Episode #584: From Corporate Success to Franchise Operator-Chris Rotondi's Journey with Serotonin Centers

0:01 This is Pete Moore on Halo Talks nyc. I have the pleasure of bringing a friend of mine from Greenwich, Connecticut, franchisee of Serotonin Centers by way of New Jersey, right? Chris Rotondi. Welcome to the first Halo Talks. Yeah, thanks Pete, Appreciate the, appreciate the invite. So we met first time when you were in pre sale or right about to open your location last year for the anti aging longevity and the place looked pristine and you were ready to, to kind of hit the playing field. So talk about what you were doing before this and why you decided to get into the industry.

0:42 Oh yeah, absolutely. So yeah, as far as what I was doing prior to this, I actually held a career with a company called Shift4 as the 13th employee hired. So I was like 25 at the time, fax my resume in. The CEO actually was, he was 18, started the business when he was, when he was 16. Since then, you know, company, you know, went public. They did that probably about, I think it was like, like 20, 21. So all along the way I walked in there, got my little interview. Started off just supporting credit card terminals, then grew with the company all the way through, ended up in the, in the business development aspects. And then all along the way you see that entrepreneurial spirit from, from your CEO. But then also kind of my line of work, I was dealing with, you know, you know, small businesses the entire way, both as far as like, you know, your merchants, but then all the independent agents as well. They were all entrepreneurs building their own businesses, starting from scratch. And a lot of times they were very close to my age at the time. So as time went on, company got bigger and bigger and bigger. You know, you start dealing with more sophisticated organizations.

1:46 Sort of towards the end of my career there's, you know, I was dealing with the same like, sort of entrepreneurs, but they had now matured into these large like software companies, like ISVs. Right? So, you know, seeing all of that growth and then being around it the whole time, you know, it inspired me to like, as we got towards, you know, towards that IPO and then as the 13th employee hired, kind of had my reward for that at that time, you know, I saw that as inspiration to, you know, kind of, you know, move on to, you know, say that next phase of my life. And you know, I've always been into, into health and wellness. Fortunately for myself, like, I kind of learned about like, you know, say like biohacking for lack of a better term, and was able to have a lot of success with that. As far as like, you know, if I do say so, Myself, but, you know, from like, you know, age 35 on, became really passionate about it, saw this opportunity and seized it. Right. I think Eric and, you know, you know, Matt Mariello over there as well. Sure. You know, they were both really, you know, really helpful in, like, in taking that leap. And, you know, ever since then, I'm very fortunate be in the position to where, you know, I have now my own business. I have six licenses total. So, you know, over the next few years, we're going to look to build at least six of these. But it's a business. Right.

2:57 And then I'm the owner, so it's kind of your responsibility to go as far as you can. So if that turns into 60, it turns into 60. If it turns into 10, it turns into 10. But, you know, my job is to push it and, you know, be a good, A good owner operator along the way. So, you know, that's pretty much my story. So when you were, you know, debating on what your next chapter would be after, you know, having a great run at shift four and being in an entrepreneurial organization, know what the risks and returns of that, you know, were and actually, you know, getting. Getting that, you know, slice of. Of reward. What. What other types of concepts did you consider before landing on the serotonin concept? Yeah, this is probably the answer you don't want to hear or like most people don't want to hear, but really it was like, the truth. The truth? Yeah. Halo is all. Halo talks all about the truth. So tell us, because everybody's journey.

3:46 Oh, you know, okay. Yeah, perfect. No, yeah. The minute I came across this. The minute I came across this, it was. I knew it was what I wanted to do. I knew I did want to move into something. Didn't really give it, like, too much thought to where, like, you know, I didn't. I didn't, you know, I didn't let, you know, the details get in the way of a decision on this one. And then I just went with it from there. So, you know, I dabbled in real estate a little bit, you know, but I. I think like, that. That it was, I guess it's a good idea until, like, you kind of practice it and it doesn't really, you know, for me, it didn't necessarily have like, the. The reward of actually, like, making that contribution back. Right. You get to see a lot of, like, really, you know, have. You get to change lives in this. Right. Whereas, like, you know, real estate, you don't quite get that. And, you know, so as soon as I saw It. I kind of latched on to it and I decided that was, that was the next step. So I think I'd say fate more than anything else. Yeah. So you weren't looking at, like, I'm thinking about doing this express car wash or, you know, serotonin, and you kind of sat down at the table and like, ran some numbers. This is more of a passion play in the right place for you to be your personality and your desires.

