Episode 8: Turning a 5-Year Plan Into 5-Month Success

Summary:

In this episode of the Zipper Podcast, host Chris Alto interviews Dr. Trevor Anderson, founder of RYZR Rehab and Evo Training Center in Utah. Dr. Anderson shares his journey from chiropractic school to establishing a 24,000 square foot wellness facility. He discusses his motivations for choosing chiropractic, his approach to starting and growing his business, and offers valuable advice for healthcare entrepreneurs. The conversation covers everything from innovative marketing strategies to adapting to changes in the healthcare industry.

Major Takeaways:

• Entrepreneurial Drive: Dr. Anderson chose to start his own practice immediately after graduation, driven by a desire to avoid complacency and seize opportunities.
• Community Engagement: He reached out to local gyms and became involved with powerlifting communities to build his client base.
• Diversification: The business expanded from a small 1,500 sq ft facility to a 24,000 sq ft multi-faceted wellness center within two years.
• Adaptability: Dr. Anderson emphasizes the importance of being flexible and open to new approaches in healthcare and business.
• Strategic Partnerships: Collaborating with like-minded professionals led to rapid business growth and expansion.
• Marketing Approach: Instead of traditional methods, he focused on building relationships and becoming part of communities he wanted to serve.
• Business Transition Tips: When expanding, maintain overlap between old and new locations to ensure continuity of service.
• Future of Healthcare: Dr. Anderson predicts significant changes in rehab and pain management, encouraging practitioners to be ready to adapt.
• Holistic Approach: He advocates for a balanced view in treatment, combining active and passive approaches based on individual needs.
• Virtual Healthcare: The potential for providing chiropractic services virtually is highlighted as an emerging trend.

Podcast Transcript // Show Notes: 

Chris Alto (00:00.934)
What's going on? This is Chris with the Zippor Podcast. Today we have Dr. Trevor Anderson, who is the founder of RYZR Rehab and Evo Training Center out in Utah. Trevor, thanks for coming on. Yeah, I saw the dog in the background. She's itching at the perfect time. But sweet. Well, I know that you and I have been working together for a few months and I've found your story of creating RYZR and recently moving to a new location super interesting.

Trevor Anderson (00:11.52)
Thanks for having me.

Chris Alto (00:28.998)
Love to hand it off to you and just hear a little bit about your background, how you get started in becoming a chiropractor, and we can take it from there.

Trevor Anderson (00:37.184)
Okay, sounds good. So I grew up in a family of kind of doctors, kind of in the medical field. I always kind of knew I wanted to do something related to that. And so I did a lot of classes in high school, kind of got myself prepared that way, went into college and had no idea what I wanted to do. So kind of had some really good mentors as far as professors and...

friends and things like that and realized I really wanted to help people with before they got sick, right? So dealing with healthcare, but almost like that aspect of lifestyle. And so narrowing it down, I felt like chiropractic was a really good fit for me. So at the time convinced my wife that we should go out to the Midwest and do this chiropractic journey. And so,

got out there and it was quite a shock. You know, I had had some really good chiropractors that were really kind of forward thinking, utilized a lot of exercise modalities and got there and realized that that wasn't the case for everything. So made sure to learn what I could pick up all the good aspects that chiropractic involves, which, which I do utilize on daily and learn from a lot of physical therapists, a lot of athletic trainers.

I learned from a lot of soft tissue specialists and kind of combined everything with the hopes of being able to help people, mainly an athletic kind of active group of individuals on how to deal with these kinds of things. I played football in high school and I had herniated discs. I had all sorts of issues with that. And the only relief I had was actually from a local chiropractor. And so that's...

