I've always kind of felt a little bit more like, ah, I just kind of stick to the back. And so that was a huge mindset shift that I had to kind of come to terms with and, and not think of myself as a salesperson, but really just like genuinely telling people about what I'm, I'm doing. Welcome back to the Art of Connecting podcast. This is your host here, Haydynn, back with another episode for you guys. And today I am so excited to have my good friend Libby Schwartz on the show today. I remember the first time I met Libby, we were at Common House and laying in a cabana in the pool. If you're not from Chattanooga, Tennessee, you don't know what that is. But we have an amazing social club in town that has a super cool pool and But we have an amazing social club in town that has a super cool pool and I spend most of my summer by the pool. So that's where me and Libby first met and then we got reunited again inside of Brickyard where Cam co founded our previous, one of our previous episodes we've had. So it's been really cool to get to know Libby a little better and I'm excited to have you on the show today. Yeah, awesome. Thank you so much for having me Haydynn. And yeah, definitely amazing summer memories from you know, common house poolside and then getting to reconnect with you in Brickyard has just been really awesome. And yeah, I'm excited to be here. So thanks for having me on my pleasure. So why don't we go ahead and get rolling and why don't you start with just introducing yourself who you are and, you know, kind of where you're at right now. Yeah. Awesome. Okay. So yes, I am Libby Schwartz. And I am a doctor of physical therapy. So I actually opened up my own cash based physical therapy clinic about a year and a half ago. And everybody asked, like, do I have to pay cash? It's like, no, you don't actually have to pay cash, but it is self pay. So that means I don't take insurance. But that allows me to kind of work within a wider range of Like treatment styles and different things like that. So about, yeah, a year and a half ago I opened up my clinic inside of a local gym. And then soon after that, I really wanted to try and figure out how to reach a larger audience basically. And so moved into trying to offer as well, like online coaching aspects. to my business and online virtual physical therapy. So I do that. I am also a yoga instructor. I have my nutrition coaching certification and my background in undergrad is nutrition. So I do that for people. I'm a strength and conditioning coach. So as you know, I do the workouts for a couple companies, including Brickyard. And I do company workouts full body strength. Yeah, three times a week at Brickyard. So, yeah, I kind of have my, my fingers in a lot of different buckets. I do a lot of different things, but it keeps life interesting. And and yeah, I love it. It's, it's great. You also love to travel too. I love to travel. Yeah. I loved following your travel page. It's fun to see all the different places that you go as a fellow travel lover myself. Yes, 100 percent. This year, or last year, I guess, was Morocco and India were my two big, big trips. And, It's kind of in the spirit of this podcast, like the biggest thing that I love about travel. That, you know, is one of my, yeah, I'm one of my biggest things is the connection that it brings. So I meet so many cool people when I'm on trips like that, it just opens up so many doors and just. kind of a little window into somebody else's life too and that is just something that always brings me so much energy and, and like new renewed passion whenever I come home as well. So yeah, love that. Yeah, amazing. So I want to talk about kind of the founding of the physical therapy clinic What led you to go down the path of starting your own company rather than, you know, what the majority of people do where they graduate and end up going and working under a clinic, you know? Yep, definitely. So I kind of knew, honestly, before I even went to PT school that I eventually wanted to have my own business. I was in undergrad and I was pre med and I, you know, decided after organic chem that I was I don't necessarily want to have this be the rest of my life plus forever in a fellowship, etc. So then was thinking about going to PA school or going to be an RD, a registered dietitian, but with a lot of those you don't necessarily have as much autonomy. And so I then picked PT school with the ultimate purpose of being able to do my own thing eventually. So after going to school, you know, two and a half, three years in PT school, getting my doctorate I ventured out into travel therapy for a full seven months. And that's as long as I lasted in the traditional clinics. I knew it from my clinicals, but in my job, while I loved the travel aspect of it, Our system just is not set up to be successful for the, for the PTs or for the clients themselves, for the patients themselves. And I just really saw how I wasn't able to treat people in a way that I felt was actually productive. I wasn't able to like serve them and. really help them get better because, you know, a lot of the time you're set there, sitting there, maybe you're juggling multiple people at a time and having to document at the same time, and you can't really lead them through and cue them through certain exercises or properly sit down and like create that connection with them to, to actually. like, teach them what they need to be knowing about their body in a certain you know, respect to whatever their injury is or whatever they're dealing with. And yeah, I was really kind of disheartened by my, my time as a PT in the traditional clinic. And so, After that seven month stint, I was out in Iwaka, Washington, and I came home to Chattanooga. I was like, well, what am I, what am I going to do? I did not like the PT. I was like, am I even going to be a PT? Like, I don't even know if this is the right career at all for me. I don't know. And so I ended up just finding a gig working at a local gym at that time. It was Kyle house fitness