Beating back pain: lessons on mindset, resilience and finding help

And so I started realizing at that point that I think the words that I say really matter. And similar to like cueing movement, I think the words matter and I can clean them up. You're listening to the Restoring Human Movement podcast, where movement experts discuss the latest evidence-based practices to help you and your clients move with mastery. And now, your host, Dr. Sebastian Gonzales. Hey, guys, this is your host, Dr. Sebastian Gonzales with the Restoring Human Movement podcast. Thanks for joining the movement. Movement, thanks again for joining me. If this is your first time, welcome. Thanks for joining me for the next hour or so.

This podcast, by the way, if you have not listened to it before, again, it's intended to blend the line between clinician and patients who really want to know a little bit more. And I honestly believe from a medical standpoint, we have a whole different terminology, lingo, and we're not always really good at making it digestible for patients. And so patients on the other side, sometimes they'll come in and they don't have even some of the basic knowledge about how the body works. And so I'm hoping that through these podcasts that we start to kind of blend that line a little bit so we can have a really good conversation and understanding with our patients and get them to get better quicker.

And so that's what I'm all about. I'm all about patient empowerment in this podcast. And I'm hoping that you guys use them as clinicians as teaching tools for your patients. And if you figure out that there's a podcast episode that is really useful for education about a topic you typically talk about, like recently we spoke about labral tears and how I would communicate repair and improvement to a patient. And so if you guys blend and jive with that, then send them to a patient. Patients, if by chance you run across one of these episodes, which I do preface in the beginning, and I say what we're basically going to talk about, there's a couple of them that are not really intended for you.

And I know from a marketing standpoint, people say, like, only have one audience, but I really think there's a need to cover this kind of stuff when those people blend that line, when you guys are trying to understand. However, there are a lot of clinicians out there, so I really help them with some business-related aspects too. So if you do run into one of those episodes, just skip that week, and then usually about, I'd say, 75% of the episodes are friendly to you. Now, today, I'm going to go over mainly just a recap on my personal experiences with the book that I recently put out so far. And if you have not run across the book, it's called I Will Beat Back Pain, and it's getting to a winning mental mindset before physical recovery.

And the reason why I wrote it again, if you've already heard this story, I apologize. But the reason why I wrote it was because that I've tended to see that people of very different types of injuries tend to not always do the things recommended by them, say, by a friend and family or another doc. They don't tend to do them. And the thing might actually work, but the thing is that they're not maybe in the right mental mindset to do the thing that's needed. And so it was kind of baffling to me. Like, I didn't quite get it because I had some friends that I recommended a couple videos to or parts of a course that I was developing, and they didn't do any of it.

And it was mentally frustrating for me, but also, too, for them. Like, they keep talking about how they're having problems, but they're not doing the things that are asked. And so I think there's a mental barrier in there, and there's maybe belief systems that they possibly have that are not making it a friendly environment for a correction of the thing, you know. And so if you want to learn more about that, there is the book. But, and I will put a link in the show notes as well. Thank you for everyone who bought so far and reviewed. Nice. Thank you. By the way, the best way to pay me back on these podcasts is buy the book.

I made it cheap via Kindle because I wanted everyone to have the potential to be able to help me out read the book and also review it because reviewing is really what helps me drive sales. I'm not going to get a ton of money from this thing, but for the most part, it's intended to educate the public, and I'm not going to retire off this darn book. It's just when you put that much work into something, you really want people to read it. So, and today I'm going to cover my experiences since releasing the book. And the book released around, I think it was January 15th of 2019, and I've learned a few things from since creating the book, and there's some great experiences that I've had along the way.

And so I'll share those with you today, and I know a couple people have asked me about how it's going, and so this is my opportunity to share that. And again, if you're a patient, you're going to get something from this useful, I promise, and clinicians will as well. But if this is your first time in the podcast, just know that I do tend to start out with a personal story just so you guys can get to know me a little bit better as your host. So it'll be a quick story we'll get through, and then we'll get right into the content. So just recently, I found a cassette tape, actually. And so the cassette tape was of, it was of a band that one of my, like, second or third cousins was in, and they never really went anywhere.

So this tape, this cassette tape, is really all I have of those three songs that I thought were great. And the band was called Sideshow Bob. I've looked them up a couple times, and I can't seem to find the darn stuff. So that's the only thing that I really have, and I've lost connection since with the cousin. But for the most part, I dig that thing. And so I got this thing, this cassette tape that I've been using, that was using actually in my car when I had a cassette tape by this old ranger, and it was always in there, and I was always playing the darn things that dig them, right? And so recently, I found that thing, and I have no more cassette tape players around me.

And so I suddenly started realizing that one of my friends has one. And so this cassette tape is like gold to me, all right? And so I put that thing in there as cassette player, and I said, dude, you've got to hear this stuff, like this stuff, like you've got to dig it. Sideshow Bob, man, sideshow Bob. And so I put the thing in there, and it started eating my tape. And so I about stopped the thing. I about ripped the thing off its hinges. He's like, no, don't mess up the cassette player. I'm like, dude, your cassette player is going to just tear this thing. It's only like hoppy left. So I eventually got it out, and I looked at it, and the thing was just kind of torn up, you know?

