Special Guest | Sam Tejada | Proactive Approach to IV Therapy

In this episode, we invite Sam Tejada onto our show to share his thoughts and expertise as it relates to a more proactive approach to IV Therapy.

Sam Tejada began as a firefighter, paramedic, and then opened his first company Rescue-101 providing training to the American Red Cross in South Florida. Becoming involved with Cenegenics, and mentored by Dr. Robert Willix, Sam opened his first Liquivida Lounge in 2013. Liquivida is now a highly recognized integrated IV Hydration Therapy Franchise with several flagship stores throughout Florida, as well as expanding into other states such as Texas and New Jersey.

https://www.liquivida.com

Sam covers:

• Vitamin IV THERAPY 
• What are the benefits of IV nutritio
• How often do you recommend coming in to get a drip
• Preparation of IV bags
• Storage of IV products
• Proper formulations when it comes to IV therapy
• Benefits of IV Nutrition
• Diagnostics tools 
• Blood work for genetic testing 
• How to market to your patients
• How to educate your patients
• Mobile IV Practices
• Proper documentation 

American IV Association AIVA – Our Mission

The American IV Association (AIVA) is committed to its members and the advancement of the IV hydration therapy community and offers essential up-to-date compliance resources for members through training, events, detailed content, and other resources, including state-by-state requirements for licensing and certification, operations, and marketing. AIVA will track government enforcement activity, regulatory guidance, and emerging trends – translating the confusing body of information into practical, actionable steps for AIVA members. The resources provided will enable members to improve their practices, manage risks, and develop effective compliance. Additionally, AIVA provides knowledgeable and specialized resources for training and business development. Their membership and website resources will be launched in the coming weeks, beginning with: Florida, California, Texas, Georgia, Nevada, New York, Arizona, North Carolina, Ohio and Michigan. 

For more information, visit: https://www.americaniv.com/
email: gina@americaniv.com or call 561-455-7700 Ext. 134

The Tap Podcast Host, Tyler Terry
https://www.linkedin.com/in/tyler-terry-09518154/

Transcript

Welcome to the tap, the podcast that hydrates our listeners' minds with knowledge, expertise, and gives a front row ticket to be in the know about all things relating to the IV hydration therapy industry.

  Hey guys. Welcome back to the TAP podcast.

This is your host, Tyler Terry, and today I have a special guest with us and at the Tap we really pride ourselves , in bringing in specialists and, , professionals that really specialize within the IV hydration therapy industry. And today's guest, his name is Sam Tejada. And just to tell you a little bit about Sam, he began as a firefighter paramedic and then opened his first company Rescue 1 0 1, providing training to the American Red Cross in South Florida, becoming involved with cens and mentored by Dr.

Robert Willicks. Sam opened his first Vita Lounge in 2013. Liu Vita is now a highly recognized, integrated IV hydration therapy franchise with several flagship stores throughout Florida, as well as expanding into other states such as Texas and New Jersey. Sam, welcome to the podcast and thanks for taking time to  meet with us today.

It's a pleasure to be here, man. I appreciate you inviting me on onto the podcast.

Yeah, of course. I'm very excited,  for the different, you know, topics that we'll be discussing today.  One in particular that we really haven't touched on too much with the tap would be IV nutrition and really vitamin IV therapy. And I know that you specialize in that and you have a wealth of knowledge to share in regards to that.

So to start off, I'd like to ask you the question, why do you see the need of people doing Vitamin IV therapy?

All right. Yeah, so a lot of people ask that question and it, it's a good question, especially because this is something new that's becoming, uh, quite mainstream now. And, uh, a lot of people see these IV hydration therapies more for like the party crowd, for like hangovers, but. Clinically there, there's a bigger effect on the benefits of IV vitamin therapy.

So part of IV vitamin therapy, uh, one, one of the biggest benefits is that you get a hundred percent absorption when the nutrients go directly into the bloodstream. So, uh, amongst Americans, the statistics show that most Americans have a, a huge digestive issue. Um, and when you have issues with your gut, you're unable to digest a lot of those, uh, nutrients, those vitamins, minerals, and amino acids.

