All About Revivology And Franchising With Amy & Steve Neary

BLP Neary | Revivology

BLP Neary | Revivology

 

Do you want your skin to glow or need to be revived from over-indulgence? Revivology has exactly what you need. In today’s episode, Amy Neary the Founder of Revivology and Steve Neary the COO of Revivology talk about their venture in creating this wonderful company, and how it helps people who suffer from fatigue and dehydration and makes people feel much better. They dive deeper into discussing the franchises of Revivology and how to become part of it. Amy and Steve also share advice to entrepreneurs on how to bring excellence to the process of your business processes all the time.

Watch the episode here:

 

All About Revivology And Franchising With Amy & Steve Neary

I have co-host with Catherine Wicklund with me. She is the Vistage Chair of Southern Colorado. Our guests, Amy Neary, she is the founder of Revivology, and Steve Neary and he is the COO. They are also the owners of Any Lab Tests Now. Welcome guys. Amy, tell me some of what you do, what your business is about with RevIVology.

RevIVology is a company where you can come and get IV therapy. It’s a fairly new trend, but it’s been around for a long time. Dr. John Myers started it probably in the ‘60s with what’s called the Myers Cocktail and it’s branched out from there over the years to treat things from migraine, fibromyalgia, lupus and Lyme disease. What we’re using it for is for general health and wellness. People come and see us and we’re able to give you 1,000 ccs of fluid, vitamin therapy, very high doses. You don’t absorb vitamins the same way through your supplements as you do through an IV. It makes people feel much better when other things haven’t helped.

IV therapy, intravenous. There’s that part that goes on. When we talk about this company, this just barely starts to scratch the surface of your story and journey to getting here. We talked a lot about how you got here. Let’s rewind a little bit and go a little bit through your journey to get here because you also have another franchise and you’re also offering franchises with RevIVology as well. Let’s go back to your post-college years with your Biology degree, like me. You started out and you had your Biology major, you took part-time work in the real estate world.

I was in real estate, had the entrepreneurial spirit from the beginning. I bought a house when I was 24-years-old it was a 100-year-old home, Victorian,  that I jacked up in the air and put a full foundation underneath. There was no outside help, this is all me. I got a grant from this local historical district.

Where was this?

It was in Great Falls, Montana. I learned how to do everything you could ever want to do as far as flipping a house. That was the start of my real estate career. I had a full summer job that grew into me being offered a job and new home sales. I did that for quite some time until 2008.

That seemed to be rather a common pivot point for many people in the real estate arena.

It started around 2006, but by 2008 I decided that I was going to get out of the real estate and do something different. I wanted to go back to my roots, which was my college education and doing something in the medical field. I started looking to purchase a franchise because the SBA and all the research that I had done had said that that was the way to go. If you’re going to do new business and you didn’t have experience doing business from scratch, look into franchising, so that’s what I did.

The thing that I found fascinating is you were talking about the success ratio from the SBA when you did your research, the scientific method. You’d looked at a number of franchise opportunities and then you did more homework. What brought you to Any Lab Test Now?

I started with SBA and realized that having that support of a home office, all of the marketing materials created for you, all of the marketing plan, business plan done for you is the way to go. There is a lot of opportunity with franchising. When you look into buying a franchise, you would be surprised how many are out there that you didn’t even know are franchises. Tons of business are franchises. It doesn’t have to just be McDonald’s or Chick-fil-A. When I decided I wanted to do it after going through a lot of research and realizing that business is like Subway and that thing were not for me and that I did want to go back to my roots, I found Any Lab Test Now. It was the very first direct access laboratory. I thought it was very unique in its space, the first of its kind. That’s what I decided to pursue.

You’ve been doing Any Lab Test Now for some time. You have two locations. You are comparing looking at Subway and its growth curve. In Any Lab Test Now, can you describe what that is?

It’s the first direct access laboratory in the country, which means you can come to us and we will provide the doctor’s order for you free of charge. That is very unique to us. If you went to the LabCorp or Quest Diagnostics, if you went to any of their patient service centers, you have to have a doctor’s order. A doctor has to have said, “You’re allowed to go get a cholesterol test. Here’s my blessing and you can go get that test.” We have a doctor that provides the doctor’s order free of charge for people.

