We recently connected with Jenna Minecci and have shared our conversation below.

Jenna, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Was there a defining moment in your professional career? A moment that changed the trajectory of your career?

The biggest defining moment in my career has been failure. I have dreamed of being a Physical Therapist since I was 14 years old after sustaining my first ACL injury and surgery. I instantly became fascinated with the human body’s ability to adapt and overcome, and developed a huge passion in my heart for other injured athletes. I worked hard through high school and college, with more internships than most of my peers and learning more on my own just for fun. I challenged myself by entering all fields related to athletes including Strength and Conditioning, Physical Therapy and Athletic Training. I knew I could help so many athletes prevent season ending injuries and recover from any injuries and setbacks. After graduating college, I learned I had been denied by all of the Physical Therapy schools I applied for. I was devastated but determined. I focused on my career as a Strength Coach and continued my path towards Physical Therapy school which meant retaking science classes, studying for many outside certifications to continue my knowledge and even writing a book. Eventually, I reapplied to Physical Therapy school with all of my new hard earned experience only to be turned down again. The admissions office told me with my “average Chemistry and Physics grades”, I would never get accepted. They didn’t care about my incredible amount of hands on experience and applied knowledge. Once again, I was at a crossroads, and because of my age; I knew I had to pivot. I couldn’t keep reapplying to school only to continue to be turned down; I had to start another path.
I began working for a Physical Therapy company doing Sales and Marketing. Although I had no formal training, my previous experience in all fields of my industry and my undenied hustle and passion helped me to succeed. I was easily able to communicate to physicians, physical therapists and athletic trainers at our company and understand their wants and needs. Even though I am not living out my childhood dream; I am using all of my skills to create a new opportunity for myself which might lead me in a direction I never considered previously. Because my defining moment is failure, I know I learned more than I ever would have if I had succeeded on my first few attempts.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

As a former athlete, sidelined by multiple failed surgeries, I became extremely passionate about helping other athletes through their surgery journeys in order to prevent the circumstances that happened to me. In 2017, I self published “Surviving 7: The Expert’s Guide to ACL Surgery”, in order to give a patient perspective and guide to a hard rehabilitation and recovery year for many athletes. Because ACL surgery can be different for each patient and physicians have many different techniques for surgery; I found that my first hand knowledge on all of the procedures and techniques performed on me helped me to create a guide for athletes to research their options and become a better advocate for themselves during this process. From writing my book and creating a social media platform, I ended up mentoring and coaching athletes facing ACL injuries and surgeries from all over the world. Although I am no longer working full time as a Strength and Conditioning Coach, I realized using my knowledge, experience and advice made a huge impact on anyone I had the privilege to mentor.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

My entire journey is defined by resilience. I decided my career path at 14 years old after sustaining my first ACL injury and surgery. After a long rehabilitation journey through lots of pain and hard work, I returned to sports only to injure my other knee and require another ACL surgery. Shortly after my second surgery, I was experiencing a lot of setbacks and eventually learned both of my surgeries had been performed incorrectly and had “failed” requiring me to have revision surgery on each of my knees. It has now been almost 16 years since my first and only 2 injuries but unfortunately 4 of my ACL surgeries have “failed” now requiring me to now have a total of 9 surgeries from only 2 initial injuries. While having 9 invasive knee surgeries, I was working in a field training athletes. I worked for years without ever having vacation time because each year the only time I could take off was to have more surgeries. I would return to the gym to help my athletes while on crutches, spotting them and continuing to coach and help them get stronger while I couldn’t even walk or squat myself. I spent my nights and weekends tirelessly doing my own rehabilitation and studying and learning new techniques to help my unique circumstances because I couldn’t find anyone in the industry who had dealt with someone with so many surgeries at my age. Many jobs I applied for turned me down because they were scared of injury liability or worried I would be unable to demonstrate and coach athletes while being injured myself. Because I required a specialist to finally fix my improper surgeries, I was forced to pay for multiple out of pocket surgeries leaving me in tons of debt. Despite everything, I managed to fuel all of that passion into helping others to gain strength after injury and to learn more before surgery so that no one has the amount of surgery problems I had faced. And even though my dream of being a Physical Therapist also never worked out for me, I continue to pivot in order to find other options in my field in order to make the impact I want to leave on the world of knees.

Do you think you’d choose a different profession or specialty if you were starting now?

If I could go back I would most likely choose the same profession. It is my biggest life passion and has fueled my desires since I was an athlete as a child. I do wish I could teach my younger self to focus on my GPA instead of experience at a young age because unfortunately that is all I was ever judged on. I also believe I would be a great Sports Broadcaster but growing up in the 90s, I rarely saw female sports announcers doing serious work instead of just reporting the weather from the sidelines. This held me back greatly because I never saw someone like me doing the jobs I had passions for.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @Jennactive
• Facebook: @Jennactive
• Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/jennactive
• Twitter: @Jennactive
• Youtube: Jenna Minecci