So, uh, typically you should be able to get most of them from your foods or supplementation that you take orally by mouth. But, uh, you know, people have issues with i b s. They have, uh, gastrointestinal issues, Crohn's, I mean even something as basic as, uh, people that have heartburn, you know, indigestion. So these are all, uh, gut issues, digestive issues.

So, In most cases, when you start taking a lot of these nutrients orally, you only get about 20 to 30% absorption. And there's a reason why we have to feed ourselves, you know, these vitamins by mouth two to three times a day is for us to get that actual therapeutic dose. To get the actual therapeutic effect.

You know, you have to feed it. So often now intravenously, you bypass the digestive route and you get a hundred percent absorption. Not only that, but we could actually go to higher therapeutic dosages where it doesn't irritate the digestive route because it's bypassing it. Where then we get even better clinical effects with with certain patients that have autoimmune issues and other type of chronic illnesses.

Wow. I mean, just. About the absorption, um, and how much that matters. I mean, just, you know, me as a patient, I'm already learning from you and realizing, you know, I, I do value, obviously, um, getting an IV hydration drip, um, taking my vitamins, my supplements. But even when you're, you know, and this is going off of a conversation that we had earlier, but even if you're eating correctly or you're taking the proper nutrients, um, if you don't have that baseline, or if your practice doesn't know what your needs are, then it's not going as far the, it's, they're not going as far as they could.

Had you had that better absorption, so,

Yeah, you're absolutely right. And you know, one thing I'll touch up on is. We, we get it all the time. We get the, the, the, the patients that come in, oh, well I eat healthy. Well what, what's healthy? You know, it's, is it just eating a salad or is it actually, uh, calculating your macros? And how do you know you're getting proper absorption of those nutrients when you do eat healthy?

And, and that's where you know, us as liquid Vita. Um, you know, and this is something that we try to focus on at our practice, is we like to get that baseline, how you just, uh, mentioned, uh, a few seconds ago, us being able to really get that diagnostic in place. And what the way we do it is we do what's called a micronutrients test.

Um, it's a test that's stunted blood work, right? Um, we do a comprehensive blood analysis. Part of that comprehensive blood analysis is the micronutrients test, and then we could see exactly what patients are deficient in. Um, And listen, not it, it, it's not only about having the deficiencies, but if you're not within the optimal levels of what we, uh, think and, and based off of clinical research, what, what, where you need to be cl uh, optimal wise, you know, those are things that need to be addressed as well too.

So we'd like to get that baseline. And then from there, once we start that treatment regimen with the patient, you know, we do the follow up blood work, the follow up micronutrients test, and then we'll actually do it again in another 30 to 60 days to see what kind of progress. And what we do is we trend it, you know, and if we have to go ahead and tailor should, uh, of the nutrients throughout the process, we have the ability to, the ability to do so.

And we do it through, uh, you know, looking at the Saul level through your blood.

I love that. So I come from the aesthetic industry, uh, working. Predominantly with, uh, medical spas and a lot of the practices will use a skin analysis tool like a visia, and they'll essentially analyze the skin and then make product recommendations based on that. And they'll be able to tell you like, Hey, you know, based on this analysis, although you are 31, your skin is really showing that it's 38 or maybe you're doing a great job and it's, it's looking like you're 25, which is what people want.

But, um, I love what you just said because if I'm a patient, that trust factor goes through the roof just with you taking time to actually not just ask me questions and let me fill out a questionnaire, which is great, but also having tools to diagnose and understand what I need so that you can, as the expert, which you are, so that you can understand what my needs are, um, based on my nutrition and what I'm eating and what I'm not eating, what supplements I'm taking, what supplements I'm not taking, and then make those recommendations from there.

Yeah, Tyler, I mean it, that's, this is so critical when we talk about IV nutrition and actually creating these health and wellness programs for the patients. You know, again, I go back to what I was saying before, but you know, you get these people, Hey, I eat healthy. And what people don't understand is a lot of the food that's massively produced is nutrient deficient itself.