That's what kind of made me think this might be a good route. So once we're in school, getting that all going, next step is now we're in school, now what do we do after school, right? So I had a few different offers. We were looking all over the country. We liked the idea of going to the Carolinas or Texas, somewhere down South, maybe Tennessee. And COVID kind of put a really fun smack on that. So we kind of sat down, kind of really figured out what we wanted to do. We had two small children at the time and

Trevor Anderson (02:52.416)
You know, we'd been away from family for three years and so we thought, you know, let's let's head back home and kind of figure out what we can do. Picked up some business skills to what I thought would be a good start. Talked to some entrepreneurs that I thought would be helpful for me, which helped out a lot. Tried to raise some awareness like, hey, we're coming back to town. Like, look forward to us coming here. And we opened up our own shop, a 1500 square foot facility. I had a 300 square foot gym.

with kind of like a little massage room, with a massage therapist myself, and pretty much just a lone wolf from there for about a year and a half. While I was doing that, trying to grow, get things going, I really wanted to work with an athlete, with an athletic group and with active individuals. So the first group of people I reached out to was I made a commitment to reach out to all the gyms within, you know, about 25 miles of where I was located. And to get in there, I didn't feel sleazy or weird or whatever. It was just,

Hey, one of the common reasons why people quit gym memberships is because they get injured and they don't feel like they can utilize them. So why don't you refer them to me? I'll keep them going to your gym, modifying their workouts over a short term so that they can get back to what they love to do and it mutually benefits us to have that connection. So I did that with probably close to 20 to 30 gyms. And by reaching out to those gyms, one of them...

kind of saw my vision and asked what my five -year plan was. I told them I eventually wanted to have a full -fledged commercial gym associated with my clinic. And they already had the ball kind of rolling. They were an athletic training gym, worked with a lot of high school athletes and pre -collegiate athletes. And so we kind of got talking. We ended up having the same vision essentially. And so my timeframe of five years got pushed up to about five months and we opened up a Evo Training Center, which is where I'm currently at now. So we've been here for about two months. And so now we have a 24 ,000 square foot facility that houses RYZR rehab, Valley training, which is the athletic training company. We have a baseball training facility called the lab. And then we have a commercial gym, locker rooms, massage therapy. We have a yoga studio, batting cages, and we just.

Trevor Anderson (05:18.368)
And we just added a gymnastics group. So they're out of our back facility as well.

Chris Alto (05:25.51)
Nice, that's so interesting. Okay, cool. So I think one of the things that's really unique and cool is that you went right on and just kind of started your own thing. A lot of folks I talk to, they go and like work under somebody or they spend some time like trying to get the ropes. Is that something that you're glad you did if you go back to you wish that you had worked under somebody or is jumping to the deep end something that you think was more effective for you?

Trevor Anderson (05:50.784)
Yeah. So, I would say I had a lot of gusto and a lot of umph coming out of school. And so I was very honest with, you know, my colleagues and my wife saying, Hey, I think if we work for somebody, it's a smart move, but I just feel like I'd get too complacent. I'd get too comfortable. I could see myself being always talking myself out of like, now's the time. No, now's the, no, we'll wait a few months.

And I had seen that happen with a few friends of mine who graduated a few years before me where they always were like, yeah, I'm gonna open up my own place. I'm gonna, you know, it's gonna be awesome. Like, yeah, like do it. And two, three, four years out of school, they're still working under someone and it's not a bad route to go, but COVID and the closures of a lot of clinics really made me realize it's not as safe as you might think sometimes. And the only people who are making money during those, months there right after everything got shut down were the owners if they decided to stay open but they weren't allowed to have any employees and so even as an associate which you thought was you know safe turned out people kind of flat on their faces figuring out what to do next so

Chris Alto (07:00.585)
Interesting. So jumping right in, you're just ready to go and just wanted to take the risk with entrepreneurial gusto.

Trevor Anderson (07:07.808)
Yeah, and I figured I was like, if I screw up, I can always go work for somebody, you know? Like if it doesn't work out, I can always take that job and go work under someone else. So.

Chris Alto (07:20.102)
And what specifically got you interested in chiropractic versus like physical therapy or versus massage therapy or versus becoming a personal trainer? What about that drew you in?

