Jarod Carter

Jarod Carter is a doctor of physical therapy, certified manual therapist and owner of a cash-based private practice in Austin, Texas. He shares his insights on physical therapy marketing and the private-pay business model at DrJarodCarter.com.

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Articles by Jarod Carter

• Podcast: How to sell packages in a cash-based practice

  Thursday, May 13, 2021

  Offering discounted multi-treatment packages can be a great way to help fill your clinic’s schedule and minimize drop-offs to maximize the raving fans you create for your practice. However, the higher price tag can scare off those who aren’t totally sold on the value of your services if you don’t frame the "ask" in a way that builds trust, addresses objections, and is timed perfectly. In this episode, I walk you through how to effectively sell packages to your patients, including the simple analysis that will enable you to predict if offering discounted plans is likely to leave you with regrets down the road.

• Podcast: Without this, you’re shooting your marketing arrows in the dark

  Thursday, April 22, 2021

  In order to be able to attract your ideal customer, you need to define exactly who that is. This may sound self-evident, but so few businesses actually do it; it’s something I have to repeat quite often. Creating an ideal patient "avatar" should be one of the foundations of an effective marketing plan for any practice. Further, in business, you’ll constantly need to make decisions that can have huge long-term impacts and are often not easy to make. One of the easiest ways to take the guesswork out of decisions, is to be able to ask, "will this help me to better attract and better serve my ideal patient?"

• Podcast: Tips for hiring contractors on Upwork and Fiverr

  Friday, April 09, 2021

  Need help creating a compelling landing page or blog post? Maybe you’d like ongoing help from a virtual assistant, graphic designer, or website expert — but don’t know where to look. If the hassles of finding competent contracting help have led you to put off the search, it might be time for you to give Upwork and Fiverr a look. In this episode, Jarod Carter explain his favorite strategies for hiring contractors using Upwork and Fiverr. He shares his top tips for saving time and money as well as best practices for using these sites to outsource graphics, writing, programming, or other projects in your practice.

• Podcast: How to maximize word-of-mouth referrals for a cash-based practice

  Tuesday, March 23, 2021

  Word-of-mouth referrals can be one of the easiest, lowest-cost ways to attract new patients to a cash-based practice. While this form of marketing can often be considered quite passive, there are a number of fairly easy things you can do that will improve your results. By employing these tactics, you’ll enhance your online credibility, powerfully connect with your target customer, and dramatically increase your word-of-mouth referrals. In this podcast, Jarod Carter discusses specific strategies that will maximize your word-of-mouth referrals.

• Podcast: Making a personal passion pay off in a profitable practice

  Tuesday, March 09, 2021

  After finishing PT school, Chris Johnson spent a decade working as a therapist for a New York hospital in their cutting-edge sports medicine program. During that time, he also made house calls on the side and discovered he could earn as much or more money as he did at his “regular” job — but with about 10% as much work. He eventually felt he could only reach his full potential as a therapist by going out on his own, which was daunting because of the costs associated with opening a practice in New York City. But his gamble paid off, and he quickly filled his schedule with patients who valued his sports-medicine expertise.

• Podcast: The key traits of a successful cash-practice entrepreneur

  Wednesday, February 24, 2021

  Jarod Carter is often asked, "What is the key to success as an entrepreneur?" Based on what he’s observed in his own businesses as well as the many other practice owners he’s coached in his Mastermind group, the main factor governing your results is always the perspective you apply as you begin. By mastering the right mindset, you can create a fulfilling opportunity to serve your patients instead of turning yourself into a stressed-out workaholic.

• Podcast: How to market your practice online like a pro

  Tuesday, February 16, 2021

  Are you confused or clueless when it comes to Facebook Ads and how to create ad campaigns in-house that actually generate patients for your practice? This episode is for you. For the past eight years, Jordan Mather and his partner have made a business of helping physical therapy practices successfully manage their online marketing. But in light of the mounting financial pressure on those practices during the pandemic, they decided to pivot and teach their clients how to handle their online marketing in-house. In this podcast, you’ll hear some powerful strategies and easy-to-implement tactics for getting big returns on your Facebook Ads and other digital marketing efforts.

