This week on The Mobile Alabama Business Podcast, we sit down with Melissa Guitterez. Listen in as we discuss her life, career journey, and how she got into the world of water purification!
Produced by Blue Fish.
Transcript:
Melissa Guitterez: Hi. I'm Missy Guitterez with Peak Alkalinity. Marcus Neto: Awesome. Welcome to the podcast Missy. Melissa Guitterez: Thanks so much Marcus. Thanks for having me today. Marcus Neto: Yeah. To get started, normally we get some backstory of the person that we're talking to, so why don't you tell us the story of Missy? Where are you from? Where did you go to high school? Did you go to college? If so, where? Are you married, and stuff like that? Melissa Guitterez: Sure. I'm originally from Louisiana. My girls and I and my father moved to Alabama about four years ago. I went to a very small high school, [Beau Cheval 00:00:33] High School. Actually it was a K through 12. My father was actually principal until I was in sixth grade, so that's a story for another day. Marcus Neto: That's a bonus. Yeah. Melissa Guitterez: I couldn't get away with anything. Went to college at NLU, which is Northeast Louisiana University. I'm giving my age away here, because now it's ULM, so got my pharmacy degree there, and here we are. Just had a lot of work in between. Marcus Neto: Yeah. And married? I know the answer, but- Melissa Guitterez: I am not. Marcus Neto: Okay. Very good. Why don't you talk us through your first job? Were there any lessons that you still remember from that? Most of the time when I'm talking about this I talk about working in a bagel bakery and learning how to mop the floors the correct way, and that kind of impressioned on me that there's always a right way to do things, even the menial tasks of taking out the trash and mopping the floors and stuff like that. Melissa Guitterez: Absolutely. My first I'll call it real job, because I had all kind of things growing up... I've done crazy things that you wouldn't imagine, having grown up in the country. But when I graduated from pharmacy school I went to work for Walmart stores. I worked in the pharmacy there as the pharmacist, and I learned from a guy that was 10 years older... His name is Brent Morgan, and he just taught me how to treat people correctly. Melissa Guitterez: Again, it seemed so simple, but if folks needed a day off or they had something going on many times it left us short-staffed, and the reality is he never got upset about that. He always treated people with respect and with kindness. And when I was much, much younger there was a time that I was like, "Man, why don't you do something about this? We're so short-staffed, we're working like dogs." Melissa Guitterez: But I learned something from him, and that was just an invaluable lesson. It was how to build a clientele, how to get engaged with the customers every day. We saw the same people multiple times a month, and it was asking them about their families. People would literally... This is no joke. Someone had a litter of puppies and brought the in a cardboard box to see if we wanted one. They were just... He got involved and showed that he cared about them, and it was genuine, and that is something that stayed with me to this day. Marcus Neto: Very cool. Now normally I would... And I'll get there and we'll talk about the business, but you mentioned pharmacy as kind of your primary career. What pushed you into that as a career? Was there something that you had happen or an experience or something along those lines that kind of made you go down that path? Melissa Guitterez: Most people don't know this, but my mother, who is now deceased, was a recovering alcoholic and drug abuser. She had four years of sobriety whenever she passed away, and she really... Once she was well she devoted the rest of her life to helping people recover from drug and alcohol abuse. Melissa Guitterez: I watched her throughout the years. What we found out at some point in time was that while I will say that this was totally my mother's responsibility, no one made her take anything, but there was some leniency with some things going on with some prescription writing and being able to purchase certain things, and I just really felt strongly that that should not be the case and that someone should be able to stand for that. Melissa Guitterez: In addition to those feelings, my father, who is going to be 90 in November and a product of the depression, his rationale was you're going to be in a heated building during the wintertime, you're going to be in a building with AC during the summertime, and people are always sick, so you're always going to have a job. Marcus Neto: Yeah, for sure. Melissa Guitterez: When you're a kid what do you know? You're 18, you get out... You don't have any idea what you want to do. So I felt like I had this cause here with my mother, and then my dad gave me this advice, and I just ran with it. Marcus Neto: Yeah. So did that kind of... Is there any relationship between that and Peak