You know, it's, it's lacking the nutrients, you know, the, the soil that it's being, uh, uh, you know, growing in, doesn't have all the minerals and everything that, that those fruits and vegetables need. So that's what I call, I call it hospitality, fruits and vegetables. They look good, right? Pretty. But they have, number one, they don't have any flavor.

They taste like water, right? And they have no nutritional value in them. You know, you, you, you take a bite out out of a strawberry here in the. It's just like, it's almost like eating air. You go to Costa Rica, take a bite out of a strawberry, you know, you're like in shock from how much flavor it has. So, so these are the small things that people don't pay attention to, and we could actually figure it out through the different diagnostic, uh, tools that we have, like blood work.

Wow. Okay. So I know you've talked about some of these diagnostic tools, but can you walk me through, if I'm a patient, I come into your practice for the first time, what does that look like? Um, outside of, obviously, you know, I can come in and, and fill out maybe an intake form or I can see the menu, but what does that look like from the patient experience side?

We talk about this on the podcast a lot, you know, enhancing the patient experience, differentiating your practice. But I can already tell that by what you're doing, you're creating a lifetime patient and there's a value to having a lifetime patient because the trust for me is gonna again, go through the roof because you're taking extra time to properly treat me.

So if I'm a patient, I come in, what would step one be? Step two or, or whatever that that looks.

So I, I love what you just said. You know, l t V is extremely important in business, right? That, that lifetime value of that patient. And, and part of that is you, you being able to offer that, that great. A, uh, level of experience, their experience when they come in. So for us, it's really understanding our patient, understanding their lifestyle, understanding what they do for work, uh, understand what kind of, um, bad habits and good habits they have, healthy habits, their exercise regiments.

So what we do, the first step that we do is we actually do a lifestyle assessment questionnaire. We want us, we wanna understand what kind of symptoms, what kind of signs, uh, signs and symptoms  they're they're experiencing. We wanna know what their goal is and why they even came into our, uh, medical office.

Um, You know, part of that lifestyle assessment form, we're looking at what kind of career they have. Listen, I, I've had, uh, firefighters and police officers, you know, obviously I come from the, the, the firefighter background. I've had police officers come in and, you know, as soon as I, we know that they're, they're, they're a police officer.

We, we like to check their, their lead levels. Uh, you know, they're, they're at the shooting range. I've had a lot of police officers that high have high levels of lead in their blood, which that can cause a lot of chronic issues, even neurological issues. So, you know, part of that is looking at that lifestyle assessment, really understanding what's going on with, with the patient, lifestyle-wise, understanding their goals.

And then from there we take them into the rest of our diagnostic tools that we're gonna utilize. Those other diagnostic tools will include a comprehensive blood. The comprehensive blood analysis is not like going to your, uh, general practitioner. You know, when you go to your general practitioner, typically what they'll do is like about two or three pages of blood work, they look at very, very basic stuff.

The things that we test for your typical, like conventional medicine doctors will only test if you're symptomatic. We're doing it more as a proactive approach of prevention, you know, proactive approach of preventative medicine to catch things early before they actually do become a chronic issue. Um, so part of that is doing the blood work.

The blood work, uh, consists of, we we're looking at hormones, we're looking at blood count, we're looking at, uh, autoimmune issues that you might have. We're looking at inflammation markers, micronutrients deficiencies. We're looking at environmental toxins that you might get exposed to through, uh, environment or even food.

Um, we're looking at food sensitivity, so, and, and there's a, a magnitude of other things that we test for. Our blood work is anywhere between 15 to 20 pages long. Um, so we, we get a really good bird's eye view of what's happening internally with your health. Some of the other diagnostic tools we use, we do, uh, a body composition analysis.

We have both a in-body machine that, that gives you some pretty good calculations. And then we also have a DXA scan, which, uh, historically a dex, the DXA scan has been known to be utilized for, uh, bone density, which yes, we use it for bone density as well, but we do it for body composition. Looking at, you know, subcutaneous fat, which is usually the fluffy fat that's based off of like stress, uh, unhealthy eating, um, cortisol levels from the stress being.

