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Meet Nick Hunter

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Today we’d like to introduce you to Nick Hunter.

Nick, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I started this business in 2015 and my goal was to create a place where patients could feel comfortable, get better, and enjoy their physical therapy experience. Although physical therapy can be tough and often looked at as a place where it’s hard to have a pleasurable experience, I wanted to create an environment where people enjoyed their experience while on their healing journey. Somewhere they felt like their therapist knew them and knew what was important to them.

We want to send the message that each visit matters and as opposed to the typical feeling of being lost in the crowd of other patients, with a therapist who may or may not know their name. Let alone anything they’re interested in. My goal is to build a place that is different than that. A place that appreciates each individual for who they are and what their specific goals may be.

I look forward to each new patient and each returning patient, so I can follow up with how things are going and how their lifestyle has been affected by their physical therapy. It is essential for my wife and I to teach our four boys the importance of individual relationships, especially with those we serve.

I come from a family that values fitness. I have an older brother who is also a physical therapist, my dad was a physical therapist and my sister has a Master’s degree in Kinesiology and owns a CrossFit gym. We have a lot of interesting conversations at home when we all get together about the latest research or news report coming out regarding the health and human performance. As a result, it is a passion of mine and a passion for my family.

Knowing this now, my expectation for you is to go on this journey with me to help patients achieve a healthy and pain free lifestyle. Keeping this in mind while interacting with patients daily will help to create the 5-star atmosphere that we strive for here at Preferred Physical Therapy.

As it turns out, I am not the only one who shares this vision. I have added 4 providers and several admin support members to my team to help me better assist the people 40+ years old stay active and independent, live free from pain killers and avoid surgery… even if they’ve had pain for years.

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
The road was not smooth at all and when it is I know just around the corner it won’t continue to be so. I am a trained physical therapist with only a few lab classes on an intro to business. We have no training in the skills of marketing, sales, or finance in business. We are good at physical therapy! When I started in 2015 I was everything in the company and I had to commute 60 minutes each way. So I would leave at 4:20 in the AM to get a workout in at my sister’s crossfit gym and be ready to treat patients by 7 AM. Most days I would do this until 7 PM and I wouldn’t get home until nearly 9 PM. 2 days a week I would not start patient care until 10 so I could go market to doctor’s offices. I had one admin member when I started who was my other sister and integral to our success since she had experience in that position and was very good with people and keeping me organized.

My wife was also very helpful with our marketing efforts as she would organize and theme the giveaways to the doctor’s offices making them very unique to set us apart from the competition. She also helps keep the books and finances. We have hired and fired people I thought were a good fit for our mission but later found out they were not. This lead to me “hitting a wall”. There were days I wouldn’t see my 4 boys awake because I was only home, let alone asleep from 9 PM to 4:20 AM! I knew I didn’t know what I needed to know to get to the next step so I hired a business coach in 2016. This changed the way we were doing many things to help me see how to free myself up so I could see the family I was working so hard to take care of. For much of 2017 things got busier instead of slower because in addition to the schedule I was already keeping I was now trying to implement what I was learning from my business coach.

It started to get better when I hired my first physical therapist assistant in October 2017, then I added more admin support and a marketing department. All these hires were not easy and I made several bad hires before refining my recruiting system and finding the right people for my business. I also had to make the choice to fire some insurance companies. I was committed to providing care to patients in a way that gave them the best chance for success and this required not over booking appointments. Some insurances don’t care about that, in fact when I called one to see if they would increase the rate they reimbursed for our visits, they not only told me no but they told me “just see more patients per hour.” I wasn’t going to do that to my patients so I hired them… and it felt amazing! I was worried because this particular insurance carrier was 20% of my current patients. When I told my patients I had to go out of network with their insurance because they wanted me to see more patients per hour every single one THANKED ME. They were happy I didn’t conform my standards to the insurance company. I did this a few more times and will continue as needed since nearly every insurance continues to pay less per visit every year.

Please tell us about your work.
We help people 40+ stay active and independent, live free from pain killers and avoid surgery… even if they have had pain for years. We have achieved this time after time with our patients and even documented over 100 patient case stories on our website at www.preferredptaz.com/success-stories/. We have done this by delivering a standard of care in an environment that feels like ‘home’, where our patients feel valued and celebrated, like family. We are known for this as documented in our over 46 5-star google reviews, 32 5-star YELP reviews, and a 4.9/5 rating on Facebook out of 66 reviews. These reviews make us very proud as a company because it grounds our claim to help people stay active and independent, live free from pain killers and avoid surgery in an environment where they feel like family, celebrated and valued. It’s one thing to HAVE a mission and core values but it’s an entirely DIFFERENT challenge to succeed at it and has so many people speak about it on your behalf.

We set ourselves apart from others by:
1. Genuine, individual care – we take the time to get to know them as a person. Someone who is in a struggle and needs the care to overcome an obstacle.

a. We need to identify that obstacle and continue to speak to them about it on this level. Doing so helps them see the value of our service and help us understand it’s more than “work” and meeting goals.
b. We care enough to do weekly blogs and emails to help them stay healthy.
c. We do weekly video demonstrations to help make the training easier.
d. We have videos and maps on how to get to our clinic.
e. We care enough to ask better questions to understand the root of the problem so they can make better decisions about their health.
f. We greet them by name when they arrive in the clinic and we know everyone who comes with them (spouse, kids, family friend, neighbor)
i. We know their names and what they are interested in.
g. We do weekly staff meetings to improve our level of competency in understanding people, providing PT, and communicating specific patient needs.
h. We care enough to do monthly emailed and quarterly printed newsletters to help them stay healthy, up to date with local events, and be a part of a community.
i. We care enough to give free reports and FOLLOW UP when they are not sure where to start.

Any shoutouts? Who else deserves credit in this story – who has played a meaningful role?
I have so many people who have to deserve credit. I have already mentioned my wife Jessika, my business and life partner. We have four boys, Caden (15), Jackson (13), Jacob (11), and Alex (9) who also deserve mention as they are why I do this and it is for them I want to leave a legacy. There were many times I would come home tired or after a hard day and they would offer a simple hug to ease my worries and give me the courage to persist.

My parents for helping me understand persistence. My sister, Dana, who was there from the beginning and is still helping now to create a business that gives people jobs they enjoy and can support their family. It is such an incredible feeling to have my sister so involved in the success of the business.

My business coaches Paul Gough, Toby Hecht, and the Aji Network whose teachings, support and philosophies have changed my life and my family tree. My team members, those with me (Colton Harper, Jessica Rondeau, Alyssa Charbonneau, Hannah Andersen, Kristy Snyder, Shelby Howell, Rainey Raimonde, Lexi O’Brien, Noah Sharp, Courney Chase, Connor Chase, and Jenna King) and those who have moved on. For trusting me and helping me to help people make better decisions about their health so they can have joy in their journey. And so many friends and family who supported me to decide to go out on my own.

All our brave patients who have trusted us to help them find joy in their journey and return to living a life free of pain killers, surgery and pain.

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