Dr. Jonathan Leary: Founder & CEO of Remedy Place on The Future of Social Wellness

All right, welcome back to the Casey Adams show. Today we are joined by Dr. Jonathan Leary, the founder of Remedy Place. Jonathan, thank you so much for being here today.

Thank you so much for having me.

Of course. No, I'm very. I've been looking forward to this conversation, Jonathan, because it's not only so close to me, but I was able to experience Remedy Place about a month ago coming off of the New York City Marathon. And I'm not just saying this cause you're here, man, but I truly had an incredible experience and have just fallen in love with what you've created. And you know, when, if people aren't familiar, you know, you created the first social wellness club. And I'd love to just start there, man. Like, what does the first social wellness club even mean? Give us some context on Remedy. Because I could sit here for hours and talk about my experience, as I'm sure we will, but I really did just want to say like, incredible work as to what you've created. And I personally had an incredible experience. So thank you for that.

Thank you for the kind words and I'm happy that you were able to have that experience, especially before we got to connect and.

Absolutely.

A social wellness club. You know, we're not a gym, we're not a spa, we don't do beauty, we don't do aesthetics. It's just self care made social. You know, I've just found that living a healthy lifestyle usually is hard when you're also trying to be social. And we wanted to bridge the gap and really change the narrative of how people socialize while giving them experiences where they can have fun and connect deeper with the people that they have in their life, but then also multitask and take care of themselves.

Yeah, absolutely. And you know, from my experience as well, I mean, there's so many modalities and remedies that you guys have. When I came in again, it was great for me because I was just getting back from LA from New York, did the New York City Marathon. And I've done three marathons now, just giving you context. And the first two, I didn't have any type of like true recovery sessions put in place. And I gotta say, I felt like a hundred percent ready to go after 72 hours given that I did the remedies at Remedy Place. It was the, you know, we did. I forget what I did. I. The. I'm blanking. Oh, I did the lymphatic drainage, which, which was incredible. We did the cryo, we did the sauna, and then the the spinning. I forget what that's called.

Yeah, the Remedy Roller. It's like an automatic.

The Remedy Roller, man, that thing was game changer. And just to dive right into the conversation, your background as a doctor, I remember hearing you talk about how at 22 years old, you started putting together the blueprint for what became Remedy Place. And similarly to me, which we'll dive into later, is you kind of ended up putting this business plan on the back burner. You went out, went to go get your doctorate, you started working one on one with clients, and then you came full circle back to Remedy. And I want to give you the opportunity to and really ask you like, what led to the business ideation for Remedy and therefore putting it to the side to then come back to it over the years of getting into the work that you've gotten into.

Yeah, I mean, I did pre med with my undergrad, spent a lot of time in the hospital setting, quickly realized like, maybe this isn't the environment that I really wanted to work in. And it was just different. Not only is like the way that we were approaching people's health, but also just a hospital or clinical setting is not enjoyable for the patient and it's not really enjoyable for the doctor. So at first, when I was 22 and moved to LA, when I started my doctorate that Sunday, and every Sunday throughout the whole program, I worked on the business plan. And that was at first just to create a beautiful, a beautiful environment that had hospitality like standards, so that it was enjoyable. And I worked on it through my whole doctorate, graduated, had this 158 page binder of a business plan, knew nothing about business, but googled everything and had every detail like, of what it was going to be. And I went to the bank and I just thought that you get a business loan and quickly found out that's not how it works. The woman looked at me, she's like, sir, you have no money and all this student loan debt, how am I supposed to give you a loan? And I was like, well, that's why I need a loan. And then I had a pivot. So then I opened up a concierge practice in sports medicine that I had for five years. You know, Remedy was still top of mind throughout those five years, but I had to learn the business side. But the best part about that was I had five extra years of my own clinical evidence and my own market research and truly listening to every patient that I had. Now what were they willing to do? What were they not willing to do? Common lifestyle habits. Lifestyle Stressors. And then most importantly, what worked and what didn't work. And my practice started with pro athletes, but then I quickly realized I'm like, why are we only doing this with pro athletes when we all are performing? We're just performing in a different way. It was cool. I worked with such a diverse group of successful people in so many different industries. And yeah, that just allowed me to have a really diverse perspective on building Remedy to what it is today in 2019. That's when we opened the first club. And what happened before that was my patients became my mentors and then they became my investors. And then I learned the business side and I was able to like bring it to life. And that was a really exciting time.

That's so great to hear. So you guys, you officially launched in 2019. If I'm not mistaken, you guys now have three locations. You just opened the third location in SoHo, is that correct? Huge congrats on that. I remember when I was in New York, I was going to try to try to go right like the day after when I ran, but ended up going to the one in West Hollywood, which was, you know, hometown, which was, which was great.

Next time because also too, it's not about doing it one time. Like if you did that through your whole training and had a full recovery plan, I mean, your performance would have been even more amplified. But then also like, your recovery would be a whole different experience. But we'll talk about that for your next marathon for sure.

