Steve Napolitan: Welcome to the More Business More Life® podcast. Today I’m with a special guest, Michele Hession, and she is a physical therapist by trade, but now she’s the CEO founder of Be Active, Be Well, and has created an amazing business. And that’s what we’re going to cover. How she was workaholic at a high level like seven days a week, working long hours when I met her, and now having the leisure of being able to travel. At one point, she did a vacation every month, and she’s doing some significant vacations this year. Well, growing even more. She’s doubled her business and employed more people, helped more people with their physical therapy than ever before. How is this possible? How can she do more business and more life? That’s what this show’s about. That’s what we’re going to uncover. So welcome Michele.

Michele Hession: Hi Steve. Nice to see you.

Steve Napolitan: Yeah, it’s a pleasure. I’ve been wanting to do an interview like this for a long time because, but it’s even better now because there’s even more results to talk about.

Michele Hession: That’s right. More success. 

Steve Napolitan: So we waited for the perfect time. And speaking of that, just the highlight for people just getting to click on this episode or however you’re listening to it, that you went from basically working almost seven days a week a lot in your car because we’ll get into what she does, but she’s an in-home therapist, so traveling around in your car, but then you started hiring people, so then you’re doing all the admin and then at night you’re working. And then through the journey of change, and a lot of the time that we were working together, you were able to, I remember that pinnacle moment where you’re like, Steve, I’m taking a vacation a week, and the company’s still growing. So to have that junks position, if you were to just do a quick compare and contrast, maybe a few sentences where it was and where it is now, how would you put that right next to each other for people listening?

Michele Hession: Well, I am a physical therapist and I was seeing clients, and then I realized my schedule was too busy. So I started to hire people, and the next thing I knew is that I was managing and literally just taking phone calls, pulling off on the side of the road, doing something with my calendar, calling my voicemail at home to remind myself, oh, do A, B, and C when you get home. And I seriously was working till 10, 11 o’clock at night, seven days a week. I would often just spill clients over into the next day just so that they would get seen. And I think there was some of that mentality of if you want it done right, you got to do it yourself. But then I didn’t have enough of me. So I started hiring and then I realized I can’t do everything. And it actually made me sick.

I mean, I was burning the candle at both ends and I got just over exhausted. So I ended up hiring and my first thing was, okay, I’ve got to hire, well, first I got a PO box because I was losing, people would pay me, write me a check, and I would put it in my back pocket and it would go through the laundry. So there’s just these fundamentals of establishing what you need for a business. And I got an assistant and just got myself a little more organized and realized that I had to do less in order to have the energy to do well when I was on.

Steve Napolitan: Yeah, then you’re at half power and you’re not. Yeah. And that’s a big topic, and we can jump into that. So now you are working much less, actually bigger than ever, the company’s bigger than ever. You’re helping more people because not you, but your essence, the whole company and all of your therapists are helping more people than ever before, more visits per month and you’re having more of the life you want.

Michele Hession: Yeah. I work two and a half days a week physically seeing patients, and I have 30 therapists working for me, and the volume of visits is significantly more than it was when I was trying to do everything myself.

Steve Napolitan: Beautiful. And we’ll get more in detail on that, but those are some quick highlights and you stay with us and listen or watch this, then you’re going to find some details that made a significant difference in your life. So let’s go back to who you are. So maybe just describe your business, be active, be well, and I guess let’s start there. Just tell people your business, just so they get an update of who you are and what you’re doing.

Michele Hession: So I am a physical therapist, but I see people in the home, so I don’t have a clinic where they come to. I didn’t want to have the overhead, the idea of having rent and having to purchase equipment to supply for the place. I just was like, I want a low overhead. So I was working for a home health agency, and then some people asked me, well, can I hire you privately? And at first I was like, oh no, I have a JOB, you can’t hire me. And then I realized, well, wait a minute, I can. So I see people in the home and which they’re very flexible because a lot of them geriatric. They don’t go out necessarily a lot. And so it was very, very flexible and that was something that really drew me to this. Plus I enjoy the geriatrics, but then I recognized that they needed more than just a physical therapist. They should have an occupational therapist or maybe a speech therapist if there was some cognitive issues or swallowing issues. So I subsequently hired those other disciplines. They bring much more of a compliment than just me alone.

Steve Napolitan: So then you’re able to expand skill sets that weren’t even your expertise, but then you’re able to, as a collective, add more value. And there is value to go in the home too, because some of these people, it’s really hard to go into a clinic. So this is not just for your convenience, it actually is the convenience and the experience of the patient as well.

Michele Hession: Oh, definitely. Either they no longer drive, their children are from out of town. They get very flustered when they have to, oh, I have to get up and get ready and get dressed and go somewhere. And then by the time they get to the clinic, they’re tired and it’s hard to participate in the program.

Steve Napolitan: It took all of that, and I can relate to that. When I was going through my being paralyzed, I remember everything was in home until I remember when I finally could walk with a cane and get in the car. It was kind of a success story. And then go see the acupuncturist that I wanted to see that wouldn’t do in home. And that was a milestone moment, but it was a chore. It was like, oh my gosh. At the very beginning it was a big deal to leave the house.

Michele Hession: And that’s often, we hope our patients graduate to go to an outpatient clinic, but we see them post-surgery, we see them, they’ve had a fall in the home, and then they’re afraid to leave. They’re afraid they’re going to fall in the driveway. And then it’s also the beauty of seeing somebody in the home is you can see them in their own home environment and really recognize this rug is a problem. Those stairs need to be repaired, the bathroom needs a grab bar where if they came to the clinic, I would never see those opportunities that we could address.

Steve Napolitan: So again, so much more value add. And that’s what I always look at when I’m teaching businesses. What’s the experience you want to have and what’s the experience that your clients want to have? And when that marries like what you’re saying right here, it just gels together and creates part of your success.

Michele Hession: Well, and even during Covid, right? They were afraid this geriatric population was afraid to go to a clinic where there might be all these other people. And so we would go and we would test in the morning and wear mask. And that way they were comfortable with having somebody come to the home.

Steve Napolitan: Otherwise they would’ve no service.

Michele Hession: Correct. And they would just get worse.

Steve Napolitan: So it’s beautiful. And I guess maybe one more step on that, since we’re at this juncture, you did allude a little bit to the why it worked in your life, but is there an even bigger, because even before this, you chose this line of work even before you decided to do it out on your own. Was there a big calling in your heart? Did you stumble into this? What made you choose this, Michele?

Michele Hession: Well, I ended up going into physical therapy because I knew I loved sciences and biology and anatomy, and I did well in high school. And I remember saying to my sister how much I like this. And she was in nursing school and she said, don’t be a nurse. And I said to my sister-in-Law, who was a nurse that I really liked science. And she said, don’t be a nurse. So I kept getting that message and then I come from a big family. And so another sister-in-Law said, well, I have a friend who’s a PT, and I just met her. She sat me down, she told me all the different opportunities. I always wanted to be in that helping profession and something with science. And she was able to say, you could go outpatient, you can do sports, you can do rehab, you can do intensive care in the hospital. The physical therapists are all over pediatrics. So I realized, whoa, there’s a lot I can do. And then I consider myself pretty lucky that I applied to college and as a physical therapy major at 18 and 40 years later, I’m still doing it and happy about it and fulfilling even.

Steve Napolitan: That’s the thing I’ve even just for the record, I’ve been coaching Michele to stop seeing patients and you still absolutely love it. And yes, you’re doing it a lot less. So that’s what makes it workable. But there’s a part of you and I told you, Michele, and then for everyone listening, it’s okay to do that. And even if you’re not the main care facilitator of the patient, you can still go in there as the company owner, go be there, see what’s going on. But I can tell already I know you, and so I just wanted to say this for everyone listening that you do care. You’re doing this because you want to and not because you have to.

Michele Hession: Yeah, no, I definitely enjoy it.

Steve Napolitan: It’s so good. And it shows. And it shows, and that’s why we thrive. That’s why I always tell people, if you have a core purpose, your business is going to outperform anyone else that’s just going to make a buck. It’s just true. When you put people on the planet, first profits follow, and there’s so much data in this. It’s ridiculous. It’s so true. So it shows and then we can get so passionate about it that we get ourselves locked up. So coming to the whole idea of what happened, you were having success, you’re having more things, you’re like, oh, I need more help. So you just kept doing more and more and more because your heart was in it. And so let’s maybe go back so then we can kind of paint a journey here. You just kept adding and adding and adding, and it just kept taking more and more of you, right? How you decide? I think it was, it is like that. What is it though, when you put the crab in the water and then you bring it to boil? They don’t notice, I think. Right. I felt like that in your story. Just all of a sudden you wake up and you’re like, wait, what am I doing?

