Podcasts about what i've

Today we talk about things non gym related. What I've done to occupy my mind during this shelter in place and my business being closed.

I moved this week. After 5+ years (and 30+ closet podcast episodes) in the same apartment, I finally moved. And because Comcast is the devil and I've been without internet, it felt like a good opportunity to record a little solo episode. I wanted to take this episode as an opportunity to be 1000% transparent with everything I've been working on for the last year and a half. It's very easy for people who are already uber successful to look back on when they were building something and sugarcoat how easy it was or gloss over the details. I, however, have been writing and podcasting and making shit for the internet now for a year and a half. I'm right in the midst of trying to build and grow something. For anyone else who is doing the same, I thought it might be beneficial to share my progress. So, that's exactly what you get in this episode. Podcast progress - What I've seen so far for total listens of Destination Different. Plans for how I hope to continue to grow it. Email newsletter progress - The ebbs and flows of subscriber numbers and open rates. How I hope the rebrand finally gives it some structure. Blog progress - Pivoting away from something that felt so perfect just 18 months ago. What does blog traffic even mean? Social media progress - The difficulties of growing an audience on social media and how not to overextend yourself. Lessons learned from creating on the internet - Patience, consistency, distribution vs. creation, and more patience. Hopefully this episode is valuable to anyone out there who is trying to build and grow a business, or just simply make content for the internet. Enjoy! Be sure to follow along with everything we're doing! Instagram - @destinationdifferent Twitter - @destinationdiff Website - yoproco.com Peep our new newsletter, Strange Brains. Sign up right here! --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/destinationdifferent/support

Show Notes: Speaker 1: (00:00) Welcome back to the simplified integration podcast. This is episode number 27 regenerative medicine for the spine hips and small joints. Speaker 2: (00:12) Leonardo de Vinci once said that simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. And I agree you see the problem with the way that most consulting groups approach medical integration is anything but simple. In fact, it's the exact opposite. It's expensive, it's complicated. And quite frankly, it's exhausting enough is enough. There are far too many amazing integrated clinics that are struggling well. I'm on a mission to change that. What I've come to find from over five years, working with integrative practices is that simplicity really is the secret. The old saying of less is more, is true. Through a streamlined approach. I was able to create multiple successful seven figure integrated clinics. And now I'm going to show you how you can do the same. Join me as I share with you the secrets to successful medical integration and practice growth. Join me on a journey to greater sophistication through innovation. I'm dr. Andrew Wells and welcome to the simplified integration podcast. Speaker 1: (01:10) All right, doc, I got a doozy for you this time. So here's a nugget and I, uh, I thought everybody knew this, uh, everybody doing regenerative medicine knew this, but I realized that not everybody knows this and the, when you're w if you don't know what I'm about to tell you, um, you're gonna kick yourself for not figuring this out earlier. So I was talking to a friend of mine and he he's been doing regenerative medicine for awhile. And, um, I mentioned to him, we started talking about regenerative medicine for the spine. And he said, well, how are you doing that? I'm like, what do you mean? How am I doing that? He said, well, we just do it for the knees and shoulders. So you're doing it for the spine. I said, yeah, we do it for the spine. We do it for the hips. Speaker 1: (01:49) We do it for wrists, ankles, toes. He goes, well, how does your nurse practitioner know how to do those injections? I'm like, no, we send those injections out. He's like, what the heck are you talking about? So, um, with regenerative medicine, if you're in a typical MD DC practice, and you have a nurse practitioner doing exams and injections, chances are, you're doing basically like two or three types of injections. You're doing knees, you're doing shoulders and you may be doing soft tissue injections in the muscle and ligaments. Uh, however, there is a huge population of patients who want regenerative medicine in areas other than those body parts. So with, with our advertising, what we typically find is that, um, if you're doing like a general regenerative medicine type ad, the people who respond to get about 60% people having trouble with knees, you get about 20 to 25% lower back. Speaker 1: (02:40) And then the rest of the joints to get like a mix of shoulders, hips, wrists, ankles, we've even had thumbs, big toes, um, elbow, occasionally. And so you get a hodgepodge of other types of joints. And so my buddy was turning down all of the spine, hip and small joint patients, because as nurse couldn't do those injections. And, um, so here's what we, here's what we did. Here's how we overcame that, that issue is that for the more complicated injections, we send those out to a pain management clinic, or like an interventional pain doc to do the procedure for us. So everything is the same. We do our advertising, we do our patient education. We do the case management. We collect our office, collects the money, and then everything is the same. We do a diagnosis and the recommendation. So everything is the same as a knee or shoulder patient up until that point. Speaker 1: (03:29) However, once they pay for the injection, instead of doing it in our office, we just pay a pain management doc to do the injection for us. So we'll have the patient go to their office, that doctor MD or Dio, we'll do the injection, and we're done. And we follow up with the patient after that. So if you're turning away those patients, because you can't do those injections in your office, that's how you do it. And so we pay the doctor a pretty nominal fee to do those injections. So it's fair for us. It's very for the doctor, but most pain management docs are more than happy to collect a cash fee. So we pay that office directly, a cash fee to do the actual injection. So we don't want to do for set injections and spine injections and hip injections in our office because those types of injections have to be a lot more accurate. Speaker 1: (04:16) There's a lot more obviously sensitive tissues that you could poke with a needle in your intraarticular hip or in your spine that you just, you don't want to take. In my opinion, don't want to take on that liability. However, if you have like fluoroscopy, if you have an MD, if you have the equipment in your office in case something bad happens, or the, during the injection by all means do those, but it's much, much, much easier to set, to, to start to create a relationship with a pain management doc, refer those patients to them for the procedure, and then pay them a flat fee for each injection. So that's how you do it. So now, if you're, if you've limited yourself to two knees and shoulders, now you can, um, remove those barriers and you can, uh, you can see patients for all types of osteoarthritic, uh, conditions for regenerative medicine. Speaker 1: (05:03) So if you're already doing this good for you, if you're not doing this, um, I'm really happy that you tuned in, uh, when we figured this out, this literally added hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenue to our practice, because we now opened up, uh, the, the scope of practice with regenerative medicine within our office. So, um, I hope I just fed you a nugget that you weren't aware of. If so you're very welcome. That's what you get when you tune into the podcast. So if you have any questions, this is a super short, uh, podcast episode, but I just want to deliver some amazing content and value to you guys. And if you have any questions, want to reach out. Um, my email address is info at integration, secrets.com, uh, info and integration, secrets.com. Thanks so much for tuning in, and we'll see you on the next episode. Bye bye. Hey innovators. Thanks for listening to the simplified integration podcast. The fact that you're listening tells me that you're like me, someone who loves simplicity Speaker 2: (05:58) and the truth is those who embrace simplicity are some of the greatest innovators. So hope you got a ton of value from what we covered on today's episode, be sure to subscribe and share with other docs that you feel could benefit from greater sophistication through simplification and innovation. If you've got specific questions that you'd like answered on this podcast, or you've got specific topics that you'd like me to discuss, just shoot me an email at info@integrationsecrets.com that's info@integrationsecrets.com.

What I've been most curious about through 2020 is just how people are doing in general. What did you learn about yourself during quarantine? What got you through? On this episode, I interviewed two of my favorite people in the world with polar opposite situations. First, I talked to one of my best friends, Alicia who quarantined solo like myself and we definitely leaned on each other for support. Then I talked to my sister who has 4 kids and is a teacher on how she got through virtual learning as a teacher AND parent simultaneously. Email me at ali.mac@cmg.com if you want to share your 2020 story!! I want to hear how you're doing!

When we aren't seeing the abundance that we want in our lives, one of THE biggest reasons is that we're unknowingly doing it to ourselves with our intentions, our thoughts and our feelings. Limiting beleifs can cause a far more problems than we realize. If we are truly wanting to be rich or even just have the money we need to have a comfortable life, especially when we're older. We should make it a priority to resolve these unnecessary money blocks. The sooner the better too! I talk to people all over the world. People come to me to inquire about how to work with me. As I'm working with my clients too, I always make it part of my work with them to discuss their money blocks. In doing this, I've uncovered a LOT of money blocks with them. What I've done is, broken it down to the most common money blocks that people have and put it all together in this podcast for you. Not only that but, I'm giving you an actual solution for these common money blocks so that you can identify your own money blocks and begin to work on new thoughts and feelings to create more abundance in your life. Starting today! Get ready to bust your money blocks and listen now. ____________________________ Links mentioned in this podcast: The 6-Figure Conscious Entrepreneur Community ____________________________ I'm always happy to bring you information each week to fuel your entrepreneurial soul. Stop by next week for another great episode and be sure to take a moment to give this podcast a 5 start rating. Hi, I'm Sharon Lee, a Life Coach & Business Growth Expert | Messaging, Mindset & Sales Expert "Let your mind help you breakthrough to success." Grab your free consultation call with me to learn how we can work together to create the transformation in your life or business. Click Here. >>> Free Consultation Call http://www.fearlesspursuits.com/ _____________________________ Let's connect! Instagram: @FearlessPursuits Facebook: Fearless Pursuits

Podcast: Unsolicited Response PodcastEpisode: Building & Using Digital TwinsPub date: 2020-06-25There are many articles on digital twins that describe what they are and how they can help with predictive maintenance, efficiency studies, and other tasks of increasing interest and value. On the security side digital twins provide the data and infrastructure to perform process variable anomaly detection ... the holy grail of ICS cyber incident detection. We saw a prime example of this at S4x19 with GE's Digital Ghost. So information on the what and why of digital twins is readily available. What I've never understood is exactly how digital twins are build. So I tracked down someone who does this for a variety of different systems, Mike Aylott of KBC, a Yokogawa company. Mike educates me on how digital twins come from, and differ from, simulation software. He provides some ballpark numbers, talks about what makes a digital twin easier (cheaper) or harder (more expensive) to create. When a digital twin is finished and a lot more. Mike even steps up to the challenging question of what percentage of deployed ICS will have a digital twin in the near future.The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Dale Peterson: ICS Security Catalyst and S4 Conference Chair, which is the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Listen Notes, Inc.

Show Notes: Speaker 1: (00:00) Hello, doctors and innovators. Welcome to the simplified integration podcast. This is episode number 25, The Top Four Ways To Know If You Are Ready To Integrate Speaker 2: (00:14) Leonardo DaVinci. Once said that simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. And I agree you see the problem with the way that most consulting groups approach medical integration is anything but simple. In fact, it's the exact opposite. It's expensive, it's complicated. And quite frankly, it's exhausting enough is enough. There are far too many amazing integrated clinics that are struggling well. I'm on a mission to change that. What I've come to find from over five years, working with integrative practices is that simplicity really is the secret. The old saying of less is more, is true. Through a streamlined approach. I was able to create multiple successful seven figure integrated clinics. And now I'm going to show you how you can do the same. Join me as I share with you the secrets to successful medical integration and practice growth. Join me on a journey to greater sophistication through innovation. I'm dr. Andrew Wells and welcome to the simplified integration podcast. Speaker 1: (01:13) Hey doc. Welcome. It's so nice to have you back. So today I'm going to address this, uh, this episode is addressed to doctors who are considering integrating, and they're not quite sure if they're ready to do it, or if they're the right person to do it. And if you're, if you had that question, first of all, my head is off to you. Cause you're, you're thinking the right way. Integration is not for everybody. And one of the things that really things that really irritates me about the, the consulting and practice management industry is that so often groups will present integration as a turnkey solution. So integration integration is not easy by any stretch of the imagination. So if anyone is saying, Oh, we have a turnkey solution for you to integrate like run in the other direction because it's not true. The fact of the matter is integration can be complex. Speaker 1: (01:58) It's hard. It's not easy. You have to learn how to do new things. And so there's no, um, there's no easy way to integrate. And you might say, well, Hey, the name of your podcast and the name of your company, dr. Wells has simplified integration. And yes, I have simplified the process and made it easier for doctors to do, but I don't want to give anyone the false impression that integration is easy. So you heard it from the horse's mouth. Uh, there is no such thing as turnkey integration. It is a lot of work. You have to roll up your sleeves. There's a lot of new processes and procedures to learn before you can become a successful integrated office. My job is just help fast forward that process and help you from making common mistakes. So how do you know if you're ready to integrate? Speaker 1: (02:39) Now? When I was a little kid, my dad was really big into horse racing. He loved race horses. He used to own a few race horses, and we grew up not too far away from a racetrack in Chicago where I'm from. And so on the weekends as a little guy, I used to spend time with my dad at the racetrack and we'd, we'd hang out in a stables. So in the stables, they had race horses and jockeys and trainers. And this is a cool place to hang out if you're a little kid. Well, I always wanted to ride on the race horses. You know, my dad would, would never let me get on the horses. And, uh, there was one horse in the stable that I always got to ride. Uh, his name was, uh, patchy and Apache was like a hundred years old. He was like the most lame tame horse you've ever seen. Speaker 1: (03:20) And that's the horse that I got to ride, which was still cool, but still a bummer. Cause I was a little kid, like I want to ride the fastest horse possible. And you know, I didn't understand what I didn't understand as a kid was my dad wouldn't let me on there because he knew that I would get bucked off and would get killed or maimed or paralyzed or whatever. And I never thought that was fair because looking at it from a child's perspective, the guys riding the horses, the jockeys were like my size, right. They were short a I'm like, well, if they could do it, I could do it. But I didn't understand like how like strong jockeys were and how athletic they were. Um, so I just, I didn't see it as a fair thing. I never understood it when I was a kid, but I knew, you know, later on in life that like horse race horses are incredibly strong, powerful animals. Speaker 1: (04:03) And thank God my dad never let me get on him. Cause I probably wouldn't be here today. And the same thing is true with integration. As doctors look at integration as this like sexy way to grow your practice and make more money and bill insurance. And um, and one of the worst things you can do is integrate because of those things when you're not ready because of this also just as it is good. The other aspect of it is that it can kill your practice and ruin you financially faster than anything else in chiropractic. There are some huge risks. And so I wanted to talk about this because there is a time and a place for integration. And I get calls every week. Lots of calls from doctors who are considering an integration. And one of my first jobs as a consultant is to figure out if you're even right for integration. Speaker 1: (04:48) So there's a series of questions I go through with doctors and there are really four things that I look for. Um, and, and sometimes doctors get irritated with me because I'm like I say, you know, he's telling me now is not the right time to integrate. Um, and I do that. Not because I don't want to work with you is just because you're not ready. And sometimes I'll have you focus on your chiropractic business or something else before you're ready to move into an integration. So here are the four things that I look for and four things to know if you're ready to integrate. Number one is, have you had a fair amount of success already? Now success can mean different things for success. Some for some doctors that means running a thousand a week chiropractic business for some doctors that means having a stable practice of a hundred visits per week. Speaker 1: (05:29) Um, maybe, maybe it's a dollar amount. That's, uh, that is your definition of success, but you should have some really key in it. Like your business should be stable. You should be making money consistently month after month. You shouldn't have a new patient issue. Like those are all signs of a healthy practice. So if you're not there yet, um, integration will not fix that problem. So I get doctors who are like, Hey, listen, I'm struggling with chiropractic. I'm not making any money. I'm losing money. I want to integrate because I think this'll be like a, uh, um, a good solution for me. So please hear this integration is not a life raft. Like it's the, if you're not, if you're struggling in chiropractic, it will not fix your chiropractic business. Uh don't if that's you, don't integrate just double down your efforts on learning how to be in front of and running an effective chiropractic business. Speaker 1: (06:20) So that's number one. Number two. Are you a good leader? Now? This is a tricky question to ask yourself because unless you're like some doctors, I know like aren't very self aware and I know a lot of doctors who have massive egos and they're complete douchebags. And if you ask them, Hey, are you a good leader? They're the first ones to say, yeah, I'm an awesome leader. Like I have a great team. Like those are the, those are the people. Some of them are good, uh, run, good integrated offices, some are complete miserable failures. And so a couple of things to look for, like, so how do you know if you're a good leader or not? There are seven things you can look at and, and in general leaders have followers. So that could be patients like patients who will follow you. Maybe they they've been with your practice for five, 10 years. Speaker 1: (07:07) They come in for wellness adjustments or their whole family comes in to see you. Like, that's a good sign of a leader. Also. Has your team been with you for a while or do you cycle through staff every six months? So if you're like burning through staff and your patients never want to see you again, chances are, you're not a very good leader, but here are seven attributes. What I think are good attributes. And I pulled all these off of the web. So number one, do you have a positive attitude? And having a good attitude is so critical because you're going to have highs and lows in your business and your attitude trickles down to your patients. It trickles down to your team. It trickles down to everything in your, in your practice. And so if you don't have a positive attitude, it's really tough to, uh, to run a successful integrative practice. Speaker 1: (07:47) You also have to have confidence. So as an example, I'm a leader with confidence would be someone like Elon Musk. So Elon Musk has an incredible amount of confidence and some people think some people think he has way too much confidence. So look, the guy started a, a car company, which is starting a new car company is one of the riskiest things you can do in business. It's incredibly difficult. He starting a space exploration business and a rocket business and a tunnel boring company. Like all those things are incredibly difficult things to do, but he also executes on those things. So he's not just like this, aren't just pipe dreams for him. And he's actually doing these things, but has a really high level of confidence. Uh, even though he has a lot of people who hate him and don't believe in what he's doing. Speaker 1: (08:29) So positive attitude, confidence. The next thing is a sense of humor. Now, whether or not you like this guy politically or not, it's totally up to you. But, uh, Barack Obama, as a president, I would say had a really good sense of humor. So he always laced in the sense of humor, he was known for dad jokes. And again, whether you liked him as a president or not people, he had a huge following because people really appreciated the way he communicated in his use of sense of humor. He did. I think it is a great job of that as and sweet. A lot of people liked him. Um, even like bill Clinton was really good. He had a good like self deprecating humor. Um, and he used that to connect with people. So do you have a sense of humor? Number four, do you have the ability to race embrace failure when you're running any business you're going to have, you're going to fail. Speaker 1: (09:13) You're going to things aren't going to go the right way, but do you have the ability to learn from your failures number one, and then to be able to adapt your procedures and your behavior and the ways of doing business so that you can overcome those failures in the future. Are you a good listener? So are you good with listening and feedback someone who's great at this as the Dalai Lama, one of the most influential spiritual leaders in the world. And if you, if you ever follow him or like look at, or watch his interviews, he doesn't talk a whole lot. He listens a whole lot, and he's been very vocal about this. He listens because he wants to understand what people are saying and understand situations so we can react accordingly. Number six is knowing how, and when to delegate, when you're integrating, you're going to have more things going on in your office. Speaker 1: (09:57) And there's a time to do those things like roll up your sleeves and do the work. And there's also a time to delegate those tasks. And this is a really a cliche, but Steve jobs is used a lot in this example, as a, as a, a good leader on knowing when to delegate and when not to. So he was known for, um, obsessing over the smallest details and having his hands in some of those smallest, most minute details of Apple, but he was also a good delegator. I mean, the guy managed thousands of and thousands of very high achieving people, all working to, to produce the same goal. And then number seven, do you have a growth mindset and by growth mindset, I don't mean that you want to earn another million dollars a year or grow by 300 patient visits. What I mean is that, are you committed to the learning process to growing your mind, to expanding your skillset, to learning new things? Speaker 1: (10:48) If you're sort of stuck, if you're kind of like these guys, like, Hey, I'm kind of stuck in my ways and I don't see myself changing that much over the, over the future. Chances are, you're not going to do really well with integration because it requires a good deal of growth and expansion mentally in your skill skillsets. So those are the seven attributes of being a good leader. So, so far we've covered. Um, have you had success already in practice? Are you a good leader? Number three, is, are you ready for a challenge? And this goes back to that turnkey myth. Like there's, there's no like easy plug and play solution with integration. You are going to have to learn new skills there. Um, especially like for the first three to six months, you're going to be spending a lot of time focusing on your practice and making sure it's going right, uh, training your team to be able to delegate and just have a really good handle over all the processes in your office. Speaker 1: (11:35) And all of that is, is challenging. Uh, I like working with, um, doctors who, um, put themselves in challenges. Like, so if you have a history of competitive sports, that can be a really good indicator of success. Um, do you like, are you competitive, are ready to like, are you ready to take on new things? Like all those are, are things that I look for when bringing on clients, um, and helping people with the integration process, then number four, do you have money? So if your, if your bank account is, you know, you're down to your last 500 bucks in your bank account, don't integrate like save up some money. Integration costs money. I'm a big fan of starting businesses without having to use debt or without having to go to a bank. And those aren't bad things, but if you don't have the ability to invest in your business and invest in equipment and marketing and consulting advice and attorney advice, um, then it's just not, not the right time to integrate. Speaker 1: (12:32) And my advice to you is if you want to integrate and you have all these skills, but you're short on money, that's not a problem. Just grow your chiropractic business, see more new patients, um, get good at chiropractic, save up your money until you have a comfortable cushion financial cushion to be able to integrate. So in wrapping up this concept, just know that integration is a, it's a stressor, it's a stressor on your business. And that putting stress on your business will do, uh, one of two things either. Uh, when you put this pressure on your system, the system grows stronger to be able to adapt to the new pressure or your office and your staff will crumble under the pressure. One of two things will happen. And so my job as a consultant is to make sure that, that, you know, you're successful and you have the ability to grow and adapt to that stress of integration and not let it, let it kill you. Speaker 1: (13:23) So, so again, doc, I just want you to, you know, if you're listening to this and you're, you're wondering whether or not integration is right for you. Um, my whole purpose in doing this podcast, this episode of the podcast is just to give you a realistic expectation of what integration looks like. Um, one of the scary things about my job is I, I talked to lots of chiropractors on a weekly basis is a lot of the people that contact me, um, are contacting me because they need help with their integrated office. And they're six months into integration a year, two years in, and they're struggling. And they're like, you know, it wasn't as easy as I thought it was going to be. It's more expensive than I thought it was going to be. It's not as profitable as I thought it was going to be. Speaker 1: (14:03) And oftentimes it's because we're sold the dream, but we're not actually given the realistic expectation of what it looks like to achieve that dream. So integration can be the best thing for your office. It can be the worst thing for your office, but number one, it should be something that you should like, you should be able to understand what it looks like. And if you're able to, um, to implement an install, the integration programs, to get you to where you want to go with your personal and your practice goals. So doc, I hope you found this helpful. It's great to have you on here. I really appreciate you following my podcast. If you have any questions or want to reach out, you can always reach me@infoatintegrationsecrets.com. So email me at info at integration integration, secrets.com, and I'd love to help you in any way possible. Thanks so much for tuning in today and hope you have a great day. Bye bye. Hey innovators. Speaker 2: (14:52) Thanks for listening to the simplified integration podcast fact that you're listening tells me that you're like me, someone who loves simplicity and the truth is those who embrace simplicity are some of the greatest innovators. So hope you got a ton of value from what we covered on today's episode. Be sure to subscribe and share with other docs that you feel could benefit from greater sophistication through simplification and innovation. If you've got specific questions that you'd like answered on this podcast, or you've got specific topics that you'd like me to discuss, just shoot me an email at info@integrationsecrets.com that's info@integrationsecrets.com.

In this solo episode, I talk about how my 2-week pause allowed both myself space to learn, listen, and act as well as create space for the voices who NEEDED to be heard.  My pause is over, but that doesn't meant the learning and listening has stopped.  I'll share:  How I am going to make this podcast better to truly reflect my intentions and values.  What I've learned Why looking to the past can give us the information we need to move forward with meaning both in the context of the world we're living in right now as well as our personal lives and growth.  Show notes & see my blog:  Code Switch (PODCAST) Pod Save The People (PODCAST) The 1619 Project  (PODCAST) Just Mercy – (MOVIE – NETFLIX) Brian Banks – (MOVIE – NETFLIX)  Armchair Expert with Heather McGhee (PODCAST) TED Talks Adam Grant on Instagram Rachel Cargle Follow me on Instagram and Twitter Email me hailey@hailey-miller.com

Show Notes: Speaker 1: (00:00) Welcome to the simplified integration podcast, episode number 24, How Not To Become a STEM Cell Timeshare Salesperson. Speaker 2: (00:08) [inaudible] Speaker 3: (00:11) Leonardo de Vinci once said that simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. And I agree you see the problem with the way that most consulting groups approach medical integration is anything but simple. In fact, it's the exact opposite. It's expensive, it's complicated. And quite frankly, it's exhausting enough is enough. There are far too many amazing integrated clinics that are struggling well. I'm on a mission to change that. What I've come to find from over five years, working with integrative practices is that simplicity really is the secret. The old saying of less is more, is true through a streamlined approach. I was able to create multiple successful seven figure integrated clinics. And now I'm going to show you how you can do the same. Join me as I share with you the secrets to successful medical integration and practice growth. Join me on a journey to greater sophistication through innovation. I'm dr. Andrew Wells and welcome to the simplified integration podcast. Speaker 1: (01:10) Hey doc, great to have you here. So today on this episode, we're going to talk about how not to become a timeshare salesperson. When it comes to presenting cash services like STEM cell therapy, regenerative medicine, and it's even applies to things like decompression or functional medicine or whatever cash service you, uh, you're offering in your office. And this, the reason I'm talking about this is because this is a topic that's coming up more and more now, as chiropractors have gotten into regenerative medicine, we're seeing now the longterm results of, uh, of this therapy on practices. And one of the concerns that doctors are having is they don't want to offer this and then have it end up ruining the relationship. And the reason doctors are talking about this is a lot of chiropractors have adopted what I consider timeshare sales tactics to sell more regenerative medicine. Speaker 1: (01:56) Now here's the thing about timeshares. So as STEM cell therapy, for this matter, most doctors who are using this in their office, like you, you go through, like, we have a, um, you know, live lecture that could be in like a hotel conference room or a dinner event where you're educating patients on regenerative medicine. And in the past, I've been accused by other chiropractors and patients as being a timeshare salesperson. So people will say dr. Wells, this is just one of those timeshare presentations, which is totally an insult. And I didn't really, I knew what that meant, but I'd never been through a timeshare sales process. And I was always curious about it. And the reason I was curious is I like sales processes. I like to be sold on stuff. And so I wanted to know actually what, what the timeshare sales process looked like. Speaker 1: (02:42) And one day I got that opportunity. So it was, this was years ago, my wife and I were just brand new in practice. And we were working really hard and we hadn't taken a vacation a long time. So we planned on a one Memorial day taking extended weekend and going to Charleston, South Carolina, uh, Charleston's an amazing place. And we're, so we're walking around the city, going to restaurants and, um, just having fun. And as we were walking back and forth between our hotel and, and around the city, this guy was standing on the street and he kept trying to offer us free tickets for things. And, and so one time we pass him and I said, listen, like why, why do you keep trying to offer us free tickets for stuff? And he said, well, we're actually a timeshare company. And if you sit through an hour long presentation on our timeshare, we'll give you two free tickets for a carriage ride and for a boat tour and for these other activities. Speaker 1: (03:31) And I'm like, you know what, sign me up. Like, I want to do that. And my wife is pulling out my arm. She's like, we're not going to go do that. We're on vacation right now. And I don't want to sit through a timeshare presentation. And I'm like, I know, I know, but I've never done this. I want to see what it's like. And my curiosity, this is where my curiosity came from is that it's tough to sell a timeshare. And I'm not saying anything bad about timeshares, but the reality is, is they're very expensive. They have a lot of hidden fees and like upkeep fees. And in fact, there's an entire industry of companies and lawyers. Their whole purpose is to try to legally get their clients out of longterm timeshare commitments. And the general public knows this, but every year thousands of people buy timeshares. Speaker 1: (04:14) So I was like curious about how they actually did this. So we went to the presentation and we're in a room of about 20 people. And it's set up just like, if you're going to do a regenerative medicine lecture for, for potential patients and the lady leading the presentation was very charismatic. And the first thing that she said when we're all sitting down was, um, raise your hand. If you're here to buy a timeshare and one guy raised his hand, but I think he was joking. And she said, I realized that no one is here to buy a timeshare. In fact, you're probably here because we offered you tickets for a carriage ride, right. And everyone starts laughing. And she said, my goal today is to sell you a timeshare because I think that they're worth it. In fact, about half the room here at the end of this hour will be convinced that a timeshare is the right thing for their family. Speaker 1: (04:59) And I'm like, man, that's a pretty bold claim. And so as she went through her presentation, she was really interactive. And she, she, she went around the room and asked the couples two things. She wanted to know when their last vacation was and when their next vacation was. And so she finally got to my wife and I, and she said, so mr. Wells, when was your last vacation? And I said, well, actually this is our first vacation. We haven't been on a vacation in a long, long time. We just opened a business. We've been working really hard and she looks at me and she goes, wow, that's really sad. I'm like, wow, thanks. And then she said, so when is your next plan vacation? And I said, we have no plan vacations, uh, on the books. And she looks at my wife, she looks at me and she goes, well, don't you think that your wife deserves a vacation since you guys are working so hard? Speaker 1: (05:43) And I'm like, damn like knife to the heart. Right. And the whole room started laughing, but it's funny. Like, I, I wasn't offended because I knew the sales process, but the, like that herd mentality, like actually made me feel like kind of a crappy, like, yeah, my wife does deserve vacations. And, um, so anyway, we went, we went through the process, uh, and then we went back after the presentation was over. We went back to their headquarters and we sat down in front of the closer. And so this guy's job was to ask really emotionally manipulative Mo manipulative questions. And he said, listen, I know you guys, aren't interested in buying a timeshare, but what do you think will happen if you work too hard and never go on vacations, what will happen to your relationship? I'm like, damn, like, that's a really personal question. Speaker 1: (06:27) And he kept asking these questions like, uh, like, do you enjoy vacations? Why have you taken a vacation? What, like, kind of get all my objections, right? Classic sales process at the end of his spiel, he said, here's what we're offering. It's XYZ. It's cost this much money. Are you interested? And I said, no, thank you. And, but thanks for the presentation and the offer. And he said, hold on one minute, I'll be right back. He left. And then instead of coming back, he sent back the real closer. So this other lady came up and said, listen, I know you're not interested in buying a time share, but I just have one final offer for you. And this offer is good for the next 15 minutes. And I'm like, man, this better be good. And so she said, not only are we going to provide you with XYZ, we're also going to give you this and this and this. Speaker 1: (07:11) And we're also going to reduce the price by 50%. So drop the price by half immediately. And for a split second, I'm like, man, that's actually a really good deal. And then, then my brain snapped back to reality. I'm like, no, I'm not buying a timeshare. And, uh, but it was a really, like, they ask a lot of, um, really targeted questions and their goal, um, as emotionally manipulative as it is, their goal is to remove all of your objections and get you to part with a lot of money for a longterm relationship on a, on a timeshare. And they're very good at it. And they're very manipulative. And the problem with this is that it works. And the funny thing is a lot of people in our group who had not planned on buying a timeshare, like people started, like I could see people signing, signing on the dotted line and I'm like, man, people are actually buying timeshares. Speaker 1: (07:57) I was amazed by it. So the thing is, it works. It absolutely works. But here's the problem. If you were to ask a hundred people, what do you think about timeshare salespeople? Do you think they're highly ethical and have a lot of integrity or do you think it's kind of like a, um, like a sleazy, like sleazy type used car salesman type person, and most people would say the latter, it's like a sleazy process. Now we as doctors and chiropractors, a lot of doctors implement the exact same strategies in their STEM cell program because it works. But the problem is the more you use these types of sales tactics, the worse it affects your relationship. And it will absolutely work for the first few months and years. But eventually if you keep doing using those kinds of sales tactics, it affects how your community and how your town perceives your clinic. Speaker 1: (08:45) Now the, uh, and so what, uh, the types of, of strategies that we use sometimes as chiropractors and I've used them before, um, are the same emotionally manipulative sales tactics that people use in timeshare. So for example, a patient comes into your office and you're doing a consultation. What a lot of docs are trained to do is to paint the patient into a corner where the only option and the best option for them is STEM cell therapy. When that may not be the truth. And so these are questions that I hear doctors asking in consultations is look, um, I've seen, uh, you've had mrs. Jones. You've had knee pain now for 15 years. That sounds awful. Tell me about that. And the patient talks about how bad their knee pain is, and then they look to the husband. Uh, how does, how do you think that knee pain affects your husband? Speaker 1: (09:33) Well, he has to do more work around the house. And, uh, do you think it affects your relationship? Yeah. Yeah, it definitely does affect my relationships. So what happens if you don't get this fixed? What will happen in the next five years or 10 years? Well, I'll probably be worse off or, uh, you know, it's going to be really bad. So chiropractors try to get patients to paint this doom and gloom picture, right? Like they don't get their knee fixed or if they don't get their back face, it's going to be awful on their relationship. It's going to be awful for their health. It's going to affect their quality of life and all those things are true. Right? All those things are true and they're relevant questions. But the problem is, is that patients who are aware of that sales process will instantly be triggered and like, ah, this is a timeshare, a sales process. Speaker 1: (10:14) It's going to offend them. It's going to piss them off and it's going to affect your, your, uh, your reputation. And then finally, so you, you paint the doom and gloom picture then finally. All right. So it sounds like you want to get this fixed. Is that correct? Mrs. Jones? Yeah. I definitely want to get it fixed. That's why I'm here. Okay. So let's talk, let's talk about regenerative medicine. And then you paint this glorious picture of regenerative medicine and how it's going to solve all your problems and it'll fix your knee and it will do the dishes for you and all these things. And while regenerative medicine is fantastic, oftentimes doctors will overstate the benefits of the therapy to get patients to realize how valuable it is. So there's this value proposition because you're charging four or five, six, 10, $15,000 for a series of injection or injections. Speaker 1: (10:59) You're trying to get the patient to realize that this is a very valuable thing, and it's going to have a tremendous impact on your life. And it does. But so often we crossed the line and here's some things here's some ways that doctor has crossed the line is that we say, uh, you know, this, this product has millions of live STEM cells. Well, if you are doing regenerative medicine, chances are, you're doing amniotic tissue or Wharton, Shelly, or PRP or exit poems. None of those things have live STEM cells, doctors and labs will claim that and reps will claim that, but it's not true. So we're putting this type of therapy in the wrong class, and that's not, it's not a live STEM cell product. Um, sometimes we tell doctors or patients will, if you have this injection, you will be able to cancel your surgery or your knee replacement, or you'll never, you'll have to have one injection and that'll fix you for the rest of your life. Speaker 1: (11:49) Uh, we've had patients that had one injection and they were good for years and never saw that person ever again. They did really well, or we saw them on re-examine and they, you know, they were doing great. Um, we've also had patients that didn't get any results. They got really bad results. And that stinks when it happens. Cause the patient's disappointed. They've spent money on it. We're disappointed because the patient we want the patient to do well. But when we're saying that, like, you know, almost like almost like guaranteeing results, patients are aware that that's like, that's a sales tactic and it comes off the wrong way. Um, so that's one way you can ruin your reputation, then painting the patient into a corner and saying, this is your only option. You've tried cortisone. You've tried. Anti-inflammatories you've had arthroscopic surgery. The only thing left for you to do the last option is regenerative medicine. Speaker 1: (12:34) Uh, when that's not always the reality, you could always do physical therapy, chiropractic laser therapy, knee decompression. Uh, you could do PRP instead of amnio. So there's all kinds of different options. But when you're attempting to paint a patient into a corner, if that patient, like, if you're trying to say, listen, your only option to have a good quality of life and to make your wife happiest, to do a timeshare, like this is gonna piss me off, right? It's a, it's not a good sales tactic. The same thing is true with regenerative medicine. If you tell me, listen, the only thing that's going to work for your knee, the only option left is regenerative medicine. I will walk out the door because you're not being honest with me when there are other options. So understand like your patients aren't stupid. They, they will recognize that this is a sales process, many of them. Speaker 1: (13:19) And if they do, it's going to affect not only your sales, your cash sales and your regenerative medicine sales, but again, affects your reputation. Uh, here's another one, uh, uh, this promotion is only good for today. So if you sign up today, this is the, this is the price. If you come back tomorrow, the price is something different. Uh, well, that's a really good sales tactic. Um, the reality is some patients don't want to make a decision that day. And the reality is, if you let the patient walk out the door, they're probably never going to come back. And that's something that you had to contend with, but there's a way to present that that's honest and ethical and there's a way to present it. That puts a lot of it can be very heavy handed with your patients with that kind of strategy and will, it will come back to bite you. Speaker 1: (14:03) And then finally, uh, oftentimes doctors will start like discounting the cost of their care plan. We had a patient one time, she came to us and said, Hey, I went to that office down the road and I didn't want to do regenerative medicine there. And I said, well, why not? And she said, well, I went through the lecture and I went through their office and they presented me with a care plan. And it was like 5,000 bucks. And she said, I thought that was a little bit expensive. And so then what happened was the doctor, the doctor who is offering this to her said, uh, yeah, I understand that's expensive, but this is the price. And she said, well, I don't, I don't think I could afford that. So he said, hold on one minute, he left the office, came back a minute later and said, I talked to our clinic director. Speaker 1: (14:43) And instead of being $5,000, we're going to do it for 50% less today. It's only going to be 2,500 bucks, but you have to make a decision today. And she's like, that was like she said, that was a really strange thing to just discount it by 50% and like the first three minutes. And she goes, it really came off as a salesy type process to me. And I lost all like, lost all trust for that doctor. And so that's why I'm here. And she said, I want to do regenerative medicine. It's going to be a stretch for me financially. So we had to help her figure out that financial part, but we charged our full rate and we were way more expensive than this other doctor, but she was willing to pay that because we were very honest in our sales practices with, uh, with the patient. Speaker 1: (15:24) So, um, so I hope this makes sense. So there, there are, uh, I'm not saying that you should not use sales tactics. You absolutely need a sales tactic, but your sales tactic needs to be, in my opinion, more on the more distant from the timeshare, heavy handed, emotionally manipulative sales tactics that are used in other industries like the timeshare industry. So the thing here is that you can use regenerative medicine as a fantastic tool. It's great for patients without harming your reputation, um, without losing referrals from other patients, um, without running the risk of going into compliance issues by overstating the benefits of regenerative medicine. Um, so you can do this in a very ethical way that makes money for your practice helps your patients is a fantastic tool, but I would steer you away from using these, these kinds of emotionally manipulative tactics, because it'll, it'll work for you for a period of time, but eventually over weeks, over months to years, patients will realize that, and they're not going to want to come to your office because they'll see you as the timeshare office of your community. So I hope you found this beneficial doc. I hope you resonate with this approach. If you have any questions about this or have any concerns or want to, or want to tell me something about your sales process, uh, shoot me an email info@integrationsecrets.com that's info@integrationsecrets.com. Thanks for tuning in today. I hope you enjoyed this podcast episode and we'll see you next time. Have a great day. Bye bye. Speaker 3: (16:54) Hey innovators. Thanks for listening to the simplified integration podcast fact that you're listening tells me that you're like me, someone who loves simplicity and the truth is those who embrace simplicity are some of the greatest innovators. So hope you got a ton of value from what we covered on today's episode. Be sure to subscribe and share with other docs that you feel could benefit from greater sophistication through simplification and innovation. If you've got specific questions that you'd like answered on this podcast, or you've got specific topics that you'd like me to discuss, just shoot me an email@infoatintegrationsecrets.com that's info@integrationsecrets.com.

EP 50 - WHAT TO WRITE ABOUT This episode is for those of you who are business owners, marketing and sales.   This is the continuation of the series that started with episode 45 on marketing.  This episode takes a deeper dive into email marketing, specifically about creating content.  What will you write about? It’s one of the most asked questions  If you are just getting started, have  your staff go through their outbox and write down the topic of the last 10 emails they sent to clients. What was the topic?  On the P&C side, they were probably on certificates of insurance, changing vehicles, adding jewelry, claims, and during the pandemic, what’s covered and not covered. Right there you have 6 topics that are insurance related. But do you want your email to be focused on insurance? Do you want your email to be focused on business or the community? There’s no wrong here. Your content needs to be valuable and relevant to your audience,  based on your location, your niche, your agency goals.  This is where planning is essential. What do you want your brand to represent.  For some of you in rural communities, talking about what is going on in the community could be essential. Or creating your own events could be the focus of your emails.  Maybe you mix it up a little and one campaign is about insurance and one is about the community.  If you are focused on the business market, maybe you feature one of your business clients - interview them  If you are focused on the marine market, maybe you write about new trends in the industry.  Maybe you just send out email campaigns based on the holiday of the month. There’s a lot from donut day to peach pie day with some of the better known holidays as well.  Here’s where you start Create a content calendar. This is as simple as taking a piece of paper and dividing it into 2 column with 12 boxes. This is assuming you are sending one email campaign a month, but even with this strategy, you could send more per month., and I’ll show you that in a minute. In the left column, write each month of the year. In the right column, you write down the topic you’ll write about.  You could pick 12 insurance topics from the list I recommended you create a minute ago from sent emails. Another idea is to pick the holidays - you can google yearly holidays and you’ll see many lists of different holidays during the year. You can pick one a month and then create a calendar around that.  Here’s an example of doing something not related to insurance at all but something that might be of interest to many of your clients and prospects. And if you are creative, you can probably incorporate some insurance into some of these as well. Jan National Hug Day, National Milk Day, National Bird Day, National Hot Chocolate Day Feb World Cancer Day, National Cheddar Day, Presidents Day, National Pizza Day Mar International Women’s Day, National Napping Day, World Kidney Day, Spring Equinox April Bicycle Day, Denim Day, National High Five Day, National Siblings Day If you used National Hot Chocolate day, you could offer hot chocolate at your office for the day to anyone that comes by, get a stand in a local park and serve it or at a polar plunge event. You could send out one or two announcements about the event, write an article about the history of hot chocolate, offer different recipes for making hot chocolate, create a contest about who likes it with marshmallows and without. So many opportunities to touch the community and meet new people that could potentially be prospects and clients for you! If you are targeting homeowners, young families and life insurance, maybe you pick bicycle day. What if you raffled off a bicycle, maybe you have a bicycle clinic at your office and invite members of the community to bring their bikes by for a check-up and hire a local bicycle shop to help out. Maybe you have a helmet awareness day on bicycle day to help kids understand how to properly wear them and make sure they are properly fitted.  Now here’s something for those of you focused on business. Start with a theme of the month - then see what other activities you can create around the theme as part of your marketing.    Jan Budgeting - Interview a CPA, a money manager and provide a list of resources for creating a budget. Talk about the benefits of a budget and maybe create a contest for people to create a budget in January and submit to you for a prize drawing in February. Feb Legal - interview a business attorney - what do business owners need to address in contracts - contracts with employees, with vendors, with subcontractors. Consider having a virtual session where your clients can ask questions. You could also bring in an attorney with a niche, maybe an employment law attorney or a bankruptcy attorney for Q&A.  Mar Strategic Partnerships - most businesses grow on referrals. Yes, there is a lot of business that comes from online advertising, but if you were to survey most service businesses, they’ll tell you they get a large portion of their business from referrals. So turn that into a theme. Talk about strategies, networking opportunities, using linked for creating partnerships and paying vs. not paying for referrals.  April Content Marketing - just like I’m sharing my knowledge with you about email marketing, you can do the same with your clients. There’s so much you can talk about with content marketing from email to blogging, podcasting to creating videos. You could have a different topic each week. Bring on a different expert for each topic. If you want to do more than just creating email campaigns using a content calendar, you can expand this to a monthly theme of marketing ideas just based on one topic. For example, let’s take budgeting. That works for both individuals and businesses. In addition to making it part of your email marketing, create a few graphics for social media, Do a FB live or two with different experts on budgeting. When it’s safe to be in groups after the pandemic, offer workshops where people can come in and work on a budget as a group.  Now, you might be thinking, we are an insurance agency, not an event planning organization. That’s true, but remember, marketing is about providing valuable information, using an email campaign to promote is a way to find new prospects. I understand expanding past sending an email campaign might not be right for your agency, but it’s something to consider.  This type of content might not be valuable to everyone, but it will be to most, particularly if you have your list segmented and target the right audience. If you really feel like your agency has to focus on insurance, look up claims around hot chocolate! I’ll bet there’s something out there! What I've done here is provided you with a very simple way to create a calendar. One topic a month one email campaign a month. That’s ok if that’s what your agency decides. Maybe for the first year you send one a month, track the results then decide if you want to add more in year 2.  Can you see how creating the calendar also helps to create a theme? So your task for this episode is to create your content calendar. Start with the month after you are listening to this podcast and find a theme for 12 months. Build it out, decide who will write the content, what it will include, the deadlines for each campaign and then get it scheduled. Who will follow up to keep the project on task? The more you identify this up front, the more success you will see. If no one on your team is marketing for you, hire someone to create your email campaigns. If you need recommendations, reach out to me and I’ll connect you.  That wraps up this episode.  If you like what you’ve heard, please go to iTunes and leave a review. If you know someone that should hear this content, please share the episode with them. If you want to learn more about marketing, join the FB group called the Business of Insurance. I’ll link to it in the show notes and I look forward to meeting you there! If you want to connect with Debbie on LinkedIn, mention you heard the podcast in your request. It helps me identify the spammers from the listeners! Until next time, keep creating opportunities.. SHOW THE LOVE If you haven’t done so already, please like or subscribe to this podcast on your favorite podcast player. We are on all of the platforms including spotify, IheartRadio and Apple podcasts. If you are listening to this podcast online and don’t know how to listen to podcasts on your phone, reach out to our host, Debbie DeChambeau and she'll help you. CONNECT WITH THE PODCAST ON SOCIAL FACEBOOK GROUP FACEBOOK PAGE TWITTER ABOUT THE HOST This episode of the Business of Insurance podcast is produced and hosted by Debbie DeChambeau, CIC, AAI, CPIA - an entrepreneurer, business advisor, insurance professional  and content creator. Her goal is to inspire you to think differently and explore ideas that disrupt the status quo.  Debbie has an extensive business and marketing background with a focus of helping insurance professionals be more successful.  She is the co-author of Renewable Referrals and produces three other podcasts, Business In Real Life and Divorce Exposed and Seniors We Love.  Connect with Debbie on LinkedIn, Twitter or Instagram. 

Today we investigate if we are the only ones on the Internet, and then we take a terrifying trip down a dark road!   Patreon  https://www.patreon.com/user?u=18482113   MERCH STORE!!! https://www.redbubble.com/people/deadrabbitradio/works/35749420-dead-rabbit-radio?asc=u   Minecraft Server Is Back! 147.135.54.93:25879   Help Promote Dead Rabbit! Dual Flyer https://i.imgur.com/OhuoI2v.jpg "As Above" Flyer  https://i.imgur.com/yobMtUp.jpg   Links:   Empty Internet Theory https://www.reddit.com/r/conspiracytheories/comments/b6zgld/empty_internet_theory/   What I've learned phishing for shill IPs. https://www.reddit.com/r/shills/comments/6iaxcs/what_ive_learned_phishing_for_shill_ips/   36 Mind Blowing YouTube Facts, Figures and Statistics – 2017 (re-post) http://videonitch.com/2017/12/13/36-mind-blowing-youtube-facts-figures-statistics-2017-re-post/#:~:text=The%20total%20number%20of%20people,30%20million%20visitors%20per%20day. DIGITAL 2020: 3.8 BILLION PEOPLE USE SOCIAL MEDIA https://wearesocial.com/blog/2020/01/digital-2020-3-8-billion-people-use-social-media   10 percent of Twitter users create 80 percent of tweets, study finds https://www.poynter.org/tech-tools/2019/10-percent-of-twitter-users-create-80-percent-of-all-tweets-study-finds/   10 Twitter Statistics Every Marketer Should Know in 2020 [Infographic] https://www.oberlo.com/blog/twitter-statistics#:~:text=Summary%3A%20Twitter%20Statistics,-Here's%20a%20summary&text=There%20are%20330%20million%20monthly,daily%20active%20users%20on%20Twitter.   Twitter Usage Statistics https://www.internetlivestats.com/twitter-statistics/#:~:text=Every%20second%2C%20on%20average%2C%20around,200%20billion%20tweets%20per%20year.   Category: 1984 Sightings https://www.thinkaboutitdocs.com/category/sightings-by-date/1950-1999-sightings/1984-sightings/   Philip J. Imbrogno https://www.amazon.com/Philip-J.-Imbrogno/e/B001HOMSQ2%3Fref=dbs_a_mng_rwt_scns_share   Listen to the daily podcast anywhere you listen to podcasts! ------------------------------------------------ Logo Art By Ash Black   "As Above" Art By Grant Scott   Dead Rabbit Skull By John from the SCAR Group   Dead Rabbit Exposed By Smashers_25 (Instagram)   Halloween Monster By Finn   Opening Song: "Atlantis Attacks" Closing Song: "Bella Royale" Reptilian Strip Song EP 374: “Empty Beds” Music By Dr. Huxxxtable Rabbitron 3000 created by Eerbud Thanks to Chris K, Founder Of The Golden Rabbit Brigade Dead Rabbit Archivist Some Weirdo On Twitter AKA Jack   http://www.DeadRabbit.com Email: DeadRabbitRadio@gmail.com Twitter: @DeadRabbitRadio Facebook: www.Facebook.com/DeadRabbitRadio   Paranormal, Conspiracy, and True Crime news as it happens! Jason Carpenter breaks the stories they'll be talking about tomorrow, assuming the world doesn't end today.   All Contents Of This Podcast Copyright Jason Carpenter 2018 - 2020    

