Entrepreneurial Challenges in Surf Therapy with Naomi Matanick OT RR064

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About Entrepreneurial Challenges in Surf Therapy

What happens when you blend a love for the ocean with a dedication to neurodiverse children? Naomi Matanick, a passionate occupational therapist, reveals her inspiring journey from traditional therapy settings to starting a surf therapy business. Starting a new business is never easy, especially one as innovative as surf therapy. Naomi opens up about the early challenges of bootstrapping her business, from overcoming fear and analysis paralysis to coping with imposter syndrome.

Starting her career in traditional settings, Naomi worked with both pediatric and adult populations. Despite her dedication, she struggled with burnout, particularly in the high-demand environment of traditional therapy. It was this burnout that led her to rediscover her love for water-based activities, a passion she had cherished since her youth. Encouraged by mentors and driven by her affinity for the ocean, Naomi found inspiration in surf therapy, a niche that perfectly blended her professional skills with her personal interests.

In this episode, you will learn how Naomi discovered surf therapy, the challenges she encountered early on in her practice, how to conduct surf therapy during the colder seasons, the logistics of growing the business, and the importance of adapting services based on client needs. Naomi’s story underscores the necessity of taking the plunge even when everything isn’t perfectly in place, providing an open look at the pressures entrepreneurs face and the importance of perseverance. We also discuss the importance of marketing and networking, the benefits of having a business coach, and the ongoing process of refining her business model.

Naomi’s journey offers invaluable insights for anyone looking to turn their passion into a thriving business, emphasizing the importance of following one’s passions, adapting professional expertise, and persevering through challenges. Naomi’s surf therapy business not only provides a unique therapeutic niche but also serves as an inspiration for others to explore unconventional paths in their careers.

Resources

• Naomi’s Surf Therapy Company
• Jen Potter, Business Coach
• Naomi’s Instagram
• Gnome Surf

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Bio Naomi Matanick

Q&A with Naomi Matanick

What is your desired transformation(s) from this alternative journey?

My desired transformation, to live a life that is a little more balanced, provides peace, and at the end of the day, makes me feel fulfilled. I knew I wanted a job where I could move during the day and I wanted to help people. I also attended OT as a kid and I remember the influence it had on me.

What was at stake if you didn’t take the risk of pursuing your alternative career?

I think me becoming totally burnt out. Which in theory, could lead to less care for my patients and they deserve the best attention and care. Also, my own mental health was at stake. And, a fear of missing out on what I feel is one of my life’s purposes.

What are some personal struggles you went through while finding and then transitioning to your business? How did you overcome them?

Personally, there was fear of making the first move. I would call it analysis paralysis. Another struggle was the logistics. At the time, I was employed at a pediatric clinic. I left that job and had taken a full-time position with a pediatric home health company so I simply didn’t have a lot of time but was not financially able to quit my job to work only on my business. Another factor was finding what it was I wanted to do. I actually thought I wanted to leave OT completely. I had some good friends and mentors encourage me to move through these barriers. That was huge. Also, making the decision to just move. Make the first move.

What are the practical (non-obvious) skills that make you a great fit for your work now?

I’ve walked in the shoes of the kids I work with. I went to OT for sensory integration. I understand them on a deep level. I am resilient and very determined. I go after things and I go after them again and again. I try to let my ego go. If I don’t know how to be the best at something, I’m not afraid to seek out mentors and guides.

What do you love most about your new reality?

I love the freedom it gives me to chase after what makes me feel alive. Helping kids in the ocean and on the board, makes me come alive. I love the freedom it will give me to expand in new and creative ways that sometimes even go beyond the very traditional method of OT. Keep your ears peeled for my moms and mimosa’s surfing event this spring!

What did you learn in your rehab career that you apply to your new career?

Everything. If there is a clinician who is considering taking a non-traditional route, I would highly encourage that you first feel very established in your knowledge and skill sets as a clinician. This is coming from someone working 7.5 years now with wonderful mentors. It gave me the clinical lens to which I apply my methods behind surf therapy.

What are the roots of your new career? What was your seed of hindsight to your new career?

