Title: “Eastern Medicine That Provides An Alternative”
Guest: Jimmy Duong – New England Wellness Solutions
Interviewer: Jeffrey Davis – MAGE LLC

Click here to read the transcript

Jeffrey (0s):
Hello again, everybody. And welcome back to Radio Entrepreneurs. We know everyone who has tuned into the show over the last seven years are fans of entrepreneurship. We are constantly streaming stories of entrepreneurship as they happen real time stories, not textbooks after the fact, our next guest, Jimmy Duong, president and CEO of New England Wellness Solutions. Welcome Jimmy. Thank you

Jimmy (25s):
So much, Jeff. It’s good to Be here. Thank you very much.

Jeffrey (28s):
It’s good to have you here, Jimmy, tell us about New England Wellness Solutions. You’re a first-time guest

Jimmy (35s):
For sure. Yeah, so we are located in the south shore with plans to open regionally and all company to simply helps people with holistic health through acupuncture and Chinese medicine. And our mission really is to inspire hope into families. That’s been challenged by healthcare issues, and we do that through Chinese medicine through acupuncture, and the clinic has grown quite a bit because some of the new changes that are happening with insurance coverage.

Jeffrey (1m 7s):
Wow. Very nice. So how many facilities do you have now?

Jimmy (1m 13s):
And now we have two facilities that are operation handover in Weymouth in the social, the right on route three there on kind of the way towards the cake. And then we have, we have a location in Newport, Vermont that’s opening November 1st. And the idea was that we would kind of begin to expand regionally.

Jeffrey (1m 37s):
Interesting. Has anybody else done what you’re doing? Have they, have they gone towards this sort of expensive model?

Jimmy (1m 44s):
So the, there is a, another acupuncture company that is beginning to expand nationally, but their business model was a little different from ours. And so it’s a very equitable brand called modern acupuncture. And then it’s more of a fast pace business model. Whereas us as more of an experiential, we focus more on experience and quality of care. So just different, different ways to position ourselves.

Jeffrey (2m 18s):
So you have a corporate background, so, you know, let’s get into my way back machine and go through your career progression. Cause it’s kind of interesting how you wake, where you were from what I know about you, to, how you got to where you are now.

Jimmy (2m 32s):
Yeah, he has. So, so kind of an interesting kind of, you know, growing up in America and going through, you know, education here, but my parents always wanted me to go to business school. So I did, you know, after finishing with Northeastern university, I worked for Johnson and Johnson, so Depew orthopedics, and, and then on to headquarters in Brunswick, New Jersey supporting the financial team for Johnson and Johnson development Corp. And, and after that, I really wanted to bridge the gap between myself and my family’s legacy of medicine.

Jimmy (3m 12s):
So it started with my great great grandfather who started the practice of Chinese medicine. And he gave, he gave his talents to my great uncle who then taught me and my father. And, and now we have kind of a family practice with myself and my, my brother Brian running it.

Jeffrey (3m 36s):
That’s interesting. So entrepreneurship sort of runs in the family

Jimmy (3m 39s):
For sure. Yeah, for sure. So, you know, we’re, we’re certainly immigrants were, you know, refugees of the Vietnam war leaving Vietnam on a boat or, you know, something, we call it a boat, but it’s really just a canoe that my father built and spending 28 days in the south China sea to find, you know, some help at Hong Kong and finally getting here to the U S you know, and, and living, you know, this idea of, you know, reaching for our dreams and, and entrepreneurship is really a part of that dream is the freedom and the Liberty of creating our own future.

Jeffrey (4m 18s):
So in a sense, your father was an entrepreneur leaving Vietnam. He sort of took the risk, went out, built his own boat. Nicole forgetting there was, was America, always the destination of choice as he left Vietnam?

Jimmy (4m 33s):
You know, you know, I think probably the luck of the straw really. I mean, you know, it’s kinda like it was either going to be America or Australia or France or whichever country that was going to take us on as a refugee of war. So

Jeffrey (4m 49s):
Because in Vietnam people spoke, speak French,

Jimmy (4m 52s):
Correct? Correct. Yes. Because, you know, France used to rule Vietnam 100 years. So, so there was that, that, that bridge and the bond between Vietnam and France. So, so that was an option as well.

Jeffrey (5m 8s):
Interesting. Well, we’re glad you ended up here. Give us a sense let’s, let’s roll now to the future. Tell us, give us a sense of what New England Wellness Solutions is going to look like in three years. I’m sure that’s something that’s in your mind and how you’re going to get and how you’re going to get there.

