← The MSing Link
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Hello. Hello.
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Thank you so much for tuning in today.
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I hope that you are having a wonderful holiday season. I know that we've had quite a few snowstorms here already near Buffalo, New York, which the first one is exciting and cute and my 20 month old daughter calls snow when it's falling, she calls them bubbles, which is super cute. But after that first snowfall, I'm pretty much over this snow. It just gets slushy and gross and travel isn't great, but the holidays just make everything better. And this podcast episode is something new. I have not done this in all of my three plus years of podcasting. This isn't something that I've done. But I had a moment a few weeks ago where I received a message from one of our newer Missing Link members who lived in a country that the Missing link hadn't yet been represented in before, which was Kuwait. And she was saying how much this program is already changing her life. And it really hit me. It made me pause because this program that I started in my tiny garden level one bedroom apartment in Boston is now reaching people in so many countries I'll probably never meet in person, other than virtually of course, on our live calls. And, and they are living in countries that I've never been to. And just receiving that message from this member in Kuwait, it made me realize that 2025 has been a different year for myself in the Missing Link and for the Missing Link as a whole. And so at that time it was in the morning, I took out my journal and I started writing down other wins or happenings. I guess we could even call them from 2025. And normally I keep my journal entries to myself, but since you're part of my community, I wanted to share them with you. And I was able to think pretty quickly of nine wins from this year. So that's what I wanted to share with you today.
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The big question is, how does someone with Ms. Actually improve their mobility and strength, energy independence. The list goes on. My name is Dr. Gretchen Holley, physical therapist and multiple sclerosis specialist. Welcome to the Missing Link podcast. Tune in as I share the top strategies and exercises to help you gain control over your life with Ms. Using research driven insights and advice from top industry experts. Whether you're newly diagnosed or have had Ms. For over 30 years, whether you have relapsing Ms. Or progressive MS, this podcast is for you. You're sure to feel empowered and inspired after each episode.
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Ready?
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Let's dive in.
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Our first win is in alignment with the story that I just shared. Which is our global Missing Link community, reached 33 countries this year. Which just feels mind blowing to me because I started the Missing Link, this online program where I get to share my experience, my tips and tricks and exercises and strategies from the perspective of an Ms. Science specialized physical therapist virtually. And the whole reason I created it was because people locally, my patients locally, were having a hard time getting to physical therapy because of symptom flares. Fatigue was really high that day, weather might have made it unsafe to leave home, not having transportation, just so many valid reasons. And because they couldn't get to physical therapy consistently, they weren't seeing the results that I knew was possible based on those that could come consistently. And I just thought there's gotta be a better way, there's gotta be a way that I can reach these people. And this was before COVID it was before telehealth was a thing. And so I started the Missing Link with this hope of reaching people with Ms. In their homes, reaching them where they are at, so that they don't have to struggle to get to physical therapy. Because those that could get to pt, even on the days that they could come, it was so fatiguing just to get dressed and get to the clinic, then do a 30 minute session, if not more, and then get home. And it was exhausting. And their symptoms would flare after that because of how exhausting it was. And it's just so crazy and cool to see that. Members joining from Kuwait and these 33 other countries, I'll mention them in a second here, Malaysia, Romania, et cetera. It just confirms what I believed back then, which is this need for accessible care is universal and access to this specialized Ms. Care shouldn't depend on where you live. So it's just so cool when things like that work out. You know, something that you thought was needed was actually needed. But the Missing Link has been growing worldwide for the past seven years. Earlier this month, in December, I believe it's December 3rd, we celebrated our seven year anniversary. But in 2025, we officially now have had members in 33 countries. So our newest members that joined in countries that we haven't been represented in before this year in 2025 were Romania, Kuwait, Holland, Saudi Arabia, Croatia, Bahrain, New Zealand and Malaysia. And not only is this cool to see that this care, this online version of care, is accessible to so many people, but it's also bringing our community closer. It means that our members in Kuwait can connect with someone in Kansas. And our community is just one component of the Missing link, but it is A big component and it's just been really cool to see that community grow over this last year. My second win is that I was able to bring awareness of Ms. Specialized care to millions of people through the Messy Podcast. I'm assuming you know what the Messy Podcast is because it is such a phenomenal resource, but in case you don't, this is a podcast hosted by Jamie Lynn Sigler and Christina Applegate. And they reached out to me several months ago to see if I would be interested in being a guest on their podcast to talk about my experience as an Ms. Specialist and even share some of my tips and tricks and strategies. And it was such a cool and unique and humbling and amazing moment. I was so nervous. I have a podcast episode all about how that podcast episode actually went down behind the scenes. But it was such a unique opportunity that I am so beyond grateful for. The Messy Podcast is a podcast where Christina and Jamie share their experience with Ms. And it allows people who, people with Ms. Who used to feel alone and isolated and like no one gets it. Like they now have a community of people who do get it. And just from working with people who have Ms. Over the last decade plus, I know how valuable that is to feel like you're not alone in this. And their podcast is very real and raw. And it was just such an honor to be able to share my vision, my support, my guidance, everything on their podcast. My win number three is that we launched a brand new feature inside my online membership course, the missing link, called Dr. Gretchen AI. And this is 24. 