Tahnee welcomes Heba Shaheed to the Women's Series today. Heba is a qualified women's health nutritionist and physiotherapist who specialises in pelvic and sexual pain, menstrual health, bladder and bowel health, pregnancy, postpartum, and complex trauma. Heba provides women’s health and paediatric pelvic health services including physiotherapy, exercise and nutrition. Heba’s mission is to make women's health information accessible globally and to provide high-quality women's healthcare in the privacy and comfort of a woman's own home. Heba believes women's healthcare needs to be disrupted so that women can stop suffering in silence. Heba is a global leader in her field and an absolute wealth of knowledge. Today's chat is informative and truly inspiring, if you're a woman or know one - tune in!   Tahnee and Heba discuss: The anatomy and physiology of the pelvic floor. The normalisation of period pain. What healthy bowel and urinary movements should look like. Mechanical constipation. The functionality of the squat. The pelvic floor and child birth. The use of Jade eggs - best and worst practice. The East vs West approach to pelvic floor therapy. Releasing trauma from the psoas. Multidimensional health and the importance of taking an integrated approach, heart, mind, body.  How and where the body stores emotion.  The subjective nature of pain. Retraining the brain and neuroplasticity. The correlation between pelvic pain conditions and childhood trauma. Sensitivity, self awareness and the importance of developing emotional boundaries. Tips for creating a happy and healthy pelvic floor.   Who is Heba Shaheed ?  Heba Shaheed is co-founder and CEO of The Pelvic Expert, a digital wellbeing platform specialising in maternal, menstrual and hormone health. Heba was inspired to work in this space following her own challenges with a 15-year history of chronic pelvic pain and endometriosis, and after witnessing the devastating effects of birth injury following her sister's first birth. Through the The Pelvic Expert Heba provides holistic and research-based, women-focussed, online wellbeing programs to corporates, government, private health insurers, workplaces and individuals. A qualified physiotherapist, Heba has supported more than 2000 women on their journey to better health and wellbeing, and instructed more than 1200 therapeutic yoga and Pilates exercise classes.  Heba is a leading authority on women’s pelvic health and is a media commentator on this important yet under-represented issue, and a regular speaker at global health and women’s conferences. Heba also offers specialised physiotherapy for complex female pain and endometriosis in her private practice.     Resources:   Heba Website The Pelvic Expert Website The Pelvic Expert Instagram The Pelvic Expert Facebook The Pelvic Expert Youtube The Pelvic Floor Program - Paid 4 Week Course   Q: How Can I Support The SuperFeast Podcast?   A: Tell all your friends and family and share online! We’d also love it if you could subscribe and review this podcast on iTunes. Or  check us out on Stitcher :)! Plus  we're on Spotify!   Check Out The Transcript Here:   Tahnee:   (00:01) Hi everybody, and welcome to the SuperFeast podcast. Today, I am here with Heba Saheed, and she's a qualified women's health nutritionist and physiotherapist. Her expertise lies in pelvic and sexual pain, menstrual health, bladder and bowel health, pregnancy, postpartum and complex trauma. And a lot of that is as you guys know, a massive area of interest for us at SuperFeast. So I'm really excited to have her here today.   Tahnee:  (00:27) She offers one-on-one pelvic health physiotherapy consultations in the Sydney CBD area. And this is for complex pain conditions like endometriosis, bladder pain symptoms, chronic constipation. I may not do these words justice, but I'm going to try, vaginismus and vulvodynia and painful sex, you can laugh at my pronunciation Heba. And she's also the founder of The Pelvic Expert where she blogs about pelvic health and provides online pelvic health programs and consultations which especially right now, given that everyone's in lockdown, is really useful for people.   Tahnee:  (01:01) She has also got a really great Instagram account with is how I came across Heba. It's @thepelvicexpert but we'll put a link to that in the show notes as well. And she also has a really awesome website, so if you guys want to go check that out after this, I would highly recommend it. Thanks for joining us today, Heba. It's really nice to have you on the podcast, finally.   Heba Shaheed:  (01:19) Thanks so much for having me. I know we've been going back and forth for a while now.   Tahnee:  (01:23) I know.   Heba Shaheed:  (01:23) But yeah, it's great and I really hope I'm able to provide some insight on this wonderful world of pelvic health. It's kind of a bit, it's almost sometimes hard to understand if you don't really get it.   Tahnee:  (01:41) Yeah. In researching you and preparing for this podcast I listened to a view other interviews you did and I was, because I've got a bit of a background in anatomy too, and I think you made the point in one of them of how a lot of people when they imagine a pelvic floor they're thinking about a banana hammock shaped piece of tissue in the pelvic area that just contracts. And they don't really have much of a three dimensional concept or a visual of what the pelvic floor actually is and how it functions.   Tahnee:  (02:15) Is that fair to say when you start seeing people, that you're educating them as well as obviously working with them?   Heba Shaheed:  (02:22) Ah yeah, absolutely. Education is the first thing. Educating them firstly, part of that is anatomy and that it is a three-dimensional, multi muscle system. I think people picture the pelvic floor as just this one little muscle that goes from your pubic bone into your tailbone, but it's more complex than that. It's got a right side, it's got a left side. It's got muscles that go to your hips, muscles that go to your tailbone, muscles that go to your pubic bone, muscles around your vagina, muscles around your urethra, muscles around your anus.   Heba Shaheed:  (02:55) It's a very complex system and they all have to interplay together. It's more than just muscles, it's connective tissue and fascia and nervous system and an immune system. There's just so much going on down there that we're almost oblivious to how important it is. There's organs there as well. Your pelvic organs, your bladder or your rectum, your uterus if you're a female.   Heba Shaheed:  (03:21) A lot of that is just beginning with education about yes, anatomy, like your physiology. But then even more than that, it's education around simple things like habits. What's appropriate for emptying your bladder? How often should you be going? What position should you be emptying your bowels in? How long should you be spending on the toilet? What should your periods feel and look and how long should they last? And all that sort of stuff. It's a lot of, more advice around simple things like your basic pelvic habits that we often have to educate people. And they're coming to us when they're in their 20s, 30s, 40s, even up to their 80s and not having known such simple concepts.   Tahnee:  (04:11) Yeah. I think back to health ed at school, which was pretty poor. It's such a mystery area for so many of us. And obviously then there's all the cultural stigma around bums and vaginas and vulvas and all those kinds of things.   Tahnee:  (04:30) When you're talking about these general health markers I suppose, something I'm really passionate about educating women around, is it's not actually normal to experience bad periods. For example, I have my period right now, and apart from feeling a little bit more introspective and a little bit quieter, like physically I don't have symptoms and that took me quite a long time to work out through my own journey of course. I think that's the same with things like bowel movements and urination. These are natural processes that require a really complex interplay of the nervous system and the myofascia and all of these things.   Tahnee:  (05:16) They're bio-markers. They're ways of us actually assessing our overall, more holistic state of health, right? So if you were talking to someone, what would you say how many times should we be going to the toilet? And what should we be looking for? And same with bowels. What are the averages, I suppose, if there are any that you would be looking for?   Heba Shaheed:  (05:35) Mm-hmm (affirmative). I can empathise with you on that front of having had periods that weren't great. And I agree with you in that we've kind of normalised period pain to the point that we don't even acknowledge that period pain is not normal. It's to the point where, "Oh I know, that's normal. Everyone goes through it. That's, you just kind of have to put up with it. That's life as a female."   Heba Shaheed:  (06:04) But the thing is, we know that period pain it still comes along with, if you start off your periods having had severe period pain and then you go on to have severe period pain through your whole teens and your 20s and whatever, that actually sets you up for development or exacerbation of both bladder and bowel symptoms. Because, as you mentioned before, it is a very complex interplay of the myofascia, which obviously your uterus is connected to your bladder and your bowels, fascially and muscularly as well, and of course your nervous system, the nerves are all supplying the same kind of area, and then the immune system and so on, right?   Heba Shaheed:  (06:46) In terms of what is acceptable in terms of behavioural habits when it comes to the bladder and urination, unfortunately what I often see in my clinic, because I see mostly complex pain patients is, "Oh yeah, I go about two or three times a day to empty my bladder." And I'm like, "Well, that's not right." And they're like, "I have such a strong bladder, I only need to go two or three times and I can really hold it." And I'm like, "Well, that's not actually something to be proud of, because you're actually putting a lot of strain on your bladder when you do that. Actually what you should be doing, is going around about every three hours."   Heba Shaheed:  (07:25) The bladder capacity, think of a bladder like a balloon. It's deflated when it's empty and then that balloon slowly inflates and the nerves send us messages when the bladder's more on the full end. But, you should also be getting minor nerve messages saying, "Ah, yeah. It's a little bit full," or, "It's moderately full." But if you're only going when your bladder is like stretched to extreme capacity, that's not actually healthy. Every three hours is good. That's about four to six times a day, or six to eight times a day. Six is kind of like a good, round about average number. If you're going less than four times, then I find that unhealthy.   Heba Shaheed:  (08:07) It should be a steady stream, a straight stream. If your stream's going off to one side or spraying, that could indicate that there's something going on. There should be no burning. It should be a steady stream, there shouldn't be any start stop of the flow. The flow should be relatively normal, not too slow, not too fast. Unless your bladder's full, then of course it's going to be a little bit fast. We also need to pay attention to what's happening. I think a lot of people, even when they're coming to my clinic and I'm asking them these questions, they're like, "Oh, I don't know. I don't know if it starts and stops. I don't know if it's a slow flow. I don't really know. I'm not aware."   Heba Shaheed:  (08:50) Or things like you go to sit on the toilet and it takes a few moments before the stream actually starts. That's suggesting that something's off with the muscles there as well. It's like these little things that if we start to become aware, I mean obviously we don't want to be hyperaware in that we're just fixated on it. But it's just like little cues that your body's telling you that the bladder or urinary system is functioning optimally or not. That's that.   Heba Shaheed:  (09:22) In terms of your bowels, the literature is strange, in that it says three times a week is okay to go to the bathroom for bowels. But I really don't believe that.   Tahnee:  (09:35) Yikes.   Heba Shaheed:  (09:38) I really don't believe that that is [crosstalk 00:09:38]-   Tahnee:  (09:38) Is that the scientific literature, I suppose in inverted commas?   Heba Shaheed:  (09:41) Yeah. It goes from three times a week to three times a day, is the realm of acceptability.   Tahnee:  (09:48) Geez louise.   Heba Shaheed:  (09:49) Yeah. I'm not really a huge fan of that. I'm thinking of it biologically and physiologically and mentally, psychologically the impact of not emptying your bowels on a daily basis. I'm a big proponent of, bowels should be emptying every day. If you're eating every day, you should be emptying your bowels every day. And if you're not, then that is suggesting that something is off in the digestive system, or in the immune system or in the nervous system. And it is something that needs to be addressed.   Heba Shaheed:  (10:22) And the fact, the thing is because I work with so many women who have complex pain and chronic constipation, irritable bowel and Crohn's disease and all sorts of bowel disfunction, I know for a fact that every single one of them is able to achieve daily bowel movements. Regardless of whether they came to me having said, "I haven't been in a month," or, "I haven't been in a week." In clinical practice I'm able to get them to go every day. It further justifies my belief that we should be going every day.   Heba Shaheed:  (10:53) And of course, it's just logical that you should be going every day. If you're having three massive meals a day, you could very well be going three times a day to empty your bowels, right? And they could be three type four stools, which is like a long smooth sausage, and that would be considered healthy. I would say at the very least once a day, and up to three times a day is good. But it's more about the consistency of the stool as well. It shouldn't be, "Oh, I'm going three times a day, but it's coming out as small pebbles and I'm incompletely emptying."   Heba Shaheed:  (11:27) It should be a complete empty of a type three to four stool, which is a long smooth sausage, and it should be easy to come out and I should be done instantly, I shouldn't be sitting there for 20 minutes trying to empty my bowel. And there shouldn't be any pain when I'm emptying, there shouldn't be any fissures, I shouldn't be straining, I shouldn't have haemorrhoids popping out. It should be a complete empty and I should feel like once I'm done, I'm done. I don't have to sit there trying to get little bits and pieces out.   Heba Shaheed:  (11:58) And if you're feeling that there is, sensations that aren't as I described, then it is starting to suggest again, that there might be some dysfunction. Whether that's a pelvic floor dysfunction, so for example the pelvic floor muscles, because the pelvic floor muscles surround your rectum, one of the muscles is called puborectalis, it surrounds your rectum and another is your external anal sphincter, these two muscles are part of your pelvic floor and if they're too tight, then they can make you functionally constipated.   Heba Shaheed:  (12:33) A lot of people get confused in that they think, "Ah, I just have to have more fibre. Or I just need to drink more water." It's a very nutrition focused approach, which is important for sure, but there is also a type of constipation that is purely mechanical. It is the muscles of the pelvic floor are extremely tight, and then it's actually physiologically difficult to push your bowel motions out. Or they are dyssynergic in that when you visualise yourself trying to push out your number two, it's actually tightening instead, because you're having this poor coordination. Your brain is sending the wrong message to the muscle.   Heba Shaheed:  (13:15) This is where pelvic floor physio comes in. Because it's like, "Okay, what's going on? How do we figure it out?" How do we... that's why we have such a great success rate with functional physiological pelvic floor dysfunction based constipation. What else? Yeah, I think that's the main kind of things. When we do go to the bathroom for number twos as well, positioning is super important. As I mentioned before, puborectalis slings around your rectum. It's part of your pelvic floor.   Heba Shaheed:  (13:45) When you're sitting on the toilet in just a general normal position like you're sitting on a chair, that puborectalis muscle is kinked, right? But as soon as you elevate your feet onto a stool and you lean forward, that kink relaxes, so that pelvic floor muscle actually physically relaxes just by being in a squat position. So think, eastern countries and so on, where they squat to empty their bowels, that's actually physiologically healthy and normal. We need to replicate that in the western world and that's where you would get a stool, and you'd lean forwards to produce that same effect. And that, again, physiologically, physically releases the muscles and you're able to actually empty your bowels without having to sprain and or without feeling uncomfortable.   Tahnee:  (14:36) Yeah. We have squatty potties in every toilet in our house and office. They are-   Heba Shaheed:  (14:42) Perfect.   Tahnee:  (14:42) They are very popular. But it's interesting just thinking about that, because I was lucky enough to have a birth that I was in control of. And I found the birth also I wanted to squat to deliver my baby. My mum, as I was growing up, always talked about that as being the most natural position to deliver in. I remember when I studied physiology that bend in the pelvis as well, you can really when you start to look at the muscles in the anatomy you can see how being in that squat position just allows everything to relax.   Tahnee:  (15:17) I think one of these misconceptions around the pelvic floor is that we always want to be tightening it, because and I was taught this through more the Taoist tradition but we work a lot with jade eggs and I don't know, you might not be into this, but taught me certainly to actually be able to relax and contract my whole pelvic region. And one of the practises we do is like almost using the vagina like a hand to like swirl them up and then down through the vaginal canal.   Tahnee:  (15:49) The first time I tried that I was just, "Oh my God, I have no connection to the... Like I can't feel anything in there. I don't," it was like one area was quite strong and then everything else was really weak. Is that kind of a similar thing when you're doing internal exams, what you're noticing is that people are quite tight in certain areas, but then really unable to get their brain to talk to their tissue in other areas? Is that what you're talking about with the anal sphincter as well? Things just gripping and holding on?   Heba Shaheed:  (16:23) Yeah. There's varying presentation that would come I guess. I think the biggest thing is that we have a complete lack of awareness of our pelvic floor. That's number one. It's just this disconnect, like our mind, body disconnect between the, well with the pelvic floor and pretty much that whole female region.   Heba Shaheed:  (16:50) If we go back to firstly what you mentioned about birth, yes, we're traditionally and physiologically you're supposed to birth, not supposed to birth, but it's inherently more conducive to birth to be in a squat position, right? Because we know that physiologically that opens up the pelvic floor muscles. And whereas in more kind of medicalized births where they're lying on their backs, that's completely not conducive to birth at all, because just the fact of lying on your back shuts your tailbone, it doesn't allow that tailbone to move. And that in itself tightens up, well not tightens, but it reduces the capacity of the pelvic floor to open, right? Yes, you're in a contractile state rather than a relaxed state, which is what it's supposed to be and then a bearing down state which you're supposed to be in for birth. That's number one. That's birth, right? But then aside from birth, well to be honest for birth you need to be connected to your pelvic floor.   Tahnee:  (17:58) Mm-hmm (affirmative). Totally.   Heba Shaheed:  (17:58) The issue that we see a lot with now is things like obstetric anal sphincter injuries. And that's because it's almost like women have been told, "Push through your butt like you're trying to push out a poo." But that's not the same muscles. They're part of the muscular system of the pelvic floor, but the vagina is very different to your anal sphincter. The anal sphincter in your posterior compartment, which is why you'll end up with an obstetric anal sphincter injury and perineal tears. And your vagina is your medial, like the middle system, but it's also part of the anterior system of the pelvic floor. It's very different, even the imagery that we are giving women is completely inappropriate. That's number two.   Heba Shaheed:  (18:55) We need to be connected to our pelvic floor, but not just, and I guess this is what you're saying, is like part of it is strong, what part of it is weak and part of it is connected, but part of it's disconnected. Well, that's the thing. If a person is visualising the pelvic floor as that little banana hammock thing, then of course you have no idea what's happening in your pelvic floor, because it's beyond that. Like I said, there's part of the pelvic floor that surrounds your urethra, part of it that surrounds your vagina, part of it that's part of your anus.   Heba Shaheed:  (19:25) Then you have another part that is a triangle that goes from your pubic bone out to your sit bone and across to the other sit bone and it creates a triangle. Then you have your perineal muscle, which are also part of your pelvic floor. Then you have a deeper perineal muscle. Then you have puborectalis that goes from your pubic bone and slings around your rectum and goes around to the other side of your sit bones. Then you have iliococcygeus, then you have pubococcygeus. Now I'm just putting words out there.   Tahnee:  (19:54) Then all of those are ligaments.   Heba Shaheed:  (19:55) That they have no idea what I'm talking about.   Tahnee:  (19:57) Well, [crosstalk 00:19:57].   Heba Shaheed:  (19:57) Yeah.   Tahnee:  (19:58) They're all ligaments of the uterus and the bladder and the vagina.   Heba Shaheed:  (20:02) Exactly. You've got all the ligaments which are your, so you've got contractile tissue that's under your control, but then you have ligaments that you can't really [crosstalk 00:20:11] control.   Tahnee:  (20:11) Yeah, not innervated.   Heba Shaheed:  (20:12) Yeah, exactly. Then you have your connective tissue beyond that. You have fascia, pubovesical fascia, you have the rectovaginal fascia. You've got all this complex system that I feel, yeah it might sound like it's hard to understand, but if you're going to go and give birth, at the very least you can develop a basic understanding so that you're able to differentiate between a posterior compartment push, right, as opposed to an anterior compartment breathing and let go and just facilitation of birth. It's not about forcing birth, it's about facilitating birth. It's changing the focus from a straining kind of action to allow the body to generate force from within to facilitate the birth, right?   Heba Shaheed:  (21:12) You mentioned jade eggs. Yeah, in traditional cultures there has been an emphasis, and the thing is today a lot of the, I guess western pushers of jade eggs aren't using it accurately.   Tahnee:  (21:30) Yeah, I know. Don't worry.   Heba Shaheed:  (21:33) A lot of them are more about, yeah.   Tahnee:  (21:33) I have that pet peeve too.   Heba Shaheed:  (21:33) Yeah. A lot of them are more focused on, "Ah, let's tighten up the vagina and tight, tight, tight. And squeeze and tighten." And it's all about squeezing, right?   Tahnee:  (21:43) Yeah, and like better sex and blah blah.   Heba Shaheed:  (21:43) That's right. Like you want to have... The thing is even if you want to have better sex and you want to have better everything down there, it's actually every muscle has the ability to contract and relax. And the pelvic floor is part of that. The pelvic floor musculature, rather than just a muscle, the pelvic floor musculature needs to be able to engage in contraction and relaxation. And traditional cultures who were using the jade egg in more traditional form, we talk about the engagement of the muscles in a contractile state, but also in a relaxation state. It's a bit of, not ballooning, but it's opening. It's letting go as well. And that when you have the jade egg, you shouldn't feel discomfort in there. You shouldn't feel sticky and uncomfortable and painful, but it also shouldn't feel like it's just going to fall out. It's like two concepts.   Heba Shaheed:  (22:39) The jade egg is something that's used in traditional cultures, but in more physical-   Tahnee:  (22:47) Modern context.   Heba Shaheed:  (22:47) Yeah, modern physical therapy context, we use something similar, but it's, what are they called? Vaginal weights. So they use vaginal weights, which are usually like a silicone thing or a plastic type of thing which I'm not really a fan of, so a silicone type of thing with magnets or weights in there that helps. It's a similar kind of concept. And-   Tahnee:  (23:10) Yeah, because I use weights. But just I use crystals.   Heba Shaheed:  (23:15) Yeah. And it's in the sense of that they use them more again, for strengthening and coordination, but again there is that kind of focus on tightening things as well. Usually you wouldn't see vaginal weights being used in somebody who has already a tight pelvic floor. However, in saying that, I could see the benefits of doing that in a sense that you're getting them to be more aware of their pelvic floor. And for them to desensitise the pelvic floor. Because a lot of issues with pelvic floor, pelvic floor pain in particular, is that there is an over sensitisation of the nerves and the muscles and the connective tissue of the pelvic floor.   Heba Shaheed:  (24:03) Can we go back to, what was the last question that you asked me?   Tahnee:  (24:07) I feel like I've gone so many places now, I think I was asking about in examining women and what your actual experience was as a clinician, I suppose. In the back of my mind, because we don't know each other super well, but I've studied with this guy in Thailand who's a Chinese man. Part of his system is you actually have internal massage to relax all of the tissue. And they work on your psoas through your vaginal wall and the psoas attachment at the femur and everything. It's interesting.   Tahnee:  (24:45) Yeah, so [crosstalk 00:24:46]. I was curious as, because for me I had probably six or seven treatments in a period of time. And then obviously didn't find many people here offering that sort of thing. But it's become more common lately, I've noticed. I just wondered, because for me I could really feel where there were areas of tension and pain, and then areas where I was, like you were saying, desensitised or didn't have a lot of awareness. I had that pre-birth and it was, I think, one of the reasons I had such a great birth. Because it had given me some context and some of biofeedback. I was able to, I love manual therapies in general because they teach you how to connect into your body in this new way, the tactile kind of way. I guess I was leading into what is your experience as a clinician and what do you see?   Heba Shaheed:  (25:34) Yeah. I guess my qualification is as a physiotherapist, but I work specifically in pelvic floor right, and women's health. But even more deeper than that, my expertise lies in female pain. I work specifically with women as you mentioned earlier, with women who have sexual pain, pelvic pain, period pain, vulva pain. Very specific to dysfunctions of pain down there. If we talk about the guy in Thailand, in a lot of traditional cultures we know that they utilise a lot of abdominal myofascial work.   Tahnee:  (26:23) Yeah, that's what I'm trained in.   Heba Shaheed:  (26:24) Yes. And intrapelvic myofascial work. And that's kind of in that whole body worker type of thing. And it's a traditional kind of thing, but then there's the Westernised modern thing which is pelvic floor physical therapy or pelvic floor physiotherapy where there's a medicalised version of it. Depending on the physio that you see, because again we're also divided in our approach. A lot of physios are moving towards more of mind focusing thing where it's like change your brain, change your body kind of thing, was my approach is a little bit more hands-on.   Heba Shaheed:  (27:09) I'm like change the body and the mind and the heart all at the same time, integrate them all. I know that I'm very, I don't know, just a bit more progressive in my approach and I'm very open, because I've also studied. I did a lot of South American Mayan type of abdominal massage training.   Tahnee:  (27:31) Yeah, like Arvigo and stuff.   Heba Shaheed:  (27:32) And I've done Ayurvedic and Abhyanga type stuff. I'm very open to all disciplines and all medicines. I'm not the type that's like, "No. It's all just about evidence-based pelvic floor physiotherapy." I'm not like that. And I'm very open about the fact that I'm not like that. And it's not exactly, it doesn't sit well with a lot of the evidence-based physical therapists, but I don't really care anymore.   Tahnee:  (28:00) I was curious about that, because when I saw you, I saw that you were working in kind of in clinic and like quite, like at universities and things. And I was thinking that's interesting that you're so open-minded, because I've, I guess in my career, bumped up against a lot of people who are evidence-based who think a lot of the stuff we practise is really wild. I've seen amazing transformations, and I also believe strongly in evidence-based stuff as well, but I'm like traditional evidence is still evidence to me.   Heba Shaheed:  (28:31) That's right. And clinical practise is still evidence. The thing is I find that the discussion or the disputes kind of occur because a lot of people get so focused on evidence-based being what is researched and done in a trial and done in a research study, but the thing is, most practitioners regardless of whether you're eastern, western whatever, most practitioners aren't sitting in research studies. They're actually with people.   Tahnee:  (29:04) Every day.   Heba Shaheed:  (29:04) Fixing the people's bodies. They've treated thousands of people using their practises. And this is where Ayurvedic medicine and traditional Chinese medicine and all these other traditional medicines come in. They've been doing that for thousands of years with beautiful results, right? And it has nothing to do with sitting in a lab or in a research group or whatever. I think people forget that clinical practise is actually, so there's three type of evidence-based medicine. One of them is research study. But the other one is clinical practise. Thousands and thousands of hours of clinical practise.   Heba Shaheed:  (29:40) And you know what? It comes down to a personality thing. We are all structured, we all have proclivities, right? I have an extreme proclivity for openness. Openness to experience and openness to intellectual things and openness to all sorts of things. But then you have other people who are more about like conscientiousness in like orderliness, or very low on the openness scale. And that's fine. That's who you are, like whatever. We're going to attract whoever is aligned with us. That's the people that I attract to my clinic. Most of the people, well 95% of my clientele are like intuitive, feeling, empathetic type of people who are very disconnected from their bodies, which is pretty much exactly who I am.   Heba Shaheed:  (30:29) I'm very intuitive person, a very feeling person, and I was very disconnected from my body, that I didn't realise that I had all these pelvic pain problems coming up, but they were there from when I was little, I just didn't realise until my periods came, and it hit me like a tonne of bricks that I wasn't emptying my bowels on a daily basis, that I was holding my bladder and only going twice a day. All these little things that you don't even realise, and it comes down to just who you are I guess biologically and psychologically anyway.   Heba Shaheed:  (31:05) The people who are a bit more, I suppose, conservative would end up with the more conservative physios. And then the people who are a bit more liberal end up with the bit more of the open physios or a bit more with the open traditional type of medicine. You're going to attract whatever, and that's fine. There's room for everybody. There's room for everything. And so I guess if we go back to what you were saying about what do I actually encounter in my practice, because I see mostly pain patients, they're coming in with these pelvic floors that are really tight, really uncomfortable, the fascia's yuck the nerves are very sensitised and all sort of things.   Heba Shaheed:  (31:43) And because I have such a touch-based approach, like I do a lot of intra-vaginal massage with them, and I do a lot of abdominal massage. And not just that, I do whole body massage. I work through the whole, if you're looking at meridians or myofascial lines, I work up into their ribs. I work down into their feet. I work into their cranium. Whatever I feel like, because I'm more of an intuitive person, it's like they come in and I don't know. It's just a weird thing that I have. I don't know how to explain it, but I can just look at them and I'll be like, "Yeah, this, this and this." And then I work into it and it frees whatever's holding. It's like it's something deep inside that you just have. You either have it or you don't. Or you can grow it, I guess.   Heba Shaheed:  (32:28) That's why, some people say, "Oh, she's a bit woo." But I don't care. I'm like, "Yeah, I am, but it works." And my patients are attracted to that and they love that. And then while I'm working with them, I'm talking to them, like anatomy and stuff. In talking to them, to their rational mind too. Obviously there's a rational part of this. There's and intuitive part and there's a rational part too. And I'm talking to them. And usually when I'm working on something and it might be the psoas interiorly, right? And they were like, "Oh yeah, my ex-boyfriend was very abusive," or something like. Things come up. You know that when we interact with the psoas, you're talking trauma extroverting muscle. As soon as you start to engage with it, the person starts to remember and wants to get out the trauma that occurred or whatever.   Heba Shaheed:  (33:24) Part of that is also allowing them to verbalise stuff, because we know a lot of stuff is repressed or held in. And because I attract this certain type of clientele who are the type, they're usually very assertive females who are assertive in their life, what they want, they're all like a bit type A type personalities. Type A, type B, I guess, but then they don't put their own needs ahead. They're putting other people's needs ahead of their own. And then they hold things in and a lot of them are quite out of touch with what is actually their feeling, because they're just constantly looking after people around them.   Heba Shaheed:  (34:09) It's like getting them back in touch with, "Okay, what happened to you and how did it change your life?" It's more like I do a lot of coaching stuff with them at the same time. It's an integrated thing. I've been to a lot of other pelvic physios and I can see the difference in the way that I treat, because a lot of them will just sit there quietly and do the work. Or ask you about your weekend or something, and I can never ever remember what I've done on the weekend, so it's like well what's the point of that?   Tahnee:  (34:45) You have a three year old, it's like, "I don't know."   Heba Shaheed:  (34:48) [crosstalk 00:34:48]. Yeah, you're having a deep meaningful conversation where you're freeing a lot of repressed stuff, whether it's microtrauma or a macrotrauma, it doesn't matter, they're still traumas. Even microtraumas have an impact and they're repressing them. And when a body comes to me in that state of, this inflamed state of severe period pain, chronic constipation, bloating and all this stuff, oh man, there's shit going on in there. There's stuff. It's not just, "Oh yeah, I fell over on the weekend." It's not that. This is deep stuff. What do you have to do? You have to have a deep conversation, otherwise that person's going to be going from one therapist to another never really figuring out what's wrong with them.   Heba Shaheed:  (35:33) And they're the ones that end up, because they start with the modern medical stuff and then it's not working, and then they have all this surgery and it's still not working, then they end up seeing traditional Chinese Medicine and Ayurvedic Medicine and any of these traditional type of stuff, Mayan and whatever. And you know what? That's okay, because for you that is what is going to work, because it isn't just a body thing for you. When it becomes this complex and angry really, it is, there's like a poor alignment of your heart, your mind and your body. And it's trying to integrate all of them so that you actually feel like you're in control of your body, and it's not your body that's kind of controlling everything else.   Tahnee:  (36:19) Mm-hmm (affirmative). That's a such a common theme I think with women, is repressed anger and this sense that they have no control. I think especially women that are sensitive and like you were saying, empathetic and intuitive, because they take on so much and then it's this kind of push back or rage against what they've... It's their gift as well. I know you're an empath, and I am as well. It's my gift, it's also my curse sometimes. But I can feel, and that's certainly been my lived experience in my body, is when my own boundaries get brittle I start to really find that my body starts to lean back into the patterns that I've worked really hard to unravel.   Tahnee:  (37:11) I think it's just a constant process. But it sounds like you have such a holistic focus that people are able to work on that multidimensional level which I think, I mean for me it seems outrageous that that idea of bedside manner and all these things have been lost from the Western Medical system. Because, I think about just how important therapeutic touch and therapeutic listening is. I can remember going to older GPs when I was a little kid, who were like grandfatherly and gentle and kind. And just being in their presence was really healing. And I think now the system is really flawed obviously. But I can see how this disassociation of body from mind, from spirit has really led us down this path.   Tahnee:  (37:56) I'm super inspired to talk to someone who's actually gone through that system and continues to integrate, because I think that's really the future of medicine. That we need to have the evidence-based deep research and for me studying anatomy has given me so much power. But on the flip side of it, I have to keep remembering that the body is an integrated system and it's a holistic system and I can't just work on my pelvic floor and not have an overall effect on every single part of my body. It's this kind of dance always I think between the poles, I suppose, the Yin and Yang to use the Taoist ideas. But I mean-   Heba Shaheed:  (38:32) Yeah, well, it makes so much sense because what happened was in the last 50 or odd years or whatever, it really went into a more of a biological focus, like medicine went into a really biological focus. And then in the last kind of 20 years or so, they're like, "Oh no. We have to look at the mind as well." It's now kind of like a bio-psycho process, biological and psychological and then they're like, "Oh well, we know we do better in community." They're at this stage going to go into bio-psycho-social kind of thing. But the thing is, even the psycho-social stuff is still from a biological point of view, because it is like looking at psychology from a biological point of view.   Heba Shaheed:  (39:19) Really, depending obviously on what you believe in and stuff, and I'm assuming that obviously many of the people listening to SuperFeast are going to be more on the spiritual side. We feel like we have a, it's like a deeper connection, it's like a bigger connection, it's not just about my body right now. It's my body, it's my mind, but it's not just my body and mind, it's my heart and my soul as well. I need to be nourished in my soul too, for me to be really healthy. It's not just about always focusing on the physical elements.   Heba Shaheed:  (39:53) And that's part of it. It is part of it of course. You need to nourish your body to nourish your soul, but it's also vice versa. It's interesting. And the other thing that you mentioned before as well was about anger. One of the things that I've studied is when you look at, we have the mind or the head. And the mind and the head is where you hold fear. And then you have the heart, and that's where you hold shame. And then you have the gut or the pelvis, the gut and the pelvic paradigm where you hold anger. And that anger could be like anger to others, or it could be anger to yourself, or repressed anger.   Heba Shaheed:  (40:39) A lot of, that's often what we see. People are angry at themself, or they're angry at their bodies for not working the way that they want to, and it just feeds that cycle of anger. And their pelvic region gets worse and worse and worse. But if you really, really trace it back, you trace it right, right, right, right, back, there is that initial sliver of anger that started, but even before that there might have been an element of shame. There's even the heart isn't integrated. It could be shame, like shame at your own self. Or it could be a shame because somebody put a belief of shame onto you. Like, "Ah, that's not what girls do," or something like that.   Tahnee:  (41:18) Cultural.   Heba Shaheed:  (41:20) Yeah, cultural type of things. But it's somebody else's thoughts and feelings that you manifested of your own shame, or it's somebody else shame. Or even with a partner that you're with, or the parents, or whatever. Or society. And then even more so than that, your head is where you hold fear. Then what happens with a lot of my clients is that they get so stuck in their head, in that they're afraid that, "Sex is always going to hurt. That I'm always going to have period pains. Like, this is my life for the rest of my life. I'm never going to get better."   Heba Shaheed:  (41:56) It's like constant looping of fear in their head. What I try to do, is I try to get right to the beginning. It's like, "Okay, what was the first thought and feelings? What was the first thought?" If we go right back it could be something, a shameful thing that happened when you were two. Or it could be a fear driven thing that happened when you were just born. Maybe you were born to very abusive parents. Or like anger driven thing where you weren't allowed to be your authentic self, for example.   Heba Shaheed:  (42:33) It's like tracing it right back, because a lot of the time you can get so caught up in trying to treat the body, and then you think you're treating the mind because you're giving them pain education advice and all this stuff which is important, but at the end of the day the heart is completely not even involved. But I feel like that's really crucially important especially with the patients that I see, because they're all the kind of the feeling heart centred type of people. And then sometimes it's something as simple as, "I just hate my job. My heart's not in my job, and because I'm in my job," and I've had patients like this where it's like, she wants to be a naturopath for example, but she's working as a lawyer, you know what I mean? And she just hates her job. And I'm like, "Well, if your heart's not in it, your body's going to rebel against it."   Heba Shaheed:  (43:21) It's like even simple concepts like that could be the key that unlocks why a woman is having so much dysfunction.   Tahnee:  (43:31) Yeah. I can hear a little girl. Hello darling.   Heba Shaheed:  (43:35) She's dancing in the room.   Tahnee:  (43:37) Super.   Heba Shaheed:  (43:37) Spinning around, dancing.   Tahnee:  (43:39) Very cute.   Heba's Daughter: (43:39) Dah.   Tahnee:  (43:40) Yeah. It's you.   Tahnee:  (43:43) I'm curious-   Heba's Daughter: (43:47) Dah.   Tahnee:  (43:47) You're in a podcast darling.   Tahnee:  (43:50) I'm curious about complex trauma and pain and stuff, because one of the big epiphanies for me, I mean I was so scared of pain when I was 20. To the point where I've made some hilarious statements that now make me laugh. But I remember being 18 and 19 and saying, "There's no way I'm giving birth naturally. I need drugs to do that. I don't want to feel it." And obviously 10, 15 years later had a home birth naturally and blah blah. I changed. But a lot of the pain science and stuff I researched, I know that's an area you've studied a lot, like pain is just this completely subjective and incredibly difficult thing to measure and track. And so much of it is really due to this, I guess inability to be intimate with ourselves and to really give ourselves permission to have the full human experience, which is warts and all. It's not always sunshine and rainbows.   Tahnee:  (44:47) Is that kind of, I assume that's something because you work so much with really chronic difficult issues, is that something that you're always trying to educate people around? Is that, I'm not trying to say pain isn't real, because I feel like that's a really difficult thing to say, but it's sort of like from my experience, I've changed my relationship with sensation so much that pain and I have a very different relationship now. Is that what you're trying to work with people toward? Is to redefine their experiences, sensation and how they relate to their body?   Heba Shaheed:  (45:20) Absolutely. So it's all about perspective. We can create a relationship with our body that is pain driven. Or we can create a relationship with our body that's pleasure driven. Memories create little tags in your brain, neurotags, that can latch onto experiences as being with negative emotion or with positive emotion. And it depends on which part of your brain that you're using. We know that the right side of the brain is more associated with negative emotion, and the left side of the brain is more associated with positive emotion. Actually, we know that people, the ideal, so positive emotion isn't to do with being happy. Positive emotion is to do with not suffering. We don't want to suffer. And pain is an embodiment of suffering. We don't want to be in pain. If you're the type that is so fixated on not wanting to be in pain, that you'll use that-   Heba's Daughter: (46:25) Mum.   Tahnee:  (46:25) Exactly.   Heba Shaheed:  (46:31) If you're the type that doesn't want to be in pain, you'll become so fixated on that, you can become so fixated on that negative emotion, because you don't want to suffer, but unfortunately that actually propagates the feeling of suffering because you've become so fixated on that part of your brain that, because pain in itself is a negative emotion. Now here's the thing, right? Your brain actually doesn't know the difference between truth or lies. And this is a fact. It doesn't know. It's what you feed it. The food that you give your brain, food that you give your mind, is going to nourish it. If you're feeding it negative thoughts, which is fear of pain, and fear driven messages, and suffering driven messages, negative polarity based messages, then the brain will be nourished by that. And it will become hyper aware of that.   Heba Shaheed:  (47:28) But on the flip side, if you're feeding it positive thoughts, like I'm safe. I am content. If you're sending it positive messages, that will then nourish the brain in that sense. Think of it as like negative emotions and negative messages drying out the brain and making it hard and inflexible and uncomfortable. And positive thoughts and feelings and messages nourishing the brain and lubricating it, and filling it up that the brain is sitting in a soup, and it's relaxed and chill.   Heba Shaheed:  (48:01) Firstly a lot of it is just education on that sort of thing. Like visualisation based education, but then also anatomical and physiological based education in that explaining the actually neurophysiology of pain can be very helpful. But not just explaining that, but also getting them to do little workbook tasks to help them identify their patterns and behaviour. Because, remember a lot of it is beliefs driven as well. If you have this belief, that belief can be changed. We know that the brain is plastic, it's neoplastic. That means that it can be changed.   Heba Shaheed:  (48:40) Within three months, six months, 12 months, you'll have a completely different brain and cells in your body, if you continue to send it specific type of messages. That's why we can see a person, for example myself, I had like a 100 out of 10 pain 10 years ago. Literally every moment of every day was severe, excruciating neuropathic pain. From migraines to pelvic pain, or pain down my leg, sciatic nerve, and just like fibromyalgia type, like just horrific pain. That was because I was so fixated on the pain and the fear that I was always going to be in pain. Remember what I said about the head space being driven by fear.   Tahnee:  (49:29) I know. I call is the loop, like that constant feedback.   Heba Shaheed:  (49:32) That's right. And the thing is, that is very draining. That is very, very draining. Then you've got this rock hard brain that is completely devoid of lubrication, whereas today 10 years on, I can't even remember the last time I had a migraine. I can't remember the last time I had severe period pain. You can very drastically change it. And it's a constant work of it on daily basis. Obviously there are some times where I might regress and it's oftentimes where my mental state isn't well. Like if I fall into severe depression because of whatever, at the end of the day it is my thoughts and feelings. But certain events can trigger it.   Heba Shaheed:  (50:21) And that also comes down to trauma. We were talking about trauma just before, you mentioned trauma just before. Trauma, especially childhood trauma effects your hard-wiring. I was born into a very malevolent, narcissistic personality disorder family. To the point where there were times where I would be left by myself in the apartment crying my head off under the age of one, because of like no safety. No... Obviously that would've triggered a, what's it called? Fight or flight response in the brain. And we know that the nervous system is divided into two. Your sympathetic nervous system which is your fight, flight, freeze or fawn system. And your parasympathetic nervous system which is your relax, reproduce, digest, rest, chill system.   Heba Shaheed:  (51:17) If a baby is living in a chronic state of sympathetic nervous system hyperactivity, fight or flight, screaming and crying and being scared and feeling unsafe and all this sort of stuff, that's going to send your nervous system into overdrive. And your brain is just going to shrink, not shrink, but it's just going to become like that dried sponge. If it's a dried sponge, well all your nerves are coming out from your brain, well then those nerves aren't lubricated. Your immune system is then compromised. Your immune system is largely lubrication, right? It's mucous membranes.   Heba Shaheed:  (51:57) That's what I mean about going right back with my patients is that we're trying to figure out what caused this nervous system to go nuts? What caused your immune system to go nuts? And the musculoskeletal system is only the end product, the end thing. This all started way back when. It's like, "Okay, how do I then manage that?" Because I was one of those kids that when I was young, I had all this auto-immune stuff, like severe asthma, eczema, this condition called vitiligo where my skin turns white if I'm like severely stressed.   Tahnee:  (52:34) Yeah. I've seen that.   Heba Shaheed:  (52:36) It was just like super auto-immune type condition. And a lot of this stuff said, "Ah people say it's incurable. You'll just have to live with it. And maybe you'll grow out of it or something like that."   Tahnee:  (52:44) Those people are wrong.   Heba Shaheed:  (52:46) That's right. Exactly, because it's your immune system. Your immune system doesn't care, like it's trying to tell you that, "Help me. Help me. Save me. I need to feel safe."   Tahnee:  (53:03) This is the thing. If it's this line of defence, our protection and we're constantly being bombarded, like you're going to end up with immune responses.   Heba Shaheed:  (53:13) Mm-hmm (affirmative). If a patient comes to me and then they report to me that they had childhood asthma. I'm not going to be like, "Oh, you just had asthma." I'm going to be, "Woo, hang on."   Tahnee:  (53:21) Yeah, what happened?   Heba Shaheed:  (53:22) "Why did you have childhood asthma? Why did your immune system react like that?" And it's like 99% of the time that my patients will tell me and I'll be the first person that they've ever told, "Oh yes, this happened to me when I was little." Or something like that. There's a really, there's quite a correlation between persistent pelvic pain conditions and childhood trauma, whether we recognise it or not. And it could be just neglect. It could be neglect, it could be severe abuse, it could be sexual abuse, it could be physical abuse, emotional abuse. It could be anything. It could be sibling abuse, right?   Tahnee:  (53:55) I think even like-   Heba Shaheed:  (53:55) Or it could be bullying at school.   Tahnee:  (53:56) Yeah, I had a really, my family are loving and kind. But my parents had a really weird relationship and I'm super sensitive and I think took on a lot of that. And I disassociated from the body really early. I remember my mum having to be like, I'd be like, "I'm sick." And she's like, "Have you pooed today?" And I'd be like, "Oh yeah. I have to poo." I fully had that complete lack of biological connection. And it'd like that was my whole 20's it was working back to that. It's really interesting, because if I look at it, it's like I had a really happy childhood, but even just being in that energy all the time because I was sensitive to it.   Heba Shaheed:  (54:34) Absolutely.   Tahnee:  (54:35) It's like I can't [crosstalk 00:54:36] put blame onto them, but I have to do my own healing now to work out what my boundaries are.   Tahnee:  (54:43) And I'm curious, because you're an empathetic person and you're working with a lot of people's pain and suffering. Do you have boundaries for yourself on how much you can take on? Or how do you handle that sort of work?   Heba Shaheed:  (54:54) Ah yeah, for sure. I have massive, massive, massive boundaries. I only allow myself to work once to twice a week, and it depends on the week, it depends on my menstrual cycle.   Heba's Daughter: (55:09) I'm hungry.   Heba Shaheed:  (55:13) And with my patients, I used to think it was better to have breaks between patients, but it's not. For me, I need to just see them bang, bang, bang, one after the other with no break. Because then I don't allow all of the emotions to overwhelm me between patients.   Heba's Daughter: (55:32) I'm hungry. I'm hungry.   Heba Shaheed:  (55:35) That's my daughter crying out, "I'm hungry. I'm hungry."   Tahnee:  (55:38) I know, we're nearly finished, darling. They eat so much at three. My daughter's like a bottomless pit.   Heba Shaheed:  (55:44) I know.   Tahnee:  (55:44) It's ridiculous.   Heba Shaheed:  (55:48) Yeah, so.   Tahnee:  (55:50) Boundaries.   Heba Shaheed:  (55:50) Yeah, so boundaries. Yes, I discovered for myself that I need to see them bang, bang, bang, one after the other, because I couldn't allow myself to experience the overwhelm of emotion in between patients, because then it would be too draining to see the next patient. And then what I do is, I only, I actually see a lot of patients in one day. I can see between eight to 12 patients in one day, which is quite-   Tahnee:  (56:18) Whoa.   Heba Shaheed:  (56:18) A lot for-   Tahnee:  (56:18) That's heaps.   Heba Shaheed:  (56:20) Yeah. That's why I only work one to two days.   Tahnee:  (56:23) Yeah. Sure.   Heba Shaheed:  (56:23) And it depends. I do these really weird stuff, but before I go to work I tell myself, "Okay, who am I going to be today?"   Tahnee:  (56:38) Good. Yeah. I love this stuff.   Heba Shaheed:  (56:42) Which mask, which costume am I going to put on today? Even like now when I'm talking to you, this isn't the real, like it is, it's a part of me.   Tahnee:  (56:51) Yeah. It's one aspect of you.   Heba Shaheed:  (56:52) Mm-hmm (affirmative). But like the real me is actually very quiet and I kind of stick to myself, like a very introverted type of person. But, I'm like, "Okay, which costume am I going to put on today?" And that almost serves as like a physical barrier between my emotions and theirs. And then I have to physically tell myself, "Everything I feel today, none of this is my emotions. Anything that I feel," so like if I'm with a patient, the patient walks in and I immediately feel depressed, I'm like, "I know I am not depressed. She is depressed. Why is she depressed? What's happening?" Or if a patient walks in and they're like super happy, super excited and I suddenly feel like really bubbly and stuff, I'm like, "I know," I'm like, "Yes, I have the capacity," like obviously you have a capacity to be depressed and bubbly or whatever, "but in this moment every emotion that I'm feeling, is her emotion."   Heba Shaheed:  (57:45) Being conscious of that, so when the person walks in having that immediate consciousness of, "This isn't my emotion." And in that way I'm able to kind of, so I reflect. I imagine myself as a mirror and I'm reflecting her. So whatever I'm feeling is only hers. What I do, and this is a really amazing thing I've discovered is like I feel her emotion and then I allow myself to process her emotion, and then I actually speak out her emotion to her. I rationalise what she's feeling. And then she comes back to me with something, but it's allowed her to heal in that moment, that emotion that she was feeling, because instead of just feeling it inside, we've brought it to her outside. She's extroverted it out.   Heba Shaheed:  (58:30) And that in itself can be really powerful. What I've done, is I've also rationalised that it's not my feelings. It's like being very, very in the moment conscious of everything that you're feeling isn't actually your feeling, and it's theirs, but you're also letting them process their feelings. It's a really amazing thing to be an empath in the sense that you can allow other people to actually sort out their own feeling. It's a really amazing thing.   Tahnee:  (59:00) Yeah, in mirroring them.   Heba Shaheed:  (59:02) Yeah. And then-   Tahnee:  (59:04) Do you have meditation practises or anything as well around that? Or you just-   Heba Shaheed:  (59:07) What is it?   Tahnee:  (59:10) What do you do other... like yeah, obviously you're going to keep talking, so go. I jumped in.   Heba Shaheed:  (59:14) Oh, I was just saying and then at the end of the day I get on the train back home, and all I do is just filter everything out. I'm like, "Okay, what am I feeling right now? Is it mine? Or is it someone else's?" And then just letting it out. And then by the time I get to my car to go pick up my daughter, I've already sorted everything out, because I'm on the train for half an hour or whatever. It's like, "Okay, I've done it." And then it's like I could be super drained if I just let myself, because the thing is you have to filter them. Because in the past I hadn't done that and I would be so exhausted.   Tahnee:  (59:46) Oh it smashes you, yeah.   Heba Shaheed:  (59:47) After a day of work. Ah, my God, like I would be dead literally, and I'm just, "Leave me alone. Don't talk to me. I just cannot deal. I need to be on my own." But if you do that filtering process, and then you reflect on the day. And you reflect on how much you helped them, because remember as an empath helping other people, helps you as well. You feel that sense of, you get energy from that. And then it's the end of the day. And then I go pick up my daughter and I'm fine, because I know what's my feelings and what's not.   Heba Shaheed:  (01:00:17) I could do this every day if I wanted to, because I've kind of gotten really good at filtering my feelings, but I don't want to. Because I know there's a capacity to give, right? And a capacity to give, because we're giving people, but then there's also an importance of individually as well. I need to also be myself and do stuff that I want to do, and it's not always just about work and helping other people.   Tahnee:  (01:00:41) Yeah. And being a mum as well. For me certainly when I had my daughter, my priorities shifted a lot around she needs me more than others do a lot of the time. That's the priority.   Heba Shaheed:  (01:00:53) Absolutely. Especially that zero to seven really, it's like they need you, to nurture them.   Tahnee:  (01:01:02) Yeah. I wonder, I'll start wrapping up, but I was wondering if you had any advice for home care for the pelvic floor for people. Because I get frustrated that the Kegel thing, because I'm like that's not really good enough. But for so many people, it's pretty foreign territory down there. Is there stuff that people can-   Heba Shaheed:  (01:01:25) I'm not really a huge fan of Kegel, I actually am like well what the?   Tahnee:  (01:01:30) Yeah, it's just more tightening which people don't need.   Heba Shaheed:  (01:01:33) Yeah, so I don't. My focus for home care is more around your daily habits. We talked about it right at the beginning. Healthy bladder habits, going every three hours. Healthy bowels habits, going every day. And that means eating well, because we know your diet heavily influences your ability to empty your bowels. And just healthy bladder habits, healthy bowel habits, sexual health habits and vulva health habits as well. Like not using all these creams and douches and washes and all this stuff. The vagina's a self cleaning machine.   Tahnee:  (01:02:07) Leave it alone.   Heba Shaheed:  (01:02:08) Just use warm water. Yeah, just leave it. Don't put anything in there, except if you're having penetrative intercourse or if you're using jade eggs and whatever, that's okay as well. But, just leave it. Let it do its job, kind of thing. You don't want to mess with the PH and all that. And when you're having sex, simple hygiene practises.   Heba's Daughter: (01:02:31) [inaudible 01:02:31].   Heba Shaheed:  (01:02:31) Like washing your hands and stuff beforehand. And wiping from front to back. And emptying your bladder after sexual intercourse rather than before. And using a tissue. Stuff like that. Just simple sort of stuff. And even like the underwear that you wear and the pads that you wear. I'm a very, because I know this, I've seen it, like just simple thing of changing your pads to an organic cotton pad, or a menstrual cup or something, can be very helpful, rather than a lot of these mainstream pads and stuff that are like heavy with perfumes and toxins and stuff like that.   Tahnee:  (01:03:10) Yeah. And that stuff actually gets into your tissues and create issues.   Heba Shaheed:  (01:03:12) Mm-hmm (affirmative).   Heba's Daughter: (01:03:12) [crosstalk 01:03:12].   Tahnee:  (01:03:14) Yeah, inflammation. Okay, well, I think you have a little darling that needs you.   Tahnee:  (01:03:21) I will say thank you so much for your time and for this conversation. I really enjoyed speaking with you. And for anyone who wants to connect with Heba, she's on social media @thepelvicexpert and she's also online at www.thepelvicexpert.com.   Tahnee:  (01:03:36) I saw you have some courses up there. People can have online consultations. There's lots of ways people can reach you. Is there anything I've missed? Or anything else you wanted to add?   Heba Shaheed:  (01:03:46) Yeah, no that's all. If you are in Sydney and you do want to book a consult, if you have any complex

There's a lot of things happening in our lives right now. We thought the Coronavirus Covid-19 was extremely heavy to hold and move through. Have you looked at yourself in a mirror and asked the infamous question, "What now?" On this podcast episode we get into that thing called "Now" I live in the "Now" Its my daily discipline to remain truthful and faithful to why its extremely important to plant my feet only there. Because you have the power through awareness to control your "Now" The world right now may look bent out of shape with uncertainty but ultimately the decision you make right now has the strength to grow or fall completely apart. Its a choice. What I've taken note of are the enormous amount of Nows that don't belong in our Now. Your Now from yesterday at 3pm is still present and its interfering with how you should be thinking. That means your present place in the Now will probably interact with your Now in one hour. You can't help but be this way! It's not your fault! There's so much going on around us that we have lost control of what is Now. I love the idea that I've already forgotten about SpaceX Crew Dragon. That was my Saturday at 3:22pm Now. Then the docking on Sunday at 10:16am was in that place of Now. It's not been anywhere near me until Now. It's not disrespectful. It's having control of what you can control. Too many Nows playing over and over in your head and heart confuses your ability to find balance. Sadly I won't remember writing any of this. In five minutes it'll be my new Now.

There's a lot of things happening in our lives right now. We thought the Coronavirus Covid-19 was extremely heavy to hold and move through. Have you looked at yourself in a mirror and asked the infamous question, "What now?" On this podcast episode we get into that thing called "Now" I live in the "Now" Its my daily discipline to remain truthful and faithful to why its extremely important to plant my feet only there. Because you have the power through awareness to control your "Now" The world right now may look bent out of shape with uncertainty but ultimately the decision you make right now has the strength to grow or fall completely apart. Its a choice. What I've taken note of are the enormous amount of Nows that don't belong in our Now. Your Now from yesterday at 3pm is still present and its interfering with how you should be thinking. That means your present place in the Now will probably interact with your Now in one hour. You can't help but be this way! It's not your fault! There's so much going on around us that we have lost control of what is Now. I love the idea that I've already forgotten about SpaceX Crew Dragon. That was my Saturday at 3:22pm Now. Then the docking on Sunday at 10:16am was in that place of Now. It's not been anywhere near me until Now. It's not disrespectful. It's having control of what you can control. Too many Nows playing over and over in your head and heart confuses your ability to find balance. Sadly I won't remember writing any of this. In five minutes it'll be my new Now.

There's a lot of things happening in our lives right now. We thought the Coronavirus Covid-19 was extremely heavy to hold and move through. Have you looked at yourself in a mirror and asked the infamous question, "What now?" On this podcast episode we get into that thing called "Now" I live in the "Now" Its my daily discipline to remain truthful and faithful to why its extremely important to plant my feet only there. Because you have the power through awareness to control your "Now" The world right now may look bent out of shape with uncertainty but ultimately the decision you make right now has the strength to grow or fall completely apart. Its a choice. What I've taken note of are the enormous amount of Nows that don't belong in our Now. Your Now from yesterday at 3pm is still present and its interfering with how you should be thinking. That means your present place in the Now will probably interact with your Now in one hour. You can't help but be this way! It's not your fault! There's so much going on around us that we have lost control of what is Now. I love the idea that I've already forgotten about SpaceX Crew Dragon. That was my Saturday at 3:22pm Now. Then the docking on Sunday at 10:16am was in that place of Now. It's not been anywhere near me until Now. It's not disrespectful. It's having control of what you can control. Too many Nows playing over and over in your head and heart confuses your ability to find balance. Sadly I won't remember writing any of this. In five minutes it'll be my new Now.

[Special Series] Neuropsychologist and author Dr. Michelle Bengtson joins us as we search for Peace in Uncertain Times to discuss how we can learn to break anxiety’s grip on us and manage it by turning to God. Dr. Bengtson reassures us that God has already provided us with the weapons we need to defeat fear, and that “worry, fear and anxiety are not our portion, but God's peace is.” Links, Products and Resources Mentioned: Jesus Calling Podcast Jesus Calling books   Jesus Calling Social Media  Facebook Instagram Twitter Pinterest Dr. Michelle Bengtson Facebook Twitter Instagram   2 Timothy 1:7 (BibleGateway.com)   See more videos around finding Peace for Uncertain Times on YouTube.com/JesusCalling Book     Interview Quotes:   “What I've learned is that worry, fear and anxiety are not our portion, but God's peace is.” - Dr. Michelle Bengtson “Worry, fear and anxiety are really a misappropriation of our trust. We have a tendency to trust in people or circumstances, and when we do, it's a slippery slope into worry, fear or anxiety.” - Dr. Michelle Bengtson “You can know that you were praying God's will when you were praying His words back to Him because He has already spoken them. That’s a prayer He delights in answering.” - Dr. Michelle Bengtson   ”If you want to trade your worry, fear and anxiety for God's peace today. Be in His word, be in His will and ask Him to replace that worry, fear and anxiety with his everlasting peace. I promise you He wants to do so.” - Dr. Michelle Bengtson

