The Healthcare Rebellion with Dr. Frank Benedetto

What happens when you dedicate your life to solving a problem most people don't even know exists?

In this episode of The Healthcare Rebellion Podcast, Frank sits down with Theresa Richard, speech-language pathologist, entrepreneur, educator, and founder of multiple industry-changing organizations in the medical SLP space. Theresa shares her journey from discovering the life-changing impact of swallowing therapy in a nursing home to building and selling successful businesses, creating one of the largest educational communities for medical speech pathologists, and pursuing an ambitious vision to transform swallowing care nationwide.

Along the way, Theresa opens up about raising a child with complex feeding challenges, the lessons she's learned through entrepreneurship, why specialization creates opportunity, and what it takes to build something meaningful while balancing family, leadership, and personal growth. This conversation is a masterclass in mission-driven entrepreneurship and healthcare innovation.

Key Topics & Takeaways

• The single patient encounter that rerouted Theresa's entire career, and how to recognize the moment that's pointing you toward yours
• Why the niche everyone told you was "too small" is exactly where the biggest opportunity lives
• The hidden epidemic most clinicians walk past every day, and what spotting it can do for your patients and your practice
• How Theresa built a company from zero with no business background, and the imperfect first moves that actually worked
• What she learned building and selling healthcare businesses that you can apply today
• The reason so many clinicians second-guess their own expertise, and how to start trusting the instinct you've already earned
• Why "balance" might be the worst advice you've ever been given as a founder and parent
• How one specialist is building a national model for an overlooked condition, and what it reveals about replacing the old healthcare playboo

Links & Resources

Connect with Theresa:

• Instagram: @theresarichardslp

Learn More:

• The Med SLP Collective
• Medical SLP Courses
• Medical SLP Certification Program

CONNECT WITH FRANK

• Follow Frank on IG: @frank_benedetto
• Subscribe to The Healthcare Rebellion Newsletter: https://go.wearehoneybadgers.com/newsletter
• Book a call to explore what reimagining your practice could look like: https://calendly.com/honeybadger-/the-honeybadger-project-consult
• Free 60 minute training on innovative practice models: https://thehoneybadgerproject.clickfunnels.com/vsl-page1708016257108

Most healthcare providers got into this profession because they genuinely want to help people. And somewhere along the way, that calling gets twisted into a belief system that says struggling financially makes you more ethical. That charging what you're worth is somehow greedy. That building wealth and serving patients well are things that can't coexist.

John Coleman is here to dismantle that entire belief system.

He's an investor, entrepreneur, and author of the book Good Money, and someone who has spent years helping high performers reconcile a tension that most clinicians know all too well: how do you build real wealth without becoming consumed by it?

In this conversation, John and I go deep on the hedonic treadmill that traps high performers, why the financial finish line might be the most important concept you've never heard of, the relationship between wealth, purpose, faith, and impact, and why building wealth responsibly actually allows you to serve more people, not fewer.

Whether you're just starting your first private practice or you already have financial success but you're still restless, I think this one is going to hit home.

CONNECT WITH FRANK

• Follow Frank on IG: @frank_benedetto
• Book a call to explore what reimagining your practice could look like: https://calendly.com/honeybadger-/the-honeybadger-project-consult

CONNECT WITH JOHN

• Website: JohnWilliamColeman.com
• Book: Good Money

What would it take for you to finally start taking care of yourself?

Jared Maynard is a physiotherapist, strength coach, and one of the longest-standing members of the HoneyBadger Project community. In 2023, he was put on life support with a 50 to 75 percent mortality rate. His doctors told his family to say goodbye. And then, inexplicably, he began to recover.

The 40 pounds of muscle his body catabolized for fuel during five weeks on a ventilator was the reserve he had unknowingly been building for decades. Every hour in the gym was unknowingly preparing him for this moment.

This episode is one of the most powerful conversations we've had on this show.

In this raw and deeply personal conversation, Jared and Frank cover:

• Clinical nihilism: what it is, why nearly every clinician goes through it, and what comes out the other side
• How a remote PT assessment over Skype in 2016 changed the entire trajectory of Jared's career
• Coping with going blind: a genetic condition will eventually rob Jared of his sight, and how that shaped his decision to go all in on a digital practice
• The near death experience: organ failure, life support, dialysis, and the moment his doctors told his family there was nothing more they could do
• Why muscle mass quite literally saved his life and what that means for every clinician who has been neglecting their own strength
• How grief, faith, and the book of Job carried him through the darkest weeks of his recovery
• What it means to come back stronger and why stronger isn't always physical
• His mission now: helping coaches and clinicians become the strong, healthy humans they are asking their patients to become

This one will stay with you. Share it with someone who needs it.