Your body doesn't absorb vitamins the same way through your supplements as you do through an IV. Click To Tweet

I could get my cholesterol checked anytime I want at Any Lab Test Now. I walk in and I don’t need to have the doctors send me there?

Correct. Also, another benefit is because we have so many nationwide, our pricing is about half of what it would be if you had gone to LabCorp or Quest. Anyone who has high deductible insurance, anyone who’s uninsured, it’s definitely the place you want to go.

You were rocking along at Any Lab Test Now and when did RevIVology come into the mindset?

Interestingly, it was completely our customers’ idea. It started because we do B12 shots at Any Lab Test Now. Many of our clients were coming in and asking us if we did IVs that were loyal B12 shot customers. “When are you going to start doing IV therapy?” I had heard of it before, but not from a business standpoint. I started researching it a little bit and then I kept hearing it from our clientele and they were telling me, “Please open an IV therapy business because we’re driving to Denver to get the service.” As an entrepreneur, there’s a demand, there’s a need in our community for this. I started looking into it. I liked everything that I saw just from how it can help people, all the different things that it can do.

I had heard of it, and you may have heard of this before too. In Vegas, it’s very big for hangovers. It’s been around for years where people go. You’re in the military. You may have heard of that for hangovers. A hangover is simply dehydration and getting an IV is you can replenish electrolytes fluid and get rid of the hangover very quickly. What I discovered is that there’s usage with the high dose vitamins for so many different problems that you might have like lupus and Lyme disease. Migraine is one, shockingly very common. We have people who have found us and they no longer have to go to the ER. They would have migraines that were so bad, they’d go to the ER for medication and they come to us. They get something completely natural and we can help them feel 100% better.

You’ve got a location with RevIVology. I don’t know if it’s co-located or what.

It’s completely independent.

How long were you operating RevIVology before you decided to pursue a franchising operation?

Twelve months before we opened, in my mind. I was thinking franchise. Amy was too. Our original setup of the business was if we ever got to the point where it made sense to franchise the business, we wanted to set up to be prepared. Before we even started, all the initial stuff that Amy had done with the company was with that in the back of our mind. This could be a possibility in the distant future, but it happened much quicker than that.

For you guys, you already had all the experience with the lab in the franchising operation in world. 

I think with eleven years of experience, we knew what worked well and what could be improved upon. Our goal was to make sure that in the event that we did franchise the business, it was going to be the best version of a franchise that it could possibly be.

With the franchising thought process, was there an event that tipped you over to get busy on the RevIVology space?

It was a conference that I was asked to speak for Any Lab Test Now down in San Antonio. I went down there and someone took me aside and said that they had heard that we were doing IV therapy and could we speak to them a little bit more about that. That grew into other people taking me aside. Before I knew it, I realized we may have something here. I went and talked to Steve about it and all the interest that we had. The reality of it was we were making more money in one year with the RevIVology business than we were making with the other franchise. It was a no brainer.

BLP Neary | Revivology

Revivology: If you ever got to the point where it made sense to franchise the business, you must set up to be prepared.

 

There was demand.

When you have people asking if they could please build one, we let them. We realized we had something and Steve had a connection to someone who was in the franchise world that made it make sense even more.

I have a friend from town here who we’ve done some business with investing. When we had done that investing, I said, “RevIVology is taking off. We may franchise in the future. If you know anybody, let me know.” He goes, “I don’t just know somebody, I know the guy.” Fast forward a year later, I called him up and said, “We’re ready to franchise. Who’s the guy?” He mentioned a guy named Dan Olsen, who was a big part of Massage Envy, The Joint, Fantastic Sams, one of the preeminent franchise guys in the country. He also had a partnership with a gentleman named Kevin Harrington, who was the original shark from Shark Tank.

We invited those guys out to our home. They saw our store at the time, pre-franchise. At the time they were working with a company out of Texas that had somewhere around 10 to 15 locations. They’re an IV drug company. They were pretty close to pulling the trigger with that company. After spending one day with us they said, “We’re not going to work with them. We want to partner with you guys and franchise RevIVology.” From there it’s a whirlwind and a blur and drinking from a fire hose. These are guys that know their stuff and they’re pushing us hard to take it to the next level every day. It’s nice to be partners with that level of a team.

