Forging Lifelong Athletes

Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey in health and fitness but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Dr. Justin Grant, DO, Co-Founder of Athlos Life, LLC., located in Meeker, CO, USA.

What's your business, and who are your customers?

We are a personal development company that builds and supports lifelong athletes. We provide online evidence-based exercise programs designed to improve health, longevity, performance, and resilience to injuries. We utilize everything from bodyweight exercises to kettlebells, barbells, sandbags, and more. Our programming follows through cycles of strength building, base building, conditioning, peaking, and de-loading and our cycles vary in biases towards strength, conditioning, and various lifts or movements.

We daily serve and build all of our lifelong athletes who currently range from middle school to late 60s in age through our programming, recommended reading in books of the month, community, and weekend summits involving physical, mental, and spiritual development. The summits include self-development activities in sport-specific skills, general conditioning, mindset development exercises, and inspirational speakers.

Tell us about yourself

My name is Dr. Justin Grant, DO, and I am a sports medicine physician specializing in 3 main areas: spine health, metabolic health, and personal performance. I have competed in multiple sports throughout my life, including cross country running, track and field, baseball, basketball, soccer, and wrestling. During my college years, I wrestled in NCAA Division II, where I was a national qualifier and an Academic All-American. Following college wrestling, I went to medical school, but I have also continued my lifelong athletic career by pursuing Gracie Jiu-Jitsu for a couple of years and then moving on to my current sports: CrossFit, triathlons, and trail running.

God has used athletics in my life to keep me focused, grow my character, improve my health, make me a better husband and father, make me a more resilient physician, and put me where I am today. I believe everyone is better when they physically, mentally, and spiritually push themselves daily, no matter their age or background. In my medical practice, I find that I am regularly encouraging and prescribing such lifestyle changes to my patients.

And in the community, I also now help coach our local wrestling team and have started a local club wrestling team, not for the sole purpose of coaching wrestling, but for the purpose of developing young children and teenagers into young high-performing adults with strong character, resilience, and purpose. Developing and serving my community in this way is what gets me out of bed each morning, and this is why my wife and I founded our company Athlos Life, where we daily build and serve lifelong athletes.

What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?

My biggest accomplishment to date as a business owner has been my marriage with my amazing wife, raising our beautiful children, investing in our community, growing a flourishing medical practice, and still managing to grow our business to the point where it is starting to pay for itself. I know Athlos Life will continue to grow into a large business that pours into tens of thousands of lifelong athletes around the world.

What's one of the hardest things that come with being a business owner?

Time management, maintaining my priorities, making decisions daily that reflect my priorities, and accepting that sometimes keeping to my priorities means some things with the business will not get done today.

What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?

Know WHY you are doing it. Your why has to be greater than making money. You have to believe in what you're doing. Simply wanting to make some extra money in a side hustle will not carry you when it gets really hard.
Think big right away, and build your infrastructure in a way that you can add to it.
Immediately build a team around you based on who they are, more important than what they know. You can have anyone learn anything, but it's their character and core values that will make or break the culture of your company. Know your core values and mission, and then hire and fire based upon the alignment of their core values and mission to yours. People will work hard for money, harder for a person, and hardest for a purpose.

Be brave enough to change the world and push against the status quo. One person, one decision, one company... can change everything.

Where can people find you and your business?

Website: https://athloslife.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/athloslife
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/athlos_life/

If you like what you've read here and have your own story as a solo or small business entrepreneur that you'd like to share, then please answer these interview questions. We'd love to feature your journey on these pages.

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