7 support for our members. This is something that has been on my mind for pretty much the whole year. I got this idea in February and I mulled it over for a while, for many, many months, doing a lot of research of which platform did we want to use? And I finally found one that is super secure. Information won't get out, won't be shared on either end from our members. And I created this AI and trained it on my knowledge, my expertise, my voice, and even my teaching style. And. And it's something that's available 24. Seven inside the missing link. So while I would love to be available 24. 7 for my members, I just can't be. None of us can. So if members think of a question while they can't sleep at 2am, they can ask it. Or if it's a weekend, they can ask their questions at any time and get their answers. And it's not replacing any of our human connection inside the program. It's just enhancing accessibility so we are still having all of our live exercise classes, our weekly live chats in our community, our monthly Q. And as everything that was live is still there, this is just an added component and members are using it for so many different things. They're using it for everything from exercise modifications to understanding symptoms, or coming up with other strategies to manage their symptoms and even pep talks. I've received several emails from members saying that they were having a down day. They really needed a pep talk to get back into it. They asked Dr. Gretchen AI for a pep talk and she gave them one. And one thing that's cool about Dr. Gretchen AI is you can read the response via the text or you can click a button that says read aloud and it actually sounds like me. And so they were able to feel like I was actually the person giving them that pep talk. And we actually launched Dr. Gretchen AI in October and we had a fun theme for the full month of October called chatober. And this helped our members try it out and give us feedback. And we made constant revisions based on their feedback until there were no more feedbacks coming in where things needed to be changed. The only feedback coming in was, oh my gosh, this is amazing. I'm using it daily. This is so helpful. And, and to know that we've added that layer of accessibility into the missing link just feels like it's in complete alignment with our mission of creating more accessible content and being more accessible to people. So it's something that I'm extremely proud of. Okay, moving on to win number four, we had a brand new course that we launched this year called Ms. Research Made simple, where the main goal was to make 2025 research from clinicians, researchers, et cetera, accessible and understandable. And it was massively successful. Just the number of people who signed up for this course and sent us feedback on how much knowledge this course gave them so that they could then have better conversations with their current healthcare team, their neurologists, their in person physical therapists, and anyone else that they are working with. They are able to get better care now that they're asking better questions and they're understanding new research that was never explained to them before because oftentimes, as you likely know, when you are in your sessions, there's just a certain amount of time you have with that provider and their focus, focusing on their area of expertise and making sure you get the best care. But oftentimes there's not time to share what's up and coming in research and what the research is showing. So this course, Ms. research made simple, we launched it for, I believe it was five days for a full week in July. And in that time we had 433 people enroll, which blew my expectations out of the water. This is the first time I have ever created a course specifically on research. Research. Ms. Specific research is backed in everything that I teach, every exercise, every strategy, but it's just kind of baked into what we do inside the Missing Link. This was a specific course sharing that research. And so it felt very different from the other courses and especially the Missing Link that we offer, just with the modules explaining the research and the fact that that many people signed up showed me that you guys want to know about the research. And what I was hearing from Feedback is that either you just don't have time to look through the research, so you just want to be told what it's saying, or you have looked through it, but it just uses terminologies and graphs that are just too hard to interpret and understand without having some science degree from the person who wrote that article. And so either way, it makes this type of information more accessible. And it covered everything from, of course, exercise and physical therapy and what parameters you should be following, how many minutes to exercise, what intensity level, what, but also updates on BTK inhibitors, remyelination, which is obviously a super upand cominging and exciting area of research, menopause and women's health, depression, and in total, 10 different modules. So this was super rewarding and I love that it empowered you to have information so that you could have informed conversations with, with your healthcare team. There's so many people saying that they were less confused and less overwhelmed by medical jargon. They and they feel more powerful now that they have this knowledge. Win number five is the Missing Link podcast has reached 57 countries. And I guess I'm just now realizing as I'm talking about my journal entry out loud, that a big theme this year is our reach. With the 33 countries that Missing Link members have been in, the 57 countries that we have listeners from, our podcast is just so exciting to see. Not only