And as if you're probably 30 and older, you remember when you pull these cassette tapes out that sometimes the ribbon is all out, right? It's disheveled. And so immediately I went over to, he had a little pen thing there, and he had a pencil. And so I winded that thing up with a pencil, and I thought, oh, man, I haven't done this in probably, I haven't done this in probably 25 years, like roll these things up. And so it was just nostalgic to me. So if you haven't spent the time to roll up a little cassette tape ribbon with a pencil, I think you should do it. You might be surprised how good it feels.

So do that today. And what's your favorite cassette tape that you, I'm betting it's a mixtape, because those damn mixtapes are hard to make back in the day. So find one, play it, and get a throwback time. Here we go with the content. Now, my first experience really with the book is, so I had a lot of books in my office, and I printed them out, and I just gave them to patients. And a couple of them asked if they can pay. Actually, a lot of them asked, like, hey, I want to pay something for this book. And, wow, you wrote a book? So, number one, they were actually excited, and I was surprised, because I thought, I wrote this book, I don't expect anyone to be excited about this thing.

And they were excited that I had produced a book. And they're like, you basically know enough about this to write a book? Wow, that's impressive, you know? And so I was surprised by their excitement was probably the first thing with that. And so as some of them started to take the book and read the book, I know there was two people in particular that I remember the most with this. And one gentleman comes in, and he's got a back condition, and it goes on and off and so on. And I see him randomly for these things. It's not weekly. It's a lot of times biweekly or every three weeks or so. And sometimes he's a little confused about, you know, why this thing is occurring.

And so he originally started with some disc-based injury, which was going a little bit down the leg and not really past the knee. But over time, he developed some leg pain all the way down into the foot. And it was hard to walk. And so over the course of time, we've talked on and off about, you know, the book. And he's like, yeah, I really like in the book how you described it as this. And it really stuck out to me as this is, you know, this is this, and this is why we're doing this. And so it made it very understandable to him. And then so this last time that he came in, it actually kind of sparked the reason why I'm doing this podcast recap here, is that so he had some, he was still having problems walking, you know.

And, but for the most part, he was, he was better. Like he was 75% better. He was just, and this was about probably a five-day spurt of having this, this leg pain. And he was probably 75% better. He was able to walk. But it was just not all the time. And so he was having to still do some of this stuff. So he came in a little frustrated, you know. And he's like, I'm just, just tired of, you know, I'm tired of dealing with this. It's just because it's, I don't know if you've, if you guys have had some type of injury or especially back pain. It's mentally exhausting. And so it's tiring to, to, to address it all the time.

And, but before he left, it's, it's nice to, to hear, you know, what he said was that, you know, what really helped is that throughout reading that book, I realized that this will get better. And that the body is resilient. And I don't remember everything that I wrote in the book, honestly. I remember a lot of the parts. But I remember as I listened to the audio version, because I was making sure that everything sounded good, is that I said the word resiliency, I think quite a bit. And since then, I've been noticing a lot of people have been, that I follow, or at least people that I interact with, they've talked about how resilient the body is.

And I think understanding that you can bounce back, and this is just a period of time of a small nuisance, is really important. And so I was really thankful that he echoed that back to me. And funny, too, actually, as a side note, is that, so I've been, I've been, people have been podcast interviewing me recently. I've done about four podcasts. And so one of them released the other day. Which one was that? That was, oh, Back Pain Liberation. And that was an excellent one. It was a four-part series. So if you haven't gone to Back Pain Liberation, that podcast is, Ian's a really good interviewer, so I think he does a great job of mediating it.

And that day, by the way, I was just hurt, and I had this stomach bug just going on. So, but it was a two-hour interview, and we broke it up into four parts. But recently, I was having a little bit of, I had a little bit of thigh issues, you know, and I went on a walk. And so I listened to the podcast as it was releasing, and I was hearing myself speak, as well as Ian. And I kept talking about resiliency, and I kept talking about how people just need to pause and think about how they can mechanically change their symptoms. And so I actually was inspiring to myself. I was inspiring to myself. And I know that sounds stupid to say, but at that point, during that walk, and in that morning, I thought, holy shit, like, I don't want to do this back thing again.

And there's a little bit of fear in that, you know, and I know that people go through this. I know that the body is resilient, and I know that there's no real threat to my system. But the threat seems very real at the time. And so it was nice to hear that at that point in time. And I kind of thought that during that walk, that I was, I should keep that one in my database. And if anything does happen, you know, and something does go downhill, no matter what the region of the body is, it's nice to see that someone's been through it already. And in that case, it was me. And it's nice to echo back positive influences as someone's dealing with it.

