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John: Welcome to another edition of the Impact podcast. This is a very special edition. I’ve got with us today Dr. Jonathan Leary. He’s the founder and CEO of Remedy Place. Welcome to the Impact podcast, Dr. Leary.

Dr. Jonathan Leary: Thank you for having me.

John: Hey, just in truth in advertising, Dr. Leary, I love your place, Remedy Place. I’m going to talk about some of my experiences there. I’ve signed up now to be a quarterly member. I just think it’s a great oasis in the city of Los Angeles, which is where the place I’ve been using, your place in West Hollywood. I just want to say thank you for building it and having your vision because I think you’ve developed something that is going to go long and far to help a lot of people feel a lot better.

Jonathan: Man, that means a lot. I’m happy that you like it.

John: Before we get going and talking about Remedy Place, and for our viewers and listeners who want to find Dr. Leary and his colleagues and sign up to go try Remedy Place, you can go to www.Remedyplace.com. Dr. Leary, talk a little bit about where you grew up and what got you on this inspirational and impactful journey of helping people feel better and good health care.

Jonathan: Growing up, I always wanted to be a doctor. I went the traditional route of going pre-med. My mom, my sister both worked in a hospital setting. Going through pre-med, you need a lot of volunteer hours. You need to have a amazing resume so that you can get accepted into med school. For four years through all of volunteering and being in that hospital setting for so long, it was like my junior year of undergrad and I’m like, wait, this sucks. Doctor’s lifestyle, they are overworked. They’re not sleeping, unable to take care of themselves. They’re away from their family. In almost like the hospital environment, it’s so toxic, so sad, so depressing. No one wants to be there. No one’s really happy.

It’s hard when there’s so many patients, not enough time. Everyone’s stressed out and unwell. I think I just saw too many things that were morally and ethically different than I would want to treat my patients. What happened was, I almost was like, maybe I’ll take a year off before I go to med school. Because I don’t know if this is actually what I want to do. Well, on the side, during my undergrad, I was a trainer. Within my personal training, I always really focused on really the biomechanical side of making sure people were pain free. I was always fascinated more on the rehab side. I was like, maybe I should just go and be a physical therapist. I volunteered in some physical therapy offices and just boring.

I grew up in Rhode Island, so it wasn’t too exciting. There was nothing to elaborate there. But one of my friend’s dad was a chiropractor. He’s like, “Jon, chiropractors in the state of California are primary care physicians. They just can’t prescribe medication and they can’t puncture the skin. But maybe you should look into that.” I just reached out to a school. Just like here, I never knew what a chiropractor was, never went to a chiropractor. But I was really just fascinated. I’m like, maybe it’s in scope. I ended up finding a school, applying just to see if it would happen and it worked out. I was like, maybe this is just my ticket to LA to leave my small town. If I don’t like it, I can always change.

The first two years of chiropractic school is the same as any medical program. Dentistry, medical, alternative medicine, it’s really about the bare minimums of science at that stage. I was like, I don’t know if this is for me. But I just kept going because I knew it might make sense. During that time, the moment that I started school, I started working on the business plan for Remedy because it was like, what is it? A different type of practice. What does this dream practice look like? I just knew that it would take a lot of hard work. Every single Sunday, for those four years, I was working on Remedy Place. When I graduated, I went to the bank with this 158-page business plan in the binder. I was like, all right, this is my business idea. This is what I want to do. This is what I needed money-wise. The woman laughed 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?” I’m like, that’s why I need a loan.

John: We go here.

Jonathan: I ended up pivoting. I ended up opening a concierge practice, not because it was fancy but it was because it’s the most affordable. It was a practice that focused on surgery prevention and chronic pain rehabilitation. Within the first couple of months of practice, I took that on some high-profile patients that had some really amazing success stories. After three months, I had a waitlist. For five years, I got to travel the world with cool people, cool families. I started with just pro athletes, but then quickly realized that, why am I just working with the healthiest bodies in the world on a regular basis when the average person’s far more sick and in a lot more pain?

Then I started working to build the music industry, in the film industry and corporate level executives. It was amazing. I think I became known as the guy that you would go to if you didn’t want surgery. Most of my patients would be like, “Hey, I was told I need to get surgery. I don’t want to. I heard you’re the guy.” Over the years, not one of my patients ever got surgery after my care. The coolest thing was a year into my practice, I had the waitlist, I was so busy. It was such a big shift for me. But one of my patients, she was like, “Hey, if your end goal is to change healthcare, how are you going to do that seeing one patient at a time?” That’s when I realized like, you know what? I need to bring Remedy back to the table.

I think my patients became my mentors over those five years. I worked with some of the most brilliant minds all over the world. I was so grateful. I learned so much. I got to use those five years in practice to continually update the business plan after my own clinical evidence and my own market research of what worked, what didn’t work. What were my patients willing to do? What were they not willing to do? What were their common stressors? When I started looking at all the business gaps, but also the health gaps, but then also learning the business side, I was finally able to open up the club just about four years ago. The first club.

John: This is fascinating. Let’s step back. You saw the dark side of let’s call it the sick care business that your mom and sister ran. You knew you wanted to stay away from the dark side of what is the medical world. But you saw there was a darkness to that, that really you didn’t dig. What made you prescient enough, though, and what gave you the entrepreneurial bug to not only take that you are going to become a doctor during your chiropractic school journey, but also wanted to become concurrently an entrepreneur? Where did that bug come from and what made you think that that was the way to go?

