Today we’d like to introduce you to Daniel Pillivant.
Hi Daniel, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I have always had a love for sports, exercise, and the outdoors. When I got to high school, I developed a strong interest in health and wellness. However, during my time in high school playing multiple sports I had a couple of injuries that I rehabilitated very poorly. Around that same time, a couple of close family members and friends were given life-changing diagnoses and became progressively more debilitated over time.
After a semester of college, considering the above mentioned experiences, I decided to pursue a degree in physical therapy. I also began working with a few clients doing personal training and nutrition coaching upon request throughout college. This is when the dream really started to develop, and I thought “one day I want to open my own business combining all three disciplines to provide a one-stop shop for health.”
I graduated with my DPT 7 years later and began working with the neurological population. At the time, I thought my business would specialize in working with those who have neurological disorders, but I was a little off. Instead, I work mainly with people who have had orthopedic and sport-related injuries. I help get them out of pain, improve their strength and mobility, and then transition them into a training program. Sometimes the training is in-person with me and other times I create a personalized training routine for the client to do at home or in the gym. Additionally, for clients who request or are willing to commit, we work on understanding nutrition and how to properly fuel the body for recovery and optimal performance.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
To get to the point of opening up Rampart Rehab & Training, it was a bit of a rough road. The pandemic shutdown caused my then employer to place everybody on furlough. I wondered what would happen in the future, questioned why I pursued this path, and often pictured myself needing to pivot careers. After 6 months, I decided not to wait any longer to return, so I hired on with a new company and began outpatient-billed home care PT. That got very stressful managing referrals and a full caseload on my own without support or supervision, including recruiting contingent staff members to treat my patients. I did this for about 2 years, and then I had had enough, so I decided to go back to outpatient therapy within a gym. In 2023, I was unhappy working under the constraints of others, dealing with insurance regulations, and still had previous in-home patients/family members reaching out. I decided to take the leap and start my own business, combining the best parts of all my past experiences.
Once opening the doors of Rampart, I realized how difficult it was to run a cash-based practice for many reasons. Early on, many clients were friends, members of our church, and previous patients whom I had kept in touch. This was a great start, but getting new referrals and more foot traffic proved to be awfully tough. I had many periods where I, again, questioned what I was doing as a result of business being slower. Clients would opt out of continuing rehab or training services due to out-of-pocket cost, prospective clients would hang up the phone or immediately move on upon learning that I don’t take insurance, and others seeking training either wanted group training or would expect discounted pricing as if they were a part of a gym.
Some of the other trying times over the last 3 years include: figuring out how to optimize a small space with low ceiling height to do everything that I want to do with clients, dealing with the local governing body to establish myself as a home business, having record flooding where the basement (my studio) took on water, and successfully educating clients on the benefit of cash-based PT. Nonetheless, it has been a fun and rewarding journey helping people in many ways that I hope to continue for decades to come.
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about Rampart Rehab & Training LLC?
Rampart Rehab & Training is a cash-based physical therapy practice and training studio where all services offered are 1:1 with a doctor of physical therapy. Semi-private training can be accommodated upon request if clients organize the pair/group in advance. We also offer custom exercise programming, nutrition coaching, and custom nutrition plans to in-person and virtual clients. We do not necessarily specialize in any particular area, however, we excel in working with younger athletes and those who may be older but have an activity-based or recreational goal in mind. We also help clients lose weight, get stronger, reduce injury risk, and reframe the mindset pertaining to nutrition.
Our completely customizable approach and 1:1 care is what sets us apart from the competition. Clients will only work with a doctor of physical therapy who has extensive personal training and nutrition coaching experience. We spend the time that is necessary with each client to ensure his/her success, and we’re always reachable via phone or email between sessions. We also do not follow traditional PT ideology where clients schedule 2-3 sessions/week and spend the majority of the time with an assistant or tech. Instead, we give clients the manual interventions he/she needs, teach correct movement patterns, educate profusely, and provide the proper exercises with dosage to be completed at home. This allows us to see clients less frequently, fix the root of the issue sooner, equip the client for future prevention/reoccurance, and save him/her money in the end.
I am most proud of how far we have come in a short amount of time competing with hundreds of other local PT providers, gyms, private trainers, and nutrition coaches all over the world. It has been a slow build-up, but people are seeing the benefit of paying out-of-pocket to get the outcome they want, rather than being just a number in other facilities. It feels like we have finally cracked the code to long-term success by being results-driven. We are not in a market where cash-based healthcare services should theoretically thrive, yet we are consistently growing and getting the opportunity to help those in Oakland, Genesee, Shiawassee, Livingston, and Lapeer counties. For that, I am very grateful.
Can you tell us more about what you were like growing up?
Growing up, I was sports-crazed and always loved to be outdoors. I was a very fun, funny and energetic boy who had aspirations of being a professional baseball player. If I wasn’t practicing baseball, I was buying and trading sports cards, obsessing over construction heavy machinery, digging around in the mud and water, or riding my bike wherever I could get to. I remember life as a kid and young man being on-the-go and there was never a dull moment. Once I entered my adolescent years and teens, I continued to bike all over Lake Orion, MI. You would find me building jumps and obstacles for homemade BMX tracks, fishing any body of water I could find, playing in neighborhood wiffle ball games, and playing pick-up basketball with friends. I always treated academics like a job, never missed school, could be depended on for whatever people needed, and loved my friends/family.
When asked for their opinions, this is what my parents had to say: “You cared about other people. You loved hats and sports. You were a good student and took your grades seriously. You and your friends thought you were funny and played practical jokes. You were also a good hunting partner.”
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.rampartrehab.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rampartrehab
