I had the chance to talk with Amy McMillin recently - founder of Custom Care Rehab, a concierge mobile physical therapy practice in Northeast Ohio. Amy is a vestibular therapist -- meaning anything related to dizziness. She started her company during the pandemic and her team is now six therapists strong, covering all of Northeast Ohio.
When I asked her what made her decide to build her company, she said it was twofold.
"During COVID, my clients were considered non-essential. If you've ever had vertigo, you know it's debilitating. Those clients were not allowed to leave during the lockdown. They didn't have anywhere to go. And they said, is there any way that you could come see me? It just sparked an idea — why are they driving? Why don't I start with this problem and try to provide a solution where I actually can come to them?"
The second reason came from a moment of clarity at her last job. After 15 years in a hospital system, she realized the path forward was based on tenure, not performance. That, coupled with a conversation with her manager, sealed the decision.
Her manager at the time told her something she's never forgotten.
"She said, I think you have more to offer, and I think you need to know what your journey looks like if you stay, and if you're not happy, it's time to spread your wings."
Five years in, Amy has built something that allows her to step back from the day-to-day and focus on where the business is going. That wasn't always the case.
"If you're in the thick of it, if you're deep into the trenches, you don't have time to take that step back and look at the view of where you're actually going next."
Getting to that point took years of groundwork — but that's exactly why she built the team she has now.
I asked what about leading a team has been more complex than she expected.
"There are times when someone on your team is going through something difficult personally, and it shows up in their work. As a typical employer, you would stick with metrics. Instead, I went with my gut. That's how you would want to be treated as a person. So I thought why not treat your employees like that?"
We talked about how she builds her team.
"Know who you're looking for when you're building your team. Stay true to that. I have learned that when I compromise too much, it wasn't a good fit, it wasn't a good match. When I knew what I was looking for and stuck to it, the hires are perfect for the mission and the brand."
She went on to say that hiring goes deeper than a job description for her. She's not just asking "are they right for us?" She's asking "are we right for them?"
She also talked about the kind of culture she's building for her team.
"The therapists in healthcare come from a lot of burnout, a lot of productivity and numbers. I wanted it to be more relationship driven. I want you to have time to go on vacation if that's important to you. I want you to have time to take care of a sick loved one if that's important to you. Because the most important thing is memories. It's not how many hours that you put into work."
We also got into systems — figuring out what she's already solved and making sure she teaches it to the next person.
"Every hire, we now have a system that we go through. It is a learning process. I didn't know what I was doing in the beginning, but when you throw that word out there — systems — give an exact situation: cancellations, no-shows, not following up with patients. These are things that we have already solved. Now I have to remember to teach them."
Her parting thought:
"As long as you can learn from that situation, that's where you actually make progress. If I just kept doing the same things and didn't have a system, it would be frustrating every day."
Are you a busy professional, executive, or entrepreneur in Northeast Ohio looking for private, in-home physical therapy? Connect with Amy McMillin and check out Custom Care Rehab.