Jonathan: I think to start, I want to make sure that I never had a negative picture on our healthcare systems. I think in short, our medical program is to teach people medicine, so they’re just practicing medicine. I think for me, it was so weird because I never was exposed to alternative medicine. When I moved to LA, I’m like, who are all these crazy weirdos, talking about energy, all these things? I’m such a scientific guy that it was so strange for me. But then you really start to understand how powerful this human body is and its capabilities. But I won’t go off on that tangent. I think it’s always been in me. I always knew that I wanted to do something. I always had this inner entrepreneurial self. Even when I was in school, me and one of my best friends started a landscaping company. Every summer we had 20 lawns every week. I’ve always been like this that it had to be something different.

John: That’s fascinating. Now you have these master classes. You’re getting masterclasses from the people you’re treating. These leaders and legends in music and entertainment and sports and athletics. You have these masterclasses who are encouraging you now to go follow your dream. About four years ago, you open up the first Remedy Place in WeHo, is that what you did?

Jonathan: Correct. Yeah.

John: I’d been there and I have to say, amazing place. It’s a life changing place. I’m going to give my experience a little bit. But talk a little bit about how much did you rework your business plan, the original 158 pages, from five years prior? What was the original vision and mission when you opened up a Remedy Place WeHo?

Jonathan: I think initially when I started it in 2012, it was I just wanted to create a different environment. I wanted to create a better-looking environment that was the exact opposite of a clinic or hospital, and then create a more hospitality experience. What I found the biggest shift in my practice and that due diligence of the updates and changes that happened outside of some of the technologies that advanced over the time, the biggest thing that I found was the social component.

I think like we were talking about before, how you’re having fun doing it in other people, for me, it was just like, let’s just create a new social activity. In order for me to fix my patient’s problems, they had to make lifestyle changes. That was always part of the initial onboarding was making sure that my patients would make those lifestyle changes. Those were the only way to actually fix the root cause of their issues. Throughout the five years, the biggest thing that I was always told was, “Dr. Leary, I feel incredible.

This issue’s gone, I’ve never felt this good. But this new lifestyle is really isolating.” They’re like, “Everything that I normally do when my socialize is filled with either temptation or toxin.” I was like, that’s so fascinating that we know how important human connection is for our health. Everything that we normally do when we socialize is mostly detrimental to our health. I was like, all right, when I create this first social wellness club, I want it to enhance their health and their social life at the same time.

John: Got it. For the uninitiated, again, we’ve got Dr. Jonathan Leary with us today. He’s the founder and CEO of Remedy Place. To find Remedy Place and to go try it out for yourself, go to www.Remedyplace.com. What does holistic wellness mean to you? What have you then instilled into Remedy Place and baked in as part of the DNA from your original launch and what you’re doing now as you build more locations?

Jonathan: I mean, holistic to me just means natural, right? I think at a time where people are looking for quick fixes, these quick fixes are always band aids. I think we look at how magnificent the body is. You break a bone, your body rebuilds that bone. You get a cut, your body scabs it over and heals. If you give the body what it needs and take away what it doesn’t need, it innately heals.

I’ve seen it over and over again, where doing my patients bloodwork, doing all their functional medicine, and then fixing all of these imbalances, it is wild that my sports medicine practice ended up now treating people with gut issues with whether it’s gut issues, cancer, autoimmune condition, mental health problems. This is where it isn’t like me going out and purposely treating those things. It’s all of a sudden my patients that had the back issue, this older issue that also had the gut problem, they’re like, “Hey, not only is my shoulder getting better, but not having those gut issues anymore.”

Then I start realizing over and over again, as so many patients. I’m like, wow, the body heals. Just give it what it wants. I think for me, especially in the world where right now, this evolving market of recovery or even people will say biohacking, sometimes it insinuates with whether it’s biohacking or the supplements, it’s always like this shortcut or this quick fix. There’s no such thing as a shortcut with your health. It takes a lot of hard work. I’m like, your body’s your number one asset. I’m like, if you’re not investing into your body and your mind, that’s a problem because it’s 90-something percent of all adult conditions are inflicted by their lifestyle. If you’re not well as an adult, it’s likely that your lifestyle is probably causing whatever issue you have. Although it’s hard, it’s vital to make these changes. It’s cool that the whole world is currently waking up because I think people are finally realizing that the only one that’s going to make them healthy is them.

John: Dr. Leary, timing is everything in life for everything that we do. Talk a little bit about timing. 2012, you were a visionary. You’re prescient in your vision, obviously for Remedy Place. Then take it to 2019 when you actually launched Remedy Place WeHo. Would you argue that the timing was even better in 2019 than ’12? Was the world more ready for it? Let’s say you were able to raise the money in 2012, would you have the massive success you found today versus when you opened in ’19? Because did the world evolve even more in terms of the socialization and the rise of Wim Hof and Laird Hamilton and they’re talking about ice baths and ice plunging cryotherapy and the rise of the success and people, athletes and entertainers, leveraging cryotherapy for health and wellness and better performance? Or was either time going to be good to launch Remedy Place when you look backwards now?

Jonathan: Yeah, I believe that everything happens for a reason. I don’t think the concept would have blown up as fast or at all in 2012. What’s so funny is when I was originally talking about this concept and everyone thought I was crazy. They’d be like, “We’re going to go to a spa more than once a month?” I’m like, “It’s not a spa.” I’m like, “They’re going to go everyday like they go to the gym every day.” That’s right, no one got it. Even when I finally got the investors the first round, every investor so far, except for one, is actually a patient of mine.

