Imagine stepping into a world where wellness isn't just a wish but a reality you can grasp from the comfort of your own home. That's a promise made by Philip Lamar when he introduced Live Well Lounge, and today, he joins us to share how this health venture is revolutionizing self-care in Northern Kentucky. As we chat with Philip, we unveil the story of how he and his wife, Halle, transformed their struggles with chronic inflammation into a thriving business that delivers vitamin IV therapy right to your doorstep or desk.
Our conversation with Philip takes a deep dive into the heart of holistic health, highlighting the proactive and reactive powers of IV vitamin therapy. Live Well Lounge's innovative approach, transitioning from a brick-and-mortar dream to a thriving mobile concierge service, has sparked a health movement in our community that's as mobile as it is transformative. We explore their upcoming physical space, membership perks, and the impact of their treatments on young athletes, aligning with the practices of sports stars like Christian McCaffrey. Join us to discover how Philip and Hallie are not just nudging the boundaries of traditional health care but leaping beyond them, bringing wellness to the forefront of everyday life. www.livewelllounge.com
Imagine stepping into a world where wellness isn't just a wish but a reality you can grasp from the comfort of your own home. That's a promise made by Philip Lamar when he introduced Live Well Lounge, and today, he joins us to share how this health venture is revolutionizing self-care in Northern Kentucky. As we chat with Philip, we unveil the story of how he and his wife, Halle, transformed their struggles with chronic inflammation into a thriving business that delivers vitamin IV therapy right to your doorstep or desk.
Our conversation with Philip takes a deep dive into the heart of holistic health, highlighting the proactive and reactive powers of IV vitamin therapy. Live Well Lounge's innovative approach, transitioning from a brick-and-mortar dream to a thriving mobile concierge service, has sparked a health movement in our community that's as mobile as it is transformative. We explore their upcoming physical space, membership perks, and the impact of their treatments on young athletes, aligning with the practices of sports stars like Christian McCaffrey. Join us to discover how Philip and Hallie are not just nudging the boundaries of traditional health care but leaping beyond them, bringing wellness to the forefront of everyday life. www.livewelllounge.com
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Mike Murphy.
Speaker 2:Thanks, charlie. Thanks for the introduction. I am Mike Murphy, host of the Good Neighbor Podcast. I interview local business owners from here in Northern Kentucky. We want people to know our local business community as human beings, to hear their stories, to know them more as just a logo on a business card. And so I have another business owner with me today, my buddy Philip Lamar. Philip with one L. So, phil, with one L, how are you doing?
Speaker 3:buddy, phil with one L. Hey Mike, I'm good. How are you today? Doing great. You are the owner, you and Phil with 1L. Hey Mike.
Speaker 2:I'm good. How are you today Doing? Great. You are the owner. You and your wife are the owners of a new business coming to town here in Union. Yes, we are Livewell Lounge and I've been following you from you know, the moment of you know, from the time you had the idea Day one. Yeah, we've talked a little bit about it and I've seen some um ups and downs and some changes. You know always forward progress, but the progress just looks a little different now than it did initially.
Speaker 2:So I think, um, I want to just make sure that, um, I give you a platform to update the um residents on what's happening with Live Well Lounge. So, having said that, jump right in and let people know about Live Well Lounge and all about Phil and your wife, hallie.
Speaker 3:Absolutely. Yeah, it's great to be here, Mike. Thanks for inviting me on your show. Been looking forward to this since you reached out to me initially. But yeah, like you mentioned, we're both my wife and I. We're so excited about this venture that we're starting Live Well Lounge. I'd say a decent amount of people have heard about it, but if anyone isn't familiar, it's a vitamin IV therapy spa. So Live Well Lounge is really a holistic health business focusing on people's wellness and health, and so, in a nutshell, that's what we are.
Speaker 2:So how did you come to start such a business? I know it's a hot business right now. It's a business that I see happening in virtually every city on the map. It seems Every community is excited to see your type of business coming to their town. So how did you come to start this business? What was the idea born of?
Speaker 3:Yeah, great question, mike. So you are correct. First of all, as far as the trend goes, you're exactly right. As of last year, the IV vitamin therapy industry was a $4 billion industry and it is projected to increase significantly over the next decade. And the reason is because people are looking for new, alternative ways to their healthcare. Not that what they're doing now for their healthcare is, you know, not the right decision or what they're going to change, but just alternative ways to take care of their health and wellness.
