Transcript
josh MacDonald: Hi, I'm Josh McDonald.
Miranda Materi: And I'm Miranda Materia, and we are Hand Therapy Academy.
josh MacDonald: As part of our little short series here on celebrating our 10 year anniversary, we wanted to talk about some of the lessons we've learned, some of the things that over the last 10 years are some things we've learned the hard way, um sometimes by mistakes we've made, sometimes just by growing pains, but some things we've learned. So, Miranda, what's something you feel like we've learned over the last 10 years?
Miranda Materi: I will say when you're putting yourself out on like a social media platform or any online education, people are going to be hypercritical, right? So I think that's something that I wasn't prepared for when we first started. I wasn't prepared to put something out that was evidence based. Right. But maybe it's only a short snippet. So you're going to get criticism around the other parts of that, too. Right. So if we're presenting on something that's for five minutes, we don't have the time always to go through the pathophysiology and those things that may be behind doing that exercise. So I think people would be really critical of like, well, you shouldn't do that because of this pathophysicological response, but we haven't even talked about that stuff. So I think I wasn't prepared for the criticism that we would get. um
Miranda Materi: And I think it's really easy for people to type us messages, you know, and say things. And I and i don't think I was ready for that from our peers because I always thought of hand therapists as being we were peers, right? We offer input and tips to each other face to face, but it's so much different when people sit behind the screen.
josh MacDonald: Yeah, yeah, definitely. Keyboard warriors, right? They exist in every field. And it is really easy to see something on social media and come to a quick conclusion on a 10 second clip of an exercise and have a quick response. And I've caught myself and I'm like, you know what? I'm going to delete that thing I'm typing because that's not productive and it doesn't add anything to it.
josh MacDonald: But I also think we needed to develop thick skin in regards to, we were trying to create something that didn't really exist yet. I mean, there were people doing online education, but it was CDs and textbooks that you could buy online. And it was like, it, it it we were trying to create a different.
josh MacDonald: Feel to things. And anytime you're doing something or trying to do something that doesn't maybe exist out there or a different take on it, there are going to be people who are bothered that you're competing with them. There are going people that are upset that you're doing something out of the ordinary or just, I don't, jealous is too strong a word, just unhappy with what you're doing. Be prepared for people to just try to tear it down for no other reason than they didn't think of it or it's not their idea.
Miranda Materi: Yeah, because I remember we would do these article reviews and evidence-based reviews. So we had some, one of my students did an article review on ulnar wrist taping. So she was doing the review and then we showed a picture of a patient getting taped with, based on how that article told us to tape.
Miranda Materi: And so we put the picture up on social media and just said, oh, an idea for ulnar-sided wrist pain or something like that, you know, like we'd always do.
josh MacDonald: Mm-hmm.
Miranda Materi: And we got this email and it was like, Hey, you're stealing our information. You can't put that up. Um, and it was wrong. We weren't stealing their information. We had talked about it being in a research paper and it was a very much different technique, but I think I wasn't prepared for, um, hearing stuff that was just not true.
Miranda Materi: You know?
josh MacDonald: Yeah. Yeah. And how aggressively it comes out when it's like, well, we were just sharing an article like or or sharing a video of someone using a wrist maze and hey, you're doing it wrong.
Miranda Materi: Yeah.
josh MacDonald: Well, there's a lot of ways to do the wrist maze.
Miranda Materi: Right. And I think because people don't have the context behind why we're doing those exercises, and it just such a short clip of it, they automatically draw assumptions that may not be true.
josh MacDonald: Yeah. Yeah.
Miranda Materi: Yeah.
josh MacDonald: Yeah. Yeah. um Another thing I think we've learned after making a mistake, we are now, we counted, we're on our fourth IT developer and we have struck the jackpot.
josh MacDonald: I won't give you his name or his contact information because we don't want him sharing information. sharing his time with other people, but we have found a fantastic IT developer, and that is something that makes a world of difference. when you're If you decide to go out and do anything like this, whether you want to make an app for investing in money or whatever, You have to have the right IT developer, someone who understands what you're trying to accomplish and is going to return your emails and not gaslight you about how much they know about a program that they really don't know that much about. You got to say, show me three success stories using this program. And I want to talk to those people about your expertise level.
Miranda Materi: Yeah, we did.
josh MacDonald: Yeah, we we missed the boat on that several times.
