The Power of Human Connection | Zaya Ismail

Zaya Ismail: You want your patients to be looking forward to go to the clinic, and to do that, the culture has to be exceptional, and you could be the smartest person in the world that understand all the special tests and assessments. But if you can’t connect with the patient, does it mean anything?

Anderson Williams: Welcome to Everyday Heroes, a podcast from Shore Capital Partners that highlights the people who are building our companies from the inside, every day, often out of the spotlight.

With this series, we want to pull those heroes out of the shadows. We want to hear their stories. We want to share their stories. We want to understand what drives them. Why they do what they do. How they might inspire and support others to become Everyday Heroes too.

In this episode, I talk with Zaya Ismail. And I’ll start by just sharing words directly from his Everyday Hero nomination. Zaya is a force to be reckoned with. He’s a Regional Director of operations at Therapy Partners Group. He’s hungry for growth, and he’s done an incredible job being a cultural leader and multi-use player.

Zaya is treating patients, he’s leading our teams, and he’s got a unique ability to go into underperforming clinics and turn them around by building an incredible culture where people love coming to work. And that leads into building a great and contagious patient experience as well.

Zaya Ismail: Well, thanks for having me on guys.

My name is Zay Ismail. I was born and raised in Turlock, California. Turlock is in the Central Valley of California. Some hobbies of mine include playing sports, hanging out with family and friends. I love a lot of different kinds of genres of movies. I’m a big mobster movie guy. I like some sci fi stuff like Star Wars and Lord of the Rings, but my passion is really physical therapy, and I’m sure we’re going to get a bunch into that.

So excited to be here, guys. Thank you for having me.

Anderson Williams: Of course. Was it your interest in sports that got you into physical therapy? How did you end up in a career in physical therapy?

Zaya Ismail: I think that the most common way that physical therapists end up in the actual profession is through an injury, and mine was through a sports injury.

I was 17 years old. I was playing football with my buddies, and I actually tore my patellofemoral ligament. A week later, I had surgery done, and then I ended up having physical therapy at Golden Bear in Turlock, where I grew up, and I was surrounded by a lot of therapists who I admired.

You know, they were smart, they were cool, so I thought it’d be a good career for me to jump into. Everything happens for a reason, dude. And then I love the profession and the impact it has on the community is great. So, it’s been an awesome five years so far.

Anderson Williams: And so just to restate that you were actually a patient at Golden Bear and now you’re a clinic director and within the Golden Bear brand. So, you must’ve had a pretty good experience.

What was it like? What do you remember at 17, what that experience was like? And was that something that you were something that said, hey, this is not only something that I want to do, but maybe someplace I want to be. What was it about that experience?

Zaya Ismail: Yeah. So, I mean, walking into the clinic, I was non weight bearing, so I couldn’t even walk and, you know, just going through the phases.

So, phase one was the pain management phase where I was just in so much pain. I couldn’t do much exercise and just having them give me that patient education on what to expect. Right, so they set the expectations, so I was in the know of what to actually feel. And then just progressing along that plan of care and slowly just seeing me being able to go from not being able to walk, to walk, to kind of squat, to do a light jog, and then to get back to jumping and squatting and lunging and doing all that stuff.

So just seeing the power it actually has, but you don’t actually see the power unless you actually experience it firsthand. Which was amazing for me to do, and my therapists were Jon Aycock, Justin Lindo, and Adam Pike. And I still work alongside them today, and they’ve been my mentors for years and years.

Anderson Williams: I found it incredibly powerful to hear that a 17-year-old, coming in at probably one of his weakest and most vulnerable points in his young life, found not only healing, but such inspiration that it still drives him today. And now, he’s providing the same for his patients.

Zaya Ismail: I’ll give you a specific example that hits home.

In my first three months of treating, I had a patient come in post stroke. So, the whole right side of his body was affected. His range of motion was impaired. He had no strength. His balance was off. His daughter was getting married in June of that year. I think he came in like February or March and his goal was to walk his daughter down the aisle, which was huge. It was empowering. It gets emotional too, man. It’s great. The impact it has is awesome, right?

