Tristan’s Story

SO, WHO AM I?

In short, I’m Tristan White, Founder & CEO of The Physio Co, a unique healthcare business, that, for 11 (eleven!) consecutive years has been ranked as one of Australia’s 50 Best Places to Work.

I’m a qualified Physiotherapist from The University of Melbourne who started my career with a dream to become a Sports Physiotherapist and work with the mighty Richmond Tigers in the AFL.

After a short post-University stint in sports physiotherapy, I realised that helping healthy people (elite athletes) become even healthier just didn’t inspire me.

Following months of self-reflection, I sheepishly started working in the much less sexy world of aged care (without telling anyone!). As a proud 24-year-old bloke who had told everyone that I was headed for a career in the more glamorous world of sports physiotherapy, I was feeling pretty embarrassed.

Over the following 12 months I created myself a job helping older people in a few nursing homes across Melbourne. I loved working with older people and very quickly had more clients than I was able to treat myself. So...I started employing other physiotherapists! That’s when, in 2004, my new job became a business and The Physio Co was born.

By The Physio Co's 10th birthday in 2014, the team had grown much larger to be able to visit senior clients in most states of Australia. I had also negotiated a deal to sell a share of The Physio co and enter a joint venture with Australia's largest owner and operator of retirement villages - the Aveo Group.

Even faster growth followed the investment from Aveo and by mid-2019, that 1-person business that I'd started in 2004 had become a 150-person team that visited hundreds of thousands of older people in aged care homes, retirement villages and private homes across Australia.

Then, in late 2019, The Physio Co's leadership team and I made a big change: we pivoted towards a future that was more in our control. Instead of re-committing to a being the allied health provider to Australia's largest group of aged care homes, we re-focussed on the people that matter the most: our elderly clients and their families.

In 2020, we have a smaller team of approximately 80 team members that are working closer than ever with our senior clients to help them set and smash their meaningful health goals.

As a young physio who fell into a career as an entrepreneur, I had and continue to have a lot to learn. To fill the gaps along the way, I’ve completed an MBA from Queensland University of Technology, an Entrepreneurial Masters Program from MIT in Boston and a mountain of learning at conferences around the world.

As The Physio Co (TPC) has grown and I’ve obsessed over creating the strongest, most purposeful and most sustainable business I possibly can, I’ve discovered that an empowered team fuelled by a strong culture not only worked at TPC but can be systemised and tailored to other businesses. That is the Culture is Everything System that I now write, podcast and teach about.

Much more important than my work, is my family. I’m married to Kimberley and dad to four little folk: Alex, Harrie, Roman & Xav. We live in a little town called Foster by the coast in Victoria, Australia.

When I find some spare time, I like to ride, run and swim. Way back in 2012 I finished my first Ironman triathlon (that’s a 3.8km swim, 180km bike and then a 42.2km marathon!). One day, I’ll be back to do that all over again!