And you said something that I want to dig into. You talked about this business plan and you said 158 page binder. And I'm curious to go back to that because I think nowadays, in 2024, going in 2025, the idea of a very comprehensive business plan, at least from my perspective, talking to other young entrepreneurs. We live in a world, it seems now, where it's like the ability to test ideas and get market feedback, whether that's for software or community. You can just move so quick when it comes to the world of software or community based businesses for something like Remedy, you have all the technology, the physical locations. Talk to me a little bit more about that business plan and your thinking behind really putting together this massive comprehensive business plan that went off to be what it is today, which is an incredibly successful business.

Yeah, I mean, it really just started with like Googling, right? It was like, I think I found one list of like, what does a business plan encompass? And I spent time just going through it one by one. And it also was about the brand. I think when you're trying to enter a new market or do something that isn't traditional or definitely not ordinary, I had, like. I had to make sure that when I was, like, bridging the gap and making people want to go do this, that there had to be some level of attraction to the brand. And that's why I think branding is so important. Right. Things like alternative medicine have never been really marketed or exposed in, like, a sexy way that was relatable. And the more that I was, like, talking to patients, the more I understood how important the psychology of communication is. And it does. Like, to get people in the door was the hardest part, but once they were in it, they got it. Yeah. Like, it was hard to explain what that was to anyone because they're like, oh, you're just gonna open up a spa? And I'm like, no, it's not a spa. And they're like, oh, people are gonna come like, once a month. Like, I'm like, no, they're gonna come every day. And it was so. It was so interesting because I think everyone was like. But they. I don't think they believed it. And I heard it over and over again, but they would always say, like, john, but that's, you know, it's so LA that, like, that's not gonna work anywhere else, but maybe it'll work in la. And I'm like, no, this is the future. Like, this is what people are going to do in the future around the world. And they're like, okay, wow.

It's having that thesis years ago, especially with something as focused as cold immersion, cold plunges. Right. That's such a thing that I think a lot of people are seeing. Aware of, and it gets their heads turning. And nowadays it's like a standard of like, oh, yeah, cold plunging. My friend has one, or my family member has one, or I've thought about getting one. But I remember two years ago when I first got my own cold plunge here, it was even a different mentality towards it. And I'm sure, way back then, it's very, very, very niche compared to obviously where it is today, and especially the modalities and remedies around just that. Which is, in my opinion, a very culturally penetrated remedy that people tend to do by themselves at home, at friends places, et cetera.

Yeah, I mean, that was interesting because it was everything's in remedy because I tested it out on patience. It wasn't that in myself. Right.

Yeah.

I didn't just put it in there because it was like this new Flashy piece of technology that I thought would maybe work. It was no that I knew that it worked. But ice baths were actually the one thing that wasn't in the original business plan. Not because my patients didn't use them, but because I'm like, I couldn't figure out how to make it make sense financially. Where I'm like, are people really going to. Going to go pay to go into an ice bath? Because, you know, like the normal amenity in like a spa or you like in the locker room is like always like a cold plunge next to the pool. And I'm like totally going to pay to do an ice bath. And I. We did a retreat in Costa Rica. I used to host like one or two retreats a year for like, I don't know, four or five years throughout my practice. And we did one in Costa Rica and it was the largest retreat that we did. It was while we were in the middle of construction of West Hollywood. And it was for 60 people. And usually my retreats were like 15 to 20.

Okay.

And the 60 people, we did this 10 person or 10 tub breathwork ice bath class as part of like a newer experience that I'm just having like one ice bath that we were like rotating people in. I was like, no, I'm going to turn this into a class. And it became like the biggest hit of the whole entire retreat. It wasn't even just for the people that attended. It was like the staff of the hotel and all of these people were coming because they're like, people are crying, they're emotional. I mean, intense breathwork and an ice bath are like two complete shifts to your physiology. And I remember being like, I have to figure this out. And I delayed construction a little bit and went back and changed one of our sauna suites to this breathwork ice bath class. And that's so. Thank God I did it because it's become like one of the biggest hits in Remedy or from Remedy.

Yeah. And you guys have the six Minute Challenge. There's a specific phrase that you guys use. Is that right?

The Six minute Club.

Yeah, yeah, the six Minute Club. What is that club for people that may not know?

Yeah, it's just, you know, our goal, it's a breathwork ice bath class, but the time submerged in the 39 degree water, our goal is to get you to six minutes. That's just been the sweet spot that we've found throughout all of our data over the years. And, you know, with a coach, with other people by your side and with some good Music. Most people hit the six minutes, but it's cool to like, make it and brand it into this whole experience.

Totally. Oh, absolutely. I love that. It's actually, I'm so glad I brought that up because you said just now, you know, cold plunging. The ice bath wasn't even a part of the initial business plan. And fast forward to today. I know you guys recently announced an incredible partnership with Kohler. This ice bath that I looked at it the first time, and I was just in awe. I'm like, wow. The level of design and beauty that can be encompassed for such a device of just getting in the cold water, I just. I remember seeing it like, this is incredible. And I believe you guys just did an activation. Was it at Art Basel, Is that right?

Yeah, Design Miami and Art Basel.