So, he came in not being able to walk. His range of motion was shot. He wasn’t able to raise his arm over his head. He wasn’t able to flex his hip up or even start the gait pattern without having a wheelchair. And then that’s when it’s like, okay, so we have him in for the evaluation. We develop his plan of care and then you get bought into the actual patient.

So, in the profession, there’s a lot of different doctor degrees, but you know, physical therapy is really a doctor degree where you’re really able to spend time with that patient. Like you’re seeing him day one, understanding what he has to work on, and then seeing him throughout his whole plan of care and seeing how he improves. So that bond becomes really strong. You’re seeing him like two times a week, sometimes for six to eight weeks, which is awesome.

So, with this specific patient, he went down and measured the aisle. I think it was like something like 50 to 70 feet. So that was his goal to walk. So after going through all the therapeutic exercise and interventions and all that stuff and him being compliant with it, because something that we always tell our patients is that we can tell you to do everything, but if you don’t do it, it doesn’t mean anything. Being compliant is huge. So, getting that patient to be compliant, we understood what his individualized goal was, and we got him to actually on the day of the wedding, walk down the aisle with a single point cane.

Anderson Williams: Yeah. Well, I think it’s something that I’ve never really thought about is that deep personal connection, different from other medical practices in many ways, that you’re looping into someone’s story, their life goals, you’re spending extensive time with them. It’s not a 10 minute in the room and then pass them off to somebody else to get their treatment kind of transaction.

It’s you’re very much in each other’s personal space. You’re learning each other’s personal goals. You’re having conversation around. I mean, there is a deep, rich relationship. I imagine that really develops in that environment. I never really thought about it.

Zaya Ismail: Yeah, it’s very deep. And you know, you guys almost become friends. It’s crazy. So, you know, a lot of the patients that come in there like on day one, they’re not sure what to expect. And day one is huge, man, because that’s evaluation day. So, it’s like you gather all the charts. So, you understand what their medical history is. If they’ve had any past surgical history, their aggravating factors, easing factors, how this all happens.

So, you’re getting that intake, but that’s where that rapport starts. That’s where their culture starts, right? So, if you’re able to really connect with that, patient, then more times than not, that patient is going to be compliant with their exercise and they’re going to come to therapy. That’s going to lead to more time spent with that patient.

And in life, if you get two people in a room, you’re bound to just understand them more. And then the cool thing is like, after we discharge a patient, you won’t believe how many times that we actually see them in the community, like at a store, at an event and stuff, and you wave and then you meet their family.

So, it’s a very close-knit profession and it’s powerful because of the amount of time we get to spend with the patient. But the amount of time is very quality time because. The time we spend with them is all about them getting better, which they sincerely appreciate. So, it’s really good feeling, man. It’s good.

Anderson Williams: You can hear and feel Zaya’s passion for what he does in every word and every story. I wanted to hear more from the TPG team’s perspective about his work, his passion, and his impact. Here is Brandon Nan, Senior Vice President of Operations at TPG.

Brandon Nan: Zaya’s attitude is an I can attitude. Always solutions oriented, upbeat, positive.

He’s the type of guy that walks into a room and makes everybody want to be better just by being in his presence, which is one of those rare things that you get to see in people and Zaya possesses that. It’s just, you can’t help but smile and want to work hard with him. You know, he’s got that.

Anderson Williams: How important is that kind of attitude, not just for those who get to work with them, but for the healing possibilities of working with your patients?

Brandon Nan: It’s a big part, you know, part of being a really good physical therapist and leader in this space is having that positive attitude. Especially when people have, sometimes they’re in their darkest days, they injured themselves in a way that they don’t see coming back to how they used to be. And if you have that positive attitude and build that sense of trust, the amount of inspiration that gives to a patient and then the team members around that see that is critical.

So, he innately has that most people don’t, you know, they have to fake it till they make it. It’s just part of him.

Anderson Williams: And when you think about that and you think about his impact on you, on his team, on your patients, how would you summarize what makes him an Everyday Hero?

Brandon Nan: What makes him an Everyday Hero is he.

embodies what people aspire to be or who you’d want to emulate. And that’s who he is. He’s always got this upbeat, contagious smile. If you’re in a bad mood or you’re not having a good day, when you’re done with Zaya, you’re going to feel better about yourself. And he just does it because it’s part of who he is, which has put him in the position that he’s in today.

