Welcome to Milestone Moments, the show where
we explore the journeys that lead to success.
I'm Sheila Slick, your host and founder of Five
Milestones. In every episode, we will bring you
insights from the minds of entrepreneurs, leaders
and experts who will share not just their expertise,
but the milestone moments that have reshaped
their journeys and led to significant achievements.
So if you're looking for motivation, you're in
the right place. Subscribe now and discover the
milestones that mark the path to success. Welcome
to another episode of Milestone Moments in Business
and Leadership. I'm Sheila Slick, your host,
and today my special guest is Alpesh Patel. Alpesh
is a passionate physical therapist, an author,
and an entrepreneur with over 15 years of experience
helping people move better and live pain -free.
As the founder of Theravio, He has developed
innovative rehab solutions, including a comprehensive
exercise kit and an expert backed book, making
therapy more accessible for everyone. With his
deep knowledge of movement and recovery, Alpesh
shares practical advice that anyone can use to
feel stronger and healthier. His warm and engaging
style makes learning about pain relief and injury
prevention easy. And enjoyable. Thank you. Thank
you. Thank you so much, Sheila, first of all,
inviting me. It's great meeting you. And I'm
sure today will be one of the best show you ever
done. Oh, well, I look forward to it and to learn
about how to find joy in pain or overcome pain.
So you have built your career helping people
move out of pain and into strength. What inspired
you to take your expertise? beyond the clinic
and creating accessible tools like Theravio and
authoring a book, How to Cure Your Hand and Wrist
Pain in 30 Days. So what happened is while during
my practice, one time I was going to patient's
house and I was trying to help her in the house.
Like I was treating her in the house and I see
like a lot of families are involved. The kids
were so much involved. to the best for this patient.
And that was really overwhelming. But the problem
was that they were buying every little thing
available online, which they think would be helpful
for their parents. But then whenever I go there
and they want me to use this thing and that thing
and give them advice, I see that 70 -80 % of
the item is not useful. And I'm like, why would
people sell something? It's not even helpful
for the patient just because they want to put
stuff inside the box and they just sell it like
that. So they give me inspiration. I'm like,
I'm a physical therapist and I have a better
knowledge, understanding what products helps
patient or what is the best for the patient.
And that was my inspiration. I'm like, but this
patient can be helpful from my service or my
box. I'm sure that a lot of people would be helpful
as well. They don't have to spend thousands of
dollars on buying different products and they
get what's actually useful rather than just keeping
in the house as a storage unit. And that's how
the therapy arrived. And I did like almost...
Eight months, probably I went to 200 different
products from different manufacturers, different
countries, in fact. And then I come out to kind
of a more unique product, which is actually helpful
for the hand pain. And to be honest, why hand
pain? Because that patient in particular had
a hand problem and I was trying to solve that.
So that kind of, I just went to that direction.
And then another question came afterward, how
to use this product? And I'm like, okay, that's
a good question. And that inspired me to write
a book. I'm like, okay, what if I write a book
and give them a special, like step -by -step
weekly plan, which they can follow using the
kit or without the kit. You don't need a kit
for that. But I just gave like a straightforward,
very easy exercise plan from week one to week
four. That's why I say like 30 days kind of a
thing. And it's really helpful. And I had a lot
of patients, they used it, and they're really,
really feeling better. So that was really, I
mean, really heartwarming, you know, that I'm
able to help people. Yes. And you specialize
only in hand pain, or do you also practice other
kinds of physical therapy? I mean, no, yes. I'm
a very generalized physical therapist. I'm using,
I've seen post -surgical patient. You can name
it. I've seen two, four months old kid to all
the way to 102 year old person. So I have seen
all kind of a patient just because I said it
just went in the direction because that particular
patient was my inspiration and that person had
a hand pain and I was trying to solve that particular
issue. But to be honest, it's not that easy in
that route. It's way harder than just taking
care of one patient at a time. But then I had
to start somewhere and that's how I ended up
getting the hand therapy kit. Well, I like that
you specialize just in hand pain for the book.
