Leading the Charge: Holistic Health Transformed with Humanaut's Innovative Approach to Optimization & Longevity

I had the chance to connect with Jim Donnelly, CEO & Co-Founder of Humanaut Health, author, and keynote speaker.

Jim Donnelly is the Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of Humanaut Health, a premium clinic for health optimization and longevity medicine. Humanaut helps members live with more joy and less disease, discomfort, and uncertainty as they age. Humanaut offers a holistic care experience across a range of membership price points. Multidimensional assessment, medical care, and behavior change support is standard for all members.?

Prior to Humanaut, Jim co-founded Restore Hyper Wellness. Restore continues to be recognized with national awards.

Prior to Restore, Jim co-founded IgoUgo.com, winner of a Webby Award as the top travel website in the U.S. In under five years, IgoUgo became the leader in user generated content for travel websites and was sold to Sabre Holdings / Travelocity.?

With a focus in the luxury retail market, Jim has developed luxury condos (for homeowners including Michael Jordan, Cam Newton and Chris Daughtry), as well as salons, spas and high-end health clubs including the Charlotte Athletic Club. The accumulation of these experiences informed the creation of Humanaut.

Q: Tell me about your business and what separates you from your competition.

A: Humanaut Health is a premium clinic for health optimization and longevity medicine. Through advanced assessment and integrative care, our medical teams help the body retain and rebuild function to protect quality of life for years to come.

Health optimization is a personalized, proactive, and preventative medicine approach designed to help people achieve a peak state of physical and mental performance. Health optimization includes lifestyle changes and medical therapies such as regenerative medicine, hormones, and peptides, among other interventions.

The thing that separates Humanaut Health from our competition is the depth and breadth of what we offer.? Most of our competitors address a slice of the healthcare puzzle.? Humanaut Health is much more holistic and can do more than less integrated approaches.

Q: How do you build culture, relationships, and teams inside and outside of your organization?

A: We create great culture and powerful teams by following a set of principles:

1. We start companies with bold missions that, when accomplished, will have a big societal impact. I tell everyone on the team, “A day that I don’t cry is a day that I don’t feel; a day that I don’t feel is a wasted day.” Crying can be literal or metaphorical, but you must have something worthy of emotion. People, relationships, and impact are all worth some authentic emotions.
2. We pursue the most talented people who have the skills we need to accomplish big things. Talent is ultimately measured by contributions to the mission.
3. Everyone on the team must be a good human (mission-driven, collaborative, great ethics).
4. We ensure everyone understands the order of priorities:? Family and faith (whatever that is to each person) are first.? Work is third.? There will be plenty of hard workdays, but I believe you need a real purpose to stay motivated.
5. Everyone has a chance to contribute, be rewarded, and be recognized.
6. We look for pieces that fit together. If you have a great culture established, it should be obvious if someone is a culture fit. When someone isn’t a good fit, we won’t hire them, and/or they don’t last.
7. We have our eye on a destination, but the journey must be enjoyable.? We have fun.
8. We have a no “asshole” policy.? We don’t work with anyone who doesn’t understand what that means.? And it helps drive how the team interacts internally, even in hard times.
9. We encourage dissonance i.e. we want the team to speak up if they think something can be done better.? But we keep #8 in mind when we interact.
10. We treat people with respect and are loyal. Everyone on the team knows that the leaders and their colleagues have their backs.

Q: Can you share the story behind the founding of Humanaut Health and the mission that drives your work in the healthcare industry?

On top of creating something impactful, we wanted a brand that could embody a movement and an ethos.

A: I’ve worked in the health, wellness, and fitness category for almost 20 years.? The goal has always been to help change the health trajectory of society.??

I had built Restore for 8 years and needed a new challenge.? As a serial entrepreneur, I like to create new things.? I wanted to move beyond the basic wellness that Restore offers.??

So, I toured the country looking at a variety of ideas.? I tried a bunch of things (i.e. stem cells in my knees and neck, new ways of physical training, interesting diets and challenges, etc.).? I spoke with medical experts in a variety of interesting areas (hormones, peptides, regenerative medicine).? And I sought medical professionals and startup partners who had a narrative around why they wanted to change healthcare.? Along the way, the idea for Humanaut Health took shape.??

Humanaut Health is an entirely different idea that is much more medical, integrative, and cutting-edge than anything I’ve done to date. We embraced the complexity of a truly whole-person offering that includes extensive diagnostics, coaching, personalized care plans, a sophisticated technology stack, and an optimization medicine approach that incorporates all the tools needed to make dramatic improvements in health.??

On top of creating something impactful, we wanted a brand that could embody a movement and an ethos.? In the way astronauts explore space, Humanauts explore health optimization.? They will have a mindset that seeks out a better way.? It has been a lot of fun to work through the specifics of what it means to be a Humanaut.

Q: Who or what has influenced your leadership ethos?

A: I grew up in a military family. I was naturally around a leadership ethos, and my father was my original leadership role model. I saw how he treated and inspired people. He was always enthusiastic, particularly during hard times.??

Sports also helped influence my leadership style.? I was a team captain for most of the teams I played on.? This dynamic was driven by hard work, setting an example, and helping others.

