Transforming Health Challenges into Business Opportunities with Dan Chapman

Have you ever wondered how a deep-rooted faith could shape a business's core values and its approach to philanthropy? Our latest conversation with Dan Chapman, the visionary behind Red Remedies and Sunrise Health Foods, unveils the profound impact that intertwining Christian principles with corporate ethos can have. Dan's personal journey through family health obstacles led him to a business model where success is measured not just in profits, but in the wellness and support it provides to the community. His story is a testament to the idea that giving back and embedding a servant's heart in business practices can redefine entrepreneurial success.

Our enlightening chat is more than just an interview; it's a treasure trove of inspiration for business owners and aspiring entrepreneurs alike. Dan encourages a shift in perspective - to honor God with our first fruits and to build our enterprises on a foundation of generosity from the start. This is an episode where the synergy of faith and entrepreneurship is brought to light, highlighting how it can motivate us to help others, shape company values, and turn the challenges of the business world into opportunities for growth and community service. Join Karli and me as we explore the call of the entrepreneur with Dan Chapman, and learn how the intersection of faith and business can uplift not only our personal lives but also the society at large.

To connect with Olivet’s Entrepreneurship Program, contact Program Director, Chris Perez at caperez2@olivet.edu.

To learn more about other entrepreneurship opportunities and the McGraw School of Business’s very own Createur Conference and Pitch Competition, go to Createur.Olivet.edu.

Transcript

Karli Byrd: 0:00

This week, Dan Chapman will be joining us to dig into the process of addressing a problem and bringing its solutions to customers across the nation.

Speaker 2: 0:08

Where faith and business meet. This is Creator. What does it mean to be a Christian entrepreneur? How can I turn my ideas into an actual business? How do I navigate my path to entrepreneurship?

Karli Byrd: 0:21

Welcome to Creator, the podcast brought to you by Olivet Nazarene University's McGraw School of Business to unlock the secrets to Christian entrepreneurship and fuel your path to success.

Speaker 2: 0:33

I'm your host, Carly Bird, graduate assistant of Olivet's entrepreneurship program.

Karli Byrd: 0:38

I'm your co-host, Spencer James, an Olivet undergraduate marketing management and business administration major.

Speaker 2: 0:44

Join us, fellow students, as we embark on a journey to discover the call of the entrepreneur.

Karli Byrd: 0:51

Hello everyone. This week, carly and I have the honor of being joined by someone who took an issue he saw a family member facing and turned it into a widespread solution Dan Chapman.

Speaker 2: 1:02

Dan is the founder and CEO of Red Remedies, a supplement company founded with the goal of addressing whole body health through the fusion of clean, wholesome food, targeted, high quality supplements and the experience of quality doctors with natural medicine expertise. He is also the owner of Sunrise Health Foods, a store that provides natural supplements where there are otherwise gaps in the supplement industry. Dan, thank you so much for joining us today. This is so great to have you with us.

Dan Chapman: 1:29

No, it's my pleasure to be here today.

Speaker 2: 1:31

Yeah, so you know, dan, one of the topics we also wanted to touch on today is the power of giving back in your business and how it truly is never too soon to start giving back. I know I mentioned in your bio that you are the owner of Red Remedies, as well as Sunrise Health Foods, and, with that being said, just to start our conversation off, I want to go back a little bit to when you were first getting started on your path to entrepreneurship. Let's just go back for a second, and could you share a specific experience, maybe, or a moment, or even what it felt like, that inspired you to start giving back early on in your career?

Dan Chapman: 2:07

Yeah, I grew up in a very entrepreneurial family. My dad sold real estate for a living growing up, but he had started a variety of businesses, one of which was Sunrise Health Foods, and that business was created really because my mom was quite sick way before I was born, back in the 1950s, and she changed her health around really by changing diet. And so I grew up, like I said, in a family that was very entrepreneurial, but not just, you know, for the purposes of making money and providing a living, even though that was part of it, for sure. But one of the things that my family believed, and we continue to believe today, is that to live a healthy life, to live a life that honors the Lord, is not just the work that you do but the way that you do it, and so one of the organizations that my family's been involved in is Bible League International. It's a ministry that my grandfather started in the 1930s. That was a ministry that also started really out of a health challenge.

