The FOX Five welcomes back FOX Rehabilitation's Joe Nocera, PT, DPT, LSVT who lists off five things he learned from being a regional director with FOX. Joe was the first FOX Regional Director in the State of Florida and discusses the responsibilities of overseeing a team of clinicians and how he built up his region, which initially started as a team of one. For anyone thinking about taking that next step into a leadership position, Joe's pathway with FOX provides a great blueprint, especially in regard to being open to relocation, never taking no for an answer, and always being open to new challenges.

Jim: Hello everybody, welcome to The FOX Five, the show that explores the wonderful world of FOX Rehabilitation through an original list created by a FOX colleague. Please welcome back to The FOX Five, FOX Rehabilitation physical therapist and Regional director, Joe Nocera. Welcome back!

Joe: Great to be back, thank you.

Jim: Joe, you had fun during the first one, right? Otherwise, you wouldn't come back.

Joe: This is true.

Jim: I wouldn't make you do two if you hated doing it.

Joe: This is accurate.

Jim: So, your first FOX Five was about Florida, right? What is your FOX Five about this time around?

Joe: Five Things I Learned Being a FOX Regional Director.

Jim: Before we begin, can you tell everyone what a regional director does?

Joe: A regional director oversees the clinical team in a specific region. My particular region happens to stretch from Hudson, Florida down to Venice, which is about 120 miles on the Gulf Coast of Florida. They call it “nature's coast” for a reason; it's gorgeous. I get to oversee the PT, OT, and speech services and manage the senior living community relationships. It's such a large region because it started in one building and stretched to 12. Now we're in house calls and just continuing to spread our orange flow.

Jim: Off camera, you said there could have been 5,000 things you put on this list, but you limited it to five.

Joe: My Top-5 were the most appropriate.

Jim: What is Number One on your FOX Five?

Joe: Number One probably was one of the tougher ones to take, and that is, rejection is okay. You're going to get a lot of rejection when you're new in a state. You're going to get a lot of nos. People are not going to understand what we do. When we go to senior living communities to market, you're going to hear it a lot, “No, not interested.” My first goal was to get past the gatekeeper, which we call the receptionist. I learned techniques from Romeo Gallo (FOX VP of Operations) from Trenton Oczypok (Director of Senior Living Partnerships). I used their techniques and I tried to find my own flow of how I was going to kind of get through that gatekeeper, because that's everything. Once you get past them, it's big. You're getting to the decision maker.

So, rejection is okay. It's going to happen a lot. You're going to go into 20 buildings on a given day, and you may get two that say, “Oh, come in and talk to me.” The other 18 may say, “We'll talk to you, or we'll call you.” Rejection's okay.

Jim: That's not just great advice for a regional director; that's great advice for life. Joe, what is Number Two on your FOX Five?

Joe: Number Two, FOX culture is so powerful. I knew it in the region of Long Island just from a clinical perspective, by being a clinician, but when I got here into the role of just one, and then two, and then three, we grew by the week, by the month, by the year.

It was just something remarkable that we had to inject in them, our culture. I didn't think it was so possible. Coming from a sports background and having that team-first kind of mentality, it's contagious. Everybody rocks the orange, everybody rocks the FOX attire all day, every day.

Jim: That's why I joined FOX. If it wasn't for the culture, I wouldn't be here. I knew of it before I joined.

Joe: Right?

Jim: Joe, that brings us to Number Three on your FOX Five.

Joe: Number Three on my FOX Five is our support. I never knew how amazing it was until I became a director. We have Recruitment, we have Sales, we have Clinical Operations, we have Quality Assurance, and we have clinicians on the ground. It is such an awesome support system that it actually attracts clinicians to come. That's how we're getting to grow so much here in the State of Florida. People are talking about our support that they don't get at other places. That in itself is a marketable tool for us to kind of sell. And who's the best salesman? Somebody who's actually doing it. The clinicians that are on the team already. I'm getting so many people from that referral source. It's pretty awesome. It comes from all levels. Like, there's a ton of support for clinicians.

Jim: I'm sure when you went down to Florida, you by yourself being the regional director, I'm sure there was a ton of support for you as well.

Joe: One hundred percent, yeah. Romeo Gallo, my mentor, who is a VP of Operations now, was my biggest support. He is an incredible person and super, super, super positive.

Jim: Yeah, Romeo is a force of nature. That brings us to Number Four on your FOX Five.

Joe: Number Four, I guess it could be kind of comical, but I never knew this was the case: morale events are lots of work. Oh my goodness, they're fun and they are so, so positive, but they're lots of work. Our last one down here was in Sarasota Beach where we filmed our Spirit Night video. Actually, we went back to the scene, set up tents, ordered food, got drinks, all types of games, and had jet skis.

We had 23 people come on a Saturday afternoon on a busy Sarasota Beach day, trying to find parking. I thought it was amazing that that many people came out on their time off. It was so much work, it was so worth it, but I never realized how much work goes into those things that my boss was doing prior when I was in my role as a director in Long Island.

Jim: When you put in that effort and you see the results, like you said, it's definitely worth it.

Joe: Every single one so far has been more than worth it, it's just amazing.

Jim: That brings us to Number Five on your FOX Five, five things Joe learned about being a FOX Rehabilitation Regional Director.

Joe: Number Five, it's that old thing where sometimes it's better to be lucky than good. Timing and luck can be everything. I have gone into a community about 30 times, once every week or every other week, trying to talk to them about us getting in the building.

It’s, “No, no, no,” then we finally get in just for treating one day, I walk in the door, and they just fired the entire admin team. I looked to the right and I said, “Hi, my name is Joe.” That's literally all I had to say. They said, “Who are you? What do you do? We want you in this building.” That's the timing portion of it.

Jim: They're lucky to have FOX, because we're the best in the business!

Joe: We are the best!

Jim: It's funny, Joe, when I worked in television, people would always come up to me and say, “How do you get to work in TV?” I'd say, “You know what, it's all about timing and luck.” However, when timing and luck strike, you have to be ready and prepared.

Joe: Absolutely.

Jim: You were prepared?

Joe: Totally prepared. My two years here, every day you learn more, but you're more and more prepared. That's why I love my job more and more every day. I'm lucky.

Jim: Well, Joe, always a pleasure chatting with you. Thanks again for taking the time to do this.

Joe: Thank you so much.