David VS Goliath Podcast – S1 – Episode 22 – Perry Dimas

Adam DeGraide:
Coming up today on David Vs Goliath. Somebody will pay you 1.4 billion dollars to solve a 10, 50, 100 billion dollar problem. Really shouldn’t be stealing from people, Perry. More tests. Pick it up.

Announcer:
Welcome to today’s episode of David Vs Goliath. A podcast dedicated to helping small businesses leverage technology to not only help them compete against their large competitors, but win. Your host is currently the CEO of Anthem Business Software, a three time Inc. 500 recipient and a serial entrepreneur with a passion to help small businesses everywhere find, serve, and keep more customers profitably. Please join me in welcoming your host, Adam DeGraide.

Adam DeGraide:
Hey everyone. It’s Adam DeGraide with another amazing episode of David Vs Goliath. We have a very special guest named Perry Dimas coming up in a few minutes, but before we do that today’s episode is brought to you by Anthem Software where you can find, serve, and keep more customers profitably. And they’re all-in-one system of software, marketing, and consulting. Take the 120 second tour today at anthemsoftware.com. You will not regret it. We’re so grateful. Also, big news, over the last couple of weeks I’ve been telling you about it. My children’s book is out on Amazon and Barnes and Noble type in Adam DeGraide, that’s D-E-G-R-A-I-D-E, in the search bars in those sites and this will come up. The Adventures of Jackson, The Young Field Mouse. It’s awesome. Great illustrations, as you can see you right here. It’s a lot of fun. Teaches kids three things. Teaches them bravery, attentiveness, and gratitude. Those things are critical.

Adam DeGraide:
Also, you could visit us online at DavidVsGoliathpodcast.com. You can subscribe to receive email updates there, as well as apply to be on the David Vs Goliath Podcast. And you can also ask DVG a question. Maybe you’ll even be featured on a future episode of DVG. Just simply go there, type your question. It comes directly to me. And we’re going to try to answer them on a future episode coming up over the next several weeks. Also, big news on the site, brand new shopping cart with DVG merch. That’s right. You can pimp out some hats, some T-shirts, some hoodies, some cups. It’s pretty cool. We’re excited about it. I’ll be wearing some of those wares over the next several weeks as well, too, when I get mine in finally. Looking forward to it and that’s there for you as well too.

Adam DeGraide:
But anyway, now that we got all of that out of the way, let’s get right to it with another amazing edition of David Vs Goliath. Perry Dimas welcome to David Vs Goliath.

Perry Dimas:
Thank you so much, Adam, for having me. Looking forward to it.

Adam DeGraide:
They say that deja vu is crazy. I feel like that we’ve been here before and here we are once again. And I’m excited about having this conversation with my audience, my watchers and my listeners, because I know a lot about the medical space, but this is one part of the medical space that I wasn’t really understanding that there was a huge market. I think you would even say that you didn’t realize that there was a market because the timing was perfect. But for the viewers and the watchers, let them know a little bit about CMT Solutions and exactly what you do.

Perry Dimas:
Great. So CMT Solutions, we created a hub service model to assist with laboratories here in the United States. And what I mean by that is that laboratories have diagnostic tests, obviously that they’re performing once a physician orders their test. And insurance companies are putting up utilization management, things like prior authorizations to ensure that the proper tests are being used for their members, and we come alongside the labs and the physicians to help streamline that process for them.

Adam DeGraide:
It’s fascinating because I got a buddy of mine who did something similar in the title space. It was a company called PropLogix. He was a few interviews back. His name is Jesse Biter. And he went into this space, and he has a buddy, they were doing it like for casino money. They found this thing that they could, this niche, and then he came in and he started looking at this thing and he’s like, “Oh my gosh, we can streamline so much of this. And it could be, everyone can save money, people can have a better experience. We can make a little money, it costs people less money.” And the company went from like zero to 500 employees and he’s off the charts. And that’s kind of what happened with you because when you and I were chatting, and I looked a little bit at the sheet, you went from like zero to 85 employees. Did you start it, when did you start CMT Solutions again?