That that's a, that, that to me is a fairly easier thing to fix. But then at the same time, we have the ability to look at the patient's, um, visceral fat percentage, which the visceral fat is the fat that lines the organs, which, if you have a high percentage that could be in, you know, indicative of cardiovascular disease.

So this, this goes back to, you know, the, that proactive approach, preventative medicine, lifestyle medicine is some, some of the terminology that you hear out there. But things like this gives us a true bird's eye view of what's happening with the patient's health, right? So body composition analysis, blood work, lifestyle assessment, uh, questionnaire, and then we even dive into doing the VO two max, looking at cardiovascular function, looking at how your endurance is.

And then we even do the R M R, which is the resting metabolic rate. We could actually see, you know, how many ca, how many calories you're burning when you're at the resting state. What, what does that do? That gives us the ability  to,  customize your nutritional plan, calculate what macros you need to take, take in, um, figure out if you're working out enough or if you're working out too much, because that, that can affect your, your performance as well if you're o overdoing it.

So, so those are some of the diagnostics tools that we use to really create that personalized program for the.

Sam, I love this. So, a couple things I wanna touch on. Um, a lot of, we've spent a lot of time on this podcast, again talking about that patient experience, but really we've been focused on, you know, how to make your office the most dynamic, um, from A to z from waiting room to consult room to treatment room, or, or any room in your practice and the patient experience before they come in, when they leave, all of those different dynamics.

But what I would love for our audience to really focus on and take from just what's been said so far, which you've shared so many, um, valuable pieces, is the fact that you can differentiate your practice and enhance that patient experience by going above and beyond to serve the patient in that best manner.

And essentially, by doing that, you're not just, you know, for me, I'm gonna give this example and the, the IV clinics. Here where I live, I'm in, I'm in Southern Utah. Um, one particular, they're great, very friendly, very down to earth. Um, they have great bedside manner. Um, they have a, a, a good experience. But I remember my first time going in, I had no idea what, what I was really going in for.

I was just intrigued. Um, this is before I got involved with the American IV Association. I had gone to a co, my favorite coffee shop. I just wanted to stop by and I, they gave me a menu, but they didn't educate me on, on anything. They didn't really ask me any of my symptoms. Um, and they were doing their best, but to point out it would be there.

There's so much value, especially in this growing industry. Providing patient education and just that next level patient care, especially when a patient's coming to you for the first time. I could think of my family in particular, and I have a pretty large family on both sides, between my wife and I. And if you look at, you know, between 30 people or so, I, I know that there's only two, including myself, that have ever gone to an IV hydration therapy clinic.

And you know, I'm explaining why I love it and why they should try it out and the different benefits. But that proves to you just in that small dynamic that people are still becoming aware of it. And if you do have new patients coming in by, by providing that level of care that you're providing Sam, you and your team, um, you're really going to be able to, um, not just have patients, you want patients to go and tell their friends about it, but the more you educate patients, the more that they can educate their friends.

So do you have anything that you like to touch on in terms of, you've talked a lot about your patient education, but um, anything in those regards?

Yeah. Tyler, you know, there's so much truth be, be behind what you're saying right now and us, us as liquid Vita. One of the things that when, when we talk to other doctors and they're implementing their IV nutrition practice, we always try to tell 'em, stay away from that juice bar menu model, you know, where people could just come in and select off a menu.

Now, don't get me wrong, like at our clinics, we have a list of the different nutrient strips and what personas they fit, you know, but it's not something that you just gotta come in and just start selecting off a menu. Like you're going through the drive-through at a fast food restaurant. You know, we, we wanna make sure that we're giving you the right nutrients.

For whatever issues you're having or what, whatever your goals are. And the, the only way to really do that is going through those steps that I mentioned earlier. So, um, to an, to answer your question, uh, yeah, you, you know, it's, it's the go going through that process, you know, that, that process giving, that, that true customer experience, um, yeah.

