SMME #414 Bringing IV Therapy into Your Aesthetic Practice with Jenn Plescia of IVs by the Seas

Summary

Spa Marketing Made Easy Podcast: Episode #414 Summary
Title: Bringing IV Therapy into Your Aesthetic Practice with Jenn Plescia of IVs by the Seas
Host: Daniela Warner
Guest: Jenn Plescia, Founder and CEO of IVs by the Seas
Release Date: December 30, 2024

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1. Introduction to Jenn Plescia and IVs by the Seas

In episode #414 of the Spa Marketing Made Easy podcast, host Daniela Warner welcomes Jenn Plescia, a board-certified family and emergency room nurse practitioner and the founder of IVs by the Seas. With over a decade of experience in emergency medicine and urgent care, Jenn transitioned into IV therapy, recognizing its potential as a high-profit service that complements aesthetic practices.

Notable Quote:
Jenn Plescia [04:04]: “I am your classic ER nurse gone into IV therapy, which is like a very big trend with this at this point.”

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2. Transitioning from ER Nurse to IV Therapy Entrepreneur

Jenn shares her journey from the high-stress environment of the emergency room during the COVID-19 pandemic to establishing her IV therapy business. The relentless demands of frontline work led her to seek a more sustainable and fulfilling career path. Inspired by mobile IV services she observed in Key West, Jenn took a leap of faith by investing in the necessary supplies and launching IVs by the Seas during the pandemic.

Notable Quote:
Jenn Plescia [05:39]: “I literally lived in my car for about three months, and then I finally hired some people to start helping.”

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3. Benefits and Applications of IV Therapy in Aesthetic Practices

IV therapy offers numerous benefits for clients, including enhanced hydration, improved energy levels, and optimized overall health. Jenn emphasizes that IV treatments are not just about quick fixes but are integral to long-term wellness and beauty from the inside out. She integrates IV therapy with other aesthetic services, such as PRP facials, to provide comprehensive care that addresses both internal health and external appearance.

Notable Quote:
Jenn Plescia [12:38]: “Nobody wants you healthy. Think about the long term.”

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4. Training and Staffing Requirements

Successful implementation of IV therapy in a practice requires rigorous training and hiring the right medical professionals. Jenn advocates for employing ER nurses who are adept at handling emergencies and providing a high level of patient care. She offers comprehensive training programs, both in-person and virtual, ensuring that staff are proficient in IV insertion, compounding, and emergency protocols.

Notable Quote:
Jenn Plescia [14:13]: “For me personally, you have to have ER experience.”

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5. Business Model and Profitability

IV therapy is a lucrative addition to aesthetic practices, offering substantial profit margins. Jenn highlights her own success, noting that her first year in mobile IV therapy brought in just under a million dollars. Key to profitability is managing costs effectively, sourcing quality supplies at competitive prices, and setting appropriate pricing for services.

Notable Quote:
Jenn Plescia [26:34]: “My first year in business doing mobile IVs only, no aesthetics, I made just under a million dollars.”

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6. Pricing Strategies and Cost Management

Jenn emphasizes the importance of balancing quality and affordability. By partnering with preferred vendors and negotiating VIP pricing, she maintains low operational costs while delivering high-quality IV treatments. Her pricing strategy starts at $200 for in-office IVs and $265-$275 for mobile services, ensuring a minimum profit margin of $100 per session.

Notable Quote:
Jenn Plescia [28:22]: “We start at $200 an IV in office, we work our way up mobile, we start at either $265 or $275.”

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7. Integration with Other Services: PRP Facials

Integrating IV therapy with other aesthetic services, such as PRP facials, enhances the client experience and increases revenue streams. Jenn explains her streamlined process of combining IV treatments with PRP facials, ensuring clients receive comprehensive care that maximizes both health and beauty outcomes.

Notable Quote:
Jenn Plescia [32:42]: “PRP is the number one upsell for IVs if anyone is doing it.”

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8. Regulatory Compliance and Safety Protocols

Operating an IV therapy service requires strict adherence to state regulations and safety protocols. Jenn outlines essential practices, including maintaining proper licensure, implementing Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for emergencies, conducting competency checklists, and ensuring secure storage of medications. She stresses that patient safety and regulatory compliance are paramount for sustaining a reputable and legal business.

Notable Quote:
Jenn Plescia [36:50]: “You need to know your state guidelines.”

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9. Final Thoughts and Connecting with Jenn Plescia

Jenn concludes by offering resources for listeners interested in integrating IV therapy into their practices. She encourages spa owners to seek comprehensive training and build strong relationships with experienced medical professionals. Jenn is available for trainings, both in-person and virtual, and can be contacted via Instagram and email for further information.

Notable Quote:
Jenn Plescia [45:02]: “You need to find somebody that you feel comfortable with if you're going to do this.”

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Key Takeaways:

• High-Profit Service: IV therapy is a lucrative addition to aesthetic practices, offering substantial profit margins.
• Comprehensive Training: Employing trained ER nurses and providing thorough staff training ensures high-quality patient care and safety.
• Effective Pricing: Balancing cost management with competitive pricing maximizes profitability without compromising service quality.
• Integration with Aesthetic Services: Combining IV therapy with other treatments like PRP facials enhances client satisfaction and revenue streams.
• Regulatory Compliance: Strict adherence to state guidelines and safety protocols is essential for sustainable business operations.