As a young adult, I pursued marketing jobs at the best companies and had several amazing leaders who reinforced the things that I valued in a leader.? I literally learned from some of the top business leaders.

Finally, I learned a lot from my wife, a West Point grad, and all her classmates, whom I’ve considered friends for the last 20+ years. The West Point community is an amazing group of leaders, and I’ve enjoyed being around it since I married Stacy.

Q: How does Humanaut Health prioritize the needs and experiences of patients in its approach to innovation and product development?

A: As a marketer at heart, I’ve always understood the need to prioritize the needs of customers.? Too many businesses build things that aren’t truly connected to the needs of their audience.? This is particularly true in healthcare.? Healthcare tends to focus on symptoms and averages. Every human has a unique set of health needs and a unique lifestyle that influences these needs.? That is why we have such an extensive approach to baseline health assessment, integrations with wearable device data, and a very rich feedback loop that measures progress continuously. We treat every client as an N of 1 and promise to deliver the tools, processes, and professionals needed to provide exceptional personalized medical care.?

Q: What are you expecting out of 2024 and how will that impact your business?

A: I’m always optimistic. I am confident that 2024 will be an amazing year. In every way, we are ahead of schedule with our Humanaut Health goals, and we will help more people than we originally planned this year. It is obvious that people everywhere are looking for a better, more proactive way to manage their health. They expect more from life and know that increasing their health span, or years of healthy living, is possible. We want to make sure we have created the best possible option.

On a personal level, I’ll continue to live a wonderful life full of family, friends, adventure, enthusiasm, and faith.? This keeps me focused on what is important and ensures I’m living my best life.? I’m confident this approach produces better professional and personal results.

Q: What do you see as the biggest challenges facing healthcare innovation today, and how is Humanaut Health addressing these challenges?

A: The traditional healthcare system is massive and full of large, embedded players.? It is hard to change anything that these players don’t want to change.? This is true even though the prevailing consensus is that the “system” is broken.? Statistic after statistic indicates that the health of society continues to trend in a negative direction. We are surrounded by a sick care model that invests in people only once they become ill.? A much better model would proactively invest in people, giving them the personalized guidance they need to prevent illness and disease.?

Humanaut Health wants to be an example of how to start making change.? We will pursue a preventative, proactive approach to improving health.? We will do it at scale.? We will use data to show the merits of our approach.? We will work with traditional healthcare players where possible.

Q: What do you work for and what do you do for fun??

I’ve always said the journey is just as important as the destination, so you must enjoy the day-to-day given your limited time on earth.

A: I’ve always created businesses around the things that I’m personally interested in.? When you do that, you tend to enjoy your work.? Actually, when I start thinking about my role as work I must do, I know it is time to start something new.? I find the leading edge of healthcare to be incredibly fascinating and constantly evolving.? I’d never “sell” something that I wasn’t comfortable doing myself.? So, I live in a constant world of experimentation and validation.? Just as importantly, I make sure I’m working with people I really enjoy and trust.? I choose people with charisma and real joie de vivre.? I’ve always said the journey is just as important as the destination, so you must enjoy the day-to-day given your limited time on earth.

On a personal level, I love spending time with family and friends.? My wife and kids (even at 14 and 16) are all entrepreneurs.? I enjoy spending time with them working through new businesses (the kids are crushing it, and they don’t really want my help…I love their independence).? I also like to take on hard challenges.? Right now, I’m in the last week of 75 Hard and a separate 100 Pushups a Day Challenge.??

Q: Can you discuss some key partnerships or collaborations that have been instrumental in advancing Humanaut Health's mission, and how do you select partners that align with your values?

A: At this point, we aren’t publicizing partnerships.? But I can comment on how we select partners that align with our values.? Our partners must be mission-driven.? They must treat people with respect. They must provide significant value that enhances our ability to accomplish our mission.? And we must be able to create mutually beneficial outcomes.

Q: Looking ahead, what legacy do you hope to leave as CEO of Humanaut Health, and how do you measure the company's impact beyond financial success?

Humanaut Health will measure impact by the number of lives we change for the better.

A: Humanaut Health will measure impact by the number of lives we change for the better.? That will be the only legacy I care about.? If we impact a large number of lives, the financial part will take care of itself.? Along the way, we will make sure that we create a great company and opportunities for our employees and partners.?

Q: As a co-founder and CEO, what personally drives your passion for improving healthcare, and how do you stay motivated in the face of challenges?

A: This is the easiest question I’ve ever answered. I’ve got a wonderful life. I’m married to the woman of my dreams. I have wonderful children, an incredible mom, great friends, and a real purpose with my job and my pursuits.? The only time I’ve been truly sad was when my dad died.? He fought cancer for five years and displayed amazing enthusiasm and grace. I’ve never been prouder of anything.? My only wish is that I’d had better options twenty years ago to help him proactively manage his health.? Maybe his fate would have been different.? Unfortunately, I can’t change what happened to my dad.? But I will do everything I can to make sure everyone I care about has the best possible options to increase their Healthspan. By extension, everyone else will have those options as well.? I know that everyone at Humanaut Health has the same conviction.

Thank you for contributing to this series, Jim.

Please visit humanauthealth.com to learn more about what we do and be sure to Join The Waitlist.

And thank you @zilkermedia for making this newsletter possible!?

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