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Growth Code Conference2027

GROWTH CODE CONFERENCE 2027

THE 2027 BRACKET

Several power-packed days designed to help private practice owners build a championship roster, a championship game plan, and a championship culture. Below is a general outline of what we have planned. The schedule is subject to change.

NEW FOR 2027 — NEARLY 40% MORE CONTENT

This year, we raised our game. We have packed nearly 40% more content into the 2027 agenda — more breakout sessions to choose from, more hands-on workshops, more collaboration opportunities, and more chances to connect with the leaders, sponsors, and peers who can take your practice to the next level. Every block is built to deliver a clear, actionable win you can bring home to your team.

Round 2

Thursday, March 18, 2027

Center Court Opens

20 sessions
6:00 a.m.6:30 a.m.

YOGA

Kim Hazelton, OTR/L
Pool Deck
6:30 a.m.7:30 a.m.

Coffee Talk

Brandon Seigel
Rotunda
7:00 a.m.8:30 a.m.

BREAKFAST

Champions never skip the pre-game meal. Hit our world-class breakfast buffet and fuel up.

Rotunda Featured SponsorFusion By Ensora
8:30 a.m.9:00 a.m.
CENTER COURT

Welcome Announcements

Brandon Seigel
Merrick Ballroom
9:00 a.m.9:45 a.m.
CENTER COURT

The Championship Mindset: Why the Best Practice Leaders Compete Against Their Past Selves

Will HumphreysRockstar
Session details

The scoreboard is lying to you. You've been measuring your practice against the clinic across town, the colleague who just opened a second location, or the version of success you imagined when you signed your first lease — and it is quietly destroying you. In this emotionally honest, motivational keynote, Will Humphreys opens with a raw and personal story from his own years as a practice owner: the moment the weight of running a business stopped feeling like a calling and started feeling like a trap. He doesn't shy away from the darkness of that season — because the research says most people in this room know exactly what he's talking about.

According to the Entrepreneur Mental Health Report 2023, 74% of small business owners say their mental health is suffering because of their clients. Nearly 50% of physical therapists report experiencing burnout. But the statistics are only part of the story. The deeper problem is the invisible measuring stick — the gap between where we are and the ideal we've placed just out of reach. The more we chase it, the further it moves. That is not a motivation problem. That is a mindset problem.

Drawing on Dan Sullivan and Dr. Benjamin Hardy's powerful framework from The Gap and the Gain, Will introduces the concept of measuring backward instead of forward — competing against your past self rather than someone else's highlight reel. He walks the audience through a simple, daily practice that rewires how leaders see progress: writing down three specific wins before you go to bed each night. Not goals. Not plans. Wins. Things that happened today that didn't exist yesterday.

This session is not a pep talk. It is a framework for sustainable high performance — the kind that doesn't burn you out, doesn't require you to be someone else, and doesn't measure your worth by what you haven't built yet. Attendees will leave with a renewed sense of identity as leaders, a practical daily habit they can start that night, and the conviction that the championship they're chasing has always been an inside game.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES
  1. Name the Hidden Enemy: Understand the psychological concept of "The Gap" — the toxic habit of measuring yourself against an ideal that always moves — and recognize how it manifests in the daily life of a practice owner, including its direct link to burnout, anxiety, and leadership fatigue.
  2. Shift to the Gain: Learn the core principle of measuring backward — comparing your present self to your past self rather than to competitors or idealized benchmarks — and understand why this mindset shift is the foundation of both sustainable success and genuine happiness.
  3. Implement the Daily Win Practice: Walk away with one concrete, immediately actionable habit — the three-win nightly reflection — and understand the neuroscience and psychology behind why this simple practice builds resilience, confidence, and momentum over time.
Merrick Ballroom
10:00 a.m.11:30 a.m.
CENTER COURT

The Loving Push

Temple Grandin
Session details

This keynote is based on Dr. Temple Grandin's best-selling book The Loving Push, co-authored with psychologist and autism specialist Dr. Debra Moore. Parents, teachers, therapists, and anyone who cares about a child or teen on the autism spectrum need this essential roadmap to prepare our youth for being successful adults in today's world.

