One conversation at a STEM job fair changed Zach Christensen’s career path. Years later, that unexpected introduction to medical devices would help shape a business built around improving people’s lives.
In episode 49 of The Personal Side of Business, Jet Bunditwong sits down with Zach Christensen and Micah Parrish of Lifestyle Medical to explore the people, relationships, and decisions behind building their company in Logan, Utah.
Zach shares his leap into entrepreneurship, while Micah explains why he went from investing in the business to joining its team—and why he interviewed the company just as carefully as it interviewed him.
Together, they discuss:
- Hiring for humility, curiosity, and character.
- Turning an idea into a medical device with real patient impact.
- Moving forward without waiting for perfection.
- Finding mentors and staying open to feedback.
- Building a team where good ideas can come from anyone.
Whether you’re starting a business, leading a team, or wondering if you’re ready to take your next step, this conversation offers a reminder: meaningful progress starts with the right people and the willingness to keep learning.
CONNECT WITH LIFESTYLE
Lifestyle Medical — family of companies:
https://lifestyleengr.com/lifestyle-medical
Lifestyle Engineering — medical device design and development:
https://lifestyleengr.com/
Lifestyle Manufacturing:
https://lifestylemfg.com/
Lifestyle Additive — 3D printing:
https://lifestyleadditive.com/
Helping Hearts & Hands — nonprofit:
https://lmhhh.org/
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https://www.linkedin.com/in/jet-bunditwong-50937a4/
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00:00 --> 00:03 My dad's a mechanical engineer, but he works on facilities like heating and air
00:03 --> 00:07 conditioning. Yeah. And so he likes dew points and those
00:07 --> 00:11 kind of things. So I went to school thinking I'd probably do something similar
00:11 --> 00:15 to him or in aviation or aerospace. But I
00:15 --> 00:18 went to a little STEM job fair and there was a
00:19 --> 00:22 lot of big companies and I was like scared to talk to this one,
00:22 --> 00:24 scared to talk to this one. There was a lady with just a little tablecloth
00:25 --> 00:28 that said Innovative Medical Device Solutions. And I was like, she looks friendly.
00:28 --> 00:31 I'll talk to her. 45 minutes later, she's like, you got
00:32 --> 00:35 to come in. An interview at this place and I realized that mechanical engineers
00:35 --> 00:38 can work on medical devices. Welcome to The Personal Side of Business,
00:38 --> 00:41 where you hear real stories from
00:41 --> 00:43 real entrepreneurs.
00:48 --> 00:53 Hi,
00:53 --> 00:57 welcome to The Personal Side of Business, where every business has a story. I'm your
00:57 --> 01:01 host, Jeff Bundewald. Today my guests are Zach Christensen and Micah Parrish of Lifestyle Medical.
01:02 --> 01:06 A company helping innovators develop, manufacture, and launch medical devices.
01:06 --> 01:10 Welcome to the podcast, Zach and Micah. Uh, Jed, it's a pleasure.
01:10 --> 01:14 Yeah, wonderful to be here. So let's start with my
01:14 --> 01:18 always beginning question: how did we get here? Let's start with both your stories.
01:18 --> 01:22 So, uh, we, we actually— Micah
01:22 --> 01:25 and I both worked at a previous company doing medical device development, kind of like
01:25 --> 01:29 we do today. Um, that company sold a couple times
01:29 --> 01:32 while we were there. We just saw it kind of outgrow our, our area where
01:32 --> 01:35 we're at here, and Kind of the writing was on the wall. So,
01:36 --> 01:40 we had a group of local investors. We never took any outside money. We just
01:41 --> 01:44 pulled together some people with some good ideas. And I was the first
01:45 --> 01:48 to jump ship and start Lifestyle Medical. I had a non-compete
01:48 --> 01:52 in the medical device space, so we actually started in the durable medical
01:52 --> 01:55 equipment space. We started a little store called HSA Depot.
01:56 --> 01:59 And I did that for a year. And then, once we
02:00 --> 02:03 had that up and going and my non-compete was out, we started an engineering group.
02:03 --> 02:06 6 months later, we started a machine shop, and now 3 or 4
02:06 --> 02:09 years later, we're, uh, we're just running on all cylinders.
02:09 --> 02:13 We're at 40 folks in the company, and it's just been
02:13 --> 02:17 awesome to see everybody just come together and learn new skills
02:17 --> 02:20 and make it happen. That's awesome. And Micah,
02:20 --> 02:23 how— when did you come on board? Um, like,
02:23 --> 02:26 like Zach said, I worked with him and a lot of the group that actually
02:27 --> 02:30 works here today, and I was approached by one of the founders just
02:31 --> 02:33 to see, hey, would you be interested in investing in the company? So I kind
02:34 --> 02:37 of started out as an investor. Me and my wife, we purchased some shares in
02:37 --> 02:41 the company or some percentage in the company, and then just kind
02:41 --> 02:45 of kept in contact. And in all honesty, it was really refreshing because
02:46 --> 02:50 we were invited to a lot of the board meetings. We were invited to a
02:50 --> 02:53 lot of like the kind of what we call pulse meetings where they kind of
02:53 --> 02:57 go over all the logistics and very open about how the company's doing,
02:57 --> 03:00 what's going on in the company. So we were able to get a really good
03:00 --> 03:04 view of how the company was run, who was in the company, and felt
03:04 --> 03:07 even more, even better about our investment in the company.
03:08 --> 03:11 So after a little while, I reached out,
03:11 --> 03:15 I was looking for a change in work and reached out and they
03:16 --> 03:20 were, they still went through the interview process, still went through design
03:20 --> 03:23 challenge and kind of see where I was at with my skill level and what
03:24 --> 03:28 I could bring to the table. And And I interviewed them right back and
03:28 --> 03:31 asked them a bunch of questions and kind of got into depth about what the
03:32 --> 03:35 culture was like and how things were running. He passed with flying colors.
03:36 --> 03:40 It's fun. That was what I wanted to highlight here. Micah went from investor
03:40 --> 03:44 to full-time contributor. So it's a cool seat for him to— after we
03:44 --> 03:48 already had— the engineering team was 12 or 13 people,
03:48 --> 03:51 maybe more when you joined. So for him coming over and adding a
03:51 --> 03:54 lot of experience— Micah has a lot of experience in different areas.
03:55 --> 03:59 I think that's something that's really helped us is we've brought in very strategically
03:59 --> 04:03 people that have had experience from different areas. Even our interns,
04:03 --> 04:07 some of the ones that have thrived the most are ones that had internships
04:07 --> 04:11 a couple other places first. So they see some of the experiences from
04:11 --> 04:15 bigger companies, companies that have more kind of form
04:15 --> 04:19 and shape, and they come and they add their ideas. And I think we
04:19 --> 04:22 take that as a high priority. We always try and be open to new ideas
04:22 --> 04:26 and hear out From the person that's only been here 3 days to the person
04:26 --> 04:30 that's been here the longest. Yeah, and I think that was— it's
04:30 --> 04:34 not just not the experience, right? You guys, there's a driving force of culture
04:35 --> 04:38 that you guys want to instill in this whole entire workplace.