I think it has been rooted in wanting to give to the kids I serve something I couldn’t always find as a kid going to OT. I still offer therapy. So, I haven’t completely diverged from rehab. However, I think in hindsight, everything leading me to a career in surf therapy was something I needed too. A space outside of a clinic to feel like I was having fun and succeeding at the same time.

What made you decide to pursue your current career? Why this specific one?

Many things. Haha. I have always wanted to use the water as a therapeutic tool. I found the therapeutic benefit of surfing as a surfer myself. I wanted the kids I work with to feel in their bodies and take ownership of overcoming something that felt scary or hard. I wanted more freedom in my life. This specific one, I saw the power of the ocean and surfing in servicing the specific population I see.

Transcript of Entrepreneurial Challenges in Surf Therapy

Intro 00:01

Welcome to the Rehab Rebels podcast. Are you a rehab professional ready to transition to an alternative career? Hear inspiring stories from others just like you and learn the best ways to bridge your career gap. This podcast has you covered. Now here’s your host, doctor of physical therapy and podcaster, Tanner Welsh. 

Tanner Welsch 00:20

Welcome back to Rehab Rebels. Today’s guest is Naomi Matanick. She grew up in Kentucky, Malaysia and Ohio and attended the University of Finley in Finley, Ohio, and she’s currently working for a government agency which offers therapy to the early intervention population, and she’s also building out her surf therapy company for neurodiverse kids, woo. So welcome to the show, Naomi. She’s also building out her surf therapy company for neurodiverse kids. Woohoo, yeah, so welcome to the show, Naomi. 

Naomi Matanick 00:48

Thank you. Thank you so much, Tanner, for having me. 

Tanner Welsch 00:51

Love having you come on the show and my manager mentioned you. She was super stoked and excited too. She’s doing surf and physical therapy Like what? Educational therapy Educational therapy, yeah, and I’ve never heard of any of the therapists doing that. So we really got to reach out and get her on the show and just talk about her story and how she’s doing this, you know. So I’d love to get a little bit of introduction into that gap really between when you graduated from OT school and then before you really started taking off or maybe even thought about the whole surf therapy, occupational therapy thing. What were some of the traditional settings that you were in? And then we’ll get into the questions of okay, why wasn’t this for you? 

Naomi Matanick 01:35

Yeah, absolutely so. I’ve been an occupational therapist for almost eight years, so there been a large period of time where I worked in traditional settings. I’ve worked in pediatrics, the majority of my time as an OT, a little bit of time working in adult populations, and have worked in outpatient clinics for kids, nursing homes, hospitals, home health, for both adults and kids. But through that time, you know my primary passion has always been kids. You know, if I’ve ever spent time working with adults, no matter the setting, I always return to being the most passionate about working with kids, particularly a model called sensory integration, which is a model that really looks at how, if we organize and mature our nervous system, how that impacts our function and our participation in our day-to-day life. I’ve had some amazing mentors working in those spaces. I learned so much clinically that I really needed to really have a solid foundation for what I’m launching into right now. 

02:42

But I think the thing that really made me think okay, I need to make a shift, I need to do something different, was a couple of things. Personally, I felt that I was getting burnt out by my caseload. Yeah, it was just too much for me personally of having multiple cases a day and, I guess, maintaining what I thought to be good patient care and also just for my own mental health, and being able to maintain that and have a balance in my energy level. And have always loved the water, have always seen it as a therapeutic space for myself. I’d always wished that I could do something with the water related to my work, but I didn’t know how or what that was. And then, in 2020, I discovered that surf therapy existed and I was so stoked and could not believe it, and I guess the rest is history from there. 

Tanner Welsch 03:39

For sure. So it sounds like you tried several settings. You know traditional settings as you were going through before you got where you are now and you mentioned burnout, going from the traditional setting to first discovering this surf therapy. To me that seems a transition point or definitely a big pain point. How did you know where to go, what to do next or what you were doing in the traditional model you know, especially for the majority, is not really working and the burnout’s just not going to work out long term. So it’s really that discovery phase of how do I decide what to do next? What fills my cup. Can you explain a little bit more about how that was for you with going down this surf trajectory, with where you’re at? 