Giving them the best quality, uh, treatment you have to go through those diagnostic tools, uh, the, the different diagnostics. Um, you know, I'll tell you, uh, going back when we first started, which was about nine years ago, you know, we're coming up to like a decade of doing Ivy Nutrition. We were one of the first ones here in South Florida.

That's what I was gonna say. You must have been one of the first.

yeah, we, we were one of the first, and back then you tell someone, Hey, I, I'm gonna give you some vitamins right in your vein, people freak out, you know, and, and I remember one of my business mentors, um, at the time that I, uh, I launched a business. He ended up telling me, he said, Hey, you know the brand Coca-Cola?

I said, absolutely. Everybody knows the brand of Coca-Cola. They said, he said they created a brand that people felt safe drinking it, right? He says, you're gonna create a brand where people feel safe injecting it right into their vein. And we've done that. You know, so I, I, I feel proud in that sense. But yeah, it, it really is, when you think about it in that way, the, the way my business mentor, uh, state.

But you know, back then it was very difficult to get people to even commit. So what we had to do is we had to put a lot of effort into educational marketing. That's the type of marketing we did. You can't just do a couple Facebook campaigns and, you know, post something in a magazine. Uh, people don't know what this Ivy Nutrition stuff is, right?

So what what did we do is we really dive deep into educating the potential end consumer. All of the videos that we created was educational base and until, till today, we do a lot of education as well too. Now, you know, obviously through a lot of athletes, celebrities and, and,  you know, influencers, uh, the, the, the education and the awareness of Ivy Nutrition has,  become a lot easier to market.

Um, but yeah, back then, educational marketing's key, you know, with anything that you do, especially in alternative medicine when we're, when we're in this field of, you know, doing that functional medicine. Is, you know, you gotta educate  that consumer, they need to know exactly what we're doing here.

Couldn't agree more. Sam, thank you for that. That was amazing.  I wanna shift gears here a little bit. So something that I know you get asked a lot about is in regards to your preparation of your IV bags. So I'd love for you to walk us through what that looks like and why you're doing what you're.

Yeah. So the preparation of IV bags is very important. And what, what you're starting to see is a lot of, uh, uh, clinics pop up a lot of mom and pops, a lot of these mobile services. And we have to make sure that when we're preparing these IV bags, that they're being done, number one, in a sterile environment and things are being mixed properly.

So one of the things that we use, we use, uh, the Liqui Vita IV kits and packets that we have over 4,000 doctors throughout the United States that use the product. . Um, and, and the benefit, uh, of the products that, that we utilize is that everything's pre-measured and pre dosed. We're, we're not playing the guesswork.

Uh, you know, there, there's no guesswork here. So, um, the cool part about everything being pre-measured, pre-do and the different formulations that we have to fit different personas is that all of the vials are preservative free. So we're not injecting all these preservatives into the patient with these multi-dose vials, right?

So, alongside with that, the products that are supposed to be used are, are certain quality products. Like, for example, our IV drip sets that we use, all of them have an inline micron filter. Micron filter can filter out any particulates or any kind of,  any particulates or any kind of, uh, nutrients that per precipitate inside of the bag, which can cause a foreign body emboli inside of, in, inside of your vein, inside of your body.

So, so the inline micron filter will actually filter out up to 99% of any kind of bacteria that potentially goes into the bag during the mixing process. These are the, the, the type of, uh, levels of control in regards to safety that need to, uh, go into play. Um, when we extract a solution out of the actual, uh, vial, the sterile vial, we don't do what, uh, a lot of nurses typically would do is, you know, they put air in a syringe, push it into the vial to help the solution come out.

We use what's called a dispensing needle. The dispensing needle goes into the vial, we connect the syringe, and as we extract the solution, the air that goes through the dispensing needle goes through a micron filter. Keeping the sterility of that solution intact. You know, in, in, in having the sterility of that solution intact, will, will, will lead to having proper efficacy of, of that medical treatment that we're doing with the patient.

So those are some of the, the, the basics with, with the products that we use. But then alongside with that, you know, how you store the product. Um, you see people storing, uh, uh, products in refrigerators that are made, made for like soft drinks and stuff, that's not the appropriate refrigerator. You know, medication typically is kept at a, at approximately 41 degrees Fahrenheit, right?