Dan Chapman: 3:03

My grandpa had a heart attack in the 1930s and he was a young man in his mid-30s at that time, also in the real estate business, and one of the things that he did as his health was strengthening and recovering is he wanted to find a way to serve the Lord with the rest of his life, just out of gratitude for what the Lord did in his life. And so it was kind of that process of learning that the best place in life to be is fully dependent on him and to a full extent. We are all very dependent on him for our daily lives. But I found that there's a lot of individuals in business who spend the first part of their career building and growing and taking care of, say themselves, and then they figure out later on in life, how do I give back for all the good that's happened? And I think honestly, I think we have it backwards. I think the best way to build a career is to work to honor the Lord first. As a matter of fact, he even talks about it in Proverbs 3, verses 9. It says honor the Lord with your wealth and with the first fruits of all you produce. So he doesn't say later in life, give back out of all of the good and all the things that you've been given, but he says with the first fruits. And so I think we need to maybe change that script a little bit and say how can we honor the Lord, maybe with the first part of our career, and then what will God do with that later on? And so I'll just share a couple of other things that I think support that kind of flipping of the script.

Dan Chapman: 4:33

It really even goes back to the creation story Early in Genesis. It says there is evening and morning the first day. And so I live my life oftentimes where, you know, the morning starts at eight o'clock or six o'clock or whatever it is. I work my whole day and then I'm tired and I go to bed. Right, but what we're supposed to do is we're supposed to sleep and rest, and out of that sleeping and resting in the Lord, then we have the ability to go about, you know, that day that we have, and I think that it's even consistent with the way that we were created. We were created on day six, and our first full day was Sabbath. It was rest, and so we need to rest, and out of that, then, out of that strength, we can do something for the Lord, and so that, to me, is part of being an entrepreneur is finding ways that I can serve the Lord up front rather than later on. That's great.

Karli Byrd: 5:22

What drew you to starting Red Remedies? I mean, is there kind of a starter story behind why you?

Dan Chapman: 5:27

started that. My entrepreneurial journey started at Sunrise Health Foods, again kind of growing up in that family business, and for us when I was a kid it was really more of a successful family hobby of sorts. It wasn't a way that my family made a living, it was a way of life. It was the way that my mom began change. Her health was through Sunrise and we were providing healthy food and supplements for the community that we had served up in Lansing Illinois.

Dan Chapman: 5:51

I really enjoyed that business and went and worked at it full time and grew it to a couple of different locations. Then saw a need within that of helping customers have an easier time selecting the vitamins and minerals and herbs that they would use. When I started Red Remedies, there were very few formulas on the market and so a customer would come in with a health challenge and I would work to sell them two or three or four bottles of different things in order to put that formula together in a way that was going to make a difference for them health-wise. But that was hard to do and a customer had to buy two or three or four bottles just to solve one problem, and so we started designing formulas to make it much easier for that customer.

Dan Chapman: 6:30

So today, you know, instead of buying a few bottles, you can buy, you know, one product from Red Remedies that is a targeted formula to solve a very specific health challenge. We have a unique formulation process where we're working to nourish the body, support it and then ultimately create balance. I have a master herbalist that leads that formulation process for us today and really selects each ingredient that goes in that consistent with the purity program that we put together, and so it was really just helping customers live full and healthy lives and making it easier for them to do that. That was the start for Red Remedies in 2005. That's awesome.

Speaker 2: 7:05

That is a really great story and I love hearing the purpose behind how you know you went from Sunrise and that purpose that started with your family and grew then into Red Remedies as well. That's very inspirational. To go along with that, I noticed you mentioned your father and your grandfather and the influences that they were in your life as well. I'm sure that played a big role in mentorship and growing your own business there. What other forms of mentorship did you see in your life or when you were getting started? Even you know once again, maybe some examples from your family again having that powerful entrepreneurial upbringing powerful entrepreneurial upbringing.