Speaker 3:And so the reason we got into this, um, for years and years and years, uh, as long as I've known my wife, um, she's dealt with horrific inflammation in her back and her knees. Um, she's a college athlete. She played at Cumberland's volleyball. This club in high school volleyball traveled all the time an athlete. Most of her life played every sport growing up and so, just through the wear and tear, the beat down of training, constantly being in a competition, whatever it may be, got to the point to where she just had constant, 24, seven nonstop pain in her knees and her back. And it got to the point, mike, um, literally where a healthy, you know, 20, 21 year old female, um, she, she couldn't walk. There'd be times when we were dating which you just have to sit down on the couch, you know, and just sit there because it hurt too too much to walk.
Speaker 3:And, um, she tried everything, you know, she tried, uh, different therapies, physical therapy, chiropractor care, steroid shots, and overall, you know, those things were great. Um, it worked. But for her and her specific situation it was just temporary. It was kind of like a bandaid right and, you know, after maybe a week it would start to wear off and it's right back to that, that horrific pain. And so, you know, we were just trying to find what's, what's something we can do, how can we fix this? And my mother-in-law, so my wife's mom, she reached out and said, hey, you should try this thing. I've done research into it. Why don't you try this thing called vitamin IV therapy? So I was like, okay, let's, let's do it. So she went to um a place here in the Northern Kentucky, greater Cincinnati area, and she went and had her first session done, session done, and, mike, I kid you not, she came home and it was so amazing seeing how happy she was, for the first time in years, the pain it went away.
Speaker 3:It was it. Yes, she said she started feeling results within about 20 minutes after her, after her session. Um, it was emotional. For us both this was life changing. You know this is we're talking about the wellbeing of, of our, of our health and wellness. And so for her going from okay, I'm going to walk, you know, however many thousands of steps a day, every step is like, you know, stepping on glass it hurts to normal, just totally normal. I would say that was life changing for us. And so she's like, you know, stepping on glass, it hurts to normal, just totally normal. I would say that was life-changing for us. And so she's like you got to come back with me and I'm like, well, I don't have inflammation of my knees. And and she said, well, the good thing is, iv vitamin therapy is both reactive and proactive, so the benefits aren't just for inflammation.
Speaker 3:There are things for athletic recovery, for increasing the health of your hair, your skin, your nails, migraines, for nausea, for cold, for flu, for focus, for energy. There's so many different benefits that comes with IV therapy. And so I went. I had an IV drip that was geared towards focus, cognitive function and energy, and I felt amazing results from it and we immediately realized okay, this is legit, this is incredible, we've got to bring this to our community, we've got to bring this to union, we've got to bring this to Northern Kentucky and we've got to help as many people as possible experience the results that we've experienced. So that is where Live Well Lounge came from.
Speaker 2:Okay, well, yeah, she's too young to be living in debilitating pain. I didn't realize that it was that bad for her. So this kind of sounds like the fountain of youth, I'll tell you. I mean, I'll tell you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, in a way it is.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Okay. Well, that's pretty cool. I'll be honest the first time I heard about like any sort of IV therapy business, all I referred to it as was a place to go to cure your hangover after you hit the bar too hard. I have since learned that you know that may be one of the one of the uses, but it's so much more than that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, absolutely it's. It really is just it champions general health and wellness.
Speaker 2:So there are different mixes or cocktails whatever you want to call them of therapies that you can take, targeted to different things. If you had to say, in your research leading up to opening this business, is there one that is sort of like the standard, the most common, Like if somebody is walking in and they're just like I don't really know what I want, I just want to try it and see how it makes me feel Like what do you do in that case?
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, I love it. So we have nine different IV drips that's the term in the industry drips. So we have nine different IV drips that are specifically pharmaceutically compounded for the specific need. So nine different options, but the one option if someone were to come in it's their first time they want to give it a shot. There's a it's probably the most popular IV drip, um that sold pretty much across the entire industry and any drip bar period that offers IV hydration. It's called Myers cocktail.
Speaker 3:Myers cocktail has been around for a very, very long time, um, we have a little story about it actually on the website that people can check out. But, uh, it comes from a physician that basically created this IV drip and it's just loaded with vitamins and minerals, um, and he really made it famous. And so Myers cocktail is going to be your overall general wellness IV drip and it targets. It has your B vitamins, it has vitamin C in it, your absorbic acid for your immunities. It has magnesium, um, it's full of electrolytes, amino acids. It's just packed full of vitamins, and so that would be. You know, I'm going to give this a shot. What do I want to do? Myers cocktail is the staple IV drip to get.