• Podcast: Plugging profit leaks throughout the patient lifecycle

  Thursday, February 04, 2021

  In this episode, Jarod Carter explains how you can find opportunities for your practice throughout the patient lifecycle. This topic is critical because helping your existing patients fully heal their injuries and reach their goals is one of the easiest ways to improve your practice revenues. You’ll hear specific tips for how to find and plug profit leaks that are costing your business money, including strategies for minimizing drop-offs from the schedule.

• Podcast: A marketing magician’s tricks to turn prospects into patients

  Tuesday, October 27, 2020

  Since he was a child, Dave Dee wanted to be a magician. But he grew up and settled for work in "practical" jobs, adding in magic shows when he could. Like most of us, he believed if he got really good at his craft, success would follow. But instead, he just fell further into debt. In an effort to find answers, he studied marketing, and that sparked a huge mindset shift. Every private practice must do the same things to succeed: generate leads and close them, perform the service and get paid, and generate repeat business and referrals. That's why many of the same marketing principles that work for a magician will work for essentially any private practice.

• Podcast: How to cultivate physician referrals for your cash-based practice

  Friday, October 16, 2020

  In this episode, Jarod Carter shares some strategies for cultivating your network of referring physicians. He explains how to navigate the initial conversation, including discussing your billing arrangements, how to establish rapport, and things you can do to increase the chances that any referrals you receive will convert. You’ll also hear some clever follow-up techniques that create ongoing touchpoints that will help establish you as a valued resource to your referral sources.

• Podcast: Escaping a broken system through cash-based functional medicine

  Thursday, October 08, 2020

  After Dr. Morgan Camp finished his medical residency, he accepted a position in a successful, cash-based functional medicine clinic where he got to work alongside experts in the field. He found early success and soon decided to open his own concierge medical practice, which attracted a good number of high-profile clients in the Bay Area. In this interview, Dr. Camp explains how he got started and what he's learned, including what worked and what he’d do differently if starting over again.

• Podcast: Finding fulfillment and a fully booked schedule in a cash-based practice

  Wednesday, September 02, 2020

  During PT school, Valerie Schwalbe discovered she had a passion for pelvic physical therapy. Right after graduation, she started a pelvic health program in an outpatient orthopedic clinic. Over time, she realized her dream of a standalone pelvic health clinic where patients could be completely comfortable wasn't really possible within the insurance-based business model. Two years ago, she finally opened her own private-pay pelvic health practice. Despite all the craziness of 2020, Schwalbe's practice continues to grow.

• Podcast: How to successfully target a niche with cash-based physical therapy services

  Friday, August 21, 2020

  In this episode, Jarod Carter explains how you can target a niche to make your practice stand out from the competition. While it may seem counterintuitive to focus on a smaller market, the highly personalized messaging you can create for a niche makes your offer resonate far more than a generic “we fix everything” message ever could. This approach has been a real game-changer for many practice owners.

• Podcast: The riches are in the niches — cash-based physical therapy in the golf niche

  Friday, July 10, 2020

  After Eric Wallace graduated from PT school, he worked for several years as a staff physical therapist at a hospital-based outpatient clinic. Soon after, he decided to go it alone and start his own fully cash-based physical therapy practice. He rented space in a gym to start, but his lack of a real business plan made things difficult. Eventually, he moved into his own space and went 100% cash-based with a focus on improving performance for golfers. In this interview, Wallace shares what he’s learned along the way.

• Podcast: How to start promoting your cash-based private practice on social media

  Tuesday, June 23, 2020

  In this podcast, Jarod Carter explains precisely how to get started with social media marketing for your physical therapy practice. He shares strategy, platform recommendations, content ideas, technical details, and some of the tools that can help you manage your posts more easily. It’s a concise tutorial that demystifies the subject for those who haven’t yet made the leap into social media marketing, and it provides some great ideas for those who already have.

• Podcast: Using Facebook Live events to market to patients

  Wednesday, June 10, 2020

  In this episode, Jarod Carter explains how you can use Facebook Live events to market your cash-based physical therapy services. Promoting live events to your existing list of contacts is a great follow-up strategy for increasing reactivations and tune-up sessions and keeping your practice top of mind among discharged patients. You'll hear tips for deciding if there's sufficient interest, how to approach scheduling, and how to make sure everything goes smoothly.