Dan Chapman: 7:47

I was really fortunate to not just have the example of my mom and my dad, as you mentioned, as well as my grandfather and grandmother, who did a wonderful job in business, but honestly I'm proud of them. I think they did a wonderful job in life, honoring the Lord with their time and their resources. But I also had the opportunity, from a relatively young age, to serve on a couple of different boards. I served locally on the South Point Youth for Christ board At that time it was Kankakee Area Youth for Christ, so I've been on that board. Actually I'm a little surprised to even mention it's been 29 years I've served on that board. So I continue to serve on the Youth for Christ board here locally.

Dan Chapman: 8:22

But as a young man it gave me an opportunity to sit around the table with men and women who I respected and looked up to, and while I don't know that I had a lot to contribute in those early years, I certainly had a lot to learn and so that was a real blessing for me.

Dan Chapman: 8:36

And then I've also had the opportunity to serve on the Bible League International Board, as I've mentioned. I continue to chair that board today and that's a wonderful family legacy. But I was asked to join that board I think I was 27 years old and so again, another opportunity to sit around the table with some men and women who have accomplished a lot but have done it in such a wonderful, humble way. And so to me that's part of the beauty there is to join those boards to be able to give and serve. But, to be honest, I got so much in return just for being a part of that community, to sit around the table when different questions and challenges and opportunities come up, and to see how these men and women address and help with those things, and so it's been a really, really wonderful opportunity for me to do that, and so I encourage everybody to volunteer. Find an organization in your community and jump on board and start to serve.

Speaker 2: 9:29

I have to admit, volunteering has certainly been a big part of my life recently, and I agree, you know, not only do you meet some incredible people along the way that inspire you even more, but it just leaves you so fulfilled, I have to admit. So that's excellent advice.

Karli Byrd: 9:45

Exactly, there's life given in serving right.

Speaker 2: 9:48

Right yeah. And to go back to your companies as well, and you know some of that social responsibility almost that comes from simply running an organization and the leadership that you provide then to your employees. That continues going on. What are some examples, or maybe some advice, you could give to some of our aspiring entrepreneurs that are just getting started? How can they approach social corporate responsibility within these businesses that they're just getting started?

Dan Chapman: 10:15

You can start with just your mission and your core values. So when you start a company, decide right up front, before it's anything. Decide what you want it to be, what do you want it to look like, what do you want it to stand for, and make sure that as you create that organization that you kind of build into the structure again that appropriate way to serve your community, appropriate way to serve people and honor the Lord. And I have found that organizations that do that right from the very, very beginning not only do they accomplish a lot, but they have a lot more fun doing it because you just feel like you're having a sense of being a blessing to others and it's just really rewarding to do that. So I encourage young entrepreneurs to dream about what you want that company to look like someday, but put it into like the core structure of that organization and the way that you want it to operate and represent. You know really the work that you're doing throughout your lifetime.

Speaker 2: 11:08

Absolutely.

Karli Byrd: 11:09

I think one of the things that sometimes herbal medicine or stuff within that industry can sometimes have maybe a sort of anti-Christian approach sometimes or maybe a little bit more of a self-care, solo kind of culture around it. So what are kind of some of the ways that you help ensure that you know you're talking about living a healthy life that serves the Lord, and how, how can you kind of intersect those two paths?

Dan Chapman: 11:30

That's interesting because the natural food industry definitely. They say in business don't talk about religion and politics right.

Dan Chapman: 11:37

But the natural food industry does both of those things a lot, and so I know I have many counterparts who seem to be open about the lack of faith or the way you put it. How do we take care of ourselves and how do I make myself the best me that I can possibly be? And I think, equally, the message that we have at Sunrise and Red Remedies is that we are about caring for individuals and helping an individual understand the way that God created your body, because the Lord created our bodies in really remarkable ways. So, especially for people that are not feeling well today, how can we help them understand that there is hope and that we can change, and that can actually happen through nourishing and supporting the body, rather than necessarily waiting until you need some medication or drug to fix that problem. That's great.