here in Chattanooga, Tennessee. And I just started with working the front desk. I have a doctorate, but I was working the front desk, just checking people in and just fell in love with the community there and started doing some personal training with them. And then at that point, I kind of started to realize how much knowledge was still in my head. Like I still was a PT. I had all of this, you know, knowledge from school that I wasn't using and I really wanted to use. And so it was scary, but at that time I had a partner that was supportive of me for starting my own thing. And so January 1st, 2023, I dove into researching to start a business. And so that's what I did. And yeah, it took six months to set it up, got it started and. Here we are trying to roll along. Yeah, absolutely. So, it's very interesting because you see so many times where people go and they get all this education and then you kind of reset and start back. Maybe you do the same, you know, same route that, you know, you end up in the career you thought you were going to be in, but you end up in a different way. A lot of people also end up, you know, just not Doing what they went to school for. Yeah. And you were talking about like how phy like traditional physical therapy was like, not for you. I had these flashbacks of, when I was in physical therapy the doctor put me in physical therapy basically because my knees and legs were weak. Like I didn't work out. And so my knees were hurt all the time because I wasn't working out. You know, my, my legs and my muscles. So when physical therapy, it literally, it feels like what I imagined Walmart of physical therapy would be. I went to like the largest physical therapists in town. You know, you sit in their waiting room and you're looking at the crappy photo on the wall. It's been up there for 20 years and you go back and there's like 25 beds, you know, yeah, people just running around all over the place. My PT tech was cute. So that helped at least you're going in here and You're in this room with a bunch of other people and when I look around, you know, there's a bunch of overweight people that you can tell don't exercise, right? And it just, I don't know. It's something about it. Like it just fell off. Right. And then like my doctor was great. Fantastic. But like he had a set time that he had and like when your appointment's up, you're gone, right? Like there's no, it's like a transaction, you know, 100 percent and it's like, just, I mean, you could put me on a podium. I could talk all day about how messed up. I feel like our healthcare system is, but it's, it's sick care. A lot of it is sick care and it's, people come in. Yeah. After they've, after they've had the injury, after they've had all of these things and they're just trying to get back to like some semblance of normalcy, which is really difficult and it, and then when you go into kind of a column, like PT mills almost, you know, there's just like people in and out, in and out, it's just like, there's no connection there with the actual, like you might have a great PT, but they're trying to run around doing their job and they're just like so overworked that it's, Really hard for them to create that connection and and then you can't really work within the way our insurance. kind of a setup. You can't really do preventative medicine or preventative P. T. A lot of times within these insurance based facilities. And so you get back to quote unquote baseline, which basically means like you're functional and you might come back in two weeks because you just injured yourself because you're not actually better than where you were before. You're just at the baseline. But from Like being hurt. So it doesn't really, I don't feel like it's as helpful as it has the ability to be and that's why I really wanted to move into my own practice and cash base. Cause I really have a big passion for, for helping people. And I think that there's so many. Like scare tactics around, you know, injury or fitness or like working out, say, for example, like your, your knees were hurting, like so many people come up to me and say, Oh, like, I can't run or I can't squat because, you know, my knees are bad. And I'm like, that's the exact reason you should be doing that. You need to be able to, to squat. I mean, like. People say, oh, I don't squat at all. And then I jokingly ask them if they've ever sat on a toilet before, because that's a squat right? And like, you know, these are functional things that we need to be able to do and and teach people how to do them preventatively so they don't get hurt. And so many times you go into these clinics and it's just like, yeah, just like trying to, you know, put a bandaid on something that's like bleeding out and it's, yeah. Not great. Yeah, and they won't even, a lot of places are not even allowed to tell you, like, to prescribe exercise, right? They're not allowed to prescribe. I mean, they'll give you, like, exercise to do at home, but, how often do people actually do that? Where's the accountability, right? Yeah, it's very fascinating. Yeah, like you said, we could, go on about ranting about the healthcare system forever. I'm on the same page. You know, it's really disappointing to see, How the system works, especially when you realize how much potential people have right like people want to be healthy. No one want to be unhealthy. Right. But a lot of times they're just not a good direction that's going to you just want a good directive. Right. So I want to ask you about the cash based system. So how does that work for someone who's in physical therapy, who's a cust, you know, a, a patient of yours and like, what does that look like compared to going with an, you know, an insurance model? Yeah, definitely. So for me, every, every person or like PT who has their cash based business basically has the freedom to set it up however they want. Right. So I have kind of did a lot of research when I was setting up my own model and have like flux between various different things, but