• Video: The second-fastest way to generate telehealth patients for your private practice

  Monday, May 18, 2020

  I recently put on a live online workshop that generated about $4,000 worth of new telehealth patients for my private practice. Yes, you read that correctly, and now that recorded presentation has been turned into an "evergreen webinar" so it can continue to generate new leads and patients on autopilot. I've found online workshops to be the second fastest way to generate new business for my practice during COVID-19 (which is currently only seeing telehealth patients). With all the above statements, you’re probably wondering a couple things.

• Podcast: How to market a cash-based practice on social media

  Thursday, May 07, 2020

  In this episode, Jarod Carter does a deep dive on how to approach social media marketing for a cash-based physical therapy practice. You'll learn about constructing compelling ads and targeting them to your ideal customers. He'll also walk you through how you can determine exactly which ads are effective in bringing enough cash-pay business into your practice.

• Podcast: How to spark innovation to keep your practice thriving well beyond the pandemic

  Thursday, April 23, 2020

  At a time when most business owners are scrambling to keep their business alive in a pandemic and reaching for any low-hanging fruit they can manage, it’s those that get truly innovative and creative that will not only survive the pandemic but also become the strongest companies long term. So, I couldn’t think of a better time for this episode with Duncan Wardle, the former VP of innovation and creativity for Disney.

• Podcast: How to setup and market telehealth services in less than 48 hours

  Thursday, April 09, 2020

  In this podcast, listen in as I give a detailed class on getting started with telehealth services as quickly as possible. This is a must-listen if you’re interested in using telehealth to get your practice through the coronavirus crisis. This episode is taken from a Q&A coaching call on telehealth services with my Mastermind group.

• How to get free PR for your telehealth services

  Thursday, April 02, 2020

  Two weeks ago, we converted my cash-based physical therapy practice in Austin to performing all of our patient treatments online via telehealth. I have to say it's gone better than I expected, especially since we are known for being a hands-on manual therapy practice. With that said, we’ve been able to maintain a little over 50% of our current physical therapy patients as telehealth patients. But knowing we'd lose plenty of patients no matter what, I've also been developing and implementing a direct-to-consumer marketing plan for our new "tele-physio" services.

• Podcast: How to save your practice from the coronavirus with telehealth services

  Thursday, March 26, 2020

  There isn't a single private practice that won't be affected by the coronavirus pandemic in some way…some may fail, but others will flourish. This episode is all about providing you with the information I feel will most help practices survive and thrive through all this. This podcast is from a Facebook Live interview I recently did with Rob Vining, a leading expert on telehealth. In this interview, he explains options for getting your practice ready to conduct telehealth visits, including details about specific platforms, pricing plans, legal considerations, and resources.

• Podcast: Creating cash-based business for a PT practice with injury-prevention screenings

  Thursday, March 12, 2020

  In this episode, Jarod Carter discusses the marketing potential in offering promotions for injury-prevention screenings. You'll learn how to target your campaign toward highly motivated niches, how to craft and deliver effective marketing messages, and how to ensure that the screening visit is designed to create new physical therapy business for your cash-based practice.

• Podcast: Escaping reimbursement nightmares by transitioning out of network

  Thursday, March 05, 2020

  In 2005, Cody Barnett left his job to open a physical therapy practice because he wanted to be able to provide the kind of care that exceeds patient expectations. For the same reason, he had the intention of structuring the practice as cash-based from the start. However, with limited access to good resources on how to make that succeed, he felt he needed to bolster his cash-pay practice by participating with the two biggest insurance carriers in his market. But after years of fighting with insurance companies, he began "plotting his escape."

• Podcast: Taming your student loan debt after physical therapy school

  Friday, February 28, 2020

  Joseph Reinke got his start working in investments. During the run-up to the mortgage market meltdown, he noticed that most of the professionals in the field didn’t understand the basics. Consequently, they would take truly absurd risks. He also noticed a segmentation problem in the financial arena that makes it hard for average Americans to get the help they need in order to make good money-related decisions. This bleak situation inspired him to start FitBUX, a company that provides educational resources, tools, and personal coaching to help physical therapy graduates take control of their student loan debt.