For more insights on integrating IV therapy into your aesthetic practice, listen to the full episode of Spa Marketing Made Easy podcast or connect with Jenn Plescia on Instagram @IVsByTheSeas and via email at [e-mail].

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Disclaimer: This summary is intended for informational purposes only and does not substitute for professional medical or business advice. Always consult with qualified professionals before implementing new services in your practice.

Transcript

[Daniela Warner]

Are you an APA member yet? December is the last month to be a founding member of the ADDO professional association. With APA, you get free access to all of our 12 monthly masterclasses and recordings, invites to Smallpod mastermind groups that meet monthly, discounts on all offerings and live events from adoesthetics, a digital monthly magazine, and so much more. All of that for the very low price of $300 per year. And as a founding member, we guarantee that the price will never go up as long as you remain a continuous member. Go to attoesthetics.com and click on the ATTO Professional association tab to learn more and join today. Welcome to Spa Marketing Made Easy, a podcast for spa owners who want to step up their leadership and business skills and step into the role as Spa CEO. I'm your host, Daniela Warner, CEO of ATTO Aesthetics and founder of the Growth Factor Framework program where we teach, coach and guide spa owners in scaling their spas to the next level of growth and unlocking freedom in their life and their business. I'm so glad you're here. Now let's dive into the show.

[Kelly Guinness]

So for the past year or so.

[Daniela Warner]

I have been very closely following the growth of medically assisted weight loss in in our industry and I've been learning a ton. It got me exploring other high profit services that actually couple nicely with medically assisted weight loss. And that's how I came across Jen, who is the founder and CEO of IVs by the Seas. I invited her on the show to educate us on the benefits of IVs and also to share just her incredible story of growth. So if you've been exploring IVs or you're simply looking for some high profit services to add into your practice, this episode is going to be great for you. And if you're not interested in IVs, the story of Jen's growth, her energy. She's so energetic, she's so passionate. It's a super inspirational episode. Okay, so let me do a quick read of Jen's bio and then we can jump right in. So Jen is a board certified family and emergency room nurse practitioner who received her Doctorate of Nursing Practice degree from Rutgers University in 2017. She has over 10 years of emergency medicine and urgent care experience and noticed a significant decline in overall health and wellness which prompted the formation of IVs by the seas. Jen believes in treating patients as an entire entity and identifying the root cause of your healthcare ailments and aesthetic needs. Her ultimate goal is to optimize your health and well, being from the inside out. Because when you look good, you feel good too. When she's not working. Jen is the mother of two beautiful girls and a first son, Kelly Guinness. She has been known for her love of red wine cheese and her signature chicken parm. Her hobbies include spending time with her family, cooking, traveling, surfing, and a good girls night out with a lot of dancing.

[Kelly Guinness]

So I hope that you are ready.

[Daniela Warner]

For a great interview and if I could ask you a favor. If you are a nurse or someone in the medical aesthetic space who could benefit from having a high profit service in their practice, could you please forward the this episode to them? It would mean the world to me. All right, let's go ahead and play that interview.

[Kelly Guinness]

All right, Jen, welcome to the Spa Marketing Made Easy podcast. I'm so excited. I mean, just in the like two minutes that we had before we hit record, I was like, the things that were coming out of your mouth, I'm like, yes, this is exactly what we need on this episode before we get into all things IV and how we, you know, use that to make your business more profitable. All the great things. Can you give our audience just a little bit of background on you and kind of how you got into this world in the first place?

[Jen Plesha]

Sure. Well, first and foremost, thank you for having me. So my name is Jen Plesha. I am located in point Pleasant, New Jersey, and I own IVs by the seas. So I'm pretty much like a post Covid baby. I am your classic ER nurse gone into IV therapy, which is like a very big trend with this at this point. So I have two children and obviously I have my husband too, who is Jesus. We would never have what we have if it wasn't for my husband. And I always start anytime I'm speaking, like, thank God for Derek. Like, we literally call him Jesus in the office. I also call him Rose. Like, don't tell mom the babysitter's dead. Like, I'm right on top of that, Rose. It's like a standing joke. So I was supposed to open a med spot, Bob, back in 20. When was Charlotte born? 2021. And I took a trip down to Key west. And when I was in Key west, I saw IVs in the keys and I was like, oh, okay. And like, Prior to doing IVs I was known as rapid mobile COVID testing. So when nobody could get Covid tests, I would do Covid tests at your house. I would do rapids, I would do PCRs, I would work with your flight clearance. And like, everyone's like, you should do like mobile IVs. Like, you would kill it. And I'm like, yeah, no, I don't really know. Like, I was like, this is just a passive income thing that I do. It's basically like, here to pay for my maternity leave. I literally Covid tested up until the day I gave birth. Like, I Covid tested someone three hours before I went into birth.

[Kelly Guinness]

Oh my gosh.

[Jen Plesha]

I had my daughter, I was on leave and I. That summer went down and I was like. So I took our credit card and I opened all of these accounts and like, I took a course and my husband's like, what the hell is on our credit card? I'm like, just leave it alone. Sorry. I'm from Jersey, so we tend to have a potty mouth. So if you need to like, filter me just fine.

[Kelly Guinness]

It's fine. It's all good.