4:52 So what have been some of the early takeaways or some of the early wins, if you will, Whether that's like a client that came in and changed their life or you had an aha moment running your own business? Positive and negative. Yeah, I mean, I would say as far as, like, as far as, you know, the clients go and the wins it is. We opened in. We opened in April, so now we're looking at, you know, probably what. We're 10 months in. So you have some of those early clients, right? They came in, you know, they had their weight loss goals or even, you know, their body composition goals. And, you know, now you're starting to really see those results, right? You're coming across people that now, you know, they've lost like 35, 40 pounds. And, you know, they're, know they, they attribute that all to, you know, kind of what they've gotten here as far as the coaching and, you know, the way, the way we approach that, which is really rewarding. So I, I'd say those are, those are the definite, the definite wins, right? Like, the more you could repeat, repeat that. That's infectious, right? And then, you know, everybody kind of sees that and then the aha moments, right? Or it's. Anytime you kind of realize this is all. It's a lot harder than, than, than. Than you think it's going to be. First go in and then after that, it's just, you know, the idea of like, you know, you do. You have to.

6:08 You have to trust yourself to figure things out, and everything can be figured out, right? So I think that's. That's the aha moment, you know, when you're looking at it like, so you're pro forma and everything else, you kind of think, okay, this is, this is easy. I'm going to do this, I'm going to do this, I'm going to do this, and everything's going to work out. And it's like, you know, I guess like everyone's got a plan until. Right. Yeah. Well, look, I mean, this business is not, you know, it's not like you put up a Dunkin Donuts sign and you know, you, you get, take advantage of people that are just, you know, looking for a closer Dunkin Donuts or you know, want to, want to switch coffees. How, how have you felt about, you know, when you started biohacking back in, you know, when you were 35, whenever that was to where we are today. You know, I think the average person actually, you know, knows, you know, the words peptides and nad and testosterone shots and pellets. Whereas before I think it was almost like this black box of biohackers and it was almost like maybe that's what like the freaks were doing. And, and you know, now it's kind of gotten mainstream. But it's probably still, I'd say like in the first or second inning where it's like, you know, that the momentum is there. It just might take a while to educate or get to like, you know, for the, for the wave to kind of crash. So how, where, where do you psychologically feel you are and what kind of conversations when you have them with people to say like, oh, I understand what you, what you're doing versus before they might have been like, dude, like you're out, you're off the

7:39 reservation. Yeah, it's kind of surprising because you know, I guess a lot of things that you're. That say if you were like kind of in the know, we'll say like even eight years ago, like if you look at Ned for instance, right. You know, you hear kind of people now kind of talking, latching onto that as if it's like the newest and, and you know, the greatest thing, which it's still, it's a great thing, right? But I think like the fact that attest to the idea that is so mainstream now to where like people who like wouldn't even say consider the idea or be interested in it are now just, you know, it's almost a top of mind conversation for them as well. And then from there you can just really tell like, you know, with the conversations you have with people, you can tell where they are on like say in their journey. Right. Like some people are like, you know, the people that like say a few years ago who would have, you know, maybe just be getting started their journey, they're now talking about these same things at the beginning. Whereas you know, in, in the past that that probably wasn't the case. And then the other idea, the other, you know, side of that is, you know, someone who's like, you know, you can tell when someone's like really advanced in, in kind of, you know, where they are in their journey and their pursuits as well. Because, you know, there's so many different, you know, say even peptides that you know, aren't even offered, say on at like a serotonin for instance, yet, but that are out there and then people know about those now as well. So it's pretty, it's pretty amazing how quickly everything is caught up.

9:07 This is Pete Moore. I want to let you in on a little secret. There's this company called Promotion Vault. And what they do is they give out rewards from retailers that allow you to incentivize your members without having to do zero down and one month free or giving away shakes or giving away T shirts. What you want to do is build a rewards program that lasts, that people value and that doesn't discount your own products and services. So here's the deal. There's something called Rewards Vault. The Rewards Vault is going to allow a member to set up their own profile. They are going to answer questions, you are going to get those answers, you're going to be able to target those members and you're going to reward them inside your club, inside your spa and outside of the club and outside of the spa to get them to become loyal, to get them to pay their monthly dues and to be rewarded properly for the actions. A lot of companies are cutting back on rewards. You shouldn't be.