• Podcast: How your patients can file out-of-network self-claims in less than 1 minute

  Tuesday, February 18, 2020

  When Vatsal Thakkar first opened his own practice, he decided on the cash-based model because he wanted to spend more time with each patient. He found the experience of helping his patients inspiring and "magical" compared with what he saw among many of his in-network colleagues who had to see 20-30 patients a day. Throughout the years, Thakkar found ways to streamline the process of filing out-of-network reimbursement claims for his patients.

• Podcast: Ideal cash-pay services for in-network and out-of-network practices

  Tuesday, February 11, 2020

  In this episode, Phil Plisky explains exactly how an insurance-based clinic can generate lots of cash-based revenue by offering wellness-focused screenings and injury-prevention services. He precisely describes how his clinic has successfully leveraged injury-prevention screenings to develop a wellness-service niche that patients are happy to pay for out of pocket, even though they are accustomed to using their insurance at that PT practice. This low-risk approach to developing out-of-network business might be an ideal way for practices that are highly reliant on insurance-based business to get started with the cash-based model.

• Podcast: Transitioning an in-network practice to cash-based

  Wednesday, January 29, 2020

  In this episode, Meredith Soelberg and Brooke Mitchell describe their experience as employees in an insurance-based physical therapy practice that had to "weather the storm" of massive reimbursement cuts. The impact of those cuts made it apparent that they'd have to change their business model or face economic ruin. The cash-based practice model seemed to be the obvious solution, so the decision was made to give it a try. Soelberg and Mitchell explain exactly how the transition to cash-based was managed so the practice could remain viable for the long term.

• Podcast: A multiclinic, multiemployee cash-based practice in record time

  Wednesday, January 15, 2020

  Brenda Heinecke knew she wanted to be a physical therapist since high school. She envisioned a peds focus for her career, but once she landed her first job after PT school, she knew it wasn’t a good fit. While looking for another job, she started doing some in-home therapy — and continued that even after she took a full-time job. In this interview, she candidly shares the details of how she made her dream of owning a cash-based practice into a reality.

• What you can do about the 8% Medicare reimbursement cuts to therapy services

  Thursday, December 12, 2019

  This month, CMS came down with its final ruling on the Physician Fee Schedule, which is going to cut Medicare reimbursements for physical therapy services by 8% in 2021. This was in no way a surprise, even though the APTA called it a "surprising decision." It’s not the APTA's fault. It's no group's fault. It’s no individual’s fault, or the profession as a whole. It's just math. I know a lot of practices out there that are running on such thin profit margins that an 8% reduction in Medicare reimbursements for physical therapy services could be the nail in the coffin. But it doesn’t have to be that way!

• Video: How to get your prospects to read more of your marketing message and act

  Wednesday, November 13, 2019

  Is your business suffering from "profit leaks"…places where your leads or customers fall through the cracks so you lose sales? One common profit leak that can have a huge impact is a lead magnet that doesn’t grab and hold the reader’s interest. In this video, I discuss how great content in your lead magnets engages the reader and compels them to respond to the call to action. I describe techniques for optimizing your lead magnets to increase effectiveness, and I share an example that perfectly highlights the skillful use of emotion in copy.

• Podcast: Building a cash-based sports rehab practice and membership website

  Wednesday, October 30, 2019

  During PT school, Greg Schaible found a fantastic sports rehab website and set up a clinical rotation with its founder, Joe Heiler. That experience was life-changing for him. After graduation, he found work as a physical therapist and later decided to start his own cash-based practice part-time. When presented with the opportunity to take over the sports rehab website he knew and loved, he enthusiastically jumped in, because it provided a welcome source of stable revenue as his practice gradually found its market. Ever since, Schaible has been building two businesses.

• Podcast: The economics of starting a practice

  Friday, October 18, 2019

  Considering starting a cash-based practice or online business? Here’s my advice on the top things to consider in your decision-making process that will ensure you are geared toward success. These include: setting realistic expectations for profit margins, overhead costs, and overall time commitment; the importance of leveraging experts instead of doing it all yourself; and approaches for hiring online contractors to make sure you get what you need.

