Will Boyd, PT, DPT
Co-Founder and CMO, CEO Finance Academy
Will runs marketing, advertising, and sales at CEO Finance Academy. He oversees how the firm reaches business owners and how those conversations turn into clients, and he holds that work to the same standard the firm teaches: know what every marketing dollar and every hour actually returns, then put more behind what works.
Book a Free Cash Flow CallThe PT Student Who Didn't Raise His Hand
Will earned his Doctorate of Physical Therapy in Pittsburgh in 2016. During a business lecture in PT school, the speaker asked who wanted a PT job right out of school. Every hand went up except his. He had $150,000 in student loans, and he already suspected the traditional path wasn't going to be enough.
On a clinical rotation at a private practice, he watched the owner spend his days chasing new patients through networking groups and community events. When Will asked whether he'd ever tried getting patients online, the owner told him it didn't work. Will didn't buy it. He talked another practice owner into letting him spend $100 of his own money on ads, and it brought in patients. That owner asked if they could keep paying him, and it paid far more per hour than treating patients did.
Will treated patients for about a year and a half after graduating. Meanwhile, he and Alex Engar, whom he had met in a Facebook group for PT students, turned their side work into Healthy Funnel, a marketing agency and coaching program for practice owners. They launched their first course in 2017.
"You're paying one way or another. You're either paying with money or you're paying with time."
Will Boyd, on a physical therapy business podcastThe agency taught them something they didn't expect. They could drive leads to a practice, but if the owner had front desk, sales, or retention problems, the new patients didn't stick. And underneath all of it, most owners didn't understand their own finances. Alex loved that side of the work, the clients needed it, and Healthy Funnel became CEO Finance Academy. Today the firm works with owners doing anywhere from a couple hundred thousand dollars a year to $30 to $40 million, and Will leads the marketing and sales side that brings those owners in.
Marketing is usually the biggest discretionary expense a growing business has, and it's the one owners understand least. Will has run paid ads for practices and service businesses for close to a decade, with some campaigns running profitably for years. He knows which numbers tell you an ad is working, and he knows how easy it is to spend thousands on something that only looks good.
How Will Thinks About Growth and Money
Your time isn't free
Owners often skip paid help because doing it themselves feels free. Will's advice is to put an hourly value on your own time. Twenty hours a month on social posts that bring in one new customer is an expensive way to save money.
Know your numbers before you spend
How many leads do you get, and how many become customers? If you don't know, any new spending is a guess. Will tracks those two numbers before any campaign gets a bigger budget, and it's the same test he'd apply to buying expensive equipment.
Start small and save a cushion
Alex and Will started their own ad budget at $500 to $1,000 a month and only grew it as the results proved out. It's the approach he recommends to any owner: grow into it, and save enough cash to ride out the few months before a new investment starts to pay off.
Tell the platform what you actually want
Ad platforms deliver exactly what you ask for. Ask for clicks and you get clicks. Most failed campaigns Will sees weren't bad ads. They were set up to chase the wrong result, with no tracking for a call, a form, or a booked appointment.
Simple usually wins
One of the best performing ads Will has run is a plain colored square with the offer and the town name on it. It ran for more than four years and brought in about 70 leads a month on a $600 budget. Clear beats clever.
What Will Oversees at CEO Finance Academy
Marketing and Advertising
The paid campaigns, website, and content that introduce business owners to the firm.
Sales
The process and team that take an owner from a first call to working with one of our fractional CFOs.
Measurement
Tying every campaign to booked calls and new clients, so the firm knows exactly what each channel returns.
Content and the Podcast
The guides, videos, and podcast episodes that answer the money questions owners are already asking.
How CEO Finance Academy Can Help
Will's team is usually the first contact owners have with the firm. From there, owners work directly with one of our fractional CFOs or join one of our coaching programs.
- Fractional CFO services for construction companies
- Fractional CFO services for HVAC companies
- Fractional CFO services for dental practices
- All fractional CFO services
- Our coaching programs
- Client case studies
"It's been phenomenal working with Alex & Will with my business finances. Before them, I didn't have a systematic way of handling it or even truly understand what impact it was having on my personal life. If you are looking to scale your business, have more peace of mind, and find more profit in your business don't wait."
Will co-hosts the Just Figuring It Out podcast with Alex Engar and Ian Hogan, where they talk through the money problems owners actually run into. He started his first podcast back in PT school. Watch the show on the CEO Finance Academy YouTube channel, connect with Will on LinkedIn, or meet the rest of the team.
Outside of Work
Will lives in Pittsburgh, where he went to PT school. He still keeps his physical therapy license, though he'll tell you a friend with a sore shoulder is better off seeing someone who treats patients every day.
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