Trevor Anderson (07:33.28)
Yeah, so I was starting college in 2015 and right then physical therapy had just changed from a traditional master's degree into a doctorate. So everybody who was going to come out of school was going to start getting a doctorate of physical therapy, which sounded awesome, which I was all for. But it kind of drove an interesting discussion, which was traditionally you would go get a surgery, you know, your ACL repair, go see your orthopedic surgeon, and then post -op, you go see your physical therapist. And that was just kind of how it always was. Now all of a sudden you had this new group of physical therapists that were like, hey, you know, maybe surgery isn't always necessary in these situations. You should come see us first. Cause now we're a, what's called a portal of entry physician. We can, we can see you without a referral. And it kind of made it interesting. I was talking to a couple of physical therapists at the time and

They kind of alluded to this idea that, you know, the profession seems like it's going to get better, which it will over time, but right out of the gate, you're going to have a lot of people that are going to go to more school, pay more money, get this doctorate, but the jobs are going to be overtaking are going to still be the master's degree level, entry level positions, which, you know, traditionally do fine, but it's a lot more school and a lot more debt. So then I thought, okay, well, maybe I'll just, you know, buckle up my bootstraps. I'll just go to medical school and

Then I had a few buddies who were in medical school and once they finished up their four years and they had to figure out, okay, what's my specialty? What am I going to go to and get my residency in? And there is not a lot of saying what you match with. If you're one of the top tier docs and you're one of the, you know, kind of the best of the best. Yeah. You can choose if you want to do neuro or ortho or general surgery. But I had some friends that wanted to be surgeons and ended up being, you know, doing psychology or getting into professions or internal med, things that are still great professions, just not the route they had traditionally thought they were going to go into. So I didn't like the idea of my future being uncertain. And so finally I sat down with myself and wrote out a few goals. And one of them was I wanted to be able to influence people and their lifestyles before they got sick. I wanted to be able to be a portal of entry doc. I didn't want to have to have referrals. So

You know, athletic trainers and things are great, but they, there's a cap, you know, you kind of have to have a referral or so laying it all out, my goals and what I wanted to do chiropractic made the most sense. And I jokingly say that chiropractic is going to be wild west of, of healthcare because our ability to influence kind of encompasses a lot of different professions. But if you do it right, it can be a really, a really good thing. And I think we do a great job of trying to.

Trevor Anderson (10:21.504)
take urgent care, get people off opiates and be able to just overall be an influence for more physical activity and help understand pain education for people. So that's why I chose chiropractic.

Chris Alto (10:33.226)
Yeah, so it kind of fit all the bills for you. Interesting. Okay, cool. And when you... So also reaching out to the gyms and the partnerships sounded like it was something that was really beneficial for you. It obviously was how you opened Evo and now you've had such an accelerant success. Were there any other tactics you took in the early days to get your first clients, to get your first people to hear about you?

Trevor Anderson (10:57.056)
I don't know what you want to call it. I guess you'd call it like gorilla marketing, but it was literally going to my neighboring people in the strip mall. I was at, it was going across the street to the grocery store. Kind of just talking with people. I was never big on doing, I mean, traditionally you'll sometimes see like, you know, come get a, your, you know, a spine scan or an examination from your guy at like a local farmer's market. And I was like, I don't want to be that guy. Cause I just feel like it. I don't want to say desperation, but in a way it just kind of has an air to it. I don't love. So I wanted people coming to me, not me having to go to people all the time. So I've, I got associated with groups that I really liked. So I picked, powerlifting as a group of, athletes and individuals I want to be associated with. And they had a couple of meets and so I opted to be a sponsor for them. I showed up on, those power lift days, those, those meat days, and I would work on them.

Got to meet their families, got to figure out their stories and what they did and why they did it. And those took some time. I mean, those weren't initial like, this was a huge success. It was like, I paid a couple hundred dollars to be here. And, you know, I was kind of sitting there twirling my thumbs thinking, man, I really screwed up doing this. I could have put the money towards something better. But then, you know, two, three, four months down the road, all of a sudden I started getting people who are like, Hey, I remember seeing you. Like you're the only dog I feel like that would understand this. Cause all these power lifters are, I mean, these, these individuals are superhuman. And when they go to the emergency room, they're like, why'd you hurt your back? It's like, I was squatting 700 pounds. Most people are going to be like, well, don't squat 700 pounds. And then I'm the one who'll joke and be like, why didn't you squat 750? So I'm all about trying to elevate their goals and trying to be on the same page with them. And so dealing with that was really good. I helped coach one of the local high schools as well. So just getting to meet the parents and do stuff there, it wasn't

Chris Alto (12:36.166)
Yeah.

