Will Power Podcast by Will Humphreys

Will Humphreys, CEO of Rockstar Global and host of the Will Power Podcast, opens up about the year he spent under FBI investigation, the Christmas Eve he found out his clinic had $5,000 left and $10,000 in bills, and the mindset shift that took him from one physical therapy practice to multiple multimillion dollar companies.

In this episode you'll learn:

• How a college research study turned into an FBI investigation and a year long fight to clear his name
• The exact moment he realized his business had become a job he couldn't quit
• Why he believes the greatest leader in any room is the one who loves the most
• How to actually get a mentor without sending an awkward cold DM
• The one question that fixed his business focus for good
• How solving his own staffing problem turned into the company he runs today
• Why he sold a thriving five location practice and took six months off with his family
• The foundation he built to bring physical therapy and speech services to orphanages in Africa

Subscribe to the Will Power Podcast for real conversations with practice owners and entrepreneurs about building a business that doesn't cost you everything else.

Connect with Will Humphreys: 

• LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/will-humphreys-ba599918 
• Instagram: @willhumphreys_ 
• TikTok: @willhumphreysofficial 
• Facebook: facebook.com/willhumphreysofficial

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Rockstars specialize in helping support or replace all non-clinical roles.
Learn how a Rockstar can help scale your physical therapy practice.

Subscribe here to our completely free Stress-Free PT Newsletter for your weekly dose of joy. 

This week, Will steps to the other side of the mic. He sat down with Dr. Karen Litzy on Healthy, Wealthy & Smart to talk about the year he almost lost his practice, how he built a hiring system that's led to over 1,000 hires, how he handles firing without destroying the relationship, and why the $20 an hour work practice owners keep doing themselves is costing them far more than $20 an hour.

Key takeaways:

• Will Humphreys nearly lost his physical therapy practice in December 2012 after learning he had $5,000 in the bank against $10,000 in bills, a moment that pushed him to rebuild his business from scratch.
• He credits joining Entrepreneurs' Organization and being paired with a mentor for turning his practice around, growing it from 2 locations to 5 and reaching approximately $5 million in revenue while working fewer than 20 hours a week.
• Will describes his early hiring approach as the "fogged mirror rule," meaning he hired almost anyone with a pulse because he assumed every hire would share his own work ethic.
• His current hiring framework starts with building an "ideal hire" avatar document, followed by a job scorecard based on the Topgrading methodology developed by Brad Smart.
• Will argues most practice owners don't actually have a hiring problem. They have a lead generation problem, since most owners already know how to close a good candidate once one is in front of them.
• He built a recruiting pipeline for his Arizona practice by forming relationships with physical therapy universities, specifically targeting each program's third-year class president as a key connector.
• On firing, Will's philosophy is to set expectations for an exit on day one of employment, framing himself as "a steward of the win-win relationship" between the employee and the company rather than making it personal.
• He uses a quarterly gut-check question borrowed from Vern Harnish: "Would I emphatically rehire this person?" A "maybe" counts as a no.
• Will founded Virtual Rockstar, a company that places virtual assistants into physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy, and dental practices to take non-clinical work off owners' plates. The company now has over 300 VAs supporting close to 400 practice locations.
• He cites a Harvard study estimating that clinic owners doing $30-an-hour work themselves are conservatively leaving $750,000 in profit on the table over time.
• Will frames profit and purpose as "two sides of the same coin," arguing that ethical billing and sustainable profit are what allow practice owners to pay their teams well and stay in the mission long term.
• He sold his practice in 2018 for $7 million and later reinvested in Virtual Rockstar to help other healthcare entrepreneurs delegate and scale.

If nobody ever taught you the business side of running a healthcare practice, start here.

Learn more about Rockstar and grab a free discovery call: https://www.rockstarglobal.com/ 

Get the book Rise, Stand and Lead, and find more episodes of the Will Power Podcast at the same link.

Original conversation: Healthy, Wealthy & Smart with Dr. Karen Litzy

Connect with Dr. Karen Litzy at https://healthywealthysmart.libsyn.com/ and karenlitzy.com/

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Rockstars specialize in helping support or replace all non-clinical roles.
Learn how a Rockstar can help scale your physical therapy practice.

Subscribe here to our completely free Stress-Free PT Newsletter for your weekly dose of joy. 

Will Humphreys sits down with Rick Lau, founder of Clinic Accelerator, PainHero, and CallHero, and host of The Clinic Boss Show, for a conversation on the forces reshaping physical therapy practices today. Rick has guided more than 100 clinic owners through buying or selling a practice, and his team runs front desk conversion and AI call tracking for clinics across the US, Canada, and Australia.

