Watch the video version of this episode on YouTube - https://youtu.be/hjJnGapasTI

Eder Garavito is the co-founder of Scholarnetics360, healthcare's first mentorship and knowledge-sharing hub. Scholarnetics360 offers 24/7 remote access to industry leaders and specialists and is committed to improving patient outcomes for health care providers. Eder will detail the highs and lows of his ambitious entrepreneurial journey.

Transcript

Voiceover: So you're a PT or PTA grad who's feeling the spark of something more. Maybe you dream of building your own business, one that's constructed around your vision, one that empowers you to make a real difference on your terms. This feeling, it's the entrepreneurial itch. And you're not alone. Countless PTs and PTAs are taking the leap to entrepreneurship, crafting careers that are as unique as they are.

Welcome to the Innovate and Rehabilitate the Entrepreneurial PT podcast. In each episode, we'll dive deep into the world of PT-preneurship with Inspiring physical therapists and physical therapist assistants just like you, who are crushing it on their terms. We'll uncover their secrets, their struggles, and the incredible impact they're making. From building your PT boss dreams to navigating the business side of things, will equip you with the knowledge and inspiration to turn your vision into reality.

So, whether you're just curious about starting your own business, or you're already out there making your dreams a reality, this podcast is for you. Get ready to unleash your inner entrepreneur. Let's do this!

Scott Giles (SG): My name is Scott Giles, I'm the founder of Scorebuilders and your host for today's podcast. I want to spend extend a special welcome to today's guest, Eder Garavito. Eder is an assistant professor at the College of Saint Mary's Doctor of Physical Therapy program. He's a board certified cardiovascular and pulmonary clinical specialist and is presently pursuing a PhD in teacher education and learning sciences at North Carolina State University. Eder has been a Scorebuilders instructor for over 10 years.

In collaboration with three partners in 2023, Eder cofounded Scholarnetics360, Healthcare's first mentorship and knowledge sharing hub. Scholarnetics360offers 24/7 remote access to industry leaders and specialists and believes that a mentorship and knowledge sharing network for healthcare providers will improve patient outcomes. Eder, welcome to the podcast.

Eder Garavito (EG): Hey, Scott, thanks for having me.

SG: It's funny Eder, because I, I've known you for a long time, primarily through your, over a decade, in fact, primarily through your role as a Scorebuilders instructor and I've known what a fantastic presenter you are through that process and also through the Spotlight Series that Scorebuilders has conducted during the pandemic. But I had no idea about this entrepreneurial pursuit. And it was kind of funny because once I decided to put on this type of podcast, I reached out to my PT network and one of your fellow Scorebuilders instructors reached out to me and said, oh, you've got to talk to Eder he's got something really exciting going on, which again, I had no idea about. So subsequently, obviously, I reached out to you. We had a couple conversations and I thought it was a perfect fit for the podcast. So I'm thrilled that today's the day and when we finally get you on the show.

EG: Yeah, I know, happy to be here. And that that's just a great example of networking, to be honest. And perhaps an also a great example of how I wasn't really, you know, letting Scorebuilders know about this or just even marketing appropriately. So hey, we, we learn every day, right?

SG: Absolutely. You've learned a lot. And I'm looking for you to share that knowledge with the with the group today. But let's, before we get into the, the uniqueness of the business, let's get into how a little bit about your background and how you came to even pursue physical therapy as a career.

EG: Yeah. So, you know, I have the most boring story, to be honest, Scott. I have the traditional, I tore my ACL and I went to PT, but there's a little bit of a background behind that.

So I'm a middle child and I, you know, fortunately my brothers and I, we're, we're all pretty successful, but my older brother got a full ride to the University of Minnesota, my younger brother got a full ride to Duke University, and I graduated high school with like a 2.6 GPA. Right now, a lot of things have happened in my life. And you know, come to find out now that I'm pursuing this PhD, you mentioned that I just wasn't really being taught in a way that I knew, knew how to learn. But that's neither here nor there for right now. And essentially I went to Community College just taking kind of bogus classes because I was just trying to do something. And yeah, in sports, I tore my ACL, went to PT and I was like, hey, this is kind of cool. You know, this is something I could get into and just started asking my, my clinician questions. And next thing I knew, I transferred to A 4 year institution and pursued a kinesiology degree. And then I went to PT school.

SG: You know what I what I love also is you, you know, your sports injury, ACL, you know, you figure ortho sports medicine, I hear it all and you end up being this cardiopulmonary phenom. You know what I mean?

EG: Yes.

SG: Which I love because it's not the traditional path you might have expected even of yourself.

EG: Oh no, absolutely. And I mean, honestly, I don't think yet in my five years of full time education and even just, you know, adjunct before that, I don't think I've ever met a student who's gone to PT school that has said I want to do CVP or I want to work in the hospital, to be honest. And part of it is just we don't know what we don't know until we go to PT school, right? So, you know, with that, I mean, I thought I wanted to do sports and I kind of started getting bored in school about learning this stuff. I was like, I don't know if I love this so much. And then one of my professors, late professors now, who became a great friend and great mentor. He was a CVP guru. And not only was he CVP guru, just the way that he taught, in the way that he behaved, in the way that he poised himself, I just looked up to him and I was like, I want to be like you And, and here I am.

