9 Years and 9 Lessons
In this episode of the Unreal Results podcast, Anna reminisces about the very beginning days of MovementREV. Including part of what spurred her decision to leave EXOS 9 years ago this week. In this anniversary episode, Anna reflects on some important lessons learned personally, in business, and with patient care, including:
Burnout at work often has more to do with you than the industry, work, or your clients
Feeling is greater than thinking. What an alarm clock has to do with it.
Few professionals feel like they know what they are doing- be weary of the self-proclaimed experts
What worked for me in business probably may not work for you
Being the best at what you do always helps
Words are powerful- stop starting eval’s and treatments telling people what they have wrong with them.
You are the master of your experience. Choose wisely and if you don’t like it, change it.
Say no more to others and yes more to yourself.
Forcing things is not the way.
Cheers to 9 years of MovementREV and THANK YOU for being a part of it.
Resources mentioned:
Moving beyond Technique by Chantill Lopez
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[00:00:00] Hey there, and welcome. I'm Anna Hartman and this is Unreal Results, a podcast where I help you get better outcomes and gain the confidence that you can help anyone. Even the most complex cases. Join me as I teach about the influence of the visceral organs and the nervous system on movement, pain and injuries, all while shifting the paradigm of what whole body assessment and treatment really looks like.
[00:00:26] I'm glad you're here. Let's dive in.
[00:00:31] Hello, and welcome to another episode of the Unreal Results Podcast. Today we're talking about
[00:00:41] lessons I've learned over my nine years of business at MovementREV. So this week is my nine year anniversary of starting MovementREV. Really, it's my nine year anniversary. My last day at [00:01:00] EXOS, I don't really have a true start date for MovementREV. There wasn't like a official, like doors open for business.
[00:01:07] There wasn't an official day. I remember registering my business as a business entity or opening a business checking account, or even the first day I. I treated a patient on, you know, as working for myself versus working for someone else. Um, you know, it wasn't when I left EXOS the re, the primary reason why I left was it had become clear that it was time for me to move on.
[00:01:44] Um, and also I just needed a break. I needed time off. I needed. an extended period of time to take care of myself and then also to grieve the loss of my mom. [00:02:00] And I had realized, you know, why I left EXOS is I was, had been transitioning roles in the company and um, I had done some work sort of discovering my core values and discovering.
[00:02:19] what made me tick, I actually, there was this book that I used to go through all these journal prompts to, um, that I discovered it with. It was a book by now my friend, um, Chantill Lopez, her book. Called, let me think of it. I will think of the name. I'm pausing so I can grab it actually. All right. So yes, it was a book called Moving Beyond Technique, How to Nurture Your Passion, Master Your Craft, and Create a Thriving Pilates business.
[00:02:57] So this is the book. [00:03:00] For those of you who watching this podcast on YouTube, you can see it. I'll link it in the show notes. Um, it was a, it's a great book. I actually learned about it through my friend and yoga teacher training, teacher mentor, um, Cori Martinez I bought this book and I took it on a flight with me flying to.
[00:03:25] Flying to Miami actually for a Polestar Pilates mentor retreat. Um, I had been certified in Polestar Pilates and we were doing a retreat there to go over like teaching because I was in the mentor, I was one of their mentors. So in their teaching sort of routes and on the plane, I worked through the book.
[00:03:48] And the book is cool cuz it has all these like useful. Um, journal prompts in it to look at more of [00:04:00] the core values and like, what makes you tick as a business professional. And, um, it was on that flight doing that worksheet that I realized, oh my goodness, like it's time to leave EXOS and, um,
[00:04:20] Yeah, it was just really clear. Like I said, I had transitioned roles at EXOS because I thought I was burnt out. I thought I was done seeing patients. I was transitioning over to the performance innovation team to work on more content developments for a lot of our onboarding and, um, bigger projects at the time.
[00:04:42] I, yeah, I truly thought I was done working with patients and between doing the core values worksheets in that book, and then also realizing having three months working at EXOS again, where my only job was working with patients. [00:05:00] So when I transitioned between being the director of performance physical therapy, and then starting to work for the performance innovation team, it was.
