Liberate Yourself From The DIY Trap

Dr. Jamey Schrier is an executive coach, author, and founder of Practice Freedom U, where he helps physical therapy, pediatric, and mental health practice owners build profitable, self-sustaining businesses. Drawing from his experience as a former clinic owner, Jamey developed The Practice Freedom Method, a proven framework to help owners reduce burnout, scale with confidence, and create a business that thrives independently. His mission is to empower practice owners to work less, earn more, and live a purpose-driven life.

Episode Highlights:

4:08 – Firing up for the next big thing.  “I'd like to share a quick story from when I was a few years into starting my practice. I was still excited and passionate about it. Colleen worked the front desk, doing her thing and I was the doctor in the back, doing my thing. Life couldn't be any better. On our drive home from a weekend getaway, she gets a call and all of a sudden, her smile fades - her dad called to tell her my building was on fire. Without skipping a beat, I say, ‘good.’ I hoped it was my suite, and I hoped it burned to the ground. Now, what would have to be going on behind the scenes for someone, that has put blood, sweat, and tears into going to school, taking the risk/leap of faith to open up a business with their spouse and looking successful doing it, to react like that? I'll tell you - all of it was a facade. I was absolutely miserable. I was anxious beyond belief. I was going down a really bad place because, frankly, I had no idea what I was doing while it seemed like everyone else knew what they're doing. That started my real journey of owning successful business and really locked me into my philosophy of what I do today and why I'm so passionate. So many of us get into this trap of being smart and learning all this great stuff, but then when we make the decision to be that entrepreneurial healthcare business owner, we're just completely ill-equipped to do it. Because of our perfectionist nature and intelligence, we show up and try to be this thing that we're not.”

7:08 – Accidentally finding his passion.  “When I first started reading books about business, hiring coaches, building programs and connecting with people that knew more than me, I learned to swallow my pride a little bit. I wasn't living my truth, and I felt like a fraud or an imposter, so I made a commitment to myself. I knew I could create a business where I didn't have to be everything to everybody. I didn't have to be held hostage. I could actually do what I wanted to do when I opened up businesses - make the impact I want, treat people the way I want, create a team the way I want, and not have to be a slave day in and day out. I read the books, and I knew it was possible, but I didn't know anybody that actually did it. Jay, you were probably the closest person that was doing it because you leveraged multiple locations, but I was too ashamed to even ask you. I thought it would take about 12-18 months because, at the time, I was pretty cocky and arrogant. It took me nine years, several hundred thousand dollars, and countless hours of trying and failing and trying and failing. In 2013, I finally created a place where I made more money than I ever have. I was not in the business. I still played a role as an entrepreneur, CEO, visionary, connector. I still played an important role, but I wasn't trapped in the day to day. Then, I went on a webinar to share my story and people reached out, so I accidentally got into this coaching world and fell in love with it.”

13:11 – The liberator stuck business owners need. “I look at myself as a liberator. I help people free themselves in the trap of their business. I like to work with practice owners because that's who I am and who I grew up with. Those are the people I understand. First of all, we went into these fields to help people. We want to make an impact while doing things the way we want to do them. The people that I work with the best have a vision of something more. I call that vision ‘practice freedom,’ but I don't define it for people. To me, the word freedom means choice – getting to choose how things turn out. I look at the business as a vehicle to help me create the life I want because, if it doesn't, what's the point of doing it? We talk about this word retirement, and we just sit there and grind and grind and grind, thinking about someday in the future. The people that I work with the best are the ones that want that future now. They want the business that gives them choices and money to support their life and family. Time, money, and a sense of purpose helps you do that. We tend to work with people that have businesses that are a little further along in revenue and just feel stuck. Revenue within a service-oriented business determines problems. As I think Einstein said, you can't solve problems with the same mindset that I took to create them. That is something at the core. I realized there's actually a framework that is applied to each client and then tweaked through one-on-one coaching. This isn't about throwing you in a group of a million people or making you watch a bunch of videos or getting generic advice. This is all customizable, depending on where you are, what you're looking for, and what you already have on in place. We then apply a plan to get where you want to go.”