Alkalinity? Melissa Guitterez: Well, with Peak Alkalinity we help people to become healthy from the inside out, right? It all starts with pH. Every time you talk to me you will hear me come back to pH, pH, pH balance. That is because I had my own health issues about 25 years ago and could not seem to get better. I spent about $30,000 on diagnostic testing. We came up empty. By the grace of God I met a biochemist and she had me look at things very differently. Melissa Guitterez: She said, "Missy, you're putting the bandaid on a problem. Until you go to the root cause of the problem and you go to the cellular level you're never going to figure this thing out." So I worked with her, and I would have latched onto anyone that would have helped me at that point. I really just wanted to feel better. Now, at 53, I feel better than I did in my 20s and I can do easily twice as much as I used to be able to do. Melissa Guitterez: So what happened here with Peak Alkalinity is it brought my pharmacy background into play and it also brought my business background into play, because I spent 20 years in financial services, so it brought both of those things together. It's just a perfect marriage. Marcus Neto: It's interesting, because I think... Growing up, my father had a heart attack when he was younger than I currently am, and it's amazing to me how experiences like that make an impression on a young individual. I was 15 or so when he had his first heart attack, and the information that was given at that time was so drastically different than the information that is given today. Marcus Neto: For instance, it used to be cholesterol, cholesterol, cholesterol, like don't eat red meat, don't eat saturated fats, don't eat eggs because the yolks have cholesterol in them, all this stuff. Heavy carbs, you know. There was really no mention of like eating... Maybe they would mention vegetables and stuff like that, but vegetables, certainly they could come out of a can. They didn't specify like fresh vegetables that actually have some nutrients to them instead of things that have been sitting in a can for a year or two. Marcus Neto: So I think it's interesting now, because we have people that are at the forefront... And I'm getting somewhere with this, but we have people at the forefront of all this stuff where... And he's a meathead, but Joe Rogan talks every podcast about health and wellness and cellular stuff. The other day he was talking about telomeres and the mitochondria and stuff like this, and it's like the amount of stuff that has changed over the last two decades, it's just like it's insane, like the amount of information that we have. Marcus Neto: So instead of checking cholesterol now I'm looking at my C reactive protein to see how my inflammation is, because the inflammation is really the cause of heart disease versus the cholesterol, which really doesn't matter, right? Statins are evil things. It's like so what can we look at in our healthy lives that can help impact from the inside out, like you're talking about? Marcus Neto: So anyway, all I have to say is I think it's a phenomenal thing that you're doing. Why don't you tell us how you got started in that business? How did that come to fruition? Melissa Guitterez: Again, 25 years ago I had to choose the different path, right? I spent $30,000 in diagnostic testing. Again, that's diagnostic. That's not- Marcus Neto: That's not treatment. Melissa Guitterez: ... fixing anything. It's not treatment. Marcus Neto: It's trying to figure out what the hell is going on. Melissa Guitterez: Exactly. I literally was pushed pillar to post and no one had an answer. At one point in time... This was very scary. I had an internal medicine doctor tell me that I had AIDS and I freaked out. This was when you didn't say that to people, right? I thought... Man, I went home and for two weeks I thought I'm going to die, I am going to die, and it came up negative. Melissa Guitterez: I couldn't even fathom how I could have contracted AIDS, but nonetheless she said, "I've never seen anyone with this much yeast- Melissa Guitterez: ... Did aids, but nonetheless, she said, "I've never seen anyone with this much yeast in their body. It's crowding out the red blood cells. They could actually be sitting in my office talking to me, albeit you don't feel good." And so I thought, man, this is just crazy. And again, I met this biochemist and at the time she was working on, she's a biochemist that became an MD later in life and she was working on and still working on a way to help children with autism. And she had a $200,000 electron microscope in her practice, which isn't normal by the way. And so you can really get down to the root cause of the cellular cause of things. And, it's not only that all of the medical professionals in the industry are learning new things all the time, like you just mentioned, over the last 10, 20 years, it's that our way of receiving that information or being able to get that information, is changing as well. Marcus