ECG call day, Tuesday 4 August 2026

The call

17:00 to 17:30 UK (09:00 Pacific). Meet btg-itbe-vds, invite sent this morning. One on one with Richard Gama. Hard stop at 17:30, HemaSource starts on the hour. This is the walkthrough he asked for: how the build runs, workflows included, and a straight answer on cost, live.

Timing, settled: his 3 Aug email ("Tomorrow at 0900 PST works best") supersedes an earlier LinkedIn line saying 1000 PST, and the invite matches 09:00 PT. One check before the call: his RSVP was still unanswered at midday. Glance at the event by 16:45; if he is a no-show at 17:05, the 1000-PST confusion is the likely reason, and the graceful move is a one-line email offering Thursday from 10:30 his time (availability already given him in writing). Do not let it eat the HemaSource start.

Who you are talking to

• Richard A. Gama, CMLSO, CST. Founder and President of Laser Ready Services LLC, Thousand Oaks, California. Medical laser safety consultant and instructor: ANSI SSC-3 member, Board of Laser Safety Commissioner, LIA MLSO instructor, ASLMS Safety Awareness Committee. In medical laser safety since 1991, "over forty years dedicated to Aeger Primo, the patient first."
• Day role: Director of Laser Safety at Agiliti since Jan 2022, and before that ten years as Agiliti's Director of Clinical Services and Training. Fourteen years inside the company whose market he knows cold. Time-poor by structure, not by interest. 6,000+ LinkedIn connections.
• Office 805-365-6500 (no prior phone contact with the pod, checked). LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/richard-gama-a8838570.
• Context that shapes the tone: he went quiet for three weeks because of a death in his family. He apologised twice. Acknowledge it once, warmly, then move on. No selling pressure anywhere in this call.

The company, verified from outside today

• laserreadyservices.com serves no website at all. Both the bare domain and www return 404; the domain only carries his email. No LinkedIn company page exists either. The deck told him "a hospital that searches the name finds almost nothing to land on." As of today it is literally nothing. That is the front-door weak point, live and demonstrable on the call if useful, kindly.
• What Laser Ready sells, in his own LinkedIn words (no independent source exists): "health care laser safety program consulting and laser User (physician) credential training."
• California LLC filing: active, Richard A. Gama the sole named manager, registered at a residential Thousand Oaks address. Every external signal points to a one-person consultancy beside the day job, but no source states headcount. Do not assert "solo" to him; ask instead: "Is it just you on Laser Ready today, or do you have anyone with you?"
• Founding date is fuzzy on record (LinkedIn says Dec 2023, the state filing says Aug 2024). Say "the last couple of years" or avoid it.

How we got here (LinkedIn arc plus email, know the shape)

• Ishmael's seat opened 4 Jul citing the Innovative Radiology engine; Richard, 8 Jul: "I'm not quite sure about this but am willing to have a quick conversation." Overview page sent 10-11 Jul, re-pointed 14 Jul to laser-ready-richard.enquirerconsulting.com (12 slides, no pricing).
• He passed on 20 Jul: "I'm simply too busy and have another similar project going so I'm going to pass for now." Ishmael closed graciously, then the 29 Jul re-open (the Agiliti-squeeze line, "the build runs without you in it day to day") brought him back. The "similar project" has never been identified. Probe it gently; it is the competitor or DIY benchmark in the room.
• 3 Aug email, his words: "I viewed the information for Laser Ready in the link. I believe I understand the basics but do have questions on workflows and cost. I am not in a good cash flow position right now to pay for such an undertaking. If you're willing to spend time helping me learn more about your services and cost as a future consideration, I will make time to listen."
• Dan's 3 Aug commitment, now the contract for this call: walk him through how the build actually runs, workflows included, straight answer on cost, nothing to commit to. "If this year is the wrong year, you'll still know what it looks like for when the timing is right."
• Note the drift to manage kindly: Ishmael's original promise was "fifteen minutes, no slides." Keep the walkthrough generous but tight; he is the busiest man on today's card.
• Post-call hygiene: his Aimfox lead note still says "re-approach 20 Oct," and a matching 20 Oct calendar reminder is still live. Both stale since the re-open; clear or update after the call.