Because I've described this quite a few times as patient mode. And it's really tough being a patient, you know. And a lot of times we, as clinicians, might think, well, this person is just not doing X, Y, and Z because they're, you know, they just, they don't have time or they're not making time or, you know, they're not listening to me or whatever it might be. But it's always not, it's not their fault. You know, it's tough. It's really tough to be a patient. And I totally get that. And so it's nice to see that the messages are being found. And so going back into that patient that I mentioned, it was nice to see that it was helpful to him along his journey to recover.

And so it was helpful to me as well. Not the book, but the podcast in particular. So the second person actually was interested in me is that somebody who, she's come on and off over the years. And typically the messages don't always stick. She tends to dart around with like, well, maybe it's that this is the problem. Maybe that that is the problem. Maybe it's I should do more of this. Maybe I need new shoes, you know. And so there's all these different tangent remedies that I typically don't recommend a lot of because she tends to reduce her symptoms very quickly without doing that kind of stuff.

So I don't want to muddy the water. But for the most part, she's since reading the book, she's come in and the concepts are sticking, you know. And she's like, oh, so maybe this is because of that. And I said, yeah, I think it is, you know. And so for me as a clinician, it's really helpful in creating a similar conversation and similar theory. And so I'm not always kind of fighting back in a light way to tell them, look, the shoes aren't the problem here. It's something else. And so it's nice to have someone on your side and have a common understanding. I guess it'd be like, I don't talk politics.

Actually, funny, there was a couple people who came before that they liked to talk politics. And they would talk politics on the other side of the room to me and then an office assistant. And they would hear each other and they would get bent out of shape a little bit. And so I was going to do something called a politics jar. So every minute you want to talk politics, you've got to put a dollar in the jar. And no one's going to interrupt you. No one's going to get offended or at least hopefully no one does. But we step into a side room and you talk politics and I'm your vent, which is fine. But a lot of times people that talk politics to each other that have differences of opinion all of a sudden gets heated.

And so back on to this book related topic with this lady is that she now we're kind of on the same political side. And so we can have a better conversation and just really get into the actual implementation of the solution to the problem versus actually arguing about what's right and what's wrong. And so that was really helpful and enlightening for me to see. And it kind of makes me think that not that I want to write another book really quickly here because I think marketing in the book is a whole different animal. But I think that the message crosses to different regions of the body. And so with shoulder problems, it's like, yes, this will get better.

What is holding you back from getting better? What have you tried? What is working? What is not working? What have you been told is the reason for your shoulder pain? And what if there's a possibility this was not an actual shoulder problem and it was a nerve-based problem or it was a biomechanical loading problem? Are you open to that suggestion? And so I think there's entry points to a lot of this, the other parts of the body when we're talking about just intervention from a mental aspect. And I'm not trying to be a psychologist. I'm just trying to help implementation of a biomechanical change.

I'm trying to make it simpler for everybody, including the patient. And so I think it can cross a lot of boundaries. And I think that each person, if they did, say, get that book and they read it and they just had the preface that said, look, I know this thing talks about back pain and it talks about my experience with back pain. Just substitute the word back pain with your injury of concern, your region of concern. And I think the message is still clear. You know, it's that, again, this doesn't have to be because of age. It doesn't have to be because of degeneration. It's a lot of times just find someone who can help, be open to their help, and then implement what will theoretically help.

If it doesn't help, we've disproved the theory that we think will help. And we move on to the next theory because there's not all types of shoulder pain or neck pain are created equal. They're a little bit different. But without testing the theory, how are we going to know? And without proper examination, how are we really going to know, too? And so it's really nice to see that this message is being absorbed in different ways. Now, the second thing I learned was, so I found that I had to actually probably rewrite some sections or not change them a ton or change my opinion on them necessarily, but more so just improve the words that I'm saying and to improve the communication so it's not misconstrued and misinterpreted.

And so originally when I started with releasing the thing, I wanted to make sure that everyone had, again, a good chance to review it and give me some feedback. And one of the listeners was a massage therapist. And when I gave it to them, I thought I had a knee-jerk reaction of, oh, crap, did I say anything poorly about massage? Because I don't remember, I tend to not, I don't think I say a lot of poor things about various different things. And I believe massage therapy is helpful. And I believe adjusting is helpful. And I believe that stretching is helpful. But they're all helpful within their own parameters.

They're not helpful for everything at all times for everybody. And so I think within that section, I had the knee-jerk reaction at first because I realized that maybe I didn't take the care to word it appropriately. And so it might be misconstrued and misinterpreted. And I didn't want the people reading the book and digesting the book to really feel like I'm devaluing that certain treatment or that certain methodology. So I had to go back and clean it up a little bit. And as I reread it, I thought, this is okay what I wrote. But maybe my knee-jerk reaction was something that I could, it was like an inherent thing where I thought maybe I can still clean this thing up some a little bit.