Perry Dimas:
Four years ago. So we started, it would be four years in March, and kind of similar to that last example in that company. Right? So I saw that this had worked in the pharmaceutical industry with drugs, right? So we all see those commercials, you may be eligible for a $5 copay, on TV for drug companies. So, that same business model that we’re utilizing just for the lab side of the business rather than the drug side.

Adam DeGraide:
It’s amazing all these opportunities that are coming up there. I was actually watching, I was on the elliptical this morning and I was watching the commercial about, oh, I can’t wish I could remember the name of it. It’s Martin Short, he’s doing the promotion for this thing that saves you money at the county. And he does this whole thing. He creates some musical for it. He starts screaming about people, how they can save money, “Before you use your insurance, check this particular thing out to see if it’s better.” So we see that this convergence of technology is dramatically impacting a lot of these different supply chains and supply cycles that were happening. And you were telling me that it was kind of like serendipitous for you to end up in this space because you started a convention, which I want you to talk to the viewers and the watchers a little bit about that. You started a convention, you kept hearing this idea over and over again. And then regulations changed right around the same time. And CMT was born. Give us a little bit of that story.

Perry Dimas:
Yeah. So I put on a conference for these same diagnostic innovators, these laboratories, and it’s been going for about 12 years now. And through that conference, obviously I’ve been able to really work with interesting people throughout the industry. So it’s not only laboratories, but it’s the regulators. It’s the compliance people. It’s the commercialization experts. It’s the market access or the insurance companies, all those groups.

Perry Dimas:
So through that, like you said, Adam, about four and a half years ago, I kept on getting calls from individuals saying, “Hey, did you hear about the insurance companies aren’t allowing the labs to do these prior authorizations anymore. They want the doctors to do them. That’s going to be a really big issue for us because today we get paid for these tests because we do them. But tomorrow when we can no longer do them, our doctors aren’t going to spend the time and effort to do it for us. Right. So this is going to be a problem. What do you think we should do?” And honestly, after a good six, seven, eight calls by different people, all having that same problem, the light bulb finally went off on it.

Adam DeGraide:
It took you six or seven times.

Perry Dimas:
Yeah. You’d think I would learn after a couple times. Right? So I’m like, “Huh, I guess there’s a problem. I think I can solve this.” Right. And that’s what we did.

Adam DeGraide:
You know, it’s funny because a good buddy of mine has always said, “Someone will pay you a million dollars to solve a hundred million dollar problem. Somebody will pay you a billion and a half dollars to solve a $10 billion problem.” And when you have that solution staring you, some of the simplest ideas in the world are literally staring us, like knocking on our heads every single day, and you just grab the bull by the horns. And you know what, man, it takes a lot to get out there and do that. But you haven’t done it alone.

Adam DeGraide:
One of the things we talk about here on David Vs Goliath is the power of not only having the right partners, but the right people on your team. I know you’ve got roughly around 85 employees. So in four years that’s pretty dramatic growth, and probably Inc. 500 worthy at this point. I would imagine, probably if you look back on year one revenue to where you guys are now, I’m sure it’s a rocket ship. Tell us a little bit about your partner, because one of the things that you said was he knew a little bit more about the industry and the business than you did at that point in time and you brought him in. So I’d love to hear, people love to hear how people became part of a company.

Perry Dimas:
Yeah. So right when the light bulb went off, my first call was to Andrew Mignatti who became my business partner at CMT. I told Andrew about what I’m hearing and the company that I think we should start. At the time he was looking for his next adventure, if you will. He had just exited a company. He was CEO over there and now he’s looking into two or three different opportunities. And here I am bringing in a brand new opportunity to him. At the time it was just an idea, right? “Hey, I think there’s something here.” Andrew did his due diligence mainly by calling some major laboratories and saying, “Hey, what do you think of this?” And they said, “Oh yeah, it’s going to be a problem.” And once he got confirmation from the industry, he called me back and said, “Okay, let’s do this.” So, that’s how we started it.