Michele Hession: Yeah, there were just these micro changes and then all of a sudden it was the stress of it. But I mean, I say it was making me sick. I mean, I was waking up in the middle of the night of like, oh, I forgot to do this, or I have to do that. And I was pulling up my laptop and doing this work, and then I’d go back to sleep. And when I was time to get up, I couldn’t get up. I was exhausted.

Steve Napolitan: Wait, so you woke up in the middle of the night, and actually, I don’t even know if I knew this, you got up, got your laptop, did some work, and went back to bed.

 

Michele Hession: Yeah.

Steve Napolitan: Oh my God. Okay

Michele Hession: Which isn’t healthy. No, no, no. I mean, you need a good night’s sleep. And sleep deprivation really can take a toll.

Steve Napolitan: Oh gosh, Michele. I knew you work late, but I didn’t know you were doing that years ago.

Michele Hession: But I also think this, I was missing systems. And once I learned that, it was like, okay, this same problem keeps coming up. I got to figure out what’s the answer for it. And also what you taught me about the whole grief and gain is finding out, okay, well what’s the grief here and how can we fix it so that it becomes a gain, right?

Steve Napolitan: Well, yeah, a grief can become a gain. And also in that, the other layer, if you come and you’re in business and there aren’t any griefs, then it’s like, what do we want to gain? So you could also flip it, the question on that, but it is what that does for everyone that’s never heard that before. It’s giving you one thing at a time. Because when we think of systems, I think a lot of entrepreneurs, even CEO founders of even that come into a business that started operating, we think we’re going to overhaul major systems. We have these big ideas, and then sometimes we can delay the activity. Whereas if you pick one thing and focus on that one grief, then you overcome it, then you do the next and the next. So that’s the idea behind that. And it actually is a great tee-up. So when we met, you were working seven days a week, and I remember that, and you even showed me a picture or something, or maybe we were on a video call, you showed me your car, and I just remember papers all over the seat next to you. It was literally an office car, but you literally had an office in your car.

Michele Hession: Yeah. Oh, I still do, but it’s much more organized and I’m not in it six days a week.

Steve Napolitan: If that’s what happened, then it’s chaos because one thing stacks on top of another. There’s no time to organize or clean. So that’s what I remember with you, and I remember how stressed you were. Do you remember what one of the first things was that made a difference? Or if you don’t, then we can just start looking at some of the things that you started to change as we worked together.

Michele Hession: Well, again, it was down to systems. It was like, okay, well one, I have to get a PO box that, that’s just kind of where people send stuff. Because I didn’t have a physical address that was my business address because, and I didn’t want it to go to my home because I don’t know, I didn’t want people necessarily to know my address in the beginning. So there was little things like that, getting the business bank account, having conversation of just how you categorize different stuff. I mean, as a physical therapist, you take a lot of science classes and you have labs and you have anatomy. You don’t take any business classes. So that was really just kind of learning on the fly. So kind of doing that in the beginning was really helpful. And then basically hiring somebody that I could pay less than I would pay a therapist, but who could do admin stuff. So getting QuickBooks was also just another step. And I think too, recognizing that sometimes you have to have certain expenses that are just, that’s the cost of doing business and accept that.

Steve Napolitan: Yes, and then add that into your price. So I know since we worked together quite a few price increases.

Michele Hession: Yes. Well, yeah, in the beginning it was just like, well, okay, well, my services, I want to be able to earn so much money. But then it was like, okay, well now I got to pay for all these other things, and now I’ve got a website. There’s just this constant expense, but it’s all good. It’s all been worth it, and I would do it again

Steve Napolitan: Yeah. That’s so beautiful. And so what would you say if we break a few milestones? Okay, so one, getting some, and by the way too, just to also say you’re not alone in this. I mean, I’ve worked with even other professions like lawyers, doctors, I mean even you can be a baker. It doesn’t matter when you’re the practitioner or the craftsperson and you’ve gone to school and you’ve been highly educated in that, and you’re an expert in that field, it doesn’t make you a businessman or woman. That’s a whole another set of learning. And you’re totally right. Much of the education system, almost all of them, you go learn this profession, and then you go out and you can go get a job and then plug into a system. But many of these lawyers, especially in other professionals, even architects, a lot of them will go try to start their own firm and then struggle because no one taught them how to run a business.

So you’re naming off some things and someone listening to ’em might think, wow, that’s so simple. But it’s a lot of little simple things of many simple things. And so then it’s kind of finding the one that makes the most impact early on. If you can let your mind go back. Can you remember one of the things that you think made the most impact of relief from that time that you met me and then you were working that many hours? Can you recall if there was one of the significant ones that started giving you more life back?

Michele Hession: Well, it was definitely hiring a bookkeeper to manage that, because then if there was monies that were past due, I mean, I’m so busy working that I’m not sure if Mr. Smith’s paid his bill or not, and I just want to deliver the therapy. So it was nice to have someone who makes the phone call that says, you’re 60 days in the rear, and where are we at and can we help you with this? And so that was significant. That just helped the cash flow because in the beginning, there was times when I would say I won’t take a paycheck because the cash flow was just not proper. So once I hired somebody who could chase some of the outstanding accounts, that was helpful.

Steve Napolitan: So the ebbs and that whole up and down would not be there. It would be more constant. Constant. And then you can keep paying yourself every month.

Michele Hession: Yeah. And now I do. And so now I pay myself a given amount, and it doesn’t matter how much I work, I could take a month off and I still get that given paycheck and that it’s coming because consistency.

Steve Napolitan: So beautiful contrast right there. How does that feel to know that now that you don’t have to skip a paycheck, you’re getting paid and that doesn’t work?

Michele Hession: I mean, it just takes a load off your shoulder. It’s definitely a lot more, well, the sense of freedom that if something were to come up or if my son were to say, Hey, mom, I want to do something next weekend. I’ll take Friday off and it’s no big deal, and I’ll do something with them.

Steve Napolitan: That’s so amazing. And so just taking in a big scheme of thing, it was taking one system at a time, one grief, and changing it into a game, and then growing and growing to the point, I can’t remember, do you remember what year that was? Was it 2018 or 2017? I can’t remember where you finally, you took a week vacation almost approximately every month.

Michele Hession: I think it was 2018, and some of it was two weeks in a month. And then some of it might’ve been a long weekend, but it was once a month that I did something. And many of these were they included. It was a trip. I went to New Zealand, I went to New Orleans twice. I went to Maine, to New England. I went up to Vancouver for a long weekend. So I just had 12 different vacations and before, which is highly significant.

Steve Napolitan: I mean, this is beautiful because when I met you, there’s no way I want you to say, because I’m only saying from my picture of you, I don’t even know if that would’ve been in your mind that it was even possible.

Michele Hession: Correct. I would say that I had thought that it wasn’t possible that I have to see people. Well, one, I was working six days a week, and sometimes patients can get kind of needy and for them to say, oh, no, no, no, you have to come every Saturday. And I had this standing Saturday afternoon group of clients that I would see, and it became, I mean, it was kind of depressing, you know what I mean? To wake up in the morning on Saturday and go, Ugh, I have to work this afternoon. So that I really couldn’t do anything else. I couldn’t have fun. It was like I had to be ready to go to work in the afternoon.

Steve Napolitan: And now that dream of you helping people, the thing that you absolutely love, and I know you love, because now we’re getting to the point where you probably shouldn’t see any patients logistically for your business, and you still want to, so here I’m highlighting this really loud, the thing that you love now you’re like, Ugh. Because it’s so much, because you go to the wit’s end, you’re like, okay, I have nothing left to give.

 

Michele Hession: Well, that’s what it was. I was just overbooked. So I’ve gotten better at setting some parameters, setting some guidelines, and I find that using the words, well, the schedule doesn’t allow, it’s not so much me saying no to them, that I just say, my schedule doesn’t allow. They don’t need to know that I block off Saturday and I just don’t work on Saturday anymore.

Steve Napolitan: And even this is proven in many of my clients and even in other data points and other literature, that your work goes up.

Michele Hession: The quality of your work.

Steve Napolitan: Yes, quality of your work. Thank you for saying, because when you’re at that point, then how is Michele showing up? And even though you’re still doing a good job and you have a level of excellence already that you had a standard to, but how much better are you when you’re fully rested, way better?

