From NICU Nights to a National Mission & The Power of Niching Down

From NICU Nights to a National Mission & The Power of Niching Down

What happens when you dedicate your life to solving a problem most people don't even know exists? In this episode of The Healthcare Rebellion Podcast, Frank sits down with Theresa Richard, speech-language pathologist, entrepreneur, educator, and founder of multiple industry-changing organizations in the medical SLP space. Theresa shares her journey from discovering the life-changing impact of swallowing therapy in a nursing home to building and selling successful businesses, creating one of the largest educational communities for medical speech pathologists, and pursuing an ambitious vision to transform swallowing care nationwide. Along the way, Theresa opens up about raising a child with complex feeding challenges, the lessons she's learned through entrepreneurship, why specialization creates opportunity, and what it takes to build something meaningful while balancing family, leadership, and personal growth. This conversation is a masterclass in mission-driven entrepreneurship and healthcare innovation. Key Topics & Takeaways * The single patient encounter that rerouted Theresa's entire career, and how to recognize the moment that's pointing you toward yours * Why the niche everyone told you was "too small" is exactly where the biggest opportunity lives * The hidden epidemic most clinicians walk past every day, and what spotting it can do for your patients and your practice * How Theresa built a company from zero with no business background, and the imperfect first moves that actually worked * What she learned building and selling healthcare businesses that you can apply today * The reason so many clinicians second-guess their own expertise, and how to start trusting the instinct you've already earned * Why "balance" might be the worst advice you've ever been given as a founder and parent * How one specialist is building a national model for an overlooked condition, and what it reveals about replacing the old healthcare playboo Links & Resources Connect with Theresa: * Instagram: @theresarichardslp Learn More: * The Med SLP Collective * Medical SLP Courses * Medical SLP Certification Program CONNECT WITH FRANK * Follow Frank on IG: @frank_benedetto [http://www.instagram.com/frank_benedetto] * Subscribe to The Healthcare Rebellion Newsletter: https://go.wearehoneybadgers.com/newsletter [https://go.wearehoneybadgers.com/newsletter] * Book a call to explore what reimagining your practice could look like: https://calendly.com/honeybadger-/the-honeybadger-project-consult [https://calendly.com/honeybadger-/the-honeybadger-project-consult] * Free 60 minute training on innovative practice models: https://thehoneybadgerproject.clickfunnels.com/vsl-page1708016257108 [https://thehoneybadgerproject.clickfunnels.com/vsl-page1708016257108]

Overcoming Money Mindset Issues In Private Practice with John Coleman

Most healthcare providers got into this profession because they genuinely want to help people. And somewhere along the way, that calling gets twisted into a belief system that says struggling financially makes you more ethical. That charging what you're worth is somehow greedy. That building wealth and serving patients well are things that can't coexist. John Coleman is here to dismantle that entire belief system. He's an investor, entrepreneur, and author of the book Good Money, and someone who has spent years helping high performers reconcile a tension that most clinicians know all too well: how do you build real wealth without becoming consumed by it? In this conversation, John and I go deep on the hedonic treadmill that traps high performers, why the financial finish line might be the most important concept you've never heard of, the relationship between wealth, purpose, faith, and impact, and why building wealth responsibly actually allows you to serve more people, not fewer. Whether you're just starting your first private practice or you already have financial success but you're still restless, I think this one is going to hit home. CONNECT WITH FRANK * Follow Frank on IG: @frank_benedetto [http://www.instagram.com/frank_benedetto] * Book a call to explore what reimagining your practice could look like: https://calendly.com/honeybadger-/the-honeybadger-project-consult [https://calendly.com/honeybadger-/the-honeybadger-project-consult] CONNECT WITH JOHN * Website: http://johnwilliamcoleman.com/JohnWilliamColeman.com [http://JohnWilliamColeman.com] * Book: Good Money [https://www.amazon.com/Good-Money-Building-Financial-Purpose/dp/B0FHBV7CG4]

From Life Support to Life Purpose: Jared Maynard’s Unbreakable Story

What would it take for you to finally start taking care of yourself? Jared Maynard is a physiotherapist, strength coach, and one of the longest-standing members of the HoneyBadger Project community. In 2023, he was put on life support with a 50 to 75 percent mortality rate. His doctors told his family to say goodbye. And then, inexplicably, he began to recover. The 40 pounds of muscle his body catabolized for fuel during five weeks on a ventilator was the reserve he had unknowingly been building for decades. Every hour in the gym was unknowingly preparing him for this moment. This episode is one of the most powerful conversations we've had on this show. In this raw and deeply personal conversation, Jared and Frank cover: * Clinical nihilism: what it is, why nearly every clinician goes through it, and what comes out the other side * How a remote PT assessment over Skype in 2016 changed the entire trajectory of Jared's career * Coping with going blind: a genetic condition will eventually rob Jared of his sight, and how that shaped his decision to go all in on a digital practice * The near death experience: organ failure, life support, dialysis, and the moment his doctors told his family there was nothing more they could do * Why muscle mass quite literally saved his life and what that means for every clinician who has been neglecting their own strength * How grief, faith, and the book of Job carried him through the darkest weeks of his recovery * What it means to come back stronger and why stronger isn't always physical * His mission now: helping coaches and clinicians become the strong, healthy humans they are asking their patients to become This one will stay with you. Share it with someone who needs it. CONNECT WITH FRANK * Follow Frank on IG: @frank_benedetto * Book a call to explore what reimagining your practice could look like: https://calendly.com/honeybadger-/the-honeybadger-project-consult [https://calendly.com/honeybadger-/the-honeybadger-project-consult] CONNECT WITH JARED * Instagram: @jared.unbreakable [http://instagram.com/jared.unbreakable] * Email: jared@unbreakablestrength.net [jared@unbreakablestrength.net] * Website: unbreakablestrength.net [http://unbreakablestrength.net]