What he has already seen (the deck, do not re-pitch it)

• The 12-slide overview: three decades of standing vs a business under two years old; the founder is the pipeline alongside a demanding day job; no front door for a facility to vet the name.
• What we said we would build: a front door (credible web presence), find and reach (the named universe of facilities with laser programs plus outreach), run and own (a GTM operator, reporting, handover).
• Proof shown: Tim Rath (COO, Innovative Radiology) and the golden figures ($1M+ new business sold by clients, 3,500+ qualified conversations, 100,000+ decision makers reached).
• So the call starts from "you have seen what, this is how." Workflows are the ask: walk the engine end to end. Target, personalise, warm handoff, you take the call. Use the deck's own four-node engine frame.

Fit read, honest (internal)

• Laser Ready is most likely a solo or near-solo consultancy. On the core ICP that is a disqualifier (no team to hand the unit to, budget stretch). A positive reply still gets the full conversation, and fit is your call.
• Two real ways this is worth 30 minutes regardless: (1) a future-dated engagement when his cash position changes, this year is a relationship investment; (2) Richard is a connector. BLS Commissioner, LIA instructor, ASLMS committee: he teaches the people who run laser programs. Handled well he becomes a referral node into laser-owning facilities even if he never buys.
• Do not teach him his own market. He has taught laser safety for decades. Ask, do not tell.

The cost conversation (he asked, answer it)

He has declared the can't-afford-it position before hearing a number. That is the timing-and-scope flavour of the money objection, not a value problem. The play:

• Model first: fixed-fee four-month build scoped to what he actually needs, optional retainer after, he owns the system at the end.
• Then the straight number he was promised, verbally: the full build runs $90,000 to $130,000 depending on scope; a build trimmed to his real weak points sits at the bottom of that range. Never put a figure in writing after the call.
• The two honest levers if he engages: narrow the scope to the two or three disciplines that matter (front door, find-and-reach), or phase payments across the four months. Never discount for the same build.
• It is fine to say the full build may be the wrong product for Laser Ready this year. Honesty here is the relationship play, and it is what makes the future conversation real.

Conversation starters (US English, say aloud)

1. "Before I show you the workflows, tell me how a new client actually finds Laser Ready today, and how much of that runs through your own calendar." (maps to Q6 lead split; the deck's founder-is-the-pipeline claim, in his words)
2. "What does a typical engagement look like for you, dollar value and how long from first conversation to signed?" (Q3, gives you the break-even math to sit the cost answer against)
3. "If the timing were right, what would growing Laser Ready actually look like? More facility audits, more training contracts, a second consultant?" (Q19 success definition plus the timing test: budget cycle or cold feet)

Landmines

• Bereavement: one warm acknowledgement, then business. Do not circle it.
• He said "future consideration." Do not close him. The win is a real number understood, a dated revisit, and a door wide open.
• The "similar project" from his 20 Jul pass: ask about it with curiosity, never defensiveness. If someone else is building his outbound, the honest play is to say what to hold them to (deliverability, personalisation, ownership at the end).
• Do not disparage or probe the Agiliti role beyond its title; it is his livelihood and possibly a conflict-sensitive employer.
• No vendor names (LeadLayer, EMG, 7 Wonders stay internal). Golden figures verbatim only, framed "we have achieved," never "you will get."
• Nothing in writing on price afterwards, ever. If he asks for it by email, the answer is another short call.

Leave with

• His honest read on timing: what changes his cash position and roughly when.
• A dated revisit in the diary or agreed by month.
• An open referral door: "if you run into a device maker or facility group that needs reach, I'd take the introduction warmly." Only if the call has earned it.

The call

17:30 to 18:30 UK (12:30 ET / 10:30 MT). Meet jsw-nfbb-dbn. Both Joes accepted. Paul Smaldone and Matt Marani on for ECG. A full hour, the big call of the day.

The agreed shape, in writing (Dan's 24 Jul recap): Paul runs his part first, 12:30 to 1:00 ET, because he has a 1pm conflict; the back half is "for questions and to lock the plan." Waldron proposed this exact slot himself: "It's the only time he has available," meaning Malory. No agenda went in the invite, so this recap email is the only shared context.

