Ian Elwood, MA, LAT, ATC, CSCS is a Licensed Athletic Trainer and owner of Mission MVMT Inc. He currently resides in Okinawa, Japan, and works as a contractor with US Air Force Pararescue forces as well as with functional fitness athletes through Mission MVMT. He offers in-person and online movement assessments, rehabilitation services, and sports medicine consultations.

Can you tell our readers about your background?

Sure.

I am a Licensed Athletic Trainer, which is a health care professional that works with athletic populations to prevent and rehabilitate injuries.

I started as most of my profession does, working in a school environment with high school athletes. Since then, I have moved through collegiate, recreational, and military settings with the ultimate goal of owning a clinic or business that could one day take my skill set to private clients. MissionMVMT.com is the first step in that dream.

I’ve always had an interest in entrepreneurship. In high school, I owned a small screen printing business as well as an independent magazine. This was in the pre-internet days so for your younger readers my “zine” would be a blog site that hosts guest writers… except it was in print.

What inspired you to start your business?

Athletic trainers are hard-working people that sacrifice a lot to do what they love. The problem is that during our education, there is virtually no focus on innovation. We are never instilled with a growth mindset nor with concepts of how business works. This relegates the entire profession to work in a few traditional settings: namely school athletics and professional sports.

You are probably most familiar with athletic trainers on the professional and college sports fields. We are the people who run out to an injured player on the field and manage their acute care. What you don’t get to see is the behind the scenes rehabilitation, reconditioning, and long term care that we provide athletes.

As a young AT, I saw the demanding work life inherent to my profession as a barrier to pursuing anything remotely entrepreneurial. Thankfully I was able to make a change and start working as a contractor for the US military. Working in this setting has freed up a lot of time for me to build my side business.

Even though I was earning more and had more free time working for the military I still felt like something wasn’t quite right. There was a part of me that wasn’t satisfied. I’m not exactly sure what it was but I knew that striking out on my own venture would help.

Where is your business based?

Mission MVMT is primarily an online-based business. We are growing our online services at the moment, partly due to COVID and the difficulties of seeing people in person. We also offer in-person consultations when the world isn’t collapsing on itself from a pandemic, but for now, we are pumping the brakes and grinding away at designing programs to help people get out of pain and recover from injury faster.

We also intend to set up a telehealth rehab program in the future, but for now, we are focusing on our DIY programs. Gotta focus on one thing at a time or nothing ever gets done. 

How did you start your business? What were the first steps you took?

I saw a need for good injury rehabilitation and prevention services in Crossfit gyms and other fitness facilities and knew that I could fill that need.

In the beginning, I approached one gym owner and asked him if he also saw the need with his athletes. He agreed there was a need and over a couple of weeks I addressed my idea with him and we struck a handshake deal.

After the deal was made I needed to get the word out so I created an Instagram account and some posters to hang in the gym. I had no clue what I was doing with IG but once I started posting some simple how-to type content I saw how valuable IG could be. Most of our clientele either found us on IG or, if local, used IG as a means of vetting us to see if we were real. Apparently, an Instagram account means that you are serious about what you do.

Starting the online focus of our business was a bit different. Obviously, I created a website but it took a long time and a LOT of learning to get it to be what it is today and there is still a long way to go. I had to make a lot of mistakes and ask a lot of questions about WordPress and everything else before it started to come together. Hell, I’m still learning new stuff every day about it.

What has been the most effective way of raising awareness for your business?

Honestly, we’ve only really gained clients in two ways - word of mouth and social media, namely Instagram. I was surprised to see how many new clients we got when I started tagging the location of our posts on IG.

Currently, I am learning a bit about SEO and getting some good, if small, results. Considering that with a little bit of research and planning you can get more qualified traffic for free I think we will be focusing on this moving forward.  

What have been your biggest challenges and how did you overcome them?

Efficiency is my biggest challenge. Any business owner will tell you that there are a million things to do. I tend to fall into the trap of starting one thing and realizing that I also need to do these other things too. My attention gets divided, I try to get it all done and it takes far too long.

To improve this I have started using systems but I am still getting used to them.

How do you stay focused?

Running a business, even a small one, is incredibly busy. There are always competing priorities, and it’s easy to get sidetracked or distracted. I use two strategies to stay focussed that work for me.

1- I have regular calls/meetings with my business partner, Javier. Something about the way we mesh keeps me in line and inspires me. It’s a lot easier to do the hard tasks when it doesn’t feel like it's all on me. Routine meetings also serve as a way to make sure we are both on the same page and working towards our respective goals. Accountability is huge for me.

2- I also routinely check in with goals of mine. I try to set monthly, quarterly and annual goals to meet. I often end up changing things a bit as I learn or as the business grows, but in general, I am always working towards several goals. If I find myself unmotivated, I look at my goals to remind myself of what the results of my efforts will look like. Likewise, if I am spinning my wheels working on something, I check in with my goals tracking sheet to make sure I am not wasting energy on something that doesn’t matter.

My systems aren’t perfect, and I am certain I can improve my productivity, but these two things help me stay on track for now.

How do you differentiate your business from the competition?

We like to show our clients that we are just like them. Neither Javier nor myself are going to win any fitness competitions any time soon. We both love fitness; we show up and do the work just like other Crossfitters and athletes, but we are definitely middle of the road. I think that some of the people in our niche like to show off or make the work about themselves but we don’t do that. We’re here to help our clients and put them in the spotlight.

