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7 years
195 Plays4 days ago
Miranda and Josh talk about the last 7 years, since the inception of Hand Therapy Academy.
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Transcript
Introduction and Journey Overview
00:00:04
josh MacDonald
Hi, I'm Josh McDonald.
00:00:06
Miranda Materi
And I'm Miranda Materia, and we are Hand Therapy Academy.
00:00:09
josh MacDonald
So we have just recently passed the seven year mark. Our very first post was put up just over seven years ago and we've come a really long way doing all kinds of things from trying to record weird bad videos on a cheap recorder to all the way up to doing all this website and training people. It's just been a huge journey for us. So we wanted to kind of do a little recap.
00:00:30
Miranda Materi
Yes, so it is, what are the top lessons or the top things that have come out of the last seven years for you?
Recognizing Audience Needs
00:00:38
Miranda Materi
And it really can be anything.
00:00:39
josh MacDonald
Yeah. Um, so we just, we come up with these topics kind of off the cuff. And so these aren't like, I didn't sit down and think about this for a day or two. So this is just kind of off the cuff. One of the first things I think about is the huge need that was out there that we didn't realize the the number of people, you know, we, we know we're a niche market and we know we're not appealing. We're not going to have a giant YouTube following and all these, but it's been interesting to see how much people are just sponges and want to soak up and all these,
00:01:06
josh MacDonald
Younger therapists in particular who have a hard time finding access to things are just anxious and and hungry for all of this. So it's been really cool to just help people get access to all this stuff.
Unexpected Paths to Education
00:01:16
Miranda Materi
Yeah, and I think that's interesting because it was never our goal, right? Like when we started, it was never our goal to be like, oh, we're going to be, you know, just teaching hand therapy, hand therapist, right? It started as we're just going to share information and hopefully build our private practices. So it's just kind of interesting to me to think like that was never the end goal. But just by saying yes to things and doing more things, we've kind of created this. Well, yeah, that's basically this online forum that was never like really the primary goal.
00:01:46
josh MacDonald
Yeah, yeah, but you're right. Just kind of saying yes to things and being open and willing to things is um is what led us where we are. And I think that that willingness is something that that i were I feel like I say no a lot to things.
00:01:57
josh MacDonald
so Great ideas that Miranda has. I'm like, I don't think we can pull that one off, but yet we usually do.
00:02:00
Miranda Materi
do all but know
00:02:04
Miranda Materi
I always know when to ask.
00:02:06
josh MacDonald
Right, right. So what would you say is one of your big takeaways?
00:02:11
Miranda Materi
Oh, geez. i'd like you I didn't have a lot of time to
Creating a Supportive Learning Space
00:02:14
Miranda Materi
think about this. I think, at least for me, there was something that I wanted to give to people that I felt like I didn't have, and that was a safe space to share information. so um like when we would I think you and I were trained similarly, right? like You didn't want to share mistakes or really ask questions for fear of being reprimanded. or People looking down upon you or like I remember like sometimes I would get patients from one therapist and I would be really like ah It would be really hard to see your patients because afterwards, you know She would like in a very like aggressive way. Tell me all this stuff. I was doing wrong I think that ah It's fun to see like how we can like share information in a space that's like safe and kind to each other So like when you and I get questions, it's always like well
00:03:06
Miranda Materi
Like for me, I'm always like, well, I want to make sure this person continues to feel comfortable asking me this stuff. So I'm going to try to present the information in a way that's like kind and fun and like where we're moving the for the field forward, as opposed to something where we're like, oh, we shouldn't share that because that's mine and only mine.
00:03:11
josh MacDonald
Yeah. Yeah. And I think that that that last comment you made there is another big takeaway from me.
Content Creation and Learning
00:03:30
josh MacDonald
We didn't create any of this. Like, there's very, very little that is specific to us that we invented or created or came up with. Most of what we have, we learn from other people. We learn from articles and textbooks.
00:03:44
josh MacDonald
We're just trying to put it together in a way that makes sense and organize it and make it something that's easy to consume and digest and understand. um But we don't hold on to any of this, almost any of it, except maybe like the branding and the name that we copyrighted, which was fantastic. But we don't hold on to much of it as like, hey, that's ours. like you shouldn't You shouldn't touch that.
00:04:05
josh MacDonald
Like, that's not how you grow a practice, grow a field, is by hanging on to things and not sharing. Like, this is, you know, if someone wants to do a button book, go to a button book. Someone wants to make a heavy wrist maze, or if other people are out there teaching people how to do the CHT exam, great. More CHTs out there. That's okay.
00:04:20
Miranda Materi
Yeah, it's really like just sharing your knowledge to grow our field and make our field better, right? So if there's a taping technique, or we're never gonna be the one that says, hey, that was mine, I don't want you using that, right? We want you to use the information that we're sharing. And of course we wanna give credit to the people that um maybe wrote it, or that's why we're always trying to put in our citations or where we heard it from. But yeah I think that's a good point, Josh. we don't None of this is really an original idea, it's stuff that we've learned from each other.
