The Tap Podcast
The Tap Podcast
The Future of the IV Therapy Industry: Insights from David Light
We've got a particularly insightful episode for you today, featuring our esteemed guest, David Light from the American IV Association. David brings to light unheard parallels between the substance abuse industry and the IV therapy industry, underlining the indispensable need for regulation and guidance for both sectors. As a member of AIVA, he highlights the benefits such as access to elite regulatory guidance, ensuring compliance, and enabling providers to deliver best in closet IV hydration services.
Our conversation takes a deep dive into the world of IV hydration therapy, spotlighting the mission and ambitions of The American IV Association. We talk about their objective to offer education and risk mitigation strategies to potential consumers within the industry. The episode uncovers a discussion on the potential growth in the industry, touching upon economic factors that could be a speed bump, and how regulations and guidelines are set to shape the industry's future. We conclude our talk by exploring the competitive market landscape. Tune in for an enlightening conversation that could change the way you see the IV hydration therapy industry.
David Light
David is a doctoral level physical therapist for the past 2 decades who also received an MBA. He's worked for large corporations and private equity backed companies. David's also worked in private practice for a decade (his own, through acquisitions and a sale), and in the financial services world as a mid-market ambulatory consultant.
IV Hydration Therapy Business Academy & Networking Event FL | Registration | Register by clicking on the link below!
https://www.americaniv.com/page/events
The Tap Podcast Host, Tyler Terry
https://www.linkedin.com/in/tyler-terry-09518154/
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 int
Welcome to the TAP, the podcast that hydrates our listeners' minds with knowledge, expertise and gives a front-road ticket to be in the know about all things relating to the IV hydration therapy industry. Hey guys, welcome back to the TAP podcast. Today we have a special guest. His name is David Light. David oversees operations for the American IV Association. Just a little bit about David. David is a doctoral level physical therapist for the past two decades, who also received an MBA. He's worked for large corporations, private equity, backed companies in private practice for a decade which were his own through acquisitions and a sell, And in the financial services world as a mid-market ambulatory consultant. David, welcome to the podcast.
Speaker 2:Thank you, Tyler.
Speaker 1:Yeah, of course, of course. So, outside of what I just talked about, with a little bit about yourself, i'd love for you to just shed some light and kind of give us a little bit more about your background and tell us how you were introduced to Ava.
Speaker 2:Yeah, sure You highlighted on a couple of the different aspects of my career.
Speaker 2:It's interesting where I am now from, where I came as a clinician right.
Speaker 2:It's awful difficult times for people to be involved in health care whether it be a professional membership organization or an administration without actually doing the grind and the clinical component.
Speaker 2:So I started off as a physical therapist and still am licensed.
Speaker 2:Through that time, almost two decades, treated tens of thousands of patients in multiple different states and sort of across the country in multiple different capacities, and that really was the backbone of understanding how clinical operations work and also are provided, because I was the one doing them. So that led into going into private practice and learning more about that, which is a total different dimension Private equity backed or large corporate billion dollar organizations and then get an MBA along the way And then, through the professional services delivery system in that mid-market ambulatory health care space, i came in contact with Jeff Cohen from the Florida Health Care Law Firm and we were able to cross refer clients over the last six or so years me needing legal help and guidance in his firm providing that and him needing operational and strategy guidance and me and the firm I worked with at the time, providing that I came into Ava through Jeff in a personal relationship, and the last couple of months have been pretty exciting and really awesome as far as the direction the company is going.
Speaker 1:Yeah, jeff has been incredible to me. I've had the pleasure of knowing him now for just over a year and I look up to him already as a mentor, so that's really cool. So you've been with Ava for a few months now. You've known about Ava for a while. What are you most excited about as it relates to Ava and what's happening?