• Podcast: How to use telehealth to create or grow a cash-pay physical therapy practice

  Thursday, October 03, 2019

  In 2005, Rob Vining developed and launched the world’s first digital practice for physical therapy. His telehealth model allowed him to accept and treat patients far and wide on a cash-pay basis, and it became clear those patients were getting great results. In time, Vining found himself focusing more on developing software tools that would enable medical professionals to easily enter the growing telehealth market. He and his students are proving the potential for PTs to become more efficient and profitable by making telehealth visits available for the convenience of existing patients.

• Podcast: A cash practice fueled by Instagram

  Wednesday, June 19, 2019

  With over 75,000 followers, Leon Knight gets at least one patient a week directly from Instagram. For a small solo cash practice … that’s huge, especially since he currently does zero paid social media advertising! In this episode, Knight shares with us how he grew such a following, the kind of content that brings in local patients, and what he does with his social media to show that his practice is all about the patient.

• Podcast: Creating online communities to grow your cash-based practice

  Thursday, May 30, 2019

  When I first interviewed Sarah King of Invigorate Physical Therapy, I was extremely impressed by her knowledge of marketing tools and strategies, considering how recently she had opened her cash-based practice. In this episode, I catch up with Sarah about some new additions to her marketing repertoire. Sarah has developed both an offline PT business and an online business serving people with Parkinson’s and we discuss all the details of how she’s done it … including her strategies for how to build a large Facebook Live audience of current and prospective clients.

• Podcast: How to convert a prospective patient calling your out-of-network clinic

  Wednesday, May 15, 2019

  This episode features my interview with Jerry Durham, co-owner of San Francisco Sport and Spine Physical Therapy, who transitioned his three-clinic practice completely out of network with all third-party payors except Medicare. This episode dives into the details of the initial phone conversation with a prospective patient when your clinic is not in network with any insurances. He goes into so many important details, I actually recommend listening to this one twice and taking notes if you are serious about transitioning your practice out-of-network.

• Podcast: How to start a cash practice inside a gym with Danny Matta

  Thursday, May 02, 2019

  In this episode, Jarod speaks with Danny Matta, DPT, OCS, CSCS of Athlete’s Potential and MobilityWOD. His cash-based PT practice is based within a CrossFit gym. Though we dive into the nuts and bolts of starting a cash practice within a gym, this interview is absolutely packed with cash-based wisdom applicable to all practice locations. Enjoy!

• Podcast: Concierge PT and podcasting to attract patients with Dr. Karen Litzy

  Monday, April 22, 2019

  Between running her cash-based practice in New York City, recording her thriving Healthy Wealthy and Smart podcast, and co-founding the Women in PT Summit, Dr. Karen Litzy is one busy person. In this short interview, I get Karen’s thoughts on hiring new employees for her concierge practice, how podcasting has changed her life, and how my listeners might start their own patient-generating podcasts.

• Podcast: Keys to successfully going out-of-network and maintaining patient volume

  Friday, April 05, 2019

  Sturdy McKee took a booming, three-clinic in-network practice and successfully transitioned completely out-of-network without missing a beat. In this podcast, he shares the patient communication strategy he used each time he dropped a provider, asks a thought provoking question about why patients would choose to go out-of-network, and gives examples of where cash-based practices have to excel to win patients.

• Podcast: Growing a cash practice with zero paid marketing

  Friday, March 15, 2019

  During this podcast, Dr. Jarod Carter catches up with Dr. Carlos Berio of SPARK Physiotherapy about hiring employees for a cash-based practice, what kind of physical therapy and training services SPARK Physiotherapy is offering, and how he has continued to grow his practice with zero paid marketing! You'll really get a feel for how connecting with patients drives his cash practice, brings in clients, and creates marketing opportunities.

• How to not get burnt by Yelp

  Wednesday, July 11, 2018

  This article explains some simple steps to make sure you don’t get burnt by Yelp’s algorithm the way my practice’s Yelp page did. When you put your business page up on Yelp, you expect you might be contacted about purchasing advertising. However, most business owners are not expecting that declining or discontinuing those ad offers may severely hurt their business’ ability to show real, positive reviews on Yelp’s platform.