Yeah. So talk to me about that. You know, like, from not having the, you know, the idea to have cold plunging in the business to then coming out with a signature, like, beautiful design product with a brand like Kohler, bring us to that moment. And what led to that?

Yeah, you know, we started our classes, started getting a lot of digital presence. I did, like, a couple videos from our breathwork ice bath classes, and they just started going viral in the beginning of the pandemic. And that was on TikTok and my team, we closed down, and I was just like, I'm just gonna put videos on this new platform. My team thought it was so stupid. They're like, TikTok's for kids doing dances. Stop doing that. But we started getting millions of views. And I was like, maybe they're right. And we stopped, but we ended up getting hundreds of millions of views on ice baths. And then we were putting all these huge names in the industry in their first ice baths, and they started to talk about it, and next thing I know, I'm like, we have hundreds of millions of views on ice baths. Like, we would never be able to reach hundreds of millions of people. And I wish we never stopped, because I think it would have helped a little bit. But we did stop for a long period of time. And I'm like, this whole rise in ice baths, like, some people are like, john, like, for you and Remedy are like, the reasons why ice baths might have exploded. Like, Wim Hof's been around forever, and pro athletes have always used it. But, like, it's kind of interesting to look at your timeline and the metrics online. And I was like, okay. And then when I were like, all right, we need to create our product, I was like, we need to release an ice bath. And then naturally I was like, all right, we're not manufacturers, we're not engineers. That's not our focus. Like, our focus is design. We have our expertise in the, in these self care experiences. And Kohler has been making baths for 150 years. So, you know, they approached us for a partnership and where it ended up was, okay, let's make the best ice bath in the world. And I can confidently say, after two years of hard work on it, we've analyzed every ice bath on the market. While looking back at all of my notes for the past decade on patient feedback, guest feedback, operational concerns, warranties, customer service, everything that you need to know about a product. And I really do feel and actually know that we created the best ice bath in the world. And to have Kohler's name and their reputation in their manufacturing and then the design and then all of everything that we brought to the table, it was just the perfect, like, it couldn't have been a better partnership because there was no shared overlap of, like, our strengths. It was the perfect match.

Yeah.

Yeah. We announced it to the world on October 1st. And then for Art Basel or Design Miami, I was like, all right, this is a crazy time of the year. Everyone's partying, they're stressed, they're not sleeping, they're drinking. I'm like, I want to change the narrative of how people socialize during Art Basel. So I was talking to the Kohler team and I'm like, let's do a healthy beach club. And I'm telling you, like, this will be the biggest hit. And this was the first time that we got to have people see and experience our ice bath in person. Did a gorgeous, gorgeous, like, beach club setup. Built out this whole entire stage DJ booth. We had an F and B component, and it was so much fun.

That. That is so cool to hear. Just, it's such a natural, not only partnership, but just the cohesiveness of the brands, as you said, the lack of overlapping. When I saw, I was like, this is a home run. So congrats to you and the team for bringing that out. And just last note on the ice baths. So that's a product that when it comes to consumers, consumers can buy that or I know. It comes out in 2025. Correct.

Yeah. So spring 2025. Yeah. Consumers, soon to be businesses will have. There's a lot. There's a lot of updates that will be released as time goes on, but very excited. Ready for sale in 2025. Spring. But people can inquire now. For pre ordering.

Very cool. Great to know. And I'll be sure to link that down below for not only as people can see the product, because it's just absolutely stunning, but I'll be sure to link that down below so people can reach out if that's of interest. So, on the topic of the business, as mentioned, you guys just opened up your third location. Bring us back to the moment of not only launch day, but a lot of founders that listen to this show, whether they're going out to Fundra or they're bootstrapping a business, there's always the conversation of, like, what businesses do require capital? Which ones should you bootstrap for a period of time, and when's the right time to raise capital? And then, of course, how do you go out and raise it for you guys? I'm curious to know what was the framework or the strategy from the beginning. I know you said a lot of that your patients turn to investors would love to talk about in whatever context you can, just the background of fundraising for the business, what you learned through that process, and really how that's changed over time through opening not one, not two, but your third location.

