How Elevation Athletics Runs Without Its Owner (and What That Means for Your Clinic)

What would it look like if your clinic could run and grow without you in the day-to-day? In this episode, Jeremy sits down with Dr. Ryan Perez, owner of Elevation Athletics in Fort Worth, TX, to break down exactly how he:

• Got himself out of patient care,
• Built a team that can run the clinic with minimal oversight, and
• Is now aiming for a 7-figure year in 2026 while working ~8 hours a week on the clinic.

🎙 Guest

• Guest: Dr. Ryan Perez, owner of Elevation Athletics
• Clinic Website: elevationathleticspt.com
• Ryan's Instagram: @dr_ryanperez
• Clinic Instagram: @elevationathleticspt

📌 Episode Topics

• How Ryan went from treating full-time to 0 clinical hours
• What he actually does now in his 8-hour workweek for the clinic
• Using time audits to decide what to offload first
• Building a business that can run—and scale—without you
• How to think like an owner instead of an employee in your own clinic
• Why most PTs are "accidental entrepreneurs" and how to fix that
• Org charts, accountability charts, and giving your staff a real growth path
• "Who, not how" and buying back your time as a clinic owner
• Predictions for 2026: small group training, performance, and longevity services

🚪 Step One: Decide What You're Actually Offloading

Ryan's first advice to any owner who wants to get out of the day-to-day: do a ruthless time audit.

• List everything you're doing in the business each week.
• Identify what should be:
  • Owner-level work (vision, leadership, key relationships, high-level decisions),
  • Director-level work (managing PTs, metrics, operations),
  • Admin-level work (scheduling, basic comms, data entry).
• Once you see it on paper, the next hire or next system you need becomes obvious.

Different stages of business require the owner to focus on different problems. If you're still doing everything, you'll stay stuck at the same stage forever.

🕒 What Ryan's Week Looks Like Now

Ryan no longer treats patients in the clinic. His time in Elevation Athletics is about 8 hours/week and looks like this:

• Monday: Attends (but doesn't lead) the staff meeting. He "shows face," listens, and lets the system run.
• Thursday: 1:1 meetings with:
  • His clinic director (leadership, growth, internal systems), and
  • Staff PTs (case studies, treatment philosophy, coaching).

The day-to-day is handled by the team. Ryan's role is leadership, training, and high-level decision making—not plugging schedule gaps.

🎯 The Goal: Control of Time, Not Just Income

Ryan's philosophy wasn't "escape patient care at all costs." It was: build a business that runs without me, so I can choose when and how I treat.

Key mindset shifts he shares:

• You're not "just a PT" anymore—you chose to be a business owner.
• Wealth = control of your time, not just higher revenue.
• He wants the option to:
  • Move anywhere in the country,
  • Open additional Elevation locations with a ready-made playbook,
  • Step into clinical care if he wants extra profit—not because the clinic "needs" him.

👥 From Direct Impact to Indirect Impact

As a solo cash PT, Ryan could help maybe 100 patients/month directly. With a team:

• His indirect impact is now 300+ patients/month through his staff.
• He's not just changing patients' lives—he's changing PTs' careers by giving them a place to treat the way they believe people deserve to be treated.

If your mission is to "help people," hiring and leading a team is one of the most powerful ways to multiply that impact.

📚 Books That Changed How He Operates

• E-Myth (Michael Gerber) – Showed him how to build a business with systems and roles, not just grind.
• Traction & Rocket Fuel (Gino Wickman) – Helped him design vision charts, org charts, and real accountability.
• Who Not How (Dan Sullivan)
• Buy Back Your Time (Dan Martell)

After applying these, Ryan stopped asking, "How do I do this?" and started asking, "Who can do this better than me so I can focus on what actually moves the needle?"

🧱 Org Chart, Vision Chart, and Making Growth Real

Ryan didn't just hire randomly and hope it worked out. He built:

• Org chart: Who reports to whom, and what the structure looks like today.
• Accountability chart: Who owns what KPIs, metrics, and responsibilities.
• Vision chart: Where the business is going—future roles, future locations, and impact.

He even shows the future org chart on the clinic website. Result: PTs now reach out saying, "I want to be part of this and here's how I think I can help."

📈 From 20K Months to 50–70K Months

Early on, Ryan hit ~$20K/month as a solo clinician—but he was working 50–60 hours/week, burned out, and never home.

The turning point was realizing:

• Without systems, scorecards, KPIs, and clear roles, staff can't win.
• He needed:
  • Clear job descriptions
  • Clinic director ownership of PT metrics
  • Weekly 1:1s and real accountability

Once those were in place, the team could manage themselves, and revenue scaled with far less chaos and far less of Ryan's time.

⏱ "Who Not How" and the Time Audit Reality Check

Ryan pushes clinic owners to do the math:

• Figure out what your time is worth per hour (based on what the clinic pays you).
• List tasks you do that could be outsourced for less than that hourly value.
• If something doesn't light you up and it's below that threshold, delegate it.

Example he walks owners through:

• You're tempted to DIY SEO, ads, blogs, landing pages, email marketing.
• Realistically, it'll cost you 10–15 hours/month.
• Those same hours could:
  • Fill your schedule with evals,
  • Train your staff to sell better plans of care,
  • Build partnerships and workshops.

When he has clinic owners do this time audit, most realize: "I've already blown past what this should cost me. I need help."

🔮 2026 Goals for Elevation Athletics

Ryan's plan for 2026:

• Hire 1–2 more PTs
• Grow small group training
• Expand personal training and nutrition coaching
• Cross the $1M revenue mark

He intentionally slowed down hiring in 2024 to fix the foundation—systems, leadership, ops—so 2026 growth is sustainable, not chaotic.

📊 The Future of Cash PT: More Revenue Per Provider

Ryan's prediction for where cash PT is headed:

• Maximizing revenue per PT by:
  • Offloading admin work,
  • Letting PTs focus purely on patient care,
  • Adding services like small group training, performance, and nutrition.
• Leaning into the wellness & longevity trend:
  • People are spending more than ever on performance and long-term health,
  • Physical therapists are uniquely positioned to own that space.

In his view, the clinics that win in 2026+ will:

• Generate more revenue per provider,
• Pay PTs more,
• And use tools like AI and smarter systems to strip away low-value admin work.

📱 Connect with Ryan & Elevation Athletics

• Clinic Website: elevationathleticspt.com
• Ryan's Instagram: @dr_ryanperez
• Clinic Instagram: @elevationathleticspt

If you're a clinic owner who feels like you're doing everything, this episode is your permission slip to stop trying to be the entire business—and start building a machine that can run without you.