[Jen Plesha]

So, girls, I was like, okay, so I order all these supplies. And he's like, are you like building a hospital in our house? He's like, is this like part of like your Covid, like PTSD for like the world ending? And I was like, no, just stop. Like I'm playing with something. So we open the business. My husband does everything backend. He works a full time job and he's off on Fridays and he does the insurance, the compliance, the licensure. I do everything else. Medical office, the whole shebang. And it was just something like, slow that we just started doing. And then I built the Instagram and then we started going around. And in August, I landed a really big client. And the thing that I find hysterical about this is the first patient was. Was my former assistant. She put it on Instagram. Somebody else found me, she posted it on Instagram. And then this client found me. And this client is still with me to this day. They actually own Eat Clean Bro, which is like a meal delivery service. And they do it like nationwide. They're just the best, most humble husband wife team that you'll ever meet. Which is great because when you work with your spouse, it's very difficult to find any who understands, especially when you have children that are young. So I was working in the hospital and this was when that like second wave, like the Delta Alpha. I. I lost track about all these Covid waves.

[Kelly Guinness]

You know, a lot of nurses left after Covid and I actually I have a lot of nurses in my family. And it was just so intense during.

[Jen Plesha]

We all have ptsd. I mean, I can't look at a refrigerated Truck the same way. I worked the initial wave, and I always volunteered to be the COVID nurse. And everyone is like. My husband's like, we have kids. What are you doing? Why are you volunteering? I go, no one else gets full ppe. I go. I get full PPE every day. He's like, but you're next to that person. I go, but you could be next to somebody and not know. I was like, and everyone else doesn't have a mask. And then I ended up getting Covid and lost my smell and taste for eight months. But this was, like, when people couldn't get a COVID test, and they were, like, driving their cars through urgent cares and being crazy. I was going to work, and I started getting, like, dark and scary. Like, in the Northeast, we're all miserable as soon as, like, late September hits because there's no sun. September, fine October, moody November, crotchety December. I was like, I need to go to Disneyland. And, like, Disneyland's what we call, like, the psych unit in our house. So I go to work. I'm one nurse for 43 patients.

[Kelly Guinness]

Wow.

[Jen Plesha]

The nurse before me was brand new. Had no clue what she was doing. She had people on, like, cartasome drips and not on a heart monitor. I found people dead on stretchers. Nobody knew the last time they were alive. I had a guy that came in the other day, had a brain bleed with a shift, and he was vegetative. Like, just a disaster. And I had, like, a complete meltdown at work, and I basically was like, I'm not coming back. I can't do this. Like, I teed off on my boss, because whatever. So my big client that owns Eat Clean Bro, I went to his house one day, and at this point, like, we're friends. And he looks at me and he's like, what's wrong with you? I'm like, what's wrong with you? And he's like, you're not, like, your normal self. And I was like, I'm fine. And he's like, no. He's like, we're friends. Like, tell me what's going on. So I basically told him, like, I quit my job. Like, I'm trying to make IVs by the seas blow up. I was like, it's really hard. I was like, you know, basically, my husband told me, you have three months to blow up your business or you're going back to the hospital. And I was like, three months? People take, like, five years. And he's like, well, if you really want it, you'll do it. So Jamie hooked me up with his local celebrities in New Jersey. And I worked with Todd Frazier, who's a former Yankee. He's a big, like, Tom Shiver baseball player. I worked at Frankie Edgar. He hooked me up with the cast of Jersey Shore. I worked with some of the Real Housewives. And when Mike the Situation had Covid, I infused him and he posted me on his wall and tagged my business, and we blew up.

[Kelly Guinness]

Wow.

[Jen Plesha]

I'm a one woman show, okay? I'm answering the phones, I'm doing the infusions, I'm doing the scheduling, I'm doing the billing and the charting. I literally got phone calls from all over the world. I was in CNN, Yahoo, like, everywhere. And I started working literally 8am to 10pm every single day. I never said no to anybody. I found a way to make it work. I lived in my car for about three months, and then I finally hired some people to start helping. And I guess I got where I was because to me, I'm all about customer service. I treat every single person. You're not an ICD code. You're not your insurance. You're a human being. And my problem is I care too much, which is a good and a bad thing. But I know my patients. I literally will find ways to help them because I treat every single person the way I expect my father to be treated by a healthcare provider. And, you know, my Instagram too. Like, I'm very honest and transparent with people. I tell people no, I set my boundaries. And I think that's kind of just, you know, what separated us from everything. And now we're three years in this December, and here we are, you know.

[Kelly Guinness]

There'S nothing like a deadline to get your butt in gear. I know, like, we have a lot of women in our world that they're, you know, in childbearing age, and they'll, you know, have babies or do things. And it's like, this needs to happen before this baby comes out because there's no. You can't be like, could you just wait like an extra week or something along those lines? So that's an incredible story. I love. I love hearing other people's success stories. And yours is very interesting. So it's. It's very cool. So tell me. I'm curious about the overall benefits of iv, because there's a lot of different things that you can use this for. And I feel like there was kind of a surge that happened during COVID and then it kind of slowed back a little bit. I think people got a Little worried with liability issues or. So talk to me a little bit about that. Like, if I'm a nurse or a med spa owner and I'm wanting to bring in IVs, what are the things that I should be looking at for my practice?

