In our youth obsessed society, everyone wants to look young. But Devin Haman knows the key to beauty begins on the inside. The serial entrepreneur has found purpose (and passion) in his latest business, Beverly Hills Rejuvenation Center. We spoke to Devin about becoming a dad later in life, how you can look better by investing in your health — and how his wife won’t let him work on weekends anymore.
Devin, I think that the key to having balance in your life is starting with a strong base.
That’s really been the key to my life. I grew up on a big farm in a small town in Indiana. I come from a close-knit family; I have 3 brothers and a sister, and we’re all one year apart. In fact, we actually got back two weeks ago from my mother’s 88th birthday in Nashville. To me, family has been one of the most important things in my life, and I put it above everything, even work.
Let’s talk about how you started your multiple businesses.
I moved out to Los Angeles a week after I graduated college. I remember driving from a small town to driving through the Valley to Los Angeles and Long Beach. It was at night, and I loved seeing those miles of city lights. It gave me chills.
I’ve put a lot of focus over the years in starting businesses. I started out in mechanical engineering and then got into real estate for many years. I had a group of friends, and we started a promotional company doing some of the biggest parties in L.A. Then, it was opening up a chain of tanning salons, which caught the attention of E! Entertainment and we wound having a reality TV show called Sunset Tan. It was from all those years building those businesses that led me to start Beverly Hills Rejuvenation Center.
But you still kept your family ties.
Absolutely. I would always go back to Nashville to be with my family and ride horses. It got to the point when I turned 50 and I realized that I wanted to have my own family. It was challenging, though, being in L.A. with a lot of opportunity between my business life and my personal life. Finally, I found the right woman and I got married five years ago. I had my first child at 60-years-old, and now I’m 62 with a 1 ½ year old! [laughs]
What has that experience been like?
To be honest, it’s probably the right time in my life because I put my family ahead of my business. It might be late for some, but for me it made sense. I would see other friends who had gotten married very young, some right out of high school and college. Most of them back in Indiana are still married and now they’re with their grandkids, which is great.
For me, though, I knew that I had to make a big commitment to my businesses and at that time, it was my priority to become successful.
Still, I don’t look back with regret thinking, “Why didn’t I get married earlier?” It’s all happening as it’s supposed to. I’m so excited to wake up with my son, Asher, and see his little face. He wakes me up at 4:35 in the morning and I get to spend time with him before going to work and then see him again when I get home.
The goal should always be to live a healthy lifestyle, but that takes on even more meaning as you get older, and especially so when you have young children.
100%. It really is. Fortunately for me, I’m in great shape. I work out every day, 5-6 days a week. I eat healthy and my wife is an amazing organic cook. I’m much more motivated to be healthy and owning BHRC definitely helps.
What was the impetus for launching Beverly Hills Rejuvenation Center?
When my partner Dan Holtz and I opened BHRC, it wasn’t about making money. Several years before, Dan had been racing NASCAR cars and he had an accident where he was in a coma. He was thinking how he could improve his life and health as he aged. When I met him, I wasn’t really looking for a business.
But I was already feeling the aging effects at 40. I lost 20 lbs. of muscle, and my energy wasn’t there. I was so busy, and I thought it was because I had all these companies going. I worried that if I was feeling this at 40, well, how am I going to feel at 50 or 60? So when I got on this journey of anti-aging, I saw that it helped me tremendously. And now at 62, I honestly feel like I’m 25-30 years old! I’ve got 20-year-old guys on the basketball court wanting me to play games with them. It gives you an excitement for life again.
It gives you a renewed sense of purpose.
Absolutely, not only for work, but for my family, too. It’s different between being a grandparent where it can be a little more relaxed but because this is my son, I have to be more active. And he’s getting more energetic, I want to be, too. I’m loving this time with him but I also can’t wait for him to get older so I can play basketball and football and soccer with him.