Drawing on the book's framework and real-life stories from people on the autism spectrum, Temple spells out the concrete steps you can take to restore a child's hope and motivation — and the pitfalls you must avoid. She shares how to get kids off their computers, how to build on their strengths so they get back to caring about their lives, and how to help them find a path to a successful, meaningful life.

Three Keys to Helping Autistic Kids Succeed

1. Learning life skills, such as shopping independently and learning how to save money.

2. Fully verbal teenagers should have two real summer jobs before they graduate from high school.

3. There should be a gradual transition from the world of school to the world of work before they graduate from college.

Merrick Ballroom
11:30 a.m.1:00 p.m.

Book Signing & Meet & Greet With Temple Grandin

Temple Grandin
Outside Segovia Ballroom
11:30 a.m.1:00 p.m.

LUNCH

Halftime is where teams come back stronger. A fresh buffet theme daily — and the conversations are the real MVP.

Rotunda Featured SponsorFusion By Ensora
1:00 p.m. – 2:30 p.m. CHOOSE ONE OF 5 Five rooms, five sessions, one choice — this is your matchup.
BREAKOUT SESSION

Contract Negotiations and Renegotiations: What Sets You Apart?

Rick Gawenda, PT
Session details

From 2011–2025, outpatient therapy reimbursement declined over 43.0% due to inflation. Outpatient therapy has become a low-margin industry. Organizations who achieve and maintain solid profit margins will understand the Key Performance Indicators that drive their business. They will also understand how insurance contracting and rate increase negotiations impact their profit margins. Key Performance Indicators and insurance contracting are interrelated and profoundly impact your profitability.

In this session, you will learn what Key Performance Indicators impact your profitability, along with industry benchmarks, and ways to maximize those indicators. You will learn how to leverage those well-managed Key Performance Indicators in your insurance contract negotiations to gain fee schedule increases.

Attendees will also learn what language in a contract is favorable to the provider and language they need to avoid in a contract that is favorable to the payer. Often, practice owners struggle to grasp this reality. These different mindsets can make the difference between signing a contract that is provider-friendly versus signing a contract that is payer-friendly.

In this session, attendees will also learn how to present fee schedule increase requests in a way that resonates with insurance companies. Finally, attendees will learn the practical tips that the presenter has used to negotiate fee schedule increases for his clients.

Merrick Ballroom
BREAKOUT SESSION

The Growth Playbook: The Systems, Strategy, and Technology Behind High-Performing Pediatric Practices

Bob HerrmannRaintree
Session details

What separates pediatric therapy practices that successfully scale from those that struggle to keep up? In this session we will unpack the operational strategies, leadership decisions, and technology investments that drive sustainable growth in today's therapy landscape.

Through real-world examples, attendees will explore how leading organizations are building scalable systems for staffing, credentialing, scheduling, operational visibility, and multi-location growth—while maintaining strong culture and patient experience along the way.

This session will feature practical insights, including lessons learned from scaling organizations, navigating operational bottlenecks, improving efficiency through technology, and creating infrastructure that supports long-term expansion.

Perfect for owners, executive leaders, and operations teams looking to shift their practice into the next gear.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES
  1. Identify operational strategies that support scalable practice growth.
  2. Recognize opportunities to improve staffing, workflows, and efficiency through technology.
  3. Develop approaches for scaling while maintaining culture and patient experience.
Gables Salon
BREAKOUT SESSION

Your Next Patient Just Asked ChatGPT. Will They Find You First?

Keegan WarringtonRxMedia
Session details

The way patients find therapy practices is changing fast. Families who used to Google "speech therapist near me" are now asking ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google's AI for recommendations — and the practices being recommended aren't always the ones ranking #1 in traditional search.

In this 90-minute breakout, Keegan Warrington, CEO of RxMedia, breaks down what's actually happening across dozens of healthcare practices, what's still working, and what's coming next as AI agents begin to research, compare, and even book appointments on behalf of patients.