• A simple way to boost your therapy clinic’s Google reviews

  Wednesday, June 27, 2018

  Online reviews can be a huge deciding factor for new patients looking for care. While providing five-star care is natural to many physical therapists, convincing patients to go out of their way to leave a review is not always easy. We have to make it as quick and easy as possible for them to leave us online reviews. In this article and attached video, Jarod Carter discusses a couple easy ways to do so.

• Don’t waste your time choosing the wrong topics for marketing your PT clinic

  Wednesday, June 13, 2018

  Want to create content that actually drives patients to your clinic? Then you need to create content that your target audience will actually enjoy and find interesting. To get people clicking on what you post, you need to write articles or create videos about the things your target audience loves… and guess what, those things aren't physical therapy or healthcare. In this article, Jarod Carter explains how to choose what subjects to generate content about and give examples of great content that worked for him.

• 7 tips to perfect word-of-mouth marketing at your PT practice

  Friday, June 01, 2018

  While online marketing may be shiny and glamorous, word-of-mouth marketing is the bedrock of any successful cash-based physical therapy practice. But it doesn’t always "just happen organically," and there are many ways to maximize these types of referrals for your private practice. In this article, Jarod Carter shares the most successful methods he uses at his clinic to get high-converting reviews and word-of-mouth referrals from his patients.

• 5 ways to find stellar staff, automate their training and fill their schedules quickly

  Thursday, May 17, 2018

  If you’re doing it right, the entire hiring process actually starts long before you need to hire someone. But let’s say you are ready to hire right now. How do you find and choose the best candidate, get them trained in the most efficient way, and fill their treatment schedule as quickly as possible?

• A cool trick for your business cards and marketing materials

  Thursday, March 26, 2015

  I recently did some treatment trade with a graphic designer, and one of the things she suggested for my marketing materials was quite interesting and not yet widely used among PTs. Have you seen those square bar codes that utilize a lot of little squares rather than all vertical lines? For those of you who don’t know, they are called QR codes (quick response codes), and people scan them with their smartphones. QR codes can cause a few different things to happen, but I'll just explain the two I feel are most applicable to us private practice owners.

• Networking: The importance of the follow-up

  Wednesday, March 11, 2015

  ​My previous article covered my general approach to networking and the methods I use at networking events. Again, networking was absolutely vital in getting my cash practice going strong quickly. And something that works well enough to get people to go out of network for physical therapy will usually work even better for a traditional insurance-based practice.

• Networking: A key component to referral diversification

  Thursday, February 26, 2015

  ​My efforts at networking events early after starting my cash practice played a big role in quickly filling my clinical schedule. It also has a lot to do with why my referral sources are so diverse. I can't stand hearing about colleagues who went out of business because they relied heavily on a physician who started a POPTS or sold their practice to a hospital/corporation with PT services. If you have a practice, or plan to have one in the future, there's no excuse for this.

• Help! A hospital bought my referral sources

  Thursday, February 19, 2015

  ​If you browse all the different private practice forums out there (or receive all the emails I do from practice owners), it is clear there is a great deal of uncertainty and fear about how the Affordable Care Act, ACOs and other changing components of the healthcare system will affect private physical therapy practices.

• A free marketing technique that helped get my practice going strong

  Thursday, February 12, 2015

  When my private-pay PT practice was just a couple weeks old, the few patients I was seeing each week were not enough to pay the bills. I did not take a loan, nor did I have much savings to cover a long-term lack of profitability. I had to act fast to fill my schedule, and I did so through a variety of marketing techniques.

• Break into niche markets to create new streams of patients

  Tuesday, February 03, 2015

  ​Word-of-mouth referrals from your patients are essential to building your business. Another large source of nonphysician referrals comes from establishing a presence in a niche market where people are serious about performance. This is another one of those areas in which my advice applies to all types of practices, not just cash-based ones like mine.

• How to squeeze every drop from your marketing efforts

  Friday, January 16, 2015

  I don't know about you, but every January brings in at least a couple new/return patients for the same reason: They were trying to "get back into shape" after many months of little-to-no exercise.

• Discharge marketing: Are you taking advantage of this opportunity?

  Wednesday, January 29, 2014

  At a time when hospitals are purchasing medical practices and requiring that physical therapy referrals now stay "in house," and even nonorthopedic practices are starting physician-owned PT clinics, marketing directly to the public has become ever more important.