SG: That's awesome. Another great example of mentorship, right? And it's funny Eder because I don't know if I've ever shared this with you, but during the pandemic, when we did the Spotlight Series and you, you put together this kind of comprehensive view of cardiopulmonary. And, and the idea was just to put on these free seminars for students who are stuck at home, and they're preparing for the exam and make it interactive. And so I sat in on all these sessions. I did a couple of them, but I sat in on them all. And I remember yours specifically because I'm still intimidated, frankly, by cardiopulmonary stuff. And you're just up there like a machine like I was at first, I was questioning, is this AI or is this Eder or you know, what's going on? This is unbelievable.
But the thing that blew me away is you're doing the presentation and questions are flying in from students and literally on the like, first of all, I would have a hard time even coordinating, talking while glancing at the questions say nothing about formulating an answer to the questions and keeping this kind of congruent and making sense and this logical flow. And, and you would, it was seamless. And these questions were not baby questions. This was not PT1O1. These were complicated questions that quite frankly, 90% of them I had no idea. And you're, I don't know, I, I remember it like it was yesterday. And, and I, and I'm not, I'm not just saying that it was one of the more, it just showed me the kind of command you had over that knowledge and how immediately accessible that was and what a true master clinician you are.

And the thing that's fascinating to me is that so many of our folks who've been on this show, the first thing they've really did is, is build their craft and become really good at something. Now it's interesting because what you became really good at, or what I know you for being really good at is cardiopulmonary stuff, which doesn't necessarily have anything to do with your business, which I, which I also, I mean, it does and it doesn't, but, but not specifically. So I love that part about it.

But so how did you, how did you go from being a clinician and tell us a little bit about your first work experience, but to being a faculty member, a full time faculty member and then pursuing the PhD? How'd you go down that road?

EG: Man, that's a good question. So to be honest, and I've talked to some of my students in new grads about this. And I think that in PT education, we do a really poor job of letting students know that it really is OK if once they graduate, they don't want to put their hands on a patient. They don't want to treat patients, right? There are other ways in which they can help patients in the healthcare landscape than just then treating patients. And so for me, I had that guilt as I was start getting closer to graduation where I was like, I like CVP, you know, I've had these great rotations. I was very, very, very fortunate at that point. I had already signed a contract to work at Duke University right out of school. I was super excited. But at the same time, I was like, I just don't think I want to do this forever. Like I want to teach. And so even before I, you know, a graduate, I started looking at avenues of how I could start teaching, whether it was adjunct, some guest lectures. I started here at Duke because it was my connection just going into some lectures and helping out with some labs and just connecting with students. Then I started, you know, taking students as the clinical instructor, moved on to opportunities that found me and I found them in terms of adjunct teaching. And that sort of solidified the fact that I like teaching. It didn't really solidify the fact that I wanted to be a faculty member, but it just really let me know that, you know what, like, I like teaching. I like, like helping students and others just get better at whatever they want to get better at.

And then an opportunity came to me to help develop the hybrid program at the College of Saint Mary. And so I jumped on it, honestly, on a whim. I don't regret anything about it, but at the same time, you know, I started in November of 2019, so right before the pandemic. And then the pandemic hit. And so the world blew up and it really forced me and my, and my colleagues who were developing that program to just be resourceful and self-directed and just work in a way that just, you know, we could build that program. And I think at that point I, I realized that there's a lot of, there are a lot of things that we don't know that many don't know about being a faculty member besides teaching that we have to do. And to be honest, I'll tell anybody, I'll tell me, you know, my director, I don't love those things, but I do them because I know that they'll help me become a better educator. And at the end of the day, whenever I'm working in these administrative tasks or whatever they are, then what's really, really just kind of just, you know, makes my day better is when I connect with the students in those in those few hours a week. 

But so that's my trajectory, man. I mean, I graduated and I just, I was like, I just don't think I want to be a clinician forever. I don't, I don't love this, but I just spent, you know, $1,000,000 on this three years of my life. Like I got to do it and I just realized, you know what, it's really OK if I don't want to treat patients. I know I can help patients in other ways in this, in this example by, you know, training the next generation of clinicians to be better clinicians.

SG: Sure makes total sense to me. So all right, so now let's get into the business a little bit. So like, this is not a standard kind of idea. This is a, quite frankly, this is a big idea and it's a complicated idea, but, but for the listeners who have no idea what Scholarnetics360 is, take us through kind of the idea generation to maybe the concept development and then a little bit about, you know, what you folks offer and where you're at today.

EG: Sure. Yeah. I mean, again, I don't want to sound cliche, Scott, but this was literally a napkin idea where one day I just was like, wait a second, does this exist? And I started researching the Internet. It didn't. I wrote it all down just so I wouldn't forget because I forget these little things and I didn't find anything. Then I called some friends and colleagues and like, no, this doesn't exist. That's a great idea. And then boom, we started.