Neto: Sure. Melissa Guitterez: Just because of things like the internet or anything else that we have, you can get information in a New York second, right? And so all of those things come into play. Yes, that had an impact certainly on starting peak alkalinity. I know that not only do I have the actual chemistry background, as far as what we do, but I also have the personal experience and believe it or not, there was a time that I used to say, "Lord, why me?" Marcus Neto: Right. Melissa Guitterez: Why am I getting this? Why am I getting that? This just came into play. Literally two weeks ago, I had someone come into one of our stores and she said, "The doctor told me to come in. I need to get alkaline water because I'm having constant urinary track infections that I'm going to have to have surgery here within the next week." And I said, "I understand." I said, "When I was in my twenties and thirties, I had constant urinary tract infections that turn into interstitial cystitis. I was on Resmo treatments." She goes, "Me too." She couldn't believe it, but it was because- Marcus Neto: Wait, there's another one out there? Melissa Guitterez: It came out before she said it so she knew that I knew. And I have had so many things like that happen to me when I was younger, that I can actually identify with people when they come in. If they have leaky gut syndrome, if they have too much yeast in their body, if they have heavy metal toxicity, if they have other things like that, I can talk from a personal perspective, not just the science part of it. Marcus Neto: Right. Melissa Guitterez: And when this all started, you know this, I'm sure when you started this business, there are things that are happening now that you didn't even envision when you originally started. Marcus Neto: For sure. Melissa Guitterez: That's the way it is now, too. Things kind of- Marcus Neto: Evolve as you- Melissa Guitterez: They do. They evolve. Marcus Neto: ... As you evolve to be able to handle the problems. Melissa Guitterez: Exactly. Marcus Neto: They get bigger. Melissa Guitterez: And we're constantly having to think about where the puck is going, not where things have been. So what does healthcare look like going forward? How do people want to take care of things? You'd be surprised. There's so many people that want to take care of things in a natural way if they can, versus going an alternative or synthetic route, like synthetic drugs and things of that nature. Pharmacy is a big market right now, but it doesn't have to be that way. I can think, that there's a great combination of Eastern and Western medicine that can be had. For me personally, the natural side of things really took care of things. We fixed in two years... Now, I was having to be exceptionally diligent in what we were doing, but we fixed in two years what couldn't be fixed in 10. Marcus Neto: Wow. Melissa Guitterez: I'm as healthy as can be right now and I'm hoping that's going to continue. But I also practice what I preach. I don't just explain things to folks and expect that they do it. Marcus Neto: Then go eat at McDonald's afterward. Melissa Guitterez: I actually do all of those things. Marcus Neto: Yeah. It's just, I mean, it's interesting to me because a lot of the things that you start seeing now in a paleo diet and all the, I mean, even if you're a vegetarian or vegan or stuff like that, the body's natural response when you start eliminating things that it's allergic to, or that it doesn't like, or can't process, is to lower inflammation. And all of those diets, really, whether you like meat or don't like meat, or because I mean, paleo is fairly similar to vegetarianism and the only respect is that one eats meat and the other doesn't right, right? Melissa Guitterez: Exactly. Marcus Neto: They're both going to be no processed foods or at least... And I guess with paleo, you're going to stay away from sugars a lot more than you would have if you're a vegetarian, but whatever. We're getting into minutia. I guess then the important thing is though, that they're both designed to lower inflammation and inflammation is the root cause of so many of these things, including hormonal imbalances, which cause people to gain weight and all these other things. Melissa Guitterez: Chronic inflammation. And a lot of that stems from the things we eat and drink. And in these processed foods, things are being added that we have absolutely no control over. So I will tell you when folks come in and they're saying they're having trouble and we do a foot detox and we see all of this inflammation being extracted, I don't know someone's individual lifestyle, but I can tell you, you can easily try things. If you did nothing but eliminate dairy and gluten, you have a really strong shot of reducing a lot of inflammation in the body right there. Marcus Neto: Yeah. Melissa Guitterez: Everyone's different. But yes, I get your point. Things are constantly changing. Marcus Neto: Yeah. Well, do you remember, I mean, obviously