Yeah, I mean, a brick and mortar, like, storefront. You need cash. You know, it's an investment up front for sure. Especially when you're, you know, like, our design isn't inexpensive. And, you know, I like to say that we're designed to heal, and there's a lot of design elements and details and those things add up. But I had a really interesting time racing, like, you know, when one of my patients was like, all right, you seem to make a deck and you can raise money. I'm like, well, what's a deck? I didn't even know what that was. And in the beginning, it was really just me talking about it. You know, all of these investors, except for one, came from my practice, and, wow, I didn't. I didn't have to, like, search too hard. And it doesn't mean that the checks didn't take a long time sometimes to get in, but it was less selling the business and more just talking about it. And then people spent so much time with me because they were my patients, and we were helping them through all of these issues or, you know, things that they were struggling with for a while. And I think they just got to know me. They saw the passion and how hard I worked, and I was always working around the clock. And I think, you know, they might not have understood the concept at that time. And I know that because most of them walked in and said, wait, we had no idea what this was gonna be like. They. No matter. I didn't, I wasn't really. I didn't do a good job at explaining it because maybe it was hard. I think that's the benefit of having a business for such a long period of time. You really get to figure out how to communicate what the brand is and what your offerings are and who you are. But it's hard to make those things up without, like sitting in it and experiencing it and failing and learning over that time. We didn't raise a lot and we started right before the pandemic, and I thought our build out was going to be half the cost of what it was. And then we were overextended and I had to personally guarantee the first lease because we didn't have a name to our brand or anything to really leverage. So then everyone was like, john, you can't put your name on a lease that big. And I was like, well, no one else is gonna do it. So I, I had to take that chance. And wow, a couple months later, the world shut down. So then I was like, like, this is, this is where, this is where it could get really bad. But we, we figured it out and we, we were able to like, really generate success through the pandemic, even though we closed down for a little bit. But I think, you know, these stressors are moments, like, I don't call them stress, I call them resistance. I'm like, yeah, all of these things make us stronger. And learning how to adapt, learning how to be more resilient, and then using these stressors as a tool to learn and grow from, I would have never learned any of these.

That is, I feel like that is like the personal guaranteeing the world, like the unprecedented times. Like, those are all the things that no matter how many podcasts you listen to, books you read, mentors you have, you just can't predict the future. Right. And in terms of how things change, how you have to adapt. And I want to go back to that moment because I think it's, it's easy to just hear the brief story of like, you know, had a personal guarantee. Like, what was that decision making process like for you of in the moment? Like, were there other options? Did you, like, what was your mindset then? Was it a long decision process? Just like, talk to me about that because that's obviously in business, when you hear stories like that, those are moments that maybe there's someone out there that's, you know, maybe in a similar situation for their own business in a unique way. And bring us back to that time in your life when you had to do such a thing as personal guarantee this, you know, expensive lease with a. A business that you're getting off the ground.

I mean, I don't know if it was me being, like, mostly naive and not really understanding or the other half. It was the. It was the only option. And I knew and worked so hard on, like, getting it to that point. I'm like, I not only have to do this, but I won't give up. And I think, yeah, you know, like, you only fail if you stop or you. You know, And I think it's really important that I was like, I don't care what it takes. I don't know. I don't care what to sell my house. Like, whatever it was, I would have done it to get it off the ground. And I just. I. When I, like, talk about the business and I think about what it can do and the impact that it can make and, like, the real vision of what I want this business to be, I don't have a single doubt in my mind. So I've definitely done things unconventionally that probably weren't the smartest business decisions. But I have so much faith in what we're building, the community that we've started to build in our team, that if you don't take risk, I think it's. It's. I don't know. I feel like if you don't take risk, things won't happen. And I think there has to be a level of risk, especially in these early stages.

Absolutely. No, that's. It's. That's such a cool part of the. Just the reflection process of when you say that. It's like, whoa. Like, it's those moments where the risks really. You're looking a dead in the eye, and you're like, all right, this is what, you know, the people talk about and the decisions that you have to make that are not comfortable. I want to talk about, you know, a big part of what I've learned of the business is these experiential events activations that you guys do. I know. I heard that you guys did the partnership event with Tao Group at Coachella and you do a lot of other events there. What does the event business look like now, and when did that start to become more and more important as, you know, Remedy became this known brand in the space?

Well, it was so funny because it's like the plan was never to do events, and we. I thought like, okay, once, you know, once the business is settled, we can start doing the retreats that I used to do and then brand them under Remedy now. And all of these companies started reaching out to us and they're like, well, can you, can you bring your services to our event? And we're like, okay, like, we can figure that out. And then we just started to say, okay, we can, we can remedy any event. It didn't matter who was coming to us. I'm like, why can't we bring a wellness or self care or social self care component to every event? And for the first couple years, it was honestly just inbound. And then we'd do an event, people would talk about it, and then more people would come to us. And what was interesting, we did everything from like the Cannes Film Festival to like on a yacht to backstage at the Kardashians home. Like, it was the most, you know, it was fun and it was wild. And now what we are seeing is our prized possession is also our clubs. And it's hard to bring the full experience to these events, but with the right budget, we can. But we're like, why aren't we using the clubs as venues? So a big strategy shift for this year was you have all these companies, all these brands, they don't want to throw an event at it with an open bar or another dinner, and they want a new experience. And we, you know, we didn't have a marketing team until it started really, like last September.

Wow.

And I'm like, okay, like if we can just figure out this funnel and how we do this and how we set this up, let's do one club rental per month per club and allow someone to take it over. And we've done it from like Victoria's Secrets and Nike to St. Laurent or last week we did an event with Peacock. And it's cool because people are using it as a venue. It's experiential, it's social, and it's becoming one of my favorite parts of the business because it's also shifting awareness not just about Remedy, but it really about the importance of this healthy social life or that there are more ways to do it. And something that we're kicking off next year is a thing that anyone can really do is like, we're calling it Remedy After Hours, where like when the club closes, you can rent it out for a birthday party or for a bachelor party or bachelor party or a corporate outing. And I think the more that we learn and grow, it's like, all right, let's just make any. Any social experience, but put it in remedy.

