You're listening to the PT Podcast,
where smart people in healthcare come to
make noise.
Here's your host, Jimmy McKay.
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Let's get into this episode.
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Now,
most physical therapists focus on getting
better at treating patients,
but the ones who build lasting careers in
businesses usually do something else
entirely.
They plug into something bigger than just
themselves.
They go out and find mentors,
they build networks,
and they stay involved in shaping their
profession.
And in turn,
the profession winds up shaping them.
Today's guest has spent decades doing just
that, while building a private practice,
teaching the next generation,
and helping lead one of the most active
physical therapist and physical therapist
assistant communities in the country.
And now she's helping bring that entire
community together in one spot
IRL, in real life, in person,
to celebrate where the profession's been,
dot, dot, dot, and where it's going.
Let's bring in Edie Benner to the show.
Edie, welcome to the program.
Thank you so much, Jimmy.
It's great to be on the show.
How was that intro?
Was that pretty, was I close to,
you know?
Nailed it.
All right, good.
You're on target.
We are ready to have some fun this
year.
And thanks to just all the years of
being able to connect with friends and
colleagues and
mentors and students.
It's just great to be a part of
your show and carry on some excitement for
our events here in Ohio, too,
that many other states are getting ready
to celebrate various types of exciting
events and occurrences and anniversaries
and birthdays and their leaders.
And it's just great.
Yeah, big milestones.
Let's start with you.
You've worn a lot of hats, clinic owner,
educator, association leader.
What made you get involved and stay
involved in the profession beyond treating
patients like you did?
It started back in school.
I went to the University of Miami back
in the heyday,
and I think we went to our district
meetings.
We went up to Orlando to the state
association.
meetings and then when I got to be
a clinician right away I was in a
large facility and all the therapists were
engaged they were mentors to me they were
my peers they weren't only just clinic
mentors we went to the local district
meetings that was back in the day when
you went to district meetings every month
and then you stopped for a beer afterwards
and everybody connected and guess what
those friends are still friends now and I
hope many of them are continuing to uh
be a part of the association.
Yeah.
So it sounds like you tried it a
little bit and you found something or some
things there when you were in person that
you said, Ooh,
I didn't expect this to be here or
didn't know about this.
And that led to the answer is always
people that led to people,
which led to more things,
which leads to more people.
And it just builds a, a network.
You know, some people will point to, well,
how many connections do you have on
LinkedIn?
And that's nice.
But to me, that's a beauty pageant metric.
The real connections are someone you know
well enough that you can call or text
or when you see, you understand,
number one, how you get to help them.
And then the funny part is eventually it
sort of does come back.
It does.
It goes full circle and it just continues
to create like a whirling cyclone effect
because those friends from years ago in
this case are still friends.
And the friends that I met,
even students today when I was up at
Cleveland State teaching,
those students are already starting to
become
friends and they're just so excited about
the profession.
And there's still so many of us who've
been doing this for a few years that
are still excited to be a part of
the profession and celebrate so many
milestones,
whether it's in our district level,
within our facilities, our state level,
our national level,
or even shoot with the whole world.
It's so much happening with physical
therapy and so much exciting in the
healthcare world that we just need to keep
it moving forward and
keep those connections growing so that we
have more to just more to our physical
therapy life.
I almost call it like our family.
It's our friends and our family and
they're all connected.
So it's our physical therapy family and
they're just going to be there for us
forever.
Well,
the world changes from time to time to
time.
So a lot of times PTs or PTAs,
we'll see associations as extra, right?
You said back in the day,
you used to go to district meetings and
things in the world move in pendulums.
A couple of years ago,
everything we did was online and then
building a connection in real life was
harder.
So what have associations given you that
you couldn't have gotten otherwise without
showing up and meeting those people you
mentioned?
Boy,
I think all of us who went into
the physical therapy profession,
we love the interaction.
We love the energy and the vibe we
get out of our interactions with our
patients and our clients.
And then from there,
you can build that excitement with your
friends and develop the network of, hey,
I've got this patient and I just really
don't know what to do with them.
And so you can give somebody a call
because their expertise is related to
whatever that diagnosis might be.
Plus, I think as PTs,
we kind of like to have some fun.
So these district meetings,
they're also a lot of fun,
whether it's the old fashioned way where
we met in a hotel reception ballroom and
had just didactic meetings to
Now,
where we have more of our pub crawls
and some events like that,
or we meet at Topgolf,
or we go to some of the local
baseball games as a group to just gather.
I think we're people people.
And so it's so important for us to
not really add that to our life,
just make it part of your professional
life.