10:03 Promotion Vault, your answer, trust me, this is real. When you, when you think about marketing in this industry and knowing that, you know, it's going to take time and it's going to be relatively like slow ramp to just get to the point where everyone's going to the serotonin center where you're at. And a lot of people might not know what that is at first. Right. And there are different, you know, parts of their, their journey or like, you know, awareness. My question is when, if you know that word of mouth and referrals is probably going to be where you get most of your revenue and where you get most of your members, where you get most of your buy in, how do you think about marketing, you know, locally? And what do you say to, what do you say to the market? Because I could go in there and I want to lose weight, I want to get stronger, I want to have more, you know, I want to, you know, get testosterone. You know, at the end of the day you kind of want to get their blood work and say, okay, let me tell you what to do. But putting up a sign that says get your Blood work done here might not be really like what you want to have on the front door. So how do you think about that? Obviously, you know, serotonin corporate is giving you, you know, the content and the collateral materials, but every kind of micro market is different. So what, what kind of resonates in, in Greenwich and where do you find the most benefit? Or like, this is what people, this is what resonates. Because I think it's different everywhere you

11:36 go. Yeah, no, I, I think it. Word of mouth is definitely still, still king as far as building a business goes. I mean, you have to have digital. You have to play in that, in that, in that part of your, your marketing, right. Like, there's no way around it. You have to be there. But you know, that's kind of like more just like your, your cover, right? And then from there you have to be able to go in and actually say, go to pop ups, meet, you know, you know, meet clients, you know, face to face, shake hands and then bring people in. Right. It's all about networking from there. And especially like, you know, I, I can't. I, I think here for sure, the, the area I'm in, it feels like everyone knows each other one way or another or there's some sort of connection. Right. So like, you know, that whole idea of, you know, face to face, bringing people in and then, you know, managing your reputation well and, you know, being what you say you're, you want to be or you are is, Is really important. So the authenticity is everything in this, in this area, but in this space as well.

12:34 Yeah, I was at a, I was at a cycling class yesterday. I moved out to Arizona and I was in a Starbucks, literally like three doors down. And the woman behind the counter was saying, oh, what are you, what are you up to? I said, I'm going to Cycling Studio. And she's like, oh, where's that? I'm like thinking to myself, how is the, the owner operator of the cycling studio? How have they not canvassed, you know, every co tenant in this shopping plaza to either give them a free class or, you know, put them on some kind of like employee, you know, you know, neighbor discount or something? So how aggressive are you in knowing the other operators in your strip center? You know, trying to do, you know, whether it's co marketing or at least, you know, having, you know, some awareness inside of each one of the co tenants or like a, you know, a nail salon or a, you know, hairstylist or, you know, waxing center. What, where do you, where do you find the most interest in kind of, you know, say, like, hey, you know, our clients should be your clients and vice versa. Yeah. I think, like, with us, I. I think you definitely have to be aggressive, especially like in our, you know, in your, like, first, like, say 500ft. Right.

13:51 You have to be able to, like, own those relationships. Yeah. You know, within your. Your shopping center. You know, sometimes it's difficult, though, I think, like, you know, a small business, it, you know, it is what it is. Right. There's only so many, you know, there's only so many things someone could do in a day. And a lot of times when you're going to those other small businesses, right. Like, maybe they're not. They could be somewhere in their business cycle to where, like, maybe they're not interested or they don't know how to necessarily cultivate those relationships. So, you know, it's. Sometimes it's a work in progress, but you have to keep going. Right. Because, you know, it's a necessity. But as far as, like, say, say collabs go and like, what we look for, it's pretty much like with us, we're fortunate. I mean, there's so many, you know, everybody wants to be happier and healthier. Right. So, like, we can pretty much tie on to pretty much any. Any sort of business that. That plays in that space as well or like, caters to it. Right. So, like, you know, right now we're working on one of our neighbors. It's a vitality bowls, actually. So we're. We're actually going to have a serotonin, a serotonin bowl and probably a juice that. That we make as well that's going to be on their menu and then, you know, same idea, we'll be able to kind of refer some of our clients there. Most likely what we'll do is kind of a good play, you know, going back to like, the syrup, vitals and the actual say, you know, wanting to like, actually say, you know, take a look at blood panels is you have to come in fasted for that. So, you know, we're probably going to. As they come in and after their. After we do their comprehensive health assessment, we're actually going to send them over there as well so they can get their first meal, probably get a little, you know, get their carbs up again because