that, but we've had 65,000 plus downloads in 2025 so far. So that those stats are not including the month of December. I looked this up at the end of November. We have had those listeners in 57 different countries. And I guess the reason that this one feels so special is because I frequently ask in my social media stories what topics you want to hear about. And I see your comments on social media and your questions on social media and Those often drive what these podcast episodes are about and what guests I bring in to educate us. And. And I just want you to know that your questions that you're sharing with me, your ideas of topics that you want to hear about, it's helping so much more than just you as an individual, it's helping. We have about 1300 plus downloads on every single episode, meaning me sharing that topic or bringing that guest in that you recommended. It's not just helping you, it's helping at least that 1300 other people with Ms. Who are also downloading and listening to that episode. So your curiosity, your courage to ask those questions and to share your ideas with me creates the ripple effect that reaches even further than we will ever know. And I am just so grateful for each and every one of you that has ever reached out with an idea for a podcast episode. It is appreciated more than you will ever know. Win number six is that the missing link was represented at the Wellness Pavilion at the Ms. Society's Dinner of Champions Gala. The Ms. Society has a Dinner of Champions Gala in lots of states across the United States, but the one in New York City is one of the biggest ones. And for the first time ever, they had a Wellness Pavilion at this prestigious event. And this was so exciting for a few different reasons. First of all, it shows how far the conversation has come. Wellness and exercise isn't an alternative. It is an essential component of Ms. Care, which, as you may or may not know, has not always been the case. Ten years ago, suggesting that exercise and lifestyle mattered for Ms. Would have gotten eye rolls from a decent amount of doctors and neurologists. And 20 years ago, possibly every neurologist may have rolled their eyes. I don't know if you're aware of this, but it used to be thought prior to research coming out that that exercise and physical therapy was not good for people with Ms. Because it would just worsen fatigue. We now know that that it could not be further from the truth. But to go from that as little as 20 years ago to now having exercise and wellness be seen as such a big component of Ms. Care is such a huge step in the right direction. And being invited to represent women, wellness and exercise at this event alongside several other top Ms. Clinicians and neurologists shows that the medical community is evolving and you deserve that integrated care and that multidisciplinary approach. So just the fact that they had wellness at that event, but even more so that I was asked to be one of the people representing it was a huge win in my eyes. Win number seven is that we clarified our mission here at the Missing Link to help people with Ms. See what's possible. As I've mentioned, we just passed our seven year mark in the Missing Link and we do so much here that it can be hard to nail down in one specific line what it is that we do. I'm a physical therapist. I share physical therapy based tips and exercises and strategies for people with Ms. To help you get stronger and get better balance and make your daily activities feel easier. But I worked with a brand messaging strategist and we had a five hour virtual meeting one day where we broke down every aspect of myself as the founder of the Missing Link as well as our customers that we have inside the Missing Link and our members and our community. And we broke down our core values and at the end of the day we had our new mission statement which boils down to refining our brand messaging. And that is that we help people with Ms. See what's possible in your daily life. And I just feel personally like that is really powerful because so much of what we do improves daily life with Ms. And sharing that we help improve strength and balance and walking is just such a small part of it. Yes, of course we do do that. But for example, we just had a Missing Link member. She's only been a member for one month and she said a month ago she never thought she'd be able to walk down the aisle on her wedding day or dance on her wedding day, but she just got married after one month and she sent us videos of her walking down the aisle and dancing at her wedding. That. Not that you, you're getting married in your daily life, but that's a, that's a big thing. We have members consistently telling us that they can now get dressed without falling over, climb stairs without pulling their arms with all of their might to help them get up, go from using a rollator to trekking poles. And all of these things are just daily life, just things that we have to do throughout the day. And hearing that these people are improving in their daily life just really allowed us to hone in on that one part of our mission that this is possible for other people and we will show you what is possible for yourself in your daily life. With ms, we are not about being a warrior or a fighter and we celebrate all wins, no matter how small. We're building this sense of belonging, not just delivering programs and education and information. And every decision that we make is filtered through the lens of does this help someone with Ms. See what's possible and does it help show them how to get there? We never want our members to feel like they need to be a warrior or that they need to fight Ms. To be part of our community. Some days the win honestly is just getting out of bed or even staying in bed and just exercising in bed that day. And other days it's hiking a mountain or going for a walk or a run on the sand, which her members have done. Either way, both days are worth celebrating and our job is to help you see what's possible for you on your terms, in your body and on your day that you are having Win number eight is that we made the Missing Link even more accessible during Ms. Awareness Month with our pay what you can launch and this is something that we have never done before, but hopefully you can get this from this episode. So far, a huge, huge goal of the Missing Link and our mission is to make Ms. Specialized care