Naomi Matanick 04:26

Yeah, no, I mean I can get into that. I’m laughing because I don’t think I ever intended to start a business. You know, water has always been a part of my life. Like I mentioned, in college I worked a job on the beach where I basically rented kayaks out to tourists and would push them into the water and just doing that all day long. I even thought at that point I thought, man, if I could do this job a real job I would be so happy. And then, out of college, the first clinic I worked at during the summer is my boss would actually lead this kayaking program for the kids in our clinic and I would go out to the lake on a Tuesday night after we had worked a full day and do an hour long program with all these kids in the clinic. And I would go out to the lake on a Tuesday night after we had worked a full day and do an hour long program with all these kids in the water. And it didn’t matter to me that I had worked a full day. I would get to that lake and be on the water with the kids and it was honestly the best part of my week. Then, you know, I went back into clinic space full time. 

05:23

And as I was reaching that burnout point for myself, you know, I was talking to some close friends, talking to some mentors, and really, quite honestly, I thought I would maybe leave OT because it just was taking too much of a toll on my own personal health. And one of my mentors was hey, wait a minute, you have all this knowledge, do you think there’s something that you can still apply it to? And I told her oh well, you know, I learned about this thing called surf therapy and I think it’s really cool, and you know she’s okay. Well, why don’t you try doing something like that? I always say to people okay, I know how to be a therapist, I know how to be a surfer myself, but, like you’re saying, how do I turn this into therapy and a job? And, you know, make those two worlds merge. And so I did reach out to a surf therapy company that focuses on mental health for women, but at the time I didn’t know that other surf therapy companies existed. I just knew of them. So I reached out to them and I learned everything I could. I actually attended some of their programs to understand how they use surfing as a therapeutic tool and it was very different from the framework I have now for my surf therapy company, but it gave me the inspiration, it gave me a sense and a feeling. Actually, when I participated in one of their surf therapy programs, it was also one of the most therapeutic things for myself, having the elements of the water and the structure of their therapy program. 

06:46

And then people in my life started to know that I wanted to do this surf therapy thing. But I was just staying stagnant and I think it was out of fear or not having the trust in the process of how to get started. And you know, just seems so so many factors to consider the ocean and surfboards and what do I need to get started? And people just kept telling me, just literally get one kid and take them to the beach and that’s so. Not in my nature. 

07:11

I’m very much a planner and I want to see like four steps laid out in front of me, which I know now you can’t always see in business necessarily and I didn’t want to start a business. I want to have fun, I want to be on the beach. I started talking to providers letting them know, hey, I’m starting this surf therapy company for neurodiverse kids, and so people started to know my name and I got a referral and I took that kid to the beach. From there it started to build up very slowly and is now becoming a business, which is why I laughed when you asked me, because there was no plan to own a business. But yeah, here I am and that’s the trajectory for me. 

Tanner Welsch 07:51

I’m glad we’re laughing about this whole business concept, because even for me, with Rehab Rebels, it’s not okay. You flip a switch and now you have a full fledged business. Well, how do you define a business right? Is it the fact that I have an LLC or is it the fact that I got my first net revenue from doing some sort of business service? You know, and there is no real absolute, it’s a long journey to get something up and going surf therapy so you actually started dipping your water into it pun intended and trying it out, feeling out, and then going and seeing what was out there that people were offering and participating in that and learning right Before we go on to what’s next. 

08:33

I’d love to know those memories that you had of you know, in the past or being younger with the water and, like you mentioned, in college or around college, you’re doing this job that you really loved and just wanted to be able to be paid to do that. You know, is that something that came out from those maybe deeper dive discussions with your mentors and friends, or is it something that you had always remembered and kept in the back of your mind and it it just was? Oh yeah, I’m going to go do something with water, because I’ve always wanted to do something with water. 

Naomi Matanick 09:01

Yeah, it was definitely me having the memories and the thought process of always hoping to do something with water. And then I think it was the conversation with my friends and my mentors that gave me, I guess, the courage and the knowledge or the leap to create surf therapy which I shouldn’t say create surf there, because I did not create and everyone actually in my circles always says, oh, did you come up with that? Definitely not. And then, because I found out surf therapy existed and I started to learn about it from amazing companies around the United States and now around the world, then I was able to say hey, and I think, specifically for my background as a pediatric, OT and sensory integration, I think surf therapy would be an amazing therapeutic tool for this population. Let me just I have to go now figure out how to make that be an amazing tool. 