04:39 --> 04:42 So you guys are probably looking for that element that— so that person
04:43 --> 04:47 that comes in should have the experience but should also be able to fit into
04:47 --> 04:50 your culture here as a company.
04:50 --> 04:53 And Zach, you know, when we went to lunch, you were talking about that,
04:53 --> 04:57 that there's this process that you go through where you're— it's not
04:57 --> 05:00 just a phone interview and you get to come on board. Can you talk a
05:00 --> 05:03 little bit about what you're looking for for someone to come on board? Yeah.
05:03 --> 05:06 And I— someone early on, because, you know, me being the
05:06 --> 05:10 first one in the company, somebody gave me the advice along the way that hiring
05:10 --> 05:13 is the most important thing that you do. And I honestly agree with that.
05:13 --> 05:16 And as you grow in a business, that's one of the last things that you
05:17 --> 05:20 delegate. Like you really— you want to delegate the day-to-day work.
05:20 --> 05:24 You want to delegate, give people, empower people to be able to take
05:24 --> 05:28 on their jobs. Hiring is the entry point. Like it's that important.
05:29 --> 05:33 So as a, as a group, we actually have a 12-step program
05:33 --> 05:37 that walks from the very first interaction all the way to hiring them.
05:37 --> 05:41 And Micah alluded to that earlier. There was even a design challenge. Like if
05:42 --> 05:45 they're an engineer, they, they sit down and spend a couple hours working
05:45 --> 05:48 on a, uh, reverse engineered product so they
05:49 --> 05:52 can just see what we're about. They study a surgical technique guide and they do
05:52 --> 05:56 it. So we have phone screens, we have the design challenge, we bring them
05:56 --> 05:58 in for a tour so they can meet a few more team members.
06:00 --> 06:03 We take them out to lunch usually. At the time we make an offer,
06:03 --> 06:07 we usually take them and their significant other out to dinner.
06:07 --> 06:10 So that significant other, that's where we've seen that they gain a lot of trust
06:10 --> 06:14 in that type of setting. Not many companies do something like that. So it's
06:15 --> 06:19 fun to be able to have them have that experience, ask the questions. And,
06:19 --> 06:22 uh, and it really comes down to what are we looking for? And we've
06:23 --> 06:25 taken a framework and kind of built on it, but it's, we look for hunger,
06:26 --> 06:29 we look for humble, we'll look for humane because they gotta
06:30 --> 06:32 be able to get along with people. They gotta be able to take feedback and
06:32 --> 06:35 learn, and they gotta be just trying to learn new
06:35 --> 06:38 skills all along the way. And then I've kind of added another one, humor.
06:39 --> 06:41 They gotta have a little bit of that as they go. They gotta be able
06:41 --> 06:44 to, to not take themselves too seriously.
06:44 --> 06:47 Yeah. I think it's, you know,
06:47 --> 06:51 I don't know, it feels like it's getting harder and harder to find because you're
06:51 --> 06:56 getting, um, all the studies keep showing that there's less qualified
06:56 --> 06:59 people coming in because they're just, you know, for some reason or another,
06:59 --> 07:02 they just don't— not interested or don't have the background for it. Um,
07:03 --> 07:06 where do you guys feel like you get your, your best
07:07 --> 07:10 recruits from? So this maybe leans to what Micah was
07:10 --> 07:14 talking about earlier. It comes back to relationships. A lot of the people we've
07:14 --> 07:16 hired somebody in our company has worked for,
07:17 --> 07:21 worked with them at some other point, or they've,
07:21 --> 07:24 you know, even from some college student, it might be they worked on
07:24 --> 07:28 their senior design project together. So that comes with, you've gained a
07:28 --> 07:32 level of trust already. And I'm a firm believer that,
07:33 --> 07:36 you know, people that put their effort in at one point, they usually put it
07:36 --> 07:39 in all the time. They're kind of just wired that way. And I think
07:40 --> 07:42 it's fortunate that we're kind of in a town where there's a university. We have
07:42 --> 07:46 good relationships there. Usually myself and a couple of the other leaders
07:47 --> 07:49 leadership team will go and present in a couple of engineering classes up at USU
07:50 --> 07:53 and just talk about our culture, talk about what we do, talk about medical devices.
07:53 --> 07:56 Because honestly, I didn't know engineers could do medical devices.
07:57 --> 08:01 My dad's a mechanical engineer, but he works on facilities like heating
08:01 --> 08:04 and air conditioning. Yeah. And so he likes dew points and
08:05 --> 08:08 those kind of things. So I went to school thinking I'd probably do something
08:08 --> 08:11 similar to him, or in aviation or aerospace,
08:11 --> 08:15 but I went to a little, uh, STEM job fair and there
08:16 --> 08:19 was a lot of big companies and I was like scared to talk to this
08:19 --> 08:21 one, scared to talk to this one. There was a lady with just a little
08:22 --> 08:25 tablecloth that said Innovative Medical Device Solutions and I was like,
08:25 --> 08:28 she looks friendly, I'll talk to her. 45 minutes later she's like,
08:28 --> 08:32 you got to come and interview at this place. And I, I realized that mechanical
08:32 --> 08:36 engineers can work on medical devices. Oh, and now, Mike, I mean, this is
08:36 --> 08:40 maybe more question for you. I— if someone's coming in
08:40 --> 08:44 and has that idea, what's the process like?
08:44 --> 08:47 That from like, I just have this great idea, I want to, I want to
08:47 --> 08:50 get started, I want to— my dream is to have this device do this.
08:51 --> 08:55 What's that process like? I think the first part
08:55 --> 08:58 of the process is to have them come in and kind of just have the
08:59 --> 09:01 discussion with us and just kind of go into detail about what their dream is,
09:01 --> 09:05 what the requirements are, um, kind of like the real-world struggles
09:06 --> 09:09 they're dealing with. 'Cause a lot of them are surgeons who, in all
09:09 --> 09:12 honesty, a lot of the surgical techniques and instruments they're dealing with are,
09:13 --> 09:16 are kind of archaic at this point. And a lot of them haven't had
09:16 --> 09:19 any upgrades or any development on them for a while. So a lot
09:20 --> 09:23 of them come to us with these ideas and we kind of try
09:24 --> 09:27 to understand the requirements and kind of their pain points and then
09:27 --> 09:31 where do they want to go with it. Um, and then really we just
09:31 --> 09:34 kind of help them with our, like,
09:34 --> 09:38 experience that we've had, bring either their idea to life or
09:38 --> 09:42 kind of help, help show them what's possible and, and what's
09:42 --> 09:47 possible to kind of help bring their device to market. How often is that first,
09:47 --> 09:50 like, step prototype until when it
09:50 --> 09:55 can be legally used? Is that— are there a lot of steps
09:55 --> 09:58 along the way? And how often does it happen where it's not it's not feasible
09:59 --> 10:01 to be able to do that project anymore?