[Jen Plesha]

So first things first, nobody wants you healthy. Think about the long term. And this is the thing I always say to my patients is that, yes, this is an expensive service, but this is also an investment in keeping you healthy. And you know, I have a lot of patients that I've gotten off of meds with vitamins. And I always say, like. And like I said, I'm not trying to be political, but like, big Pharma wants you sick. If you're sick, you get drugs, they get reimbursed. Whereas when you can do something more holistic and naturally it can help with it. So my biggest thing with opening a med spot is that I. And this is going to come off wrong, but I don't mean it to. If you're not a medical provider, you should not be offering this. Because the thing is, is that if you don't know your IV stuff upside down, inside out and backwards. As a business owner and you're an investor, if something goes wrong, they're not going to go after the medical, they're going to go after the money. And when you go and you stand on a, on a court stand and you have no medical experience, it's going to be, well, how are you running an IV business? So I always say that you should at least have a medical person that you know, you trust, not somebody that you just find off of. Like, indeed. Like, you need to make sure that you have a really good relationship with the person who's doing the medicine.

[Kelly Guinness]

So is this, you know, when we talk about scope of practice, is this an rn, is this an np? Is this, you know, like, what kind of background are you looking for for someone to have in your practice? That's.

[Jen Plesha]

So for me personally, you have to have ER experience. And a large reason for that is this is people with expendable income and it's a luxury service. How would you feel if you were stuck six times and you're black and blue all over? You don't want that. You want that white glove experience. So the thing is, is I only hire ER nurses. Also, we have an office and we're mobile. So I need to know that whoever I'm sending to someone's house is not going to freak out in the case of an emergency, who's not going to be like, oh my God, this person just passed out. I need to call 911. No, they probably vaso bagel because they're in fear of need. You lay them down, you put their feet up, give them some juice, and then you're good to go. So, you know, I've had instances where nurses have gone to houses, and I always tell my staff, if you're uncomfortable, like, I feel like when you've worked in the er, you can literally like walk into a room and it's like a smell and you just know something's wrong. And my nurses are my eyes and my ears. And we have called 911 on some people that we've gotten them to the hospital because a lot of people think like, this is a hospital service and you could just hydrate my 95 year old mother and like, you have to set those boundaries. And all of those times that we've called, every single one of those patients has ended up on the ICU because they waited too long and we did not infuse them. But my staff calls 911 and they make sure they physically get on the ambulance. So.

[Kelly Guinness]

And what about training? You know, if they're not an ER nurse, but maybe they have experience with anesthesia or some particular specialty. Are there trainings out there that can help prepare somebody to be able to do these types of services in their practice?

[Jen Plesha]

I do trainings. I actually have a course. I travel, I can go to people, they can come to me. Or we do virtual. And essentially what I do when I travel to you, I literally bring you your supplies. You get a handbook, we make your recipes, we do your charts, and I set your entire office up for you if you come to me. I'm obviously not setting up your office, but we work together, we do the mixing. If you have people that you want to train on how to insert IVs, I teach them. My method is a little odd. People. I teach people how to put IVs in with straws, which everyone's like, what? That doesn't make sense. So I take a clear straw and I show them how to go in and how it glides. And then I get darker straws to make sure that they don't puncture it. So. Because that's literally like a vein is like a tube, but I do all of it. And then I do virtual for people who are like, we know how to do IVs, we don't care, we just want the information. But there's other courses out there too. So, you know, it's a Matter of what's comfortable. But I believe that if you're going to invest in this, in your company, you need to make sure that you know your vitamins upside down, inside out and backwards. You need to know your benefits. And it starts with your front desk. If your front desk doesn't know what they're talking about, people are not going to come in. And I also tell my staff, if you don't know the answer to a question, your response is, I don't have that answer for you right now, but I'm going to find out and I'm going to call you back. We don't lie to people. And then they come in and they see me and obviously, like, I'm the guru in here and like, we tailor it around for them with that. But training is really. It's what you're trying to get out of it, how much you already know and how much you want to put into your practice with it.

[Kelly Guinness]

So let's talk about how you incorporate this as a business model. So you guys are mobile and office.

[Jen Plesha]

Yep.

[Kelly Guinness]

And office. Okay. But if I'm a med spa and I'm looking at, you know, right now, there's kind of this wave. We've been talking a lot about medically assisted weight loss, about bioidentical hormone replacement therapy. And I'm curious how IVs can kind of couple with those services for the practices that are really specializing in that. And if they're not specializing in that, you know, there's also other ways that we can add an IV to increase revenue per hour per room if they're on a, you know, coolsculpting is not really as much of a thing anymore as it was before medically assisted weight loss kind of took over the world. But a lot of times you're just there for 15 minutes sitting there while the machine does its work. If you add a drip on there, can you increase your revenue per hour per room? What are the types of ways that we're incorporating this?

[Jen Plesha]

Perfect. Just like, side note, I'm super adhd, so if I start going off tangent, just cut me off because I'll just, just so you know, click, click.

[Kelly Guinness]

I just threw like 10 questions that you. Yeah, start with medically assisted weight loss, because that's. I feel like that's kind of the vibe that's really like every nurse that I'm working with, we're talking about that right now and, and really focusing on. I mean, I don't know if you saw the United article, but, like, at the shareholders meeting For United Airlines, they were talking about medically assisted weight loss because if each of the passengers would lose 10 pounds, they would make like billions of dollars in fuel efficiency. I'm like, this is everywhere. It's everywhere. You should Google.