Breaking the Mold: How One OT Left the Therapy Mill to Build a Pelvic Health Practice — with Erica Bermudez

Erica Bermudez was seeing 90 pelvic health patients a week inside a therapy mill in Manhattan. She was acting as the clinical director with no clinical director above her, rushing women through some of the most intimate, emotional care imaginable... 10 minutes a session, even if they were crying. And when she hit that number, the company celebrated her on the team chat. She knew something was broken. So she left. Today she runs her own hybrid pelvic health practice in Bayonne, New Jersey, seeing men, women, and children in person and 100% virtually: blending pelvic therapy, nervous system coaching, and personal training under one roof in a model the old system told her wasn't possible. She built it from a $35-per-hour gym room rental, and she went fully all in just a few months ago. In this conversation, Erica and Frank cover: * How a denied fieldwork request in OT school and a LinkedIn job posting changed the entire trajectory of her career and what OT students can do right now if their school isn't keeping up * What it actually looks like to build a cash-based practice while working a day job, the real timeline, the scrappy early days, and the moment she knew it was time to go all in * Why being celebrated for seeing 90 pelvic patients in a week is one of the most disturbing things happening inside the broken healthcare system right now * How OTs are uniquely trained to treat the whole person and why leaning into the mental health and nervous system side of care is not scope creep, it's the profession's greatest untapped edge * The rallying cry the OT profession needs to hear: stop trying to fit the mold your professors built for you and start building something the world actually needs This one is for the OTs. Tap any of the links below for more. CONNECT WITH FRANK * Follow Frank on IG: @frank_benedetto * Sign up for The Healthcare Rebellion Newsletter: https://go.wearehoneybadgers.com/newsletter [https://go.wearehoneybadgers.com/newsletter] * Book a call to explore what reimagining your skillset or practice could look like: https://calendly.com/honeybadger-/the-honeybadger-project-consult [https://calendly.com/honeybadger-/the-honeybadger-project-consult] CONNECT WITH ERICA * Instagram & TikTok: @thepelvicfloor_ot * Website: https://thepelvicfloorot.kit.com/ [https://thepelvicfloorot.kit.com/]

The Story That Changed Laws in 150 Countries — with Adam Leipzig

Adam Leipzig was a senior executive at Walt Disney Studios when Disney was still scrappy. He helped build it into a cultural powerhouse. He went on to become President of National Geographic Films. Across four decades, he has produced over 40 acclaimed films (the likes of Dead Poets Society, March of the Penguins, A Plastic Ocean) that have collectively earned over $2 billion worldwide and picked up Oscars, BAFTAs, Emmys, and Golden Globes along the way. But the reason he's here is one film. A Plastic Ocean has been directly credited with changing environmental laws in over 150 countries. Plastic bag bans. Straw regulations. Manufacturer end-of-life requirements. If you live somewhere those laws exist, there's a real chance this film is part of the reason why. Not a policy paper. Not a lobbying campaign. A story. That's what Adam does. He figures out how to make people care... and then move. In this conversation, Adam and Frank dig into what clinicians and healthcare entrepreneurs can steal from decades at the highest levels of film, theater, and media. If you've ever struggled to articulate what you do, why it matters, or how to get people to actually listen: this one is for you. In this conversation, Adam and Frank cover: * How Adam went from Walt Disney Studios to National Geographic to producing films that changed global law and the throughline that connects all of it * The four-part narrative structure every clinician needs to master: hook, challenge, solution, call to action and why most people skip the part that actually makes people move * Why culture is discovered, not given and what that means for anyone trying to build something new inside a broken healthcare system * The 10 laws of culturenomics and how to use them to build something patients actually stay loyal to * Why your story is your greatest clinical asset and the one daily practice Adam recommends to sharpen it His new book, Fearless Persistence, drops April 21, 2026. Pre-order it now. This one is worth a second listen. Tap any of the links below for more. CONNECT WITH FRANK * Follow Frank on IG: @frank_benedetto * Sign up for The Healthcare Rebellion Newsletter: https://go.wearehoneybadgers.com/newsletter [https://go.wearehoneybadgers.com/newsletter] * Book a call to explore what reimagining your skillset or practice could look like: https://calendly.com/honeybadger-/the-honeybadger-project-consult [https://calendly.com/honeybadger-/the-honeybadger-project-consult] CONNECT WITH ADAM * Website: https://adamleipzig.com/ [https://adamleipzig.com/] * Instagram: @adamleipzig * LinkedIn: in/adamleipzig * YouTube: @AdamLeipzig * TikTok: @adam_leipzig * Pre-order Fearless Persistence: https://www.amazon.fr/-/en/Adam-Leipzig-ebook/dp/B0GQC78H7Q?ref_=ast_author_mpb [https://www.amazon.fr/-/en/Adam-Leipzig-ebook/dp/B0GQC78H7Q?ref_=ast_author_mpb] * Download a free chapter here: https://adamleipzig.com/free-chapter [https://adamleipzig.com/free-chapter]