There’s a beautiful story behind even the funding behind Remedy. But most of them invested in Remedy mostly because of they’re like, “We just trust you.” But I don’t think anyone actually got the concept until they walked in the door the first time. I think with the pandemic, the pandemic shifted everything. I think the whole world woke up. The whole world understood if they were healthy or unhealthy. If they were unhealthy, no one else was going to help fix that other than them. What’s interesting is we hosted the global wellness summit in New York this year, earlier in the year.

All of the top global trends, I’m not sure if you’re familiar with that trends report, but every year they release a trends report of what the future is of the health and wellness industry. It was self-care, it was human connection, it was environments that heal, it was alternative medicine. It was everything, every single pillar of our business, we made the top 10. I was like, wow, this is really happening. I think it’s the perfect time in the world. It all happened, this specific reason. There’s just this weird magnet to this company. I just feel like we’re in such a flow state and doing exactly what we’re meant to be doing. Every week goes by and I’m like, I’m just not dreaming big enough on how big I really think Remedy can be. I look back at each my quarterly goals and I’m like, I wasn’t thinking big enough. It’s just the amount of things happening behind the scenes is so insane. I genuinely think that we have a real chance of making a global Impact on people’s health.

John: I have no doubt in that, by the way. After now having been a user myself and signing up to be a member, I have zero doubt in that. For fun and also educational purposes, why don’t we walk our listeners and viewers through a tour of Remedy Place of what actually, when you walk in, how did you set it up and envision it? What are the services, integrative and holistic services, that are now available for people who want to come and enjoy your wonderful social wellness place?

Jonathan: I mean, we like to say that we’re designed to heal. When you walk into a clinic or a hospital there’s a thing called white coat syndrome. You have this negative physiological response where your heart rate goes up, your body tenses. You’re in an environment that doesn’t make you feel good. If you don’t feel well and you’re going into an environment that’s working against you, counterintuitive. Our whole thing is in this designed to heal concept is, let’s be the exact opposite of a clinic. Let’s look at everything that applies to your senses, from the sound of the scent, to the textures, to the tones, to the flow, to the materials. Every single thing in there, every detail has purpose.

Using that, the reason why that was the Mr. big focus was because, as a concierge doctor and working out on my patient’s homes, I realized that, hey, when I walk into my patient’s home and they’re in their comfort zone, their guard is down. I have the most success when they’re in their comfort zone. It was really like how do we make people feel as cozy as possible like they’re walking into their home. When you walk into the club, you’re greeted by our concierges or our Remedy specialists. There’s an amazing lounge with a bar in the back, but no alcohol and non-alcoholic spirits and healthy snacks like Erewhon. Our whole thing, we have this gorgeous circular flow. All of the tours, there’s no dead ends.

You start with the hyperbaric chambers on your left. Then as you walk down for the West Hollywood club, you’re walking by three infrared sauna suites. Each one of the infrared sauna suites, you get that room for an hour. You have your amenities, you have your shower. You have your gorgeous black infrared sauna. Then next we have our breathwork ice bath class. We’re the first place in the world to create a commercialized breathwork ice bath class, where you do 11 minutes of breathwork. Then you pick a song and then your coach threw up to six minutes in the ice-cold plunge.

We call it The Six-minute Club. Then we have cryotherapy. We have your acupuncture, your cupping, your chiropractic, your physio, your vitamin IVs, your vitamin injections, your functional medicine, your lymphatic massage device. We have these new Remedy rollers, which are these automatic foam rollers that spin underneath you. It’s a nice way to really get into deep into the muscles. It’s a really amazing massage. Then we have this gorgeous soundproof glass atrium that we do group experiences in. In there, we do group acupuncture. We do active sound, which is group acupuncture and a sound bath. We do all different types of meditations. We also do doctor instructed stretch mobility classes, educational classes. Our meditation room also doubles as a cinema. We do a thing called watch and drip, where for groups four or more, you can reserve the room and get IVs and watch a movie. Then in New York, we added in a contrast suite, where you can have the ice bath and sauna in one room for group experiences. We added a red-light bed. Then in the future clubs, we’ve added a lot more.

John: Got it. There’s something for everyone or a lot for whoever wants to use it. I just came in as a non-member and walked in the first time, made an appointment the day before. My nephew, Justin, and I use it and we had the breathwork and the plunge. It was just such a great experience that once you do it, if you have the time, you just got to go back. It’s like you said, going to the gym, you just don’t want to not do it every day because you know how good you feel after it. We might as well come back and do it every day and get that feeling every day.

Jonathan: That’s our promise. Our promise is you will always leave feeling better than you walked in. That’s a powerful thing to be able to promise someone because we’re all struggling and everyone has all these stressors and life can be challenging at times. What we need to do is make sure that the healthier we are, the better we can handle all stressors that ever pulls into every aspect of our lives. I think it’s crazy in the US is life expectancy has gone down the past three years in a row. People are sicker than they’ve ever been.