But the reason that I started thinking about this was the fact that I do a lot of reading and research for, you know, my, my CVP stuff, my scholarship, and of course, for my position as a faculty member. Fortunately, I have a really good a relationship with Duke University, so they still let me see patients every six or eight weeks as PRN. So I still see patients and I do so just to make sure that I kind of know what I'm talking about. And I'm not that professor standing in front of students that haven't treated a patient ten years or ever. And I also get to connect with patients. I get to work on my communication skills with patients and with, you know, my colleagues. But I realized that I could throw a statistic out there, 99% of my fellow CVP colleagues out there, because that's what we're talking about right now, know a lot more about clinical care than I do. I, I mean, I can probably defeat them just like I did in that presentation you just mentioned. And when it comes to knowledge, spitting out knowledge, how to disseminate it appropriately so that it can be received well and digested and probably research because I do a lot of reading that. But in terms of like applying things and using my hands and my, my extra tangible skills, I can't say that I'm better than them, right? And there's always going to be that, you know, clinician versus faculty saga, which I'm just not a part of. 

So essentially I thought to myself, how cool would it be if I could teach my students all these theoretical concepts and help them through case studies and examples and what have you? But then they could literally hop on a call with somebody who's doing these things in real time and say like, pretty much like, is this guy telling the truth? Or how does this work? Like, do you do this every day? Is this even real? And they can help bridge those theoretical concepts into clinical knowledge. So which is really hard to do in PT school when all you're doing with your students is hopefully is working with a bunch of normals, right? So special tests, normal, special tests, normal until you feel an abnormal clinical rotations. 

And so that's how it started. I was like, let's figure out a way to skip faculty sometimes when needed so that students can connect with clinicians who are doing this stuff on a daily basis. And that way they can help them solidify those concepts. So the initial concept for Scholarnetics360 was more of helping students in sort of like a tutoring capacity. Then we realized that tutoring is just not really something that a lot of students in healthcare look for because there's just a lot of type A personalities, a lot of egos, and a lot of students just really struggle to ask for help and say, like, I need a tutor. So we switched the model a little bit, started looking more into coaching and mentoring. We went with mentoring and it's just sort of like the idea I just grew from there. And me where we're at now is we're running our beta testing. It's, you know, it's been running since May. 

And yeah, to your point of it's a big idea, I've, and I told you this on our discovery call, man, I wish I would have opened a hardware score store sometimes. The idea has developed so much and it's so much more than I can handle. So we know we have a great team of people that we're working with, but it's growing a little bit every day. 
SG: So, yeah, it's fascinating. So what, what, what has been the reaction? Well, first of all, if folks are interested in participating in the beta, is this, is there still an opportunity to be involved in this?

EG: Yeah, there is. And so our beta testing, we're probably going to run it for a few more months, probably till sometime towards the end of the year. Yeah. It's free for our users right now. And mentors can hop on board too. And there's a lot of perks and benefits for mentors, aside from, of course, getting paid and getting all the teaching time.

SG: What So Eder, how has the reception been? Because it's tricky, right? Because and I know this is not necessarily for students, it's could be for new grads, it could be for experienced folks. It could be look for anyone who's looking to continually improve their skills. But especially on early in the career, one of the challenges students face is that, you know, as you said, your physical therapy education cost you millions of dollars. And there is a fee with this. I think it's a relatively small fee associated with this, which I thought was very reasonable. But how do you convince students that this is something that they can benefit from? Because some students may believe that, look, all the mentorship I'm going to need is at my first job, which I think in many cases they'll find out is not true. And I think in my mind, it's also very beneficial to have someone external to your employment or someone who's not filling out your performance evaluation at the end of the year, because I think you can be a little more candid. You can, you can drill down and you can also with your platform, you can go to different experts with different skill sets in different areas, not all of which are clinical necessarily. 
But how do you convince what's, what's the pitch to convince therapists that this this is necessary, this is valued and this is, this is a good investment for you. 

EG: That has honestly been one of the most challenging things that we've run into so far. And I thought it was going to be easy because we've gotten such great, you know, feedback from everybody thinks this is great, awesome idea. I haven't in a year and a half, I haven't had anybody tell me this is a bad idea yet. So that's why it keeps us going. But at the same time, you know, we have a lot of people that talk the talk, they just don't walk the walk. So we haven't had a lot of a lot of actually people sign up just yet.

What we've run into is especially with students is fee, big or small, many students don't like to pay that because I mean, I've been in their shoes, right? And so we're still working with the pricing, our pricing structure. But what we've also run into is that, you know, think of it like this, let's say that you and I are PT school, right? And we're just doing really bad in a neuro course, and we studied for 10 hours for our neuro exam and we just did not do well. The last thing that'll happen as we're drowning in that is specific scenarios that we kind of come up to the surface of the water and say, I need somebody to mentor me. It's just not a term that we use as students. So I think there's this disconnect between like what mentorship entails and what we say in those situations. It's more like I need somebody to help me with this content, right? 
And so helping, guiding, helping with some direction and even clinical knowledge and what have you, that is all sort of falls under the umbrella mentorship. The problem we're running into is that we know that mentorship is good for everybody and it's needed and it's not out there. It's not accessible, as accessible as it should be. But we're in this position where we are trying to convince people that they need something that they don't know they need. And that has been difficult, right? So we're in the process of changing our approach and changing our even our target market as we're trying to figure out that, you know, students I think need more guidance, help, assistance, tutoring. For the most part, we will be there for them as if they need mentorship. But when a student graduates, even if they do get a mentor or not, wherever they end up, there are so many unknowns and they no longer have, you know, that the hand holds of their faculty for the most part.