For the people who perhaps they have an interest in learning more about the RevIVology franchise opportunity. What is your ideal franchisee look like?

There’s a movie that is about the guy who created McDonald’s. It’s called The Founder. There’s a part of it that sticks out to me so much when I think of this question. It’s how he failed while trying to take people that just had a lot of money and were throwing money at investment opportunities. McDonald’s failed with that in mind, just taking opportunity to people who just wanted to throw money at an investment. What we want is people who want to help their community. People who want to work in this business, work to make the success, have employees that they care about and are a part of that local business, not someone who’s looking at it as just something to throw money at. Those are the people we found thus far, and we’re getting ready to open our very first in Florida and in Utah.

You got the country almost surrounded.

They’re trying to get open and they’re perfect examples of that. They’re two businesswomen who have owned other businesses before. They are super invested in this idea and they’re going to make a huge success in their market.

It’s definitely owner-operators. Not somebody that thinks that they can be an absentee owner as you can’t. You can be partially absentee ownership, which is great about this business. It is fairly simple, but you stopped working your business. That’s the other people we’re looking for.

There are not too many passive income opportunities where you can take your hand off the steering wheel. I wanted to dig through your journey. Because I think about from one, go to med school and going into real estate. The market event changes and you go out of real estate, looking for an opportunity that’s different than the real estate place and then using everything you learned after a decade. The clients are beating you up to solve a problem and you solve the problem and the speaking opportunity where more people say, “We would like to be able to solve other people’s problems by your skillsets.” I think that’s important for people reading, going it’s not a straight path and you’re still in the business of real estate and building homes.

I’m not smart enough to get out.

I just think of and perspective of creation. You have a tangible outcome every time you take and deliver a home. There’s some creation event happens there. Creativity clearly runs with you guys and courage. That’s a plus. If you were to take and talk to other entrepreneurs out there, what piece of advice might you offer that you’ve gleaned from these opportunities?

Great idea people make sure that their business is replicable. Click To Tweet

I think there are quite a few, this is important and it goes a little bit against common wisdom. As our success with RevIVology, Amy sweated the small stuff. Don’t sweat the small stuff. I totally disagree. Every detail, she sweated. She made sure it was perfect and there was nothing that happened by chance in this business, which is why it’s such an incredible opportunity for us. The thing that we’re doing and we love the fact that it’s helping the community. We also love that about this business more than anything else we’ve ever done. This is helping people. Remain steadfast in your belief. Don’t let people talk you out of a good idea because they don’t believe in it. Care deeply about your employees, your brand, your company, your community. Those things are things that if we’re going to tell somebody, believe in yourself. Believe in every detail and make it matter. Nothing happens by chance. Just do it.

This girl here with the scientific method from Biology. “I’m going to do the math. I’m going to check the trends. I’m going to look.” I think that has a lot of merits.

She’s a researcher. Nothing that happened in that business was accidental. We’d be sitting there at 11:00, 12:00 at night. She’s on her computer researching formulations or directs. What glutathione does for somebody and high dose vitamin C treatment, what those are all about? Even at Any Lab Test Now, she’ll go on to speak to doctors and know more about what is happening more than the doctors do.

How many lab tests you’ve seen years and trends? We all know this is not that. Nothing like seeing a lot of them. Pattern recognition is a big deal.

What I love about RevIVology is that it’s not just reactive, it’s also proactive. It’s also about being healthy going forward, not just responding to the migraines, the hangovers and lupus. If someone wants to be proactive about their health, you’ve got options for that as well and well-being. A spot like atmosphere, it’s very comfortable, very calm, very serene. Massage chairs and a very inviting sacred space to take care of yourself in. Looking back over the years with Any Lab Test Now and thinking about the experience, what advice would you have about running a franchise like this, encourage someone to go into this space?

A lot of people have great ideas and they have good business ideas and good business acumen. Deciding to franchise, that’s a big step. If your business is something that speaks to the masses like ours does, you just stick to it, put your head down and you can get it done. That’s how this was all born. Deciding that there’s a need in the community and there wasn’t a place to fill that. I had to start from scratch and make it happen.