[Jen Plesha]

Every time I get on a plane, I'm always next to the 600 pound man and I'm always like, they overflow into my seat. And I'm like, oh, I don't do tight spaces. I don't do. I hate flying. I hate flying. And it sucks because, like traveling with conferences, it's like, I can't like take anything before I go because like, usually I land and it's like, all right, perform. But I've gotten better. So, you know, if you're doing weight loss and you're not doing IVs, like part of my French, you're an idiot. Literally. So I do a weight loss program. I have a six week weight loss program and then I have like a shot pack. But anybody who wants to do weight loss now, I don't do GLP ones at all. I only do vitamin based weight loss. Interesting. Yes. You know, I know. And like a lot of people, like, how come you're not doing GLP1s? It's just my personal preference. I have my own feelings about it. I think, I think that a lot of people are using it as a quick fix and people are not necessarily learning the lifestyle changes in order for maintenance. And like, I crack up because I have patients who are like, I just need to lose like 20 pounds in six weeks before like my kid's wedding. And I'm like, can you just prescribe it? And I'm like, no. I go, because what's going to happen is you're going to lose the weight and you're going to rebound. I go, my program, I'm teaching you how to adjust it so you can maintain it. And like, one of my favorite sayings is like, I don't put a band aid on a gunshot wound. So with weight loss, you know, when you're doing weight loss, your patient should have a plan. They need to be eating 1 gram of protein for every pound that they weigh. They need to be eating every three hours. They need to be drinking half of their weight in ounces. They need to work out, they need to be doing weightlifting. So typically, if you wake up at 6am and you're not working out, you need to eat within that first hour. And we're not talking about coffee or a protein shake. You actually need to put food in your body.

[Kelly Guinness]

What I've seen too, that I think is really interesting. A lot of the nurses that are doing the medically assisted weight loss, they're also hiring dietitians and nutritionists, the couple, and really create that for, you know, in marketing terms, a funnel. It's a client journey of, you know, making sure that they're helping them start to see those results right away so that they stay motivated, but also exactly as you're saying, teaching the lifestyle shifts that will maintain it. Because that is such an important thing. When you're thinking of, like, true quality of care for this patient, like, how can you make sure that you're helping them?

[Jen Plesha]

You don't need to hire a nutritionist when you're doing this correctly. So the one thing I do with my weight loss patients is if they're getting blood work, okay, you have to have a vitamin D level. You have to have a B12 level. You need a thyroid panel. Obviously, I do a cbc, a cmp. I don't really do blood work. I just write down what I want their primary to do because if there's a problem, I don't want to do primary care. So I have them get it outpatient. And the 12 tests that nobody does does is vitamin D and B12, which blows my mind because those are huge contributors to, like, anxiety and depression. But if you didn't know that your vitamin D is not going to bind unless your magnesium levels are up to par, you can't do a magnesium blood test. You have to do an RBC magnesium blood test to find out if your level is up to par so you can absorb vitamin D. So that's a big thing right there. And then I look at their labs and I kind of tailor their IV based on their labs. Now, when they're doing weight loss, if hydration is not an issue for them, we do lipotropic shots. They could do one to two a week, you know, if they want to do an IV with it. Like my people who struggle with IV hydration. I do a six week program. They're married to me for six weeks. I do not sell this package unless they are committed to the plan. And they make all six appointments on their first visit. And my biggest thing that I tell people is that this is not a magic potion. Like, this is a lifestyle change. So if you're not ready to make the lifestyle change, please don't waste your money with me. I said, listen, I would love to take your money. I go, but then you're going to come back to me and you're going to be upset. So what I do is, is I literally give them a 12 page sheet on everything. Portion size, sustainable foods. You know, it's all about the quality of the food that you eat. Are you getting, you know, like crappy meat? Are you getting good meat? Are you getting organic versus non organic? And you know the God, the price of groceries right now. But we have like Aldi up here. Aldi is a European company. No GMOs, no high fructose corn syrup, no dyes, nothing. You get pasta from there. It's legit. From Italy. It's semolina flour. It's not white bleached flour. So I tell everybody you are what you eat and that the IV program is going to help stimulate. So I do an IV with like a vital complex which is like a blend of B vitamins. I call it like the multivitamin. These are going to increase your energy, they're going to stimulate your metabolism. I do vitamin C in there. Vitamin C is great for muscle healing. Also. You're going to get immunity out of it too. And we're in six season. It has a little magnesium and calcium which they work together. Okay. Magnesium relaxes, calcium contracts, but they also increase thermoregulation. When thermoregulation increases, your heart rate increases. When your heart rate increases, you burn more calories. Then I have an amino blend in there too. And the amino blend is going to act as your building blocks for protein. It helps with muscle, it helps with post workout recovery. Also has lysine in it. Lysine helps make collagen and lysine also helps keep your immune system up. Then in the amino blend there's ornithine, arginine and citrulline. And what they do is they help to get urea out of your system. And with the fluids that are in your bag, it's going to flush out all of your target toxins. So it's going to help your workout, your post workout recovery. And then I top it off with a lipotropic injection. I do like myc lipo amino or lipo amino with carnitine because the methane and ionosotal and choline help stimulate fat loss. So it's like the icing on the cake with it. And we, we pick what shot we want to do every week. You're not married to it because I want you to find what you like.

[Kelly Guinness]

So let's, let's get into the fun part and talk about profitability. So. Oh yeah, adding this to your practice rough Estimate of what it would cost to bring this service in, and then what can you expect in terms of margin? Um, and how are we. How are we working this for maximum profitability?

