This blurb will be posted on a private link so the whole world can’t peer into my life right now, but I wanted to write this to let some of my best patients and friends know what’s been going on with life since I left Denver in February. I’ll try not to make it sound too sappy or complain too much, but things have for sure been difficult.
I started out of the gate hot and had a business plan in place within a couple months of arriving in Bozeman. Cold weather and no childcare made me a bit stir-crazy, so it was good timing to get business things in order. In April I signed a lease on a small office space with the intent to open sometime in June/July. That’s when things got a little wild. Sometime in May, Amber fully realized that she hated her job and that they gave her a bit of a bait and switch on her job description and her role within the university. We were coming up on the end of our rental lease as well, and were struggling with the decision to buy a house or potentially move back to Colorado once our lease was up.
After much deliberation, we had made up our minds that our move to Bozeman was not what either of us expected, and it would be best to cut our losses and come back to the place we loved and called home for the last 6 years. Sometime in June she formally gave her resignation so we could begin moving forward with plans to head back to Denver. Within a few hours of her submitting her resignation, the president of the university requested a meeting with her and all but begged her to stay. They offered her a fairly significant pay raise and gave her full control of the organization chart so she would have the ability to make the changes and express the leadership she was initially promised. Since I already had a business ready to go and an office under contract, we decided it would be best for now to stick it out in Bozeman and pursue the things that brought us out here in the first place.
About a week later, I was out fishing with a new friend, soaking up the outdoors and filled with excitement that we had decided to stay. I was about 2 weeks from officially opening my practice. That afternoon I went to the gym, and while doing a somewhat casual bench press, my left pec tendon tore right off the bone. I was in surgery 5 days later and was faced with a 3-4 month recovery until I could physically practice chiropractic again. That same week I received an email from my business landlord informing me that she was selling her building and that my future in that space would be in jeopardy.
Although the injury and uncertainty for the future was tragic, we had already made a decision to stay, and moving back to Denver was now out of the question. A few weeks later, we purchased a house here as the rental market was absolutely insane and we figured we would have a better long-term investment with a fixer-upper home. Fast forward to the end of September and we officially closed on the house and the new owner of my office space closed on that building as well. As the big hot-shot lawyer in town, he did everything he could to end my lease and we eventually came to an agreement to part ways.
I was devastated. Between July and October I was recovering from surgery, suffering major depression, and regretting all the decisions we had made over the previous year. During that time Amber’s job had also been a huge bust as well. The promises they made to keep her were not fulfilled and we continued to question our future here in Montana.
Once renovations of the house started, things started looking up again, but I wasn’t physically or mentally ready to start practicing yet. I started working as a bartender at a beer hall downtown while spending the rest of my time working on the house. If we did move back to Denver, the earliest we could get back would be July 2023, so as of about 2 weeks ago I signed a new 6 month lease on an office space so I could at least start doing the thing I love again.
And that’s where things stand at the moment. I am officially open for business as of this writing, and we have no idea what the next 6 months will bring with our lives. Some days we are miserable here, and some days things are ok. We still have multiple weekly conversations on whether we will stay or not, so time will tell. The good news is that Amber, Beau, Macy, and I are completely healthy (almost lol), fully alive, and this whole ordeal has brought us all closer together.
I’ll be reaching out to people via email in the next week or so to touch base as I have done a poor job of that over the last several months. I don’t plan to invest too much marketing for the business, so I’m relying on google reviews to build a base and maybe some Instagram marketing (@docta.jon) with the goal of just covering my overhead expenses until we figure out a long-term plan for our family.
I hope I’m not asking too much, but if you are reading this, I would be most appreciative if you could write me a google review HERE on your previous experience working with me in Denver. I’ve been told google has changed their algorithm, so if you could not mention you saw me in Denver, but more on the experience you had with me as your chiropractor, that would be ideal.
I miss you all. I miss Denver. I miss the thriving business and relationships that had brought so many wonderful people into my life. We took our shot at a better life only to realize we already had everything we could have ever wanted.
With all the Love I have,
Dr. Jon