Necessity is the mother of invention. It touched your heart. This comes from your passion in your heart, not from where am I going to make a lot of money, but how can I help people and improve their lives, health, and wellbeing.

That is the majority of who comes to see us, people who are trying to take care of themselves on a daily basis. Not just chronic illness. Generalized health and wellness. That’s where healthcare is moving, towards preventative care and not reactive. Not taking a pill for something, but preventing that by caring for your body.

It cost their companies less money too in healthcare insurance. If somebody was thinking about just franchising in general, what advice would you do?

You can do it. I will say that we were blessed to be joined with an amazing team. A team that we have behind us backing us up is absolutely incredible. That takes some of the fears away.

One of the things that great idea people have is you have to make sure your business is replicable if you’re going to franchise it. A lot of smart entrepreneurs or businesses are super successful because they’re super successful. They work hard and that’s what makes that business successful. You have to make sure it’s a business that you can replicate. You don’t need the founder there every day with you to make it successful and that’s what we have created. Any Lab Test Now has 8,000 tests, 30 files, 12 labs. It’s a very difficult business to be successful on and run because there are so many opportunities for mistakes.

With RevIVology, we’re giving IVs to people with ingredients in it with highly trained and skilled medical professionals administrating. It’s a simple business, it’s simple to replicate. Fortunately, highly profitable. You go and hoping, but it turns out that it was like Amy had mentioned. In one year, we were making more money than we had made in years at Any Lab Test Now. All of those things said we should take this out into the market. It’s going to be amazing. We’re focusing a little bit on a charity that we’re going to be involved with and donate a portion of our income. It’s a vitamin-based charity. I think it dovetails well with who we are as a company. We’re going to encourage all of our franchisees to do that as well.

BLP Neary | Revivology

Measure What Matters: How Google, Bono, and the Gates Foundation Rock the World with OKRs

As you guys are looking at across the landscape of the businesses that you own and then you look at time allocation issues. Where am I going to spend my time? When am I going to spend it on? Over the past years, if you were looking at how you allocate your time, where do you think you allocated your time that you get the best return on with what you spent your time?

I’d say that has to be spending time making sure you have the right staff in place. Making sure they’re trained and that they believe in what your message is that they believe. Because if they believe, they’re going to explain that to every customer who walks through your door. That’s been a big part of what some things I’ve changed at my labs, making sure that everyone’s on the same page. Making sure that everyone has the same goals in mind and are working towards the same thing.

I’m going to pretend I’m you and I’ve got a quantity of employees. How do I make sure and how did you pass that culture and thought process through specifically to the employees? If you said, “I want them to care and I want them to do this.” You go, “How?”

It’s what I implemented was from a book I read. It’s something that large companies like Google, Facebook, they all use this system and I wasn’t sure that it would translate to such a much smaller company like mine, but it did. It’s called OKR. It’s Objectives and Key Results. The book is called Measure What Matters. It’s aligning everybody towards a common goal that has changed everything with my labs. Everyone works separately, both locations but then alternates locations. Sometimes they don’t see each other, but they’re working both stores and having these OKRs in place where everybody has a common goal and is working towards the same thing has changed everything

Amy’s passion for her businesses is natural and that trickles down into your employees. You can’t be around her and not feel the passion, the love and the care for them as employees for our customers and absolutely for the business in general. Even in our community, they see that from her and through her hard to work for somebody that is that passionate and not have some passion in yourself. Like grows like and the employees that we find are people that have felt her passion and her love for it and they want to improve the brand. They want to take it to the next step. We have employees that are coming in with ideas all the time on how to make it better. When you can engage a large number of minds towards a common goal, it’s much more powerful than our brilliant one, semi-brilliant one, and doing our best.

I was thinking about also the leader models the behavior they want to see. You’re saying that you have great employees, but I also know from my experience that that means that you’re a great leader because they model what they see in you. Day-to-day operations of both Any Lab Test Now and RevIVology because you’re still managing all four stores. How do you communicate with the team? You talked about communication that keeps the team focused and the culture-focused.

I hate to go back to that last question, but it is the answer. When we implemented this OKR system, it did absolute wonders. It keeps everyone focused. It makes sure that every day everyone knows that we’re working towards common goals and keeps them on track. They communicate with each other. We have a software where they can see what the other teammate is doing to work towards those goals. They have a little friendly competition. It has created a great culture of teamwork. I’m so glad that I started that.

