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...and moments when I thought I was quietly going insane wondering how I could keep up with it all.

From a clinical standpoint, when we first started, it was really hard to find other pelvic floor clinicians to hire as pelvic floor physical therapy was not standard of care by any means, and patients were truly suffering with every few options. This still is challenging years later and for our last PT hire we had to advertise nationally and bring in a phenomenal PT from out of state who just recently joined us.

Additionally, there has definitely been a lack of recognition and/or referrals from other providers in the community, however, this is improving. For example, we had a male pelvic pain patient who found us online after flying to The Mayo Clinic to get a diagnosis of pelvic floor muscle dysfunction as the root cause of his “prostatitis”. Come to find out that his Urologist was only 10 minutes away from our office – the patient was understandably very upset when he found us so close to his MD who had unfortunately not referred him over or recognized that pelvic floor PT could help him.

From a personal standpoint, the biggest struggle I have faced is the fact that I initially felt like I needed to do it all and be an expert in every aspect of the business. For example, I thought I had to be the expert lead clinician, manager of the practice, be the one to develop new programs, seek out growth opportunities, market, educate and meet with MDs/other referral sources, handle human resource issues, etc. Two years ago, though, I had wakeup call – I remember starting the day so incredibly fatigued that I didn’t know how I was going to make it through that day treating patients let alone get out of bed. This scared me on every level, and reminded that I needed to stay healthy for my most important role of all—being a mom to my 2 amazing children. I was diagnosed with Adrenal Fatigue and Hashimoto’s Disease, and quickly realized that I could no longer continue at this work pace. I also realized that there were others out there way better at wearing the various hats I was trying to wear. I was burning myself out, so I started to officially offload and outsource many of the various roles I was trying to juggle. I now have surrounded myself with some of the most brilliant people who are better and more talented than me to help with various facets of the business.

I have been waiting for the day for over the last 6.5 (now 7!) years when “things will get easier.” While my responsibilities have changed, and my load is lighter, this business is still one of the hardest things I have ever done. You carry it with you 24/7. You feel every possible human emotion there is to feel, from joy to despair.

Despite it all, I wouldn’t change the journey a bit. I am blessed to do what I love every day, and witnessing lives change continues to fuels the fire.

As I continue down this path, I remind myself that the only two types of decisions are good decisions and lessons learned. In my eyes, everything played out the way it was supposed to. We couldn’t be more thankful to be where we are at now, with tools that will help us to take pelvic floor physical therapy to even greater heights in the future.

Fortunately, Pelvic floor PT is finally becoming standard of care and truly has started to explode. I’m proud to say I got to be one of the first early movers, and have had the experience of watching it unfold. With the advances of the internet, over 50% of our patients now find us online – it is fantastic that patients have access to so much information that can help direct them to find solutions. Seeing the abundance of resources available to those suffering now vs. 20 years ago is really rewarding.