TWO JOES, tattoo this

• Joe Waldron = GM Blood/New Markets, the original replier, Bay Village OH. Joe Malory = CCO, Arvada CO, at HemaSource since 2018, ex-Terumo BCT 17 years, analytics-first engineer. jmalory@ is Malory, never Waldron. Never say "your time" to the pair.
• Never say aloud: Waldron's exact start date (say "since you took the role"), his Medline title level (say "national accounts at Medline"), any headcount or revenue figure, acquisition deal terms. Never voice Glassdoor.
• Never call them digitally under-developed. The frame: "your ordering tech is years ahead of your demand generation."

What was agreed on 24 Jul (with Waldron, all pending Malory's word today)

1. Blood parked. Waldron: Red Cross, Blood Centers of America and Vitalant, "we have a good handle on all of them." Not a lane for this project.
2. Dialysis: independents only, state by state, DaVita and Fresenius out.
3. IV hydration/wellness in (new fact from 24 Jul: they acquired Fountain Medical, "big in IV hydration wellness"), final word Malory's.
4. Test cells reshuffled: keep home health/hospice, med spas, EMS/fire, funeral homes, veterinary; drop urgent care (hospital-affiliated, contracts); add dental for portable sterile water, plus mobile nursing and mobile phlebotomy on Paul's steer.
5. Trade shows: a pre-show push that bolts on, not a separate campaign.

• Confirmed defect, decide before 17:30: the live plan site (hemasource-plan.enquirerconsulting.com) was fetched and checked today. It still shows urgent care as a target, still lists dental under "held back on purpose," and has no mobile nursing or phlebotomy cells: it contradicts Dan's own recap email on two of the five agreed changes. If Malory opens the link from the recap during the call, the deck argues with the email. Either have the slides patched before the call (say the word, it is a quick edit) or narrate the changes over the stale slides and own it: "we updated the plan after Joe and I spoke, the site catches up this week."
• Unanswered ask from Dan's recap: their economics. "What's a customer worth to you over a year, and what does the blended margin look like across the saline, the sterile water and the wellness side?" It gates the phone-first vs email-first CTA test. Re-ask live.
• Paul's open commitments from 24 Jul: review their website and portfolio and bring clarifying questions today; intro to the VIO Med Spa founder if they are not already a customer (Waldron owes the internal check). Paul never received his written brief (it sits unsent in drafts), so he arrives on memory: give him 30 seconds of framing before 17:30 if possible.
• Waldron's own framing worth mirroring: "special forces distributor," a factory inventory commitment he has to find homes for, the market "going to more mobile."

The spine (Malory's own words, aim the reaffirm at HIM)

• The one pain, his words from Discovery 1: "They are not hunting. They're mostly farming." And: "instead of me hiring one person and hoping they're good at it, I'd rather hire an agency that can help us generate that interest because that's what they do all day long."
• His steer, verbatim: "can I steer you a little bit towards show me how you could help us hunt in dialysis, hunt in IV hydration slash wellness, and then hunt in the unknown?" Plus: "I've got some products where I need to move a large amount of product because I made a commitment to a manufacturer."
• Malory hates spam: "trying not to be the guy that I don't like people doing to me." Right person, right time, small cells, never blasted. That constraint is a selling point, keep saying it back.
• Trade shows today: "we show up and hope people stop by our table." The fix is the pre-show booked calendar, RHA Savannah (Sept 23-26) as the concrete first win.
• Sales team is 2.5 people farming; the account coordinator being hired becomes the trained owner of the playbook. Engine feeds the sales hires, never replaces them.

The plan on the table

• Presentation vehicle: hemasource-plan.enquirerconsulting.com (17 slides, no pricing). Teaser deck: hemasource-joe.enquirerconsulting.com (21 slides). Both live.
• Four lanes: dialysis (7,490 CMS facilities mapped, DaVita + Fresenius stripped as unsellable, 730 independents + 1,231 other-chain), blood (ABC/BCA universes, Waldron's remit), IV hydration/wellness (franchise + directory + licensing layers), the unknown (six priority test cells: home health/hospice, med spas, EMS/fire, funeral homes, veterinary, urgent care; 1,000-contact cells, two-week reads, kill or scale on evidence).
• Engagement shape: outbound engine + market/data system + messaging per buyer world + Pipedrive wiring (Leads Inbox landing zone, claim, convert, rotting SLA) + the coordinator trained as internal champion + reporting and handover. Deliberately NO website rebuild, PR, social or video: they fly under the radar on purpose.
• Add-ons: Paul on pitch transformation per vertical (his first live touchpoint may be this call, let Paul and Malory talk), appointment setting when reply volume outruns 2.5 people.
• Guardrails already honoured: DaVita and Fresenius unsellable, one product banned from hospitals, per-product registry owed by Malory, exclusivity policy stated and welcomed.

