Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Johné Booty. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Johné, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. How did you come up with the idea for your business?
My day job is working as an athletic trainer at a high school in north Texas. We help out all types of athletes from every sport the school has to offer. Since I work at a school though, we have summers off so I reached out to a mentor about working with her doing USA Volleyball tournaments. Side note, it has always been a dream of mine to volunteer as an athletic trainer at the summer Olympic Games, so hearing that she worked with USA volleyball, I thought that would help me get a foot in the door. I was able to work a volleyball tournament with my mentor as an athletic trainer, but it was not what I expected it to be. Once I arrived, I found out it was all of the young club teams from across the nation coming together to win a bid to nationals.
I did one tournament and ended up doing more over the course of a couple years. As I was working the tournaments, I started to notice something. Our job as athletic trainers, in any capacity, is to prevent, diagnosis (let athletes and parents know what we suspect is going on but an offical diagnosis comes after imaginingand being seen by a doctor), and treat injuries. I like to think of us as EMTs, physical therapists, nurses, and nutritionist all wrapped up in one, with a sprinkle of taping and hydration specialists on top of that. With that being said, at these tournaments, you might have 3 – 4 athletic trainers available to help a couple hundred to thousands of athletes over the course of a weekend to feel good to play in their volleyball games.
Initially, the athletes would come to us to tape ankles, wrists, or whatever body part they may have injured in the past, so they can play as tolerated. As the tournament goes on however, athletes start to get injured or an emergency happens that the athletic training staff have to deal with. That could be going to a court because an athlete rolled their ankle, or dealing with a parent who is potentially having a heart attack. While that is our priority, you’d still have some athletes coming up to the athletic trainers because their legs are sore and they want to feel good for their next game . We would try to accommodate and help them as much as we could be stretching them or giving them a massage, the priority would be someone who just got injured or dealing with a medical emergency, so those athletes didn’t get the proper care they needed and were kind of tossed to the side.
That’s when I decided to start The Athlete Recovery Den, a dedicated place at the volleyball tournaments just for those athletes. In my eyes, those athletes needed the athletic trainers just as much as the ones but because they didn’t have an acute injury or medical emergency, they were rushed through the line. The Athlete Recovery Den is mobile space set up at tournaments where the athletes can get stretched, get manual therapy services such as cupping and massages, and utilize equipment like massage guns and compression boots so they feel their best throughout the tournament to keeping striving to win the gold!
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
I initially got into athletic training because I was an athlete myself who got injured and needed to see my trainer in high school. I remembered the feeling I had being in the training room and I loved the energy that the training room always had. While in school studying to be an athletic trainer, I was always fascinated by which recovery techniques helped athletes feel better the fastest and which techniques were the most effective. In my career, I have always centered my continuing education towards helping the athletes be the best them by utilizing the most effective techniques to keep them participating in the sport or activities they love.
The Athlete Recovery Den utilizes manual therapy techniques, such as cupping, massage and stretching to help athletes relieve soreness and increase mobility between games. We also use tools including foam rollers, massage guns and compression boots to help athletes feel good as well.
I’m proud that we were able to help those athletes that couldn’t get that relief from soreness at tournaments because they weren’t considered a priority. They now have their own dedicated area to feel good and play at their highest potential. I am also happy to say, The Athlete Recovery Den takes pressure off the athletic trainers working the tournaments. Now they are able to focus on the emergency situations and acute injuries even more so, without feeling rushed and can give better care to those who need it. The Athlete Revovery Den works in conjunction with the other athletic training staff to provided all of the athletes with the best services possible to help with the physical needs at tournaments. To keep them playing at their highest level possible.
Can you talk to us about how you funded your business?
The initial capitol I used to fund The Athlete Recovery Den was my hardworking. I used the earnings I made from working the volleyball tournaments as an athletic trainer to purchase equipment. I bought the compression boots, tent, chairs and lights. I used the leftover money to pay for the entry fee into the tournament as a vendor.
Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?
The Athlete Recovery Den is in the very early stages of the business but I noticed at the tournament that we worked it was thr coaches and athletes who were referring our services to others. We had one day where we let athletes use the compression boots for free, but once they got off and felt less sore, they started to tell their friends and teammates to try them out. I think the service ended up selling itself because the athletes understood that they would feel good immediately after visiting our tent.
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