Speaker 2: 12:25

Again, excellent advice and a great testimony. Another topic that I'd love to get into, just with the way our conversation's going and there's a lot of great content here to be said this is another huge question that I get a lot from some of our listeners and what they're going through as they're getting started. How do you balance some of the financial demands that you're receiving as you're growing your business with this give back model? You know sometimes you get those conflicting sides of course within you that it can be difficult to manage both ends in a efficient and effective way. What advice would you give to our listeners about that?

Dan Chapman: 13:00

That's a great question, and I don't honestly think the answer is really any different than an individual. We are told to tithe, and you can make up your mind on what you believe a tithe is, but that money is one of those things that has a great capacity to help people in a community and individuals, but it also has a great capacity to tear you apart and to destroy you. And so I think it's important as an individual, that you practice from a very young age, from your very first paycheck, giving a portion of that back to the Lord. And when you start a business, I think it's equally important to do the same thing. Again, for some reason, I have found that oftentimes entrepreneurs have this idea that a business is different than a person, and so you know we'll give back when this happens, and I don't think that's the way that the Lord has designed it.

Dan Chapman: 13:50

When I read the Bible, that's not the way I read it. And so again, it says right here, as I said earlier, in Proverbs 3.9, it says first fruits. So what does that mean? That means the very first, and I will give you an example of something my grandfather did in practice regularly to express that faith.

Dan Chapman: 14:07

Again, I mentioned that he was a real estate person for his life, and so he would buy a track of land and he would split it up into lots, and he would then have 30 or so lots to sell from a specific track, and one of the things that he did consistently is, when the first lot sold, he gave 100% of that money away, and that was his way of putting the Lord first and ensuring that he lived a life dependent on God.

Dan Chapman: 14:34

When you are spending the money to buy a track and divide it up, you've got a lot invested, you've got payments and all kinds of things that are right in front of you, and the temptation when the first money comes in is to hang on to that or to maybe pay a little bit of that loan back. But consistently he said no, the first goes to the Lord, and I'm going to have to trust him that I can sell that second lot to make my payments, and so that's just one example, and so I encourage you to find your own way in your business to give first, to give up front to the work that the Lord is doing and test him in the way that he will be faithful and help you in that endeavor.

Karli Byrd: 15:11

Yeah, I think this is such a great conversation, talking about kind of honoring the Lord through our own career, but also through our business and how it plays out. I mean, are there certain scenarios or situations in your business where maybe you've had to be more reliant on the Lord right to help you walk your way through it? Maybe then you'd be comfortable to do on your own?

Dan Chapman: 15:29

I live life dependent on the Lord.

Dan Chapman: 15:31

As an entrepreneur, you'll find that even in the good seasons, for whatever reason, you can feel like you're, you know, one week away from disaster.

Dan Chapman: 15:40

Oh no, but no, I definitely have had those seasons where I felt very, very dependent on the Lord, and one of the things I just love about the way that he cares for us is I feel like he's given me very specific markers to make it clear to me the plan that he has for my life.

Dan Chapman: 15:58

And so, you know, Red Remedies is one of those businesses that I started, and so, certainly the early years I worked very, very hard to keep things moving, and when things were tough, I felt like he would just remind me of the kind of the visions that he gave me for that company early on and the fact that I continue to honor his wishes. I think in that, and it just gives me confidence to keep going. And I'll tell you what while it might be tough sometimes when you're in the middle of it, one of the things that we also are blessed with is a memory, so we can look back and we can see the Lord's faithfulness over time in our lives, and I think that those are the things that also gives us hope when we're in that tougher crisis moment, to be able to know that the Lord's going to be faithful and we'll make it through not just a Friday, but maybe even next week. Yeah, that's great.

Speaker 2: 16:43

Yeah, exactly, no kidding. I really like too. You mentioned how sometimes we see a company as something different, such apart from ourselves, when in reality, a company is very similar to a person, as you mentioned, and that's why it's so important to start giving back right away. What's the difference between an individual starting that or a company? I really like that piece of advice you gave Now to go along. I did notice so, dan. Your company's website mentions that your faith is a driving force behind your commitment to helping others and giving back to your community. Could you just elaborate a little bit more on this piece? I really liked reading that. That was a really interesting piece.

