Chad Madden, MSPT, CEO
The Real Story About the Founder of Madden Physical Therapy…
Hi. This is Chad Madden.
For years, I’ve offered up a vanilla, professional, super-safe Bio…and I have it for you below…(just in case that’s what you’re looking for…)
If you’re looking for more though…the real dirt on me…I’ve gone out on a limb and revealed that for you as well…
Regular Bio:
Chad Madden is the Founder of Madden Physical Therapy and #1 Most Watched Back Pain and Sciatica Specialist in the World.
He grew up in West Hanover and graduated from Central Dauphin High School in 1995. He enjoyed a mediocre sports career in football, wrestling and track.
Realizing his strengths were in academics…and not sports…he earned his Master’s Degree in Physical Therapy at College Misericordia in Dallas, PA (outside of Wilkes-Barre). There he played 4 years of baseball…cementing his legacy as a mediocre athlete.
On September 2, 2003, he opened Madden Physical Therapy with a total staff of one receptionist…in a 2,000 square foot clinic on Prince Street. His oldest son was born 3 days later on September 5th…(Good timing!)
Chad’s treatment schedule is limited today as he focuses much of his time and energy working with and helping other Physical Therapy owners across the US and Australia. He is the co-Founder of that company…Breakthrough PT Marketing.
Chad presently lives in East Hanover on a 3 acre farmette with his wife, Stephanie, their 5 children (4 boys and 2 girls), 5 mini donkeys, 7 chickens, 2 cats and a one-eyed Border Collie, Georgia. In their spare time…just kidding…there is no spare time.
So that’s it…see…I warned you…pretty vanilla.
Now the REAL Juicy Stuff…
First, I’m a Bethlehem Steel Baby…
That means my parents met at Bethlehem Steel…and likely conceived me there.
They were young…and made it work.
How young? (My grandmother was 35 when I was born).
They have another son too…my brother…Steve.
Rather than share all the dirt on Steve…I’ll just say that for years I introduced myself as “Steve Madden’s brother.”
In comparison, I was fairly introverted growing up…read a lot of books…especially Encyclopedia Brown and the Hardy Boys.
(I still read a ton today….and have 500+ books in my office…my favorites are a handful of:
Classics from the late, great Charlie “Tremendous” Jones…)
On to sports…I love them…
I just never made a team I tried out for…
5 feet 8 inches…not fast…and skinny is a bad combination…
And frankly, I was just not that good…
In spite of my athletic shortcomings, I played 17 years of baseball, 6 years of basketball, 9 years of football, 3 years of track, wrestled for 2 years…and oh, yeah, played the saxophone and drums.
Why am I telling you this?
Well one of those years, playing football for the Linglestown Colts, Rodney Krasevic tackled me…and I broke my left collar bone.
Back in the day, there wasn’t rehab for a 13 year old with a collar bone fracture…just a butterfly brace for 4 weeks…then go back and play.
Well that didn’t work well…even a few months later…I still didn’t feel 100%…nor even close to it.
So after missing the basketball team at East Jr., it gave me a chance to start lifting weights…
And I noticed immediate changes to my 120 pound body…good changes.
And I saw that lifting and training could change a body.
The seed was planted.
So at this time, I’m pretty much a nerdy bookworm type who was good at science and math who just discovered weight training…
And by the time high school rolled around…I started focusing in on engineering…and taking engineering classes at Central Dauphin HS.
I need to give MAJOR credit to my guidance counselor at CD…Dale Houck…who helped me through some soul searching my Sophomore year…
At the time, the engineer work and career didn’t really appeal to me…I wanted to work more with people.
He recognized this (you know how lousy most 16 year old semi-rebellious boys are at clearly communicating…)
And recommended I start volunteering in a Physical Therapy clinic…to see if that resonated with what I felt my purpose was.
So I did.
And I started volunteering with Dale Hilbolt at 899 S. Arlington Avenue.
Dale was an awesome mentor and helped tremendously to really shape my early PT career.
After volunteering with Dale…I knew Physical Therapy was what I wanted to do.
Routinely, I’ll hear from people who come through Madden PT for treatment, “Wow…I remember when you were back on Prince Street…you’ve really come a long way.”
And I’ll share the same thing with you, that I’ve shared with them:
“The success is a reflection of 3 types of people in my life: People like Dale who helped me in the beginning…World Class staff who care…and the clients we have the privilege and honor to serve everyday.”
Speaking of the important people who nurtured me early on…
We’ve seen a ton of clients who either knew or were initially referred in by my late grandparents…Polly and Jack Madden who lived on Virginia Avenue by the old Central Dauphin High School.