essentially where how it kind of goes for me is I have everybody come in and do a 90 minute evaluation. So that evaluation is, you know, going over history of any previous injuries, kind of really getting to know them, what they're doing, what their goals are, all of that kind of stuff, how they're feeling with certain movements. We go through all of that, and then we go through the actual, like physical exam of looking at, you know, strength, mobility, pain provocation, what things are like actually irritating them, and then through that, starting to build onto that home exercise program or whatever that program looks like for them. So personally, I do that for$250 which when you look at like how much an evaluation. Is like getting paid for by an insurance company, it could be 500 to 1, 000. Your insurance might be paying part of that, but a lot of times people also get sneaky backend bills that they don't actually know about. So I do that for two 50 for 90 minutes. And then going forward from that, based on, you know, what I see in somebody's, kind of what their issues are, how many things we're dealing with, because as a cash based therapist, I can treat multiple different areas. So say they have a shoulder issue going on at the same time as a hip issue, I can treat both at the same time. Whereas in an insurance based system, you'd have to get two different scripts from a doctor to be able to have both of those things be addressed. And they would have to be addressed in separate, like in separate sessions essentially by an insurance based physical therapist. So for me you know, just based on how many things we're dealing with, we'll set up a plan of care. Usually I see people once a week for six to eight weeks and then I Can extend, we can extend past that, but I like to see that six to eight week mark with people and I have a system set up where I sell like packages essentially based on how many sessions we need from 175 to 160 per session, just depending on how many How many sessions they're doing, but yeah, I, I've had even physical therapist friends who have been to PT like they themselves, you know, couldn't, whatever it was, they maybe, maybe needed dry needling or something like that. So they get a script for going to a physical therapist. Generally, if you go to an insurance based system, they're going to say, okay, we need to see you at least two to three times a week for, you know, 45 minutes to an hour. Her copay was 80 for each of those sessions. And so, with her going twice a week, it was still, like, more expensive than it would be to see me once a week. And she was getting treated essentially by the technician, which, like you said, maybe they're cute and that's fun, but she wanted, you know, she wanted to actually interact with the doctor of physical therapy and maybe saw them for like 5 to 10 minutes in each session. So, with me, you get only me. For the whole hour. I actually blocked 75 minutes in case things run over and, and yeah, that's kind of generally how I, how I operate. So as you were building your business, how did you, you know, how did you acquire customers? How did you create that connection between, you know, you have this new thing, you have a skill and I need customers. Honestly it's, I, I thought that it was going to be like setting up advertisements or doing different things. And I didn't really initially start have like a budget for that. So it was just talking to people, like just telling people, Hey, this is what I'm doing and Hey, I'm a cash based therapist. Hey, I do this. And, or somebody, you know, in passing is saying, you know, I've got. Oh, my, my shoulders been kind of bugging me. I'm like, Hey, well, I'm a therapist. Like if you need anything, just don't hesitate to reach out. And just starting to kind of chat with people about what I'm doing. And you know, if somebody is like, Oh, Hey, I've got a shoulder issue. It's like, Oh, well maybe, you know, maybe your rotator cuff is weak, or maybe there's a couple of different things. If you want a full eval, then like, I'd love to help you out. And just kind of helping people here and there and then, and trying to Tell people what I was doing. Honestly, it's the same now as it was when it started. Like I still haven't spent money on ads and I just talk to people and tell people what I'm doing. And then other people start to refer out and I know it's a slow process, but I think that I've come to learn, especially that the connection piece is the thing that really helps people be. Kind of the most compliant as well to me because they have feel like they have more of a personal connection as well Oh, what are what are some ways that you learn to like meet new customers? like what were some events that you went to like ways that you Leverage to be intentional about the conversations you're having Yeah, most of the things that I, most of the places that I really kind of started were things that I was already doing. So I go to a yoga class here in Chattanooga, and I just started talking to people in my yoga class, you know hearing different people say, oh, you know, my, oh, my back's been tweaky with this, or my shoulder's been tweaky like this. And eventually, actually, one of the teachers of the class became one of my My clients and then she would promote help promote me in class. Hey, if you're like, you know, having an issue with this Libby's a as a PT right back here. And so one me like showing up consistently in the classes and then just building on to to those. Places that I already have like already was showing up. There are already things that I'm passionate about run club for example like going to run club just talking to people there about what I was doing people at the gym in i've Work out a couple different places, but the YMCA I've had people come up to me before and say, Oh, like, you know, like you're here a lot. I'm like, yeah, I am. And then what do you do? Like, oh, I'm a physical therapist. Oh, you know, well, my shoulder and my hand have been bugging me like