Michele Hession: No, on my toes, able to immediately say to somebody, oh, yeah, you strained your intercostal muscle when you did that. And for them to go, really? I go, and then we’ll do some treatment, and then they feel better. But when you’re tired or you’re thinking, oh, I didn’t return that phone call. I haven’t checked my email in over a day. You know what I mean? And you’ve got that going on in the back of your head, it’s hard to be in the moment with the client.

Steve Napolitan: Or if you like going back to your office in the car thing, you’re finishing in the office and maybe you didn’t finish and you had to go do the patient because you had a set time, and then you’re leaving that work. How many times are you going in to see the patient and you’re still thinking about the car work?

Michele Hession: Totally.

Steve Napolitan: These are real things and you’re doing the best that you can, but now it’s so much better when you don’t have to do that, you can be a hundred. So what I’m hearing is then you can be a hundred percent from with the patient. I’m a hundred percent there. If I’m in the office or you’re working with your team, you can be a hundred percent there. Or if you’re playing with your kids.

Michele Hession: Yep, a hundred percent there

Steve Napolitan: You could be a hundred percent there.

Michele Hession: So designating an office day was also another real turning point. We only invoiced on a monthly basis, so always around the first, I would block off time where I wasn’t doing that before. If the first fell on a Wednesday and I was busy seeing clients, I would typically stay up late Wednesday night doing the invoicing.

Steve Napolitan: So you could still see patients the next day.

Michele Hession: But now I block time off and I go ahead of time. And then the idea that I block segments of, oh, this is when I meet with my assistant, this is when I make these follow-up phone calls. This is when I review different aspects of my business.

Steve Napolitan: I think I am just remembering a moment when we were coaching and I was with you because I had worked with this accounting firm prior to working with you and woman that did all the payroll for all her clients. She would do that and it would take her two or three days. Remember that story? Because that way this all came about. I said, tell me about your week. And she said, Monday is horrible. Then Tuesday gets worse and the week goes downhill from there. And I’m like, what happened? She’s like, well, I start the week doing payroll for all of her clients, and I’m getting continually interrupted. And so it’s just a nightmare and I need to do payroll correctly, and if someone has deductions or they have child support and I can’t mess up. And anyway, then, so I made the suggestion. I said, what if you only do payroll? No one distracts you? And at first it was completely like, no. It was like the reason I’m doing this is because I’m so, it was two partners, two women, one did business development, went and got the business, and the other one was the actual accountant. And she’s like, I’m the accountant and I have to answer the phone. I said, no, you don’t. I was like, how many people are dying if they wait 24 hours to get their accounting?

Michele Hession: Right. Well, and I often say that people don’t die if they don’t get physical therapy.

Steve Napolitan: But we act like they do.

Michele Hession: Yes..

Steve Napolitan: I know right? I’ve done it too. I’ll be making a commercial for a client and I’m acting someone’s going to die. I did that. I created my own sense of urgency as a better customer service. I thought I was giving a better service to them by doing that. And so I think I remember telling you that story and you’re like, wait a minute, I could take a day just to do the accounting. Yes, we can. And I learned all this too, because it is not picking on any thing. I did the same thing. That’s why I teach this stuff now.

Michele Hession: And I just think if they’d offered some business classes when I was in college, that would’ve been helpful.

Steve Napolitan: And the thing is, they still don’t really do this. It’s wild. So the results came pretty quickly for you, I think. I mean, you implemented, and also, let’s put, this is a team of event here. I always tell people I, I’ve seen now over 30 plus years, we have these decades of experience, and I bring that experience and I bring those ideas from one client to another. Just like we were talking about from the accounting firm to bring that to your firm. At the same time, we are figuring these things out and we can share these. And so when I share that with you, you also have to do it. And so the only reason we’re here on this show right now is because you did that. So our teamwork allowed this to work to make this happen.

Michele Hession: I’ve always considered myself, I do well if you give me homework, but I think what was happening of just being my own small business owner, I didn’t know what homework I needed to do. You need direction on, okay, well start here. This is the next thing. And so having some direction gave me small successes. Oh, I need to do this first, and then I get it done.

Steve Napolitan: Was there a moment in there that you said, wow, this is working? Or was it all the way to when you were taking all those big vacations? Do you remember a moment where you’re like, oh, this is a big relief, just curious.

Michele Hession: Well, I think that that year that I did the vacation thing, it was a very conscious effort and I wasn’t sure I could pull it off, but it was kind of a new year’s resolution kind of thing. And I wanted to just have more fun. I wasn’t having fun.

Steve Napolitan: I think it was plan your fun first. I told Michele, I said, okay, we got to plan the fund, otherwise you’re not going to do it. You’re just going to keep putting more people in your own.

Michele Hession: Oh, yeah, totally overwrite my free time. And then also my motto became, if I get invited somewhere, I say yes. I mean, unless I’m don’t know, I’m sick and I can’t make it, but if I get an invitation to go somewhere, I’m going to say yes.

Steve Napolitan: Meaning you’re talking about leaders of like, oh, come to this party or this thing.

Michele Hession: Party. Go listen to music. A wedding invitation. I mean, that year I had a wedding invitation that was in New Orleans. And think about it. I live in San Francisco. And to get there, I mean, it was kind of a big deal. I had to take time off and I was just like, you know what? I’m going. And I tell you, we talk about that wedding. It was such a fun weekend. And I just saw the married couple on my summer vacation, and we talked about how much fun that wedding was. And to think that I even thought of not going because, oh, I got too much work taking time off. So making that conscious effort, I think after the fact, it made me realize, you can do this. People don’t die if they don’t get their physical therapy. And then also increasing my staff, I was able to get people to see my clients when them the option, do you want to be seen while I’m away? Or we’ll just put things on hold.

Steve Napolitan: And now business continues without you. So then it’s happening, which is the dream, right? Then it’s a machine. The business itself becomes a rental property where you can have those rents, but it’s not just the money. It goes back to the mission. You’re actually caring for more human beings and actually to a point where it’s impossible, the level your business is at now, there’s no way Michele could do that as a person.

Michele Hession: No, it’s impossible.

Steve Napolitan: So you’re at a whole another level. I’m pretty sure you’re double the point that I met you.

Michele Hession: Oh, yes, for sure more.

Steve Napolitan: Or you think I know at least double, maybe three times the amount of patient load.

Michele Hession: Oh, I’d have to go back and look at it. But we definitely have, the numbers are way up there. And also another thing that was important is that I was seeing the agency visits, which was a lot of paperwork, and the reimbursement was less. And that we had 20% was our private pay. And now our private pay is 85% of our business. The agency is 10% of our business. And hospice patients are 5% of our business. And the therapists are just much happier. The private pay clients are a lot easier to deal with, and we don’t have all the Medicare requirements and the paperwork and whatnot. And I mean, I had one other therapist again, say to me, today, I’ve decided I won’t see any more agency patients. And it’s, it’s not fulfilling the demands of the office saying, you didn’t cross this T, you didn’t dot this. So that was another thing that we really worked on, was to the ow and the wow and that it was very frustrating working with these agencies and the demands that they put on us that was like, okay, I could bring that number down and we have to see more private pay. So just marketed to the different groups that would open that door.

Steve Napolitan: And I still think, and maybe we should talk about this moment for a moment, wow, clients, I mean, there’s so many lessons in more business, more life and the whole philosophy. But I probably would say you’re not the only client that really highlights wow clients. It is the most asked speech that I’ve given around the world. I’ve got to do it in Africa and Europe and New Zealand, Australia, all around the United States of Canada. And the reason I bring it up is it’s that big, but it’s easy to look over. And a lot of times it’s fear too, because we’re in business and we think, oh, I have to take any client that I can to stay in business. And I do remember that moment. There we are. And just hitting your numbers, just so you’re 20% private and 80% having to deal with all the insurance or getting reimbursements through the clinic work, you now have more than flip flopped that. And it’s by a choice. It’s by saying, okay, I’m only going to work. And I was probably in those things. I’m like, okay, who’s your wow client? And you’re like, oh, it’s these private payer ones that we have only a little bit, and now you’ve completely fixed.

Michele Hession: Oh, it’s completely fixed.

Steve Napolitan: So to the people that have never heard of this, they’re listening to this for the first time, they haven’t seen me talk about, well, clients. What was it like? Was it freaky to say, oh, wait, I’m just going to ask for this? Or did it come in to you right away? You’re like, no, this is what I want. Or if you can go back in that time, do you remember what it was like to say, wait, I can choose.