Adam DeGraide:
That is awesome, man. I’ll tell you, it’s the convergence, I call it a happy accident. You know, my dad’s always had a saying for years it’s, “Coincidence is God’s way of remaining anonymous.” Right.

Perry Dimas:
That’s right.

Adam DeGraide:
Because you were in the right spot. He was in the right spot. And you mentioned that you’re not the most creative cat in the world when it comes to ideas and you started a convention in the old, back then, and you said, “I came up with this really creative name.” What was that really creative name again?

Perry Dimas:
Well, it’s for the diagnostic industry. So I called it the Diagnostic Conference.

Adam DeGraide:
Because there wasn’t one.

Perry Dimas:
You’ll love this, Adam. Yeah. You’ll love this. So, CMT Solutions originally was called Cover My Test. Now, how did I come up with Cover My Test? Because on the pharmaceutical side of the business, there’s a company called Cover My Meds and we were using the same business model as Cover My Meds. And Cover My Meds, when we just started, had just been sold, acquired by McKesson for 1.4 billion dollars. And I said, let’s just do that. So, we called it Cover My Test. We’re almost getting a trademark and then all of a sudden we got a little letter from McKesson saying, “That’s a little too close to Cover My Meds.” So, I have creative when it comes to branding.

Adam DeGraide:
I got to tell you folks, these are the things that people don’t appreciate when you’re trying to build a business. Right. You’ve got different personality types. Like I’m a marketer, so Perry, if you ever need an idea for a name of a company, or like a slogan, I’m only good for like five words, after that it’s like it’s all nonsense. One of the things I love, so when we came up with Anthem Software, every business has a song, let our software sing yours. See you need a creative cat like me helping you name your business and coming up with slogans. But hey, you know what, like I said, somebody will pay you 1.4 billion dollars to solve a 10, 50, a hundred billion dollar problem. And I think that’s a very important point for our watchers and our listeners to note is that you don’t have to be overly creative to have a great idea. But you really shouldn’t be stealing for people, Perry. And you found that out quickly.

Perry Dimas:
Yeah. And as you know, the fun part of this whole thing of starting a business and seeing if you can actually do something with it is working with people. Right. So I know that. So, now do we have a vice president of marketing and she’s fantastic and I’ll throw out stuff to her and she’ll laugh and you know what she makes it sound good, look good. So now if you go to our website it’s a whole lot better than what we started with. Let’s put it that way. It looks great.

Adam DeGraide:
And my instincts, tell me the last thing I want you doing is building and designing my website.

Perry Dimas:
No, you do not.

Adam DeGraide:
There’s no doubt about that, but you know what man, and God bless her. I can only imagine what the marketing meetings are like. But you need everyone. And I think this is really important, right? So if you look at like how a wheel, a spokes in the wheel, there’s many different things that keep that wheel intact, and at the center obviously is the lug nuts, right? And sometimes there’s one giant one and then there’s five lug nuts around in a business. I tell people this all the time. But no part of that wheel is less important to keep that wheel on the road. Right? So it’s like, even though the center’s where the strength starts, it’s held together on the outside as well, too. And great people make all the difference. Bad people also make all the difference. And I think we’ve experienced that, all of us that have hired and recruited. Now you’ve got 85 people in the business. In four years, that’s a lot of people. What are you using to hire them, recruit them, train them? What is the process of them coming on board to CMT Solutions?

Perry Dimas:
Well, unfortunately that’s another area that is not my strength. So, God help us if I’m doing the hiring. But really right when we started, I went to folks, obviously that I know I trust, have worked with in the past, right? Initially, I would say the first 10, 15 people really were known entities to me. They knew me. I knew them. We actually liked working together and they chose to work with me again. Then after that really to set up the system of, okay, how you going to expand that? Right? For the next 50, next 100 hires?

