Why Scaling Wellness Takes a Tech Mindset with Joel Kocher

0:01Light that spark fire nation JLD here and welcome to entrepreneurs on fire brought to you by high level, the all-in-one sales and marketing platform. Today, we'll be breaking down why scaling wellness takes a tech mindset. To drop these value bombs, I brought Joel Koehr into EO Fire Studios. Joel is a transformational leader who drove Dell's rise to Fortune 500 and co-founded Human, a leading cardiovascular wellness brand based on Nobel Prize winning nitric oxide science, earning national recognition for innovation, impact, and entrepreneurship excellence. Today, we'll talk about cross-industry lessons, cardiovascular health, health for everyone, staying grounded amid trends, and oh, so much more.

0:42And the big thing for sponsoring today's episode goes to Joel and our sponsors. Fire Nation, we believe this is your year to transform your business. Start your transformation by attending the world's highest rated business growth workshop taught personally by Clay Clark and featuring football star and entrepreneur Tim Tebow and President Trump's son, Eric Trump, at thrivetimeshow.com slash EOfire. Again, request life-changing tickets today at thrivetimeshow.com slash EO Fire. Are you ready for the ultimate all-in-one platform for entrepreneurs, marketers, coaches, and agencies? Build funnels, automate follow-ups, manage clients, and even white-label your own software.

1:22Say hello to our featured partner, High Level, and visit highlevelfire.com to start your free trial today. Joel, say what's up to Fire Nation and share something that you believe about becoming successful that most people disagree with. Success is about the people you surround yourself with, John. It's not about you. And as a company, you are who you hire. The end. And it scrambles my brain that entrepreneurs and CEOs don't invest the time to interview every single person that comes to work in their firm. You are who you are. Fire Nation, that's why we're talking about why scaling wellness takes a tech mindset.

2:11And I want to start, Joe, by talking about cross-industry lessons. How do you personally take insights from one industry and apply them to completely revolutionize another industry, turning this conventional thinking on its head? Well, I'm a disruptor at heart, John, and I think I look back on my career, you could probably point to four different times that we and my team have disrupted the status quo. True disruption usually translates to being synonymous with changing the world. I'm a deeper purpose guy. Disrupt something. I mean, change something. Time is finite, you know, in a word. I'm a lot older than you are, John, so I think I can say this.

3:01The value of life, it really comes down to the marks you left beyond capital gain. Fire Nation, I love that message about the marks you left beyond capital gain because so many people are grinding their face off every single day. They're missing so many important things in life. And then they look up, it's all gone by. It's all in the past. Well, you were just telling me about Puerto Rico. Yeah. Living in Puerto Rico. I mean, how you live your life freaking matters. Yeah. And I actually say how you live your days is how you live your lives. Well, well said. Thank you. Well said. And capital gain, I'm not here to say, well, capital doesn't matter or capital gain doesn't matter.

3:39But I will tell you, if you are 100 % focused on capital gain, you're focused on the wrong thing. You need to go make a difference, disrupt something, change something, be a force for good. And that capital gain thing kind of has a way of taking care of itself if you do the other thing right. Well, that's what inspired me to launch Entrepreneurs on Fire back in 2012. It was the quote by Albert Einstein, try not to become a person of success, but rather a person of value. And I said, how can I become a person of value? Because I spent 32 years of my life chasing success, not finding it, but I wasn't really providing value to people.

4:20I was chasing dollars. I was chasing success. and then I launched a daily podcast for free to the world, just providing value and success found me in that category. So that's something to kind of think about. And you talk about the important things, Joel. I want to talk about important things around health, the case for cardiovascular health. I mean, how do we convince people that cardiovascular health is not just important, but it's non-negotiable? I mean, that's no small task. So what the heck does it take to shift mindsets and make prevention a priority? Well, you got it right. You got the premise right.

4:54Blood flow is a force multiplier for the body. There's 60 ,000 miles of blood vessels in your body. 60 ,000 if you put them end to end, right? And it delivers oxygen and nutrients to all 37 trillion cells in your body. In fact, those cells die if they're not receiving that oxygen replenishment, you know, every couple of minutes. So it blows my mind that people are more focused on trendy greens powders and liver cleanses than they are in the most foundational health element there is, which is those 60 ,000 miles of blood vessels. So to answer your question, we just have to reframe the conversation, you know, one person at a time.

5:44It's common sense. We do. We are fortunate now as a company that we've gotten large enough, you know, that our communications budget is large enough that I think we can move the needle, you know, yearly. But we need physicians to help us. And that's why we our company was actually incepted out of the University of Texas Health Sciences Center. And the first place we focused before we ever went to the consumer was physicians. So we have thousands and thousands of physicians that we have touched over the last 15 years and frankly educated. I don't want to say that respectfully and humbly, but have educated them to think about that 60 ,000 miles and what impact it has on the body.