da da da da da. And then it just kind of get into that rhythm again with, Telling people what I was doing. So really just has been showing up in the places that I already go. But thinking of that, thinking of those places as more than just like my own thing, and then thinking of those places as like a. The ability to tap into a new community, essentially. Brickyard's been huge for that, honestly. I've had a lot of people from Brickyard be my clients from a physical therapy standpoint. And it makes it fun too, because I can then see them later on in the workouts that I'm leading, be like, Hey, like. You know, your shoulder, like you better like be keeping up with your mobility exercises, or you better be keeping up with your PT stuff and so it kind of creates a better accountability system there as well when I'm already in those places, and then I'm able to just kind of further that connection through physical therapy. Yeah, so it sounds like you're creating your own kind of mini communities in the places you go. And the interesting part about the way you do your business is, you know, You're not just a physical therapist, you're not just a physical therapist, like you're active, right? Like you're, you're going on runs, right? You're doing bike rides, you're doing races, you're doing all these different things where you're not just, you know, talking the talk, but you're walking the walk, right? And so automatically you're going to find people that are going to need your services and the places you go just because. by the nature of what people are doing. Right? You're gonna find people that need it. But I think a lot of people go to all these different places, but they're not necessarily really looking for the connections, right? It sounds like you're intentional about like, when you meet someone, you know, they can say, Oh, my shoulder hurts. You'd be like, Oh, you know, you should do this, right? And not tell them you're a physical therapist, but by, you know, Thinking about, Oh yeah, I'm a physical therapist, right? Like I'm happy to help you with that. Like, that's just a great way to connect with people. Yeah, it was a big mindset shift that I had to have. Honestly, because I've not really been. The best at promoting myself just in general, I've always kind of felt a little bit more like, ah, I just kind of stick to the back. And so that was a huge mindset shift that I had to kind of come to terms with and, and not think of myself as a salesperson, but really just like genuinely telling people about what I'm, I'm doing. Because I think also imposter syndrome, especially when I started was huge for me And so it was really kind of scary to put myself out there even though you know, I was like, okay I I know I know stuff but then you know you kind of freeze and and then that feeling of being an imposter a little bit is Is I feel like a huge barrier a lot of times, at least it was for me, especially at the beginning and starting my business. And so it's been a, it's a work in progress and it still is. And you know, I continue to try and be better about that all the time. So what are some ways that you use to overcome that? To go over, imposter syndrome? I think probably some of the things that I did were, just helping people for free, honestly, initially, and being and then getting positive feedback from them. So it would be like, hey, you know, somebody would mention, hey, I've got a shoulder issue, and even before I had my like, system all kind of set up for my business, I'd be like, oh, okay, let me, I'll just look at it or whatever. I'll lead you through a couple different things. And getting positive reinforcement then from just those kind of genuine free interactions with people helped with that. And I think training people, like doing the personal training side of things, that wasn't necessarily specifically physical therapy, but a lot of times is You know, I'm incorporating different movements and stuff sometimes into the workouts and they'll be like really tough. And people are like, what is this exercise? I'm like, Oh, that's a PT exercise. And then going and being able to explain to people, why we need to strengthen the rotator cuff and look at these stability muscles alongside the power muscles and just explaining and educating people in those just kind of interactions of training or for free before my actual business was set up. I think getting positive reinforcement from all of those people and like feedback was one of the biggest stepping stones, I think. Yeah, and in my experience, I used to, I actually don't even use that word anymore. There was some people that I, that I met that were imposter syndrome is not a thing. I forget what, I forget what they said it was, you know, it's just fear of, you know, fear of being rejected is what it is, right? It's fear of people not. Taking you for who you are is what it boils down to, right? And what I learned is like, as I've gone through, people are just people, right? Like every single one of us that have a brain and legs and arms, like we're all just people, right? Yeah. I was just at the UTC Real Estate Club and Thunder Thornton was speaking and, you know, he's a big developer. He was talking about this, you know, almost 100 million project he was doing in the 90s, right? But, you know, his message went back to, it's all about the people you meet and know and building relationships with people, you know, a guy that he was good friends with and played football with in high school, wants a person to help him get the deal to the finish line. Right. And so you never know who the person you're meeting is, what they do, how they might be able to help you. And when I started looking at things from that lens of, you know, people are just people, it's took that away because. You know, I don't, I hear all the time from people that come into the mastermind group and they're like, Oh, I just don't feel like I deserve to be here. And it's like, what are you talking about? Like, of course you deserve to be here, right? Like