Meet Dr. Ronald Peacock, Jr. | Physical Therapist

We had the good fortune of connecting with Dr. Ronald Peacock, Jr. and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Dr. Ronald, what do you want your legacy to be?
To understand my desires, I must briefly explain what legacy means to me. By definition, a legacy can refer to a monetary sum left by an individual following their death. It can also refer to individual accomplishments, impact and resources left to any number of individuals. But the latter of these definitions doesn’t exist in the dictionary. It’s almost as if it is a slang interpretation. It appears as if society measures legacy on a monetary level.

To me, it is less important that I leave behind wealth, but rather an ideal or a way of thinking, being and doing. A way forward. I desire to embody a societal call to challenge the status quo and encourage the pursuit of excellence. To me, a lasting legacy is one that is built with intention. The investment is not monetary, rather, the fee is sweat, sacrifice and diligence. And after the work is done, it is about the impact imparted on the community that can be measured. What have you changed? Who have you changed?

For the majority of my life, I’ve been guided by the principles of work ethic, honesty, and service to others. Upon entering the realm of healthcare I began to understand that the current distribution of power does not allow one to simply focus on service. The institution that is insurance has a focus on financial prosperity, with a secondary (if even that) focus on the empowerment of individual health and wellbeing. Many complain about the way that this system functions, but few challenge the ideal with action.

So, as a black man and a healthcare provider; one who holds principles of honesty and service, what do I aspire to call my legacy?

See, to me it’s simple. I want to make an impact doing it the hard way. The right way. I want to change lives not only with my hands, my heart, and my words. But also with my example. I want my life to be measured by the volume of change that I can inspire. Changes in healthcare. Changes in minority representation at the highest level of all fields. Changes in minority belief. A belief that WE can… that anything is possible. It’s funny, the other day I saw on my Facebook feed a post from 10 years ago… It was simple… but powerful, and so relevant to my life even today.

“It’s impossible”, said pride.
“It’s risky”, said experience.
“It’s pointless”, said reason.
“Give it a try”, whispered the heart.

I want people to look back 100 years from now and think, “that guy didn’t give up. He couldn’t give up. His passion to challenge the status quo and innovate at every corner was palpable. I can do that too. We, can do that too”.

What should our readers know about your business?
iMove Health is a community-facing physical therapy, performance and wellness company. We specialize in diagnosis and treatment of musculoskeletal and orthopedic conditions, but we also heavily emphasize movement as medicine and the optimization of personal performance. We hope to be a vessel for a much-needed innovation in healthcare. Our vision is simple: to inspire, improve, and impact the health and movement of all individuals. But we don’t intend to stop with physical health.

We primarily work with athletes, but not in the sense that you might expect. Look at Nike’s vision statement, “to bring innovation and inspiration to every athlete* in the world”. Cleverly, they denote that “if you have a body, you are an athlete”. And we could not agree more. Our focus is on individuals who WANT to move and be active but are being blocked by injury and are not sure what to do, where to start, or how to get over the hump. And after rehab, we offer a solution to the question, “now what?”

We don’t believe that our role stops at rehab. What about performance? Or prevention? What about the small day-to-day questions that come after discharge? We strive to be a beacon of wellness from before the first injury, to the first surgery, after and beyond. We are building a community of individuals who sow into one another for the singular purpose of advancing health and wellbeing.

One thing that sets us apart is our philosophy of care. That philosophy is to educate our clients on what we believe to be true, and to help them in that journey so that they can make the best decision regarding their health. When we find that what we believe to be true has been disproven, then we adapt so that we are always providing the best care today because we are sensitive to the fact that 5 or 10 years from now, best practices will change.

The name, logo and brand of iMove Health were crafted with meticulous intention. What’s funny is that as we discussed the name, we didn’t expect that people would start calling us iMove… but that is not the name of our company. iMoveHealth must exist together to truly display our purpose.

iMove when left alone is a statement of declaration, it is a statement of empowerment. This is who I am, this is what I do. When you add Health, it indicates our passion to move healthcare forward. Our clients, their passions and their dreams are the heart, soul and core of what we do. We serve not for “profit per client”, which is the normative approach to tracking the success of a physical therapy company. We do not try to “maximize” visit count for the sake of increased revenue. We instead serve to maximize the client experience. If you need one visit, 50 visits or none at all, we will tell you just that.

Maybe that is a naive business model to follow, but it is the right one, and we will ride that model to success or to failure. That’s the iMoveHealth difference. And that commitment to honesty and service is what makes me most proud of my team and our company.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Whenever a close friend comes out to Arizona I strive to introduce them to 4 things: Good shooting, vast landscapes, amazing breweries and live music.

Arizona is one of few places where you can go to an outdoor shooting range year round and tackle targets out upwards to 300 yards. Rio Salado Sportsman’s Club has been my go to place since I’ve been to Arizona. I know a lot of people like to just ride out into the desert and set up their own targets but there is something about the atmosphere of being around other shooters that heightens the thrill.

Now for the grubs! I love to eat, especially at local places! In Arizona, you have to grab brunch at least once. Some of the best places to savor the flavor are OHSO, Hash Kitchen, and Over Easy.

You can’t just eat so this would be the perfect time to go for a hike or out to the lake and enjoy that AZ sunshine. Some of my go-to places after a workout or being outdoors are Protein House for a quick but healthy meal or One Stop Nutrition for that Peanut Butter and Jelly Smoothie!

Cold Beer and Cheeseburgers is hands down my favorite restaurant in the valley. It’s simple, has a huge beer selection and the vibe is always on point. I’m also quite partial to Los Favoritos Tacos, Barrio Queen and Culinary Dropout (more so the atmosphere and games than for the food).

Now, for after hours or just a mid day kickback, I like a good casual spot to grab a pint. Some of my favorite breweries in the valley would have to be The Shop Beer Co, Fate Brewing Company, AZ Wilderness, and Sleepy Whale.

The Perch usually has pretty cool live music and for a more laid back atmosphere, I’ve gone to The Wild Vine Uncorked. You don’t have to be into wine, they’ve got some draft selections and a top notch food menu.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
The person who deserves the bulk of the credit for everything I’ve done, for who I am, who I am not, and for the man I aspire to be, is my father. For the first 30 years of my life he instilled within me an unparalleled drive to succeed. He empowered me to take everything that I was told I could not have and to seize it. He inspired me to reach levels that we, as black men, did not believe to exist within our realm of grasp. He encouraged me to constantly be better and to move forward. To embrace the suck. To dig in. To be humble.

In January of 2021, I lost my father. If I’ve learned anything in this process of grief it truly is the importance of legacy. One thing my father told me often as a child, and again the day before he passed, was “son, be a better man than me”. I took this as a call to not only maximize myself, but to lay the foundation for the next 7 generations to build upon.

We can’t stall out in grief forever. Rather, we take the reasons that we grieve, take the lessons learned, the legacy, and we become those things. We root ourselves. I wake up and I grind everyday for the legacy of our name and the legacy of our people. To find out what it means to be better and to achieve that in some way. And then to pass the same message on to my children so that they may do the same, and so on.

There are so many others to thank. From small but impactful pub conversations, to truly empowering speeches, motivational nudges and support. I could list 100 names, but I hope that they already know who they are. If not, then I’ve got some calls to make.

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