And so just to be clear, if you guys are listening to this and you haven't read the book already and you have no idea what I'm talking about, I use tissue work. I refer people to massage therapists, but not all the time for different things, for different people, for different cases. All right? There's time and place for everything. So I don't want you to think that everyone needs a gardener. Not everyone needs a gardener. They don't have grass. Right? They have succulents. And so there's different things for different people. Massage is the same. Adjusting is the same. Corrective exercise is the same.

Loading is the same. All right? There's different uses in different conditions. And so I think the takeaway on that is that I needed to rewrite some sections. And not just that one. I cleaned up quite a few of them. And so I started realizing at that point that I think the words that I say really matter. And similar to like cueing movement, I think the words matter and I can clean them up a little bit. And so that book, as it was released, was not really a rough draft. It was cleaned up multiple times. And early on, I did send it to people to see if there's anything that was sounding offensive in there or anything that maybe rubbed them the wrong way.

Or maybe I can clean up the verbiage. And so I had probably six people go through it. And even we had proofread six times. And surprisingly, there's still spelling errors in there somewhere and grammar errors. But funny, those things still, you still get them. But for the most part, I realized that I can rewrite some sections. So probably over the course of time, I'm going to be rewriting a couple things in there. And I already know there's a couple things that I'm going to be adding already. But funny, though, if you're ever going to write a book, if you go through Amazon, it's not bad. It's good.

It's a good experience. But the formatting of the book on a Kindle format versus a book format are actually different. And I didn't know that. So I formatted the whole thing as Kindle. And then I submitted the Kindle format to them. And they said, well, you got to do it as a book now. And so I'm like, holy shit. Okay, I'll do this as a book. So I did it as a book in Word. And then as I started to clean these sections up, I started to write the new one in Word again. And so as I went back and attempted to, or I told them, hey, can we make these changes on Kindle? They said, well, you got to do it again on your own.

And so I went into their, it's called a KDP, Kindle Direct Publishing, or there's, sorry, Kindle Create. And so I went through there. And that's their own little software program, which then makes a file, which is only read by them. And so I couldn't find that file again. So I got to do it all over again. So I think looking back, I'd probably do it as a PDF versus doing their thing, honestly. So just a word of advice to you guys. But the other thing I really had to improve on was that, and this is kind of along the lines of someone misinterpreting. So I got a bad review. And I've heard that it's a badge of honor to get your first bad review.

And I have not gotten a one star yet. There's still a two. So I don't know who the person was, but they listened to the audio version. And so the audio version was, I thought I, I honestly thought I did a good job with it. And if you've listened to the backstory of what the book originally was, it was actually part of the course. And it's because I've had people who have asked for some help that I thought needed video guidance. And then again, when they, when I supplied to them and they didn't do it, I realized there was a barrier. And that's why the book basically was a split in half version of the entire course, the first half.

So it's all the mental barrier part. So on the other half there, I mean, there are mentions of things that I did that people can get access to if they wanted to. And these are mainly from the people that I was, I was, that I'd sent it to. They were people that weren't able to get help and weren't able to drive into an area to get help. And so I was just doing it as a friendly gesture and just giving them kind of insight of, of how I do things in my office, which tends to work pretty well with, with, with these types of conditions. And so this person read it and I don't know how far they got, but I thought I prefaced it and framed things.

And I believe in good communication as much as I can. And, and I think if I'm talking about, let's say, if I'm talking about something offensive, I'm, I'm going to tell you the reason why I'm bringing it up and why the analogy is there. So framing it, I call it. And so I don't remember if I framed this well or not, but the person said, this is bullshit. And it is basically a large sale. It's a sales thing for a course. And I thought, oh man, like that, that wasn't like, that wasn't an interpretation that I wanted people to have. And so I asked around and I said, look, is this what you got? And they're like, I don't know.

The book was really useful. And I'm like, did you see the spots where there was a mention of a course in there? And they said, yeah, I saw them. And, and I'm like, there was only like three of them, right? Like, and they were in random spots where like, they would be a big tangent conversation, like with a, like teaching breathing mechanics. And they said, yeah, we saw them. Like, it wasn't a big deal. It was like a one liner. It wasn't like a whole section where you're, where you're talking about, you know, don't do this. If you don't do this, you're going to die type of thing. And so I started realizing, and I read, I read all the comments that people gave and I started realizing that, that I want to, I want to make sure that's not a barrier for people's success.

And so in the beginning now, which on audio, not on Kindle, because Kindle's hard to change. And, and it's also on book is so I framed this a little better. And I'm, so I'm always improving my communication wherever I can. And so I said, look, this book is intended to get you to the point where you're looking and wanting help. Okay. You don't have to do it with me. You don't have to go through that course. You just have to go to somebody. And for the people who don't have anybody, maybe some of those YouTube videos and so on that they're, that they're already looking for, that people probably already sent them because they care about them.