So our new grads, our clinicians in the first, you know, 5 so years, that's our, our target market right now that we're going after because ultimately they're the ones we need patients. And we want to make sure that they transition into the profession with confidence. Because ultimately, right, if you have a good mentor, somebody to guide you and support you, as you mentioned, somebody who's not filling out your e-mail. So there's not a power dynamic who I can have a confident conversation with and it's not going to hurt me in any way. And I can hop to other clinicians if I need help with administrative task or communication or specific clinical knowledge to really help those new clinicians sort of get rid of those unknowns. Perhaps even feel more that they belong there, less imposter syndrome and be less fearful and be more confident in their clinical skills so that whenever they go treat patients with any sort of condition and comorbidities, they feel confident doing so. And they do, they feel confident doing so faster than they would if they didn't have that guidance.

SG: I think you made a compelling case for it. There's no doubt about it. But, you know, certainly in any of these situations when you're trying to convince people that there's a need, it is it is a much more uphill battle. Doesn't mean it's not. I mean, it's going to be one of the most important things that folks can invest their money in their entire career in terms of career advancement. But it's not like, hey, I know I need to eat. I know I need a coffee in the morning. I know I need to. You're right. You guys are kind of breaking down that barrier. But there's all kinds of industries that have done that over time. And now we view it as like, well, yeah, of course I need that. But you guys are just in that early stage.

On the flip side, what about for mentors? Has it been, how's that challenge been in terms of building your network of mentors?

EG: Building the network of mentors has not been that difficult. The thing behind it really is that we believe that again, let's go back to the three years of school and millions of dollars we all spent, right? Often times in clinical practice, we are just overused in a lot of ways and underpaid not only just by salary, but just in terms of how we're overused, right? For example, you don't get paid more just to take students on. So we believe that if anybody wants to hop on as a mentor on our platform and they fit the bill, that they need to be compensated for their time because even just talking and speaking to somebody and educating them, you should be paid for that time because it's skilled knowledge.

So there's a lot of benefits for mentors. I mean, they get paid for their time. They, you know, we give them a certificate at the end of the year with all the hours that they spent on there. Some states will accept that as CEUs, because we're an education company, we allow our mentors to connect with each other for free so that they can have that networking with our, you know, our top mentors as well, man, There's, you know, where, when they when it comes to the money that they earn, we're not, we're developing this, but we're not that quite there yet. We hope to build partnerships with heck, even maybe Scorebuilders right where they can purchase products at a discount from straight from our website with the money that they earn or other types of CEU courses or what have you. And we're also building a, a way where they can, they'll be able to donate that money that they earn to charitable to charities, because at the end of the day, it's like Vegas money. They don't have a tangibly in their hands until they do. So they might be more apt to donating it. 

But with that though, like what we, what we want to make sure that we do is that unlike when you go to Walmart and they round up to the next dollar and that Walmart donates that money in the Walmart's name, this money will be donated in the mentors name so they can reap the benefits and in their taxes, of course. And then the last thing that we're building at the very end is we're going to get a 5O1C3 going is a student scholarship where mentors can donate their, their specific amount that they earn from the platform into a student scholarship. More details to come later in terms of, you know, the application process and things like that. But we hope that we have enough volume and enough funds every single year that we can hopefully give away some scholarships to students that were funded directly from our mentors in their name.

SG: That's, that's amazing. So, so Eder, I mean, what about your business background? Because like, I'm hearing like building and I'm hearing, you know, tax terms and I'm hearing like, yeah, first of all, building is expensive. This is an online platform. So there's a technology component, there's a design component. There's I mean, how, how are you folks funding this? And, and how did you find the people with the expertise in order to build the type of complicated platform that that you folks obviously have? And I've seen it. It looks very nice, very professional.

EG: Yeah, I appreciate that, Scott, starting with my business background, I have none. I have none, man. Just observation throughout the years and a desire to just own a business at some point. I didn't know what, but you know, I think there's a good message there because I think there's a lot of people out there that have want to start a business, but they're too afraid to do to do. So one thing that I did is I searched online and I, I know hired a business coach. Best investment I've ever made. She really, really helped us. And to that point, you know, I was in the sort of crux of is it the right time to do it? Is it not? Maybe it's like having children. There's no right time to do it. It just felt like I needed to do it now before somebody else does. And so I found myself at that in that place in in that at that time, excuse me, I found myself in a place where I was no longer the person on the other end watching people develop businesses on LinkedIn and saying I wish I was them. I was that person doing it now. I didn't know what I was doing. I don't know what articles of organization was. I don't know what the Secretary of State was, but through like daily just grinding research, communication with, you know, back and forth with our business coach, I figured all those things out. We have this entire literally document that I just brain dumped a whole bunch of stuff and tasks and I would prioritize them in terms of what I thought was more important to do and the timing in terms of which month or which day I would try to get those things done. And I can't tell you how many of those tasks I flagged as like, this isn't making me lose sleep at night. I have no idea how to do this. Like how is this going to work? And it's done, right? So it was just a matter of getting to that point and having the support and also the ability to be self-directed and researching these things and you know, getting valid knowledge online and from other people to be able to cross those barriers.