That’s why I set up my business in the last year with the right key members and staff executives to help take on a lot of the stuff that I was doing before. They can deal with the day-to-day stuff so I can be with my family. Last year, we traveled a lot, going to places like Bora Bora, Tahiti, Cancun, and the Bahamas.
I think giving our kids the gift of travel is so incredibly important. Experiences and passport stamps are much more important than some new tech toy.
You just nailed it. It’s about the gifts of time and love that you give them. You can buy them toys and they might be locked in their rooms playing video games. And another big gift is experience. As we are older, we have so much more experience so we can guide them in the right way. And speaking of kids, we’re looking to have another child soon.
Aww! Now, what can you expect when you visit Beverly Hills Rejuvenation Center?
Right now, we have 25 locations and we have 3-4 slated to open next year. We started 20 years ago in the anti-aging bioidentical hormone space. Back then, a lot of people were like, “Oh, don’t mess with your hormones.” Now it’s become mainstream and people who are 40+ are like, “Where do you go for your hormones?” [laughs]
We work from the inside out. People want to lose weight and sure, we have Cool Sculpting, but let’s look at the underlying problem to see what caused the issue so we can prevent it from happening again. This is what separates us from other medical spas. We’ll do a blood test, and our patients will see one of our doctors to see if there is a thyroid deficiency, imbalances, or vitamin deficiencies, for example. Once we start from the inside, we’ll then do the aesthetic treatments like a non-surgical facelift., injectables, and laser treatments.
What I love about our company is that there’s always some new treatment, equipment and lasers coming out on the market. We’re in the position that a lot of this stuff comes to us so that we can research and try it out. We’re working right now on stem cells and we’re running a new treatment called microRNA. It can help your body generate stem cells for hair growth, joint pains, etc. It’s pretty amazing what we’ll be seeing in the next 5-10 years in terms of anti-aging. The idea is to make sure that people live a healthy life and are able to maintain it.
You have a pretty extensive celebrity clientele.
We want to make sure every patient, whether it’s a VIP, a celebrity, or a mom all get treated the same. Yes, we are getting celebrities, and that gets us the press and the PR. Tony Robbins has been one of our patients for many years. We got him regenerated and he came out with his book, Life Force, and he mentions us in his book as well. There are a number of other celebrities we’re working with, as well as some of the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, Orange County, and New Jersey.
It’s all about passion.
Definitely. I am the oldest child in my family, and I’ve always been the leader. I went to college on a football scholarship and then became the president of my fraternity house. For me, it’s being passionate about anything I do because then it doesn’t feel like work. And I want it to be the best in whatever we do. When I came up with Sunset Tan, I wanted to have the top equipment. A lot of tanning salons then had $5,000 tanning beds — I had $50,000 tanning beds. It was about creating a great atmosphere, and soon all of the celebrities started coming.
At the same time, I launched the Beverly Hills Rejuvenation Center and I found that was where my passion truly was. Tanning was fun and entertaining, but to me, this is life changing. We’ve had clients come in and say, “If you can’t fix me, I really don’t want to live anymore.” It’s wonderful when you can change their lives and help them get their energy and health back. Opening up Beverly Hills Rejuvenation Center has been one of the most rewarding things I’ve ever done in my life.
I get the feeling that you’re always looking at the next thing. So what’s next for Devin Haman?
[laughs] You’re right. I think that one of my strengths is branding and the name Beverly Hills Rejuvenation Center has proven to be an excellent brand name. We developed our own skincare line and now, it’s about building the brand in terms of the products and supplements that are good for people. We have a skincare line is organic and GMO-free. We’ve also got an amazing vitamin pack that has 29 fruits and vegetables and a pound of broccoli in powder form. I take it every morning and it gives me an incredible boost of energy. We launched our first book, too. It’s all about developing within the brand.
It sounds like you’re becoming more grounded and focused.
Yes. I used to work weekends and now my wife won’t let me do that anymore! [laughs] Now, my motivation to stay healthy and active for both myself and my family. That way, when I’m getting into my 70s and even 80s, I can be as healthy and active as I can be to enjoy those moments with my family.