Sure.
Now,
let me let me let me force you
to change a hat now.
From a clinic owner perspective,
how does being plugged into a community
like OPTA or any state chapter similar to
that,
how does being plugged into that community
actually impact your business?
You mentioned how it sort of impacted your
clinical life, your friends,
but how about business?
Oh, from a business perspective,
I would be lost without the association
mentorship and guidance and
everything from the networking at the PPS
meetings to even at the APTA meetings.
It's just so important to read and
understand and be able to bounce ideas
off.
I think I was listening to one of
your podcasts about metrics and just with
Katie and talking about
how important it is to figure out what
metrics are important for you and your
clinic and then making them meaningful and
then being able to put some action to
them so that it helps to build that
collegial relationship and that
understanding amongst your staff and your
peers so that they can understand why you
need to take a look at these KPIs
or these benchmarks,
or just look at the business side of
things.
Because if we can't follow the business
part of the profession,
we won't be here in our communities to
be a part of our community and be
here to serve your community and provide
the awesome things we do besides just
physical therapy.
Yeah.
I feel like it's a deeper way to
be connected to people who are doing
things that are close, similar,
or completely different to what you're
doing and then figuring out
Wow, would that work for me?
Or what did they learn from that?
What can I take from that?
What is this teaching me?
And you can get some of that online.
I'm a guy that lives a lot online.
But online is not the only way.
And sometimes it's not the best way for
everything.
It's not.
No,
I think just that personal human
connection is so important for everything
we do,
just not only for how we interact with
our patients, but shoot,
how we deal with our chambers of commerce
and being a part of your community,
because then those people,
you talk about marketing and connection,
that's where you get your patients.
When you're out in the community and
you're a part of the chamber of commerce
or the rotary,
or you put on a race and you
have
a five K race, walk, hike, scavenger hunt,
Easter egg hunt,
and they come to your clinic and then
you go outside and they see that you're
excited about life and you're excited
about your profession.
And so they want to come to see
you when they have something that is
impacting their life,
whether they can't participate at the
level of a run or a walk or
pick up their grandkids for that,
that reason.
So it's just crucial.
Yeah.
All right.
Quick pause because you're a clinic owner.
This part matters.
Documentation, billing, workflows,
all lives inside your EMR.
And if your system is clunky,
the whole clinic feels it.
It doesn't feel good.
That's where Empower EMR comes in.
But specifically for PT,
Empower is designed to simplify your
workflow, not slow it down.
Faster documentation, better reporting,
and tools that actually help you run your
business because your EMR shouldn't be
something you fight every day.
That would be frustrating.
Check them out online at empoweremr.com.
That's empoweremr.com.
Edie, we got to pay the bills.
We got to do the live.
I know the feeling.
Thank you.
And thank you to Empower.
Yeah, there you go.
So you've mentioned before the shift from
an expert to more of a coaching model.
Correct.
How have you seen that play out in
real clinics?
How is sort of shifting that changed
things?
Well,
I think it builds that therapeutic
alliance,
that relationship with your patient or
client,
depending on
Whether you're taking it more as a
lifestyle medicine,
health coaching perspective versus the old
fashioned expert approach where you as the
leader or the expert come in and tell
a patient what they need to do.
and they just sit there with their big
eyes like in a headlight,
deer in a headlight look, and they go,
oh, okay.
They go home.
They don't remember a darn thing you said.
You haven't built any rapport.
You haven't built any of the goals that
they have in their life,
and so they get home.
They don't understand what it is to do,
and they don't follow through,
so we get into the health coaching model.
It's a collaborative relationship.
It's open-ended questions.
You're
motivational interviewing techniques where
you're really trying to make sure that the
goals and the connection are achievable
and they're realistic.
And then you're using some SMART goals to
help come up with some timely and
achievable needed type of goals that
they're excited about and they can feel
their accomplishments.
They understand you're helping to minimize
the barriers.
You're really trying to help them just get
back to whatever it is they want to
do in life.
So if you don't build that,
there's just that challenge ahead of you
is that expert advice doesn't really work
in this day and age.
Especially now with artificial
intelligence,
if you're selling just expertise and an
answer to a question,
I would be nervous if that's the thing
that you offer.
If that's the service you provide,
I'd get nervous.
And you show where it's more like Yoda
and guidance and seeing that person,
right?
Oprah said people want to be seen, heard,
and understood.
Making sure that you shift from that
expert model to more of a coaching or
more of a, I'm in this with you.
That's sustainable.
Now, how about this though?