When Congress (finally) returned from their COVIDcation, experts in medicine, vaccine development, law, and business testified under oath. In this episode, hear the highlights from 17 hours of that expert testimony during which you'll learn about a concerning new vaccine development policy, Mitch McConnell's dangerous demands for the next COVID-19 response law, and how Republicans and Democrats failed for the last two decades to secure the nation's medical mask supply.  Thank you to all Congressional Dish producers who make the independence of this podcast possible. Enjoy your show!  Please Support Congressional Dish – Quick Links Click here to contribute monthly or a lump sum via PayPal Click here to support Congressional Dish for each episode via Patreon Send Zelle payments to: Donation@congressionaldish.com Send Venmo payments to: @Jennifer-Briney Send Cash App payments to: $CongressionalDish or Donation@congressionaldish.com Use your bank’s online bill pay function to mail contributions to: 5753 Hwy 85 North, Number 4576, Crestview, FL 32536 Please make checks payable to Congressional Dish Thank you for supporting truly independent media! Articles/Documents Article: Scientists Worldwide Are Questioning A Massive Study That Raised Concerns About The Malaria Drug Hyped As A COVID-19 Treatment By Stephanie M. Lee, Buzz Feed News, May 30, 2020 Article: CORPORATE IMMUNITY, MITCH MCCONNELL’S PRIORITY FOR CORONAVIRUS RELIEF, IS A LONGTIME FOCUS OF THE CONSERVATIVE RIGHT By Akela Lacy, The Intercept, May 26, 2020 Press Release: Trump Administration’s Operation Warp Speed Accelerates AstraZeneca COVID-19 Vaccine to be Available Beginning in October, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, May 21, 2020 Article: Social Distancing Is Not Enough By Derek Thompson, The Atlantic, May 22, 2020 Article: Federal agency finds 'reasonable grounds to believe' Rick Bright's whistleblower claims: NYT By Eric Sagonowsky, Fierce Pharma, May 8, 2020 Article: McConnell’s coronavirus business liability pledge sparks lobbying frenzy By Jennifer Haberkorn, Los Angeles Times, May 6, 2020 Article: FDA cautions against use of hydroxychloroquine or chloroquine for COVID-19 outside of the hospital setting or a clinical trial due to risk of heart rhythm problems, U.S. Food & Drug Administration, April 24, 2020 Article: As workers face virus risks, employers seek liability limits By Emily Kopp, Roll Call, April 17, 2020 Article: Hydroxychloroquine: how an unproven drug became Trump’s coronavirus 'miracle cure' By Julia Carrie Wong, The Guardian, April 17, 2020 Article: Sunlight exposure increased Covid-19 recovery rates: A study in the central pandemic area of Indonesia By Al Asyary and Merita Veruswati, ScienceDirect, Elsevier, 10 April 2020 Resources Tweet @JenBriney, Jennifer Briney, Twitter, May 27, 2020 Sound Clip Sources News Alert: Trump says he's taking hydroxychloroquine despite FDA warnings, Axios, Fox News, May 18, 2020 Interview: McConnell says next stimulus must have coronavirus liability protections, By Noah Manskar, The New York Post, Fox News, May 15, 2020 Hearing: Protecting Scientific Integrity in the COVID-19 Response, United States House Committee on Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health, May 14, 2020 Watch on Youtube Watch on CSPAN Witnesses: Dr. Richard Bright - Former Director of BARDA, current Senior Advisor at the National Institutes of Health Mike Bowen - Executive Vice President of Prestige Ameritech Transcript: 51:40 Rep. Ana Eshoo (CA): Was there a failure to respond with the needed urgency when you correctly pushed to ramp up production of masks, respirators, syringes, swabs. Dr. Rick Bright: Congresswoman, we've known for quite some time that our stockpile is insufficient and having those critical personal protective equipment. So once this virus began spreading and became known to be a threat, I did feel quite concerned that we didn't have those supplies. I began pushing urgently in January along with some industry colleagues as well. And those urges, those alarms were not responded to with action. 52:15 Rep. Ana Eshoo (CA): Was there a failure to take immediate action when you correctly push to acquire additional doses of the drug Remdesivir, which is the only drug so far that has appeared to be at least mildly effective, thank God, for treating people with COVID-19? Dr. Rick Bright: There was no action taken on the urgency to come up with a plan per acquisition of limited doses that Remdesivir nor to distribute those limited doses of Remdesivir once we had the scientific data to support their use for people infected with this virus. 1:04:00 Rep. Frank Pallone (NJ): My concern is, I'm very critical administration in terms of their I call it incompetence, with the supply chain, with lack of testing. I'm afraid the same thing is going to happen with vaccines and once it's in the distribution. I mean, should I be concerned based on your experience? Dr. Rick Bright: Absolutely, sir. We're already seeing those challenges with limited doses of Remdesivir with data that we're getting that Remdesivir has some benefit in people. And we have limited doses and we haven't scaled up production and we don't have a plan and how to fairly and equitably distribute that drug. If you can imagine this scenario, this fall or winter, maybe even early next spring, when vaccine becomes available. There's no one company that can produce enough for our country or for the world. It's gonna be limited supplies. We need to have a strategy and plan in place now to make sure that we can not only feel that vaccine, make it, distribute it, but administer it in a fair and equitable plan. And that's not the case at all. We don't have that yet and it is a significant concern. 1:11:50 Dr. Rick Bright: Normally it takes up to 10 years to make a vaccine. We've done it faster in emergency situations. But from when we had starting material in the freezer for Ebola, but for a novel virus is actually haven't been done yet that quickly. So a lot of optimism is swirling around a 12 to 18 month timeframe. If everything goes perfectly - we've never seen everything go perfectly. My concern is if we rush too quickly and considered cutting out critical steps, we may not have a full assessment of the safety of that vaccine. So it's still going to take some time. I still think 12 to 18 months is an aggressive schedule. And I think it's going to take longer than that to do so. Rep. Eliott Engel (NY): 12 to 18 months from now, or 12 to 18 months from when this all started at the beginning of the year? Dr. Rick Bright: It will be 12 to 18 months from when the particular manufacturers has first received the material or information that they need to start developing that vaccine. It's critical to note when we say 12 to 18 months. That doesn't mean for an FDA approved vaccine. That means to have sufficient data and information on the safety and immunogenicity if not efficacy, to be able to use on an emergency basis. And that is a consideration that we have in mind when we talk about an accelerated timeline. 1:14:20 Dr. Rick Bright: Congressmen our concern's centered around the potential use of chloriquine in people who are infected with this Coronavirus. There are data, the effective use and safe use of chloriquine in malaria patients and other patients and other indications. We also knew that there are potential safety risks with chloriquine they cause irregular heart rhythms, and even in some cases death. So our concern was with limited information and knowledge, especially of its use in COVID-19 infected patients and the potential for those risks, then we should make sure that any studies with that drug are done in a carefully controlled clinical study and a close watchful eye of a physician so they could respond to a patient if they did experience one of those adverse events. There wasn't sufficient data at that time to support use of this drug in patients with COVID-19 without close physician supervision. Rep. Eliott Engel (NY): And when you raised that issue of chloriquine use in Coronavirus patients with HHS leadership. What happened to you you removed as a director of BARDA. Is that not true? Dr. Rick Bright: I believe part of that removal process for me was initiated because of a push back that I forgave when they asked me to put in place an expanded access protocol that would make chloriquine more freely available to Americans that were not under the close supervision of a physician and may not even be confirmed to be infected with the coronavirus. The sciences, FDA, BARDA, NIH and CDC worked hard to switch that to a emergency use authorization with strict guardrails that the patients would be in a hospital confirmed to be infected with this virus under close supervision of a doctor and who could not otherwise participate in a randomized controlled study. My concerns were alleviated somewhat by being able to lock that in the stockpile with those conditions. However, my concerns were escalated when I learned that leadership in the department health and human services were pushing to make that drug available outside of this emergency use authorization to flood New York, New Jersey with this drug, regardless of the EUA and when I spoke outside of our government and shared my concerns for the American public, that I believe was the straw that broke the camel's back and escalated my removal. 1:47:15 Rep. Kathy Castor (FL): Dr. Bright you understood that America would face a shortage of respirators in January? Is that right? Dr. Rick Bright: We understood America would face a shortage of N95 respirators for a pandemic response in 2007. And we have exercise and known and evaluated that number almost every year since 2007. It was exercised even as late as early as 2019, August in Crimson contagion, that we would need 3.5 billion in 95 respirators in our stockpile to protect our healthcare workers from a pandemic response. Rep. Kathy Castor (FL): And you sounded the alarm repeatedly. But were ignored by the senior leadership at the Department of Health and Human Services. Please explain what steps you took and the responsibilities you received. Dr. Rick Bright: We knew going into this pandemic that critical medical equipment would be in short supply. I began getting alerts from industry colleagues in mid and late January, telling me that from an outside view, from the industry view that the supply chain was diminishing rapidly telling me that other countries that we relied on to supply many of these masks were blocking export and stopping transfer of those masks to the United States. I learned that China was trying to buy the equipment from the United States producers to have it shipped to China so they could make more. In each of these alerts, and there were dozens of these alerts, I pushed those forward to our leadership and asked for Dr. Cadillac and his senior leadership team. I pushed those warnings to our critical infrastructure protection team. I pushed those warnings to our Strategic National Stockpile team who has the responsibility of procuring those medical supplies for our stockpile. In each of those. I was met with indifference, saying they were either too busy they didn't have a plan. They didn't know who was responsible for procuring those. In some cases they had a sick child and we'll get back to it later in the week. A number of excuses, but never any action. It was weeks after my pushing that finally a survey was sent out to manufacturers or producers of those masks. A five page survey asking producers or companies if they actually made those masks. Rep. Kathy Castor (FL): In your whistleblower filing you discuss a February 7th meeting of the department leadership group, but which you urge the department to focus on securing and 95 masks. Can you describe what happened at that meeting? Dr. Rick Bright: They informed me that they did not say believe there was a critical urgency to procure mass. They conducted some surveys, talked to a few hospitals and some companies and they didn't yet see a critical shortage. And I indicated that we know there will be a critical shortage of these supplies. We need to do something to ramp up production. They indicated if we notice there is a shortage that we will simply change the CDC guidelines to better inform people who should not be wearing those masks. So that would save those masks for healthcare workers. My response was, I cannot believe you can sit and say that with a straight face. That was an absurd. Rep. Kathy Castor (FL): In fact, it took three months from your initial warnings - until mid April for the federal government to invoke its authority under the Defense Production Act, to require the production of millions of more N-95 masks. And even then, the administration required the production of only 39 million masks which is far fewer than you and other experts said that we would need. What was the consequence of this three month delay and inadequate response. Were lives in danger? Dr. Rick Bright: Lives were in danger and I believe lives were lost. And not only that, we were forced to procure the supplies from other countries without the right quality standards. So even our doctors and nurses in the hospitals today are wearing N-95 Mark masks from other countries that are not providing the sufficient protection that a US standard N-95 mask would provide them. Some of those masks are only 30% effective. Therefore, nurses are rushing in the hospitals thinking they're protected and they're not. 2:15:50 Dr. Rick Bright: I believe there's a lot of work that we still need to do. And I think we need still, I don't think I know, we need still a comprehensive plan and everyone across the government and everyone in America needs to know what that plan is and what role they play. There are critical steps that we need to do to prepare for that fall, for that winter coming. We do not still have enough personal protective equipment to manage our healthcare workers and protect them from influenza and COVID-19. We still do not have the supply chains ramped up for the drugs and vaccines and we still don't have plans in place on how we distribute those drugs and vaccines. And we still do not have a comprehensive testing strategy. So Americans know which tests do what, what to do with that information. And we know how to find this virus and trap it and kill it. There's a lot of work we still have to do. 3:40:15 Dr. Rick Bright: I think what's really interesting about the testing story that gets lost in the narrative sometimes is the confusion about the different types of tests. There's an antigen test that tells you if you have the virus in you, there's a PCR test, it says it may the fragments of the virus and there's antibody tests, it looks at your antibody titer to try to tell you you've been exposed already maybe immune to that the virus. There's a lot of confusion, I think the first thing HHS needs to do is determine which of those tests is most important to achieve which objective. If the antigen test is was needed, because it's faster and lower cost, and more readily available, in some cases, what does it tell Americans? What does it tell employers? What does it tell schools about the potential for an individual who has a positive or negative on that test and their potential to have different results the next day or later that day? There's a lot of confusion about these tests. So I think the first thing that HHS should do is determine the type of test and how that test would be used effectively. And then make sure that we have enough of those types of tests and they're in the right place and the people using them know what the data tells them and how to use it effectively. I think there's a lot of confusion there and they need leadership in HHS to distinguish those challenges and clarify that for the American public. 3:41:30 Rep. Blunt Rochester (DE): Why do you think that our nation has struggled with ramping up the testing capacity, unlike other countries, and were there contingencies in place or a backup, in light of this situation we're in now. Dr. Rick Bright: I think part of the struggle is waiting too late to think about it and to get it started. When we've had conversations with some manufacturers, they've been very creative and how they can ramp up. Another part of the challenge is, we have allowed many of these capabilities to be offshore. And so we have much more capability of expanding domestic capacity when it's in our country, and we can ramp up and bring innovation to those companies in the US. But if the supply chain is offshore, and there's a global need and competition for that supply chain, that also significantly impairs our ability to ramp up. 3:47:30 Dr. Rick Bright: We need to have a strategy that everyone follows, the same strategy, to test for the word the viruses who's infected with this virus. And then we have to appropriately isolate that person in quarantine so they don't infect others. And we rapidly need to trace their contacts to understand who they may have been exposed to, and be able to test to those individuals. And if they've been infected as well, we need to be able to isolate those. Through a concerted coordinated effort across the country, we can be able to identify where that virus is who's been exposed, give those people proper treatment and isolation and can slow the spread of this virus significantly. But that has to be in a coordinated way. We have to have the right tests and enough of those tests. It's not something we do once and we're done. It's something we have to continually do in the community. So it's not just that we need one test for every person in America. We need multiple tests and the right types of tests. We need the right types of individuals and professionals who know how to use those tests to trace the individual contacts and to isolate that virus and stop it from spreading. 4:11:00 Mike Bowen: Until 2004, 90% of all surgical masks worn and I'm including surgical respirators, were domestically made. That year, or about around that year. All of the major domestic mask sellers switched from selling domestically made masks to selling imported masks. Prestige Ameritech was founded in 2005 recognized this as a security issue in 2006. We thought that once America's hospitals learned that their mask supplies were subject to diversion by foreign governments, during pandemics, they would switch back to U.S. made masks. We were wrong. In November of 2007, we received a phone call from BARDA asking for a tour of our mask factory. BARDA was acting on George W. Bush's Presidental Directive 21, the purpose of which was to review America's disaster plans. Brenda Hayden with BARDA gave a presentation which showed that BARDA was concerned about the foreign controlled mask supply. We were thrilled that BARDA had discovered the issue until Brenda said that BARDA was only charged with studying the problem. We were disappointed but we took consolation in the fact that finally, a federal agency knew that the mask supply was in danger. We were very happy to have an ally. Two years later, I received a call from Brenda Hayden. She started the conversation by saying, we have a situation. Her serious tone caused me to ask her if she was talking about a pandemic. And she said, Yes. She asked if we could ramp up production, and I said yes. We built more machines bought an abandoned Kimberly Clark mask factory and tripled and tripled our workforce. America's hospitals needed us and we rose to the occasion. We told them about the high cost of ramping up. And they said they would stay with us. Unfortunately most returned to buying cheaper foreign made masks when they became available. The company survived by laying off 150 people who helped save the US mask supply by taking pay cuts. And by taking on more investors. The H1N1 pandemic, this is 2009 2010, wasn't severe enough to cause the foreign health officials to cut off mask shipments to America. So our predictions didn't come true...yet. In a weakened state, but undaunted, Prestige Ameritech continued saying that the US mask supply was headed for failure. We just didn't know when. In 2004 to give my security story more issue, I formed the Secure Mask Supply Association. You can find it at securemasksupply.org. Paraphrasing Ben Franklin, I told three competing domestic mask makers that if we didn't hang together, we would hang separately, as China was poised to put all of us out of business and put the country at even greater risk, Crosstex, Gerson, and Medecom all with domestic mask making factories agreed and joined the SMSA. Unfortunately, the Secure Mask Supply Associations warnings were also unheeded. During my quest to secure the US mask supply, I had the privilege of working with three BARDA directors, Dr. Robin Robinson, Dr. Richard Hatchet, and Dr. Rick Bright. They were helpful and they encouraged me to go continue warning people about the mask supply. I'll say a little bit more about that. After years of doing this, I quit many times. And the only reason I kept doing it is because of the directors of BARDA. They would encourage me and asked me not to not to quit. They said that they would express their concerns about the masks supply to anyone that I could get to call them. Anyone except reporters. They weren't allowed to talk to reporters, which was very frustrating to me. They also weren't allowed to endorse the Secure Mask Supply Association. Dr. Robinson was going to do so until HHS attorneys told him that it could cost him his job. He called me personally on vacation to tell me that I can confirm that the emails and Dr. Bright's complaint are mine. They are merely the latest of 13 years of emails I sent to BARDA in an effort to get HHS to understand that the US mask supply was destined for failure, Robinson, Hatchet and Bright all wanted to remedy the problem. In my opinion, they didn't have enough authority. Their hearts were in the right places. America was told after 911 that governmental silos had been torn down so that different federal federal agencies could work together for national securities. But I didn't see any of that. The DOD, the VA, the CDC and HHS could have worked together to secure America's mask supply. I suggested this to BARDA and to the CDC on several occasions. 4:23:00 Rep. Greg Walden (OR): This is your email to Dr. Bright and to Laura wolf. It says and I quote, "my government strategy is to help the US government if and only if the VA and DOD become my customers after this thing is over. Mike Bowen: Yes, sir. Rep. Greg Walden (OR): So Madam Chair, I'd like to submit the mail for the record. We'll send you an electronic copy as per our agreements here. Now, Mr. Cohen, I'm sorry. You said you want to help the U.S. government, you want to help Americans get the masks. Yet it appears that there seems to be a condition here. I assume that's because in the past, you ramped up, things went away, people bought from other manufacturers. And so here you're saying, and I have it here in the email, 'My strategy is to help my existing customers and bring on new customers who are willing to sign a long term contract. My government strategy is to help the US government if and only if the VA and DOD become my customers after this thing is over.' And here we were in a crisis is masks are going overseas now. The US government's not your only purchaser, right? Mike Bowen: The U.S. government has never bought from me except during a pandemic, sir. Rep. Greg Walden (OR): Okay. And so... Mike Bowen: In that email, and that statement, was basically saying that I don't want the government to only call me in a pandemic. Give me business during peacetime so that I can survive to help you during a pandemic. Rep. Greg Walden (OR): Did you ever ask for a sole source contract? Mike Bowen: I have. I have been on the DOD and the VA business. And I continually lose to masks that are made in Mexico, because the DOD does not obey the Berry Amendment. They buy foreign masks made in Mexico, because Mexico is a friend of ours and is called a TAA compliant country. Made the decision based on price... Rep. Greg Walden (OR): How long...Sir, if I may, can I reclaim my time? How long, you said you couldn't turn on these lines of manufacturing very quickly. How long? If you got a big order from the government today, would it take you to produce masks? Mike Bowen: Three or four months and the government wants to do that right now. HHS is asking me to do that. Rep. Greg Walden (OR): And it will take three to four months? Mike Bowen: Yes, I'm told. I told him it's going to take three or four months. They only want masks to the end of the year. So I would have to hire 100 people to train 100 people and then fire them at the end of the program. I'm not going to do that. Again. I don't want the government to only deal with me when... Rep. Greg Walden (OR): My time is expired. Madam Chair, I yield back. 4:29:45: *Mike Bowen:** Let me say this: China sells a box of masks for $1. I don't think anybody's making any profit doing that, because I sell them for about $5. So if their prices are so cheap that they've captured most of the world's mass market. Rep. Elliot Engel (NY): Does the government subsidize the Chinese government, the Beijing government? Mike Bowen: I don't know that. I don't know. All I know is their masks cost less than than materials. If I take my labor costs totally out, I'm still nowhere near the cost of their products. 4:30:30 Rep. Elliot Engel (NY): What steps can the federal government take to incentivize more medical manufacturing of critical equipment like surgical face masks in the United States? Mike Bowen: Well as in a letter that I sent to President Obama, I don't think it requires money. I think it requires the government saying and it's a national security problem. It requires the CDC telling America's hospitals, they are too dependent on foreign aid masks, and put them in legal liability. They have to protect their patients and staff. If in a public forum like this, you say, this is a national security issue, then those hospitals' attorneys are probably going to get on the ball and tell their hospitals to buy American made products. And they don't cost that much. The whole market is only a couple of hundred million dollars. This whole problem, this is a $30 million problem, folks, just for people trying to save pennies across the whole United States. It's not some multibillion dollar problem. 4:36:20 Rep. Brett Guthrie (KY): Mike Bowen: You thought it was necessary to go through Dr. Bright. You couldn't get anybody else to listen to them and Dr. Bright under No, no, no, you got it all wrong. First of all I wasn't looking for I'm just trying to find the information. Oh yeah. I wasn't looking for business. I opened my email. I don't need your business. My phones are ringing off the wall. I'm just I thought of BARDA - Dr. Robinson, Dr. hatchet and Dr. Bright. I thought of them as brothers in arms, and who they couldn't buy my products. I knew that. But they were the only people who believed it. I would like everybody to go to YouTube, put in Michael Burgess and Prestige Ameritech you'll see Mr. Burgess talking at our factory 10 years ago. You'll see him say that only 10% of the mask supplies are made in the United States. I talked to Michael Burgess. Ron Wright. Joe Barton. Patrick Leahy. My associate Matt Conlin talked to Chuck Schumer. I wrote Barack Obama letters, wrote President Trump and everybody in his early administration, Defense Secretary Mattis, General Jeffrey Clark, Nicole Lurie and Anita Patel with CDC, National Academies of Science. Greg Burrell, hundreds of hospitals, hospital purchasing groups, the hospital risk Managers Association. The hospital risk managers Association. Told them the mask supply is going to collapse, this is a risk. Nobody listened. Association of Operating Nurses, the Defense Department, the Veterans Department, Texas Governor Rick Perry. State Texas Rep. Bill Zedler, by the way, Bill Zedler got in dozens of reporters. I've been in every news show. I've done this for 13 years. Nobody listened. And my conscience is clean, Mr. Guthrie. I've been working on this damn issue for 13 years trying to save lives. Nobody listened. And now, I'm not going to take any of this. 4:46:20 Rep. Morgan Griffith (VA): We can't guarantee you a contract. I think everybody agrees we've got to have more made in America. Why not ramp up with the understanding that the policy is likely to change? I think it will change because I think we don't, whether it be masks or other PPE or drug supply, we're going to have to have a significant portion of these items made in the United States going forward. Knowing that, and your phone's ringing off the hook, why not ramp up those four lines? Mike Bowen: Because one day, the pandemics gonna end and the the usage will go down to the basement again, where it was there'll be 10 times less usage. And I'll have all these machines and people and these materials and have nothing to do with them. That's what happened to us before. It was a very difficult thing to ramp up. And let me say this again, let me remind you that we have ramped up. We've gone from making 75,000 respirators I'm going to about four... In 40 days, we'll be ramped up to making 4 million respirator per month. So don't concentrate on these four Chinese machines that we really don't know much about and would be a total pain to get going on top of... I'm trying not to kill my business partner who is in charge of getting all this stuff done. He's working 20 hours a day now with all the projects we've already got now, to dump this on top for some business that may or may not come? Absolutely not. 4:48:40 Rep. Morgan Griffith (VA): Okay, after H1N1 did you continue to produce masks for purposes of restocking the Strategic National Stockpile? Mike Bowen: I can't do that without the Strategic National Stockpile wanting to buy them. Rep. Morgan Griffith (VA):Did you have conversations with BARDA, SNS and HHS at that time about supplying the masks for the National Stockpile? Mike Bowen: I have talked to Greg Burrell on many occasions, sir. I've also offered those machines to him. And I've offered those machines to the Department of Defense. Rep. Morgan Griffith (VA): You're just gonna give the machines or you're gonna give them the production? Mike Bowen: No, listen to this. Here's what I wanted to do. I wanted CDC and VA and DOD to get together I had four machines, that very little money and that could make a whole bunch of masks and for years, and I got 13 years worth of emails, I can document all this stuff. I said to the CDC Hey, we can fix, we can make sure that the Department of Defense and the Veterans Administration always has masks. I got these four machines sitting here doing nothing. Rep. Morgan Griffith (VA): You were willing to give them the production, but not the machines. Mike Bowen: Let me finish. Rep. Morgan Griffith (VA): I'm just trying to sort it out. Mike Bowen: Well here's what I was gonna say. We must use one machine, you'll make your whole annual usage for one machine, and we'll let three of them sit there in our factory just ready to go. When you need them, we can turn those things on and I couldn't get anybody interested in Rep. Morgan Griffith (VA): Were you going to give them to them or lease them? Mike Bowen: Didn't matter. I didn't have any money in them. I said give me your peacetime military hospital business and we'll give you these machines. I'll just sit there. Now we would have if we would have had had some kind of a plan, you know, to get materials and things like that. But I was basically saying we've got a warm base operation is not going to cost you guys anything. I made that offer to several agencies. Rep. Morgan Griffith (VA): I see my time is up. I yield back, Madam Chair. Mike Bowen: And by the way, let me Forgive me for being angry. I'm angry because I've done this for so, so long. And I've been ignored for so long. And I apologize. Rep. Ana Eshoo (CA): Well, Mr. Bowen, I don't think you need to apologize. At least that's my view. I think shame on us. I think shame on all of us that we've allowed this to happen. 4:58:30 Mike Bowen: America has a weakness for low prices. And I think Chinese prices are so low. A few years ago, I decided to go buy a 12 things from Lowe's Lowe's Home Improvement center, and I decided I was going to pay whatever it took to buy American. I couldn't make that decision. That decision was taken away from me. I bought one item, it was a plunger. A toilet plunger was the only thing I could find it was made in America. And it is what it is. It's the people like the Lowe's and Home Depot and the Walmarts and the medical companies that the way they want to make money is to lower their costs to where they lower their cost to go to China. The line is long and wide for people going to China, and that's why we're dependent on them for everything. I mean, go out and look in your closet. Look at your tools, look at everything. It's all from China. And the stuff that's in Mexico... When I say this, half of the US mask supply's in Mexico, it's got reservations to go to China. Mexico is not cheap enough. And hospitals are cash strapped and they're they're bidding out things. If this hadn't happened, Mexico would have lost their business and everything... China would have been five years China would have made all masks and respirators like they do the gowns. 5:35:40 Mike Bowen: I've dealt with this thing for so long and it's been so illogical. And I've tried to figure it out and who's at fault who's at fault. And so people ask me that, who's to blame? And I got to the point where it's human nature. It's all of us. I couldn't convince doctors. I couldn't. Listen to this. I had three directors of BARDA said that, Mike, if you get somebody to call me, I will verify that what you're saying is true. I'll tell them it was true. Mr. Schrader, I couldn't get him to call. I couldn't get hospitals to make that call. I don't think they wanted to hear it. They're programmed to save money. They're not programmed to say, I want to make sure my masks are gonna be here. It didn't compute. I was speaking Greek everyone. So to look at this story, and look back and blame everybody, I'm not even going to do that. I'm looking at this pandemic. There's a silver lining, the silver lining is - told everybody there's a big problem. And we can fix this problem and never go through this again. 5:50:00 Rep. Buddy Carter (GA): I'm still confused about your current capabilities. You said you've got four lines that are just sitting dormant sitting in the right now, is that correct? Mike Bowen: We have four idle respirator manufacturing lines. Yes, sir. Rep. Buddy Carter (GA): And they're just, I mean, they're not being used right now. Mike Bowen: Yes. But...go ahead, finish your question. Rep. Buddy Carter (GA): Yes, they are not being used, right. Correct? So you said you've already gotten machines for those lines. You don't have to procure them. The only thing you're going to have to do is to get staff in order to use those lines. Mike Bowen: No, now there's three things we need to hire 100 people, we need to train 100 people. We need to get all the materials for that and we need to get NIOSH approval. We bought those systems from a defunct Vermont mask company seven years ago, we really don't even know how to use those machines. They're kind of a last resort. And if you'll go back and look at my email to Dr. Bright, I said this would be a basically a pain to do but they're here. And if we need this for infrastructure, let's talk about it. But what we've done in the meantime, is we've gone from making 75,000 respirators a month. Think of that number 75,000 to 2 million, and then in another 40 days, we'll be at 4 million from 75,000. So that's thousands and thousands of percent. Rep. Buddy Carter (GA): You said you bought those you bought them for a purpose. You bought them to use them, right? Mike Bowen: No. Thank you for asking that question. No, they came as part of an acquisition we bought. We bought a defunct a medical company and those machines came as part of the acquisition. And made in China. But go ahead. Rep. Buddy Carter (GA): Did you say earlier that you phones ringing off the hook you got orders coming out of the yazoo? Mike Bowen: Yeah, okay, but I can't go on a suicide mission. I can't ramp up, hire all these people for something that I don't know how it's going to end or how long it's going to last. And we did this. You gotta remember, we almost went out of business doing this before. We ramped up and we spent money and got a bigger factory, hired 150 people, built more machines. And then one day, the business not only went away, it went smaller than it was. And we had to raise a million dollars. We had to take pay cuts, and we had to fire 150 people. Rep. Buddy Carter (GA): So what you're saying, and I'm not trying to put words in your mouth, but I'm saying I'm not gonna use them, you're not gonna fire them up unless you get a long term contract from the government. Mike Bowen: I'm not going on a suicide mission. Absolutely. Rep. Buddy Carter (GA): So that's yes, you're not going to use them unless you get a long term contract... Mike Bowen: Unless I get a customer who is going to commit to use those machines so I don't have to fire 100 people. Rep. Buddy Carter (GA): So that means that you'd have to have a long term contract from the government in order to do it. Mike Bowen: Yeah. Listen, we've gone from one shift to 3. 80 people to 200. We're making four times the products we made. We're making over a million masks a day, don't you look at me, and act like I'm sitting on my ass and not firing up four machines. It's not like just turning on a switch. It's putting people's lives... It's gonna, I'm not sure...Listen...let me tell you this. Rep. Buddy Carter (GA): I understand. I'm a businessman. And I understand what it takes Mike Bowen: I watched my business partner cry when he had to lay those people off. We're not doing that again. Rep. Buddy Carter (GA): So in order so it's gonna have to be a long term contract from the government, though, that that's my point. Mike Bowen: From somebody. Rep. Buddy Carter (GA): And I get it from somebody Mike Bowen: I can't hire 100 people based on a maybe based on a when's it gonna end who knows? Rep. Buddy Carter (GA): None of us can whether we're in the private sector or the public sector, we can't do that. We all understand that. Mike Bowen: You don't. You're not risking your livelihood and your... Rep. Buddy Carter (GA): I risked my livelihood for 30 years. As an independent retail pharmacist, I never had long... Mike Bowen: You want to buy machines or hire 100 people, I'll tell you what, I'll give you my machines if you want to hire 100 people, Rep. Buddy Carter (GA): But but the point is, is that you're here saying that I'm not gonna do it unless I get a long term contract from the government. Mike Bowen: I'm just gonna wait, no, no, no, go back to the context. The context of that was in those emails in hey, here's four machines. Let's... they're here, but I can't turn them on unless it's a long term deal. I'm not just going to flip them on and have you flip them off and leave me hanging like everybody did last time. And let me tell you what happened last time, the government sits around doesn't buy American made products, comes to me in a pandemic buys millions of masks. In 2010, you know what they do for those masks, they stored them for 10 years, then they auction them to some knucklehead who put them on eBay and sold them for 10 times what they were worth. So not only did I... have I not seen the government in 10 years, I got to compete with my own masks. And I gotta have thousands of phone calls to me from people who bought that 10 year old masks of mine on eBay for 10 times the price yelling at me, and I had nothing to do with it because the government waited and sold this stuff. I've been hit from every side on this thing. We have bled for this country. We have created jobs, we put our factory in Texas when everybody else had already left the country. So don't don't sit here and judge me for four machines that aren't running that I'd have to hire and fire 100 people for. I'm not going to do it. Rep. Buddy Carter (GA): Not unless you have a long term government contract. Rep. Anna Eshoo, Chairwoman: The gentleman's time has expired. Hearing: Corporate Liability During the Coronavirus Pandemic, United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary, May 12, 2020 Watch on CSPAN Witnesses Kevin Smartt - CEO of Kwik Chek Convenience Stores Anthony “Marc” Perrone - International President of United Food and Commercial Workers International Rebecca Dixon - Executive Director of the National Employment Law Project Leroy Tyner - General Counsel for Texas Christian University Professor David Vladeck - A.B. Chettle Chair in Civil Prodecure at * Georgetown University Law Center Helen Hill - CEO of Explore Charleston Transcript: 13:15 Professor David Vladeck: My name is David Vladek. I teach at Georgetown Law School mostly litigation related courses. And I spent more than 40 years as a litigator, mostly in state and federal court. Like all Americans, I am anxious to get the nation back on its feet. I applaud the committee for exploring ways to facilitate that process. And I can only imagine the heavy burden that weighs on your shoulders. As my testimony makes clear, businesses like Mr. Smarts that act reasonably to safeguard employees, and the public are already protected from liability. But as all of the panelists have said, We urgently need science-based COVID-19 enforceable guidelines from our public health agencies. Those guidelines not only safeguard the public, but at the same time, they provide the standards of liability that Mr. Tyner was just talking about compliance with those guidelines will eliminate any liability risk. On the other hand, it would be counterproductive for Congress to take the unprecedented act of bestowing immunity on companies that act irresponsibly. Workers and consumers are going to open this economy, not government sponsored immunity. We all know that large segments of the public are still justifiably fearful about reopening. Granting immunity would only feed those fears. Immunity sends the message that precautions to control the spread of virus is not a priority. Even worse, immunity signals to workers and consumers that they go back to work or they go to the grocery store at their peril. Why? Because the Congress has given employers and businesses a free pass the short change safety. 16:30 Professor David Vladeck: The line between unreasonable or negligent misconduct, and gross misconduct is murky, context based, and fact dependent. Any tort claim can constitute gross negligence, depending on the wrongdoer state of mind. Second, differentiating between the two tiers of liability turn on intent, questions of intent, questions of intent are factual questions for a jury, not a judge to resolve and conduct is labeled negligent or grossly negligent only at the end of a case, not at the outset. In other words, we don't know for sure whether conduct is grossly negligent until the jury says so. And third, and most importantly, the difference is utterly meaningless if we care about containing the spread of the virus. Irresponsible acts spread the virus just as easily, just as effectively as reckless acts. 17:45 Professor David Vladeck: Legislation that simply displaces state liability laws is not only unprecedented, it is likely unconstitutional. 30:40 Sen. Diane Feinstein (CA): ...how the corona virus spreads? How could a customer of... Well, given how it spreads, nobody really knows how, could a customer of a particular business prove they were infected at a particular business? If professor Vladeck could respond, I believe he's our legal counsel here. Professor David Vladeck: Yes. So the answer is they can't. See are the viruses so transmissible, that it's very difficult unless you have a situation like you've had in the meatpacking plant to know where the virus comes from. In New York, one of the findings was that even people who had been housebound for a long time contracted the virus, even though they hadn't gone out. And so part of the reason why there have been almost no tort cases, about COVID-19 people have bandied about figures, but the truth is, they're been almost none of these cases and they're likely to be very few, because in order to plead a case in court, you have to be able to establish causation. And if someone who's been out and about walking on the streets, visiting the grocery store, visiting another shop, contracts virus, there's no way in the world they're going to be able to say, it's Mr. Smith's fault. 43:45 Sen. Patrick Leahy (VT): Some people are talking about this wave of COVID-19 litigation as the justification for corporate immunity. Actually about 6% of the COVID-19 related lawsuits are tort related, constantly seeking immunity for 6%. And moreover, the corporation's claiming they need this immunity are often the ones that subjected the employees to mandatory arbitration clause, we know those almost always favor the employer. So, can you tell us how the prevalence of mandatory arbitration clauses actually within or across key industries impacts the likelihood of a so called wave litigation? Rebecca Dixon: Yes, Senator, I would say that the wave of litigation is actually mostly businesses suing other businesses and businesses trying to enforce insurance contracts related to the pandemic. So that's one important thing to put out there. And when you have forced arbitration, you must go through a secret process with an arbitrator. So you are barred from going to court. And we know that employees are being coerced into signing these if they don't sign those, they don't get the job. Sen. Patrick Leahy (VT): So the additional shield against losses would pretty much be done with, is that correct? Rebecca Dixon: Correct. Sen. Patrick Leahy (VT): Thank you. 1:25:15 Rebecca Dixon: For workers in particular, right now, they don't really have any enforceable recourse if their employer is not following the guidelines because they're not enforceable. And if they are injured because of it, they have the workers compensation system or they can file an OSHA complaint, but they're pretty much locked out other than that, so that's going to make it really risky for workers to when they're making a choice between wages and their health to choose to come back to the workplace. 1:36:00 Sen. Chris Coons (DE): Let's just clear the deck on this one. Mr. Smart, Professor, excuse me, President if I could Perrone, do you believe the federal government has set clear, consistent science based enforceable standards for what's expected of employers to protect the safety of their workers during a pandemic? Kevin Smartt: I do not believe so. No. Sen. Chris Coons (DE): Mr. President? Anthony “Marc” Perrone: Senator, I don't think that they've done that for the employees or the customers. 2:08:04 Sen. Kamala Harris (CA): In 49 states employers are required to carry workers compensation insurance. Is that correct? Rebecca Dixon: Yes, that's correct. Sen. Kamala Harris (CA): And is it correct that by and large businesses that carry workers compensation cannot be sued by their workers for negligence? Rebecca Dixon: That's also correct. Sen. Kamala Harris (CA): And is it also correct that forced arbitration agreements also prohibit workers from seeking justice in courtrooms? Rebecca Dixon: That's also correct. Hearing: COVID-19: Safely Getting Back to Work and Back to School, United States Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, May 12, 2020 Watch on CSPAN Witnesses Anthony Fauci - Director National of the Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health Robert Redfield - Director of the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Admiral Brett Giroir - Assistant Secretary For Health at the United States Department of Health and Human Services Stephen Hahn - Commissioner of Food and Drugs at the United States Food and Drug Administration Transcript: 46:45 Sen. Lamar Alexander (TN): Let's look down the road three months, there'll be about 5,000 campuses across the country trying to welcome 20 million college students. 100,000 Public Schools welcoming 50 million students. What would you say to the Chancellor of the University of Tennessee Knoxville, or the principal of a public school about how to persuade parents and students to return to school in August? Let's start with treatments and vaccines first, Dr. Fauci, and if you can save about half of my five minutes for Admiral Giroir's testing I would appreciate it. Anthony Fauci: Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. Well, I would be very realistic with the chancellor and tell him that when we're thinking in terms. Sen. Lamar Alexander (TN): It's a her in this case. Anthony Fauci: I would tell her, I'm sorry, sir, that in this case, that the idea of having treatments available or a vaccine to facilitate the re-entry of students into the fall term would be something that would be a bit of a bridge too far. 48:30 Anthony Fauci: But we're really not talking about necessarily treating a student who gets ill, but how the student will feel safe in going back to school. If this were a situation where we had a vaccine, that would really be the end of that issue in a positive way, but as I mentioned in my opening remarks, even at the top speed we're going, we don't see a vaccine playing in the ability of individuals to get back to school this term. 52:50 Anthony Fauci: What we have worked out is a guideline framework of how to safely open America again. And there are several checkpoints in that with a gateway first of showing, depending on the dynamics of an outbreak in a particular region, state, city or area that would really determine the speed and the pace with which one does re enter or reopen. So my word has been, and I've been very consistent in this, that I get concerned, if you have a situation with a dynamics of an outbreak in an area such that you are not seeing that gradual over 14 days decrease that would allow you to go to phase one. And then if you pass the checkpoints of phase one, go to phase two and phase three. What I've expressed then and again, is my concern that if some areas city states or what have you jump over those various checkpoints and prematurely opened up without having the capability of being able to respond effectively and efficiently. My concern is that we will start to see little spikes that might turn into outbreaks. 54:30 Anthony Fauci: But this is something that I think we also should pay attention to, that states, even if they're doing it at an appropriate pace, which many of them are and will, namely a pace that's commensurate with the dynamics of the outbreak, that they have in place already The capability that when there will be cases, there is no doubt, even under the best of circumstances. When you pull back on mitigation, you will see some cases appear. It's the ability and the capability of responding to those cases, with good identification, isolation and contact tracing will determine whether you can continue to go forward as you try to reopen America. 1:05:40 Sen. Bernie Sanders (VT): The official statistic, Dr. Fauci is that 80,000 Americans have died from the pandemic. There are some epidemiologists who suggests the number may be 50% higher than that. What do you think? Anthony Fauci: I'm not sure, Senator Sanders if it's gonna be 50% higher, but most of us feel that the number of deaths are likely higher than that number, because given the situation, particularly in New York City, when they were really strapped with a very serious challenge to their healthcare system, that there may have been people who died at home, who did have COVID, who are not counted as COVID because they never really got to the hospital. So the direct answer to your question, I think you are correct, that the number is likely higher. I don't know exactly what percent higher, but almost certainly, it's higher. 1:26:30 Sen. Rand Paul (KY): You've stated publicly that you'd bet at all that survivors of Coronavirus have some form of immunity. Can you help set the record straight that the scientific record as is as being accumulated is supportive? That infection with Coronavirus likely leads to some form of immunity. Dr. Fauci? Anthony Fauci: Yeah, thank you for the question, Senator Paul. Yes, you're correct. That I have said that, given what we know about the recovery from viruses, such as Corona viruses in general, or even any infectious disease, with very few exceptions, that when you have antibody present is very likely indicates a degree of protection. I think it's in the semantics of how this is expressed. When you say has it been formally proven by long term Natural History studies, which is the only way that you can prove one is it protective, which I said and would repeat is likely that it is, but also what is the degree or titer of antibody that gives you that critical level of protection. And what is the durability, as I've often said, and again, repeat, you can make a reasonable assumption that it would be protective. But Natural History studies over a period of months to years will then tell you definitively if that's the case. 1:31:30 Anthony Fauci: You don't know everything about this virus. And we really better be very careful, particularly when it comes to children. Because the more and more we learn, we're seeing things about what this virus can do that we didn't see from the studies in China or in Europe. For example, right now, children presenting with COVID-19, who actually have a very strange inflammatory syndrome, very similar to Kawasaki syndrome. I think we've got to be careful if we are not cavalier in thinking that children are completely immune to the deleterious effects. So again, you're right in the numbers that children in general do much, much better than adults and the elderly, and particularly those with underlying conditions. But I am very careful, and hopefully humble in knowing that I don't know everything about this disease, and that's why I'm very reserved in making broad predictions. 2:30:15 Anthony Fauci: We do the testing on these vaccines, we are going to make production risk, which means we will start putting hundreds of millions of dollars of federal government money into the development and production of vaccine doses before we even know it works. So that when we do and I hope we will and have cautious optimism that we will ultimately get an effective and safe vaccine that we will have doses available to everyone who needs it in the United States, and even contribute to the needs globally because we are partnering with a number of other countries. 2:49:00 Sen. Mitt Romney (UT): Given our history with vaccine creation for other coronaviruses, how likely is it? I mean, is it extremely likely we're going to get a vaccine within a year or two? Is it just more likely than not? Or is it kind of a long shot? Anthony Fauci: It's definitely not a long shot, Senator Romney, the I would think that it is more likely than not that we will, because this is a virus that induces an immune response and people recover. The overwhelming majority of people recover from this virus, although there is good morbidity and mortality at a level in certain populations. The very fact that the body is capable of spontaneously clearing the virus tells me that at least from a conceptual standpoint, we can stimulate the body with a vaccine that would induce a similar response. So although there's no guarantee, I think it's clearly much more likely than not that somewhere within that timeframe, we will get a vaccine for this virus. 3:06:50 Sen. Jacky Rosen (NV): Can you talk about PPE for the general public? Anthony Fauci: Well, you know, the best PPE for the general public, if possible right now is to maintain the physical and social distancing. But as we've said, and I think all of us would agree, there are certain circumstances in which it is beyond your control, when you need to do necessary things. Like go to the drugstore and get the occasion, go to the grocery store and get your food that in fact, you need some supplementation to just physical distancing. That's the reason why some time ago, recommendation was made, I believe it was Dr. Redfield at the CDC, who first said that about getting some sort of a covering we don't want to call it a mask because back then we were concerned, we would be taking masks away from the health care providers with some sort of mask like facial covering, I think for the time being, should be a very regular part of how we prevent the spread of infection. And in fact, the more as you go outside right here and where I'm sitting in Washington DC, you can see many people out there with masks on, which gives me some degree of comfort that people are taking this very seriously. 3:20:00 Sen. Lamar Alexander (TN): You didn't say you shouldn't go back to school because we won't have a vaccine? Anthony Fauci: No, absolutely not. Mr. Chairman, what I was referring to, is that going back to school would be more in the realm of knowing the landscape of infection with regard to testing. And as Admiral Giroir said, it would depend on the dynamics of the outbreak in the region where the school is, but I did not mean to imply at all any relationship between the availability of a vaccine and treatment and our ability to go back to school. Addressing the Senate: McConnell: Americans on the Front Lines Need Action, Mitch McConnell, Senate Majority Leader, May 12, 2020 Hearing: Shark Tank: New Tests for COVID-19, United States Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, May 7, 2020 Watch on Youtube Watch on CSPAN Witnesses: Francis Collins, MD, PhD - Director of the National Institutes of Health Gary Disbrow, PhD.- Acting Director, Biomedical Advanced Research And Development Authority, Office Of The Assistant Secretary For Preparedness And Response at the Department of Health and Human Services Transcript: 1:36:20 Gary Disbrow: We do know that Coronavirus, the COVID-19, is one the immune system recognizes and eradicate the virus, we do know that people recover from it. And after a while you can't recover the virus anymore. That's good. That tells you the immune system knows what to do with this. It's not like HIV. At the same time, we do know that this virus can mutate. We've already been able to observe that it's an RNA virus. Fortunately, it doesn't mutate the way influenza does. So we don't think it will have this sort of very rapid seasonal change that we have to deal with with influenza, which means last year's vaccine is maybe not the one you want this year. We really don't know the answer, though to a lot of your questions, and they're fundamentally important. Can you get reinfected with this? There have been a few cases of that they're not incredibly convincing. If you do develop immunity, how long does it last? We do not have a good reason... Sen. Bill Cassidy (LA): Can I ask you though there is evidence both from rhesus monkeys that this antibody is protective it and there's also from SARS1 if you will, somebody writes about immunity being for 18 years. So it does seem If the scientific evidence is pointing in that direction, Gary Disbrow: It's pointing in that direction. You're absolutely right. And we're counting on that to be the answer here. But until we know, we will need to know. Sen. Bill Cassidy (LA): Now, let me ask you though what is defined as knowing because knowing may not be for one or two years, and yet we have to make policy decisions, hopefully before then, Gary Disbrow: Indeed, and I think at the present time to be able to evaluate the meaning of a positive antibody test, one should be quite cautious, I think it's going to help a lot to see if there anybody who has such an antibody test, it turns out to get infected again, in the next six months or so because a virus is going to be around, we'll start to get an early warning sign there. But we won't know whether it's three years or five years or 10 years. Sen. Bill Cassidy (LA): So you suggested to me that not only should we test but we should be tracking who is positive so that we can follow them longitudinally to see whether or not they develop once more. Gary Disbrow: With their appropriate consent of course, and this is where the All of Us program that you and I have talked about which is enrolled now 300,000 Americans who are pre consented for exactly this kind of follow up is going to be very useful to track and see what happens. 2:16:00 Sen. Mitt Romney (UT): I was in a hearing yesterday with the Homeland Security Committee. And the suggestion was between 50 and 90% of the people that get COVID-19 have no symptoms. If that's the case, should we let this run its course to the population and not try and test every person. I'm saying that a bit as a straw man, but I'm interested in your perspective. Gary Disbrow: I appreciate you're putting it forward as a straw man, because while it is true, that lots of people seem to get this virus without any symptoms at all. And the estimates are that maybe 60% of new cases are transmitted by such people. It's still the case that 74,000 people have died from this disease. And so the people who are out there infected who may not themselves be suffering or passing this on becoming a vector to others who are vulnerable with chronic illnesses or in the older age group. And sometimes young people too. Let's not say that they're immune. There are certainly plenty of sad circumstances of young people who really you would not have thought would be hard hit by this, who have gotten very little or even died. So I think it is extremely unusual to have a virus like this that is so capable of infecting people without symptoms, but having them then spread it on, we just haven't encountered something like that before. But it doesn't mean that it's not a terribly dangerous virus for those people who aren't so lucky and who get very sick and end up in the ICU and perhaps lose their lives. The only way we're really going to put a stop to that is to know who the people are who are infected, even if they have no symptoms, get them quarantine, follow their contacts. It's just good solid shoe leather public health, and we've learned it over the decades and it applies here too. 2:31:45 Gary Disbrow: In terms of the need to track people to see what happens, and particularly as was brought up earlier, is the presence of antibody actually something you can say makes you immune. I think maybe our best chance at this is this program that Congress has funded, and it's part of 21st Century Cures Act. So I'll have to specifically give a shout out to this committee about that to the chairman. And that is this program called All of Us, which is tracking when we get there a million people over time, we're already up to over 300,000 that have signed up. And those individuals answer lots of questions. Their electronic health records are available for researchers to look at after they've been anonymized. They get blood samples over the course of time, so you can track and see, oh, it didn't have the antibody, then oh, now it does have the antibody, what happened there? We should be able to utilize that for this and many other purposes to try to get some of those answers. And I totally agree. We need those. Hearing: COVID-19 Response, United States House Committee on Appropriations, May 6, 2020 Watch on Youtube Watch on CSPAN Witnesses: Dr. Tom Frieden - President and CEO of Resolve to Save Lives, and former Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Dr. Caitlin Rivers - Senior Scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, Assistant Professor in the Department of Environmental Health and Engineering at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Transcript: 47:00 Dr. Caitlin Rivers: You heard from Dr. Frieden that contact tracing is really a key component, a key approach that will allow us to reopen safely. One thing that I don't hear a lot about about contact tracing, though that I want to bring to your attention is that it's also a key source of data that we badly need. We currently have very little understanding about where people are getting infected, our most new cases in long term care facilities or correctional facilities, which we know are high risk settings. But we don't have a good sense of whether 99% of our cases originate in those special settings or whether it's a small fraction. We don't know whether people who are essential workers still performing duties in the community are getting infected, or we don't know whether most infections are happening at home. Getting a better understanding of what that looks like will help us to guide better interventions. If it is special settings.

Saluton! Estas me, Tyson Saner. I am your every-other-epi host for this iteration of Succotash, The Comedy Soundcast Soundcast, currently called Succotash Shut-In, The Soundcast Stimulus Package. But you probably know by now because you clicked on it, and we thank you for it. Next week Marc Hershon will be doing the hosting duties but this week is mine and welcome to it. I've got clips for you from a handful of soundcasts you may want to listen to more of in the future. That's how this works. I've got clips from Profiles in Eccentricity, Strange Times, and Nooner. This episode of Succotash is (fake) sponsored by Henderson's Pants' Massage-O-Pedic Trousers and Trumpoetry.com And away we go… CLIPS Profiles in EccentricitiesFirst up: Profiles in Eccentricities from Starburns Audio. It's a show about weirdos, hosted by comedians John Fahy, Aaron Pita, and Matt Brousseau. Each episode tells a tale about someone who lives afoul of the rules most of us live by. What I've chosen for you is from the show from April 15, 2020. It profiles Franz Kafka, and it's called "Franz Kafka: Neurotic Maniac. The episode's description reads: This week Matt treats the boys to the life of the famously strange author of The Metamorphosis, Franz Kafka. Despondent in relationships and acutely tormented by his father, Kafka is an overly neurotic figure awaiting judgment. You can email them at ProfilesInEccentricities@gmail.com, and you can listen to them on Stitcher and Apple Podcasts, and they even have a YouTube presence. Strange TimesFrom Davian Dent, Kat Sorens, and Dom Risk, longtime listeners of Succotash will know that we have clipped Strange Times quite a few times. And in fact, we have also had David Dent on as a guest at least twice. I've chosen a clip for you from the May 9 show 2020 entitled invisible Jews. His description says "This week our wayward sons turn their third eye to cyclists, furlough life, Carol Baskin, coronavirus, locked-down competitiveness, and sex music. Our clip features talk about VE day. Nooner Our final selection is from the Nooner soundcast on the Smodcast Network, the weekly live show from Kevin Smith's soundcast internet radio. It's currently hosted by Marty Yu, Steven Krueger, Cassandra Cardenes, and John Sylvain. This clip is from Episode 191 from July 9, of 2019. It's description reads: "Today on a very special Nooner the MIRPs (Minor Internet Radio Personality - As far as I know that term was coined by Nooner…), the MIRPs tried D&D for the first time. John Sylvain DM's - or "dungeon master's" with two special guest stars joining the adventure. Don't worry, there's still the casual racism, odd profanities, frequent over-talking, and a couple current event references tossed in, too. But then there's the looming threat of the dreaded Lich monster." Now recently, on May 12 2020, the gang at Nooner had another Dungeons and Dragons episode that you can listen to on Soundcloud, on Stitcher, on Apple Podcasts and wherever fine podcasts are purchased and eaten. During a regular show. I maintain a running Tumblr commentary, and you can reach out to Nooner via email by clicking the link. DONE Congratulations! You made it to the end! Give yourself a boo-ya. Do people still say "boo-ya"? Have the millennials re appropriated it yet? Or perhaps the generation or two that came after them? How long does it take to make a cultural generation anyway? It's not important. It's a largely made-up idea, anyway. Speaking of anyway, I hope you enjoyed these few ear morsels I have gathered for your listening experience. And if you do decide to listen to more of the shows I've selected for you, then I've done my job successfully. You can find the homesites and social media links to all these shows we feature on the Succotashshow.com homesite. So why not reach out to those shows and tell them what you think of their material? Tell 'em Succotash Shut-In sent you - we'd appreciate that a great deal. After all, it's what we mean when we ask you to please pass the Succotash. — Tyson Saner

We hear all the time that we should love ourselves more, but what does that actually look like in real life? Can self-love be more than buying ourselves flowers? Jennie Taylor shares the tools in her self-love playbook and speaks honestly about loving herself through a deeply personal surrender. Music by Terry Hughes Inspired to create something for yourself? Visit https://ever-changing.net/ Links: https://thriveglobal.com/stories/the-self-love-playbook https://expand-coaching.com/ ---- Full Transcript Taylor: We all have that one thing. We all have that thing we think we're supposed to be, that we think will bring us happiness or will make us worthy of love and joy. What I've learned is that one of the deepest ways you can love yourself is just letting go of that thing. What does it mean to love ourselves? To have our own back and be on our own team as we make the tough decisions? Is self-love really just narcissism? Is it just a new age thing? We'll speak today with Jennie Taylor, who has been on a wide and deep journey to understand what self love means for her, and who will share with us how we can learn to actually do it. This is Shame Piñata. I’m Colleen Thomas. Welcome to Shame Piñata, where we talk about creating rites of passage for real-life transitions. As you know, in this first season on Shame Piñata we are focusing on weddings & commitment ceremonies, a type of ceremony we are all familiar with. And we've also touched just a bit on the idea of self-commitment ceremonies, where a person commits to being their own best partner. Today we're going to look at little more deeply into the idea of self love. I came across a wonderful article by Jennie Taylor which helped me understand that self love can be an action instead of a feeling and also that it's really a practice from moment to moment, ever-evolving as we learn to know and trust ourselves more. This idea of self love as an action reminds me of one of my favorite Mr. Rogers quotes, “Love isn't a state of perfect caring. It is an active noun like 'struggle'. To love someone is to strive to accept that person exactly the way he or she is, right here and now – and to go on caring even through times that may bring us pain." So, self love can look like us accepting ourselves, no matter how we're feeling in the moment. And when you think about it, isn't that really the way you'd want someone to love you, to just accept you the way you are in this moment? I also learned from Jennie's article (and this shouldn't be a surprise) that our ability to be in our body and feel our feelings has a huge impact on our ability to accept ourselves and show up for ourselves in the moment. Because if I'm not in touch with my body, I won't be as able to identify my feelings and listen to what they're telling me. I'll be disconnected from the cues that help me make decisions like should I stay or do I want to leave? Is this job a good fit for me? Is this relationship meeting my needs? Jennie and I had a wonderful conversation a few months ago. We spoke about self love within the context of the first few weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic in the US. Thomas: So what does self love mean to you? Taylor: So for me, self love has really been a journey of discovering that it's really a practice. When I first started out, I was looking for this feeling of self love. And what I've learned in going through so many layers of it is that it's a ritual, it's a habit, it's a practice. It's a way I show up for myself. Specifically, I'd say the most important thing is allowing myself to feel my feelings, setting boundaries with people. That practice, you know, includes being mindful of how I spend my time, how I talk to myself, how I care for my body, it's those... practicing compassion and acceptance. So all of those things are more doing rather than a feeling. Thomas: So I know that you've been on a journey to find self love and to concretize and weave it into your life. Can you tell us a little bit about what that journey looked like? Taylor: Yes. I feel like the word that comes up is resistance. It's just this big journey of resistance. And me like fighting it and then giving in and fighting and giving in... And so yeah, I mean, I think, for me, it's always peeling back new layers. It started with things like, you know, trying to really like myself in my 20s, buying myself flowers, allowing myself alone time, cooking myself a nice dinner. So there were these things that I was like, yes, this is a part of self care. And I'm just going to have a special time with myself. But then what I realized when I peel back that layer is like, I still had really harsh self talk and I still was really hard on myself if I would make a mistake, sort of beat myself up. And so that led me to this other layer of like doing the work on that part of me. What was driving the the negative self talk? How could I shift that, you know? So becoming conscious of that. And then once that shifted, it was like I stopped being overly critical of myself, I stopped doing things that were bad for me like, you know, drinking a decent amount or you know, eating badly, hanging out with people that were just blatantly not good for me. But then I really still was disconnected from my body. And so when I would be stressed, I wouldn't leave a situation, or when I would be feeling really not good physically, you know, sometimes you can get yourself in a situation and you're, you physically just feel like your energy is capped or it's being drained. And I realized I wasn't criticizing myself but I was also still putting myself in these situations where I didn't feel good about myself. So that was this whole 'nother you know, layer and I would say, where I am now is sort of... it’s feeling all of my feelings, the light, the dark, the things I'm nervous make me a bad person or make me unlovable. It's feeling all of that with a really deep level of acceptance and then checking in with my body on like, how well I'm doing. You know what I mean? So if I still feel anxiety, I know I'm not there. Because when I'm in my truth and when I'm in my aligned place of self love, my body feels free, it feels clear, it feels good. Did you get that? Jennie lets her body tell her how well she's taking care of herself. She makes the best decision she can from moment to moment and then checks in with how her body is feeling to see if her decision was a supportive one. Thomas: I love that idea, that metric, of listening to the body checking in with the body. How does my body feel? Because the body doesn't lie. Taylor: Absolutely. And your intuition speaks through your body. And it's funny because I actually run a triggers... like a workshop on triggers. So how to help people process these stuck beliefs and through the body. And one of the things coolest things is when you do the work, you can actually have a feeling that really triggers your body and it dissolves the more you work with it and dance with it and love it and play with it. So it's a check-in and you can sort of feel the progress within your body to over time. Thomas: Yeah, I was always taught that it was mind, body, heart, spirit, but I've only recently realized that the emotions in the body are and so much in the gut as well. Thomas: Yeah. When my father passed away, that was probably one of the biggest grieving times I had and, and a lot of times when I was crying, there was no content. I wasn't thinking about him. I wasn't missing him even I was just... my body needed to cry. And yes, and it was it was almost like, you know, throwing up or something. It was just like, I had to just stepped back and let the body do it. And it helped if somebody was there to hold space, so I didn't feel like I had to stop. And then I just would go and go and go and go and go and go and go and go, go, go, go go... just just let it go. And just until it was done, and like, okay, that had to happen. Taylor: Yes. What you're talking about is so helpful when we when we start talking about using the body to process emotion. When we're in our heads and we're creating story and we're crying and we're making it worse and making ourselves sad, that's a different type. What you're talking about is absolutely hands down the body just processing and moving on emotion when there's not a lot of thought, there's not a narrative. You're just getting it out. I felt like that with this virus as well going around. Have you? Thomas: No, I think I'm still in my head. Taylor: You're still in your head? Thomas: I'm still... I'm still making plans, making plays. Yeah, you know, worrying and calling people in the you know, I'm still in that place. Taylor: Right, right, right. Yeah, I have there been a couple of days where I am not sure what I'm crying it out, but I just have to release. It's like there's this collective angsty typing that is just heavy. We've got to get it out, you know? I think a big part of my practice has been is this useful for me to feel this or is this creating more of this negative energy? You know, so checking in on what the intention behind feeling the negative emotion is. Is it ego? Is it my body processing? Thomas: Nice. Yeah. And how do you how do you tell? Taylor: Usually it's a head versus - and a lot of thought - versus that body feeling that you're talking about. And for me, when I'm processing emotion, in my body, it feels like it sort of wells up and then I have to get it out, usually through tears, a lot of times breath or sound. Like if it's energy in my throat, that's usually not ego. But when it's my head sort of making me inferior making a victim, making me... you know, where there's like a strong narrative around it... Thomas: Yeah. Yep, I hear ya. Taylor: Yeah. So. And, and fear also, I think lives in our head when we're down that rabbit hole of like all the things that could happen. Yeah, we're in fear and fear is ego. So when we're scared and we have scary thoughts in our heads, maybe ones that keep us awake at night or steal our attention while we're at a stoplight, those moments can take us out of our body, into our head. And the weird thing is that we can't really release that tension or resolve the feelings when we're in our head, because the emotions are in the body. I asked Jennie what she discovered about herself over the years. Taylor: I mean, there's so many things what immediately came to mind was that I am lovable. I feel like that sounds very trite. I've also discovered just how hard on myself I was. But I think overall, which includes both of those things is that I'm human. You know, this is all part of it. And the ups and the downs and the dark and the light that's it's all safe. You know, and the truth is, it's between me and me. I don't need to expose it and to put it out there and make sure other people love my dark. I'm the only one that has to love that and accept that and explore it and so from that place, it's a lot safer and easier to explore. Because it's between me and you know, what I believe is my Creator source energy like the divine that's within me and in the universe. Thomas: Wow, that's the lesson right there. I love that. Thank you. Taylor: Yeah. Thomas: So you and I had spoken a little bit before that one of the things that you went through in your life was coming to terms with the reality of not having children. making peace with that, with that reality. And I'm curious how self love was part of that process what that process was like for you and how self love was part of it. Taylor: Yeah. So this was a big one in 2019 for me. I have always identified with being a mom, always. Like from the time I was six years old, "What do you want to be when you grow up?" "A mom." That was me, you know? And so I had cultivated self love and I'll be honest with you, part of it was in preparing myself to be a better mom, a better wife a better you know, the head of the family. And so when you're when I was doing all these things, and I still wasn't feeling like I was any closer to becoming a mother, I started having a lot of suffering. And it was self inflicted. It wasn't because society was telling me I should have a baby because I'm a woman, you know. It just it wasn't that. I was genuinely... it was like a real internal identity and a pull of like, what am I, if I don't do this with my life? It feels like this is my purpose. I feel so called to do this and I can't... I felt like I can't create it. So that awareness of the suffering, and how much I was creating that for myself, I think, opened up this bigger discussion for me with myself around surrender. And it was this sort of come-to-Jesus moment of like, I cannot create this much suffering for myself and this much self judgment and love myself at the same time. And so what needs to happen is a place of total like radical acceptance and surrender, that my life has value and meaning even if I don't even know Know what it is yet? And that's profound. To sort of like yes, you love yourself for what you know of yourself but to then peel back this layer and have to love this part of yourself that you trust has value because, you know, if you have a spiritual practice you you believe that. But you don't even know what it looks like yet you don't know what your contribution is yet. And I feel like it really was a twofold practice of like A: noticing the shame and the suffering and the thoughts, and finally just getting a place of saying, "No, I will not treat myself like this anymore. I won't". And even though I want it so badly, and I feel so called, there's something else and I trust with I trust that divine within me that knows there's some purpose here, why this hasn't happened. Thomas: Right Taylor: And yeah, I mean, again, that's a practice, that's showing up every day for myself. And of course there are some bad days, you know, but in those moments, it's... it really is just a call back to trust and surrender. And knowing that that's the kindest, most loving thing I can do for myself. And I'm still obviously open to it. You know what I mean? Like, I'm... it's not too late. I certainly could still have children, but it's... there's no attachment to it anymore. There's no... there's not like that need to, to have me be worthy. That's sort of how I know that I've healed that part of me, is because I don't have a narrative anymore around how it's gonna go or like why it hasn't happened. You know, sometimes I think when we're insecure about things or we are resisting things, we have a narrative around why it hasn't happened to sort of cover up our shame. And for me right now, it's just, I don't know. I really have no story anymore. I have no... I have no ending one way or the other. It feels so good to be in this place of such tension and such pain and suffering right in my body to then move through it and claim this other part of my power. Thomas: Right. Taylor: And yeah, just feel sort of lighter and still open but not attached. Thomas: Right. Right. You've like moved beyond the story in the detachment. Taylor: Yes, yes. It's just... I'm very much in trust. And I think I think one common misconception or mistake is that people will surrender in order to get there. And there's still that attachment to... "Okay, but I have to let go of it all and then I'll get it!" You know, that's all I think it's common right now where there's a lot of talk around manifestation. And the purpose with the context of self love is: Do it because it's kind to yourself. Don't do it to get it. You know what I mean? Thomas: Well, thank you so much. It's been so awesome just getting to know you and absolutely continuing to have a conversation. Taylor: Back at you and I hope you know our conversations continue on and on. So yes, yes. I'm so grateful to Jennie for sharing her wisdom with us, not only on her ever-deepening explorations of self love, but also for her reminders on the wisdom our bodies offer us right now, in this moment. I hope you can take a minute today to take one or maybe even two deep breaths and notice how your body feels. You might even see if you can sense your body's response as you make decisions like working another few hours or taking a break, reading a book or taking a walk. Just noticing. You might notice if you can even feel your body today. And if you can't, it's okay. Your body is there, just waiting to connect. Waiting to accept you in this moment, no matter how you are. Jennie Taylor is a certified leadership coach and founder of Expand Coaching, an organization aimed at helping clients deepen connection and authenticity in the workplace and with oneself. Her Expand Within program focuses on the components of Self-Love and gives practical ways to cultivate it to impact all areas of life: career, relationships, purpose. Before coaching full-time, Jennie spent 16 years in the healthcare and technology industries as a sales leader. You can learn more about her and book a free session at www.expand-coaching.com Our music is by Terry Hughes. If you like the show, please take a minute to review it on Apple Podcasts. Learn more at shamepinata.com. I’m Colleen Thomas. Thanks for listening.