15:21 they're probably a little depleted and they can go on with their day. But, you know, I think like, any. Anyone in that, you know, particular, like, kind of health space is where we want to be or wellness as well. Yeah. So as you got into the model and, you know, this is much more complicated than an average, you know, retail store or, you know, doing a qsr, you know, food concept. So what, one, what's the level of staffing and the people that you need to bring inside of your company? And two, how, how difficult is it to run it? And if you were running it on your own, instead of having a franchisor that's basically like, tell you, like, here's the guidelines, here's how the procedures are, you know, in this industry, I feel like the, the franchisor franchisees are probably going to outperform an independent operator because an independent operator really needs to know what's going on in so many different facets of medicine, in, you know, new innovations on technology as well as, like, governmental, you know, restrictions and things you can and can't do.

16:33 Yeah, I think you're 100% right. I think it's like whoever can figure out the way to scale and grow the most efficiently kind of wins the game in, in this space for sure. And with the franchisor, you know, that it kind of solves a lot of those problems. Like, like you said, I think if being, like, if I were going to start this myself every time, you know, it's just hard. It's just very easy, right? When every time there's an issue or some indecision, it'd be very easy to just like, kind of think it's a bad idea and move on or never get started. Whereas with the, in a franchise scenario, right, like, you can basically, you always have an answer and there's always, like, a way to push forward. And then you also have like, all of that experience and all that, you know, kind of acquired, say, wisdom, right, from the actual franchisor that they can share with you and then help you along the way. So you can make your mistakes that you're going to make them the same, but you can make them faster and then improve faster as a result. Right? And then you have all your other, like, you know, franchisees as well that can contribute to that, to that, you know, constant improvement. So, I mean, I think it's a real big advantage. And then, you know, after your first store, it does. It gets a lot easier to just take, you know, where you are in that first, in that first location and you can start that second location almost from that same, from that same, you know, level, rather than going back having, like, say, all those, like, say, rookie mistakes that maybe you made when you first opened. And as far as the staff. Right. I mean, a lot of times you're gonna have a nurse practitioner, you're gonna have RNs. These are, you know, highly skilled, educated people. And the same with like your general manager, health coaches. Everyone's, you know, really skilled. So putting them in place, it does,

18:06 it gives you the ability to, to succeed. And then the fact that you can give them manuals and you can give them, you know, kind of, you know, other like educational materials. Right. To like, get them on their way. It does, it really helps a lot. You know, I wouldn't be able to do it without that for sure. At least me personally. Yeah. No, it's funny, I've been working in a franchise or franchisee space mostly on the fitness side and in the med spas, you know, for the last several years. And one of the franchisees in a network, not Serotonin, said to me, I can't believe I'm paying this much in franchise fees. And I knew the franchisor. I knew how many people that they had. It's actually an orange theory. Sure. And they had a couple hundred people down in this corporate office down in Boca Raton. And I said, do you know for your 8% fee that you're basically renting like 300 people that are actually waking up every day and trying to help you with your business? Think about what it would cost you to, to have a, a corporate overhead of that many people that were all trying to think about like, how do I help optimize the unit economics and, and, and run a better business. So I always kind of go hearken back to if you're part of a good franchisor network, then you will get the benefits over time. And that you're basically like renting a, a huge professional corporate overhead is how I kind of like think about it now versus, you know, what does that cost me dollar wise? You know, in and of itself, yeah. 100% agree. I think, you know, when, when that

19:38 those are at least your problems. The franchisor, the, the fees from the franchisor. Right. Like, I think like they exist, but yeah, they're, they're worth every penny for the most part. Yeah. So. So as you think about being an entrepreneur, you got one location. You basically live in that location, which I love because, you know, some people, you know, say, oh, I'm going to build my second location, third location, without kind of nailing the model before you scale the model. So, so what is. Where, where are you kind of in your own, you know, mental life cycle for better lack of A better term to say, like, I know when I'm ready to grow, and I know I'm not, maybe not ready to grow yet, but I feel like I got my arms around the business model. Then you got to give yourself confidence to grow. Maybe just for the entrepreneurs that are listening to this call to say, like, speed and growth, you know, it could be a friend or it also could be your worst enemy.