Tanner Welsch 09:53

For sure and just so you get the right sense of where you are with the business itself. You’re just bootstrapping it and building it up. You haven’t switched full time to doing this right. 

Naomi Matanick 10:04

Right, Not yet Almost and I know some people you know I’ve heard it depends on your personality too, right? I like to plan, but then there’s also this part of my personality that can be a little bit the adrenaline, the risks, and some people aren’t going to be like that. Some people really need this plan where they have it built out. I would a hundred percent recommend being the person that gets a plan and builds it out. But it doesn’t always work like that. And because for me, I didn’t know, I wanted to start a business and I’m just doing it. But I am getting ready to make that jump very soon, probably within the next six months to a year, where I’ll be independent in my own business. 

Tanner Welsch 10:41

Congratulations, Naomi. That’s exciting. We’ll mark it or timestamp it as maybe before you got your first patient, six months before that to when you got your first patient, what was a big pain point that you had at that time, before even getting your first patient, about six months somewhere in there and how did you overcome that challenge? 

Naomi Matanick 10:58

I think, like I had said, the first big hurdle was just fear. Analysis paralysis is what I would maybe call it. Thinking okay, how does the structure of a surf therapy session under my framework? How do I even want that to look? What beach do I go to? What equipment do I use? Obviously surfboards, but right now every surfboard is created equally. What’s the age range? Yeah, that was the biggest thing. 

11:23

For me, that was the biggest hurdle was just fear and overanalyzing. I think a big thing was thinking that it had to be perfect. When I did it the first time, when you go into therapy as a new grad and you have your first client, no matter what the setting is, I can tell you it’s not perfect. I still remember my first patient I ever had as a new grad and that was not perfect. And but nobody thinks in a traditional setting, oh, I need to go in and make this perfect. But I had. I guess there was that pressure. I had so much pressure on myself that maybe other people weren’t expecting or putting on me, that maybe even families weren’t putting on me, and maybe that was coming out of being a more seasoned therapist and having those expectations of what I wanted this session to look like. 

Tanner Welsch 12:06

I’ll inject some from my point of, from my experience to doing this online entrepreneur stuff, put some perspective on it, for where I’m at, I run into the same things. You know there’s a couple of things. There’s analysis is paralysis and wanting it to be perfect when it goes out the first time. And that was really hard starting this, because super difficult to really know everything to really well and be able to implement a full, overall, complete, whatever it is you’re creating service or product, right, and what I had realized was just really do the best you can right now. Don’t overthink it, don’t overanalyze it. Get something out there and then over time you’re going to be working with this and it’s going to evolve. And it’s going to evolve and you’re going to cater it more to your audience or your customers. So that was interesting and I think many of us have come across imposter syndrome. I mean even being a physical therapist or an OT or a speech path right, when you get out of grad school. It’s okay, kick you to the curve, you’re on your own now. 

Naomi Matanick 13:07

We’re sure. Yeah, imposter syndrome is a big one, those are huge, and you know, like you said, what defines when you become a business. Because technically, I had gotten an LLC in 2021. But it was because the government agency that I work for I’m an independent contractor and everyone’s required to have their own business license. Enough that was also useful that I already had this business license in place, even though I didn’t really want to be my own business or care to be my own business. And then in 2022, I had one surfing kid and it wasn’t really till 2023 where I started getting more and building it up. 

Tanner Welsch 13:43

Okay, and that’s. That’s where we’re going with the conversation. I was wanting to know we talked about about six months before you got your first patient. What was it like six months after? So you plunged into the water now, had at least at least one patient, maybe more. What was it? Roughly six months. If you need a little bit more time, maybe six months to a year after the first patient, but that year might be too much, because you probably learned a lot. What were you struggling with around six months after the first patient regarding bootstrapping this business and getting it built out and how you want? 

