We were lucky to catch up with Tyler Pollock recently and have shared our conversation below.
Tyler, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today When you’ve been a professional in an industry for long enough, you’ll experience moments when the entire field takes a U-Turn, an instance where the consensus completely flips upside down or where the “best practices” completely change. If you’ve experienced such a U-Turn over the course of your professional career, we’d love to hear about it.
I think the entire field of physical therapy is in the process of a massive shift in how we provide value to our patients. With high deductible insurance-plans, low reimbursement rates, decreased session times, and increased volume in outpatient therapy settings, physical therapists and patients alike are looking for other avenues to give and receive a more personalized experience. Patients are in search of care that is more focused on their overall health and well-being both in the short-term and long-term as opposed to the “patient mill experience” that has often been found in the more recent model of physical therapy. This new model exists as a one-on-one session with the provider, which provides a better environment for patients to get better results in fewer sessions, resulting in time saved, less money spent, and overall a healthier individual.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I got into physical therapy back in high school after getting injured a handful of times playing baseball. I ended up in physical therapy on several occasions and had some very influential therapists that made a lasting impact on me during my rehab process. After graduating from CU with my Doctorate of Physical Therapy (DPT) degree, I worked in an outpatient clinic for several years. After receiving a lot of mentorship and experience, I was inspired to open my own practice specializing in sub-acute orthopedic injuries and performance training for athletes and active adults. My mission now is to provide personalized care in a one-on-one setting to help individuals perform their activities pain-free and at their optimal capacity for performance. I am most proud that we get to help people return to doing what they love and get to see them succeed after all the hard work they put in. Our patients are at the core of our mission and we work to provide as much value as we possibly can in the time we get to spend with them. They aren’t treated like just another number and we genuinely care about them as a member of our family.
Putting training and knowledge aside, what else do you think really matters in terms of succeeding in your field?
Empathy. I think empathy is one of the key ingredients to having success working with individuals on a one-on-one basis. Not only does it encourage me to see things through their perspective, but it also helps me provide truly personalized care. Without this key ingredient, a huge opportunity is missed to connect deeper with my patients and create a meaningful relationship. It’s part of what makes us so different and lends to the success we have with people. When people know you truly hear what they have to say, a level of trust can develop that promotes the desire to do the work required to heal from an injury.
Have you ever had to pivot?
When I opened my clinic, I knew very little about running a business, and I knew it! I knew that I had significant limitations in my skills that needed to develop so that I could scale beyond myself. While I knew I had these limitations, I decided to go at it alone with no help for my first 5 months in business. I had little success. While I learned a great deal about what didn’t work, I certainly wasn’t at any point of sustainability because I had no idea what did work. I had to make a decision: either continue down this path and end up closing up shop, or ask for help. I hadn’t been willing to make the investment in myself through outside resources, and I was limiting myself. Once I did, the world opened up. It suddenly became a lot less scary, and a lot more abundant. I was able to get out of my own way so that I could actually help people. The biggest takeaway from my experience I had was that I needed to get around a group of people who were invested in the same thing I was. People to support me when the going got tough. People to bounce ideas off of. People who were smarter than me and more successful at what I was trying to do. Letting go of the fear that was holding me back was the pivotal moment for my business to start down the path I knew it was capable of going.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.performanceprojectpt.com
- Instagram: performanceprojectpt
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theperformanceprojectpt
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tyler-pollock-theperformanceproject/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4Y3Izm6YqDo9tTOu7VE1hw