6:30The cardiovascular system is the super highway of human performance. It is what powers the body. So that's the message or the disruptive think that we have to get across to people for them to get it. 60 ,000 miles. What was that 37 trillion number? 37 trillion cells, my friend, John. You know what's insane about that number? 37 trillion cells. That number is the exact amount of debt the U.S. has as of today. Isn't that crazy? John, that is crazy. You can use that only for probably a couple months, because then we'll be at$38 trillion for the debt. For a couple of minutes, maybe. For a couple of minutes, John.

7:16Let's get it right. Oh, man. Let's talk about health for everyone, Joel, because you say your mission is to make better health accessible to all. What does that really mean? Well, first of all, it means changing the trajectory of cardiovascular health, and we have the tech and the know-how to do it. But America just flat out has cardiovascular health wrong. They think that cardiovascular, I'm going to give you an equation. They think cardiovascular equals heart equals old people. In practice, that's not true. Healthy blood flow means better everything, and it's central to human health. So that's what we mean in practice, because whether you're eight years old or you're 88, that 60 ,000 miles of blood vessels is foundational to health and longevity.

8:16Fire Nation, if you're listening to this and you're working hard and you're trying to build a business, you don't just want a business to succeed and then you keel over because you're not focusing on other things. Health and wellness, it's such a critical aspect about what we're doing every single day as we're trying to live this balanced life. And I want to talk about staying grounded amidst all these trends that are going on. I want to talk about you, Joel, building a category-defining brand and a lot more Fire Nation when we get back from thanking our sponsors. Are you sick of waiting on a team of engineers to help you make everyday updates to your website?

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12:17High level, join the revolution. Joe, we're back. And as I kind of tease before the break, I want to talk about staying grounded amid all these trends that are going on. In a world that is constantly chasing that next health fad, they come on TikTok literally every single day. How do you stay committed to fundamentals and make decisions that truly matter long term? I think it helps. And hopefully we can help by virtue of your podcast and reaching entrepreneurs, our younger entrepreneurs. I'm an older guy. I've led multi-billion dollar global companies. I've led them all. I've led medium sized companies and I've learned a lot, you know, and it starts with focus, man.

13:03Focus. Focus is what makes the flywheel fly. And there's a reason focus and flywheel both start with an F. You know, don't chase the mice when the elephants are running in the streets. You're the CEO, damn it. I mean, you got to say, look, we have a strategy. In fact, I love doing this, John. I love looking back 15 years to the strategy deck, PowerPoint deck that I wrote 15 years ago. And I'm more proud than I can voice that that is the strategy of the company today. That's cool. We have stayed and remained focused. And I believe that focus is one of the key challenges for younger entrepreneurs.

13:53I mean, when you think about there's 27 million businesses in the United States at any given time. If you look at the failure rate, it's unacceptable. And I think one of the key drivers of failure rate is the lack of focus. So be very contemplative and very purposed about what you're going to do and then stay with it. No matter what, stay with it. Joel, focus is my favorite word. And I'm not just saying that. do you want to hear my acronym for focus? I want to hear it. Follow one course until success. Focus. My friend, you can use that the first two times you have to give me credit, but then it's yours forever.

14:39Thank you. I'll give you, I'll give you, I'll perpetually give you credit, John. I'm not about that. Right. So it's like, that's, that's beautifully and concisely. It's like my old frenemy, Steve Jobs. He was able to take a complex thought and distill it down to five words. So good for you, John. Thank you. Well, I love that you were frenemies. Let's talk about building a category defining brand. Joel, what does it take to create a brand that defines an entire category instead of just like adding another product to a crowded market, which everybody seems to be doing these days? You know, I think it starts with, you know, you have to have a disruptive view and you have to put yourself in that mindset.

15:28Second, you have to commit yourself to doing it right, not quick. I think, again, one of the biggest challenges that entrepreneurs today face is do it quick. They're, you know, they want to do it fast. They want to do it. They want to exit. They want to this. They want to that. Look, it's not easy. It's not easy to be disruptive. You have to have the mindset of doing it right. Not quick. You have to do the heart, what I call the hard yards sports metaphor, but you have to have the discipline and the focus and the strength as a leader to say, we're going to do the hard yards. I look at our company, you know, we've done 13 clinical trials.

16:18We went to the medical market and invested a year without selling anything just to talk to physicians and learn how physicians thought about cardiovascular and begin to change their think about how they viewed that, hey, there actually is an alternative to pharmaceuticals that can be effective with human beings. So I think it's just do it right, not quick, John. The hard yards. I love that. Joe, I know you live in Florida now, but do you have an NFL football team that you follow? John, I live in Austin, but I do spend some time in Florida, thank goodness. But yeah, I love the Texas Longhorns because that's where we, I know that's not a professional team, it's a college team, but we were born out of the University of Texas.