10:03 --> 10:06 Um, I think a lot of it just depends on— a lot of it's financing,
10:06 --> 10:10 honestly, that kind of defines how quickly we can do it. We have a very
10:10 --> 10:14 large team. We have a lot of engineers. We're growing every day. Um,
10:14 --> 10:17 we really can drive it pretty quickly.
10:17 --> 10:21 Um, it just depends on how many, how many of us you want on
10:22 --> 10:25 it and, and the direction you want to go. And then it also depends on
10:25 --> 10:28 what's out there on the market that's similar to it. It gets a lot
10:28 --> 10:31 more complicated if there's nothing on the market that we can use as kind of
10:31 --> 10:34 a predicate or a baseline showing like, hey, this has kind of been done before,
10:34 --> 10:38 so there's a precedence for it to move it forward.
10:38 --> 10:41 If it's never been done, you got to do a lot more, a lot more
10:41 --> 10:44 clinical trials, a lot more— I didn't even think of that. I was thinking the
10:44 --> 10:47 opposite, like it would be— if you're the first ones to do it,
10:47 --> 10:51 it would be easier for you to get through, right? But I guess in So,
10:51 --> 10:54 so that's, that's worth explaining here. This is a cool thing just for people to
10:54 --> 10:58 learn. You know, when you go and have surgery, everything that's in
10:58 --> 11:01 there has rather old enough that it was grandfathered in,
11:01 --> 11:04 so it had been used a lot, or the process that the
11:04 --> 11:07 FDA requires is called a 510 submission.
11:08 --> 11:12 And what you're doing in that is proving substantial equivalence to something else.
11:12 --> 11:16 So whatever indications that they want to use, they have to go
11:16 --> 11:19 in and say, here's our device that we're coming with, it has the same indications
11:19 --> 11:22 as this, it's kind of the same form factor, it may have some things that
11:23 --> 11:27 improve it, but based on testing, it has to perform better than something that's already
11:27 --> 11:30 on the market. So you can feel pretty secure if you're going in and you're
11:31 --> 11:34 getting something that's approved. It's been tested rigorously. So when you
11:35 --> 11:38 see someone coming in with a new idea, a brand new idea, it's like,
11:38 --> 11:42 oh no, like this is gonna be an uphill climb that we have to
11:42 --> 11:45 try to get through. Well, we're actually pretty excited about it most of the time.
11:45 --> 11:48 Like we, we have ones coming all the time and they're very unique
11:49 --> 11:52 and novel ideas, and it's exciting. And I think our main point is to kind
11:52 --> 11:56 of get to the level where we've kind of defined
11:56 --> 11:59 whether it's plausible or not as quickly as possible. We don't want to, we don't
11:59 --> 12:01 want to get in there and waste a ton of their time and money.
12:02 --> 12:05 Um, we kind of get in there, we do our initial research, see what else
12:05 --> 12:08 is out there that's similar to it. We really dive in, we do some mathematics,
12:08 --> 12:12 we do some comparison, we do some initial prototyping testing and
12:12 --> 12:16 just kind of see, hey, is this, is this even possible to do? From our
12:16 --> 12:19 perspective. And if it is, then we'll say, hey,
12:19 --> 12:23 here's the next point, here's the next steps, um, and we
12:23 --> 12:27 can drive it forward. And, and we're just really upfront with people
12:27 --> 12:31 on kind of like, hey, there's nothing out there like this. Or once
12:31 --> 12:33 we get it to a certain point, we look at the patents that are already
12:33 --> 12:36 out there and say, hey, this would be infringing on this patent or that patent,
12:37 --> 12:40 um, we would have to adjust it this way or that in order to be
12:40 --> 12:44 able to kind of to move forward with this product. But we've
12:44 --> 12:47 had a lot of people come with us with just these really cool ideas that
12:47 --> 12:51 we're just excited to, to just solve the problem.
12:51 --> 12:54 We're problem solvers in reality, and product development is just our passion.
12:55 --> 12:59 And the cool thing about being brought up in medical devices,
12:59 --> 13:01 because I started as an intern at this other company,
13:02 --> 13:06 and coming up through and learning the process— medical devices
13:06 --> 13:10 is cool because there's just enough oversight from the FDA, that you
13:10 --> 13:13 have to have a process in place. But the projects are small enough
13:14 --> 13:17 that we iterate a lot. Like, you can go through a project— you asked the
13:17 --> 13:21 question earlier, how long. In our world, we can get something from napkin sketch
13:22 --> 13:26 to approved in surgery in 12 to 18 months. Whereas the big
13:26 --> 13:29 companies, because they have so much bureaucracy and so many signatures that have to go
13:30 --> 13:33 on everything and it has to go through all these different departments, they're looking at
13:33 --> 13:36 3 to 5 years to release something new. And I think so Sorry. Oh,
13:37 --> 13:40 and so the big companies, their, their strategy is actually let the little guys
13:40 --> 13:44 innovate and then they scoop 'em up once they've got marketable products.
13:44 --> 13:49 I think the amazing part about our, like, kind of company in general is
13:49 --> 13:53 that we have everything from the beginning. We have the whole,
13:53 --> 13:56 every single path step in the pathway down. So we
13:57 --> 14:01 have our mechanical engineers that can design it up. We have our quality regulatory
14:01 --> 14:05 that can, from the beginning, be involved with every step as we're doing that
14:05 --> 14:09 to kind of help delete some of those obstacles of regulatory obstacles
14:09 --> 14:13 in the future. And then we have our prototype machine shop like literally outside
14:14 --> 14:17 of our door. Most places you can't just walk right out and say, hey,
14:18 --> 14:22 to, to a machinist with decades worth of experience and just say, hey, can you
14:22 --> 14:25 review my drawing? This, this is a very initial stage.
14:25 --> 14:29 What's manufacturable about this? What, what isn't?
14:29 --> 14:31 What can I change? What can I adjust? And most people design it all out.
14:32 --> 14:35 And then they send it off to a manufacturer that they don't know how much
14:35 --> 14:39 they're going to review it. They don't have as much experience with
14:39 --> 14:42 who these manufacturers are, their background in the mechanical or
14:43 --> 14:46 the manufacturing review process. So we can, we can have
14:46 --> 14:51 that manufacturing review almost from day one because our, our machinists
14:51 --> 14:55 are literally right out the door and willing to sit down with us any time
14:55 --> 14:59 and walk through what's possible machine-wise. So it sounds like the, the 2
15:00 --> 15:03 areas that are just so beneficial to someone that's coming in
15:03 --> 15:06 with an idea is the white glove service and then the,
15:07 --> 15:11 the speed which you guys can, can work with this, right? So yeah,
15:11 --> 15:15 um, I mean, I, I would, I would think that gets that
15:16 --> 15:19 person so excited because they're like, this, this actually can come to
15:20 --> 15:23 fruition in less than a year if everything goes right. Yeah, well,
15:23 --> 15:27 and, and really we, we approach it from this cost strategy because I,
15:27 --> 15:30 I want, I want to make sure you understand We really work with those
15:30 --> 15:34 people that come in. We have kind of 3 ways of doing it.
