Exclusive Interview with Samael Tejada: Wellness Visionary of the Year 2025
Best Holistic Life Magazine: From Lifeguard to Firefighter to Wellness Visionary: Can you describe the pivotal moments that led you to transition from saving lives in emergencies to promoting proactive wellness through Liquivida?
Sam Tejada: The most pivotal moments that prompted me to make this switch occurred while I was performing my responsibilities as a paramedic. As a firefighter/paramedic, you work within your zones and your city, so you get to know these people in the community through the years. Running 911 emergency calls, transporting them to the hospital day in and day out, and taking them to the ER, I started to notice that some of them were relying on us, as firefighters/paramedics, to take care of them. We were transporting them to the hospital, maybe once or twice the first year, then maybe a half-dozen times the following year, and then suddenly it’s to the point where we are transporting them to the hospital on almost a weekly basis. Doing my job as a paramedic wasn’t the issue; for me, the issue became that doing my job wasn’t doing enough. I started to question, “What the heck is happening here?” People are being taken to these doctors and specialists multiple times, and are actually in the presence of medical professionals, so why aren’t they getting better? This is when I began to see how our medical system was failing. That’s what made me realize that people need to start taking more of a proactive approach to their health or wellness, doing a deeper dive and figuring out what is really going to get them better.
Best Holistic Life Magazine: Your motto is ‘Health is Wealth.” But, early on in your career, you realized that only the wealthy had access to optimal health. This was your inspiration for founding Liquivida. How have you strived to make preventative health accessible to a broader audience?
Sam Tejada: As a firefighter/paramedic, I worked for a city with a very low-income demographic. The population there was primarily minority-based. I considered myself average, low-income, middle-class, working as a firefighter paramedic. But on my days off, I worked for a very progressive Performance Health Age Management company whose clientele were some of the most affluent people on the globe. It was easy to see the huge differences between the three demographic groups, but what I came to learn is that it wasn’t just about money and possessions. One of the most significant disparities was the lack of education on health and wellness, what is good and what is bad for your overall health. Obviously, financial factors play a part because these alternative treatments are being paid for out of pocket. If you want to see a nutritionist, work with a fitness coach, or get an IV Vitamin Drip, it’s not going to be covered by typical insurance. So it was expensive, especially back then. The prices that were being charged for some of these preventative programs were ridiculous. But they could charge them back then because there was a certain demand for it with a certain clientele and the doctors who knew how to do these types of treatments could charge top dollar for them.
At that point, my goal was to understand the business side of the industry. As I became more educated myself, I understood that these are really not extremely expensive treatments, and there was no need for them to cost so much. That’s when I decided that what I wanted to do was help the masses by increasing awareness and making preventative services accessible to everyone. The health and wellness industry has come a long way since those days. My company continues to focus on increasing awareness and making preventative services more accessible to a broader audience through our growing franchise locations and social media presence. We also sell our custom IV Kits and Packets to thousands of doctors and practices nationwide so they can offer these health benefits to their patients. I personally never miss an opportunity to speak on the topic of health and wellness, whether on national shows, in major publications, or in local newspapers. Education by getting the message out there is the first step.
To help increase awareness about this preventative health industry, I also wrote my first book, “How To Win In Modern Wellness,” in which I invited more than a dozen of my competitors in the industry to collaborate with me to educate consumers, medical professionals, and entrepreneurs about proactive health. The goal is to inspire the opening of more companies like Liquivida (or more Liquivida franchises). In my mind, this is the key to making preventative health truly accessible to everyone by decreasing costs and increasing locations.
Best Holistic Life Magazine: In a time when people are more conscious than ever about their health, what role do companies like Liquivida play in the future of holistic wellness, and how does it integrate with other preventative health practices?
Sam Tejada: Most people don’t understand that they need to take a deeper dive into their health. Wellness is more than just blood pressure and cholesterol numbers. Our approach at Liquivida utilizes a variety of diagnostic testing, including wearable technologies, to really get a good bird’s eye view of what’s really happening with their health and develop personalized wellness plans specific to their needs. So, not a cookie-cutter approach. This data is invaluable for creating personalized health plans and identifying risks early, leading to more effective treatments and reducing the likelihood of chronic diseases.
As we educate people and increase awareness about how and what works for their bodies, we can introduce services and modalities, like IV Vitamin Therapy, that can help to address areas like nutrient deficiencies and gut health. We can offer weight loss options, peptides, sexual wellness, and regenerative therapies to address individual concerns that impact a patient’s overall sense of wellness. Our role is to shift the focus from “sick care” when it comes to physical health and shed light on how a proactive, preventative approach to physical health is interconnected with mental well-being and emotional wellness.
