We caught up with the brilliant and insightful John Minen a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
John, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today How’s you first get into your field – what was your first job in this field?
While in chiropractic school I started the Sports Chiropractic Club bringing together students interested in learning more about how to apply their skills to the sports field and blend sports medicine, orthopedics, and chiropractic care all together. The extra training and skills I developed while helping others grow landed me a position working with the Olympic team chiropractic providers for 2012 London games and the 2016 Rio games. I was elated to work under such dedicated and talented providers. I learned the dedication that is necessary to continue to hone one’s skillset and stay at the top of of the profession. I am extremely grateful for my experience working underneath Dr. Josh Glass and Dr. Norm Eng. I would not be the provider I am today without their help and guidance.
John, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
I am a Sports Chiropractor that specializes in Active Release Techniques, a highly specialized soft tissue treatment modality that helps optimize the slide and glide of all of the ligaments, tendons, muscles, and nerves in the body helping resolve cumulative trauma disorders, nerve entrapments, sprains, strains, and helps one attain the health and physical wellbeing we all are in search of.
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
As someone that likes to work with their hands, the journey to becoming a chiropractor is quite difficult. After attaining an undergraduate degree, the chiropractic degree requires another 3 and 3/4 of a year of training with no summer breaks. The curriculum is daunting and intense with a high rate of attrition. Those 4 years were nearly the most difficult of my life as I wanted to be in the field helping people, not to mention the countless hours at the desk learning how bad sitting was for one’s health. The irony was real. I called my father quarterly to tell him I wanted to drop out and do construction, however, he encouraged me to stick with my path and I couldn’t be happier I had.
Can you open up about how you managed the initial funding?
Funding the practice was difficult. When you finish chiropractic school you’re nearly a quarter of a million dollars in debt. I was given a line of credit from Wells Fargo of $15,000 to start my business. I scraped all of my savings together, used my credit cards, and my line of credit and hung my sign. It has been a long haul to get where we are. We originally started in a one room office in a shared space and gradually grew to a practice with its own gym and fitness space and five treatment rooms. It has been a wild journey!
Contact Info:
- Website: www.coloradosportschiropractic.com
- Instagram: cosportschiro
Image Credits
@Erica Johnson/EJM Photos