15:34 --> 15:37 They can pay for just hourly because sometimes they're further down the path
15:38 --> 15:41 or they just need some advice and we'll just charge an hourly rate. Then we
15:42 --> 15:44 do a rate that's like for a project. Like if they sign up for a
15:45 --> 15:47 certain amount of work, we give them a discount off of our hourly rate.
15:48 --> 15:51 So that's 2 ways. And then if we get far enough down the path that
15:52 --> 15:55 usually there's a proof of concept, if it's something for us, we'll actually invest by
15:55 --> 15:59 even cutting our rate further. As long as we get equity in what they're doing.
15:59 --> 16:02 And for us, that's, that's where we've taken it from just being a contract engineering
16:03 --> 16:06 company to saying, hey, we, we want— when we find good ideas,
16:07 --> 16:10 we want to help you make it as streamlined as possible to get to launch.
16:10 --> 16:13 Yeah. Yeah. And I think it's also a way to show that we believe in
16:13 --> 16:16 their product and ourselves just like just as much
16:17 --> 16:20 as they do. Yeah, we're passionate about it and we care and we want to
16:20 --> 16:23 step in and we're like, hey, we care enough that we actually we want to
16:23 --> 16:25 put some skin in the game to show you that we care that much.
16:26 --> 16:28 We want to be there for you. We want to drive this forward. And the
16:29 --> 16:32 more that, that we progress with some of these ideas, they're just so,
16:33 --> 16:36 so amazing. Some of these ideas these surgeons or doctors have come up with are—
16:36 --> 16:39 well, they're the front line, right? They're the ones doing surgery every day.
16:39 --> 16:42 Yeah. And so that just really kind of, I feel, to them
16:43 --> 16:46 as well shows that, hey, we care. We're also helping out with like the finance
16:47 --> 16:50 side, and we can also help find, um, some investors and stuff like that as
16:50 --> 16:53 well if depending on the pathway and depending on the complication,
16:54 --> 16:58 the complexity of the project, we can help find investors
16:58 --> 17:01 and build it out as well that way. And I want to tell you one
17:01 --> 17:04 more thing, Jet, that you asked a question earlier because I just, I just walked
17:05 --> 17:08 you through like how they pay. But really, Micah said that we
17:09 --> 17:12 have a really defined path. It's actually broken into 3 phases. Phase 1 is discovery.
17:12 --> 17:16 Phase 2 is, is like developing and the iterating.
17:17 --> 17:20 And then the last phase is verification and validation. So a lot of our
17:21 --> 17:23 first, like if somebody comes with just an idea, we usually encourage them to do
17:24 --> 17:26 what we call a Phase 1+. So we do a lot of the paperwork and
17:27 --> 17:29 a lot of the discovery in the first to make sure we understand the problem,
17:29 --> 17:33 understand the user needs. And then we call it Phase 1+ because
17:33 --> 17:36 we're going to go far enough, just far enough to get a proof of concept.
17:36 --> 17:39 Because if we can get a proof of concept, then we can say, okay,
17:39 --> 17:42 we think it's going to take 3 more rounds of iterating and we can be
17:42 --> 17:45 at design freeze. And design freeze is the end of that Phase 2, which allows
17:45 --> 17:47 you to go to, now we got to build a few of these. We got
17:48 --> 17:51 to do all the testing that we have to do, and then that regulatory piece.
17:51 --> 17:55 But like Micah said, we start thinking about regulatory clear back in phase 1 just
17:56 --> 17:58 so it's smooth when it comes into there. And there's a lot of opportunities in
17:58 --> 18:02 there if you understand the process and you understand the risks. You can take risks
18:03 --> 18:06 along the way, and this is for product development, anybody, not just medical devices,
18:07 --> 18:10 like building things in parallel with some testing if you have confidence
18:11 --> 18:13 in certain aspects of the project, which can speed up the whole thing.
18:14 --> 18:17 Yeah, you know, You brought a point like they, they get to
18:18 --> 18:21 you, you can foresee this path early on.
18:22 --> 18:25 What about those people that get to you later on? What's, what's,
18:26 --> 18:29 what are examples that you guys can think of that have cost them
18:29 --> 18:33 because they didn't get to you at the, at the, the beginning
18:33 --> 18:36 idea and now they're just like, hey, I'm like, I think I'm halfway through it,
18:36 --> 18:40 but there's a lot of pieces that are missing. All right. I have an example
18:40 --> 18:43 of that, a perfect one. So I was working on a total ankle project that
18:44 --> 18:46 came to us. This was at a previous company, but this is a good example
18:47 --> 18:49 of it. They had been spinning their wheels for a year and a half on
18:49 --> 18:53 a design that they were basically deforming a piece of metal to
18:53 --> 18:56 kind of create a lockout. And we took one look at that and said,
18:56 --> 18:59 that's never going to work. Like, you're going to have problems.
19:00 --> 19:04 So in less than 3 months, a couple of brainstorming sessions with us and working,
19:04 --> 19:07 we had a new patent for them and they'd solved their problem.
19:07 --> 19:11 And then they launched that probably 8 months later after they'd spent a
19:11 --> 19:15 year and a half spinning their wheels with a couple of other engineering groups trying
19:15 --> 19:18 to figure it out. But it's just the know-how that came, and, and I don't
19:19 --> 19:22 give myself credit for that. Like, I was a pretty young engineer at that point.
19:22 --> 19:25 But the cool thing that I learned in there and that we're continuing to do
19:25 --> 19:29 with Lifestyle Medical is that when there's a really tough challenge— so you say somebody
19:29 --> 19:32 comes to us and they're— they've got a roadblock, we actually love— we
19:32 --> 19:36 thrive on that because we'll take it and sit down with 10 of our engineers
19:36 --> 19:39 in a room and say, here's the problem, you know, just enough, now give us
19:39 --> 19:43 some brainstorming. And we'll come up with like 6 or 7 unique ideas there And
19:43 --> 19:46 actually in that situation I was telling you with the total ankle,
19:47 --> 19:50 it wasn't one exact idea. It was actually 2 ideas from 2
19:51 --> 19:54 different engineers that I ended up combining. I was riding my bike home from work
19:54 --> 19:57 and it came to me like, why couldn't I do both of those? And that's
19:58 --> 20:01 what solved their problem for them. So we actually, we like
20:01 --> 20:03 to start from ground zero cuz we know we can run an efficient process,
20:03 --> 20:07 but we're not afraid for somebody that's had a problem to come to us
20:07 --> 20:11 because between myself and 3 of the other leadership team members, we have
20:11 --> 20:15 35, 40 years of experience solving these really hard problems,
20:16 --> 20:18 and we bounce ideas off each other, and we're going to come up with something
20:19 --> 20:22 good. And I'm guessing as time goes on and you,
20:23 --> 20:26 you guys keep working with building
20:26 --> 20:29 new technology and, and getting more experience in that,
20:30 --> 20:33 it just becomes— does it feel like it's easier? Oh yeah,
20:33 --> 20:36 at that point, like, you're just like, yeah, we've seen enough of this that we
20:36 --> 20:39 can just start to theory. Well, and it plays to Micah's point that he made
20:40 --> 20:43 earlier. We can see really good ideas. Like, we love
20:44 --> 20:47 to talk with people. We have a screening process. We actually have a thing that,
20:47 --> 20:50 that we go through if we want to invest in something like we'll take any
20:50 --> 20:53 project and we believe in it. If they've seen a problem, we're willing to tackle
20:54 --> 20:55 it, do a Phase 1+, see if we can get to proof of concept.