Perry Dimas:
Obviously we have people and process in place to help us identify the right folks for the positions. And I’m just thankful that there’s a lot of good people out there that can actually do a good job with discerning, “Will this person fit in.” For me, honestly Adam, it’s less about whether or not they can do the job. A lot of people can do the job, but are they really going to be a good fit for us? I mean, we talk about culture, right? But then the day, it’s kind of like, you really want the individuals who are driving the company all to be unified. Right. Of what is this feel like? What are we about?

Adam DeGraide:
Yeah. That’s a really great point you made there, Perry, because many small businesses that are watching and listening right now, if you took 85 of your employees and put them in a room and said, “What does CMT Solutions do?” Most businesses come back with 85 different answers because they’ve really not boiled down their corporate commercial to themselves internally throughout their people.

Adam DeGraide:
I’m doing training with my staff this evening. And tomorrow my small new company that I started, there’s about 12 of us getting together. And from day one, they’ll drink the Kool-Aid because everyone needs to know what we do, why we do it, and they need to be able to say it in 30 seconds or less. And everyone needs to say and do the same things because otherwise they just make it up. And so for my watchers and listeners, if you have a business, try this, take your employees in a room, give them a blank piece of paper and say, “In your words, what do we do?” Then when you read them you’ll know whether you have a culture that people know what the heck is going on or if you have a team that’s making it all up. What a great idea. Right? I would highly recommend, Perry, that you send your 85 people.

Perry Dimas:
Yeah. I love that. Especially like you said from day one, right Adam, and then I heard someone say, “Vision leaks.” So day one, it’s important. But then is it every 30 days to reinforce what it is that we’re doing? And who

Adam DeGraide:
Think from my experience, it could be weekly to start, quarterly as time goes on, one big annual thing where you re-say it. The most successful businesses that I’ve ever worked with Perry, and that I’ve ever built, they know who we are. They know what we do. Most importantly, they know what we don’t do. And then we all do it. And I used to get calls from my clients like “Adam, what do you feed these people over there? They all say the same thing. I call them. This one says the same thing.” That’s on purpose Perry. It’s critical. And we’re going to take a break here, coming up on a break from our corporate sponsor Anthem Software. But when we come back, I want to talk to you about something else that I read on the pre-show sheet, which I thought was funny. This is Adam DeGraide. I’m your host of David Vs Goliath. We’re with Perry Dimas. Learning amazing things today. And stay tuned. We’ll be right back after this short message.

Announcer:
Anthem Business Software system is designed to specifically help small businesses just like yours find, serve, and keep more customers profitably. We do this by providing you with the most powerful software automations and marketing services to help your business compete and win in this ever changing digital world. Take a short video tour at anthemsoftware.com.

Adam DeGraide:
And we’re back with Perry. Perry, the technology is working and thank God it’s working. Now Perry, do you know what the shortest unit of time is?

Perry Dimas:
No.

Adam DeGraide:
It’s a honk a second. It’s the time between somebody at a red light, the light turns green, and the person behind you beeps. It’s called a honk a second. It’s the fastest, unknown unit of time. And what I read on the sheet is that’s a little bit of a pet peeve of yours. And so I have been on the receiving side of this. I have been on the giving side of this, but you’re mostly on the receiving side of this. If I remember correctly, is that true?

Perry Dimas:
I am on the receiving side of it for some reason. And it’s not like I’m hanging out. I know I live in Florida, but I’m not like the old guy waiting five seconds before I go. But you know, people are give me a little honk.

Adam DeGraide:
I think my advice to you Perry is pick it up. Pick it up a little bit, man. The foot goes on the gas pedal. You can go quick. You probably have a car that’s got a decent engine, I would imagine.

Perry Dimas:
You know what, if I had to be, I’m probably looking on my phone little bit too often, right, at the stop sign.

Adam DeGraide:
Oh no. Let’s hope Florida patrol’s not watching this.

Perry Dimas:
Yeah, I know.

