Good Neighbor Podcast: Fort Collins

E25: Blue Orchid Wellness is making acupuncture accessible through a revolutionary membership model.

• Nick George • Season 1 • Episode 25

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From diapers to downward dog to acupuncture needles—Terrence Monte's path to founding Blue Orchid Wellness defies conventional career trajectories. When the pandemic prompted Terrence and his wife to flee Brooklyn, they landed in Fort Collins sight unseen. What they discovered was the perfect home for both their family and Terrence's unique approach to wellness.

The story begins with resistance. As a mechanical engineer for Procter & Gamble, Terrence found himself unfulfilled. After pursuing an acting MFA, he reluctantly attended a mandatory yoga class, fully prepared to hate every moment. Within minutes, his skepticism transformed into passion, eventually leading him to teach at New York's premier yoga studio—a position he earned by starting at the very bottom, cleaning toilets and patiently working his way up the ranks. When a hand injury led him to try acupuncture—another practice he initially dismissed as "garbage pseudoscience"—the remarkable results didn't just heal his body; they redirected his entire professional life.

What makes Blue Orchid Wellness revolutionary is its commitment to accessibility and effectiveness. Rejecting the traditional pay-per-session model, Terrence offers a $250 monthly membership that provides twice-weekly treatments—bringing the cost down to just $30 per session. This approach specifically addresses the reality that chronic conditions, autoimmune disorders, and gynecological issues require consistent, long-term care to see meaningful improvement. Combined with his commitment to quality (seeing only 6-7 patients daily) and his 22 years of yoga teaching experience, Terrence has created a practice that stands apart from high-volume wellness centers. His philosophy of remaining open to new experiences—even those we initially resist—infuses everything Blue Orchid represents.

Ready to experience a different approach to wellness? Whether you're struggling with chronic health issues or simply curious about acupuncture, Blue Orchid Wellness offers accessible, high-quality care with no obligation. Connect with Terrence today and discover what might be possible when resistance gives way to openness.

Speaker 1:

businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Nick George.

Speaker 2:

Welcome to the Good Neighbor Podcast. Are you in need of an expert? Acupuncture, herbal medicine, yoga and more under one roof? One might be closer than you think. Today I have the pleasure of introducing your good neighbor, terrence Monti of Blue Orchid Wellness. Terrence, how's it going? Good, nick? Yeah, thank you. That was so sweet of you to say that. Thank you, we're excited to learn all about you and your business. Tell us about your wellness center.

Speaker 3:

Okay, so I'm in Fort Collins. I just moved here with my wife about two years ago from Brooklyn. We lived in Brooklyn, new York, upper East Side, manhattan, then pandemic Brooklyn, blah, blah, blah. And we wanted I don't know if you've been to New York City, I'm from there, born and raised we wanted out, out, out, out, out out. So we scouted many, many cities Sarasota, florida, oregon, texas, california. We looked at Minnesota, we looked at upstate New York. I mean, we really looked. We looked at Portland, maine. We were like where do we want to start a family? Where can we go? And Fort Collins. We were originally gonna move to Denver and somehow we ended up, sight unseen, in Fort Collins, and I have never been happier. This is like heaven on earth to me.

Speaker 3:

Um, so I opened it off. Originally I was going to work for an acupuncturist, because starting a business from scratch, knowing no one, no friends, no support network, usually is a bad idea. So I was going to work for someone, kind of get the lay of the land out the market. And uh, when I was looking around, um, I don't know how to say this exactly there, but four columns has a ton of acupuncturists. Um, so none of them were doing anywhere near what I wanted to do the practice I was running in manhattan, um, and I I just couldn't find someone I aligned with. I couldn't find someone where I doing anywhere near what I wanted to do the practice. I was running in Manhattan and I just couldn't find someone I aligned with. I couldn't find someone where I felt like I would be comfortable working for them. There's a lot of volume acupuncturists here where they're running three rooms and seeing, you know, 40, 50 patients in a day, and that's just not how. I mean that's fine, but it's just not how I wanted to, it's not how I practice medicine, it's not how I wanted to run my business.

Speaker 3:

So, um, victoria, my wife was like, just just do it, just start from scratch. You were running a very successful business in New York. I'm sure you'll figure it out, we'll, we'll, we'll be poor for a while, figure it out. So I opened an office literally the month I got here, um, and just last month I moved to a bigger office where I'm running two rooms and that's about where I'll stay for the next 10, 15 years where I'm just going to run two rooms, um, so I'm only seeing maybe six, seven patients, maybe tops a day, six days a week, and I teach yoga at Grit in Old Town in Fort Collins sort of proper, I guess, is what you would say and I've been teaching yoga for about 22 years, so they sort of go hand in hand and that's. I mean, that's really the broad brushstrokes of how Blue Orchid came to be in Fort Collins.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, how did you get into the business of yoga and acupuncture?

Speaker 3:

Oh man, you want the three-hour version. I was forced. So before I was teaching yoga, I was a mechanical engineer. I worked for Procter Gamble making diapers and I didn't like it so I went to grad school. The job market in 2003 was garbage, so I couldn't find a job. So I was like I'll go to grad school for acting. So I got an MFA in acting and as part of that schooling they make you do a semester of yoga. So I wrote to the Dean like I don't want to do this. Oh god, this culty garbage. I'm not gonna chant to do stupid stuff. And, to his credit, he responded like you absolutely don't have to. We've been teaching acting here for over a hundred years in this way. You're welcome to go to any other grad school you want. So I walked into the first yoga class being like ah, this is dumb. And within 10 minutes I'd fallen in love with it. I was like I was so wrong. I'm stupid, this is amazing. And I started just doing yoga anywhere I could get it, from anyone, trying to learn everything.

