Feels like we're doing like
a home renovation show with
that introduction there.
PT Business Blueprint.
Dwayne, welcome back to the podcast.
How are you doing?
I'm doing well, man.
Thanks for having me on.
It's always great to connect
with you and chat.
All right.
So because I know you
outside of the podcast,
you've got some different
things going on besides
just being a practice owner.
So give people like the back
of the baseball card about
Dwayne and what you do and
all the different things
that you touch or maybe
have touched in the past.
Um, yeah, so I guess the, um,
short story is really most
recently have taken kind of
my passion for running and
education and just really
channeled that toward
educating the running
community that they don't
need to stop running in
order to get over a running injury.
And I really.
created a kind of one-on-one
coaching program,
kind of provide weekly videos,
podcast episodes,
and really built a holistic
kind of healthy runner
coaching team that really
empowers runners to get stronger,
run faster,
and enjoy lifelong injury-free running.
And I am like super
passionate about like
anyone can run and that
runners should actually be
treated differently when
recovering from an injury than just
Joe Schmo,
who is not kind of an adult runner.
And I'm just honestly like
really on a mission to
change the traditional
thinking that running
causes injuries and your
body's just not meant to run,
or you must take a break in
order to get better.
So I've definitely learned a
lot in my personal running journey.
And now I've really kind of
combined those passions with my
kind of history for, you know,
sports medicine, orthopedics, um,
teaching and really
channeled that to toward
the running community.
Perfect.
And then you've also done
some teaching and some education.
Yes.
Yeah.
So, um, it's full-time faculty, um,
for eight years,
actually just recently this past, uh,
spring stepped down from that position.
in order to really embrace
myself full time in really
what I'm most passionate
about now and just being
able to have a larger
impact and be able to share
my experiences, my expertise in this area,
not only with a room full
of DPT students or a one-on-one patient,
like in the traditional clinic sense,
but the larger,
greater running community.
So what's this look like?
Is this a hundred percent online?
Is there,
or is there an in-person location?
Like what's Spark look like?
Yeah, a hundred percent online.
Initially I did have a
in-person location here in Connecticut.
And, you know, once the pandemic hit,
you know, like most things, I really,
at the time I already had a podcast,
a YouTube channel and
Facebook group and just
kind of put all the eggs in that basket,
so to speak,
and start really treating
patients more on kind of a
session to session basis,
and then really embraced
providing a service and
really meeting the runner,
like where their problem areas are.
And I created a solution to
be able to overcome their
main challenges.
So you don't actually have
to be in person to deliver
something that is of value.
Who knew?
Well, we knew.
Dude, that's mind blowing.
I know,
but the funny part is you were
doing it when not many
people were doing it, right?
Which is like making this
change and people fear change.
They're like, that's not gonna work.
There was a great,
I forget one of Adam
Sandler's like comedy albums.
He did this bit where I
think he played like his mom,
like this character's mom.
And whatever he was saying,
she would just yell from
off camera or off mic,
they're all gonna laugh at you.
And I can hear that.
It's like, they're all gonna laugh at you.
And they will.
First,
they're gonna laugh at you and
they're gonna doubt you and
they're gonna mock you.
And then when you do the thing,
they're going to say that
they were there the whole time.
That's just how it is.
That's just how human nature is.
We project our own fears or
other people project their
fears onto us if we start
doing something a different way.
And they'll say,
you'll never make it that way.
Because if it was going to work,
someone would have done it already,
which is just really bad thinking.
Yeah,
somebody would have done it already
if that was going to be the way.
And then now here you are.
So let's talk about this.
Like what is on the menu for
Spark Healthy Runner?
If someone comes to your website,
sees your content, whatever,
they fall down that funnel in a good way.
They slide down that funnel in a good way.
And then they're like, okay,
I feel like you're the
right person to help me do
the things that I wanna do.
What's like on the menu?
Like what's it look like
when someone gets there and
what do they have to choose from?
Yeah,
so we definitely have a lot of free
resources out there, right,
to just be able to help
anyone in the running community.
And that's, again,
I'm really passionate about education.
So, you know, that's one avenue.
But to work with us and our services,
you know,
my signature kind of spark back
one-on-one coaching program
in which someone works with me.
It is really providing a
unique service that is
integrative in nature,
where I'm utilizing my
knowledge and experience as
a musculoskeletal
content expert, running expertise,
strength and conditioning
and run coaching.
And that's a. Sixteen week
program where I'm taking
them through like four different phases.
They're kind of restoring
their body back to
fundamental running movement patterns,
and then they're rebuilding their body.
So like the restore phase is
like what most PTs do right
in the traditional PT clinic,
you're gonna evaluate them,
your movement assessment,
you're gonna be like, okay,
yeah, your ankle is, you know,
limited mobility and that's
contributing to your
plantar fasciitis or your
Achilles tendinopathy.