Adam DeGraide:
That’s a no-no here in Florida as you know, that’s a no-no. But it’s funny, we all have our little things and I’ll tell you, man, that’s how people get in trouble though at red lights. You honk at the wrong person, you give the person the little birdie signal, you know that you’re not supposed to be giving. You give that guy or gal, the wrong guy or gal that signal, you could end up in a world of hurt. So my recommendation Perry is when the light turns green, put your foot on the gas and get going. Let’s get going.

Perry Dimas:
And I’ll wave to him.

Adam DeGraide:
That’s right. Just say, wave, burn rubber and get out of there. I’m usually the one that’s first off the line, but I have definitely been on the receiving and the giving side of that as well too. Now back to business because I think that’s probably why people listen to David Vs Goliath. Although some of them do enjoy the humor and the fun as well too. I think when you think about what you’ve done so far with your people and you’re at 85 people, if I remember correctly, you have 90,000, it’s not labs or is it providers that you work with?

Perry Dimas:
Yeah, providers.

Adam DeGraide:
Yeah, providers. 90,000 providers. That’s amazing. You work with labs all over the country. There’s a lot of process that’s involved in that I would imagine. Did you build technology to streamline this or did you just create the processes manually first and then build technology around it? You know, when you’re thinking about how you found this niche, you found this idea, you solved this problem. I would imagine that there’s an evolution from how you did it originally to how you’re doing it now. Share with the watchers and listeners that evolution of that process.

Perry Dimas:
Yeah, it definitely was an evolution. And thankfully we didn’t have to take major changes or detours. We were able to keep on the path, but initially we started the business, we went up, got business before we could even do what we said we could do. So once we got the business, then it was very manual at first. That’s really what we’ve been doing for the last four years, if I think about it, is putting the platform and the technology in place to streamline automate everything that we could possibly do. And now I look back after four years, it’s kind of like, “Okay, we really are a technology platform now.”

Perry Dimas:
Before I would say we were a service provider and now we’re a technology platform. But that evolution has taken place because of some major advancements. But a lot of times, Adam, it was just the small little pieces like Andrew and I were talking just last night. It’s kind of like putting the puzzle pieces together to create the total picture. And now we have a total picture, which is not just about prior authorizations, but it’s answering the question of like, “How much is this test going to cost me?” Before the doctor orders the test. I think that’s the commercial that you saw with Martin Short. I think that’s good RX saying, “Hey, check to see how much this drug’s going to cost you without your insurance.”

Adam DeGraide:
And are there cheaper ways to get it?

Perry Dimas:
Yeah.

Adam DeGraide:
So is that kind of what you’re doing right now? Is that what you’re working on?

Perry Dimas:
That’s really what we have evolved to, because if you think about it, we were all about patient access and prior authorizations just insert us into the middle of the equation, if you will. But patient access is making sure that the patient gets what they need, that the doctor thinks they want. That would be beneficial for them.

Adam DeGraide:
It’s funny that you say that Perry, because my doctor loves to order tests. This guy, I mean, every six months, I’m doing this litany of 11 vials of whatever. I’m a pretty healthy guy, by the way, as you can clearly tell. I’m pretty healthy. But I never know how much it’s going to cost. Never know how much it’s going to cost. Fortunately, I have insurance, but there was, I guess at one point my lab stopped taking my insurance. I didn’t know it. Now, all of a sudden I’m stuck with a $3,000 bill. I’m like $3,000. I had no idea that it costs that much. And so I think transparency is critical. And I think there actually have been some things that have been passed recently for medical pricing transparency, which I think is going to be beneficial to all of us. Because if you don’t know what things cost you you can’t control the cost. It’s like out of control and all of a sudden you’re blindsided. Because a lot of these diagnostic tests, I would imagine, are not covered in some cases by insurance. Is that true?

