We were lucky to catch up with Sammie Lewis recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Sammie, thanks for joining us today. What do you think Corporate America gets wrong in your industry?

In the United States, insurance companies dictate healthcare practices and access. Despite inflation, reimbursement for physical therapy services has only gone down in the last decade. This forces PT’s to see multiple people an hour, often overlapping, in order to make a living. So not only does this cause burnout for practicioners, but also causes poor quality of care to patients. It’s a system that rewards quantity over quality.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

We’re a husband and wife team running a performance and rehab clinic out of Golden, Colorado called Golden Endurance. This means not only do we provide physical therapy services, but also personal training and run coaching. We specialize in training endurance athletes, but treat anybody who wants to work to improve their health. We don’t contract directly with insurance companies so that we can do 60-min 1-0n-1 sessions with clients, which is simply not possible with an insurance model. This not only improves patient outcomes, but minimizes visits and often saves the patient money in the long run. We pride ourselves at looking at the whole picture and getting to the root cause of issues, not just treating a body part. As endurance specialists, we are able to meld our coaching knowledge into our PT treatments and also able to integrate our PT knowledge with our coaching clients. Many runners avoid seeking care because their used to practitioners telling them to simply stop running so much. That’s a lazy answer. We’re here to help you meet your goals, whatever they may be.

We’d love to hear the story of how you turned a side-hustle into a something much bigger.

We started GE originally out of our apartment as a side hustle to just treat runner friends. We knew we could better help them there where we had more time than in our corporate PT jobs. About 6 months later, one day I came home from my corporate job, completely drained per usual, and just asked my husband if I could quit. We had acquired a small clientele through our side hustle and there wasn’t going to be a “perfect” time to go all in but I was tired of the corporate healthcare system. The next week I put in my notice. We moved into a standalone space about 2 months later, and my husband stayed in side hustle mode to keep benefits for about 9 months. He just came full time with me in March.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

We are very involved in our local running community. Group runs, events, trail work- we’re always there. People want to come see us because we’re involved and we race competitively. They know we do what they do, and aren’t just going to tell them to stop. We also value quality over quantity. We’re constantly communicating with our clients and adjusting things for them. Nobody is getting a cookie-cutter plan, and people really appreciate the dedication that we have to the individual. Somebody in a business group recently commented “but that’s not scalable” when referring to the amount of personal time we have with each client. My response? “That’s the point. We’re different and people can see that. People appreciate not just being another number..”

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.golden-endurance.com/
• Instagram: @golden.endurance
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/goldenendurancept
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@goldenendurance1458