[00:05:11] The EXOS busy season, which was spring training prep for our major league baseball players and combine training for the, um, NFL combine for the college football players, um, trying out for the nfl. And it was sort of an all hands on deck scenario. And so the, um, , you know, president of EXOS at the time was like, Hey, yes, we want to support you and move you to this new role in the company, but until you do that, you know, until we do that, can we hold off until the spring and during this early winter can you just help out on the floor and treat patients?
[00:05:51] And I was like, yeah, absolutely. And it was the first time in like, um, seven or eight years that my only job at the company, at the [00:06:00] business was. Do patient care. And I remember it was so amazing to do that again. And it made me realize like, why do I not wanna do this anymore? I love this. I love working with the athletes.
[00:06:17] I love taking care of people. And that was the beginning of me being like, huh, maybe the reason I'm burnt out isn't anything to do with the patient care at all. And. Then, yeah, I did that book with Chantill and I realized why I wasn't in alignment with my core values anymore. And it was just like, okay. On the flight, actually, on the flight to Miami, I emailed Mark Verstegen, the um, founder of Athletes Performance, EXOS, and one of my good friends.
[00:06:54] and I emailed him and I was like, when I get back to Arizona, I would like to have a meeting with you because there's [00:07:00] something I need to talk to you about. And that was it. Like, I was like, I'm I, I'm ready to move on. And um, which was not an easy decision by any means because EXOS was amazing. EXOS was my family.
[00:07:13] EXOS the founding members of EXOS still continue to be people. I considered to be family, and so it was a tough decision. But anyways, like I said, my last day at EXOS was March 3rd, 2014, and then that following week I had friends in town. We relaxed by the pool, had some cocktails and brainstormed around what was next and what felt like the most important.
[00:07:40] going forward next, besides, I already had athletes who wanted to continue to work with me and I had permission from EXOS to do that. And, um, I was like, okay, next up I need a name for my business. And that's when I picked the name MovementREV. I actually picked a movement revolution and then I [00:08:00] bought like 10 domain names all related to Movement Revolution.
[00:08:05] So Rev Movement, movement Revolution. A Movement Revolution, a H Movement revolution for Ah, movement Revolution. And my initials, um, and I can't even remember all the ones I bought, but I basically, I had been drinking and often I will, the funny thing is it's not the first, it was the first time, but it was not the last time that drinking with friends led to business ideas that then you go and buy, purchase a domain and which is just kind of comical.
[00:08:36] And then the following in the next couple weeks, I had a trip out to Tampa. Florida to work with one of my baseball players who is um, one of my good friends. And, um, I worked with him his entire career and I was telling him the names and he is actually, he is the person who was like, I like MovementREV.
[00:08:58] And [00:09:00] so it was him. Deciding MovementREV was the name. And then he helped me actually pick out my logo that I designed to. And my logo hasn't changed too much since the beginning. Um, it's a little bit different, but for the most part it's pretty similar. So, That's sort of how I started, but basically I just needed a break at first and then over the nine years it just sort of morphed and changed.
[00:09:25] At first, I had a brick and mortar business in Phoenix and, um, saw clients in addition to traveling with my athletes. And then I was just spending so much time traveling with my athletes that I finally, um, that was when I decided to move to California. And when I moved to California, I closed my brick and mortar space because the.
[00:09:44] was different. You know, to give you some perspective, I was paying only, like, I don't even know, like I was paying, I can't remember what I was paying for my brick and mortar space in Arizona, but I think it was like [00:10:00]$800. It was like, it was literally nothing. I was paying nothing for a, um, decent sized office space and.
[00:10:11] That is not possible here in California. And then I didn't even use it much, even in Arizona. I didn't use it much either because I was traveling so much for work. And then, um, it, it just, you know, it was so cheap that why wouldn't I have it? But then it just doesn't make sense when I travel so much to have a brick and mortar space now.