Open asks they owe us (run the list live)

• Malory's final word on the three items the notes logged as pending him: the IV hydration/wellness lane, the dental-for-urgent-care swap plus mobile nursing and phlebotomy cells, and the trade-show pre-show program.
• The per-product guardrails registry (his "I can give you those guard rails when we get to the appropriate point"; the build-week workshop makes it a scheduled deliverable).
• The economics answer: annual customer value and blended margin across saline, sterile water and wellness. Asked 24 Jul, unanswered.
• RHA Savannah (Sept 23-26): never raised on 24 Jul, completely untouched, and they exhibited there in 2024. Are they booked? If not, that is a this-week decision or its own finding: their buyer show is weeks out and nobody owns it.
• Smaller gaps: the real name of the IV show ("Bisbash"), their Pipedrive plan tier, the dialysis lead's name, which other dialysis chains are sellable, and Waldron's VIO Med Spa check.

The close, and the commercials branch

• Settle your own intent before dialling in: nothing anywhere states today is the pricing call. The only written purpose is "questions and to lock the plan," and the deck's own fourth decision asks to BOOK a separate proposal session this week. Pricing live is a deliberate act, not a drift; walk in knowing which call this is.
• Base plan: today is the working session that locks the plan with Malory. The deck's closing ask is four decisions: lock the lanes, book the guardrails workshop, answer Savannah, and book the proposal session for this week. Dan's own 24 Jul words for the target: "by the following Tuesday we have a real plan in place... ready to go from the week after next." Book Call 3 in the diary before hanging up, both Joes on it.
• Posture note: HemaSource has asked ECG for nothing since 24 Jul. The only live ask on the table is ours (the economics question). That is a comfortable position; do not chase, lead.
• If they pull commercials forward with both decision-makers in the room, presenting live is allowed. Frame first, number second: scope is the lanes, the engine, Pipedrive wiring, training, handover. Package anchor circa $100k for the four-month build; quoted bracket precedent this month is $90,000 to $130,000. Hold the number, phase payments or trim scope, never discount the same build.
• Their math feeds break-even, sized live with their inputs, never a projected ROI. The unanswered economics question is the natural bridge.
• Guarantee if asked: "We back the build. If we hit the four months and the agreed outcome is not there, and you took the meetings and gave us what we needed, we keep working at our cost until it is."

Landmines

• Two Joes discipline above. Malory's anti-spam temperament: never present volume as the virtue.
• Never claim the CMS or public data as ours; the slide source lines state it.
• Golden figures verbatim only ($1M+ / 3,500+ / 100,000+), Tim Rath and Paul Smaldone are the named proof. Deploy guardrail on any stat.
• DaVita and Fresenius are unsellable; the maps already default them off. Do not show them as opportunity.
• Paul consults on pitch, their team closes. Keep the boundary clean.
• Headcount: Malory said 150, Waldron said 160. Use whichever the speaker in the room said, or avoid the number.
• The plan site on screen is the pre-24-Jul version unless patched. Narrate the changes, do not let a stale slide contradict you.
• Kayla Ryan, Executive Administrator (kryan@hemasource.com, direct 720-237-8782), is Malory's diary gatekeeper and is not on today's invite; route the Call 3 invite through her if scheduling wobbles.

Leave with

• Malory's word on the lanes, the swaps and the show program. The plan locked, in his language.
• The guardrails workshop booked (first working session of month 1). The economics answer, or a named owner for it.
• The RHA Savannah answer.
• Call 3 (proposal, live) in the diary this week, both Joes on it, or the package agreed live if they pull it forward.
• Paul's VIO Med Spa intro and his working-session cadence with Malory sketched.

The call, and the tone that must open it

Blake Petrunick (President, cell 407-466-6639) and Rachel Howard (VP Marketing, 407-960-2758), CAREstream America: Sanford FL medical-device distributor, ~44 staff, an existing EAI anchor account.

Open on this, briefly and personally, before any business: the 14 Jul restart call was cancelled the morning of because of a death in the company, and it was Blake's son. Rachel's words: "our company is dealing with the unexpected death of a team member, but more importantly, it was Blake's son." One warm, human acknowledgement, then let Blake set the pace. Every ounce of the reschedule history is now off the table as a grievance, permanently.