But we have the number one pharmaceutical sales in the world, but we’re one of the sickest countries. Clearly, I think we’ve made a lot of advancements in modern science that help with emergencies. Amazing surgeries, amazing medicines that will save your life. But we’re not making people healthy. That’s where I see the biggest gap here is where this is why I think self-care will be bigger than the fitness industry because we need preventative care. That’s what self-care is. Self-care is longevity. Self-care is counteracting stress. It is preventative. It’s what’s going to make you feel good mentally, physically, emotionally.

John: True. You open in 2019, and when did you start to feel like, okay, this is going to work, people are digging it, people are using it, people are signing up and coming back? Was it a month, a week? Was it a year into it? Where did you lay in bed and say, okay, we got something? This is going to actually, this is not only going to survive, but it’s replicable and I could take it outside of WeHo and take it on the road.

Jonathan: I mean, I folded my practice into Remedy. Instantaneously, week one, it took off. I think we landed so much press, we got so much attention. Then March 16th, the world shut down. It was three and a half months into it, I thought we didn’t raise a lot of money at that point. I never expected to not have money coming in.

When they said we’re going to close for two weeks, I was like, we can’t close for two weeks. We need to figure this out. Then we didn’t have to close because I remember, under my license, we were essential. However, in order to make it safe for everyone, while the world was figuring it out and creating the safety protocols for the team and everyone, we were closed for three months, we didn’t get the first round of PPP loan. I was like, shit, we have a lot of people on the team and I want to make sure that they’re financially okay. We have a big rent, our landlord would not give us a break. I was like, wow, there’s a run right here. If we can’t open or we don’t get another one of these PPP loans, we’re in trouble. But you know what? We got that second PPP loan and we started allowing people to trickle in. We were open a couple of hours, a couple days a week.

Then slowly open more and more. Ever since then, it just slowly climbed and grew. Even with all the restrictions that us not being like a social wellness club, it continued to scale. Year over year, we doubled in revenue. Although it is slowed down our footprint of scaling more locations, it allowed us to have time to really build a really strong foundation. I actually think universally, it’s another situation, where if that didn’t happen, we probably would have signed a lease right away, and we weren’t ready for that. As long as I know that I’m doing what I’m supposed to be doing, I trust the process. This is my path. This is my love. I will work my ass off. I work nonstop but I do because I love this. I think as long as I’m a good person and I work really hard and I’m fulfilling my dream, wherever the universe takes me and wherever this lands, I trust that it will be where it needs to be.

John: That’s a great attitude. First of all, I have to give this podcast credit. It was because of Ross McKay, who was kind enough to come on this podcast and talk about his wonderful plant-based food company that he mentioned that he would go to your place. He would bring employees and have meetings there and enjoy the benefits with his employees. It was just a wonderful way to make his employees feel comfortable to open up to him, as you talk about the home approach, making it the third place. It’s almost what Starbucks original concept was that Starbucks was the third place, You now create a social wellness club that’s the third place, where people just let their guard down and feel really comfortable. That’s the feeling I get every time I walk in. It’s like an oasis in a very big and bustling city. It’s just a wonderful oasis of wellness. I think everybody who walks in there gets that feeling.

Jonathan: That’s the goal. I’m happy that’s what you feel naturally.

John: It’s amazing. Talk a little bit now that you’ve proven the concept and you opened up in New York. What’s the long-term goals now? Now, how are you going to evolve what is already your wonderful base and the success that you’ve already had over the last four years? What’s next? You’re very young, you have a great brand, you’re the darling of the media and press for good reason because you’re doing really good for people out there that come and use your facility. What’s your personal larger goals for Remedy Place?

Jonathan: I mean, the big vision is to create a brand that’s large enough to create one of the largest platforms in the health and wellness industry to provide free education. Because I think at the end of the day, people don’t know how to take care of themselves. I always say, your mind and your body is your number one asset. You don’t even have an instruction manual to it. You don’t even know how it works, how are you going to take care of it? If Remedy Place can give the world that instruction manual to their body and give them what they should have been taught their whole life, that’s my vision for this brand. Of course, we’ll be scaling our brick-and-mortar clubs.

We’re doing about two new clubs a year moving forward. They are evolving in really cool, amazing ways. You’re going to see some big, amazing changes in growth from our learnings and our findings. We’re listening to all of our guests and as a company, we’re learning. We’re taking those learnings, we’re taking that data, and every club moving forward will continue to get better and better. But then we’re doing more than just our brick-and-mortar locations. We’re getting into our own technology, where we’re partnering with the best manufacturers in the world and enhancing these products with our design and bridging the gap there. We’re doing more of our product collection. We’re building a media and education platform. Then we have a lot of other things that I can’t announce yet, but we have a couple of huge partnerships that will bring us into different verticals. At the end of the day, we just want to do cool things with cool people and make people feel better. Anytime we have the opportunity to be on another platform just to educate and hopefully motivate and inspire people, that’s what it’s all about.

John: I want to talk about a couple of your services. But you’ve worked out about a couple of services I was sharing off the air with you. Your people are truly special. You have found a unique way to create a culture of humanity. Every time I walk in, no matter who’s at the front desk, they are warm, they’re kindhearted, they’re helpful, they’re encouraging, and they’re inspiring. They’re all doing really interesting things in their own lives that they give you a lot of credit for inspiring and helping them do. I know, three of the young coaches that you have and one of the concierges that you have are studying acupuncture medicine. They talked about it with me because I asked them about it. They’re all really into what you’ve created, the culture you’ve created of healing and wellness and preventative. How did you create that kind of culture? Was that part of your original mission and business plan?