You know, he’s moved from a staff physical therapist into a clinic director role. One of our largest facilities took that to new heights. And then when we were having big challenges in one of our rural offices, bringing him into that scope and asking if he could help, he did. And not only did he take it from a dire position, he’s restaffed it and it’s better than it’s ever been.

And now he’s in a position as a Regional Director of Operations, managing over seven different clinics and scaling. And his biggest question was, what do I do in this role? And I said, do what feels natural and that’s building relationships and showing people who they ought to emulate. And that’s you. If you can do that, then we’ll have a lot of success.

And we have a lot of great team members, don’t get me wrong. He wasn’t given something that was, you know, broken. But I’ll tell you what he’s going to do. He’s going to make it something good, great. And he’s just good at that. You can’t just hold the part. You got to live the part. And man, did he embody that.

And once he started feeling that he had a little bit of success, he runs with it. And I guess the best way to put it is he has this like innate feeling. Like he’s just part of him. He’s just going to make it happen. So as an Everyday Hero, he’s going to bring up the people that are having struggles, the people that may not see the forest for the trees in the clinic.

He’s going to be able to give experience to the techs that are there and encourage them to keep going and get their PT degree or advance. He’s going to make the front office feel welcome. He’s going to make every single patient that comes in there feel like it’s the most important part of their day.

And I think that’s why he’s an Everyday Hero, because he really gives that sense of stability and trust that you ought to have in a healthcare setting.

Anderson Williams: Building relationships, modeling the behaviors you want your team to emulate, stability, trust. These are the foundations of Zaya’s leadership success that have led not only to patient success, but to company success.

I wanted to hear more about his own evolution and how he managed to scale his approach in spirit. In response, he gives a masterclass on the relationship between team and patient engagement. So I’m curious, Zaya, how you have translated that relationship building, that personal connection that you experienced as a patient, that you’ve shared with your patients into the role where you’re kind of more of a business leader in terms of thinking about these seven clinics that you’re helping lead.

How have you translated that intense one on one of being a practitioner to the broader work of being a business leader?

Zaya Ismail: So, to your point, my foundation started with the love of treating patients. So, I was a regular staff PT for about a year, and then I got offered the Clinical Director role. And I was there for three ish years, which was a similar role to a staff PT, but you just have a little bit more admin work, um, and stuff to do there.

But the jump to Regional Director was really eye opening for me because not only now am I in charge of seven clinics, but, um, have to be in close contact with authorizations and intake and talking to surgeons and marketing and doing all that stuff too. So, I guess I have to take you through my day by day to kind of just go over this.

So, every day when I wake up, it’s like, there’s two things, right? You want to make the ultimate patient experience and employee experience. Well, the employee experience is huge because if you treat your employees well, they’re going to take care of the patients.

So, you know, there’s kind of three main things I want to make sure that all the employees kind of know is one. I want them to really understand that culture means everything. So, behaviors drive the numbers. I could be online all day and looking up a patient visit scene and our drop rate or show rate, and the way we’re billing codes and our reimbursement rates and stuff like that, which all need to be seen and understood, but if you have good behaviors in the clinic, then all that stuff falls in line.

So, we’re blessed in the Central Valley here to have an abundance of referrals. So, referrals isn’t our issue here. The thing we just have to work on is understanding that right when that patient walks in the door, that patient has to enjoy his experience and then everything on the business side of things takes care of itself.

And Golden Bear Physical Therapy has amazing physical therapists on board. They’re smart, they’re nice, they love to work. And when you get that Avenger team going, then great things happen, dude. So in terms of the business aspect of things, there’s more things I have to understand and keep up with in terms of hitting like quarterly budgets and targets, which again are very important to hit and that’s what makes a business run, obviously, but to get there, you have to have an amazing culture built on a great employee experience.

So, I would say waking up my job is to just empower my employees and understand that they are supported by me on the back. And I have their back to the end, basically, because if that stuff happens, it’s going to trickle down to their staff and their patients and good things happen then, man.

So that’s kind of my business approach here is obviously understanding. What you have to hit, but the way to hit it is by having just a sincere culture where people actually care.

