Episode 5: Mikko Myllymaki - The Gro CEO and Co-founder on helping people achieve their dreams.

Mikko is the CEO and Co-founder of Gro and is probably one of the most hands-on, all-in CEO's you will come across.
We sat down with Mikko to learn more about the roots of Gro, why it exists and why we do what we do. From his upbringing in Finland, to an opportunity in Sydney and growing the business to where it is now -  currently with 5 clinics in Australia, 1 in New Zealand and 1 in the UK.
This is a great insight into the mind of the man behind Gro and the empathy and heart he has for others. Don't miss it!

Follow Gro on Instagram:
@groclinics

If you'd like more information about hair loss solutions for you, go to https://groclinics.com.au/

OUR HAIR TRANSPLANT CLINICS:

AUSTRALIA:
Gro - Melbourne Clinic
Address: Level 1/893 Collins St, Melbourne, VIC, 3008, AU
Phone: 03 9081 5868

Gro - Sydney Clinic
Address: Level 3/80 Williams St, Sydney NSW, 2011, AU
Phone: 02 9194 0140

Gro - Brisbane Clinic
Address: Level 1/135 Wickham Terrace, Brisbane, QLD, 4000, AU
Phone: 07 3147 8174

Gro - Gold Coast Clinic
Address: 178 Ashmore Rd, Gold Coast, QLD, 4217, AU
Phone: 07 5625 3399

Regen by Gro - Pacific Fair Clinic
Address: Pacific Fair Shopping Centre, Shop 1502, Broadbeach Waters QLD 4218, AU
Phone: 07 5593 8360

Gro - Perth Clinic
Address: Suite 2/216 Stirling Hwy, Perth, WA, 6010, AU
Phone: 08 9289 6825

NEW ZEALAND:
Gro - Auckland Clinic
Address: Level 1/96B Carlton Gore Road, Newmarket, Auckland 1050, NZ
Phone: +64 9 870 1760

Transcript

Introduction

Hello everybody and welcome to the Gro Diary podcast where we will take you on a journey breaking down stigmas, myths and misconceptions of all things hair loss. We'll have some discussions with people in the industry as well as clients and we'll share their experiences and journeys of hair loss, leading you to the

ultimate destination of hair regrowth

Mikko it's good to have you with us on the on the Gro Dairies podcast we've got the big boss man with us today so happy to have you with us. Also joining is ever-present Marc Kinvig. On my best behavior today with the boss here.

Yeah, I know. It feels a bit funny. I don't know what to do. Thanks, lads.

Yeah, it's good to have you with us. But now, as you know, we've just started doing this Gro Diaries podcast and I think we're blessed to have the co-founder of the business with us so early on. Kind of take a little bit of a different angle today, but now I'm looking forward to this one. Yeah, so I mean let's go way back. What is your story?

Mikko Myllymaki - Early Beginnings

How did you end up here? I think it all starts from myself being a young boy who lacked quite a bit of confidence himself. So I had periods in my life, you know, at school when I'm, you know, in my early teens when I changed to school and things like that. I had moments that I, you know, I didn't have friends in a new school and I was afraid to have a conversation with someone that I don't know. So I definitely know how it feels like when you don't have that confidence, I guess, to do things that you need to do.

And that was in Finland?

How Gro Began

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. So that's where I'm from. And I think that's where it all kind of starts. And then a long, long time after, probably 25 years after, I found myself with the opportunity to start a business that actually helps people feel confident and get a bit more done with their lives and enjoy it more.

How did you end up in Australia? So obviously you were born and raised in Finland. What did you do for work in Finland and then how did you end up coming to Australia? And this much sunlight must have been a shock, right? Bit of a, yeah, yeah, yeah.