Jonathan: I mean, we have the most incredible team in the world. I think what’s really interesting is I studied the dynamics. I don’t think culture is something that you create. I think culture, it becomes what it is in a way that, I think, when I analyze the work environment and the work culture, when you’re working in a restaurant or normal hospitality, you have so many people complain. It’s tough to be in the service industry. However, all of our guests that come in, they know that we’re making them feel better and they’re always happy.

A guest can’t come out of a nice bath class or acupuncture and be miserable. I think the dynamic of the guests is always such a pleasurable thing. We’re working with really unique, incredible people, just like my practice where I think the team’s inspired by the people that we get to work with. They’re also learning from them and getting to know them. I also think that they get their own membership. They also practice what they preach and they’re leading by example.

For me, everything’s in Remedy because I use it. It would be in my practice. If I told my patients they need to go on a certain diet or do their bloodwork and I wasn’t doing it, how am I supposed to build an authentic relationship with a patient if I’m not doing what I’m asking them to do? The leading by example, and I would always say is your doctor’s the healthiest person you know. If some of them were giving you health advice or saying your finance guy was terrible with money, you would never go to him.

John: If he was broke, you wouldn’t want to give him any of your capital, right? Good points.

Jonathan: I think it’s the combination of a really cool environment. I think it’s that they get to be around amazing guests because our guests are amazing. That community is amazing. I think they get access to take care of themselves. I think we have really good leadership. The GMs of each club are incredible. As each new hire that we’re bringing on, and we’re expanding our team right now, They’re just also amazing people that you want to win by. I think for me, that’s my number one.

Are you an incredible person that I want to enjoy the process with? I think so far, we’ve just been able to attract really amazing people. I think it’s also exciting. We’re the world’s first social wellness club, right? I think this is the biggest thing to ever happen out the wellness industry. It’s fun to be a part of that ride. I think a lot of the team does say all the time like, “How cool is it that we’re doing this? A new club and this partnership.” Actually, next week, we’re doing our first what we call a Remedy Rally, which our team is getting so big it’s hard to always communicate everything that’s happening. Now we’ve decided that once a quarter, I’m going to have a company-wide meeting, where I’m going to tell everyone all the exciting things in the pipeline and all the things going on.

That way it’s just one unified force. Everyone knows and is reminded of the mission in why we’re doing what we’re doing and how many people were helping and what’s in the future plans. I’m excited to do that because as the team gets bigger and bigger, it’s harder to have communication with everyone. Luckily, some of the leaders that I brought on are also helping me implement some really cool ways to just make sure the camaraderie is there and the communication on all levels are there.

John: For our listeners and viewers, we’ve got Dr. Jonathan Leary with us. He’s the founder and CEO of Remedy Place. To find Dr. Larry and his colleagues and Remedy Place, go to www.remedyplace.com. Let’s talk about some of the services there though and the importance of them. Let’s start with my favorite first of all, the breathwork and the plunge pool and the plunge baths. First of all, after my third or fourth time at Remedy Place, I started realizing that I wouldn’t even come just to listen to your breathwork. Even if I couldn’t do the plunge, the breathwork was making me better every day and setting the tone for my day. Besides the plunge, explain the importance of the one-two punch of your 11-minute breathwork session that you are the voice of and the coach of electronically and the plunge together. Explain how that really interrelates and works and all the benefits that come out of each of those.

Jonathan: I mean, I think breathwork is the most powerful tool that humans have. It’s something that, once you learn how to do it, it costs nothing. Anyone in the world can do it. I think it’s something, as you learn how to push it in certain ways, can have one of the biggest mental benefits out there out of any form of meditations. It’s the only thing that I’ve ever found that you can actually shift from a conscious state to a subconscious state. You can have a full out of body experience with intense breathwork. You’re altering the chemicals in your brain. If you do it fast enough or for long enough, people can have a full psychedelic trip. It’s crazy what the power of breath can do.

That’s not the point of it in this setting. The breath before is really to prepare your body. Get you in the right mental state, but also enhanced the oxygen utilization in your body before going through something difficult. With our ice baths, we call it adaption training. You’re teaching your body how to handle the extreme. Just like you go to the gym to train your muscles, this ice bath is going to train your thermal regulators. Also, I think in a time where people don’t feel that they control their mind or their body, going in an ice bath, you’re teaching your body that you are in control and that you can do it.

Also, that you’re accomplishing something really hard. I think, while doing something really hard, and the reason why we have a coach and the reason why we do it with other people with everyone with their own tubs, is like you told me before. If you go on a tub by yourself, you maybe want to jump out. You’re like, I don’t know if I want to be here. It’s hard, but you put people side by side, especially for their first couple of times. They don’t want to be the first one to jump out. If that alone just makes them stay a little bit longer, the benefits are going to be amplified. I think also, if we’re going through adaption training and teaching our bodies something new, to have a coach, they’re so important.

Ice baths have been around forever. But I think they’ve really blown up while Remedy has started. I think we’ve been able to be fortunate. But most people that are publicly doing ice baths in the industry, their first ice bath was with Remedy. I think what’s cool for me is any individual, if we can give them one experience that changes how they take care of themselves for the rest of their life, but then they also have a platform to influence and motivate people around them and talk about it, we’re trying to change societal norms. We need every leader, every person that people look up to, to all make these changes. Because if they do it, people look up to them and then they do it.