Best Holistic Life Magazine: Your podcast, ‘A Healthy Point of View,’ offers insights into health and wellness. What motivated you to start this platform, and what topics do you explore with your listeners?
Sam Tejada: I think my role in this industry comes with great responsibility, and I want to take advantage of every medium possible to get the message out. So that’s the truth of it. The podcast was primarily created to help educate medical providers who were in the allopathic, traditional medicine world and wanted to shift over. The objective is for them to hear insight from people who have already succeeded in this alternative medicine space. Alongside that, the podcast is a great platform to share a lot of these different modalities and treatments, as well as advice from medical experts. Science doesn’t stop. It’s always evolving. With some of the experts we have on “A Healthy Point of View,” people can listen in and educate themselves at no cost. The topics are all health, wellness, and beauty-related—anything from gut health and what that actually means to what comprehensive blood work really entails to medical aesthetics trends. So there is really something for everyone on any given episode.
Best Holistic Life Magazine: ‘My Impact Will Not End There’: Beyond Liquivida, you’ve expressed ambitions in politics. How do you see your experience in the wellness industry shaping your future political aspirations?
Sam Tejada: My goal is to be able to put myself in a position of power to make sure that the changes that I’ve witnessed that need to be made, both on the business side and the medical side of the industry, happen. We are currently governed by such antiquated statutes and regulations that, with all the advances in science and technology, they haven’t caught up with the times. Plus, the masses are already screaming for a change. Thanks to the internet and social media, they see and hear about all of these things that can impact their health, both positively and negatively. They also want to know why some of these alternative services and modalities aren’t available to them. I’m not alone in pursuing this path. Many health and wellness advocates are getting politically involved because they see the need for change at this level.
You don’t have to look too hard to see it, either. If you read the labels on food items and look up what some of the ingredients actually are, you’ll see how much crap is being put into our foods. I recently watched a segment about a campaign and a book called “Make America Healthy Again,” where the author exposed American manufacturers and companies for their role in the poor quality of our food. There are companies that distribute some of the exact same products that we have here in the U.S. to other countries but with vastly different ingredients. A box of cereal, like Fruit Loops, for example, sold somewhere in the U.S., has about 14 ingredients, with a good amount of them actually poisonous to the body. But a box of Fruit Loops sold in Europe has four ingredients, and the dyes they use to color the cereal are from organic foods, like pumpkin and sweet potato. We’re providing healthier, more natural food to other countries.
Education and increasing awareness are going to continue to be the key to the effect of real change, but we also have to hold our manufacturers here in the U.S. accountable to provide the healthiest options for the citizens of the United States.
I also feel that advocating for preventative measures in health could actually save insurance companies a significant amount of money. If they incentivize people to take proactive steps toward wellness in their lives, they would see a better return on that than the money they pay out for sick care. There’s a saying: “If you don’t make time for your wellness, you will be forced to make time for your illness.” People are increasingly willing to pay out of their pocket to maintain optimal health because they know in the long run, as well as financially, it will benefit their quality of life.
Best Holistic Life Magazine: Mentorship plays a significant role in your journey. How did Dr. Robert D. Willix influence your approach to health and business, and what advice would you give to aspiring entrepreneurs seeking mentors?
Sam Tejada: Many people think of mentorships as structured programs and paid relationships, like Tony Robbins. And they are great if that’s what you’re looking for. My perspective on mentorship is probably a bit different from most. I think it is actually the mentee who identifies and labels their mentor. Once you define that relationship to yourself, what you put into it is what you’ll get out of it. This means that if you look at someone in business who is constantly on the grind, doing things that you appreciate and respect, and you want to learn from them, you have to chase after it. Part of chasing after it may mean doing things for them without expecting anything in return. All the while, you’re in their orbit, observing and absorbing. Then, at some point, they appreciate who you are as an individual and, ultimately, bring more value to your relationship as a mentor.
That is the approach I somewhat unknowingly took with Dr. Willix. I provided tremendous value to him during the time I was working with his patients, but I had so many questions about his approach to health and wellness and wanted to learn from him. Because I was good at my job and with his patients, he took the time and answered my questions without any hesitation. He was extremely intelligent, but that isn’t what made him the right mentor for me. He was a man and a doctor who was ahead of his time. He went from being a heart surgeon to a functional medicine doctor who prevented patients from having to go on his operating table. His insights and experiences with the obstacles and road bumps he faced helped me to avoid going through those same things and are invaluable to me to this day.