20:56 --> 20:59 But at that moment, we run it through and if it makes sense, we're going
20:59 --> 21:02 to pursue that other idea and we're going to say, hey, we'll give you an
21:03 --> 21:06 extra 20% off your engineering if you let us have, you know, a percentage of
21:07 --> 21:10 what you're doing. So we can, we can be really bought into this. Yeah.
21:10 --> 21:13 I'm curious, what has been, uh,
21:13 --> 21:17 an example of the— maybe an obstacle or hurdle that
21:17 --> 21:21 was just like, man, you guys were like, this might not work
21:21 --> 21:24 out, and then you went, kind of broke through and got through it? Can you
21:24 --> 21:27 think of an instance that happened? Yeah,
21:27 --> 21:31 I think every project usually has an aspect of that if I get
21:31 --> 21:34 thinking about it honestly. Um, we've got one that we're working on
21:34 --> 21:38 right now that's still pretty raw, and we're working on the patent, so I can't
21:38 --> 21:42 give too many details, but It was essentially a surgeon came to us with
21:42 --> 21:45 an idea that they wanted to make something in their life easier. They wanted
21:46 --> 21:49 to be able to integrate the instrument and the implant all
21:49 --> 21:54 in one, pretty fancy instrument. And we started pursuing
21:54 --> 21:56 down that path and we got down there a little bit and it's like,
21:56 --> 22:00 this is not progressing as fast as I want. Can we break it into 2
22:00 --> 22:03 instruments to start with? And we're like, okay. So then we go back, iterate,
22:04 --> 22:07 get one instrument that works perfect, the other instrument that works perfect. Like, oh,
22:07 --> 22:10 these actually can be together. But you had to break out the different
22:10 --> 22:13 pieces of it first and then be able to bring those back together.
22:13 --> 22:17 So now I see a world where that
22:17 --> 22:20 project's going to go forward because we took enough time to separate the 2
22:20 --> 22:24 pieces, figure it out, and now bring it back together. Does that— looking back on
22:25 --> 22:28 it now, does that feel simple that you were just like, I just needed to
22:28 --> 22:31 separate that? Or do you think that's such a— it was so
22:31 --> 22:35 in your face that you couldn't see it because you were trying to just make
22:35 --> 22:39 this one. Well, and honestly, that's what happened because the— I wasn't the engineer
22:39 --> 22:42 doing the work on it, but I was overseeing the project. And they, they came
22:42 --> 22:45 with a frustration like, I don't know if I can do this, or I'm not
22:45 --> 22:47 making the progress that I want. So I was able to look at it and
22:47 --> 22:50 say, wait a minute, what if we just take this only one piece first,
22:50 --> 22:53 and now we'll do this piece? And now, now that we've developed both of those,
22:53 --> 22:56 now you say, oh, there's no reason this can't be together. But we couldn't see
22:57 --> 22:59 it when it was separate. Yeah. And I think a lot of that just comes
22:59 --> 23:03 to just almost being overwhelmed as an engineer because
23:03 --> 23:07 you're looking at this ginormous problem. You're seeing multiple instruments
23:08 --> 23:11 that's combined into one and trying to figure out how to make everything interact without
23:11 --> 23:15 being clunky or overbearing. And I think
23:15 --> 23:18 kind of when we broke it down to some more simplicity and starting at the
23:19 --> 23:22 basics, um, we kind of have a saying here that it's
23:22 --> 23:25 like, make it work and then make it beautiful. And I think that's kind of
23:26 --> 23:29 what we did here is like, okay, we made them work individually. Um, and then
23:30 --> 23:33 in all honesty, that then it just kind of clicked together because every
23:33 --> 23:37 aspect, like, um, the, the implant and then the device
23:37 --> 23:40 and then just kind of everything kind of just kind of fell together.
23:41 --> 23:45 And it just was almost— it was just so cool to see like each
23:45 --> 23:48 individual component all of a sudden it clicks like, oh, if we do this,
23:48 --> 23:50 then we can do this, then we can do this, and then we can just—
23:50 --> 23:54 everything will work so seamless— seamlessly. What, what's the celebration like?
23:54 --> 23:57 When that happens? Are you guys, are you guys just kicking
23:58 --> 24:01 open doors? I just pictured you guys, especially Zach, like coming through a door
24:02 --> 24:05 and just screaming. Yeah, just screaming through the whole entire building.
24:06 --> 24:09 Is that what there is? Yeah, there's definitely, there's definitely moments. High fives are a
24:10 --> 24:13 big thing in our office. Like there's definitely shared wins.
24:14 --> 24:16 And in the same breath, we probably don't celebrate some of the cool stuff we've
24:17 --> 24:19 done enough because it's on to the next one. Right. It's just kind of that
24:20 --> 24:23 I told you before, hunger is a big thing for us. I think the people
24:23 --> 24:27 that we brought in, there's an innate hunger. So you see solve a problem,
24:27 --> 24:30 but you realize that the joy is in the journey, not necessarily in solving the
24:31 --> 24:34 problem. It's the journey of it. And as soon as that one's solved, you're on
24:34 --> 24:36 to the next one because you're going to get the joy as you go along.
24:37 --> 24:41 Yeah, I'm sure there's, there's devices that you guys have worked on and finished and
24:41 --> 24:44 look back and go, man, that was, that's actually life-moving or life-changing,
24:45 --> 24:48 right? And probably didn't celebrate. Well, it is life-changing. So let's go full circle with
24:48 --> 24:51 the story I told you before about the total ankle. That total ankle goes in
24:52 --> 24:55 300 or 400 people every year, even today. That I worked on 10 years ago.
