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Ray Kelly remembers the days when he and his wife were so hurt they had to hide from debt collectors and repo men.

“There was nothing in the bank. We couldn’t park our car outside our house because they knew where we lived,” he recalls.

Fast forward to today. Kelly is the founder and CEO of the pioneering wellness company TERSA, whose crown jewel is SAVA – an immersive sound therapy pod used in luxury hotels and wellness facilities globally.

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But this dramatic change in Kelly’s fortunes didn’t happen overnight. It took unwavering vision, resilience and a strategic approach to entrepreneurship.

Kelly is a guest this week on the One Day with Jon Bier podcast. You can listen to the entire interview below, detailing his 20-year career as a renowned rehab expert turned successful entrepreneur.

Here are some of the hard lessons he learned along the way.

Related: How to design a work session that tricks your brain into peak performance, according to a neuroscientist

Stay true to your vision

In the early stages of TERSA, Kelly had a clear vision to develop a unique and dynamic healing methodology that disrupted the status quo with a more holistic approach to wellness.

But not everyone around him saw it the same way. They offered a bunch of advice and guidance that almost threw Kelly off course.

Almost.

“If I’ve learned anything over the past eight years on this entrepreneurial journey, it’s that advice can be dangerous,” says Kelly. “All the advice I was given in the early stages when I was building my product lines, I wouldn’t be anywhere near what I am today if I didn’t follow the line. Everyone wants to share your information. , but they don’t see what’s in your head”.

What was inside his head was a human-sized sonic cocoon that surrounded its inhabitants with vibrational therapy, sound frequencies, music and artificial intelligence to enhance physical, psychological and emotional well-being.

Related: This 32-year-old started a side hustle with $3,000 — now makes over $100,000 a month: ‘Can’t get enough’

Rely on in-house expertise

Kelly emphasizes the importance of building a strong in-house design team rather than relying too heavily on external design houses. “Avoid going to a designer house like the plague,” he warns.

Why? Many design houses operate on a ‘times and materials’ basis, which can lead to a lack of caution and potential financial pressure for startups,” he explains. “There’s no accountability if they fail,” says Kelly. “And that can kill you. as a company. It can kill you for sure.”

Instead, Kelly advocates building slowly and recruiting individual team members on short contracts. This approach allows founders to maintain control over the development process and ensure they hold their own team accountable.

Navigate funding with your eyes wide open

Many startups think they can control the type of investors they want to work with. Kelly disagrees, saying that founders are often at the mercy of where they are at that point in their growth and who is willing to be on the other side of the table.

“Sometimes you have to accept these deals or you have to accept where you are and just live to fight another day and then work to bust your ass to get to the next stage and keep fighting,” he says.

He warns entrepreneurs about the realities of working with investors: “They’re not your friends,” he bluntly states. Investors are in the business of making money, and entrepreneurs need to be prepared for tough decisions and added stress when things don’t go according to plan.

“It’s not the investors who are struggling to pay the bills every month,” Kelly points out. “It’s easy for them to give advice and give you advice on what to do. But at the end of the day, you’re the one eating.”

Related: This Fitness CEO Ignored Advice to Rebrand. What happened next is a crash course in business.

Position yourself strategically

Perhaps one of the most nuanced aspects of Kelly’s strategy is how he positions TERSA in the market. While the product has broad appeal to those seeking psychedelic, out-of-body experiences, Kelly is careful not to overemphasize this aspect.

“If you approach the psychedelic sector too much, you start to isolate yourself from the larger conversations that are happening,” he explains. Instead, Kelly positions TERSA as a serious player in the broader space of wellness and potential medical applications.

This strategic positioning has allowed TERSA to “have a seat at the table and be taken very seriously” in conversations about mental health. Kelly explains: “We had to look visually very wrapped up and ready for a serious conversation, because if we came in marked with chakras and crystal balls – and nothing against all that, it’s incredible – but just visually we had to move away from stereotypes”.

The strategy paid off. The company has a contract with the US military to research PTSD and trauma. Recently, Kelly and his wife drove past a street in LA where they once ran out of gas because they couldn’t afford to fill up their gas tank. They just laughed at the memory, realizing how far they had come.

“We were just pinching ourselves,” he says.