you're, you put in the effort, the time and the money that it takes to get in this room. to be here, right? Like i to really embody that. An some reps of like really uncomfortable over and ov like lifting that weight, at first, but the more ti Yep, definitely. That is huge. And I think, I think the, and it made me think of a lot of the mindset work that I've been doing. And I've been trying to implement more consistently, especially in the last year, like a meditative or affirmation or some sort of kind of like self. Talk slash stillness practice in the morning and it's really kind of boils down to also connecting with yourself then, right? Like the, that connection and connecting to your purpose and, and like you said, with imposter syndrome, like. Not really existing. You really connect with when you connect with yourself, like, you know, that you are who you are and it doesn't feel as much like being an imposter. And I think that that's something that has really helped me over the course of this last year as well. To kind of go through that struggle a little bit. Yeah. And I think also like repetition breeds confidence. The more, you know, the more clients you've taken care of, the more confident you're going to get, right. The more, the more conversations you've had with someone asking them about their shoulder, right? And like, the more you're gonna be oh, yeah, this isn't that bad. And so, for people that are listening, that are struggling with the things that Libby's talking about, where you feel like you can't go talk to people. You know, all it takes is, you just gotta do it a few times, right? And once you do it a few times, you start to get a little bit more comfortable. And people like to use the excuse, you know, I'm introverted, right? And I think we're both pretty extroverted people, so. This might be the pot on kettle black, but, you know, from experience with many introverts who I've had on this podcast, if you've been listening for any amount of time, they need networking just as much as I need networking and they need to talk to people just as much as I need to talk to people because, you know, it's, you got to push yourself outside of your comfort zone a little bit if you want to get to where you want to go. Yeah, actually, I, so I just went skiing this last weekend and I have only been skiing a couple, like a couple years. And I think. This past weekend was day 12 and 13 that I've ever had on the slopes. But my brother lives out in Denver now. He moved out there about two years ago and he's a snowboarder. And he is always on me cause I have always been the like type a first, like firstborn, little more gingerly, stepping my toe into the water. And he's like, he's just telling me on this. He's like, Libby, you, you're like. Grow just past your comfort zone. You just grow past your comfort zone. You just got to do it. And he's like, trying to get me go down this tree run. I've never done trees before. I'm like, okay, I'm listening to you. I'm listening to you. But this is really fricking scary, but it just goes to show that in all things, it really is just growth is right on the step outside of that comfort zone. So yeah. Yeah. And then you get down to the bottom. You're let's do it again. Oh my gosh. Yeah. Yeah, that's amazing. So I want to talk about you know, as you, you, how many years have you been in business now? Opened up July of 2023. So about a year and a half ish. Okay. So you're still super new to the game. Yeah. So, as you're learning these lessons and, you know, I've been in business for myself, I guess about two or three years now. And so You know, you just feel like you're always in school. At least I don't know if that's your experience. It's been mine. Like it is always something more to learn. How do you decide what you're going to do with your time? So you mentioned you've got a lot of different stuff going on, right? How do you manage your time? to, you know, keep the business that you have going, right. Cause you already have a business going, but also to be networking and meeting new people, connecting to people and bringing people into the company. How do you balance that? Yeah. So that's something that I've been kind of trying to work on a little bit more purposely and to be a hundred percent honest, like I still struggle with that. And need that I've told myself, like the first person that I kind of hire to help me will be some sort of virtual assistant or something like that, because. But blocking off time has been huge, like having times to check emails or this is the time that I'm doing like reach out to companies or something like that. I have a, I have handwrite a lot of lists for myself, so just trying to go through and make sure that I'm keeping up with that things. But then I like to have that like physical check off that I get, get stuff done. And so, I mean, I think for me really trying to prioritize is sometimes difficult, but that's where kind of creating that list and then like numbering the list of things that I need to do is like, okay, well, the appointments that are already on my schedule that are either like training sessions or physical therapy clients, like those are number one priority, obviously. You know, then prioritizing. Making sure that I'm doing like follow up with emails right now. I'm running a challenge with another company So I that is like a big block of time that I'm dedicating to on my schedule And then something that I also block in for myself because I think that it is really important and I think that more entrepreneurs should do it as well, but is blocking off the time for And for their own like fitness and stuff because, it, things come up constantly and I was literally just having this conversation with an online client yesterday that, you know, she was like, I just keep finding these other little things to do. I need to like change over the laundry and I need to do this and then I need to. And then it's my time to like quote unquote work out is just kind of evaporated and