Speaker 2:It parallels in a good way. It parallels the substance abuse industry from about five or six or seven years ago. It was really lone, especially in South Florida, as the wild wild West At its core. At its heart, there was a lot of good being done for a lot of people that were suffering from addiction. The difficulty was there wasn't any regulation that was on it, especially with regards to patient brokering and some of the different licensures and residential treatment programs. The reason why I say it parallels that is because that industry needed regulation and guidance and compliance in order to capitalize on actually helping people in more safe environments. I say that's important because the bridge between then and now, the healthcare law firm did a compliance program back then called Risk Shield, which helped that compliance piece and people in the industry knowing that they had a good, solid business. That's actually how I first came in contact with Jeff and crew. So that industry was the wild wild West. It was doing a lot of good but it needed help, it needed guidance, it needed high level regulatory, It needed compliance.
Speaker 2:The IV industry, i feel like, is the same way. You know. It's come out of the gates. It's had hockey stick level growth. People understand the need from not only from a clinical perspective but also from a health perspective in a lot of different capacities, and I can expand on that.
Speaker 2:But at the same point in time, it really doesn't have the boundaries and guidelines up that it should, and there are an enormous amount of individuals seeing the opportunity in this industry and going into business without really having any type of business background. So because they have the clinical licensure doesn't really make you a successful, compliant business owner, and we're trying to bridge that gap and help put those borders in place on a national platform to give people the opportunity. Not that how do I go in business myself? There's a lot of different organizations that are really good at that. That's not what we want to be, But we want to be. Once you've gone into business for yourself, how do you maintain above board, keep your head above water and stay out of the gray as much as you can, while delivering high quality IV hydration services?
Speaker 1:Yeah, that makes sense. So I know that Ava has a membership for anybody that would like to become a member, and that's something that the organization is really building Can you talk about. You know, i know there's a lot of benefits, but can you talk about a few of the benefits? if I'm a practice and I sign up to be a member of Ava, what are some of the benefits that I can expect?
Speaker 2:Yeah. So one of the things that we decided to do and it's really only been a few months was how do we become the forefront leader in business, regulatory and compliance, which are the three sort of pillars of what is, and, in the process, sort of under promise and over deliver? right in the beginning of the day that, if you will, it was very segmented and market specific, down to state specific with different levels of membership, and we really kind of scrapped all that and said you know what, if somebody wants to come to us and they want answers and they want guidance, then let's give them kind of everything we right. So we've just got one basic pro membership. It's 395 bucks a year, which shouldn't really kill anybody, and the benefits of that are we've got we've got it broken down to state by state libraries for reference material.
Speaker 2:I went in business myself multiple times and sometimes it's really difficult to navigate, even though everything's on the web. When you bring something up and there's 2.1 million results for what you're trying to look for, it becomes incredibly time consuming if you don't know where to go. So we've got a repository for that, for information that people in business can go to and reference. Upon signing up. You get a free consultation, if you'd like to take advantage of it 15 to 30 minutes with a health care attorney and attorneys in Florida, but we can also triage it out at some of other other contacts across the country. We've got credentialing information and then we've got certification. We've got a certification piece that we just launched, which is really exciting. That's 100 point certification process that as a member you get a discount on. That comes in and can give you kind of a gold seal of approval, along with networking benefits and opportunities like this to participate in webinars and podcasts to really keep abreast of the changes throughout the country that are occurring on a pretty regular pace now.
Speaker 1:I mean $400 for a year of membership. What? that's three patients getting an IV. So if not, maybe two patients getting an IV. That's incredible value there. Now I know that Eva has a conference coming up at the end of July. Can you paint a picture and explain to the audience what's happening there, kind of get us excited about the conference?
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely. The first reason to get excited about the conference is the fact that it's in North Fort Lauderdale Beach, florida. So and it's on the beach, so you can kind of look at different venues and I've been to many all over the country and you don't really get as excited about going there as North Fort Lauderdale Beach. So that's number one.
Speaker 2:It's a beautiful location, the San Esta hotel there in North Fort Lauderdale Beach. Literally, when you go to the penthouse level, the top floor, the whole east facing view is windows above nothing else. You get to go up there and just see the ocean and the beach and it's really beautiful. So if we can pull everybody's attention away from that, we actually have two days of really really good, solid speakers and networking opportunities for the attendees. So we've got a variety of different topics that we cover and they're really primarily geared toward the people that are in business.