I mean, with this skin, you know, this is not a great place to be in summer. But, yeah, so I've always been in kind of business and sales, marketing, business strategy, that sort of things. What I always have loved the most is the client relationship kind of management and, you know, just, yeah, helping clients. I was involved in completely different industries, in consumer electronics, home appliances, that sort of bulky products that we sold. But really the part that I've always loved in the roles that I've had in the past was the relationships and helping my clients succeed. So I guess from a professional point of view You know this was not new in that sense. It was just completely different way to to help people and and Yeah, I guess why I found myself then here in Australia was it was Really just went when it out of the rat race for for moment, so it was supposed to be 18 month kind of trip to Australia and go back to Finland and kind of continue what I was doing. Just a bit bigger experience or life experience and better English. That was really the main reason why I wanted to go to Australia for a while. And then, yeah, fell in love with the country, with the girl, with the opportunity. And just on that, you're married with two kids? Yeah, yeah. Well, we're not actually married, but we are definitely with the mortgage and two kids, so it's very, very serious. Big family. Yeah, happy serious.

And so from electronics, most people aren't then considering starting a business in the medical field. It sounds like a huge jump, a huge transition trying to navigate, you know, anything medical is complex. How does someone start and decide that that's where I'm going?

I mean when I look back or tell anyone the story. It is quite unbelievable really how did that decision actually come to life. I mean, clearly it was a midlife crisis, right? I just wanted to change my life and what's the best or better way to change your life than helping other people change their lives. So I guess it really was, I didn't think when the decision was made that how hard it can be, right, and how much is involved, but it kind of, the process started about 14, 15 months before we eventually got operational. So, you know, there was a lot of work that you had to do and learn before we were, I guess, ready to go.

And you were living in Sydney at the point of that decision, is that right?

I was still on the Gold Coast, which is the place where I moved originally to Australia, in Australia, and then I did move to Sydney to set up the clinic. So I would have been on the Gold Coast for the first few months when we were kind of looking into the opportunity and then moved to Sydney.

Yeah. So tell us about those early days. So you've got an ABN, you've set up the business, you've found a location. Was there many points there where you were like, bleep, what am I doing? How do we, what does this look like?

It's interesting.

When the decision was made that yes, I believe we can make this work, you know, this is really cool. I never thought that we wouldn't be able to, you know. It was really hard and a lot of obviously new things that you have to learn. And it's a new industry. It's highly regulated industry You I guess dealing with people with different backgrounds and different egos I guess then what I was used to obviously slightly different culture as well. I mean well, Finland Western country things work Australia same thing like Not big cultural difference, but it was still new country for me new city, obviously when I moved to Sydney so I didn't know anyone really. So I think it was in a way helpful to be in a new place when you're doing something completely new, right? You didn't have your mum talking behind your back that this is never going to work or that's too big of a risk or things like that. This would have held me back probably. So, yeah, it was just focus. I did join different communities and networks of like-minded people, other business owners and things to, I guess, keep myself accountable and focused. But, yeah, never, ever doubted that he'd put it back.

And then obviously other than the hair transplant procedures themselves, you were doing pretty much everything else yourself at the very start. You were the marketing department, the answering the phone calls and then booking them in and then meeting the people, meeting the clients, you know, person to person. You were the whole process before then, you know, the procedure itself.

Yeah, absolutely. So what was very clear from the very start was that, you know, I'm not medical, so I need doctors, nurses to look after that. It's your role, I don't touch it, you know, you know, you make sure you can deliver and I understand what you can deliver, right? So we promise the things that we can do. And, well, marketing, sales, operations, HR, whatever it is, it was me. But that's how every business starts. It starts from small, but it's still the small things. Even now that we've got more people in the organization and it's obviously much bigger, still those small things that actually matter. Maybe just different people doing those things now and more people doing maybe the same things as well in different locations.

One thing I just want to touch on, just from a life point of view I guess, you mentioned there that if you had looked at this opportunity in your home country that you feel like your parents or your mum might have held you back a little bit started to raise doubt. I think back to when I booked my hair transplant with Gro and the conversations were similar. Oh don't do that, that's not going to work, don't you know, don't have a hair transplant. Or with your parents. With my family, right? You know they're from a small island and I guess people's perception of what works and what doesn't is from many moons ago. But I guess the point there is that you feel like at that point that your family become a hindrance to maybe you creating your dreams, right?

And I know the dreams are important to you.

Overcoming Noise To Follow Business Dreams

So we talk a lot about our clients and the road that they have to go on and the conversations that they have with themselves and their families. How do you overcome the noise to then follow those dreams?