Maybe they're ready to try them now. And I'm not really condoning that people manage their own case. I still think you need, there's a need for diagnosis. And most people that go into someone's office who is really good at these things, they tend to get better quicker. Right. And I've had people come in. They're like, Hey, I've been trying, I've been trying a bird dog. It hurts my back. And so you see them do it and they twist and turn and so on. It looks like they're trying to make themselves into a pretzel. And I said, can we just clean this up a little bit? Let's do this, this, and this. And they said, Oh, that feels so much better.

You know? And once they start doing it, they end up progressing with leaps and bounds. And so what the pure intention was, and what I said with that framing, what I improved my communication was that I said, look, I don't need you to buy that thing, but there's references. This is in there because I'm going to get emails and I'm going to get, I'm going to get asked. And so my thing with these things is that if there's something that's a template answer, I can automate it because I don't have time to answer all the emails. And I would love to read them all and help everybody, but I can't. And I think you all probably understand that.

And so that's in there. But what I really want is I want to eradicate back pain because it's complete bullshit that most of it's still around, honestly. Like I think a lot of us are better at treating back pain than we ever were. I know some people would say they were worse. I don't know where that stat came from. I would love to see it. But I've gotten much better over the years. I don't know about you guys, but I've gotten much better. And so I think once people, like I feel very strongly that, and I tell people on the phone when they call and they say, look, have you seen a condition like mine?

I'm like, well, you know, like, dude, I haven't seen you yet. I don't know. All I hear is what you're saying, but I can tell you in all honesty, there's probably only been over the last year, I'd say there's probably been three people that I can think of off the top of my head that I walked out of the office scratching my head thinking, what the hell? Like I couldn't figure that out. And then I got to refer them on. And sometimes I'll dabble a little bit just to figure out if I can figure it out. And I'll try to figure it out quickly because I want to make sure these people are paying cash to do so or credit or check.

But they're paying for me to figure it out, so I want to figure it out quick. But the thing is that I feel very confident I can help a lot of people. And I don't know about you guys, but I feel that way. I'm not stumped by a lot of things. And I think it's funny that people are not seeking help by people like us. And so the frame of the book, again, is to get people into your doors. And so if you're a clinician or if you're a loved one of someone who has back pain, there are people out there who can help them. A lot of them. Okay? Not everyone has the same skill set. And I'm not saying I'm the best either.

I mean, I know a couple friends are way better than me. But I know I can help with a lot of cases. It might take me a couple more times than some of these people. But I feel very confident in it. And I would love for people to send these loved ones to my office because I want to help them. Okay? I had a guy that came in the other day. It was funny. That he, him and his wife were both had a thing going on. And so he ended up hurting, his hand hurt a little bit. His wrist hurt. Actually, his elbow hurt. And I said, how do you do this? And he's like, I was doing this, this, and that. And also, too, me and my wife trade massages.

And I thought, oh, this sounds exhausting. Like, probably the last thing I'd want to do is come home from a long day's work and then do more work. And I mean that in an honest way. Like, I don't want to do more of it. And I think people can manage their own symptoms a lot of times. And so I thought, you know what? I'm like, you know what would probably help? And so I did a little bit of a simple correction on him, which was, it was very low effort. And it was something he could do on himself. And he's like, whoa, that's really cool. And I said, yeah. I'm like, you know what? Your wife doesn't really have to massage you anymore.

So you can do this on yourself. And I'm like, can you imagine if your wife didn't need you to massage her either? How cool would that be? And so I think there's a need. And I know spouses want to help each other out. But I would love to be the one that helps these people feel more sane and feel like they're in control of their own destiny. And so back on to what I learned with the book is that perhaps if I'm going to help people out in this way and not physically put my hands on them because I can't see everybody and I'm not everywhere, is that the best thing I can do is use the book as a tool to help you guys get your people.

And I've probably referred over the last two weeks, I've referred about three, four people to random providers that I've asked other people for suggestions on because these people have reached out to me for suggestions. They've even listened to the podcast or they've seen a YouTube video or whatever it might be. But there are people that are not in my local area and I can't help them because I can't help them. So they need to go somewhere. And so and I've had a friend who he actually this was this was years ago. And so I put out a video on it was on I forget what it was, but I think it was a hip condition.

And it was mainly talking about it was talking about active release at the time. And so the guy would he just text me randomly and he's like, hey, man, I I got to get I got to take you to dinner. Like I got another person that said, hey, I saw this video of this guy and I was looking for this thing. And I looked up this the suggested correction or the or ART and you were right around me. So I came in to see you. And so I was like, dude, you don't got to give me a thing like I'm glad you're getting busy. But just keep in mind that rising water, it rises all ships, raising water levels going up raises all ships.

And so I don't know if everybody believes that, but I can tell you from personal experience that the more good shit you put out that is more patient friendly, the more we're all going to start helping more people. And there's not a star there's not a lack of people out there to help. There's a lot of people to help. So if you're a patient listening to this, just find someone maybe on a video that you think is the person for you. And they might not be around you, which is OK, but reach out to them and ask them if they know someone around you. And a lot of times there's directories that we can we can send you to.