Um, when you use a regular refrigerator, uh, a lot of the times it's, it's a heck of a lot colder than that. And there's some nutrients that I, if you don't have it set at the right temperature, they'll, they'll come out of solution, which then that, that becomes a dangerous drug to give to your patient. So we use medical grade refrigerators to store all of our, all, all of our stuff.

It locks up. Um, and then when we actually mix the bags, we do it in a, is uh, I, uh, is five hood system, right? So this is a positive pressure hood system that all of the air that's inside of that hood system where you're actually mixing the bag, goes through a filtration system, which avoids any kind of bacteria, viruses, or anything else from going inside of that bag.

So the, these are like extremely important level levels of, of safety controls that you have to have in place. Um, I I, I, I try to tell people, especially the consumers that get IV therapy, like if you go to a clinic that doesn't have these things in place, like you're, you're putting your own life at risk.

You gotta be very, very careful.

Yeah, I can tell just from this conversation how thorough you are and how sick you're, you're trying to make sure that it's an optimal outcome for the patient and for your practice. And, you know, you're thinking of the patient. I mean, when you, when you make sure that the patient is that common denominator and everything that you're doing, optimal care, optimal outcome, optimal experience, I think that's where the magic lies.

That's where you really are going to gain the trust of your patients. And then you go back to that lifetime value of the patient, which is great for your business. And, and at the end of the day, the day it's great for your patients. Um, just that organic approach and that thorough approach goes a long.

For everybody, so thank you for sharing that. I'm gonna go ahead and shift gears, uh, again here and, and let's go ahead and jump into marketing. And this could be marketing for really any IV practice, whether they're just starting out or they've been doing it for a handful of years. What are some keys for your practice that have worked?

Do you have anything that you can share with us or even something that maybe surprised you, maybe you're targeting a certain area that is, is very niche but very effective.

So, so when it comes to marketing, uh, we do a magnitude of different things. So when it comes to marketing, um, you know, I, I, if I went back like about four years ago, I would actually tell people we're a marketing company first and a medical company second. Uh, today I actually tell people we're a, a software technology company, first marketing company second and medical.

Third, and that doesn't diminish the efficacy of, of the medical treatments that we're doing. It's that without the other two in front of it, you really don't have a business in today's world of the digital world that we live in and everything else. So, um, one of the biggest things that I, I I'd like to say about IV nutrition and marketing, you know, a lot of these procedures that we do are, uh, off-label use.

You know, there, there really isn't a, a true f d a indication for it. Um, you know, these are things that we're working very closely with our patients and you have to avoid any kind of promises or claims or you know, that you're gonna cure a certain disease. Like what we're, what we're doing is we're giving supplemental support to the patients, um, based off of what our findings are through those diagnostic.

Um, but yeah, there, there is just so much, uh, different things that you can do in the world of marketing. Everything from the social media marketing, in-house marketing, um, doing great podcasts like this as well. Um, you know, it's just, we, we, we do it all. You know, we we're, we have a whole PR team, um, that's getting us a lot of content out there through publications, articles, um, alongside with, with, uh, other things like, uh, you know, videos and, and news segments and whatnot.

Um, you know, for everybody, it's not the easiest thing to afford, uh, when it comes to marketing. Marketing can get very expensive, especially if you're putting your marketing dollars in the wrong place. So I, I always say start off, uh, with some of the basic things like networking, you know, go. Go to happy hour.

Talk to people about what you do. You know, word of mouth is like the, the best form of marketing. I mean, we spend millions of dollars in marketing and nothing beats word of mouth.

I couldn't, I couldn't agree more. So I feel like something that we can all learn from you and gravitate towards is your ability to be first, to market and to take risks. I mean, with you doing this, Uh, nine years ago, being one of the first IV practices in Florida and, and in the country, I know when I am working with, with a practice, at least in my, the early stages of my career, 10 years ago, it was hard for for them to, to gravitate towards adding software to their practice.