sometimes there's a leap of faith that you take when you go into business, right? Melissa Guitterez: Absolutely. Marcus Neto: Almost all times. So do you remember the first sale or the first time you made an impact where you thought, okay, there's something to this? This is the right path for me. Melissa Guitterez: I remember a lot of them, not even just the first one. The first sale was impactful. I will tell you this, not because I knew that it was changing something for someone right away, but it was impactful because you take that leap of faith. And our door was open, we were opening two days later, but the door of the business was open because we were setting some things up and taking care of things and someone walked in and they purchased an ionizer basically on the spot after about an hour of talking with us. And I was explaining what the benefits were and I naively thought, wow, this is going to be a piece of cake. Marcus Neto: Oh God, yeah. Melissa Guitterez: Right? This is going to be easy. Marcus Neto: It's false. Melissa Guitterez: It is false. Easy, it is not. Owning your own business is not easy, but it is exceptionally rewarding. But I would tell you this, I can think of time after time after time, this is no joke, if we sat here, I could probably tell you two days worth of stories of folks that we have helped. We see about 25% of our clientele is chronically ill. Something like cancer, leukemia, brain tumors, ALS. I see things in that store I shouldn't see. Marcus Neto: Right. Melissa Guitterez: You know what I mean? There are three cancer centers within a 10 mile radius of one of our stores. And I am really still learning about the Mobile market right now and what's happening in this area. And that's a very sad thing. It really is disturbing. I've seen everything from brain cancer, throat cancer. Obviously, breast cancer is something that's fairly ubiquitous. Again, I've seen an 11 year old with uterine cancer. I mean, it's just crazy some of the things that we see. And absolutely, when you see things turn around for someone and I will give the whole disclaimer from the FDA, we are not intended to treat, prevent, cure anything. But I will tell you anything from as simple of an issue as acid reflux or gout, which is huge in this area, because a lot of that is dietary related. Melissa Guitterez: Gout's uric acid so we neutralize acid in someone's body and we do it naturally without chemicals. So those things in and of themselves won't cause someone on to expire, but it makes their life really miserable on a daily basis. Those are easy ones to fix. There are other things that come into play. I've seen, it is exceptionally rewarding and encouraging when we can see that we can make a difference or at least be a part of that difference. Marcus Neto: Yeah. I mean, even if you can help them get off of some of the more minor drugs that they may be taking. Melissa Guitterez: That happens frequently. We don't suggest it. We never suggest that anyone abandon their physician's protocol. We never suggest they stop medication. [foreign language 00:17:55]. Melissa Guitterez: But I can tell you, we see that very frequently. Marcus Neto: Yeah. Now, if you were talking to someone that wanted to get started in running their own business, what's the- Marcus Neto: You are talking to someone that wanted to get started in running their own business. What's the one bit of wisdom that you would impart to them? Melissa Guitterez: Just one bit. Marcus Neto: Yeah. Melissa Guitterez: There so much that we've learned. [crosstalk 00:18:10] I would say make sure that whatever you do, to the best of your ability, is a passion and you're not doing it for the money. Because the reality is, if you stick to it long enough, certainly you will be profitable, but there are so many peaks and valleys when you're getting started because, at least in my case, you don't know what you don't know. Melissa Guitterez: I came from a world of corporate America, which is a very different world than owning your own business. I think when you have those days, or those weeks, or those times that can be frustrating for one thing or another, many of which things are not even in your control, it's the passion that keeps driving you to get up and do it again the next day and keep pushing and keep forging forward, because it's truly what you want to do or what you want to see succeed. I can tell you if it was about the money we would have quit a long time ago. Marcus Neto: Yeah. I would just back you up on that, there are so many times where... Actually the vast majority of small business owners never get rich. Let's just start there. Okay. Melissa Guitterez: Fair enough. Marcus Neto: They do enough to make a living for themselves and maybe help a couple of other people subsist, but the vast majority of small business owners never get rich. If you're banking on you being the unicorn that rockets to the moon, let's just be real, your chances are pretty slim. Definitely go into it if