more accessible. So this year during March, which is Ms. Awareness Month here in the United States, we offered a pay what you can pricing that made the Missing Link accessible to people who couldn't normally afford it at its normal price. Even though we have strategically priced the Missing Link to be so much cheaper than what it costs the majority of people in CO pays to go to physical therapy every month. I actually just did this math recently because someone reached out saying, hey, I have a $20 copay. They want me to go to physical therapy three times a week. That's going to be at least $240 a month for me. Your program is 127 for the monthly option. And we just kind of went back and forth between the differences there. But I was really happy to hear that that person did that math because that's exactly the math that we did when we tried to come up with the price of how low can we offer this while still being able to afford the things that we need in place to run it effectively? And with pay what you can there was no limit. We said that the lowest dollar amount that you could contribute was $1. So I guess there was that $1 limit. You couldn't pay $0, but you could pay anywhere from 1 up until whatever you wanted. And we had during that month we had over 1,000 people part of our community at that one time during that campaign, I believe we had over 630 people sign up from that pay what you can. And that just filled my heart with so, so much joy because I receive emails weekly from people saying, hey, I just signed up for the missing link. I've been watching you for about six months, nine months, a year, and I finally decided to jump in. But I know that there are lots of people who want to join the Missing Link. They want to be part of what we are offering, but financially they just can't afford it. And so this allowed them to gain access to everything. We gave them the whole program at literally a fraction of the cost. So experimenting with this and seeing people join who'd been watching from the sideline for months or honestly years for I'm sure a lot of people because they couldn't afford it, it reminded me why we do this work and why it's so important and powerful. And last but not least, my final win number nine is that I am pregnant, which I actually don't know how many people know this. I know that I've shared it with all of my Missing Link members and reassured them exactly how maternity leave is going to work and they'll be fully supported. And I shared it on Instagram and, and Facebook, but not everyone sees those posts. So this might be the first time that you are hearing about this, but my husband and I are so excited. We are expecting another baby girl. So my current daughter, Nora will be having a baby sister come April of 2026. So this time just feels so, so special. And it's such a reminder that life keeps going and how important it is to build a team, a community, a group of people that can help you thrive and help you be your best. Whether we're talking about business or life with ms, it's so important to have those people around you. And in terms of the Missing Link, what this has looked like throughout this year and especially once I found out I was pregnant, was we added a COO to our team, which has been a godsend. We are currently in the process of adding a Director of Marketing to our team. We've restructured our internal team for better alignment and better clarity to help our customers and our members. And it's just, it's been so helpful seeing these team members come into play and really care about our community just as much as I do and allowing me more time to get out of the daily management role and more into the content creation role for content inside the Missing Link and the research role and finding content and research and information that you guys are searching for, whether you're inside the Missing Link or one of my other courses or even if you are just accessing all of our free content here on the podcast, on YouTube, on Instagram and Facebook, on TikTok, on the blog. We have so many different avenues of free content because I know that the Missing Link and our programs aren't financially accessible for everyone. But we do still want to help. And having this team and this community that we've been focusing on building throughout 2025 is allowing me and us to help even more people and support even more people in even more ways, which is really exciting. In closing, I guess what I want to share is that this year reminded me that growth often does not mean doing more and it's almost always means doing things differently. And that is one thing that it was actually one of our goals that we set as a team in January was to have fun in trying new things this year. Whether it was new services inside the missing link like Dr. Gretchen AI or new launches like our pay what you can or the Ms. Research Made simple new opportunities like the Messy Podcast and the Wellness Gala, every one of these wins happened because of this community. Because you showed up. You asked questions, you shared your stories, your hopes of what you're looking for, and you trusted me to walk alongside you as your guide. And I am so beyond proud and excited for what we've built together. And I cannot wait to show you what is coming in 2026. We've got lots of exciting plans, but until then, keep seeing what's possible in your life. You've got this. We are here for you every step of the way. And you've got us too. So thank you for listening and I will talk to you next week.
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Thank you for listening to today's show.
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I am so grateful to have you as a listener.
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If you if you'd like extra resources such as a video of one of my seated exercise classes, my favorite core exercises, and the opportunity to ask me your questions, head to missinglink.com insider. That link will be shared in the show notes along with links to my social media handles. If you loved this episode and think a friend or family member with Ms. Would benefit from listening, please go ahead and text or email this podcast to them right now. Sharing this podcast will help me educate and empower as many Ms. Warriors as possible. Thanks again for joining and be sure to tune in next week for another episode of the Missing Link Podcast.