There's there's not always the right directory for the right problem, but a lot of times there's good directories. The rehab to performance directory is a great one. The ACBSP sports symposium or sports chiropractic one is a great directory as well. If you're looking for concussions or just overall people who can manage usually hips and shoulders, I would say a little bit better. I'd say out into the extremities because we'd venture out there a little bit more. But they're more excuse me, I just burped. I probably got a second one going. They're more sports minded people anyway. So I don't want to categorize them into just only working with those areas.

But for the most part, there are directories. And someone reached out to me recently and said, I have this nerve based thing in my hand. And they were talking about trying X, Y and Z. And I said, look, man, like you're you're in Ohio. I know someone who's hosted courses in Ohio for this guy, Michael Shacklock, who's gone there. And I'm guessing there's probably people in and around the area of Ohio. In this case, I sent him to Richard Ulm. And I said, look, just contact Richard and say, look, I have this problem and I'm over in this area in Ohio. Can you suggest someone for me? And Richard probably is going to suggest someone he knows down there.

All right. People know people in areas. So I would suggest as patients just to search around and ask. There's no harm in asking them or they might ignore you. But there's no harm in asking. And a lot of us do just truly want to help people. That's why we're in the profession. But if we're not local to you, we can't really help you. And so back on the concept of this book again, I Will Beat Back Pain, which you can get on p2sportscare.com. I do suggest you get it. Buy them and put them in your damn office. OK, I got a bunch of my office and patients read them and they come back as better referring patients.

They refer more people and they start referring brothers and sisters. And I'm like, I can't tell you how many people have already come from just one or two people reading this book and becoming a strong referrer. OK, they're passionate about helping people. So use the book as intended to help more people. So probably the I don't know if we've gone through three things now. I guess this is the third thing. Maybe I knew I know I've tangented around a little bit and we'll stick with this one here. This is the third. So myself, this is just own personal reflection with so far the experience of the book.

And this is more about the promotion of the book. And this is I don't I don't say this to I'm not making trying to I'm not trying to make anyone feel guilty about anything. But just what I've what I've what I've what I've what I've realized is that. So number one, there's so there I've I've I've asked for people's feedback on the book and I really needed it. I really wanted it to make sure that I'm covering all bases with this book and that I've said things purely and that it's the right message that's needed to to be conveyed. And there's a possibility I wrote the book entirely wrong. So I needed all the stuff.

And so I had asked people for favors. And I said, look, just read the book. You don't have to read the entire thing. Just start through. And you're probably going to get a good just of it. Just of it within the first probably hour. And I did audible. I'll give it to you for free. Let's just just check it out for me. OK, I know you go on a long drive. Let's just do it. And so I've been overwhelmed by the amount of people who have given me amazing feedback. And so I'm very thankful for that. And reading through these as well. And I prompted one up here so I can tell one of the one of the reviews.

And I'll tell in a couple of minutes here. But also, too, I've realized that how hard it is to ask for reviews and how hard it is to get people to help you out with a project that is important to you. And so I've had people ask me for help of things in the past. And I've not always been on point. And I've forgotten. And I've gotten busy. And so I listen to a couple podcasts. And they ask for reviews. And I've just become that passive listener. I just don't always do it. I'm on a walk. I may be working out during the time. And I don't do it. But I'm very appreciative of their information. So one of them I really love is Smart Passive Income Podcast by Pat Flynn.

I mean, I've probably been listening to that one for the longest. And it's amazing information. And I've gotten a lot of information from it that has helped me with development of this podcast. As well as creating things like books and articles and videos and so on. But I think I didn't even review it until about a year later. And I don't know what spurred me to do it. But all of the other podcasts that I do listen to, I would love to do reviews for. And I'm probably going to try to do reviews today, now that I think about it. And it was on a recent podcast. It released today as I'm recording this.

But it was on March 20th. And it was Burpees in My 30s. So this podcast I was interviewed on, it was great. She did a great job. And I made sure that within the end of the podcast, I want to make sure that I really echo what will be helpful to her. And so I said at the end, I just want to pipe in one more thing, is that I want everyone, all the fans, to give back to that host and please review the podcast. And I know that me and her spoke a little bit, I don't remember if it was on air or off air about it, but podcasting is tough. Content creation is tough. And she said she was going to give it a good year before she decided what she was going to do with it.

And honestly, the feedback to keep going is feedback from listeners. And again, I'm not trying to make any of you guys feel bad if you haven't done a review yet. But I'm just echoing or I'm showing what it is like as a content creator. And when I started realizing that, I started trying to help other people get more of their reviews and more of their confirmation that they're doing the right thing. So at the end, I said, look, you guys can repay her by doing a review. And I've started to do more things for other people unsolicited, if I can, if I recall. And so actually, right now, I have a Google Drive folder that I designated purely to, I call it doing things for others.