[00:10:30] And then, especially now as I have transitioned to be more primary, um, education role than clinical. For local people. I obviously, clinical practice is still the main part of my business and I work with only professional athletes, but usually I just see them at their house. I travel to them during this, their seasons, if they, um, or the off season if they don't live in San Diego.
[00:10:57] And then while in San Diego, I work [00:11:00] with a group of, uh, track and field athletes. So there's just no need to have an office space anymore. . Um, like I said, this week is the nine year anniversary, and I, I, it always makes me reflect on how I started and, um, you know, and, and what I've learned from then because of course, I, you know, I've learned a lot along the way about myself, about business, about patient care, about just a lot and, um, I wanted to share that with you this week on the podcast.
[00:11:36] So I had spent some time yesterday, um, kind of reflecting on some overarching things I learned, and I, I basically boiled it down to nine lessons in nine years. So the first lesson was, the original lesson of burnout at work often has more to do with you than the industry work or your clients. [00:12:00] So I learned that early.
[00:12:01] That's part of the reason why I realized I wasn't burned out on patient care. It's what I'm best at and it's like my superpower is, is working directly with the athlete and working with everything related to working with the athlete. And why I was burnt out is because I was doing other things that was not in alignment with.
[00:12:28] and then also I was working in a situation was that was not in line with my core values and I was not taking care of myself. And when I was not taking care of myself, everything that was asked to me, asked of me or to me felt overwhelming and too much. And, um, I didn't realize that until I had that time off.[00:13:00]
[00:13:00] Another reason why people can be burnt out is because when you're not feeling fulfilled and successful in what you're doing, and most of us as as people who take care of patients, what makes us feel fulfilled and successful is doing a good job with our clients in getting results.
[00:13:18] And so if you're not able to get results, even if you can get great results, seven outta 10 people and three outta 10 people are just like the ones you scratch your head about. It's those three outta 10 people that you just can't stop thinking about. And then it's those three outta 10 people that make you question everything and make you question your worth in your capabilities and steal your confidence.
[00:13:45] And, um, It sort of goes hand in hand with not taking very good care of yourself, because when we actually take care of ourself, when we spend time feeling in our body, we [00:14:00] actually come in a more grounded way to our patients and can pay attention better to what's going on in their body and then get better results.
[00:14:09] So they're very linked together and this concept is actually a concept that is a red thread through everything I teach, whether it be the Results Cheat code, the Swelling Reduction Protocol, the LTAP Locator Test Assessment Protocol course, um, or the REVitalize mentorship. This is what I teach, that if you are distracted by a body that is not well taken care.
[00:14:39] a mind that is not taken care of, a heart that is not taken care of then is really hard to be present enough for your patients to listen to their body and meet them where they're at, and be a helpful team member in helping them and helping their body heal itself. [00:15:00] So that is a, a big lesson I learned. Another lesson number two, feeling is greater than thinking.
[00:15:10] Uh, this is something I stress. One of my favorite quotes from Jill Miller is The body thinks and feels, and that has been something I expl explored in my own body. This is something I teach my athletes and this is something that I rely on in my assessment and treatment of the athletes. I feel a lot through my hands.
[00:15:35] and you can too, because that is how our hands are designed. It's full of these rich proprioceptors that can pick up all these different qualities within the tissue to see these subtle changes or these subtle movements in joints, these subtle changes in fascia, these, these, these qualities in different organs that you then, you know, when you are palpating an organ [00:16:00] versus palpating a muscle or a bone.
[00:16:03] This is something that is trained and this is actually who we are as humans. When you look at development, and I spoke about this on the podcast, talking about my MovementREV philosophies and belief and, and methodology is we are feeling beings. We have more nerves dedicated to sensing than moving. And our nervous system relies on knowing if we are safe or not, right?
[00:16:34] Because our nervous system is number one concern to survival. So it's constantly monitoring our envi environment to see if we're safe or not. And that constant monitoring, that's sensing, that's feeling, and so feeling is greater than thinking hands down. And under this lesson, I also put the bullet.