[Jen Plesha]

So when I speak at conferences, the first thing I do is I walk into the room and I say, all right, how many of you have IVs in your practice right now? And maybe half to, like, three fourths raised her hand. I go, how many of you are here because your boss forced you to sit in and listen because they want to incorporate it and you have no interest in being in here? And the hands go up. I go, great. I was like, you're not going to hurt my feelings. I'm dead inside. I go, now, how many of you are going to be interested in IVs? If I told you my first year in business doing mobile IVs only, no aesthetics, I made just under a million dollars. And everyone's like, jaw hits the floor. And I go, everyone. I was like, what are your issues? And everyone says, cost. And I say, okay, what if I told you I pay 23 to 37 dollars for an IV with a blood control catheter, an extension set, which when people connect tubing into an IV catheter, it boils my blood. Because that's how you infiltrate. I use what you get in the hospital, and that cost includes your vitamins. And they're all like, how? I also use the most expensive pharmacy. I use, Olympia. But you don't go to the big brands. You go to the moms and pops. So I have preferred vendors that whenever I train with anybody or if anybody ever asks me, I give them my vendor and they get my VIP pricing from the start, which, you know.

[Daniela Warner]

What.

[Kelly Guinness]

Are you pricing this at? I'm seeing a lot of like 150 to 170.

[Jen Plesha]

So a lot of that is chain. So I tell everybody because a lot of chains have opened up around me, and everyone's like, well, at this chain, you know, I'm paying $99 and getting my IV. I go, but you also get what you pay for. I pack my bags with vitamins. And I have worked. I work with new kids on the Block. And, like, it was so funny one of the first times. Like, why do I taste something? I've never tasted anything in my iv. It's the Vita complex. And I go, because they're probably not putting a big dose in it. I said, you need to do the right dose. And that's how I sustain what I charge in my office. We start at 200 and IV, we work our way up mobile, we start at either 265 or 275. But when I go mobile, my pricing is all inclusive. I don't charge travel fees. I, you know, a lot of people tack on gratuity, which, that's illegal. That's a kickback. So you can get in a lot of trouble for that. And I always say, like, I, we're in New Jersey and get a lot of Italian people, and if you don't take a tip from them, they get very offended. So I always tell my staff, decline at first and if they're pushy, just take it. But I don't want to see a trail of it needs to be cash, needs to be Venmo. And it could just be like for a cup of coffee, you know, that's, that's the one big thing. But I mean, when you get your cost down, you should be making a minimum of $100 profit. And the other thing is, what's the.

[Kelly Guinness]

Timeline for the service? How long is this taking?

[Jen Plesha]

It's, it's dependent on your catheter size, your tubing, and the height of your pole. So my husband is 6 5. He hung all of the poles. So we have cleats, like boat cleats. That's what we hang our IVs on. He hung it so high you could dump a half liter in 12 minutes. You could dump a liter in 22 minutes. Now, I like to do it between a half hour and 45, especially when they're new. You can use smaller bags because right now there's a saline shortage. So, you know, some people are doing two 50s and the way you sell that is if you don't need the extra fluids, let's give you more bang for your buck with your vitamins. And not over dilute, but you have to be careful because they're gonna be like, oh, you dilute my vitamins? No, the doses of your vitamins never change in your bag. It's just the amount of fluid that you need. And it's pretty quick. I mean, you need to use 10 GTT per milliliter tubing. You need to use a 20 gauge catheter. Like, we're not using 24s. We're not using 22s. 22s are saved for like my oncology patients or like my fragile people, things like that, you know, fragile fragilia. Those are like usually like my old little bitties. And we don't use pressure bags ever.

[Kelly Guinness]

So when you are, as the business owner, you know, we we look at, okay, usually a energy based device or this, whatever the type of service is going to take this amount of time, this is the consumable cost. How are you kind of estimating these different things and how many providers, how many nurses do you need? Is it one nurse per patient or are you having, you know, we see. I don't know if this is a chain thing or just. But there's like those chairs, there's like six chairs. There's a big tv, there's the bags and there's one nurse.

[Jen Plesha]

This is the other reason why I hire ER nurses. They're used to thriving in chaos. So I do have an IV lounge. I also have a private IV room where if someone is sick, we put them in there. Some people don't want to sit in a lounge with other people. I always, I'm in the office Monday through Thursday. Sometimes I come in on Fridays. But I also have an esthetician who does PRP facials. There's always a nurse in the building at all times. And I have one nurse mobile and I have one nurse in office. So if my mobile nurse has no appointments, they're hanging out in the office and they're going to back up the other nurse on the weekends. So when there's flow. The other thing is, is like it all has to be teamwork. So if I'm not here and my SD has a PRP facial, my nurse is going to draw the blood and get the PRP. And PRP, by the way, is the number one upsell for IVs if anyone is doing it.

[Kelly Guinness]

Yeah, yeah, tell me about that. So injecting the PRP or how are we not all.

[Jen Plesha]

PRP is created equal. PRP is dependent on your hydration. PRP is dependent on your nutrients in your body. So if you've ever drawn PRP and the tube comes out and it's like cloudy, disgusting, like uti, septic. It's because their cholesterol is too high. If they're dehydrated, they're not going to get quality prp. So I do like a three pack of prp. And what I will do for my patients is my three pack is like 2200. It's expensive. But I say to them, I will give you four IVs, okay? For 450. Four IVs. 450. So my cost for the IV that I do is like $22. $23. Times that by four.

[Kelly Guinness]

And then you have to pay your nurse also.

