Shane Buntman is co-owner and director at the Melbourne Osteopathy Sports Injury Centre, but looking back, his career path could have ended up somewhere quite different…

Straight out of high school he got into a Bachelor of Science, but couldn’t bear the thought of looking through a microscope 12 hours a day. “Where are the people, who am I helping?” So with that he completed the degree and committed to another five years of study to become an Osteopath.

After completing his Masters, he jetted to England, the birthplace of Osteopathy, where he had an opportunity to learn from the best. There he honed his craft for the next six years with his partner Jess, who owns and runs the clinic with him.

Rather surprisingly Shane says growing up he was never really into sports. He admits that up to the age of 25 he was overweight; 20 kilos heavier than he is now. When he began his career he says he came to the realisation, “I’m teaching people about health, but yet I don’t look healthy.

“When I got to London I was living on beer and microwave curry”, he says laughing, “Luckily my partner came along.”

Jess is a former gymnast, who has always been into healthy eating and lifestyle. They both attended the same course at Victoria University, but didn’t become friends until they shared a house in the UK. After observing his diet for three weeks, she decided to intervene, and thus began Shane’s road to healthy eating and lifestyle.

Moving to a small country town in South-East England, the only shower he had access to was at a gym down the road. So, in a happy accident, he began doing weights 5-6 times a week over the next five years.

Eventually he tired of just working out indoors and took up triathlon, training 17 hours a week while running a business; an amazing transformation by anyone’s standards.

With the demands of his clinic he’s backed off a little, but still remains active as he wants to set an example for the business people who come through the doors. “You don’t have to exercise like I do”, he says, “but moving an hour a day is essential. There’s always time for that.”

Shane and Jess always wanted to start their own business put to their own ideas and philosophy into practice, so a year after they arrived back in Australia, they did exactly that. The Melbourne Osteopathy Sports Injury Centre was already in existence, but the premises were much smaller, with only two rooms and five staff.

Immediately after taking over they expanded to four rooms and expanded the exercise and pilates room.

Their philosophy is about creating a “health journey”: Identifying the individual’s needs, removing their symptoms, and then educating them so the symptoms stay away. This is achieved through a holistic approach of exercise, diet and lifestyle changes.

Shane and Jess are looking to expand their business. Once they’ve perfected the “gold standard” at the CBD practice, they want to replicate it elsewhere. “You don’t just want to open numbers, you want to open quality.” He says a second practice should open towards end of 2014 / start of 2015.

Personality is the number one thing they look for when hiring new employees, as Shane explains, “You can teach them to crack a neck, but personality and the drive to learn, educate and be better… you can’t always teach those values to people.”

Shane and Jess involve their staff heavily in the decision making process, which makes them more invested in the practice. He says the most rewarding aspect of their business is, “when staff say, ‘Can I take on more shifts?’ Because it means they believe in what they’re doing. They not only like the challenges involved, but they like the environment.”