Speaker 2:All right, so I've got Myers cocktail circled on my yellow notepad here.
Speaker 3:There we go.
Speaker 2:So I think it's important for people to understand too that not just anybody can administer these infusions. You've got to be properly credentialed, You've got to be a medical professional. This isn't just anybody can open a business like this and just start pushing IDs in people's arms. Talk to that issue a little bit.
Speaker 3:That's it, mike. Thank you for asking that. That's a very important question. You are exactly correct. No one can just open this up. There are a lot of compliance, legal structures that you have to follow.
Speaker 3:So, first things first. This is required by the industry and of course, we follow everything to the T, but we do have a medical director. So we have a physician that specializes in IV therapy that medically oversees our practice. They're overseeing every single SOP standard, our practice. They're overseeing every single SOP standard operating procedure. They're overseeing every single vitamin and mineral, everything from the moment somebody walks in, receives the service and leaves. We have a medical director that is very carefully overseeing our practice and making sure everything is done in a safe, clean and a great environment as well. So we have a medical director. Secondly, we have a compounding pharmacy, so we have pharmacists that specialize in vitamin IV therapy that actually will be providing all of our vitamins, our minerals, our products, and so everything is coming from medical licensed professionals. It's not just Joe Schmo just sending some random product in like where is this from? Is this being medically overseen? What's happening here? So there's a lot of compliance in there that we follow and to keep it safe and clean and a wonderful experience. Additionally, all of our team members will be experienced nurses. So when people encounter a team, the nurse will have years and years and years of experience, not just in an ER setting or an ICU at very reputable local providers, but specifically IV infusions. That is a requirement.
Speaker 3:Our nurses that are on our team have given, if you ask them, probably thousands of IVs. It's just something that they could. They wouldn't do this with their eyes closed, but they probably could give an IV with their eyes closed. It's something that they're doing every single day and so, um, and that's just to ensure, um, the satisfaction of the product. Um, the truth is, a lot of people which makes sense, you know, don't like needles. I totally get it.
Speaker 3:Whenever I go in, uh, every about three weeks is when I get IV therapy for myself. Um, I don't, I do it all the time, but I still don't watch. I have to look away when they're inserting the IV. But just the assurance, knowing that the nurse that's doing the service has countless, countless hours, years of experience under their belt, you know it, it, it makes it a really comfortable, um, you know, experience going. Hey, this person, it's not like they're gonna have to stick me 20 times. It's going to be quick, easy, efficient. So, um, just to help try to take away some of those roadblocks of why someone would try.
Speaker 2:All right. So, um, you're one of the more trustworthy people I know, so just just by virtue of that, I know that everything's going to be just fine. In terms of the business model, I know it's always been your intent to do brick and mortar and mobile service, and you're you're getting ready to roll out the service here in, I guess, a little over a month or so, and you're starting About 45 days.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Okay, 45 days from go time, you're starting with the mobile service, is that correct?
Speaker 3:That's correct, Mike Yep.
Speaker 2:Okay, so how does that work? And then, when do you think the brick and mortar is going to come into play and where's that going to be?
Speaker 3:Absolutely so. Originally in our business model, we were going to start with the brick and mortar and then we're going to add a mobile concierge service after. It's like an ancillary complimentary service. However, there was a couple of curve balls. Everything, thankfully, worked out amazing, but we've actually reversed it now. So, instead of opening up with a brick and mortar, we're actually going to be starting off with our mobile concierge service, and I'll get to our future brick and mortar in a second. But a mobile concierge service. Think of it like ClickList DoorDash. You know some Kroger delivery order meets IV therapy. We'll have a, an SUV that's wrapped in our brand colors and a nurse will actually be taking IV therapy to you at the comfort of your own home, at the comfort at your desk, at your work. It can be at a friend's house. Whether it's just a, you're at your house and you're getting every therapy. If it's a, you know an iv cocktail party and a bunch of people want to get together um, a bachelorette party will actually be bringing iv therapy directly to you.
Speaker 3:So the convenience factor is a really nice thing, and so we're going to be starting off with that. At the moment we're pretty locked in on a June grand opening, so being fully operational, booking appointments and helping our community in June so right around the corner. So we'll be rocking that for about eight to 10 months. Originally we did have a brick and mortar. Some people were familiar with where we're located. We had an opportunity come up with another location.
