REPLAY: Revisiting How This Owner Built a 14-Clinic Practice From Scratch
Brett Fairbanks, co-founder of Pacific Pro PT and Sports Medicine, joins Paul to share the mindset that drove his growth and how his planning evolved as the practice expanded across Southern California.
Full transcript
Generated from the episode audio and lightly edited for readability.
Good morning and welcome to another episode of Paul Martin's crucial conversations. Today we are going to kick off a brand new series and this series is going to be focused on multi-site privately held physical therapy business owners. These are leaders who have successfully grown their practices and continue to drive growth in their communities as well as in new markets. And our goal is to get inside their heads and really learn what makes them unique, really try to uncover the mindset as well as some of the strategies behind their success.
And today I am super excited to have with us Brett Fairbanks. Brett, it's great to have you. Hey, thank you so much, Paul. Looking forward to it. Brett's the co-founder of Pacific Pro PT and Sports Medicine. They are based in Southern California. I think your home base is Irvine. Is that right, Brett? Correct. Yeah. All right. Homebased Irvine. And Brett and his partner Trace have grown Pacific Pro into a thriving network of 14 clinics across Southern California, one clinic in Tennessee. So Brett, again, real excited to have you here.
Welcome to the show and let's jump in. Great. Thank you so much. All right. So, look, many owners across the country, they're very willing and content to stay small. And we don't knock that. We don't beat that up. They're just content to stay small, one maybe two clinics. What was different about your mindset that persuaded and pushed you to pursue growth when others around you stopped? You know, I think I don't think it's a unique thing, but I my biggest thing is you got to know your personality, right?
There's nothing wrong with a one twoman show. That's perfectly fine. But Trace and I have always been of the mindset of you know, if you're not growing, you're dying. It made me like as we kind of continued, we opened up our first one and as continued to grow, I'd see all the kind of the older PTs when I was younger. Right now I'm that guy. But like I would see them have two, three clinics, right? And then I'm like and then they would just kind of stay there and it scared me to death because then they kind of slowly kind of just kind of disappeared or went by the wayside and I did that scared me, right?
And so we were always like, hey, we got to continue growing, right? Not even opening up other clinics or expanding our current clinics or anything kind of continued that growth. I remember way back years ago calling and talk to you several times kind of just kind of getting some little advice tips from you. So I definitely appreciate that. That was I don't know five, seven how many years ago. Long time ago. Yeah. No, I appreciate that. And I've been watching a series recently, The Dynasty. And early in that they talk about Tom Brady and Bellich and that it's not that they want to win so badly, but that they're afraid to lose.
They're so afraid to lose. Sounds to me like you had seen, you know, these other two or three clinic companies stop and you're like, I don't want to do that. That's not going to be me. Yeah, it definitely it definitely scared me because you're like, okay, where what is the future look like? What what are we going to do here? Yeah. So, yeah, that's kind of our philosophy going forward. Very cool. So, think back to the early days and you know, we've started that thinking. How did you approach then planning for growth and how has that planning process continued to evolve as you have continued to grow?
Yeah. You know, in the earlier days like when it was just trace when we were younger and dumb and just kind of going for it, right? It really was it really we always knew we wanted to grow, right? But and I think every PT kind of goes through this is you know you're we had young families like I have four kids, Trace had four kids and so we're managing coaching sports with them and trying to family time trying to grow the business and so we kind of just tried to tried to save every penny and get by and try and open up.
We did Irvine and then we actually purchased our second clinic which is a whole business experience in itself. I had we were going to partner with a buddy and it's the clinic a little bit farther away but yeah that ended up we ended up purchasing it and had a lot of good business experiences good and bad right with that one and now it's doing really well but it was not always doing well and then that was only two years after we opened our first one and then it took a while because I really think that was our kids were growing our sports age and coaching and doing everything and trying to save and as a new PT it's hard to like we didn't have any funding, we didn't have any money, we didn't have anything.