It's very niched down. Yes. Very specific. And
a lot of people start feeling physical strain,
especially in their hands and wrists. just from
their pace of daily life or perhaps being on
the computer so often, what is one simple shift
or exercise someone can do to start feeling better
and take control of their healing if they find
their hands hurting? The basic stretching exercise
always works, which is like, you know, kind of
you just, it's called namaste, which I already
have in a book, like you kind of put your palm
together. and just lift your elbow up you will
feel the stretch here that right away you see
that so you feel the stretch now you want to
hold it for count 10 and then just release it
or another one which is more advanced is like
you're going like other way which is your back
of the palm and then now you can lower the elbow
down So you're going to feel the stretching in
both the front part of the wrist and the back
part of the wrist. These are the basic stretching
exercises which really, really improve the blood
circulation, release the muscle tension around
your wrist, and also a lot of patients with the
carpal tunnel, like wrist arthritis, the main
conditions actually can be helpful for that.
So I didn't realize that my hands hurt until
I... Put them together as if I'm doing yoga,
right? The namaste, I put them together and I
raise the elbows a bit and I do feel that stretch.
How often should we practice this? Every day
before or after getting on that computer? So
I always advise that depends on how many hours
you're going to sit on the computer or work on
the computer or even any hand -related activities.
But ideally, always do it before because whenever
you, let's say right now, you're doing a yoga
or any exercises or cooking, just gardening,
any kind of activities, if your hands are tight,
And imagine you're working through those activities.
Now you're putting a lot of pressure on your
joints because your muscles are not flexible
enough to move in a flexible direction. So what
happens because of that? It will put stress on
your wrist and can lead to another injury later
on, which you don't realize now, but you will
in a few years, right? So always do before. Now
you do after because, again, same concept. Because
of any activities. Your hands are getting tired.
So when you stretch, it releases the tension
and you feel good. That's the whole idea. But
I strongly suggest to do before. That's most
advisable. And let's say if you don't want to
do anything, just do quick stretching. I promise
you don't want to take more than 5 to 10 minutes
early in the morning and just before you go to
sleep. Those two things will be really, really
game changer for your hand health. So in your
book, I'm assuming you have pictures or illustrations
to show the different exercises. And then you
can buy a kit separately that comes with different
either pillows or squeezable. I was looking at
the website trying to see what the bundle includes.
Yeah, my kit has everything. Like I found the
ice pack, which you can also use a heat pack
because some people don't like ice. and they
want to hit so it's a one uh particular item
you can put in the freezer use it as ice pack
you can take it out is there's a wrist pain i
mean uh hit back then you have a lot of wraps
uh like a spandex kind of a thing because sometimes
you have a lot of pain and you want to wrap around
something so i use that one And then I have a
little tiny finger massager. A lot of people
love it because you massage yourself, like your
fingers, especially when you get swollen or your
wrist area or all this hypothyroid and muscles
part of like a palm of your hand. It's really,
really helpful for the people. Now about the
book. If anybody buying a kit or even you don't
buy the kit, if you just need a book, you don't
need a physical copy, you just go to my website,
put your email address and right away it will
come to your inbox. So you don't even have to
purchase it because I want to help people. And
even the Amazon, I put the book, trust me, it's
zero penny. I mean, I don't make any penny out
of it. Whatever the cost you see, it's just because
Amazon charging me because Amazon has to print
and ship it to you. if you want a physical copy
so whatever the price you see on amazon it just
because it's amazon fees and amazon shipping
services charges nothing for me in there and
like i said if you don't need a like a printable
version just go on my website and you can get
it like a free version at the ebook in your email
and it has step by step it comes with the worksheet
also where you can actually mark it down how
many exercises you're doing it which name and
everything i have every picture including the
directions it's not just a one picture you have
like a two to three picture for each exercises
kind of showing you which direction you want
to go and a lot of other information like you
know how to set up your workstation nutrition
guide there like about your food habits so yeah
i try to include as much as possible i could
into one book yeah that's wonderful so You have
a free digital download version of the book in
your website. Let me see if I've got your website.
That would be theravio .com. T -H -E -R -A -V
-I -O .com. I'll go ahead and leave that in the
show notes as well. And then if you want the
physical book, you can head on over to Amazon
and pay so that the physical book gets shipped
and delivered to you. So now let's talk a little
bit about the business aspect of how you've turned
hands on healing, which I think is great for
anyone that spends a lot of time on the computer.
I'm sure a lot of other reasons lead people,
you know, to you to get physical therapy for
their hands. But as someone that spends a lot
of time on the computer, I'm definitely going
to download that book. So as someone who's turned
hands -on healing into a scalable business, what
have you learned about perseverance, innovation,
while building Thoravio? So what I learned through
this journey, I mean, I'm into the business long
enough. I tried different business and I really
wanted to kind of get going because I want to
create a legacy. Of course, I want to create
my name out there. I want to help my kids. All
that apart, nothing worked so far until I started
Terravio. And then I learned that the reason
Terravio worked, because that's the only business
I didn't start as a business. I started as helping
people and it was my passion about helping people.