This is a writing ramble episode, meaning it's unscripted, unedited, unplanned. I talk about, well. Myself, mostly. What I've been feeling, what I've been up to. Making sense of stuff. If you'd like to support me you can grab my two novels THE HONOURS and THE ICE HOUSE (best read in that order). Due to stock shortages both links are to Amazon, but if you can grab them from your local bricks & mortar stores that would be dandy: THE HONOURS: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Honours-Tim-Clare/dp/1782114793/ THE ICE HOUSE: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Ice-House-Tim-Clare/dp/1786894823 And you can support this podcast and help me make more free content for writers by dropping me something here: https://ko-fi.com/timclare

Matthew 12:46-50 says:"While Jesus was still talking to the crowd, his mother and brothers stood outside, wanting to speak to him. Someone told him, “Your mother and brothers are standing outside, wanting to speak to you.”He replied to him, “Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?” Pointing to his disciples, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.”I come from a strong family and that passage always bothered me. I've got a good mom and a good dad and I've got two kids of my own. Family is very important to me, but as we get closer to this Mother's Day, I'm thinking of some of my friends who really, really struggle with this holiday who probably won't tune into church this Sunday because they think that the message will be about Mother's Day.I'm thinking of one friend in particular that just didn't have the best upbringing and doesn't have the best story. I also have another friend who suffered over 12 miscarriages while another friend of mine recently lost their mother. I'm thinking of my own mother who lost her mother back in September and even though my grandma was 101 years old, that still does not remove or take away the sting from the grief that we've felt. If anything, it makes it worse. However, one of the things that Jesus did was he turned everything upside down. You want to be the greatest, you gotta be a slave. It's those who mourn who are the blessed ones and who are my mother and my brothers. Those who love me, who obey my commands, they are my mother and brothers. What I've come to learn in my 45 years on this planet is that empty wounds should never mean empty arms. An empty nest should never mean an empty table because the blood of Christ is stronger than our DNA. The family we have on Earth is really just a shadow, a foreshadowing, pointing to the true and better family we already have in Christ.

Our very own Amy C. Waninger has the honor of chatting with Arlan Hamilton, founder and managing partner of Backstage Capital and author of "It's About Damn Time," which was released TODAY! Arlan went from homeless in three years to running Backstage Capital, a venture capital firm that solely invests in companies founded by women, people of color and LGBTQ entrepreneurs. She graciously shares a bit about why she started her fund and wrote her book, talks about what it is about under-estimated talent that she thinks makes them a great bet in business, and she tells us how she gets herself into the right mindset to walk in and own really intimidating rooms. Check the show notes to find out more about her book!Interested in her new book? Check out ItsAboutDamnTime.com.Connect with Arlan on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. You can find out more about Backstage Capital on their website. They're also on FB, IG, and Twitter. Find out how the CDC suggests you wash your hands by clicking here.Help food banks respond to COVID-19. Learn more at FeedingAmerica.org.Visit our website.TRANSCRIPTZach: What's up, y'all? It's Zach with Living Corporate, and listen. Really excited to bring the episode that we have for y'all today. For those of y'all who are in the know, when you talk about venture capital, when you talk about inclusion and equity within the venture capital space, you know who Arlan Hamilton is, okay? So I'm not gonna steal any of Amy C. Waninger's thunder, but I just want to do, like, a quick thank you and shout-out to Arlan for being on Living Corporate, and really excited for y'all to check out the episode, because the next thing you hear, they're gonna get right into it, so I just wanted to make sure I gave a little bit of context that you're gonna be listening to Arlan Hamilton and her talking about her latest book as well as her company, Backstage Capital. 'Til next time, y'all. Peace.Amy: Arlan, thank you so much for joining me. How are you today?Arlan: I'm doing pretty good. How about you?Amy: I'm doing well. So we're recording this kind of in the midst of all of this coronavirus craziness, and the episode will be released on your book launch day, on May 5th, and so if you can, just project forward to book launch. How are you feeling?Arlan: Well, I'm probably feeling the same way I'm feeling today, which is just a few days prior, which is incredibly excited and honored that I have the opportunity to even have a book coming out and coming out on a publisher, and it's just been a really great experience so far. I heard so many different stories from different authors of, like, how their experiences have gone in the past, from indie to published, and mine has just been really great.Amy: That is fantastic. And the book is wonderful. I got to read an advance copy as part of your launch team. I enjoyed it so much. And a lot of the questions I normally ask in this series you've covered in your book, and so I want to make sure people go there, but one question I did want to ask you about is what has surprised you the most about the venture capital space? Now that you're on the other side of it.Arlan: I don't know if it surprised me, but it's been kind of reinforced that there's just--money is a tool, you know? There's no one who is more important than the next person. And yes, there are some people who have a little bit more power, a little bit more strategically have placed them in places with more authority, but really there's an equality that I still believe in, and it drives me to do what I do, and it's why I started my fund. It's why I wrote the book "It's About Damn Time," because it felt like--one of the things was it was about damn time everybody realizes that we're all on this spinning rock together and that just because you're a venture capitalist doesn't make you any better than the next person.Amy: Definitely. And you talk about in your book the statistic that's jarring to me, that while white men make up about 30% of the population in the country, they get about 90% of capital investment. And your fund is a step in the direction to kind of undo that math and to make the playing field a little bit more equitable. How is that going? Like, do you feel like you're at the point where it's starting to shift, or do you think that there's opportunity for more people to come in and do what you're doing and build this space a whole lot bigger? Arlan: I think both. I think there has been absolute change in the last five years, four and a half years since I started Backstage Capital. It was a completely different playing field back then, and that was only a few years ago. So I absolutely see change. Obviously it's not fast enough. It's not enough. So there's plenty of room for better change and for more change, and that's where I'm excited about the future and about--one of the things in my book is about empowering other people to understand that they can join, you know? They can still join this technical revolution and all of that, because there's just so much more left to do. There's so many people who are doing it too. I don't want to ever say that it's only me. I mean, there are plenty of people who are black or brown [and?] women, who are investors, who are trying to change those statistics for the better. But yeah, I think if I hadn't seen some change for the better I wouldn't have been able to keep going, and so I've seen it. Most of it has come from individuals taking the reins and saying, "Look, I'm not going to wait for something to come save me. I'm going to put this into my own hands, and I'm going to start a company or continue a company that perhaps is bootstrapped or that has more revenue [and that?] employs people, and I'm not gonna only count on these few select guys who have a bunch of money.Amy: You know, it's interesting because right now--and I know that you just recently interviewed Mark Cuban and he said now's a great time to start a business, 'cause when people panic you double down, and when people are comfortable, that's when you should panic, right? What industries do you see right now in the midst of what we're dealing with with coronavirus, what industries do you see picking up a lot of innovation right now?Arlan: Well, of course the ones that are for the moment, right? So for instance companies that are selling products that are really helpful right now. We have products in our portfolio that when we first signed up them to our accelerator last year people laughed. They said, "Why do you have a toilet paper company in your portfolio? Aren't you a venture capitalist?" But we saw that they were doing things in a more sustainable way. They were saving tons and tons, literally, of trees every year, and they were fun and they had a great marketing strategy, and today they can't keep up with the demand, and they're doing it in a way that's more sustainable, which is really fantastic. So you have companies like that. We have a company in our portfolio also from the accelerator called Tambua Health that allows doctors to test for lung diseases using a smartphone. And of course last year we just thought, "This is really amazing, and we want to see what it can do," and today now it's of course going to be very helpful during the age of coronavirus. So I think, like, you're seeing a lot of health tech companies that are gonna do well if they can revamp. You're seeing companies that are manufacturing other things, that are now saying, "Let me manufacture some PPE," some personal protective gear for health care workers and essential workers, but right now and in the future I think you're gonna see a lot more education companies, things that are content-driven online, and then the infrastructure to make that easier for people to get to and to see it. And of course people are talking about "What's the future of work going to look like?" And I don't know if we know yet. I don't know if the last four weeks or six weeks or three months can tell us what the future of work will look like. What we do know is that it will be different from what we came to be used to in the past.Amy: Yes. I think that we're seeing, you know, right now a lot of accessibility that was built--infrastructure for accessibility that was built for people from the disability community that is benefiting all of us now, and I am hopeful, to your point that the future that we're building is more accessible by design and not by legislation.Arlan: Absolutely, and there are so many people who can take that into their own hands today, and I hope that that happens too, because honestly, we can't wait around for someone to make things right. We have to do things ourselves, and things are better--you know, they say, "Let me just do it myself." You know, "If I want it done right, I'll do it myself." Let's do that. I like that vibe, you know? Let's do it ourselves.Amy: You said in your book several times when you're looking at founders you pattern match for grit. And I wanted to ask you, because, you know, knowing your background, that you started this fund when, you know, you didn't really have a place to live. I mean, you were experiencing homelessness at the time. You know, grit is just all there for you. I mean, you have built something from nothing more times than I could count in the book, and I'm wondering, what is it about under-estimated talent you think that makes them gritty or that makes folks a better bet in business? Arlan: They're a great bet. We're a great bet. I think if you are someone who is underrepresented and underestimated, it doesn't seem weird or out there or strange to you to figure things out, to get yourself out of a bad situation, to get creative when you're facing for instance, like, the rent is due and you're like, "Okay, well, what can I do to make a couple extra hundred dollars that's legal and that is, you know, a little bit--" So can I use this other talent that I have? But in the world of Silicon Valley, if you think about that same story, one of the biggest stories that ever came out of Silicon Valley--and I remember reading about when it when I was homeless and just starting out. I read about Airbnb, and I read about these three guys who had this amazing idea to put a blow-up bed on a floor and charge people for a conference to come in and have bed and breakfast. And on top of that, when they were looking for money and they didn't have it, they created--because they were designers by trade--they created these cereal boxes that looked like Obama and John McCain, and they sold those, and they sold, like, $50,000 worth. And I remember reading that and people were losing their minds over how ingenious it was, how absolutely nothing--they had seen nothing like that, and I thought, "I've done that at least five times in a major way in the last 10 years of my adult life." Like, I've at least done it five times in a major way so I could avoid bankruptcy, avoid being on the street, avoid all these things, and I just think we as women, people of color, LGBTQ, disabled, I think we all have to, on a day-to-day basis, have to figure out a survival mode for ourselves because we are faced with so many things, whether they be big things that are easy to point out or the papercuts that I talk about, which is you get a papercut, you don't go around screaming about it, you know? But it hurts like hell. And it happens to you. It can happen to you and people don't necessarily believe it, but it's happening to you. It's this oppression that's given to us in papercuts, and so I just think because we're already built to figure things out--I mean, it's not like it's a great thing. I'm not happy that we have been so put into these corners where we have to find our way out, but we have. So that manifests itself in some really great ways sometimes. Sometimes it's negative. Sometimes we feel like we have to do things that are not okay, that are not legal, that are not moral, et cetera, et cetera, but more times than that, most of the time, you just see some really highly creative things. You ever met someone who gets in trouble a lot and you just say, "If they could just apply that to this other thing, they would save so much time and heartache, because they would probably be, like, the Hacker of the Year in Silicon Valley." That's how I feel about most people.Amy: Yeah, that's how I tell my kids. I'm like, "Use your powers for good. Stop getting into trouble."Arlan: Yeah, exactly.Amy: So one of the things about grit that you note in your book, you talk about hustle culture and how pervasive it is, and I know you've made some decisions now that--and I don't want to say that you're on the other side because I know there are always more places that you want to go and, you know, you're always wanting to take your work to the next level, but you've gotten to a place where you're not as hungry maybe as you were, you know, early on, and you're taking some time to evaluate your priorities and scale back some of your commitments and really focus on self-care, and I'm wondering, if you were talking to the you of the early days of Backstage Capital--which was only a few years ago--would you have the same advice of "Step back and, you know, let go of some of the hustle," or would you tell 5-Years-Ago-Arlan "No, keep going." You know, you don't--Arlan: Well, let me answer that. I don't know if I can answer that question exactly because I don't look at it that way. I do more today than I've ever done in my life when it comes to work, and that says a lot. What I tried to get across in the book and what I've tried to get across for the past year or so is that I'm not doing less, I'm working smarter. So I absolutely would tell the person five years ago and ten years ago to take better care of myself, for sure, and that's what I'm doing, but when it comes to the stakes, when it comes to the responsibility, the pressure, what's at stake here is the highest it's ever been, so I just don't know if I can answer that question as it was stated because I don't feel like I have kind of pulled back. What I've done is recalibrated and repurposed, and I've said instead of me knowing exactly how much a stack of paper from Office Depot costs us, I am going to spend that extra 7 minutes that I would have taken to learn that to put into a phone call with one of our portfolios. Maybe it's the 20th phone call of the week with a portfolio company, but it's one more that I may be able to make a right introduction or think about stuff. And I spend a lot of time thinking and strategizing. I've been doing that from very early on. I think it's important. I think it's part of our jobs as leaders to take a breath and strategize. So on one hand I absolutely feel like I'm doing the most, especially with even more going on now and a smaller team now, unfortunately, because of the coronavirus, but on the other hand I'm always gonna advocate for taking good care of yourself and looking at it from a bird's eye view and saying "What do I need to be doing, and what am I doing right now? And do they match?" And if they don't match, something's wrong. We have a mantra right now at my fund that I started just a few weeks ago when things got really scary. I said, "If it's stressful, we're doing it wrong," and that--you think about it and that's so simple, but that's helped us, like, make a lot of decisions. "Wait, is this stressful? 'Cause we have enough stress in our lives right now as a world and as a country. Are we gonna add stress that we don't need to?" So it's helped us to say no to certain phone calls and to a lot of responsibilities that we don't need to have on our plate right now.Amy: It probably also helps with how you allocate the work within your team. I think a lot of leaders struggle with that, to realize that just because they find a task odious or draining, there may be somebody on their team that, you know, they live for that kind of work.Arlan: Exactly, yeah, and it's an art, not a science, and it's something that I'm working on still, but I've gotten much better over time at delegating, and I think--you think as a leader you have to figure everything out and you have to be the smartest person, you have to lead your tribe into the fight. Hey, I mean, you're not--Ursula Burns, who used to be the CEO of Xerox, the first black woman to be at a Fortune 500 as a CEO. Worked her way up from secretary, I believe. She told me in a phone call last year when I was really stressed out--she yelled at me. I mean, she was not doing tough love. It was just tough. She said, "If you are the only person that's generating revenue for your whole team, you've effed it up. You are doing it wrong. Figure out a way that everybody pulls their own weight," and "You are doing a bad job." She said that to me. "You're doing a bad job if you're this stressed out. It's not something to be excited about and proud of. You're doing a bad job if you're this stressed out." So that just, like, slapped me around and I was like, "Wow, okay. On it." Amy: Yeah. That had to be hard to hear but very relieving at the same time.Arlan: Both, yeah. I just took it because I love the source, you know? I look at the source when people are giving me advice. If it's somebody who is anonymous online who's cussing me out and saying I'm doing a terrible job, I just don't give it any weight. If it's someone like what I just described to you, I give it some weight and I say, "Okay, let me think about why she said that to me and why she gave me her time to say it."Amy: That's very good advice. One of the points that you make in your book is that we all have the right to be in any room we want to be in, and that's a very difficult thing for some of us to internalize because we've been told our whole lives, you know, "Sit down. Be quiet. Be nice. Don't be pushy. Don't be aggressive." What's something for you that fortifies you before you walk into some of these really intimidating--what would be intimidating for most of us--rooms, right? How do you get yourself into the right mindset to walk in and own that room?Arlan: I do two things. One is I think about the people that, like, being successful in the room would positively affect. I make it more about them than me. Once I do that, that's a really great way to walk into a room. The best way of ever--like, I have learned over almost 40 years--this is it, this is the secret right here... you have to be okay with the outcome that you don't win the negotiation. So if you have something that you're going in for that's really, really something that you want really badly, if you tell yourself--and I do this all the time--if you say to yourself, "Okay, it's okay if I don't get this. It's truly okay. I'll have a backup plan. I'll have some other thing I'll do. It's okay if they say no." You've completely taken control of the situation. So you go in caring. You go in trying, but you also go in where their no doesn't knock you to your knees, and there's something about that in a negotiation where I've been able to talk to millionaires and billionaires and get what I want because what I want because I'm okay with "losing," quote-unquote, the deal. Amy: Fabulous. And if you can do that with the number of zeroes after the deals that you're looking at, the rest of us can probably do it with the number of zeroes in the deals that we're looking at, right? [laughs]Arlan: Yeah, it's powerful. It's very powerful.Amy: It is. Arlan Hamilton, author of "It's About Damn Time" and venture capitalist and just Twitter queen, thank you so much. This interview will just be the highlight of my podcasting career. I have so enjoyed talking to you. Arlan: Oh, thank you. Thank you so much. You're very good at it, and I appreciate you, and I hope that your listeners will pick up the hard cover at ItsAboutDamnTime.com. You can pick up the audio, which I read, or the e-book. Whichever, whatever tickles your fancy. It's all there.Amy: Get them all, because you're gonna want that audio-book in the car on the way to the negotiation, and you're gonna want the hard cover by the bed so you can read from it at night and get it into your subconscious before you go to sleep, and you're gonna want it on your Kindle too because that's where you can highlight everything and go find your notes later.Arlan: Well, there you go. You're hired. [laughs]Amy: All right, sounds good. [laughs] Thanks, Arlan, so much, and congratulations on your launch. This is huge.Arlan: Thank you so much. Appreciate you.

Show Notes: Speaker 1: (00:00) Welcome to the simplified integration podcast. This is episode number 23 being authentic. Speaker 2: (00:08) Leonardo da Vinci once said that simplicity is the ultimate sophistication and I agree. You see the problem with the way that most consulting groups approach medical integration is anything but simple. In fact, it's the exact opposite. It's expensive, it's complicated and quite frankly it's exhausting. Enough is enough. There are far too many amazing integrated clinics that are struggling. Well, I'm on a mission to change that. What I've come to find from over five years working with integrative practices is that simplicity really is the secret. The old saying of less is more is true. Through a streamlined approach, I was able to create multiple successful seven-figure integrated clinics and now I'm going to show you how you can do the same. Join me as I share with you the secrets to successful medical integration and practice growth. Join me on a journey to greater sophistication through innovation. I'm Dr. Andrew Wells and welcome to the simplified integration podcast. Speaker 1: (01:06) Welcome back. This is episode number 23 being authentic. It's great to have you back here, doc. So if you listen to my podcast, I may sound a little bit different today. That's because I'm not in my normal podcast studio. I'm recording this during the, the Corona virus epidemic. And we're actually here at our Lake house in Lake lure in North Carolina. This is one of my favorite places in the entire world. Uh, we have a little pontoon boat, um, that we come out and cruise around the Lake on and relax. And I thought this would be an awesome place to have my podcast studio this week. So I usually record my podcast in like in blocks, so I'll record like four or five at a time. And so I'm out here today recording. I'm recording my podcasts and it's just a, I'm not here to avoid the virus. I'm just here because this is a really, um, cool place to relax and, uh, and get through this really, um, crazy and obnoxious time right now in history. Speaker 1: (01:58) And, uh, yeah, so I wanted to, I wanted to share this, uh, this spot with you guys. So if you're listening to this on audio, you're obviously not going to see what I'm seeing. But please check out my YouTube video. I have all my podcasts on YouTube. I'd love for you to check out, um, to, to subscribe to that. Uh, number one, you'll get updates as soon as we release new podcast episodes. But also you can see this amazing place. If you guys are ever in the Northwestern North Carolina area, please look me up. If you want to come visit, I'd be happy to give you a tour of, uh, my hometown, uh, where I live, not my hometown, but where I live. I'm, uh, this is one of my favorite places in the world. I'd be happy to show you around anytime. So I want to talk to you today about the, um, the topic of being authentic. Speaker 1: (02:41) And when I, when I was first in practice, I was an idiot and I didn't really know how to communicate chiropractic that well. And so what I would do is like I would, when I w I was like desperate for patients, so we ran a mostly cash based practice. And so we ate what we in practice and we were, my wife and I started off from scratch. We had as zero patient base. We just opened this office. I'm borrowed money from my family to get this practice going. And so I really wanted to get it going as quickly as possible. And I did all right. We were successful. But in the beginning my desperation came off. It was pretty obvious, I think to patients because, um, as I think sometimes people tend to do if you want something you can sometimes, and I did this, I, I overstated the, the expected results. Speaker 1: (03:30) So when patients would ask me, like, they would come in with scoliosis or a back problem, I would be so emphatic like, yeah, I can help you and I can fix your scoliosis and I can definitely help you with your back pain. I'm going to fix you back up to a hundred percent, no problem. And, uh, what I learned and I realized was that my skills weren't actually that good. I was a decent adjuster and chiropractor, but I wasn't always getting my patients 100% better despite the fact that I was telling them that. And I, you know, I wasn't like, and I wasn't converting as many patients as I thought I would do to my, in my inflated confidence. And what I found as I got more mature and more self aware as I got through practice is that the more brutally honest I was with patients, the higher my conversions were and the better I did as a chiropractor for a lot of reasons. Speaker 1: (04:19) So I didn't have that. Like once I finally gotten, uh, established in practice and didn't have to worry about paying rent and paying overhead and all that stuff, and I sort of chilled out a little bit and became more relaxed on it, that my desperation didn't come off, it wasn't as obvious. And I really, uh, I started to, to, um, to practice being my authentic self, whatever that means. I was more truthful in my communication with patients. I was more truthful in what I expected in terms of outcomes. And I think patients really keyed in on that. And as I went through practice as my, my, my, uh, authenticity grew up, my confidence grew. I was able to convert patients a lot easier with a lot less skepticism, a lot less patients quitting care. Because here's the deal. It's like patients didn't expect me to perform miracles. Speaker 1: (05:06) They expected me to help them, but they didn't always expect me to get them a hundred percent better. My scoliosis, patients didn't expect me to completely straighten out their spine to the point where they didn't have scoliosis anymore. Um, and so, uh, so what I'm saying is that like, let me apply this to regenerative medicine because what I'm seeing right now in regenerative medicine is this is doctor is doing the same thing that I did early on in practice. And what I mean by that is when a patient comes in, they're saying, Oh, you've got phase three degeneration in your back. If you have this STEM cell injection, this is going to fix your back completely. You won't have to have surgery. And you'll feel good for another, for the rest of your life. This will outlive you. Or do you have a bad knee? You take an X Ray and they have very little joint space left in their knee and you tell the patient, yep, this is going to regrow the cartilage in your knee. Speaker 1: (05:55) You'll be able to avoid surgery and you'll be able to go back to your normal daily activities just like you'd never had any knee problems to begin with. So that's what I mean by like overstating claims and not being authentic. Now some doctors do that because they just, they don't know what to expect with regenerative medicine. And so they're expecting those, those kinds of outcomes. But that's not realistic. And, um, and I, I tended to do that initially when I first started regenerative medicine as well because I was modeling this off of somebody else who did that and it just wasn't true. And, um, I, I've shared this story with you before on a podcast, but I'll share it again cause I think it's so relevant. Um, we had a patient come in and she was very overweight. She was in a motorized scooter and she had horrible, horrible bone on bone degeneration in both knees. Speaker 1: (06:41) It was so bad that she couldn't, she couldn't stand up to do dishes. She couldn't do any chores around the house. She felt miserable 24, seven even when she slept and she was putting a lot of, she was upset because she was putting a lot of this stress on her husband who was also elderly. And she felt really bad about that and she was in a really bad spot and her knees were awful. And I remember taking next raise of her knees and I said, listen, uh, I don't think regenerative medicine is going to help you. I think you really need to have knee surgery and have your knees replaced. And she's like, well, that's what my doctor told me. But the problem is I can't have knee surgery. Um, the doctor is because of the medications I'm on. I'm a huge health risk and I can't have surgery, so I have no options. Speaker 1: (07:25) And I said, well, listen, this is not like, this is not an ideal option for you. Um, I don't think it's going to work. And she said, well, if I had the injections, how much would it help? And I said, at a, at a maximum, I think it'll help you 5%. And she started crying and she said, well, she goes, you know, I, I think I want to, I want to do this. And I said, well, why are you crying? And he said, well, I can't afford it. She's a sub. And it was for both to have both of her knees done. It was like 7,200 bucks. And I said, well, I understand that's a lot of money. And that's, that's why I'm saying I don't think you should do this, cause you're not gonna get most, you get 5% benefit, but it's gonna cost you 7,200 bucks. Speaker 1: (08:07) And she goes, well, I still want to do it. She said, it will be a financial stress, but if, if it'll give me a fraction, if it make you feel just a little bit better, I'm in. And so very cautiously, like I talked, they'll say for half an hour like trying to talk her out of it and she wasn't having it. And so I'm like, I'm trying to push her away from it. And she's like, no, no, no, I want it. And um, and so we ended up doing it and you were very transparent with her and like, look, we are not expecting great results. So she came in like three months later for her for her reevaluation and she came in and I'm like, ah, like, like she's gonna yell at me cause he didn't get any results. And when she came in the room, I came in the room and she, she teared up and I said, well, how are you doing? Speaker 1: (08:45) And she started crying and I'm like, Oh no, this is going to be a really uncomfortable conversation. And she said, you know what? She goes, I'm so happy I did this. And I said, well, tell me about it. You know, you're obviously still in your motorized wheelchair, like what's happened? And she goes, she goes, you said at Mozu I would get 5% better. I'd say I'm 10% better, but that 10% is absolutely saved my life. She said, I don't feel like I want to go to sleep and die anymore. I can, I can do some chores around the house. I'm not in constant excruciating pain so I'm still in pain but it's not unbearable. And she goes, if I hadn't done this injection in my knees, I don't know where I'd be right now. And she goes, thank you. Thank you, thank you for allowing me to do this. And you know, I think, um, and that was, you know, that is by far my most memorable regenerative medicine story. Not because we had like this fantastic clinical outcome because reality, it wasn't like it didn't help her that much, but for her that much was the world. It meant everything to her. And I remember like, like tearing up in the room with her cause it made such a difference in her life and I was really happy for her. I'm going to pause this for a minute cause there's a boat, a boat going by. Speaker 1: (09:56) I hope you can, I don't know if you can hear this over the, over the boat engine, but, um, my point in saying this is, is that you don't have to overstate the benefits of a therapy to get a patient to commit to care. That was a mistake I made for years. But the minute I started being truthful, authentic, and brutally honest, is the moment when my stats went up. My office grew, we were, you know, profitable. And so you don't have to, like, you don't have to be like this snake oil salesman to sell regenerative medicine. And I, I, I know a lot of doctors do it that way because they were taught that way or they think you have to do it that way. And I'm here to tell you, you can run a successful chiropractic business, regenerative medicine, business, weight loss, business, functional medicine business just by being brutally honest. Speaker 1: (10:42) Patients want that. They expect it. You know, as a healthcare provider, you should be doing that. We have an ethical responsibility to be honest to our patients, uh, without having to, you know, be connected to the outcome, the financial outcome of it. So I just want to share that story with you, um, simply because like I wasn't always truthful and honest, um, in the way I practice because I thought I had to be that way. I thought I had to oversell and under deliver even though it, uh, intuitively, intellectually I knew that that was not right. But out of, you know, out of a sense of desperation for being in practice, being new in practice, I thought that that would help me somehow. And I just realized over time that that was not helpful. It was actually quite hurtful, uh, hurtful to not only my patients but me. Speaker 1: (11:25) And so that this is me being very vulnerable. And I, I, you know, I hope by sharing this story that you can learn from it as well. So if you're thinking about tackling integration or STEM cell therapy, regenerative medicine, I just would urge you to be honest with your patients and that will, um, that will, uh, pay dividends in a lot of different ways that you may not expect. And so I hope you can take this with 'em. Um, just knowing that I've learned from learn from a lot hardship and trial and error. And so I hope, uh, I hope that you know that you can run a regenerative medicine clinic that is not in, um, in contrast to your ethics, your morals in the way that you should practice. So, um, I hope you found this, this lesson, my story valuable to you. Um, if you have any questions about integration or how a regenerative medicine works, shoot me an email@infoatintegrationsecrets.com. Make sure to subscribe to this podcast. That way you'll get an email notification every time a new podcast episode comes out. But thanks for listening. Thanks for joining me right now during this coronavirus epidemic. Hope you check out my YouTube channel so you can see this awesome place I get to do my podcast record, my podcast on. So a doc. Hope you're having a great day. God bless. Talk to you soon. Bye bye. Speaker 2: (12:40) Hey, innovators. Thanks for listening to the simplified integration podcast. Fact that you're listening tells me that you're like me, someone who loves simplicity, and the truth is those who embrace simplicity are some of the greatest innovators. So hope you got a ton of value from what we covered on today's episode. Be sure to subscribe and share with other docs that you feel could benefit from greater sophistication through simplification and innovation. If you've got specific questions that you'd like answered on this podcast or you've got specific topics that you'd like me to discuss, just shoot me an email at info@integrationsecrets.com that's info@integrationsecrets.com.

Learn more about ArgentDue to COVID-19 we are no longer asking for financial support for the show, instead you can now join free mentorship group calls with Fabian to get through this together. Join here.Full Transcript:F Geyrhalter:Welcome to the show, Sali.S Christeson:Thanks for having me.F Geyrhalter:Absolutely. Well, first off, we are recording this on April 3rd, I'm working out of my converted garage, which now has further been converted into a podcast "studio". We live fairly close to the airport, and I have alley behind me, so no idea how this first podcasting from home session will go, but things are not as perfect as we all like them to be, and yet I'm fortunate to be living through this pandemic in a healthy, safe, and in a loving environment. I'm even more fortunate currently, as I can be classified as a DINK, which stands for double income no kids, something I just learned last night when listening to an interview with you, Sali. So, thank you for that knowledge. I'm a DINK.S Christeson:I'm no longer a DINK.F Geyrhalter:Oh, I'm sorry, or congratulations, depending on how you look at it under the current situation.S Christeson:Yeah, it's definitely been made crazy by this situation. We have a two-year-old toddler, and then we have our second on the way in three weeks.F Geyrhalter:Oh, my, oh, my. Well, that is wonderful, but in three weeks, that is nerve-racking for you right now.S Christeson:Frightening.F Geyrhalter:It must be really frightening going to the hospital, and doing all of that. I know a lot of friends who are in similar situations, and it's not easy. But look, this is the beginning of a new norm here for me doing these interviews, so I want to share with my audience that things are getting a little more real, so just imagine Sali and I sitting outside in a nice little café in a city of your choosing, just chatting it up, which should make you feel more at ease with any potential background sounds that sneak in, and perhaps it will make you escape your quarantine a little bit.F Geyrhalter:That being said, Sali, you are in the business of dressing women for the workplace, a place many women who wear your outfits don't go to currently. So, let's get this out of the way, because I'm sure a lot of people will have the same questions, how has this pandemic impacted your company, and you personally as you already mentioned, I mean, you're homeschooling, you're expecting another child, what is going on?S Christeson:I like to say that I'm prepared for everything. I have to say that this was a bigger curveball than I've ever gotten, or ever expected to get, especially as I was planning maternity leave. I mean, I'm just doing such different things than I anticipated doing going into that. So, in terms of how it's affected the business, a couple of things, so one, we immediately shut all of our locations. So, starting early March, I think it was March 12th maybe was when our first store closed, and I think it was shortly thereafter that we closed all of them. We closed San Francisco, New York, L.A., and D.C.S Christeson:So, as you can imagine that has an immediate impact on revenue, and then the fact that women are working from home, and I think just everyone's just trying to figure out what's happening, and trying to get their arms around childcare, and their own situation, we've definitely seen a decrease in consumption, but we're already starting to see a rebound, which is refreshing-F Geyrhalter:Yeah, yeah.S Christeson:... a lot of women are coming to us, because they are still working, they're just working from home and they're on a lot of video calls, so we're doing a lot of waist up dressing, but-F Geyrhalter:Right, just like you and I are right now, right? I assume.S Christeson:Exactly. I'm in a full suit, I don't know what you're talking about.F Geyrhalter:Yeah, of course, me too. I've got a tie. I've got a tie, everything, everything.S Christeson:And then I think the other piece is just this is our biggest year we've ever had. We had the biggest January and biggest February we've ever had, March was on track to be the biggest month of the year. This certainly prevented us from hitting our target, so we've had to change our projections a little bit, it's been a lot of handholding with our team, and we have spring product that's sitting at the factory, a manufacturer in Manhattan. It's done, and it's ready, and it's just unable to be moved, because New York is on lockdown. I mean, there's so many changes, it's really intense, and everyone's going through it, so I think for us I'm cautiously optimistic. I actually think we're really well-positioned. Some of our customers are still going to work, and it's a really stressful time, and they're looking to us as an outlet for themselves.F Geyrhalter:Yeah.S Christeson:And we seek to serve as a resource in whatever way people need. Some are starting to think about going back. I mean, it's not going to last forever, so I think for us it was quickly hunkering down, and making some really big choices, and some really hard choices, and doing those quickly, and staying informed in terms of what sort of government relief is in place, and at the end of the day just trying to be available to our customers. We cut back on all of our marketing, because it feels kind of insensitive right now, to be honest.F Geyrhalter:Yeah, yeah.S Christeson:So, that's current state of affairs. It's intense, and my husband and I actually are ... he works at the company as well, too, so we're both working and managing a child as well. So, we're sort of in the same situation as everyone else, you know?F Geyrhalter:Yeah, yeah, which makes it easier to have empathy for what's going on with your tribe, with your customers, and I mean, so many of them are like you, and they're homeschooling, and all of a sudden, or maybe they even have been laid off, right?S Christeson:Yep.F Geyrhalter:I'm sure there's a percentage of that. I know you stopped marketing, but are there any kind of ways that you react publicly to this with your brand? How can you help these women that are suddenly in such a different space? Do you do anything as a brand, or is it really more like, "Look ..." Is it more the idea of, "Hey, we give you that little bit of joy in your life right now.", right?S Christeson:Mm-hmm (affirmative).F Geyrhalter:That splash of color, and that idea that there is something around the corner, and ... because I'm I am sure that a lot of women would appreciate getting, ordering something from you now feeling like they look great on a Zoom call, or that they're ready to go back into the workforce when the time comes?S Christeson:Yeah, I think our approach has been more pull and less push, if that makes sense?F Geyrhalter:Yeah.S Christeson:So, making things available to our customers, but not sending out emails, not pushing things down their throat, not being aggressive. We didn't send an email in terms of what our position is on COVID-19, I don't really think people are interesting in hearing about every single brands thoughts on what's happening, and I think there's sort of ... We're seeing a divide in terms of how our customers splits. I think for some they have absolutely no interest in engaging right now, and for others it's, "I just got your electric pink blazer, and I'm so happy working from home, and it's been the bright spot of my day."F Geyrhalter:Right.S Christeson:So, it's almost like we set up reminders that we're here, so maybe like an Instagram post, but less frequent. Maybe it's one on one outreach in a way that we wouldn't have done before, but I think from a brand perspective we've cut back a lot, because it just feels insensitive in a lot of ways.F Geyrhalter:Yeah.S Christeson:I just feel like there's a lot more to lose than to gain, and I want to make sure whatever we do is adding value to our community. So, a lot of that has been more customized, and individualized, and way ... and about longer term thinking. So, we're thinking about marketing campaigns coming out of this, or how we come back and add value. But I think right now, we're not really focused on our revenue goals, our conversion, or whatever. We're focused on, "What do you need right now to survive.", you know?F Geyrhalter:Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, no, totally, and it's very much about keeping your employees and it's a lot of-S Christeson:Yes.F Geyrhalter:... that, rather than adding more noise to the channels that all kind of say the same thing, you know?S Christeson:100%F Geyrhalter:I totally agree with you. So, Argent, your brand, is only four years young, and you're on the forefront of really finding women's workwear. Your brand states that it is "Bridging the workwear joy gap." How did you get there? I mean, you worked in tech for 10 years at Cisco, now you're knee-deep in fashion, an industry you had no prior experience in, what was the moment where you realized that you had to get serious about turning this idea into a company?S Christeson:Yeah, this has been a personal pain point of mine across every industry, every city that I've lived in, they've all called for different dress codes. It's been such a headache and hassle to try and find something that I actually enjoy wearing, which I know sounds so simple, but it really has been an underserved and ignored category. I mean, my mom will even speak to how I was frustrated at like the age of 20 or 21 shopping for my first suit, but it just was constant. So, I worked at companies that called for anything from a suit, and then to tech which was much more casual, but recognize that what I wore was still important it communicates who I am, et cetera. It just took so much more time than it should have from a really time constrained person, and my peer group, I felt like it was just a shared pain point.S Christeson:But the catalyst for actually pursuing the idea was I read a study while I was working at Cisco, it was in 2014, that showed that women are judged based on appearance, and they quantified the impact of what you wear on your bottom line over your lifetime, and for me that was really all I needed. That was it, I quit my job without having done anything, I just knew that there was a huge opportunity, and I had a vision for making basically, one, solving the product side, but two, really leveraging the brand to visually inspire women, and working women specifically in a way that no one else was doing, no one was connecting with them, no one was owning that audience, and I saw an opportunity to leverage our brand to inspire boldness, and confidence, and kind of an F it attitude, and just go for it.F Geyrhalter:Yeah, yeah.S Christeson:Yeah, so I quit and the rest is history, I guess?F Geyrhalter:But I mean, you're a D-to-C brand, first and foremost, but you're now also turning to more traditional retail. So, I mean, brand strategy must've been crucial for you from the get-go, because you're at a fairly, and I put fairly under parenthesis, high price point. So, in reality, you're kind of in the middle, right?S Christeson:Mm-hmm (affirmative).F Geyrhalter:But you're crushing it on catering to the modern office employee just as much to powerful women in all kinds of public roles. I mean, we're talking about Hilary Clinton, Kamala Harris, Amy Poehler, Awkwafina, Jill Martin, Ginger Zee, people we all very much love, or some of us, or I hope we all do, and the list goes on, and on, and on. How did you create that extremely aspirational niche in the marketplace where you don't get stamped as either cheap workwear, which is so easy to fall into that, or too aspirational, too luxurious of workwear? I mean, it is such a perfect niche that you covered. How did you create this? I mean, there must have been a lot of strategy behind how to get there, besides the price point?S Christeson:Yeah, I think extensive market research upfront, so understanding the competitive landscape, and that's where the pricing really came in. We backed in to our price point, because there were ... one, there was no one single place that was solely focused on workwear, and so I knew right away that was a huge opportunity to start with the customer and make sure that we were solving based on customer needs, bringing in our level of expertise, and marrying it, and matching it with what we're hearing from the customer side. But there were, obviously, workwear options, they were all just not really meeting the needs of the customer, in my opinion, or that's where the opportunity lied.S Christeson:So, in terms of competitive landscape we looked at low-end brands and price point, we looked at higher end brands and price point, and there is actually a gap exactly where we fall. There's no accessible price point, so that was a starting point for us. We also conducted a 400 ... or sorry, a 54 question survey to a sample size of 400 people to just glean more insight from the customer base that we were going after. I combed through census data to identify our go-to market plan, and I think the most important thing really was about the brand, and the underlying product, and having a lot of exercises around that prior to launch.S Christeson:So, what are our unique differentiators, what is our tone? What makes our product special? For us, it's functional, quality, stylish, accessible workwear, and that hasn't existed in the past. I think, for me, understanding and recognizing that my background isn't in fashion, and immediately starting to hire based on that gap, and looking at surrounding myself with people with the right level of experience, so hired a designer that was based in New York, and had built a team of designers since then that have backgrounds in luxury design, and it's been exciting for them, I think, because they've really been designing more through like a fashion lens, and we really have a purpose.F Geyrhalter:Right.S Christeson:So yeah, there were a lot of exercises, I think, that led us to land where we did prior to even launching.F Geyrhalter:Which is still easier said, and easy to look at data than actually pulling it off. So, you make it sound so easy, but it's not. As part of your market survey I heard that you said that in a prior interview that you learned that women's workwear is a 34.9 billion annual market spend in the U.S. alone.S Christeson:Yes, yes.F Geyrhalter:It's insane, and then you also found out that women rate the experience of shopping for work clothes a 3.9 out of 10, which is unbelievable thinking about how women, and not only women, love to shop for clothes, and it's usually a very satisfying experience. 3.9 out of 10 is horrifying, I-S Christeson:Yes, and I could so relate to it. I mean, I remember so many times like very last minute, "I have a presentation tomorrow, I have nothing to wear. Let me just run to wherever, and buy something that I feel meh about, wear it once, and it kind of sits in the bottom of my laundry hamper, and I didn't feel great in it anyway." That is honestly the experience that every woman has had in the past.F Geyrhalter:And that's a pretty big deal. I mean, I can attest to that from a guy's perspective, which of course, only counts 10% of a women's perspective on this issue, but as a public speaker, the idea of feeling confident on stage, or in front of any kind of presentation is so important. You don't even want to think about your clothes, you don't even want to think what you're wearing, you just want to feel great about yourself. So, the way I solved it is a typical guy's way, I have 10 of the same shirt. It's the exact same shirt, and so every single ... but the problem is if you put together a speaker reel, every single speech looks like I'm at exactly the same ... because I don't change my clothes. I do change my clothes, but you know what I mean, I'm wearing the exact same thing.F Geyrhalter:On that topic of niche fashion brand, I'm currently working with a founder on the launch of a fashion brand called Model Canvas, and he's launching a line of jeans for big guys. So, it's oversized jeans, and it is very much about body positivity while solving for an unseen and undervalued problem. He's in midst of the fundraising game, and this is where the question goes, when you went out to get funding you ended up, over time of course, raising $6 million. What do you feel of the many, many things that you said and that you did during your presentations won investors over the most?F Geyrhalter:If you have to rerun all the pitches, and wins in your head right now, what was that argument where you saw most of them click, because I'm sure you can see it in their eyes the second they are convinced. What was one single or convincing point, which may have well been the one I just pointed out about the 34.9 billion market spend, and the rating of the experience, but is there one point where you feel like that was the one that every time you brought up that point investors were just like, "Okay, this sounds ..." or is it not that easy?S Christeson:I don't think it's that straightforward unfortunately, I wish it was-F Geyrhalter:Bummer.S Christeson:... I wish there was a silver bullet, but I do think having your story really, really polished, and thought through, and just showing that you are the expert is really important. What I've learned is that every investor looks for something different, and every investor cares about something different. So, the aha moment comes at different times for different investors, and even I can just look at that gender specific to simplify it. For women, they understand the pain point and the problem, and the opportunity intuitively, because they've lived it for so long, and I think for male investors I had to spend more time upfront just talking through market size, pain point, what makes us different and unique.S Christeson:Some investors are more analytical, and so they wanted to dive into the numbers and understand, "Okay it's a huge opportunity, but how much of that can you actually capture, and is your plan believable, and let me look at your projections, and let's dive in." Some want to look at the unit economics from a customer perspective, and understand what's your average order value, what's your lifetime value, what's your customer acquisition costs? And is also depends on different stages of the business, too. Prior to launching we obviously didn't have some of those metrics, so that, I think, really boils down to having the ability to paint a clear picture in terms of what you're building, to support it with your advisor team, with your immediate team, with a fully baked plan as much as possible. So, I think it slightly depends on person and investor, it depends on your ability to tell the story, and then your ability to go deep wherever that person's interested in going deep.F Geyrhalter:How much did you research the personality of different investors? I mean, did you do some networking prior of people that got funding, or had presentations with these people, or did you not go that deep?S Christeson:Not usually. I think I've done it long enough now that I ... Early on I spent so much more time fundraising, and you learn over time how to be more efficient with it, and so now I'll definitely research the individuals that I'm talking to, and I'll get an idea for how they tick. So, sometimes I'll look at if there're videos available of them I'll just quickly listen to it and get an idea of who they are.F Geyrhalter:Yeah.S Christeson:But I would say that's probably my biggest skill is networking and reading people, so I've been able to lean on that heavily.F Geyrhalter:See, and I thought it was because you knew how to dress for success, but nope.S Christeson:No, I think because I wasn't sure how to dress for success I had to start this company.F Geyrhalter:Exactly, it was prelaunch. Let's talk about your brand launch. You knew that you would be a D-to-C brand, first and foremost, but I'm paraphrasing you here, you had a pretty crappy website, right?S Christeson:YesF Geyrhalter:Even at the time of official launch, which is just insane thinking you come from 10 years of tech in Silicon Valley, but of course your success was not based on insanity, but very calculated decisions. You launched your fashion brand at a conference. Tell us more about that launch day strategy, and the aftermath, because it's absolutely mesmerizing.S Christeson:So, I think a couple of things. One, we were and always have been, we still are, resource constrained, and that's intentional, because I think that right now we are in a ... well, not literally right now, but I think over the last like five or so years it's been ... D-to-C has been so attractive to investors, and a lot of founders have just taken so much money, and have been overfunded, and I think that really dilutes your ability to build a genuine brand. So, we are always thinking about how we allocate our money in a way that allows us to learn as much as possible, connect with a customer as much as possible, add value as much as possible, and really accelerate our path to what our ultimate goal is, which is to be the go-to workwear brand and the workwear authority.S Christeson:So, I think all that customer research I talked about, and all the brand building exercises that we did allowed us to lay out a go-to market strategy that made a lot of sense for us that wouldn't make a lot of sense for other retail brands, and I think that's what makes us special is our customer is a very specific customer. It's the professional woman, and we were thinking through like for launch, "How do we find her?", and inherent in our model, we've always had a website, granted very crappy early on, we've always had a website, but we also always believed in activating physical locations, and interacting with the customer as much as possible as a way to learn and as a way to grow.S Christeson:So, we launched at a women's conference in San Jose, California, which these conferences are you huge, they range in size from like 5,000 to like 20,000 women. This was one that I had participated in while I was at Cisco, and historically they'd only had booths of huge companies that were sponsors. So, Google would be there, Pfizer, or Cisco, J.P. Morgan are handing out stress balls, and they're offering you a couch to sit on, or a granola bar.S Christeson:Women have carved out this day on their calendar, they're not taking meetings, and it's a long day, and at some point they kind of want to take a break. So, I just thought it would be cool to go there and create this really elevated, beautiful, carved out retail experience, and just sell there and see what happened. It was such an awesome day. We were literally unpacking product from the factory, it was our first day ever in business. We threw up a website because we felt obligated to, which was, I mean, functional at best.F Geyrhalter:But not ecommerce at that time, right? It was just a splash page.S Christeson:No, it was ecommerce, you could-F Geyrhalter:Oh, good. Yeah.S Christeson:Yeah, yeah, yeah, it was on Shopify, it was functional enough.F Geyrhalter:Yeah.S Christeson:But we sold in like one day somewhere in the range of 25 to $30,000 worth of product, and the-F Geyrhalter:Unbelievable.S Christeson:It was ... I mean, the validation, and just the ... women were physically reacting to the functional aspects of our products, so things like interiors pockets, or a jumpsuit that has a back tuck, so you don't have to take the whole thing off to use the restroom. So, it definitely was the right move, and I think it was a great validating first step, and to our-F Geyrhalter:Unbelievably smart, and I think that that to me, that is so important, the not like, "How did other companies launch? Let's do it the same way. How did other fashion brands do it?", right?S Christeson:Mm-hmm (affirmative).F Geyrhalter:But the idea of like, "Who is our customer? Where are they, and where can we meet them when they really want to be distracted by a brand like us?" I think it's just brand poetry, that launch, so I just love that. And then I guess you rushed ... I think your husband at the time was running back and forth to get more clothes out of the U-Haul van outside the conference, or something like that, right?S Christeson:It was crazy-F Geyrhalter:It's okay-S Christeson:... it was very far away, and he's a runner, and he was exhausted by the end of the day. It was insane.F Geyrhalter:That is so good. That is so good. It's nice to look back at days like that during a month like this one. But that's really, really cool. I looked at your Instagram a little bit more the last couple of days, and the hashtag is currently ambition suits you, so storytelling is obviously key with any brand, but Argent is doing a very good job with it. Let's talk about the bigger why behind the brand. On your side you tease with a line that states, "Radical equality from pockets to paychecks." How does your brand see its social mission, and how does it work it out?S Christeson:Yeah so, prior to launch I mentioned this, but I ... and this certainly, again, stems from my experience, I saw an opportunity to build a brand that helped women through their careers no matter what their goal is, we want to be here and we want to be a resource to you. During my time in tech I worked on a team that was 95% male, 5% female, and I was one of the more senior females. I saw a lot, and I saw a lot of initiatives around helping women, and helping support women, helping get more women into the workforce, but a lot of them felt a little bit directionless.S Christeson:So, our goal really is to serve as a resource. So, the way that we've brought that to life are through events that we host, and we see now an opportunity to scale, which we'll be doing over the next year or two beyond just physical interactions, but we ... One, I think it lives in the brand. I think that the clothes are a physical reminder of who we are. They're intended to give you confidence, they're intended for you not to have to think about what you're wearing when you show up, and they're intended to be a reminder that there's a small army behind you, even if we're not physically there when you're asking for the raise, or making the biggest presentation of your life, or interviewing for your dream job.F Geyrhalter:Right.S Christeson:I think in terms of events though, we offer events, and the goal is to, one, bring together men and women. So, we include ... our brand is fairly, and intentionally androgynous, we really-F Geyrhalter:So glad to hear that. I'm so glad to hear that.S Christeson:We really believe that we can impact gender equality, and the way that we see ourselves doing that is by involving men in the conversation. So, we host events, we invite men and women from our network, we sell, we have drinks, we have fun. It's a really lively and exciting environment, which I think aligns with the brand that we're building, but we also always have an activity that is actionable on an individual level. So, we hosted a speed negotiating event where we brought in six executives that you would never get face time with, we had a facilitator, and then individuals would sit down, you would get a negotiating planning document, and you'd sit for four minutes with each coach, and you'd learn how to use the document. You'd learn to manage a salary negotiation, you'd learn how to manage a vendor negotiation, and you'd walk away with that document to used in every negotiation going forward, and you could cater those conversations to your own individual career.S Christeson:We hosted a financial literacy planning training event, and some as simple as like a headshot event. So, those are the ways that we are really bringing our values and our mission to life, I would say, and then I think that things as simple as having a website, and shooting real women. We shoot women from our community that you wouldn't necessarily know by face, but you know their work, and we just want you to see yourself when you open up our website. So, things as simple as that are different, and are special, because we haven't had that for-F Geyrhalter:Right.S Christeson:... you know, a long time. So yeah, I think are just some examples of what we're doing to really help change the status of women and gender.F Geyrhalter:Absolutely, and I mean, let's not forget, you're a very young company, so you spent the first years really focusing on getting the product right, getting the market fit right, making sure there is a tribe, and now this really can be a springboard to so much more. I mean, it's amazing what kind of opportunities a brand like yours, the way that you're positioned, that you have now, right?S Christeson:Yeah.F Geyrhalter:I think that the future is bright-S Christeson:Thank you.F Geyrhalter:... there's a lot that can happen with that. Let's go all the way back to the very beginning of the brand, the actual name, Argent. Where did the name come from? I can't put the two together.S Christeson:My great-grandfather started a company in the early 1900s, Argent Lumber, actually-F Geyrhalter:Oh.S Christeson:... Yeah, and he was a huge inspiration of mine. I've obviously never met him, our lives unfortunately did not overlap, but he was an entrepreneur through and through, and it was just something that I've had since I was born. It was not the obvious first choice. We spent weeks and weeks of brainstorming names, but we kept coming back to Argent, because it was simple, and it was strong, and it meant something to me, but it didn't mean something to everyone. So, that's it, that's the name.F Geyrhalter:Well, after this podcast airs it will mean lumber to everyone. I am sorry.S Christeson:I hope not. I hope it means accessible, functional, versatile work clothes.F Geyrhalter:And I mean, this is nitty gritty, and it's totally pointless to even talk about it, but I'm personally interested, so since he owned the brand Argent, was there still a trademark? I mean, this is a long time ago, and how about the dot com? Was it something that was already in other people's hands?S Christeson:We're argentwork.com, so there are ... His company is way too old for there still to be an issue, and we're in a different category, but there are a couple of companies that are named Argent, but they're all in different categories.F Geyrhalter:Okay, yeah, yeah.S Christeson:Yeah.F Geyrhalter:Let's just for one quick second entertain me, let's talk about your logo. This is a branding podcast, and even though the logo is only a small part of your brand, I am going there. You have a typographic treatment, but then you also have the uppercase letter A, which is kind of like an icon now, with what could be seen as an exclamation mark, but on the left. So, fill us in a little bit of what the thought process are, where the logo came from.S Christeson:Yeah so, we did I think way more than most startups in terms of brand exercise, developing our logo, our font, our ... everything was started in 2015, and then it's been an evolution. The logo was something that we worked with a branding agency on, and I love it for so many reasons. So, it's a dot dash. It represents ... one, you can type it on your keyboard, which I think is really fun, and quirky, and funny given that we're going after the office. Two, it's bold, it's elevated, and it's also a conversation starter. So, the backslash is a conversation starter. It's like an opener versus doing it the other way and having a period and just ending it. So, it's inviting, and in some ways it's just kind of quirky, which is what we are. I just ... It's strong, and it works for us. I don't know.F Geyrhalter:Yeah, no, totally. Now we zoomed in to the logo, now let's take a huge step back and think about branding. Obviously, you're a D-to-C, you're a retail brand, branding is super important to you, you mentioned that branding was very important to you from the very get-go, and you did a lot of exercises early on where other startups failed to do that. Shame on them, by the way, but that's very selfish of me to say.S Christeson:Agreed.F Geyrhalter:What does branding mean to you, Sali, I mean, especially after your journey from a very corporate job doing a lot of ... thinking about operations, doing a lot of financial jobs in your background, and now suddenly going into retail, which is like the brand, you know, like-S Christeson:Mm-hmm (affirmative).F Geyrhalter:... the biggest point of brands, really, where you can go. What does branding mean to you overall?S Christeson:I am a huge believer in brand and brand building, and I think you can see that with what we've built. I think that it is an undervalued area of the company for a lot of startups, and if overlooked, it's not something that you can correct. You can't grow a team, and then get your arms around brand, it doesn't work like that. So, to me, brand is just the ... it's almost like the visual manifestation of who you are at your core, and what values you want to portray, and at every touchpoint that a customer has, or an individual has with your brand, it should be consistent, it should convey exactly what we want it to.S Christeson:So, it's anything from tone and voice, values, what we stand for, what we don't stand for. It's colors, it can be as simple as color, it can be logo and fonts. But I think what it all boils down is like you are ... I almost see the brand as like an individual, and I think for us we from day one we have not deviated from, one, who we are, and two, where we're going, and the brand is a way for us to communicate that. We've put guardrails around it every step of the way, and as I mentioned, we refined it, and I think that it's gone from a bigger funnel to a much tighter funnel in a great way. I think that's natural, and I think that's healthy, but it hasn't changed what we stand for.S Christeson:I think the value in that is that customers are drawn to that, they recognize that it's authentic, and that it's us, and you can see what we stand for, and I think in some ways we've taken risks with it, because we're willing to dress someone that's "controversial" like Hillary Clinton, which is crazy to me, but we're willing to put our name on things that are potentially perceived as political, which somehow the women's conversations become politicized. So, we are really clear about who we are and what we stand for, and maybe some of the decisions we make alienate people, but it doesn't matter to me, because we have such a loyal following, and that following only becomes more loyal by us being true to who we are.S Christeson:It has been interesting, since we've launched we've seen some brands try and copy what we're doing, and it just doesn't work like that. Customers can sniff out inauthenticity like in two seconds, and just to try and take pieces of a brand and apply it to what you're building, it comes off as really disjointed and broken. So yeah, brand in my opinion is invaluable. I think that we have so much brand equity now from really having invested in it, and really having spent time on cultivating it, and bringing it to life. I think more companies that overlook branding, brand exercises, and don't do it, sort of ignore it, than there are ones that actually spend time and resources on it. I don't think we've seen a ton of great, strong brands come out in the last five, 10 years, but the ones that have are just excellent, you know?F Geyrhalter:I totally agree. I totally agree with every single thing that you're saying, which is not shocking at all. But no, absolutely, absolutely, there were so many things in there. I could actually have follow-up questions to every single sentence you just put out there, but I know we're running out of time so we can't do that, but what is one single word in which you could describe your brand? So, I'm thinking about Everlane being transparency, and Coca-Cola standing for happiness, I call if your brand DNA. What would be one word that Argent would stand for?S Christeson:Confidence.F Geyrhalter:Love it. Yes, confidence and joy, right? Confidence first.S Christeson:Yeah.F Geyrhalter:That's absolutely great.S Christeson:That, to me, is our ultimate filter. It's literally why we exist. We want to give you confidence through our product, we're going to give you confidence through our brand, we want to give you confidence through literally every single thing that we put in front of you.F Geyrhalter:And just the way that you said this now, this is why this is so important to be able to know your brand so much that you can actually funnel it into one singular word, because everything you do, may it be a blog post, an Instagram post, if it doesn't go back to that word, then it shouldn't be out there, right?S Christeson:Yes.F Geyrhalter:And I think that's why your brand is a little bit on the quiet side throughout this crisis now, because you don't have something that can go right, right against that pain point, or your brand's true north. I absolutely think that this is so, so crucial for anyone. All right, we're running out of time. I would love to hear from you, if there's any piece of brand advice that you might have for founders as a takeaway, you already gave us a lot of them, but is there anything that as you worked on your brand for the last four or five years, was there anything where you say, "You know what? That's something that I learned that I would just love for founders not to make that mistake.", perhaps even brand related?S Christeson:Yeah so, oh man, I have so many different answers for that. I think investing early in brand, which I obviously said before, but recognizing how important that is, and stepping up and making the investment, because it can be perceived as expensive early on in a startup, and I just find it to be so invaluable. For us, we've always had a brand book since before launch that we share with every individual that starts working at the company, we share with every agency partner that we bring on, and it's a way to stay really tight in terms of messaging, and visuals assets, et cetera.S Christeson:So, I think that having that filter in place is really important, and it inspires excitement, passion from the inside. I think the other piece is just to follow your gut. So, early on for all of our imagery, all of our campaign imagery, all of our ecomm imagery, we were using models, and it just didn't feel quite right to me, because they were not like a visual representation of the working woman. I didn't identify with them, but it was kind of what was done. So, I think that I've gone against the norm every single step of the journey, but here was one area where I was like, "Okay, we have to use models, we just have to.", you know?F Geyrhalter:Yeah.S Christeson:We changed that a couple of years ago, and I've never been more relieved and happier in my life. I've always wanted it, but I've always succumbed to the pressure of not doing it, and so that was a mistake that we made along the way. Everyone's going to make mistakes, but I think if you just are constantly focused on evolving, and improving your brand, and tightening it up, and iterating on it based on what you're hearing from feedback from your community, that you can't go wrong. Sorry, I know this is a long answer. The last piece is-F Geyrhalter:Oh, keep going.S Christeson:... we've definitely sacrificed revenue due to some brand decisions, so we've been approached by a number of brands to do partnerships. We have not done those for the most part. This year we're actually just starting to launch a couple of partnerships that are so perfect for our brand, but it took me like a few years to be comfortable with identifying who was right for us, and saying no to partnerships that definitely would've driven top line results. I think the other is just ... and more broadly it's just being comfortable saying no to things that compromise your brand in any regard. I am very much a purist when it comes to brand, but I think the second that you concede on anything that there's no going back. The last piece is we don't discount as a brand, so that's something that I won't budge on, and I think that it's different for every company, but for me that just shows that you don't value your brand and your product. So, long answer-F Geyrhalter:We see eye to eye with so many of these things. Saying no was my biggest thing that I didn't do throughout my entire agency life. Like for 12 years I just said yes to everything, because it was all so exciting, and after that first decade in business I started to say no to everything, besides a couple of things, and opportunities just opened up, right-S Christeson:Yes.F Geyrhalter:... because you say yes to the right things. I think it is so important.S Christeson:Yes.F Geyrhalter:You said, "Yes."S Christeson:I agree.F Geyrhalter:Female listeners, or those who identify as such, who fell in love with your brand, where can they get dressed for success currently? Where can they find you? I know obviously your retail stores are, at the time where this is airing, which is going to be in two weeks from now, they will all most probably still be closed, but for now they can go online?S Christeson:Yes, so argentwork.com, and then on Instagram we're Argent, or Twitter, or Facebook, Argent across all social media platforms.F Geyrhalter:Awesome, very good. Well, Sali, thank you so much for having taken the time to share your story, and amazing, amazing, amazing branding insights with us, especially under your less than ideal circumstances right now, we really, really appreciate your time.S Christeson:Thank you for having me on, this has been refreshing in light of everything that's happening, so I very much appreciate it.F Geyrhalter:Oh, I'm glad, thank you.

Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms on Wednesday expressed her disagreement with Georgia Governor Brian Kemp's decision to re-open the state, claiming it will be "deadly" for many people in her community. "It concerns me deeply that we are still seeing an upward trend in our state and we are rushing to reopen businesses," she said on CBSN. "What I've said is I hope the governor is right and I'm wrong, because if he's wrong more people will die," Bottoms added. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/bj-murphy9/support

EP 51 X JACOB O'CONNOR - NAVIGATING PARTNERSHIPS RIGHT NOW  Jacob is back for Part 3 of our Partnership series! We asked you guys to send in questions last week, so today we're answering some of the ones you sent in.  Due to what's going on in, and around our world, this episode really digs into how we're navigating the current Pandemic, and Paradigm shift while in partnership, or out, and everything in between... In this episode we talk about:   -A special anniversary I'm celebrating this week  -What this journey with the bees have brought forth so far  -What I've been getting up to while in "isolation"  -A shift in my practice / 1:1 work  -How Jacob has been feeling since this all started  -What we eat (Do we eat the same?) -How we handle disagreements  -What to do if a partner is "gaslighting" you  -Navigating a break up since "lockdown" -Have we ever stopped or resisted each others expansion / growth process? If so, how did we navigate -How have we kept each others presence fresh in such close quarters -What rituals or habits have we carved out specifically during this time  -Has there been anything we had to ask the other partner for during this time that we might not have expected -How to build a spiritual practice together and / or encouraging the other gently -Graceful communication  -Our favourite reality show  -Balancing feminine + masculine in partnership  -What's something I've learned / scene during this time in Jacob that I hadn't before  -What Jacob is wanting to let go of when we are able to move around more freely / and regain somewhat of a "normal" flow  -Jacob's beautiful and grounded advice on this time and space we're navigating  +++ More   LINKS | A RADIANT LIFE.CA  INSTAGRAM A Rebirth (BVT Journey) - Episode 38 Jacob Part One - Episode 17  Jacob Part Two - Episode 31 Work with me (1:1 Sessions)  Reimagining Wellness Course (4 Week Self-Guided)  

Show Notes: Speaker 1: (00:00) Welcome to episode number 22 of the simplified integration podcast, the turnkey myth, Speaker 2: (00:09) Leonardo da Vinci once said that simplicity is the ultimate sophistication and I agree. You see the problem with the way that most consulting groups approach medical integration is anything but simple. In fact, it's the exact opposite. It's expensive, it's complicated and quite frankly it's exhausting. Enough is enough. There are far too many amazing integrated clinics that are struggling. Well, I'm on a mission to change that. What I've come to find from over five years working with integrative practices is that simplicity really is the secret. The old saying of less is more is true. Through a streamlined approach, I was able to create multiple successful seven-figure integrated clinics, and now I'm going to show you how you can do the same. Join me as I share with you the secrets to successful medical integration and practice growth. Join me on a journey to greater sophistication through innovation. I'm Dr. Andrew Wells and welcome to the simplified integration podcast. Speaker 1: (01:06) Hey, what's going on, doc? This is Dr. Andrew Wells. Welcome to the simplified integration podcast. So today we're going to talk about this myth of the turnkey solution to integration. And I want to break this down for you because, uh, because I think there, when, when consulting groups and management groups are saying that there is a turnkey solution integration, I think that that is very misleading. So I want to break down what I think they mean by by that and also what you need to be aware of. So this podcast is geared to doctors who are considering integration, but they haven't quite done it yet. If you've already integrated and you were told this was going to be a turnkey solution, you know exactly what I'm talking about. Um, so if you want to listen to this episode, uh, if it doesn't piss you off too much, you please by all means listen. Speaker 1: (01:53) Um, but I think you'll be able to relate to what I'm talking about now. Um, integrating your office is one thing. Being successful and integration is a completely different thing. And what I think a lot of docs, a lot of companies do, and they say, we provide you a turnkey solution with integration. What they're really saying is we will get your office integrated. That's it, and I'm here to tell you that's actually a really easy thing to do. It doesn't take a lot of uh, knowledge to hire a healthcare attorney, set up a new LLC, get a, get a medical entity, started, find a medical doctor and a nurse practitioner who want to work with you in your office. Like if you can do that, then you can create an integrated office that's not very hard to do. It doesn't take a lot of money to do that. Speaker 1: (02:38) It doesn't take a lot of time to do that. In fact, I teach docs how to do that in less than 90 days for less than 10,000 bucks. Like that's the simple part. Now, sometimes I think groups pray on chiropractors who think that that part is difficult to do and I'm here to tell you that part's the easy part. Finding your MD, getting your business set up, all that stuff, like hire someone to do all that stuff. It's not very expensive. Again, it doesn't take very long to do. And while, ah, you're integrated, the question then becomes, okay, now what do I do with that? And so here's the problem that a lot of docs run into is they integrate. And these consulting groups say, okay, now you can do trigger point injections in DME and regenerative medicine and all these other different therapies, rehab, uh, use this equipment. Speaker 1: (03:22) And so doctors are left to try to juggle 15 to 20 different therapies and how to run a medical office with new protocols and new paperwork and new, um, new compliance rules. It's a lot, a lot to go over. Then you have to figure out the marketing, how to do case management, who does case management, how to fill out the notes. So you have this, all of a sudden you've integrated and then you have this insanely complex business model to try to run while carrying this massively high overhead, which is why so many doctors who integrate go out of business the first year because they got this turnkey solution. Um, and yes, they, they were integrated but they had no idea how to run it. And, and that like, that really bothers me because I'm lumped into that group of consultants and management groups that, that teach integration. Speaker 1: (04:10) Um, but there are a lot of people I really offer very, very little value for what they're charging. And so I, I find issue with that, you know, the, the hard work starts, once you integrate, that's when the hard work starts. And here's the, here's how the game has played in so many different consulting groups do this, is they get a doc integrated, they start seeing medical patients and then they realize they have no clue what they're doing. They don't know how to maximize insurance reimbursement. They don't know what services offer. They don't know when to offer them. So they call up their management company and say, Hey, I'm lost. Like I'm having trouble figuring it out. And what does a management company do? Oh, you need help with case management. Come to our case management workshop. That's $5,000 or a, yeah, I'm not really sure how to sell high ticket, uh, regenerative medicine. Speaker 1: (04:55) I don't know how to charge for that. I don't know how to sell it. Oh, you need help with, um, uh, selling high ticket, uh, care plans come to my $7,000 workshop that we're having next month and we'll teach how to do that. So all of a sudden, like when docs start struggling, these consulting groups, their answer is, well, give me some more money and I'll show you how to do that. And so that whole concept of turning a turnkey solution was total BS. And that's why doctors get so fed up with, with integrations because they didn't realize like it wasn't turnkey to begin with. It was actually really difficult. And then they get milked for all this extra money on the backend because they just don't know how to make the office run. And I can tell you from experience, like they're super complicated. If you're not an expert in marketing and expert in sales and expert in business administration and management, you're going to struggle and you're going to suffer. Speaker 1: (05:43) And I've known some really intelligent doctors, very smart, successful doctors who have struggled going out of business when bankrupt lost a bunch of money because again, that turnkey solution really didn't work. And it turned out not to be turnkey in the end. And so, um, and by the way, like if you, uh, if you've ever had the unique opportunity to go to like a consulting group seminar, like a lot of the big box consulting groups will have like mastermind groups or seminars that you can attend. Here's what happens. You go to the event, they sit you down and it's a parade of vendors, one after another vendor after vendor, after vendor, after vendor trying to sell you on their service, their program, their therapy, their case management solution, their front desk solution. So you buy all these different programs and then six months later, the same group has the exact same seminar with a whole new parade of vendors. Speaker 1: (06:34) It's this vendor, that vendor, that vendor. And the question is, well, which of these things do I do and where do the vendors go that were here last six months ago? So it's like revolving door of, of uh, of selling that happens once you integrate. And that's like the dirty little secret of integration that the companies don't like you to tell. I don't want to tell you up front and to hope that you don't figure out upfront because if you did, you would never integrate in the first place cause it would be an a, it's an insane decision to do it the way most consulting groups teach it. And so that's like, and this is like, this is why doctors now are, are like really cautious of integrating and they're skeptical because you've probably heard the stories. You've, you've seen doctors try it and struggle with it. Speaker 1: (07:17) And so I think doctors are a lot smarter now. And so if you, if you've listened to any of the stuff I talk about, you know, I don't talk about turnkey solutions because if you integrate or if you do, if you do one of my programs, like it's going to be work. It's hard work. There's learning involved. There is, there are skills that you need to learn. And I think my job as a, as a consultant is to teach you those skills. Um, and, and so it's not, again, a not a turnkey solution. There's work involved, like, like starting any new venture or any new type of therapy or anything in your life. It's going to take some hard work. It's going to take, there's a learning curve to it, but there is a way to do it. And so on the flip side of that, there are integrated offices that are very successful, that run very smoothly, that don't take up a lot of the doctor's time, um, that are profitable. Speaker 1: (08:02) They're helping lots of patients, but there's a path to that. There's a way to do that. And I'm here to tell you that there is no such thing as a plug and play system that you can put in your office and it magically runs all by itself. And if you're thinking about integration, you want to, you want to be asking these questions like, what do you, what do you provide me for my money in terms of, um, case management, help front desk, help scripting. Like, are these programs included in your program or I'm going to have to learn them on my own or pay extra money for them. Those are all the questions that you need to ask if you're considering integration. So my whole course is called simplified integration for one reason is that we've removed a lot of that BS that comes with traditional integration. Speaker 1: (08:44) We've truly removed a lot of it. And my job is to help you Wade through the, the difficulty of, of integration once you've, once you've integrated again, the beginning is the easy part. The hard part comes once you actually start seeing patients and doing marketing and are trying to grow your practice, that's where the work actually starts. Um, so if you're interested in integration, if you're interested in resources on what it actually looks like, um, please hit me up on my email. It's info@integrationsecrets.com. Uh, go back and listen to previous podcast episodes. I've got some awesome, uh, skills and wisdom I've learned over the years of running integrated offices, successful integrated offices. And I would love to share that with you for the very, at the very least, to give you a realistic expectation of what integration actually looks like. So doc, thanks for listening. I hope this helps you. If you're considering integration, hope that gives you maybe a clearer picture of what to expect. You know, again, it's not like a like a get rich quick overnight type of type of scenario and I hope you understand that and that's why I did this episode. So I hope you found this content valuable. Hope you can use it to help grow your practice and do things the smarter and simpler way. So doc, thanks for being out here. I look forward to seeing you on the next episode. God bless. Take care. Bye bye. Speaker 2: (09:59) Hey innovators. Thanks for listening to the simplified integration podcast. Fact that you're listening tells me that you're like me, someone who loves simplicity and the truth is those who embrace simplicity are some of the greatest innovators. So hope you got a ton of value from what we covered on today's episode. Be sure to subscribe and share with other docs that you feel could benefit from greater sophistication through simplification and innovation. If you've got specific questions that you'd like answered on this podcast or you've got specific topics that you'd like me to discuss, just shoot me an email at info@integrationsecrets.com that's info@integrationsecrets.com.

Nourishing Noble ASMR (Caiel Noble) joins Jack Woltering on the True Buds Show for the second time. This Episode is primarily focused on content creation and Brand Building. Much Love to all the True Buds! Follow Caiel HERE: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCM5HM3zs_pUVy_PSKzzpaqQ @nourishingnoble_asmr Get Your tCheck Potency Tester Here Save $25 using code truebuds25 https://tcheckme.grsm.io/truebuds Follow True Buds Show https://truebudstv.com/podcast-ep-1-19 https://www.youtube.com/c/truebudsshow True Buds TV @truebudstv https://www.youtube.com/c/truebuds 00:00:26] Back again is Caiel Noble Nourishing Noble. This is the first Skype podcast I have done on the channel and I'm very excited to have Caiel. Back on today's podcast. It's gonna be mainly focused on content creation. Building your brand. Working with other social media platforms and just growth in general. How Caiel has been successful in creating his Nourishing Noble ASMR channel. What I've done with True Buds. We're going to talk about podcasting. Like I said, building business and we're gonna go about it that way. I just wanted to come up here up front and let you know where we can provide the most value for you. So if you're trying to build your brand, business or you just want to learn more about marketing and online media, this is a good podcast for you. Once again, thank you very much. And a special thanks to cCheck. I have tons of videos coming for you guys in a couple weeks. When I get back to my tcheck in L.A., I'm gonna be making all types of edibles and the tcheck2. For those of you who haven't seen my content or heard of the tcheck2. The tcheck to is a device that allows you to test your cannabis butter or infuse coconut oil on your alcohol infusions. It also comes with a flower expansion kit that allows you to test your flower, your distill it. I mean, this thing is legit. I did one test, so I did a tcheck unboxing on this channel. Check that out if you want to learn more. If you're into testing your own edible so you can kind of figure out the dose. Go to the site below. And use CODE truebuds25 for $25 off. Let's get in this episode with Caiel Noble Nourshing Noble ASMR layback. Take a rip, eat an edible and come chill on the True Buds Show! [00:02:10] So let's go, bro. [00:02:12] Jack once again, bro, thank you for having me on your podcast. We had a lot of fun, the last time, we did the episode. So this one will definitely be. We'll definitely really good. And I'm excited to talk about everything that we've been chatting about lately, about content creation, about both of our channels. What we want to do with, you know, just creating a life, doing that full time and so everybody can get some nuggets out of the, you know, the conversation and ya bro exciting. [00:02:43] Oh, yeah. Hell, yeah. I love Caiel's energy always. Let me just give a little more of a preface. I've been I've known Caiel for many years. We went to the University of Kansas together. We've been collaborating, done tons of other collaborations apart from our own personal channels, short films, whatever it may be. And he was the dude on some of the first True Buds TV videos, like we mentioned in the first podcast. But just got to give a shout out on a couple of those like the Kiva and the weed delivery guy is Epic Man I think is going to live on forever. So everybody who ever have a. So what's good, man, during this quarantine time and content creation and what's going on like, how has it affected you? And just what are some your thoughts on it? [00:03:37] There's a lot of time that you have to self-reflect and focus on yourself. Full Transcription Available on truebudstv.com

Jackson Bliss is an assistant professor of creative writing at BGSU. His genre-bending fiction focuses on being mixed-race in a global world. This episode features a conversation about exploring identity through writing and a reading from his forthcoming novel, The Amnesia of June Bugs.   Transcript: Intro: This podcast features instances of explicit language. If you are listening with children, you may want to save this conversation for later. Intro: From Bowling Green State University and the Institute for the Study of Culture and Society, this is BG Ideas. Musical Intro: I'm going to show you this. It's a wonderful experiment. Jolie Sheffer: Welcome to the Big Ideas Podcast, brought to you by the Institute for the Study of Culture and Society and the School of Media and Communication at Bowling Green State University. I'm Dr. Jolie Sheffer, associate professor of English and American culture studies and the director of ICS. Jolie Sheffer: Today I'm joined by Dr. Jackson Kanahashi Bliss. Bliss is an assistant professor in the creative writing program here at BGSU. He's published in The New York Times, The Boston Review, Ploughshares, Tin House, and many other publications. He earned his MFA from the University of Notre Dame and his PhD in literature and creative writing from the University of Southern California. Today we have the pleasure of hearing him read from his new work, Amnesia of Junebugs. Thanks for joining me today, Jackson. Jackson  Bliss: Happy to be here. Jolie Sheffer: You are both a creative writer and a literary scholar. How do you think of your creative writing as being shaped by scholarship on Asian American literature? Are there other ways in which you see your work as interdisciplinary? Jackson  Bliss: Yeah, it's a funny marriage, actually, and I think it's an accidental one, because, in the beginning, I wrote most experimentally, and then when I started studying Asian American studies, I realized there was a sort of strong bent towards experimentalism and activism and how it connects to ethnic nationalism, ethnic studies, academic studies, and academic centers and universities. So this was completely accidental. I didn't intentionally sort of imitate the preferred genre of activist-minded APIA literature. It just sort of happened that way. But the more I studied Asian American studies, particularly works like Immigrant Acts by Lisa ... What's her last name? Jolie Sheffer: Lowe. Jackson  Bliss: Lisa Lowe. Yeah. It sort of made me realize there's a strong sort of push against the stylistics of the empire, which tends to be connected to linear narratives and coming-of-age stories. That made me want to write that story, particularly because I found it a little bit both historically informed, but also generically arbitrary that a particular sub-genre of fiction would supposedly work so well, right, in something that we are actively trying to deconstruct. Jackson  Bliss: I feel like writers like Viet Thanh Nguyen are perfect examples of people who said, "No, you can have a narrative arc and do a lot of important work instead of deconstructing standardized, sort of imposed European models of narrative." Jackson  Bliss: So I think all of those things appealed to me a lot. So it became much more conscious the more I wrote fiction, I think. Yeah. But in the beginning, it was totally accidental and organic. Jolie Sheffer: Your peace Dukkha, My Love is an experimental hypertext novella, created for the web. Can you describe our audience, what that term means? What is an electronic novella, and what can people expect when encountering a text like that? What were you hoping to explore, both formally and thematically? Jackson  Bliss: I think part of it is that there is a very tiny archive of electronic writing, just in general. If you go to the standard places that catalog experimental writing, for example, they're really small. They're highly limited. A lot of writers that write experimentally or create online hypertext don't even publish through them. They just publish on their website. So it's highly decentralized in a way that can be really frustrating for, for example, scholars in new media, because there is no clearinghouse for someone to find all the works. Jackson  Bliss: I think the thing that new readers of hypertext, which is online experimental writing, have to sort of keep in mind is a lot of it is about the ability to create your own narrative, sort of on your own terms. This is sort of the burden, but the beauty of reading. In Dukkha, My Love, essentially, readers click on hypertext, not knowing where it takes them. So they have control, but they're doing it blindly, right? So there's a lot of that going on. It's highly immersive, but it's also indeterminate in terms of where your freedom and control as a reader will take you. Jackson  Bliss: Eventually, as readers start reading more and more, they sort of participate in the cyclicity of the three intersecting narratives, which is absolutely part of the point of reading it, which is the ways in which there is a historical cycle that would repeat, the ways in which we repeat sort of certain cultural modalities of xenophobia and fear against the other, the ways in which our own understanding of reality sort of goes in these continuous cycles of knowledge and awareness and denial, and the proof of this as well is on the first page, when readers click on one of the destinations, where you can basically pick where you want the story to go. It'll even say, "My life is a circle," right, sort of reinscribing this idea in the reader that they are participating in it, but they are not necessarily aware of where they're going, which I think is kind of a fitting cultural analogy of sort of our own conceptualization of history, right? So we sort of have an idea of where it's going, but we're sort of blind as to where exactly it lands. Jackson  Bliss: So yeah, it took me about probably four years of doing research and writing the excerpts and about four months of teaching myself how to code enough to learn how to strip audio files off of YouTube videos and then basically take my own music and sort of record it and then time it and cut it in such a way where it worked with the videos, which I basically ripped off from the Learning Channel and someone else. God bless all of you. Thank you for your fine work. Jackson  Bliss: Yeah. But I was learning as I was creating. That particular genre was something I had never done before, and that's why I wanted to contribute to the discourse, because I felt like it's pretty emaciated, in terms of a genre, right, but also highly accessible. Those two things really appealed to me. Jolie Sheffer: That project in particular, you set yourself a set of hurdles that were challenges you had to then work within, right? So you make something that is, by nature, through coding, deeply linear and kind of limit certain pathways. It is not an endlessly, right? You have to create a set of possibilities, which means foreclosing others, and yet your work itself and the things that interest you are all about the chaotic, the unpredictable, the messy. So how did you kind of respond to the challenge that you set for yourself? Did you feel like you'd handcuffed yourself, or was it liberating, in some sense, to have to work within these limitations? Jackson  Bliss: To be honest, I thought the limitations were there to keep me sane, because I think I would have lost my (beep) mind if I had literally created a work of infinity, because, originally, the idea was I was going to create [inaudible 00:06:50] Book of Sand, right? You could almost make that argument, but if you read Dukkha, My Love enough, you will eventually hit the same narrative strand. So you do sort of touch on finitude at some point. It's impossible to avoid that textual finitude. Jackson  Bliss: But the constraints ended up being lifesavers for me, because this project otherwise could have gone on forever. Let me give you an example. When I was trying to keep track of all the three separate narrative strands and then create a separate stub for each one on my website, this required a level of organization that, frankly, I don't like to have in my art. That goes against my entire ethos as a multimodal, mixed-race, experimentalist-leaning, voice-driven, stylized writer. Yet here we were, where I basically had to control my choices, one, so that I could finish this product before the next semester started and, two, to sort of create a bottleneck, I guess, a narrative bottleneck, where, at some point, everything does have to go through certain sort of narrative choices. Jackson  Bliss: That's both because of the limitation in my coding skills, frankly, but also because there are certain sort of narrative strands I want readers to go through, and I don't want them to necessarily be negotiable. So, for that reason, the index page is, in and of itself, a sort of delimitation of the narrative choices, right? Readers only have basically 10 to 15 places to choose, and then they only have 4 to 10 actionable links on that page. So it sort of starts and ends with finitude. Jackson  Bliss: There is, believe it or not, those of you that have read this, a goodbye page, an acknowledgement page, but, as it turns out, it's incredibly (beep) difficult to find. I mean, I can't even find it, and there's other details that I put that I think were just a little too [inaudible 00:08:41] for themselves. There was an asterisk next to certain narrative strands, letting readers know, "Hey, this is it. This is about to take you to the final page," and I hope that readers would note that this was connected to the theme of the star colonies. That's why the asterisk's there. But you have to scroll down, and if you don't scroll down, you don't see it, and then it doesn't take you to the final page. Jackson  Bliss: But I'm not upset about this. I don't hate myself. I have accepted that there are limitations to reading, and you really can't predict, unless you're into analytics, what your readers are going to do. To me, that's the beauty of it, is that it gives readers, essentially, some blind power to decide how the story is told, which, frankly, isn't done very often in speculative fiction. So that's why it appealed to me. Jolie Sheffer: Much of your work deals with being hapa, or mixed race. How do you see your identity playing a role in your creative work, or, conversely, how has your fiction played a role in your understanding of your own identity? Jackson  Bliss: It's interesting you ask me that, because, in the beginning, when I look back to my earliest fiction, all my characters were white, and this is for a couple of reasons. One, because, at that point, I was definitely passing as white. Two, it's just simply easier for me and my mom, who's hapa as well, my brother, who's also hapa, to just not push the mixed-race button. I was born in Northern Michigan. I didn't live in a community where we celebrated, right, sort of any sort of multicultural, multiracial identity. Jackson  Bliss: There was a lot of survival going on. I mean, even my obachan would not speak to me in Japanese unless I begged her. This was partially because she had a sort of assimilationist paradigm, when it came to living in America. So she thought she was helping me by just making me only speak English. Jackson  Bliss: So, ironically, as I got older and started realizing I have two very different racial and cultural modalities, I mean, I'm literally the son of Japanese immigrants on my mom's side, and that's how close that side of the genealogy is. It's insane I'm never writing about that. It's bizarre that I don't talk about that. I think part of it's because I didn't know how to. There's a lot of things I love about growing up in the Midwest, but it's culturally not the most progressive place to examine your racial hybridity, and I think if I had grown up in SF or New York City, a place where there are strong multicultural identities as the centering of the urban ethos, I probably would have found myself a lot earlier. So it took me a long time. Jackson  Bliss: So I realized at one point that my racial hybridity, in a lot of ways, sort of mimicked my generic hybridity, right, where I like to write in a lot of different genres. I sort of pick and choose. I don't feel like I should be pigeonholed. I sort of embrace this idea that I can almost pick the concept of the neutral, in terms of what it means and [inaudible 00:11:35]'s notion of you don't have to pick one side or other. You can choose to not pick between two options, especially when they're highly binary and deeply delimiting, existentially. Jackson  Bliss: So these things sort of coincided. My desire to sort of subvert genre conventions and just find whatever's the right genre and voice for me coincided with my realization that I had a lot I wanted to understand and investigate about my own mixed-race identity, as someone who's French, British, and Japanese. So it's really my PhD years where I really started fully embracing this and really interrogating it. Jolie Sheffer: What kinds of research do you do for your creative work? You alluded to some of that. What scholars or authors have shaped your work and worldview? Jackson  Bliss: The first people to influence my voice, Junot Diaz and then JD Salinger, and the third one is Zadie Smith. These three writers really informed my whole conception of voice and textual and racial hybridity. So the thing I liked about JD Salinger as a teenage boy was the authenticity of someone questioning authenticity, right? That sort of self blindness, I found really compelling, right? Jolie Sheffer: All his talk of phoneys, right? Jackson  Bliss: Yeah, phoneys. Right. Jolie Sheffer: Yeah. Jackson  Bliss: In many ways, he's [Salinger] the phoniest of all. But, on the other hand, there's a tender side to him that often gets ignored, where he's deeply concerned about preventing trauma to people, because he himself appears to be traumatized, in a way that Holden Caulfield was incapable of sort of working out. So that was powerful to me, and the stylization of the voice was really powerful. Jackson  Bliss: But then when I read White Teeth by Zadie Smith and then Drown by Junot Diaz, I suddenly realized that there was space for my voice, this sort of multicultural urban realism combining with almost sort of Creole sort of language, patois, right, in English. I didn't know that you could do that. I didn't know we were allowed to put the language of our other identity into English. It sounds really crazy when I hear it, but yeah, it was sort of a revelation to me that we could have a stylized voice that sort of embraced and sort of interrogated and was a product of a multicultural identity. Jackson  Bliss: With White Teeth, I think I was just so invested in the ways in which she sort of did these portraitures of different racial and historical and cultural communities and gave each of them a sort of majesty and humanity and an interrogation that I found really amazing and actually rare and then combine it with a sort of these moments of maximization, where the language just explodes off the page, right? Jackson  Bliss: I realized these writers were doing a lot of important work that I myself wanted to do, that I needed to understand better and also, at the same time, that they were giving me permission to sort of figure out my own narrative modality, my own stylized voice, because it's easy to feel like you have to basically come off as neutral, which is code for sounding white. A lot of writers of color I'm friends with feel the same way. They feel this invisible constraint all the time to write in a way where Ivy League-educated, East Coast white readers will understand and connect with. Jackson  Bliss: The problem is there's things that that demographic cannot connect with, and if we write for this imagined, embodied, universal voice, we can give up a lot of the most vital parts of our own sort of unique lyricism and our own techniques for storytelling. So that was a huge revelation for me. Jolie Sheffer: You recently published an essay in TriQuarterly called The Cult of Likability, or Why You Should Kill Your Literary Friendships. In it, you talk about how readers frequently criticize characters for their likeability, or lack thereof. Do you see this as a racialized or gendered criticism, and what qualities do you think are important to make characters compelling? Jackson  Bliss: I do think it's heavily racialized, and I think it's heavily gendered. I think it works in a really sort of sinister, unconscious way for a lot of people. There's still this notion of universal literary merit. When something's amazing, it has this broad appeal. But universality in literature, at least in the 21st century, is mostly code for literature that appeals to a massive white readership. What I've noticed in my workshops, but also in a lot of book reviews, is that works that are written with characters of color or by authors of color or both, especially when they're women, are much more heavily criticized than when they are, for example, white narrators or white female narrators, right? Jolie Sheffer: Yeah. You don't hear people complaining that Humbert Humbert wasn't likable enough in Lolita. Jackson  Bliss: Right. Exactly. Yeah. Jolie Sheffer: That's not the criticism, or that Rabbit Angstrom isn't likable. Jackson  Bliss: Right. That's right. So one of the arguments I made in this essay is, first of all, some of the most important works that I think have shaped, in a positive way, a sort of expanding sort of foundational text canon in America comes from books that weren't necessarily fun to read, with characters who we didn't necessarily like at all, who are important. I mean, Native Son has Bigger Thomas, I think his name is, and that's a crucial character, right? To say, "I don't like this, because I didn't get him" or "I didn't like him" or "He didn't appeal to me" is so essentially irrelevant to the importance, both culturally and historically and racially, that that voice sort of incarnates. Jackson  Bliss: I'm noticing a tendency now where liter agents and now MFA students and a lot of readers are using love and infatuation as this sort of literary metric for determining the value of something. "I didn't love it. I didn't love the voice. I didn't love the character," as if we are now given permission to not consider the literary value of the work, the importance of the marginalized voice, for example, because we realize we don't like the character. Jackson  Bliss: I think it's connected, partially, to cancel culture. But I also think it's partially connected to reality TV, because, with reality television, when we saw a character we didn't like, we would vote them off. So, essentially, likability had consequences, right? Jackson  Bliss: What I think is happening now is people are reading texts that decenter them or ask them to do work or research. Suddenly, they will just decide, "I don't like this character," and that's the end of it. Jolie Sheffer: It also seems to me, though, related to what you were talking about before, which is that if you don't recognize, if you're encountering a new voice, a new perspective, that is not one that you have been taught to recognize because of literature and because of established kind of genres of reading, that first impulse might be, "I don't like this person," and it takes time to actually get used to new voices. Jackson  Bliss: That's right. Yeah, and I think that sort of discomfort maybe at being de-centered is a completely understandable, very normal one. Everyone feels that way. The problem is communities of color and marginalized communities have felt this their entire lives. They go into any room, they go into any white space, and they are always de-centered, all the time. I think this is something that, in general, white readers are a lot less capable and patient and willing to deal with, in part because they've never had to, right? Jackson  Bliss: So for this to happen in the sort of sacred American pastime of reading I think rubs people the wrong way, but I feel there is a silver lining, which is these readers can sit in that lack of comfort and know, at the end of the day, that it's going to be okay and that they will work it out and they will start to slowly understand these characters and potentially empathize with them. But that takes time, and if we don't learn to learn about people and sort of enter into their space, we will never get there. Jackson  Bliss: That's actually one of the arguments I make in this essay, which is not only would we erase some of the greatest literature written by writers of color if we decide we don't like the characters, but, more importantly, we lose our critical thinking skills and our empathetic ones, because this requires us to learn from the other, whoever the other is for us. Jackson  Bliss: I think that's my issue with likability, is it's become this eroticized literary metric, as if infatuation is actually a legitimate metric to analyze the literary value of a work. Frankly, I don't give a (beep) whether someone loves a book of mine or not. What I care about is if they can enter into it, if they can learn from it, if they can go someplace new, from the end of the book to when they started. To me, that's, in some ways, almost more important. Jackson  Bliss: Whether I'm friends with a character, whether we're besties or not is ... I could give two (beep) about that. But it's becoming a sort of standard comment to make in workshop, and I do my best to sort of interrogate that a little bit. But I feel like we have now reached a point in our culture where not liking something, in our eyes, gives us permission to essentially dismiss it. Jolie Sheffer: We're going to take a quick break. Thanks for listening to the Big Ideas Podcast. Intro: If you are passionate about big ideas, consider sponsoring this program. To have your name or organization mentioned here, please contact us at ics@bgsu.edu. Jolie Sheffer: Hello, and welcome back to the Big Ideas Podcast. Today I'm talking to Dr. Jackson Bliss about fiction, form, and mixed-race identity. You prepared a reading for us called The Amnesia of Junebugs. Can you tell us a bit about the piece you're going to read and where it fits into the work as a whole? Jackson  Bliss: Sure. So this is a tiny excerpt from one of four principal characters. This character's name is Winnie Yu, and he's essentially a culture jammer. So he creates political graffiti, and/or he takes ads from companies and essentially turns the ads against themselves by adding different color, texture to essentially make the ad self-indict itself. It's a very sort of critical novel, as a whole, on capitalism and sort of begs for the role that public art plays in a sort of taking back of streets that are essentially corporatized, in a lot of ways. Jackson  Bliss: So this tiny part here is just a tiny sort of backstory of Winnie describing the first time he realized he did not live in Asia, but that he actually lived in New York City, a tiny secret he didn't realize at the time because he had never taken a train to another borough. So that's sort of like the context for this work. Jackson  Bliss: Winnie had lived off of the Bowery his whole life. Didn't even know that New York was in America until he was six. His parents spoke Cantonese, Taiwanese. Everyone in his fam did. The market signs on Grand Street, where his mom bought her groceries, were written in simplified Chinese characters. His neighbors watched Cantonese soap operas in the afternoon. Old men hung out at Mr. Chang's corner store at night, playing dominoes and drinking ginseng tea and Viper Whiskey, cracking jokes in Wu. His super was Fujian, the cheapest mother (beep) he'd ever seen, who tried to fix everything with duct tape, tinfoil, and DAP. Jackson  Bliss: For the longest time, Winnie believed he lived in Asia. He thought white people were the tourists. But in one day, Mama changed the rules of his storytelling. By taking the subway together for the first time to Brooklyn, she thought it would be cool for them to go over the Manhattan Bridge, and it kind of was. He'd never ridden over a bridge before, didn't understand that New York City had islands or that they were connected together by bridges, the vertebrae of the urban body. It took him a long time to see that subway lines are veins; the major subways, arteries; the streets, capillaries. Jackson  Bliss: Until that fateful and transformative day, Winnie didn't know he lived in a fractal world, in a city of billboards, insects, damaged vascular systems and wandering spirits. He didn't know that New York is an ethnographic sponge, silently absorbing the screenplay of immigration. He didn't know that New York is a megapolis, its streets, highways, and bridges resembling the human nervous system. NYC is an urban hive imploding with refugee stories, diasporic longing, bustling multiculturalism, and inherited fortune, a collapsing urban space where culture dances between neighborhoods and history intersects ethnicity, creating abstract forms that interact, but don't touch each other, like a kaleidoscope. Jackson  Bliss: Until that day, Winnie thought New York was only ten blocks, from Mr. Chang's bodega all the way to Good Times Dry Cleaners. He thought New York was the unofficial capital of Taiwan, a nation and an island and a freaky global village. He was half right, actually. Jackson  Bliss: The straight (beep) is that the day they took the train over the Manhattan Bridge, Mama was showing him the way to St. Ursula's School, were Asian, Latino, and black kids wore unforgiving white polo shirts with stiff colors that dug into their necks like plow yokes and old man pants with creases running down their legs like highway meetings that resisted wrinkles and clumps and refused to be rolled up at the ankles at a school were Asian, Latino, and black girls were forced to wear skimpy plaid skirts, even in the spring, where poor students of color pretended they were rich, rich white students pretended they were gangsta, and all the teachers spoke Midtown English. It was an academy of impersonations and a theater of the restless mind. Jackson  Bliss: The day Mama enrolled Winnie in Catholic school and filled out the paperwork for a St. Martin de Porres Scholarship for Immigrant Students, a detail and a reference he wouldn't even understand until he was in high school, when he realized his mom had accidentally taken away his fixed identity and shoved him into a chrysalis of his own making. As they passed over the Manhattan Bridge again, he didn't understand how the whole world he'd seen that day could all be one city, didn't understand why all the Asian people disappeared, or so it seemed, why no one spoke his family's languages anymore. Jackson  Bliss: Even now, as a 30 something, he still couldn't figure out how his parents had managed to sequester him from the class struggle, the racial conflict, and the spatial tension of inner-city life for as long as they did. What he did know is that after Mama had enrolled him for classes, smoothed his hair back for a school ID, bribed him with feng li su cakes from a Taiwanese Baker he'd never seen before to celebrate his enrollment, and then led his (beep) back to their apartment, pineapple paste caramelized in his teeth, Winnie realized that he didn't know (beep) about his American life anymore, except he wasn't living in Asia, and he certainly wasn't Catholic. Jackson  Bliss: As far as birthdays went, turning six (beep) sucked, the worst thing to happen to him, at least until explosive acne in 10th grade, at least until his Ba peaced out of his life for good too soon. Jolie Sheffer: You really set the scene of this world within a world, where a child could grow up in New York's Chinatown without realizing they were even in the US. You've lived in the Midwest, on the West Coast, in Japan, Argentina, and Burkina Faso. How do you approach the idea of setting a sense of place, in this story in particular and generally in your work? Jackson  Bliss: One thing is that I think places are characters. I have felt this way pretty much ever since, I think, I watched my first Bertolucci film. It's something I learned very early on, and I feel, as a writer who considers himself to be a sort of stylized urban maximalist, it's impossible for me to define or construct characters without understanding the sort of cultural context in which they grew up and evolve, because that's true for me, and that tends to be true for them. So, for me, setting and place are interconnected with voice and identity. Jolie Sheffer: What kind of research did you do for that piece? Jackson  Bliss: Mostly just walked around Chinatown a million times. I wrote a lot of this novel when I had an editorial internship at Hachette Books in New York City. I also visited in the fall of 2006. So I spent a lot of time just walking around New York City, taking the subway, looking for sort of famous graffiti that people were talking about. I spent a lot of time eating vegan dim sum in Chinatown. I feel like sometimes the best way to do research for cities is simply live in the city and see how it breathes. So a lot of it, yeah, was simply walking around, observing, taking notes, talking to my New York friends, asking them questions, asking my Chinese American friends questions. But most of it was just walking, breathing, living, eating in those places. Jolie Sheffer: Your characters always have very distinctive voices. You were just talking about character, but in the characters in your stories, how do you think about approaching developing their particular patterns of speech? Jackson  Bliss: I feel like, a lot of times, the verbal tics, they take time, because who I think a character is in the beginning when I write them is almost never who they are at the end, and then it's sort of up to me to go back and sort of reconcile the voice, so to speak, because there's this implicit rule in fiction where a character's voice has to actually be more consistent than people's voices in real life, right? Because in real life, we, for example, especially people I know who work in different sort of social, professional, racial, and cultural spheres, they code switch all the time, and this can seem inauthentic to people, but it's very normal. But in fiction, you actually have to have a more sort of reconciled voice that readers won't see as too contradictory. Otherwise, they won't think it's the same person. Jackson  Bliss: So this is one of those sort of secret constraints that most fiction writers I know struggle with. How do I keep a voice? How do I construct it, and then how do I maintain it? So I think a lot of times, I will read my dialogue out loud, and I'll just basically understand the character through their orality first, right? How do they sound? How do they feel? Jackson  Bliss: Then, I think, from there, I make modifications, especially when these characters make important sort of plot decisions that might alter their voice or their modulation in some way. For example, I once wrote a character, and then I realized halfway through, "Oh, this character isn't going to be Portuguese-Japanese. They're going to be" ... I don't know. I don't know what I decided, French-Japanese or something, and that changed some of the vocabulary, right? That changed some of the sort of place names and cultural references. Jackson  Bliss: I have another novella that's actually interconnected with this novel, and, for the longest time, it was written from a Senegalese American point of view, because I had spent a decent amount of time in West Africa. Then I realized I was interested to see what would happen if I changed the character and made him mixed-race and made him Japanese Senegalese American. I did that, and it suddenly transformed his voice. There were certain beats that didn't work anymore, right? There's certain slang that doesn't make sense anymore, and there are other things that had to sort of have a presence. Otherwise, it was just a whitewashed mixed-race character. Jackson  Bliss: I think that's the general process, but it always begins and, I think, ends with me simply speaking, because I need to literally hear the voice to understand it on the page. Jolie Sheffer: Lots of creative writers read their work in public, right? That is a kind of professional part of the job. You have a very particular kind of performative approach. How do you think about preparing what you're going to read, how you read, and how do you think that shapes your readers' or listeners' perception of the work? Jackson  Bliss: Yeah, I'll confess right now I'm a speech and debate geek, so in high school and even college, I was a debater, and I was one of those extemporaneous speakers. So I have a long history of sort of seeing the value that public speaking makes. Jackson  Bliss: But I also think that most of my important characters, the ones I'm really invested in emotionally, almost always have some level of identification with their language. So that's where the voice will end up being so sort of important and sort of fleshed out, and I've noticed in the past couple of years that when I give readings, I tend to read either the character or passages from a longer work that allows me to sort of take a very performative, language-driven sort of role in my reading. Jackson  Bliss: For that reason, if I've written a really difficult extemporaneous-feeling work that's actually highly edited and revised, that is really prolix, I guess, and heavily language-driven, I may not read it, especially if, for example, I can't find space to breathe. I have certain work that was pretty much meant to be read, even though I didn't realize it. Jackson  Bliss: So, for me, I think a lot about reading as performance, I think a lot about performance as text, and I think one of my big complaints with a lot of readings I go to is they tend to fall in a couple camps, which is, one, either they just read in this really monotone voice and they have this kind of arrogant idea that work should speak for itself. But the problem with that is what if you suck? What if you're awful? What if everyone's falling asleep? In that case, shouldn't they just stay home and read the book? Why did they waste their time to go out to this reading, where you became the greatest American sleep aid? But on the flip side, I've also seen people who sort of take it really far, and they act like they're basically unpaid beatniks. Jackson  Bliss: So I feel like every writer who ends up becoming a sort of social public figure on some level, which is inevitable once you start publishing, they have to negotiate the sort of reading ethos. For me, it's always been really important. I want readers and listeners to hear the rhythm, because musicality informs a lot of my writing, and that's from my music days. But I also want them to be transported, on some level, by my reading. I want them to feel the language and the cadence and the emotion. Jackson  Bliss: I used to get shamed when I was younger for my performances. People would be like, "Yeah, that was really something." Then you would go to their reading, and half the people were on their iPhones, fiddling away. So, for me, I see my readings as a performance, and I think that to ignore the audience is to be incredibly deceitful and to be delusional. You aren't reading to yourself. You're not reading to your partner. You're not reading to your little Shitzu. You're reading to people, and their experience should be something you think about, because that process is dialectical. It's not just about you, and it's not just about them, but there's an interplay that I honor and that I love. Jackson  Bliss: So yeah, I think a lot about how to read, when to read, and I always practice my readings because of that. Jolie Sheffer: Thank you so much, Jackson, for joining me today and sharing your work. Jackson  Bliss: Oh, it was my pleasure. Jolie Sheffer: You can find Dukkha, My Love and more of Jackson's work at his website, jacksonbliss.com. Jolie Sheffer: Our producers for this podcast are Chris Cavera and Marco Mendoza, with sound engineering by Jackson Williams. Research assistance for this podcast was provided by ICS intern Taylor Stagner, with editing by Stevie Scheurich. This conversation was recorded in the Stanton Audio Recording Studio in the Michael and Sara Kuhlin Center at Bowling Green State University.  

Back in the day...when singles were released on vinyl...you needed to put a song on either side of the record. Sometimes it was another version of the same song, or just the same song again, or maybe a live version...or maybe something completely different. A song that the band didn't know what to do with. Something special...something unique. What I've gathered here are 9 great B-Sides. Some are landmark singles in a bands history, some are ones you might never have heard before...

Weston shares how powerful it has been to confide in people about his problem with pornography. Starting with his mom, a good friend, a recovery group, and now with guests and listeners on his podcast. “What I've learned from having a community is that recovery is so much fun and it's so invigorating!” You’ll love this great conversation with Creed and Crishelle ranging from building community, to seeing true recovery as becoming excellent, to tips for staying strong during the COVID-19 quarantine. Show Notes: Listen to Weston’s podcast, The Eternal Warrior Podcast. Submit your anonymous questions, stories, or comments here. Get transcripts and learn more about our nonprofit at Reach 10. Contact us at hello@reach10.org. Support our podcast and help us reach more young people here. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram for more!

Show Notes: Speaker 1: (00:00) Welcome to the simplified integration podcast. This is episode number 21 how regenerative medicine fixed my Knee. Speaker 2: (00:09) Leonardo da Vinci once said that simplicity is the ultimate sophistication and I agree. You see the problem with the way that most consulting groups approach medical integration is anything but simple. In fact, it's the exact opposite. It's expensive, it's complicated and quite frankly it's exhausting. Enough is enough. There are far too many amazing integrated clinics that are struggling. Well, I'm on a mission to change that. What I've come to find from over five years working with integrative practices is that simplicity really is the secret. The old saying of less is more is true. Through a streamlined approach, I was able to create multiple successful seven figure integrated clinics and now I'm going to show you how you can do the same. Join me as I share with you the secrets to successful medical integration and practice growth. Join me on a journey to greater sophistication through innovation. I'm Dr. Andrew Wells and welcome to the simplified integration podcast. Speaker 1: (01:07) Hey, what's going on, doc? Welcome back. It's great to have you here on the simplified integration podcast. My name is Dr. Andrew Wells. If I sound a little bit different on this podcast, it's because I'm not in my normal podcast studio. I'm actually on a pontoon boat in the middle of Lake lure in North Carolina. And uh, I'm here, uh, because, um, it's actually the mid, I'm recording this in the middle of the Corona virus epidemic. Uh, my wife and I both work from home, so we decided to come out to the Lake and spend our time here, um, because it's a much nicer place to spend, a lot of time being quarantined, uh, rather than being at home. And we're very fortunate, fortunate enough to be able to work from home and, and be in this amazing spot, uh, during this really crazy time in, uh, in history here. Speaker 1: (01:50) So, um, so if I sound a little different, that's why if you've never listened or watched this podcast on YouTube, check out my YouTube channel. You can actually see where I'm sitting right now. It's a really cool view. I'd love to share this special place that, uh, I get to call a vacation home with you guys to show you where I go, to have fun and go to relax. And this is a really, really fun place to record a podcast. I'm just really lucky and blessed to be out here. I hope you can hear me okay. There is a pontoon boat, another pontoon boat actually cruise and buy right now. So you may hear some boat traffic in the background. There's not a whole lot of boats out here today, but anyway, I want to share with you the story of how regenerative medicine fixed my knee. Speaker 1: (02:28) So I've been a a long-distance runner for a long time. I started when I was 10 years old. Um, I just turned 40 years old, so I've been running long distance for about 30 years. So that's 30 years of hard impact on my joints. So about four, maybe it's five years ago now. Um, I was working out in our office and we used to do these Wednesday night workouts where we'd have patients come into the office every Wednesday night and we'd work out together. I'm going to pause here for just a minute cause there is a, a ski boat going by right now. It might be hard to hear me. I dunno how much that, uh, that vote traffic noise is coming through the microphone, but I'll, I'll wait. Speaker 1: (03:10) All right, cool. Anyway, it is a gorgeous day. It's sunny. It's about, it's the end of March and it's about 80 degrees here on the Lake, so it's a really fun, a nice time to be here. But anyway, uh, I was working out in the office, I was jumping up and down and doing burpees. I landed on the ground. I felt a pop in my left knee, didn't really hurt so much, but my concern was, Oh shoot, I just tore my meniscus. And so I didn't think much of it. I was hoping it would, the pain would go away and it would heal. I had like a dull pain in my left knee. Um, after the act, after that injury, I couldn't quite flex my knee all the way and um, but it wasn't really painful. I can still work out, I could still run, but it was just a nagging pain that was there and it never resolved itself. Speaker 1: (03:51) So this was around the same time we started. Uh, we introduced regenerative medicine into our clinic and I'd always wanted to do it and I never got around to actually doing it. So, um, you know, we had helped a lot of patients with their joint pain. And then one day, uh, I got a call from, from our doctor and he was getting ready to inject the STEM cells into our, into one of our patient's joints. And so he had all, he had the, the, uh, amniotic tissue thought out it was Ray to inject and he was looking back at the patient's information and he said, uh, on his information he had listed that he, he took us a turmeric supplement and the doc said, well, how much turmeric are you taking? And he goes, Oh, I take a lot. And it was actually like a therapeutic dose of turmeric. Speaker 1: (04:37) So he's taking these really, really high levels of turmeric, which you probably know is an anti-inflammatory. And when you're doing regenerative medicine, you want to be off of your anti-inflammatory medications because you need inflammation to help your body heal. And so right before the doc was going to do the injection, he's like, Nope, we can't do it. You need to be off your turmeric before we do this injection so that you get the best results. So here's the patient sitting here, totally bummed out because he couldn't have his injection. And we have this like this vial of cells ready to be injected. And the doc's like, well, we can do two things. We can either throw these out or we can use them on ourselves. And so, so I raised my hand, I said, yep, put those cells in me, doc. And so he did the injection in my left knee. Speaker 1: (05:18) I didn't feel a whole lot of change in the beginning. Um, it did feel like there was a little bit less inflammation, but, um, a couple days went by and no real change. A couple of weeks went by and maybe it felt a little bit better. And then about four weeks in, I remember like, I wasn't really paying attention, but I remember working on, I'm like, man, I don't feel any stiffness in my knee. I could completely bend my knees full range of motion, no tightness, no pain, no inflammation. It was completely fixed. And, um, I never had any knee pain after that. So I went back to running. I went back to, uh, working out. Uh, everything was fine. So one of the, one of the questions I get from patients is how long does this injection lasts? Will it permanently fix my, uh, what should I expect? Speaker 1: (05:59) And of course, as a doctor, like we never want to be, uh, you know, you never really, in my opinion, you want to give, um, like pin yourself down to a time and a date. Like, you don't want to say, Oh yeah, this is going to fix your knee forever. You're never going to have knee pain ever again. When the reality is is that may or may not be true. And there's a lot of factors that affected your weight, affects it, your activity levels affected your nutrition, how much sleep you get affects your results just like any other, um, uh, any other, uh, health care therapy. And so for four years I felt great. And um, and so I w uh, I started running again and actually got back into doing ultra marathons and, uh, it was about a year ago. Um, I did this race as a 51 mile race on the beach and I was a grueling race. Speaker 1: (06:46) It was really tough. I really hadn't trained a lot for it. I wasn't really prepared for it. And I ran the race and like a three court, like mile 30 or 35, my knees start, I started to feel a lot of pain in my left knee. And I'm like, Oh, that's just like, this is not good. I hope this goes away. Maybe it's just race day related, it's just I'm running, you know, running 50 miles. So after the race I was totally wrecked. My body was destroyed. This is the first time I ever felt old if my life and uh, you know, my whole body was sore and stiff, including my both of my knees. I remember hoping and praying that, you know, once I recovered from the race that the knee pain would get better. Uh, and it didn't, it actually my left knee went back to feeling like it did before I had the injection. Speaker 1: (07:28) And so knowing that my, a torn meniscus had probably, it was just probably acting up again. Um, I had another regenerative medicine injection and now my knee pain again is completely gone. And so for me, it lasted four years. And the thing that set it off again was a 51 mile race. Now most of your patients are not going to be doing ultra marathons like that, but some of your patients may be overweight, they may be inactive, they may be putting stress on their joints that that will aggravate their issue. But for me, I got four years of great activity in my knee without having to do steroid injections, without having to do antiinflammatory drugs, without having to do arthroscopic surgery. So all of the procedures and therapies that your patients are used to are probably gotten already. And so, um, for me, I, you know, you know the injection if you're, if you're paying cash for this type of injection, sometimes it's hard for a patient to say, you know, 4,000 bucks seems like a lot for one joint injection. Speaker 1: (08:23) However, for me it gave me, you know, a huge boost in the quality of my life. I didn't have to worry about my knee. It felt great. It was functioning fine and I did for four years. So whatever it did, whether it regrew cartilage repaired, cartilage, reduced inflammation, it worked and it worked really well. And so you can't really put a price tag on that time that you know, your, your body's working, uh, working properly. And I know as if you're a chiropractor listening to this, I know you know the value of health because we teach that and we preach that everyday in our practices. So you can't put a dollar amount on it. But, um, I can tell you from experience, from someone who not only teaches this, but also as a patient, I had amazing results with regenerative medicine. It's going to be a part of my lifestyle choices till the time I die. Speaker 1: (09:11) Uh, some of you know, I was also in a really bad car accident, so I have, uh, had three fractures in my neck and unfortunately had to have, uh, two levels of my neck fused, um, for instability issues. And so as of now, I'm 40 years old, my neck, you know, to roughly two years after the surgery. My neck is fine. I don't have any pain, I have no stiffness, a little bit of loss of range of motion, obviously. But right now my neck is doing really well and I want it to stay that way. So as part of my plan, as I get older, I will absolutely be doing regenerative medicine. To make sure that my next days, like it does, it gets better and doesn't get worse over time. Cause I really, I don't want to be like all the hundreds of patients I've seen with neck fusions that are in pain have numbness and tingling and neuropathy down their arms and hands. Speaker 1: (09:56) So, um, so anyway, I guys, I want to share that story with you. Um, as a, as a practitioner, as a patient, as a STEM cell advocate and regenerative medicine advocate, uh, it absolutely works. It's life changing stuff. And uh, so if you're listening to this and you have a joint issue, you should really look into it for yourself and to, and for offering this to your patients because, uh, it works. It's a fantastic therapy and I hope that you and your patients can benefit from it. So hope you're having a great day. Uh, I hope this by the time you're listening to this, the Corona virus epidemic and scare has, uh, has passed and we're back to life as normal. But if you're, if we're still in the middle of it, keep your head up doc. Uh, keep moving forward. And God bless. Talk to you soon. Bye. Bye. Speaker 2: (10:39) Hey, innovators. Thanks for listening to the simplified integration podcast. Fact that you're listening tells me that you're like me, someone who loves simplicity, and the truth is those who embrace simplicity are some of the greatest innovators. So hope you got a ton of value from what we covered on today's episode. Be sure to subscribe and share with other docs that you feel could benefit from greater sophistication through simplification and innovation. If you've got specific questions that you'd like answered on this podcast or you've got specific topics that you'd like me to discuss, just shoot me an email at info@integrationsecrets.com that's info@integrationsecrets.com.