it's something that you feel passionately about. I mean, it's what keeps you going in those times when you're having to not take a paycheck because you want to make sure that your employees can pay their rent. Melissa Guitterez: Throw in COVID and two hurricanes, right? We're on the same page. Marcus Neto: Yeah, exactly. If you look to the business world, not just Mobile, but the larger business world, is there one person that motivates you that you think, "Okay, that person kind of has their act together," and you pay more attention to if they're on the cover of a magazine or something along those lines? Melissa Guitterez: That's a hard question. Marcus Neto: Yep, that's what we're here for. Asking the hard questions. Melissa Guitterez: Thank you so much. Marcus Neto: Oprah ain't got nothing on me, baby. Melissa Guitterez: No. I don't know that there's one specific person, and to be quite frank, I've been in front of a lot of very successful people. My business partner and I were platinum partners with Tony Robbins for a year. I have been in front of the person that started Airbnb. I've been in front of the person that started Skype. I've been in front of the person that started Glossier. I've been in front of the person that started Venmo, all these things, but guess what? Their stories weren't easy either. Now, they are the unicorns, right? They are the ones that made it. But many of those guys, you would be astounded to know that, and I literally was sitting this distance apart from them, just like you and I are, listening to their story and they were saying, "Man, we almost made it so many times." Three, four, five times where they were right on the cusp of that thing taking off and something happened, whether it's COVID and two hurricanes, or whether it's whatever else it is, it cut their legs off from underneath them. Melissa Guitterez: Many of these people were literally on the verge of filing bankruptcy when they made it. I kid you not, one of the guys said I was having to file bankruptcy the next morning and a company came in and bought him for $2 billion. They wanted what he had. It wasn't specifically what his business was at the time, but he was showing success and they wanted what he had so that they could capture it, bring it into the fold. Marcus Neto: It allows them to leap frog. Melissa Guitterez: It allows them to leap frog. Exactly. He actually, I thought this took such guts, he literally just held his stance and said, "I think you guys are trying to low ball me. You don't understand what I have here." I mean, it took a lot of guts. I thought, "Wow, this guy is crazy." But he went through, they went through with the whole thing and literally he sold the business and it was a done deal and it's on the map right now. It's a company that everybody would know. Melissa Guitterez: I mean, same thing with the guys from Airbnb. They said they had... Remember the old time photo books where you would just slip the picture inside the plastic. He said they had something like that, it wasn't a Rolodex, it was more like a photo book, and they had umpteen credit cards in there and they kept flipping the pages going, "Okay, which one's not maxed out. Which one can we use today to keep going?" He told that story so vividly. He was laughing about it, but he's like, "I wasn't laughing at the time. Trust me." You hear about all these things, but when you hear the names or you hear these businesses, you think, "Oh man, it must have been easy peasy for these guys, look, they went to stardom." You also think it's overnight success. The reality is for most of these people overnight success took 10, 15, 20 years. Marcus Neto: A decade or more. Melissa Guitterez: It's just that when they got on the map, it seemed like it was overnight. I don't know that it was one specifically, but if anything, it's even just like the talks that we're having or the talks that I have with other small business owners, every one's an inspiration because they're out there in the trenches every single day, getting it done. Just the fact that you don't give up, and you keep pushing, and you're doing even things like this to try to help the community, it's a difference maker. That's inspirational. Marcus Neto: Are there any books, podcasts, people, or organizations that have been helpful in moving you forward? Melissa Guitterez: All of the above. I will tell you, and I'm sure you're no different, as a small business owner you use every resource to your advantage, every single thing. I'm constantly bouncing around to things for either inspiration or knowledge or things of that nature. Melissa Guitterez: I can tell you one of the things that I think is important as a small business owner, and it's not something that I initially paid attention to and it came back to bite me shortly thereafter, you're so busy juggling everything that something slips through the cracks. I had a CPA so I wasn't fully paying attention to my numbers. I had folks helping me with this, that, or