Anderson Williams: Zaya’s Everyday Hero nomination specifically called out his ability to turn around a clinic that isn’t performing optimally.

So, I wanted to hear more from his perspective about that particular area of his work. What does it take to turn around a clinic? So, it’s one thing to build a great culture. What does it take and what is different about going into a place that maybe is struggling and trying to establish or reestablish that culture?

Zaya Ismail: So, I was a Clinical Director in Turlock at first, and then I got offered to go direct Patterson. Now, Patterson was an underperforming clinic at the time. This was 2022. So, it was a clinic that had the right personnel. There was good staff on board. But the targets were not being hit. So, I took the leap of faith, and I left Turlock, which was my favorite clinic to just be in. I grew up here my whole life. The community is awesome.

But you know, for personal growth, you want to always seek ways you can improve in life. I mean, that’s the meaning of life, right? To continue betterment and helping as many people as you can, right? So, I went to Turlock. to Patterson and I remember one of my mentors, Brandon Nan, who’s senior VP of therapy partner groups right now.

You know, he always tells me it’s on you, right? So, walking into a clinic, you have to understand that even though I’m a Clinical Director, it doesn’t mean I can’t answer phones to schedule patients. It doesn’t mean I can’t clean tables. It doesn’t mean I can’t do laundry. It doesn’t mean I can’t do the tech work, right?

The truest thing Anderson to me ever is actions speak louder than words. We’ve all heard that a thousand times, but it’s so true. So being able to put yourself on the line and seeing how other people see that, not just the actual employees, but even the patients, it creates a culture. Is the music loud enough?

Is there coffee in the back? Are there snacks in the back? Are we doing a quarterly outing? Are we having a master meeting calendar where we sit down and speak about not just the great things, but the things that aren’t going so great? And how do we hash that out? So, by me just taking action and then having transparent communication with every employee in there was what I strive to do.

We had a little bit of a referral issue. I know a while back I told you we’re abundance and referrals and we’re doing good there, but in 2022, the Patterson Clinic didn’t have as many patients on the referral pipeline as it should have. So, we created our own marketing team, and we went together, you know, to different surgeons and doctor’s offices together and we got them donuts and talked to them.

And then word of mouth starts to spread in Patterson. So, the community of Patterson is pretty small. It’s about, I want to say there’s only like 26,000 people in Patterson. So, you know, we start to treat these patients and word of mouth starts to go out that, you know, that the experience they’re getting is pretty good.

And then that culture started to grow. We started off with three FTEs, so three employees. And now that clinic, I’m not there anymore, but that clinic has eight employees now, and they’re really enjoying their experience and just the vibes there are right. But again, it all starts with behaviors, and it all starts with the leader in the clinic, being willing to do everything and everything just to make sure that they see, because what they see, they’ll do right.

They’ll follow the leader. If someone’s lazy and doesn’t do anything, they’re probably gonna be lazy and not do anything. But if one offers a helping hand, if he owns it, if he takes action and doesn’t ignore, then, you know, good stuff happens.

Anderson Williams: Zaya Ismail is an Everyday Hero whose superpower is his authenticity.

Zaya found his passion for physical therapy as a patient. It was his lived experience. He’s moved from being a physical therapist into a leader of therapists and clinics by modeling the behaviors he wants others to enact. He knows it starts with him as the leader, as the example. He has inspired other leaders within Therapy Partners Group through his generous and contagious and authentic passion for their business, for their patients, and for the communities they serve.

If you enjoyed this episode, check out our other Everyday Heroes at www.shorecp.university/podcasts or anywhere you get your podcasts. There you will also find episodes from our Microcap Moments as well as Bigger. Stronger. Faster. series, each highlighting the people and stories that make the microcap space unique.

This podcast was produced by Shore Capital Partners and recorded in the Andrew Malone podcast studio with story and narration by Anderson Williams recording and editing by Austin Johnson editing by Reel Audiobooks. Sound design, mixing, and mastering by Mark Galup of Reel Audiobooks.

Special thanks to Zaya Ismail and Brandon Nan.

This podcast is the property of Shore Capital Partners, LLC. None of the content herein is investment advice, an offer of investment advisory services, nor a recommendation or offer relating to any security. See the Terms of Use Page on the Shore Capital website for other important information.