We are also Athletic Trainers, and as I mentioned before, ATs are not typically going into business. The fact that we come from a unique background is both a source of value and sometimes a detriment to our business. On the one hand, we have a unique perspective in applying our skills only to athletic populations. On the other hand, if you ask any random person what a physical therapist or strength coach does, they could probably tell you, this isn’t usually the case with Athletic Trainers. Most people confuse us with personal trainers and don’t fully understand what we can offer. Being ATs is both a unique advantage and a disadvantage in that regard. We get great results but may suffer from a lack of title recognition.

What has been your most effective marketing strategy to grow your business?

Posting regularly on Instagram has been the best so far to get actual clients in the door. We are slowly growing on social media and frankly need a LOT of refining. Most of our client interaction has come from word of mouth advertising. Apparently, if you do a good job with someone they are likely to refer their friends and family. Who knew?

As we start to build out the digital programs and coaching we will begin to dabble with advertising on google and social media. I am particularly interested in the prospect of paid advertising, mostly because it’s something that I’ve never done, and it’s a new accomplishment to achieve.

What's your best piece of advice for aspiring and new entrepreneurs?

Don’t give up.

In the beginning, things move super slow. They are still moving slowly for us right now and it can be hard to stay on track. So I try to follow these rules:

●      Write down your goals

●      Outline a path to achieving them

●      Sacrifice anything that isn’t helping you get there (AKA learn to say no)

●      Celebrate every single win, no matter how small

●      When you feel motivation start to slip, refer to your goals and why you wanted them in the first place

What's your favorite app, blog, and book? Why?

Book- Seth Godin, Leap First. I struggle with perfectionism. Nothing is ever “done,” and I can find a thousand ways to distract myself from the deep work. Leap first helped me to learn what “good enough” is. It taught me to be cool with starting before I am ready and being ok with shipping something that isn’t perfect in my eyes but good enough.

App- Asana. With so many moving parts a standard to-do list on a post-it note just doesn’t cut it anymore. Asana helps us coordinate our projects and focus on the next big thing as opposed to just shooting at random targets.

Blog- There are too many to count. For SEO and digital marketing, I like Neil Patel’s neilpatel.com; I’ll read almost anything that Ramit Sethi puts out because his stuff has helped me with business and personal finance but also because his copywriting is fantastic.

What's your favorite business tool or resource? Why?

I’m not sure I have a favorite per se. Each tool I use has a purpose but they are all necessary to get the job done. As I mentioned above I like Asana as a project management tool but I also like tinkering with WordPress and all the bells and whistles I have with that.

Who is your business role model? Why?

Hmm, this is a tough one. I think it depends on what area of business you are referring to.

I’ll give a few examples and my reasoning-

Ramit Sethi- Founder of “I Will Teach You To Be Rich” and writer of a book of the same name. Years ago I joined a couple of his courses to learn more about online business and course making. I learned a robust framework to iterate on and have practiced every day since. But I think the thing that I admire about him the most is his (and his team’s) insane copywriting skills. If I could be 1/10th the writer that he is, then my business would be miles above where it is today. I need to keep sharpening my ax.

Pat Flynn- The founder of Smart Passive Income. I have listened to his podcast for probably a decade and I actually met him once in passing in San Diego. I admire his personal touch in business. He always puts his clients/audience first. He is incredibly transparent about his businesses and you can tell that he is just a good dude.

Kristy Grant-Hart- Shameless plug- Kristy is my sister. She is the owner of Sparkcompliance.com and Carnifex Ferry Cabins in Summersville WV. Kristy is a bit further along in her entrepreneurial journey than I am, but we chat about business a bit. I admire the amount of energy she has. She has always had this insane drive, even in high school. If I could bottle it and sell it I’d be rich and the whole world would be crushing it. 

How do you balance work and life?

It depends on the day. The variance in work-life balance is perhaps my second biggest weakness next to time management (and it may suffer as a result of poor time management).

I try to stick to a schedule, but as any bootstrapped startup founder knows- nothing ever goes as planned. I find myself putting out fires or changing the structure of a day because of some unforeseen circumstances. Since my business is currently part-time I find myself squeaking in hours whenever I can to accomplish tasks.

I think the one thing I can rest on is my ability to say no to things that aren’t important to my life and my business. Since I avoid spending time on things that don’t really matter I can focus on my relationship and my business without too much interference.

It also helps that I have an amazing wife who understands how much I value my business and what it means for our future. I couldn’t do it without her understanding and support.

What’s your favorite way to decompress?

My wife and I live right on the water in Okinawa Japan. I enjoy getting in the ocean and scuba diving or snorkeling. There is an entirely different world that is a stone's throw from my front door. Exploring it is a new adventure every time. This is one of the few things that we can still do during the pandemic without worrying about masks or social distancing.

If the weather is bad or if there is something else keeping me out of the water (like a fresh tattoo) then we love to cook. A lot of people are convinced that healthy eating is boring but they’ve never been in my kitchen on a rainy Sunday.

What do you have planned for the next six months?

We are currently building out our online services. Within the next six months, we will have built a unique tool on our website to help people screen themselves. It is a simple movement assessment tool that will help someone learn exactly what they need to work on to prevent pain and injury without having to meet face to face with someone like us or a PT.

The ultimate goal is to give people the resources they need to do DIY injury prevention and rehab, as well as online face to face “concierge” rehab.

How can our readers connect with you?

You can find us at:

Website - MissionMVMT.com

Instagram - Instagram.com/mission_mvmt

Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvSNtmUp3imXijA6xfL5oeQ?

Or contact me directly at:

Ian@MissionMVMT.com