Naomi Matanick 14:15

Right right After having my first two patients, I definitely was learning so much more about the framework of how I wanted to have my surf therapy sessions be run and in my head and I think truly, to be quite honest, it was really bad the way I structured the session the surfboard I use the time of day I picked on the beach. 

14:39

So after that I saw another kiddo for the duration of that summer and into the early fall and I was continuing to refine the actual process. 

But then I think, six months to a year after when I really started to put more weight and work into it, a huge hurdle and I would think six months to a year after when I really started to put more weight and work into it, a huge hurdle and I would say it’s still a learning curve is the marketing and figuring out who do I network with, what do I say, how do I get it to stick, and I’m learning so much and I’ve learned even so much more about that. 

15:06

But that was. That’s been a huge hurdle, to be quite honest, and especially when you’re doing something non-traditional and surf there people will hear that term and, first of all, they don’t even know what it means and then to get them to understand why it can be therapeutic and why it can be beneficial. Or I live in Los Angeles and getting people to drive to the beach in traffic right, it’s like another hurdle. So that’s one that I’m continuing to build out and learn about. And now I actually have a business coach that I’ve been working with for the last three months and that’s been immensely helpful and just keeping me accountable and helping me think about the ins and outs of structuring a business. 

Tanner Welsch 15:41

For sure Business coach. Do you mind sharing? You know maybe a resource or how you came across this particular coach or I would love to share her information. 

Naomi Matanick 15:51

Her name is Jen Potter, so I’m going to shout out to her. She lives in actually she lives in the East Coast, but we meet over Zoom and I actually met her at a surf therapy conference that I attended this past December, and she also helps and is on the board of a really large surf therapy company in Rhode Island called Gnome Surf, which is also another pediatric surf therapy company, and she runs and operates multiple businesses, is on their board, and so it’s been a great fit for me because she understands the world of surf therapy, she definitely understands the world of business and she goes on a very gut-based model, listening to your gut and, I would say my personality and my business building has also been a lot of okay. I just feel like this is the right direction. 

Tanner Welsch 16:34

For sure, a hundred percent, all right. So you came across her basically attending these different events through surfing and surf therapy, and that’s perfect, great way to network and meet people. And we’re talking about something that I’m also going through within Rehab Rebels and to give some you know maybe example of if somebody is wanting to do something non-traditional, there is a lot of logistics to figure out, as you mentioned with your example earlier. But one of the things, too, is presenting it like a trial run or a beta program, or this is something I’m thinking about doing. You know, would you be interested in working with me? And I’m trying to say, as therapist to patient or, in this particular example, like we’re talking about right, trying to set it up to where they know ahead of time, okay, this isn’t completely built out A to Z, we’re testing it out and that’s what I’m doing with Rehab Rebels, and you mentioned your gut. 

17:29

So I’m wanting to work on putting together a mastermind group and actually thinking about two mastermind groups, but the first one is for rehab private practice owners and bringing them together and collaborating and talking and being accountable resource for each other and soundboard for each other to talk about their challenges, and that’s the you know, the ones that have their private practice and their businesses. Another group that I want to eventually see if there’s interest in is online health entrepreneurship Rehab professionals that have transitioned into some sort of online health entrepreneurship role and it’s. Let’s just see if there’s interest. My gut is telling me there’s something here, because where else are we going to get all these awesome guests together and have an opportunity to potentially bring them in these mastermind groups to just grow and learn from each other as well? You know, I’ll stop, I’ll get off my little soapbox here and get back to here. 

Naomi Matanick 18:23

Let me know when they’re up and running. It’d be incredible to just bounce ideas off of each other, because it can get isolating bounce ideas off of each other because it can get isolating. 

Tanner Welsch 18:34

Oh yeah, absolutely so. We talked about six months after. And what about? Where are you at now from that first patient? Are you a couple years out, or how long have you been bootstrapping? For? Let’s do that. How long have you been building this out? Because that’ll help us understand too, what’s your investment of time before you’re even able to go full time on this thing. 