Trevor Anderson (12:52.352)
working on people there necessarily, but just getting the word out that like, hey, your kids are in good hands. I'm a licensed physician here. If they ever have any issues or whatever, they can always come see me out at school hours. We can come do this. But as far as being a strength conditioning coach, it's also chiropractor. That was kind of a plus. And so I think a lot of parents felt safe being like, this guy's definitely going to know what to do with my child as they're developing, figuring this stuff out. So that was kind of a plus as well.

Chris Alto (13:17.606)
So just getting involved in the community, making sure that you're associating yourself with the groups of individuals you want to work with is really important.

Trevor Anderson (13:24.224)
Yeah, no, that's huge. And like, for instance, a lot of people said, Hey, you should get into cycling or you should get into this. And I'm like, I just, I'm not a cyclist. And if, you know, I feel like I can still help cyclists, no doubt, but it was just something I wasn't like, am I going to really need to change my identity and what I love to work out with just so I can grab and kind of have a, an affinity for these folks, but no, do it, do what you love. I mean, go, not to say go where the money is. I mean, there's money everywhere. I'd say go where you naturally enjoy spending your time and then just get involved. That's really what it is.

Chris Alto (13:55.91)
Cool. And I guess talk to me a little bit about the transition from the smaller facility to the new facility. So that was something that you guys just went through. Were there any major learnings there around like finding a new space or is there a reason that you moved that you think would be helpful for other folks? You might be thinking about expanding or moving to new locations.

Trevor Anderson (14:17.216)
as far as the move itself, like what the partners and everything, it's been great. the biggest thing I'd say is just get everything on paper. It's annoying and it's frustrating, but like everything needs to have a contract. If there's a timeline that's spoken of. Right up a quick thing and say, Hey, remember we talked about, you know, this getting done here, there, usually with construction. I feel like it's kind of, you know, everyone's going to make a comment about how, you know, it takes longer than what they said or cost more than what they said.

I can tell you for a fact that's true. Like it will always be more than what's quoted and always take longer than what they say. And so it's good to get things on paper. I'd say that's probably the biggest headache we've had is just, you know, anticipated dates of opening or anticipated, events we were hoping to have and having to postpone those. And what's hard is it comes back on the company. It kind of makes, you know, the makes the owners look like we're uncertain or that we don't know what we're doing because people are like, Hey, I thought you're going to open this date. Now it's moved to here.

As far as any words of advice, I would just say push out your opening date beyond what the construction or build out and people are going to tell you and just stick to that. Even if you get it done a week or two early, well, guess what? Do a soft opening, invite a few friends and family, get some feedback, maybe move some stuff around, whatever they kind of say. And then you'll be even more prepared for your grand opening.

Chris Alto (15:41.414)
I can see how they'll tell you one thing and then end up taking twice as long. And then you're like a little bit, a little in trouble. So I see that happening.

Trevor Anderson (15:45.888)
Yeah, and a lot of it's not even his fault. That's the thing is like you can't just sit there and point fingers. It's just kind of the life and the way it happens. But as long as you can control it, you can control. So one thing we did is I held on to my previous location until I was certain that this new location was open. I ended up only paying one month of overlap. So paying for both of them...

Yeah, it kind of sucks, you know, it's double the rent, but at the same time, it gave me certainty that I didn't have to like shut down entirely, wait for a couple of weeks or however long it may have been, and then reopen. I was able just to kind of just slide in. And that's one thing I would say is just guarantee you have a spot to be able to still function and still have your operations going.

Chris Alto (16:32.326)
It's an insurance policy, right? It's extra month, but it's also save some headache and save some worries. So it makes sense.

Trevor Anderson (16:37.792)
For sure. Yeah.