There are no emergencies in marketing. It’s something I used to say often and am currently reevaluating. What I've discovered, as I deal with this moment, is that micro-business still matters. Even, and maybe especially, in a global emergency. With everything going on in our world, there’s so much noise. Honestly, many previously trusted sources are not doing a great job providing us with usable information. Mainstream media tends to be more for entertainment and profit rather than help. That’s why in this episode, I am sharing a few of the podcasters and experts I’ve been turning to during this time for a more thoughtful, measured level of care. In this episode, I touched on a lot of different topics. The most important is this: Micro-businesses are not receiving the attention they deserve during this time. It’s up to us to bridge the gap. I talk about the problem with the payroll loan programs and how they do little to nothing to help micro-business owners, high-risk businesses like restaurants, and gig workers. This week, we explore coping with stress and how we all need a  little breathing space in the midst of chaos and how we can take the time to pattern correct ourselves to make decisions from a calm, grounded place.   In episode 16 of Small Stage, Big Impact we discuss [3:03] The paradigm shift in how we think about the world and how many of us do business [4:20] Her first experiences with social distancing and seeing that play out amongst others [5:37] The strategies that Lourenia’s family and business are using to cope with COVID-19 [7:41] The podcasts that Renia’s been relying on for accurate information [11:28] Who needs the most support right now (and is lacking the support that they need) [12:20] The problem with the payroll loans for micro-businesses [18:01] What you can do to help micro-businesses during this time [21:35] Why we should be demanding grant funding for micro-businesses and gig workers [22:07] Essential workers in trade industries that are still out working  [24:32] How moms need help right now while trying to do all of the things [28:41] Renia’s experience with over and under-functioning during this stressful time and how to know if you’re doing it  [34:02] How the death of an idea can bring on renewal and new life [35:37] How Renia’s had to eat her words and amend the idea that there are no emergencies in marketing [39:00] Why now is probably not the moment to start a new business [43:10] Stopping long enough to take a deep breath  Resources mentioned by Renia in the episode: The Peter Attia Drive Podcast Making Sense Podcast  Unlocking Us with Brené Brown Last week’s episode with Asia Brené on Anxiety, Calm + Over/Under-Functioning E14: Embodiment in Difficult Times with Elizabeth DiAlto

Show Notes: Speaker 1: (00:00) Hey, Welcome back doc. This is episode number 20 don't be one of the last Mohicans, Speaker 2: (00:08) Leonardo da Vinci once said that simplicity is the ultimate sophistication and I agree. You see the problem with the way that most consulting groups approach medical integration is anything but simple. In fact, it's the exact opposite. It's expensive, it's complicated and quite frankly it's exhausting. Enough is enough. There are far too many amazing integrated clinics that are struggling. Well, I'm on a mission to change that. What I've come to find from over five years working with integrated practices is that simplicity really is the secret. The old saying of less is more is true. Through a streamlined approach, I was able to create multiple successful seven figure integrated clinics and now I'm going to show you how you can do the same. Join me as I share with you the secrets to successful medical integration and practice growth. Join me on a journey to greater sophistication through innovation. I'm Dr. Andrew Wells and welcome to the simplified integration podcast. Speaker 1: (01:05) Well, what's going on doc. It's great to have you back. So if you're listening to this, and I sound a little different than some of my other podcasts because I'm not in my normal podcast studio, I'm recording this during the Corona virus epidemic and I'm away from my podcast studio, but I'm actually, um, I'm sitting in the middle of a place called Lake lure in North Carolina. I'm in my pontoon boat. Uh, there's no one around me. There's a couple of fishing boats, a cruise and by once in a while, so you may hear some, boat engines in the background, but, um, I came here to try to make the best of a really weird situation that we're in right now and I thought this would be a really cool place to record some podcasts. Now, I had a different podcast topic in mind for this next episode, but, um, my location actually got me thinking about a really cool topic now, right behind me. Speaker 1: (01:51) Um, is if you get, if you're not watching this on YouTube, which you can, um, please go to YouTube and watch this episode cause the, the visual is amazingly stunning, but right behind me these mountains are where the final scenes of the movie last of the Mohicans was filmed. Um, a huge last Mohicans fan. Uh, I love that movie. I love one of my favorite movie scenes of all time is the final scene which happened to right up there and those mountains. And this movie was filmed during an early interesting time in the U S so a lot of, um, a lot of Wars happening and the British were fighting the French and American colonialism was at its peak. And the victim in those Wars in that expansion were the native Americans. People that have been here for centuries, they were killed in mass, lost all of their lands. Speaker 1: (02:37) And it's actually a really tragic story. And the movie centers around, uh, these two characters, a father and son who are the last of this tribe of Mohican Indians. And, um, so really if you have never seen that movie, go watch it. It's amazingly powerful. But that got me thinking about, um, you know, are there like, so that that tribe was completely obliterated and wiped off the map. And the same thing is happening right now in the STEM cell therapy world. Now, the way it's been taught, as you probably know, and the way it's been operated for the last a decade or so, is doctors offering it as a cash service. However, that market it's got, it has become incredibly competitive. Um, it's, there are a lot of bad actors in those industries and a lot of doctors that have spoiled it for other physicians, but mainly it's becoming really tough to compete. Speaker 1: (03:30) And so doctors who have been offering this as a cash service are starting to go out of business. They're losing money, they're not making money, or they're having to turn to other types of therapies to, to stay in practice just because that model doesn't exist. So here's the problem with that model is that there's only a certain percentage of people in your town who are looking for and are willing to pay several thousand dollars for this type of injection. And so, uh, so what I, what I say don't be one of the last Mohicans. What I mean by that is if you're not adapting and changing that business model, you're not going to be in that business model. Uh, not too long from now. There's another factor that's working against the Mohicans or that what I call the LA, you know, the STEM cell cash STEM cell doctors, is that insurance is very likely going to start covering this in the very near future. Speaker 1: (04:19) Now, if Medicare covers it and blue cross blue shield covers it, they're not going to be reimbursing you $5,000 per injection. Maybe they reimbursed 500 bucks or 800 bucks or 300 bucks. And as you well know, if you're a chiropractor in an integrated practice, that's not enough to pay your MD and your overhead and your nurse practitioner. It just doesn't make economic sense to do that. So that that business model, although it's still taught, um, I still teach it in some areas where I think it's appropriate in the U S but eventually that business model is going to die off. So unless you have some other way to supplement that business from a revenue standpoint, you're not going to be able to do it. And eventually it's gonna fall into the hands of the medical doctors when it's covered by insurance and people are going to go see the orthopedic doctor for that type of injection rather than seeing an integrated chiropractor to do it. Speaker 1: (05:06) However, there are strategies that you can implement now that we've already implemented, that we're already teaching and putting into action that will still keep you relevant, not only this year, but the year is following. And the way we do that is by capitalizing on a patient's insurance benefits. So insurance is not going anywhere and Medicare is not going anywhere. Medicaid is not going anywhere. And so patients have insurance reimbursement to help them when they have health issues. And there are ways to use a patient's insurance to not only help help them get better, but also make regenerative medicine a lot more affordable. And so we've completely pivoted our business model from the way we were operating a year ago to allow patients to be able to afford afford regenerative medicine, but also to keep your revenue levels in your case value high so you can remain financially relevant moving forward. Speaker 1: (05:56) And so if you have any about how this works, I did a whole series on this. If you go back and look at the five part series I did and I'm on the changes and integration of the three paths of integration details. This goes over this in a lot more detail. If you're running a regenerative medicine practice and you're already experiencing pain and you know you need to change, uh, shoot me an email, I'll send you some resources that you can use to get an idea of what the future of regenerative medicine looks like. You can email me@infoatintegrationsecrets.com that's info@integrationsecrets.com but I just wanted to, this is a really quick episode. I wanted to talk about this because um, there is, there is a point when cash regenerative medicine is going to be irrelevant just like the last Mohicans in that movie. So I don't want you to become that. Speaker 1: (06:41) I don't want you to get slaughtered or thrown off the cliff. Uh, I don't want that for you. It doesn't have to be that way. And again, if you have any questions or need some, some answers or need some resources to help you along that path, I'm happy to help you. If you're brand new to integration and you're thinking about getting into regenerative medicine, I caution you before you jump off that cliff, at least at the very least, talk to me first so I can give you some tips on what's relevant in your area, your demographic, and how you can become successful with an integrated office and regenerative medicine. So hope you found this successful. If you get nothing out of this, go watch the movie. Last of the Mohicans and uh, you can see where that was filmed right behind me on these cliffs in Lake Lewer, um, and chimney rock North Carolina. So I hope you found this entertaining. If you're listening to this, go check out this episode on YouTube. Uh, you will, I think you'll like the view and, uh, hope you enjoy this episode. Doc. I hope you're having a great day and we'll talk to you soon. God bless. Speaker 2: (07:38) Hey, innovators. Thanks for listening to the simplified integration podcast. The fact that you're listening tells me that you're like me, someone who loves simplicity and the truth is those who embrace Empliciti are some of the greatest innovators. So hope you got a ton of value from what we covered on today's episode. Be sure to subscribe and share with other docs that you feel could benefit from greater sophistication through simplification and innovation. If you've got specific questions that you'd like answered on this podcast or you've got specific topics that you'd like me to discuss, just shoot me an email at info@integrationsecrets.com. That's info@integrationsecrets.com.

What's up everyone? After a long break, I'm back and ready to talk you UP! Enjoy this episode to hear - What I've been up to - How to stay healthy in quarantine - And how I can help YOU during this time Also lots of fun cussing. Stay vibrant! Have fun! --> sign up for online classes & nutrition sessions @ https://embodiedbabewellness.com/virtual-wellness/

Your purpose in life - what a daunting idea! For so long I didn't know what my purpose or passion was and I know I'm not alone. Maybe you haven't found the one thing that lights you up - that's okay! In this episode of Ambition Pays Off, I'm sharing how I found my purpose in life and how you can too.   So much of what we've been taught about finding our purpose or passion in life leads us feeling defeated. What I've learned is that your purpose isn't going to show up wrapped in a bow one day. You've got to go out and discover it! Tune into this episode as I share how to discover your purpose and how it might not be what you think.   Thanks for listening today! If you're enjoying the show, don't forget to subscribe and write a review! I love reading what you think and I so appreciate the time it takes to do it. Talk to you next week!   SHOW NOTES: www.AnnaKonchar.com/episode19

In today's episode, we talk about:-An update on my employment-My first Job-Every other job I've had in food service-What I've learned from 15 years in food service: setting others up for success, trusting the people around you, focusing on the small things, and the importance of servingI hope you enjoy the episode!

In this episode, we are reminded that, as believers in the finished work of Jesus, all of our sins (past, present, and future) have been forgiven. "It is finished!" We are made new. But all this newness now exists in physical bodies that are holding onto things (toxic emotions, habits, relationships...) that we've had for a long time and that aren't going to help us live in the truth of our newness. Some of the things we hold tightest to because they are traditions began in response to an emergency--not in response to truth. Some of the systems we use on a daily basis are built on false traditions. We've learned to hold onto guilt and shame. We often live with a toxic recipe of mixed emotions. Some of us have learned lifelong patterns of relating that are unhealthy and abusive--to ourselves and others. Join us as we untangle some false traditions in this episode--including the black sheep/scapegoat response to the crisis of not trusting God with our unresolved issues. We also talk about the heartache of carrying the weight of loss and sadness. We declared Thursday last week "A Day of Sadness." Listen in as we share the story of choosing to be honest about our hurt and our healing. We invite you to linger in these TAKEAWAYS: If the lies of busyness tempted us to build false traditions in our families before, the truth of stillness is inviting us to build traditions based on love, instead of fear of missing out.  A lie is never a step toward healing. Will you be UNWILLING to lie to yourself? Who will you trust as your source of truth? Law offers information about right and wrong. But information offers no strength to do the right thing. Love does. When we can begin to trust the strength of another to help us do what seems impossible to do on our own, we can begin to trust the strength of God to help us, too.  Moving in the direction of love is the way we experience the resolution of our issues. The same source who offers us forgiveness now leads us on a journey of healing. Together, there is great hope.   We mention these resources in this episode: Education by Design, Not Default--How Brave Love Creates Fearless Learning by Janet Newberry https://smile.amazon.com/Education-Design-Not-Default-Fearless-ebook/dp/B07MBQXS9L/   This quote: "…Asking "why" assumes that information has the power to heal. If I just knew why this was happening then the pain would be easier to endure. What I've learned, however, is that information cannot mend a breaking, fearful heart. We see this in the story of Job. Even if God had told Job why he was suffering, Job would still have had to deal with the loss of his health and family and wealth. The truth is, we may never fully understand why God allows the pain and disruption that devastates our lives. We may never find the right answers to when this season or soreness will end or how we’ll ever get out of it. There may not be any silver lining, especially not in the ways we would like. But we don’t need answers as much as we need God’s presence in and through the suffering itself. Because, when it comes to suffering, if we do not go to our graves in confusion we will not go to our graves trusting. Explanations are often a substitute for trust. So take heart and find hope in this: God’s chief concern for you right now is to be with you and to be Himself for you. And in the end, what you will discover is that this really is enough." Tullian Tchividjian

If you walked out the door for a month, would the business you started survive? Would it still operate? Do you have the right people in the right roles? Today, Jason Hull and John Ray of DoorGrow discuss the problem of premature expansion in property management. What is the best way to see consistent, comfortable growth? You’ll Learn... [03:25] Plateau vs. Premature Expansion: Buy new business, location, or expand to make more money: [04:33] Debunking New Market Myths: Easier, less work, and shortcut to growth. [07:20] Duplication: Split energy leads to struggling to successfully do double the work. [08:43] Clone Your Competitor: Takes 10 people to duplicate tasks and do them better.  [13:00] New Locations: Avoid burnout by building a team and support to be scalable. [15:21] Processes: If employee leaves, document tasks to prevent disconnect. [22:55] Expansion: Continue to grow in the same, new, or additional location? . [24:20] Systems: Plan and set monthly and annual growth targets, goals, and more. [31:15] Process Documentation: Who does what and how to do what they do. Tweetables What is the best strategy to see consistent, comfortable growth? Entrepreneurs: Build the business you want, not what you can. Success: Strive for pie in the sky dreams or a pile of manure?  Resources Rent Manager AppFolio Iceberg Report Tony Robbins Process Street DGS 80: Automating Your Business with Process Street with Vinay Patankar DoorGrow on YouTube DoorGrowLive DoorGrow Website Score Quiz DoorGrow Cold Leads Calculator Transcript Jason: How dialed in is your business now that if you walked out the door and left for a month, would it fall apart? Would there be a problem? Would it still operate? Maybe then, if the answer is, “Yeah, it would be totally fine,” maybe then it’s time to open up a new location because that means you have things really dialed in, you’ve got the right people. Welcome, DoorGrow Hackers, to the DoorGrow Show. If you are a property management entrepreneur that wants to add doors, make a difference, increase revenue, help others, and you are interested in growing your business and life, and you are open to doing things a bit differently, then you are a DoorGrow Hacker. DoorGrow Hackers love the opportunities, daily variety, unique challenges, and freedom that property management brings. Many in real estate think you’re crazy for doing it, you think they’re crazy for not because you realize that property management is the ultimate high-trust gateway to real estate deals, relationships, and residual income. At DoorGrow, we are on a mission to transform property management businesses and their owners. We want to transform the industry, eliminate the BS, build awareness, change perception, expand the market, and help the best property management entrepreneurs win. I’m your host, property management growth expert, Jason Hull, the founder and CEO of DoorGrow. Now, let’s get into the show. I’m hanging out here with someone else from DoorGrow, Jon Ray. Jon: Thanks for having me, we’re a part of the DoorGrow growth hacker team. Jason: We were sitting and I’m thinking, “What can we talk about?” The topic that I wanted to talk about is a common problem that I see come up. I coined a phrase for it and I don’t know that anybody else has ever talked about this phrase, but this is just what I felt like calling it. Our topic today is premature expansion in property management. Jon: Premature expansion, tell us about it, Jason. I’ll preface it by saying I’ve been talking to a lot of our seed hackers, a lot of property managers that are a part of the Facebook group. Ultimately, everybody is trying to figure out what is the best way to seek consistent, comfortable growth. One of the things that has come up on a recurring basis on these calls is that as people are thinking about the various strategies that are available to them for growth—especially at some kind of an accelerated pace over what they’re doing—oftentimes there is a consideration if not an outward movement towards moving into another market.  As you and I were talking about that that can sometimes be a great strategy, but sometimes it can be an absolute failing strategy. Premature expansion is basically your term and how you’re packaging that concept of when that kind of expansion into another market may not be the best strategy. Can you talk about in more detail on how somebody should be thinking about whether or not they should move into another marketplace? Jason: There’s a lot that goes into deciding whether to move into a new marketplace, or premature expansion could be even buying a new business, or a new location. It's any sort of expansion. Usually, the motivation behind it is they want to grow, they want to make more money. Their challenge is that sometimes it’s not all that it’s cracked up to be. The most common scenario—one of the most—is somebody will come in and they’ll say, “Hey, we want to buy another property management company in another market,” or “We’re going to open up a new office in another new market.”  Usually, when I ask them why, they feel like they’ve hit a plateau in their growth in their current market. This is usually what’s fueling this. They feel stuck. They were doing something that was working, they usually get to maybe the 200-400 door range and what I call the second sandtrap. Once they get into that space, they think, “Well, we got this far in this location. We’re hitting a limit or a plateau. Let’s just go duplicate that effort and do it somewhere else.” It makes sense on the surface. It sounds so easy like, “We did it here. Maybe we tap this out. Maybe now it’s time to go to a new market.” I think there’s a lot of myths that drive that. One myth is that it’s going to be easier in another market, in the second market it will be easier. That’s almost never, ever, ever the case. The second location is always more difficult. It’s more difficult to manage, it’s more difficult to maintain. If you have a second office, you’re going to need a second set of staff. It’s just harder. It might mean that you’re doing double the amount of work as an entrepreneur trying to run two locations. Also, they think, “What worked here,” I think that’s a myth, “What worked in our first location to get us to this point might work there.”  If they’ve been in business for maybe 10 years, and they played this pay-per-click game in the beginning, or they were doing all property management leads in the beginning, and that stuff has shifted, and it's not as easy. Things have shifted and changed, but they're thinking, “Well, we got this far. Let's just go do what we're doing now over here. Maybe it will grow just as fast.” They run into some problems because fundamentally, what used to work may not be working.  Another myth is that it's some sort of shortcut to growth, and it's not really a shortcut. There's a lot of challenges and difficulties. What's easier than opening up a new location, and then trying to add more doors, and to build out basically a whole another company, essentially, is to grow where you're at. That's far easier.  A lot of times, when I ask them, here's the golden question to ask yourself if you're a person listening to this thinking, “I want to expand. Let's open up and go into a new city.” First of all, you need to ask yourself, do you really want to be there? Do you want to drive out there? Do you want your team to be taking trips out there? Does that feel comfortable to you? Because ultimately, you can build a business that you want to have. It doesn't have to be the business that you can do. That's a big temptation we make as entrepreneurs is we build the business we can’t. “Oh, well we can do this. I can add this service. We can do that.” Then we get scattered. We end up diluting our effectiveness.  In the case of premature expansion, they open up a second market. What inevitably I see happen—almost every time—is their first primary location starts to suffer and struggle, and they start to lose those doors, and customer service levels drop, and there are challenges, and they're having a more difficult time running both. Things have to be incredibly well dialed in in order to do that, to make that work. Jon: Ultimately, what you're talking about here is this concept of duplication. We all wish that we could duplicate ourselves so that we could do twice as much work. In entrepreneurship—in order to successfully duplicate yourself—there are some certain things that have to happen. Otherwise, that duplication just looks like split energy, and then neither of the parts are getting as much as the first whole. Maybe you can talk a little bit about what it looks like to successfully duplicate yourself.  When I was running teams at Google, and when we were thinking about whether we were going to expand into a new marketplace, we wanted to make sure that we had maximized our efforts in the current city that we were in as much as humanly possible, and we wanted to make sure that we had templatized all of our processes so that the management wasn't directly involved in the success of the business. They were guiding strategy and vision, but they weren't operationally necessary other than that high-level guidance. Maybe you can talk a little bit about what that would look like in a property management business, and how somebody should think about that concept of duplication. Jason: I love what you're saying about what they would do at Google. It makes a lot of sense. What I've seen is in my experience in helping hundreds—maybe even thousands of entrepreneurs—is there's always this myth that if I could just clone myself, all my hopes and dreams would come true. I know all this stuff, I can do all this stuff, and then all my hopes and dreams would come true.  Let me tell you from experience what it took to duplicate myself, because I pretty much got somebody to do every single role that I used to do in the business, and it takes probably about ten people. That's my experience. It takes about ten people to duplicate yourself. You're never going to find that one person that can do it all. If you do, they're going to become your new competitor, or they're going to go start their own business, or they're going to leave you after they realize that they can probably do stuff better than you, just like you probably figured out back when you were working for somebody. You’re like, “I could do this better.”  That's the e-myth—that's the entrepreneur myth. That's what everybody wants to do. They're like, “I could do this.” A lot of business owners that are running businesses now they used to work for somebody, and they're like. “I could do this.” Then they'd start learning that they need to become an accountant, and they need to become a graphic designer, and they need to become whatever. Whatever all the different roles are and the different hats that you wear.  Just like that in a property management business, if you're going to expand into any market, you have to realize which hats are you still wearing, which seats are you still sitting in on this bus that's the business? If you're managing, and you're acting as BDM, and you're acting as the property manager, or maintenance coordinator, or any of these operationally tactical, critical roles, then the challenge is you go into the market, your life's going to become twice as hard with another location. There's that momentum and that inertia in getting something new going.  Training one new person makes your life twice as hard. If you're going to build out a new team there, if you're going to build out maybe a satellite staff, it's still a lot more work to get that all built up. That's why if you don't have high leverage when it comes to systems, high leverage when it comes to the process—I think maybe that's a good question to ask yourself is: how dialed in is your business now that if you walked out the door and left for a month, would it fall apart? Would there be a problem? Would it still operate? Maybe then, if the answer is, “Yeah. It’d be totally fine,” maybe then it's time to open up a new location because that means you have things really well dialed in, you've got the right people.  The question is also connected to that: if you lost any single team member—think of who you think is the most critical person on your team—if they killed over and died—god forbid—or they left your business, or they went to work for a competitor, or they went to start their own property management business, how quickly would you be able to get back up to speed? Do you have all their processes defined? Do you know what they're doing? Do you know what they do on a day-to-day basis? Do you feel like somebody else could step into that role very easily because everything's documented? If not, opening up into a second location is dangerous because you're not going to have all those things dialed in.  Ultimately, overwhelm is going to set in. This is the big thing for us entrepreneurs. We operate, basically, at two speeds. It's like we're in momentum, we’re on fire, and we feel alive, or we're in a state of overwhelm feeling stuck, and frustrated, and stressed. If you're already feeling stressed, and stuck, and frustrated, that's probably not the time to go heap more on to your plate. Jon: Just playing devil's advocate because I think a lot of the people that I talk to in the property management space that are considering this move are like, “Well, that may be accurate advice for most people, but I'm better than most people. I was able to bootstrap where I'm at now, and I was able to scrap it altogether, and I didn’t document all of these processes. Why can't I do the same thing for a second location?”  Maybe you can talk a little bit to me, and explain to me why it's different from the second location? Because it is true that you can figure things out when you're physically there in person, but as you start to satellite out, it's a different kind of mentality that you have to take, and the bootstrapping method doesn't work so well. Can you talk about why that is? Jason: When you open up a business—just through sheer will of force and just personality—if somebody can sell, and somebody is driven, they can create a business. They can probably even get it up to about $1 million in revenue annually just through that. But beyond that, you have to have a team. In property management, you're going to probably need a team long before you hit that amount in revenue, and you need support. Otherwise, it's just not scalable. You're going to start to burn out really quickly. This is why we see so many people get stuck in the first sandtrap, which is about 50 or 60 units. It's the solopreneur. They'll get stuck there.  If you're at the place where you're at about 200-400 units you probably got some team members, you probably at least have a maintenance coordinator, maybe a property manager, somebody helping with showings. You got some pieces in place. You've gotten that off your plate. That doesn't mean now you could go up and open up a whole new location because still, tons of things are still relying on you. Just pay attention. If your team members are coming into your office, or texting you throughout the day, then you are a bottleneck in your business already. You will be even a bigger bottleneck.  My entire team, we're virtual. If you bring on people that are at a remote office, they're not going to be able to get their questions answered quickly, they're not going to have the support that they need, you need to live there for at least 90 days so everybody's on board with it, systems are in place, and be able to do that. That's possible to build that up, but that means you need everything really well dialed in so that stuff doesn't just gravitate towards chaos. There needs to be protections in place so that you can ensure that people are doing what needs to be done. Jon: I want to unpack that word systems and really the phrase systems and processes because I think a lot of people—at least in the calls that I'm having with property managers—when I say systems and processes they're like, “Oh, yeah. Well, we're already on that folio. We already have a rent manager.” That's actually not what you're talking about. Can you unpack that a little bit? Jason: When it comes to processes you need to have—here's the way I look at it, if somebody on your team quit, fired, or died, or whatever, that means somebody else could step in, they could read a process, they would know exactly how to do it, and they'd be able to figure it out. If all the processes exist in that person's head and your head, then I'll tell you what, there's a massive gap usually, or significant gaps between what you think they're doing, and what they think they should be doing. There always is because it's all just in their head.  We know internally at DoorGrow that this happens, and we have processes documented. There’s still a disconnect sometimes. One team member thinks, “Well, this is how I've been doing it. I think this is how it's supposed to be done.” We have it documented, which is it might even be a little bit different because sometimes people don't refer to the documentation all the time. Then there's what the visionary or the entrepreneur thinks should be done all the time, and the team's documented, or decided it's being done differently. These things are in constant negotiations that need to be brought together.  You can collapse time on that by having processes that people have to actually follow, like you have to actually mark it off and complete it. There's a checklist that they're signing off on that they're actually doing so that there's some accountability that they followed those steps. There needs to be accountability in place because most people—just like learning to drive a car, you maybe read a manual once, took a test, passed the test, maybe the first few times you drove you we're checking your mirrors all the time, and making sure nothing was going on around the car. Now you just get in and you just do it. You're probably skipping a bunch of steps you thought you needed to do in the beginning. Over time, maybe you start to skip other steps. Some drivers don't turn on their blinkers when they're changing lanes. They’re like, “People will figure it out around me.” They just don't do these things, so they're not following the process. They're breaking the law.  You have these things that you want to be followed because it keeps the business safe, it protects you from liability in the business, whatever. Your team members, they're going to gravitate towards skipping steps. They're going to gravitate towards what's easiest. If there aren't checks and balances, and accountability in place, what happens over time is everything's kind of gravitating towards some sort of ease, and some sort of chaos, and you're not really aware of it. Then somebody quits because usually when you look at what they were doing, you're like, “Oh my gosh.” It's usually the person that the entrepreneur thinks is the most critical and essential in the business.  Every time I've had that person on my team that I thought, “If they left, my whole world would fall apart. My business would crumble. It'd be the worst thing ever.” That was always the best person for me to lose. Why? Because what was happening was the reason you feel like they’re so critical is because you have so much uncertainty around what they do. You feel like they're the only one that knows how to do it, and it's their job security they love to maintain. But really, if it can be done by them, it can probably be done by just about anybody that has maybe the right demeanor, and the right personality type for that position, but you need to have those processes documented so they can step in. That’s how I gauge it. Jon: I’ll chime in with as far as efficiency goes, you can keep all the same people, but there's so much mental anguish that happens when something isn't well-defined. Even at DoorGrow, and in many of the businesses that I've worked in, when you go and ask someone what they do in their day-to-day, they feel like that's a subjective question because they feel like they're doing something different, or at least slightly different in every single moment, in every single day. There's so much time and energy that gets wasted when you're constantly having to reanalyze the entire problem, and then make a decision on what the action should be.  When you actually start to document what each person is doing on a regular basis throughout the day, and you look at that from a macro perspective, even within that subjective lens of maybe some things are approached in a different way depending on the scenario, there are very clear processes, tasks, and activities that are being done on a regular basis. If those can be defined, and then clear expectations, and processes can be attached to each of those bullet points, it allows each of your employees to have a better reference point for how to handle certain engagements in the business.  One of the things that creates turnover in a business—in my experience—is that when that level of certainty on what somebody should be doing to be successful in their role is not there, resentment starts to build towards whoever the entrepreneur, or visionary, or guiding light in the business is. That resentment ultimately gets to a boiling point where it's no longer sustainable, and then that results in somebody quitting, or throwing a fit, or making a mistake, or having an accident.  Documenting these processes is one of the best things that you can do to create a level of certainty in each of your employees’ minds so that they can be more successful and more satisfied in their position, which means that retention-wise, you're going to keep your staff longer. Jason: Let's talk about some systems that are required so that your expansion into another market or in general is not premature. Because if it is premature, your operational costs are going to go up significantly. I'll give you an example. I talked to a property management company, and they had 2000 doors. They’re on the East Coast, they had over 20 offices, but only about 2000 doors. It was split among 20 different offices. What their strategy for growth was going and buying up all these little mom-and-pop shops. They would keep those shops intact, they would keep the staff and everything. Their operational costs were ridiculous.  Then there's another client. He had 2000 doors, and he had three locations: two in Utah, one in Idaho. Eventually, became part of the HomeRiver Group. His operational costs were far lower. Same amount of doors, his market was probably even a lower rent market, but he was probably making more money because operationally among those doors, he didn't have 20 offices, 20 buildings to pay the lease, or whatever taxes on, or whatever. All the support staff that goes with each of these offices, all this duplicated stuff.  Here's what I think is essential to take a look at if you're thinking, “Hey, I want to expand into another location.” First thing you ask yourself, would I do it even if I were able to continue to grow here? If I were able to continue to have the doors in this area—where I want it—would I do it? The thing to keep in mind is, according to the Iceberg Report (the last I saw), it was 30% of rental properties are professionally managed, there's 70% in single-family residential at least, there's 70% available potential market share to be created. A lot of people think, “Well, it's impossible to do that,” but if you look at Australia, you've got 80% of single-family residential almost professionally managed. They, at some point, we're probably around where we are, and they've gotten it to 80%. We have so much opportunity there, there's so much blue ocean. Everybody's fighting in the bloody red water. We've talked about them on the show before. The idea that we've run out of options is not always true. It is true if you're playing the game everyone else is playing: SEO, pay-per-click, content marketing, social media marketing, pay-per-lead service. If you're doing those things, it's super competitive because that's what everybody's doing. That is focused on that small existing amount of market share. The people that are already looking for you rather than reaching out and creating new market share, which is what we help our clients focus on. That's one thing to take a look at. The systems that need to be in place. Here are some of the systems that we have in our own business at DoorGrow. One, you need a planning system. Most businesses don't have a plan, they have no planning system. That means you have annual targets, and you have quarterly goals as a company, things to implement, monthly goals. You're not just coming back from every property management conference with a list and chucking a grenade into the middle of the room after pulling the pin and saying, “Hey guys, I'm excited about this. We're going to do all these things.” Everybody goes, “How? We're already maxed out.”  You don't have a system for growth because you don't have a system of planning in the business. If you don't have a planning system, if you can't tell me a realistic annual goal that you're going to hit, if you've been operating in so you think you have a system, and if you've not hit your annual goal for the last year, or two, or three you have a b******* system. It's not real, you’re not hitting your targets. Jon: I want to pause you there and unpack that statement that you made about coming back from the conference with all of these great ideas, and then chunking the grenade in the room, because I do think that happens in every industry but especially property management. Because one, there are so many conferences, and two, it's really easy to get excited about an idea, and then just chunk it on to your staff and say, “Implement this.” When you're talking about a planning system, the way that we do it here in DoorGrow—that I think is really effective—is you're talking about how do we reverse engineer everything on that list and put it in yearly, 6-month, 90-day, monthly, and weekly commitments so that we know all of the steps that are required to achieve each bullet point on that vision list that came from the conference.  Jason: If we take it even a step back further—and you're new to the team so you've gotten to see this happen—you'll remember, we go through and we take a look at the business as a whole. Every business has five core functions in the business—something I learned from one of my business coaches, Al Sharpen. This is basically the whole pipeline of the business. The goal of the business is to make money, that's how it is successful. Then it also needs some sort of purpose besides just making money.  Those things drive everything that we do. We take a look at these five core functions, and we look at each of them, and we figure out where are we deficient, where can we be stronger? It's impossible to be solid on all of them. That's impossible because for example, if you ramp up sales, then your fulfillment side’s going to hit constraints. You’re going to have difficulties as a team. If you're closing a bunch of doors your team's going to have difficulty onboarding all these new clients, for example, so that's going to go down.  Everything's always in flux. The thing to work on is the thing that's weakest. Generally, that's earliest in the sales pipeline. We take a look at that, and we figure out, “All right, what are the things, and what could we do? Then we decide what we will do as a team? Then we figure out what is possible for us to do over the next quarter.” These will all go back to our annual goal, which we have a couple of annual goals, and it's all broken down. We reverse-engineer it from what the business actually needs. If our goal is to focus on lead gen—if we're a property management company—we're not going to go and implement a maintenance coordination software that quarter if that's already going really well. That maybe we’d do that next quarter.  The problem is, businesses don't have a planning system, they don't know how to break this down, and business owners come back. If they do come up with goals they go to some Tony Robbins event, and they're adding extra zeros to the end of everything, and they’re getting super pumped up, and that demoralizes your team because your team, all they hear is, “This is impossible,” and they're losing. There's no way you're going to hit these goals because they're pie in the sky dreams.  We get excited about them as entrepreneurs, but that's not the same for our team. Our team wants to see that we're hitting our numbers every month, not that we, “Oh, well, we missed it this month.” That idea in setting goals that a lot of people will throw out there, which I don't believe is true, is that it's better as a team to aim for the stars than a pile of manure and hit. It's better as a team to aim for the pile of manure and have success. Your team can feel what it's like to win and have momentum. Jon: I just want to make sure that we're making this actionable for people, and give people a clear way to assess whether they're prematurely expanding, or whether expansion maybe is the right step. Jason: It’s a real simple question, do you have a planning system? Can you say with certainty that you have an annual goal that you are confident that your team is going to hit financially? Do you have a quarterly goal that you know what you're doing this quarter, and that you feel pretty confident that you're going to get these quarterly targets implemented? Do you feel confident that your team can hit the 30-day goals that are going to help create those quarterly targets? Does your team know what they're doing every single week relevant to those 30-day goals? If the answer isn't yes to all of that, then you're just operating with the shotgun approach, and your team feels confused, they're concerned, they don't know where the company is going, so they can't really help you get there.  Everybody at DoorGrow is aligned towards what's going in my goal of revenue, making a difference in the industry, all these things are very clear. We talk about them during every meeting: our whole planning system, what we're doing, even what we're doing on a weekly basis that we meet as a team like we did yesterday. To go over our weekly commitments we checked in, what did you do towards these commitments that you had for last week? Did you get these done? There's this high-level of accountability. That's a planning system. That's one system the business needs. Jon: So far, to analyze whether it's too premature to expand, we’ve got: if you as the entrepreneur walked away from the business, would the business still continue to operate with success? Then we have if you could add the number of doors that you want to add in your existing marketplace without having to go to another locale would you prefer to just add them in your existing marketplace, or is there some other reason for you to want to be in another city. Then do you have a clear planning system where you've got annual, 6-month, 90-day, monthly, and weekly commitments that are all being reverse-engineered so your staff can be successful? Really, that's part of operating without you being directly involved in the operations. What else? Jason: The other thing that's essential in the business before you can expand is—we've mentioned this already—you need process documentation. You need a system in the business for finding, and storing, and updating documentation. You need a process system or documentation system in the business that includes job descriptions, org charts. There needs to be clarity as to who's supposed to be doing what and how to do things. That's absolutely critical in a business especially if it's going to scale because once you have a team, there's turnover, there's hiring. These things can derail a business if they're critical roles if you don't have these things in place. Process documentation system is really important.  The software we use is Process Street. Everyone can check out the episode that I did with the founder and CEO of Process Street. We use that as an internal documentation system, and then we also have job descriptions, org charts, these kinds of things. We're going through a process because we've got a jumble routine. When you add a new team member it screws everything up, Jon. Now, my role changes. My job description is different. You're stealing things from me, which I love. Everybody else's job changes a bit too. We're making all these adjustments.  Ashley—my ex-wife—she works for me now, and works in the business, and she's great. She's over some of our operational pieces, you're taking on sales and marketing. These are all things that I used to do, they were my role. Like I said, I used to do every single thing in the business, every single thing. Now we have at least 10 people on the team, and they're all doing something that I used to do. Pretty much all of them are better at it than me. Everyone's better at these things than I am.  Jon: I just want to speak from the perspective of an employee because anytime I've gone into a new business, if it's chaotic, and nobody knows what they're doing, and nobody has clearly defined roles, it is so uncomfortable for a new person to step into that environment. That's why there's a lot of 90-day churn and turnover for new hires because when somebody says, “Yeah, I don't feel like it's a good fit.” What they mean is, “You didn't provide me with the level of certainty that I was looking for in this role.” When everything is clearly defined and documented the way that you've done at DoorGrow, it allows me as a new hire to come in with so much certainty, and I feel like everything is teed up for me to be successful in my position which makes me want to do more in the position. Jason: You just listened to the DoorGrow Show. We are building a community of the savviest property management entrepreneurs on the planet, in the DoorGrow Club. Join your fellow DoorGrow Hackers at doorgrowclub.com. Listen, everyone is doing the same stuff. SEO, PPC, pay-per-lead, content, social, direct mail, and they still struggle to grow. At DoorGrow, we solve your biggest challenge in getting deals and growing your business. Find out more at doorgrow.com. Find any show notes or links from today’s episode on our blog at doorgrow.com. To get notified of future events and news, subscribe to our newsletter at doorgrow.com/subscribe. Until next time, take what you learn and start DoorGrow hacking your business and your life.

Show Notes: Speaker 1: (00:00) Welcome to the simplified integration podcast. My name is Dr. Andrew Wells. This is episode number 19 what Bruce Lee can teach you about integration. Speaker 2: (00:11) Leonardo da Vinci once said that simplicity is the ultimate sophistication and I agree. You see the problem with the way that most consulting groups approach medical integration is anything but simple. In fact, it's the exact opposite. It's expensive, it's complicated and quite frankly it's exhausting. Enough is enough. There are far too many amazing integrated clinics that are struggling. Well, I'm on a mission to change that. What I've come to find from over five years working with integrative practices is that simplicity really is the secret. The old saying of less is more is true. Through a streamlined approach, I was able to create multiple successful seven figure integrated clinics and now I'm going to show you how you can do the same. Join me as I share with you the secrets to successful medical integration and practice growth. Join me on a journey to greater sophistication through innovation. I'm Dr. Andrew Wells and welcome to the simplified integration podcast. Speaker 1: (01:08) Hey, what's going on, doc? It's great to have you back. Welcome to episode number 19. So if I sound a little bit different, if you're listening to this, um, just the audio of this podcast is because I'm not in my normal podcast studio. I'm recording this during the Corona virus, a quarantine. So I'm actually, I'm practicing social distancing. I'm in the middle of a Lake, uh, on a pontoon boat, and I'm trying to take advantage of, uh, of the whole social distancing thing. So if I sound a little bit different, um, you'll know why. Uh, if you're watching this on YouTube, I know some, uh, listeners watch this on YouTube. Um, I hope you enjoy the view. This is a, a place called Lake lure North Carolina. This is one of my favorite places in the world. This is where I go to relax, um, and also occasionally work. Speaker 1: (01:51) So welcome to my, uh, welcome to my, uh, my fun spot. So I want to, um, you know, this is a really weird time. Again, if you're listening to this, uh, this is recorded during the, the whole Corona virus or coven 19 outbreak. And there are a lot of doctors who are panicking. They're uncertain about their practices, uncertain about their future. Um, there's a lot of economic uncertainty for everybody right now. And, um, this, this keeps bringing me back to this concept I've talked about before. Um, which is, uh, this quote, it's actually a quote from Bruce Lee and I want to read you the quote and I want to just go over how this applies to all of us today. So, uh, Bruce Lee says to be like water. He says, empty your mind. Be formless, shapeless, like water. Now you put water in a cup, it becomes a cup. Speaker 1: (02:41) You put water in a bottle, it becomes the bottle. You put it in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Now water can flow or it can crash. Be water. My friend and I love this quote, uh, simply because of, I think it really applies to at least my interpretation of is applies to adaptability and perseverance. And we really need a whole lot of that right now. And I think in, in our, in our profession, chiropractors in general are really, really good at this. So, for example, if you look back in the 1980s, which docs call if you're practicing the 80s, I wasn't, but docs called it the Mercedes eighties, where insurance would pay for everything. You could bill 60, 70, 80 vis 80 visits to insurance, no questions asked, very little documentation. And that was sort of like easy going for chiropractors. It was like the golden years is, is uh, I've heard it described that's not true anymore. Speaker 1: (03:35) And as most of you know, chiropractic insurance benefits aren't that great anymore. In fact, most practices you can't rely on insurance. So that change in our profession has caused us to, to branch out and do a lot of other things. And chiropractor is typically are the leaders when it comes to things like regenerative medicine or functional medicine or weight loss or the wellness type practice. I think we're really, really good at being adaptable. And, uh, what, what spurred this, um, this thought was, I was in the grocery store yesterday, um, like stocking up on food and supplies and all that stuff. And I passed by, um, one of those red box DVD rental, um, stands in a kiosks in the grocery store and occasionally like we might rent from that like once or twice a year if we see a movie that's not on like Netflix or Amazon or something like that. Speaker 1: (04:24) But I'm like, you don't see a whole lot of people renting from those anymore. And it got me thinking about like how we actually consume, uh, movies and television and TV shows today. And the big giant of course right now is Netflix and Netflix, uh, started in 1997 and they actually started, um, if you remember this as they used to, they used to mail DVDs to your house, you'd watch them and mail them back, which when that first came out, I'm like, this is ridiculous. Like, why would people do that? You could just go to blockbuster and pick up a movie and you can look at all, you know, that's, I was used to going to blockbuster to rent DVDs just like our movies, just like anybody else was used to doing. And I remember like in the early two thousands when Netflix started streaming, I think they started streaming in 2001 where you could actually go online and streaming movie just like most people do today. Speaker 1: (05:11) At the time that was going on, I actually had a roommate who worked at blockbuster and like super cool guy and I remember telling him like, man, have you heard about the streaming thing? He's like, yeah, I've heard all about it. I'm like, man, this is really going to start competing with blockbuster at some time. And he and what, what the, like the business journals and business magazines were saying is that eventually the streaming model is going to replace the brick and mortar stores and renting movies. And I, I, I asked my roommate what he thought about that and he's like, Oh, that's ridiculous. He goes, blockbuster is the giant. They always will be the giant and that's never going to change. And sure enough, that's changed. Like as we speak today, 2020 I don't think there are any blockbuster stores left. I think they're completely out of business. Speaker 1: (05:55) So maybe like one store somewhere in Oregon or something, but they're done. And blockbuster has completely taken over that, that industry because they were adaptable. And I, I remember hearing like a quote from the, uh, from the CEO of Netflix and it really innovative guy and he was obviously the disruptor in this industry, but he, he said, uh, he said, fail quickly and scale. I think he said fail, fail quickly and scale fast. And that's what Netflix did. It completely changed that. Um, uh, that whole industry. And I think there are some lessons to be learned, uh, with Netflix is adaptability that we can apply toward our chiropractic businesses and the healthcare industry in general. Now, a lot of docs right now are panicking and they're scrambling and, and the reality is, is this is going to pass. And so we don't really know when it's going to pass, but we know it is going to pass. Speaker 1: (06:46) This is not going to be a permanent thing and life is going to go back to normal as you know, as usual. However, I think the, the entire healthcare structure is going to change a little bit. And what I mean by that is that, you know, right now the patients aren't going to spend thousands of dollars for out-of-pocket elective services. So if you're in the business of cosmetic weight loss or anything cosmetic related, your business is going to probably suffer for a little bit if you're in the weight loss business in general. Uh, I don't, I don't see a lot of people spending a ton of money, uh, or cash on weight loss. Same thing for regenerative medicine and STEM cell therapy, which has traditionally been a cash service. Uh, those businesses are going to suffer because docs don't have the money to do the advertising and the patients don't have the money to spend on these types of services. Speaker 1: (07:35) And even if they do, they're going to hold onto it for now. And so what we need to do is, as a profession, as doctors is use all the resources you have to adapt to this situation. And, um, and, and right now I'm talking to a lot of my friends and a lot of my colleagues and people that I admire and look up to and respect and they're all working really hard to create the next phase in their business. And they're adapting to it. They're changing, they're learning, they're growing. I also talked to a lot of chiropractors who are scared out of their mind and it's causing them to retreat temporarily shut down their offices. They're in fear, they're in panic mode. And I think that that's not the best place to pivot your business. And so if you're listening to this, I would really encourage you to, to start reaching out to other doctors, other people, you know, ask questions, start learning new approaches, start learning new philosophies that you can add to your clinic to be more relevant this year and next year and the year after. Speaker 1: (08:29) And you know, while this Corona virus thing will pass, I think it will definitely leave a permanent stamp on the healthcare, uh, on healthcare world and how we practice as doctors. And so I just, uh, I wanted this message to be one of, of positivity and I want you to be encouraged by that and just know that this'll, you know, this is going to pass, but I really encourage you to start thinking about what you can do to become and stay relevant in today's environment. And um, uh, yeah, so, uh, so don't panic talk if you're listening to this, there's always a way, uh, there's always a way to grow. There's always a way to change. There's still a way to be profitable. There's still a way to see patients, but it might not be the same way that you've been doing it for the last year, five years or 10 years. Speaker 1: (09:13) So be like Bruce Lee, be adaptable. Be like water. Go with the flow, be open to change, be open to learning, be open to growth because on the other side of this, if you can do that on the other side of this, you're going to find yourself in a very, very good position. And I think during these times, as scary as they are, there's always good that comes out of it. If you have the right mindset, if you'd be like Bruce Lee and adapt yourself and become like water. So doc, I hope you found this encouraging. I hope you find it helpful, maybe gave you some perspective on this crazy situation that we find ourselves in. Um, but I'm here to help so if you have any questions or you need resources, I'm happy to plug you into whatever resources I have at my disposal to help you. If you are interested, shoot me an email@infoatintegrationsecrets.com and I will be happy to do whatever I can to help you, uh, during these times in this situation. So doc, be blessed. Uh, hope you have a great day and we'll talk to you soon. Bye. Bye. Speaker 2: (10:09) Hey innovators. Thanks for listening to the simplified integration podcast. The fact that you're listening tells me that you're like me, someone who loves simplicity and the truth is those who embrace simplicity are some of the greatest innovators. So hope you got a ton of value from what we covered on today's episode. Be sure to subscribe and share with other docs that you feel could benefit from greater sophistication through simplification and innovation. If you've got specific questions that you'd like answered on this podcast or you've got specific topics that you'd like me to discuss, just shoot me an email at info@integrationsecrets.com that's info@integrationsecrets.com.

Health is a critical part of life, especially right now. People are frantically searching for ways to improve their health and boost their immune system in an effort to avoid contracting coronavirus. Today's episode is all about a simple, FREE, and effective way to do just that.  Nutrition is something I've always been fascinated by and something I really love teaching! I love that we can change not only our physical body but also our emotional and even spiritual "body" by the foods we eat. Food is everything! You are what you eat. Choose wisely! In this episode I share: What exactly Whole30 is. What I've learned from the process. How I've been successful at completing it. Why you should consider doing it! Resources: www.whole30.com www.territoryfoods.com  www.thrivemarket.com  

This is hard. We’re a couple weeks into the coronavirus quarantine and feelings of anxiety, loneliness and depression may be setting in. It’s a time to go easy on yourself, keep your spirits up and once again...go easy on yourself. You should have that cookie. You may even have a quarantiphany! You’ll hear about: Why now is not the time to beat yourself up for enjoying food What I've been doing for fun during quarantine A funny thing that happened to my jazz sneakers Taking in the moments of clarity provided by the space of social distancing    Related links:Get Michelle’s free Stress Assessment Quiz at http://shesgotpower.com/free Connect with Michelle:ShesGotPower.com Instagram.com/shesgotpower

Hey y'all. With everything that's been going on, I decided to break from the norm and record this lighthearted episode to encourage, inspire, and lift your spirits. You'll hear me share: A few stories from my favorite travel memory with my sister and how that trip changed my life What I've been doing to reflect and refresh my home and business The two books that have majorly enhanced my quarantine experience: The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo and Everything is Figureoutable by Marie Forleo. I would recommend these life-changing books to anyone I know - I insist you get them! Let me know what you've been finding joy, purpose, and creativity in during this quarantine by messaging me on Instagram at @kelsey_thecalledcareer or by emailing me at kelsey@kelseykemp.com - I can't wait to hear from you! ------------------------------------------------------ ⚡️Get Career Coaching: Schedule a free, 30 min consultation with me to assess how career coaching can help you identify your calling and the exact job that will pay you to fulfill it: Schedule a free consultation here Want to learn more about what career coaching is and how it can help you? Learn more at www.kelseykemp.com/1-1-coaching ------------------------------------------------------