[Jen Plesha]

But yes, that's night. That's 92. And then my cost for my PRP facials are like maybe 110. So my cost is less than $500. And I'm making and I'm charging 2,700. And what I do is the week before they get their PRP facial, they have to come in and get an iv. It has to at least be three days before their PRP facial. And what I do is I pack it with collagen stimulators, I throw in my Vita complex, I throw in my vitamin C, I throw in biotin, I throw in some zinc, I'll add on some glutathione. And then if I'm really feeling like, you know, I'm going to throw in some vitamin D, then I have them come back. And when they come in for their facial, I use a vacutainer. Okay? So I put an IV in, I use a vacutainer, I draw their blood while it's spinning down. I hook up their next iv. So they're getting their IV as the PRP is spinning down. I'm dermaplaning their face. When the PRP comes out, I'm ready to go.

[Kelly Guinness]

And are you needling in the PRP or.

[Jen Plesha]

I microneedle and I inject. I know some people stamp I. I was not an aesthetics person for IVs. I trained for two years on aesthetics before I brought it into my practice. So my office that I'm in now, I had a Sola salon suite last year. We outgrew it in six months. And now I have a 2,000 square foot office that I do aesthetics, IVs and facials and everything in love it.

[Kelly Guinness]

What are the questions that I'm not asking that would be relevant for someone that is interested in learning more, wanting to kind of add this into their practice?

[Jen Plesha]

The biggest thing you need to know is you need to know your state guidelines. I know South Carolina is very strict. You have to have a laminator hood. There's only X amount of people who can compound. So you need to know who can compound a bag, who can put in an iv, who can maintain it. You need protocols, you need competency checklists for your staff. You need to literally monitor your staff on how to insert an iv step by step. You need to sign off on it. You need to do a competency checklist for compounding. Compounding gets a little hairy because there are USP guidelines now. They're guidelines, they're not the law. And you can only put three ingredients in a bag. But you need to find ways to bypass it, which you can inject im, you can piggyback back in, you can IV push. You just need to know all of the facts. You need to just make sure that your staff is compliant. You need to make sure that you have a tracking system. You know, we literally everything in my. My stock room, we have a traffic light color coding system of use this first, then use this next. Because once your vitamins hit your budget, it's either 28 days before the bud, once you pop it, or once you hit that beauty, you have to throw it out. So you need to find a way to make sure that you're using your vitamins without expiring. And usually when I have certain vitamins that are getting close to it and I have a stock, I do a blowout sale, I'd rather take less of a profit than waste the product.

[Kelly Guinness]

Right.

[Jen Plesha]

But you need to know your regulations. That's a really big thing. You need to have SOPs in place for emergency situations. Someone's anaphylactic, someone's vomiting, someone seizes. You should be doing trainings on what to do when that happens. There's a lot on the back end that people don't realize. You know, like your fridge, all of your fridge, they need to be locked. Anything that has a medication has to be locked. Are you doing temperature logs on your fridge? That is a health department requirement. So if they ever come in, they're going to say, where's your fridge log? Why isn't this locked? Oh, you have an expired vial of XYZ in there. There's a provider in our area who had vials that were expired and they got fined $25,000 a vial. Oh, my gosh. Yeah. So, you know, everyone sees IVs as, oh, it's just profitable. Oh, it's just vitamins. It's not just vitamins. You can kill somebody if you give them too much magnesium, you give them too much calcium. If you overload somebody on B12 when they go to their primary and they get their blood work and their B12 is greater than 2000, do you know what they're going to do to them? They're going to send them to the oncologist because they're going to think that they have leukemia. You have to be careful with how much fluid you're giving people. My favorite are the cute little old people. I have no medical history. Do you take meds? Yeah, I take Lasix. And I'm like, oh, my gosh. And why do you take Lasix? Well, my Legs get swollen. Do you have congestive heart failure? No, I just get fluid buildup. You have to like. I feel like when you're working in this, it's like an onion. You need to peel back the layers because at the end of.

[Kelly Guinness]

And that's why you feel it's so vital to have a medical professional that knows.

[Jen Plesha]

Yes.

[Kelly Guinness]

The questions to ask and what is connected.

[Jen Plesha]

My light always.

[Kelly Guinness]

There we go. My light in my office is like one of those automatic lights. I'll never forget years and years ago. This is probably like 15 years ago at this point. But we had Dr. Patrick Bitter came in to do. He's like the. The BBL guy. Right. And he came in and was doing a training for the spa that I was working at. And we had these like patients that we didn't know why we couldn't help them. That. So he was bringing in like he was going to look at them. And we were all laser tax. But estheticians not. We don't have medical background on medication.

[Daniela Warner]

Right.

[Kelly Guinness]

And what happened with this one gentleman was he was on prednisone and so he was red and we couldn't get the red to go away. And so we brought. We. It took a doctor to understand the medical history piece. And so it's like, okay, the more you get into it, the more you realize like you don't know what you don't know. And it's always important to ask when and just be aware of your own scope and your own.