So, it was all us funding it, right? And so, purchasing another one and taking that risk was a big jump for us. And so, took several years and then we opened up our third and then like in 2018, I'll kind of tell you a little bit our story. 2018, that transitioned into kind of what you're saying. So, at the very beginning, it was just Trace and I doing whatever it takes to make it grow. And then 2018, we partnered with a buddy of mine that had some he owns some skilled nursing facilities and manages some skilled nursing facilities.
Yeah. So he has kind of an MSO kind of thing. And so we partnered with him and then that gave us a little bit of a funding to kind of hey, let's grow and he just let us do our thing as long as we were successful at doing it. And it's been it's been good. It's been good ever since then. And I remember talking to you way back when Yeah. Oh yeah. Consulting with you about some of that stuff. So, it was it was it was end up being a great decision for us.
Yeah. And that's unique, Brett. That a business of that size would bring in a financer, right? You know, a guy that comes in and, you know, puts some money into the business. You know, obviously gets rewarded for that. So, I commend you for that. That that's a big step. You know, every growth story has something that's unique. Obviously unique to you to you guys. What do you think makes your company stand out and how has what makes it stand out? How has that fueled your ability now to grow?
You know I honestly and I know a lot of people say this but and I tell everyone we interview, everyone we work with, all of our directors, it to me it's all about the vibe of the clinic, right? You and I can walk into anybody, you know, PTS, a seasoned PT, can walk into a good clinic and tell within five minutes kind of what the vibe is of this clinic. Is it a quiet clinic? Is it a more medical clinic? Is it a fun, exciting clinic?
I want it to be a clinic where I if I had to go to BT, this is where I'd want to be, right? I want people talking amongst themselves. I want staff talking with other patients talking with patients, whether it's music playing or just a good fun vibe. Yeah. And that really has I can honestly say that's helped us recruit people, right? Because you know people want that fun cool environment as a working staff, but then also patients talk about that, right? We do fun things in the clinic.
We do little you know holidays come around that's the best time around here because it's just fun, right? We do little things in the clinic and people talk about it years down the line, right? So I think that's our number one thing is kind of the vibe that we kind of have and it's a little bit of a laid-back vibe. Sometimes that comes back to bite us, right? Because we're a little bit too laxidasical in some things, but for the most part, it's been really good.
And I think that's definitely helped us kind of continue to grow and continue to bring on good staff. Absolutely. When when you walk into a clinic, I'm actually getting physical therapy right now. And you know, I walk into the clinic where I'm getting therapy and there's a buzz. There's a buzz of patients talking to therapists communicating to each other, but about the patients. No. And it sounds to me like you guys have built a culture of we're going to make this fun because this is, you know, really hard for people and we're going to make it fun.
And every once in a while, somebody says, "I don't want to go there to have fun. I'd rather go to a place where I sit in a little cubicle and with one guy and or one girl and that's yeah and that's and that there's again there's nothing you know I have a bunch of bunch of my friends are PTSDs in their clinics and stuff like that and everyone has their own little niche kind of that way and there's nothing wrong with that. Just that's not you know that's definitely not Trace is Traces.
It's funny our Trace and I partnership because he's the quieter one, the kind of I'm the talker. I'll talk to anybody, have a good time. And so that's the vibe of our clinics. It really does take on that vibe. And so it's important it's important for us to make sure that we have that. Sure. And so we really do like my job now is I go around all the different clinics and make sure that we have that vibe. Right. And I like right off the bat you can tell pretty quickly like what's going on.
Yeah. So you're the vibe guy. I Well, it's funny is this is and we tell our directors this too. We tell our directors like the your personality the clinic will take on the personality of the directors, right? Every time. Every time. So if you have we have a director that's too quiet or it's having a bad day and brings that to work. You walk in that clinic and you're like, "What the heck's going on here?" Right? What's happening? And so we really try and make sure that we have a positive fun vibe going on all the time.
And if you people have bad days, we get that. But we need to kind of when we come to work, it's got to be a fun cool place to be because that's what's going to bring the patients back. Yeah. You know, that was gold that clinics take on personality of the leader and of the clinic director. So so true. Yeah. Yeah. That's go for all you out there. That's gold. That's gold. It wasn't always easy though, right? And so would love to hear one or two maybe roadblock stories as you grew and then how did you overcome some of these predicaments?