CONNECT WITH FRANK

• Follow Frank on IG: @frank_benedetto
• Book a call to explore what reimagining your practice could look like: https://calendly.com/honeybadger-/the-honeybadger-project-consult

CONNECT WITH JARED

• Instagram: @jared.unbreakable
• Email: [email protected]
• Website: unbreakablestrength.net

Erica Bermudez was seeing 90 pelvic health patients a week inside a therapy mill in Manhattan. She was acting as the clinical director with no clinical director above her, rushing women through some of the most intimate, emotional care imaginable... 10 minutes a session, even if they were crying. And when she hit that number, the company celebrated her on the team chat.

She knew something was broken. So she left.

Today she runs her own hybrid pelvic health practice in Bayonne, New Jersey, seeing men, women, and children in person and 100% virtually: blending pelvic therapy, nervous system coaching, and personal training under one roof in a model the old system told her wasn't possible. She built it from a $35-per-hour gym room rental, and she went fully all in just a few months ago.

In this conversation, Erica and Frank cover:

• How a denied fieldwork request in OT school and a LinkedIn job posting changed the entire trajectory of her career and what OT students can do right now if their school isn't keeping up
• What it actually looks like to build a cash-based practice while working a day job, the real timeline, the scrappy early days, and the moment she knew it was time to go all in
• Why being celebrated for seeing 90 pelvic patients in a week is one of the most disturbing things happening inside the broken healthcare system right now
• How OTs are uniquely trained to treat the whole person and why leaning into the mental health and nervous system side of care is not scope creep, it's the profession's greatest untapped edge
• The rallying cry the OT profession needs to hear: stop trying to fit the mold your professors built for you and start building something the world actually needs

This one is for the OTs. Tap any of the links below for more.

CONNECT WITH FRANK

• Follow Frank on IG: @frank_benedetto
• Sign up for The Healthcare Rebellion Newsletter: https://go.wearehoneybadgers.com/newsletter
• Book a call to explore what reimagining your skillset or practice could look like: https://calendly.com/honeybadger-/the-honeybadger-project-consult

CONNECT WITH ERICA

• Instagram & TikTok: @thepelvicfloor_ot
• Website: https://thepelvicfloorot.kit.com/

Adam Leipzig was a senior executive at Walt Disney Studios when Disney was still scrappy. He helped build it into a cultural powerhouse. He went on to become President of National Geographic Films. Across four decades, he has produced over 40 acclaimed films (the likes of Dead Poets Society, March of the Penguins, A Plastic Ocean) that have collectively earned over $2 billion worldwide and picked up Oscars, BAFTAs, Emmys, and Golden Globes along the way.

But the reason he's here is one film.

A Plastic Ocean has been directly credited with changing environmental laws in over 150 countries. Plastic bag bans. Straw regulations. Manufacturer end-of-life requirements. If you live somewhere those laws exist, there's a real chance this film is part of the reason why. Not a policy paper. Not a lobbying campaign. A story.

That's what Adam does. He figures out how to make people care... and then move.

In this conversation, Adam and Frank dig into what clinicians and healthcare entrepreneurs can steal from decades at the highest levels of film, theater, and media. If you've ever struggled to articulate what you do, why it matters, or how to get people to actually listen: this one is for you.

In this conversation, Adam and Frank cover:

• How Adam went from Walt Disney Studios to National Geographic to producing films that changed global law and the throughline that connects all of it
• The four-part narrative structure every clinician needs to master: hook, challenge, solution, call to action and why most people skip the part that actually makes people move
• Why culture is discovered, not given and what that means for anyone trying to build something new inside a broken healthcare system
• The 10 laws of culturenomics and how to use them to build something patients actually stay loyal to
• Why your story is your greatest clinical asset and the one daily practice Adam recommends to sharpen it

His new book, Fearless Persistence, drops April 21, 2026. Pre-order it now.

This one is worth a second listen. Tap any of the links below for more.

CONNECT WITH FRANK

• Follow Frank on IG: @frank_benedetto
• Sign up for The Healthcare Rebellion Newsletter: https://go.wearehoneybadgers.com/newsletter
• Book a call to explore what reimagining your skillset or practice could look like: https://calendly.com/honeybadger-/the-honeybadger-project-consult

CONNECT WITH ADAM

• Website: https://adamleipzig.com/
• Instagram: @adamleipzig
• LinkedIn: in/adamleipzig
• YouTube: @AdamLeipzig
• TikTok: @adam_leipzig
• Pre-order Fearless Persistence: https://www.amazon.fr/-/en/Adam-Leipzig-ebook/dp/B0GQC78H7Q?ref_=ast_author_mpb
• Download a free chapter here: https://adamleipzig.com/free-chapter

Erica Bermudez was seeing 90 pelvic health patients a week inside a therapy mill in Manhattan. She was acting as the clinical director with no clinical director above her, rushing women through some of the most intimate, emotional care imaginable — 10 minutes a session, even if they were crying. And when she hit that number, the company celebrated her on the team chat.