Speaker 3:I can't disclose those details quite yet just because of a couple of rules that I have to follow. I've been asked to keep it confidential until a couple more things come into place. However, we were able to come to an agreement, graciously through our previous land developer, to leave that spot and get a new spot. That really worked out for both parties and for our customers, for our future clients and for us. It's going to be a wonderful, incredible location Pretty close to where we previously were going to be. But a little hint, it'll be off a popular exit and it'll be close to a new grocery store that's coming into town that a lot of people are excited about.
Speaker 1:So that's a little hint.
Speaker 2:So, I can't give too many details. I got you Wink, wink. I got you.
Speaker 3:Wink, wink. So that's it's looking like we'll have the keys to begin our construction Q4 of this year of 2024. And so we're very excited for when that time does come. But until then, we're going to be operational, we're going to be helping our community, serving our community. Mobily so mobile I don't know if that's a word, but mobile. So, yeah, we're excited about it.
Speaker 2:So I know that you have a membership offering. People can buy a membership, and so tell us, if I buy a membership as an individual or if we have a family membership, what comes with that?
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Memberships are the perfect fit If someone's serious about IV vitamin therapy and all the holistic wellness benefits that come with it. The membership definitely is a cost savings benefit, one hundred percent. So there's three different memberships. There's an individual membership. You can just get a solo membership, so, mike, you could just get one. There's a couples membership, so you can get that's two people. And then there's a family membership the family.
Speaker 3:What I see a lot in the value, the value out of that, is whether someone has one, two, three, four, five kids. It doesn't matter one or five kids. The family price is the family price for that membership. So you can get a lot more bang for your buck out of that. You know, especially if you know you have a couple student athletes. You know that's a really nice benefit to have you have a couple of student athletes. You know that that's that's a really nice benefit to have. So fun facts.
Speaker 3:I love telling this story for student athletes, for parents that have student athletes. Iv vitamin therapy is so beneficial. Christian McCaffrey, cmc most people know who that is. If you like the NFL, if you like football arguably the best running back in the NFL. Growing up in high school he used to cramp in the middle of games and his father, who's a professional athlete, um, was like I don't, we're never going to let this happen to you again. So, fun fact, christian McCaffrey would have IV therapy before every single game and it would prevent him from getting cramps. So you know, huge it's. It's huge for student athletes Um, huge for student athletes. But yeah, so it's a great. The family membership would be a really great benefit. It gives folks 25% off of all of our services. Additionally, it includes a free B12 shot per individual on the plan. Every month you come in, get a free B12 shot and additionally, everyone on the membership gets a free birthday trip.
Speaker 1:So on your birthday.
Speaker 3:Come on in, you get a free birthday trip. So that's what is entailed in the memberships.
Speaker 2:All right. Well, that sounds like it's worth it. That sounds like a lot of fun actually. But when we mentioned the student athletes, I just kind of wondered is there an age restriction on these services? What are the rules there?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so that's a part of the rules that we follow from our medical director. If you recall our medical director, our physician, has specific rules, so we are at the moment we're working around what it would look like for a younger demographic, but right now we can do 13 and older.
Speaker 3:So, that's what our medical director. We have everything approved, so 13 and up, we can serve IV therapy too Under that age. It's just a different set of rules. There's a lot more things, and so we don't know if it would make the most sense for any pediatrics, and so 13 and up is right now what we can do.
Speaker 2:I was thinking more along the lines of the high school athlete that's in heavy training mode and they need that support. But as long as, as long as the high schoolers, the high school athletes, can do it, I think then, um, yeah, I think we're good, yeah, so, um, I think we've covered pretty much everything I wanted to cover. I just know that one thing, uh, I've heard people ask a lot about is how do you pay for something like this? Do you take insurance? Do you take HSA cards? Is it a cash only business? So answer that question for us.
Speaker 3:For sure. So at the moment, unfortunately, insurance does not cover this type of a holistic service yet.
Speaker 3:I have heard talks that's changing. For example, I know that I've heard rumors. I also own an insurance brokerage, as you know, so, being in that business, I have heard rumors that Anthem, blue Cross, blue Shield is tossing around some different holistic health services. Nothing is official yet, so at the moment insurance is not accepted. It is cash-based. However, we can and will happily accept FSA and HSAs, so flexible spending accounts and health savings accounts. Customers are more than welcome to use their FSA or HSA for any of our services. All of that can be expensed to our services. Otherwise, it's cash-based.