[00:16:56] there's no need for an alarm clock. And [00:17:00] I, I, I haven't, the only time I use an alarm clock is when I have a flight to catch and like, or something like a doctor's appointment that's early and like, I know I, like, I can't miss. Um, but really, um, my sleep pattern, especially with all my travel, how many hours I sleep, what time I go to bed, and what time I wake.
[00:17:24] For me, is part of me paying attention to how I'm feeling, and it gives me insight into what I need in my body when I am well rested and recovered, I will sleep for seven hours and between seven hours and 21 minutes and seven hours and 35 minutes. And so if I sleep either a lot more than that or less than that, I know that something's off
[00:17:54] and so if I have an alarm, then I don't get that [00:18:00] intuitive, I don't even know if it's intuitive, but I don't get that in interceptive feedback of if there's something I need to tweak in my day, do I need to take more time off between trips? Do I need to shut my computer and go for a walk or those things?
[00:18:16] So that's, for me, part of the feeling is greater than thinking and. Yeah, if, if you don't have to use an alarm, I encourage you not to, even if, like, I still schedule patients and things for the mornings, but I, I know when I'm gonna wake up more than likely, and then I don't do it. And then if I do have to use an alarm, I use the bird's chirping.
[00:18:42] And so it's a very soft, more natural way to be awakened. Uh, lesson number three few professionals feel like they know what they're doing. Be wary of the self-proclaimed experts, especially when they [00:19:00] have less than 15 years of experience. I know this from real life. When I was in my mid to late twenties, I thought I knew everything and um, I operated in that way.
[00:19:13] I wasn't as vocal about it as some people specifically. People, counterparts, because society, I'm a woman, we just are, you know, it's kind of like children, you know, to be seen in that herd sort of thing. So I, I don't think I was vocal about knowing everything. If, if you worked around lean, you maybe got that feeling.
[00:19:36] But, um, now I realize that those people are the people that are trying to convince themselves that they do a good job and that they're the expert and they're actually sometimes are just as lost as everybody else and probably are the ones that are not getting that great of results. And, [00:20:00] um, if people, I'm not saying you can't learn anything from someone who doesn't have at least 15 years experience, and there's not some magic, something magic that happens at that 15 year experience mark.
[00:20:12] But in my, in my experience, in my. 20 plus years of experience. Um, I've learned the most from professionals who had been doing it much longer than me. And, um, once, one time one of my mentors, Daryl Eto told me, um, early on in my career, he's like, the. more. I know, the more I don't know. And I like scratched my head and I was like, that makes zero sense.
[00:20:43] But now I'm like, oh, it is so true. The more I know, the more I don't know. But I've learned a lot of lessons along the way and when I teach my courses, um, and I experienced this this past weekend when I was teaching the LTAP level one course in [00:21:00] Miami. what I taught them beyond the knowledge I shared with them.
[00:21:05] I think the things that were most profound and the things they picked up the most were the wisdom I shared about working with someone, another human, and how to meet someone there and how to talk to that human and how to listen to their complaints and share what I'm doing and, and, and. , I think it works and how it relates to their problems and, um, shifting their mindset from it even being a problem, but actually their body working pretty amazingly.
[00:21:39] So it's, it's that, it's those things that, in that inherently only come with years of experience versus knowledge that really matter and makea difference.
[00:21:57] Another one kind of similar is what [00:22:00] worked for me in business probably may not work for you in business, and this is because I get a lot of new professionals, or even professionals, but been at it for a little while and they reach out and they're like, I wanna work with professional athletes too. Can you tell me how to do it?
[00:22:18] Or, I am an athletic trainer and I want. , run my own business and see patients. Can you give me advice? And it's like, of course I'll give you advice, but it doesn't mean it's gonna work. What works for me might not work for you in the sense of creating business because we're coming at it different ways.
[00:22:38] With that said, too, in business, the way I do it is not super. Sustainable from a patient care standpoint? Um, both because the travel is exhausting for me and I can't do it forever. And then also I just happen to be in a really unique niche and [00:23:00] I never really have trouble finding new clients because the clients find me.