Michele Hession: Well, I think I had to recognize to not say yes to every single phone call I got, or every single text or every single email or request for, I can’t say yes to everything. So started to delineate, okay, well, this diagnosis we’re not going to take or this geographical area, because sometimes it was just too far. And if we have to travel for 45 minutes to get to somebody’s house, it doesn’t make it worthwhile. So I started doing some limits and then reaching out to people. I went to concierge doctors, I told case managers, I just put it out there, Hey, we’re seeing people privately. And plus I had worked a while in the community, so I let other therapists know. That used to be my coworkers that, Hey, I’ve got this going on. This is my new gig to increase the private pay. And I think also when you just have a happy, satisfied customer, they tell their neighbor, they tell their daughter, who then tells her neighbor, and then her parents call you, that kind of thing.

So that was part of it. And I also had the experience of, there was one time I was sick, I had to have surgery, and I had told this client, I have a therapist who can come see you. She said, no, no, no, it’s okay. I’ll wait till you come back. Well, I was taking eight weeks off. So what does she do? She calls me two weeks after my surgery and says, well, how are you feeling? You’ve been thinking about you. I was hoping you could just come and see me. You don’t have to see all your clients. Just come and see me. And I thought, okay, that’s really callous. That’s pretty selfish. I had surgery and you’re not better in two weeks. I needed that eight week recovery. And I thought, she’s an owl. And even though she was private pay, when I finished my disability and I went back to work, I didn’t call her. I thought, you know what? I don’t need somebody like that in my life.

Steve Napolitan: And you start making decisions for you. And then like you said, the reward is high. A lot of times we’re scared. So many business owners, they’re really scared. They think I’m in business to, I got to survive. I got to pay the bills. But then when we realize that when we work with, wow, everything flourishes and it’s the four Rs. I always say, if you get more results because you’re in that, wow, you’re going to have a better result with them. They are having their excitement. Then that leads to more repeat business. They want to keep working with you, which leads to more raving fans because you’re going to go spread and then you get more referrals. So before hours, you just shared in your story that even though it’s scary at first, it actually can happen.

Michele Hession: Oh yeah, it opened another door. And then I also did some mindset stuff in the sense of, I actually created on my computer, I have a folder for private pay. And then within the folder, everybody has their individual, I created some blank folders. I was creating space. Oh, beautiful. And then that also the thing of, I kept saying, we live in a world of abundance. When we really do, we really do that. The more I thought in that scarcity, then I would take anything that came my way now to the point the phone can ring and I can have an interview with somebody and I can realize that’s not a client, that’s a fit for us, and I’ll be kind to them. I make suggestions and I can refer them elsewhere, but I recognize that my staff won’t be happy seeing this person.

Steve Napolitan: And it’s not saying anyone’s bad or good.

Michele Hession: What I found is

Steve Napolitan: Just for somebody else.

Michele Hession: Yeah, their needs, their problems, their demands, that I think it’s not quite a fit for the group that we have.

Steve Napolitan: And it could be logistical, like geographic, like you said, it’s too far away, or maybe it just doesn’t fit with your staff.

Michele Hession: Or even diagnosis that I’ll be like, no, you’d be better served with somebody who has a certification in this. And I’ll steer them. I’ll give them a name and number to go somewhere else.

Steve Napolitan: It’s beautiful and it makes a better life. And then now here you are not even to worry about those things or wondering when you’re going to get paid, because private pay is more, I would say, fast and consistent.

Michele Hession: Oh, yeah, definitely. Oh yeah. The agency, they’re usually three months in the rears of paying, right? Yeah. And I think a lot with the private pay clients, they don’t like this idea of having this outstanding bill. I mean, sometimes they’ll call me, we invoice monthly on the first, but sometimes it happens on the second or the third, depending on when the first falls. And if it a Saturday and my bookkeeper wants to do something on the Saturday, so we’ll do it on Monday, people will call me and say, I didn’t get my invoice. They’re worried that they missed it and they want to pay. Isn’t that cool? Yeah.

Steve Napolitan: Yeah. Wow. What a difference. What a difference. And so now having shifted to your wow clients and having this and the way that it is now, what does having that do for you?

Michele Hession: Well, I would just have to say there’s a lot less stress that I’m able to, like this morning, I walked my dog at the beach and I have to have a little work done at my house. I met with the contractor where it was just I had the day that I could just get stuff done. I went to Costco. I had a little bit of freedom to just take care of stuff. That’s life. Yeah, you’re leaving. Yeah, exactly. And exercise. I’ve also added yoga back in. Yoga’s always been something that is where I hang my hat. That’s what makes me feel good. And I’ve been going to yoga three times a week. Awesome. Yeah. Where before I was working too much. I couldn’t do it. I would skip my yoga class. I would schedule a patient in that time, not anymore. I’d just simply say, oh, my first appointment is 10 30 so that I can do my yoga.

Steve Napolitan: And you don’t even have to tell them that.

Michele Hession: Oh, yeah. I just say, that’s my first appointment. First appointment.

Steve Napolitan: So putting your life first is kind of the essence of this, right? Designing what you want in your life. Then what are the results from that? Now that you have put yourself in the first position in your calendar and then you open up to others? What would you say are the highlight results? Or if there’s one big one?

Michele Hession: Well, one, my health is better. I’m no longer waking up in the middle of the night completely stressed and doing work. I have a good night’s sleep. So then the next day I’m just functioning better and I just have more fun. I have a dog that I spent a lot of time with. I just came back from a 10 day vacation. I’m planning another three week vacation at the end of September, early October out of the country. So I had those kinds of things where I can dream. I can be like, oh, this is something that I really want to do. Last night, a bunch of girlfriends, we just went out to dinner and then we decided we’re going to make it the second Tuesday club. The second Tuesday of every month, we’re going to go out to dinner.

Steve Napolitan: Beautiful. Yeah. Beautiful.

Michele Hession: So just all these things, it’s easier to have fun. Before I’d be like, oh gosh, I got to call this person. Or I’d be constantly looking at my phone. I got to answer that text, or it’s a lot less stressful.

Steve Napolitan: Then when you’re doing that and you’re constantly on, you’re never recovering and you’re deteriorating.

Michele Hession: It’s not fun.

Steve Napolitan: No and then you lose even something like you, someone that’s so passionate, you start losing that sight of why you did this in the first place.

Michele Hession: You start to not like your job anymore, and it becomes a job, not a profession, not a calling.

Steve Napolitan: So now you have that feeling back that you’re doing this good in the world and living your life.

Michele Hession: Yeah, definitely.

Steve Napolitan: Beautiful. Are there any other challenges that come to mind that have been overcome or that were big highlights other than what we’ve already discussed?

Michele Hession: I would say hiring. That’s been a challenge because sometimes you think somebody might be a fit, and then after you work with them for a while, it’s like, oh, their philosophy is a little bit different than mine. So managing has been kind of a challenge, but I find that if I just treat everybody with respect and I treat them the way I would want to be treated if I was an employee of a company, and I think being a therapist and owning the company, it’s different than just being a business owner, owning the therapy company I can relate and I understand.

I’ve been there with a patient like that. So we just had a request that they want us to go Monday morning at 7:00 AM to see this client. Okay, that’s a big ask. I’ll pay them more to go do it. You know what I mean? It is to just recognize that, okay, we want to do this. We want the referral source to be happy. And so they’re going to say, Hey, Michele is, yeah, she responds quickly and they want to do this because that’s when he gets out of bed and the whole his routine in the morning, and you know what? We’re going to make it happen and I’ll just pay them more to do it. I recognize that’s a big ask. I just don’t tell somebody you have to do that.

Steve Napolitan: And then now there’s longevity because one of the things, and I always say recruit, train, and retain. And so that’s in that retention part, because if we didn’t do that, we’re losing sight of the human aspect. Then all the things that we just talked about, you having a better life, we’re demanding it to be taken away from the people in our organization. So when we can, so the same thing you’re saying, treating them in a good way. So how do they want to live their life? But someone might be a super morning person and totally love that and be like, I love seven o’clock appointment. Who knows? Because again, you have a large team now, so there’s going to be someone that absolutely might love it, and there might be someone that’s like, no morning appointments for me.

