Jamila Sozahdah, CEO of the Drip Doctors, on Looking & Feeling Your Best
Jamila Sozahdah, the founder of a successful health startup providing customers with solutions for chronic illnesses, has faced plenty of hardship in her life. Even so, she has not let it deter her from establishing her expanding business and helping others along the way. We got to speak with Jamila, asking her about her inspiration to create Drip Doctors, her background, what keeps her motivated to work hard, and her goals for Drip Doctors in the year to come.
Q: How did you start and create the revolutionary brand and company of the Drip Doctors? Tell us about the company and its successes to date.
A: Drip Doctors initially began in 2015 as a concierge IV service and opened its first brick and mortar location in August of 2015 in Downtown Los Angeles.
Drip Doctors came into concept while I worked in the ER. I am a Board Certified Physician Assistant and my specialty is Emergency Medicine. After spending 7 years in Emergency Medicine and being exposed to so much illness and chronic conditions, I thought to myself, there has to be a better way to provide a type of medical service that brought the practicality of the ER, but in a more luxurious setting, that was accessible and affordable to those who wanted to take a proactive rather than a reactive approach to their health and lifestyle.
Our treatments have a plethora of benefits. The major benefit of IV vitamin therapy is that you are getting all the essential nutrients, amino acids, and anti-oxidants directly into your bloodstream and you are getting 100% of the benefits. Drip Doctors IV treatments help alleviate chronic conditions like chronic pain, arthritis, auto-immune disorders, fatigue, depression, and chronic medical conditions. The vitamins included in our drips are great for mental clarity, immune support, and of course energy. We’re proud that we’ve moved beyond IV Vitamin Therapy and into anti-aging, sexual wellness, and skin therapy.
Drip Doctors now has three LA locations (DTLA, West Hollywood, and Brentwood), expanding to Northern California in San Francisco slated to open in just a couple of months. We are also in Las Vegas.
Q: What motivates you? How did you get to where you are at?
A: At heart, I’m a service oriented individual. Growing up in a household of 11 women (my mother and her 10 daughters), we all learned how to help one another get by. We’ve always supported one another and I get great satisfaction in seeing people achieve their optimal condition. Nothing is more rewarding than the letters I get from my patients who say I’ve changed their life or made them look or feel 20 years younger.
What motivated me in my life was seeing my mother’s struggle while raising 10 daughters on her own after my father’s passing. She spoke about the importance of education and working hard to achieve your goals even though she was an immigrant with no real opportunity to educate herself. There are no short cuts in life. I got to where I am at through dedication, persistence, and putting hard work into my education.
Q: In 2018, the possibility for young professionals to pursue their dreams and goals is ever present. What are some words of advice you can give to today’s youth as an entrepreneur yourself?
A: Honestly, the best thing I can tell people is that you have to try. Living a life of regret for not trying would haunt me personally. There are a lot of sacrifices in starting a business. It impacts your family, financial, and social situations. The truth of the matter is that most businesses do fail, but if you’re willing to be rewarded by the effort and focus on the goals of why you started the company, the reward is much greater than the financial outcome.
Q: What is a quote of inspiration that you live by? This can either be a quote someone else has created or it can be a creation of your own.
A: I try to live by the saying “Choose Happiness.” It’s really easy to get caught up in the day to day of life, but if you’re able to focus on your own personal well-being, you can truly find your happiness. I spent a lot of time doing everything that I thought was expected of me, but in the end, it wasn’t my choice and it wasn’t my happiness. Once I really started to think about what brought me happiness, I just had to make the choices to stay there. It’s not always easy to make that choice, but it’s something that pays back dividends beyond all compare.
Q: What is something people may not know about you?
A: That I graduated high school at 16 and college at 19. My family was very strict about our education, and my 9 sisters all actually followed the same path. At the time it didn’t seem like that much fun, but in retrospect, I’m really happy about the work ethic that it engrained in me.
Q: What is new for you in the upcoming year of 2019? Any resolutions, goals, etc.?
A: This is a busy year for me personally. I’m learning a lot more about the business side of things as Drip Doctors begins to scale rapidly. I’m moving a bit away from the day to day operations of the clinics and seeing patients, to spending more time with investors and advisors. Selecting new locations for the business, working with local community members to build outreach, and trying really level up our marketing. It’s an exciting time for the business and for my personal growth.
photo by Tommy Flanagan
Intro by Sam Spotswood