Software was still at its infancy using a device and the consultation and, and that just seemed so irrelevant. It, it wasn't a thing. And if you think back to when Instagram was becoming popular and there were only a handful of people who jumped into Instagram marketing and you didn't see Ford and Chevy and, and Coca-Cola, you didn't see those companies jump into that first.

Whereas you could actually have a huge market share. You know, you could spend a hundred dollars and probably jump in front of 30,000 people, whereas now you're gonna get in front of 3000 people. Um, so do you have any thoughts on that? Like what it takes to take a risk and try something new? Because I think that's where some of the magic lies in being creative, taking a little bit of a risk, um, but being first to market in some things.

Like it might even be going to a fair, a local fair or, um, you know, sponsoring a local company or a local event. Do you have any thoughts on that?

Yeah. You, you know, when, when we start talking about being an industry leader, it, you do have to take a lot of risk. You gotta try things out. Some things work, some things don't. You know, there's a saying where it says, you know, you win some, you lose some. So hopefully you win more than what you lose. And, and sometimes, uh, you lose more and then you start winning later, and then, then it catches up.

So, um, I, I agree with you. Like I, I, if, uh, people start to come up with certain creative ideas, you know, do it, you know, uh, structure it, who knows down the line, it might become the new best practice of marketing. You know, that's how these things come up. You know, they, we, there's a lot of industry leaders that will teach what are the current best practices, but, you know, uh, go fast forward, you know, two, three years from now, uh, that stuff is gonna be obsolete.

So you know what works today doesn't necessarily mean it's gonna work tomorrow. So if you, if people have great ideas, they have that creative mindset, take the risk you.

I love it and something I, I know something that a lot of people are gravitating towards now is influencer marketing. And a lot of, you know, if you think back even five years ago, 10 years ago, that was almost reserved for the big brands or the big box stores, but realizing that it doesn't even have to be an influencer that has a million followers.

There's micro influencers. And that micro influencer might be somebody that's in the same building as you. And like you said, that organic, uh, word of mouth marketing could happen from a conversation that you had at happy hour. So I love that. Thank you

you, you know, I, I love that whole micro influencer thing. I, I'll tell you, we actually get better results from the micro influencers that have two 3000 followers versus the ones that have the hundreds of thousands, if not millions of followers. And, and the reason why, it's like, you know, when they have so many of those, uh, the crazy amount of follow.

A lot of these people are not even near you. I mean, they're all over the world that are following these, these health and wellness influencers or whatever kind of influencers they are. So the people that have the two to 3000, the, the, they'll have two to 3000 are people that actually know that individual.

So I love the micro influencers. A matter of fact, you don't, when it comes to like the bigger influencers with the hundreds of thousands of followers or millions of followers, I actually, the way I engage with them is not necessarily come in, utilize the service and just post about it. The way I utilize those type of influencers is, Hey, bring me some lower key influencers into the business.

You know, because everybody wants to be like the person who has, you know, the 5 million, uh, followers. So if they do, you know how easy it is to have that influencer who has 5 million followers to go ask, you know, a handful of influencers that only have a hundred thousand followers to come in and do an IV drip with them.

You know, so it it's all about the strategy that you put into play.

Yeah, that is key. That is a portal right there. So, marketing portal, thank you for sharing that with us, Sam, especially knowing the effectiveness of, you know, a micro influencer that has two to 3000 followers and, and just from you sharing. With our listeners, how valuable that's been. So thank you for that.

Um, I wanna round out and, and finish the podcast with one last topic, and that's a topic of Mobile IVs and just your thoughts on it. Any recommendations that you have, uh, when it comes to proper documentation for a mobile IV clinic. Um, and yeah, just any pearls or wisdom that you have.

Yeah, so with the mobile IVs, you're seeing a lot of this stuff pop up. You know, it's, it, the mobile IV business is a lot easier for people to get into because they, they kind of create that minimal viable product, you know, where it's not all of this expense of having a brick and mortar storefront. Um, having all of these different, um, uh, compliance or, or should I say, regulatory, uh, agencies that come in for compliance purposes.

