Meet Chris Faulds of Get Better! PT

Today we’d like to introduce you to Chris Faulds.

Hi Chris, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I wanted to be in the medical field so in the guidance councilors office in 1992, I ran my finger down the career list and decided on Physical Therapy. The wage was good and I tore up my knee playing basketball and recovered from various other injuries and kept on playing at a high level so I thought I would be good at that vocation. Back then you could get your PT degree in 4 years (now this is a 7 year degree doctorate program). My parents were paying, so they decided on Daemen College because if you got the grades, you got into the PT program. I had good grades as a 3 sport athlete so they knew I would do my part.
My parents were right and I got my PT degree in 4 years and started as a PT in 1997. It was an outpatient job in Lakeville NY with Physical Therapy Professionals of Lakeville. Andy and Dawn Mattle, another husband and wife PT team, were good to me and I learned how to be PT and gleaned a lot of business sense from them. I stayed there 2.5 years. Saved my pennies living with my parents and bought my College sweetheart an engagement ring and got married to Angela in 1998. She also is a PT. We decided that we needed a change and moved to Chagrin Falls, OH where she grew up in 2000. We have been in Chagrin Falls ever since.
I took a job in Willoughby with Universal Therapy Dynamics that was owned by Elaine Apicella PT. She had a great business with 2 Outpatient Centers and a homecare business. There we a lot of people there with vast experience and different rehab disciplines that taught me a great deal. Edie Paetow was my Mentor there. She was the first women to own a PT practice in Ohio and Elaine purchased her business. I did all of it and was asked to run the outpatient side of the business for her in approximately 2 years. My wife also joined the business and ran the homecare side. We had both of our beautiful children Max and Lily 18 months apart during that time. We had a great time from 2000-2003 with that company! I learned a great deal about being a leader and trying to see what the market was going to do and position us for success. I learned it is not easy to make everybody happy all of the time. I also learned I loved patient care! Elaine became ill and things changed and it was time to move on. Elaine passed away in 2003.
In 2005 I took a PT a job with a Chiropractor to see how they did business. That was another education all in itself. Then I got a call from Jim Croyts PT to run an outpatient center for Keystone Rehabilitation Systems and quickly took that position in Solon, OH. This was when I had to bring a clinic back to life about 1 block from one of the biggest hospitals in the country. I kept giving the best care I could and asking people to spread the word. I marketed to anyone who would listen in the community and kept trying to get referrals from the hospital. The word of mouth marketing worked the best but it was slow. I got a big idea to get inside of a gym to meet more people and teach them that they could get physical therapy without a Dr’s referral. I started to look for that place to move the office where this could actually happen. I was at the Solon Chamber of Commerce business to business show and met a group that owned a gym in Mayfield Village. Bobby Kaleel, Eugene Shatsman, Dominic Carbone and Victor Geremia asked me to move our whole office into Health 360 gym in October of 2010. I worked really hard to convince Physiotherapy Associates to move the office. We finally made a deal and Victor and I developed a great team and grew our businesses together. PT and personal training. It was a match made in heaven. Patients would be able to use a 14000 sq foot gym and then use the gym and do personal training afterwards. People who were gym members would get help from us if they had a set back or needed surgery for something. That was about the time Select Medical bought us. We went on like this for a few more years. Then Covid hit in 2019. That really took its toll on the gym. We were able to stay on and run the gym the whole time because we were exempt. The gym had to close it’s doors to members and weathered the storm from personal donors and our rent and who knows what else. We had to go down to 1/2 staff due to reduced volume and no surgeries. It was a mess and we never really recovered from that. It was 2021 and I asked for a raise and was told no.
My children were in college and I needed more money so I took a risk. I had a non-compete of a 10 mile radius for 1 year and I could not take any employees for 2 years. So I started looking for gyms over 10 miles away from Mayfield Village. I circled back to a gym I liked back in 2010 in Aurora, Snap Fitness. I saw the owner’s number on the door and I called it. Pat McCoy answered the the phone. I told him I would love to start my own place but I could only work Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday’s for now. Pat calculated the rent he needed and we gave it a shot. I finally had a place of my own! I worked after work at my Job on Tuesday’s and Thursday’s 3-8 pm and on Saturday’s sometimes 7 am until 8-9 pm until I could make enough money to quit. I had a really good work family and great group of people that were my friends at health 360! It was one of the hardest things I ever did! To get started and to leave! My family was worried about the risk but I always have believed in myself. And I always knew I could work hard. Get Better! PT was born!!!!
So We have had the business in Aurora since 11/19/2021 and we have PT Luke Senko DPT working for us there along with myself.
Then in November 2023 I get a phone call that Select Medical left the lease in Mayfield Village and Victor asked me to come back to the Health 360 gym. I found another PT to help me in Aurora and we started Get Better! PT Mayfield Village in July of 2024 and just had our 1 year and 3 month anniversary! It was one of the best moments in my life to come back to a place where I had built so many friendships and helped so many of our patients to get back to what they love to do again. Having my own physical therapy office was what I always wanted to do and god finally blessed me with it. We have also grown at Mayfield to a staff of 4 Miranda Moore PTA, Brooke Heider Office Manager and Rose Ashdown PT. I would love to give a special shout out to My wife Angela who does it all and my Daughter Lily who is the social media queen and soon to be a nurse in the spring. We do 1 hour one on one physical therapy sessions in the gym environment.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
It was very difficult to get started. It was very long hours but seeing people get better at your new business and hear them sing your praises to their friends and family was well worth it.

It was extremely hard to get insurance contracts. And the waiting made it much worse. And you can not just get them all at once. It is done in stages.

I had to plan everything out to the t and it was hard to be efficient and still be working full time.

Also finding employees was very hard!! PT/PTA’s are in a shortage so you have to guess right and hope that you could hire them to stay in Cleveland! These new grads could go to any nice place to live that they could imagine.

Benefits is also an obstacle so it is very difficult when you have to do these things all by yourself and work too full time.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
We do orthopedic physical therapy to every joint, post op and McKenzie spine care. We take all major medical or cash if you do not have insurance. You can come to PT without a Doctor’s referral and you can go wherever you want for PT. You do not have to go to PT at the hospital or only to one of their centers. Just call 440-773-7159 and we will see you the same day and get you started on your road to doing what you want to do for life!

We also offer Dry Needling, Cupping and manual PT as a full session or ala carte on a cash basis or as part of your physical therapy session.

We have 2 offices one in Aurora on 317 E Garfield Rd 44202 and one in Mayfield Village 700 Beta Drive Suite 500 44143.

Our website is www.getbetterpt1.com and our email is getbetterpt1@gmail.com

What does success mean to you?
Success is getting a patient back to what they love to do and supporting them at it until they leave this earth!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.getbetterpt1.com
• Instagram: @get_better_pt
• Facebook: Get Better PT CF | Aurora OH