I don't know where the time went and I just filled it with all of these other little like tiny tasks and so what we talked about and what I kind of do is those, those blocks for myself as well are meetings with, you know, workout Libby and I think for me, the more that I can stay true to myself throughout doing all of these other little things, whether it's nutrition consultations, PT leading group workouts. The more I can also stay true to myself with my own fitness, it just really helps keep me grounded. So that's where I walk in time for myself and make sure that I'm showing up for myself as well. Because, when I don't have that built in I know that my not only is my physical health not as good But my mental health also suffers and I feel more chaotic And so I think that having that scheduled in is a huge huge piece of my puzzle at least I just thought of this to us you're chatting and I want to ask how did you get into Brickyard? How did you get that? that connection Yeah, that's it. It's kind of a long and Convoluted story a little bit, but maybe not really. But ultimately I was dating somebody and that person was kind of involved with Brickyard through investment pieces. And some of the people that worked in his team really wanted to start working out. So I started actually training that team of people and got involved then at Brickyard by just Again, it was kind of one of those things where I just started showing up and then people are like, what is this group doing? And then just started having conversations with people. Ultimately Matt and Cam, the owners of Brickyard were like, Hey, like this would actually be really cool if we could do this for for our team. And so then It's been, I guess, a year, a year now, January of 2024. I started training Brickyard two days a week. And now we've moved up to three days a week doing our long strength training sessions. And yeah. So then once I got kind of started doing that and meeting people, I. I haven't looked back. It's, it's really amazing. Brickyard for me, it feels like home. And I just don't know exactly how, I mean, I know how I ended up there, but the people there have felt like my family when ever since, like I got there ever so, so welcoming and just interesting and motivating and I came back from a trip to Morocco last April with the word connection. I had gone through some personal stuff at that point, and I really felt like I was lacking connection in Chattanooga. And at, at Brookyard at that time, I had been showing up, like, making connections, but it wasn't, it was still more transactional. I wasn't doing, I wasn't necessarily doing the work to like make it super personal. And when I came back, I had my, the goal of every single person I see in the gym, I'm going to say hi and introduce myself to like, no, there's nothing. I don't need to tell them what I'm doing necessarily or anything, but I'm just literally going to say, Hey, I'm Libby. What's your name? and just start from there. And when I did that, it was where I started to make so many friends through Brickyard. And then I like, you know, soon after that I'm hanging out with people and not only doing the training sessions, but I just had started to really become part of the community. And so that was a pivotal point really in, in everything is just. That, coming up with the word, like, the word connection for me and which is, I mean, that's the word of your podcast as well. But that was, that's a huge, 2024 that was my word and it continues to be my word in 2025 because it made such a huge difference when I had that mindset shift of just being like, connection is key. How amazing is it to how much it transforms, like when you're actively, you know, thinking about it, right? Because we, we get what we think about, right? I was, I was with a really amazing guy yesterday. Didn't even know that his family did the things they did. I knew of his family, but they're one of the Chattanooga families that like. You know, they, they go way back, you know, and there's a lot of things that most people don't know about that, that they've had their hands in and, you know, we, I, I had a meeting with him because I wanted to kind of pick his brain about, you know, raising capital because he manages the large family office and the whole entire time we just talked about manifestation and goal setting and all that type of stuff. And yeah. Yeah. It wasn't the conversation I anticipated having, but I think it was the conversation I needed and it's you know, really putting forward, what are you focusing on? What are you thinking about? And like, if you think and focus about connecting with people and that's your intention when you walk into a room, it's a lot easier to go and say hi to someone, right? But if you go in and you're like, I don't really know what I want out of this, right? Like, I don't, I'm here, but I don't really You're going to go sit in the corner, you're not going to meet anyone, and it really stood out to me how you said when you went up and said hi, everything started changing. Yeah. Right? Everybody wants the people to come up and say hi to them, right? Why aren't they coming and say hi to me? And yeah, it's still as awkward for me sometimes. Like I went and said, Hey to Frank, the Cosmo today. And I'm like, Hey Frank, you know? And it's just weird. Right. It's like, hi, who are you? You know? And, and, you know, so it never really gets natural. I don't think like some people would say, Oh, Haydynn, you know, you're a natural connector, but it's something I built, you know, and it's awkward sometimes, sometimes you talk to people and they just. are on the same wavelength, right? Or you're talking to somebody and they're, you know, it's just not a good fit. But so many times it's been amazing. I just went up and said hi to someone. And now, you know, there's someone who I admire greatly for what they've accomplished. And they'll just randomly text me at nine o'clock on a Tuesday, you know, at night. It's why is that person thinking of me at