Staying on that topic a little bit is like because it's hard to kind of to delegate that right because Trace and I aren't there anymore, right? So we open up another clinic, we're trusting this personality. Hey, we try and make sure we hired the right person. And it doesn't always work, right? Sometimes it's sometimes what we're kind of a little bit of a roadblock is that like ah they're a good director, they're doing pretty good, but it's a little bit dull kind of like ah how do you get that fun personality?
So that's sometimes hard to get right out of people. And you really changing personality is a tough thing to do, right? So maybe making the best out of that personality, maybe not changing it, but we're going to bring out the best of what they have. So that's been a little bit of a roadblock sometimes as we grew for sure. Big roadblocks were making sure our policies and procedures are in place. Making sure our billing or billing I remember like we grew really quickly like 2018 19 then COVID hit and then that actually helped us a little bit to kind of get a little bit more organized.
And then we started growing again and then you're you look at your AR and you're like, "Holy smokes, what's going on?" Right? What's happening? We got to get control out of this stuff. What did we do? Hey, what's going on? Which it's a good problem, right? But you're like, "Whoa, we got to we got to get paid for what we're doing, right?" So, having that in order for sure. A as you grow, that's always been like, "Okay." And now we're a place where, hey, that's pretty good.
We've got that stuff under control. And then staffing, right? Staffing is always we're dealing I think everyone is dealing with staffing issues, right? I talked to all my buddies that are PTS and stuff. Everyone's kind of dealing with that staffing issue and we're really we're not mandating it, but I mean you hear it everywhere is you got to take students, right? Because that's where we're getting a ton of ours for sure. And so for us it's students and they hear about our vibe is basically how we're getting people.
Yeah. And as you said without the students patients are going without care right and so you know we're in a tough situation but I think you know you seem to have made the best choice and as we're talking about people and I think what I heard you say is that you know for people to make changes is one of the most difficult things to do and to create that environment etc. One of the biggest hurdles that we see for multi-site physical therapy businesses is to create leaders beyond the founders.
Obviously you've developed a strong some strong clinic leaders and a leadership pipeline to support growth. Tell us a little bit about how you did that. You know, we there's always luck involved too, right? We got some really good leaders that I mean I definitely don't dismiss that at all. We just kind of got some great experience, great clinicians, and then I really believe that, you know, Trace and I are growing at the same time. It's not like Trace and I don't look at it as, hey, we're bosses.
We're the stuff. We're like, we are all growing together. And so when we when we talk to our client directors, it's not like you guys need to do this, and this. We're like, hey, you guys, what do we need to do to get here, right? And we get everybody's input. And so I really believe that helps. It helps us because Trace and I are definitely not the experts in everything. So, we get their opinion and their decisions and then we give them that autonomy to kind of hey let's try it in your clinic.
You want to try that? Let's see if it works. Doesn't always work. Sometimes it works great, right? So, you know, giving that giving them that autonomy to kind of to do that. And we definitely have those directors and we're always kind of looking for PTS to just staff PTS to kind of develop into that. Yeah. And so, right now we we're really blessed. We have a great team of directors, which is really good because then I know that like some of those directors have some PTS.
If I go in a year or two, we're going to steal that PT and we're going to open up another clinic because I can already see them. They're great PTs. They have the same vibe, the same personality, and they're learning from a great director. And so, you're like, "Oh, this is going to be good. We're we're sitting pretty good that way." Absolutely. Absolutely. So for some of those single clinic, we call them locally focused practices, nothing wrong with them whatsoever, or two clinic owners. And they want to grow, what advice would you give them as kind of the first practical, you know, maybe the first couple steps that they could take from your experience?
Yeah, I think the biggest ones that are successful that I think right are you again going back to your personality. You have to know your personality. Are you willing to This is a good example, right? And it was a good partnership with Trace and I like I would go in I like I'm the marketer. I'm the talker, right? You have to be willing. You got to know yourself. If you're not willing to kind of go and do the dirty work and kind of get rejected and thrown to the ground and whatever, then it's probably it's probably not going to happen even if you try because you're just not willing to do that.
