#127 - 20 Years Of Centurion Health: Building A People-First Pharmaceutical Company

We celebrate 20 years by tracing how Centurion Health grew from a startup with big questions to a multi-channel healthcare company built on evidence, accessibility, and faith-driven values. Troy Duell shares candid stories, early mistakes, and why peptides are central to the next chapter.

• moving from symptom management to root cause care
• building a faith-driven culture with accountability and grace
• lessons from early operational missteps and returns
• demand-first product strategy and evidence thresholds
• why no single product fits all and multi-channel matters
• how peptides may support recovery, inflammation, and resilience
• practical vision for 2026 and beyond
• gratitude for customers taking ownership of their health

Please consider leaving us a review. You can also follow us on Instagram, TikTok and YouTube and for safe, effective and affordable health and wellness products made in the USA visit www.centurion.health

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Transcript

Mission And Evidence-First Approach

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Today on the Frontline Health Podcast. We're a multi-channel healthcare company that is looking to provide products that are gonna benefit and elevate your health ultimately and try to do it at a way that is not going to break the bank. And we will research, um, we'll dive into different products and see where the benefit may be. And if there's benefit and there's studies and there's supporting evidence that says these things are good for you, then we'll bring it to market. And then if there are things that say that it's not, or that um maybe some of the studies don't show as bright of a light to it, then we'll probably avoid those products. But that's ultimately what we are. We're a healthcare company that is really about helping people take ownership of their health.

Celebrating 20 Years And Gratitude

SPEAKER_00 0:54

Hello, and welcome back to another episode of the Frontline Health Podcast, where we share health news, tips, and insights to help you take ownership of your health. My name is Evan Patrick, and today I'm talking with our founder and CEO, Troy Duell. We recently celebrated 20 years as a company. Uh, this is a huge milestone, Troy. Really congratulations to you uh on this milestone. I mean, it really is amazing what you have built here at Centurion. Uh, at this meeting, you know, you heard a lot of gratitude that was expressed from your employees, uh, people internally who just recognize how how incredible it is what you've built here and who are excited to be a part of of what's happening here and really excited today to just kind of dig into that and um and pick your brain, learn some things that I don't know about kind of the origins of Centurion, and uh just kind of allow you to share your vision for for where we're going.

SPEAKER_01 1:52

Yeah, super excited about it. I mean, it's crazy that it's been 20 years. I think it uh certainly is a testimony that I'm getting old, which is uh nuts. But uh it's it's been a certainly been a fun ride, it's been a good time, and excited to share just a little bit of the journey that we've had over the past 20 years.

SPEAKER_00 2:14

So to kick things off, I mean, what does it mean to you? Obviously, you have poured 20 years of your life, you have poured your heart, your mind, uh, you know, your your work, all of this into this company. What does it mean to you that we have existed as a company for 20 years?

SPEAKER_01 2:33

Yeah, I mean, it's it really is kind of a humbling thing when you step back and you think about it, that it's been around for 20 years, that we've been able to make it through different iterations of the company itself. And, you know, ultimately to know that when we started, part of our goal was just to help people make better health decisions and to provide products that were going to help them. And um I think we've done that. And because of that, I can I feel good about what we've done as a company and what we're continuing to do and hopefully will continue to do into the future and uh excited about what the future holds for us.

Leaving Big Pharma For Root Causes

SPEAKER_00 3:14

Yeah, I mean, uh the decision to to step out in faith and start your own company had to have been just a huge decision to make. Um I'm sure one that was that was not made easily. Um, I know that for many years before starting your own company, you worked in the pharmaceutical industry. Um, so and I know that that is one of the experiences that really led you to decide that you wanted to start your own company. So I'm really curious, you know, if you could just tell us a little bit about your experience in big pharma and you know what ultimately made you go, this isn't how things are supposed to be. And that made you feel called to start a company that did things the right way.

SPEAKER_01 3:56

Yeah, I think a lot of it was understanding that there were a lot of things that we were doing within big pharma and within the medical community that were great. I mean, uh, a lot of the people behind those things are great people with great hearts. But what I began to notice and kind of morphed and transitioned through the years, was we were doing a great job of helping people with symptoms, but not really helping people get ahead of those symptoms. And how do we get to the root cause of what's going on? And I think that's really when it started to take a change with Centurion. And as you read more and more, and you you began to see there were things that we could really address and start to treat that I think were going to be more beneficial for people and allow people to begin to take the right steps to get on a better trajectory with their health and to help people just get back to life and get back to their families or work or whatever it is much faster than uh than they were before and trying to help people make a good decision about those things.