Naomi Matanick 18:56

Yeah, I mean everybody who’s building their own business. It’s going to look different because it depends on the time. You have the resources, you have, I guess, your knowledge of what it means to build a business. And so for me, coming from being an occupational therapist, coming from a very traditional background, I had no knowledge of business. Still, I would argue that I have very little knowledge of business. 

19:12

I didn’t build it out where I was having extra time to dedicate to this, so it’s taken me longer, which is what it is, because really, from that first patient to that six months to now, I feel like I’ve still been bootstrapping it quite a bit, but hopefully will be less and less. 

19:30

But I don’t anticipate that that process is going to get super easy I would hope in the next year or get easier. It’s getting easier, but there’s still been a lot of extra dedicated time, for example, not that this is what I would recommend, but I work six days a week because I’m still doing my part time government job, which I’m finally dropping down on, thank goodness, and I’ll see kids in the water on the weekends, outside of traditional patient care and note writing and everything that goes into being a traditional therapist which we still have to do those things for surf therapy right, but sometimes there’s a little more red tape in the clinical traditional setting. So I guess all of that to say is I’m working extra hours right for networking and meetings and marketing and structuring. So there’s a still. There’s still a lot, but it’s definitely felt easier. It’s definitely starting to feel more streamlined. But I know that there’s a lot to go. 

Tanner Welsch 20:29

Yeah, I’m not sure exactly what’s a good analogy for basically getting up a business to running full time. You’re creating something out of nothing and just working so hard to get little incremental things. I think planting a seed and watering a plant is definitely not a good enough analogy, because that’s not too hard, like you know what I mean.

Naomi Matanick 20:48

Coming from someone who doesn’t even like to garden, I’m like, oh, I’ll do that. 

Tanner Welsch 20:52

Right. 

Naomi Matanick 20:53

I mean being a surf therapist. I think of a wave and I don’t know if you ever surf or you’ve been in the ocean. 

Tanner Welsch 20:59

I have. I would love to get better at surfing, but I grew up and I still live in Kansas. I’ve lived other places, but I still prefer this from the ocean. Right, yeah. 

Naomi Matanick 21:08

So heard this from the ocean, right, yeah. So I mean I think of an analogy, of a wave and you know, maybe on a big day in the ocean and you’re trying to get out past the break, which is where the waves crash, and there’s been days where I’ve been in the ocean where you start paddling out and just as you get to where you think you’re going to get out there into the ocean, this huge wave comes and it literally just flips you over, send you all the way halfway back to shore right, and just flips you over, sends you all the way halfway back to shore right. And then you try and you do it again. And I mean that sounds horrible, but sometimes four steps forward, boom, five steps back. 

Tanner Welsch 21:37

That’s a great analogy. I love that yeah. 

Naomi Matanick 21:40

I guess the positive spin is if you love it enough, eventually you’re going to paddle out and you’re going to get over the wave, and that’s what happens in surfing, right? We love it enough that we don’t care, we’ll get beat up, we’ll get back out there again. So you definitely have to love it and be passionate about it, because otherwise you’re not going to want to put in the work. 

Tanner Welsch 21:55

Absolutely, and I think a big part of it too that shows in the analogy as well is not giving up. You’re going to get hit back a lot. 

Naomi Matanick 22:03

A lot to learn, a lot of techniques to develop, just like in serving. 

Tanner Welsch 22:08

Absolutely. What would you say were some first signs of traction? Okay, this can legitimately be a business, this can work. Was there something that happened that? Maybe it was after the first patient? I don’t know, but was there a moment or something you realized? Okay, yeah, I see this becoming something real and a business that I can do. 

Naomi Matanick 22:26

I think that’s also been not a concrete moment, but it had something to do with when a little bit of traction picked up with getting some more clients and that even building my confidence and getting better at what I was doing in terms of my own structure and framework when I was seeing kids on the beach in the water. So just getting a little bit of a confidence boost, because having the repetition of clients and hours spent on the repetition of clients and hours spent on the beach doing it and getting paid to do it which that was another shocker for me I was wow, I can’t believe I’m literally getting paid to do this and I’m so grateful for these families for instilling their trust in me. And that was a big part of it Learning about other companies that were doing what I’m doing, particularly with kids in different parts of the United States, and then just getting the buildup and the excitement of different medical providers and mentors. Yeah, it’s been a really slow process of getting to that place. 