Also check before dialling in: the calendar invite they see still carries stale text ("Totally forgot about the football/soccer, hoping we can connect tomorrow?"). Consider refreshing the description to something clean today.

Where the account actually stands (internal, corrected by the mail sweep)

• The deal on the table is the EAI build, not an ECG engagement: 3 LinkedIn accounts plus cold-email infrastructure at GBP 995/month (~$1,349), no onboarding fee, no minimum term, agreed by email 14 Apr. And the written terms say: "Nothing is charged until the campaigns are built, you have reviewed everything, and you are happy to go live."
• So the unpaid state is contractually consistent with nothing having been built. Do not open with, or even imply, a payment chase. The conversation is a build-restart; money follows go-live per our own terms.
• "Signed" means email assent plus a Stripe link sent 21 Apr; no executed contract or Terms of Business exists in the record, and whether the Stripe checkout was ever completed is unverified. If commercials come up at all, verify Stripe first, not on the call.
• Nothing was ever built: no list, no copy, no infra, no sends. Deliverables to date: the stale v1.1 brief (20 Apr, placeholder sender names), Walego logins (21 Apr, platform since retired, do not reference "your backend access"), and the 30 Jun plan deck.
• The July show track the deck was built around (HTU, FSASC, HLA, AHRMM) has expired unused, and Rachel had already said those rooms were the wrong audience for Celltermi: "none of these July tradeshows would be our target audience for the Celltermi product line."
• Brand clarity, decide before the call: the thread and invite are EAI, the 30 Jun deck pitched the ECG Build Run Own unit. Presenting both invites a re-price conversation. Recommendation: restart the agreed EAI build first, prove it, and let the ECG conversation earn its own slot later.

What was already agreed (2 Jun, the last held call, build on it)

• Start with ONE LinkedIn account, funnelling every lead to one inside sales support person. Blake's own words: "if you leave it to the reps I think we just get lost in rep land." He argued for the routing structure himself, twice, so naming the person is an easy yes to land.
• Receipt of a phone number is the trigger for human takeover.
• Blake's success bar from 14 Apr: "The toughest part is the quality of the leads and the ability to close the leads... that's what I think will tell the tale."
• ECG owes Blake an answer: on 2 Jun he offered a warm intro to his Finnish manufacturer's marketing lead (fluid management, PE-owned, Barcelona distributor meeting) for a pitch to their global distributor network. Dan sent the forwardable on 3 Jun and the trail goes cold. Close that loop on the call or before it.

The three things to get decided

1. What Celltermi actually is relative to the April scope. Second product on top of the Florida launch, or the market name the original product took on? Ask outright; list, copy and channel all fork on the answer. (Internal only: it is an exosome product via CHA Meditech; those words never leave your mouth.)
2. The named internal rep and routing owner. Agreed in principle twice (14 Apr, 2 Jun), never named. The brief's own launch gate requires it; until a name exists nothing can go live.
3. A dated go-live commitment plus the exclusion list. The one still-blocking piece of the 6 Jul homework is the customer and partner exclusion file. Make the ask small and specific: send the exclusion list, we stage a Florida-only list this week.

Call frame (US English, lead with what they get)

Landmines

• Blake's son. Open with warmth, follow his lead, never business-as-usual straight in.
• Regulatory language: never say "exosome," the manufacturer name, or any FDA approval/clearance/claim. Say "regenerative aesthetic treatment" or "biologic-based cash-pay treatment" if the product must be named.
• Do not anchor any new pricing and do not chase payment. The GBP 995/month terms bill only after built-and-happy go-live. Restart the build; money follows naturally.
• Do not blame their delays; the reschedule pattern is context, not ammunition. Note today's move was ours.
• Do not reference Walego or "your logins": the platform is retired from the estate.
• Internal only: the tracker names Ben as ECG owner, mail shows Dan solo. Reconcile with Ben off-call.

Leave with

• Celltermi defined. A named rep with a backup. The exclusion list committed with a date.
• Restart confirmed on the existing terms: brief v1.2 agreed to cover Celltermi, one seat first into Florida, go-live gate understood by both sides.
• The Barcelona referral loop closed with Blake.
• Next call locked before hanging up, given the history.