She knew something was broken. So she left.

Today she runs her own hybrid pelvic health practice in Bayonne, New Jersey, seeing men, women, and children in person and 100% virtually — blending pelvic therapy, nervous system coaching, and personal training under one roof in a model the old system told her wasn't possible. She built it from a $35-per-hour gym room rental, and she went fully all in just a few months ago.

In this conversation, Erica and Frank cover:

• How a denied fieldwork request in OT school and a LinkedIn job posting changed the entire trajectory of her career — and what OT students can do right now if their school isn't keeping up
• What it actually looks like to build a cash-based practice while working a day job, the real timeline, the scrappy early days, and the moment she knew it was time to go all in
• Why being celebrated for seeing 90 pelvic patients in a week is one of the most disturbing things happening inside the broken healthcare system right now
• How OTs are uniquely trained to treat the whole person — and why leaning into the mental health and nervous system side of care is not scope creep, it's the profession's greatest untapped edge
• The rallying cry the OT profession needs to hear: stop trying to fit the mold your professors built for you and start building something the world actually needs

This one is for the OTs. Tap any of the links below for more.

CONNECT WITH FRANK

• Follow Frank on IG: @frank_benedetto
• Follow The HoneyBadger Project on IG: @thehoneybadgerproject
• Sign up for The Healthcare Rebellion Newsletter: https://go.wearehoneybadgers.com/newsletter
• Book a call to explore what reimagining your skillset or practice could look like: https://calendly.com/mission-driven/5

CONNECT WITH ERICA

• Instagram & TikTok: @thepelvicfloor_ot
• Website: https://thepelvicfloorot.kit.com/

In 2015, Matt Reynolds shut down his brick and mortar gym and went all in on a fully digital coaching platform. Everyone thought he was crazy. A decade later he runs one of the largest online coaching businesses in the world, a software platform used by hundreds of coaches, and a team with a monthly churn rate under 3% in an industry where 20% is the norm.

He saw where the world was going and moved before the proof existed.

In this dense and wide-ranging conversation, Matt breaks down what he built and how AI is about to separate the clinicians who thrive from the ones who get left behind. Matt and Frank take a hard pivot from tech and dig into what it looks like to run a business without hiding who you are or beating people over the head with your personal beliefs.

In this conversation, Matt and Frank cover:

• How Matt went from brick and mortar to fully digital in 2015 and the mindset that made him go for 30 coaches on day one instead of testing the waters slowly
• Why the hybrid model is where most healthcare providers are headed and how to start building it without blowing up what you've already built
• The real reason clinicians feel guilty about optimizing their workflow and why that guilt is costing them and their patients
• Why you won't be replaced by AI, but you might be replaced by a clinician using AI. And what to do about it right now (hint: it’s not about templated workouts)
• The distinction that changes everything about how you build your spiritual journey into the way you show up publicly as a business owner while being welcoming to all beliefs.

This one is dense. Tap any of the links below for more.

CONNECT WITH FRANK

• Follow Frank on IG: @frank_benedetto
• Sign up for The Healthcare Rebellion Newsletter: https://go.wearehoneybadgers.com/newsletter
• Book a call to explore what reimagining your skillset or practice could look like: https://calendly.com/honeybadger-/the-honeybadger-project-consult

CONNECT WITH MATT

• Website: ryanmattreynolds.com
• Instagram: @reynoldsstrong
• Barbell Logic: barbelllogic.com
• Coaching software: turnkey.coach
• Book: Undoing Urgency

Mel Abraham went from a CPA grinding in the hours-for-dollars model to becoming the behind-the-scenes financial mentor for some of the biggest creators in the world including Brendan Burchard and Anthony Trucks. He met Frank at a Brendan Burchard event in 2019, the same event where the concept for The HoneyBadger Project was born. Since then, Mel has fundamentally shifted how Frank thinks about money, income, and building a financial future.

In this conversation, Mel doesn't sugarcoat it. Most clinicians were handed a degree and sent into a profession that never once taught them how money actually works. The result is a generation of brilliant providers who are over-working, under-compensated, and one layoff or injury away from a financial crisis they never saw coming.

In this raw and tactical conversation, Mel reveals:

• The 5 income levels and why most clinicians are stuck at level one their entire career
• How to tackle student loan debt without stalling your financial future
• The guilt clinicians carry around getting paid their worth and the money stories underneath it
• The one line item missing from every clinician's P&L that's costing them their future
• The Wealth Priority Ladder: how to give every dollar a job before you earn it
• How to diversify revenue inside your practice before going outside of it

Mel's framework shows the path forward: understanding your money stories, building leveraged income streams from your existing expertise, and creating a financial machine that runs whether you're working or not.

