Good Neighbor Podcast: Fort Collins
Bringing together local businesses and neighbors of Fort Collins. Good Neighbor Podcast hosted by Nick George helps residents discover and connect with your local business owners in and around Fort Collins, Colorado.
Is your business serving the residents of Fort Collins? Then, we need to talk! Visit gnpFortCollins.com to schedule your free interview.
Good Neighbor Podcast: Fort Collins
From Corporate Medicine To Compassionate Aesthetics And Functional Wellness
What if “do no harm” guided every choice your clinician made? We sit down with Tanna Donaldson of Redbud Medical Spa in Denver to explore what happens when you leave a metrics-obsessed system and rebuild care around trust, prevention, and natural results. The conversation moves from subtle aesthetics to functional medicine, showing how real wellness emerges when treatments are tailored to the whole person, not just the symptom in front of them.
Tanna breaks down common myths: aesthetics doesn’t have to look fake, and functional medicine isn’t only for the wealthy. We talk lasers, chemical peels, Botox, fillers, peptides, weight management, and hormone replacement therapy—and why tools are secondary to judgment and ethics. You’ll hear why her team sometimes says no to a requested treatment, how they prioritize subtle results, and the ways nutrition and genetic insights shape smarter plans. Along the way, Tanna shares why she markets through education instead of discounts, and how pushing back on influencer hype empowers patients to make better choices.
The heart of the story is courage and clarity: choosing the narrow road away from corporate rules to build a clinic that serves people, not spreadsheets. From international service trips to daily patient care, Tanna’s values show up in practical ways—protecting safety, telling the truth, and keeping care accessible. If you’re curious about preventative care, skeptical of quick fixes, or searching for licensed guidance you can trust, this conversation offers a grounded path forward.
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This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Nick George.
SPEAKER_02:Welcome to the Good Neighbor Podcast. Are you in need of a good medical spa? Well, one might be closer than you think. Today I have the great pleasure of introducing your good neighbor, Tana Donaldson, with Red Bud Medical Spa in Denver. Tana, how's it going?
SPEAKER_01:Great. How are you?
SPEAKER_02:Good. Tell me all about Red Red Bud Medical Spa.
SPEAKER_01:Red Bud Medical Spa is in Denver, and it was established out of my sort of painful exit from corporate medicine because I really wanted to take great care of people, and I was having a hard time doing it within our very broken system. And so I established this business about nine years ago and started taking care of mostly women, but now I'm taking care of all kinds of people doing all kinds of things, and we can get into that.
SPEAKER_02:What was the transition that brought you out of one paradigm of medical and into this paradigm of medical?
SPEAKER_01:I really think that when people go into medicine, whether any kind of medicine, we take this silent oath that we will do no harm. And I think we can all agree that our system really isn't built to support that. We have a system built on metrics and on rules and on uh money. And it's really, really difficult to take great care of people and be compassionate and empathetic and meet people where they're at, get in front of disease, prevent problems in the system the way that it's built. And so at some point after about 14 years, I just didn't want to be a part of that anymore and had to creatively figure out a way to continue to practice medicine, but do it in a way that helped me sleep at night, that didn't keep me up at night, where I felt like I was doing a good job and doing right by people and causing no harm.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, you said a thousand words there. I I totally understand your language, and a lot of people do. Um, now go getting into the world of uh anaestheticians. Um, did I get that right?
SPEAKER_01:Yes, I'm not an aesthetician, but aesthetics, the world of aesthetics. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Okay. Does do I have that right? Is that the right connection? Um what are some myths or misconceptions in your specific niche of the medical spa industry?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, so we do aesthetics and also a lot of functional medicine. On the aesthetic side, I think a lot of people think that that means that you're gonna walk out of there looking fake or done or something like that. And that's just not that's just not our goal at all. We try to keep things very natural. We turn people away when they want to do things that we just don't align with. Um, and it's really just about taking care of the whole person. So it's not just the external stuff that we address. We are also doing functional medicine, um, nutritional evaluations, genetic testing, all kinds of things. We do peptides, weight loss, hormone replacement. And on that side, I think the biggest misconception is that it's not affordable, is that I can't I can't have that kind of health care because insurance doesn't cover me there, which is true. But everything that we do is so affordable and we we will keep it that way so that it's accessible to as many people as possible.
