We had the good fortune of connecting with Brian Benjamin and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Brian, what was your thought process behind starting your own business?
My business partner, Andy, and I had worked together for several years for another company. He was in charge of the gym portion of our clinic and I was in charge of the physical therapy portion. We had reached the top of our “ladder” and we decided that we wanted to branch off and do our own thing. We were originally up in Estes Park, and we thought, as our families started to grow, that Fort Collins offered us some more opportunities. So we took a bunch of classes as to how to run a business and we took the leap to open up shop. Now that we were in control of our own business, we could decide how we wanted things to be run. We had ideas as to how we could be more streamlined and efficient with our business model.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I am from Ohio originally where I graduated from Ohio University. I went to Slippery Rock University in Pennsylvania because the field was switching from a Master’s degree to a Doctorate degree and Slippery Rock was one of three schools at the time offering this promotion. I met my future wife in graduate school. She is originally from Colorado, so we moved to Estes Park, Colorado to start our careers. I learned the importance of treating patients how I wanted to be treated. I learned to be on time and to do whatever I could to help my patients. I also learned that I cannot help everyone, and other professionals need to be called in to help some patients in a multidisciplinary approach. I knew that I did not want to operate with a “factory” mentality where patients are quickly seen and then we move onto the next client. I wanted to be able to take time and get to the cause of someone’s problems. I realized that graduate school gave me a good foundation to help patients, but if I truly wanted to make a difference, I would have to get out of my comfort zone. I took a multitude of classes and an eventual test to become certified through the Postural Restoration Institute. This is an institute that appreciates the asymmetrical nature in a person’s body and movement patterns and works to reduce some of the compensatory patterns that people implement that might contribute to pain and dysfunction.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Fortunately, we live in a beautiful area, and we have a plethora of great places to hang out. I think that we would definitely get into Rocky Mountain National Park where we could do some hiking and fly fishing. In Fort Collins, we would take in the shops in old town and finish up having some drinks on the outside patios at New Belgium or Odell Brewing. Hopefully we could catch a show at Washington’s and a martini at Elliot’s. We could finish up with a boating day on Horsetooth Lake.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
We owe a lot of our success to the ideas and drive of the owners of the clinic that we both worked at originally. They put a lot of emphasis on the importance of clients and the personal connections that needed to be established to promote loyalty. We definitely owe a lot of our success to the physical therapists and staff members that we have hired. They are driven, passionate, and incredibly smart individuals who make running our clinic much easier. When you surround yourself with people who are more talented than you are, work days get to feel less like work.

Website: proactiveptcenter.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/proactiveptcenter/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ProActivePhysicalTherapyCenter/

Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/proactive-physical-therapy-and-performance-center-fort-collins?osq=proactive+pt+center

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwlnN9GDLt4EvkrepG0V4OA

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