Yeah, well the solution for me was to move to the other side of the world. But I'm partly maybe joking when I say that, but partly not. I don't see myself actually running my own business back in Finland like it was never my mum was always scared of having your own busines  because she's got a couple of brothers who didn't do that well or they had their own businesses, they failed and things like that. So she always was very, very risk averse and that was definitely in how we were brought up. But then again, I guess always the work that I've done in obviously in different industry, but it was always, I guess, sales, marketing, that's the work that obviously a business owner needs to do, especially in the start of many businesses as well. I was always thinking like a business owner when I was working for other people. So it was like, yeah, I didn't need to change the way that I think, it was just taking that leap of faith, I guess, and you know. Risking it.

Risking it, yeah. Yeah, I think that's a big thing. It was, you know, the same for me. Like I said, I'm from a small island, and I could have had it easy at home, you know. My family grew up knowing everybody, and Dad had businesses growing up but he was still anti-risk, right? So things that he could have done along the way to set himself up for a brighter future, he wasn't willing to gamble, right? And I think that there comes a point in everyone's life, whether it's a hair transplant, it is a, you know, not so much now but it can feel like a gamble. You're talking about a lot of money, but it is an appreciating asset. It's something that gives you the confidence to move forward. And whether that's something in business or something in your personal life, feeling the best version of yourself is really important. That's why we do what we do.

Yeah. So I was fortunate obviously in the sense that I got the backing, so we've been always well funded. So it was – I guess at the back of my mind was even if the bank balance on the company bank account wasn't that great ever really in the first few years of the – it wasn't something that it's going to fail then if we don't get that certain sales in a month. So we could always kind of take the approach where we are here helping these individuals. We're not pushing and selling something to someone that they don't need. I think that was so important, you know, thing and that confidence obviously wouldn't come without having a partner, I guess, in the business who gave that peace of mind, I guess, in that sense. And I was able to focus on the things the right way and obviously didn't want to burn his money, right? So it's serious you know and you gotta stay focused and make sure that the business starts you know paying its own bills and the salaries on its own. But you know someone who I guess does it from with different reasons or with a bit bigger pressure I guess you may do things that are not so ethical or...

or you don't have any ulterior motives to say to that person that they need it. If they don't need a hair transplant or they don't need a procedure you know you can confidently say you don't you know yeah without having in the back of your mind that you've got you know targets or you know things that you've got to do. But also its not like you do here at Gro from the start you didn't do it the easy way, there's ways in this industry that it's easier to make money by doing a certain process or a type of hair transplant that doesn't necessarily lead to the best result. The way that you decided to do it is the best way, but not necessarily the cheapest

from a business point of view, right? Yeah. That was obviously a decision that we had to make in the very early days, how we're going to do it. And we decided to go with the kind of doctor only and having that one person fully responsible for the whole work that we do, that was important. But I think I kind of lost my change of thought now.

Sorry, Andy can edit that bit out. But it's more about, so I guess the question is, what drove you to not take the easy way, to why we do doctors, why, you know, Choi pens, why not, you know, follow...

Expensive aftercare.

The Importance of Quality Service

Yeah, why not follow the cheap ways that I guess are done around the world?

Well, there's two angles I guess that you can look at that. One is just the pure, you want to do it the better way so you have more consistency in your results, you've got a better product really. Hair transplants are, because it's a skill still at the end of the day and if it's done with a technique or method that is not really consistent I guess and you've got multiple people doing this and that, you know, I don't know, you probably can't be too proud of your product but you know in a way, the way that we decided to do it, you had that one person accountable for the whole process I guess and you just get a better consistency through that. So that's one reason. The other reason is just the pure fact that people do like, the clients and consumers do like to see different. Everyone is trying to claim that they're better in some ways, but really if you can demonstrate that you're different than other companies, in a better way, it's actually good for business.

What you touched on there, Marc, and what you explained there, Mikko, that kind of explains the mission of Gro, which is to be the most trusted hair growth brand in the world. That's nothing, going off what you've just been saying, that's nothing new, that's nothing that we've just come up with as a, you know, part of the marketing mission, but that's something that, you know, you set out with from the start to be the most trusted hair transplant clinic in Sydney, be the most trusted hair transplant clinic in Brisbane, you know, wherever we are now and now. Yeah. Obviously bigger, a bigger vision to where we want to get to.