SPEAKER_02:Well, that's exciting. Uh, what type of uh facial treatments do you uh offer to men and women there? Um, I just discovered Morpheus for for instance. Um are you familiar with that or is there a better thing that you suggest?
SPEAKER_01:I used to train people how to use Morpheus. I worked for that company for a little bit. So yes, I'm very familiar with Morpheus. We have a couple different lasers, one of Morpheus's competitors, um, but we have several different lasers that can work on overall tightening, anti-aging, sun damage, etc. We do facials and chemical peels, Botox, filler, all of the things on the aesthetic side.
SPEAKER_02:Nice. How do you market yourself now? Um, and what are what's your target market?
SPEAKER_01:That's changing because it used to be women between the ages of maybe 20 and 70, but now that we have all of this stuff on the functional side that we're offering, our target market is really anyone because we're trying to get on the front end of disease and and just promote wellness. And so there really isn't anyone that couldn't be a good patient for us. And I do a lot of publications, that's actually my main way to market. I do a lot of writing articles and getting involved in just different publications, and so I don't put ads out, we don't run a bunch of big discounts, I don't email my patients all the time. So it's really just about putting education out so that people can be told the truth, and that's how they find us.
SPEAKER_02:Have you ever thought about doing your own podcast?
SPEAKER_01:Yes.
SPEAKER_02:What do you do for fun when you're not taking care of people?
SPEAKER_01:I travel. Uh I have two teenagers, so we have a lot of fun, but I travel. We just got back from Africa, and we've got a couple sponsor kids in Rwanda, so we went to visit them and do some things with Africa New Life, and that's really the biggest part of my heart, honestly. So we like to get out of here and see the world.
SPEAKER_02:Wow, that is exciting.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Um, so what would is there a hardship? And I should have asked you before we started the interview, just in case this is putting you on the spot. But is there a hardship or a life challenge that maybe your life wasn't perfect that you overcame and that made you the part the strong-willed person and business leader that you are today that you'd like to share with us?
SPEAKER_01:How much time do we have? I mean, yes, uh plenty of things that I have had to navigate. I but professionally speaking, I think the biggest hurdle I've had to overcome that has landed me where I am now is taking the narrow road of choosing truth and choosing loving people well and taking great care of people and doing no harm over serving the little G gods that be and making sure that you know I'm drinking the corporate juice and following all of their rules. That was really tough because you can't, it's like some people will say, if you can't beat them, join them. Well, I joined them and I can't beat them, but I I'm not saying because I don't I don't feel right here, you know, doing that. And so that that was a narrow road. It was an upstream swim. It was really tough to get out and to establish myself on my own and be successful doing that, but I did it.
SPEAKER_02:Congratulations on that. That's inspiring. Um, what is the big takeaway that you would like for the the average person that finds you through a Google search or just listening to the show? Uh, what's the big takeaway you'd like them to get from Red Bud Medical Spa?
SPEAKER_01:I really, in general, would love it if everyone knew how easy and accessible true information is. I wish everyone would stay off social media unless they're watching your podcast, of course, um, and not listen to all the influencers out there that don't have a license that are misleading them. I wish people just knew that the access to the truth and to wellness and to preventative care and to all the things that we can do to get ahead of in front of disease so that we can live long, healthy, fruitful lives. It's just, it's actually pretty easy. It's very accessible. Um, there's a lot of really good information out there, and there are good practitioners out there too, that care like I do, that want to take good care of people. They're hard to find. They're not often within the system, but some of them are still, you know. So I wish people just didn't count it as that's too much money, or it's too hard, or I can't afford functional medicine, or it just is what it is. I'm gonna deal with all these chronic diseases and die young or whatever it is that they adopt. They just don't have to live that way.
SPEAKER_02:100% agreed. What are all the ways that people can find Red Bud Medical Spa online and in social media and by phone?
SPEAKER_01:So the website is Red Bud, like the I'm from Oklahoma, it's the state tree. So this is my nod to my alma mater, but it's redbudmedicalspa.com. And we because I do things like this and I'm forward-facing with patients all the time, I don't answer my phone, which is bad practice, but you can text anytime, and the phone number is 720-593844.
SPEAKER_02:Well, Tana, we really appreciate you being on our show, and we wish you and Red Bud Medical Spa the very best moving forward.
SPEAKER_01:Thank you so much. Thanks for having me.
SPEAKER_00:Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to gnpfortcollins.com. That's gmpfortcollins.com or call nine seven zero four three eight zero eight two five.