Michele Hession: Right? So I just put it out there and if we can staff it, it’d be great. And I think there’s also that aspect of hearing them when they feel like that they need time off or that they’re feeling a little burnt, that I’m always take care of self, do what you need to do, take a long weekend so that next week you’re a hundred percent back.

Steve Napolitan: And mind recovery. I mean, actually your work is in recovery. Physical therapy is part of recovery, whether it’s a surgery, an injury, I so many different things or lifestyle, just not even moving properly.

You bring all those things in and then in a way, we get so caught up in it. There’s part of you not taking care of your own recovery. And so a big part of this, we took a big overarching word in everything that we talked about. It was you taking care of you. Because what I’m hearing, just some bullet points of what we’ve already discussed. You planning your fund first, you taking your priority to your life, and that includes the health aspects, like the yoga and different things, or just going on a walk with your dog. I mean, that’s all life giving. Then also working with the wow clients and only those wow clients, and knowing where to draw the line. Again, life giving, but then also, not only did it give you more life, but also prospered more. It grew the business and then the systems, having the right person do the right job so that you didn’t have to do all of it and having a team. So then again, same thing, gives more life. And you’re even giving life to others now. You’re giving a livelihood.

Michele Hession: Exactly. No, it actually makes me feel good to think that I’ve hired this woman. She’s earning a decent salary, and she wanted a job that was remote, which I don’t have an office. She’s got to work from home. So I supply her with the laptop and the phone, and it’s wonderful. And it’s exactly what she needed, taking care of an elderly father, and she can’t leave the house, basically. And so this is what she was loving, and I like the fact that, you know what? She’s able to earn her own income and she enjoys it. She likes what she does. She’s ultra, how can I say this? Attention to detail, likes things very organized. So she actually sets me straight, Michele, did you do blah, blah, blah, blah. And I’m like, oh, thanks for the reminder.

Steve Napolitan: Right. Well, it’s such a great thing. I know. I need to be managed as well. That’s beautiful. So many life giving things. Are there any other results that you can think of that we didn’t highlight out of those that, I mean, I know those are some big ones, but what are the results have you found in your life since we started working together?

Michele Hession: Well, I think just the team that we developed, trying to instill some of those, taking care of self with them that I can have. I had a party recently where invited all the team members to come and they really support one another. Another example this morning, a woman called in sick with Covid. One of my therapists, four or five other therapists just jumped in, oh, I’ll take that patient. I’ll see this guy. I’ll see this person if I can see them Thursday instead of today. And so they jumped in to help because they recognized that this other person would do the same. So this nice to have that culture. Yes. Yeah.

Steve Napolitan: I remember too, earlier on if that happened, it was you.

Michele Hession: Oh, totally. It was me that would jump in and see the patients. I mean, there was a time when I would see 10 to 12 people in a day, and I spent 45 minutes to an hour with each person. I mean, they were long. That’s a 12 hour day. Oh, I know. They were long days. Very long days

Steve Napolitan: So 12 hours with patients and then you weren’t done because you had paperwork.

Michele Hession: Correct.

Steve Napolitan: So really we’re talking like 16.

Michele Hession: Right. And so now my rule is four clients is my sweet spot.

Steve Napolitan: Okay. Yeah, a third.

Michele Hession: Yeah. Well, and I find that’s important because I do need to return calls, check my email, that kind of thing.

Steve Napolitan: And you would’ve done that in the middle of the night.

Michele Hession: Yes, I would’ve.

Steve Napolitan: So yeah, you can actually do it in the regular workday.

Michele Hession: Yes. and to hear somebody say, oh, thank you for calling me back so quickly. You get mileage off of that..

Steve Napolitan: Yes, that’s something you wouldn’t even know they’ll do.

Michele Hession: Well, in the past years ago, I can remember I got a phone call. Somebody was inquiring about services. I was so busy. I was running late. I had to get into my next client. I had to do the treatment. I didn’t call him back two, two and a half hours, maybe three hours later until I had a little bit of a break. And the first thing he said to me, he said, Hey, Michele, I’m returning your call. You asked about therapy for your dad. And he said to me, you snooze, you lose. You didn’t answer your phone. You weren’t the first one to call me back. He goes, I already booked with somebody else.

Steve Napolitan: Wow. And that’s two or three hours. I know. It’s not like two or three days.

Michele Hession: I know. But what people call in a situation of urgency, my dad fell yesterday. I’m really concerned. He’s afraid I want somebody to come out, what kind of assistive devices he need? And he needed somebody right away. And I didn’t answer the phone. I was too busy.

Steve Napolitan: You couldn’t, what you going to do while you’re on with the patient? Not, and some people might do that, but that’s not going to work well because then the patient’s going to feel like, what the hell is going on here? So wow. This is what a drastic contrast of where your life is now and where you are. And then again, to say that you’re actually helping more people. You’re actually having more appointments, you’re taking care of more lives, you have more physical therapy happening, and you’re working and you’re only doing two days, two and a half days seeing patients. So not six days a week patients.

Michele Hession: Correct. I mean, this is big. So I started with, I took one day, I took Wednesdays off, and then I added, I took Tuesdays off. So it was a gradual progression over time.

Steve Napolitan: But then you did it. It’s so beautiful. I mean, it brings me so much joy to sit here with you because I can remember your face and how much, I mean, you just look so relaxed right now. You’re glowing. And I just remember the stress. And even some of the papers, I think one of the first meetings, you had a stack of papers, you’re like, oh, that’s from my, you’re like, moves away in the meeting. It came out of your car. You’re like, oops, I got the wrong button. I remember. It wasn’t like a crazy, I’m not trying to make it.

Michele Hession: No, it was crazy.

Steve Napolitan: Okay. A little bit. But I can remember that energy. You’re like, oh, I got to do that. You were even, I think at the beginning of one of our first sessions, you’re like, oh, hold on, Steve. And then you wrote down some things you had to do because you were literally working until you got to me.

Michele Hession: Oh, totally. And I would often have to. And then I had these scraps of paper that I had to get it out of my brain and write it down. And then it was, where’s that scrap of paper? I mean, there was just too much going on. There were too many moving parts.

Steve Napolitan: And that’s why it brings me so much joy to sit here with you so relaxed and to know you just had your day. You walked on the beach, talked to a contractor, went do a little shopping, and then take here to have an interview with me. Wouldn’t have even been a part of your life.

Michele Hession: Oh no, I would’ve told you I didn’t have time. I can’t do it. I’m seeing patience.

Steve Napolitan: Well, and then I guess, so this is a celebration. We actually get to do this interview, and we get sit here and talk as long as we’d like and have this moment. What a milestone. What a milestone. I have a little paper because I did put a couple notes just to see if this is, and we’re just bouncing back and forth talking about before and after, kind of back and forth, and that’s good. And the changes. And we even already did this. So we’ve covered a lot of ground on my notes here. I also put, but maybe we can bring this back up, the specific tools and techniques or lessons. I know we talked about wild clients. I know we talked about grief and gain one thing at a time. Are there any other lessons that came from our time together that stand out as a significant change for you?

Michele Hession: Well, I think it was just acknowledging that there’s certain things that are the cost of doing business. You have to put money out there in order to make money. So I mean, for example, we got our hands on an app that just was HIPAA compliant, and the information that we can put on there is just amazing. Then we got another app where it was time tracking, and I think way back I would be like, that’s going to cost money. You know what I mean? That there was this, I don’t know. I couldn’t fathom that there’s a cost of doing business. And once I recognized that, that we’re going to get it back. And then I have clients, my therapists who say, man, I love that timekeeping system. And for payroll, it’s so much easier. Everybody puts it in.

Steve Napolitan: Yes, because yeah, you’re making it happier, so I jump on you. But that’s where you’re adding, and then you just add that into the price of doing business. So that comes into your end price, but then you’re able to serve people better. You’re able to have more cohesive team. They’re all having.

Michele Hession: Well, and also with the bigger team we have, I mean, that cost is distributed. Our larger clientele, do you know what I mean? We’re big enough that it’s not being passed on to just a handful of patients. It’s like it’s distributed.