Speaker 2:Well, that's a big, big, big help, just right there. And when I say just to clarify. You can of course use a credit card or a debit card, but yeah, just not insurance yet just not a big bag full of pennies, please don't do that yeah, right.
Speaker 2:So, um, the staffing level, um, where you are now versus where you want to be, are you set now as far as being able to service that mobile model? Are you looking to bring people on leading up to the brick and mortar? Are you putting a call out there for medical professionals, nurses, who want to come work with you? Because if so, I'm sure there are a lot of people that are interested in coming to work for Live Well Lounge.
Speaker 3:For sure. I always say we are always, always open and welcoming to taking resumes, so we can never go wrong with that If someone's interested in being a part of our team. I like to call it the work family. I don't see this. Just, you know this is you come in and work. I like to see this. You know we're a team, we're a family. We're doing this together to help our community. So we're always always open to resumes and people can email that over to us at hello at livewellloungecom.
Speaker 3:At the moment, we do have our team in place. We have some incredible high quality professionals that have tons of experience in IV infusions, and so we have our team ready to go. However, I have maybe I'm a little biased um being the owner, but I have a. I have a hinge that we're going to grow pretty quickly and we're going to need a second SUV at mobile unit to take on our customers. Um, you know it could grow from there. So if that's the case, um, leading up to our brick and mortar, when we'll definitely need to onboard new team members, um, we might need more people than we think, quicker than we think. So, always welcoming resumes.
Speaker 2:So if people want to educate themselves a little more about Live Well Lounge, the services that you offer, just kind of take a deeper dive into everything you're all about. Mention the website once again.
Speaker 3:Absolutely you can check us out anytime.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you can check us out anytime at livewellloungecom wwwlivewellloungecom. And if you have any questions, um, you can. Our company email is hello at livewellloungecom. So if you have any questions, that we get questions all the time. In fact, just between yesterday and today, I've had three people um email about our migraine IV drip. We have a drip that specializes in helping relieve migraines, which is, if you've ever had a migraine, having something like this is amazing, amazing relief, and so, um, seth, you can email us any question. You can check out our website.
Speaker 2:Okay, well, our time together, uh, has come and gone, sir, that's a 25 minutes of uh, a pretty powerful podcast as far as far as I'm concerned, because you and I haven't been able to catch up for a few weeks on where you are with this. So I'm excited to see the business launching and I know that the community is as well and we will keep up with things. We'll talk to you again. You mentioned your insurance business, broker Brothers. We're going to have a separate podcast talking about just that. So, because I know your brain's full of knowledge, you know relative Learn a couple of things about the insurance space.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. So thanks for spending time with us today and for explaining more about Live Well Lounge. We're all looking forward to watching you grow. And thanks for bringing it to Union to the area.
Speaker 3:I'm excited for you and for Hallie, thanks for having me on. Mike, like you said, we're so excited. And, to kind of end on this note, what blows my mind? If you look at the research and there's tons of peer-reviewed studies you can go online and find this anywhere. But what blows my mind? Our bodies, through typical supplements for vitamins and minerals, can only absorb 10 to 20% of the benefits max. In theory, 80 to 90% of the vitamins and minerals, the benefits that you take in a typical supplement, whether it's a capsule, a, you know, a juice, whatever it may be your body's not even getting those benefits. So, um, what we're just so excited about this concept is, since it's going directly into your vein, your body's getting 100% of the vitamins and the minerals. It passes your digestive system, goes straight into your bloodstream, and so, um, we know it's going to have an impact on our community. We know it's going to help people be healthier and live a better life, and so we're excited. We can't wait.
Speaker 2:Well, the migraine thing alone, I'm sure, is going to raise some eyebrows. People are, you know, just looking for ways to to feel normal again. So I'm I know my son is in that group. You know he suffers from debilitating migraines and when you're in the middle of a migraine you can't do anything.
Speaker 3:No, no, you can't, you can't.
Speaker 2:So I'm I'm looking forward to, you know, adding him to your client list as well.
Speaker 3:We'll be happy to serve him and help him. So thank you again, Mike. It's been an honor. I had a great time hanging out with you today.
Speaker 2:So, um, to the listeners I'll say uh, thanks again for checking in with us. We'll see you next time. Until then, everyone be good to your neighbor, bye-bye.
Speaker 1:Thanks for listening to the good neighbor podcast union. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to GNPUnioncom. That's GNPUnioncom, or call us at 859-651-8330.