It’s a culture of recognition as well. That’s one of the big parts of it.

They support each other and cheer each other on.

Through the software?

No, through each other, but you can do it through software too.

The expectation is we’re always in communication and radical transparency here. This is the way we roll. This is what I expect if you’re going to be one of my employees.

Believe in yourself, believe in every detail. Click To Tweet

How do people find you on social media?

Our website is RevivologyIV.com. On social media, Facebook, the same. It’s Revivology IV Hydration. You can reach out to us there and message us or like a post.

The things I would always tell people were when we talk about social media and if they’re curious or if they have a question, I said, “The worst thing you can do is not reach out.” It’s a simple thing to reach out and pose your question or say “I’m interested.” That’s the way to find you guys on social media.

You said Instagram is coming?

Yes, Instagram is coming.

As you guys have been talking, like the mission, where wellness and community contribution. If you guys could put the RevIVology message on the front page of a local business paper with your company message, your mission, what would you say?

I think that people are moving towards health and wellness, self-care, so much more. Things have changed over the last few years with ACA, the Affordable Care Act. It has changed how people think about their healthcare. Both Any Lab Test Now and RevIVology speak to that issue. Taking control of your health is a big part of it. Caring for yourself and us giving you two different ways to do that would be the message.

I’m thinking about the customer that comes through your door for the first time for RevIVology. You go, “I have A, B or C.” They have a problem, they’re looking for a solution. For you guys, you see the transformation in your work or you wouldn’t be as passionate about an issue. Maybe talking a little bit about, let’s say I’m 65 and I go, “I’d like to come in and work on my overall wellness and energy.” I walked through your door, what should I expect?

You come in and be greeted by one of my amazing staff members. They take a full medical history on you and a full intake form. They do a consultation. They’re going to ask you questions to see how you feeling, see what your goals are. You’ve mentioned fatigue and you’re looking for energy. We have drips that are specifically formulated for that and they would get you started. They would advise you and then you would decide what you think is the best thing for you.

The first visit, time in the door, time out the door, how much time would lapse typically?

The first visit is about an hour.

After that, it’s just how long it takes. The drips, 30 to 40 minutes?

BLP Neary | Revivology

Revivology: A little bit of vitamin B, vitamin B12 and some fluids can make you feel great.

 

Exactly.

We’ve done executive drip, a speed drift. I’m not sure what we call it.

Steve invented it.

I was in there one day and I didn’t have 45 minutes to be there. I put all the nutrients and vitamins into a 500cc bag instead of 1,000. I did the drip in twenty minutes. For me, that was perfect. There are days I love to go sit in the massage chair and lay there for an hour and that’s a great time. That day I was feeling down, I need some energy, I wanting to feel a little bit better and didn’t have an half an hour. I went in there in and out in twenty minutes. We put it on the menu, so a lot of people are doing that. “Did you get everything? I’m not dehydrated.” I probably am, but I drink a gallon of water a day. I do love how I feel after I’ve done the drip with all the vitamin B, glutathione and magnesium. I walk out of there bouncing. I love that feeling. Some days I just don’t have an hour to do it. When I do it, I do the executive bag.

I would have imagined how a great deal with people who live at this high dry altitude that the incidence of being dehydrated is fairly high. Probably more than people think. For the people out there that have that question in mind, the same thing we talked about. Just come by. Where are you guys located in town?

We’re on the North end of town off of Briargate Parkway. Just East of the shops at Briargate, 9475, Village Point, Suite 140.

We talked about the franchisees for RevIVology and how they learn more which is reaching out to you. When you talk to prospective franchisees, what’s the one predominant question they might have that tips them over to either say yes or no?

There’s not one predominant question, there are a few. Anybody that’s thinking about starting a franchise wants to know am I going to make money? We show them the data on that. We have very clear data, which is nice about having a flagship store that has good data. Another thing they ask is what is different about RevIVology from The Drip Room or any of those other hydration places. The main thing is the amount of care that Amy put into the formulation. She worked with the doctor. They came up with formulations that are most likely at least twice as robust as our competition. A lot of times you go in and get a little bit of vitamin B, vitamin B12, and some fluids. I think we have two tiers.