Jimmy (5m 24s):
Yeah. So, so, you know, basically right now, what we’re seeing is with insurance coverage, there’s a lot more accessibility for acupuncture medicine and Chinese medicine. And so there’s been very much an elevated demand for the work that we do. And so between now and three years from now, I do anticipate opening, you know, 10 to 20 more locations. And so the, the, the biggest thing right now is hiring. So, you know, we’ve grown our team where we have a medical billing expert. That’s joining our team in October, November.

Jimmy (6m 6s):
We have one clinicians joining us. And so in the next few years, hiring is the biggest part of what we’re going to be doing

Jeffrey (6m 16s):
Just like everybody else. And how are you going to maintain a consistent culture? Yeah,

Jimmy (6m 21s):
Yeah. So that’s a great question, Jeff, you know, we’ve been really thinking about what makes us unique and what makes us special and our core values would be it, but that’s how we’ll get to instill kind of that, that same culture as we grow and to maintain the quality of the care that we, that we’re given to the community. So our five core values, we want to inspire hope in our patients when they’re coming in, we want to bring joy to their lives through health, you know, cause I think without joy, you can’t help them. And then, you know, our basic fundamentals of being a part of the community throughout community service initiatives, being committed to our patients, making sure that when we, when we say we’re going to follow up, that we do and accountable for, and then being compassionate, really compassion is the heart of our medicine.

Jimmy (7m 17s):
And so it’s a very different experience than if you went to see your medical doctor. So, you know, compassion is something that we infused into every treatment experience.

Jeffrey (7m 29s):
So when you worked at J and J did you read the credo?

Jimmy (7m 34s):
Oh, for sure. Absolutely.

Jeffrey (7m 36s):
Because you can see that there’s parts of that credo, you see this with a lot of X, J and J people that, you know, you can leave J and J, but the credo stays with you.

Jimmy (7m 45s):
Credo stays with you. And I love the idea that, you know, you put your patients first. Yeah, yeah. And, and, and then it’s the employees and then it’s the shareholders. And so as long as you take care of the patients and provide them with the highest quality of care, everything else gets taken care of.

Jeffrey (8m 3s):
And just for our listeners, I am a product of a J and J company as well. And that’s why I know the credo.

Jimmy (8m 10s):
It’s a beautiful credo. Yep. I would recommend any listeners to look it up. And it’s something to aspire to. Certainly the, the words in the cradle are very powerful. And if you, if you like to help other people, it’s certainly something you can live by. And, and, you know, you can, you can live by that at home as well.

Jeffrey (8m 31s):
Well, and it was written 200 years after the death of her great-grandfather who was general Johnson, a civil war general. Right. We think everybody who’s ever worked for the company, it’s part of the whole indoctrination to learn that, to live and breathe that credo. And you’re recruited based on that credo. Right.

Jimmy (8m 49s):
Exactly.

Jeffrey (8m 50s):
All very interesting and be interesting to sort of track your growth since you are. So values-based, and I hope you’ll be willing to come back and talk to us as you grow. How are you financing the business? Is it all internally financed or you are there third parties, external parties working with you

Jimmy (9m 8s):
Right now? We’re all internally financed. But as we grow, you know, beyond the 20 locations, 10 locations, I think what’s going to happen is there will be some joint ventures. And so I think that’s where we’ll get to, to go national and, and really begin to expand the access to this medicine, to more people in more communities.

Jeffrey (9m 34s):
Well, Jimmy, I want to thank you for being on the show today. You’re quite exciting. And what you’re doing is exciting. And you know, I’m not that far from your offices. I hope right now, I don’t need your services, but I probably will. I guess I’m quite active and I want to stay active, want to stay childlike forever. But if somebody else was looking for you, short-term long-term as I probably will. How would we find you? Absolute.

Jimmy (9m 58s):
Totally. Yeah. The easiest way to find this as through a website, you can, you can search us up in the wellness solutions on Google, or you can go to N E wellness solutions.com. Do you wanna take a look at a lot of the educational information that we have on there, if you, if you’re maybe interested in a specific condition, but if you want it to learn more about how we practice the website has all the information that would be N E wellness solutions.com and we’re looking forward to helping your community improve your health.

Jeffrey (10m 31s):
Well, that sounds great, Jimmy, and it only because I know your background and we have some similar training, I’m a big fan already, and I’m a believer. So please come back to Radio Entrepreneurs and remind our listeners. This is the one and only Radio Entrepreneurs, streaming stories, real time of real entrepreneurship. And we’re going to pause now. Thank you very much.

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