[00:23:06] And with that said, the lesson there is it doesn't matter the way you go about doing. The way you go about creating your business when you're in a service based business like this, the best thing that you can do is to be the best at what you do. So to spend all the time improving your skills and making sure you're getting results for your people.
[00:23:30] When you get results for your people, you will be busy and you will be successful more than like, And also it takes time. It takes a lot of time. This is a slow burning thing. This is not an overnight success. Overnight success stories are fabricated. It's an overnight success that takes 10 years. So, um, and with that said too, the lesson was don't put [00:24:00] your all your eggs in one basket.
[00:24:03] Part of what has led me to do different things in my business is because as much as the athletes love me and care about me and wanna support me, shit comes up in their life, and then all of a sudden someone who I thought I was gonna be working with the entire football season, , I don't work with it all.
[00:24:20] And so that entire huge part of my income I don't have. And so you have to scramble to figure out another way to get it. And so the entire, my entire nine years of business, I've always had different sort of revenue streams to support me so that I'm not relying on my eggs and all in one basket.
[00:24:43] Um, The other, another lesson learned is, um, words are really powerful. Your words are probably more powerful than you even imagine, both [00:25:00] with your friends and family and the people you reach on the internet, and especially your clients.
[00:25:11] Stop starting evaluations and treatments for your clients, talking about what is wrong with them. There is nothing wrong with them. Their body is doing the best that it can. and it is doing exactly what it was designed to do, is to protect something from getting further hurt. And sometimes that thing that it's protecting is the organism itself.
[00:25:42] Sometimes the nervous system is in such a state of threat that it is going to be hard to make gains in their ankle mobility. , it's going to be hard to change their breathing patterns, no [00:26:00] matter how many breathing exercises you do. So, and that's the thing too. And, and one of my, this lesson originally, originally came to me when I was still working at EXOS.
[00:26:14] The message came to me before I was ready to hear it. The message came to me before I was ready to understand it. Really, one of my NHL athletes. Who had been in the NHL at the time for like 20 years and went on for even more years after that, who was one of the, like one of the best I evaluated him, he had heard from one of another person that was training there that, you know, you should work with me.
[00:26:41] You know, we were making great gains and like, I don't know, hip mobility or whatever. And so I evaluated him and I was like, oh, hey, so. You don't breathe well, you don't walk well, and you, you know, all these things are wrong with you. And like, let's create a plan to fix you. And he [00:27:00] said, Oh, okay. He was nice and he was like, okay, yeah, okay, well, we'll set.
[00:27:05] something up. And then he never came back to see me, and I didn't understand why. And finally the strength coach told me, he's like, yeah, no, he decided not to work with you because he felt like all you did was tell him what was wrong with him. And he didn't think that made sense because he was like, there's nothing wrong with me.
[00:27:23] I'm, I function well. I have no pain. And um, It's silly that you're telling me that there's something wrong with my breathing and my walking. Now, of course. Is there truth? Is there truth to what I was telling him? Like, yeah, the movement could be more efficient, but now I know movement is an output. So if something is not efficient about someone's output, it's usually has more to do with the input
[00:27:55] then the output. I'm going to make changes that stick longer if I can [00:28:00] actually change the input. And that's really what it's all about. So I'm so grateful for that lesson back then, even though I didn't fully understand it. Now it makes so much more sense with this new lens of view that I use.
[00:28:18] Um, . And I think too, it's something that we all need to be reminded of. In, in the workshop this weekend, I was working with a practitioner who has scoliosis and treats, scoliosis patients. And, and when we, when I work with people who have conditions like that within the MovementREV philosophy and methodology, we meet their body where it's at.
[00:28:44] Support their curves. We don't look at their curves as something to be fixed. And I, and I just told her, I was like, there, there's nothing wrong with you. You're not broken. Your curves are not broken. You like, the problem is, is we're laying you down on this flat table [00:29:00] and assuming this flat table is, you're neutral, but to your body because your body is in its positions for a reason and that is where it.