For younger PTs or even burned out
clinicians anywhere in their career,
it doesn't matter.
Um,
they might feel like they're doing so
much, right?
You got out of school and all of
a sudden this thing hits you.
Now you've got to do this thing every
day.
They've been working towards.
What is getting involved actually look
like in a practical way,
in a way where it's not one other
thing?
Because a lot of people are saying,
what's the return on investment?
That's everybody's favorite KPI right now.
What's the ROI of me joining a thing
or showing up and spending my time and
paying attention, right?
Because time and money and attention are
all commodities.
They're all things we have.
They're finite.
For the younger PTs, for anybody,
what does getting involved actually look
like in a practical way?
And well,
I'll stop right there and then I'll have
a follow up.
So what does it actually look like in
a practical way to get involved?
Well,
I think the practical way that young, old,
burned out, not burned out, we as PTs,
we as PTAs, we as humans,
The way to attack it is that we
really just want to be a part of
something bigger than ourselves.
We want to be able to understand that
there's other people out there and that
they help to re-energize us.
They help to re-excite us.
They help to re-engage us to carry on
so that we can remember what it was,
why we went to PT school.
And we can maybe share and have fun
because, you know,
when your endorphins are excited and
you're having a great time,
that burden of that thought of being
burned out or being stressed,
that's sort of minimized.
And the research shows that,
that if you have that life-work balance,
that it helps to contribute to a more
positive working relationship and job
satisfaction.
It's not all about just the paycheck.
It's really...
that you're able to connect with other
people that have like-minded goals,
like-minded activities.
So something about that is like,
that's why the Ohio Physical Therapy
Association and our East Central, well,
and our district levels throughout the
country and APTA,
that just really helps all of us in
the therapy world to engage,
feel like you're part of the entire health
community,
that we can really make a difference,
that advocacy piece,
that we really can jump on board and
change the world, so to speak.
I think when we all went to PT,
PTA school,
we're going to change the world.
And then sometimes you get into the real
world and you're stuck with kind of that
silo and you feel like you're not being
appreciated.
when you can get out and be a
part of your association and activities
and your peers and have fun,
I think it's just really what helps you
continue to be excited.
I've been doing this for a long time
and I'm still excited.
Two, three years, two, three years.
Plus about a whole bunch.
Well, then let's talk about this,
this physical embodiment of pretty much
everybody,
everything we've been talking about for
the last, you know,
know you know the the association in ohio
decided that you were going to do a
physical celebration for everything that
sort of came before to sort of mark
some time and then also ask the questions
because you're going to have someone like
drew contreras from apta who's a pretty
forward-thinking guy looking to be on the
horizon
So you want to look at what's coming
down the line for the profession.
You're celebrating seventy-five years of
an organization of people.
It's not an association.
It's not about a building.
It's not about a logo.
It's about all the people in the last
seventy-five years now and coming.
I bet you I could ask this question
to anybody on the committees that are
helping you in Ohio throw this and get
different answers, which is good.
But what are you trying to create beyond
just a conference?
To celebrate seventy five years.
What is the thing beyond the thing for
you?
Well,
the thing beyond the thing is that it
is going to be like a wedding on
steroids.
It's going to be a night that you
are going to remember.
It's going to be fun.
And guess what?
you're going to be there.
And so one and only Jimmy McKay is
going to be there to kind of tie
it all together and bring the excitement.
We're going to even have a red carpet
when you walk in.
So yeah, yeah, yeah.
I'm going to be asking like a,
like a reporter,
what are we wearing tonight?
And you know,
what's on the horizon and all those
things.
Well, we're going to yuck it up.
But what do you hope people walk away
thinking and feeling beyond the fun,
beyond a couple of vodka sodas and
Chardonnays?
What do we hope people are motivated to
now go and do?
What's a win for you three years from
now from the event in Ohio next month?
Okay,
I'm at the golf outing with some physical
therapy friends in a couple years and they
go, you know,
back in twenty twenty six on April
eleventh in Columbus, man,
you guys put on the best event.
That gala for seventy five years was so
exciting.
We got to talk to a number of
our friends and we got to talk to
some students.
They were all re-energized and energized
to springboard the profession forward.
We wore our fancy duds.
We had our dancing shoes on.
The food was tremendous.
The venue was great.
Met some new friends.
Got to meet Jimmy McKay.
So what more could they want?
Well,
I look at that kind of room and
I say,
let's fast forward to three years of your
golf tournament.
Maybe three years might be too soon,
but six or seven years,
quite likely a student in attendance is
now APTA Ohio's president, right?