Steve Napolitan: So if you add a dollar significant over a lot of, and when you do products, it’ll be a unit, but it could be a unit of service. So you have all these service items and then it multiplies. And so it’s okay. So it’s absorbed into the work. The patient can afford it. You are then able to do this good work. And it’s even going to hiring. So it could be software, but it could also be people, because even that, hiring someone, but then it makes for more efficiency. I think these things that you’re talking about, they’re investments more than a cost. Because when you make those, that’s how I would book categorize. You’re making those investments, then you’re able to, then all these things became true because now you can serve more people. You’re doing more what you love, and you’re living more of the life because,,

Michele Hession: and it actually is less work because we can just, within the app and people would call and say, oh, I don’t have the phone number for the son for that patient. And so I would have to stop and pull over and go through all my papers and whatnot. And now it’s all in the app. They know where to look. They don’t even bother me to ask for that question. They can find the answer themselves. Beautiful. And I’d have to say another thing that’s really very rewarding is when clients that I haven’t even seen, but they’ll reach out to me to say, I love that therapist you sent to my house. She’s absolutely wonderful. My mom is enjoying her. And some of that that I would get with seeing a client when they would get better. But I hear the satisfaction of the patient and the patient’s daughter with one of my employees that it’s like, that’s rewarding. It really is.

Steve Napolitan: And that happens. We don’t think that, I remember when I met one of my mentors, he had trained another one of my mentors. So I walked up to him and I had never met him and I said, “hi, I’m Steve”. I said, “thank you for changing my life”. And he’s like, what? We just met. And I said, well, you trained so-and-so, and they changed my life. So thank you. There is an indirect to it. And when you build an organization, you are touching so many lives. Hundreds more a month. Hundreds more a month than before. And you are orchestrating that. So yeah, you’re not touching each of those patients, but it’s happening because of what you created.

Michele Hession: Well, and also being sensitive to my therapist and what their skillset is, what their likes are, what their qualities are, that I can speak to a new referral and I’ll be thinking in my head, I’m going to send it to this client. You’re like a matchmaker. Yeah, totally.

Steve Napolitan: And that’s kind of what you graduate to is now you’re doing that matchmaking and then even we’ve already talked about the future of your businesses that you then train someone else to be the matchmaker, remove yourself even more or duplicate yourself because then now you could expand even more. Those are all future talks, but it’s already so amazing how you’re using automation and people and it’s not just your gain, like you said, you’re employing all these people, you’re changing those lives. You’re physically changing the patient’s lives. What an amazing thing. So I mean, it’s a ripple effect. What you’ve done, what I’m echoing, I’m just echoing what you said. So it gets really loud for people listening or watching this, that the ripple is real. So changes, it could be a simple decision, right? Oh, I’m going to choose to take more time for me on this calendar. I’m going to choose to hire someone to help me with this admin. I’m going to choose to take this day off to do accounting. These are all decisions that you made and you did it. And that’s why I said it’s a teamwork. I might have given you some of these ideas and then you took it and did it, and then now look at the ripple effect.

Michele Hession: Well, and also recognizing that I hired this assistant well, she’s much better at these certain tasks. I just gave them to her because they were my OW. Right? My grief, and I didn’t like doing them. And then she’s better at it than me, so why do it? Yeah, so why do it? Yeah. And she likes to do it. So that was also a plus.

Steve Napolitan: And that’s what we think sometimes. Who in the world would like this? I thought that like, oh my gosh, this is a horrible thing to do. And then someone’s like, I actually loved her. You’re like, what? Because didn’t, when I was early in business, I’m like, no one would love to do this. This is like, I just have to do it. It’s a pain in the butt. And then you actually find someone else that loves, we’re all different.

Michele Hession: We’re all different. Yeah.

Steve Napolitan: That’s what makes diversity in business so powerful because if we were all the same, then it would be horrible, then nothing would get done. Or if we hated it, or we would do it as long as we could until we were miserable.

Michele Hession: But it’s also me taking this less time. It was also so that I could answer the phone when a therapist calls me and says, Hey, I’m at James House right now and this is going on, and I could give them direction because of just my experience of been there, done that, and I could give them advice on what to do next.

Steve Napolitan: And I guess that’s a case back to how much can you do? Because you were running all the admin, you’re answering all the phones, and you’re seeing patients six days a week, something’s going to give, and none of them are as good as they could be because you’re all over the place. So by you giving other work to other people, then you were able to answer the phone and do what you’re good at. The matchmaking like, oh, what do they need? Oh, that’s not for us. Go call this other place. Oh, it is for us. I have the perfect person therapist that can get on that call them now, and you’re like, Hey, I found another one for you. It’s finding a long lost lover.

Michele Hession: This is a match for you.

Steve Napolitan: It’s your perfect patient. Go do it. So you’re moving into, this is where genius comes. I mean, I’ve done another study. We’ve had other interviews, and even one that I did today where when you do the thing that you’re the best at, and you do it for a shorter period of time, you actually, so he’s an author and he made a point that you geniuses are not all just appeal things, just genetic. You have it. But when they actually study over a long period of time, there’s one study in the book, 30 years, and they took people that were all at a certain level from MIT and all these. And then the people that took care of themselves, they became, there’s in the study, there’s three Nobel prizes, all these accolades. And then the people that worked 17 hours in the lab, these are all scientists. Their careers declined. And they all were at the same genius level. They were all rated at a high level, and they just watched. And it was interesting about half the group didn’t take care of themselves, and it was all for the passion. They’re like, I’m giving my life and blood to the lab and I’m doing my science. And they’re doing 17 hours a day.

Some of them became alcoholics, even complete deterioration. They didn’t know how to relax. They would get home, they couldn’t relax, and then they would use substances, all kinds of messes. The other side, the people that were working four or five hours a day, that’s what a lot of them were winning prizes changing the world and their careers were going. So I mean, just looking at this in that light, so we’re not the only ones talking about this. Other people have done this too. But I think, and maybe this is something going back and then we’ll go forward, but we think we have to, this goes back to the mindset we’re supposed to work. It’s a badge. If I don’t do this, and a lot of my clients, and I think you even had it, sometimes we have guilt show up like, wait a minute, I must not be doing it right, not hard.

Michele Hession: Or Wait a minute, I’m doing nothing. I be doing something. There’s this.

Steve Napolitan: So maybe talk about that because we’re not alone. I had this, I know you had this. Anyone listening to this that’s thinking they want their life to be different are probably thinking it too.

Michele Hession: Well, but I also think a little bit of the upbringing, what I saw my parents do, they just worked really hard. And it was tough to have make ends meet, but there was this mentality, I mean, they just said, that’s what you do in life. You work hard. Money doesn’t grow on trees. There was all those kind of expressions of, and I just thought that’s what you had to do.

Steve Napolitan: So you’re making decisions based on external sources and not invalid either, because there was a part that worked. I mean, I saw it, and it is not always, but I mean a big part of the United States of America is immigration. And people go, oh, I’m not an immigrant. I’m like, oh, so you’re indigenous. And then they’re like, no. And I’m like, wait, so you came from somewhere at some point? Maybe it’s many generations for some of us. I know you’re not that far. I’m third generation and I think you’re, you’re second. So I think just my family, my grandparents and my parents, it was like we came from southern Italy, and then you just had this opportunity to change your life. And so you just rolled your sleeves up and you worked. And I’m grateful for that. I’m not trying to undermine that. I mean, I did have a better life because of their choices.

Michele Hession: Oh, same here.

Steve Napolitan: I have some of my cousins I know in Italy, and some things were harder. I mean, they’re having a good life there too. I’m not trying to say anything about my family there, but I do talk to them and there’s no reason to do any more because of where they live. It just doesn’t work because they have dreams. They’re like, I would fly to come see you in America as an example. I’m like, oh, why don’t you, I don’t have enough money. And then I’m like, oh, why don’t you make more money? And they’re like, oh. Because they’ll take all the money in taxes. They actually did it. They have to go from making what they’re making to 300,000 more in order to make the math work out. So if you go into that realm, you actually make less. So it’s like if you grow any more. So just as an example. So we do live in this opportunity here. It’s different. And even we complain about taxes in our country, but I’ve been to other countries and there is an opportunity here still. And I think what happened though, coming back on that, in that time, the option was just to do more.

But now we’re in a different time where we have automation. We have a global workforce. We can work from home, we can use our phone and do things anywhere. But while all that’s happening, many of us systemically, we’re still choosing to work harder. And one of my coaches made a great metaphor. She said, Steve, you have the old Italian coffee grinder like this, even though we can go to any convenience store and go just get a grinder. And then every time I was doing it harder, she would go,

I’m grinding for those that are just listening, I’m grinding the grinder with my hand. And so just to this point, I’m making a big point of this, but maybe can you bring it back for your life, Michele, how that mindset was. It was there. It was like, this is just how it is. So what was it in our work together or, and I know it was an evolution. I know it wasn’t like one day you’re like, oh my gosh, snap my fingers and change. But can you describe a little bit of that evolution of where you were in your mindset to where you are now and how you’ve given yourself permission? I think that might be the word, to give yourself permission to do it. Can you share that journey a little bit?

