Lauren: So this month we're celebrating 20 years of FlexPlus Physical Therapy being in business. That's a pretty major accomplishment. How does it feel? Cheryl: It's a little surreal. It feels like it flew by. And then other days, weeks, I thought we were never going to get here. But it's pretty exciting to think that we've had this majorly successful practice helping people for 20 years. Lauren: Why did you open FlexPlus in the first place? Cheryl: You know, I worked at a couple of different big hospitals when I first graduated and passed my licensing exam, and I really thought the hospital was the place for me to be. Then I realized that couldn't really give the patients the care and the attention, the undivided attention that I really wanted to. I kind of had to move along, and I felt like I wasn't giving them my all. And I knew that if I opened my own facility that I could treat people as a human being, as a person who had an injury and not just a number. I think that this undivided attention piece of the puzzle was missing, and I needed to put that puzzle piece back in. Lauren: Well, and I think you've really done that and cultivated a, a culture that does that. We hear it from patients all the time that they are - they feel so welcomed and that everybody is so nice and so friendly. I mean, you can go to a grocery store and see someone years later and remember what you treated them for. Are there any patients who have stood out over the years? Cheryl: Yes, I remember, truly, almost everybody that has come through the door. But there's always a few that really are special, for whatever reason. Because I specialize in balance and dizziness, which is known as vestibular rehabilitation, we've had a couple of interesting patients over the years, but the one thing that I have found - and it comes from the primary care, not really explaining why somebody has dizziness. But this one woman came in and she said to me, "my doctor told me you're going to reposition crystals and use crystals to help the dizziness go away." And she actually thought that I had, you know, pieces of quartz or whatever other crystals, and I was gonna kind of wave them over her to make the dizziness go away. She actually thought I worked with rocks. Pretty funny. When I actually had to do a vestibular repositioning maneuver for her, we really had a good laugh. And at the end, she was good. She didn't have any dizziness at all. Lauren: We've had a couple of people who wonder where the rocks are. Cheryl: They do. They do. Once I kind of give them an anatomy lesson, they kind of get it. So pretty funny. Lauren: What do you think the best part of your job is? Cheryl: Besides the fact that I meet the most wonderful people - they are kind and happy and I know that they're in pain and sometimes somebody comes in and they're a little cranky because they have pain. But I know that once we've talked, once we've started to reduce their pain, tell them how we're going to get back to doing their normal stuff, you know, they are just so wonderful and kind and smiling and it's just the best feeling to be able to help somebody get back to what they want to do. Whether it's just get out of bed by themselves or walk and do their grocery shopping without having to lean on a carriage, just get strong enough to hold a new grandchild. It doesn't matter what their goal is, but the fact that they're smiling and seeing the changes to getting back to what they want to do is really fabulous. Lauren: Doing this for 20 years, I'm sure that it has not stayed the same. How has your role changed in those 20 years? Cheryl: It's changed a lot in the past 20 years. First, I'm 20 years older. Lauren: We all are. Cheryl: We all are. Right. I spent a lot of time really taking postdoctoral courses and specializing in vestibular physical therapy because there's not a lot of vestibular physical therapy out there. And I needed to be able to help people get rid of their dizziness and balance issues. So I've really become quite specialized in that. Not to say that I don't do orthopedics anymore. I do. But the other thing as well is, as I see this upcoming crop of new doctors of physical therapy coming out - and we've hired a number of them and they are fabulous. And I'm kind of stepping back from the role of treating and increasing my role and as owner and administering to the business so that it continues to grow and continues to be viable and supporting as many families as we can. Lauren: Yeah, I didn't go to college for business administration or anything like that. I never planned on doing this, but I graduated during the recession and you needed some admin help in the office and I started. I don't think people realize this. I started at the bottom. I was scanning paper charts into the computers and filing things alphabetically. People think, you know, I just came in and started working, but I started at the bottom. And it has been a journey. I went back and got my MBA in healthcare administration to help run the business. And I think the two of us together make a pretty good team with the marketing and just the general business stuff. But yeah, not what we expected. What's it like to work with your family? Cheryl: You know what? It's mostly good. There are days where it can be a little trying. But I definitely had to learn. We had to learn together. Yeah. We had to learn business is business and personal life is personal life, and not to blend them, not to let them carry over. And for quite a long time, your father and I said that when we got in the car to go home, that's the last of the business. The minute we pulled into the driveway and into the garage, that was it. There would be no more business talk until the next morning when we got in the car. But I think for you and me, it took a little bit longer because we didn't always have a lot of time to talk about stuff. And it took us a while because we have different communication styles. And it took us a little bit of time to learn. We had to kind of learn that dance. There are some days where the dance is a little rough still, but for the most part, I think we're doing better. Lauren: I mean, I'm really grateful to be here. Like I said, it wasn't what I had envisioned when I envisioned my life as a teenager, but there's something really special about being able to spend your days with your family. It's something that a lot of people don't get to do, and it did, it took time to learn, and there were some frustrating times and some hard times, but I can't imagine not seeing you guys at least five days a week. When you go on vacation, it's like, "oh, where's my mom? Where's my dad?" Cheryl: I know Dad and I feel that same way, too. Lauren: So if you could go back 20 years to, you know, sending your kids off to college and opening up this business, and you could tell yourself one thing, give yourself one piece of advice, what would it be? Cheryl: You have to trust in yourself. You have to know that you are a strong person, that you can handle these obstacles. You can think them through methodically, logically, and come up with a couple of different plans on how to get through some of this stuff. None of it was easy. It's still not easy owning a business. But you have to believe in yourself. You have to go, okay, I'm smart. I'm capable enough. I have surrounded myself with people who are also smart and capable, and you just have to trust in yourself that it's okay. It's okay to ask for help from a professional. It's okay to take a little bit of a risk. All of it is good. You just have to believe. You have to believe in yourself. Lauren: Where do you see yourself in 20 years from now? Cheryl: Well, I hope I'm not dead [laughs], but in 20 years from now, I really would like to be continuing to exercise every single day. Is that going to be different than the things that I do every single day now is terms of exercise? I don't know. I'd like to have make sure that I've traveled more of the world. I know that so many people come in and see all of my travel pictures hanging on the wall, but there's a whole lot more out there that I want to be able to see. So I hope that in 20 years time I'm going to be able to say, yeah, I knocked this one off my bucket list. I knocked that location off my bucket list. Yeah, I hope 20 years time that I can walk back into the office and go, "okay, Lauren, did you take a vacation yet?" Lauren: And the answer's probably going to be "no." Cheryl: But I think that this main flagship facility will still be here and it'll still be going strong.