Perry Dimas:
That is true. In many occasions. And a lot of these tests, it’s no longer like a CBC test, which cost three bucks. Right? We’re talking about genetic, genome tests that could be three, four, $5,000 for the test. Right. But it’s really helpful because it’s informative.

Adam DeGraide:
The ancestry type of test, would that fall into that category? Is that a little bit of a different category?

Perry Dimas:
A little bit different. Yeah. More if like carrier screens, like for breast and ovarian cancer for BRCA for the women. So, BRCA testing’s been out there for 20 years, but there’s a prior authorization put in place to make sure that that woman is appropriate to get that test, to make sure are they predisposed to having ovarian or breast cancer or not? That’s what that test really tells you.

Adam DeGraide:
Got it. It’s a fascinating industry. And do you get up every day and you get excited? Like do you have a sign that says, “More tests, more tests.” I mean, you wake up on a bed, you like give the test board a high five. I mean, I would imagine you get paid based on the volume of tests, right? Or am I? Yeah, that’s correct, right?

Perry Dimas:
That’s right. Yeah.

Adam DeGraide:
So you love testing.

Perry Dimas:
Yes.

Adam DeGraide:
Whatever some bureaucrat says, “More tests.” Perry’s going, “More tests, do-cha-ca-do-cha, more tests, do-cha-ca-do.” I can just see you in your own Perry Dimas way, dancing the night away to more tests. For me, I’m like, “Please stop the testing. We got to stop testing for everything. It’s insane.”

Perry Dimas:
Yeah. Well now you can imagine that what I dream about is someday the private insurance companies are going to say, “You know what, we’re going to have to prior authorize these COVID tests because this is crazy.” Now, if or when that happens, that would be a happy day for us.

Adam DeGraide:
That’s what I said for you. More tests. Now I’m afraid that because we used the word COVID that somehow I’m going to be, they’re going to take 18 years to review the video to make sure that we didn’t provide any misinformation. I have no idea what I’m even talking about. I wouldn’t dare talk about any of that stuff. I have no idea what I’m talking about, but I do know one thing, Perry, more tests means more money for you. And as a good friend of mine, Dr. Stanley Okoro said, he said, “We’re not in it for the money, but without the money, we’re not in it.” I’ve always loved that. Now, when you think about technology, you talked about technology. How are you getting the word out to the providers of what CMT Solutions does and how they can benefit from it? What’s been your primary means of acquiring that 90,000 providers and are there even more that you’re trying to acquire? And what’s that process look like?

Perry Dimas:
So, initially when we were signing up the laboratories, the laboratory representatives would all, we would train them and they would run out to their physicians and say, “Hey doc, we heard you. You don’t like to do prior authorizations. We partnered with CMT. They’re going to be able to do your prior authorizations. All I need you to do is enroll with them.” So, we had literally a few thousand sales reps that we did not pay. Right. And they were going out to the marketplace, and visiting all the physicians, and getting them to enroll. So, that’s how we started, which was fantastic. Then COVID came. And when those physicians were no longer seeing those reps, we built an account management team here. We’re about six strong right now. And we have six people that that’s all they do is enroll physicians day in and day out.

Adam DeGraide:
That’s amazing. In business, we used to call it FOTS. It’s I know it sounds silly. It’s feet on the street. I think a better word probably would’ve been BOTS because at least it doesn’t sound like the other thing when you hear the word FOTS. But whenever I was acquired, one of my businesses was acquired by a private equity company. Every single meeting was, “We need more FOTS on the street, more FOTS.” And I was like, guys, please, we got to, we got to come up with a different name. That’s not really working for me.

Adam DeGraide:
But in your case, those boots on the street made a huge difference. And that’s fantastic. It’s really interesting to see how different businesses and different segments grow, right? So like you don’t really have a need to be on social media, but I would imagine you probably have a need to make people aware on LinkedIn and some business platforms or things like that, right? Do you do any of that for your business at all? Are you on LinkedIn? Are you promoting CMT Solutions or it just, the word of mouth has been so powerful you haven’t needed to do anything like that?