nine o'clock on a Tuesday? They should be, you know, they're probably like watching Netflix with their family right now, you know, yeah, they're on their yacht somewhere yet. They're texting me so weird, but it's because I went up and said, Hey, because they weren't going to come up and say hi. Right. Yep. So I love that aspect. And, and, you know, in the LinkedIn series I'm doing right now. You know, ask is like my third portion of the series that I'm doing of like how to gain a mentor. Yeah. Because if you don't ask for a mentor, you will not get a mentor. Yeah. Right? Yeah. No, that's so true. And that's, it makes, it also makes me think about just cause I you travel a lot too. And so I think a lot of the connecting ability and the ease with that comes from repetitions again, but it came from a lot of the time when I've traveled solo. And I, I took a year, basically a gap year from my undergrad to grad school, but in one of those gap years, I was, I was traveling three and a half months backpacking solo through Southeast Asia and another three and a half months backpacking through Europe. And I purposely booked hostels that had breakfast because I was like breakfast people are my type of people. They're up early ready to take on the day and we're going to go see some things. And so, and then I would just sit at the breakfast table and be like. Hey, I'm Libby. I'm from the U. S. and then you just start a conversation. Oh, you want to see that temple today? Oh, yeah. I was thinking about doing that. you want to walk together? We can walk together. And then like, you don't have any obligation to these people. But generally, if there is a connection there, then, you know, you end up spending the whole day or week or whatever together. And yeah, turns into best friend. Now, I have to say this because this is one of the most amazing connection stories. And it's I met this girl, her name's Manon, and she's from the Netherlands, and I met her at, on a hostel, like, poolside in Vietnam, one day, randomly. Ended up getting crazy sick, we had plans to meet the next day, but I was, laid out in bed, and she, like, thought I had skipped on her or whatever, but we had connected on Instagram, and when I then was going through Europe, she was working in Zanjitos, an island in Greece, and I messaged her, and I said, Hey, I know this is really random, but if I buy a plane ticket to Zankeithos, can I come visit you? And she was yeah, sure, why not? And so I ended up spending a week sleeping on her bed with, you know, for the, I don't know, for a week in Zankeithos. She was then in Belgium a couple years later. Instagram. Hey, my parents are in Prague and I'm flying through Belgium. If I come for a little bit, can I come visit you? She was like, yeah, sure. So her and her now fiance, Robin met them that basically the same month that I started my business. They also started their own business, the VMatico, which is a workation working vacation retreats. And. Now I visited five or six different company or countries with them, like met so many different people through them and it's all because I met this one girl randomly on the pool, like poolside in Vietnam and it's just like the people and connections that you create, it's a spiderweb and it just. It's amazing. So, yeah. Yeah, I'm on the same page. International travel is truly, one of the most special, experiences you can ever have. Even, you don't even have to actually do international. You go to freakin Hawaii. Go to house at hostels to see Nathan and Brandon. I made so many good friends. people that I'm still talking to, to this day. Love that. You know, and it's so much fun. You know, you're, you're there in the, in the common area. Pancakes and you know, it's like, Oh, what are you doing today? Oh, we're driving the road to Hana. Oh my gosh. I want to go to the road to Hana. And you learn to like how to be able to slide and be like, Oh man, I really want to go to the road to Hana. It's like, Oh, we have an extra seat. Oh, really? No way. I wanted to go. Can I, I can come? Yeah. Yeah. So like, that's like, it's so much fun because you, you know, and then also you get pushed to do things that maybe you wouldn't do otherwise. Right? There's There's things that if I was there alone, I wouldn't have spent the money on, going whale watching, but it ended up being so cool. There was a whale that jumped right in front of our boat, and we were able to get a video of it, and I slammed on the brakes, we about hit the whale. That's crazy. I remember seeing that video that you posted. I was like, oh my god, that looks insane. Yeah, it was nuts, and I would not have done that if I had not been in the hospital. I'm like, hell no, I'm not spending 40 bucks, you know, like I'm here on a budget. I'm here to like this, you know, and I'm like, I have no regrets, right? yeah, I don't miss the 40 bucks, you know, I'm glad I had that experience. It was really cool. So yeah, if you're looking for connections and you want to really quickly make connections, people go somewhere and stay in a freaking hostel. Yes. Bring earplugs with you and an eye mask. There might be some freaking connection. Freakin women from Portugal speaking the whole entire night that are keeping you up and shining their phones at each other while you're trying to sleep. You know who you are, the women who kept me up the entire night of last night that I was in Hawaii. But, it's all in good fun, you know? It's fun, you know? Hostels are great. It's so good. And I think that it, all of the, all of those genuine connections just come full circle with everything, whether it's a friendship, whether it turns into something that is a potential business opportunity whatever, whatever it is that web of connections and genuine connections really just, it's so, I don't know if it fills me up and it, it fills my cup and it's something that I really, Yeah. Realized that I've needed because a lot of times I've thought of myself as a little bit more of like a kind of lone wolf, out here on my