Today we’d like to introduce you to Troy Yudin.
Hi Troy, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I grew up playing football and had to resort to taking ice baths to help me recover faster. It was always a miserable feeling entering and leaving the tub. I continued to do it once per week throughout law school to help with my lower back pain. With six weeks left of Law School, I tried cryotherapy. After a week, I fell in love. The following week, I booked a flight to Texas to buy the machines. I negotiated the lease for my first location in Valencia while I was still in Arizona finishing up final exams.
On September 7, 2016, ICE opened a 1,000 square foot facility with two cryotherapy machines and two normatec units. Shortly after opening, we expanded to six normatec units. In October of 2018, ICE expanded to 2,000 square feet and added four infrared saunas. In March of 2020, ICE was trying to expand again, and then Covid happened. We stayed open so our clients could continue to take care of themselves.
In May of 2023, ICE purchased a 4,500 square foot facility. The goal was to make it a one-stop shop for all of our clients needs. At this point, ICE Recovery and Wellness had two cryotherapy units, two red light therapy units, 18 normatec compression machines, and five infrared saunas. We partnered with nine other businesses to form one of the largest wellness centers in California… Stretch therapy (Stretch Fix), Chiropractic care (The Well Family Chiropractor), Acupuncture (Kenneally Acupuncture), meal prep service (Fitt Fork), hormone doctor (All Natural Hormones), IV therapy (Valencia IV Wellness), Massage therapy (Nicky’s massage), lymphatic massage (Sculpted by Victoria), sugaring/hair removal and spray tan (The Sweetest Skin Co).
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
There has been a lot of adversity. A week before we opened, I got threatened with a lawsuit to change our name because it was trademarked. At the time, my marketing director, who I only known for a week, changed our name to ICE Recovery and Wellness (which sounds better than the original name I chose). We had to replace the illuminated sign outside, the business cards, the custom flooring and many other things.
In 2018, I got really sick. I had a bacterial infection in my intestines from all the stress. I lost 13 pounds in a little over a week. I couldn’t keep any food in me, and I was in the ER twice. I didn’t have a great staff, so I still showed up to work every day and powered through.
Covid was tough for us. We were able to stay open under the health exemption, but people were scared to leave the house, and people were fleeing California because of the restrictive lockdown. More than 100 long-term clients moved out of state during Covid. Another 100 put their accounts on hold at one point during Covid… And we had clients canceling at an unprecedented rate. Luckily, we had a lot of loyal clients that helped us survive Covid and come back stronger.
As you know, we’re big fans of ICE Recovery and Wellness. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
ICE Recovery and Wellness provides cryotherapy, normatec compression therapy, red light therapy and infrared sauna.
We help everyone from all walks of life… We help high school athletes, weekend warriors, people trying to lower their inflammation, people recovering from injuries, professional athletes, and so much more
What sets us apart from everyone else is our family environment. We have had a lot of people over the years come in and say, “I have never seen a business culture like this. Everyone is having fun and talking trash to one another.” People say you wouldn’t understand it until you experience it. The way everyone supports one another is like a giant family
I am most proud of our commitment to giving back to our community. We understand that we are blessed, and we want to bless those that are less fortunate. We have done several successful fundraisers over the years. We adopt families through the Child and Family Center for Christmas every year… we were the highest fundraising team for the Special Olympics shoot at thon… we have run several fundraisers for the local food pantry… we adopted families through the local police station… we donated money for the police explorer program… we donated gifts to the Domestic Violence Center.
Is there a quality that you most attribute to your success?
Friendship. There are people that believe that you shouldn’t be friends with your clients, but I disagree. I think my friendships with our clients helped me get through Covid. We had people that called me to keep their account active during COVID-19 even though they didn’t plan on coming in because they wanted to make sure ICE survived. We have had countless parents take over their child’s account once the child graduates because they want to stay connected. Those things don’t happen without a friendship with clients. There are a lot of places you can do cryotherapy and infrared sauna… but not every place will give you the relationships that you will get from ICE Recovery and Wellness
Contact Info:
- Website: www.icewellnesscenter.com
- Instagram: @icerecovery
- Facebook: @icerecovery