John: It’s so true. You made the experience so nice at Remedy Place. First of all, I can’t even believe. I still look back and I still pinch myself that the first time that my nephew and I did it together, which was my first experience ever, we did six minutes. Then after that, I started doing seven and I never looked back. Your team coached me to do more, get the hands in faster, get the head in faster, go all the way up to your neck. It became so much you can just keep doing more with it. You just continue to get more benefits out of it in the coaching and inspiration that your team gives and the great experience of your facility. It’s just amazing and sharing it with my son in law, my nephew, one of my coaches, and my physical therapist.

They all got the same experience out of it. They all want to come back. They all want to do more. They all want to share it with more people. It’s addicting and just wonderful. You’ve created a tremendous experience. Talk a little bit about, give just a quick thumbnail on ice baths and the great benefits that you can have. I mean, you’ve created this place and good timing, great, beautiful place and platform. But when Andrew Ubermann and Tim Ferriss and Joe Rogan are all talking about doing it everyday themselves, man, you’ve not only created the best and the first social wellness club, but you’ve got three of the greatest influencers and endorses on the planet that can be pushing people towards your great services and locations.

Jonathan: I mean, the benefits in short, it obviously decreases inflammation like any other cold therapy. It’s improving circulation, it’s going to help you sleep. Any aches or pains are going to be diminished because we are fighting against the inflammation. Like I was saying, the mental benefit teaching your body that you’re in control and getting through something challenging and training your thermal regulator how to adapt to extreme temperatures, you get a huge rush of endorphins, there’s huge dopamine spikes, there’s a big mood enhancement. It’s targeting your brown fat, you’re leaning out, your metabolism spikes. There’s nothing in the world that will shift your state of being mentally, physically, emotionally in six minutes than an ice bath.

John: It’s amazing.

Jonathan: A, I think it’s powerful thing. Think about how much before and after that, the ice bath experience, how much you change? Then you’re just busting all day.

John: All day. I love it. Talk a little bit about you have amazing and wonderful and very comfortable hyperbaric oxygen tanks. I’ve not used yours yet. I’ve used hyperbaric oxygen numerous times in my life to recover from both concussions and from surgery with tremendous success. Talk a little bit about why people should like to try and use hyperbaric oxygen to improve their health and wellness.

Jonathan: I mean, I think it’s gotten a lot of attention over the years because you have the Lebron James’s or the Justin Bieber’s posting about going in them. I think in short, putting more oxygen into the body speeds up every biochemical healing process. Think, it’s that simple. No matter what you’re struggling with, more oxygen entering the body, increased blood saturation rate of oxygen, it’s just going to help speed up any healing process. It doesn’t really matter what you’re recovering from or if it’s not even about recovery it’s just about prevention and maximizing your oxygen utilization in the body, it is so crazy because it’s so powerful.

I think the awareness is finally shifting, even though it’s been around for a while. A lot of the things that we offer in Remedy, they’ve been around for a long time but the awareness or the reason why or the place to go to or try it. It’s exciting because I think with any more awareness creates more change. If all the change in awareness is around these technologies that are allowing your body to heal, because all these things, they’re not doing anything that’s not holistic. They’re just putting your body in a better state to do what it should be doing. That’s the real power there.

John: There’s tremendous science behind everything we just discussed. Breathwork, ice plunges, hyperbaric oxygen, I mean, tell me if this statement is true or not. Disease cannot live in the presence of oxygen, especially large amounts of oxygen.

Jonathan: Right. Yeah.

John: It’s amazing. Going down the hall in my mind of your wonderful place, and now we’re at the end of the hall on the left-hand side and we’re in the cryotherapy chamber. Talk a little bit about cryotherapy. A lot of people have talked about it, talk about what that does for a person’s body and resilience as well.

Jonathan: It’s another cold treatment. Similar benefits in the sense that a lot of the benefits will be similar. However, water conduction and air conduction are a little bit different. When you’re in cryo, it’s -160, so much colder than our ice bath. But air conduction won’t penetrate too deep into the body. It’s more surface level. Your skin temperature will actually change more in cryo. But in an ice bath, water conduction is going to penetrate deeper into the core. Actually, your temperature is changing more. You just have heightened benefits.

I would say, for me, cryo was like my morning coffee. You can go in and out, you feel great. It’s really refreshing. If you’re dealing with any surface level inflammation, it’s amazing. You felt like super puffy. It’s a great way to get the surface level inflammation out. But if I had to pick one or the other between the ice bath and cryo, I would do the ice bath.

John: I’m with you and I love both. I do both too. I loved now much more into ice baths than the cryo. But I agree, they’re both wonderful. But I get colder from the ice baths for sure. Let’s go back to the warm now. Stopping before the ice baths are the three wonderful red light saunas that you have and the showers and that whole experience. Again, the big influencers talk about the benefits, including Rhonda Patrick and again, Ubermann, and of course, Rogan. The red light therapy and the saunas that are integrated together, what’s the benefits of now the heat and red light together as a one-two punch to people’s health, wellness, and proactivity on taking care of their health?

Jonathan: There’s a lot of talk of what’s better, infrared or traditional. I think what’s exciting is a traditional sauna is much hotter. I think the benefit and where a lot of the research lies is, it’s the activation of the heat shock protein. This protein gets activated and that’s where all the benefits occur with this activation after 160 degrees. Most infrared saunas only get to around 150. Infrared is a light therapy that will penetrate up to two and a half inches into the body and heats you from the inside out.