Show Notes: Speaker 1: (00:00) Welcome innovators, the simplified integration podcast. This is Dr. Andrew Wells and welcome to episode number 18 scale like a pro with special guests, Warren Phillips, Speaker 2: (00:12) Leonardo da Vinci once said that simplicity is the ultimate sophistication and I agree. You see the problem with the way that most consulting groups approach medical integration is anything but simple. In fact, it's the exact opposite. It's expensive, it's complicated and quite frankly it's exhausting. Enough is enough. There are far too many amazing integrated clinics that are struggling. Well, I'm on a mission to change that. What I've come to find from over five years working with integrative practices is that simplicity really is the secret. The old saying of less is more is true. Through a streamlined approach, I was able to create multiple successful seven-figure integrated clinics and now I'm going to show you how you can do the same. Join me as I share with you the secrets to successful medical integration and practice growth. Join me on a journey to greater sophistication through innovation. I'm Dr. Andrew Wells and welcome to the simplified integration podcast. Speaker 1: (01:10) All right, welcome back everybody. First of all, I want to give a special thank you to my guest, Warren Phillips. Warren, welcome to the simplified integration podcast. Um, first of all, thank you cause I know you're a super busy guy and so I appreciate you taking the time to be on here and share, uh, your brain with us. And I'm really excited because I know that you have an awesome mind for business and also for marketing and I really appreciate you spending this time to, to help other doctors. So if you don't mind, can you give me a little bit of background about who you are and what you do? Speaker 3: (01:42) Well, Andrew, first of all, it's my honor to be here. My heart is, has always been to see other people become successful. And the most, the people that I believe should be the most successful people in the world are practitioners who put their hearts on the line every day and exchange a lot of value sometimes for not adjust, reward, um, all the time. And I like to see that as well, like them to have that great value exchange. And so, you know, my, my background, uh, you know, it's kind of an interesting one. I've been in the coaching, uh, functional medicine, functional nutrition space since 2005 teaching seminars and educating practitioners on systems supplementation, business marketing. This has definitely been my passion for a very long time. And since then, obviously my entrepreneur, entrepreneurial mind has definitely expanded into many other areas in the health and wellness space. Speaker 3: (02:35) But my heart always has been and always will be for the practitioner. So how did that happen and why is that? Well, pretty simply I got very sick cleaning up hazardous waste for living as an environmental consultant in Missoula, Montana, where I didn't have any answers. And back then there wasn't the internet, there wasn't the summits, they wasn't, there wasn't podcasts. None of this. Everything was still on tape, you know, or you had to get it from a university. And the universities really even weren't, didn't exist either. So I was very sick. I had to sell everything. I had moved back into my parents' basement, riddled with chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, sleeplessness, gut issues, weight gain. I was 210 pounds. Oh my hopes and dreams of getting married and having a family and living that American dream were taken from me. And, but I was a scientist, right? Speaker 3: (03:20) Mass degree published scientists. I'm like, there's gotta be a cause. So, you know, 50 diff, different doctor visits, later, psychologists, medical doctors, designed Tris, physical therapists, you name it. Uh, I was there and the best they could offer me was Effexor and pain meds for the chronic pain, wearing a whiplash donut to bed, um, yelling at God, saying what the F, you know, what's going on with my life? Why is this happening to me? And then later, you know, through research and connecting with great practitioners, I was able to, in the functional medicine space, able to find out that it was the heavy metals, in fact. And it was kind of my gut, but there was no research on it. It was the heavy metals that was making me sick. So once I tested that, and literally even when I did my first urine toxic heavy metal challenge test, I sent a split test to my analytical lab in Idaho that I use for a sample analysis for hazardous waste cleanup and identification just to prove to me that this was real cause I thought the labs were lying to me. So I sent a split sample of my urine. So I was a huge skeptic. And then I became a massive believer. I had a conversion experience, if you will. And I went nuts. I decided, man, we have to take this information to the world. People are suffering and doctors need to be empowered all over the world with this information. And that's how I landed in this space. And then what I found my niche was, was the marketing side and the business side of growing organizations. Speaker 1: (04:51) Well, thank you. You know, I had a chance to meet you, um, in November at your last live it to lead an event. And I actually went there for two reasons. Number one is I had heard of, uh, I know you worked with dr Pompa pretty closely and I had heard of him for a long time and I knew he had did great work but I just didn't know like what I didn't know too much about functional medicine or the or the protocols he was using with his doctors and patients. And so I went there for that reason. But I also, uh, heard about you and half the reason I went because I heard of this guy named Warren Phillips and the way that you're described to me was he's kind of like the, like the wizard of Oz, this guy that works sort of behind the scenes that helps these practices and doctors get these principles out to other people as I'm like, I got to meet this guy and it's, you know, it's amazing. Speaker 1: (05:34) You tell me that story about how you were sick and didn't have energy and your health was failing. Cause when I saw you at that event, dude, you're like bouncing off the walls. I was like, man, like this guy's got a ton of energy. And I remember thinking like, I want that because at that time I didn't tell you this, but when I went to that event, like I had, I was struggling with chronic fatigue, brain fog, not a lot of energy. And I was using a caffeine, try to prop myself up for the day and at that event and listening to dr [inaudible], immediately at that event, I started fasting, which I had never done before. And I'd kind of experimented with intermit intermittent fasting, but didn't really know how it worked and all. So all of these pieces came together. And at that event I started fasting. I read that, um, beyond fastening book that, uh, dr Pompa wrote. And man, I, I, it's amazing man. My energy levels and my clarity, my mental clarity are through the roof. Like, I don't remember being, feeling this good in a long, long time. So I know what you guys do works. Obviously it's worked for you. It's working for me. I still haven't done the five day fast yet. I'm, I've chickened out every time I lead into it. Speaker 3: (06:34) Yeah, it's more of a mental game, but you're getting fat adapted. You know, your, your cells are turning over. They're dying and rebuilding beautiful cells and you're repeating those cells. So you're, you're going to get there. But, uh, the, there is a fear factor there but it's a good one, right? Yeah. My fear factor of my daughter is getting her thumb out of her mouth. You know, yours is going to be a little bit on the fasting and so we all have her down. Speaker 1: (06:57) I'm working on that thumb thing with my son right now. He's three and a half years old. He refuses to get rid of it. But uh, yeah man. So thank you. First of all, thanks for like, I wouldn't have known about this. I wouldn't feel as good as I do right now if not for you guys in the work that you do. And so this, um, this podcast is a, is part five and a five part series and the purpose of this series is for doctors to understand that when they're thinking about integration that there is not this one size fits all solution for integration. And I sent out a survey to my list just a few weeks ago and it was a, it was a two part survey. One survey was a question for doctors who have yet to integrate. And, and by the way like this, this, you can plug in integration, you can plug in functional medicine, you can plug in high volume chiropractic, whatever, like service. Speaker 1: (07:43) You can plug it into this, the survey. And my question was, if you haven't integrated already, why not? And the number one response by far, I think the statute like 87% was doctors were afraid, uh, for financial reasons. It's too expensive to get in. It's too expensive to run and it's not profitable anymore. So that was the number one response. The second row, the second survey I sent out at the same time was for doctors who are already integrated. What is the biggest challenge that you're finding? And the response was different. The response was all across the board. Doctors were saying, um, it's expensive. It's a, it's a beast to run. So it's incredibly bloated. It's complicated. Uh, doctors have a tough time wrapping their minds around how third, third payers work. Medicare and private insurance, they struggle with that. They struggle with leading a big team. Speaker 1: (08:32) And so they've, you know, these doctors decide to integrate and, but they don't realize how challenging it can be when you bring something like that into your practice. So these were things that I had known and suspected, but it was nice to hear from doctors who have, who've actually done it. So, um, what I want to do today is talk about, um, number one what it means to integrate, but also if you're only back up a minute there, when I talk about integration, this is what doctors don't understand is that there are really like three different paths to integration. And so sometimes when doctors say integration is, they have this idea of what it is in their mind. So it's kind of like this. I, I was, uh, over the summer I was helping a friend, um, build a porch on his house and he had this really bad headache. Speaker 1: (09:14) And I said, dude, let me adjust you. I can help you with your headache. And this guy is, he's kind of a conservative guy. He's like, ah. He's like, I'm not, I'm not into chiropractic, no offense. But he's like, I tried it once. Bad experience. Uh, I don't really think that's appropriate. And I said, okay, well Jay just let you just think about this. I said, I've adjusted tens of thousands of people, I help people with headaches all the time. Uh, it's super simple and really safe. So if you, if you change your mind, let me know. I think I can help you with that headache. And he said, okay, I appreciate that. And so like an hour later we're hammering nails in the house and he goes, you know what, I can't stand this headache anymore. I don't want to take medicine. He goes, just do what you do. Speaker 1: (09:51) Give me an adjustment. So I laid him down on a piece of plywood in his backyard and I felt his neck gave him an adjustment and he's like, all right, let me know when you're going to do it. Cause he was nervous and I said, it's done already. This lay down for, you know, get up when you're ready. He goes, what do you mean it's done? I said, it's done. You're adjusted. And he goes, that's it. I'm like, yeah, that's it. And so he stands up, he goes, he goes, wow. He goes, my headaches gone. And I'm like, really? Are you just saying that to make me feel good or is your headache gone? He goes, no, it's completely gone. He's like, that's freaking amazing. He goes, I didn't know that's what it was. And I'm like, yeah, that's, that's chiropractic. So he didn't, he didn't know what he didn't know. Speaker 1: (10:25) He had this bad experience years ago. I did, would never do chiropractic again. And then this one adjustment fixed it. And this guy is like a big mountain biker. Whenever he falls off his bike, he comes to my house, I adjust him and he feels better. So the same thing is true with integration. You know, you hear stories of people who have been ruined in practice with integration. They struggle with it. They're losing money, they go bankrupt. And I'm like, I don't want that for myself and my practice. But a lot of doctors don't realize there's all kinds of different niches with integration. So the first path, and this is kind of if you, if you're jumping on this podcast, on episode 18 this episode, go back and listen to the previous four episodes. So the first path and integration is what I call the simplified integration. Speaker 1: (11:05) This is adding for what for most doctors is what is a part time system. So we use regenerative medicine to help people with joint pain without drugs and surgery. It's a system you can run part-time. Doctors can start this program for less than 10,000 bucks. You can get it up and running in less than 90 days. It's super simple. It's a great way to add a high five to low six figure income for most doctors. So that's the simplest way to do it. You don't have to monkey with insurance or anything like that. The second path is when, this is for doctors who want more from their integrated practice. So this is when we strategically add insurance services that make sense. So, not like, you know, a lot of integrated clinics. I've been guilty of this. We had like 25 different therapies we added in her office, like a super complicated system to run. Speaker 1: (11:49) It was crazy and you don't have to do that. So you can still a smart integrated practice where you're offering a few insurance services, which helps the patient reduce their costs. It helps build up your revenue and it doesn't have to be a complicated system. So then there's part three and more, and this is why I have you on this podcast. Part three is for doctors who say who are already integrated, or maybe they have the business chops to say, all right, I'm at this level now I want to get to this level. So maybe that means they want to double their practice or they want to open a second, third clinic, they want to make a bunch of money. That's what we want to talk about today on this podcast. So let's talk about first of all, what scaling means and scaling in in my definition, is different than growth. Speaker 1: (12:31) So practice growth is when you, let's say for example you're seeing a hundred patient visits a week and you want to grow that to a hundred or a hundred, 175 most doctors can do that with a little, some marketing tweaks, maybe improving their case management, maybe working a little more efficiently or harder. You don't need to scale your practice to do that, but if you want to reach a different level of success, scaling is when you're increasing your output, your sales, your volume, but doing it in a cost effective way and so you're doing it in a way that doesn't blow up your practice or ruin what you owe. It's already working well on your office. Does it, would you say that's a fair description? Worn of, of, of scaling? Speaker 3: (13:08) Yeah, I mean scale, you know, scale to me like growth and scale. I mean they kind of go hand in hand. Um, and, and my thought process but you know, it's celebrated. Um, growth can have consequence consequences. You can always grow. But do you have the systems, the staff, the team to handle that growth? Right. I would say scaling is more of a systematic approach where you, like you said, where you're limiting a lot of those pitfalls. I just want to grow. I want to blow up my practice. That's, that's the growth mindset. Um, a scaling mindset to me would be one that's more systematic, uh, a systematic approach so that you, you have a goal you have in mind, uh, of what you want to do, what you want to achieve and then you, you properly staff and integrate the things that you want to go to get there in a systematic way. So scaling is more of a, a systematic growth is more of a um, a mindset. Speaker 1: (14:06) Yeah, I totally agree. And when you're adding, so doctors typically will think about that after the fact. So after they've integrated, after they've done functional medicine, it's like, all right, I have all these moving parts. How do I make it, how do I remove the bottlenecks? How do I make this thing actually work in a meaningful way? And so, so for doctors listening to this and they want to scale, like is there a, is there a right time to scale it? And if so, how do you know when it's the right time to scale? Speaker 3: (14:31) No, I mean I think everything comes down to mindset and I'm going to keep going back there, right? I think you need to be the type of person that doesn't have fear, right? Because you, you said at the beginning, why don't people, why don't doctors integrate fear? Right. And I've been coaching doctors a long time and some of their, the two biggest things that stop them from scaling or integrating or hiring or you know, all of that, it comes down to ego, right? And the ego, not like I'm, I'm the, I'm the man necessarily, but you know, who's going to take care of my patients as much as well as I can. They, they're only gonna like me. You know, those are just self limiting beliefs. Um, when it comes to, especially chiropractic, I can see that because some are more talented than others and have more experience and I can see that they care for their patients deeply. Speaker 3: (15:20) But it really comes down to a growth mindset where you want to train and equip others to be great, not just you be great, right? You just have to shift that. So, um, and you know, so you've got to have not have that, uh, that, that ego or actually, which is in a lot of respects is lack of confidence in yourself, in your, in your ability to lead. And then the other piece to that is fear. So if you're, if you've a fearful mindset and all you're doing is worrying about, so you're in the stock market for instance, for example, I don't invest in stocks. And the reason why is I can't control that. I can control my business output in a lot of other things, but I don't want to be looking and gambling with money. So I have, I have a fear of that. Speaker 3: (16:08) So I avoid it. It's not something that's gonna motivate me or give me energy in that moment to do something great. So if you're fearful, um, you have to initially get over that fear. And sometimes that, um, C type personalities, uh, practitioners, they need education. They need to get all their I's dotted and their T's crossed. And then there's the entrepreneurial, uh, practitioner who go all in and sometimes fall flat on their face and go bankrupt. Right? But then they get back up again and do it again and then they integrate correctly instead of quickly. So a lot of people do things quickly instead of correctly because they're, they do have, um, an unlimited, uh, mindset. They've done some personal work or they may be born that way. But in the process, one of those mistakes in a growth mindset versus a scaling mindset is that you do something and you're thinking growth, growth, growth. But you don't have the systems and individuals around you and processes. And then in your growth, you destroy your current team and business. So those are some of the things that I see over and over again. And so, you know, I don't know if that leads you into another question, but that's kind of, you know, where, where I land, um, you know, after 15 years of doing this, Speaker 1: (17:24) yeah. You know what you're saying, having the right systems and people around you, you brought up an idea and I've been really lucky in the fact that I've had great people around me for a long time. And, and one of the, um, the keys I think to my success over time is that I'm always plugging into resources. So I always have at least one coach or mentor. I'm always reading at least a couple of books and, and learning new ideas. And what I remember when we went from a cash chiropractic office to a massive, you're, we're running to a seven figure integrated clinics. Had I not had the right people, the right coaches, I'm not only pouring into me, but pointing out all the glaring roadblocks I had. Like I, I didn't know anything about business management, even with a business degree. I had no idea where my blind spots were, where the bottlenecks in my business were. Speaker 1: (18:09) And to be honest, it would have, if I had figured it out, it would have taken me a long, long time to do it. And so very true. Very true. And it's like, I like Tony Robinson. He's like, he's, he always says, you know, I've been a butcher his quote, but don't reinvent the wheel if someone's done it before you just copy what they're doing. And that's, that's always been my mindset. I just, all right, someone's done it better than I could probably do it. I want to copy what they're doing. And so I think doctors who are planning on scaling, I think that's just a critical part of their approach to it is not only having, okay, I want to do this functional medicine or this regenerative medicine program, but who's going to help me get to that level? I want to get to a [inaudible] Speaker 3: (18:47) I can talk to like I have the, when I'm teaching on organizational growth, I have my forties. Um, you know, and there's more to it than this. I mean there's, there's other technical aspects, but I have the forties talent team, uh, team, actually, sorry, I wrote it down here. Talent, team time, tenacity, and there's teaching spots and all of that scale. So if you are of the, you want to scale your business, you want to add, um, you know, more modalities, more insurance, um, because as soon as you go from a cash integrated clinic to a medical, more of the, the billing side, that's a whole different ballgame you have, you've opened up a lot more liability. There's lots of things that go on. I'm not an expert integrating. You are right. I'm an expert at scaling and growing businesses and marketing, right? And cause I believe marketing is everything. Speaker 3: (19:38) Even if you were a, a horrible chiropractor, which nobody on this call is, but even if you were, I could market you and make you successful. I wouldn't feel as good about it. If your heart was right and you weren't the best, I'd be okay with it because it's all about your heart and your intention. Because I believe a lot of being a practitioner and being effective as a practitioner, again, mindset, your intention, your love for that individual, you are the placebo, if you will. You can transform someone's life with your word, with your intentions, with your love, giving them hope. That is the key to a good practitioner. If you're in it for just for the money, it's a little harder, right? And you're really going to have to put those and that's okay. Right? But you have to put those personality types and know the right ones. Speaker 3: (20:19) I use ideal ideal coaching. Um, I think, uh, Allen miners group, I really do a personality profiling on the types of people that I hire. Um, even if it's an internal personal assistant to a functional medicine practitioner that we're placing into a clinic, however that is. So it really comes down to, um, you know, those four, in my opinion, when you're building a rock star team to scale, it doesn't, it really has nothing to do with you. Um, it has your all over it, but it's a scaling, a business really scaling, let's say, not just seven figures. You can seven-figure yourself a little bit all by yourself being a decent manager. Um, rewarding your clients well, having a good, um, you know, culture in your office. But you know, let's look at five to $10 million, right? Let's look at a really big functional medicine slash integrated, you know, STEM cell, like big time clinic, right? Speaker 3: (21:17) With multiple modalities, multiple practitioners. Let's really get there. How do you go from a million to say, two to 5 million and that really comes down to the team you have around you that are implementing these systems that you're, that you're learning from someone like you or you know, an integrated clinic. You really need to have the forties, you've got to have, you've got to find the right talent. You've got to find the, the, the front desk person that has the right personality, that's smiling and loving on people instead of yelling at them because they missed their appointment, right? You guys know this stuff, but you really have to have the right talent. You need to hire and find that talent and not hire your friends, not your family members that really hire the positions that you need within your organization to help you scale in. The more you hire the right people and the more you're removed from that organizational structure where you're the base, they're the top your doctors, the people serving the front lines and your marketing team. Speaker 3: (22:17) And as you go down, you're at the bottom. Really, you're just, the scaling. Scaling is, is looking up, looking and loving. Um, of course it's your end user right there that you're delivering the results that you promised, that they're gonna, that you promise them. So there are the very top, and then you have your administrative staff and it comes down to your executive team and then down to you as the founder, right? So you, you have to have the talent and then you, once you find the right talent space, you want to have a Michael Jordan, you know, practitioner. You want to hire a, um, who I met and I'm spacing his name, who was his protector? Dennis Rodman, right? You're creating this talented team. Then you bring them into a team, you get them working together. Um, say, Hey Dennis, this is your, your spot, Michael. Speaker 3: (23:01) This is what you do. Um, you know, Michael Piffen, this is what, I don't know if it's Michael Pippin or whatever, you know, you do this, this is your job. This is your, this is your lane. And, and put them in a box that they can Excel in that don't give them a job or a, or a position in which they're not going to be successful. Because the bottom line is everyone wants to be successful. Everyone wants to add value. That's why they're working for you because they want security. It's not normally money. You have to pay a good compensation, but they want to be successful. What they want to do, they want to add value. They want to be brilliant, and you have to provide environment for them. So the failure of a, of, of your talent is really back down to you as the leadership role. Are you giving them the resources, training, and coaching that they need to be successful in their position? And are you putting the right people to create this team that wants to win the Superbowl, right? Are you creating an environment in which they're brilliant and they can be positive, positive, amazing environment where they can make mistakes and learn and grow like a child. Um, if they've never done this before. Right? So Speaker 1: (24:05) that's a really good point. Like that that I think is a huge, huge, huge point that you're bringing up as you like. I think everyone can hire people like talent that they think will, will do a good job and you don't know until they actually do it. But then it's up to us to make sure that we'd give them the right expectations and to make sure that if they make a mistake, they know what the mistake was and how to correct it. And so one, one thing that I didn't know when we integrated was, um, I, I never knew what a policy was like a written policy or I, I had no idea what a, like an employee manual was. Cause we, I always like lead and manage from the seat of my pants. And if you hear me say it enough times, like you'll also repeat what I'm saying. Speaker 1: (24:41) But when we integrated, I couldn't do that cause we had 12 employees and I couldn't micromanage each and every employee. So, uh, one of the systems I learned was everything that you want your employee to do, it should be written down. So for example, if you have that front desk staff that you mentioned and they're bubbly and warm and nice, they have the right character, well what do you want them to say when they answer the phone? Because that's going to affect your conversions. And so we would write a script for that. And so when we'd hired that person, it's like, here's the script, follow the script, um, be yourself, but this is what we want you to say. And then to that, uh, that post, we would add a statistic and that we would track those statistics. So how do you measure it? So you're taking these like intangible things and things you want your staff to do, but how do you make it measurable so you can see it on a piece of paper? Speaker 1: (25:25) And so for example, when we'd have uh, um, uh, new leads calling in, let's say we had a hundred leads calling in a month, we would want 70% of those leads to convert into a patient appointment. So if it was 40% or 50%, or like, okay, what's going on with Mary this week, our stats are way down. She must be going off the script. And sure enough like that's, she was saying something different or having having a bad week or there's something that we could help coach her through or lead her through. And so, um, that was, uh, so that that concept of policies and written scripts and having an employee handbook, they can actually reference saying, okay, this is what Dr. Wells wants me to do. It's right here on a piece of paper and we can always reference that. So it took some of the ambiguity out of, all right, we're going to be a great team, but how do you actually, like what, what does that look like? Speaker 3: (26:09) Yeah. That, that's the, that's the classic like entrepreneurial mindset, right? If you're an entrepreneurial practitioner, and many of you are that there's been an entrepreneur and a business owner, but if it's not measurable, it's not real, right? And accomplishment is a big deal in an organizational structure. You want them to be free thinking, brilliant people, but you want them to accomplish, you want to create a system for their box. So they have measured results because the numbers do not lie, right? So you see this a lot in a structure and they'll see how much money there they're making, right? That you're doing, and they might see your numbers and you're being transparent. I think you should be transparent with your numbers, um, to a degree. And they will think they deserve more. Well, it's not based on what someone deserves. It's based on what they accomplish. Speaker 3: (26:56) And if you don't have measurable results in four conversions for these things and you can't manage, um, and then you don't have a group of, uh, team members that will respond properly. So even though I'm not a basketball player, the results remain right? If Michael Jordan, if everybody's doing the right thing, your numbers will be great. Michael will put, you know, points on the board. If Dennis is doing what he's doing and Michael Pippins is doing what he's doing and they're all who's doing the block shots, who's, you know, making sure that this guy isn't scoring like you really need. And that's all essentially script. It's a game plan that you have to happen. It's a measurable number. What is what, how many people did you convert? Well, that's how many, you know, Michael Jordan, you know, or you know, whatever. Right? So that that measurable place takes a lot of the MB and ambiguity. I can't say that word. Speaker 1: (27:50) Ambiguity. Yup. Speaker 3: (27:51) Ambiguity out of your management, right? Because it's not personal, right? You have a great family, a great culture, and some of these big organizations that I, that I walk into, everything is all numbers. And that's really good. Especially for the new generation. They, the millennials, they love. And that's a lot of your workforce now. They love numbers. They love accountability. They love to do well. They'd love to get rewarded, right? They love, they'd love culture, you know? And that's the businesses that are really skyrocketing today. And you need to build that in. So without that you're, you're managing, uh, your, your manager managing nothing. You're managing emotion and you can't imagine you can't manage emotion. Speaker 1: (28:30) Absolutely. Yeah. So that was, so that was the second tee. So you had, you had a talent, the second tea being was at teach. Speaker 3: (28:37) Yeah. Talent and teams. So you're getting your team together and then you have, it takes time. Right. So, so if you're integrating, for example, you have to be patient with this award winning team, you have to give them time to win. And one of the mistakes that people say, you know, is right, right out of the gate. They don't take self responsibility for the team and giving them time to learn and love and appreciate each other and to learn their positions. And they just fire them and they say they're not any good. Right. No self responsibilities from the business owner. Is there any good they're not doing, I tell them to do. They're bad, right? No self responsibility. No, you didn't train them correctly. You don't have the right systems to them. Right. You didn't take, you didn't give them time to learn, right? Because when you build a super bowl winning team, or if you're going to win the NBA finals, right? Speaker 3: (29:26) It doesn't happen overnight. It's intended. It's a longterm play, right? You're not thinking six months out, you're thinking three, four years out to win, right? And you communicate that to your team. We're going to win. We're going to be $5 million integrated clinic four years from now, and this is how we're going to get here. Here's the team you, you project and you create systems to get there. It doesn't happen overnight. So you have to have that, that time factor. And then the last T, which is the most important T out of any T that you ever have in your life, even better than green tea, is tenacity. Um, all research shows that if you want to win at anything in life, if you want to be super successful, if you want to have impact and disrupt, uh, anything, you know, whether it's the healthcare system, whether, you know, I love being disrupted and you have to be tenacious. Speaker 3: (30:21) You have to have a tenacious attitude that you are going to win eventually, that you're not going to give up the first year, that your numbers aren't as good as they are. You're always shifting, educating and working and thinking in a positive way that we are going to win. We are going to win the Superbowl and nothing's going to stop. You have to have that as as a leader underneath you are speaking that into existence and you have to be tenacious no matter what happens cause you can make mistakes. As a matter of fact, you're going to make a lot of mistakes in your practice. Sometimes it may almost cost you your business sometimes. Sometimes it will, sometimes it won't. But if you react to that as a learning opportunity, what did I do wrong? How can I integrate that now into my life and how can I use this learning integrated force. Speaker 3: (31:11) I'm Tony beets from gold rush. You know I love this quote because lessons cost good lessons costs lots. So the more it costs you, it sometimes the better it is for your life and effects. What this mindset, when you can overcome things like a muscle and train it, it becomes integrated into your neurology. And you could go to that next level like, so when I'm building businesses, it was like the, the, the, the star, right? That everyone says seven-figure practice, right? I like the burst their bubble and say the local Starbucks is having a bigger effect on your community than you at seven figures quit that think four, five figures. Think five years out. Think scale. How am I going to get there? Who do I need to hire? How can I get myself out of the road? What can I do to empower more people in leadership? Speaker 3: (32:03) What can I do for my team? It's going to give them the tools that they need to win the super bowl of my community that I can impact this community with today's functional medicine integrative strategy. This stuff works. I'm using it, right? Um, and I'm coaching, uh, like Harry Adelson's going big, right? He's an integrated, uh, naturopathic doctor. I'm helping him with his, uh, premier release of his documentary. He's going big. He's not just thinking small, he's thinking big. He's thinking global. He's doing a huge documentary and book release. That could be some of you listening to this, right? But you have to start somewhere before you get there, right? But you'd have to think longterm, what is my longterm goals and strategies? And are you tenacious enough to get there? So it comes right back to your mindset, right? Do you have a coach that's going to give you the strength that you need, that you may not have yourself? You may not have those skills, but how do you get them? Well, you can read a book, but more importantly, have someone to guide you through someone to be your Sherpa. If you will, do climb that mountain so that you don't die, that you don't bankrupt your business, that you don't, uh, make a billing mistake that puts you at liability. You don't want to do that on your own, right? You do want to have a guide so that you know, part of the answer, Speaker 1: (33:18) I love it, man. [inaudible] or do you have any like resources, uh, on how to do that? Cause I think that's a, that's a very vague question. But that fourth tee that you just talked about, tenacity. I think that a lot of doctors want that, but they don't know what it is, how do identify it or how to get after it. And, and my answer to that would be, I, you know, I think you needed some solid people around you to help either tease that out and then to help drive you through that, those, uh, those tough periods in your business. But what, what would you suggest to a doctor who like, yeah, I want that. I know it's within me, but I don't really know what that is at this point. Speaker 3: (33:54) Yeah. You know, it's tough. You know, you can have conversations with a lot of dots and sometimes it's quite frustrating because you try to bring them to that realization of self responsibility. You try to ask them questions and really have to listen to their answers to see if they're, if they are ready. So, uh, cause a lot of the times it's more, yeah, I can do this. I'm the best I can, I can scale. But the word I is really the, the most dangerous thing if it's coming out of your mouth. Um, if they have an I mindset, that's a big red flag for yourself. So look and say, why am I saying I, you know, why am I not saying we? Why am I not, um, um, elevating others over myself? What is it within me? What happened? You know, what's broken within me? Speaker 3: (34:41) Not to think in a way to get there, right? And to have a, not just a tenacious heart, but a loving, tenacious heart, right? I mean, you can, you can win just with tenacity. Don't get me wrong. You know, you really can Senate tenacity. Angela Duckworth, you can read the book, her book on grit. Uh, that's a really, really good resource to understand that. And it really shows, it doesn't, it's not, it's not how talented or smart you are, uh, necessarily. Um, to when it really comes down to that, to that, um, tenacious mindset. I think a lot of that is, um, it can be grown in cultured, um, through removing limiting beliefs through removing, uh, understanding that you're all brilliant. Like that's another thing that I can speak to everyone listening today. It's like you're thinking brilliant, not in an egotistical way, but you are right and you need to realize that you are, you need to realize how gifted and talented you are. Speaker 3: (35:33) You have to realize that you work really thinking hard to be here, you know, to spend the time listening to this podcast. But so has the people around you, they're also equally as brilliant. They equally need the same love and you know, accolades that you do to get out of, out of the bed every day. But if you're tenacious, you really don't need as much, right? Because you have a goal in mind and you want to win. You know, some of the resources, you know, you just got to get personal work done. You know, you really got to go and find, get to a place where you don't have those limiting beliefs that you know you can get somewhere and you know it's going to be hard. Like marriage for example, right? If you go into marriage, and a lot of us have done this, I did not. Speaker 3: (36:18) You know, fortunately you go into marriage thinking it's going to be easy and fun and you look at it for something to help you be happier. But it's quite the opposite. It's a reflection to make you better, right? It's an opportunity for you to change and adapt and grow and become tenacious, right? And if you go into it with that aspect, you have a beautiful marriage that improves. And it's what can I do? How can I change the language I'm using with my wife? How can I be stronger? How can I change how I'm acting? Who cares what she does? But when you do that, your family grows, right? But it takes hard work and tenacity and self-responsibility. So if you don't have self-responsibility, you think it's all about you, you know? And that's normal. Just don't get me wrong. I still think that right? Speaker 3: (37:04) On a daily basis, I'm evolving just like everyone else in the year, but from a principal standpoint, that's the stuff that escalates your life and your business. It really starts with you and I and a tenacious, loving, kind accepting you, and that is in your marketing. Oh my gosh. It comes from me. You know, at the end of the day that love that attention, you have to have that I believe, to really scale and grow a large business because otherwise you're going to have problems. If your team doesn't like you, you're going to get in trouble with them, right? They're going to come back and become your predators. So here's a big, here's a big deal. As you scale and grow, you talked about policies. Let me just wrap a bow around that because that's a big thing. Don't expect your employees always to behave if you don't have an employee policy. Speaker 3: (37:54) If you don't have non-disclosures, and I've, I've made millions and millions of dollars in mistakes. I've had employees come back and try to blackmail, you know me out of money reporting lies and doing all the crazy stuff. Why? Because I trusted them to be always good and kind. And the reality is not everyone is good and kind. Most are, but you've got to play the game. Like there is going to be a black sheep in the family of your organization that some point that's coming in and once your power, right, if you don't have an personality profile can, can fix that, right? You can find those people, right? And not hire them. They're more of a you and they're going to want to be you and you. You don't want that, right? There's only not to say that you're the, you know, the end all Beto but you really are the, the controller of the organizational structure and you want to create a culture. Speaker 3: (38:46) So long story short, make sure you get non-disclosures. Make sure you use attorneys, you know, do all that stuff. And if you can't afford that, then you know, start saving up, right? Because you and you can write, there's all kinds of ways to get money. I was talking to a business owner the other day, they're like, I can't afford a conventional loan to buy out. You know, this other partner in a business, but they have no foresight to say there's like 10 different other ways for you to funded by that business. You know, through a conventional loan in a bank, right? So there's lots of ways to get there. So the tenacity person would say, I need this much money. I need a hundred grand to start this, this integrated, you know, this next movement I want to get, you know, make sure my billing and all that stuff that's going to cost you like a hundred grand, right? Speaker 3: (39:29) Where are you going to get that money? You can sell fund. Usually you can, if you have a successful clinic, don't. If you want to grow, you know, don't invest into lifestyle, invest back into your business. A hundred grand should be nothing for you. But say you don't, right? Where do you get it? There's lots of ways to get at a tenacious person. We'll find the money to meet the goal. And I also believe that, you know, from a, from a spiritual standpoint, if you're going to do good in the world, I believe God in the universe will bring you the right people and the resources to do that. So that intention, that love and heart man, really important, um, for resources and that energy that you have, that you put out into the world to attract the people into your team, into your world, they're going to help you do something really big, really scaling, beating the crap out of Starbucks. You know, you're going to be, you know, 10 X would have Starbucks can be in your community, right? And thinking much bigger and longterm. Speaker 1: (40:21) Man, I don't know if it was the, uh, the thing that brought manager levels up or just being around you guys. Just it. Dude, it's amazing just to connect with you on this podcast. It's just listening to you and listening to these principles that you're teaching and that you've learned over the years. And in some of these I've learned, um, are so true and so helpful and so needed in our profession. Um, and I, and to wrap this podcast up or, and I'm just really, really grateful for you to be on here. And, um, one of the things, if you're listening, one of the things Warren said, I asked him before this podcast, I said, well, what do you want to do? You have something you want to promote? And Warren said, no, I'm not here to promote. I just wanna help doctors. But I do want you to promote what you do because I think doctors need to be plugged in to the work that you're doing and the services that you guys offer our profession because they're incredibly valuable. Speaker 1: (41:06) And I, again, I came to your seminar for personal reasons. I wanted to get healthier, I wanted more energy. I thought maybe you guys could provide that. But also I just wanted to be around people that, um, put these, these principles that we just talked about into practice because it's, it's uplifting. Um, this last half hour of you and I talking is like, I'm way up here now. My energy levels are way up here, so thank you for that. Um, and so what are, uh, what are some ways that doctors can connect with you guys and the health centers of future, um, maybe just coming out to a limit to lead an event. Can you maybe talk about that? Speaker 3: (41:39) Yeah, I mean, w we've been coaching, uh, practitioners and we're getting more into the integrated space as well. We have, um, you know, we have some resources on sourcing, on really good exosomes and things like that, that I've told you about. So some of the new things that we're doing with, with dr Raffi, so we're getting into the integrated space, but our, our seminars, uh, you know, are, are more functional medicine in nature, business marketing, teaching the fasting principles, the things that, that really move the needle in, in people's health, you know. So that's, that's first and foremost is what our events are about is like what's going to really get people well, what's going to compliment your integrative practice, uh, you know, post, you know, STEM cell treatment, how can you get a topic G naturally so that you get better clinical results. And that's a big thing. Speaker 3: (42:21) You can measure that right, that's measurable and integrate about how much they come back in. And then you can add some of the diet, the fasting, some supplements, um, that we have for, you know, STEM cell production and autophagy. And adding that in and seeing how it changes, you know, uh, the results in your clinic. And we have other regenerative clinics do that with us. So on my one of our, you know, sites you could go to and there's a free, uh, somewhere on the site. I think it's a bar, um, right down below, um, the website for the free just to get an idea of what our seminars look like and the energy that we bring. It's HCF instant access. Um, dot com I believe is the link that I gave you, but you can go to HCF, H H as in Harry, Charlie, Frank HCF, seminars.com. Speaker 3: (43:10) And you can also, there's a probably a green like bar that they can click on and it has, you know, Joseph Macola is on there and a few other practitioners that have brought the heat, um, you know, on different, different topics and you can see us and what we're doing and with clinics and you know, uh, what this energy is all about and we're, you know, it's definitely a movement for us, right? It's definitely, we want to not just empower every practitioner but the, the right practitioner that has a similar heart because congruency is key with everything that you do. So the doctors that we attract really have to be congruent and crazy like we are in this area. Right? Um, I wouldn't say we're the crazy integrated, you know, opposites. We have an integrated office, um, that we, um, one I wanted to launch with you actually I was thinking about because I don't want to reinvent the wheel, you know, a heck of a lot more about integration than we do. Speaker 3: (44:01) But we do have one. Um, we're launching in California, we're adding, you know, a lot of the modalities like the pulse and the, you know, the STEM cell machine and a lot of these different, you know, cash, uh, cash cows if you will. And they work and they help people. So we, we do a little bit of that. So they have those vendors and things that are events. But at the end of the day, guys, what I shared with you really just comes down to you and your mindset and where you're at personally. That's the foundation of all your success in life, in business. And until you get there, I really, you gotta have those, those, those moments in time where there's a major shift, everyone needs to shift. You've got to take a big shift, right? You have to shift your mindset. You have to ship from a growth to upscale mindset, something that's sustainable. Speaker 3: (44:51) You really got to get wrap your head around that. And what does that look like and who are you going to find to help you get there? Right? So that's, that's my end game. Yeah. You can come to one of our events. That would be awesome. Our next one, um, we actually put off a really trying to, we used to do two a year and we're, we're putting off the next one probably till nine months, but the end of the day there's a lot of work that you can do personal, right? Podcasts, you can listen to coaches, you can hire, you can work with, uh, you know, dr Andrew here. There's so many ways for you to find a path to greatness. Cause all of you want to be great. You all want to have success in life but don't, it takes work and tenacity doesn't have to be hard. You can glide through your circumstances. You don't have to strive, you know, you can glide through life. But that, that's right up here guys. It's right between your right between your eyes. And that's where I, at the end of the day, if I could say anything to inspire you guys is work on you and then everything else will flow out of that and your own health. Speaker 1: (45:48) Absolutely. Yeah. So as we wrap up here, docs, if you're, if you're considering scaling, if you're maybe in the scaling process and realize, Holy cow, I didn't know what I was getting into and you need help with these things at any point, please reach out to me if you need help. And that's um, info@integrationsecrets.com, um, our email addresses on our website. And if I'm not the person to help you, I will be happy to refer you out to other people who can help coach you, mentor you, uh, help you through not only the mind, some for some of you, it's the mindset stuff. For some of you just need the tactical part. What are the steps to, to scale properly. And if you need that help, I'll be happy to point you in the right direction. So, uh, Warren Phillips, thank you so much again for being on. I really appreciate you. You're awesome man. You have a great heart. You're one of the smartest people I think I've ever met in our profession. I really appreciate you sharing this time and your knowledge with us. So thanks everybody and Oh, go ahead, Speaker 3: (46:37) owner's mind. Speaker 1: (46:38) Thanks man. And we'll look forward to seeing you guys on the next episode. Bye bye. Speaker 2: (46:43) Hey innovators. Thanks for listening to the simplified integration podcast. Fact that you're listening tells me that you're like me, someone who loves simplicity. And the truth is those who embrace simplicity are some of the greatest innovators. So hope you got a ton of value. From what we covered on today's episode. Be sure to subscribe and share with other docs that you feel could benefit from greater sophistication through simplification and innovation. If you've got specific questions that you'd like answered on this podcast or you've got specific topics that you'd like me to discuss, just shoot me an email at info@integrationsecrets.com Speaker 1: (47:19) that's info@integrationsecrets.com.

On this episode I'm sharing some thoughts and encouragement as we navigate this new normal living in the time of Coronavirus and COVID-19.   Highlights:  What I've been focused on in the past two weeks How to dig into gratitude when it's hard to see the positives How to extend grace to yourself and your team during this time   Links and Resources Mentioned in this Episode:    Connect with me on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kristinckaplan/    

Hey monkiis, I finally got to record a conversation with my good friend Erl -Wildman of the North. We met several years back and he is an OG monkii to the core. Erl is a psychologist residing in Lofoten, Norway which lies above the Arctic Circle. What I've always appreciated about him is that he specifically moved to this Wild environment to seek out more adventure. Our kind of monkii. We take a journey through the topics and there are some gems to be found for sure. Please enjoy! Show notes: Matthew Walker on Joe Rogan's podcast: https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/the-joe-rogan-experience/e/54245399. Adventures with Erl Sapiens book We are here if you need us. Let's push forward together. Thanks for tuning in and if you are enjoying the episodes we would be eternally grateful if you could leave a 5-star review. It helps to grow the monkii family and spread the good word of the Wild. Thank you. See you out there and Live Wild or Die, -monkii Dan www.monkii.co

In light of everything going on in the world right now with Coronavirus, I felt called to make a podcast episode about how to continue to choose love and faith over fear. In this episode, I share: * What I've been doing and how I've been navigating these uncertain times * The 3 things we must focus on at this time, and how to navigate from fear to love and faith. * What to think about and DO as a business owner and entrepreneur & why this is the time more than ever to SHOW UP! This is the great awakening, and it's our time ad light workers, healers, star seeds, mystics to really step up-- for both ourselves AND for those that we are serving. Fear itself is a virus.  It's ok to feel whatever is coming up for you, AND...you do not have to completely give your power away to it, and can shift back to your truth and power. Follow me on instagram @TheSpiritualBossBabe -- next week I am doing a free challenge "Creatrix in the Matrix" to help you stand in your power as a creator in your reality. See you there! Loving the podcast?  Please let me know by leaving a review in iTunes, sharing with a friend, and tagging me on instagram when you listen! spiritualbossbabe.com  

Show Notes: Speaker 1: (00:00) Hey doc, welcome to the simplified integration podcast. You're listening to episode number 17, integration path number three. I'm a scaling operator. Speaker 2: (00:12) Leonardo da Vinci once said that simplicity is the ultimate sophistication, and I agree. You see the problem with the way that most consulting groups approach medical integration is anything but simple. In fact, it's the exact opposite. It's expensive, it's complicated, and quite frankly, it's exhausting. Enough is enough. There are far too many amazing integrated clinics that are struggling. Well, I'm on a mission to change that. What I've come to find from over five years working with integrative practices is that simplicity really is the secret. The old saying of less is more, is true. Through a streamlined approach, I was able to create multiple successful seven figure integrated clinics, and now I'm going to show you how you can do the same. Join me as I share with you the secrets to successful medical integration and practice growth. Join me on a journey to greater sophistication through innovation. I'm Dr. Andrew Wells and welcome to the simplified integration podcast. Speaker 1: (01:09) Well, it's going on DACA. Hope you're having a great day to day. Uh, welcome back to part four and a five part series. And in this series to recap, we're talking about the three different pads of integration and today we're going to be talking about path number three, how to scale and grow your operation. So just as a little recap, um, to go back, this is a, there are three paths in integration and the reason we talk about the three paths is because this old conventional way of doing integration doesn't make sense anymore. And what I mean by that is what some of like the big box management groups, um, are the way they're teaching integration as a very large, complicated, expensive, risky operation. And that model is dead. And what a lot of doctors are realizing that there are, there's not just one way to integrate. Speaker 1: (01:50) There are several ways and we've broken them down into three different steps. The first step being offering a, a niche cash based service like regenerative medicine to help grow your practice and run right alongside your chiropractic business. So it's a great way to get started in integration. It doesn't cost a lot of money. In fact, you can do it in less than 10,000 bucks. You can get it started in less than 90 days. So it's a super simple way to get into integration if that's something you're considering. The second path being a, what we call a growth coordinator, and this is when you strategically implement certain insurance based therapies to help grow your revenue, help make care more affordable to patients. And it's a great way to start using third party payers without having this big bloated system. And again, this is a system you can run full time or part time or whatever you want it to be. Speaker 1: (02:35) And that's the beauty of simplified integration. It's the when, uh, when clients come on, they call me. My first question for them is what, what is your goal? What is your goal professionally? What is your goal personally? And we match you with what path works best for you and your goals. So instead of saying, Hey, I'm interested about, I'm interested in integration, it's like, all right, here you go. Here's this massive system, implement this, and this'll get you to your goals. Like it doesn't work, that they're there, another there that doesn't work well that way I should say. There are different flavors of integration, if you will, for what you're looking to get out of your practice. And then finally, uh, today we're talking about path number three, being a scaling operator. And we're going to talk about this topic over the next two episodes. Speaker 1: (03:16) I'm going to introduce this idea and then on the next episode I have a special guest. The same as Warren Phillips. Uh, Warren is a fantastic guy. He's an expert in this area. Uh, he's been in the health field and helping chiropractors for, for over a decade. And he's a really not only a successful guy, super smart, one of the smartest guys I know in our profession. And he's a, he's going to help walk us through what it means to scale a business. So let's talk, let's break this down. So path number three, this path is, is probably the one that most, uh, most doctors are not going to apply to their practice, but I think that they should in certain, um, with certain elements of it. So what I mean by being a scaling operator is how to grow your business and expand your business using smart systems. Speaker 1: (04:01) And the reason this is important is because I see this happen a lot with integration, is doctors they buy into a program and then they have all these systems they have to implement, but they get so overwhelmed with just running integration that they never get a chance to look to look inward and be able to create systems like Ben management systems and business systems that help you run your practice in a smooth, efficient way. So it's one thing to have certain protocols in your office. It's a completely separate thing to have business structure. And what happens when you add business structure and organization to your business is you're able to start, um, getting your staff to do what you want them to do without having to micromanage each step of the process. And this applies to your front desk staff. This applies for your chiropractor or your medical staff. Speaker 1: (04:49) It applies to all the other people in your office. So it's getting, it's, it's creating systems that allow you to run your business in an economical way without, without this. So common doctor burnout, where the doctor's doing everything. And I, I see this happen a lot, is that the doctor, the chiropractor ends up being the chiropractor, the business director, the case manager, the salesperson, the marketer. They're doing all these different things in their business for two reasons. Number one is they think that no one else can do it as good as they can, or they just don't know how to teach other people to do those things at a high level. So in order to, to, so if you want it like scale your grow, grow your practice or open multiple locations, you have to have these things in place in order to do that. Speaker 1: (05:32) And, and I'll add on top of that. You should have those things in place for your organization right now. And this is what a lot of chiropractic offices integrated offices just don't have. And, um, this is the stuff that doesn't sometimes come natural when you're talking about [inaudible] about business organization. There are some, these, these, uh, strategies apply not only to like mom and pop type offices, but they also apply in fortune 500 companies. So in every successful business you'll see these elements of organization and structure. But the problem is doctors don't know, sometimes don't know they exist and if they do know they exist, they rent, not really sure how to implement them and how to, how to take these, um, uh, these concepts and theories into actual tangible practice. And that's what we help our clients with. So at some point, if you integrate, the question then becomes, all right, I've got these protocols in place, I have my staff in place, we're, we're having success with our therapies. Speaker 1: (06:25) Then the next question is how do I, how do I make that run smoother? And maybe that means you just want to make your office run smoother, your single office or maybe just grow, have more patients come in and make more money without blowing up your bank account on. There are some ways to do that. And or, or, or your the doctor who says, all right, I've got this down now. How do I do it a second time and a third time and a fourth time. So having run multiple clinics and multiple, multiple businesses at the same time, I've recognized and implemented these strategies to make it work so that I'm not like the one doing all the, all the little work and the minutia and the details and the business. So, um, so I hope that makes sense. So what we're talking about here is, is not the, the clinical part. Speaker 1: (07:07) We're talking about the business part. So this is sort of the next path. And this is not for everybody. So some doctors are really, really happy just running their one clinic and they're happy that they can make it like be a busier if they want or they can slow it down if they want, but they don't have to have this really, um, like super dialed in business. They can make it run and they're happy doing that. But for other doctors, they want more. So what we're talking about with path three is that, uh, this is for doctors who want to open multiple locations. They want to dramatically increase the volume in their practice. Um, and what we're, what we help you with is developing reproducible systems. So really what we're looking at is all the bottlenecks in your practice and how to remove the bottlenecks so that you can expand. Speaker 1: (07:47) Because if you don't remove the bottlenecks, either you're going to get burnt out, you're going to piss off your staff, everyone's going to quit and leave and you have to hire new staff. And that cycle happens over and over again. I know because we've done it that way. And also we're going to focus on business growth and growth strategy. So do you have the right systems and protocols and therapies in place in order to make that happen? So in other words, if you're banking on the fact that um, you're going to use a fad, if you're, if your, if your office is built off of fads, so something that's not going to be popular. You know, a year from now I'm talking about like weight loss type stuff is really common. Or like all these different fads pop up in chiropractic. Like that may not be a, that's not as a a a therapy that you can build and scale and grow on longterm. Speaker 1: (08:30) So we want to make sure you have the right right therapies and protocols in place first and then once you get to that point, how do we get to a seven figure and larger revenue stream? Maybe you can do it in one office, some doctors can do that, maybe you do it over two or three different offices. So there are different strategies to do that. Uh, and they all really very independ on what you want to get out of your practice. And then finally, so a lot of doctors thought about this before, but we want to do is create a sellable asset. So if you have these systems in place and your office is growing and you have a healthy revenue stream, you're keeping your costs down, but also you have some sort of automation built in that practice then becomes a very, very attractive asset that you can potentially sell. Speaker 1: (09:15) People want to buy those types of businesses. The problem with trying to sell a chiropractic business is that typically the doctor is the one running [inaudible] like they're running the show. It's Dr. Wells is show or Dr. Smith show. It's hard to sell that because once the doctor leaves the practice implodes. Well that's not true when you're running a, um, a well-run integrated clinic, you don't have to, the chiropractor isn't a part of that, right? They are a part of it, but they're not, they're not a crucial linchpin in that, in that system. So you can remove the chiropractor and replace a business manager or a business owner and they can run this exact same practice. So when you start to scale and start to implement these systems, you now have a very attractive cell blast set so that, so listen to, if you're like 55 years old or 60 years old and you're like, yeah, I would really like to retire in a couple of years, this is a great way to do it. Speaker 1: (10:01) Or if you're 35 or 40 years old and say, Hey, I want to, you know, I want to be able to retire or sell my business in five or 10 years from now, you actually have, we can provide a roadmap of how to do that. And um, so if you haven't thought about that yet, like I hope that I'm just wanting to plant a seed, but if you're already there and you're saying, Hey, I would love to be able to expand my practice, I would love to get systems that I can implement today that can start to streamline my office and scale and grow the practice. Uh, we can provide you with that. So I'm not going to go into all the details. I want to save the next episode with doctor. Uh, I'm sorry with Warren Phillips. Um, we're going to go over some of the details on how to do that, but I just want to plant that seed. I want to let you know that we do have a path for you if you want to scale and grow your business. And in the next episode we'll dive a little bit deeper into what that actually looks like, what some of the bottlenecks are in most offices and how to overcome them. So DACA is great to have you on here today and we look forward to having you on part five of our five part series with Warren Phillips in the next episode. Hope you have a great day. Take care, and God bless. Speaker 2: (11:01) Hey innovators, thanks for listening to the simplified integration podcast. Fact that you're listening tells me that you're like me, someone who loves simplicity, and the truth is those who embrace simplicity are some of the greatest innovators. So hope you got a ton of value from what we covered on today's episode. Be sure to subscribe and share with other docs that you feel could benefit from greater sophistication through simplification and innovation. If you've got specific questions that you'd like answered on this podcast or you've got specific topics that you'd like me to discuss, just shoot me an email at info@integrationsecrets.com Speaker 1: (11:37) info@integrationsecrets.com.