Yeah, it's. It's actually so cool. It's. It's not only the place where you go with friends, but the actual. The venue aspect of corporate team, like, teams. And I think about that, it's like, you know, when companies do off sites, it's seeing them, they do a whole Remedy day and they talk about the. The bonding and the, like, the social element of that. That. That's so cool to hear. And if I'm, you know, like, that's such a cool part of the business of just, like, working with all these different brands and being able to create that experience there.

Yeah, it's been so much fun. And it's also just cool. You know, our team works collaboratively with these companies, but, like, they'll have a vision like the one with Peacock. Last week they had this crime show and they, like, turned the whole entire club in each experience that, like, blended in with the show. And I was like, wow. Like, this is. And it also keeps it interesting and fun and. And I. And I love it because I think even our team gets, like, creatively try to push the boundaries on what these things can be, and the more that we do, the better that we'll get, and we'll be able to give better and better events or better. Better venue to anyone that wants to do it with us.

That's so great. Was that one in LA or New York?

That was in the soho club. So it was our first. Our first club rental in soho.

Sweet.

Yeah, it was so much fun. And they. I think they said that they sold out of slots within five minutes. So, like, they announced the event and it sold out. And I was like, wow, that's cool.

That's. That's so cool. So the SoHo location, when did that specifically open?

Last month.

Last month?

Yes.

So that's your. Something I was curious about. Soho. You've obviously had the location in LA since 2019 when you opened. Now you have two locations in New York. What led to opening up a second location in New York, given you already have one?

New York's just a whole nother. A whole nother animal. There's so many people. It's so dense. And people live hard in New York. They work hard, they play hard. They're all over the place. They're traveling. And our clubs at this, like, day and age, they're not that big. So we can only accommodate for so many people. And we needed. Flatiron was a huge success. And I'm like, damn, like, we need. We need more, and we need bigger. So we signed the lease for Soho, like, right after Flatiron. And I don't know, it's interesting. So it's like, I want. I never want to, like, I don't want to have hundreds of clubs. I really only want, like, 15 to 20 clubs. And then things will change, and I won't get into all the details there, but I'm like, okay, I need to also make sure that I'm spacing them out. So all my favorite cities, or the cities that all of our guests travel to, that they have access, because convenience is important. And if you know that you have remedy in every city that you're traveling to, it allows you to stick to your routine and your programs. And I think consistency is key for change. And you can do something once and feel great, but you do it on a regular basis. You actually change. And we just want to help grow and develop all the people that come to the club so that they can, like, be set up for success and perform their best in life. And it is really true that the healthier you are, the better everything in life gets, and the more successful you'll be with every vertical of your life. And I think it's. So we're in an interesting time where people are so sick that we use the word prevention. So we, like, people's goal to do health routine right now are just not to get sick. And I'm like, whoa, whoa. That's like the half over here. But you need to realize that there's the whole other half where using your health as a tool to amplify who you are and your uniqueness and what you're meant to do while being here, that's the focus of remedy. And of course, we work with people within that full degree. But I just think it's an interesting time in the world where we're only thinking about the first half, and I'm like, we're missing the big, big picture here.

Absolutely. No, that's. That's a great perspective. And even to hearing your thought process. I mean, think like New York City, right? However many millions of people there are. It's like you're in two different buckets of neighborhoods where I'm sure they're just, you know, packed in there. You could have 10 there, and they'd all be packed, just given the density of New York. So that's interesting. And when you talk about expansion plans in 2025 and beyond, you know, you said, you know, the goal would be to have 1520, however many clubs and I'm sure that we can't talk about too much, but when you think about future plans, future cities, but also something that I've been thinking about is future remedies, how do you think about that when it comes to adding a new remedy or is there ever where you'd remove one? How do you think, how does you and your team think about that when it comes to the space and how to optimize it over, you know, the next two, three, five, ten years and beyond?

Yeah, for us it's important that we'll never do something that's a fad or something that we're not confident that we know works, that we've seen work so that, that blocks out a lot of things because we're, we're never going to test in remedy. People are coming to remedy because they know that entrust us that we put only the best in and that's really important to me. But a lot of these technologies aren't brand new. Right. Like things like an ice bath or a sauna or hyperbaric. Yeah, they've been around for a very long time. Just the awareness is shifting as we were more like this is new, but it's all data driven. You know, I want to make sure that we continue to do only authentically what we know. And I think there's a lot of ways that people, there's a lot of ways to change the club based on what we're learning, the data we collect and based on what the guests let us know. Because yeah, we're here to also listen. You know, every day we're listening to all of our guests and the team has daily wrap ups and they're, they're sharing the feedback and we just want to make sure that no matter who you are and where you are and you're using our clubs like we can make your life easier and give you these new experiences and always just make you feel better. And that's, that's kind of our mission.