Yeah.
That's the thing to think of.
And the funny thing is when you talk
to people who are now leaders,
some of them said,
this is very intentional.
I want to do this.
I want to lead.
And some people are so serendipitous and
accidental.
They were like,
somebody gave me a free ticket to a
party and I showed up.
And then six years later,
I'm the president because it was awesome.
And I met so many great people.
So I look at an event like...
what you're doing next month in Ohio and
say, it's sort of like a lottery ticket.
You show up looking for future versions or
opportunities of yourself.
If you look for it as a direct
ROI, what am I going to get?
I think you walk away with little to
nothing.
I think if you walk into it like,
what can I learn?
What could I give back?
You wind up... It sounds so corny,
but you wind up walking away with a
lot more.
For sure.
I think that the work that the committee's
been putting into it,
it's really exciting because we all still
need to appreciate the history of the
seventy five years that have come before
us.
So there's been a lot of effort to
dig up some of the old pictures and
some of the history and timeline.
So hopefully the newbies, the young grads,
early professionals can stand there and
go, wow,
I wonder what this will look like in
seventy five years.
And how do I shape that?
And that's up to us because, wow,
I'll still be around hopefully.
They will, I won't,
but they will be hopefully around in
seventy five years.
I wouldn't mind,
but I'd be pretty old by then.
But I've been around Ohio and then Florida
before that.
And I can see some of the leaders
from forty three years ago when I joined
the Physical Therapy Association,
some of those leaders
have really shaped the future.
They had me present my research at APTA
early on that first year out of school.
And it just built the excitement.
I talked to Florence Kendall.
She critiqued my research.
And so hopefully somebody will have that
same aha moment and go, oh my gosh,
that was Jimmy McKay.
I talked to him or, oh,
I got to meet Tyson Gentry or talk
to Dr. Drew Contreras.
And he's forward thinking.
And now it's been,
six years since the event.
And look at what some of those things
have gotten to do.
I got to do a residency and I
got to meet so-and-so.
And so I can really see that this
profession is exciting and that OPTA is
like the
I think we want to say we're like
the heart of the profession.
You know,
we're trying to think where we're at as
an association.
And I think APTA, OPTA,
your different state associations,
and then your special interest groups and
your other SIGs and district groups,
we're the heart of the profession because
If your heart isn't pumping and thriving
and working hard and doing everything it
can,
then the rest of your musculoskeletal
system and neurological system and
everything else can't work optimally.
So I think your association is the heart
of it all.
Do you have that analogy?
You just pulled that out like you're ready
to go.
The heart analogy.
That was perfect.
Tied it up with a bow.
Sounds good.
I just pulled it out of my heart,
Jimmy.
Pulled it out of your heart.
Edie, we have a tradition on the show.
It is called the parting shot.
This is the parting shot.
One last mic drop moment.
No pressure.
Just your legacy on the line.
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So Edie, you're parting shot.
I'll give you a question to play off
of.
If you could challenge every physical
therapist assistant and every physical
therapist listening to do one thing to
build a better career,
not just a better clinician,
but a better career, what would it be?
What would you challenge them to be?
Well,
I think it comes back to a larger
voice is a stronger voice.
And if one hundred percent of physical
therapists and physical therapist
assistants in the country or members of
the associations, we would have.
huge voice from an advocacy perspective,
as well as we would have a really
great time if all of them would show
up at our gala on April eleventh in
Columbus, Ohio,
to celebrate our seventy fifth year.
And so I think that the hundred percent
membership and so that they hopefully
don't look at it as a an add
on,
but just part of the heart and soul
of your professional fun and your
professional responsibilities.
Great.
Excellent.
All right.
I'm going to put some information about
the conference and the gala,
which are going back to back in just
under a month.
So we'll see you there, Ohio.
But also,
I wanted to make sure people from
neighboring states in Pittsburgh is not
that far.
I mean, it doesn't have you.
You can come to the party.
You can come to the event and not
necessarily be an APTA Ohio member or a
member of that state chapter.
Correct.
It's great.
We have friends from all over the country
and we welcome new friends to come and
check us out and just be a part
of our fun evening and become our future
friends.
Excellent.
Edie,
appreciate the time and thanks for doing
what you do.
And I'll see you in a couple of
weeks.
Can't wait.
Looking forward to it.
Thank you very much.
That's it for this one,
but we're just getting warmed up.
Smash follow, send it to a friend,
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And legally, none of this was advice.
It's for entertainment purposes only.
Bullshit!
See, Keith?
We read the script.
Happy now?