Perry Dimas:
I think initially it was word of mouth, but now that we have people in the organization that actually know what they’re doing from marketing standpoint, yes. We have a concerted campaign on LinkedIn. In fact, later on today, we’re sponsoring a webinar and we get good response from that because we do want to be seen as a industry leader. What’s interesting is most physician practices, physicians aren’t, not so much on LinkedIn, but they’re on Facebook, which makes sense because people are on Facebook. So physician and their practices are on Facebook. So we are active on Facebook just to reach out to the doctors. But our main focus really has been through LinkedIn business to business.

Adam DeGraide:
Yeah. I mean, LinkedIn’s a great business to business source. Facebook’s a great B to C source. My feeling is wherever people are, that’s where you should be. So community has changed so much over the years. It used to be, it still is in a lot of ways, at church in the church bulletins, a lot of local businesses used to advertise there. And I remember those days, I’m dating myself now, when I would go get a church bulletin, I always thought it was interesting that my church at the time, I was Catholic at the time, when I was growing up, had like advertisements for businesses in the church bulletin. I was like, “Oh, okay, well I guess nothing wrong with mixing a little God and a little money, I guess.” That’s the way I looked at it.

Adam DeGraide:
And then you see it was the town square, the chamber halls, which are still great today, by the way. But then community moved online. I called Google town, Google street, Facebook town. And at the end of the day, you got to be where people are and you got to be relevant. Now, Perry, we got to take another break from another sponsor. But when we come back, I want to talk to you about the courage it took to start this business. And the very first day you hung that shingle up CMT, which had a change to CMT Solutions. How did it make you feel? We’ll be right back in a second. Here’s another amazing message from another great sponsor right here on David Vs Goliath. We’ll be right back.

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Adam DeGraide:
And we’re back for our final segment with Perry Dimas. Perry this has been a lot of fun. Thank God we got a software that works and this one’s actually recording you and no problems at all. Thank God. And this has been a lot of fun. I’ll tell you. It’s an interesting business. I feel like I’ve learned a ton today, but the one thing I think people love to hear is what was it in you? You’ve had successful companies before, I believe, CMT Solutions. You’ve been in business for quite some time, had some success in business, but it’s never for the faint of heart to say, “This is what I’m going to do. I’m going to take a step out into the unknown. I’m going to have no revenue. I’m going to figure out how to make money. We’re going to figure how to make payroll.” And people don’t realize like that’s a big leap of faith for people.

Adam DeGraide:
And there’s a lot of people locked in fear right now that watch and listen to David Vs Goliath because they teeter tot, right? They have a job. They’ve got this other thing they’re doing on the side. It can almost sustain their lifestyle. They keep clinging to this old, clinging to the new, next thing you know they’re stretched out like the old muscle man of old, you know that you used to scream at you when you stretched them out. And that’s how they feel. But in your case, when you had the convention, you heard the idea over and over again, you checked it out with somebody who knew what they were doing. At some point, it has to go besides from concept to actually completion. What was it with you and your business partner that said, “You know what, we’re going to do this and it’s going to work.”

Perry Dimas:
I’m thankful that I grew up in an atmosphere as a kid where my parents owned a restaurant. I’m Greek, so we owned restaurants, right? Owning something was just part of my life. And I knew early on that I wanted to do something. Didn’t really know what I wanted to do. Prior to CMT, I started a couple of businesses. And a couple of them done well and a couple not so well. Right. But I really am a person that, I take high risk, what people would perceive as risky. I don’t see it as risk. Honestly. I think it’s really risky to work for a large company that all of a sudden they decide, “You know what, let’s get rid of 10% head count and you may be part of that 10%.” Right. So I think it’s more risky to work for somebody else. I’d rather work for myself. I know who I am and what I’m good at.

Adam DeGraide:
Yeah. And you know the odds of you’re firing yourself are low.