Yeah. Are there any, you know, being a founder that's so hands on with the business and aware of all these remedies, some would say like earlier than others, of course. Are there any remedies or practices out there that you may think people are unaware of that you've seen or heard about that maybe you haven't thought about adding to the club yet but that you believe will maybe be like early within their sort of awareness as you were previously in terms of the, like the awareness of these things years ago?

Yeah, you know the most important, most people don't even know that we do this. And we do, we just, we don't really do a lot of traditional marketing. So, you know, the awareness isn't always there. But yeah, one of the biggest things that I see as the most important thing for even like health and wellness and health care is functional medicine. And a lot of people still don't know what functional medicine is. They don't realize like that these are a series of different blood tests and that these series of blood tests are different than you get when you go get your annual physical. When you go get your physical, they're just doing diagnostic blood work. They want to know if you're sick or not sick. But functional medicine will look into every organ, all your different systems, your gut, health sensitivities, toxicity levels. I mean, there's a test for everything now. And then by looking at all these tests and understanding the biochemistry of the body and the physiology, you can start to look at this as a big puzzle. And I always say like, this is like someone analyzing your body and then being able to give you the instruction manual for what's going on. And I always say it's like your body's your number one asset. You don't even know how it works, nevermind how to take care of it. Like think of how crazy it is. Like we, every single person needs to be able to study and understand their body. But then the more data that you can collect at different periods of your life, doing functional medicine every six months or a year, I think should be the standard norm because there's no more guessing. And people have all these symptoms, they have all of these things going on and then these read these books or an article online and I'm like, well, you don't know if you need that and you might be wasting your money or your time. And I'm like, now you could just do your blood work, know what you need, and then a good functional medicine doctor won't just be like, here's deficiencies, here's supplements. Like they start to analyze how all of these different biochemical reactions in the body can react. And if one thing's off here, maybe this is causing the problem with your hormones or, you know, your thyroid. And then you're actually getting to the root cause. And I think the future around healthcare is gonna have to be less around band aids other than for emergencies. But we have to understand the root cause and then the patient has to understand that they have to put in the work to make those changes because there Isn't a magical pill or magical treatment that's going to fix all your problems. Like being healthy takes work forever, not just like a 30 day program. And in the future, if we can really help educate our patients, get down to the actual testing to make these individualized programs and if patients take ownership and being the reason why they're better, then I think we have a very different, different, different world.

I'm so glad you brought that up because I, I wasn't even aware too much of that. The functional medicine aspect. So people can come in there, they do the blood work at remedy. Is that right? Or do you send them to LabCorp? I've. Cause I've done. Are you familiar with Merrick Health?

I'm not.

I'll have to. We could chat about it after. So. But it's my. A good buddy of mine, his name is Derek, he has this big YouTube channel, more plates, more dates. You may be familiar with him.

Love it.

Do you know him or.

No, I'm not. I'm not.

Oh my God, you're going to love it. So he really put me on to. I did my blood work, I think a year ago, and the awareness that I had in terms of high cholesterol and a couple key biomarkers that I was just so unaware of and me going around thinking I'm healthy, you know, granted, which I am but like the things that you just don't notice unless you do a test like that opened up my eyes to sort of like the baseline of like where I am and how can I improve things. And I think it's one of those things where growing up I didn't do anything like that or I wasn't even aware of it. But I'm so glad you brought that up because I think that's something that is so important and the awareness that it brings to you, even if you think you're someone that's completely healthy, there's things under the hood that you need to get checked out that are so important to things like that you guys.

Offer and to build on that. Just because you're not sick doesn't mean you're healthy. And I think even like the advancements in blood testing, like just because you have high cholesterol isn't always an. Isn't always a factor that should be concerning. Right. Like now you can look at particle size of the cholesterol, the density of that cholesterol, the size. I mean it's really interesting because like when you. The only reason for problems with high cholesterol is if you have plaque buildup. Right. So the more dense these particles are that are sticking to the arterial walls, you might have, you know, a genetic factor that is actually making more predisposed for plaque buildup. But you can start measuring these things out and it's like, wait, maybe they would have just been on a statin in the past and they wouldn't have needed that. And also statin is not going to clear all this plaque buildup or stop the buildup of the lifestyle factors that are causing the plaque. So it's, it's interesting. Or like if you have to be on a statin, your doctor didn't put you on CoQ10, you might start having all these side effects because you're deficient in CoQ10 because statins cause that decrease in the CoQ10. And it's like that's where all of these things, no matter what your plan has to be or whatever your lifestyle is, there's so many things you, even if with the medication that you can be doing lifestyle wise too. And that's really important.

Absolutely. No, again, I feel like I'm so curious about all that stuff and you could go on for hours about that. Something that was not only cool to see, but I commend you is prior to starting remedy, you had patients that would come to you specifically around this framework of making sure they don't have to go get surgery. Correct. What led to these types of practices? And I ask, even from the personal perspective of like growing up, my dad's had two back surgeries. I granted I never had surgery, but when I was a sophomore in high school, I was nearly paralyzed. I was in a neck brace for nearly six months, inner spinous ligament damage and could never play football again. Was just getting in a neck brace for six months and based on how I recovered, was primarily going to dictate how I could perform physically in terms of running, snowboarding, playing lacrosse, like doing all the things that I love to do. Granted, I've recovered well. I still have a lingering neck injury that just pain that is still there pretty much at the end of every day, it seems. But when it comes to preventing a surgery from happening, Bring us back to that phase in your life when you're working with patients. And how did you end up getting that title and spending time in that field specifically?