Until then, I was finding all these products.
A lot of people, I'm sure in the audience, they
do the same thing. They look for the products
or the services which they think can be helpful
to the people. But they forget the main aim is
what is solving the problem. So I wanted to get
rid of the hand pain or make people's life easier.
Like you saying that you sit on a computer. If
my book or my kit can help you to live your life
better, there's nothing better than that. So
my goal shifts from creating just a product.
to helping people. And that took my business
to the next level because now my mindset is completely
changed. So yeah, that whole thing changed my
business game completely. What was some of the
hardest part that you had to overcome? If you
had to give somebody advice, someone that's looking
to do this with their business, what one piece
of advice would you give them? the harder it
is the better it is i can tell you the reason
my kit is the best again it's not that because
of i created or because it's created by like
experienced person it just it's too complex means
there's so many components going in like you
see there's so many products into that one kit
now imagine i have to deal with like six seven
different manufacturer i have to coordinate with
them Bring them together. Make sure that all
products are in the box. You have to find one
complaint from the customer who says they didn't
receive the correct product. Now, because it's
so much complex, a lot of people don't even want
to try it. So the harder it is, the better it
is. It means you're already running out of the
competition. A lot of people don't have patience
or people don't want to work as hard as we do.
So when you're ready to work hard and when you're
consistent, you're... you have definitely 100
% chances of success. It's just a matter of when
you get the success. So in business, we call
the term a low barrier to entry or a high barrier
to entry. So you're saying the harder or the
larger the barrier to entry, the easier it'll
be to stand out or succeed, even though it's
harder to get into doing this. Yeah. And a lot
of people tell me like, oh. I mean, personally,
when somebody tells me, oh, it's too hard, that
makes me excited. I'm like, oh, there you go,
perfect. My half of the competition is gone already.
So all I have to do is be a little bit better
than another half, and I'm already at the top.
Having to source different products also doesn't
sound easy. One thing is to find one manufacturer
that can produce all the products, but another
thing is having to test and rely on different
manufacturers. That's why it took me almost eight
months before I actually finalized all the manufacturer
because I probably tried at least 40 to 50 manufacturer
because each product has a different manufacturer.
And then once you get the sample, the quality
difference, the size is different. So all these
things. So technically, I have tested almost
30 to 40 manufacturer and almost 150 to 200 different
products before finalizing my 20 core products,
kind of. in one box. So what is your next milestone?
So during this journey, something clicked and
a lot of people started getting help. And I'm
like, okay, my next goal is to help 100 million
people to be pain -free. And that's my goal.
I know it's a long version. It's going to take,
I don't know, God knows how many years. But that's
my goal. And of course, along the journey, I'm
planning on different products. So I'm like talking
to a lot of patients. And as you see, I'm currently
working with the patients. I'm taking a feedback
from that, what I would do to make their life
easier. And then eventually we'll launch more
product under this brand. And also, like I say,
goal is at the end, 100 million people to be
pain -free. Well, I wish you well, and I hope
that you are able to help that many people live.
pain -free. So with that in mind, will it all
focus on the hands and the wrist, or are you
looking to explore other pain areas? No, other
pain areas. So there's a couple of options that
came on the table. Like I said, I spoke to a
lot of patients. There are short -term relief
and the long -term relief. So the hand therapy
kit is not considered a short -term relief because
it requires three to four weeks of consistent
exercises and following the plan. But right now,
working towards something, it can be immediate
effect. It could be anywhere like a generalized
pain related. So I have a few things in the mind,
but I don't want to say it because I don't know
it's going to get off the floor. So if something
concrete happens, I will definitely announce
it and people would know for sure. Well, you
haven't asked for my feedback, but I vote for
back pain. If we can find a solution for back
pain, that would be great. There you go. I'm
going to do that. I'll work on that. Well, thank
you so much for joining me today. Of course.
Anytime. It's my pleasure. And visit Theravio
.com if you'd like to learn more or order his
products. The book is a free download that you
can find on his website. Thank you for tuning
in to another episode of Milestone Moments in
Business and Leadership. Until next time.