Good Neighbor Podcast: Union
Bringing Together Local Businesses and Residents of Northern Kentucky! Based in Union, KY....The Good Neighbor Podcast helps the residents of Northern Kentucky get to know local business owners as people. We allow the business owners and influencers in NKY to tell the stories of how they started their business and why. We hear about their families, their personal interests and why they love living in and serving resident of Northern Kentucky!
Good Neighbor Podcast: Union
UPDATE! Checking in with Philip Lamar and Live Well Lounge
Experience the inspiring journey of Philip Lamar, the visionary owner of Live Well Lounge, as he reveals the secrets behind transforming his wellness business into a thriving success. Prepare to uncover the strategic blending of a traditional retail setup with a cutting-edge mobile IV hydration service that brings wellness straight to clients' doorsteps, whether at home, corporate gatherings, or even weddings. Philip's story doesn't end there—he's now opening his retail location in Crescent Springs, offering a serene lounge experience with unique services like aromatherapy and cold infused towels. This episode is a testament to the power of innovation and adaptability in the ever-evolving wellness industry.
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, mike Murphy. Thanks, charlie. Yes, I am Mike Murphy, host of the Good Neighbor Podcast. I have a great neighbor with me, philip Lamar, owner of Live Well Lounge. He and I have spoken before, so since we last spoke, I had promised him that we would get together for an update. So fast forward, here we are with an update on Live Well Lounge. There've been big changes for Phil and Live Well Lounge, so I just wanted to bring him in and just have him let the community know what's going on, what's happened since we last spoke. Where are you now and where are you headed? So, phil, take it away, man.
Speaker 2:Well, it's good seeing you, Mike. Thanks for having me on today. Always a pleasure hanging out with you and your amazing team, but quite a bit has changed since you and I spoke last. Long story short. We were heading in a specific direction. As a company, we were going to start off with a brick and mortar retail space. We had plans to open up a mobile side of our business after that, but before we opened, we had a very unique business opportunity present itself to us. So I had to make a really difficult decision. I had to make a decision. What was best for the company to either pursue our retail shop that we were going to open up in which is what we partnered with you on and publicized or do we want to pivot and start mobile and wait for this new opportunity that came at us? And so what was best for the company was to close out that chapter of going to that retail shop and starting off mobile. And so we did that.
Speaker 2:We started off, we bought an SUV, we wrapped it in our colors and we started doing mobile IV hydration.
Speaker 2:We were driving to people's homes. They were getting IV hydration in the comfort of their recliner, their couch, while they're watching TV, watching the game, whatever it may be. We were doing corporate events, office visits while people were having business meetings, working on their wellness. At the same time, we were going to hotels for wedding parties, and so it was wonderful, it was working great, and while we did that, behind the scenes, I was working on this new opportunity for a retail shop, and that's kind of what we're here to talk about today is, instead of opening up in Union, we did open up our first retail shop in Crescent Springs, and so it's right off the Buttermilk exit.
Speaker 2:It's in the same plaza as some restaurants you might be familiar with, like La Tortoloca plaza, as some restaurants you might be familiar with, like La Tortoloca Bonefish. So we're right in that plaza and we have a great lounge where our clients can come. They can enjoy sit back, relax, get aromatherapy, enjoy a cold infused towel while getting an IV, or they want to simply come and kick back and relax at our lounge. Both options are now available.
Speaker 1:Okay, good, so you've got the brick and mortar and I think you know you mentioned like near bonefish. Pretty much all of us kind of know where that is, but if we want to get address specific, I believe it's 578 Buttermilk Pike.
Speaker 2:You got it, yes, sir, so when you pull, into that plaza, buttermilk Pike, you got it, yes, sir. So when you pull into that plaza, a dear friend of mine, a longtime friend, owns the Merrill Norman franchise and the sublease space within their store, so we have our logo on the window. If you pull in that plaza, you'll see the Merrill Norman sign, you'll see the Live Well Lounge sign and we're in. We're right in that building.
Speaker 1:OK, so Live Well at your brick and mortar. Now that is up and running, correct?
Speaker 2:yeah, we had a our grand opening last, uh, last week, and it was phenomenal.
Speaker 1:We were booked out the whole week okay, well, good for you and um, now I just want to be sure about the mobile service that's been rocking and rolling. Um, now, are you scaling back on that, or are you going to offer it just as heavily as you had been? Or is it as needed? What's that look like?
Speaker 2:Yeah, great question. So we have not scaled back on it. It's right now. It's about 50, 50, 50 percent of our clients prefer that convenience to have IV therapy brought to them, and so that's still in full swing. No scaling back there. And then about prefer to come into our lounge, which is also completely, completely great with us, and so it's about split. Even we did a wedding recently in downtown Cincinnati, so things like that obviously require us to deliver, and so so, yeah, no, not scaling back on the mobile side. That's still doing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, cause when you offer some concierge service like that, I can imagine people kind of think it's cool, they get used to it, they tell their friends about it. So once you start offering that, it's tough to pull back on that. Right, I would see that that's a very valuable service that you offer.
Speaker 2:So yeah, yeah, people seem to really like it a lot.