Speaker 2:Now, you could be in small business maybe it's yourself, it's one to five employees, or you've grown, you've got maybe multiple sites or multiple mobile services and you've got 20 plus employees, but it's relative to both. So we definitely have some talks from attorneys on regulation and importance of compliance. We've got some talks from people on strategy and business principles, some other ones on branding, like if you're going to start your own website, what does that look like and what should be included in there. And then we've got a pharmacological slash compliance talk from somebody that's a pharmacist that's involved in IV hydration services as well. So it's really jam packed with a couple of round tables stuck in there and then a cocktail reception and happy hour. So there's plenty of time to mingle with fellow IV providers but also learn a lot at the same time.
Speaker 2:And the big thing we're looking for at this one is the fact that it's manageable enough to really get to know all the attendees. I mean, we're not trying to, you know, sell the place out and run out of room or anything like that. It should be a fairly intimate environment. We're targeting between 70 and 125 people, with a few really strategic vendors there. That should be helpful as well. So we're really, really excited about this event.
Speaker 1:Wow, well, actually just got back home from Atlanta at a boot, small boot camp meeting in the aesthetic industry and there were 79 attendees and there were probably 25 vendors and it was so nice to have that one-on-one time where you don't feel overloaded and Practices can actually talk to each other and have that one-on-one time themselves, not just with vendors but actually with your colleagues that might be right across the country or across the state. So I love that the intimacy, obviously, the location and You know the value of the wide variety of topics and speakers that you'll have. So, yeah, sounds incredible. Now, if somebody obviously if you can get to this meeting, definitely get there now, for somebody that's listening right now And they have a family vacation, they can't make it. What are some other opportunities that they'll be able to take advantage of throughout the year?
Speaker 2:Well, if they're not able to make this and you're interested in learning a lot more about the organization, your better bet is to join right, because that obviously doesn't obligate you to a face-to-face meeting. The benefits that you'd get from that are all geared to be remote because we're nationwide. So that would kind of be the next step. And then any specific questions to let the organization know and we can respond and set you up with a One-on-one call etc. We're also going to have a presence at the Ivy Biz Bash in Austin in October, so we're super psyched about that. We're a sponsor there, so I got to kind of plug them, but we're gonna be there. I'll be there, for sure, at a table and talking about the benefits, the membership and our certification process. And then we've got some other possibly locals, more smaller events that are around the corner, but we haven't finalized the details on those yet.
Speaker 1:Okay, so let's go ahead and shift gears a little bit and talk about your vision for the future of Ava. What does that look like over the next year? and then we'll actually Expand that to say over the next five years. What does Ava look like? What does that experience look like? I?
Speaker 2:Think the most important piece of that experience is really revolves around what the mission of the organization is. Right, it was designed, it was created by almost a feeling of necessity from Jeff that said, hey, this industry needs help, let's help be the leader in in compliance and business and regulation and I would say business as a part of compliance and regulation. Right, so the next one year, the next three years, the next five years, as long as we keep that in mind and Understand that's, our number one goal is to educate and help as many people in this field as possible And give them good advice, because the direct result of that is mitigating risk to potential consumers. Right, i mean, that's the goal of it. Right, it's if you're doing stuff wrong, it's not necessarily about just getting in trouble. It's we don't want people to get hurt unnecessarily. That's the overreaching goal. So, if we keep that mission in mind and follow that direction, what does that necessarily look like from a multifactorial point of view? The first one is a steady increase in membership nationwide, so that we're reaching out and people are reaching out to us and we can educate them and connect them and Serve as a conduit for information for them. Number one. Number two, the certification process really getting off the ground and going and that's more individualized to an organization And or a mobile organization. Right, that's a hundred point inspection. That can be done probably once every year, once every two years if you're in really good shape. But again, that's designed to say hey, if you're not doing these things, you really should be, because if we're picking up on this in a proactive audit At some point and it's you're failing at some point in time, something down the road is going to fail and somebody's going to get hurt and it's going to come back on you. So we want to prevent that as much as we can.
