Ben Wobker of Lake Washington PT Shares: Clinician Hiring Draft Board, Building Company Culture, Balancing Burn Out, and How to Utilize AI and Tech in Growing a Practice

In this episode of the Grow Your Practice Podcast, host Chad Madden sits down with physical therapist and Lake Washington PT founder Ben Wobker to talk about one of the hottest issues in private practice: hiring.

Ben reveals his data-backed approach to attracting, hiring, and retaining top DPT grads—even during a nationwide staffing shortage. Learn how he uses a “draft board” system to nurture warm leads, mentors PT students years before they graduate, and leverages technology like AI scribes to create a clinic culture that wins the talent war.

Whether you’re struggling to recruit your next hire or looking to strengthen retention, this is a must-listen conversation with practical strategies you can implement today.

If you’re ready to simplify your hiring, boost staff retention, and grow your practice—schedule a free demo of Breakthrough today at https://getbreakthrough.com/demo

⏱️ Episode Timestamps:

00:00 – Intro: Wakeboarding and wake-surfing with Ben

01:10 – The PT shortage: Why hiring is harder than ever

02:00 – How Ben recruits from his own aide pipeline

03:45 – Building a “draft board” for DPT students

06:30 – Tracking warm leads with a simple Google Sheet

07:30 – The warm funnel that led to 14 new PT hires

09:15 – The structured (yet casual) interview process

10:45 – Building trust with personal emails and CEU invites

13:30 – Centralizing hiring to reduce internal competition

16:00 – Adapting to Gen Z’s definition of work-life balance

20:30 – Leveraging AI scribes to reduce documentation burnout

24:00 – Using ChatGPT, Gemini & AI agents in operations

32:00 – Creating scroll-stopping social videos with Opus Clip

36:45 – How to increase staff retention with autonomy, mastery, and purpose

40:00 – Mentorship as a competitive advantage

42:00 – Top podcast recommendations outside PT

45:00 – Ben’s favorite book: Bo Knows Bo

46:30 – Wrap-up and closing thoughts