And so within there, so I went to the Fix Your Own Back workshop in Arizona with Philip Snell. That was in, it was probably about two months ago by the time you guys would probably hear this thing. And so he put on a great seminar. And I think more people should hear it. And it'll be a pivotal point. By the way, I don't get any money for promoting this workshop. It'll be a pivotal point for people understanding things and developing themselves as clinicians. If they feel like, if they don't feel like I do, and they don't feel like things are easy to solve, it'll help put together the puzzles and build some confidence.

And so when I was there, I brought a camera and a tripod and a mic and all the stuff that I do for it. I mean, I got great audiovisual equipment because I create things. And not everyone has potential to have these things. And also, too, when you put it on your own workshop, you've got other stuff to worry about. And so I told Philip, I said, look, I'm going to take some testimonials of people here if they're willing. And you can use them for promotion of your course because these things are really hard to get. And so on the last day, around lunchtime, I asked, look, for all of you who are appreciative of what Philip's doing and for the information, you like the information.

If you don't like it, you don't have to do this testimonial. But if you like it and you're willing to help, please come in the other room and I will walk you through a, or I'll take a testimonial of you, a video testimonial. Don't worry. It's a video-based one. If you're scared about being on camera, I'll help you through it. It'll be a conversation with me. At the end, if you feel like you don't like what you said or you feel like you're not presentable, we'll delete it. Not a big deal. But at least giving the effort to try is a big deal. And it shows. It shows a lot, you know. And so by the end, we've got to think about four or five of them.

Some of the people, they're like, no, no, I don't want to do it. And I don't know the reason why, and I don't want to poo-poo on them about not doing it. But I know a lot of people have stage fright and public speaking fright, which that's okay. So I'm very appreciative of the people who are willing to put themselves out there and take an adventure to improve themselves. Because I know that, so Donald Mull, which is in San Diego. Donald, if you're listening to this, what's up? He's done a really good job of trying to improve his stage presence with videos. And so I've taken his testimonial at the Michael Shacklot course.

And he's very knowledgeable. And his partner's Ben, Ben DeLuca. Ben is way better on camera than Donald is. And Donald, when he sees himself on camera, and I showed him, I said, look, here's how we can improve this stuff. And he's like, yeah, it's something I need to work on and just not very good at. And I said, great. Like, if you watch my early YouTube videos, you're going to see that I was really bad at it too. And I'm probably, if I watch more videos now, probably a year ago, I was crappy about it then. So you just keep improving. And so I want to thank those people for putting themselves out there to be vulnerable when on video to help someone else.

And so I, again, so I've created these files or I've created a document there just to remind myself that I can do these things for other people. I proofread someone's PDF of their lead magnet about back pain. And when I went to Michael Shacklock's course, we got about four or five testimonials about the course and how it can help other clinicians improve their skill sets and what it would help them with. And so, again, these things are really hard to get. And so I sent these to Michael and he finally looked at me and he said, oh, they're amazing. They're amazing. Thank you so much for doing it.

You know, and again, it's very hard to get those things done. So if you think about, and this is not just for me, think about another clinician or friend or if you're not a clinician, think if you're a patient, think about how you can give back to that person in your life who helped you, who's helped you along. Or the one who maybe has asked for your help in various different ways over the last couple months and you just haven't got around to it yet. Maybe they asked you to repost something for them. Maybe they've asked that you review something for them. Maybe they've asked to proofread something for them.

Maybe a patient or friend has asked if you can send them a couple videos on what they should do next for a weightlifting program. So doing these small things for people, especially unsolicited, is a really big thing. And for me, it goes a really long ways. And I'm hoping that when you guys do it, if you do it, you're going to be paying it forward and they'll be super appreciative and they'll keep paying this thing on. So I learned that through the book that I do. Again, I do understand that everyone's busy. But for the people who were able to give that review and really put some time into it, they're amazing to read.

And so let me read one for you because this is one that was interesting to read and it was unexpected. And so this one was from a listener, Jared Moore. Jared, thanks so much for doing this. And by the way, sorry, I haven't read this thing multiple times at all. So I am typically not good at the game popcorn. So I don't know how this is going to go. But I'll do the best I can for everybody. So Jared wrote this after I gave him the thing to read. Actually, I think he did the audio. Yeah, he did the audio version. But he tended to like it. And here's what he said. So a few years ago, I suffered from low back pain significantly affecting my life at that time.

And it persisted for more than a couple days. At the time, I started to train in the sport of weightlifting, snatch, and clean and jerk. And had a couple back-to-back days of tough training. One of the following mornings, I woke up in crippling pain that had my low back, quote-unquote, locked up. It took three times as long to get ready for work that morning. And my entire workday was affected. I worked an active job as a trainer at the time. Growing up as an athlete, football and rugby, I had my fair share of back aches and pains. But this was something I've never experienced before. I was honestly nervous and afraid that I had done something super serious to my back.