Building A Faith-Driven Company

SPEAKER_00 5:11

Yeah. Yeah, that's amazing. I mean, so many people they find themselves in a cycle today, you know, when they get put on traditional pharmaceuticals that are like, as you said, treating symptoms rather than helping them address their underlying causes that are leading to that. And then those medications lead to other issues that require them to be put on other medications with other complications and side effects, and then people end up being dependent on all of these pharmaceuticals, all of these products, and their health just seems to continue to deteriorate and it's it's like a downward spiral. You know, obviously you said there are we don't want to discredit the good that that has been done in the pharmaceutical industry, but I think that's really amazing that your hardest to start a company that does something a little bit different and goes, hey, we actually want to want to get ahead of this and empower people to take ownership of their health, like we talk about, you know, all the time and not not enter into that cycle to begin with, and even once they're in it to to you know have some support that's not gonna lead to other problems. Um, so how did you decide? I mean, it's one thing to recognize that things can be better. It is a whole other thing to have the courage to go and the conviction to go, all right, I'm going to start a pharmaceutical company. And not only am I going to start a pharmaceutical company, I'm going to start a faith-based, people-first pharmaceutical company that you lead, you know, with the conviction of your faith and um just ultimately trying to trying to serve people. Can you walk us through the story of how that what led you to to ultimately do that?

SPEAKER_01 6:50

Yeah, I think honestly, part of it was just um my background was in sports and playing sports, and it always seemed to be a part of who you were when you played sports, to have your faith come out and kind of be a part of what you did every day. And I saw there was a big void in the business world and within pharmaceuticals, especially. I mean, there were people of faith within pharmaceuticals. There still are some great people, but there was never really an openness about your faith or an opportunity to be open about your faith. And that was really a conviction. I was convicted uh after we had uh been open for a couple of years to really begin to step out even further with my faith and with what the company could do as a whole, and seeing the testimony of other people, you know, reading things about um the greens with Hobby Lobby, and then seeing other businesses in the community that were faith-driven, I think, really helped encourage me and embolden me to step out even further with that and just try to see what it would be like to have a company that truly lived by the um biblical mandates and truths that I say that I believe. And we clearly haven't done it um a hundred percent of the time because we're still human, but it's certainly been a driving force behind what we do and trying to just continue to get better at how do we how do we continue to carry our faith in this culture and drive us to be better and still love people as we hold them accountable and still um love our customers well and how do we serve them, especially when we mess up, uh, because we will. And those are things that are going to happen and um remind one another that we're driving for excellence, but grace is always a part of our lives that we need to need to remember and we need to put out there for people. And I think that's the the biggest thing is understanding work is important. I think it's um something that we're all called to do, but ultimately, if that's all we're doing while we're here, then we've kind of missed the mark of um pouring into people is really what we should be doing, whether we're at work or we're at home, and that's ultimately what we should be about.

SPEAKER_00 9:35

Yeah, that's really good. Um is there a a particular point in time or moment that you look back on when you realized this was what God was calling you to do? And then a follow-up question to that. Uh when how did the conversation go when you first told your wife that you were gonna do this? And what was her reaction?

Doubt, Risk, And Family Support

SPEAKER_01 9:59

Uh yeah, I mean, I I think I had been been praying about it for some time, and I was like, I think I think I can do it. And you know, the old adage that ignorance is bliss, that is definitely true when it comes to this, uh, because you don't know what you don't know, and you step out and you're like, oh, let's let's do it. Uh and I think when I told my wife, um she thought I was somewhat crazy. Um, and then she's like, okay, if you really want to, let's uh let's figure it out and let's do it. And then she has been an incredible support ever since, and certainly uh one of the biggest cheerleaders and uh really working hard to try to uh meet the goals of what we want to do as a company and and help people and invest in it. So she has been um certainly a big part of what we do and a big part of trying to keep us on the right path uh with what we're doing. And um so it was a little hard because you go from that idea of or what I always call that false sense of security because you have this uh paycheck that's coming in to the unknown just because you're closer to it. But the truth is we're all right at the unknown because we have no idea what tomorrow may bring with a job, um, and we're just kind of stepping into that, and it's been an opportunity to really increase my faith and to um see God just move in ways that I I probably had never seen before uh starting Tenturian. So it's it's been a true testimony of God moving to keep us open and to keep moving things forward.