[Jen Plesha]

And every patient that comes in our door is assessed by me before a line goes in their arm. So my protocol is, is I telehealth them or if they're in office, I see them, I go through their intake sheet with them. And then the nurse. When they arrive, it is the nurse's responsibility to sit them down and go over allergies, meds, medication, surgical history, everything. Because people love to lie. And the other thing I do on my intake forms to cover my tush is I have an attestation on the end of their medical intake and it states I have fully disclosed all of my medical history. Allergies, medications, blah, blah. If I fail to disclose any information and an adverse effect happens, I do not hold plush your medical LLC DBA IVs by the seas legally liable because there will be people who lie. I had somebody who didn't tell me they were on Klonopin and oxycodone and all these other meds and they wanted a detox. They wanted me to detox the COVID vaccine out of them. And I was like, I. I don't think that's gonna happen, but I'm more than willing to try. And I gave them nad and I gave them glutathione. And then the next day, they called my office screaming at me that they were in the bathroom puking and on the toilet all night. And I go, well, you wanted a detox, I gave you a detox. And, like, prior to doing that, I asked, are you on any of these meds? You know, I was like, because you can withdraw from them. She said, no, no, no, no, no. Then the next day, she's like, you know, my anxiety is through the roof. My Klonopin, I've had to take most of my Klonopin. And I was like, you told me you are an on Klonopin and you signed the waiver. So you also need to be careful because people who are on, like, benzos and opiates, if you give them certain meds, this is what's going to happen. So I don't sacrifice patient safety for profit. And I find that a lot of places popping up look at profit, but they don't look at sustainability. And it's very difficult to maintain an IV business in this, like, in current day, when you don't have that extra step, because places are opening up all over the place, and within a year, they're all shutting down.

[Kelly Guinness]

So it really comes back to, you know, patient care first, which it should be in all medical spas. I mean, there's the word medical in front of there, right?

[Jen Plesha]

Like, we should be quality over quantity. I would rather have 50 quality patients that are using me consistently than 5,000 who use me as a revolving door.

[Kelly Guinness]

Mm, Very good. This is great. This was eye opening. I think it's going to really get a lot of people's wheels turning on what is possible for them and decide, do I want to do this? Do I not want to do this? Is aligned with my practice, all of those things. So can you share? We'll include all the links below, but can you share where our listeners can find you? Follow you, get in touch with you, all the things.

[Jen Plesha]

So I. I have a Facebook, guys. I don't use it. I hate Facebook.

[Kelly Guinness]

Me and Facebook are not friends anymore.

[Jen Plesha]

We're not friends.

[Kelly Guinness]

I have not done. I actually haven't been on any social media for over a year.

[Jen Plesha]

Talk.

[Kelly Guinness]

My team does it for me. I literally have not been on anything for over a year.

[Jen Plesha]

So I make. I make reels. I do my own reels. And I do have a social media team. But you will find my bread and butter is always going to be Instagram and it's going to be IVs by the seas. Not IV by the sea. Not IVs by the sea. It's IVs by the seas. I'm on there. I do answer my own DMs. You can email me, which we can put that contact info up. And then, like I said, I do do trainings, I travel. You can come to me. I always tell people, like, now is the time in New Jersey, if you want training to come here, because I'm like a mile from the beach, so all the cute little, like, Airbnbs are dirt cheap this time of the year. Yeah. And like, I just, I tell everybody, you need to find somebody that you feel comfortable with if you're going to do this. You need to find somebody that's going to be a resource and anybody. I've done three trainings so far and every person knows they get my personal cell phone, which I never give out at the end because if I'm training you, how your practice is going to run is going to be a direct reflection upon me, my training and what I do. And I literally give you everything. I give you your SOPs, I give you your competency checklist, I give you your inventory, I give you everything. And I'm always here as a resource because the last thing I want you to do is to guess and you hurt somebody. You know, I tell every single person who does IVs, especially mobile. All my staff is, you are a stranger going into someone's house with needles and drugs. And if you don't view IV therapy like that, then this is not the company for you to be working at. So that's a great, a great part.

[Kelly Guinness]

To a great end. You are going into someone's house with needles and drugs. But I mean, it is, it's important, it's important to put it all in perspective.

[Jen Plesha]

Yeah. And like I said, Instagram is really the best way to get a hold of me. You can email me, email. It usually takes me 24 to 48 hours to get back Instagram DMs. I usually respond right away, but I also like to like, let people know. I am a solo nurse practitioner. I'm a mom of a three and a five year old. So you might get texts back from me at, you know, like 10:30 at night. Actually you won't because I go to bed by 8:30, but I always respond and you know, we could always work something out. Right now I don't have any like in person trainings until the new year just because I am speaking at the MAT meeting in November. And I think if I travel in December, my husband will divorce me because I have traveled every single month lately for conferences and trainings. But if people want to come here, I could definitely open something up and then I can also open up something virtual. But when I do virtual, you don't get what you would get in person. So I do preface that with people.

[Kelly Guinness]

Perfect. Well, we'll get all those links included. Thank you so much for sharing so much information, so much knowledge. I know this is going to be a huge value to our listeners and I'm just excited to watch where you continue to grow. I mean, gosh, three years in and just keep going one day at a time.

[Jen Plesha]

Just keep going swimming. That's what I keep saying. Yes, you can tell.

[Kelly Guinness]

You're a mom.

[Jen Plesha]

Yes, definitely.

[Kelly Guinness]

Thank you so much as always.

[Daniela Warner]

If you want to keep the conversation going, I want you to head on over to the Spa Marketing Made Easy Facebook Group, the number one free resource out there for estheticians focused on business building. We've got weekly marketing tips, a monthly goal setting and planning session, monthly esthetician business book club, plus a community of thousands of estheticians committed to business building in the spa industry. I'll see you there.