So that's kind of like the
eval assessment part.
And we're really good as PTs
at getting people out of pain, right?
So I've done that for twenty
one plus years now and have
a lot of experience doing that.
I think the part that is
missed in most traditional
practices is right.
We all hate insurance and all that.
And
you know,
once someone's out of pain and
quite frankly,
the public think once they're out of pain,
they're good to go.
They could just go back to
doing whatever training errors,
essentially,
which are the most common
reasons why runners get
injured to begin with.
And then they're coming back
near clinic every six months.
So I really got frustrated with that model,
right?
And not being able to
provide the bridge to get
someone to actually running
healthy in their forties,
fifties and beyond.
So that's where we kind of rebuild.
We go through
strength training specific for runners.
And I provide that with full
sport accountability and
then the retraining part.
So using my knowledge and
expertise as a running coach and,
you know, building plans for, you know,
thousands of runners at this point,
really taking someone
through where they're at in
their running journey and
being able to program their
half marathon training plan
or being able to run Philly
next weekend of the client
that I just met with before
and going over his race day strategy.
So that's kind of like the
retrain portion and really
getting someone to crush
their running goal and do
it where they're not
getting injured and they're
actually having the confidence.
And now they got the tools
in their toolbox to be able
to implement this with future training.
So that's the one-on-one program.
But then we also have
continuity programs for
someone who is currently healthy.
And maybe they've been out
of running for ten years.
They had kids.
Now they're getting back into running.
And they're like, you know what?
I want to get that running
part of my life back.
But they're like, I'm pretty healthy.
I don't have any injuries.
I just need some guidance.
I don't know where to start.
I need the structure.
That's where we have a team
of coaches that work under
the same kind of philosophy
that I work under.
And I serve as more kind of
the consultant on the team
that if someone does wind
up having some IT band pain
during their training,
Then I can, you know,
add that input where the
three of us kind of hop on
a call and be able to
manage the run plan.
Maybe we add these two exercises.
And if someone needs to be referred out,
then, hey, this I've seen this, you know,
before.
Let's get you to see a local, you know,
running PT in your area.
So that's kind of the one on
one coaching services with
someone on our team.
About how many runners are
you working with at any given time,
like through all these two
different sort of spheres?
Ballpark it for me.
Yeah,
so about sixty to seventy for our one
on one services.
And then we also do run like twice a year,
a group, you know, coaching program,
which is more a little bit scaled.
And we have Coach Latoya,
who's like amazing at that.
And we do have a pretty
strong presence locally in
Connecticut where we do
Once we group long runs together.
And then the latest thing is because, yeah,
like my time is limited, right?
I'm limited on how many
people I can help one-on-one.
And to be able to scale now,
have created Healthy Runner Academy,
which is a membership option where
You know,
we have our twenty founding
members going through that right now.
And then I'm excited for the
full launch of the whole
membership site and
everything happening in
twenty twenty five.
Who's going through that?
People like practitioners,
like like coaches, PTs training,
like who's going through that?
Yeah.
So this is going to be for
really anyone who either
has been a client of ours
before and they're just like,
you know what?
I don't feel like I need the
one on one coaching anymore anymore.
or financial reasons they can't do it.
But they still want access
to me and they still want
some structure in how to
grow in the six steps to
growing as a runner,
whether it is mindset, strength training,
run plan, nutrition, recovery,
or race day strategy.
So those are really the
principles that we cover in there.
Or it could be someone who's like,
you know what?
I really can't make the
investment to work with Dwayne.
And you know what?
I got a good local running PT.
but I could use his
expertise and his coaching
team's expertise from like
the programming side of things.
And you know what?
I've been doing the free, you know,
Hal Higdon playing off the
internet for years and I'm
still getting injured every
time I train for a marathon.
Right?
Like,
so that person or someone who's
currently working with a
one-on-one run coach and they're like,
I love my coach.
You know,
everything's going great with them.
I'm not injured,
but I still want to work on, you know,
what are the best mobility
exercises for runners?
What are the best, you know,
strength exercises I really
need to be focusing on?
So you're going to get that
expertise that has been helpful for,
you know,
the runners that I've helped
throughout my career.
That's great.
So it's a digital,
like sort of a digital
product people can consume and join with.
Correct.
Yeah.
Okay.
So yours is a different model.
So I don't ask this of everybody,
but like technology,
what sort of things do you utilize?
You don't have to go terribly deep,
but like do you use
anything like motion
capture since you're seeing
people from afar?
What do you use?
Because I love asking PTs
this because there is the flashy.
Some people will buy anything.
PTs are pretty practical.