Speaker 2:And then the third piece, or third, let's say even revenue stream. But also a goal is to get in front of people in some capacity on a regular basis, physically, right. We don't just want to do webinars and podcasts. They're super important, and so is the electronic dissemination of information, but at the same point in time we want to have some sort of a presence on a national level Where you know we're getting in front of everybody and promoting not only the organization But there wants a needs, and that then ties into, which isn't now but is down the road, hopefully being involved at a governmental level to some degree, where we've got some influence on Some of the different rules and regulations that are surrounding the profession as a whole, as a third party, like hey, we don't do it, but here's what we think should be done.
Speaker 2:I think it gives us a good insight to be Objective on that piece as well. So I'd probably say those are the four, you know, one to three to five year goals, as long as that mission stays The central focal point for us to be the leader in the regulatory and compliance world of IV hydration therapy. Then everything else sort of funnels through those four directions.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's very insightful to have that the core value or that, that centerpiece, and then, of course, to expand on those different pillars. So in terms of the government aspect of it and then the oversight aspect And I'm sure you can't expand too much on this, but is one of the goals to essentially be the eyes and ears of the industry and to essentially represent Practices with what you're seeing right. Of course you're not going to be able to make the decisions there, but you can be a voice and an advocate for the members and for practices.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, absolutely. That's definitely what that means. It certainly doesn't mean having a role in like Washington DC or you know an office there or something like that, but you know, if we can capitalize on centralizing this much information and data gathering from people, because, being an Unregulated industry to a degree right, it's not like there's no laws But but it's not as specific as some of the other practices and traditional medicine are, where there's rules, regulations, guidelines, protocols, exception right, there's a lot of that in there, but it's not standardized to a degree. So, if we can centralize that data and that feedback from the field, if we could serve as a conduit back to the people that are really asking the questions that are going to be the ones Making the policies that that should be either on a national or a state level, we can refer back to them so we can gather that and definitely would like to be the voice of this of this service line.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's super insightful. I mean because practices, obviously they're trying to grow their business, expand scale, do all those things that they don't have the time to do that, whereas not only will you have the time potentially, but of course the motivation behind it, but you'll have the data that will actually speak. And I know on previous podcasts I've done with Jeff is to invite those oversight committees and to welcome that and to partner with those, not to be afraid but to really partner. And I thought that was so insightful when he said that, along with what you've said here. So that's super exciting And thank you for sharing that.
Speaker 1:So, just to kind of jump into a new topic here, so this industry is growing so quickly. So I've been in the aesthetic industry for a little over 10 years now and I've seen aesthetics grow like crazy. And now it's MedSpaas right, medspaas are on every corner. I mean, medspaas are going so quickly that they're starting to add IV hydration practices to their business or as an arm of the business, and then now IV hydration practices are actually adding on MedSpaas. It's super interesting. But the growth for the IV hydration industry is fairly new. What would you say in terms of you know you have a very expansive background. How much longer do we have for this growth? Will there eventually be saturation? Do you see us having maybe a five-year ramp of this? Any insights there And I know that's a lot of questions in one, but any insights that you can share with those listening.
Speaker 2:Yeah, i'll give you my opinion in two cents, in a second. I think what I've paralleled this to is the fact that, as a physical therapist right and a power lifter in a previous life, people have always been experimenting with supplementation. The methodology when I explain the IV world is it's really kind of the same thing. It's just a different delivery model. Back in my day you used to take amino acids, protein shakes and all these different things. Everything was oral right And now you've got another method to get very good ingredients, you know, and healthy ingredients in your body in a much more efficient and effective way. So that growth has been going on since the beginning of you know, sort of supplements and people wanting to take care of themselves a lot more than traditional insurance will just pay in a reactive way. People are trying to become more healthy because insurance is not paying for stuff.
