the day that I tell my staff, if you have any really, really, really hard patients … Remember, I’m trying to get them to think and for them to work through it, I don’t want to baby them.
Right, because you want them to be autonomous.
Right. But what I will do is that on that day, if you have someone that needs to see me, or that you want me just to have a set of eyes on, I’m still actually practicing, but I just do it one day a week. I don’t take all … All of my value is not in … All my value is not placed in anything. It’s not placed in mentoring people, it’s not placed in my results as a clinical physical therapist.
That’s dangerous because you’re going to change, you’re going to adapt. And many people find their value in just one thing, and that makes it very hard for them to ever shift. Because all their value is just in that one thing. That’s not good. That’s not good. That makes it very hard for you to adapt and take advantage of opportunities.
Would you mind telling a story of when you had a specific mentee going through an obstacle that was rough, and how were you able to guide them through it? Or him or her I’m talking about them.
Yeah. I mean, I mean basically, I mean part of my agreement is I never actually talk about any … I take every situation and it’s confidential with the mentee. But I’m going to give you an example of something that happens common. Let’s just do that, okay?
Oh yeah, that’s great.
All right? So a lot of times I’ve had people that are in a really, really tough position with their job. And they always feel as though they feel like something’s going on, “I don’t feel right here. I don’t feel right at this place.” And they feel like if they quit, they’ve they’ve quit on themselves. They’ve … It’s always a really tough situation. And a lot of people just don’t want conflict. They don’t want … They feel inferior if they leave a job. And I know that there’s been quite a few students that I’ve had to actually let them come to the realization that this is not going to get them where they want to go.
And probably some of the toughest conversations are when they’re actually in their car getting ready to go in to give their notice. And I’m having to coach them up right before it happens. I’ve had that happen multiple times. That’s probably the toughest thing. And then just having to deal with them after. And then they look back later and they’re, “Wow, that was a greatest thing. Thank you so much for being there with me in that moment.”
That’s really powerful. Because people who don’t have mentors, something like that, that’s … How do you go through that alone? That’s that’s more rough before and after in that car. I mean ooh, oh man. Well, I’m grateful that you do that for people. So would you mind telling a success story?
Oh gosh.
I know. I know you’ve had a lot.
Oh my goodness, yeah, yeah.
You have. I’ve heard many stories this weekend, and seen it. I’ve seen these people in action.
There’s one guy. He actually just won a transformation contest. But his story is just so amazing because he was in the fourth cohort of Smart Success PT. He was the second to last student that signed up, signed up like an 11:54 the last day that it was available. And his situation was so dire. It was so grim.
And there was so much more to it … Because it’s not, “Oh, my job’s not going good.” When your job is not going good, or your career is not going good, it trickles into all aspects of your life. It’s brutal. So that’s all … I never used to understand when people said, “You changed my life.” “Changed my … Huh?” I thought I just helped you answer those questions.
But no. Career is a massive part of your life. Right? And then the way that I do things is that I don’t believe that it’s just about your career. It’s about you becoming an amazing person. Right? And so anyways, in this guy’s situation, I just remember getting him to always jump, and it took a while for him to do it, but he always did it. And he jumped and he jumped, I remember one time I had to talk … He was getting ready. He wanted to quit his job and he wanted to open up a business.
And I had to get myself on the phone, him, his wife, and my wife. We had to have a four way conversation to talk his wife into allowing this to happen on why this is the best move for him. And now he is five months into the year, and has already surpassed his entire income of last year, plus $10,000.
Wow.
And so it’s the most amazing thing. It’s just amazing when people jump, what happens. It’s just absolutely amazing. There’s nothing like it. It’s a drug for me. It’s an addiction just to see the transformations of people and you just want to see more. And you know … They don’t know what’s on the other side, but I know it’s on the other side. So I’m, “Oh, just jump and you’ll see the amazing things that will happen.”
That’s really powerful. All right. Clearly people are drawn to you, you’ve done a lot for so many winning people. I would love to know if it’s possible for you to just list, for anyone who might be interested in being a mentor like you, three … The list might be … Maybe it’s four or five, just so … You can choose the number. Top qualities that a mentor should have?
You need to be a great listener. You have to be a great, great, great listener. You have to have a framework of how you’re directing people. You have to be focused, and you have to have a lot of experiences. You have to have a lot of experiences. Or you have to have … You have to be very specific on who you mentor. For me, I mentor an actual profession. So I’m bringing in people that are brand new into the profession, haven’t even gotten into the profession, are young into the profession, and are old in the profession.
So for me, I have to have lots of experiences if I want help all those people. But I think most people, I think the biggest one is listening. If you can’t listen, then you’re going to be very ineffective in your mentorship. So listening, lots of experiences, and having a framework and focus so that you’re not leading people astray.
That’s great. Thank you. GT, finally got to interview you. Thank you.
You’re very welcome.
Thank you so much for coming on. For anybody who wants to reach out to Greg Todd, seriously, just Google him. You can really find him all over the internet. He has a lot of videos where he’s always reaching out and giving free content to help out the masses in the physical therapy community. Take care, everyone.
A big thanks to Jenna and Greg for that wonderful interview. Thank you, thank you, thank you. And of course, a big thank you to the sponsor of today’s episode, Net Health. So again, they are ReDoc powered by xfit. It’s a cloud based, fully integrated EMR. You can expand your visit capacity, get paid for your services, which we all really, really like. Ramp up patient engagement, again, huge for your business. And eliminate worries about documentation and compliance, all in one place. So if you want to learn more about ReDoc and the complete revenue cycle management services, go to nethealth.com/healthy.
Thank you for listening. And please subscribe to the podcast at podcast.healthywealthysmart.com. And don’t forget to follow us on social media.