24:56 --> 25:00 So it's so satisfying to know that you touched something that,
25:00 --> 25:04 one, made the surgeon's life easier, two, maybe made all the sales rep
25:04 --> 25:08 and like staff— it's easier because if it's streamlined anything,
25:08 --> 25:12 it's good. And then ultimately it's the patient. It's all about the patient
25:12 --> 25:15 in medical devices. That's what I think is cool. Like a lot of engineering fields,
25:16 --> 25:20 you can be working on, you know, building bombs or building tall buildings
25:20 --> 25:23 or all sorts of stuff. But for me, it's like in the end of
25:24 --> 25:28 the day, we're rather extending somebody's life or improving their day-to-day
25:28 --> 25:32 abilities, like how much pain they feel. Like, all of that
25:32 --> 25:35 is just a cool thing to be involved in. I've, I found a lot of
25:35 --> 25:38 fulfillment from that little tablecloth table that I sat down and found out that,
25:38 --> 25:42 oh, I can work on some implants, you know, like, uh,
25:42 --> 25:45 knees and hips and shoulders and ankles.
25:45 --> 25:49 It's fun. Yeah, it is really fulfilling just to kind of see when your products
25:49 --> 25:52 go into somebody and just kind of like, hey, this is I know it's safe,
25:52 --> 25:55 I know it's effective, I know it's better than what was out there before.
25:55 --> 25:59 And I think the biggest focus now is like these minimally invasive surgeries, just because
26:00 --> 26:04 a lot of the current surgeries that a lot of patients can't have
26:04 --> 26:07 because they're too high of risk for, for these huge open
26:07 --> 26:10 surgeries, that it's just unsafe. Like,
26:10 --> 26:14 people won't— complications. Yeah, complications are too high, so the surgeons won't
26:14 --> 26:18 perform them on these patients. And by, by some of the projects we've done
26:18 --> 26:23 and kind pushing towards more of a minimally invasive surgery,
26:23 --> 26:27 then we're able to, to really do surgeries on
26:27 --> 26:31 people who never would have qualified for it before because they can heal so
26:31 --> 26:35 much quicker. You're really disrupting the surgery, the, the site and the tissue
26:35 --> 26:39 and the skin so much less, and it just leads to a
26:39 --> 26:42 lot less pain, a lot quicker recovery. And it's just, it's,
26:42 --> 26:46 it's amazing to kind of just know that you're affecting people's lives who,
26:47 --> 26:50 who never would have been able to have these surgeries before. Working in orthopedics is
26:50 --> 26:53 cool because the bones actually heal pretty fast and then it's not that painful.
26:53 --> 26:56 It's all the soft tissue around it. But being able to work through a little
26:56 --> 27:00 like couple centimeter incision versus a whole open surgery,
27:00 --> 27:03 it's— it changes the game. And I wish— I wish
27:03 --> 27:06 you guys could like view this as like cars.
27:07 --> 27:10 Like you can drive down a road one day and just like, hey, that's us.
27:10 --> 27:14 Like, you know, like that would be so cool. Like it's, it's part of it.
27:14 --> 27:17 Like I— it, it feels like it's this hidden,
27:17 --> 27:20 you know, aspect of it where you never really get to go, oh, that,
27:21 --> 27:24 that person walking around, that's us, right? I can't see— yeah, like everyone
27:25 --> 27:28 has like a, like a necklace that's walking around, go, that's, we, that's our medical
27:28 --> 27:32 device that we worked on, you know. And so curious, but maybe
27:32 --> 27:36 it's actually better not to. Yeah, that you're, that you're, you're just knowing that
27:37 --> 27:40 you're helping humanity in general. And if— because there's, you know,
27:40 --> 27:42 we've done, we've worked on things like a hip, and there's lots of other hips
27:43 --> 27:46 out there, but in general, we're all pushing each other to higher
27:46 --> 27:50 heights of innovation, right? So if anybody's getting a hip surgery and
27:50 --> 27:53 I'm working on a hip device, it's like you get satisfaction from knowing that you're
27:54 --> 27:57 pushing the envelope, making sure that we're heading the right direction. Yeah. What do
27:58 --> 28:01 you think would be one of the things that surprises a client
28:01 --> 28:06 coming in that they would never have thought of if they were trying to develop
28:06 --> 28:09 a device? I think one
28:10 --> 28:14 of the biggest things is, is a lot of people think, hey, the mechanical
28:14 --> 28:19 development or the design of it, the bringing it to a functional prototype
28:19 --> 28:21 that works beautifully, then you're done.
28:22 --> 28:25 But the thing is that there's so much more after that as far as the
28:25 --> 28:28 quality regulatory work and making sure that it not only works but that
28:28 --> 28:32 you can actually manufacture it consistently, it's safe,
28:33 --> 28:37 you're anticipating all of the risks or misuses that the surgeon
28:37 --> 28:41 or whoever's using the device can even contemplate doing. You have to anticipate,
28:42 --> 28:45 is this person going to stick this somewhere that they shouldn't? Yeah. Um,
28:45 --> 28:49 and, and how do we mitigate that risk? And, and all of that documentation and
28:49 --> 28:53 validation and verification and stuff that happens along the process
28:53 --> 28:56 after you kind of have a functional prototype or a functional device.
28:57 --> 29:00 I think that's, that's a lot bigger, um,
29:00 --> 29:03 I think, of a portion of the design and development process than a lot of
29:04 --> 29:07 people think. I would say one thing too. So we have a surgeon right
29:08 --> 29:11 now that he said a little quote recently that I really liked.
29:11 --> 29:15 He's actually been a design surgeon with other groups before. And he's,
29:15 --> 29:18 and he's had some good innovative ideas. He's got things that are on the market
29:18 --> 29:22 that have really made an impact. He said that as he's worked with other groups,
29:22 --> 29:25 he said, I will tell them ideas and they'll make my idea.
29:26 --> 29:30 When he's worked with Lifestyle Medical, he said, I bring an idea
29:30 --> 29:34 and they give it back to me even better than my idea was. And so
29:34 --> 29:37 that to me meant a lot. And I think the thing that
29:38 --> 29:41 a surgeon or a sales rep might underestimate is how much input
29:41 --> 29:45 they give along the way. Like I told you earlier, one of
29:45 --> 29:49 our first steps is defining user needs. We really want to understand what
29:49 --> 29:53 is the user need for the, for the surgeon and what is it for the
29:53 --> 29:56 patient. And we list those all out and then we make design inputs that go
29:57 --> 29:59 for every single one of those to make sure that we have something measurable to
30:00 --> 30:03 say that we accomplished that. And then as we iterate,
30:03 --> 30:06 I think surgeons don't realize that they're going to have so much input. And the
30:07 --> 30:09 best surgeons are the ones that we get to sit down with on a normal
30:09 --> 30:12 basis and show our, our feedback and show our progress.