Yeah, it was never a project that was supposed to be one clinic project. So when we decided to do it, it was very clear that, you know, we will have a few clinics unless it fails, obviously. But, you know, we were very confident that, you know, we can make it work. So the first kind of vision or mission was around that trust as well and I think it's stated that you know the most trusted in Australia, right? Then soon it became Australasia or something like that and then okay, let's just, you know, let's go for the world. Because at the end of the day vision, you know, what's your kind of the impact or contribution to the world we live in or what does the company need to become in order to make great things happen. Those are things that obviously set a certain direction or standard that we're aiming for and hopefully it works as a bit of a guide for our people in this company.

I was just going to say that that mission is what directs everything from marketing, from the first touch point that somebody has with what we put out there as content, ad, dissolve, about trust and being transparent and that obviously travels right the way through the business, through the procedure, through every touch point they have with us to aftercare where 12, 18 months down the line they're still receiving you know the most trustworthy the most the best care

that they can get. Yeah that definitely is is the aim and you know obviously first financial year in Sydney we would have done probably hundred, 150 maximum head transplants now we do about 1500 a year, that we think. So there's much more people obviously that we treat. But every person is still treated as an individual, which is so bloody important in this. You know, you absolutely cannot succeed as a high quality provider in this type of industry if you forget the individual. So we try to do or make decisions in a way that our growth is very conscious. Like we make decisions that are going to grow. OK, let's build the capacity. Let's train the staff, the doctors, the nurses. Let's make the team first, and then, OK, tune up the marketing to get a bit more people through.

The Mental Health & Hair Connection

Yeah, and you think that is men's health at the forefront of that thinking? Like obviously we're a cosmetic brand, but you touched on what it was like for you when you were younger and you've had a hair transplant, so you kind of know what that emotional state looks like. Do you think about, is that something that's at the forefront of your mind how men are? And how they feel and how it impacts them rather than just aesthetically 100%

like none of our these Fundamental foundation things mission reason values and things that I'm quite big on they've never talked about The surface or the superficial thing that you know you would probably first think when you think about hair loss treatment. There's always a bigger reason why you know it's frustrating people or you know why they wanna do something about their hair loss and yeah just the hair is not gonna give you the confidence I think or make you behave, being a better person or having happier days in your life. It's really the feeling that comes with it. You kind of stop thinking what other people may be thinking about you, and then you can do great again.

whole magnitude of tiny little things that make up your day and the hair might be the top of the iceberg, but it's the things constantly that affect the logic of the mind, right? It's where we're going, what do I have to wear? Oh no, I don't want to go

there. I can't wear my hat. It's this, it's that. I don't want to be in that photo. I don't want to do this. So it's all those little things that it seems to take care of that amplifies the goodness in life.  

I think.

Yeah.

Oh, you're right.

Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. So, yeah, when the opportunity came in the first place to me, it wasn't about I wasn't interested in hair loss treatment. It was literally the fact that, oh, this is really cool. These clients of ours, they have a problem which we can solve and when we solve that problem that can have massive impact on those individuals. That was really the driver and it still is.

Is there anything that's stuck with you over the years, any client impact stories that you've had that really sort of sum that emotion up for you?

How a Hair Transplant Changed A Client's Life

There are many. If you start talking to clients, right, you get a lot of stories. But one that I actually recently shared with our whole Gro team in a conference that we had for staff was a client whose wife told me how hair loss changed her husband like completely after a couple of years that they they got married and their kind of original plans of having children having a family together kind of was put aside a little bit because he changed because of the hair loss. He didn't, yeah, wasn't that outgoing anymore and always just wanted to wear the hat, you know, and therefore couldn't go to certain things. So, yeah, so she was frustrated and she didn't have the husband anymore that she married or once fell in love with. And then he had a hair transplant and kind of gradually as the hair grew, the old man came back, you know, maybe even a better, a bit more mature, you know, guy who had now an experience that really made him proud that I plotted, took action, right, and I got my life back on track and yeah, she said we literally saved their marriage because she got the husband back. Now they may have children already but they absolutely got back to thinking of having their family.