Early Struggles And Lessons Learned

SPEAKER_00 11:49

You know, when we read stories in scripture of people who stepped out in faith to do courageous things, there are inevitably moments of doubt that you know that we all go through when God is calling us to do something that is big. And so I'm curious, did you ever wrestle with any doubts uh in the journey of starting this company and building it to what it is today?

SPEAKER_01 12:13

Absolutely. I think there were plenty of doubts when when you run out of inventory of a product or you have some other issue that comes up and you're like, oh my gosh, I did not foresee that coming. How's that gonna affect us overall? Are we gonna be able to make it? And early on, that was certainly a bigger piece, and now it's just it it has grown, uh, which is great, but there's always unknowns when you're talking about business or you're talking about life. And I think those are the things which are great for me because it allows me to stop and go, you know what? Ultimately, Centurion Health is a great company, but I am here just to steward this company. And no matter what happens with it, I can rest at night and go, all right, God, I truly believe that this is your company and I'm here to steward it. And um, I will do my best to do that, but I'm not gonna at least not yet. I haven't lost any sleep, and I have um felt really good about the direction and the things that we've done as a whole as a company.

SPEAKER_00 13:28

So for our listeners, we have a bi-annual meeting. We have two meetings where the whole company gets together in person um every year and or twice a year. And I had the the privilege, uh, and our most recent one to ride down with one of our most experienced, most seasoned sales reps. And I heard a lot of stories uh about the start of this company and what things were like and how things were going. I asked about you know experiences of you in college. He didn't share too much there. Um, but I'm curious, you know, from your perspective, what were what were the early days of Centurion like and how has it changed since then?

SPEAKER_01 14:10

Yeah, I mean, I I think it's like a lot of startup companies, it's always what's the next product? How are you gonna get it out there? And um do we have the the cash? Do we have the marketing? Do we have everything we need to keep this snowball rolling? So then you can add more products to it and and keep it growing. And I think you always come up against um issues that you never saw coming, which is part of the excitement of starting a business. And then you also come across issues that you never saw coming that are really good. Um, and there are positive things that come into play. And when those happen, you just sit back and you smile and you go, wow, those things were way out of my control, didn't expect it. And that was only by the grace of God that we were able to get to the level that we did. And and we see that still, but early on, you could see it on a regular basis as we were just scratching and clawing and doing whatever we could to get to the next level and get to the point where uh where we are now, which we certainly haven't arrived, but we're uh much better than we were certainly 20 years ago, but um 10 years, five years ago as well.

SPEAKER_00 15:31

Do you have a favorite story that kind of sticks out to you where you maybe learned an important lesson or just had a had a moment where um you know that I guess this that sticks out to you from the the early days of Centurion?

What Centurion Health Actually Does

SPEAKER_01 15:46

And there are so many, but probably the uh the best one is or one of the best. We were working with one of the wholesalers, a larger wholesaler, and had sold product into it, and we had been doing a few generic products, and then um we didn't ever come into this realization that when you send the product out, if it doesn't sell, it actually comes back. So we sent the product out and it didn't sell, and then we ended up with this large number that they came back to us and said, Hey, you've got all this that you owe us, and it was in the hundreds of thousands realm, and we were like, we don't have that kind of money, so they said, Okay, well, everything you sell to us, we'll just deduct from what you owe us, and it ended up being two and a half to three years later that we finally got another check from them on the positive side. So it took us about two and a half to three years to actually whittle down all those returns that we had and uh got to a point where we were able to get a check again and learned that hey, we don't need to load up some of these wholesalers with product. Um, we need to make sure that we are more demand-oriented and less uh shoving product in there and giving deals and discounts and things like that. So that was probably the biggest uh one of the the better stories that we have where we were like, uh-oh, um what do we do now? And uh we just plotted along and God was able to to whittle it down and get us back to whole uh just a couple years later.

Vision For 2026: Peptides And Beyond

SPEAKER_00 17:35

Yeah, uh kudos to you. I think a lot of people when they experience something that's that daunting or intimidating, they want to throw their hands up and you know get try to find the the quickest escape route. But um, yeah, kudos for for persevering in two to three years and um and continuing to to persevere with the vision behind behind centurion. I'm sure there are a lot of moments like that where um things have have looked tough and it's required a lot of faith and um perseverance has been key. Um I want to ask, we have a pretty unique model uh that is sometimes hard to explain to people, particularly when we start talking about us being a pharmaceutical company that wants to help people kind of take a proactive approach or take ownership of their health rather than just treating symptoms. When people ask you what kind of company is Centurion Health, how do you answer that?