Speaker 2:So there's a variety of different reasons why people choose to get IV hydration therapy. All of them are valid, but the only thing that's really going to slow the growth to me is basic economics. Number one do people still value what they're being charged for, what they're getting? At some point there might be a price control of that just due to competition, because the market would become saturated. It's only going to get to a certain point, but that's really one of the only factors. If regulation comes into play, i think there might be another hoop. This is just my two cents. There might be another hoop or two that providers have to jump through, but since it's such a cash-based practice usually, and it's not one that has a tremendous amount of contraindications and or precautions, i think we're in pretty good shape as far as an industry that it can continue to sit at weight, very much like the supplement industry has. There's a lot of stuff being sold that's not necessarily super regulated or FDA approved, but they know it's not harmful, so they're like oh, you're okay with that.
Speaker 2:So I feel, like there'll be some regulations and guidelines there. It's going to come to some sort of a max capacity at some point in time fairly soon over the next few years. But then what we'll see is probably a decrease in price due to the competitive nature and capitalistic society that we live in.
Speaker 1:Yeah, i've never heard that analogy and really that continuation from supplements, because I work out, i try to work out every day, but that continuation. And then now I'm thinking, oh yeah, actually, well for me, i do try to do both right, get my IV hydration and then take my supplements, whatever. But I think of this, if I think, even five years ago a lot of people didn't really know about Botox right, ten years ago very few, or it's kind of like you did, but you don't talk about it. The majority of my family members today do not know about IV hydration or haven't tried it right, but the majority of my family has tried Botox, which is more expensive, or done it. So anyways, I just look at those two.
Speaker 1:The Med Spa world there's 10,000 Med Spas in the US Just growing at about a 20%, 25% rate every year. Of course it's going to eventually slow down, probably over the next couple of years. I see exactly what you're saying and I think the growth will keep going just because people don't really know about it. I've told some of my buddies they'll call me hey, where are you at or what are you doing? Oh, it's just got done at Primivee or wherever They're like Primivee, and then they don't even know what it is. So I think we're still at that point. I could be wrong, of course, but I think we're still at that point where, if you just look at your family, has your family all tried it? Do they all know about it? And until the majority have, that's when you'll really know. Right, right, right, i agree.
Speaker 1:So all right, now let's go ahead and let's jump into some other components of when you're starting a practice. So if I'm starting a practice today, do you have any tips? as a small business owner I'm talking like bootstrapping or anything to really focus on. I'm starting an IV hydration practice today. What would you tell me? I just met you at Starbucks. We became friends. I tell you my business plans. You ask me what my career is. We both happen to be in the industry. What would you tell me today?
Speaker 2:I'd probably tell you, non-iv related. The first thing that you've got to realize is about 80% of small businesses fail. That's not usually what you want to start with, but that's the sad reality.
Speaker 2:That's perspective, that's the truth, right, i mean. so the guidance is not necessarily AVA related, it's not necessarily compliance regulatory related. It's hey, if you're thinking about doing the side hustle and you want to get involved, as with anything. I mean, this is just general. this is advice for an entrepreneur. I wouldn't quit your day job just yet. You want to vet that out and a lot of things take a lot longer than you think. Even just to get an occupational license might take 30 days, and you might have thought it would be instantaneous. I don't know, it might change everywhere, but those types of things take a while and it's really important to get your ducks in a row in the beginning, early on, and be very, very cautious of debt. So I'm going with.
Speaker 2:this is the worst business plan in the world is hey, i want to do this and Tyler, we just met. And your business plan is I want to go borrow $250,000 to start and follow my dream. Well, that sounds great in theory. The reality is $250,000 is a lot of money and it's going to take you a really long time to earn that back. And if you quit your job at the same time, you borrowed an insane amount of money. it puts a lot of pressure on you and your family and everybody else just to make ends meet, and that subsequently affects your business. It affects you and you only have so much time in the day. So I'd start really small and I'd start with very realistic goals in mind, even if the only thing that you're doing in the beginning is working more. but then you're making more because you have your full-time job, then you have your side job and trying to make ends meet until you really figure out what you want to do.
Speaker 2:I've talked to and I've even experienced failure in different businesses that we've done. that are startups that have these single best business plan. You've got an industry that's just bursting at the seams and growing like crazy and people are paying cash out the wazoo, but at the same point in time you've got to make sure why are people going to choose you over the other guy I just met and had coffee with that's going to do the same thing. There's really no differentiating factor, unique selling point. It's going to be a really hard climb to get up there and where you want to be. So I wouldn't even start with the parameters or principles of how to start a successful Ivy practice. It really is agnostic to how to start a successful business and learn from other people's failures.