Speaker 1:Okay, so is there anything new on the horizon? Anything else you got going on? Or you know you mentioned the grand opening that was last weekend. Are there? I don't know. Do you have any sort of community events that you're going to be appearing at, or do you have any other partners in the community that has kind of helped you with your growth model? Who in the community has kind of been a partner with you? I think I saw you out one day at the fitness facility out there in Union.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we've been very blessed with some wonderful partners. So we have a couple Orange Theory gyms we work with. We've partnered with Burn Boot Camp. We have quite a few different holistic practitioners that are practicing chiropractic care, physical therapy, different types of natural holistic medicine, and so we have several doctors, nurse practitioners that we partner with. So we've had the opportunity to collaborate with some wonderful providers, gyms, other like-minded companies that are all about health and wellness, and so that's been great to partner with and collab with some of these folks.
Speaker 2:On top of what's new, what else is coming? Obviously, we just launched our retail store, but we do have a couple new services that will be available within the next couple of weeks. One of those I'm very excited about, and that's our micronutrient panel. Okay, so statistics show, many peer reviewed studies, show the scientific data, but about 93% of individuals have some sort of micronutrient deficiency. So, whether that's vitamin D, whether it's a trace mineral like magnesium or zinc or glutathione, maybe it's B complex, b9. A lot of people have a B9 deficiency. Maybe it's vitamin C. Whatever it may be, about 93% of people have at least one deficiency. And how our bodies are designed is we have to have micronutrients right. Your body. It's like uh, without micronutrients or macronutrients um proteins, carbs, fats et cetera.
Speaker 2:It's like a car with no gasoline, it's just not going to move, it's not going to work properly. You can push the car, you're not going to get very far. Your body has to have nutrients to function properly, and so, with 93% of people having a deficiency, the goal, the passion, the mission with our new service is this panel identifies all micronutrients, so A, all of B, complex, c, d, e and K, all 13 essential minerals, trace minerals, antioxidants, the whole nine yards. Our panel will actually show all of the numbers and the data of what an individual may be deficient in. Once our team can identify that, it takes about three days turnaround to get the report and once all of the numbers and the data of what an individual may be deficient in, wow.
Speaker 2:Once our team can identify that. It takes about three days turnaround to get the report and once we identify where there's a deficiency, it helps us customize a wellness plan for that individual.
Speaker 1:All right, oh, that's a new service. Yeah, is that a blood test or a urine test? What's that look like?
Speaker 2:Blood test. Okay All right. Blood test. Okay, blood test, so yeah. So it's something that obviously it makes sense in the nature of our business doing vitamin and mineral IV infusions and intramuscular injections. Obviously, you can never go wrong with your water-soluble vitamins like B and C. Those are constantly being flushed out of your system, so you can constantly be getting that in an IV.
Speaker 2:But what's even better is identifying where someone needs supplementation when you can find where someone needs supplementation, you can target that area, not supplement for the sake of supplementation, but to supplement for the sake of where there's a deficiency. So we're very excited to bring that to the market for our customers, for new clients. We think it's going to make a big difference. And so that's a new service that we have coming in the horizon Should be available in about two weeks.
Speaker 1:Okay, man, oh man, there have been some changes. I'm glad we caught up with you because you are a busy man and you're out there doing good work in the community. I'm happy to see all the changes, I'm happy to see you grow and I'm looking forward to eventually being one of your clients myself. I want to test this out. Maybe just a good old fashioned Myers cocktail, I think that's what it's called.
Speaker 2:Oh, yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1:Classic. I've kind of been curious about. You know these micronutrient panels myself. There's been a lot of talk of magnesium in the news I've seen and the benefits of that for sleep and, you know, to fight headaches. I think is what I've read.
Speaker 2:So magnesium is. Of course, there's going to be a lot of different opinions from discussions with our pharmacists that oversees our practice from our internal medicine physician. That oversees our practice from a lot of authorities especially. Magnesium is arguably one of the most important minerals in your entire body because there's so many different functions that it serves. So, yeah, it is extremely important. A lot of people have a magnesium deficiency too. So far from test panels we've done obviously we'll open up to the public, but we've done many internal micronutrient panels for our team just to bulletproof our system and what we're finding most commonly, vitamin D and magnesium are seeming to be two very common deficiencies. Both are very important to the human body.
Speaker 1:Well, it's nice that you are taking the guesswork out of it and you're able to run this panel three day turnaround. Somebody can see in black and white where they're deficient and then you can address it for them very easily. So, all right, I think that that's. That's a lot of change. We'll leave it there as as as we move forward through time and your story continues to progress, we'll keep checking in with you and in the meantime, you know I'm going to stop out at the new brick and mortar there on Buttermilk Pike in Crescent Springs and see what you got going on. Maybe I'll do a little remote from just my cell phone. We'll do a Facebook Live or something, but I'm curious to share your story with everybody, and this has been a big part of it, this update. So thanks for spending time with us. Of course I'll let you go now. You're a busy guy.
Speaker 1:While you and I have been speaking, you've received multiple phone calls. It's good to see your face again. I look forward to seeing you in person again ASAP and I'll try to make that happen as soon as possible. In the meantime, listeners out there, thank you for joining us Until I see you next time. On behalf of Phil and myself. Everybody out there, be good to your neighbors. See you soon, bye-bye. Thanks for listening to the good neighbor podcast union. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to gnpunioncom that's gnpunioncom, or call us at 859-651-8330.