SPEAKER_01 18:33

Yeah, I think it it goes back to we're a multi-channel healthcare company that is looking to provide products that are gonna benefit and elevate your health ultimately, and try to do it at a way that is not going to break the bank. And we will research, um, we'll dive into different products and see where the benefit may be. And if there's benefit and there's studies and there's supporting evidence that says these things are good for you, then we'll bring it to market. And then if there are things that say that it's not, or that um maybe some of the studies don't show as bright of a light to it, then we'll probably avoid those products. But that's ultimately what we are. We're a healthcare company that is really about helping people take ownership of their health, which I think is why we have so many products. We understand, just like in pharmaceuticals, one product isn't going to fit for everybody. We know that uh the majority of pharmaceuticals have lots of people who take one. It doesn't work for them, so they have others on the market that do. And the same is true with supplements, with OTC products and other things like that as well. So um, we're not a one size fits all. We know that um though we have multiple products to help people find. one that suits their needs and helps them hopefully take ownership of their health and move forward with it.

SPEAKER_00 20:09

Yeah, I love that vision. You and Noah had me read a book when I first came to work at Centurion called Start With Why. And you know that book is all about um never forgetting the original purpose of what you set out to do. And then however you're able to meet that need or fulfill that purpose beyond that, that's what you're gonna pursue. So I think that's a really cool thing that we're not boxed into being a certain type of company because there are other types of companies that fit that mold or fit that model. I think it's really cool that um under your leadership we can kind of uh feel a sense of freedom to whatever is going to help us to fulfill that mission of helping people take ownership of their health um then that's what we what we what we want to do.

Thanks, CTA, And Closing

SPEAKER_01 21:00

So thank you for um for casting that vision and it'll be exciting to see um just how God kind of continues to work in this company and um really just kind of want to ask you as a final question what is your vision for the company in 2026 and beyond yeah I think it's continuing what we've talked about which is what are the products that are going to bring the biggest health benefit to individuals and allow them to take greater ownership of their health and what we're seeing right now if you were to say this snapshot right now for 2026, we see a lot of peptides that are out there and those peptides have huge benefit and we're seeing great data that shows these things can be a huge benefit to individuals with different scenarios with inflammation with you know muscle and joint problems. So we know that there is a great opportunity within that and we're trying to really walk that line of bringing out the right ones that are going to help people the most and that have the best data and that don't have the side effect profile that will really affect people negatively. So that's what we see in 2026 and beyond we really see peptides as being one of those things that are going to continue to grow and we're gonna see more and more demand for it because of the results that people are getting with it. So I think that's a all of it goes back to our ultimate vision which is how do we help make lives better and allow people to take ownership of their health and if we continue to be as clear as we can with that vision then whatever products come out that's what we are going to be tying them to and ultimately um putting together for people to come to Centurion health and find products that will benefit them.

SPEAKER_00 23:02

Yeah and shameless plug uh we already have begun developing some peptide products in 2025 you can actually find those at centurion peptides dot health and um if you're if you're curious about what what Troy is kind of talking about with that please definitely go and check those out uh Troy thank you so much just for for sharing all of that with us today. It is really incredible to to hear this story. I love any time um that I'm able to get some more centurion health lore. So thank you for sharing.

SPEAKER_01 23:33

Is there anything else that you want to kind of leave us with to wrap up this episode no I think for everybody who listens to us and uses our products it's just a thank you for taking ownership of your health and being a steward over your health and uh thanks for partnering with us to to bring those opportunities to you so we certainly appreciate it as a company and don't uh take your support lightly. So thank you very much.

SPEAKER_00 24:02

Well thank you so much for listening to another episode of the Frontline Health Podcast by Centurion Health. As always we want to encourage you to go out and take ownership of your health because you are your best health advocate. See you next time if you enjoyed what you heard today on the podcast please consider leaving us a review. We would love to hear your feedback and connect with you further. You can also follow us on Instagram TikTok and YouTube and for safe effective and affordable health and wellness products made in the USA visit www.centurion.help. Thanks for listening. We'll see you next time