You’ll start profusely sweating. There’s a really nice detox benefit of that. The benefit is that you can last a lot longer. You’re able to sit in that sauna and just profusely sweat for a longer period of time. However, the cool thing about the infrared saunas is that at Remedy is they actually go up to 170. We’re able to have an infrared sauna that also gets the benefit of activating the heat shock protein. In our future clubs, we actually have our new technology has the availability to be infrared and traditional at the same time. Or you can pick either or.

John: Wow. Talk a little bit about the wisdom of putting those three saunas right before the ice plunge is do people use the saunas, take a nice shower, and literally go right into the ice plunge and do contrast therapy?

Jonathan: Yeah, so a lot of the times people will book the ice bath class after their sauna suite, so much so that in New York, we actually decided to do one suite that has contrast. You have it both and one for the people that want to be able to go back and forth. Or once you’re pro and you’re going every day, you’re like, “Maybe I don’t need the coach.” They can get the whole suite to themselves. Sometimes it’s up to six people in that suite. You can go with six people and ends up being a little bit of a party in there.

John: Is that just an uber way, an exponential way of creating more resilience for the body? Because now you’re pulling the body in one direction and then you go swinging all the way to the other. Is that the theory behind it?

Jonathan: Yeah, exactly. Once again, it’s another step within the adaption training, extreme heat and extreme cold. It’s building resilience and your body gets better and better at it. I say it’s like, if you wanted to go run a marathon, you maybe not be able to do that right off the bat. But you train and you get better and better. As you start doing hot and cold therapy, the more you do it, the easier it gets and the better your body adapts. Then there’s more ways that you want to manipulate the programming to always keep your systems on their toes so that you’re not adapting too much.

John: Understood. Talk a little bit about, and I’m going around the bend now. You have a beautiful room for acupuncture. How busy does that stay and do a lot of your guests and your members enjoy the acupuncture services that you have?

Jonathan: People love acupuncture and cupping. We do a combo where it’s acupuncture and cupping in there. Anyone walking out of that room, we call it a Qi-stoned. Legitimately, they walk out loading. It’s so crazy how acupuncture overrides your nervous system in such a cool way that you like that when all the needles are in me in my session, I feel like this buzzing sensation through my body and I end up falling asleep. When I wake up, I feel like I slept the whole entire night. Then with the gliding cupping, it is so incredible and it’s really amazing.

Of course, people love that. Then right across, we have our chiropractors. But our chiropractors blend chiropractic, physio, and Chinese medicine all within one treatment. Instead of going into three different doctors with three different philosophies, one doctor, one philosophy, but three treatments in one. It takes care of the joints, the muscle, and the fascia. That’s the best manual work that you’ll ever get. Our chiropractors are incredible. If you ever get to do it or you should…

John: I’m going to.

Jonathan: Absolutely, you’re going to become obsessed because there’s no way or faster way to get pain free. Everyone has some type of aches or pains. You can’t have pain if things are moving properly. Movement cures, so we’re just restoring motion in the joints, the muscle, and the fascia. That’s the key.

John: I love it. I’m walking down the hall now in my mind and that you have beautiful rooms where people can lay down and find, like you said, some of the most relaxing, comfortable spaces I’ve ever laid down in. I do my breathwork in there when the rooms are open. But I know I see a lot of people in there doing the IV work. Talk a little bit about the benefits now of the IV drips and why that’s really a part of some of the best preventative medicine techniques that exists out there today.

Jonathan: The interesting thing is the supplement market is a little messy. There’s not a lot of regulations there. A lot of supplements are junk. A lot of supplements are synthetic compounds that the body isn’t even recognizing and just peeing them out as expensive urine. I think people are spending so much on supplements. When you really look at it, the bioavailability, most of the supplements are really poor. People think that they’re actually absorbing a lot of these nutrients. Not only sometimes they’re not absorbing any of it, but sometimes it’s actually stressing the liver and kidneys because your body’s trying to figure out what it is. The cool thing about a vitamin IV is it doesn’t have to go through the GI tract. It’s bypassing the GI tract and it’s going directly into the bloodstream. You’re getting 100% of the nutrients that you need.

When we’re doing our patient’s bloodwork and looking at their micronutrient panel and looking at their deficiencies, I could do my patient’s bloodwork, and they could be on a supplement for years. I look at their bloodwork, I’m like, “You’re deficient in x, y, and z.” They’re like, “I take that every day.” I’m like, “Well, that’s a sign that you’re wasting money but it’s also harmful.” I think what’s cool is when we start looking at fixing deficiencies, IVs are the fastest way to regulate any of these deficiencies. At the end of the day, we just need adequate levels of all the vitamins and minerals and proteins in our body. if not, we’re not going to optimally function. Not only it’s a cool way to get hydrated, but it’s a cool way to actually fix these deficiencies. If you want to do your bloodwork, we can find out exactly what you’re deficient in. Then put you in IV program, so that we can fix all those deficiencies.

John: I love it. What I also love as a social part of your club is you have a beautiful, as you said, a bar area that’s not a classic bar with alcohol. It has healthy drinks, it has healthy snacks. It’s very peaceful. The smell is just heavenly in your place, you don’t almost want to leave. You can bring your iPad or your phone and just chill out and get a wonderful calming experience and do a little work and get ready for your day. Or at the end of the day, catch up on some emails or work and just get ready for a very comfortable and relaxing evening. I just think the oasis that you’ve created a WeHo, which is the place I’ve gone to now over three dozen times, I think is just amazing.