Michele Hession: Well, I mean, I didn’t recognize that it was not what I wanted. Do you know what I mean? It was just what I knew. It’s what my parents did. It’s what I saw. It’s what I was told. And so to think differently, it was like I was, I don’t know, going against them or those are bad thoughts. But now that I’ve transformed and I’ve recognized that that was really unhealthy for me. My dad died at 58. I’m 59. And so I often think of that, of just, he just worked so hard and he got sick. It’s not sustainable. No, literally, no, it’s not sustainable. And then when I got sick, it was kind of like, okay, this is not, I can’t do this anymore.

I had to definitely make, although I had to make those decisions to change, but it was hard still to make the change because this little voice inside you is you work hard or you work more. That’s what you do. But I constantly remind myself that, okay, it’s okay. I can let that go or I can assign it to somebody else. And even though they may not do it the same way I do it, there’s many ways to do the same thing. And to recognize that as long as it’s done, people are safe and it’s proper, then it’s okay that they do it differently than me.

Steve Napolitan: And it gets done. And so thank you for that. And so how would you say it is now? I mean, you just said it’s still an ongoing process, I think you said, but where before it was like, this is what I have to do now. How would you describe it now in your mindset?

Michele Hession: Well, it’s definitely things that I’m doing is what I want to do. The handful of clients that I’ve kept on my schedule, they’re the ones that I want to see that I have history with, that I enjoy them, that they value what I bring to the table, and that it’s more of what I want and what I’m comfortable with. It’s no longer of I have to add that extra client at the end of the day. I mean, I’ll just say to people, the schedule doesn’t allow it.

Steve Napolitan: And then you’re holding that space for yourself, which then gives all the life giving things we’ve already discussed.

Michele Hession: Well, and also, I mean, my job’s very physical, so there’s also the component of my back would hurt, or I tweaked my knee or there’d be these certain things. And it’s just like this body at some point. I can’t be working that hard that long. Well,

Steve Napolitan: I mean, it’s 12 patients a day.

Michele Hession: I know. It was crazy. Well, at that time, some of them might’ve been in the same facility so that I didn’t have to get in my car and drive, or I might have been seeing Correct, or might’ve been seeing a husband and wife. They were in the same house. But yeah, it was crazy.

Steve Napolitan: I mean, just the 45 minutes times 12, just add that up. It’s crazy.

Michele Hession: Oh, I know. It wasn’t every day, but there were some days. Okay.

Steve Napolitan: I know, but I mean, I take a breath out of my own self in other things. I didn’t do your field, but I’ve done long days and I can know what that feels like. And then to just be physically doing it, even getting a massage, I see some massage therapist doing patient after to patient, how do their hands, you know what I mean? 

Steve Napolitan: It’s like a baker that’s needing bread.

Michele Hession: Oh yeah. I had my share of thumb injuries and yeah.

Steve Napolitan: Well, what a difference. And thank you for going through all these, and maybe we’ll hit a few more, but I want to come in because you’ve worked with me in different capacities with more business, more live freedom council and the mentorship, and then even privately, let’s just, if we can just look at those three for a second with more business, more life and what I call all the curriculum that brings in, how would you describe more business, more life in your words, if someone’s looking at this and what did it was for you and the impact it made in your life?

Michele Hession: Well, I think one, that was the first time that I actually took time to just work on my business versus in my business. So I was so busy in it that I couldn’t see everything. And so it was nice to take time away and to step back and for you to ask questions about, why are you here? Why are you doing this? Who’s the wow client that for me to work on the business that I recognize, your business is another entity in the room. There’s me, there’s my assistant, and there’s the business. And the business sometimes has its own agenda, but you have to work on it, not just always in it. So that’s what more business, more Life did for me was to step back and really look at the business of analyzing some things and starting and then looking at numbers, because that’s when I was aware of where our numbers fall, how many agency, how many private pay, and where we’re at. And then recognizing, I want this to flip.

Steve Napolitan: Yeah, because you’re not even aware of it. Because in that way, the dashboard, so to speak, is covered up.

Michele Hession: I was so, so busy saying yes to everything.

Steve Napolitan: You can’t even look at it. It’s like flying the plane with all the dashboard, all those widgets covered Up and the sunshield up.

Michele Hession: Where am I going?

Steve Napolitan: Follow my voice Michele.

Michele Hession: So that really was like, okay, my business is another entity in the room. I need to spend time working on it. And that might be as simple as getting a fax number, you know what I mean? And one that we could manipulate better and manage and store and rename stuff. I mean, it sounds simple, but it was something that I just didn’t have. And then the other ones were more, the subsequent things I worked on with you were more personal, that it was more, well, what do you want out of this? And to plan your fun first. And we only live once.

Steve Napolitan: Right. In this whole, do you think that you got some of that in more business, more life, or was that when you went into the Freedom Council mentorship?

Michele Hession: I would say that was later. Okay. Yeah. I mean, I think I got a taste of it in more Business, more Life, and it subsequently came because I was recognizing, okay, I have to step back in order to run it well. But the subsequent programs was more, what do you want? Make a list? If you could dream, if you could visualize, where would you be? What do you want five years from now, 10 years from now,

Steve Napolitan: Do you think on that? So now just picking on Freedom Council mentorship, what would you say the biggest thing from that was? If there was?

Michele Hession: Well, it was probably you hounding me because I was always putting up resistance. I can’t do this or I don’t want to do this. And I didn’t quite understand why, but you definitely were, Michele. In order to go to the next step, you’ve got to see less patients. So I think that constantly having this input of like, okay, well, we see this isn’t working because you’re seeing too many patients. So having this voice, Steve,

Steve Napolitan: I’ve had other clients say that, what would Steve do?
So what I’m hearing is just having consistency with someone in your corner so that they can see you, because as a founder, CEO, being the leader of your company, who are we reporting to? So we’re managing all these people, and it’s not that you’re reporting to me, but just someone else to observe you and then say, Hey, Michele, what about this? What about that? Sometimes like you said, you’re in the business so much you’re not working on it, and you don’t know what you can’t see. So then I was just that you could be a fly on the wall, but I’m like over there and I’m like, Hey, Michele, you’re missing all that. And you weren’t even what? Oh, on the right. Oh,

Michele Hession: Exactly. You see that.

Steve Napolitan: But it is, and I think what I’m hearing from you though, and that is a big thing about mentorship, because that’s why I get mentorship, because I can’t see what I can’t see. It’s hard to look in the mirror and change our life, but when we have someone in a consistent manner, like six months or years.

Michele Hession: And even just questions, Hey, have you tried this? Have you tried that? Have you ever thought of this? And then it would be kind of like, wow. No thought. Never even crossed my mind. And then to then go down that direction, it was helpful. Definitely helpful.

Steve Napolitan: Well, thank you. And the reason I’m asking these questions too is because for other people to hear and understand this, because someone else might be listening to this and not understand. So I guess in that, with all the value that you received and all these things, if someone was watching and they’re like, oh, I want, what would you recommend?

Michele Hession: Well, I definitely think it’s good to have a business coach and this concept of even you’re not a therapist, but that’s okay, because I then had to explain what I was doing, which was also a process of why am I doing it that way? And so I think that was helpful being that some people might be resistant, oh, Steve doesn’t own a pizza shop. How can he give me direction? But it’s this sense that it’s an outsider looking in, so there’s something real positive about that.

Steve Napolitan: Yeah. I once had, a photographer asked me, she said, oh my gosh, I really feel compelled to work with you, but you’re not a photographer. And I did say, well, actually, I went to film school. And they’re like, oh, really? Well, I know a few things about cameras, but I was not a still photographer by profession, and that’s what she was. And I said, well, let me ask you this. Are you looking for me to tell you what f stop to do? What lens to use? All those things? Is that what you’re seeking? Or are you seeking business advice, how to build a business? And she said, oh, no, I’m a professional photographer. I already have that schooling. I don’t need that. And I said, okay, then what are you looking? I needed to not run a business. Okay, well, I’m expert in that. And I did that going to art school.

