From 1,000 Visits a Month to 1,000 a Day: Dr Josh Funk’s Growth Playbook

Welcome to Market Movers: Building Brands & Links with Linkifi! Your go-to podcast for transforming your business into an unforgettable brand, where branding meets SEO and link-building. I’m Chris Panteli, Co-Founder and CEO of Linkifi, and I’m joined by my co-host and Co-Founder, Nick Biggs.

In this episode, we’re joined by Dr Josh Funk, founder and CEO of Rehab 2 Perform, to explore how he built a modern physical therapy company from a small subleased room into a fast-growing, multi-location brand. Josh shares how personal relationships, operational systems, local marketing, patient experience, founder-led branding, and AI visibility all play a role in scaling a healthcare business that people actively trust and recommend.

 

Key Talking Points

✅ The Injury That Sparked the Idea. Josh’s journey started when he got injured as an athlete at Ohio State. Experiencing high-level sports medicine as a Division I athlete made him realize how different that standard of care was compared with what many people could access in the community.

✅ Bringing the Athlete Experience to Everyone. Josh wanted to build a physical therapy environment where everyday patients could receive the same quality, education, experience, and expected outcomes as top-level athletes.

✅ Starting in a 1,200-Square-Foot Sublease. The first Rehab 2 Perform location was a small subleased space between two turf fields at Frederick Indoor Sports Center. It gave Josh a low-risk way to start, learn, make mistakes, and figure out the model.

✅ From 1,000 Visits a Month to 1,000 Visits a Day. When planning the first true brick-and-mortar location, the goal was 1,000 visits per month. Rehab 2 Perform quickly exceeded that target, and Josh shares that the company later reached more than 1,000 visits in a single day.

✅ Relationship Marketing Built the Early Business. In the early days, there was no major marketing budget or sophisticated acquisition system. Growth came from Josh’s lacrosse network, local relationships, introductions, workshops, and his willingness to ask for opportunities.

✅ The Power of a Handshake and a Smile. Josh emphasizes that even today, there is no substitute for real person-to-person connection. Social media matters, but local trust and community relationships still create deeper referral opportunities.

✅ Why Social Media Is Not Enough. Josh believes businesses can overstate the importance of social media when they ignore the relationships within 10 miles of their building. Getting into the community, providing value, and meeting people where they are can matter more than another post.

✅ The Pandemic Forced a Broader Marketing Bench. Before COVID, Rehab 2 Perform relied heavily on in-person relationships. When events and face-to-face networking stopped, the company had to develop paid strategies, direct mail, digital advertising, and social media in a more structured way.

✅ Learning the Limits of Founder-Led Hustle. Josh realized that while relationship-driven growth worked well in familiar markets, it was not fully scalable. Opening locations farther away forced the company to create a more complete marketing playbook.

✅ Building the Full Marketing Ecosystem. Today, Rehab 2 Perform’s playbook includes a strong website, SEO, generative engine strategy, cold outreach, warm outreach, social media, digital advertising, events, and workshops.

✅ Marketing Spend Needs Accountability. Josh stresses that when a business starts spending money on marketing, it needs to understand the mechanics behind performance. Cost per acquisition matters, but so do the steps that help reduce it.

✅ Operations Made Scaling Possible. Rehab 2 Perform’s growth was not just a marketing story. Josh built systems through SOPs, cheat sheets, activity logs, Google Drive documentation, Loom videos, and eventually Trainual to improve training and consistency.

✅ Every New Hire Improves the System. Josh sees each new hire as a chance to challenge and improve the company’s training systems. Different people learn differently, so the business has to document processes in multiple formats.

✅ The Patient Experience Is the Real Differentiator. Josh says the core reason the company grew was that it delivered an exceptional physical therapy experience. Patients were excited to come in, tell friends, and leave reviews.

✅ COVID Tested the Business. Rehab 2 Perform had opened its third office shortly before the pandemic and its fourth office just two months before. Josh had to manage safety, legal rules, team confidence, staff reductions, and financial pressure.

✅ Internal Communication Became Critical. During the pandemic, Josh realized that internal communication was just as important as external marketing. The company introduced more virtual meetings and Slack to keep the team aligned in real time.

✅ Aggressive Post-Pandemic Expansion. After 2020, Rehab 2 Perform continued to grow quickly, opening four offices in 15 months. At the time of the conversation, the company had 15 locations, with locations 16 and 17 being built and more in progress.

✅ Local SEO and Google Business Profiles Matter. Josh highlights the importance of location pages, Google Business Profile strategy, and reviews. Rehab 2 Perform has built a strong review base across its locations, which supports both trust and search visibility.

✅ Why AI Visibility Matters Now. Josh believes generative engine optimization matters because it is the direction search is moving. Even if AI search is not yet a massive referral source, he sees value in being early.

✅ Turning Internal Knowledge Into Public Content. Rehab 2 Perform already trains staff on injuries and treatment topics internally. Josh sees an opportunity to turn that internal IP into consumer-facing articles that help both Google visibility and AI visibility.

✅ Company Brand Comes First. While Josh supports clinicians building niches under the company umbrella, he believes the company brand has to come first. The goal is for patients to trust the Rehab 2 Perform experience regardless of which clinician they see.

✅ Being 2027-Proof. Josh says business owners need time to think beyond today’s problems and ask whether their business is ready for the future. One of Rehab 2 Perform’s core values is being on offense at all times.

 

Notable Quotes & Moments

📌 “I can’t believe that people have to settle for this.”

📌 “How do I make sure that everybody gets that top level athlete experience?”

📌 “I was really good at a handshake and a smile.”

📌 “Even today, there’s no substitute for the person-to-person connection.”

📌 “Do one thing well before potentially adding a second thing.”

📌 “We were delivering an exceptional experience.”

📌 “It didn’t feel like a standard medical environment.”

📌 “The company will always be here. Our people might not always be here.”

📌 “We intend to be on offense.”

📌 “We will have more AI search referrals in 2027 than we did in 2026.”

 

About Dr Josh Funk

Dr Josh Funk is the founder and CEO of Rehab 2 Perform, a modern physical therapy company built around delivering a higher-quality patient experience. A former athlete at Ohio State, Josh started the business after seeing the gap between elite sports medicine and the care available to many people in the community. Since then, he has scaled Rehab 2 Perform across multiple corporately owned locations by combining strong operations, local relationship-building, SEO, community marketing, patient experience, and forward-thinking AI visibility strategy.

🔗 Dr Josh Funk on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshfunk/

 

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👋 Connect with your hosts:
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👉 Nick Biggs on LinkedIn

 

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