Member Spotlight for October 2021: Meet Gary and Matt

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Meet Gary and Matt

Nelson Mandela once said;

"Education is the most powerful weapon
which you can use to change the world."

And with Gary and Matt’s philosophy of;

"Educating you to move and feel better...'

….they believe education is often the ‘missing link’ in many of their patient’s management before coming to their practice at Up and Running Podiatry.

With a passion for sports, having both come from a running/sporting background, Gary & Matt use their own personal experiences to educate, improve and inspire their patients to get the best outcomes from their treatments.

Who: Gary Johnstone & Matthew Bull

What: Up and Running Podiatry

Where: Metro Melbourne (Elsternwick, Port Melbourne and Williamstown)

When: Existing businesses were renamed and our partnership established in August 2015

Why: Initially, we wanted to do MSK podiatry a different way. Athlete care, provided by athletes.

Our purpose has expanded with the growth of our team. We now focus on the education behind helping people move and feel better.

gary and matt success member spotlight the hive uk best practice

Work hard, train hard! : )

The Problem:

Building 3 (at one stage 4) podiatry clinics from scratch with an MSK focus. It’s a slower burn when you’re trying not to target general foot care clients from GP clinics.

We also grew our business within other recognised health groups. This helped with a ready to go client pool, yet as business grew the lack of control was very challenging.

It was really daunting at times. In the early stages of our journey we maintained work at other companies to ensure an external income stream.

It was in 2015 when we decided to leave those jobs and invest fully into Up and Running.

The Solution:

The Hive helped us gain control back of our destiny.

Before working with Troy we had set up one standalone clinic, however, we were looking at creating a 4th satellite site (5 clinics total).

Troy helped us see that many of our frustrations were due to the lack of control over our businesses.

Working under the roof of other businesses, with their reception teams and their processes was a source of continual frustration.

Rather than doing a 5th satellite site, we closed one of our existing locations and moved another into our 2nd standalone clinic.

Most of this was done during COVID times. It was a bold strategy but one we’re very grateful for.

We also broadened our target audience to help fill our books (i.e. more general foot care) and when we reached a comfortable level, we introduced a gap on Medicare appointments to open space for MSK clients.

We worked hard to align ourselves with ‘like’ businesses.

We’ve aligned ourselves with clinics that attract our client avatar, enabling high numbers of professional and WOM referrals. We offered presentations to help educate their teams, without expecting anything in return.

This led to some very strong long-term referral relationships.

Awarded New Member of the Year 2020!

The Outcome:

I’ve stopped consulting for the very first time in my 11 year career.

I sit-in on consults 2 days per week to coach the team, I have 2 days per week for business development and meetings and we have a Wednesday “reset” for training (triathlon) and family time.

We have seen 15% growth in business revenue despite Melbourne experiencing heavy lockdowns (40% if we include government support packages).

We’ve also grown our team by 4 during the last 18 months. We have 7 pods, 4 client experienced officers and our very first practice manager.

The promotion of an existing team member into the role of practice manager has been instrumental in allowing Gary and I to focus on the coaching of our team.

“Our highest and best use” – thanks Troy 😉

The Future:

To create a 3rd standalone clinic from our last remaining satellite site. We’ll look to do this by creating a partnership opportunity for a current pod.

Thereafter, we have an amazing team and we just need the time to ‘consolidate’ after rapid periods of growth.

Our focus will be on our people and keeping them together.

Outside the Practice:

I like to think of myself as a devoted husband and family man. I enjoy long course triathlons and the challenge of fitting long hours of training into my working weeks.

My newest passion is property investment and I hope to create another income stream from property in time.

Gary and Matt are proof of the pudding that taking a necessary risk is well worth the leap of faith.

Their passion and first-hand experiences has allowed for great outcomes for their patients and having the time to nurture their team is having a compound effect on the business overall.

Keep up the great work guys – way to go! 🙂

To your success and beyond,

Katie & The HIVE Team

P.S. Do you want to get results like Gary and Matt?

Start your journey here today by watching the video below:

Watch our video
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