Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Kyle Volstad. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Alright, Kyle thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Was there a defining moment in your professional career? A moment that changed the trajectory of your career?

I vividly remember standing outside of my old apartment feeling stuck and deflated, calling a family member with the intent of potentially changing my career. Some of my family members own a craft brewery in West Palm Beach & Jupiter called Civil Society Brewing Company, and I was calling to see if they would be open to hiring me as a new brewer and join their team. It would be a fun experience joining the craft beer industry & traveling, but what I was doing as a physical therapist at the time felt more like shackles around my legs.

Up to this early point in my career, I went through several years of schooling with specialty training that, to my knowledge, only about 1% – 2% of the top sports physical therapists go through. My wife and I went through a sports and orthopedic fellowship program with great mentorship and training over a 3 year period. But I was willing to give all that up and potentially change careers. I couldn’t imagine doing exactly what I was doing for the next 35+ years of my life. But then a light bulb moment happened, and later a big leap of faith to bet on myself.

That’s when I started to dive head first and pursue my own out-of-network sports physical therapy practice. I started researching, listening to business podcasts, getting all the exposure to business knowledge that I could to get my ducks in a row and launch my own clinical practice. I started in super humble beginnings with a side hustle just grinding and delivering the best results I could for my new patients. I ended up quitting my full-time job 2 months later to go all-in my new business. I felt so free and outside of the system, but still terrified at the same time. Mostly fear of failure the shame that would come with it. But in my head I was a freight train of hustle, and failure was not an option. I’ll never forget thinking to myself “I’m not even a physical therapist anymore, I’m an entrepreneur, I can do whatever I want with my life.”

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

My name is Kyle Volstad, I was born and raised in south FL in Palm Beach Gardens. I love fun adventures, exercise, surfing, roller coasters, outdoor activities, basically all sports, and building my piano skills. I grew up playing a ton of sports, lettered in 4 varsity sports in high school at Palm Beach Gardens Community High School and actually was awarded the Athlete of The Year after my senior year. Football always seemed to have my heart the most and the high school football experience was a big development period for me, which felt more like survival than fun, but I feel that the grit and other lessons learned through that experience trickled into other sports and life development in general.

I was fortunate to have the opportunity to play 2 sports at the collegiate level, football and men’s volleyball at small DII private school in Illinois. Surprisingly those two sports actually have very similar athletic elements- agility, quick reaction time, vertical jump, and explosion. The only period I had time off from being in-season during college was over the summer break, which I feel was a good thing because it kept me out of trouble and too busy for potential distractions. I earned an academic scholarship as well, and basically the only reason I went to college in the first place was because of the 3 scholarship opportunities, otherwise my plan was to go straight into EMT / paramedic school to go the fire fighter career route. I majored in Biology through college simply because I thought it was interesting, and with some helpful family influence I decided to pursue my doctorate in physical therapy and go the sports healthcare route.

I met my future wife at the University of Miami during grad school (she went to University of Miami for undergrad and was a member of the women’s soccer team- great athletic scoop for a wife!) and fast-forward 3 years after we both finished our doctorate degree we went to Houston, TX for an additional 3 year period, where my wife went through an orthopedic residency and we both went through the sports and orthopedic fellowship program. This was a big deal to us because only the top 1% – 2% sports physical therapists go through this career trajectory and has definitely opened a lot of great doors. After we finished we were asked to stay as faculty and currently I’m still pretty involved helping mentor current clinicians through the program and teaching courses on orthopedics and manual therapy around the nation.

I definitely feel that my past athletic experiences have helped my ability to treat patients who are battling lingering joint problems, viewing their problem through a unique lens. In addition to physically being able to relate to what their going through, knowing the emotional aspects of not being at 100% helps me empathize at their level as well.

Fast forward 4 years of grinding to develop what is now my current physical therapy practice. We are a true sports physical therapy practice, seeing active adults who want to get out of pain and get back to doing the activities they love without living through constant discomfort. We also see youth athletes, college athletes, and professional athletes. I coached varsity football at King’s Academy the past 2 seasons and that has been a great experience giving back to the community and also developing relationships with the athletic training staff, players, and parents. When we work with athletic people, not only are we are highly trained, but we’ve been through exactly what our patients have been through. I feel that credibility is built through real experiences, and that is a big separating factor for our clinic.

Can you talk to us about how your funded your firm or practice?

Zero capital. I started with very humble beginnings with no equipment except a treatment table and my hands for high level manual therapy treatment. I first started seeing patients in a small personal training studio with no air conditioning and just used simple equipment that was available for corrective exercise. I had to bring 2 shirts everyday because I would sweat through my shirt before lunch. From multiple successful sources I’ve learned that things don’t have to be fancy and sophisticated to get great results and deliver a great experience. A huge reason that a great experience is delivered to clients is by just listening to them. Hearing their story legitimately and authentically trying to help their specific problem mainly just takes mental effort and delivering a real result. We solve lingering and frustrating pain for people that’s limiting them from participating in the fun activities they want to pursue for their quality of life. So it’s pretty impactful for people to be able to return back to a high level of physical activity without pain that’s been limiting them for several months.

I moved to a couple different gyms over the next two and a half years pretty much did the same thing and trying to deliver great results for people while authentically trying build real relationships with them. Slowly growing over time until I had enough traction and savings to hire another sports physical therapist to my practice. Then moved into my own stand-alone facility 3 months after that out of necessity and built out the facility with equipment from the savings built over the previous 3 years of grind.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

Right after I offered a full-time position to my first employee, my host gym told me they were going out of business and were dissolving. Which meant my business was about to be homeless. So I had to make some moves and pivot the trajectory of my whole business. I pulled out my inner Jocko Willink and said “good”, it’s time to work on my pivoting skills and strategy adjustment skills. Of course I was freaking out, and even though I didn’t feel ready I decided to take a big leap of faith and open my own stand-alone facility in a hot south FL commercial real estate market. I found a great space relatively quickly and had to put down a personal guarantee on my lease. I had to trust my instincts and bet on myself, because failure is not an option and I knew I would grow into my own space as long as I stuck to my principles and previous recipe for success. Oh, by the way, at this specific time my second baby was due to be born in 4 months, so there was definitely a sense of urgency to get this figured out. The next step was building the space out and filling it with the necessary equipment, while still seeing patients, still marketing, still doing back end business infrastructure development, and still having time to be with my wife and 1.5 year old baby daughter. This was all accomplished with the savings I had built over the previous 3 years of initially starting my practice.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://athleterestorationcompany.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/athlete_restoration_co/?hl=en
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AthleteRestorationCo/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCo7FESsAXv5A_DQbdU_0eFg
• Other: Google Profile: https://www.google.com/search?q=athlete+restoration+company&rlz=1C5CHFA_enUS954US955&oq=athlete+restoration+company&aqs=chrome..69i57j69i60l3.5598j0j1&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

Image Credits
self taken photos