Today we’d like to introduce you to Thomas Macsay.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
My professional career started during my last year of medical school. I’d been enrolled in two medical programs (naturopathy and Chinese Medicine) and already completed a few certificate and degree programs in kinesiology, personal training, massage therapy, cranial unwinding, and polarity therapy. In reality, my story started a lot earlier than that as a I grew up and holistic household with a mother who was a naturopathic doctor practiced acupuncture and Chinese medicine, and never gave us any medicine growing up other than a herbs, so a lot of my business focus and professional life stem from those early experiences.
But after being in school so long, it felt like I was on a path to just continue running on the hamster wheel, even though being a part of institutions was really enjoyable for me as I found that I thrived in those environment, scucceeded easily and loved the community aspect.
I had been arrested when I was 18 for a marijuana charge that had caused a lot of legal issues for me and caused me to lose my green card due to administration errors at ICE after traveling to see my family one Christmas in 2001. This was a huge shift in my life and was very unfortunate as it left me kind of in a hole for a long time as I couldn’t find legal employment, get legal identification such as a driver’s license, and forced me to work odd jobs for 8 years to scrape by as my legal situation figured itself out.
Luckily, despite legal issues, I was able to get accepted to medical school and get approved for loans and, so that’s how it ended up in medical school, which kind of kept me afloat for a while as I had no money after not having any identification or solid jobs for the years that I was dealing with my green card issues.
It was a struggle to stay off the streets, and I ended up homeless a few times, living by the famous water tower in North Park after I lost the Van to mechanical failure that I had moved to San Diego in, in early 2014.
Things went well during school as I could support myself well from student loans, but then the last year of school rolled around. I had begun working on a few business projects, with having the realization that I was going to be in the real world soon that I still would be broke and homeless once I got done with school because things don’t change just because you’re in school so I realize that’s going back to the real world and I had to do something about that so I got involved in a lot of consultation and project development including formulation and product design.
I had always had knack for herbal medicine product creation, and I absolutely loved organic chemistry, so starting to work in Product formulation was like a natural progression for me I ended up starting a few different companies, mostly in the CBD and hemp space that combined herbal medicine with Hemp to kinda open up the window for people to understand that herbal medicine had a lot of healing potential and just because Hemp did so much didn’t mean that it was the only miracle Herb out there. (This was all in the last year of school)
So, by the time I graduated from medical school, I had about three different companies that I was working on. One that was a functional capsule product, one that was more organic holistic tinctures, and then I was also working on a nonalcoholic drink project at the time I decided to move to Oregon and lived in Ashland for a while, which is where my primary project was based out of. We had a 77-acre farm that we’re going over Herbs and Hemp on, and we’re going to create a retreat center to do healing retreats and bring people to the land where the medicine is being grown.
Unfortunately, a lot of these projects ended up failing and left me in a worst spot than I was before, but I knew that I had to create something big and impactful or something that changed people’s lives in order to change my life.
At 25, I had been diagnosed with melanoma/skin cancer, and I really threw me for a loop for a while and made me feel like I haven’t done much with my life that I can create anything lasting for the world or something that really change people’s lives for the better in a big way, and that’s really what a lot of my motivation was behind all these projects that I was working on it was how I could create the most change in a way that I felt it was necessary in the world and something I feel passionate and driven to create for people. A lot of motivation to work on projects came from this awareness of my mortality and the fact that life can slip out of our fingers so quickly.
After the up and downs in Ashland getting involved in a few other projects and starting some more projects myself with other business partners, I found myself back in San Diego for a couple months got a job as a doctor, stay the same patience again, and then Covid hit, and that last me jobless again, which is quite a struggle. I ended up working in the functional mushroom space and doing some grow operations as well as working in some extraction labs developing techniques and protocols for creating extractions and scaling them up to large industrial processes, which is pretty fun and exciting but also really demanding as it wasn’t my primary training and was just kind of intelligent Covid.
This project screw a bit old, and they weren’t really supporting me while and I knew that there was something else out there that I had to create, so I moved back into San Diego and started focusing more on my primary patient care and seeing patients privately and through that, I ended up, connecting with my business partners who I started with, shared the vision of wanting to create a new way of delivering medicine that was easy, simplified effective, while also being cutting edge and creating lasting benefits and results for patients.
This was in 2022, as we began moving out of the peak of COVID, and since then, thrived and all my other ventures have steadily been growing and bringing us to the present day.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back, would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Dude has been one of the bumpiest rides of my life. Despite personal growth in health issues and lack of money, legal identification issues that there is so many other little challenges along the way.