In this episode:

• Why PTs are earning 29% less for the same work than in 2019
• The real difference between AI and virtual assistants for a growing practice
• Why 88% of employees quit, and the fix most owners overlook
• How multidisciplinary practices are hitting 3 to 5 million in revenue
• What tasks to keep in house and what to hand to a VA or AI
• How to onboard a virtual assistant so they actually stick

The two cover why overseas hiring is now the second fastest growing trend in healthcare behind AI, how PT practices are losing patients to chiropractors and massage therapists without realizing it, and what tasks should stay in house versus move to a virtual assistant or AI.

Follow Rick Lau: 

The Clinic Boss Show - https://clinicbossshow.com/ 

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Rockstars specialize in helping support or replace all non-clinical roles.
Learn how a Rockstar can help scale your physical therapy practice.

Subscribe here to our completely free Stress-Free PT Newsletter for your weekly dose of joy. 

Dr. Josh Schacter spent years as a high volume orthopedic surgeon, performing close to 1,000 surgeries annually and seeing 50 patients a day inside the insurance system. On this episode of Willpower, he joins Will Humphreys to talk about the internal and external transition that took him from burned out technician to integrative orthopedic physician running a cash pay practice built around deep patient connection.

Dr. Schacter walks through the mindset shifts required to leave insurance behind, the limiting beliefs providers carry from medical training, and how a trip to Ecuador with the Ashuar people reshaped his relationship to stress and presence. He shares patient stories, including a man who avoided a hip replacement through regenerative therapy and a case of reversed Type 2 diabetes discovered during a knee visit, and explains why he believes over a million joint replacements can be prevented by 2042.

Key takeaways:

• Dr. Schacter transitioned his practice to roughly 80% cash pay revenue within three months.
• He reduced his patient load from 50 per day to an average of 10, spending up to 90 minutes with new patients.
• Chronic pain has been linked to a 3 to 5 percent shorter lifespan, and 80 percent of patients report feeling rushed during medical visits.
• Dr. Schacter's integrative approach treats orthopedic issues alongside metabolic and psychological factors, including cases where diabetes was reversed through diet, nutraceuticals, and micro-dose GLP-1.
• His wife, Amber Schacter, serves as CEO of the practice and was the driving force behind the shift to a different care model.
• He references Steven Pressfield's The War of Art and its concept of "resistance" as a framework for understanding the internal beliefs that keep providers stuck in traditional systems.
• Dr. Schacter's long-term goal is to prevent over one million joint replacements by 2042 through earlier, deeper intervention.

If you're a provider who feels stuck inside a system that wasn't built for deep care, this conversation is for you. 

Connect with Dr. Joshua Schacter

• Website: www.pinnacleorthowf.com 
• FB and IG: @pinnacleintegrativeorthopedics, @drjoshuaschacter 
• Tiktok: @drjoshuaschacter 
• Youtube @DrJoshuaSchacter 

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Rockstars specialize in helping support or replace all non-clinical roles.
Learn how a Rockstar can help scale your physical therapy practice.

Subscribe here to our completely free Stress-Free PT Newsletter for your weekly dose of joy. 

In this episode of the Will Power Podcast, recorded live at APTA CSM, Will Humphreys sits down with Michael Viscuso, CEO of Metro Physical Therapy, and Samantha DiRosa, Clinical Director at Metro, to talk about how intentional leadership development shapes culture, retention, and patient care in private practice.

Michael and Samantha break down how Metro built a leadership pipeline that starts with new grads and continues through clinical directors and regional leaders. They cover Metro's NextGen and Ascend leadership programs, the books that shape their culture (including Start With Why and The Energy Bus), and how giving staff a real choice between clinical and leadership paths keeps people engaged instead of burned out.

Key takeaways:

• Leadership is built through extra effort. Students and new grads who ask questions, attend outside events, and invest in relationships stand out early.
• Metro runs two named leadership programs, NextGen for emerging leaders and Ascend for staff moving toward clinical director roles, and both are led directly by the CEO and VP of Operations.
• Burnout often signals disconnection from purpose, not a lack of skill. Reconnecting to the reason someone got into the field restores motivation.
• Empowerment means setting clear expectations and trusting the process, not controlling the outcome.
• Metro has grown to 62 locations while keeping its CEO personally involved in leadership days and clinic visits.
• Practice owners who are overwhelmed should focus on finding the right people for the right seats, then genuinely empowering them to make decisions.