The best example is when you'll appreciate this because I'm sure you've done a ton of it is Trace and I would go out marketing right when we very first started and I knew right off the bat I'm like, "Okay, it looks I'm going to take on this role because we walked into the doctor's office and it was kind of awkward. They kind of saw us and then they left and walked back and Tracy's like, "Let's get out of here, right? I'm done. I don't want to see you.
I don't you I don't see you. It's totally right. That's totally what it is. And I'm like, well, we're already here. Might as well talk to somebody. Like, let's talk. Let's figure out something. But like, that's the difference in personalities. Trace would have been gone. And he totally he admits, you know, that he's not the marketer. He would have he walked out the door and left. Got gone. I just hung around just to talk to somebody, right? Probably turned into nothing. But you have to as a as a as a physical therapist, business owner, you have to kind of make a not make a fool of yourself, but be willing to like just say, "Okay, well that was goofy.
That was weird." And just kind of go on. And if you're not willing to do that, people say they want to do that and they think they know they had to do it, but until you're kind of pushed into that like uncomfortable position. So I would say go out and market, right? And if you can survive the marketing and you feel it's not like you're going to give up and say, "I'm not going to do that." then you have a pretty good chance of getting out there, right?
Yeah. Because it's going to be you marketing until you get I mean we didn't have a marketer for years right so you have to kind of grow that thick skin be able to go and do that know your personality if that's not you then you know maybe you stick with two or three you know I hear you giving two great pieces of advice there one is when you're looking for a partner and this is specifically partner for physical therapy practice if there's somebody that has a completely unique and different personality from you, that's a good thing.
Totally. Right. And I also hear you saying is that if you're ever going to have a marketing rep, a liaison, whatever you know, we want to call them. They're people that go out and market to physicians. If you've never done that yourself and had that feeling of they don't want me in here, he wants he or she doesn't want to do anything but look at me. But I'm just standing here. This is just feeling very awkward. If you've never done that, you can't teach others how to do that and how to break through that.
For sure. So, great advice. It's a good lipmus test, right? Go see if you can handle that, right? Go into the hardest doctor's office and see if you can kind of just try and talk to somebody, right? If you're like if you just kind of give up, you're like and just walk out. You're like, that's tough, right? Great advice. Great advice. So, kind of looking more at a high level. Where do you see opportunities for independent physical therapy companies to grow over the next three to five years?
You know, we have a lot of challenges, but there's also opportunities. And are there specific opportunities that you're kind of keeping your eye on for the future? Well, I think this is like my philosophy is like I tell everyone to a couple things. I think I think co helped this too. Networking with other our competition like we started networking a little bit more during co because you just started talking more and I think that's helped the profession. I really think everyone before was like don't do this.
I'm like, look, we're all in the same boat. Every time I talk to someone, they're experiencing the exact same thing that we are, right? I think that's helped us. What's that? We all came together, right? Yes. I mean, that was the one good thing that came out of that, right? It's like we it definitely brought us together. So, I think that's definitely helped us. Because I think that we throw ideas off of each other, right? And so, that's part of it. That's part of you know of learning and growing together I see.
So I think that's the opportunity that we have but then also like I think there's plenty of patients for everybody that there are so many patients out there. So I think that is the opportunity that I think we're missing altogether. I think orthopedics realize that because they're starting to like oh we we're going to get a piece of this pie. There's plenty of patients out there for us. It's how do we get them right? And so now I think using I think becoming I think was Utah that became primary care givers or something like that just recently someone but I think becoming having that having that degree and having that direct access we need to take advantage of that like our philosophy like our motto and our mission is to you know to provide an awesome and complete experience for all those who are seeker services ultimately creating a patient for life not meaning that they're going to come to us forever.