18:50 – Tried and true principles of business. “These are just tried and true principles of business. The more money and people you have, the more complexity is in your business. AI change can change this. We could see the first billion-dollar single owner. There's still going to be a level of complexity, but I'm going to leave myself open because it may not follow the same levels, but that's technology.”

19:53 – Toughest business transition and the DIY Trap. “I think the toughest transition is getting over a million. That complexity level is so difficult because if you're just good at your craft, you’re going to be able to make several thousand dollars in your business. You're not going to have tremendous marketing - you're going to have friends, family and word of mouth. It's when you start hiring that things will get much more complicated. We’re trained to work hard, but, eventually, working harder does not get us where we need to go and it becomes challenging for us to start letting go. I call this the DIY Trap, the do-it-yourself trap. It's so hard to start letting go, to become more of a leader than a hardcore clinician.”

21:13 – Knowing what to do is not the challenge. “We fall into a lot of different mindset traps for sure. With AI and Google, knowing what to do is not the challenge. We all know to just type it in. But knowing is not doing. We haven't shifted how we think and put it into action by being okay with not being perfect. That gets us in that whole perfectionism state that all of us come from.”

26:46 – The identity crisis of business owners. “All the professions in the health-related community have the same challenges. We all went to school with a passion for whatever the industry is and got a degree as an expert clinician in your profession. Then, we want to start our own business because it doesn't look that hard. We’re going to do things our way and make all the money, but then all of us hit multiple areas of difficulty, complexity, and problems, and struggle to let go. I relate this to having an identity crisis. At some point along your business, you start to question your own identity because everyone tells you how great you are, and we start to question if we are still a clinician. You start to be torn between keeping hold of who you've been conditioned to be or think like while trying to operate a business. For most people, at least the people that I've spoken to, this can happen anywhere along the line. It starts to rear its ugly head in the close to a million-dollar level, which is why I think it makes the million-dollar level so hard to get past. I've seen it shown up in a $2 million level, $4 million level, $8 million level. I've seen it showed up in so many different levels of business. That's really the deeper struggle that we don't talk about as professionals. We talk about a lot of tools, tactics, and strategic conversations, but we don't want to get to the depth of what will move all of those things. If we're not clear on who we are and what we're about, we're going to make some really bad decisions that will become more costly in all areas of life because who you are is who you are everywhere.”

32:00 – Use your business as a vehicle. “Who says you have to wait to travel? What if you had time in your schedule to travel wherever you want and you had money to do so? There wouldn't really be retirement. If you enjoy what you're doing - you can do the next thing, the next hobby, the next business, but it's about using the business as a vehicle to support the life and the lifestyle you want. That mindset shift is tough for people.”

35:06 – Most inspirational person to Jamey. “Dan Sullivan, without a question. When I met Dan about 20 years ago, I got out of our industry because I didn't see anybody that was going to help me create the kind of business I want. A lot of people laughed at me because, at the time, you couldn't do that. You needed 10 to 20 locations, but I didn't want all those locations. I just wanted a business that gives me the time. They were so stuck in that limited belief. Somebody told me that Dan Sullivan, who I had never heard of at the time, used to come to town, so I went to DC and sat there for 90 minutes. I was hooked because I loved the way he thought about things. I became a client for 10 years. From there, I've had probably two prominent coaches. One was Jesse Elder, who will push the limits of your thinking. I call him a spiritual gangster. My coach right now, that I've had for seven years, is Walt Hampton, who's actually a trial attorney. I just love deep thinkers and people that are willing to continue to push me beyond that comfort zone but will support me when I need it. Emotionally, I got a thousand ideas every single day and it's hard for me to stay open. I intentionally keep an open schedule because I am forcing myself to be with myself. We all get to go on this journey and decide this for ourselves."

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