Yeah, what was interesting is like while going through my schooling, I always thought it was so weird. How do I say this in school you read these textbooks. Most of the textbooks aren't as up to date as possible. And then it's like, here is the treatment protocol for all of these things. And you take tests and you take your boards, and I could memorize anything so I could always get the good grades. But I'm like, how come there's one. One direction here and one protocol? And I'm like, everyone's body is so different, and you have extremely healthy and extremely unhealthy people. You have people in the middle. You have people willing to put in the work, not willing to put in the work. And I remember just thinking, like, all right, if you know anatomy and then you know biochemistry and you know physiology and you know, like, biomechanics of the body, it's less of reading the textbook and doing the protocol for your neck injury, and it's more about, all right, let me look at the body, let me look at the imaging. Let me see what's not moving, what is biomechanically wrong. Let me look at the inflammatory markers in the blood, and if you have the nutrients needed to make sure that you can actually recover fast. And I remember just being like, this isn't rocket science. Like, it's not this. Okay. It was kind of weird to me. So I was like, yeah, I'm not doing anything that's that unique. I'm just combining, you know, instead of going to three or four different doctors, I'm doing it all as one. So you don't have different philosophies or the worry of people not talking. Because it's hard to have a busy practice with one profession and think that that doctor is going to go work with a team of doctors if they're not in the same practice or network. And it doesn't really set people up for success, because sometimes a lot of my patients would be going to all these different doctors before me, and they're like, they all had different perspectives, or they all wanted a different treatment protocol. And all of those protocols might work, but if the patient then thinks that none of their. All their doctors have different perspectives, it's confusing, but also doesn't build as much trust. So I think it's one really important to build trust with your patient. Try to really take ownership of as much as you possibly can. But I just found that everyone goes when they have a pain or an injury. And the first thing that happened historically is a surgeon went to school to do surgeries. A medical doctor went to school because they studied medicine. Like that is their focus. They're not learning about the things that I'm telling a patient because that's not what they went to school to school for or how to treat. And I know that pain can exist if things are moving properly. And if I have a shot to make things move properly, I would want to exhaust all options as the first line of intervention before going under the knife.

Yeah.

And it was, you know, I would take on these patients. It was all word of mouth. They knew that they had to make these lifestyle changes and they had to put in the work. And it was interesting because it was like clockwork. I'm like, why is everyone being told that they had to get surgery? If I can get you pain free in one session or in a couple sessions, maybe the pain will come back. But that gave me enough hope to know if I can decrease pain or eliminate pain, even for a short period of time, if I can keep extending that out. There's something there that's telling me that this isn't a permanent thing. And there are times where surgery is 100% necessary. But part of my job, you know, with my patients is to understand the patient and know, like, can I. If I'm going to say that I can successfully try to make this attempt, I need to have confidence that it was in the state that I actually could help, if that makes sense. And then, yeah, over the years, not one patient that came to me saying they had to get surgery for the issue that I was treating got surgery.

And that is so impressive.

Yeah. But I remember just being like. People would say, like, john, how come I've never been exposed to this? Or I worked with some of, like, the most extremely successful people around the world. And I'm like, they have unlimited money and they're getting the wrong information. And I just remember thinking like, I grew up in a small town in Rhode island, and I'm like, if they're getting the wrong information, what happens to the rest of people in the world that don't have access to even, like, a doctor in general or just their small local doctor?

Yeah.

And that really kind of just fueled the reason why I know that I needed to push Remedy Because I'm like, once again, there's nothing special that I was doing. It was just educating and getting time and thinking through it. And I'm like, if I can use Remedy as a platform that can provide this free education, that's how I can reach more people than any company in the world. And that's our goal.

That's so powerful. I appreciate the context there. It's so cool to hear. Not one person went back to go do this surgery. Just speaks to your knowledge and experience and the education aspect. And I think too as someone that has been to Remedy and I hope people that are listening today can feel and see the level of only passion but experience that you've had like hands on with people prior to starting Remedy. And as you said, like that being the platform that you can really implement a lot of these lessons and teachings. It's really cool because you know, it's. Unless you have that one on one specialized treatment, you, you maybe aren't aware of those things. But having that platform as, as remedy and what it's become is, is so cool to hear.

Thanks. It means a lot.

Of course. A couple more questions before we wrap up here. Jonathan, something I'm curious about, which maybe the audience is as well, which is what are your daily remedies, weekly remedies? And how does that change for you over the months, over the years? And you know, what does that look like today in your life?