Not having anywhere to live and sleep for more than a few periods of my life was extremely debilitating, and working yourself out of poverty is one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. It is impossible to make healthy money decisions and operate from a place of safety when you have no idea how you are gunna pay for your next meal, bill, car issue, health issue, etc. Retraining my nervous system to not be in survival mode multiple times throughout my life is a long and nuanced process.
Losing my health and vitality throughout medical school, having stress-induced IBS, and getting diagnosed with cancer were all huge obstacles to overcome from a mental standpoint as well. The depression associated with losing your health and vitality is almost enough to shut some people down, but when you have no other option but to power through what you’re dealing with to finish a project or study for an exam, it makes it so much harder to get anything done.
Then, of course, there are terrible business partners and individuals who you meet along the way. The people that only care about their own profit or benefit, the ones who don’t care who their actions affect others, and the ones that string you along and don’t keep their words. Out of all the challenges, getting hurt by people who you put trust and care into is by far the hardest challenge that I’ve death with along the way.
Due to the nature of my experience, I put a lot of myself into many of the first projects that I worked on, to the detriment of myself and time. And being capable with a diverse background was able to do a lot of stuff on my own by just figuring it out through research, trial, and error. This led me to be taken advantage of multiple times, as I was willing to work through being broke and homeless to make something succeed. I mean I was already broke and homeless to begin with so to me all I had was time to contribute and dedicate to something I believed in.
Failure, of course, is the hardest challenge. I failed hard and fast, and often for the first 4 years of working in business. I took big risks that didn’t pay off. The feeling of being personally responsible for the failure and the feeling of losing something that I felt extremely personally attached to was very heartbreaking. But without those failures early on, I don’t believe I would ever have been able to succeed and persevere through the challenges that come as being part of multiple start-ups and budding businesses.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
My main business project currently is iThriveMD.
At iThriveMD, we’re dedicated to unlocking your full potential and enriching your health span. We offer proven, safe solutions such as IV nutrition, hormone replacement therapy, semaglutide weight loss, and more. We have locations in San Diego, Encinitas, and Scottsdale. Recently, we’ve launched a national telemedicine branch of our business that we are just beginning to roll out called Enhance.MD
We focus on health programs and services that prevent chronic disease development, halt the aging process, and get people feeling like the best version of themselves again. This is primarily accomplished through meticulously crafted health programs and regenerative wellness services that include IV therapy, regenerative injections, hormone replacement, weight loss, and overall holistic care.
Our weight loss programs have really been the driving force for our growth as the market continues to expand. We take pride in doing comprehensive bloodwork with frequent provider visits to ensure that we tailor all our programs to our patient’s individuals needs.
It has been an absolute joy to watch people’s lives completely change in just a short amount of time. Creating meaningful connections with the patients that come to our clinic is one of the most fulfilling aspects of the wellness industry and keeps me motivated daily.
In my personal professional life, I have found lots of success in product creation, formulation, consultation, and education. I consult with multiple companies on how to market, communicate, and educate customers on their products with honesty, integrity, and transparency.
I help pharmacies, supplement manufacturers, and clinics set up more efficient protocols, floor plan designs, and services to optimize their businesses.
My pride and joy currently are a few projects call Good + Bar, a non-alcoholic functional bar, and Sunshine Rituals, organic reef-safe sun care, that have been near and dear to me for almost 5 years now. These are grassroots companies that have slowly been built up over the years without any major funding or marketing but have benefited from strong community support and evolving markets.
How can people work with you, collaborate with you, or support you?
Anyone looking to work with me can reach me at drmacsay@ithrivemd.com or info@ithrivemd.com for any clinical needs or to be seen as a patient.
You can find me on Instagram at any of these handles:
@dr.macsay
@ithrivemd
@joinenhance
@sunshinerituals
@drinkgoodbar
@entheos_wellness
@remederi
I am open to collaborating on the following:
– Product creation, formulation, production processes.
– Medical consultations and procedures
– Sales and marketing training – neutraceuticals, hemp, consumer products, etc.
– Educational Talks/Webinars/Conference Presentations
– Non-alcoholic pop-up bar services
– Mobile IV parties
– Brand development and business strategy
Pricing:
- Weight Loss Membership – $299/month
- Mens TRT – $199/month
- IVs – $150 to $800
- Consultation 30 min – $150
Contact Info:
- Website: www.ithrivemd.com
- Instagram: @dr.macsay