One of them has an average of about five compounds in it. The other one has eight. They’re going to get a lot more with that. It’s going to make people feel great. We wanted to make sure that once you got it, it changes how you felt versus just hydrating. That’s one thing that they want to know. We’re proprietary. What’s better about this than any other drip? That’s a big part of it. I want to make sure that they’re going to have support. The fact that we have the franchise innovations team, which is Dan Olsen and Kevin Harrington and his team. Our level of team.

One thing that we offer, which is different from typical franchise modelling is an area franchise. A master franchise. They’ll own an entire territory. Colorado, Arizona, Idaho, Las Vegas, Utah, a portion of Florida, Sacramento and we’re working on others, but that person will own 20 to 30 stores beneath them. It’s like middle management that is local. Most franchises, the franchise is located in Alpharetta, Georgia, and that’s where they are. If you’re in Oregon and you want support, that’s in Alpharetta. Our platform, the support is interstate. We send our local helping you out.

Is that an innovation that you’d asked put to place or something you’ve seen elsewhere?

The experience that Dan has in Massage Envy. He’s taking that model and using it with our business.

A hangover is simply dehydration. Get an IV that replenishes you with electrolytes. Click To Tweet

Typically when you look at the iteration on the franchise, there was a problem, here’s the solution. This is a solution in front of a problem potentially.

It also offers the master franchisee the opportunity to own a large business. They’re going to have 20 to 30 franchises underneath them or they’re hitting a portion of the franchise fees and a portion of the royalties. They’re stepping in for not a lot of money and that’s a lot of money, but comparatively to what you’re getting. It’s an incredible opportunity to own a large business with a massive support team behind you and then have an annuity with the royalty program.

Amy, looking back over the past few years, what specifically keeps you motivated?

I would have to say probably the health that we’re doing just in the community, that we’re helping people. I love my staff and I love innovation. It’s very exciting for me. When I started RevIVology a few years ago, I get very excited. This has all been very exciting building this and there are no signs of stopping.

The motivation is making sure that what we’re offering to people is going to be incredibly successful. It is prepared. All the bits and pieces are put together and there’s no stone left unturned. Also, what can we offer to them moving forward to improve their business even more so than we are. We’re in our infancy, the franchise side. It’s important that we’re giving them the support and the structure they need to be successful. I think that’s what motivates Amy and me also, but more her than me.

It’s two-prompts because one is your clients and your customers. Making sure they’re getting what they need because without them you have no business. The other piece is making sure that these franchisees get set up for ultimate success.

We are very picky and choosy about who we are going to allow to be a master franchisee and a franchisor. We’re going to vet every single person. If we don’t feel they fit into our personality culture, we’re not going to sell them a franchise.

Given the experience of multiple companies for you guys, if you were going to offer advice to somebody stepping into the role of CEO of the company for the first time, what advice might you offer?

I would say understand your strengths and your weaknesses as a leader. Make sure that you bring in people within your organization that can augment your weaknesses and cover those. In many cases, when you become a CEO or especially if you’re an entrepreneur, is because you do something well. There’s something, whether it be sales, a product. Something that you’re doing better than anybody else. You decide, “I’m going to start my own business. I’m going to do this.” If you’re not self-aware and you don’t understand that there are going to be things that you don’t do at that same level of expertise, there’s a high chance of failure.

Most people’s cases, most entrepreneurs for sure, it’d be the finance side. They understand their product. They understand their sales or they understand their customers, but they don’t understand the financial aspect of the company. That’s where a franchise comes in and helps. On your own, if you don’t bring in a high-level CFO or an accountant that can help you out, you’re probably going to struggle and that’s why that failure rate for individual businesses is so high. It’s the financial piece to delivering a great product or they have no idea what it costs and what’s the profit margins. For me, I would say most of the people that I know that are entrepreneurs, that are CEOs, that are starting their own businesses, the struggle has been on the financial end of the business.

Which goes back to your research that you did for him. Just the overall quest for being fully informed and thinking that there’s a shortcut. If there is, I’m unaware.

The shortcut is only 23 hours a day.