Jonathan: Thank you.

John: Let’s get into your memberships. I just became a member because I’m in New York and Los Angeles so much, I know I’m going to be able to use it. I want to have that ability to use your wonderful places. Talk a little bit about memberships. What are memberships look like and why did you leave it so wonderfully open that a person like me who wasn’t a member could come in and enjoy it first, and then understand how great it is and I can become a member? Talk a little bit about the varying membership programs that you have for people to get involved with your great social wellness club.

Jonathan: I mean, I think initially, if my end goal is to change healthcare or leave a positive impact on the world, to create a private member’s club, I’m cutting people out. I think my end goal, it’s counterintuitive. I think what we’ve done is we have an inclusive club, so anyone can make a reservation. But for the people that we think are amazing to add to the community that really value their health and they come so often, what we’ve done with the memberships, we’ve just put a lump sum of a lot of experiences and gave a very discounted price.

That way, members feel like, “I’m getting taken care of. I’m getting a good deal.” Then we cap the amount of members per club. That’s our exclusive size, we only have so many members that we allow at each club. That’s also to build the community, right? The people that are our ambassadors go and tell the world like you did today. Tou said so many things about Remedy. Those are our ambassadors, kind of.

John: Well, it’s not only that. That’s the purpose of the show, to make a bigger tent and to have great people like you that are making the world a healthier and better place on the show and the brand they created. That’s the whole reason of the show. That’s the whole reason 16 years ago we created this. If I belong to WeHo, do I get access then to New York? How does that work in memberships and cross partnerships and things of that such?

Jonathan: Correct. With a membership, you either have a single club or multi-city. As we start expanding, you’ll be able to go to all the cities across the US and be able to use the club with your membership.

John: Dr. Leary, your two a year sounds amazing as an entrepreneur and sounds daunting as an entrepreneur. But as a member doesn’t sounds fast enough, I want you to be in Miami, Chicago, Denver, Seattle. Talk a little bit about balancing the need and the voids that exists in the marketplace and being a responsible entrepreneur and growing slow enough and smart enough, so you don’t get ahead of yourself. How does that work? It’s too comfortable enough now, but do you think in two or three years, it’s going to be five a year, 10 a year? What’s your dream right now for growth?

Jonathan: Man, now that we’re bigger and more complicated, I mean, I had no idea. My dad was in construction and I still had no idea between these negotiations, engineering, architects, design, construction, permits. It is the most stressful industry I’ve ever seen. Honestly, I just I don’t know how people do it. I’m working so hard and have such an amazing team that two a year, if I space these things out every six or seven months, like right now I’m doing two at once, I’m like, this is so hard. But as our team grows and as we learn, maybe things get easier. We’re seeing certain things get easier.

But this is my first time doing two at once, one is in construction, one is in design phase, and I’m like, wow. I want to make sure that each club gets better and that we’re learning. We learn something from each club. But if you ask, everyone is saying the same thing. Why can’t you be in this city? Can you open up here? I mean, we’ve already reached out all over the world. I’m like, I wish I could snap my fingers and get these things opened overnight.

John: I know. You’re young, so it’s going to happen. Whatever your dreams are, it’s going to happen. Talk a little bit about you’re building your third and fourth location now at once. The third one’s in New York, the fourth one is where?

Jonathan: Boston.

John: If we had a map in front of us, I don’t want you to give me any secrets or business trade secrets, where would we put the pin for five and six? If we had a fun geography and map in front of us, where is that to be seen?

Jonathan: I mean, I would say, if you do live in LA or New York or between both, they’re the only two other cities that you probably traveled to on a regular basis. Maybe we start there.

John: Fair enough. I know you have some big partnerships in the works, from talking with your ambassadors and your concierges and your colleagues. Are you allowed to talk about any of the partnerships yet or that’s yet to come? But we’re going to do that on the next episode, we do together.

Jonathan: We gave a glimpse of a partnership. But I’m not allowed to say anything other than it’s a partnership. But it is with Kohler. You will see that all unravel through 2024 with all the updates and more details on what that partnership looks like. But partnering with them has been absolutely incredible. I’ve been working on it for almost a year now. Big things in store with them.

John: Here’s what I want to do, Doc, here’s what I want to say. I could sit here and talk to you for three more hours. But what I offer to you is this A, as you and I know, entrepreneurship is a journey. Health and wellness is a journey. Holistic health and wellness is an absolute journey. I want to invite you back on the Impact podcast next year. Next year, we’ll bring our camera crew with us. Because sometimes we go on location. We’ll come do an episode with you in your new location in New York. You can then unveil all the new technologies, all your new partnerships. We can actually show it visually and do a walkthrough and actually try one or two of the things on camera and show the world all the great things that Remedy Place is doing and why it’s so beneficial to people to use Remedy Place for their health and wellness goals.

Jonathan: I would love that.

John: That’ll be great. Dr. Jonathan Leary, the founder and CEO of Remedy Place. To find Dr. Jonathan Leary and his colleagues and to go use Remedy Place and try it out for yourself, please go to www.remedyplace.com. Thank you, Dr. Leary, for creating a place that’s designed to heal. Thank you for making us all healthier, and thank you for just making the world a better place overall.

Jonathan: Thanks, John.

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