Perry Dimas:
Yeah, that’s right. Yeah. And I just think it offers a lot of freedom. I think that’s the word that comes to mind, right? I mean, at the end of the day, to be able to do something that you really believe in with people that you enjoy working with that’s freedom to me. And that’s fun. It’s less about risk.

Adam DeGraide:
It makes all the difference, man, when you’re doing something that you love and you’re doing it with people that you care about. I mean, it really is. It’s a lot of fun. It’s like a family. I was interviewing the guy who started the Small Business Expo, Zachary Lezberg. And he said there’s 18 employees in his business. And he said he loves doing business with them. He called themselves, “We’re a family, a dysfunctional one. But we are a family.”

Adam DeGraide:
And I thought that was interesting because business is a lot like family, right? You spend a lot of time with these people. We work with these people. And at the end of the day, we have to make the best of that time with the people that are around us on a daily basis. It’s the right thing to do. If you come with a bad attitude to work, you’re affecting not only yourself, but other people, right. You come with a great attitude and we can make it happen. You’re going to affect other people in a positive way. So all that makes a huge difference. Now, the very first night after you and your buddy started, and you got incorporated, you put your head on the pillow, how did you feel?

Perry Dimas:
Excited and nervous, which I think is okay. I always tell my boys, “It’s okay to be nervous that tells you’re doing something that you’re excited about. Just make sure that nerves doesn’t overtake you and puts you in a direction where it paralyzes you. Right. I mean use that nervousness, if you will, to your advantage.”

Adam DeGraide:
No doubt. That’s really, really great. Nerves are not necessarily bad and it’s okay to be nervous. It’s okay to be a little scared. And if you’re listening and watching right now and you’re at that place, that’s good. Let that feed you. There’s an excitement though, that happens when you think you’ve got a great idea. Does the company, this is a good question, because all of my businesses have started one way and have migrated and finished a little bit of a different way. Has this one stayed pretty true to the way you started it? Or is it migrating a little bit?

Perry Dimas:
It’s interesting because the evolution of operational to platform technology, and really where we’re going now in order to ensure proper access to all these fantastic tests that enable personalized medicine, is we’re starting to work with the insurance companies, the payers, right. Because if we can help them understand these technologies, and they do want their members to get this stuff, right. They just want to make sure that they’re getting the right stuff. And how can we come alongside them to do that? And especially when it comes to price transparency too, right Adam? Because at the end of the day, they don’t want members getting a $3,000 bill.

Adam DeGraide:
Yeah, that doesn’t do anybody any good. Right. If you don’t know what you’re ordering and how much it costs, it just creates customer service nightmares.

Perry Dimas:
Yeah. And what other industry, I mean, you don’t go to a restaurant and you are like, “Well, I’ll take that steak. Well, how much is that?” “Oh, don’t worry about it. We’ll bill you after you eat.”

Adam DeGraide:
We’ll let you know based on how much you enjoyed it.

Perry Dimas:
Yeah. Right? Your steak may cost different than my steak, right?

Adam DeGraide:
Yeah, I always love it on the menu when it says MP Hmm. Market price. Oh. And I bet you market price has gone up. There’s no doubt about that over the last year. We know that. But man Perry, this has been a blast. Have you had fun being on here?

Perry Dimas:
This has been awesome.

Adam DeGraide:
I am so glad to have you. I love having different personality types because it’s cool when I have a guy that’s just like me, high energy and fun, but I also like it when there’s different personalities, because it really shows the watchers and listeners that entrepreneurs come in all shape, sizes, different personality types. And I think it’s fantastic to recognize that when you look at a wheel and how a business operates from the core to the outside, everything has to work together in concert to keep that wheel on the road and to grow and go where you’re going, the distance in your business. So Perry, thank you for joining us today. Thank you for watching. Thank you for listening. This is another amazing episode of David Vs Goliath Podcast. You hear some of the greatest stories, listen to the greatest and smartest people. I really hope you appreciate it. I know you do because I do. And we’ll see you next week on David Vs Goliath. Have a great day.