Tanner Welsch 23:23

What has that been like? Have you had some positive support from the general health community, you know like healthcare professional community, or is it just ooh, what are you doing? What do you think you’re doing over here? They don’t think it’s legitimate. I’m curious what you’ve run into. 

Naomi Matanick 23:40

Yeah, you know it’s been interesting because there’s a lot of positive support, but then I don’t always necessarily get those referrals and I think maybe it has could have something to do with that positive support. You know, I live in a place I live in Los Angeles where I think people tend to think more holistically in their medical practice. They live by the beach, maybe they’ve had some experiences with surfing so they can conceptualize a little bit easier. Okay, I could see how that could be beneficial and therapeutic, and so there’s positive support in that essence, but I think still a little bit not a little bit a lot of a lack of education and understanding of what surf therapy is and why can it really even physically benefit a child, just as being in a clinic. And so I think that’s sometimes where the gap happens is, you know, there’s all this passion and excitement but then not enough understanding of what it is. 

Tanner Welsch 24:31

Yeah, what would you say is obvious to you now that you maybe struggled to see in the moment. It can be the traditional setting or it can be during that time when you haven’t started your side hustle or your bootstrap in your business. But you were thinking about it. Can you share, maybe, something that’s more obvious and clear to you now? That really was just a struggle in the past. 

Naomi Matanick 24:54

I haven’t really quite reached that point. I mean, I’m sure there’s things where I’m oh yeah, I’m no longer struggling with this, but there’s still so many things I’m hurdles, I’m jumping over that. I don’t think I’ve really reached that point. But you know, but if I look at little successes and little wins, I know I’ve talked a lot in this interview about structuring the session so that it’s successful, which is really creating your business model, so that your business model comes to life. That was definitely something I struggled with a lot in the beginning and now it feels so much more streamlined when people used to ask me oh well, what does a typical surf therapy session look like? And I didn’t have an answer because it hasn’t happened yet. 

Tanner Welsch 25:33

For sure. What do you love most about your new reality? 

Naomi Matanick 25:38

Honestly that it fulfills me so much. And you know, I did want to make a point in saying this has been the greatest path for me. I think there’s. The traditional clinical path can be amazing and it’s definitely pertinent and still needed, but for me this is where my passion lies and it fulfills me. And the adage that you’re going to have more freedom and time in owning your own business is not true in the beginning. I don’t know how it is later on, but I can tell you at the end of the day, even if I’m super tired, I’ll go out and I’ll do my surf sessions and I’m the happiest person alive. So I think just that it fulfills me. 

Tanner Welsch 26:15

I love that you followed that sense of yourself or that sign or paid attention to what fills you up. I mean, I don’t know about you but like even for me throughout times of my life, it’s just I have forgotten what, whatever that experience was, that did fill me up, because I’m so busy just trying to do normal daily life. I think for me it’s sometimes you can forget what does fill you up and then you’re kind of in that discovery phase again. Well, man, I need to stop and really think and then start trying some things out and seeing what does fill me up. And if you can turn that into a business where you love serving that particular group of people, providing that particular service, well hey, you might have something there, you know. 

Naomi Matanick 26:57

Yeah, exactly, it’s important. 

Tanner Welsch 27:00

Yeah. What are the best places to surf in the United States? 

Naomi Matanick 27:03

Sadly, I haven’t gotten to go to many places outside of California because I really I started learning how to surf when I moved to California five years ago, so I can’t speak to outside of California. But well, I will say there’s actually a wave pool in Waco Waco Waco, texas. I’m mispronouncing that and I haven’t been there yet, but I would love to go there because they create these perfect waves based on your skill level. So that would be a dream. But in California definitely you’re going to want to go more north of the coast or south down the coast. There’s some beautiful long waves closer to San Diego, closer to Santa Barbara. La can be rough, but we’ve got Malibu, which is nice. 

Tanner Welsch 27:46

I visited California years ago for the first time around 2010 or something and we went to San Luis Obispo and the waves that I saw when I was in California I was oh my God, these are the biggest ones I think I’ve ever seen. It was crazy I mean, because I got a little bit in the water too and just how much force and power they get right there I was. This is, this is wild. 