00:04:49
josh MacDonald
yeah yeah
00:04:49
Miranda Materi
And the things we learn from our members too, right? Like how much do our members teach us with their questions and showing us things?
00:04:57
josh MacDonald
Yeah, and there's there's no point at which I am not constantly learning with all of this. like Like we're doing a project where we're going through, we have the hand right now and doing some other things. And I'm constantly learning new things and reading stuff and diving into articles and the members that ask us questions and the Instagram questions we get, like that always causes me to go second guess things and question things and find research to support that. Well, why do I do that? what Well, let's find out why. And so it's it's been a constant learning process, which is great.
00:05:27
Miranda Materi
Yeah.
Skills Gained Through Teaching
00:05:28
Miranda Materi
So like 70 years ago when we started this, right, I was thinking, gosh, I do know a lot. I've read the book a few times. I've treated hundreds of thousands of patients. I made a lot of splints.
00:05:37
Miranda Materi
Like I'm like, I do know a lot. But then when you have to teach someone else or when you get to teach someone else, you'll learn it so much better.
00:05:42
josh MacDonald
yeah
00:05:46
Miranda Materi
Right. So in therapy academy has been a gift not only like in terms of, you know, what we get to share, but also like selfishly for my own learning. Right. I'm so much a better therapist and um better teacher now than even what I was seven years ago because it's you're just consuming the content all the time.
00:06:04
josh MacDonald
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I am, I love learning and I love learning like new things. And Hand Therapy Academy has given me the opportunity to learn not just hand therapy related stuff, but all these other things that we do, learning how to use um like Adobe formats and learning how to use video editing software and how to set up a filming studio and how to put together like graphic design stuff. My daughter graduated graphic design school, so she's teaching me all these. It's like all the stuff we get to learn and do. It's funny sometimes we'll get emails and say, hey, could you and your team take care of somebody?
00:06:36
josh MacDonald
There's no team like it's the two of us and an IT guy in Ukraine which is he's amazing but like there's not this big team it's us figuring out how to do these websites and all this different stuff which has been ah it's no longer a side hustle but it's been great to for me I like learning how to do new stuff so it's been fun.
00:06:54
Miranda Materi
Yeah, I do remember that, right?
00:06:54
josh MacDonald
eat
00:06:56
Miranda Materi
It was a huge hill to climb warning how to do something on our website, right? And now we just kind of have to do it all. there so If there's a problem, if someone's contacting us, it's us trying to figure it out.
00:07:07
josh MacDonald
Yeah, yeah.
00:07:08
Miranda Materi
That was a huge steep learning curve.
00:07:11
josh MacDonald
And we have been through when we are on our fourth, I think, IT guy um and have had a lot of ups and downs times when we were supposed to launch and COVID saved us from having a massive failure at ASHT and having things just fall apart.
00:07:25
Miranda Materi
oh yeah
00:07:26
josh MacDonald
So there have been lots of up and downs and you don't always see that when you look at someone's stuff on social media. That is not reality. That is not what
Overcoming Challenges and Global Impact
00:07:34
josh MacDonald
it looks like. That is the forward facing view that you give people and there's a lot of messy mistakes and stuff that happens behind the scenes to get to the things that look ah halfway decent on the forward facing side.
00:07:48
Miranda Materi
Yeah, like I never thought I'd be writing code, right? But like there's no one else to do it. And then whenever I ask Josh if we should hire someone, he's always like, well, can't we figure it out ourselves?
00:07:53
josh MacDonald
Yeah.
00:07:59
Miranda Materi
He's always like, yeah, you know what? We can.
00:08:02
josh MacDonald
Yeah, yeah, my one of my edicts in life is don't pay someone else due to do something I can figure out and so I can figure out video editing buddy of mine showed me how to do it. and We do video editing and ah we've got this massive setup for recording and it's just we're running our own code.
00:08:15
josh MacDonald
It's great.
00:08:16
Miranda Materi
That's right.
00:08:17
josh MacDonald
Yeah, yeah. um Any other big take homes to wrap up today before before we finish any other big things about the last seven years?
00:08:26
Miranda Materi
No, I just think it's been really, rhubar it's been really great and a really fun experience and getting to meet people from all over the world and mentoring people. It's, I don't know, it's really actually incredible. And I'm really thankful for hand therapy Academy.
00:08:40
josh MacDonald
Yeah, yeah, me too. And I agree with you. One of the coolest things for me, and we love helping all these members. It's really cool to see the international impact we have. It's not huge, but it is cool to see people from Iran and Brazil and Australia and Russia and all these countries that aren't even speaking the same language as us, but they're finding us and it's helpful to them. I think that's super cool. And and as much as helping someone who's in the middle of an entirely rural area and they see 20% hands and they have no access to mentorship or education,
00:09:13
josh MacDonald
and there's they found something that can help them along. So it's been a really rewarding experience.
00:09:17
Miranda Materi
Yeah definitely.
00:09:18
josh MacDonald
Yeah. All right. Well, let us know if you have any questions. Feel free to reach out to us. You can reach us on our email info at handtherapyacademy.com or on our social media platforms at handtherapyacademy.com.