Chris Alto (16:41.286)
Any last pieces of advice you'd have for folks who maybe are trying to become a chiropractor or might be new in the industry or just any other learnings that you think are particularly important or advice?

Trevor Anderson (16:54.752)
yeah, I guess I have a few. We'll kind of see. I guess the first for those that are interested in like chiropractic or physical therapy or anything, I'd say, definitely like utilize your, license to the best that you can, like go ahead and expand it. I know we've seen like what traditionally things have been used for, but we're coming up on a really fun era with social media and with outreach of people being able to, like I've got chiropractors that do zero hands -on work. They do all of their stuff facilitated online. And that seems kind of crazy to have a chiropractor, even a physical therapist that doesn't use their hands on individuals at all. But that's the world we're in right now. And there's a lot of good to be had between that. And so I would say if anything, like realize that what's been traditionally known as chiropractic physical therapy or athletic training is going to be changing a lot in the next few years. I'm really excited to see the world of rehab, pain management, and healthcare in general, I think is gonna turn over itself a few times over the next 10, 15 years. And so I'd say the opportunity for growth and for careers is still gonna all be there. I think those that can adapt, just like in health, those that adapt the quickest are gonna be the best off, the healthiest. And I think instead of kicking the dust, saying, I really wanna do this or do that, you kind of have to follow what the times a little bit and be...

be okay to be pushed, be okay to be pulled in different directions and kind of go with that. I think I came out of school being very, very against anything passive, you know, like ice and heat and resting and all this kind of stuff, because I was all about physical activity. Like we got to get moving. And I've realized that some people are moving too much and there's too much stress in individuals' lives. And I think I've been able to find myself kind of being in the middle on things. Like let things cool down, let you be yourself, take a second. and then let's get back to it. If we can create those windows opportunity to get you back to what you love doing, then great. So I think if you love working with people, if you love being innovative and trying new things, then definitely you're gonna wanna, it's a good career and it's something you're gonna wanna do with like -minded individuals. So make sure you have options when you do it. Don't feel like there's one route, one way, and that you have to work through somebody.

Trevor Anderson (19:19.808)
mix it up, turn it over, look at it from a different angle. There's always a different way to look at things. So yeah, it's great. I think there's a lot of potential, but just be willing to change with that as it changes here in the next few years.

Chris Alto (19:34.566)
Be flexible and adaptable. Makes sense. That's crazy that you can do chiropractic from virtual, like virtual. Huh.

Trevor Anderson (19:41.856)
Yeah. No, it's, it's, well, when you think about it, think about when you go to the, you know, you go to your, urgent care center, right? You got low back pain. You're going to go in there. They're going to take a quick, you know, make sure there's no red flags and nothing's, you know, falling out of you or anything's detrimental. You're going to get a, you know, muscle relaxant and told to give us some rest. Well, I'm on a trip or I'm hanging out with family or I've got a project I got to finish like that, that I ain't going to cut it.

Being able to find whether a chiropractor, physical therapist, or trainer, or whoever that can say, hey, I understand you need to be able to move. Let's modify a few things short -term and let's actually like catch you where you're at and keep moving you. that's going to be a lot more, that's going to leave a better impact on somebody instead of just saying, here, take a pill and let's lay on the bed for about three or four days and see where you get. Cause it's activity that probably injured you. It's going to be activity that's going to get you uninjured as well.

So I think, like I said, there's a lot of good to be had from that. And even just having somebody that's on a phone call with you that's like, Hey, you know, it doesn't sound like it's detrimental or a little video call like this, being able to see it and be like, Hey, you're good. You're validated pain is real, but the damage isn't necessarily going to occur and you're going to be just fine to keep moving. So, you know, stay for what it's worth. But I think that's worth, you know, all the money in the world to be able to be told like, Hey, we're good. We're solid. Let's keep moving.

I'll be your coach, I'll be your guide, I'll be your mentor, whatever it is, and let's keep moving along with it.

Chris Alto (21:15.91)
Makes a lot of sense, exciting. Amazing. Well, Dr. Trevor Anderson, thanks so much for coming on. Really appreciate it.