If you're a PT student trying to figure out where to start, a clinician feeling burned out, or a practice owner who doesn't know how to build leadership into your business, this episode gives you a real roadmap. 

Connect with Metro Physical Therapy

Website: https://www.metrophysicaltherapy.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MetroPhysicalandAquaticTherapy/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/metro-physical-&-aquatic-therapy/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/metroptny

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Rockstars specialize in helping support or replace all non-clinical roles.
Learn how a Rockstar can help scale your physical therapy practice.

Subscribe here to our completely free Stress-Free PT Newsletter for your weekly dose of joy. 

Dr. Milica McDowell, Associate Vice President of Education at US Physical Therapy, joins the Will Power Podcast live from APTA CSM to break down the science behind walking, one of the most overlooked tools in physical therapy. Guest host Mitch Johnson sits down with McDowell to unpack her new book, "Walk," co-written with foot and gait specialist Dr. Courtney Conley, and backed by over 300 research studies.

McDowell explains where the 10,000-steps myth actually came from (it was never based on science), what step count actually reduces mortality risk, and why walking belongs in the same category as sleep and breathing for the human body. She also covers footwear myths that are hurting patients, why most adults are wearing the wrong shoe size, and how simple "movement snacks" can shift a patient's mood, cognition, and recovery in minutes.

Key takeaways:

• The 10,000-step benchmark came from a 1960s Japanese pedometer marketing campaign, not research.
• A baseline of 3,500 steps per day is linked to a 15% reduction in all-cause mortality compared to 2,500 steps.
• Five-minute "MicroWalks" improve mood and cognitive clarity, especially for patients recovering from surgery.
• Patients on GLP-1 medications are losing muscle along with fat, making weight-bearing activity like walking essential.
• McDowell's stack, switch, and swap framework gives patients a realistic way to add walking without finding extra time.
• Over 60% of adults wear the wrong shoe size, and foot length changes with weight, hormones, and age.
• Heavily cushioned, rigid footwear blunts the sensory feedback the foot sends to the brain, which affects balance and movement patterns.
• Babies are not born with bunions. Bunions develop over time as a footwear and stress-related adaptation.
• Relationship walks (partner walks, "Grandma Walks," and walks with teenage kids) show measurable benefits for communication and mood, especially outdoors.

If you work with patients, coach athletes, or just want a simple way to move more without overhauling your schedule, this one is worth your full attention. 

Grab the book "Walk" by Dr. Milica McDowell and Dr. Courtney Conley, available on Amazon. 

https://www.amazon.com/Walk-Rediscover-Natural-Health-Longevity-One-ebook/dp/B0FPC9X2FG

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Rockstars specialize in helping support or replace all non-clinical roles.
Learn how a Rockstar can help scale your physical therapy practice.

Subscribe here to our completely free Stress-Free PT Newsletter for your weekly dose of joy. 

Will sat down with Minal and Brijraj from Spry live at APTA CSM to talk about the part of the physical therapy industry most clinicians never see: the technology quietly reshaping how clinics run.

Brijraj was the CTO of Ola, the ride-share company often called the Uber of India, at its $6 billion peak. He left that world to build Spry because the same problem kept showing up: people need to move, and mobility gives them purpose. Minal treated patients for 15 years in outpatient ortho before she and her husband moved to Portugal. She wasn't looking for a new job. Spry found her on LinkedIn, and three years later she's the clinical voice inside a tech company, pushing back when the product team drifts too far from what actually happens on a clinic floor.

The conversation gets into the real tension of building healthcare technology: a founder who thinks in outcomes and a clinician who thinks in patients, and what happens when those two things pull in different directions. They talk through Spry's insurance verification engine (95% accurate, down to the NPI level), the AI agent that now handles prior authorization and removes 80% of the manual work behind it, and why EMRs were never supposed to become billing tools in the first place.

In this episode:

• Why Brijraj left a $6 billion ride-share company to build an EMR for physical therapists
• The difference between "work" and "toil," and why toil is what's driving burnout in PT
• How Spry's insurance verification hits 95% accuracy at the NPI level
• Inside the AI agent that cuts prior authorization work by 80%
• Why most EMRs turned into billing tools when they were built for interoperability
• What's next for Spry: multi-specialty workflows, waitlist agents, and clinical decision support

Minal and Brijraj also get into what's next: a shared workflow for multi-specialty clinics where PT, OT, speech, and MD care actually talk to each other, an agent for canceling and waitlist management, and a clinical decision support tool built specifically for physical therapy.

