Dr. Rob Jones spent 22 years building a chiropractic and sports-rehab practice in Lawrence, Kansas, working with University of Kansas athletics through a national basketball championship, before a family vacation to Siesta Key turned into a full relocation. He sold his Kansas practice, sold his custom-built house, moved his family to Sarasota at the end of May, and landed in town three days before Hurricane Ian made landfall -- riding it out with beer on the porch of a rental while a friend borrowed his generator.
From 2,500 Followers to 250,000
The most striking thread of the conversation is how fast Dr. Rob's Instagram, built around his "Get Better, Not Older" message, took off once he started working with social media manager Zach McDermott. He had roughly 2,500 followers at the end of February; by the time of this taping he'd grown past 250,000, driven by short, punchy reels that lead with a problem -- a bad hip, a stiff shoulder -- and a fix. He's now building an app, tentatively called the Hey Dr. Rob app, aimed at scaling his corrective-exercise protocols to patients he can't see in person, including messages he gets from athletes overseas. His Sarasota practice, Sarasota Spine & Sports Performance, sits on South Tamiami Trail near the old Sarasota Square Mall site, walking distance from Costco.
He's selective about sponsors -- he name-checks Transparent Labs and an in-progress deal with electrolyte brand LivePure -- because he says he won't recommend anything he wouldn't put in his own body, including the barefoot-style Paluma shoes he wears for squats and deadlifts. On the clinical side, he walks through why a forward-riding hip throws off a squat and why chasing symptom relief with massage alone rarely fixes the underlying instability.
Rapid Fire and the Roundabout Question
Sent through the Rapid Fire Gauntlet, Dr. Rob names Superman as his superhero, Rush's 2112 as his favorite album, and Michael Jordan as the athlete who "defied physics." On roundabouts, he's a fan -- Lawrence and Kansas City started building them around 2010, and having learned to drive in dense Toronto traffic, he says the real problem isn't the roundabouts themselves but drivers who stop inside them instead of committing. He pins Sarasota's worst traffic behavior on a combination of overly cautious older drivers and young drivers pushing Mustangs and Camaros too fast.
He closes by pointing to a few future guests worth chasing, including McDermott, Riverview strength coach Mark Christiani, and former Venice High and Virginia Tech standout Jared Hewitt.
What you'll take away
- Dr. Rob grew his Instagram from about 2,500 to roughly 250,000 followers in a matter of months by working with a dedicated social media manager
- He relocated his 22-year Kansas practice to Sarasota and arrived three days before Hurricane Ian hit
- His Sarasota Spine & Sports Performance practice blends chiropractic work with physical-therapy-style corrective exercise
- He's developing an app to scale his rehab protocols to patients beyond his physical practice
- He's selective about sponsorships, only endorsing products like Transparent Labs he says meet his own ingredient standards
“Get better, not older.”
“I'm not a sellout. I've got to trust products that I'm going to recommend to them.”
Places mentioned: South Tamiami Trail, Costco, Siesta Key, South Palm Ranch