[00:29:10] whether we like it or not, her body lives in curves and so laying her down on a flat table is like me and you laying down on a twisted table. Do you know how uncomfortable that would feel for our body? And we're told, and then we would be told that it's not the table that's fucked up. It's your body that's fucked up.
[00:29:29] Like, wow, that's a terrible message that we're sending to people. There's nothing wrong with our body. Those are the. That were developed based on the tensions that were within the musculoskeletal system, more than likely from visceral or neural restrictions as a baby and as an infant. And that means it happened on purpose.
[00:29:52] It's there for a reason. Who am I to fight against it? But do you see what we do by telling somebody [00:30:00]that they're abnormal? . We're taking away their power and we're making them question their worth. We're making them question everything and that is like not cool. That is just another way that actually leads into the next lesson, is another way that we tend to force the body somewhere and force using force for your treatments using force for any way of working with someone.
[00:30:28] It ain't the way I promise. Forcing things is not the way for many reasons, but forcing things is not the way. Forcing things in your own body, forcing things in your business, forcing things for your patients force is always going to be met with an equal or greater force back. And so if you want to be confronted with even more resistance keeps forcing things If you want.
[00:30:58] Do it easy and [00:31:00] with flow, you better find the direction of ease. You better meet the body where it's at and move from there.
[00:31:10] Um, another one is you are the master of your own experience. Choose wisely and if you don't like it, change it. The best example of this is social media. If the things you see on social media bother. Block, unfollow, hide. There's multiple ways that you can easily just remove that from your point of view, from your perspective, from your everyday influx.
[00:31:40] We are controlling how much is coming at us. Don't complain about it. If you don't like it, just adjust it. It's so easy. Just adjust it. And, uh, another lesson that kind of goes with that same thing is say yes to [00:32:00] yourself more and say no to others more, right?
[00:32:06] Boundaries are there to protect you and to protect others and to give you space to. operate, there is nothing more powerful than saying no when it is exactly what you need, and also practice saying no without also adding a reason why the actual no is reason enough.
[00:32:37] Another piece actually, that goes with the forcing is, and I already kind of said it when we're talking about breathing and that there's, you know, words matter is, um, all this effort on trying to get people to connect to their core and have good movement efficiency. We spend a lot of time trying [00:33:00] to manipulate it and cognitively think about how we should.
[00:33:09] and that's just not how it works. And, and I talked about this in the methodology and philosophy podcast, but if we look to development, nobody told the baby how to start moving. It just started. And it started based on exploring its environment and its senses and its inputs. Improving the inputs is gonna improve the output.
[00:33:28] So if you're trying to get someone to connect into their core their fascial tensity, the best way is to improve their sensory information. And so this, we do this by having active hands, active feet, active head and neck, and a three-dimensional breath just like we did as a baby. And sometimes we need to realize that a lot of.
[00:33:54] what we're doing when we're coaching someone, whether we're coaching someone within a rehab session or coaching someone [00:34:00] within a training session, we're wasting our breath a lot. Stop wasting your breath, giving them cues to the output and start being creative of how you can change their environment to allow their body to correct the output.
[00:34:18] So that's it. Those are my nine lessons and my nine years of MovementREV and a little story about how MovementREV started. I hope you enjoyed it. Obviously, these lessons are woven into everything I talk about. Um, a lot of them are like, what created the MovementREV philosophies and methodologies. So if you haven't listened to that podcast, make sure you go back and listen.
[00:34:44] And then a lot of it you will see inside of all of my courses. And so speaking of courses, I hope you'll join me for the upcoming Results Cheat Code. It is free. It starts, uh, [00:35:00] March 12th, which will be this Sunday after this podcast drops doors close at noon on that same day to get in for free. I offer it twice a year, and it is for PTs and athletic trainers.
[00:35:16] It's designed to help you figure out where to. Figure out how to listen to the body to get the, the best results for treatment for your clients. Even the most difficult cases. So I hope you'll join me and, uh, I'll see you next time. Have a great day.
[00:35:35]