It's that if you go back to see if you have a tweak your shoulder or if you go see the doctor and the doctor says you need physical therapy. They should be saying I have a physical therapist. If they came to us before and they say if they don't say oh my physical therapist is Brett we made a mistake as a profession we've made a mistake right? If they if they if they've seen you before they should be saying hey I got to go see Paul not going where the doctor told them to do or if they have a shoulder injury they should call us or give us come into our clinic.
So mixing those two opportunities of there's plenty of people out there with hey we have the direct access and once we capture them one time they should be coming to us. So over the years that should grow, right? That should the more patients we see, they should be coming back. The local, especially the local people should be coming back to see you and we need to do a good job as a profession to do that. Just like you I go see my dentist, I go see my doctor, I go see my physical therapist and that I think is the one of the biggest opportunities out there.
Yeah, that that's a really unique point. And I think it's you know every single patient matters and when you've developed that personal relationship with one patient from that over the next five years could come two four six 10 who knows how many patients that could lead to. But if you in the like you said when the doctor says where do you go to physical therapy? Oh, I don't know. I went to this place, but tell me where I should go. Yeah. If they see that, right, that's where I'm like, oh, wherever they went to didn't do a good job of capturing that patient.
I mean, capturing is a bad word, but I mean, you know, you understand what I'm saying. So, absolutely. Now, that patient experience is a number one for sure. So Brett known you for a long time and you know on a personal level what have you learned as a business owner during this let's call it the rehab growth business journey and how has it shaped the way you think about your role and now about the future of your company. That's a good one. Like a couple like simple things that kind of come to mind is like I learned this early on and unfortunately, right, this is the good and bad with the business owner is the nice guy doesn't always win.
Before we're like kind of it's all good, it's all good. Like, oh, we just got worked, right? So, from a business standpoint, nice guy doesn't always win. You kind of have to kind of lay, you know, lay it down every once in a while and say, look, this is we can't we can't do it that way or that we have to do this or something like that. So, you got to be careful that way. The bigger you get also like I'm learning again, which is kind of sad to me, right?
But the bigger you get, you got to watch out for just crazies, right? There's just crazy people out there and there's crazy staff. And so, you got to be really careful with who you hire and bring on. And it kind of clashes sometimes with because my ultimate philosophy is especially the older I get, right? Life is short. I feel like life is like, whoa, what the heck happened, right? I feel like I first talked to you yesterday, but it was 10 years ago, right? So, it's crazy.
So, life goes really fast. And so, I think I tell people this, if I have to go into work, I got to have a good time doing it. I have to have fun. It's just not worth it to me. I'd rather be doing something else. And so, when I go into the clinics, when I talk to people, I think what I've learned is it's you can there's going to be problems every day, right? It's who you handle the how you handle those problems and who you handle those problems with.
And so every day I wake up, okay, we got what are we gonna do today? There's always issues, right? But if I have a good time doing it, I'm joking around. Oh, that stinks. Okay, this is how we're going to fix it. Let's do this, right? Or how do you think we can do this? Like I think you have to enjoy that journey, right? And and ultimately if you're enjoying that, you're going to be you should be successful because people feel that they get that vibe off of you.
If you're enjoying it, I can tell you like what you're doing. It's it's fun. You can tell. And so I honestly think that's what I've learned along the way is like you can work hard, but don't mess up and just, you know, grind. You got to enjoy it. Enjoy the ride. Absolutely. Absolutely. Brett, great advice. Great advice. And I will tell you for all the business owners out there today, whether you're a multic clinic owner, six, seven clinics or more, or you are more locally focused practice, you know, maybe six, three, or a single clinic.
Brett, you have given them a lot of great ideas to chew on and to help move them forward whether they have an aspiration to grow or not. And maybe today you you prompted somebody and tomorrow they're gonna they're gonna start on their plan. And so Brett, hey, I really appreciate your time today. You have given our audience an enormous amount of value from your talk today. Thank you. No, thank you so much, Paul. Thank you a ton for having me on. Absolutely. And for all of you out there who listened in today, if you have a question for myself or for Brett, just click below and let's talk. Have a great day and have a great rest of your weekend. Take care.
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