20:35 Yeah, I think you have to manage it, right? Like, I think, like, you kind of see this space now and, you know, there's a lot of pressure to grow if you want to, you know, if you want to get to, you know, that point to where, like, you have, you know, a large organization probably, you know, I'm sure, like the idea of being backed by private equity or some sort of, you know, additional, you know, money behind you, Right. Like, you do have to show an ability to scale, ability to grow quickly. And, you know, I mean, that window exists, but at the same time, right? Like, a lot of, you know, not your competitors, but others that have similar models, they're looking to do it also. So. But I think you have to manage it, right? You got to. You have to, you know, kind of look at everything, force yourself to, you know, learn more than you probably think you're capable of per day and, you know, and then figure it out from there. But, you know, yeah, you want to prioritize it, but not at, you know, say not. Not at your expense, right? Like, you can't. You can't just, you know, not think about the fundamentals or forget about them in growing the business.

21:39 This is Pete Moore. Here's the last tip for you of the podcast. We are partnered up with a company called higher dose higherdose.com they are the leader in workout recovery products, infrared technology, LED light masks, neck enhancers, and other products such as PEMF mats and sauna blankets. If you have not gotten on the workout recovery train yet, your time and your stop is now. You got to get these products in there before these workout recovery and spas end up saturating your market. Having your members walk out of the club and going into one of their locations for 200 bucks per month, where they're paying 39 to you. Let's become an expert in workout recovery. If we are already an authority in. Workouts, Higher dose, check it out. There's a wholesale code and we look forward to helping you augment your products and services to meet the demands of your members. And hey, let's get people happy, healthy and sweating. And the Recovery should be just as good as the workout.

22:50 You know, in closing here, you mentioned that you've had some clients, you know, from the beginning. But just to give people a little bit of understanding about what goes on inside of your center, you know, can you give us a couple of either quick stories or, you know, some of the treatments and, and some of the results that you've seen? Yeah, I mean it really, to put things like, you know, to be blunt, right. I mean we sell transformations, right. We give people the opportunity to come in and you know, either through medical, weight loss, hormone replacement therapy. We also offer aesthetics. So you're looking at Botox, microneedling fillers. We have a full suite of, you know, BTL products. So body composition, I'm sorry, body, body contouring. We also do some things with Exomine, so cognitive health, pelvic floor stability as well, red light therapy. So we offer people the ability, they can come in through whatever avenue and then from there we can walk them through all of our modalities, show them exactly how they contribute to, you know, to longevity and, you know, long term health. And then from there really just, you know, have all of those touch points with the health coaching and the access to our nurse practitioner to really see people, you know, make these changes all along the way. And, you know, I think that's something that not a lot of, you know, not a lot of companies have to offer. A lot of businesses do. So, you know, awesome. That, that pretty much hopefully answers your question. Yeah. Well, look, we're excited that you've, you've made the leap into the Halo sector. We like to say once you get into the sector, you'll never get out. So

24:23 for your lifelong employment until you decide to, to hang it up, you know, you're, you're now a, a Halo executive. And you know, we're excited to follow your progress and you know, be, be a part of that success. So congrats on what you built. I know it's not easy and you know, there's a road that other people don't want to travel or just can't because they don't have the, the grit and the desire. So glad, glad you got in and good to see you. I appreciate it, Pete. Thanks a lot. Awesome. This is Pete Moore on Halo Talks, your captain speaking. I am the founder and managing partner at Integrity Square. We've been around now for 15 and 1/2 years. We have been helping people like yourselves get capital, do mergers and acquisitions consulting, strategic advice in the health, active lifestyle and outdoor helo sector trying to help as many entrepreneurs as possible get to the next level.

25:24 Take that inflection point to be the force behind your growth. We are helping companies that have at least $3 million of EBITDA, around $10 million of revenue, and we are positioned to help you get institutional growth capital or to negotiate deals with strategic partners. If you go to integritysq.com isq you can see our capabilities. Deck Happy to set up a consultation at any time that is free of charge and we look forward to you helping solve obesity, loneliness and diabetes. Go Halo.

26:15 Sam.