Best Holistic Life Magazine: The American Dream was central to your family’s story. How has your immigrant background shaped your entrepreneurial drive and your
perspective on healthcare equality?
Sam Tejada: I think being Dominican plays a big part in both my attitude and ambition. Dominicans have always been known to have a hustler mentality. We’re great salespeople and we know how to get things done. So that’s in my blood and has always been my mindset for as long as I can remember. On the health and wellness side, the more educated I became, the more my eyes were opened to what is really healthy regarding the food we eat. In my Dominican culture, I would classify the traditional dishes as survival food. It’s created in mass quantities and doesn’t provide much nutritional value. Experiencing the differences between two very different worlds gave me the knowledge and opportunity to educate others and help them to better understand how to take care of themselves.
Best Holistic Life Magazine: ‘Growth Journey’: You’ve described your path as one of continuous growth. Can you share some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced and how you’ve overcome them?
Sam Tejada: My biggest challenges have been relationships on the business end—business partners, vendors, and even employees. Sometimes, the relationships that you try to cultivate turn out to be unsuccessful. My story about beginning my company with $500 in my back pocket is pretty well known, but to grow my company, I needed to make some difficult decisions. Getting the resources to expand the business required taking on partners who worked for sweat equity in the company. The problem with that is, when it’s your own business, no one is likely to put in as much sweat as you. Navigating these relationships and learning how to approach and address the parties involved in a productive way takes a lot of work and is challenging. You have to really understand how to deal with different types of personalities in various business scenarios that are stressful and contentious. Looking back, I wish I had had a little bit more mentorship and coaching beforehand in this area. I think it’s my responsibility now that I’ve experienced some of the things I have to share what I know. That is a big part of what the second book that I’m currently working on is going to address. I think in business and in personal life, direct communication is essential. Make sure they know how you feel and where you stand. Try and try again to come up with a solution. And if you can’t, you’ve got to move on, take it to the next step, and honestly, if it means initiating a lawsuit, then so be it. It will probably be a long road if it gets to that point, but if you’ve got right on your side, you will come out on top.
Best Holistic Life Magazine: Chairman of the American IV Association’s Leadership Advisory Board: What are your key goals in this role, and how do you envision shaping the future of IV hydration therapy?
Sam Tejada: The American IV Association was put together to create compliance and standardization for this growing industry of IV Hydration therapy. My role is to be the voice of multiple leaders in the industry who have come together to create standards and ensure that our industry is compliant so it continues to expand and offer preventative care to people throughout the country.
Our goal here is to basically create the governing system for ourselves before someone else does it for us. Someone who doesn’t have any idea of what IV Hydration is, someone who typically doesn’t even have a medical background. Our goal is to put the research about IV hydration therapy out there and get it published in more medical journals. We want to make it safer for the consumer when they are choosing where to get their IVs by putting a system in place where any new or existing IV hydration business goes through a certification process where they must meet the criteria for certain standards of care developed by AIVA. This would enable the consumer to know if the IV. The hydration clinic they choose to go to has met certain standards of care developed by the industry.
Best Holistic Life Magazine: ‘Ten Years from Now’: Looking ahead, what are your personal and professional aspirations, and what legacy do you hope to leave in the world of holistic health?
Sam Tejada: My ultimate goal is to get the word out to everyone about taking that proactive preventative approach to health and wellness and really create a movement behind it. I want to break what I would consider a generational curse that has been put on us regarding this approach to health. In the same way that smoking cigarettes was once looked upon as fancy and cool back in the day—until suddenly, we were all made to understand that it was really bad for your health, causes cancer, and can make you sick in so many ways. Now, smoking cigarettes is looked upon as a disgusting habit.
So, my goal is to shift people’s mindsets to just accepting how they live their lives. We know so much more. We know that we really shouldn’t be eating this or drinking that. We know that our food should be our medicine or one day, medicine will be our food. We know there are better alternatives, better options to actually enable us to live a healthier life. I want to break through some of the fake noise in the wellness industry and make sure that we’re helping people learn the truth about wellness and holistic, preventative health.
- Connect with Sam Tejada
- Visit Liquivida Telehealth to learn more.
- Read more articles from our VIP Executive Contributor, Sam Tejada