Follow the Will Power Podcast for more conversations with the people building the future of physical therapy. 

Connect with Spry: www.sprypt.com 

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Rockstars specialize in helping support or replace all non-clinical roles.
Learn how a Rockstar can help scale your physical therapy practice.

Subscribe here to our completely free Stress-Free PT Newsletter for your weekly dose of joy. 

In this episode, Neil breaks down a distinction most practice owners have never heard: PR, marketing, and sales are three different things, and they work like a pyramid. PR is the foundation, your reviews, your reputation, what people say about you when you're not in the room. Marketing sits in the middle, your ads, your website, your direct mail. Sales is the tip, and it starts at your front desk, not just with your therapists.

In this episode:

• Why marketing is the first step in financial planning, not an afterthought. 
• The three-part pyramid: PR, marketing, and sales, and why most owners only focus on the top. 
• Why is the front desk one of the most critical hires in your practice? 
• What separates a marketing coordinator from a marketing director, and when to hire one. 
• Why does your website need a full rebuild every three years? 
• How Google Jobs is quietly becoming a recruiting tool most owners don't know exists. 
• The Grow, Hire, Profit framework for scaling past $1M, $3M, and $10M. 
• Where AI fits into modern practice marketing, and where it doesn't.

Will calls this one of the most transformative conversations of the entire CSM. By the end, you'll understand why.

About Neil Trickett: 

Founder of Practice Promotions, working with PT, OT, and speech practices ranging from solo clinics to 200+ location organizations. Author of Market to Grow. 

Website: The Premier Marketing Agency for Physical Therapy Clinics 

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Rockstars specialize in helping support or replace all non-clinical roles.
Learn how a Rockstar can help scale your physical therapy practice.

Subscribe here to our completely free Stress-Free PT Newsletter for your weekly dose of joy. 

Will sits down with Paul Cords, physical therapist, adjunct professor, and PRN clinical excellence rep, live at APTA CSM. The conversation centers on primary care physical therapy: the idea that PTs aren't just a referral stop after a doctor's visit. In states like Arizona, they can be the first call for a musculoskeletal emergency, ahead of the ER.

Paul and Will get into what's actually possible under current PT licensure (imaging referrals, differential diagnosis, same-day triage), why regulations differ so much state to state, and why PTs still don't own this authority in practice. They talk about the "seat at the table" problem: PTs are often left out of the referral and care-team conversations that happen naturally between physicians, and that has to change through both confidence and relationships, not just legislation.

In this episode, they cover:

• What primary care PT actually means, and why it's more than "skip the family doctor"
• How PTs in states like Arizona can already send patients for same-day imaging
• Why musculoskeletal cases might be triaged better by a PT than an ER
• The "seat at the table" problem, and why it's personal before it's professional
• A patient story: going from 100mg of daily Oxy to opioid-free in one month
• Why academia is starting to teach case ownership, not just documentation
• What it looks like when a PT is paid for wellness visits, not just injury visits
• Where Paul sees the profession heading, and what has to change to get there

Paul Cords is a physical therapist, adjunct professor at NAU, and clinical excellence rep with PRN. He also does nonprofit and leadership development work in Tanzania through Zoe Hope International.

Thanks to PRN for supporting this episode.

Lead with love. Never give up.

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Rockstars specialize in helping support or replace all non-clinical roles.
Learn how a Rockstar can help scale your physical therapy practice.

Subscribe here to our completely free Stress-Free PT Newsletter for your weekly dose of joy. 

Servant leadership gets dismissed as a soft skill. Vanessa Labadie and Christina Pagel run operations for Metro, a pediatric therapy company with 500 employees across 18 locations, and they treat it as a process, not a feeling.

In this episode:

• What servant leadership actually means, and what it isn't
• Vanessa's "5% rule" for leading people through stress
• Why letting your team make decisions builds trust faster than any policy
• The real difference between firing someone and "coaching them out"
• How Metro's team holds each other accountable, in both directions on the org chart
• Will's story of solving a coverage problem by handing it to the team instead of solving it alone

They also get into what changes when the team, not just the owner, gets to solve the company's hardest problems, and why Will believes the biggest surprise after selling his own practice wasn't the money. It was the team.

If you're a private practice owner trying to build a team that doesn't dread Sunday nights, this one is for you. Subscribe for more conversations on building practices that run on more than clinical excellence.

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Rockstars specialize in helping support or replace all non-clinical roles.
Learn how a Rockstar can help scale your physical therapy practice.

Subscribe here to our completely free Stress-Free PT Newsletter for your weekly dose of joy.