Speaker 1:Wow. Well, i honestly, just listening to that, i've already learned something. It's good insight for me to remember that Sometimes I could be our false suit to sing a shiny object. I think the Ivy hydration industry is kind of a shiny industry right now and the barrier to entry can be low compared to some other industries. So you might think you can jump in quick and get certified or hire somebody that is certified. But I love that advice of hey, probably don't quit your day job right off the bat and maybe do this as a side hustle where you're spending extra time, you have more hours, and then you figure out and fine tune, and obviously it takes a while just to set up your whatever point of sale you're using or business management system you're using, figure those things out, build a clientele, all right. One final question, and this is actually just final thoughts. So any final thoughts for everybody listening today or anything that you'd like to hit home on.
Speaker 2:In my short time in this industry, i've found that there are a lot of different organizations slash people that have a lot to offer right.
Speaker 2:I think that's been really reassuring for me, Coming in as a clinician by trade, and looking at this with a total fresh set of eyes, not really having any experience with this type of profession that much at all, let's say, a year ago And it's been interesting to find that people have capitalized on their strengths for all these different pieces of the puzzle. For those of you that are new to the profession or new to the business or thinking about coming into the business, i mean I've met people that are nurses that specialize in becoming entrepreneurs. I've met people that are brand content developers just for IV hydration therapy, and I've met people that market and own the IV biz bash and that's what they do And it's really interesting. And you've got Ava kind of sitting back and we've got a specialization as well from regulatory and compliance standpoint That's more focused. So I think it's important for individuals to gain, in a fairly efficient way, the understanding that there's not a lack of help that's out there to guide you down this journey right, or help you if you're on the journey.
Speaker 2:There is umpteen number of professionals that are all sort of coming in in smaller capacities that are doing this.
Speaker 2:So the most important thing is to gather an idea of what's going on with all those. I mean we try and centralize that from a regulatory and compliance standpoint. Some other people do some business and stuff like that, but there's so many opportunities out there to join with other training programs and get that background knowledge and ask people that are more experienced, so you can save yourself a lot of time, energy and money by not making a wrong decision at the beginning. But my parting thought is I just encourage people to do that, including us, but encourage people to do that across the board, because there are a lot of really good people out there that all kind of share the same. They're not doing that just for themselves. They're doing that because they want the profession and the service line to be regulated and well run as well, because they're involved. I just encourage everybody that's listening If you're in some form of that continuum to seek out and find the answers and the guidance out there, because there's no shortage of it.
Speaker 1:David. I love that. I mean because, when you think about it, this industry is very specialized and unique. And then, to your point I never thought of it like that You have these companies and they literally specialize in an industry that's already unique and niche and specialized. And then the fact that you're inviting people to be vulnerable, essentially, and to be confident in the fact that there are people out there that are there to help you with even those small minute steps that you might not think about, or tasks, yeah, yeah Well, david, thank you so much for your time. I'd love to have you back on the podcast. Of course, for anybody that would like to follow David, i'll put his information in the show notes. But again, david, thank you so much for your time.
Speaker 2:Thanks again, Tyler.
Speaker 1:Take care. Yeah, thank you, you too. Bye. If you would like to join us for the American Ivy Association Business Academy, be sure to click on the link in the show notes to register and join us in Florida. The Business Academy was created for physicians and non-physicians who are looking to provide IV hydration therapy, mobile IV therapy, or to expand and or improve their existing practice the right way. This Academy will feature leading industry experts providing legal, marketing, compliance and practice management insight. Time for an open forum Q&A will be allocated for beneficial interaction with the industry experts and fellow colleagues. Our first of three Business Academy and networking events for 2023 will be held in Fort Lauderdale, florida, on Thursday, july 27 and 28 at the beautiful Beachfront Hotel San Nesta, fort Lauderdale. Again, click on the link in the show notes to join us in beautiful Florida.
