How an Injured Rodeo Champ Started a Business That Caught the Eye of Daymond John Ryan Ehmann knows what it means to fall down and get back up again.
By Jason Daley •
This story appears in the January 2016 issue of Entrepreneur. Subscribe »

In his early 30s, Ryan Ehmann woke up in a beat-up camper in the middle of a Texas hay field and thought, "How did I get here?"
It wasn't a deep mystery -- after 12 years on the rodeo circuit as a bronco rider, he'd ruined his back, racked up $67,000 in debt, had no job prospects, and no real place to go. It was a true rough patch until a sympathetic friend took pity on Ryan and gave him some Tony Robbins tapes to pass the time. After listening to the big-toothed success coach, Ehmann was energized and determined to get his life back.
Though over a dozen doctors said his spine was shot, he believed that through hard physical training he could get back up on that horse, literally. Even more, he was determined to win a rodeo national championship. So he signed up for courses at Dallas's Cooper Institute to become a certified personal trainer with the idea of learning enough about the human body to develop a plan to rebuild himself. He also became a trainer at the local Gold's Gym. "I got the answers to what was wrong with my back," he says. "And I also realized millions of people suffer from lower back pain -- their muscles are too tight, or their muscles are too short, or they're not eating a good diet."