Yeah, it's amazing. It's funny, I had a somewhat similar story. The guy actually hasn't had a hair transplant yet. They came in for a consult, it's booked, so they came in for a consult, him and his partner, and his partner did a little bit of talking, he did a little bit of talking, and he sort of half opened up and I said to her, whatever he's telling us out loud, inside that pain is sort of amplified by a hundred, right? Do the consult he books in, a couple of days later, the partner actually rings me and she says, Hey, I just wanted to thank you because of what you said. We went home and you know, this has been bothering him for 10 years and he only told me about it like two weeks ago. And so we had this massive chat and a whole load of things in our relationship. It started to make sense to me and we're really excited now to go on this journey, but she wanted to say thanks just for opening that door. And we talk about it a lot and I'm a big advocate for really pushing to just have that first conversation and really just opening that door as a man is sort of against the norm or it has been in society and pushing to open that. But really that's why I go to work every day and it's so powerful. It's a really beautiful thing. Yeah, just having that first chat, just, just, yeah, like you said, said it in the previous episode, but it's not, it's not, you know, it's not a sales chat, it's a chat about, you know, what, you know, how can we help, what can we do, it's that first initial, you know, there's nothing, you know, too salesy about that, yeah, chat at all, and that's the big, that's the biggest thing, the main thing that comes out of that initial consultation or whatever if they come out feeling better about it, whether they decide to go ahead with a hair transplant or not if they're feeling like they're in a better place about the problem that they've got with their hair loss then I guess that makes you happy as well. 100% and for me it's once their doors open, then it could save someone's life, right? We don't talk about just hair now, right? That first conversation will give someone the confidence to go to the doctor and say, hey, I've got a lump on my ball or this is going on with me, whereas before, if they hadn't had that conversation, it hadn't have been a positive one, the chances are they might not want to go through that door again. So I think as it goes on, it gets easier for people. So when I do a consult, it's really about having that chat, being vulnerable myself, and allowing a space if someone wants to, that they feel comfortable to do it. Just moving on now, so obviously we've talked about the evolution of Gro and the business and where we've come over the past few years. What's next for Gro and how do you always concentrate on evolving and making sure that we provide the best experience for clients so we're always improving our medical staff, we're always improving whatever it is.

Core Values of Gro

Is that a big thing for you? It absolutely is. You know, one of our core values is world-class care, which means that we may be world-class today, but we're not going to be world-class or the best in the world tomorrow unless we keep improving, we keep learning. You know, there's new things that come up all the time. Very important. And obviously now with the size of the organisation there's more opportunity of having a bit more focus on those things as well so it's very grateful that over the whole 7 and a bit years operational now we've evolved and I guess now have the chance to really put a proper focus on, you know, like a really great development on technologies. And it's not just about the technology of the procedures, what we do, but just the client experience in general. So, um...

It was funny, you mentioned the Gro conference that we had for all the staff which was amazing you know 70 plus staff members there and it was a really good opportunity for everybody to get together but Robyn our managing director mentioned a story about you know the early days and where we you know used to send clients home with a sheet of paper which was aftercare instructions but it was you know just a sheet of paper where it was you know you fast forward a few years and it's an extensive kind of booklet of information FAQs, emergency number if someone needs it and the amount of people that come to me and say you know the booklet that we received afterwards with

the instructions was like was spot-on like every single day when I'd look at that booklet it was spot-on you know what I was experiencing

The Importance of Innovation in a Business

So it's little things like that, I guess, but always moving forward and always providing.