Funding wise, you know, we've been fortunate that we're still self-funded. We're going to start looking at some point very soon to potentially do like a first round of funding. We're looking at like an accelerator as well, all those sorts of things. But at the end of the day, you know, I think it's very important just to make sure that you build a team that has knowledge in different ways, right? A diverse team. We thought in the beginning like let's get a whole bunch of clinicians on here and do this, but none of us really had an entrepreneurial background. So, there's no shame in having, you know, a couple clinicians or no clinicians, what have you. And then having people that have marketing background, strategy background, you know, business startup backgrounds, all those sorts of things. So a little bit at a time and through a lot of diligent research and just communication and conversations, we've built a team that has really been amazing, especially our developing team. They're, they're incredible. Like I think I told you in discovery called in a year and a half, they've said no to like two or three things other than otherwise you're like, sure, give me a week, we'll do it. So it's been great. I mean, it's really been a great learning experience, but I had no, no background on business. I've just learned on the go every day. And again, that's a having interviewed a bunch of people. I mean, that's the theme I'm hearing more so than not. Very few people are like, yes, you know, I was I have extensive business development background and then I transitioned to PT and then I started a business. It's never that way. 

It's always, you know, my situation is very much like yours. You know, I learned along the way. Granted, my concept was much simpler than than yours, but you know, I mean, we're intelligent people, physical therapists, we solve problems, right, and you're another example of that. 

How did you how did you connect with your Co-founders? And were you looking for something specifically or did you did you guys just kind of connect organically or how did that go down?

EG: So the you know, Co-founder wise, to be honest, I just thought about it like who would I want on this ride along with me? That's probably gonna be really long. That could be that's that has skills that I know is diligent. That is that I know would potentially be interested, but also would be, you know, a great team member because I think all of us, any listener here, student or clinician has in some way, shape or form, whether it's in in their job or in classroom, has been a part of a toxic team. And you know, I don't want to be just another person that says like, I don't like toxic teams. I don't think anybody does. But I've been part of so many and I'm so aware that I wanted to make sure that the people that were going to be along the ride with me would not be toxic, right? So that was the first thing. And so I just talked to people that I had, you know, diverse backgrounds that I knew would be great on this and that would help me build it. And, you know, we just kind of ran with it.

In hindsight, even though I love all them to death, I think it would have been also better to make sure that, to ensure that we diversified our, our, our, our pool of knowledge from the beginning with partnerships, right? So I'm not saying I would have gotten rid of 1 and supplemented them with the other, but I think it would have been more beneficial to the business and to us and for growth to not have only clinicians on there because we had the clinician aspect covered and we had the healthcare education aspect covered as well. A couple of us are educators that we had, people that had, again, you know, some experience with strategy, experience with building, with software, with all those sorts of things that we just did not that we had to find elsewhere or we're still struggling with at this time. 

SG: Yeah. And I think that's a normal evolution. But again, how do you know and when you haven't been through this journey? And quite frankly, people who have been through this journey still find themselves in those same situations because you just can't prognosticate the unknown. And that's kind of what it comes down to.

So how do you folks, how do how do the folks involved, how do you kind of divide your roles and responsibilities and how do you keep each other accountable? Because again, I don't know about your other founders, but I know for you, you have a regular job, you're going through a PhD program. You have a spouse who's, I believe a nurse practitioner who's also, I'm sure, extremely busy. Like how do you balance all these things between your Co-founders, your life, your PhD, etcetera?

EG: Yeah, I don't know Scott, but I do know this.

SG: I'm stressed just asking that question.

EG: Yeah, right. I'm like, but I do know this that, I mean, I have an extremely supportive wife and yes, I am horrifically busy, but my busy does not trump anybody else's busy. We're all busy in our own ways. So I don't like to just, you know, often talk about all the things that I'm doing because they just they, they come off intimidating or yeah, like, you know, I'm just so busy. But ultimately I still believe that it doesn't matter who we are. It could be Jeff Bezos for the for, for the sake of the conversation that if there's something that we really care for, we'll make time for it. And so I've gosh, man, I think part of the reason why I've been so good at managing all these different tasks and things that you just mentioned is the fact that I transitioned to online education in 2019. And I went from, you know, knowing exactly, pretty much what I was going to do every single day as a clinician.

Now, mind you, patients were different, but I knew my role. I knew what time I had to be there. I knew what time I had to leave, which days I had to work to now, you know, my directors in Arizona and they sent me an e-mail saying, hey, did you get this done as due tomorrow? I'm like, Oh no, right. And I could wake up at any time and do my work. So I became a very self-directed learner, self-directed worker where I developed my own calendars, my schedule, my, my routines. And I think that has really helped me manage all these things where I sort of partition my day and like, OK, I'm going to wake up at this time, get ready for work, even though it's at home. And I'm going to do these tasks until this time. Then I'm a transition to school for this time. And then I'm a transition to that for that time. And then I have meetings at this time. 