30:13 --> 30:16 And they give feedback and it's, it's really valuable. Becomes a better product because we
30:17 --> 30:21 get that frontline feedback as we go. So that's the thing that maybe they underestimate
30:21 --> 30:23 is I got a good idea. They think they're going to just throw it over
30:24 --> 30:26 the fence and then it just comes back. What they don't realize is that they
30:26 --> 30:30 actually get to be part of the development and they're key to how fast
30:30 --> 30:33 it goes. And we're really good at innovation and design and
30:34 --> 30:38 coming up with amazing concepts, but we're never
30:38 --> 30:42 in the OR. We're never, we're never performing the surgeries. And I think
30:42 --> 30:46 some of the best feedback we get from some of the surgeons is actually when
30:47 --> 30:50 we do a cadaver lab and we get to put our, put our implant
30:51 --> 30:54 and test it on in the real world, kind of. And, and those surgeons most
30:55 --> 30:59 of the time are there performing those surgeries and giving us feedback
30:59 --> 31:02 right then. And then we, we write that down, we go through,
31:02 --> 31:06 we iterate according to their feedback, and then it's
31:06 --> 31:08 onto the next cadaver lab where they can test it again and say, oh wow,
31:08 --> 31:12 that's a lot better. That's the ergonomics of this handle are really comfortable.
31:12 --> 31:15 This ratchet is really, really smooth. This is,
31:16 --> 31:19 exactly, this works well. This is what I would want performing
31:20 --> 31:24 surgeries. And some of them are performing a lot of surgeries per day. And if
31:24 --> 31:28 they can cut down that time or make it more comfortable, it's just
31:28 --> 31:31 going to end up being better for the patients and the surgeon in general.
31:32 --> 31:36 How often does that happen for devices that you guys have done,
31:36 --> 31:42 everything's finished, it goes out into the real world, and then later it—
31:42 --> 31:45 there needs to be an adjustment. How often does that happen, or does it become
31:45 --> 31:49 a whole new— well, a lot of times it'll become a device. There's some different
31:49 --> 31:52 regulatory pathways to make updates. It depends on how substantial the update is.
31:52 --> 31:56 But I'd actually answer your question with almost always,
31:56 --> 31:59 which is good. We like to be able to say,
31:59 --> 32:03 what is the— going back to what Micah said
32:03 --> 32:07 before, one of the— one of our things is, would you use this on your
32:07 --> 32:10 grandma? We ask ourselves that, like, as I'm building something,
32:11 --> 32:13 is this safe and effective enough that I would use it on my grandma?
32:13 --> 32:16 And once the answer is yes, I want to get it out in surgeons' hands
32:17 --> 32:19 and get it out in the field. And almost always those come back and there's
32:20 --> 32:22 a version 2, a version 3, which is totally okay. Because if you try and
32:23 --> 32:26 push to version 7 without ever releasing version
32:26 --> 32:30 1, you'll never get to 7. So in our mind,
32:30 --> 32:34 there's pathways to maybe minimize what you have to do for a, for a change
32:34 --> 32:37 depending on how substantial it is. But it's actually good if you get that feedback.
32:37 --> 32:40 That means that a surgeon's using it and they're noticing something that could be better.
32:41 --> 32:44 Yeah. And a lot of times we prefer to have multiple surgeons testing the instruments
32:45 --> 32:47 as it goes because every surgeon has, has their preference.
32:48 --> 32:51 Like, we're, we're in a cadaver lab and one of the surgeons is like,
32:51 --> 32:54 well, I want a burr to cut through this, this bone, and I want a
32:54 --> 32:57 saw. The other one says they want a saw. And so, but our,
32:58 --> 33:01 our jig is only set up for one or the other. And so
33:02 --> 33:04 we can then iterate at that point and be like, oh, we can make one
33:05 --> 33:08 for both. But there's every, every surgeon has their preference out there
33:09 --> 33:11 and obviously you can't accommodate every single one of them. But we, we tend to
33:12 --> 33:15 get that feedback kind of in and in
33:16 --> 33:19 our complaint handling process and kind of in the back end or
33:20 --> 33:23 feedback from other surgeons or doctors as what they would prefer to
33:24 --> 33:27 have made better. And then we can kind of iterate and make another,
33:28 --> 33:32 another version to kind of accommodate if
33:32 --> 33:35 the world's asking for it, let's give it to them. Is there— oh, is there
33:36 --> 33:39 ever— I mean, or I should rather ask, how often is
33:39 --> 33:43 a discussion between, uh, speed of the process to
33:43 --> 33:46 get it made against quality, right? I'm assuming you
33:46 --> 33:49 guys, it's always quality first because that's where we need to be
33:49 --> 33:52 able to get it out there, get— make sure it's safe for everyone to use
33:52 --> 33:56 and meets the regulations. But do you get a
33:56 --> 33:59 lot of clients that are just like I want this out in like 6 months.
33:59 --> 34:02 And you're like, that's not reality, you know?
34:03 --> 34:05 Yeah, we're honest with them, like, based on our experience. We're not afraid to tell
34:06 --> 34:08 them that this is how long it's going to take. And I, I quoted a
34:08 --> 34:12 project not that long ago that, um, for some reason, the,
34:12 --> 34:16 the, the, their, their mindset was this is only going to take this much
34:16 --> 34:19 dollars and this much time. And I gave them a quote on what it was
34:19 --> 34:21 going to look like, and they're like, are you sure? And I'm like, yes,
34:21 --> 34:26 I am sure. I've done you know, 20 times. So I know. And so
34:26 --> 34:30 they weren't the right customer. Yeah. So I guess he might go and knock
34:30 --> 34:32 a few more doors and maybe he'll circle back around. At least he has our
34:32 --> 34:36 proposal in hand. So yes, to that point, I think we're always
34:36 --> 34:39 honest and upfront with our customers. Like, we've seen the process, and then there's
34:39 --> 34:42 times when it's maybe pushing the boundary that we'll, we'll be clear with them.
34:42 --> 34:45 We don't know. We think it's going to take 3 rounds of iteration, but it
34:46 --> 34:50 might take a 4th. Because I, I think for what you guys do, it's finding
34:50 --> 34:54 the synergy between you and the client is important, right? Because they have to understand
34:54 --> 34:58 that it's not just like, I'm gonna make this device, it's gonna make me a
34:58 --> 35:01 million bucks or whatever it is, and then, and, and then it just needs to
35:01 --> 35:05 be done. You guys have to find— make sure that you're finding that those steps
35:05 --> 35:10 and make sure it's done correctly. Um, how has, uh, AI helped
35:10 --> 35:13 you guys or changed the business as time has gone on?
35:15 --> 35:18 A lot. Yeah, I think it's been a big factor.
35:18 --> 35:22 Um, so like, I— let's, let's back up to like FDA regulations.