You'll leave with a practical playbook for making your website, local presence, and online presence ready for both today's search engines and tomorrow's AI — so you're the practice that gets recommended first.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES
  1. Understand how the patient discovery journey has changed.
  2. Attendees will be able to identify the new ways patients find therapy practices through AI search tools (ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews), and recognize the signals in their own analytics that show this shift is already happening.
  3. Audit their own digital presence against an AI-readiness checklist.
  4. Attendees will leave with a concrete checklist of what their website, Google Business Profile, and online citations need to include to be surfaced and recommended by AI tools — and how to spot what's missing.
  5. Build an action plan to get found first.
  6. Attendees will be able to prioritize the highest-impact changes for their practice, distinguish between evergreen local SEO fundamentals and new AI-specific tactics, and walk away with a sequenced plan for the next quarter.
Segovia
BREAKOUT SESSION

Succession Planning Options & Optimizing Sale Price

Steve Stalzer, MBA8150 Advisors
Session details

Whether an owner is preparing for retirement or building value for the long haul, this presentation will help owners build practice value and expand exit strategies for the future. Owners will learn to leverage operational strengths and mitigate weaknesses to enhance practice value.

We will also provide an overview of initiatives to optimize practice value in a sale, regardless of succession plans or timeline. Understanding the drivers of practice value and key steps in marketing and selling a practice will help owners be successful when the time for an exit is right. Participants will gain insight into the sales process, the importance of terms outlined in a letter of intent, and how to prepare for the diligence process.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES
  1. Outline drivers of practice value and the benefits of building a growth company.
  2. Review exit strategy options and the pros and cons of each option.
  3. Articulate the benefits of building value and knowing your exit strategy.
Colonnade Ballroom
COLLABORATIONS THAT MATTER

Reading The Dashboard: A Collaboration on Interpreting Your Metrics

Kim Hazelton, OTR/L
Session details

Most of us didn't open our practices because we loved spreadsheets—we opened them with heart and hope. But heart and hope don't tell you how much runway you have, who you need in which seat, or whether you're actually on course. In this small-group collaboration, thought leader Kim Hazelton guides a working conversation about the handful of numbers that make up your practice's instrument panel—and, more importantly, how to read them.

Think of running your practice like flying a plane: you have to know where you're headed, how much fuel is in the tank, how many crew members you need in which positions, and how many passengers are counting on you to land safely. Together, the group will compare how each owner currently reads (or avoids) their own dashboard, surface the blind spots we tend to share, and trade real approaches for turning a number on a screen into a confident business decision.

You'll leave with a clearer sense of which instruments deserve your attention, how to interpret what they're telling you, and a peer group that's now flying with the same set of gauges.

Ponce De Leon
2:30 p.m.3:30 p.m.

AFTERNOON BREAK

Every winning team knows when to call a timeout. Grab a snack, a cold drink, and hit the espresso cart.

Foyer of Colonnade Ballroom
3:30 p.m. – 5:00 p.m. CHOOSE ONE OF 5 Five rooms, five sessions, one choice — this is your matchup.
BREAKOUT SESSION

Developing a Job Architecture for Team Growth

Candice Mullendore, MS, OTR/LScott Booher, MBA
Session details

Draft the Roster. Build the Bench. Win the Season.

Every championship team is built on the same thing: the right players in the right positions, each one knowing exactly how they win — and exactly how they advance. Your practice is no different. When roles are fuzzy, talented clinicians stall, top performers walk, and growth gets stuck in overtime.

In this high-impact session, Scott Booher and Candice Mullendore hand you the playbook for building a job architecture that turns a collection of clinicians into a championship roster. You'll walk away with a practical, ready-to-run framework for defining, organizing, and aligning roles and responsibilities — while building the kind of meaningful career paths that keep your best people on your bench season after season.

Whether you're a multi-disciplinary practice scaling fast or a growing team that's outpaced its org chart, you'll leave with a clear structure that connects every role to the win.

