Rachel Brown is the founder of Golden Recruiting and a physical therapist with more than 10 years of experience. After spending years working directly with patients and therapy teams, Rachel transitioned into healthcare recruiting with a mission to help organizations hire clinicians and leaders who are the right long-term fit, not just fill open positions.

Through Golden Recruiting, Rachel partners with clinics, hospital systems, and therapy organizations nationwide to recruit physical therapists, occupational therapists, speech-language pathologists, and executive leaders. Her track record includes placing regional directors, clinic directors, vice presidents of operations, CEOs, and therapists across outpatient, home health, and skilled nursing settings.

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🔍 Why Listen?

Derek Lee sits down with Rachel Brown, PT, DPT, founder of Golden Recruiting, for a candid conversation about an entrepreneurial path she never planned to take. After more than a decade as a clinician — including a stretch in home health that she once swore she'd never do — two spinal surgeries in 2019 forced Rachel out of patient care right as the pandemic hit, pushing her to figure out what came next. If you're a PT or PTA feeling the entrepreneurial itch but worried about the headache of starting something on your own, or you're simply curious how clinical experience translates into a completely different career, this episode is packed with grounded, practical insight.

🧠 What You'll Learn

• How a back injury, two spinal surgeries, and the onset of Covid pushed Rachel from home health PT into founding Golden Recruiting.
• Why she had to learn to actively "connect the dots" for clients and candidates who assumed a DPT wouldn't translate to recruiting.
• How working in home health — versus outpatient — gave her a broader view of multidisciplinary teams and how healthcare organizations really function.
• Why so many organizations unintentionally sabotage their own hiring by overselling a role and hiding its downsides.
• What separates clinics and health systems with strong retention from those with high turnover.
• The real financial trade-off of leaving a steady PT paycheck for a business where "you get out of it what you put into it."

💡 Key Takeaways

• Clinical Skills Are Transferable — But You Have to Say So: Rachel was told "no" repeatedly early on because clients didn't see how a DPT translated to recruiting. She learned that interviewing patients, building rapport quickly, and thinking on your feet are the same skills that make a great recruiter — but you have to explicitly connect those dots for people.
• Transparency Beats Selling: The biggest mistake she sees organizations make is leading with the highs and downplaying the lows of a role. Candidates find out eventually, so putting all the information on the table upfront leads to better long-term fits.
• Know Your Ideal Candidate — and Be Willing to Walk Away: The strongest organizations she works with have identified exactly who they're looking for and accept they're not the right fit for everyone, rather than chasing every available body.
• Retention Starts Before the Offer: Nothing is more expensive than repeating a bad hire a year later. Rachel and her clients talk about long-term fit — for the candidate and the organization — from the very first conversation.
• Entrepreneurship Removes the Safety Net: Unlike a salaried or hourly clinical role, running your own business means the results are directly tied to what you put in. A business coach or accountability partner helps offset the isolation of being "on an island."

🎙️ Memorable Soundbites

• "You have to essentially connect those dots for people. You can't assume that they get it or they understand how your degree can translate into something else."
• "If I'm putting myself in the shoes of somebody who I'm trying to reach out to — what does that look like?"
• "Nothing's more expensive than having to repeat that [hiring] process again, X amount of months or a year down the line."
• "When you're running your own business, it really is exactly what you put into it that you get out of it."
• "I'd just like to leave [recruiting] better than I found it."

🚀 Actionable Tips

1. Translate Your Clinical Skills Out Loud: Don't assume a hiring manager or client understands how your clinical training applies. Spell out exactly how skills like patient interviewing, rapport-building, and rapid problem-solving map to the role you want.
2. Outreach From the Other Side of the Inbox: Before sending a cold message, ask what you'd do if you received it. If it reads like spam you'd ignore, rewrite it to be specific, relational, and worth a reply.
3. Put the Full Picture on the Table: When hiring — or being hired — share the realistic lows along with the highs. It costs you less now than losing that person to a surprise six months in.
4. Define Who You're For (and Who You're Not): Get specific about your ideal candidate, client, or hire, and get comfortable walking away from a mismatch rather than chasing every opportunity.
5. Get Someone in Your Corner Before You Leap: Whether it's a business coach or an accountability partner, don't try to figure out a new industry or venture entirely alone.

💭 Conversation Starter

Rachel says one of the biggest hiring mistakes she sees is organizations that are afraid to mention a role's downsides for fear of scaring candidates away. What's one honest detail about your own job, clinic, or team that you'd want a candidate to hear upfront — even if it might not be what they want to hear?