And as a result, functioned very cautiously, being mindful about every movement I made. I tried stretching my back in ranges of motion that I could move in, which was very little. But that only provided short relief for the next minute or two and found myself tensing up even more in certain positions. I thought maybe resting in bed might calm things down, but it seemed to make it even worse every time I got up to move. This new sensation of back pain was beginning to take over my life as I had to adjust various life decisions, such as taking Ubers to work instead of biking. And he lived in a city at the time, waking up an hour early to be able to get ready for work.

And I even struggled to find a comfortable position to eat dinner. Not only was his back pain affecting my physical life, but it was affecting my mental state and was starting to take a toll on his mental state. One thing I realized that made my pain more tolerable was that I got up moving. It felt like it started to ease a little bit more and I started to function a little bit more. As I was in one position for an extended period of time, my pain would eventually creep back. Eventually, as time passed, my pain became more and more tolerable where I could start to do my daily activity closer to a normal pace.

Unfortunately, this was after some time I eventually reached out to an expert, a local PT friend on exercises and movements that could get me back into normal activity. After about two months after this episode of back pain, I was trying to get back into weightlifting but was very hesitant and it took much longer in a gradual approach back into training. After reading or listening to Sebastian Gonzales's book, I wish I would have had this or something like this book back when I was dealing with back pain or going through this experience. I think my beliefs about back pain would have been different and I think I would have been able to get better in a more effective way.

Reading through his experience really resonated with me. Knowing that other people have been through the same thoughts and feelings towards their back was very helpful. I really enjoyed how empowering this book was for those going through back pain and back pain experiences. Sebastian Gonzales really lays out the anatomy and clinical reasoning in an easy and understandable fashion. His methods of tackling back pain was very similar to what I went through and I can say with confidence that I no longer have anxiety about re-injuring my back. I also feel confident that if I have a new experience of back pain again, whether similar to my last experience or something new, I have a helpful tool in this book to be able to guide me correctly or to be able to guide me.

Let's see, let me word this. I have a helpful tool in this book to get the right guidance and back into the mindset to recover from it. I would highly suggest this book for anyone who's had back pain or is currently experiencing back pain, especially if you feel like it's taking over your life and you can't do anything about it. Because you can and will, if you get into the right mental mindset, find the right provider to show you how. So, thanks so much, Jared, for sharing that. And, again, you put yourself in a vulnerable position to share this story and not everyone is willing to do that. And, again, back on the, you know, this is not back on anything, I guess, but I always believe in the thought that no one likes to be naked alone.

And I think by writing this book, it's providing a nakedness that other people are willing to express their nakedness to. And so you don't always get good stories like this out of people. So I was very happy to get something like this out of Jared. By the way, everyone else's reviews were amazing as well. And I'm glad you get a tool to mess with. So I guess as I wrap this podcast up, I don't know if we actually went down the intended route on things. But these are still things that I learned through publishing that book. And I'm learning things all the time with it. And probably something I need to learn a little bit more of is how to market it well because I think it's a very valuable tool for recovery for a lot of different things.

But just like as we as healthcare providers or as patients trying to, say, make a, say they're a salesperson, trying to make a sale of something that people will need, like a burglar alarm in a bad neighborhood, you kind of, you got to get the people in the right mindset to get it. And you have to be able to generate enough people getting in there to where it kind of sells itself. And that's something I'm still learning. So I definitely need to get better at that over time. But I guess today was kind of a self-reflection on things. So it was very helpful to me. I did learn a lot of things through writing that book.

But I think that's all I have to share today. But if you guys want to hear from someone in particular, tell me, email me at info at ptsportscare.com. Some of you have reached out with some suggestions of some people to listen to or, sorry, to interview. And they're still in my queue. I do have a lot of things coming up that I am spending some time and effort doing. So I want to make sure that I'm going to investigate them in their own right and also make sure that they're right for the audience in mind. And so I do tend to look into my people's background a little bit and see what they're looking to promote.

And actually, if you do have someone to suggest, what would be very helpful is if you, like, I'm a podcast guy. I don't tend to read a lot of things. So if you have a sample version of what they've already spoken about on a podcast interview, that would be really helpful. So do that for me. And lastly, if there's a podcast that you listen to that you think would benefit from me speaking on, mainly with regards to my experiences with the book, not what I talked about today, but with something like more empowering to people to get in and see someone who can help them and just kind of getting them out of the weeds and feeling like they're never getting it better, please suggest my name because I would love to share my experience more and more.

And I'm very thankful for the people who have let me be on their podcast before. I'm going to put links in the show notes to all the podcasts that I've been interviewed to date. Gosh, I'm learning how to interview. Being the other side of the mic is actually tough. So I'm learning that now. So, all right. Leave people better how you found them. If you're looking for all the notes and links on this podcast, p2sportscare.com. And just type in the number of the podcast you're listening to. And if you're dating, date an Eagle Scout. Talk to you guys soon.