And even my wife says like, she doesn't know how I do it. And I don't know how I do it. I just do it and at the end of the day, I think it's one of those like almost, it's almost like a metacognitive thing where I'm able to multitask in a way that works for me and complete tasks in a way that just I sort of like almost without knowing or unknowingly, I just sort of stagger them throughout the day. So I guess that's my best piece of advice. If somebody finds themselves in this position, you can do it. If I'm doing it, It's not like, hey, if I'm do it, you can do it. But I mean, you can. You just have to make sure that you just look at the hours of your day and just say which time you're going to work on which tasks. And if they overflow, then you have to push them here and there. But at the end of the day, have, you know, having a very supportive wife has been incredible. You know, I used to work my, I don't know, eight to 10 hours a day and now I'm 12 or something or 14 sometimes, depending on the on the how many busy I am. And I just communicate with her like, look, you know, this is going to be a really hard week and I just need a little bit of a buffer in terms of things and attention. But next week I'll be back and I've kept my word pretty good to that. And she's also pretty good about sometimes coming into my office and it's like 7:00PM like you're done, dude. I'm like, all right, fine, because, as you know, with your business, you, but I mean, you got ideas all day ruminating and like you just want to get tasks done. 

So it's it's hard, Scott. I mean, it's, it's I make a little progress on everything every single day and I just consider progress a win at the end of the day. My main priority right now is my position as a faculty member because I have a responsibility to them. I have a contract with them and a contract with responsibility to my students. But then the rest in terms of school and the company, I just sort of insert there as best as I can. 

SG: It's funny because when you're when you're said, you know, you know, to your spouse that, yeah, you know, this week's really rough, you know, whatever. And look, I've been married like 34 years now. And I'd say probably about year 12 or somewhere in there, I'd be like, Trace, I know it's bad now, like seriously, but next month and it got to the point, like, don't even start. Like don't even say that to me. But, you know, the thing is like, in fairness, I was serious at the time, but it I don't know, it rarely does slow down. And then you know who knows? You have children, you have other business ideas like, you know, come on. Yeah, you just go, right. I mean, you just go and you're and you're a prime example of that.

The other thing I like Eder because I think it supports your model is you were saying that, you know, look, I didn't have any business background. I didn't know about articles of incorporation. I didn't know about this. I didn't know about taxation. I didn't know about how to set up a business plan. And what did you do? You got a mentor, you got a coach, and you talked about how valuable that is because you know that you knew that that person had skills that could accelerate your path. Well, to me, that's kind of your whole business concept, right? I mean, you could have probably plugged through without external assistance. But you know what? You would not be where you are today, in my opinion, if that had happened or you'd be in trouble with the IRS or you'd be in trouble with, you know, you wouldn't have it. Your idea wouldn't be protected the intellectual property like whatever.

There's a million different things, right? And so you recognize that need for external assistance and you talked about it being one of the most valuable things, you know that you've done. I view clinicians, if they have the opportunity to get assistance from this cadre of individuals who have expertise in areas that they don't and can facilitate them in a non-threatening way, then to me that's tremendous. And I'm sure your business coach wasn't free, obviously, and but you prioritize that in in a area where I'm sure that funds are limited to some extent, right. So anyways, I like those kind of examples because it's exactly the pitch that your business is relying on to show the value of the service that you provide.

EG: Yeah, absolutely. And you know, business coach was definitely not inexpensive and a lot more expensive than our platform is. But to your point, 100%.And I think what people need to remember is that mentoring is, is, is or being a mentee, you're in the driver's seat. Like you get to ask for as much or as little help and as often and as much as you need and whatever it is that you need, right? But something that I think a lot of us forget that involves mentoring that that involves, yeah, that is in mentoring. And that occurs almost organically depending on who you connect with is networking. I say that because, yeah, she was our coach and our mentor, but she also connected it with a lot of people in her network that really helped bring, helped us bring Scholarnetics360 to the front forefront. And through them, I connected with more people. We're building a board of advisors right now, for example. And we've got one incredible individual who's on board with us. And then he connected me with another individual who's incredible is coming on board. And we can't wait to, you know, tell y'all more about that later. 
But these individuals are, you know, are big people in the healthcare technology space that really to send like, yeah, I'll hop on and help you. But it wasn't, it was it was through one person who network with another and then another who led us there. And so mentoring isn't just like, help me with, you know, this thing or help me with that thing. These mentors have gone through the things that you don't want to go through. So why not use their life experience and their knowledge to avoid those difficulties in your career, to avoid burnout, to avoid being feeling like you just don't belong there, like have an imposter syndrome. But also, hey, you know what, maybe you're starting to outgrow your, your mentor in that in, in our platform, for example, and they can connect with people that they know that can help you more without you having to go out there and do it yourself.

In healthcare specifically, because it's what I know best, but really in almost any probably job out there. But it's healthcare specifically, as you very well know, Scott, it is not so much always about success, isn't always so much about how good you are in your patient outcomes. It's about who you know and how many people that you know that'll bring you to the forefront if that's what you want. And so just knowing people and networking and talking to other people that have more knowledge than you is super important. And so as you know, you know, being the smartest person in the room, you're not going to get anything. So talk to people that know more than you. Talk to people that have had those experiences. Heck, I would have loved to connect with you when I was building this. And they can tell me like, how do I do all this stuff? I never even thought about it because I just didn't. But I regret it now because I had you.

SG: Well, I'm not sure how helpful I would have been. But like I said, you guys been a big piece off of the apple as far as this goes. But it's, I mean, it's admirable. It's really impressive.