So, um, there, there's an upside to it and there's a downside. You know, a lot of people that are doing some of these mobile services are cutting corners, which we have to be careful with. Where are these bags being pro uh, prepped? Where are the, uh, products being stored? You know, is it in the, in the trunk of a, a, a hot car here in South Florida?

Or, you know, is it, uh, up north in a frozen trunk? You know, these are things that people have to take in consideration. Um, when they're doing the mobile services. It's kind of critical to know exactly who's evaluating you. Is it just the, the rn or are you doing a telemedicine consultation with an actual practitioner?

Are you doing blood work or, or what's going on here? Right? So if you're, if, if, if patients are doing IV drips and not going through that process, the same process that they go through at a medical clinic where they're signing a consent form, you're getting patient history, getting the questionnaire, you know, that's cutting corner.

So, um, all of that documentation is key. You have to also, uh, put all of that, those documentations in the patient's chart. Hopefully, uh, most people are utilizing, uh, a digital platform like an E M R to store that, you know, instead of the archaic model of using paper charts with a Manila, manila folders. Um, so, you know, when it comes to documentation, uh, one, one thing that I'll tell providers that are out there, it is extremely critical to document everything from the IV site where you started the IV catheter, right?

It's important to document baseline vitals, document lung sounds that you, you were able to get. And make sure there's no fluids or anything in lung sounds. Make sure you're document documenting patient history, the reason why they're coming in for the IV drip, or why we're going to them to do the IV drip.

And then most importantly, Part of the documentation should be any kind of drug, right? Which the, these nutrients, these these, uh, that come from a pharmacy, it's classified as a drug that every single vial that you use, you are jotting down on the patient's chart. The lot number and expiration date is, God forbid, if there was something wrong with that product.

And the pharmacy that produced the product has to execute a recall, you know, through the fda. They have to, everyone has to be able to track exactly where that product ended up, what patient received that product. So then we, you know, we can reach out to the patient, say, Hey, you know, those bad product, if you're experiencing these symptoms, you know, uh, the manufacturer has this whole program, the attorneys, whatever it is.

So documentation's, key documentation will save your butt when, when the, when you know the, the crap hits the fan, how they say it, right? So, documentation, documentation, documentation. We talk about it all the time within our organization. Um, that is all you have to rely on after the fact. You know, it can easily be years down the line until something develops.

Um, and, and you'll be, you know, you don't wanna shoot yourself in the foot by not documenting things.

Yeah, it's that, you know, measure twice, cut once approach. And also going back to the, you know, making sure that you're using some type of software to manage your business and E M R system, the, it's so crucial to have that because it's gonna save you likely hundreds of hours. You know, God forbid something does happen for you to go back and find that data and to make sure that your patients are okay and everybody's okay in terms of that lot number and making sure that you can run a quick search, whether it's a search for a tag or um, any type of documentation, uh, keyword within your e m EMR system, it'll be easier and more effective to track that down.

And it goes back to the patient care. I mean, if you can do that in a matter of an hour or hours instead of days or weeks, that's the best for the patient.

I agree a hundred.

So, um, well, final thoughts, Sam, anything else that you'd like to share with our audience before we end the podcast?

Well, if anyone wants to kind of learn more about how we do things, you can always find me on, on LinkedIn. You know, my full name is Samael, S a m a e L, last name Tejada, t e j a d a. Um, you can find me on LinkedIn. I'm always posting, uh, new things about what to do in the industry, things that are happening.

Um, also my Instagram page at Sammy, s a m m y, underscore my last name, Tejada, t h a a d a. And then another underscore after that. Um, you know, my, my goal is to really help the industry continue to grow, do it right, keep things safe, and help a lot of people.

I appreciate your time, Sam. You've been a joy to have on the show today, and I hope that we can have you back on maybe sometime in the next year or so, or even, who knows, maybe in the next couple months. I know you're a busy guy and I just wanna tell you again, I appreciate your time. It's been amazing getting to know you, and thank you for all that you do for our industry. 📍 

Awesome, Tyler. Likewise. It's a pleasure.

All right, thank you.

Take care. 

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