17:13We were incepted out of a technology transfer program. So yeah, you watch a Texas Longhorn football game on TV. You'll see our logo, my friend, on the field. You'll see it between the 20 and 30 yard line on both sides of the field. Have you ever gone to a celebrated victory with Matthew McConaughey? I have not. One can dream, right, Joel? That's right. One can dream. Let's talk about proving real world impact. How do you measure and then, of course, demonstrate the tangible impact of your brand on people's health, on communities and on lives? Over the history of our company, we've delivered three quarters of a billion with a B doses to the market.

18:03So I know we're moving the needle. Now, I can't be precise, you know, down to the decimal point, but I know we're moving the needle. But we have a long way to go. But I think it's pretty clear we've been a force for good when I look at consumer testimonials and I look at reviews on Amazon. I know we've been a force for good. Um, another metric that one can look at, although it's not necessarily all that fun is we have a hundred thousand. And yes, I said a hundred thousand, uh, beat products on Amazon that have copied our product. So I think when the copycats come, you know, you're in the right lane.

18:49can't relax by any means. Don't ever relax for a moment, but you know you're onto something when the copycats show up. Fire Nation, copycats are out there, but guess what the world doesn't need or want? A pale, weak imitation of somebody else. What they need is the true, authentic version of what you're creating, which leads me to my last closing value bomb question, Joel, because people are listening right now. It's Fire Nation. These are entrepreneurs. These are small business owners, and they want to make a meaningful difference. What is one action, in the words of Joel, that they must embrace to create real lasting impact?

19:32Can't change the world. You're in the wrong game. You got to think about it beyond capital gain. You have to think about what is what I'm doing measure up to changing the world. It ain't about your exit strategy. It just ain't about your exit strategy. You can't change the world in retirement. Changing the world is really hard. It's an adults only exercise. But if you can pull it off and you can imagine anything, can you imagine anything better than sitting on your porch 50 years from now and saying, man, I, you know, I changed the world. So I, I'm all about, I told you, I warned you early in our discussion, John, I'm all about deeper meaning and deeper purpose.

20:21I think you have to search whether you're a 23 year old, you know, first time entrepreneur, or you're a 48 year old, third time entrepreneur, you got to dig deep. And once you dig deep, and you know that what you have is in some way going to change the world, you're in the right lane. So Joel, if Fire Nation is listening right now and they're like, man, this Joel guy seems like a pretty cool guy. What would you share with them? What is a call to action where they can connect with you, where they can follow you, where they can connect with your company? What would you like Fire Nation to do today?

21:01Well, first of all, John, if you think I'm a cool guy. You need to call my five sons because they don't think so. But beyond that, you know, you can follow me on LinkedIn. Cool. You know, I'm pretty active and I want to help, you know, and I say that humbly. I want to help. I'm at a stage of my life where the reason I'm still doing this has nothing to do with capital gain. You know, I want to change people's lives. That includes, That's why I agreed to your podcast, you know, and I love what you're doing. Let me give you a call out for what you're doing, friend. So I just want to help in any possible way that I can.

21:43So, you know, hit me up on LinkedIn if you want to. Cool. We'll link up to that in the show notes page, of course. And just have your sons listen to this episode. And listen, you're getting the JLD stamp of approval. So you're automatically going to be cooler in their eyes. I can guarantee you that. John, you're my hero forever. Fire Nation, you're the average of the five people you spend the most time with. Great Jim Rohn quotes. And you've been hanging out with JK and JLD today. So just keep up that heat. And for links to everything we talked about, visit eofire.com, type Joel in the search bar and the show notes page will pop right up.

22:17And Joel, thank you for sharing your truth, your knowledge, your value with Fire Nation today. For that, we salute you and we will catch you on the flip side. Hey, Fire Nation, a huge thank you to our sponsors and Joel for sponsors. in today's episode and Fire Nation. Are you an entrepreneur on fire who's looking to share your amazing message with the world? If yes, we are now accepting applications for EO Fire. To learn more about becoming a guest, visit eofire.com slash guest and I'll catch you there or on the flip side. Fire Nation, we believe this is your year to transform your business. Start your transformation by attending the world's highest rated business growth workshop taught personally by Clay Clark and featuring football star and entrepreneur Tim Tebow and President Trump's son, Eric Trump, at thrivetimeshow.com slash eofire.

23:04Again, request life-changing tickets today at thrivetimeshow.com slash eofire. Are you ready for the ultimate all-in-one platform for entrepreneurs, marketers, coaches, and agencies? Build funnels, automate follow-ups, manage clients, and even white-label your own software. Say hello to our featured partner, High Level, and visit highlevelfire.com to start your free trial today.