Today we’d like to introduce you to Eric Richards.
Eric, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I came out of Chiropractic school with a passion for health, and a desire to change the world. Within four years we had seven HealthSprout Chiropractic offices around town. Teaching and leading towards health through lifestyle education, teaching ketogenic based nutrition and designing exercise programs while focusing on the nervous system as a base for all function.
It was around 2006 when I was first led to CrossFit. A hockey player from the North, at 34 years old, I was looking for a more exciting workout. CrossFit was it. In 2009 I opened the Garage in Woodstock, and along with my three partners started The Garage Games, which has since grown to an international company providing CrossFit competitions for athletes around the world. CrossFit Silos (Milton/Crabapple) and CrossFit Bridgemill (Canton) both followed in the next two years.
Now, I focus on growing our reach into the lives of those whom we have reached. Bringing them along the path, integrating our efforts into all parts of their lives, teaching the 60 Day Turnaround (program that my team and I, designed to shift Insulin responsiveness and hormone sensitivity back to normal in people from all walks. We reach people at all levels from an average person trying to get more healthy, to cancer patients trying to naturally reverse their disease process. The effort is highly rewarding and continually gets revised as we learn more and more about the pursuit of wellness.
We have been blessed with an opportunity to serve over 500 patients a week in our office environment, and to bring over 3,000 people through a fitness walk beyond so many others, and we currently serve 35-40,000 athletes a year in the Garage Games competition world. It is a purpose driven life when you reach people and pull them along into health.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
No success is smooth from my perspective. I think that even the greatest rags to riches stories have struggles under the surface if not on the surface. It is simply the way life works.
I found that the multiple office route was very difficult to manage in the chiropractic world during the downturn of the economy. I had several offices very focused on a wellness model that was very successful, but several of our offices, even though under our corporate umbrella, were becoming more dependent on the insurance coverages of the world, which are slow to cover any wellness based program. When the economy started slipping further in 2005, insurance changes left many people exposed with no coverage and those offices became losses.
Downsizing was necessary, but later proved to be the best way to take our model and grow it up. Shortly after that time we saw our total volume of care go up.
There are always external struggles as well. Pressure from the outside can change your plans dramatically, an audit, family situations, injury, etc. I think many plans will “be tempted” to fail because of external pressure; one’s ability to assess, alter and implement will determine their ability to “make it” under pressure.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the CrossFit Silos, CrossFit Bridgemill, The Garage Games, HealthSprout Chiropractic story. Tell us more about the business.
Though I gave a lot of this in my first response, our corporate mentality, mission statement and vision is what drives this. My personal mission, to change the way the world sees and incorporates health, while showing honor to my family and giving glory to God… is what permeates our corporate environment.
We want to be life changers, we want to be world changers, and we want to reach people where they are and reveal that most of the pressure of culture, is not health. What sets us apart is that we realize that health is a philosophy before it is action. Once the philosophy is understood, it is easier to pursue health, reverse diabetes, and cure heart disease and battle cancer effectively.
Our passion for the human body, and how amazing it is, all by itself, given an opportunity to be amazing… is what really sets us apart.
Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
Ha! Great question. I had an injury that changed my life, and though it was a setback at first, I learned to use it to my advantage. I had played competitive hockey my whole life. A Buffalo native, it is in my DNA. I was part of a “coaches skate” at The Cooler in Alpharetta… a bunch of guys who had played college or better hockey in their careers, getting together two mornings a week to have good games. Nobody wore full masks.
One morning a stray shot, perhaps deflected, entered my eye and destroyed my optic nerve. That hockey puck blinded my left eye, and took away a lot of my confidence in many areas. It took about two years before I got myself back on track, and then it furthered my ability to have empathy for my patients.
All in all, that “luck”, which I like to call my horrible blessing, was a very positive experience for my career.
Contact Info:
- Address: CrossFit Silos – 12635 Crabapple Road Milton GA 30004
HealthSprout Chiropractic – 8256 Main Street Woodstock GA 30188
CrossFit Bridgemill – 3775 Sixes Rd #120, Canton, GA 30114 - Website: healthsprout.com
- Phone: 770-517-2240
- Email: info@healthsprout.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HealthSprout1/
- Twitter: @drericrichards
- Other: https://www.facebook.com/60DayTurnaround/