Miranda Materi: And I think, um, cause initially we hired an independent guy that we found on, you know, some website that he was just an independent contractor and, you know, it didn't work out. He didn't, we knew he was kind of outside of his scope of practice right away.
josh MacDonald: Yeah, yeah, he was in over his head.
Miranda Materi: Um, and so we went the small route and then we went with a big firm. um and I think that was even more challenging because if we had a problem, We would be waiting days sometimes, you know, on our web website down and we would be charged like, and I don't remember how much it was per hour, but it was a crazy amount.
josh MacDonald: Yeah.
Miranda Materi: So we would spend like I'd spend my evenings trying to figure out the IT problem before presenting it to the IT people, you know, because I knew it was going to be a few thousand dollars just to get things up and going again.
josh MacDonald: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
josh MacDonald: Yeah. And, and finding someone like you're going to have to have lots of mistakes. There's trial and error with all of this. You're going have the wrong guy a couple of times, but doing your research on the front end to make sure you have someone who has, you know, they're going to work with you How going to charge me every time something comes up? What's a fair rate to charge? How much should I expect to pay per hour? But be willing to pay those people.
josh MacDonald: Be willing to pay someone because our guy knows that we're going to pay him quickly and readily and we'll pay him extra if he needs it because that's something that you there's no.
josh MacDonald: replacement for getting the website back up fast or making that link work that you just pitched on social media and like, oh shoot, it's not working there. Pay that guy. Well, be willing to to put money into that.
Miranda Materi: Yeah, it's definitely very, very important.
josh MacDonald: Yeah. Yeah. um Kind of piggybacking off of that is quality, making sure that the quality of everything you put out is the highest you can manage. It's OK to be a startup. It's OK to say, you know what? I'm one person putting out some content, doing the best I can. But make sure that you're putting out the best quality you can.
Miranda Materi: Yeah, and i so I think that comes from not just the quality of the videos or the quality of the worksheets or the home exercise programs we're making. Like we always try to have really good visuals and graphics, but it's always that also the evidence that we're presenting in our courses, right? So it's making sure we're up to date on whatever we're presenting on or that particular topic and making sure that we know that there's different evidence too than what maybe we haven't used in our own clinical practice. So that way we can educate our peers and our peers can educate us.
josh MacDonald: Yeah, yeah. And the quality to to put together things that are filling a void that isn't a need that isn't met yet. Like there's lots of people doing home programs. There's every hospital out there has a home program um software that you can pick and choose the exercises you want. There's lots of people out there doing treatment guidelines and there's all kinds of that stuff is out there. Find something that you can say like, that's a thing that I can do that maybe other people aren't and I'm going to do it the best I can. You'll get better over time.
josh MacDonald: but do the best you possibly can. I like the phrase, I'm going butcher it. It's something like, don't let perfect be the enemy of good enough. So, you know, you don't have to be a perfectionist about it and say, I can't put it out until it's perfect, but strive to not just put stuff out there because it's quick and easy and it's going to generate a buck.
Miranda Materi: Yeah. And I remember when we first started and I had no background in social media at all. And I remember hiring a guy to help start like our Facebook page and things like that. And he told me, you know what? It's really simple.
Miranda Materi: Be the best at what you do. And, and I think that's just like what you're saying, like be the best at what you do. It doesn't have to be perfect, but put the best effort into it. And, um, you know, people will see that.
josh MacDonald: Yeah. I think one last thing I think that that makes me think of is being genuine, being who we are. Like there's no point where we've tried to be anything except exactly who we are. And man, nothing exposes you more than ah like makes you second guess yourself than watching a video of yourself on social media.
josh MacDonald: or spending hours video editing yourself and like watching like, oh, that's that thing I do every time I say that word. And that's what we do that we, yeah. So just being authentic and be yourself and people will appreciate, even if it doesn't feel like professionally, even it doesn't feel like, well, that's not what that person looks like. when Be yourself, do what you do. And that's what people will show up for is you know, not trying to put on a fake face and being something that you're not. It's okay to say like, you know what, we make mistakes and we screwed that up. Sorry about that.
Miranda Materi: Yeah. Yep.
josh MacDonald: Yeah. Yeah. All right. Well, we may have another one of these. We'll see if we, if, if it takes and if you guys are interested in it, but if you have any questions or have any suggestions for other podcast ideas, certainly reach out to us at a hand therapy Academy and all of our social media platforms.