Dan Chapman: 17:24

One of the things that just gets me going every day is really helping people solve health challenges. I mean, for my whole life I have had the blessing of interacting with people that will talk to me about health challenges they have, and of course I've been right in the middle of that at Sunrise Health Foods when customers would come in they might ask you something simple about where's the butter or the bread or an apple, and you can point that to them. But oftentimes they come in and they talk about a challenge that they're having in their health, and so whether I'm at Sunrise Health Foods in an aisle or Red Remedy is talking to a customer, one of the things that I really enjoy is helping that individual understand kind of the context of the problem in the body, because, again, the Lord has created some remarkable bodies that we have. We have a remarkable ability to heal and to do well, but we need the proper nourishment and the right balance for that, and so I'm just really, really grateful to have work that I enjoy, but work that also helps people live full and healthy lives and, again, gives them a little bit of context.

Dan Chapman: 18:28

I also know that when somebody is sick and suffering that it's appropriate to take a moment to care for yourself and to take care of yourself and to make sure that you can regain strength and fix the problem it is that you're struggling with, and the purpose for that is because I want to point us to the fact that we need to be outward in our focus and I think that's the way that the Lord really created us in our fullness is not to be self-focused but to be outward focused and to help other individuals. But when we're sick, I think we need to have permission to spend a few minutes and just care for yourself, and so I found that even giving that permission kind of takes a weight of stress off of some individuals who are feeling bad that they can't help or care for others at that moment.

Speaker 2: 19:11

Definitely. I admire your empathy too. That's very powerful. I hate this, but time flies too fast on this show and I could just keep going forever. And, you know, continue this conversation. I know Spencer could too, but unfortunately we are coming to a close. But since you've listened to our show, you probably know what's coming. We always like to end our episodes with what we call the quirky question of the week. So, with that being said, are you ready, Dan, for your quirky question?

Dan Chapman: 19:39

Oh, let me have it.

Speaker 2: 19:41

All right, I've got you. Here we go. If you were stranded on a desert island yeah, that's right, we're already going into this what would be the one product at Red Remedies that you would want with you, and why?

Dan Chapman: 19:54

Oh goodness, Absolutely the first product that I ever made was True Energy. It's still my favorite product today. It's my daily. It is a product that there's no stimulants in there. Oftentimes, when people think about an energy product, they always think about stimulants. This is a adaptogen-based. The adaptogens are herbs that are amazing at helping protect our body from the negative impact of stress. It nourishes the adrenals, thyroid and liver. So True Energy is a product that is designed to help us deal with stress and live just a really full, energized life, both physically and mentally, and so that's my daily product and that's the one I would take to the island.

Speaker 2: 20:31

Wow, I love that. I need that product. Oh my goodness, that sounds right up my alley. That's awesome.

Karli Byrd: 20:36

Well, hey, dan, thank you again so much for being on the show today, and you are such a great example of what we're talking about is giving back, and so it's just so cool to see a living example of that. So thank you for sharing some of the insight that you have. Thank you for having me today.

Speaker 2: 20:51

Yeah, this has been another fantastic conversation and we really appreciate you being with us today and listeners I know you're out there.

Karli Byrd: 20:58

If you want to learn more about Red Remedies or Dan Chapman himself, you can email him at dchapman, at redremediescom, or follow him on LinkedIn at Dan Chapman redremediescom, or follow him on LinkedIn at Dan Chapman and to connect with Olivet's entrepreneurship program director, Chris Perez, or to discover other entrepreneurial opportunities the program has to offer, such as the McGraw School of Business's very own Creator Conference and Pitch Competition. You can go to creatorolivetedu.

Speaker 2: 21:23

Thank you once again, everyone, for listening, and don't forget to tune in next time.

Karli Byrd: 21:26

Where faith and business meet. This is the Creator Podcast. See you later.