I can remember stopping in after school…grabbing a bowl of Cheez-Itz and a soda…and asking Grandma to wake me up in 11 minutes…so I could make it back in time for a game.
The other thing I clearly remember is Jack (my grandfather) sharing with me his stories of being a beer salesman and promoter for Wilsbach Distributors…and how, in his 37 years of service, he never lost a customer.
That was super important to him…
And it’s something that really stuck with me.
After graduating from Central Dauphin in 1995, I received an academic scholarship to College
Misericordia in Dallas, PA (the College is now called Misericordia University).
It was an ideal setting for me…small, kind of close to home…but far enough away where I could go through the “figure out who I am” phase.
I earned a Master’s Degree in Physical Therapy in 2000…and a Bachelor’s of Science Degree.
In my time there I played baseball for 4 years and also was elected Captain my senior year…and was the Assistant Coach my graduate year. And saying I was mediocre would be an overstatement.
After graduation and passing my Physical Therapy license exam…I first worked for Arlington Orthopedics. If memory serves me correct, the PT arm was called Arlington Rehabilitation and Sports Performance.
While I’m not a big fan of Physician Owned Physical Therapy practices…it was an ideal first job for me…and I did that for 2 years.
After that, I took a job as a Clinical Director with Dale’s company…formerly known as First Choice.
In the end, it wasn’t the right fit for me…and I really wanted to do my own thing.
So with my wife being 9 months pregnant (literally)…we opened Madden Physical Therapy on September 2, 2003.
My first son was born 3 days later…on September 5, 2003.
Not the best timing on my part…
But we made it work.
I’m not sure why my timing stunk so bad…I kept thinking if I didn’t do something “Before my first child was born”, I’d never do it.
I can distinctly remember cleaning the office and getting everything set up the day before we were to open (appropriately Labor Day)…and seeing Stephanie, my wife, have to take a break.
And thinking to myself, “Oh $#%&…I better make this work.”
And being committed to doing so.
And it has worked…
The main reason being because we have great people…
Just this morning, the father of a patient stopped me in the parking lot and said, “Hey, I’ve been to a lot of other places…and you have the nicest place. Great people.”
We put a lot of effort into creating a unique healing experience.
It hasn’t always been easy or perfect….
But it’s been an amazing journey.
If you’ve made it this far…I promised you I’d reveal some dirt…here it is:
1. My office is a mess.
I’ve been saying for 6 years now that I’m “reorganizing.” Let’s face it…my strength is in creating, not organizing. Right now, I have the #1 Videos in the world on YouTube for 6 different categories…created the Top 3 Program…am writing 3 books…led the creation of our one-of-a-kind Exercise Card System…so I’m creative. I’m not organized. But I’m surrounded with organized people.
2. I take on crazy BIG projects.
Someone recently said to me, “The thing I like about you is you pretend to act like you don’t know what the limit is.”
While that’s true, it drives some people crazy. I’m an idea man…not necessarily grounded in what most people accept as status quo.
This makes some uncomfortable…yet Madden PT wouldn’t be serving as many people as we are today…we wouldn’t be having people fly in from Colorado or Montana or Kentucky for Physical Therapy…or wouldn’t be coaching over 145 other Physical Therapy companies…if we would have accepted the self-limiting beliefs of others.
3. I’m almost always 3 minutes late…
Real World Update
In spite of my flaws…my wife, Stephanie, and I now have 6 kids (4 sons and 2 daughters), 5 mini donkeys (Peppermint Patty, MoonBeam, Haley, Cactus Kate and Pistol Pete), 2 cats – Lucky & Charms, and a Border Collie named Georgia.
Because Stephanie runs a tight ship at the house…and because of our World Class staff…I’ve been given the opportunity to go out and help 100’s of other Physical Therapists across the US and now in Australia (called “physios” in Australia).
I write 6 mornings per week…and study every night.
Our kids are super active…and both of our parents are supportive in helping us taxi and support.
And I’ll leave you with this:
My favorite verse is, “The stone the builder’s rejected has become the cap stone. The Lord has done this and it is beautiful in our eyes.”
And I think that’s a sound statement to represent my story…and probably your story as well.
So as I shared above, my World Class Team and I are super focused and committed to creating an Amazing Experience for the Clients we work with.
Are you looking for an Amazing Experience?
If you are…and you’d like to share your story…email me at chad.madden@maddenpt.com.
In the subject line write “My Story”.
When you do, I’ll have a special gift just for you.
Looking forward to hearing from you,
Chad
PS – Again the easiest way to reach me is my email, chad.madden@maddenpt.com. I’d love to hear your story…