Naomi Matanick 28:10

Yeah, I mean they can get really big, especially in the winter. 

Tanner Welsch 28:15

That brings up a follow-up question Wintertime the business is surfing outside, so what’s the plan in the wintertime? 

Naomi Matanick 28:21

That’s been a lot of unknowns. So this year being my first really full year that I’ve been running it, I was seeing kids through the winter. I’m still seeing kids through the winter, but that’s been a learning curve for me, because I’ll get two or three families that they say to me oh yeah, our kids don’t mind the cold at all, we want to be in the water like all year round. And then I’ll have certain families that really pay attention to the temperatures and then it gets hard because they have scheduled five kids at the beach. And then one person hey, can we not meet at the beach? Because I actually have a clinic space where I’ll rent from a couple of days a week. So when we really can’t be on the beach, if it’s raining or it’s entirely too cold, we’ve been there. 

29:00

But then I’m pulled between these families and these personalities. And so I talked to my business coach and another surf therapist actually the owner of gnome in Rhode Island and he was no, you have to have a surf season. So I’m like oh okay, I didn’t know that. Now I can proudly say that from now on my surf season will start at. Basically it’s going to be starting in the third week of March and then it runs all the way through October and ends in November, to which at that point I’ll switch to seeing kids in a clinic space where, yeah, the therapy is going to look a little bit more traditional to OT, but I’m definitely incorporating aspects of surfing. So we’re getting ready for our surf season. 

Tanner Welsch 29:35

I love that, Naomi. For others that are in the traditional setting right now but they’ve experienced burnout, they know, you know this isn’t the long-term thing for them. You know what sort of insights or tips, advice, would you give them for trying to figure out maybe a non-traditional model, that, but if that’s the right way to go down for them? Or you know, if you can remember when you were around that time, when you were there, what would you have told yourself back then? Or some just general, you know advice or what you have for someone that’s right there in that journey of pivoting to possibly something that’s non-traditional. 

Naomi Matanick 30:11

I think some advice I would give is, if you’re wanting or needing to pivot to something that’s not as traditional, is just remembering that it doesn’t have to be a full fledged business, because I think, if it was presented to me that the only way to not do this is you have to create an entire business to do something else, because when I got started, I was just happy to see kids in the water and I didn’t care if it was a business or not. So even just giving yourself hours out of the week where you get to go and do some sort of work that feels really fulfilling to you can be a game changer. Don’t have that fear. Just take the step which is easier said than done and really being honest with yourself. It’s okay. 

30:47

I know it was hard for me to be honest with myself that I didn’t want to do this traditional work, at least not now, because it’s everything you’ve gone to school for, you’ve spent so much time. It’s really terrifying to have this recognition of, oh, this isn’t fulfilling me. What do I do now? And then, from there, really going after things passionately, learning everything you can about maybe the thing you’re passionate about? As therapists, we have a lot of skill set If you want to keep doing therapy but you want to do it in a different setting. There’s so many areas of need for families and adults and kids that you can really create your own bubble based on what you’re passionate about, because whatever you’re passionate about is going to be the most successful for the world. 

Tanner Welsch 31:30

Yeah, and there’s a niche around there. Once you figure out what that is, there’ll be a group of people or I’m sure that you’ve discovered as well with the surf therapy that they’re really digging it and into it too, so that community and network helps a lot as well. Once you figure it out, naomi, this has been great. Do you have anything else that you would like to add before we end our interview today? 

Naomi Matanick 31:54

Really truly go after what makes you fulfilled and it’s worth it, and I’m here if you will have any questions about the journey. 

Tanner Welsch 32:03

For sure. Thank you so much for coming on the show and sharing your story. Loved it. Take care. 

Outro 32:09

Thank you for listening to the Rehab Rebels podcast. If this podcast was useful, make sure to hit that subscribe button and leave a review. For more information about transitioning to alternative careers, head to rehabrebelsorg or follow us on Instagram at Rehab Rebels podcast. We’ll see you next time.

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