And I'll tell you one of the things I love about this editor and we talked about this a little bit earlier, is that I love the fact that the platform is really not a PT platform. So the concept is really not a PT concept. And so, you know, you know, you indicated there's not a lot like this out there in other disciplines. So to me, PT is kind of, I know that's where you're focusing because that's kind of in your wheelhouse, but that's proof of concept. And so if you do decide to raise external funding through venture capital, through private equity, whatever it may be, and you have proof of concept, it's kind of like, it's kind of like the Shark Tank principle, right? You go on, OK, show me your earnings. Well, I don't have any earnings. It's only a concept. You know, you know, you want, you can develop proof of concept here and then you have scalability and scalability is, is, you know, takes a, a moderate size idea and can make it a huge idea. 
So I think that to me is a tremendous, tremendously exciting opportunity because the needs are not any different in nurse practitioner or physician, or I mean, we can even go outside of healthcare, right? And your platform is generic to the point where it, you know, you're, you're facilitating interactions. Those interactions don't need to occur through different mediums in different disciplines.

So I, I love the thought of if you guys can get this right or something approaching right that works successfully. I think you're sitting on a very, very big idea. And that's the part that would, I think, help me stay up late night, you know, and keep the hammer down on this because then think about the number of people you can help. It's unbelievable, right.

EG: 100%.And I mean that what you mentioned is what keeps me up at night in a good way, in a bad way sometimes because it's scary because at the same time, if this snowballs, I don't know, I won't know what to do with it. So that's why we're building a team of people that will help us scale it as necessary. Right now we are only open for PTs because we want to make sure we get the recipe right before we open the doors for medicine, nursing, allied health, etcetera. But to your point of Shark Tank, right, you know, like I'm seeking $100,000 for 10% and there's like, oh, you value your company at $10 million or whatever it is. And you know, show me your sales. I have no revenue, man. But I think a lot of people like, to your point, like you mentioned, forget that you can get a valuation of your business based on the market, right? So you look at the market like how big is a market? Like does this exist in that? And you just kind of look at how you're going to penetrate that market. And if those numbers match up and you don't have revenue, but you have a great idea and you can still start talking to people anytime, even if it's on a napkin, because if you have a really good idea and you have the market to prove it and the need that gives value to your company. So you can still ask for that $100,000 for 5% without actually valuing your company at, you know, half $1,000,000 or whatever it is or $5,000,000. 

SG: Yeah, there's all kinds of examples of that. So Eder, what any thought like, look, you, you're, I mean, you're not through the journey, you're still on the journey, which is super exciting. And you know, I don't think any business is ever through the journey, but you've learned a lot in this amount of time. And you're also in a unique position that you are an educator in a, in a entry level PT program. So what advice would you have to students who, who do have a desire at some point to engage in some type of entrepreneurial pursuit? Like in other words, what lessons have you learned on your journey that might be helpful or even words of inspiration or, or could be the opposite. Stick to clinical practice. Don't go there. I don't think that's a message we're going to hear. But what do you, what do you think? What would be the most valuable for students to hear?

EG: Yeah, stick to whatever you put your mind to. The, the first message is, is this when I first started this and my, my brother and his wife, they, you know, they have an economics background from Duke University. So they're like, this is starting a business is tough. I was like, like, I have the idea, like I just have to put it up on the drawing board, it's easy.

It has been about 300 times more difficult than I ever thought it was going to be. Like, I don't want to deter anybody from with that comment because honestly, if this doesn't work out, Scott, like now I have so much knowledge to go into my next entrepreneurial journey, like, you know, I'll start right away. So just do it, like try it. You don't there's, if you have an idea, start searching how to, you know, start the business, like how to, you know what type of business is going to be like we're going to register it and start looking for people that know heck up and scholar next and talk to some of our mentors that have an entrepreneurial background that can help you seek people that know more than you to help you because you'd be surprised. How many people want to help you out there that have a lot of experience, it’s just more of being able to seek these people out and just cold emails, cold texts, cold calls. But it is fun, man. I mean, it is, it is so much fun. And you know, one of my partners called me yesterday. He's like, you know, this is how like I think we're feeling right now and all these things. I'm like, you're describing my every single hour, dude, like, yeah, I'm dying over here. But then, you know, then I get a literally a, a text message from somebody that I've been pursuing for a little bit saying like, pretty much like, Hey, let's talk. I was like, small win. I'm in, right. And just keep those small wins, just keep you going. As I'm sure you know very well about like you develop a new product and you're like, I don't know if it's going to work, but you get a small win eventually. Just like keeps you going and motivated and just keep the end goal in mind, right? Like if it's to make money, don't feel guilty. If you want to make money, cool. Like we want to make money, but we're out there to help patient care. And the biggest thing that I've learned that I did not know was important if you're starting a business specifically if you're not just like, you know, hopping on and just developing something that's out there already, just have an exit strategy. What's an exit strategy? I'm like, I don't know, what do you mean exit? Like, I love this. I've been working my whole thing on this. Well, not the other day. Like I want to hire people at some point to do the things that I do that I'm doing right now, right? So as a founder, build it, get it going, and then eventually get people to do your job would be key. 