Yeah, so we were the same at the start as all our competitors still, you know. It's a very common way to have one sheet of a few bullet points that what's gonna happen, how the offer goes. But yeah, it is important to, to I guess tell people exactly what to expect. So they understand the process. I mean, it's easy when you know what you're up for, you know, but if you don't know, it's still a procedure, you know. There's a bit of a down time, a bit of a funny look for a few days, so you can understand what's involved. Yeah, so client experience is important. We're getting better and better in terms of our ability to deliver, I guess, larger procedures as well. if you think or you may have been told by another clinic that you're too far gone or you can't get what you want, you come to Gro, you may actually get help. So there's always some value in having that first chat and having a consultant assessment and see if there is a solution for you. Gro obviously is not anymore just a hair transplant provider, so that is quite an important thing that we've done in our evolution. I almost see us as a platform now that you can come to and then we'll figure out with you what's the best way to treat your hair loss at this point in time. So it may be just treatments that stop the process of hair loss or just thicken up the hairs that you still have, but you know, still makes things stronger. Or it may be the hair transplant, right? That brings the hair back that you already lost. So I guess we're proud to be a provider that you can come to at any stage of hair loss and we'll find a solution for you that grows your own hair. One thing I wanted to just touch on is you know this is the Gro Diaries podcast. It's obviously an extension to the Gro.Diaries on Instagram which you know I was lucky enough to be a part of. One of the founding men. It's still not something that anyone else is brave enough to do which I guess you know really amplifies your passion for doing the job really well, to show before and during the whole process from day minus one up to day 365, I mean it

must be something that you're really proud of now, but did you feel that was a big risk at the time?

Yeah, yeah, and I know all our competitors must feel it's a big risk, otherwise everyone would be doing it. And I think we come back to the same thing that we already spoke about. The way we do it just allows us to have better control and more consistency in the whole process. If you have five different people doing bits and bobs of the procedure, you just get so inconsistent results. You know, one patient gets great results, the next one is just, you know, terrible type of thing. So, it's kind of impossible to make that story or journey live and public before you actually know if they got the result or not.

We know they get the results. Every time. And last, I think we'll kind of wrap it up soon, but you're big on dreams, obviously helping other people fulfill their dreams and us helping them by giving them the confidence back so they can do that. What are your dreams or

dreams for Gro going forward?

The Future for Gro

From the very start we had a dream to build a company that we can be proud of and that dream hasn't changed. There's obviously bigger things and more people when you have a bigger organisation you go international and you know you have the ability to impact more people's lives. But I think at the core, it really is still building a company that you can be proud of. Because as you grow, if you grow it the wrong way, it may not be anymore something that you can be proud of, even if it's bigger. So I think that's the guiding principle for us going forward as well, that we do things in a way that is right, it's ethical, we focus on getting the best possible results and the best possible solution for every individual and there will be more

individuals actually going or coming our way. Yeah and I think that that's what helps get rid of some of the skepticism, right, is the more that you show, the more people see that everything that you do is consistent because it is a skeptical kind of industry, right? It's an industry that, you know, for all our great ethics, there's someone out there who's doing the complete opposite and so you're going to have these people that are non-believers. Do you think about those people? Do you think about how to get to those people or do you just think naturally the more and more we do that's really good they're gonna turn into believers?

Final Remarks

I think if you start complicating it too much you know you're just gonna lose the core so just staying focused on doing things great and in a way that the results are consistent and we really have the truly the best solution I guess in this market. So yeah, the more people I guess go through, the more people we showcase in our social or in our website or wherever, all these conversations, right? The more people will be aware of what's possible and that's just the way. I don't think there's a fix that will change the perception of this industry overnight. Focus on things that we do and let the competition hopefully do better things than what they did in the past as well so the whole industry gets better and the world will be a bit happier place hopefully.

For sure.

Yeah.

Cool.

Anything else?

Have you got anything else?

No.

I'm just glad that we've survived. We've hopefully still both got our jobs on Monday.

But I really appreciate, obviously a very, very, you know, very busy man and appreciate

you jumping on this with us as we, you know, try and build this. So, yeah, I'm really looking forward to it. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. you know, very busy man and appreciate you jumping on this with us as we try and build this so appreciate that. If you liked this, please subscribe, let us know you're liking it, send us a DM, whether it's Instagram or Facebook, get in touch, please subscribe, it just lets us know that

you're liking this content and gives us an idea of more things that we can produce for

you to make it helpful.

But yeah, thanks for

joining us. Thank you. Thank you for listening to this episode of the Gro Diaries podcast brought to you by

Gro Prescription Hair Care. If you would like any more information on hair loss like any more information on hair loss or anything discussed in this podcast, please visits groclinics.com.au for all your hair regrowth needs.