BLP Neary | Revivology

Revivology: The failure rate for individual businesses is so high because business owners fail to bring in a high-level CFO that can help them out.

 

You mentioned this book that you used. What’s the title of the book again?

It’s Measure What Matters.

Do you remember the author?

It’s John Doerr.

That’s the influential book that’s moved the needle for you?

It has made a huge difference.

A lot of business owners have a quote that resonates with them. Do you guys have a quote that resonates with you?

I do. I don’t know if I quote it perfectly, but we talk about it quite a bit at Any Lab Test Now and it’s a quote from Sam Walton. He said that this is why it’s good for CEOs, “The customer is the boss. The reason being is he has the power to fire you, the CEO, all the way down to the bottom simply by taking his business elsewhere.” We’re such a customer experience-centered company. People don’t have to come to see us. They come because of the experience that they get. That quote resonates with all of my team because if they don’t give people that experience that they’re looking for, they can be fired simply by those people going somewhere else.

Cath, I’ve been talking quite a bit and you’ve been gracious enough to come and work as co-host. The people that we mentioned that you’re the chair of Southern Colorado for Vistage. I think people may not know what this Vistage is and what Vistage does. Can you give us a thumbnail sketch of how that works?

This is a membership organization. It’s about 65-years-old. We’re in 21 different countries, global, and they’re not 23,000 members. Its closest competitor is YPO. The purpose of YPO is for social networking and connection for C-Suite leaders that CEOs typically don’t get that because they’re working 23 hours a day. Vistage is the perfect companion to that and that Vistage is about the business acumen. Having a business network, being able to reach to 23,000 other key executives and C-Suite members to say, “This is what I’m seeing. Do you see what I see?” Also, the best part of Vistage is getting a one to one coaching session as an executive so you have someone to talk to about what’s going on business and troubleshoot and problem solve with. We bring in speakers on specific topics that will help them grow their business and also grow their development as a leader. In addition to that, we also do problem-solving and troubleshooting, raise their challenges and their opportunities and the whole group does the heavy lifting. We have solutions that are actionable and hold them accountable for taking those actions so that they’re constantly moving their businesses forward.

That’s where I met you guys. I was a guest at a Vistage meeting. Amy, you brought the challenge in. You were looking at website and clarity and so on. Steve, you were there as well. There was feedback from a large quantity of business owners within the structure. I was a visitor as well. It was interesting to see and one of the things we didn’t bring up. If people are interested in Vistage Southern Colorado, how do they find you?

You can find me on LinkedIn at Catherine Wicklund. I also have a website, my LLC, which is SavantLeadership.com. They can email me Catherine.Wicklund@VistageChair.com, and I will reach out.

This has been a lot of fun. We did leave a single mark on you. I appreciate the journey and you guys sharing the insights. What I like is the progression and doing the research, doing the homework, ruling in and ruling out. Reflecting on what you saw from the lab company where you go like, “This is what worked well. This is what I would do differently if I ever had the opportunity.” You had the opportunity and you started incorporating differences and then even the people that are sponsoring and working with you and your franchising journey, they’re high-quality people that have draw this path beforehand. You continue to bring excellence to the process all the time. That’s a good enduring message to share. Thank you so much, Steve and Amy.

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About Amy Neary

BLP Neary | RevivologyAmy Neary has been serving the Colorado Springs community since 2008 by providing affordable lab testing to the uninsured and under-insured, with her company, Any Lab Test Now. “We’re able to help people who otherwise might forego getting a diagnosis and treatment from their physician, simply because they can’t afford their lab tests, says Neary.

“We are here to close that loop.” She has noticed that despite health-care reform, she still sees many people unable to afford monthly premiums or are in very high deductible policies. “These are the people who make my work so fulfilling. Just because someone is insured doesn’t mean they can afford a large out of pocket lab order. We take away that pain, and facilitate getting them back to their doctor quickly for treatment.”

About Steve Neary

BLP Neary | RevivologyI am constantly striving to improve the businesses that I am involved with as well as the communities that we are working in. My mission is to work intelligently to build and grow successful partnerships with like-minded businesses and people so that we all profit both financially and spiritually. These intentional partnerships will not only lead us to personal and financial freedom, but will also allow us to benefit our communities through investment in philanthropy and charity.

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