SG: That great advice and it's so true. And I will tell you one of the things that I struggle with in relation to that editor is I have a hard time letting go of certain things. But and that's a classic, you know, owner kind of thing and it's part quality control. But the but the key is if you surround yourself with good people and it frees you up to do things that quite frankly, you're better at. And, and you know, so I think it's important for, you know, when you own a restaurant that you've washed dishes that you've cooked, that you've done all these kind of things, right? But you can't, you can't have a restaurant where, where you are the one man banned consistently. And so if you can free everyone up at a level where you know, they're working at their highest value or capacity or intellectual curiosity, excitement, whatever it is, all your employees are happier. And you can start to do that as some money starts to come in. And as you, but you know, in the early stages, you're right, you are the chief cook, bottle washer and everything else. And that's just part of the process.

I think it's so good too, because I don't know, I think, you know, you realize kind of early that maybe I, I see myself doing more than just clinical practice. At some point I may hit a wall if that's all I do. And so I think the diversification of activities also helps clear the mind to make you a more effective clinician or educator or whatever it is as well. So I mean, diversity is the spice of life. And I think it's just, you touched on that in your comments, but I think that's, that's great advice as well. I think everyone needs a side hustle at some level, whether it's for intellectual curiosity purposes, whether it's for finances. And you, and you know, you've provided us with a really complicated example of that. 

And the other thing that you said that I really like is that there's so many entrepreneurs who have started with a given concept and it's either pivoted, you know, slightly or it's pivoted completely. But you're right, those skills you develop along the way and the networks you develop along the way are transferable. And so, you know, it's it, there's value to every step along the process, even if it doesn't come to culmination. And that's a, you know, it's a good thing. 

It's kind of like relationships, right? If you're single and you go on relationships, you know, not everyone has to end in your lifelong spouse, right? You know, I don't know, that's probably too much of A reach, but you know, you know what I'm saying? I think it makes you a better person, gives you perspective and it keeps the keeps the mind churning.

EG: Absolutely, man. And so, you know, I started using Scorebuilders products as a student. I think it was in 2013. So we're like what, 11-12 years out, something like that. And I remember, I think, you know, it was of course, the book, the course, the manual and gosh, I mean, Basecamp wasn’t happening out there, maybe an, an app if you know, or something like that. I don't even know if you had like, you know, the PT365, I don't know, but it's been really cool. Like if you look at right, like if you look at kind of that trajectory, I mean, you have a company that helps students pass the licensure exam. So you have a review book that's an excellent source. And so like, where do you go beyond that? And So what I've loved about what you've done is you've created all these different strategies, approaches that now the podcasts, free resources, you know, the archives, Basecamp, all these different cool apps and things that just supplement what you have.

So, you know, if somebody has an idea that they just feel is sort of one sided, it's not man. Like you can branch out in so many ways. But I could be wrong and correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't know if you thought about all those ideas I just mentioned on your own or if somebody helped you build them. And if you have people that help you develop those ideas from a concept that you have, I think this would be cool. That is tremendous to your point of having people like that sit in their position comfortably so that you don't have to do those things and just help you build what you have. Because by myself, sometimes when I'm doing a lot of things by myself, I had to start delegating things. I'm like, I can't do these or this thing, these, these, these tasks, or I'm just not doing them any justice. I need somebody else to do them.

SG: Yeah, No, you're right. And I think out of the thing you'll find and, and I think that we found at Scorebuilders is our customers end up telling us what, what are things we should be thinking about, what are the products we should have? What, at what features would enhance their learning. And so I'm sure as you get more and more users within your network, a lot of your growth and a lot of your future expansion or feature expansion will come from ideas from your, from your actual users. And that's fantastic, right? Because at the end of the day, that's who you have to, you might think something's a fantastic idea, but if that doesn't add value to your consumer base, that's probably not where you want to be focusing on at that time. So, you know, I think we are fairly creative, but we've had some ideas that we've thought have been really great ideas. And, you know, we, we bait it, we put it out there, we develop it, we kick it around with our consumers. They're like, it's OK, But this would be, this is really what we want. And honestly, nine times out of 10, they're exactly right. So, so anyway, so that's a cool part of it as well.

Hey, Eder, I, I really want to thank you for joining us today. I, I, again, you know, we go small, medium, large in terms of project size. This is a large project. And I, and I have so much respect for you taking this thing on. It sounds like you're doing so many of the right things. You've already made so much progress in a relatively short period of time. And I, I'm very much looking forward to seeing where this goes because I am 100% in on this concept. I think it's, I think it's tremendously needed. I think it is the opportunity to advance people's clinical skills and, and that opens up all kinds of doors for people. We've heard that consistently throughout this podcast. So thanks again for joining us. All the best in the future and we'll look forward to following your journey. 

EG: Yeah, man, I appreciate you having us on here or having me on here to talk a little bit more about my journey. It's always it's always refreshing to kind of lay it all out and kind of reflect on all the things that I've done. So I don't give myself enough credit. 

SG: Sometimes you're too busy to give yourself the credit. But trust me, people, people will hear this and listen to it and be like, wow, this guy's an animal.

EG: Well, I appreciate you man. 

SG: Eder great to talk to you, have a fantastic day.

EG: Likewise, Thanks Scott.

SG: And thanks to our listeners. We'll be back with another podcast next month. Take care.

Voiceover: And there you have it. Another dose of PT-preneurial inspiration to fuel your journey. Check out more inspiring stories from PTs and PTAs out there making waves by listening and subscribing to our podcasts on your favorite streaming platforms. And don't forget to rate and review this podcast. Thanks for listening.