I really realized this is not show play, it’s show business. And I had to learn the business. So I am an artist in that way, learned how to be a business person because a necessity. And I guess it goes in that same line. If you were a young physical therapist still trying to figure out how to be a physical therapist, maybe I wouldn’t be your person, but you were a seasoned physical therapist when I met you. There was not much at all that I could tell you or anything about being a physical therapist, but how you approach doing physical therapy as a business, that’s where my mind lights up and I’m like, oh, well, let’s play. What strategy can we do? And so I think that’s the difference. So in your point, if you’re looking for a mentor coach, what is it that you need? If you need to learn to be a baker, then you probably should hang out with a baker. But if you want to learn how to have multiple bakeries and build a business and have other people baking with you, then that’s my game.

Michele Hession: So that’s what I would say to people that it’s not, you could have a mentor within your profession if you wanted to get a certain certification,

Steve Napolitan: And you still do. Oh, yeah. How many new things are you still learning?

Michele Hession: Yes, and hh, I just took a class last spring concerning Parkinson’s, got a new certification. So I’m always learning. But when it comes to actually running the business, I think you need, like you said, I can’t necessarily see what I’m doing, and sometimes I’m just going through motions, and it’s nice to have somebody go, well, why are you doing it that way?

Steve Napolitan: Well, that’s beautiful. Well, I have a few more things, but I guess just one more time. I did ask this a few times, but were there any other results that’s come out of this that we didn’t talk about yet? Or do you think we hit all the main ones?

Michele Hession: Well, I think we did okay.

Steve Napolitan: I just thought I’d open it up. Just if there’s something that you thought was significant enough that I did not ask you.

Michele Hession: I would just say that the results are more balanced. The result is the business is strong. The result is my employees are happy. The result is I can have a stable income. I can draw my paycheck every month and not have to worry about it. And also, I have more vision of where the company might be able to go from here. I have a lot of ideas, and this one might not come to fruition, but this other one, two years down the road, I see things happening

Steve Napolitan: And add on all of that. Well, you did all that. You more than doubled your business. Yeah. Congratulations. Yeah. And during that, in a different span, out of all of this, what do you think was the most valuable thing out of all of our relationship?

Michele Hession: Well, I would say learning to take care of self. That idea of having conversation about meditation and self-care, and what is it that you want to hang your hat on? And it’s like, you know what? I want to get a dog. I want to walk my dog. I want to go to yoga. I want to spend time at the beach. There’s all those things that, those are what I wanted, and I have them now.

Steve Napolitan: You live.

Michele Hession: With the people I know do, yes.

Steve Napolitan: All those things that came true because you asked for them, and then we designed it.

Michele Hession: Yes,

Steve Napolitan: That’s it. We designed it and made it come to fruition. It’s like building a house. You make the architectural plan, you get all the things in order, you get the budget in order, and then you build a house. And you did that. I just pointed, I always say I’m the guy with the lights on the tarmac. But you were the pilot and you did all that, and now you have this life, Michele, so, so happy. So happy for you.

Michele Hession: Yeah. No, I’m too, I mean, there’s all these little things of just, I mean, I’ll be walking along the bluff of the beach and I’m just smiling. There’s this joy that I have inside. Yeah, it’s nice.

Steve Napolitan: It’s so beautiful. So beautiful. I think we hit everything just like so I guess. I think we hit it. So the only one that I have left on here is what’s next. So now that you’ve had this thing, what’s on the horizon for Michele?

Michele Hession: Well, several things. One, I want the yoga to be three or four times a week, so I’m working on that right now. It’s two to three times a week. I might do a yoga certification. I’m thinking that just for the personal learning of it, and who knows if I ever do anything else with it, but to actually be a certified yoga teacher would be nice.

Steve Napolitan: Well, you’ll get a next level in it.

Michele Hession: And then just expanding. I mean, more hiring. We’ve got 30 people working for us. I’d like to see it. 40, 45 people. I’d like to be able to say when I get a referral that I try to staff it as quickly as possible. But some of my therapists are pretty busy. So just to continue growth in that pattern and to try to instill in some of my therapists too, the importance of taking care of self and not getting burnt out.

And then I want to work well. I’d like to be that I’m only seeing clients maybe once a week, and that I can still step in and help my therapist when they need it, if they’ve got a question about something or do a co-treat. And I’ve done more of that actually in the last six months, where a therapist will say, could you just come help me with Mr. Smith? I’m not quite sure about this. Or I need a second pair of hands to see if he’s capable of doing something. And so more of that. And then travel. It is something I want to do more.

Steve Napolitan: And you’re going to do it. So you have trip party planned this year to leave the country, or you’re just about,

Michele Hession: Oh yeah.

Steve Napolitan: Nice. So two more big trips then. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. That’s so beautiful. I’m just thoroughly happy, and I’m so glad that you can share this. And so before we wrap up, anyone listening, especially like we were talking about being a woman owned business and being the CEO founder of your business, it’s so important. So I just want to first thank you for doing this because how many other men and women, but on the women’s side to empower them, that you can have a business, that you can thrive and make a living and employ other people and live the life that you want just by sharing this or showing that it’s possible. So I guess just one more opening for you, if there’s anything out there, whether someone’s been in business for years, even when we met, you had already been in business for years. It wasn’t like Brett, you weren’t a startup, you were already doing this. So someone that’s in business or they’re thinking of starting a business and they’re out there, is there anything that you want to, with what you know now, what would you say if you could give them one or two things?

Michele Hession: Well, I think for the women out there that might be wanting to start a business that you can do this, you’re more than capable. Surround yourself with people that recognize that women can do this, and that would’ve to be Steve, really thank you. Because you weren’t minimizing me in any way. I mean, you were acknowledging that I own my own business revenue’s over a million dollars a year. And the idea that it’s not small change, and it might be a small business, but it’s big to me. And I’ve had plenty of men in my course of this business of putting me down, telling me I can’t do it. Telling me that, don’t worry. Your pretty little head, you’ll never earn enough money. So to have it doesn’t matter that I’m a woman. You know what I mean? And I think to say to other women out there, you’ve got to find your tribe that support, find people that agree with your philosophy that what you’re doing and that aren’t going to tear you down just because you’re a female,

Steve Napolitan: And you don’t have to even do that. It goes back like if that’s happening, move away from those people.

Michele Hession: Yeah. No, I mean, I had a tax guy that just the things he said to me, I thought, okay, I have to change my tax guy. He doesn’t see the vision that I have. So it’s nice because you were able to say, Michele, I see your vision, and I visualize more. I do that sometimes.

Steve Napolitan: Yeah. So you’ve done all the things you wanted and more.

Michele Hession: Yes. 

Steve Napolitan: It’s beautiful. And yeah, you can do It doesn’t matter. Your background, doesn’t matter who you are. All these things are open to all of us human beings.

Michele Hession: Yeah, no, and I think if you have that desire to have your own business and to be your own boss, this idea that you have a thought you can make it happen, you definitely can. You just got to have support along the way.

Steve Napolitan: Yeah, that’s the thing. I think we don’t do enough. I know I didn’t ask for help, we think, because for me, I don’t know how it was for you, but I thought it was a weakness that I was being weak or I wasn’t good enough that I had to even ask. So for a long time, I didn’t ask.

Michele Hession: Well, I also think I had a little bit of a component of perfectionism that I have to do it. I’m the only one that’s capable of doing this, which is really a silly thought because many people can do what I do.

Steve Napolitan: Right, And that’s okay. And that’s a good thing because many hands make light work. It’s so beautiful. So beautiful. Yeah. Well, I think this is good. We covered a lot of ground. Is there anything you think we missed?

Michele Hession: No, I don’t think so.

Steve Napolitan: Yeah, I think it’s pretty good. And there are a lot of things, and so I hope that you listening or watching this, that you got a lot of value from this. And Michele and I, we did this because we want to help you. And the whole idea of more business, more life in this podcast is so that we can give these gifts to you. And so if you’re listening to this and you’re a part of our newsletter, please hit reply and tell us what was the most valuable part that you got from this conversation with Michele and I? And we will reply, yes, we actually read this stuff, and then we reply. And if you’re not on our newsletter, it’s really easy. All you have to do is text Wow to 72,000. That’s seven two triple 7 2 0 0 0. And when you text wow to that number, then it’s going to prompt you to join our newsletter and it’s free. And then you’ll be notified of these things and more that we give to you so that you can have more business and more life. It is really my mission to help as many people have the freedom that they desire. And that’s why we have episodes like this where we can share that. So until our next episode, I always remind everyone, choose gratitude and create freedom. Thanks for listening or watching.