Hello and welcome to warrior divas real talk for real women. Our show is specifically designed for divas. divas is an acronym for Destin inspired victorious accountable sisters. And we will be bringing guests on our show who will help in our mission to equip and empower a global community of women change agents as we make a positive impact on the world we live in. When we started doing this impact about four years ago, we quipped that we wanted to change the way women think and speak about themselves and others. And as we progress that was our thinking and our intentions and we want to talk about things that are impacting women. So that means we will talk about faith, family, fitness, finance, dude, and a lot of other words that don't even begin with that. So today I'm excited to bring on the show Lucy Mitchell are fierce in beautiful wellness, and I met Lucy through her husband I've been watching her for a little while and have fallen in love with her beautiful outlook on life. Lucy is a mindset and wellness coach site. Colin fitness fanatic food lover look, we got some of those f words in there. And all around personal development junkie she helps women break free from their inner mindset demons and create healthy relationships with food and fitness and define their self worth and find the confidence to live a life of purpose on their own terms. Welcome to the show, Lucy. Thank you, thank you. Well, I am so thankful to have you on the show and you know, it's a little bit of one of those things that I'm listening to what you're talking about and and what your mission is and, and it lines up so much with what we wanted to do and what we are hoping to accomplish with empowering and equipping women. I think it's it's just beautiful. So first off, I want to tell I want you to give us a little bit about what Why this is important to you? Oh, gosh, I mean, I think that I would probably have to go to a little bit of a backstory in myself. I mean, I'm first of all, I'm one of four daughters that my father had. So that in itself, there's lots of events going on in that house with my mother. And in fact, they always had a habit of choosing even female animal that was all about a daddy, there was a glutton for punishment, or he was a sweetheart, through and through. But he did raise him and my mother always did raise us to be very strong willed, very independent woman. And I said something that I've always carried through my entire life and probably proved very difficult and a lot of my relationships that I was not so much of what you call quote, unquote, a submissive woman. I just always do what I want. To do what I wanted out of life, and I wanted all my relationships, no matter what they were friendships, personal relationships, my children to live vicariously through that just, you know speak your truth. Speak your mind and and live your life to the fullest. And I really, it really hit to my core when my dad passed away suddenly, actually yesterday he realized it was five years that cancer took him from us. And in fact I woke up this morning going oh my gosh, I didn't even reflect or or anything about that which is a good thing because that means that we're you know, we're at peace with you know, his passing but I had decided about a couple of years ago. A that that cancer is is one of those that doesn't put the word I'm looking for it's it's it knows no boundaries. It's not just hereditary. It can affect anything. One right and, and that it's really important that we look for the signs and that we pay attention to ourselves. And as women, we spend so much time taking care of others that we don't stop and listen to ourselves and and listen to our own bodies and take care of our own needs. And that's where I decided, you know, that's not okay, we should be able to speak out and take care of ourselves. And so I just started like looking inward and decided I wanted to become a transformational nutritional coach. And I wanted to start working with women and in the pyramid upon women a problem phase of their lives, because that's the phase where we just given up, we have no purpose. We were just, it's all about our kids. It's all about our husbands. It's all about everybody else, and we no longer have a voice and by the time we have a voice, we feel it's too late. And I'm like, I'm techno sister. You have a voice and it's time to use it. And that's what my purpose has been. Is, is taking this drive that I have to live healthier to speak your truth to link arms with other sisters and just, you know, whatever it is, whether it's licensing, whether it's spiritual, whether it's sexual, whether its food, whether it's fitness, no matter what it is, it's like your children will be fine. Take the time to take care of yourself. Exactly where I'm at. Well, I think you bring up a beautiful point because a lot of the times those of us that are in those older years of life in we're not old, we're not dead. We we have a lot to give up, live up to and, and one of the things that I hear all too often is it's not only that they've given up, it's because a lot of times they've been so invested in helping their children. Or their spouse build up their dreams that they forgot how to dream. They didn't they don't know how to dream anymore. And they just don't have the energy to move forward with anything anymore. And a lot of that has a lot to do with Fitness, Health, the food you're putting in your body, your hormones, and like you said, they give up. I can relate to this because about a year or two ago, I was pretty much in the same place. I was. Okay, something has got to change. This is not right. Some I feel like something's hijacking my body and and what I found is there's a lot of women out there that feel that they just have to suffer silently. And I love that you're saying that's not true. I agree. And I think the other F word that we're all set is fear. Mm hmm. Exactly. Here I have the women that I have talked to is fear not a change but of making a change because they have gotten so stagnant are so used to a certain routine, a monotonous routine of doing things. It's, I want to say and I mean I'm 45 years old I've had three children I have four of my stepdaughter, but I've had four children and mentally and physically I do not feel 45 but I've also made that my passion drive like not because I remember watching my mom grow up and personalities eyes is probably today 65 right and and even then some 65 there are 45 I mean, all just depends on on your your drive to be something different, but I remember there was a cartoon and I'm gonna really date myself but way before I was born, Black and White, probably from Disney, but it was just as monotonous black or white. Whether they were just a repetitive cartoon like they had briefcases and they were just walking slowly along the line to work. And it just, it was just repetitive. They're just doing the same thing. over and over and over again, in no power, there was no life, there was no activity. And I feel like I see so many women feel that that's what they're supposed to do. Get up, feed the children take care of the husband clean the house, go to bed, right. And when I reach out to when I reach out even to some of my close friends about like, hey, there's this amazing women's conference downtown and we're going to put samples of face creams on our feasts and, and and you know, sample whatever is in here from concept. Well, I'm not no I don't and, and, you know, what will people think? Right now Like First of all, let's see if we can find something new and something done and and like let's get away from the kids away from the husbands and you know we're old I've discovered this amazing you know, like I lost 35 pounds in August give a listen to my body and I and I, you know I it's like to share all the different things that have worked for me for stepping outside of what the norm is. And I want to link Everybody with me I want to take all my sisters with me. And there's so much more there's so much fear. Well, yeah, and I agree with you on that. I think I think we have a lot of women that I listen to and and I'm surrounded by a bunch of strong women so a lot of my friends are kind of in the same boat I am their husband goes to work their husband goes on business trips, they just keep on keepin on they don't let their life be dictated by their their spouses schedule or their kids schedule. They still make time for friends. They still make time for their business, they still make time for living their life. But I realized that there's a out circle of women that I'm connected to, that that's all their life revolves around. It may be for the season, it may be that that's all they know how to do. And one of the things that it like it goes back to that fear word, word, you know, they don't want to rock the boat, so to speak. But I think it also goes back to how we're raised and what we're seeing and what's emulated for us. You talked about your dad being outnumbered by daughters Do you know? Well, he probably didn't, he didn't probably run the house, the house probably ran, you know, by the daughters more than then he would have liked to admit it admitted. But there's that that sense of confidence and ability that he instilled in you to where if your kids or your husband move on, yes, you're going to be you know, to business or to A career path or off to school, you're not going to be wrecked by that because you've got things of your own to do. It doesn't mean you're sitting waiting for Eric to come home. It doesn't mean you're waiting for your kids to come home for your life to be complete. And that's the part that we're wanting to women to realize is you are a complete human being with or without them. They are just, they are your life. You love them. It doesn't disqualify their role in your life, but they are not your your wholeness, and we want to talk about your wholeness. Yeah, yeah, exactly. My mom and dad were married for 44 years. And my dad did work. He worked. He owned his own landscaping business and then he was also a longshoreman. Very tough job. Yeah. So my mom did raise us Basically solely, I mean, our celebrations were around food. Because God was home, right? Um, you know, and it's funny when we were just together. My sister my younger my baby sister just had a baby. And he's where we sold. I just went home to go and meet him for the first time. And we were reminiscing and we were talking about how I remember when it was like Danny was home we celebrated with hungry man. You could put it in your body. Yeah, the look of joy on my dad's face wanting to meet that sounds very state hungry man dinner with the apple cobbler and the water down mashed potatoes. But it was all of us watching him eat and sitting with him because that was a rare key. Right? And what I look back on and see is that there wasn't a lot of light and color in my mom's face because what What he did in those hours to work for his daughters and his wife versus the hour during the day of what she did to keep the children alive in the house of flow. I saw that color changes we got older because she had more time and she was able to start doing things for herself. She ended up becoming a professional chef for a very small company. When I think it was close to me more moving out and still to my younger two sisters. Wow. And it was one of the things I took with me even later on was that, okay, it is okay to find your own interest outside like you're talking about outside of your role of wife and mom. And what I loved was that my dad always encouraged that. And my sisters and I have been very, very fortunate to marry husband to have always encouraged and supported any of our ventures and I believe me for I've had many years, for 21 years, I went to college for 10 years to either become an accountant, a business something and blatantly Was it a master's degree in education, I was going to be a teacher. Oh, wow. And now I'm going to become a I'm a transformational nutritional coach. Um, and God bless my husband for supporting every single one of those ventures. It but it's it was for me it was going back and like, knowing that my mom had that supportive my dad because she supported him. So just keep the house afloat, like keep food on the table. and whatnot. Exactly. And, and, you know, I think, I think we think, how do I phrase this? I think a lot of the times we as modern women think our role has changed so drastically from the quote unquote, olden days, but when you look back and You know, I'm going to use the Bible as a reference here. If you look back in the days of Abraham and Sarah and Isaac and all of them, the men went off, they went off to tin the sheep, they went off to hunt, they went off to gather, you know, they did all of that. And the women were left to take care of the home to take care of the children to take care of, you know, things that are holding the fort down, so to speak. And even even as recent as yesterday, it was Texas Independence Day here, somebody was talking about that as well. Excuse me, but in talking about that, women are afraid nowadays to be left behind by their their spouse or their children, and we're hearing more about the empty nest in their lives being just totally distraught over their children going off to college. And I'm not gonna say that I don't miss my kids. I'm not gonna say that at all. But what I'm going to say Is it opens up the doors for us to spread our wings and we need to be focused on spreading our wings not hiding away and into a shell of ourselves. It's funny that you say that because I have this is my philosophy and I have my mother philosophy of your viewers or your listeners think this is harsh. It's my philosophy. Once you're 18 you graduate you go, right need to go you need to spread your wings. Now, I understand if there might be a maybe a there's an emotional or a non mental but there's some type of a disconnect you haven't connected yet. I'll give you a little bit of time back just gonna kick you out and send you have you fend for yourself against wolves, but I came home one day and they were boxing by the German moms and she got a time we got to go. Right I was almost 19 she had found me a place. I had a job. I think that you know, but that was how I was raised. I do not understand. And I think I've done a post about this somewhere. I do not understand mom's neighbor say, No, no baby, you don't need to you need to you want to live here till you 30 you use you stay there done. Right. Right. Your job. It's your time now. Yeah, I agree. And I was raised in a very strict Christian home, and I read the Bible five times, through through, I did not see anywhere. Then it said in any fine print. You know, they can stay as long as they want. They need to go and you know, create their own household and, and live their lives. You raised them. And now it's your turn. I mean, I have the nice Do we have it like a countdown on them. Turn I've been raising children since I was 12 years old. I am right. It's my time. I want time with my husband. I want it to be just we'll check on you guys. We might even give your address Well, I think I think there's a term called leaving cleave, you know, leaving cleave to something else, not us. Do not give me grandchildren. Raising children, younger sister, so do the world a favor and get a dog grandchildren. And so I'm technically a grandmother. And they look at me and I and my girlfriends are like, really? I'm not saying I don't like babies. I love babies. Right? Like people. In today if you need to travel you need to see the world. You need to contribute any to You need to contribute to charitable causes you need to help other you know, other countries. Now we need to we need to go to Nashville we need to help Nashville right now like right. so horrible what happened in the middle of it. There's so many more important things that need to be focused on then Okay, you're 18 go get married and have children. Exactly. They go and do that they can't fend for themselves and then they come back well in and and i agree we've had we've had a we've got a son that's in the military. We've had had daughters that went off to college, they came back for a period of time and we're we were at the same place of Okay, the clock has started. What What is your action plan what you know, will be a safe place for you to land come back and land if you need to, but yeah, what's the action plan? What's the end result? I kept resetting the timer on the microwave. When my son came home from college. I was like, go take it. And and I, but they appreciate that they think it's hard, you don't understand they're like, No I do sweetheart, things have got changed just because it's, you know, it's 2020, the millennial state of mind is not a mind, I understand, because you do not understand the hardship that those of us who are our older actually went through. Well, and I think I think we also understand how important it is for them to have their independence and to, you know, it's not even just about me for for for my kids, I want them to be strong and solid and independent on their own right, and making good decisions and making a good income and making, you know, good life choices. I don't want them feeling like they're under my wing the whole time because I haven't trained them all these years to stay under my wing. I've trained them to push them out of the nest. Yeah, well And it's like I even told my elder to I have given my mind my body my soul My spirit my everything to raising you and keeping you alive right now trying to invest all of those efforts and energies back into myself. Right? Because I still have the second half of my life and that is equally as important as the rest of your life. So if we're going to roll the dice and mover important at this point, you know it's and and that is I that's what I like to also talk to my clients about it like this is now your time and dive into I really big about faith about whether when no matter what it is, God fear if universe angels whatever it is that you believe in. That is a huge when you lose that you lose yourself, yourself, your sense of self worth, right. And when you tap back in to that through meditation, through prayer through journaling, you're able to kind of like have your eyes reopen to who you really are as an individual, especially as a real woman as a woman. And a lot of times, it's a very uncomfortable process, but it's, it's step one, before we can do any other type of change, it's like, you've got to step back in, tap back into that spiritual sense of who you are, who you were created to be. Right. And, and we're gonna be going to break here in just a few minutes. But when we come back from that break, I want to I want us to talk about the difference between femininity and feminist. I think the feminist word gets, you know, thrown out there and everybody already thinks, you know, angry, bitter woman. But more so than that. I want us to talk about embracing our femininity because that's where our true strength is. I believe and and I love that you talk about this on such a transparent parent level. But I want us to dive into that when we get back from the commercial break so that we can really break that apart just a little bit. And then then we'll go into the fitness side of things after that, but we're gonna take just a couple of minutes to pay for the show with our sponsors, and we will be back in just a second. All right, we are back. And I know we talked before we left for the break in said we were going to come back and talk about embracing our femininity. So So Lucy, let's talk about that for a minute. I know years ago, I went to a women's conference because yes, I go to women's conference, biggest tomboy out there and I still go to women's conference conferences. And one of the ladies was talking about how The color scheme where you had pink for women and blue for men nowadays used to be actually the opposite. Back in the late 1800s to 19 hundred's blue was for women and pink, pink and red were for men. And so we keep mixing things up a little bit. And so when we talk about our femininity I've I left high school I joined the Navy, I worked as an aircraft mechanic then worked in the aviation industry. So in the military, I was called a dude with long hair, basically. But when we go into embracing our femininity, it took me a while to even figure out what that looked like because I had struggled so hard to try and fit in with my male counterparts that I didn't know how to be feminine. And I really didn't understand what feeling comfortable in my own body was and I really did And understand how that led to having close relationships with girls, you know as girlfriends, and what that was all about, because all my guy, all my friends were guys, and then I'm married. And you know my husband and I have this little competition going back and forth because I was trying to compete with him basically for his role in the family. And it ended us in a hot mess. But I want I want to hear a little bit of a taste because I've watched some of your Facebook posts and I've watched some of your talk about femininity and embracing it and really just discovering yourself and I want to hear how you feel to best translate to women the importance of embracing their femininity. I, first of all, I can honestly say I'm right there with you. I had more guys But I do call friends I just don't understand. I don't understand women. And again, I don't know if it was because of being raised by my gentle father I'm not sure what it is, but I know for for me I I can see I'm both sides of that sword in a sense that I can handle my own. But I am a I am I'm a I am a woman I am sweet, I am kind I am sexual I am I incense sensual, I am in tune with my my body and my senses and I'm comfortable in my own skin. I I don't feel and this again is my own opinion based on who I have seen and dealt with who is considered a feminist femininities the harshness that I'm not kidding. competition with my husband in the fact that who has the bigger package or however you want to work that right? Um, there is a role that he has and he is supposed to have. I want him to have that role. That's why I married him. He is our protector. He is our fighter. He, he's the man of the house. But if he needs a warrior right beside him, I am that woman. Right? Doesn't need another man. I am that woman. I am his Joan of Arc. As I like to so eloquently put that and I think in my messages when I am doing my posts or doing my stories is I like to I think I had done one A while ago where I was describing a road. So what from fairway you look at a rose and the roses Beautiful, beautiful, soft, pedal, scented beauty Mostly comes in a variety of colors, whether it's a tight flower or beautifully blooms, but if you get too close, you are going to get pricked by a thorn. Now, is that for the feminist part? Or is that the Thor's disorder protecting her femininity, right? It's all in how you want to look at the flower. But for me, I feel like all women are beautiful roses like we are. We have our authority to protect ourselves, but we are they're beautiful, we are feminine and there's no reason to hide that. to, to be ashamed of that. Is that's what that's how we were created. And not in a sense I mean, that's that's my, that's where I stand on that part of it. I mean, I feel I raising a daughter, raising two daughters when one's out of the house. I look at my daughter and I'm like, I want you to be as strong and I bought her this bracelet. And I said, always remember to adjust your crown. And don't have mine with the train thing. But always remember to adjust your crown. And remember the queen who gave it to you. Hmm, something along those lines, and she was amazing. I just want you to understand that no one is no one is to not knock you down. Because you need to remember where you came from, right who your queen is. Because people knocked me down. had a lot of horrible things happen. I've experienced a lot of things. I've experienced a lot of judgment. Even in the course of that I'm in now I get a lot of messages about some of my posts of like, I don't understand why you talk the way you talk or how you feel the way you feel. And there and it's a lot of times it's from women. And I just looked at my daughter and I said But it doesn't stop me. I'm just gonna get back up and I'm going to keep spreading my message because somebody needs to hear it. Somebody somebody else Can you benefit from what I have to say? Just like someone out there will benefit from what you have to give. And and I wholeheartedly agree with that. You know, one of the things that has happened over the years we started divas impact, like I said about four years ago. And right off the bat, we started getting a bunch of hate mail, mainly from feminist organizations, a few from guys, because they mistakenly thought that we were going to do this as another male bashing organization. And quite honestly, I've told everybody this is absolutely not a male bashing organization. We realize the need for men in our lives, just as we hope men realize the need for us in their lives. We we don't I'm not as concerned about what the guys of the world are saying about us women. I'm more concerned with what we are saying about ourselves and each other. You know, we you know, when You've got examples out there, like Real Housewives of bad behavior or bad girls clubs or whatever that's going on out there. They have the, the opportunity to, to send a such a empowering message. But they don't, you know, because drama sells. And when I was, you know, kind of whispered in my heart to start this organization and and get things going I was like but God I don't like women. I really don't like women their main they're nasty, you know and he's like, Yeah, you've had your episodes too and I'm like, okay, you know to Shay. And I remember a few years ago, whenever, whenever the Donald Trump and Billy Bush news broke, I got a lot of hate mail. You know, why aren't you denouncing Trump and why aren't you denouncing billy bush and why aren't you denounce? In and even with the Harvey Weinstein and, and all of those, and I said, because I'm not focused on them, I'm not letting them dictate my worth, I'm not letting them dictate the worth of all women out there. I'm working on me, I'm focusing on me. And, and and the women that I speak to, and I encourage and I empower and let them know that, yes, bad things can happen to you. But you don't have to live in a victim role anymore, you can live victoriously, and that's, you know, what we're focusing on is walking women out of those dark places. And so for the feminine femininity side of things, what I've also realized is, the more I've embraced my femininity, the more intimate my relationships have become with my girlfriends, the more intimate relationships have come with my family and with my spouse, it because I'm loving myself first before I learned how to love Anybody else and, and to me, that is the difference I see between, you know, saying I'm, I'm into feminism, or I'm into my femininity and and opening myself up to really love myself now loving yourself has a whole other series of side effects, I guess is what you'd call it kind of like a rolling blackout. There's just you start loving yourself and then you go, Oh, I love myself. So I'm gonna go to the doctor and get checked out and make sure I'm healthy. Oh, I love myself. The doctor says I could I could work on fixing these things. So I'm going to work on fixing these things to make sure my body is optimal. And I'm going I'm going to change the way I eat. We've got Kim Slater who does our magazine and and does a lot of the things behind the scenes for us. You know she's in that season right now. We'll have her on the show here in a few weeks. To talk about her health journey that she was flung into, as at the beginning of the year with a massive heart attack and, and in the lessons that she's having to learn for herself, but that whole femininity thing feeds so much of your life. It's what builds up your confidence that gets your husband looking at you with a little bit of, Hey, what do you do? And he's doing it in a way because he's more intrigued because he sees the woman that he was attracted to in the first place. It's interesting that you say that I'll quickly say that, you know, when I started my mild personal transformation last year, before that, you know, I was trying to help other other women men, it didn't matter. I just wanted everybody to be aware about cancer, you know, after losing my father and other health issues that attributed that I just didn't. My goal was I don't want anyone else to lose up Father a husband a daughter of themselves, like listen to the signs so I'm so like, driven like everybody needs to work out get up cheapest way to eat this much water. It was like what I woke up every day but that was my passion and I was ignoring my own health. I was ignoring my own grieving process I was ignoring my own fleet, my own health but mental health spiritual health all the things and as I I got a I did a post about this is something I can recall but I remember looking at a picture of myself. I think it was this past summer and I was like, I thought I was in optimal health working, working out six days a week, eating 1400 to 1600 calories a real food healthy greens all blah, blah, blah. meditating journaling, praying all the things that when I looked at myself I was pale bloated 45 pounds overweight. I just had to like look in my eyes and I was like, I stopped. And I was like, on this task to help other people, when did I stop and take care of myself first? Right. And as soon as I did, I mean as soon as we got home from that trip, I don't remember we went to sun river something. I immediately called a nutritional coach. But I knew right away my doctor just oh my gosh, yeah, go take a nap, you'll be fine. You know, I was like, okay, it's got to be deeper. And I started working with the nutritional coach and I and I stopped helping all the other people. I put everything on hold because I was like, I really wait. I'm suffering from vertigo. My hands are numb, my feet are numb. These are all things I was experiencing but ignore right because I was so passionate about helping other people live their best life and be healthy so you don't die like my daddy. That I I didn't you know, pay them for myself. But as soon as I did that the glow came back the weight when I found out I was insulin resistant. So Kyle was a huge thing. I was borderline type one diabetic. Yeah, the bad one. Yeah, um, I changed my eating habits. I, you know, we changed how I work out, changed how I slept, all of the symptoms went away, the weight falling off. And my husband even looked at me He's like, Oh, my God, baby are glowing. Right? People like, we're looking at my pictures, like, what filter are you using? Now using a filter, you're glowing, but your hair is shiny. And it was like, and I looked at myself, and I was like, I feel beautiful. I don't think and I'm not ashamed of this. This is what I want. Everyone's like, so I reevaluate everything but it was like I'm taking care of myself and like And I had no problem looking at. And hopefully it's okay to say that I had no problem looking in the mirror naked. Right? Because that's a woman as a woman, especially after you've had children. Right with the lights on girl, right? Ugly bathroom lights on, right? Like, that's hard to do, but I didn't know I was like, I am feeling myself right now. Now I'm not gonna go into a changing room lighting and I'm loving and feeling beautiful. I feel sexy. I still sleep. I feel gentle. I feel happy. Because I took care myself first. Right, feel feminine. And that wasn't a feeling I felt all before that is so harsh, hard, poor like, ready to take on the world and compete with everybody else and that wasn't feminine. I don't know if that was coming. Right. Well and I think one of the one of the things we we hear a lot of the times is or you know, I worked in the faith base area before I started out on my own after leaving the corporate arena and I went from dressing like a dude because I was always in jeans and T shirt and then I went to work in the church offices. And I knew I needed to look female but I was just how do I I was putting the outer surfaces on it was like treating the symptoms without treating the actual cause. And I would put on an outfit that everybody go oh that looks so cute on you and I would feel the most uncomfortable ever. And it had nothing to do with the outfit. It had everything to do with the skin I was walking around in I did not feel comfortable in myself. And you know you're talking about people sending you the hate messages and and then asking you what filters you use. You use and things like that, which, you know, they're thinking You look amazing. But on the other side, they're also kind of giving a second backhanded compliment, you know, oh, you can't look that good person. And I remember when we started getting those hate messages, first thing I did, I stood up, I dropped my laptop down, and I stood up and I did a little happy dance. Because it's getting people off their balance a little bit. It's getting them to look at things through a different perspective. Making them question something for themselves will have so and so can do it then maybe I can too. Or what the heck is Angie, the biggest tomboy, we know doing starting a women's organization. What gives her the right i mean, i i've had women go, Oh, that's cute. I'm like, okay, you know, and now they're going well, how do we get in your magazine? How do we get on your show? How do we do this? I'm like, well, there's a process but we're friends. Okay, but there's still a process. And I'm not doing that to be mean or ugly. But, you know, I am looking for the people that want in and want in at the at the ground level, because that means that they understand the vision and the mission, we're going after they're not coming in with ulterior motives to go, Hey, you know, this is great, but let's do this. And, and let's steer this your vision, your goal, your passion, let's steer it to the right a little bit or to the left a little bit, so it fits more of what we want. No, this is what we're going for. This is our niche. This is what we're working on, is equipping and empowering women period, in a variety of different ways. And they're like, oh, bitch, it'd be so much better if you'd sign on with, you know, this organization or that organization and I opened up the organization's page and it's just male bashing and, and hating on each other and Like, yeah, not what we're about. It doesn't resonate. Yeah. And so, when we start talking to women, I've watched women open up after going through all that they've gone through, I see what you're talking about, you see that physical transformation, the light bulb moment that comes on, and their whole life changes. And in, you know, I've shared before that, you know, being a veteran, I'm tied to a lot of veteran communities and and I'm telling you, my veteran sisters are the worst of it. I love them to death. But oh my gosh, they wear me out, because they are so stuck in being a victim, but touting that they're a warrior, but they're living in a victim role, because they don't want to fix anything. And I guess that's our biggest uphill battle is how do we get them to hear it enough to where finally they get fed up and start doing something about it. Yeah, I know I that's it. That's an interesting question. I'm not sure. I mean, I again grazers to me I have all my outside family was actually own Navy. Okay. My first husband was Navy. I'm attracted to the servicemen and I think I got some army leaves in there somewhere. I'm not sure but my dad did not serve the police officer and then my mom got pregnant but and she was like, heck no, you need to come home every day. But I don't know if it's the year you spend. You know, somebody you're being told what to do, when to do how to do it that when you're out, right of that environment. You're like, what I mean, because I know that was part of the premises of like us starting the Lightfoot media. My husband starting that I mean when way back even when he was doing Your podcasts and things that when we first started this whole thing, it was like helping veterans get started because they spent so many years being told. When when to eat, when to make your bed, where to put your shoes on, when to shoot when to do all the things. And then when you're out, it's like nobody's telling you what to do. Right and when to do it. You don't do anything, but you got to do something. And, and I know that that that was that was helpful for a lot of veteran entrepreneurs with being able to go to Eric and him saying, Okay, this is how you start, but I'm you I can only get you so far. You've got to take it from there. Exactly. That might be it for the women desert you know, maybe that's that mindset of like, okay, switch it just a little bit and and remember what that authoritative voice of you being told what to do, and now tell yourself like, speak to yourself in that. Yeah, I mean, I and I like I said, I I'm just speaking from, from experience, veterans wife. Well, and you've had a front row seat to watch all of that. And do we want to go ahead and give you a shout out there? Because in addition to your hats that you wear for fierce and beautiful wellness as a coach there and leading people there, you've just been named CEO of life flip media, haven't you? Yeah. So yeah, yeah, that that is an amazing thing in itself as well. I asked if they came with a pay raise. He says, Wait, we get paid. Yeah, so tell us a little bit about that for just a few minutes. I'm not sure exactly what to say. I think he just woke up one day with a brilliant idea. No, actually, I think it's it's a great power move for him. Because he was actually wearing way too many hats and I, I think it's a great obviously it's a great move for it to be a women ran and owned business. It's a different type of demographic with a power move. So I know that there was a lot of driving behind that. But he takes a lot of guidance and advice of mine. And I really wanted him to be able to focus on what she's really good at, which is working with our customers. And you know, the me I don't understand that part of the business you know, the media bookings and the article places I that part of it I'm like I have too much going on and this three little head of mind when it comes to business when it comes to making sure that we are on the right path. And that our business plan, our business model needs tweaking or just seen or we're not that's my forte. Right? So we just decided to to do a title change. And and I think that puts us a little bit ahead of the game, especially being a woman. Yeah, having that see I mean, I my LinkedIn is blowing up ever since I changed that. Yeah, we're having a business meeting, in fact today because since he made that announcement, just that I know, but I mean, what we're getting into because I'm like, at the end of the day, this is his baby. This is his dream and his but we talked about it for the last year or so. And I just said when you're ready, then I will not lead you astray. Well, that what that is fabulous. You need to change your LinkedIn. I made it official. Yeah. Did you find out From one of his Facebook Lives, or did he actually tell you in person? He told me in person. But you never know. You know, Facebook or my Instagram Stories like what we're doing what I just saw that she didn't tell me. Oh, I literally in the next room. Yeah, you could just tell reviews. Exactly. All right. Yeah, it's an exciting experience for our business. We've had a massive amount of growth. And I want that growth to continue. So I needed him to be in the right, roll on to focus on that, right. Yeah. It's gonna be good. Yeah. And I think we are going to have him on our leading moment show in a few weeks. I've got to get him to get all the stuff together for us to do that. But having him on our leading moment show, to really talk about how to get started and how to do what he does. And encourage and inspire some small business owners on that page for us. So maybe you can join him when we do that call, but of course, yeah, it'll be a black. Yeah. So we're gonna take another break real quick and we will be back after these messages. All right, we are back with Lucy Mitchell. We are talking about her fierce and beautiful wellness and mindset coaching and all that she does that makes her glamorously beautiful, inside and out. So as we go into this next next segment of our show, what I want to talk with you about is more. I'm going to tell you, this is all purely selfish. I'm going to preface that right off the bat. So a few weeks ago, right before Christmas, peloton came out with that commercial about the bike and everybody lost their flippin mind over it. You know, that was sexist. That was this that was that and I'm sitting here going well, what we didn't See, he was maybe she asked for the bike. Maybe she didn't because you know, quite honestly, I would like a peloton. But my husband kind of refuses to buy me one right now because I made such a big deal at a date. He took me out on one night he took me to dinner as he goes, you want to go to Jason's deli, so not particularly. He goes, come on, we can go get a salad bar. Fine, you know, so we go to Jason's deli, and we get the salad bar and we eat our dinner. And then we go to Walmart, which we had to get dog food or whatever. And he goes back to the bike bicycle section back there. And he's like, Hey, I was looking at these the other day. Did you see this bike? Do you want this bike? This bike would be a fun bike to have. Don't you want? Don't you don't want a bike? I do not want a bike. He's like, Oh, come on. You'd have fun with this one. You'd like this one. Are you sure you don't want this bike? Come on. We ended up walking out of Walmart with a bike that night. So I told him I said the theme of that whole date was Hey, you're complaining about not feeling good. So why don't you lose some weight and ride a bike, you know, eat a salad ride a bike. So we give him grief over that all the time. But my biggest thing is not about riding that bike. It's about I've had some balance issues, I've had some things that I just don't trust, the agility of my body right now. So balancing myself on two wheels is kind of a freaky idea to me, but I like the peloton idea because I feel like I could slowly progress until I got that confidence back. But, you know, you said that you the reason I'm bringing all that up is because, you know, you said that you like to cycle and you're a fitness fanatic and in So talk to me about I know some people that say jump all in, go all in and go as hard and as fast as you can until your body stops you and then there's people that are going, alright, if you're going to fail at that, then you need to ease yourself into So, I know you kind of help people break down their mental hurdles over things like this. So help me break down mine for a little bit. Okay? Nothing like putting you on the spot. the peloton is amazing. Um, and that ad was ridiculous because we don't know the backstory, right? So why people got all on the Tuesday just because she happened to be skinny doesn't mean anything because there could have been a whole mental thing. She could have been skinny because she had an eating disorder. And you know, and so moving her body was going to help this so she could eat real food, there could have been a myriad of things, or it could have been that she had social anxiety to go outside. So she got the bike so that she could like, start to connect with people. There's so many different things that I deal with on a daily basis. I You know, I use a virtual workout platform, through Beachbody on demand. Mm hmm. Because I do work from home so a lot of my workouts are done through that platform. I do have the peloton and then I do love my local cycle bar cycle bar and Tiger get your shout out. But he has always been when I talk to everyone is you start at step one, do you look at a baby and prop them up and tell them to run a marathon? Right? No. Step a step by step. I've been working with my mother who has bad knees and it's always been an excuse. What has not worked out a day in her life. She's 68 years old. She talks every day about losing the weight. And I say okay, Mama. Well, it's, you know, 80% nutrition, it's 20% movement. So you've made your choice. If you want to eat the way you want to eat that by the left Work on the 20% of movement. Maybe it's just you sitting in a chair with one pound weight, and you're doing bicep. Right? And you're just working on understanding the movement and we go up to two pounds until you feel confident and comfortable. You know, or I'll work with other people that say, Okay, if you have a problem with consistency, do not find an eight week 10 week program, because you're going to be done after two days. All right. Start with something that is and there's so many apps out there, I'll backtrack there so you don't have to do just what I do, which is Beachbody. I always say there are so many peloton has a free app and that you can use on any bike on a treadmill. They have weighted programs, they have yoga, they have wonderful meditation programs that I love to use. And there are other apps as well that you could download that has on if you Have a beginner where you start at and that and you start at basically what you're comfortable with. And if it's just one day you conquered that one day you're winning. And you could go on to day two. And there's been many times that I've started over. I mean, I had three babies, I had to be one. Sometimes Mondays every Monday is my day one, especially if you're a football team. Day one, right after the Super Bowl is day one. But I think you know, I you always want to talk to your doctor to start and talk to your doctor about any current medical conditions that you have. And then be you have to have an internal conversation with yourself and be like, how important is this to you, not to others to yourself. Right? What changes are you wanting to see logically, ideally, we want to wake up tomorrow and be 50 pounds lighter, all because we took two steps down the street. I ran a marathon there. Go I should eat 50 pounds lighter, right? It doesn't work that way. I ate a salad. And I bought a bike at Walmart. I lost 50 pounds. Right now, that doesn't work that way. It's a great start. But I but I always say you have to write out a plan and you have to write out a plan that will work for you. And if you can't do that alone, and that's when you reach out to people like me, who says, Okay, we're going to start with just the day one we're gonna do a four week plan. And after you talk to your doctor, you've gotten clear that there's nothing you have stability issues. I'm not going to say I want you to start balancing on one foot if you have stability issues, that's not you're going to get discouraged and defeated. But if you can handle you know, you can go for a 30 minute walk. Walking is one of the most beneficial 30 minutes a day walking is one of the most beneficial kick starters to a weight loss journey out there. Not cycling, not weightlifting. Plain old, angry dog. Well, I think just being outside helps mentally and emotionally and then and then the movement, you start waking up parts of your body that you don't realize were asleep. Well, not only that, but then you're also you're getting if you're, you're getting a break from the kid. Maybe it's a stronger and go for a walk. But if it's, if you're cooped up in the house all day or you've been in an office all day long, you get outside you get the fresh air, you get the oxygen from all of the plants that are around you. You get cute you're around nature, you could put the personal development into your ears and start a good book. Listen to an amazing podcast. I don't know maybe warrior diva out there. Um, you know, and and you're not only working your body, but you're working your mind. Those two working together will kick start an amazing weight loss sustainable journey. Well, I think that's where I start. I think a few years ago I I lost roughly 100 pounds and I did that strictly by walking there was there I changed you know, I'd done some intermittent fasting I had done some other things you know as far as weight loss goes, it was all around nutrition and walking. That was it. And I walked five miles a day. I didn't start off walking five miles a day I started off being winded walking down the street and back but it you know, by the time I was to a good steady pace, I was at five miles in under an hour. But I kept you know, going okay, well I've kind of nailed this I'm, I'm one of those people that are not consistent. So I'm adaptable is my number one strength I'm the Strength Finders thing, which means I can roll with the punches but I always strategic backs it up. So I always have something else. I'm planning in background to if this goes awry, I already know where we're going next. So the whole walking thing was fabulous for me because it helped with the weight loss. It was, whenever I tried to stretch beyond that, I started pushing my limits. And about that time is when the doctor says, you know, you really don't need to be doing any hit right now. Any high intensity, you need to keep it low. Well, that kind of took the wind out of myself and I kind of sunk back into. Oh, but see, I like the CrossFit stuff. I like some of those things. And he's like, yeah, just not right. Now. He goes, let's get some of this other stuff under control. And then we can go in there. And then it just made me feel old and grumpy. And there was a mental game that I was having to battle for a while over that. Because, you know, that was there was almost like I was accepting a sentence that he wasn't even giving me he was just saying, Let's get you to a certain point before we start doing that. And I was like, Well, if I'm not there, I don't want to I don't want to work any harder to get there. It's not coming off fast enough. It's not doing what I want it to do fast enough. And like you said, We live in an instant gratification society, you order in a box, and you drive to a window, and it's there. So we want the weight loss to come off just as fast as that burger is delivered through that window. Yeah, and I think I was talking to a potential client, in fact, just this past weekend, who was like, I have been doing keto for six weeks, and I've gained six pounds and I'm doing CrossFit. six days a week and I don't understand why nothing is moving in. And I said, Okay, well, that's what I'm hearing is what you're doing for the last six weeks isn't working. So we're going to start over and she looked at me and I said, don't get defeated. What I've seen because I have not been working with her and I've been what I would recommend. Okay, continue to CrossFit. That's it. Yes, that's it, you live naked. But women over the age of 40 do need weightlifting. cardio is not as important once you get past the age of 40. Because our our muscles and the way our bodies work, our muscles will hold on to fat. Because there's a fight or flight like, Oh, you don't want to have babies anymore. So we're going to hold on to this fact just in case you change your mind. So that way we have a way to support a baby. And I'm like, when did my muscles get to decide if I'm a child Barry like right yours anymore, like you could release that fat anymore. Done and done. It's the science behind it. So weightlifting expands your muscles to release the fat. It's the right type of weightlifting. If you're doing strenuous weightlifting like crossfitters do and I didn't cross it for two years and my father looked at me and said, I'm finally getting the son. I never had Alright, we're going to stop doing that. Yep. Um, so I was like, okay, it's CrossFit works for for certain individuals, and it is great, but just tone it down, don't need to be deadlifting 75 100 pounds or whatnot, stick with just the barbell, and maybe do just four days a week, if you really love that community in that workout, right? And give your body two days of full rest. And that one day can be a day of restoration of yoga, and meditation of maybe walking or whatnot. And I said, and then we'll look, then we look at the diet. And let's maybe do low carb instead of keto, because keto is not long term. No, it's not. If you're gaining weight on keto, which is meant to put your body in a state of ketosis, you should be losing weight. So something else is going on. And I gave her a list of recommendations that I would you know, I'm not a doctor. I just say I would take this list and talk to your doctor about the certain tests, maybe check if your insulin resistant. What's your glucose level? How's your body reacting to certain sugars, things of that nature? And, and it gave her a little bit of hope but but, you know, you've got to do your research and there's sometimes there's a little bit of adjustment and whatnot that I mean, and that's the recommendation. And actually, she just emailed me a little while ago. And then she'd like to work with me. Because her doctor didn't give her the answers that she wanted. And I wish she got more information from me, which is like, amazing, but it's just like, the information is out there. You just have to know how to educate yourself, as well as know the right people to talk to you. And a lot of times doctors just want to get you in and out. And it's just knowing how our bodies change. But once I found out that our bodies want our money, they want to hold on to that because they want us to still have babies. I was like, no, that's not okay. So, yeah, it's that's what I that's what I tell women. That's how I work with with some of my clients. is just sometimes you just got to read That's the wheel just a little bit and it'll kick start your journey and do it the healthy way. Well, I think, I think you also touched on something else as she was paying attention to her body and listening to it going, Okay, what I'm doing is not working. So therefore, something's off. I need to have another person come in and give me an outside view. Because a lot of times we don't even talk to other people about this. We just kind of suffer in silence. Oh, well, I tried this diet or I tried this exercise or I tried this lifestyle change. It didn't work for me. And a lot of the times, it may be just one turn of the wrench to get you running optimally. You know what in NASCAR, they talk about a quarter turn on the the car could totally make the car loose or tight. You know, and a lot of the times it's fine tuning what our lifestyle is and and it's not a throw it all out mindset it's a let's keep making the adjustments until we find what's working and and I think that's where a lot of people give up is they just go oh well I tried that it didn't work well let it's not cookie cutter it's definitely not cookie cutter. And that's why I share so much of my journey on my social media because that's how she found me on and watch how I went from being so cookie cutter to not sharing too much to them all the sudden sharing this new way, you know, when I discovered what was working for me and then really just sharing that it's it's individualistic, right to listen to how your body is responding to, to certain foods to certain movements. And when the ultimate goal I know for me was that I'm not going To be a diabetic, I that's just not what I want my children to see, that's not the life that I want to live. And this is my time right now to change this. And it goes back to making those sacrifices, you know, as a mom and as a woman, like I have to I have to be selfish right now. Right? Because I can't be a mom to my kids, if I'm constantly having to give myself shot. And I'm drained from all these doctor visits everything and what kind of mom Am I going to be for my children? What kind of wife Am I going to be for my husband? What kind of business owner Am I going to be for my clients and for a company? If I'm confused by this, you know, that I'm now I didn't take action. Right. Well, and I think I had I had a friend a couple of years ago that that passed away and she passed away from a recurrence of her breast cancer after her first recurrence of breast cancer she got healthy, she ate the right foods. She did everything right. And the cancer came back and, and she did have a genetic disposition to it as well as you know, other things that that brought it back. But I heard several people say, Well, if she ate everything and did everything right, and she got the cancer again, then what's gonna keep me from getting it and just trying to shift people's mindset to go that you can't go down that road, we are all created differently. We all have a unique DNA to us, that keeps us keeps our bodies moving. There are things in my family history, you know, I've got diabetes on both sides of the family. So I have to be mindful of that and I have to start putting things in place to to not go down that path. But on the other side of it is I also got a couple of cases of cancer on one side of my family. I could park my boat Go, well, you know, diabetes and cancer, they're in the cards for me. So I don't really need to work out, I really don't need to do this stuff because that's what's gonna get me in the end or I saw them try these things, it didn't work for them, so I'm not going to try them. Even though they're my relatives, I'm still uniquely created. And I it does not mean that it's an end result that I will catch that or that I won't be able to beat it. What what I think I've heard you say most all today in several different ways is taking care of yourself sets you up for so much more. And even if it is an illness that comes your way, you're better prepared mentally, emotionally, physically, for taking that that illness on head on, head on because if you're already out of shape, you're already feeling frumpy, you're already down in the dumps. You're definitely not in the mental and emotional state to take on a major illness, that if you're taking care of yourself in so many other ways, than if something comes out of left field, you're much more better positioned to go in in a warrior stance against that. Exactly. Yep, that is correct. And so, so you also do I mean, we talked a little bit before the break about how you do. You're the CEO of life flip media, you you do this as well as, you know, the fitness coaching and mindset coaching. So you're talking about, you know, feeling comfortable in your skin, not letting fear of missing out, you know, derail you. As we get ready to go into the last part of our show, I want you to kind of talk to us about what is the overall message edge that you really feel like you are here and put here on earth to accomplish share anything you want to share about your story and and how you can encourage and empower other women. You shared so much already it's gonna be a rich rich show but we just want to hear from from you as to what what you feel is your mark in the world and how you can help the women that are listening today. Well, I think I stop by called by many a unicorn. And that's that, you know, one of a kind, type individual. And I really do embrace that label. Because I've actually worked really, really hard to to be what other women cannot be And then turn around show them how they can be. So when it comes to self love, you know, we I know personally I have experienced so many things in my life that have shaped me to who I am today and why I want to help other women, my innate need to help others I was a hairdresser for 21 years I was an accountant, I helping my husband, I've PTA volunteer, room volunteer pretty much you need help moving I'm that person. My Drive was always to make other people happy. And and I realized that the end of the day was to fill the void of the lack of happiness in my own life due to abuses and whatnot that I experienced in my childhood. And in working with a life coach over the last year when I was able to finally understand what self love really meant, and how to forgive Others for what was done to me, I really, there's so many women I've even come across in my life that are experiencing that lack of self love. And they're masking it with food, with alcohol with shame, with abusive relationship with a lack of connection to their face. Blaming the world blaming society blaming others for their experiences. And my whole purpose in life is to use the platform that I've been given and my voice to a let them know it's going to be okay. That it's, it's not your fault. Everything is fixable, everything is figured out a ball. And if you need help figuring out that first step, no matter what it is, whether it's your relationship with food, whether it's emotional weight, whether it's physical weight, whether their spiritual weight whether it's figuring out how to take that first step on a treadmill, whether it's that first step on how to learn how to write a letter to your younger self, to forgive your younger self to connect with your younger self. I'm here because that's that's my that's my purpose now. And and it brings me joy I wake up every single day now hoping I'm going to connect to just one, even if it's just one person, and sometimes that one person is myself. It's like I reconnect with myself in some way I discover something more amazing about myself that I had buried or hidden deep down below. Because when when we carry all those burdens, when we feel like our only soul what job in this world is to be a mom. Or are we have no value as a woman in today's society. Or we've only known what it's like to be in the military. We don't know what it's like to be a veteran or are we were a mom and now we're an empty nester and we have no purpose and we were away for now we're divorced and we have no we have no wives or whatever it may be. You can lose yourself and you can lose that definition of what a What a beautiful woman really is. And that's where I come in. And then unconventional. Just sit down have a real talk over a glass of Chardonnay in our closets and that's what we need to do. kind of way I am not I I'm serious. I mean, I have been there I am sat in the closet with a bottle of Chardonnay. My husband's like what do you do and go away? Right I'm in a moment Hmm. And and it's okay. And and I don't I don't have it all figured out. I am not the leading expert in this you do not see me sitting on Oprah couch. I am one of many in this field. I just feel like we need as many voices as possible right now. Exactly. It's it's a layered approach to one I think, I think a lot of what I've seen you say and I've heard you say, we're watching you on social media and listening to you today is, you know, there's a lot of women out there looking for somebody to be an accountability partner for them to lead them to give them to you know, just actually listen to them and hear them and and you're willing to be that person you're willing to take that task on for them if that's what they need, until I told people for the long This time, one of my best friends I worked with her at the church before and, and we would go to the gym and her name was Kim Yates and we would go to the gym and we'd get on the treadmill and she'd go, I go, Okay, how how long do you want to go? And she goes, I want to go for 30 minutes at a two mile pace, he you know, and I'm like, okay, so I punch that all in, and we get going. And about three minutes in, she's like, I'm really not feeling it. And I'm like, sorry, you said you wanted to go for 30 minutes. We're going 30 minutes left, right, left, right, come on, let's go. Let's go, let's go. Let's go, you know, and and we finished the 30 minutes. She'd come to me, I'm like, we're gonna do a five mile an hour pace. You know, this is the incline we're gonna do. We'd get on and about five minutes and I'd say I don't feel like doing it. And she'd go great. Let's go get some chips and salsa. She was great for certain areas of my life fitness was not one of them. And so one of the things I want to encourage women that are listening today is if you've got those friends that are great and holding you accountable in your marriage and your spiritual life and all these other areas, I guarantee you most of the time, it's not the same person that can handle all of those areas for you. So I encourage you to reach out to someone like Lucy, who is great in what she does and in the fitness realm and, and in the mental mental improvement mindset improvement sorry, in the mindset realm as well I went mindset blank on that. You too can be a professional radio show host. But anyway, when you when you are coaching them through the min

Show Notes: Speaker 1: (00:00) Hey doc, welcome back. This is Dr. Andrew Wells with a simplified integration podcast. This is episode number 16 the integration path number two, I'm the growth coordinator. Speaker 2: (00:13) Leonardo da Vinci once said that simplicity is the ultimate sophistication and I agree. You see the problem with the way that most consulting groups approach medical integration is anything but simple. In fact, it's the exact opposite. It's expensive, it's complicated and quite frankly it's exhausting. Enough is enough. There are far too many amazing integrated clinics that are struggling. Well, I'm on a mission to change that. What I've come to find from over five years working with integrative practices is that simplicity really is the secret. The old saying of less is more is true. Through a streamlined approach, I was able to create multiple successful seven-figure integrated clinics and now I'm going to show you how you can do the same. Join me as I share with you the secrets to successful medical integration and practice growth. Join me on a journey to greater sophistication through innovation. I'm Dr. Andrew Wells and welcome to the simplified integration podcast. Speaker 1: (01:11) Hey doc, it's good to have you back. I'm very excited for this episode. This is a part three and a five part series and this is what we call the second path of integration. And this is the one I get the most excited about because it's the one that is really changing regenerative medicine today as it currently stands. And you know, we got back into regenerative medicine back in 2015 I believe. And at the time we didn't have a whole lot of competition, nobody was doing it. And we found this really hungry market for nonsurgical, non-pharmaceutical approaches to joint joint pain. And so when we first started doing seminars and advertising for our, our regenerative medicine program, we got a ton of patients through the door. We converted a lot of them. Uh, it was really financially rewarding. We helped a lot of people and it was, um, it was amazing. Speaker 1: (02:01) And so people caught onto that and so more doctors started doing it. We had, um, you know, funny story, I talked to a medical doctor in town, uh, years ago about our program and she was, uh, she was super skeptical about it. I didn't have a lot of good things to say about it. She's like, ah, it's kind of experimental. She got, I don't know, insurance doesn't cover it, like not really, like it wasn't too enthused about it. And then, um, in fact she really criticized our program. And then low and behold, two years later, guests, you still in regenerative medicine, this doc. And so everybody's like, everybody jumped on board. And it's funny as that doctor that, uh, who I just mentioned started doing her own seminars and I was laughing because she was like doing it all wrong and she wasn't getting any attendance to her, uh, any guests who her seminars, cause she didn't know how to market for it, but she was also really late to the game because we had already like flooded our area with advert. Speaker 1: (02:56) Like everybody knew that we were the people to go to for regenerative medicine. So she was this late and I talked to so many chiropractors, they're like, man, I would love to do regenerative medicine, but I just, I think I may have had, I may be too late. And that's true and not true in some respects. If you're going to do it the way most people are doing it, where you're doing it as a, as a cash program, uh, you're doing, uh, you're, uh, you're advertising for a seminar in a newspaper or Facebook. If you're in like a big populated area with lots of competition, like that strategy is probably not going to be the right fit for you. So things have changed a little bit. However, there is a, there's a shift happening right now and we're, we're real really leading that shift to, um, a new way, a new approach to regenerative medicine. Speaker 1: (03:38) And this approach is, the beauty of it is it makes it affordable to patients, but also it's really profitable on our end, on your end. And so this is where this path number two fits into the three paths of integration and this path is becoming more and more popular, but also they're not. Here's the, here's the deal as we're recording this now, this is in February of 2020. There are not a lot of docs doing this. So if you're like, if you're like waiting for a good time to integrate, now is a good time to do it. If this is the right path for you. So let me explain how this path works. So let me, let me, let me, uh, kind of re recap what we went over the last, uh, two episodes. So there are three paths. Integration, the first path being a streamlined innovator. Speaker 1: (04:21) That is the approach where you're using, uh, regenerative medicine as a cash service. You can run this as a part time sort of side hustle or a side niche in your practice. It runs right along your chiropractic business. It's part time medical staff. You're seeing anywhere from 10 to 1520 patients a month. This is where, you know, if you want to collect 20 to 40 K a month in cash collections, that's a great way to do it. Especially good in areas though that are not super, super competitive. So if you're in a rural area, if you're in an area where no one's doing regenerative medicine, that's an awesome approach. Path number two is what we're going to talk about today. So this is when, um, this is where we're starting to strategically add certain insurance based therapies. Now before I go any further, I want to address this, this issue that people have with integration. Speaker 1: (05:08) This issue I had with integration is when you do it conventionally, when you can eventually integrate or you go to like these big box companies that teach integration, they're going to throw like 20 different therapies at you and add this therapy, add that therapy and this therapy and like, yeah, there's a really like complicated burdensome approach to regenerative medicine. And that approach is really, it's like trying to get insurance, like it's trying to use it, use an insurance, a patient's insurance for like as much as you can. So you just bill a bunch of stuff to insurance and hope that that crap sticks. That was like the old approach to integration and it doesn't really work anymore. It gets you a lot in a lot of trouble with Medicare and insurance companies and audits and all that. It's just a dumb approach. It's an outdated approach. Speaker 1: (05:55) And so what we're doing here is we're looking at strategic insurance-based therapies that still pay really well, that are stable and not going to go away next year to help support your program. Um, support your program and the fact that it helps the patient, it's good for reimbursement and also it gives you, um, it gives you a healthy stream of revenue. So here's what I'm, I want to give you a little like behind the scenes look at conventional integration. Like if you, if you integrate most of these, like big box integration companies have seminars and you go to a seminar like every six months. And the sad thing about these seminars is you go there and it's, it's like a, it's like a vendor merry-go-round. So you go to the seminar or two day seminar, you sit down and they parade one vendor after another after another after another. Speaker 1: (06:40) And so you're sitting there as a doctor and it's like, all right, implement this service and implement this service and implement this service. And like you try all these vendors and then all that stuff doesn't work. And then you'd go to the same seminar six months later and guess what? It's a whole new parade of different vendors and it's like, Hey doc, try this service or try that product or try this approach. And it's the same thing every six months. It's a new merry-go-round to vendors. Like if you've been in integration, you know exactly what I'm talking about. It's like a shameless, it's a shameless promotion for these products and the, and the consulting and management groups get a kickback on all the vendors that you use. That's how the game works by the way. And so that is a not a smart, like most doctors are aware, like that's okay, that's not going to work longterm. Speaker 1: (07:25) And so when we're talking about maximizing profitability with insurance based services, I'm talking about services that have been around for 20, 30, 40 years that still have good reimbursement, that still make sense to the patient. That's not this reimbursement dumpster diving that most doctors get trapped in when they integrate. So what we're doing is we're actually combining, uh, uh, three insurance-based services. So it's a combination of three services that you can use to make, uh, uh, regenerative medicine a lot more affordable and to help people with joint pain. And maybe you don't do regenerative medicine, but my point is, is that you're, instead of just offering a cash based service, you're implementing these insurance-based services to grow your practice to see more patients. But the beauty is it helps the patient because you're using a patient's insurance. It makes it a lot more affordable for the patient. Speaker 1: (08:12) So let me give you an idea how, uh, more, more of a clear example of how this works. I got a call from a doctor in, uh, on the West coast and he was panicking and he said, Hey, uh, Dr. Wells, I, I need your help. I've been doing regenerative medicine for years now and, uh, and it's not going well. And I said, well, what's, what's going on? He goes, there's this guy down the road from me, he's charging 500 bucks for regenerative medicine. And I'm like, well, he must be doing PRP. And I said, no, he's not. He's doing regenerative medicine. And I said, well, like what is he, what proxies? He's using amnio, he's using Wharton's jelly, he's using exosomes. It's not PRP. I'm like, wow. Um, so I looked up the clinic and this doctor was doing this exact strategy, what I'm talking about. Speaker 1: (08:57) And so this doctor who called me, he's like, Hey. He's like, how am I going? What are you charging for regenerative medicine? He said, I'm charging what everyone else charges four or five, $6,000 an injection. And I'm like, well, either you switch to this strategy, this path number two, or you should give up your program because it's, this guy's going to outcompete you. He's, he's out pays, undercharging. He, he's what sick. I'm like 300% less than what you're charging your patients. It's not gonna work. So either you switch strategies or you give up regenerative medicine. And that's what's happening right now in these competitive markets. So unless you have a better strategy, it's not going to work. And the strategy is brilliant because if you're, let's say you use these, a combination of three therapies, right? What we're seeing back in reimbursement, and this is nationwide. Speaker 1: (09:44) This is not just in certain pockets, but these three insurance spaced therapies, or we're getting back anywhere from 3,500 to $5,000 per patient. That's with insurance. So the all the patient has to do is pay their copay, they're getting this amazing therapy and they're getting great results, and the doctor's making a bunch of money, so it's profitable. Then on the backend, we're adding regenerative medicine. And at that point, since you've already made your money on the patient, you can charge whatever you want. You can charge 500 bucks, 1000 bucks, 2000 bucks for regenerative medicine. So you're still collecting cash and you're still increasing your revenue, but you're making it affordable to patients. If you use that strategy, you can use that strategy anywhere across the U S right now, and it's killing it. You can, it's like, it's like doing regenerative medicine back in 2015 2016 because no one else is doing this right now. Speaker 1: (10:32) So that's in a nutshell, like that's what this path number two is, um, is becoming what we call a growth coordinator. So we're maximizing collections. We're making, uh, we're using predictable insurance-based therapies and we're not using 20 different therapies. We're using three. So the billing is actually very streamlined. This is a program where if you're looking to collect anywhere from 40 to a hundred thousand bucks a month in revenue, this is a great strategy. So again, that like path number two is when we talked about before, this is great for if you want to collect anywhere from 20 to 40 K in cash. Path number two is if you want to bump that up. So if you're looking to create a high six figure, even a seven figure business, this is an incredible strategy to, to implement. Um, and again, because it's, we're using a broader range of therapies, it's great for competitive markets. Speaker 1: (11:20) Uh, and also this is the nice thing about this, this, um, strategy is because we're using insurance. And I hope that you understand this. Doctors who have done regenerative medicine, uh, for any amount of time we'll get this because we're using an insurance. There is almost no case management, uh, system in place. So in other words, when the patient comes in, there is no high ticket selling. There is no complicated sales process. The patient comes in, they see your medical provider, the medical provider determines whether or not they need help. And if they do a yes, we can help. Here's what we're going to do today. And the patient starts care because they don't have to shell out five, six, 10,000 bucks, that all that's gone. So because this is based on insurance, there is no case management, there is no sales process, there's no lengthy consultations. Speaker 1: (12:07) Your medical staff can run this program. It's just like if you go to your primary care doctor or an orthopedic doc or any other like medical doctor in your town, they don't have a complicated sales process because all their stuff is covered by insurance either. The question is, can you help me? The patients want to know two things. Can you help me? And then your medical staff can answer that question. And number two, how much does it cost? Well, Hey, great news is covered by your insurance done, right? So they start care. So this is a staff-driven protocol. So you don't have to, you know, the chiropractor typically has to be like the salesperson and do the exam and like all this stuff, you don't have to do that anymore. It's a staff-driven. So what it allows you to do is focus on other things. Speaker 1: (12:49) So this is where you can truly become the manager and oversee the business operation, the management of this, uh, of this type of therapy, and then allows you to do a lot of different things. So you have more free time. You can invest that back in your business. You can maybe work on expanding your office. Maybe that means that you can spend more time outside of your office either like, uh, being able to go to the gym again or spending time with your family or going on long overdue vacation. It's like all those things are possible when you're, um, when your system is staff-driven. So this is, this gets rid of that like classic doctor burnout that so many doctors go through when they do conventional integration because conventional integration is so complicated to run and confusing and exhausting. It's not, that's not this. And so this allows you a lot more, it's what doctors are looking for. Speaker 1: (13:34) Doctors want, most doctors want some free time outside their practice. They want to be able to make a comfortable income to buy houses, cars, vacations, that kind of thing and save for retirement. Um, and it's, um, it's just much easier to run. It's a much streamlined, simpler way to do integration. So this system, by the way, uh, you're not, this is not a high volume system. If you're seeing 20 patients a month, that is it massively successful practice. So if you can see 25 patients a month using this protocol, like doc, you're doing it really, really well. If you're seeing 10 patients, 10 to 12 patients a month, you're still doing well. So this is not a high volume system. I hope you understand that you're not trying to get to 300 patient visits a week. You're hoping to get a handful of patient visits a week. Speaker 1: (14:19) Amazing, right? So imagine how much easier that is to run than conventional integration or doing some high volume type system. So this is path number two and you can run up full time. Most doctors, most doctors will run this full time or they have a full time medical staff. You can also run a part time. So if you started with path number one, you're doing just cash, part-time cash, regenerative medicine, you can plug the system directly into your office and do it part time and it works just fine like that. So, um, I'm super excited about this path. This is what most doctors are starting to, um, shift to now because they understand the, with regenerative medicine in competitive areas, but also the challenges with integration in general. So this is a much, much more streamlined way to do it. Um, I hope you're excited about this. Speaker 1: (15:02) If you have any questions about this path and you're like, Hey, I'm really interested in this, uh, shoot me an email@infoatintegrationsecrets.com. That's info integration secrets.com and I'll send you a, um, a training that I recorded just based on this path and how it works. I'll break it down for you. So I'm DACA. Hope you found this beneficial. Great to have you on the podcast today. And I look forward to having you on the next episode, which is part four in the five part series where we'll talk about how to scale and grow your operation. So if you have a great day and we'll talk to you soon. Speaker 2: (15:37) Hey innovators, thanks for listening to the simplified integration podcast. Fact that you're listening tells me that you're like me, someone who loves simplicity, and the truth is those who embrace simplicity are some of the greatest innovators. So hope you got a ton of value from what we covered on today's episode. Be sure to subscribe and share with other docs that you feel could benefit from greater sophistication through simplification and innovation. If you've got specific questions that you'd like answered on this podcast or you've got specific topics that you'd like me to discuss, just shoot me an email at info@integrationsecrets.com Speaker 1: (16:13) that's info@integrationsecrets.com.

As the coronavirus causes more and more schools, more students and teachers are turning to apps to fill the gap. Ross and Jake Whiddon talk about the potential of apps for language learning, the limitations of current software and how apps will influence classrooms in the future.Ross Thorburn: Hi, everyone. I'm Ross Thorburn. Welcome back to "TEFL Training Institute Podcast." This week, I'm talking with my friend Jake Whiddon. Jake's a diploma in TESOL qualified teacher. Over the last year or so, Jake has been working for a company that develops language learning apps.As the coronavirus is causing more and more schools to close, and more and more learning switching from offline to online, we'll find that language learning apps are going to be playing a bigger part in teachers' and students' lives than they were before.In this conversation, Jake and I discuss some of the advantages of language learning apps. How they affect the classroom? Where they will be going in the future? Enjoy the conversation.Ross: Welcome back, Jake.Jake Whiddon: Thanks, Ross. Good to be here.Ross: Jake, you are now working for a company that does language learning app. Let me just start off talking about what are some of the potential benefits of using an app to learn language.Jake: Probably, the biggest benefit is the idea of learner autonomy and motivation. If you hand over the power for them, and the control that says, "You can now take control of your learning." You have an app. You can open it. You can play some games. You can see some feedback. You can see how well you're going.It's, sometimes, a little bit more motivating, than if you have to be in a class. All your peers are around you. The teacher's telling what you're doing wrong or right. This is a very personal thing. That's one of the biggest benefits of having an app or online learning does.Ross: I was thinking about this recently with work, and with Katrina was doing in Chinese in front of a group of about 30 people on a conference call is still pretty nerve wracking. Comparing that to standing up in front of 30 people, and speaking my second language, it's much less scary.That's one of the things that people don't talk enough is how much that takes away that the fear within you. You don't have all these eyes on.Jake: Exactly. We should make the very distinct difference. Online learning is still engaging with someone. App based learning is you and the app learning together. Getting feedback, trying things.Ross: Let's talk about that. You mentioned their feedback. Answering a question and getting immediate feedback. If you're in a class, I feel the normal way that would happen, would be the teacher gives instructions for an activity in the course book. The students spend the next 10 or 15 minutes doing the activity. Then, the teacher goes through the answers with them and...Jake: Exactly, It could be the next day. It could be, "Here's your homework, go home and do it." I've got to hand it to the teacher. I have no attachment to what I was doing, once I get my feedback.In an app, if you get something wrong, it tells you instantly I got it wrong. Usually, might give you the right answer. It's very meaningful instant feedback, which is more valuable. It's not like, I'm going to get a high score in my test. It's right now, I want to get this right. It's a very personal thing.Ross: There is a huge difference in ownership there. One of them, I'm passive and I'm waiting for someone else to tell me whether I got it right or wrong.Jake: Which is crazy. Naturally, in your daily life as a child, I'm going to go try something. Climb a tree, I fall off. [laughs] I try again. I'm on my bike, I fall off. What do I do? I jump back on the bike. It's only once, we get with language learning or with classrooms, where we seem to say there's a separation between, I've done something and I'm going to find out whether I did well at it.Really what technology is doing, and software is doing, is it's enabling kids to get back into that really pure way of learning. I got it wrong. I'll try again.Ross: Another benefit here potentially, is that with the classroom version of it. The 10 questions that you have to ask, all the kids in the class are getting the same 10 questions. They might be too easy for some students in the class. They might be too difficult for others. That can become demotivating for everyone except the kids in the middle, right?Jake: It can. Where are you trying to get to here, Ross?Ross: Presently, the thing with the app, or the software or whatever, is able to push questions just at the right level of the students where they're able to get most of them right. But no...Jake: From my experience, I've been lucky enough to meet a lot of developers. Everyone says that they have some sort of algorithm that feeds back and allows kids to see what they got wrong. In reality though, Ross, I don't think that that's exactly what everyone is doing.The simplest form of it is that, "I got this wrong" and the algorithm would know, you got that wrong, and it will feed it back to you. Apps like Duolingo do that.I don't know if that completely is what we're talking about when it's this magic formula of AI, that everyone talks about when they're marketing their products. That's where it should be going. It will go eventually, that each child will be on a personalized learning journey.Ross: Kids are already on a personalized learning journey anyway, in a class. It's just the teaching doesn't match the learning...Jake: Exactly, exactly. What's happened now is that, we can have kids learning on an app and have data on every single interaction. You can get data on, if there's different games in that app, you can find out which games that they were more motivated by. If there's a quiz in the app, they can see the results on the quiz and which games were more likely to lead to a higher score in the quiz.We can see which language points lead to a higher score. If you kept on playing, which games motivated you to play more games later. All these different granular pieces of data that help with the educator ‑‑ it could be the teacher or the facilitator or the company ‑‑ to make sure those kids are actually moving forward their language learning, which then leads to efficacy, which we've never known before.Anyone who's listening has been a teacher in a classroom, they all leave, and they think, "I don't know what my kids really learned today. I know what they said in class. I know what they appear to understand. I know what they got in their test. But I don't know what they've acquired. I really don't know."Ross: Taking a couple steps back, you mentioned the different types of games, different types of interactions that might happen. You have some example? Obviously, a lot of this is based on a lot of multiple choice questions, right? But presenting those in different ways.Jake: Yeah, it's really fascinating. Something that I've learned from the coding is one fascinating thing. All the coding is the same, it's multiple choice. You get an app like Duolingo or any of the apps and it's usually, here's four choices, A, B, C, D. Tap the right button, right or wrong.What I've discovered from where I'm working now is that you can have those same four choices in a variety of ways, which I never realized. Rather than having four colors, just statically on the screen, those could be bubbles floating around the screen. Then, someone has to actually think about it, I can try to touch it and find it. There's more cognitive process happening.It's still an A, B, C, D test. The gameplay is more engaging than just seeing four things on a screen.Ross: This obviously feeds back into the motivation of the students. It's just like being in a language class where if you're doing interesting activities, that's going to keep you motivated and engaged, minute by minute. It's the same on an app. If you're doing the same multiple choice questions, it's going to get pretty boring.Jake: Often now, apps break into two types of learning games. They'll call them accuracy games or experience games. An accuracy game means there is a right or wrong answer. If you get this wrong, it's going to affect the accuracy of your score. There are other types of activities, which might be a song playing, and you just have to hit the words, but that's an experience game.That's input and seeing what happens. But, you're focusing on the input, being not wrong or right. If the word comes up, you hit it. If you don't hit it, it doesn't mean you're wrong. Some learners do better when they're doing experience games a lot. Some do better from accuracy games.What you could have is a different path. Some kids might like to see a song, a dialogue and this type of game. What will happen is, we can actually personalize journeys on the language they're learning and on the game type.Ross: Obviously, teachers in classes will be able to relate to this. You can see different students engaging more with different activities in every class.Jake: Some apps allow you to send out homework. The kids will do something on the app. Then, the teacher can see a whole class aggregate score. They'll know, how well they're doing with a certain lexical set. Say, it's colors. There's a 90 percent on blue, green, red, yellow, but orange, it's a 40 percent. What am I going to focus on in the next class?Ross: Focus on orange.Jake: I'm going to focus on orange, right? Now, the teachers are empowered by the data to be better teachers. They can focus on exactly what the kids need to know and not what they should know.Ross: Find out where the learners are and teach them accordingly. If the app's giving you all this data on where the learners are, that's going to let you do a better job.Presumably also, there's another layer to that. You're talking about the app giving data to the teachers to help the teachers teach the students accordingly. But also, the app's going to use that data to teach the student to...Jake: Exactly, right. Number one, the app already will feedback and ensure that the child, the learner, keeps getting better at that one particular language point. Parents have more information now.Parents used to drop their kids off at offline schools. Two hours sit outside. Come out and they have any idea how well they're going. Everyone's had a parent‑teacher night. Parents meet the teacher. They discuss how well they're going and the teachers feel uncomfortable. They don't really know every detail.Ross: They have 16 kids in the class. You've taught them for four hours. You're really giving feedback on the kid at the back who doesn't talk much, it's impossible.Jake: How exciting is it, that parent‑teacher night, now can happen every day. Not just every day, every hour. Anytime the child interacts with learning, the parent can see exactly how well they're going.The exciting part will be once those apps link parents and teachers up to social media. They'll say, OK, my child is struggling with, this sentence or the past sentence all orange. They'll be able to click on it and find out what all the other parents done who've had that same problem? What do the teachers recommend?The solution for the problem will be instant. They won't need to drop their kid off at school anymore because that learning was become part of daily life.Ross: You hit on one of the things that probably makes a lot of teachers nervous. The idea that apps could replace teachers completely. What's the role of the teacher?Jake: The role of the teacher would change. We already have seen this in STEM. We used to have science lectures, no one does science lectures anymore. That was a thing of the past, that's died. Now what you have is, everyone sends out what you have to learn. You watch a video and when you come to class, guess what you do? An experiment with the teacher.That's all that will happen in language learning. It will catch up to the rest of the world. You'll learn all the stuff. You'll get all your feedback. When you come into class, the teacher will have an activity for you to do. Really push you in the class to use that language.How can I help you interact better with people or communicate better or use your creativity or it's not just the language anymore? It's all that stuff that surrounds it.Ross: This reminds me a lot of an ex‑colleague talking to me about the community aspect of learning a language and that being the thing that keeps learners coming back. If you don't have that sort of interaction with real people, it's really easy to give up. That's the case with apps. If there's not that community aspect, then people tend give up pretty easily.Jake: Think about it, no one learns a language to speak to themselves.Ross: [laughs]Jake: Like in the classroom, no one learns a language to speak to a teacher, you learn language to speak to other people. Offline schools will develop into places where kids and adults can go in, use the language to interact in the community, but the learning will happen with technology.Ross: I feel here it's useful to unpack the word "learning." When we think about the word "learning," we assume that memorizing the words, which is a lot of what we're talking about can happen on the app. Whereas, there's a deeper level that needs to happen. That's the thing that happens in the classroom communicating with real people.Jake: I don't think we'll use the word "class" anymore. The idea of class needs to go because of class implies learning and the teacher. The relationship shouldn't be teacher‑student. It will become, "I've already learned this stuff, I need places to use it and keep developing it."Language doesn't exist in a vacuum without all the other experiences around it. Teachers' roles would expand into making experiences around the language.Ross: Those are the most interesting parts of teaching. Designing the interesting communicative activities and tasks. Talking about culture, facilitating discussions, that's a lot more interesting than holding up the blue flashcard. Getting students to turn it back to you.[crosstalk]Jake: Can I add the point that what's exciting is, as data and coders and language learning have become best friends. What's the code? It's a language, right? Due to social media and Internet and all these connections, all those barriers have been broken down. Now we have computer scientists talking to linguists talking to psychologists.What will happen to teachers is, they won't be thinking about, "This is the grammar point I need to teach today."They'll be talking to psychologists, they'll be talking to other discourses and making that class a more valuable experience for the kids.Ross: You mentioned, psychologists and language teaching and programming. One of the bits where that comes together is, finding the sweet spot of challenge and using gamification. That's a bit of a controversial issue.Jake: The word "gamification" is controversial because gamification can be along the lines of gambling. That's what they base it on. Challenge level and finding the challenge level is what motivates people to keep coming back. If something's too easy, you get demotivated. If it's too hard, you don't come back. You need to find that sweet spot of where's the challenge level?Essentially, that's gamification. Gamification is finding the spot where it's not too hard. It's not too easy. It's just at the point where I want to keep going. There's so many advantages.If you can find the spot where kids or people are motivated to keep learning, isn't that a good thing? But, then they become addicted to the platform that you're using to teach them to do that, that could be unethical, especially when money's involved.Ross: One more time, that was Jake Whiddon. Thank you very much for listening. For more podcasts, please go to the website, www.tefltraininginstitute.com. We'll see you next time. Goodbye.