Wow. I mean, we might need a couple hours to go through my whole program. But I think what's important is I always like to start with data. I do my functional medicine every six months to get a real understanding of, hey, for the next six months, what am I trying to address, what are my imbalances, what am I, what should I be shifting nutritionally, supplementation wise and lifestyle wise based on that. Then I wear wearables, you know, I have a whoop. And having that every day and then having even down to my mattress like an eight sleep. I'm trying to collect as much data that I can and organize it in a way that is, you know, neat and organized. That in the future with AI and all these advancements, whoever has the biggest encyclopedia of data on themselves is going to have the best information on how to take care of themselves. I think that's really important. And then I, and I look at it, I mean like, oh my God, I don't even know where to be in. I work out every day. I think movement cures. It's not about pushing the body to an extreme or doing the most extreme things. It's about learning how to improve movement, you know, from stability to mobility by focusing on your weaknesses, not just doing what you're good at. I think that's really important. One of the biggest things I love about living in New York is you walk everywhere. I think we take for granted the power of just walking. If most people just walk their 10,000 steps, a lot of their problems would go away and things like digestion. No matter what you're going to eat. If you walk before and after dinner, that's going to drastically change your digestion. And I think food in America is really just in a state of being toxic, no matter even if you're eating clean. And it's scary. And I think we do need to do things that will help aid in digesting. So I think the simple things like walking and if you eat bad, I say, like, internal rule. The more you eat, the more you walk. And if you eat. Yeah, bad, go walk a little bit more.

I like.

And then I think food's important. Right. I look at anything that you put in or on your body is either working against you or working for you. And it's okay to have balance and to cheat here and there. But it's always. That's always what I'm weighing. I'm like, is this enhancing me or is this holding me back? And right now I'm in a state of life where, like, I only want to be enhanced because I have so much to do.

Yeah.

And I think just like, my athletes have to put in all this work with their health to perform. It's the same for me. And then everything at Remedy, I do, you know, I, like, do ice baths every day that I have access to. One. I go in a sauna two or three times a week. I go in the hyperbaric chamber whenever I can. I have my IV routine. I have my manual work routine. I mean, you name it, it's there. Because I'm sure. And I'm lucky that, you know, I. I get. I have access to that and I can really do a deep dive.

Absolutely.

And then I think there's companies like Pernuvo, which do an amazing job with.

I really want to do one of those soon.

I think that's really important to do every couple years or, like, at least do once to make sure. But, yeah, I mean, I would say for anyone out there, you don't have to go to a place like Remedy to be healthy. It's really foundational. So, like, walk to move, make sure you're watching what you eat and do things that you can do for free to take care of your health, like your mental health. Like, things like breath. Work is such a powerful tool that anyone can do anywhere. Learning how to change your perception on your mindset and, like, change the power of, like, what a thought is, what an idea is, what a feeling is. All of these things can be taught and learned. And there's so many amazing podcasts and books out there that don't Think you have to have a lot of money to take care of yourself. The foundational pillars of health are way more, way more important than any of these fancy technologies and just put in the work to really learn.

That was incredible information and I gotta say I'm glad I'm not the only one that has the woo plus eight sleep combo. I was like, is this too much data? I hope not, no.

It's so great to hear even if you don't look at it. I think one important note for everyone listening is in the future, AI, one thing that's going to do for healthcare is it is going to make things way more accessible and it is going to be able to help teach you and educate you. But to make it individualized to you, you have to capture your data. And the more data that you have over an extended period of time, the better that AI and these advancements in AI are going to be able to help.

That's so great. Well, Jonathan, I think just on that note, I mean that was, I loved hearing about just not only the story, but you know, the six month game plan of understanding what you need to focus on and how that changes over time. And I just want to say thank you, man. Like this was truly a conversation that I enjoyed so much. And I mean, as I said from the beginning, I had such an incredible experience during my first experience at Remedy. Plan to go many, many more times to come. And before we wrap up, where's the best? I should say, what are you most looking forward to moving into 20, 25 and beyond?

I think now just like we, we have an amazing team and we have a very clear vision and now we have over five years of like really knowing what we need to do and testing. So this is just a big inflection point for us where I think people are going to really start to see our trajectory change a little bit. And I'm just excited for this moment in time.

I love it. Oh, before we wrap up, Jonathan, where is the best place for everyone to follow you and to really stay in touch, stay in touch with everything you guys have going on now and into the future?

Yeah, for Remedy, it's just at Remedy Place on Instagram and my personal ones at Dr. Jonathan Leary. You know, we like to keep people up to date with all the things that we're doing and our new clubs and events and you know, you can do that and then if you want, you can go to our email or on our website and we can keep you in the loop with newsletters depending on what city you're closest to. But I would say, you know, give a lot of these things a try, remedy or not. You know, I think a lot of people are just, like, scared to either jump into an ice bath or just start something. And it's like, if you don't feel good, you can feel better, and if you feel good, you can still feel better. So go give these things a try and see what it does for your whoop scores, you know?

Absolutely. 100%. I love it. Well, thank you again so much for taking the time to come on the show today. And congrats on everything. I'm really a huge fan of the company, the brand, the mission, and everything that you're doing. Jonathan.

Thanks, man. That means a lot.