the other, so I wasn't 100% paying attention to that. I can tell you right now, as much as I love what I do and I love people and I love the explanations, I cannot stand the paperwork and all the other portion of it, but I can catch a fly with chopsticks when it comes to my numbers now, I know exactly what my numbers. Melissa Guitterez: Someone in the business, not my specific business, but a small business, impress that upon me and said, if you don't know what your numbers are, you better get a grip on that really quick because that's going to be one of the first thing that's going to put you under. He did that warning and said, "Okay, it's not something I really want to do, but I'm going to have to get involved." Marcus Neto: How often do you check them? Melissa Guitterez: Every day. Marcus Neto: Okay, yeah, same. It's funny because I was the same way, I used to be like, "Oh, I'll check them every once in a while just to see, I know how to read a profit loss statement or summary of accounts receivable or stuff like that." Now, the health of the business is extremely important to me and I want to know if there's any changes or indicators that mean that we're heading one way or the other, because if everything is fantastic in business, just jumps off the off of planet, well, guess what? You got to hire people in order to do that work in this business. Marcus Neto: If it goes the other way and it's like we just tanked a couple of weeks and we know that we're not going to have any new contracts coming in for a couple months. Well guess what, that could mean that people have to go. I want to make sure that I'm managing that and have the pulse of that on a daily basis so that I can pivot and make changes and hopefully get in front of it. Melissa Guitterez: There's a gentleman by the name of Keith Cunningham in Texas and he makes learning about the numbers very simple, as simple as I have ever seen it. Not that it's easy, but he simplifies the process and what you should be looking at and how you should approach it and how you look at it. He's someone that I was introduced to through the Tony Robbins Organization. Marcus Neto: Tony Robbins Organization. Melissa Guitterez: He runs seminars. You could call them today or get on there and it's called Keys to the Vault and you can get on there and go. Literally he runs certain classes and you can go to Texas and take his classes and I thought he was absolutely fabulous. Marcus Neto: That's cool. I mean if you have QuickBooks online, I'm sure that he's got systems that are. Marcus Neto: QuickBooks Online. I'm sure that he's got systems that make it much more easier. But I think if you're a business owner, use QuickBooks Online. Stop using all these other systems trying to placate or trying to figure out something that's, "Maybe it's a little bit better." It's not. Melissa Guitterez: This is more an understanding the numbers, not the program. Marcus Neto: [crosstalk 00:27:19] Well, where I was going. Yeah, no. Where I was going with that is if you're in QuickBooks Online, reporting is extremely easy, whether it's... If you're a service-based business, accounts receivable is extremely important. Looking at your profit and loss statement by month, so that you can see trends, whether up or down. Melissa Guitterez: [crosstalk 00:27:40] Absolutely. Trends are important. Marcus Neto: A lot of people don't do that. Balance statements can be important just to know the general health of a business and whether the asset is worth anything or not. But just looking at those reports, it takes five minutes. Just get into the habit of logging in and checking them. So what is the most important thing that you've learned about running a business? Melissa Guitterez: I think probably that you have to force yourself to be involved in all aspects of the business. When I was in corporate America, I led a team. So I was more like the quarterback, but I had resources. So we had a controller, we had a marketing team, we had people that worked in relationship development, all of these things. That's just to name a few. We had a lot of folks and a lot of resources. When you're in small business, you really have to take time to go through each one of those segments and make sure that you're not ignoring or at the very least not paying as much attention to something as you need to be paying attention to. Marcus Neto: Sure. Melissa Guitterez: It's hard. It's hard to juggle all that. Marcus Neto: Yeah. Wearing the many hats. Melissa Guitterez: Absolutely. Absolutely. And putting in long hours. I will tell you that I never leave on time. When we close for the day, I am always there later. But I think that you have to pay your dues upfront. Someone told me, "Live like no one will live for five years and you'll live like no one will live for the rest of your life." Meaning if you put the time in, you do the right things, it's hard, but you give it every single thing that you've got. You do not shortcut, your business is going to make