What You'll Take Home

Together, we'll explore how to:

1. Align role structures with your practice's overall goals.

2. Develop clear job levels and progression pathways.

3. Define core clinical competencies at each level.

4. Create detailed, useful job descriptions that actually get used.

5. Communicate career growth opportunities effectively to your staff.

Merrick Ballroom
BREAKOUT SESSION

The Nonprofit Model: The Business of Mission-Driven Care

Beth YoheHannah Zax
Session details

Nonprofit clinics operate differently—and intentionally so. This presentation highlights the systems, structures, and values that define a nonprofit organization, including board governance, bylaws, fundraising, grant writing, and mission-based financial decision-making. Discover the elements needed for a nonprofit and how the model creates opportunities for wraparound care, increased accessibility, and long-term investment in underserved populations and community needs.

Gables Salon
BREAKOUT SESSION

From Clinician to CEO: The Mindset Shift That Changes Everything

Kerri Bailey, OTR/L
Session details

Great clinicians don't automatically become effective business owners—and many struggle with the critical identity shift required to truly move their practice forward. This session helps participants recognize when they are operating in "clinician mode" versus "owner mode," and provides practical guidance for making that transition. Without this shift, owners often find themselves stuck—limited in growth, overwhelmed in operations, and unable to scale beyond their own capacity.

Key Takeaways

1. Recognize the key differences between a clinician mindset and an ownership mindset.

2. Understand how identity, decision-making, and risk tolerance must evolve as a leader.

3. Apply simple frameworks to begin thinking and acting like a CEO in daily operations.

Segovia
BREAKOUT SESSION

Thriving on Purpose: A Practice Success Workshop for Rehab Therapy Leaders

Kevin SmithAndrew EllisFusion By Ensora
Session details

The best rehab therapy clinicians aren't always running the best practices — and that gap is costing the profession. Reimbursement pressure is reshaping care delivery, burnout is accelerating, and the practices pulling ahead are doing something different. But what, exactly?

This interactive 90-minute workshop introduces the Practice Success Index — our framework built on real practice data that defines what thriving looks like across five dimensions: clinical outcomes, therapist well-being, financial health, practice operations, and client experience. Working through the framework directly, participants will score their own practice, surface their biggest gaps, and leave with a concrete action plan tailored to where they are today. Drawing on findings from Ensora Health's Future of Rehab Therapy national research, this session connects the industry's most pressing headwinds directly to what practices can control and change. Come ready to work.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES
  1. Identify the five dimensions of the Practice Success Index and explain how performance gaps in one area create downstream risk in others.
  2. Apply the PSI framework to self-assess their own practice across clinical, operational, financial, and well-being dimensions.
  3. Analyze national benchmark data from the Future of Rehab Therapy report to contextualize their practice's position relative to peers.
  4. Develop a prioritized, post-workshop action plan targeting their top one or two PSI improvement areas.
Colonnade Ballroom
COLLABORATIONS THAT MATTER

Mastering The Fundamentals: A Medical Biller's Collaboration on Insurance and Workflow Optimization

Brandon Seigel
Session details

Who should join: Billers, billing managers, and revenue-minded owners.

Most billing problems aren't knowledge gaps — they're workflow gaps. In this working collaboration, billers and revenue-minded owners compare how they actually run the cycle, from the insurance fundamentals that still trip up even seasoned practices to the small workflow changes that quietly cut denials and accelerate cash flow. Guided by Brandon Seigel, whose firm manages the revenue cycle for therapy practices across 30+ states, this session turns a room of peers into a brain trust. You'll leave with concrete tactics other practices are already using to get clean claims out the door — and money in faster.

Ponce De Leon
7:00 p.m.10:00 p.m.
EVENING EVENT

Sweet Connections: March Madness Watch Party

Bay 13 Brewery & Kitchen Featured SponsorFusion by Ensora Health

Please be advised that the agenda may change at any time and this is more to give a general outline of what is planned.

EARLY BIRD -- REGISTER TODAY (opens in a new tab)