Today we’d like to introduce you to Dr. Justin Lin.
Hi Dr. Justin, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
How much time do you have? My story probably sounds familiar — full of grit and a little chaos — but in a field that’s lost a bit of its soul, I think mine’s also a love letter to helping people the right way.
It starts in 2012. I was burned out, depressed, and pretty angry at the profession. I had been exploited by a boss asking our team to do “creative billing.” I called it what it was: fraud. And for doing the right thing, I got blacklisted. Couldn’t find a job in L.A. I moved back home for about eight or nine months, broke and defeated, staring at walls, living in pajamas, wondering what went wrong. My mom, Luisa — a hard-working immigrant who’s basically part saint, part general, one day, snapped. She threw $200 on the table and said, “Go to Costco and buy a massage table. Your Aunt Jo, who recently tore her ACL and had it repaired, and needs therapy. She’s coming at 2 p.m. — end of story.”
I protested and whined, and said “I didn’t want to,” but you don’t win against Luisa.
So I bought the table, cleaned up, and treated Aunt Jo. She paid me $40 — and that tiny spark turned into something real. Aunt Jo, being the social butterfly she was, told all her friends — and suddenly, my parents’ driveway looked like a Beverly Hills valet line: Maseratis, Porsches, and Taiwanese housewives rotating in every hour. The neighbors probably thought I was running a gigolo business.
Three months later, my mom knocked again and asked, “So… when are you moving out?” I told her I’d saved “enough.” She found me a $100-a-month stockroom to rent and said, “Congratulations, you’re starting a real business. Do you have a name?”
Luckily, I had bought the URL rehabandrevive.com years before as a college project. Rehab and Revive, little did I know, was meant to be more than just the company name….but a mantra for my life and my future clients as well.
Starting out was brutal — just me, a Costco massage table, and some borrowed courage. But I started a YouTube channel, a Yelp page, and got a few of those same housewives to leave reviews. Twenty reviews later, I was #1 in Orange County on Yelp in 2013. I remember thinking, “Okay, this might actually work.”
Fast-forward a year: my mom asks how much I’ve saved (again — there’s a theme here), and next thing I know, I’m signing a lease for a 3,000 sq. ft. office at $3,500 a month. I almost fainted. I filled that space within a year.
Then came another knock: “How much have you saved?”
I said, “I don’t like where this is going.”
She said, “Good, because you’re moving again.”
This time — 7,000 sq. ft., 10-year lease. I stood, just me, a big dream, and a warehouse full of echoes.
Now, we’ve got a team of eight and help 20–30 people a day. The best part? We do it the right way — no insurance games, no “creative billing.” Just honest, hands-on care that gets people their lives back.
Looking back, losing that first job felt like punishment. But it was actually the push that set me on the right path. I owe a lot to my mom, a little bit to luck, and maybe even more to that sturdy Costco massage table. That was my comeback story.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
If you ask any successful entrepreneur who has been in business for more than 10 years and they say yes to ”if it was a smooth road”, I’d say it would be a bold-faced lie. Business is always about people, and people are the variable. We work alongside people, we serve people, and people serve our companies. There are good days and bad. I think in this day and age, the employer faces an uphill battle of running a business to serve and build a culture because a) we like leading a team of people to serve the community, and b) I would be lying I wanted to see this idea of mine succeed because I thought I was better than all my bosses before me. c) And also reap both the highs and lows of the emotional roller coaster of being the one in charge because, at least at the end of the day, I know I’m the one who made the hiring, firing, marketing, and business decisions, and it all fell on me. It sure makes life a lot more colorful and less boring.
I’d say start-up costs and early cash flow concerns of paying staff are always a common theme, sleepless nights of wondering when to let my first staff member go after hoping they’d thrive when I hired them. I would argue that running a business during the pandemic and the uncertainty of keeping my team during that time was a huge struggle. I am proud to say I didn’t furlough anyone (I just stopped paying myself) while we were off, I paid everyone while they were at home, and held onto my three staff members and promised them we would make it through, and I would pay them until I couldn’t (even though I did not know when we would reopen). With about $2000 left in the bank. We were able to open about a month later. I had put in about $15,000 of personal money for PPE and safety equipment, and purchased for my landlord a cold plasma attachment for the HVAC units to process better filtered air to keep everyone safe and circulate air. After taking this leap, I had a more bonded, loyal staff that trusted my leadership, and we have since doubled, almost tripled the size of the clinic.
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Rehab and Revive is a leader in Southern California for Manual physical therapy and integrative medicine in addressing chronic pain. Our team of specialists recognizes that all pain isn’t created equally. Therefore, it is our highest priority to approach people’s care with the highest standard in holistic practice, innovation, and old-fashioned hospitality. We believe in people first and patient second, ALWAYS. More than medical providers, we are health strategists, delivering hands-on, one-on-one care to relieve their pain and get them back to the things they love the most.
I love how we give back all the information we offer on a free forum and invest and spend time on our YouTube channel. We have close to 300,000 followers now. Since we are an out-of-network fee-for-service (cash-based) practice, it’s our commitment to give back in this way the same information we give to paying clients. Also, with our methods we beat the national average by 4-5x in getting people out of chronic pain in outcome measures and pain reduction.
Most Physical Therapy and Pain/Health and Wellness clinics are in the business of treating just short-term pain and symptoms. Not truly getting down to the root of the problem. We are investigating and treating bigger problems like sleep, stress and anxiety through our hands-on approach, breathing and movement/functional dysfunctions with our education and strategy, and resetting the nervous system and physical levels that keep people from a truly happy life.
We always say, “why people come and why people stay are two different reasons.”
What has been the most important lesson you’ve learned along your journey?
Go all in. Play to win.
You can’t build something great with one foot in and one foot out. Playing it safe feels smart in the moment, but it’s usually just fear in disguise.
Every entrepreneur faces the same crossroad — risk or regret. I say risk it. At least then, win or lose, it’s on your terms.
And if you’re lucky, maybe your mom will throw $200 at you and tell you to get off your butt. That’s when the real story begins.
Pricing:
- Manual Physical Therapy
- Lymphatic Massage/Drainage
- Airway/Sleep Apnea/Nasal Ballooning
- Massage Bodywork
- Acupuncture/Chinese Medicine
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.rehabandrevive.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rehabandrevive/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RehabAndRevive/
- Twitter: https://x.com/RehabandRevive
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/rehabrevive
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/rehab-and-revive-physical-therapy-tustin-3
