We recently connected with Dr. Kenael Segal and have shared our conversation below.

Dr. Kenael , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to hear the backstory of how you established your own practice.

While I was still a student in graduate school, I knew one day that I would be a business owner, running my own cash based pelvic floor PT practice. That idea became reality much sooner than expected after graduation when I realized how much work I would put into someone else’s practice while early postpartum with my 2nd. Because this was a 2nd career for me, I was postpartum with my 2nd child, and racked up a significant student loan debit, I was not willing to participate in anything remotely corporate like. That means I was not going to deal with someone else dictating when and how much I work, when and where I pumped breastmilk, and how productive I wanted to be. Once I realized the amount of effort it would take to create and start a special department in my niche of pelvic floor PT within an already established private PT practice, it was time to use my efforts wisely. There wasn’t much effort to go around as a sleep deprived mother, so my time was to be well spent for the benefit of me and my family. Fortunately I had established an LLC, knowing I wanted to do this from graduate school. The next steps were to get insurance coverage, find space to practice, and start marketing. Although I did not begin to generate income right away, everything I previously did from my 1st career as a teacher, being a student in grad school, and even a mother, prepared me to open my own practice. Had I not felt forced to do so, I most likely would have procrastinated my way out of starting my own practice.

Dr. Kenael , love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I decided to pursue a doctorate in PT after realizing that I thrive in the business of helping others. As an empathic and sensitive person, I naturally felt drawn to physical therapy after spending some time volunteering at a local outpatient center while transitioning from teaching high school science. I became a pelvic floor PT because of my own personal struggles with postpartum healing after the birth of my first child. After being dismissed by medical professionals, I felt a calling to be present for women who may ultimately be dismissed by the same medical professionals. It became my mission to educate the public on pelvic health and serve my local community of women. I did that for many years and continue to do so now. Although today, how I do that looks a bit different as the level of available information has changed. As my empathic and intuitive skills have developed over the years of working with hundreds of women, men and children, I naturally included energy healing into physical therapy. Now, I am able to offer healing on may different levels, not just physical.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

Marketing is something that’s not taught in PT school. It was a learn as you go experience, asking questions and looking at others for example. I’ve heard of every marketing strategy to put in place from ads with search engines or social media, emails campaigns, funnel and lead pages, a strong presence on social media, to cold calling or hanging flyers in local businesses. My best marketing strategy was me, meeting people and speaking with them. I would find myself doing a workshop, paid or free, a couple people or a large group of people, and passionately speaking about my mission and purpose. It must have been my intense passion, vision and purpose, but that lead to paying customers. For years, I did no marketing and there never seemed to be a short supply of paying customers.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

When the pandemic struck, I was 4 months PP with my 3rd child, and newly moved into a brand new office suite, with 5 other people who shared the same vision of helping women heal prenatal and postpartum related injuries. But like many businesses that relied on in person business, we had to quickly shut down. Many others practices went online, but being only a few weeks postpartum and post major abdominal surgery, it was a moment for me to pause and reflect. I took a break for several more months before I began to see people again via teleheath and eventually back to in person. After the pandemic experience, I realized that I didn’t want to scale to the business I was moving towards, instead, I wanted to scale back to something that was more manageable and flexible for me, a mother of 3 children. While some people might see it as a failure, it was exactly what I needed for my life, in the this moment.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.drkenaelsegal.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lotuspelvicpt/?hl=en
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-kenael-segal-70350b37/

Image Credits
Photos taken by Malaika Muindi