own. And seeing the connections that I've felt through Brickyard, like going to your real estate meetup. I'm like, I'm not in real estate at all, but I like the last two times I've got went and I'm like, Oh my gosh, I have met so many cool people. And,I don't know. I met another girl from the, the mastermind group that you're in. And she's like training for a marathon. And I was like, yeah, if you need any help training for a marathon, like reach out, you know, just making these cool connections and you just never know, you just never know what any of that's going to lead you. And I think that when we go into that with like a genuine, like open heart and open mind of just connecting with people, you know, it just, it brings so much. The universe just kind of pours into you and it brings so much to you from whether it's business, friendships, relationships, whatever it is, it's, it's 100 percent worth it all the time. Yeah, and another thing, and we'll, we're kind of over our time here, but When you're traveling, and I've talked about this before, when you're traveling, you're just naturally in a more open state. At least, I know it's how it works for me. When I'm at home, you know, I'm on my laptop, I'm on my phone, I'm dealing with business, I'm always open to meeting new people, but sometimes I'm like, I gotta, go to this meeting here, you know, sorry, it's crazy, crazy to me. But, you know, when I'm traveling, I'm an open book, man. you can go sit next to me, Especially if you're in a place where you sound different than other people, they'd be like, where are you from? Automatically, they'd be like, you have a weird accent, where are you from? You'd be like, oh, I'm from Tennessee. And they'd be like, Tennessee, oh, you know, I've been to Nashville before. oh, cool, you know. I grew up in Nashville, you know, and then What do you do? Oh, I'm in real estate. Oh, no way. I'm in real estate, and it's, I literally was sitting next to two realtors in Hawaii and I saw his little bag that said real on it and I would probably not have noticed that if I had been at home. And I was like, Oh, you work with real? and he was like, yeah, we got to talk. We talked for like 30 minutes and it's so much fun. So but yeah, traveling is the best way to get to meet new people. A hundred percent. Cause it's just like, You're getting to meet people that are different from you, right? They're not the same, they didn't grow up in the same town as you. Different perspective, which is fantastic. So, I love that. Yep. Well, it is, oh, go ahead. I was just going to say, another kind of edge of your comfort zone growth scenario. Really, just kind of comes back to that. It's uncomfortable sometimes, you're traveling and you're in a new city and you're like, that doesn't look safe. You know I don't know if I should walk down that street or not. And you're like, what's the worst that can happen? I can die, right? But yeah, no, I love, I love it. It's amazing. So it's time for our last question. And that is, what is a connection to a person or group of people that change the trajectory of your life or business? Yeah, so, I guess I really, honestly, Brickyard kind of touched on that earlier. That's like probably my group of people that's made the biggest difference in my life. And the person who, one of the people that originally kind of got me into that was, Rustam Zafari, and he is also a huge connector, and he's such a humble guy that you would never know, all the people that he's met and connected with, some huge names of people, and I don't Just and he's just a really good friend. He was the original connection for the investment group to Brickyard. And then for me to bring them into the Brickyard to, to actually train them and then meet everybody else in Brickyard. So honestly, Brickyard is the, the spot for me. And. I wouldn't have met, I mean, well, I met you at Common House, but I wouldn't have really like connected, I think, with you unless we had pre met at Brickyard. So that, that that feels like home. That's kind of where, where it's at. That is awesome. Well, if people want to Get ahold of you, learn more information about what you do, or were inspired by something that you said. Where can they do that? Yeah, so I am movementmantrapt on Instagram. I don't even know if I said the name of my business earlier, honestly. But Yeah, so movement mantra PT and that's on Instagram. You can also find me just Libby Schwartz on Facebook happy to connect there And then my movement mantra pt. com is my website So there's also I've got lots of free resources and different things up on my website as well so if anybody's curious just to like Check out what I've got, then I'm happy to kind of have those out there for people to, to go look at and happy to answer any questions. I said before, like I'm an open book. So if you message me I'm happy to, to chat and I do free calls with people all the time just to, you know, see how I might be able to help them. So yeah. Happy to talk with anybody. Amazing. Thanks so much for coming on the show. if you are still here, I just want to take a second to tell you how much I appreciate you. I'm pointing at you, but you can't see me because we're on an audio only podcast, but I appreciate you for being here. I love getting to do the podcast. It's such an honor and a pleasure. If you got value out of the show, if you could please remember to leave a five star review up throughout that Spotify, you go to the top, you click on five stars for an Apple podcast. You go to the podcast page and scroll down to the bottom. That is what helps the podcast grow is getting great five star reviews. And then also if you could share it with two or three people, we can go grow the podcast and continue to have amazing guests come on. So if you guys haven't connected me on LinkedIn yet look up my name, H A Y D Y N N spelled weird Haydynn Fike on LinkedIn, trying to grow the crap out of that puppy. So we'll see you guys on the next episode of Art of Connecting. Thank you for listening.