35:22 --> 35:25 I mean, they have everything well documented. Like, there's, there's,
35:26 --> 35:29 uh, clear definitions of almost everything, but it's really hard to keep all of that
35:30 --> 35:33 at the forefront. So AI has been able to— we've been able to make,
35:33 --> 35:36 um, programs that take all that into account and do some
35:37 --> 35:40 final review for us. So we always still have people running it,
35:40 --> 35:43 But it's more like double-checking and looking for opportunities just,
35:44 --> 35:47 just to make sure that we're meeting the regulations and following what's
35:48 --> 35:51 out there. So, it's been powerful that way. It's like there's 60,
35:51 --> 35:55 70, 80-page documents, and I don't know if any engineer has time to
35:55 --> 35:59 read every single word, every single project, right? So, it's, it's really
35:59 --> 36:03 been eye-opening to me that you can be able to summarize things and then
36:03 --> 36:06 be able to review things and just make a better product in the end.
36:07 --> 36:11 Were you guys always working with AI when the business
36:11 --> 36:15 started? No, it was— no, we've seen it evolve. Yeah, definitely. As we've—
36:15 --> 36:18 as we started, what was the process like prior to AI?
36:20 --> 36:23 You just had to have— usually you were required to have somebody on your team
36:23 --> 36:26 that knew it really, really well, which was good. As we started, we knew that
36:27 --> 36:30 quality regulatory was something important for us. So actually, our kind
36:31 --> 36:34 of our godfather of Lifestyle Medical, um, he had 35 years
36:34 --> 36:38 of quality regulatory experience. And so that was how we differentiate
36:38 --> 36:41 our from day one as we started our engineering group, we knew we wanted to
36:42 --> 36:46 have that capability. We didn't just want to— there's lots of design houses that'll only
36:46 --> 36:50 do like that phase 1, maybe into phase 2, but they're not looking to help
36:50 --> 36:54 get it all the way to the finish line. So, for us, that was important.
36:54 --> 36:58 But we were lucky enough that we found our now
36:58 --> 37:02 director of quality regulatory. He ended up having a couple internships
37:02 --> 37:06 that were really insightful for him, saw a lot of the backend processes of
37:06 --> 37:10 what we do. And we just challenged him to say, hey, we need somebody
37:10 --> 37:14 to step up. And he's been able to couple that with AI. You know,
37:14 --> 37:17 now he's been there and seeing how things go together and just
37:17 --> 37:21 knocking it out of the park. That's awesome. As we're wrapping up, I want to
37:21 --> 37:24 ask you guys, if you can go back to your beginning
37:25 --> 37:28 entrepreneur selves and give yourself advice that
37:29 --> 37:32 might expedite this journey, some piece of advice would be like,
37:32 --> 37:35 this is going to change your life if you do this in beginning here.
37:35 --> 37:39 What would it be? I, I think we already did it
37:39 --> 37:42 pretty well, and it's something that's— it's, it's about finding the right people,
37:42 --> 37:45 and I feel like we've done that in this group. Um,
37:47 --> 37:50 I, I don't know,
37:50 --> 37:53 I think just having more confidence, I guess, from the beginning too, that it's,
37:53 --> 37:57 it's possible and you can push yourself to, to get it done and just be—
37:57 --> 38:01 that you're capable to, to do something that just seems so over-the-top
38:01 --> 38:06 overwhelming to to really just bring something to fruition that seems so grandiose.
38:06 --> 38:10 Yeah. And mine's people-related too.
38:10 --> 38:13 Find good mentors. I think one of the keys
38:13 --> 38:17 for me is that the second we decided to start Lifestyle Medical, I found a
38:17 --> 38:20 couple of people I found through the SCORE program. That's a, that's a good place
38:20 --> 38:24 to find kind of a mentor. And then here locally, I found another
38:24 --> 38:28 business owner that runs a company that is bigger than ours.
38:28 --> 38:30 And that's how I say you always do time travel. How do you time travel?
38:30 --> 38:33 You find somebody that's 25 years farther down the road and then you ask them.
38:34 --> 38:37 Yeah. So, so I don't know if that would be the advice
38:37 --> 38:40 that I would give to me then, because that's the advice I took, right?
38:40 --> 38:43 Like, I don't know if it'd be any different. Somewhere along the way, I determined
38:43 --> 38:46 that between the people that you actually meet with, like live mentors,
38:46 --> 38:50 or ones that you meet virtually and you talk with them, or even just
38:50 --> 38:53 the books I've read, like that just being a reader—
38:53 --> 38:57 readers are leaders. Like, if you can take into a lot of different,
38:57 --> 39:01 uh, perspectives and just kind of decide what's good, what's not,
39:02 --> 39:04 It seems like the right advice comes at the right moment, but you got to
39:05 --> 39:08 be open to it. You got to be willing to make changes. And, and that's
39:09 --> 39:12 the fun part about entrepreneurship is the pivot. If you think you have
39:12 --> 39:15 the perfect idea, work on it for a month and you'll realize that there's got
39:15 --> 39:18 to be tweaks to it if it's going to work. I always find that the
39:18 --> 39:22 best entrepreneurs are the ones that are able to adjust and pivot when
39:22 --> 39:25 things get, get hairy. You know, they look at it straight in the face and
39:25 --> 39:29 go, okay, I'm just making an adjustment and do it. And It's never easy because
39:29 --> 39:31 I think the ego gets involved in it. Oh yeah, we all want to do
39:32 --> 39:35 it a certain way, and then we're like, I'm gonna just have to change a
39:35 --> 39:38 little bit. So, um, especially when you sell a vision over and over and over,
39:38 --> 39:41 right? And then you got to change it. That takes some real guts. Yeah,
39:42 --> 39:44 that's why we're looking for people that are humble enough to admit that, hey,
39:44 --> 39:47 maybe I'm not going the right direction, maybe my idea isn't the right one,
39:48 --> 39:51 and willing to listen to even— like what Zach said— even somebody that's
39:51 --> 39:55 been here 3 days, because it's like Good ideas come from anywhere,
39:56 --> 40:00 and I think just understanding that is— All right,
40:00 --> 40:03 guys. Well, let the audience know how they can find
40:04 --> 40:07 you guys. Yeah. So, you can go to lifestyleengr.com.
40:08 --> 40:13 That's our engineering website, or you can go to lifestylemfg.com
40:13 --> 40:17 for our manufacturing group. And, we're just a phone call away or an email,
40:17 --> 40:20 and we love jumping all over that and giving people opportunities.
40:21 --> 40:24 But, um, I hope that some of the stuff we talked about today even is
40:24 --> 40:28 just good for the general entrepreneur. I hope that some of the principles that we've
40:29 --> 40:32 learned in medical devices, they go to product development and idea development everywhere.
40:32 --> 40:36 Yeah. And the other thing too is if you just go to the Lifestyle ENGR,
40:36 --> 40:39 there's a link to every single one of our, um,
40:39 --> 40:43 kind of sister companies of the Lifestyle Medical.
40:43 --> 40:47 So we have a nonprofit as well, and then we have a 3D additive
40:47 --> 40:50 printing facility as part of it as well. Yep. All right,
40:50 --> 40:54 guys, well, thank you so much, Zach, Micah, for being on
40:54 --> 40:57 The Personal Side of Business. Thanks for having us. Appreciate it.