They're like,
if I'm going to use it every day,
I'll get it.
If not, I'm going to use my eyes.
I'm going to use the stuff
that's just like,
hammer and nails, man.
So what's your hammer and
nails technology that you
couldn't live without?
Yeah, no, great question.
So I don't have any fancy, uh,
motion capture software or
anything to that effect.
I have all of my runners, you know,
take videos.
I give them instructions and
how to take videos
literally with their phone.
Um, they upload them.
We're going to analyze their
gate and be able to go over
like running form things of that nature.
All of our one-on-one clients,
I'm going to take them
through a live movement assessment.
So it's literally Google
Meet that I use just
because I use the Google
Suite platform for everything.
So same as Zoom, essentially.
Yeah, besides that, and yeah.
And the reason I wanted to
add that and bring that up
is I think a lot of people
think that there's a huge
technological investment
that needs to be made first.
You've got to jump in with a
twenty grand worth of tech
And most of the time it goes on you.
It's most of the time.
It really is simple.
Like, you know, I mean,
and these cameras on these, the, the, the,
the newest iPhones and
they're pretty baller.
Like you're gonna get some
really great video.
You could have a couple of
apps to slow down things,
maybe freeze frame or go
back and forth and jog,
but you don't need to have
a video suite to do that anymore.
You've got some off the
shelf things that allow you to stop and,
uh, and cut up video.
Yeah, no,
you can definitely get started with,
you know, literally at the beginning,
you know,
some of my coaches were using
the free version of Zoom.
And it's like,
it cuts you off in forty
five minutes of a call.
But then you're really efficient, right?
Like you could.
Yes,
you definitely do not need a lot of tech.
Like literally I started my
online business using
Google suite and yes, we use, you know,
final surge as like a training platform,
which is a great, you know,
in terms of like seeing
everyone's training and
being able to communicate
through there or
communicate through WhatsApp.
Um, that's really honestly all you need.
Um, you don't need any,
anything fancy and
obviously upgrading if
you're creating content.
Then upgrading your camera,
your microphone,
all of that has happened
gradually over time.
You make the investment.
But honestly,
it's better to invest in
actually a coaching
business program to
actually grow in your
business journey if you're a PT.
Because we didn't get that, right?
We didn't get any of that education.
So that would be the best
investment versus investing
in some fancy software or
motion capture system to...
You know,
be able to see something that
you're already assessing
with your eyes anyway to
get the exact degree.
The runner doesn't care, right?
If they are not getting...
Don't sell the drill,
sell the hole that the drill makes.
Sell the hole in the wall.
The reason you buy a drill
is you want to hang a
picture or you want to build a house,
whatever.
Let me ask you this.
Two of the biggest problems,
one of them being patient
or client acquisition.
How do you go about solving that?
What are some ways that
people are finding you?
You mentioned creating content,
which is one great way.
I advocate for it.
It should not be your only strategy.
How are people finding you
and making sure that you're
finding the right people
and that they wind up working with you?
Yeah.
So I have yet to actually do
paid advertising.
I've done zero paid advertising, um,
in growing my business.
Initially it was, um, organic social media,
right.
And, you know, five or six years ago,
Facebook, Facebook groups,
Instagram was pretty much
where we got all of our leads.
Um, then the podcast, you know,
took off and especially
like after the pandemic, um,
A hundred percent of my
leads were coming from that.
And now in the last year, Jimmy, actually,
and this is like a good
lesson to learn as well,
is sometimes things take time, right?
And you want to think about
creating evergreen content
that will still be lasting in five years,
ten years, fifteen years from now.
Like I just actually shot an
episode on kind of best
running shoes for Achilles tendinopathy.
And I did it not, you know,
saying the Saucony
Endorphin Pro Four is like
a really good shoe if you have,
because the shoes change
every single year.
Every year.
But I taught the four principles,
the things that you could
test on a shoe that will hold true,
whether it's, you know,
five years from now, ten years,
twenty years from now.
So the YouTube channel has
actually been a huge driver
in leads in this past year
where people are Googling, right?
how to get over posterior
tibial tendonitis or
Achilles tendinopathy.
They're finding my videos,
finding the content,
and then they go down kind
of that rabbit hole.
And then they wind up
hearing about our services
and give me a call to work together.
It's wild, isn't it?
I mean,
I think even just that mindset
shift of what is evergreen content mean?
It means it's not going to expire.
You don't have to keep it in the fridge.
It means it's not going to
get outdated in a year.
And now that's not to say
that sometimes you want to create that,
right?
Because now you could
actually create a great video.
The best shoes for twenty
twenty five because you reviewed the,
you know, the ten,
the ten biggest brands and
you're saying this is twenty twenty five.