it. Marcus Neto: Yeah. No guarantees. Melissa Guitterez: No guarantees. Marcus Neto: No guarantees implied. Melissa Guitterez: [crosstalk 00:29:29] Never a guarantee. No guarantees. Marcus Neto: But do the work anyway. Melissa Guitterez: Absolutely. Marcus Neto: How do you like to unwind? Melissa Guitterez: Most of the time, I really enjoy just listening to some relaxing music. I love the outdoors. I'm not saying I get out to do things as much as I'd like because a lot of times, it's dark when I'm leaving at night. But for instance, I was just at the beach on Sunday. And let me tell you what, put that chair down, I put my shades on, I was laying down. And when I tell you, I heard those beach waves, I was out. I mean, I was out like a light. Marcus Neto: Yeah. Melissa Guitterez: And it was wonderful. Marcus Neto: There is something very relaxing about that. I don't know if it's just the pure size and magnificence of the ocean and all that stuff. But yeah, I feel the same way. Even if it's just for a couple of hours, just to go and be able to put your feet in the sand and just... Melissa Guitterez: Absolutely. Marcus Neto: It just peels away the layers. I'm definitely looking forward to... We're going to the beach for Memorial Day weekend. Melissa Guitterez: [crosstalk 00:30:33] We are, too. Marcus Neto: This is being recorded before then. So if you're listening to this afterwards, not next year, but just past. But yeah, I'm looking forward to having that renewed sense of rest. Well, tell people where they can find out more information about your products. Melissa Guitterez: Sure. You can go to www.peakalkalinity.com. We have two locations, one is in Mobile and one is in Fairhope. If you're in Mobile, we are at 2724 Old Shell Road. That is in- Marcus Neto: Right next to the ax throwing place. Melissa Guitterez: It is. Marcus Neto: Yeah. Melissa Guitterez: Yep. There's ax throwing there. It's the old Blue Bird Hardware store across from UMS-Wright. Marcus Neto: Yep. Melissa Guitterez: So there's ax throwing, there's Papa Murphy's, OsteoStrong is there. We also have a location in Fairhope in downtown on Fairhope Avenue. It is one of the last businesses when you are heading down Fairhope Avenue on the way to the bay, and that's 217 B Fairhope Avenue. We are open Monday through Friday, 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM. On Saturdays, we're open 10:00 to 2:00. And we'd love for anybody to come in. We charge nothing to help educate, and we love to help set people on the right path. Marcus Neto: Yeah. That's awesome. Well, I want to thank you again for coming on the podcast. To wrap up, any final thoughts or comments that you'd like to share? Melissa Guitterez: I just appreciate you doing this for all of us. It certainly helps to have exposure and to have people hear about what we do. But I think it also is very important and vital to helping others because we all learn from each other. It doesn't matter how long, it doesn't matter if you're just starting in business, it doesn't matter if you've been in business 5 years, 10 years, 20 years, we all learn. We can all pick up something. I wish I could tell you I don't learn something new every day. Maybe it's because I'm blonde. I don't know. No, I do learn something new everyday. Marcus Neto: [crosstalk 00:32:24] Oh, geez. Gosh. She went there. No. I do this partly out of purely selfish reasons. I've been in business since... Well, Blue Fish since 2006. The LLC was formed in 2008, but I did just operate as a sole proprietor first. Melissa Guitterez: But you're still beating the odds already. Marcus Neto: Yeah. And so what I tell people though, is that even though I've been in business since 2006, so that's what? 15 years? Then I can sit with somebody that's only been in business for six months and I'll learn stuff from them because there's no point A to point B in business. You're like a ping pong ball that just gets bounced around all over the place, and there's no rhyme or reason as to how or what you learn. And if I can sit with more people and listen to their stories and hear what they've learned, then the chances are pretty good that I'll learn something, too. And that's- Melissa Guitterez: Absolutely. Marcus Neto: I'm selfish like that. Anyway. Melissa Guitterez: In a good way. Marcus Neto: Yeah. Well, Missy, I appreciate your willingness to sit with me and share your journey as a business owner and entrepreneur. It's been great talking with you. Melissa Guitterez: Thanks, Marcus. Appreciate it. Have an awesome weekend this coming weekend. Marcus Neto: Yay.Contact Information
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Business:Peak Alkalinity
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Website:https://peakalkalinity.com/
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Email:missy@peakalkalinity.com
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Social Media:
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Phone Numbers:
- Main:251.586.8198