Speaker 3:

Fast forward to 2009 and moved back to new york and there was a yoga studio that had just opened. It was supposed to be the mecca of yoga. It was four floors, 25 000 square feet. Uh, they had six yoga studios at the time, later to be eight, and they had hired the best yoga teachers on the East Coast just the best. So I was like, well, I'm going to teach there, that's what I'm going to do. So I kept harassing them. I started at the lowest rung cleaning toilets. Eventually I worked my way up to regional managing teacher because I loved teaching yoga and that finally came across. I finally convinced them. You know, let me teach a class or two. Someone didn't show up, which is how every yoga teacher tends to get their start and I started teaching yoga. So then I became, you know, kind of known in a yoga circle, which is to say, not known at all. Nobody's ever heard of me.

Speaker 3:

But if you did yoga in New York in the mid-2000s, you sort of knew who I was. And I had broken my finger in a guy named Raghunath's class. Raghunath is very, very good, very, very big yoga teacher. And I went to a Harvard hand surgeon because I was sort of connected and after eight weeks I couldn't close a fist. So someone was like you should go to an acupuncturist and I was like, no, that's stupid. I don't want to pay some idiot for some garbage pseudoscience. But you know, when you're desperate you'll do anything.

Speaker 3:

So I went went to this guy named Stephen Cohen and he was in the Flatiron district in New York. We just go in and within two sessions I had my full grip strength back. But more than that, he had convinced me I was gonna have a heart attack, like in the near future, in the imminent future. And what he didn't know is my dad had died of a heart attack at 53 and his father had a heart attack at 39, and so I. This was something I was actually concerned about. He didn't know any of that. But he was like I don't like the metrics and uh, I couldn't believe it. He blew my mind. I was like I thought this was garbage. You know, I was coming here to on a, on a laugh sort of, and uh, I ended up walking away being like no-transcript. I was like I'm in the right place. I feel like I'm in the right place, and ever since then I've had that feeling of being in the right place at the right time pretty regularly.

Speaker 2:

Let's switch gears. Can you describe a hardship or life challenge that you overcame and you might have already done that in what you've said so far but something that made you strong, how it made you stronger? What comes to mind?

Speaker 3:

Yeah, the short answer to that is every time I felt really like I don't want to do this dumb thing, whether it's yoga or acupuncture school or going to grad and literally anything. The one thing is I've always been surrounded by really good teachers. I've been really lucky with that, and any good teacher always tell you keep an open mind, keep an open heart, just try it, see what it's like. You know, you don't know. Just, you don't know everything. And so I guess what I would say is, every time I come to a hardship, it's almost always my own resistance to the thing. Like, whatever my preconceived notion is or my history, my experience tells me this is something I shouldn't be involved in, and I always remember I just try.

Speaker 3:

Maybe I'm not so good at it, I probably fail a lot more than I succeed, but I try to keep open mind on like, all right, let's see what it's about, let's do it wholeheartedly, and if it's not for me, at least I can say it's not for me. So I would say that the lesson I really learned all the things I truly love my wife, for example. Like we started dating about a weekend we like thought, ah, maybe this isn't for us, and now we're married. You know what I mean. Like everything that I was resistant to in the beginning, she was too smart. She, like everything that I was resistant to in the beginning, she was too smart, she was too pretty. I thought this wasn't going to work.

Speaker 2:

You know, I guess my rambling answer is the hardships are always made easier when you are doing it fully with an open mind. Terrence, please tell our listeners one thing they should remember about Blue Orchid Wellness and how they can get or learn more about you guys online or in person.

Speaker 3:

Actually I'm doing something different that no one in this market, or any market I can find, is doing. Instead of charging per session or per service, I'm asking people to come and pay per month, and the resistance to that is like I don't want to get locked in or anything. I don't want to oh God, another membership. So it's no obligation. You cancel anytime you want. I'll refund for any reason. There is no objection. You can come up with that I haven't solved. You can cancel anytime you want.

Speaker 3:

But the reason I want to see you regularly is because the patients I'm seeing have major OBGYN problems or chronic disease, autoimmune, and that takes more than six sessions. And so instead of paying 90 bucks a session, which is the market rate in Fort Collins, I asked for 250 a month, but I'm going to see you twice a week. If I see you twice a week for a month, you're paying 30 bucks a session, which is the market rate in Fort Collins. I asked for 250 a month, but I'm going to see you twice a week. If I see you twice a week for a month, you're paying 30 bucks a session. And that is one of the core values of Blue Orchid is that it's cheap, accessible and obviously excellent care. I mean you don't have to ask my patients about that. I think I'm really good, but who doesn't? Who doesn't think that they're really good?

Speaker 2:

Right, well, that's awesome. Well, terrence, I really appreciate you being on the show. We wish you and your business the best moving forward.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, thanks, nick. I really appreciate your time. Thank you so much.

Speaker 1:

Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to gnpfortcollinscom. That's gnpfortcollinscom, or call 970-438-0825.