But the example of the best
shoe for posterior, you know,
any any condition Achilles tendonitis is.
that could be evergreen
content it's really it's
it's it's where you start
with that content that can
define where it goes and
neither is better nor worse
they're just they're just different tools
Yeah, absolutely.
And I think that's important
to know because we can get
in the trap of chasing fads
and we're trying to figure
out algorithms and find out
where the best platform is
and this and that.
And, you know,
whether or not you're
doubling down on reels or
you're using chat GPT or you, right?
Like you can spend so much
time trying to like teach
yourself specific
principles and trying to
chase these fads.
But if you really, it boils down to
You know, finding out who your audience is,
how you can serve them, speak to them,
speak to their problems, their wishes,
right.
Their frustrations and offer
a solution for that.
Um, no matter how you deliver that,
if you put it in a way that
people are going to be able to find it,
um, organically, then, you know,
it's going to build.
And then obviously for
clients who have been through our program,
like once they're kind of in the system.
Right.
Then, you know,
we do find that whether
it's working with me and
now they're start working
with one of our coaches on our team, or,
you know,
they sign up like the initial
twenty founding members.
Seventeen out of twenty of
them were previous clients of ours.
Right.
So, yeah, over surf.
We're keeping these episodes
under twenty minutes.
So I got three more questions.
One's a parting shot.
You've done that before.
So I'll be last.
One is what is the thing
that was really how am I
going to say this?
What was the biggest
challenge that you faced so
far in doing this business?
However, you're doing it.
And how'd you overcome it?
Biggest challenge.
How'd you overcome it?
It was for me being an old, old timer PT,
right?
Twenty plus years.
It was getting out of the mindset that.
You know, I was used to, hey, man,
I worked over a decade in
traditional practice insurance model.
And, you know, I'm not worth that money.
I'm not worth asking someone for money.
And just getting out of that
mindset and shifting it
toward seeing the results that I was,
you know, getting for people that,
you know, this guy, Tim,
that I just met with,
he's going to run his first
marathon in sixteen years.
like after kids, after losing his mom,
like all of these whys,
like he's gotten this part
of his life back and it's
like an active lifestyle
now that he loves.
So just like being able to
change people's lives and
realize that that is what you're doing.
So getting out of it,
just the mindset shift of having someone
you know,
pay you money to actually provide
a service that's going to
really be life-changing.
That was like the biggest
challenge to get over.
Sell the finish line, right?
Sell with that feeling.
Now, how about let's go to the flip side.
That was your biggest challenge.
What's been the most
rewarding part of your
journey doing this business
and creating this?
Yeah, it's been, you know,
I always like a challenge.
So in life,
it was like going back to school, getting,
you know, academic PhD, you know,
whatever challenge it was
and meeting that milestone,
like clinically, I was always there.
So this has just been really
rewarding to really start
it from scratch and, you know,
build it to where we have
six team members and that
I'm helping to change their
lives as well and mentoring them.
And just being able to have
like the impact within the
running community,
even when I get like messages from people,
I'm sure you get it from your podcast,
right?
From people across the globe
that you've never met, you've never,
but they'll tell you like
how much your podcast or
your videos have changed their lives.
So just being able to have that
larger impact has been super rewarding.
Yeah.
Last thing we do on the
episode is parting shot.
What's just your last, you know,
soapbox statement, mic drop moment, quote,
something that comes to
mind you'd want to leave
with the audience.
Well,
if it is more healthcare providers
listening to this, it is like,
you don't need to tell your
runners to stop running and
they don't want to hear that.
And they actually heal
better when you don't do that.
So if you can, you know,
either partner with a good
running coach or educate
yourself on the training,
of actually running and
realizing that you can keep
someone running so they can
be able to heal from their injury,
you're going to see your
results like tenfold.
And this is coming from
someone who's done all the
manual therapy
certifications and courses
and all of that.
And I'm a true believer in manual therapy.
Don't get me wrong,
but I don't do any now.
And my results are actually
better in terms of my
outcomes with my patients
because I have full autonomy, support,
control over like what
they're doing for training.
So blending that aspect with, you know,
the,
our PT brain and like injury aspect
to me has been like game changing.
Love that.
All right.
Uh,
let everybody know where they can find
you in case they wanted to
pick your brain.
Like where,
where would you send a colleague to, uh,
to, to connect with you?
Yeah.
The main website spark healthy runner.com.
Um, we got the healthy runner podcast.
Um, someone is a runner.
They're interested in running.
We got tons of episodes
content that they would
love there as well as spark
healthy runner, YouTube channel.
Love it.
Dwayne, appreciate you stopping by.
Thanks for jumping in on
this PT Blueprint thing
that I'm trying to do over
the next couple of years.
Yeah, man.
I love it.
Thanks for having me.