Whatever stage of practice you're in, this episode will fundamentally shift how you think about money, time, and the kind of future you're actually building.

CONNECT WITH FRANK

• Follow Frank on IG: @Frank Benedetto
• Sign up for email counterpart to the podcast, The Healthcare Rebellion Newsletter
• Book a call with us if you feel inspired to explore what reimagining your skillset or practice could look like: https://calendly.com/honeybadger-/the-honeybadger-project-consult

CONNECT WITH MEL

• Get the book + free resources: yourmoneymachinebook.com
• Website: melabraham.com
• Instagram: @melabraham9

Eliza Sampey started treating patients remotely in 2012, years before telehealth was a real conversation in U.S. healthcare. She wasn't following a trend. She was following the needs of her patients who were adventure athletes that couldn't make it to her clinic. Everyone said she was crazy but she trusted that her vision was worth fighting for even when her employer said no.

But Eliza's story goes way beyond being a telehealth pioneer. She is a national champion mountain biker, a professional expedition athlete who has fat-biked and pack-rafted across Pakistan, India, Nepal, and Puerto Rico, and built a life where her clinical skills and her athletic identity weren't competing things — they were one thing.

Then came concussion number five. And three years of unknowingly digging her own grave with every pedal stroke.

In this raw and extraordinary conversation, Eliza shares:

• How she accidentally became one of the first virtual physical therapists in the United States and why no one believed it would work
• The flash of insight mid-race that told her she didn't have to choose between being a PT and being a pro athlete
• How she monetized her athletic career in ways that didn't exist yet and what that model means for clinicians today
• The crash, the concussion, and the three years she spent missing what was actually happening to her brain
• Why she retired from professional adventure sports and what she built from that loss
• Her mission to change the culture around concussion in adventure sports and what it looks like to finally put your flag in the ground

This is one you want to listen to the very end. Eliza's story will shift how you think about what's possible when you stop separating the things you love.

CONNECT WITH FRANK

• Follow Frank on IG: @Frank Benedetto
• Sign up for email counterpart to the podcast, The Healthcare Rebellion Newsletter
• Book a call with us if you feel inspired to explore what reimagining your skillset or practice could look like: https://calendly.com/honeybadger-/the-honeybadger-project-consult

CONNECT WITH ELIZA

• Instagram: @elizasampey
• Website: elizasampey.com
• Free Concussion eBook: elizasampey.com/concussion

What if the reason your marketing feels flat is because healthcare taught you to strip every ounce of personality out of it?

Mark Fisher built one of the most talked-about gyms in New York City not because he had the best equipment or the lowest prices, but because he refused to be boring. Mark Fisher Fitness grossed nearly $34 million over its lifetime, called its clients ninjas, and used a unicorn as its symbol. Mark's branding philosophy, rooted in the Seth Godin "purple cow" concept and a deep belief that people want to work with humans, not institutions, is something the healthcare world desperately needs to steal.

This conversation starts in branding and takes a hard, honest turn into something a lot of business owners are privately wrestling with but rarely say out loud about social media.

In this raw and wide-ranging conversation, Mark and Frank reveal:

• Why healthcare's obsession with over-professionalization is costing clinicians patients and what fitness figured out that healthcare hasn't
• How to identify what makes you genuinely angry about your industry and use that as the foundation of your brand (in a constructive way)
• Why building around a personal brand is a cheat code for early growth and how to do it without becoming a dancing monkey
• The social media conversation nobody in healthcare is having honestly and what both Frank and Mark have decided to do about it
• Why local healthcare and clinic owners are wasting time on social media they will never get back
• How to operationalize hospitality at every touchpoint including the ones most providers forget exist
• Why spirituality and calling belong back in the conversation about healthcare — and what happens when clinicians lose touch with theirs

Frank also pulls back the curtain on his own shift away from social media as a primary marketing engine, and what the new model for The HoneyBadger Project actually looks like.

This one will change how you think about your brand, your marketing, and why you got into healthcare in the first place.

CONNECT WITH FRANK

• Follow Frank on IG: @Frank Benedetto
• Book a call with us if you feel inspired to explore what reimagining your skillset or practice could look like: : https://calendly.com/honeybadger-/the-honeybadger-project-consult

CONNECT WITH MARK

• Website: businessforunicorns.com
• Free Book: gymmarketingsecretsbook.com
• Podcast: bfupodcast.com
• YouTube: Mark Fisher – Gym Business Coach
• Instagram: @BusinessForUnicorns